#because once he'd found the role of healer-lover

[not-poignant]

I had a question I wanted to ask you, but every time I came to your tumblr, I kept getting distracted by all the wonderful asks/answers/worldbuilding and I would forget my question. But I have finally remembered! What exactly did Augus do for people as a dominant that helped them so much? I mean, the only thing we've seen him do in canon is break Gwyn's heartsong/s, but that's apparently an unusual request? What was so unique about his services? And that he could only offer on a one-time basis?

Oh! Awesome question.

Okay, firstly, Augus chooses to only offer his services on a one-time basis. That’s his personal choice, because he doesn’t like relationships, and he gets bored easily; it actually has nothing to do with the type of service he offers, and he acknowledges himself that some people would be benefitted from seeing him more often. He even says this to Gwyn, directly, in Deeper into the Woods I’m pretty sure.

So Augus’ ‘one-time service’ isn’t anything to do with his clients, it’s to do with him. In that sense, if a client wants to do something similar again, he has other fae he can refer them to, or he’ll refer them on from the outset. Augus actually was really well networked before the Nightingale came along, in that sense. And in The Wildness Within we actually see him refer a potential client along to another Dom, because he’s too busy to attend to her properly.

In that sense, Augus’ services are not unique. He’s not like...someone who will solve everything in a single weekend so that you never need that again. He knows that. He’s pretty clear with his clients about that. And if he thinks he can’t help a client, he’ll be honest from the outset (it’s why he has the interview period before he commits to anything - and also where he secures the fae version of consent, lol).

Augus’ reputation is that he’s a miracle worker, because that’s how some of his clients talk about it (it’s certainly how Gwyn thought of him after seeing him), but it’s not because Augus only sees them once or whatever. That’s just...’I have commitment issues also I like being alone go away’ - Augus’ particular charm.

Okay, so, now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at how he helped people. He was generally well-suited to people who were in some kind of crisis in their life, who didn’t know how to fix it, but who had already searched or tried to fix it. He wasn’t the only one who could provide a solution to that and his methods aren’t the only ones that could be used for it. But his reputation preceded him, he didn’t have a fixed rate, and he worked fast - i.e. over a weekend (which for fae would be more the equivalent of a long weekend, but still).

Fae are also generally more okay with sex and have less taboos about it, so the idea of ‘processing through physical intimacy’ or ‘processing through pain’ is - for many of them - not really as horrifying a concept as it is in human society. Augus also doesn’t inflict pain on every client he has/sees, nor does he have sex with all of them.

Augus’ primary role is mostly coercing people into an environment where they have to confront the thing that they’re avoiding/denying, and pushing them to a breakthrough where they then accept that thing (or repudiate it, depending on what the situation requires) so that they can figure out what they need to do next. He’s also adept at stabilising fae who feel like they’re flying apart or unable to contain themselves, and grounding fae back down into themselves - their true selves in particular.

Augus has an innate ability that is mentioned throughout the series, but isn’t really made a big deal of (though it kind of is...a big deal) in that he can sense heartsongs and he can tell what they are to a high degree of accuracy. It’s generally not a common trait. Most fae couldn’t put their hand on your back and go ‘your heartsong is affection’ etc. But Augus can. (So can Fenwrel).

So while Augus isn’t in the practice of breaking heartsongs, he’s definitely in the practice of divining them and grounding someone back into them healthily, getting someone away from corruption of a heartsong, helping them find a new one, or stabilising them back into themselves. It’s how he can actually check that what he’s done has worked, because he trusts that (meridians / heartsongs) more than he trusts what someone says or how they’re behaving. He also uses that to guide his actions.

But yeah, he turns away clients, he redirects clients, I don’t think he believes for one second that he can help all clients and sometimes he doesn’t want to. He’s  aware that what he does is on the more extreme end of ‘healing services,’ especially since he doesn’t have much time to build trust and sometimes doesn’t bother (fear is useful for him, so are compulsions).

As for his methods, I mean we’ve seen elements of them throughout. We’ve seen that he can be gentler and cause no pain re: The Raven Prince in those canon interludes, we’ve seen that he will be more brutal with Gwyn (in part because he likes to be, these days, but because Gwyn needed it back in the day), we’ve seen that he can also be very gentle to Gwyn in The Wildness Within etc.

He caters his methods to the fae he’s working with. He tends to think that anyone who fronts up on the doorstep of the world’s most powerful Each Uisge, who has a notorious reputation for ferocity in both the human realm and in the fae realm, is probably someone who needs a more intense experience in the first place.

(Also, randomly, I’d say that breaking Gwyn’s heartsongs aren’t the only thing we’ve seen him do in the canon. His encounters with The Raven Prince were also canon. And in addition, quite outside of heartsong breakage, he’s had a lot of transformative or healing-based scenes with Gwyn. One could argue that one of the most transformative outside of Gwyn’s formal requests for Augus services, was the one that’s the most-quoted - the very first: ‘it’s not a sin to be yourself’ scene.

It was Augus’ first major foray into pushing Gwyn into becoming more anchored in himself (outside of Deeper into the Woods), even before he knew Gwyn was Unseelie, he was still instinctively aiming in a direction that was far healthier for Gwyn - and a lot of the scenes that followed; from Augus talking about Gwyn being as brutish as his soldiers and taking him dry, to mimicking a sex scene with Mafydd, etc. All of those were, for Augus, very much about aiming for something deeper and all held elements of what he might offer or do for clients

It’s one of the reasons Augus says he appreciates like, spontaneity a bit more, in COFT, because he’s always in that other mindset otherwise, and until Gwyn he’d never had sex just for the sake of having sex --- Augus is often ‘on’ and is still learning how to be selfish during sex scenes. While it seems he’s being selfish a lot of the time, he usually has strong emotional aims re: his client’s welfare and health - though he can be hit and miss with Gwyn, especially before he knew Gwyn was Unseelie).

[tabloidtoc]

National Examiner, April 19

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Tony Bennett's brave last days

Page 2: Stars with Mad Skills -- they became fast experts for plum roles -- Daniel Day-Lewis, Timothee Chalamet, Natalie Portman, Ryan Gosling, Jamie Foxx

Page 3: Adrien Brody, Margot Robbie, Bryan Cranston, Shia LaBeouf, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise

Page 4: Susan Sarandon's roles and costumes

Page 7: Be Prepared for the Worst -- know these lifesaving tips before a crisis happens

Page 8: Lonely Stefanie Powers never wants to date because she still has gotten over lover William Holden's sudden death, even though it'll be 40 years ago this November -- the former star of '80s TV classic Hart to Hart, who's now 78, considers Holden the one true love of her life, even though she's been married twice to others and had a long-term relationship after the Hollywood legend's tragic death and she can't imagine being with anyone else at this stage in her life when Bill's memory is so sacred in her mind and his death still haunts her to this day, and it will only get worse as the anniversary approaches -- Holden, then 63, died at home in Santa Monica on November 12, 1981, of massive bleeding after falling and striking his head on a piece of furniture while heavily intoxicated -- it rips her apart to this day thinking how he must have suffered all alone in his apartment, bleeding to death -- the pair had a decade-long, passionate affair that lasted until his demise, which led her to carry on their mutual passion for wildlife conservation and Stefanie founded the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and is still the director -- she's tried being in other relationships, but it's been more about companionship than anything else and she doesn't have the motivation to date when the best man has already come and gone

Page 9: Vax Hacks -- avoid scammers who prey on fears of COVID-19

Page 10: His first day on the job as an honorary cop, Jeremiah met the other guys in blue and was the proud guest of honor at a special swearing-in ceremony just for him, and he's only five years old

Page 11: Important minerals for your body -- why you need zinc and potassium and how to get them

Page 12: Rude Awakening -- stars who don't mind their manners -- Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christian Bale, Rachael Ray

Page 13: Sean Penn, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Pattinson, Russell Crowe, Cameron Diaz, Bruce Willis

Page 14: Dear Tony -- America's Top Psychic Healer Tony Leggett -- useful lessons learned from the pandemic

Page 15: Get well soon wishes go out to Chevy Chase, who just came out of the hospital after a five-week stay for heart issues -- in 2018, the star was diagnosed with alcohol cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle caused by excessive drinking; he had dealt with his drinking back in 2016, when he entered the Hazelden Clinic to receive treatment for alcoholism

Page 16: Even though the century mark looms just around the corner, Betty White still radiates joy -- calling herself the luckiest broad on two feet, the 99-year-old Hollywood legend shares her advice for living a long and peaceful life -- she says her life is divided absolutely in half: half animals and half show business and you can't ask for better than two things you love the most

Page 18: When a California man won $145,000 on Wheel of Fortune, it turned out to be good fortune for a lot of people as he donated his entire winnings to the charity Uplift Family Services and Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, whose services support thousands of families

Page 19: These seniors are literally beating the coronavirus -- with 99 percent of them vaccinated, the 700 elderly residents of the Westminster-Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay senior living community in Virginia Beach held a party and they had a lot to celebrate

Page 20: Cover Story -- Tony Bennett is facing his brave last days as he battles Alzheimer's disease at the age of 94 -- the singer was diagnosed in 2016, but kept the terrible illness secret until recently and has not yet experienced common Alzheimer's symptoms like episodes of terror, rage or depression but the disease has progressed -- for now, wife Susan Crow and the oldest of Tony's four kids, 67-year-old Danny from his first marriage, are caring for him while he lives in the couple's New York City apartment

Page 22: Recycle your baubles, bangles and beads -- bored with your beaded necklaces? Blase abut those old bangles? If your costume jewelry collection no longer inspires, there are many brilliant ways to give it new life or earn you some cash

Page 24: The internet's newest fitness star is 102-year-old Julia Fulkerson, who had a ball participating in her great-grandson Brody's virtual gym class

Page 25: Young Darius Brown has a mission in life: to make shelter dogs look as spiffy as he can so they'll get adopted and to do that, he provides the canines with slews of adorable bowties that he sews himself -- five years ago, when Darius was eight, his sister Dazhai taught him to sew and the passion was good for him because he'd been diagnosed with speech and fine-motor skills that the craft improved over time -- he says he saw how happy the people at the shelter were to get the bowties and how much the dogs liked them, and he decided to make more and he came up with a goal to give bowties to an animal shelter in every state -- so far, he's sewn a whopping 600 of the canine accessories himself, and helped dozens of pooches find forever homes and he especially likes to focus his attention on older animals and pets with disabilities, since they're the toughest to find homes for and the shelter directors say Darius' efforts have made a huge difference in the life of hundreds of pups

Page 26: Summer Horoscope 2021

Page 28: It's not just for the birds -- tips for watching our fine feathered friends

Page 32: Reverse Gear -- walking backward is good for you -- here's something new to try the next time you go out for a walk: do it backward -- it may sound silly, but health experts say there are mental and physical benefits to the practice, but go slowly at first to avoid injuries

* If you're always putting the needs of others before your own, you could be at risk for compassion fatigue, a condition that can physically and mentally drain you of time and energy -- compassion fatigue is a state of emotional overwhelm that is constant and persistent, once in this state of emotional exhaustion, it becomes difficult to empathize with those they help and essentially, it's empathy burnout

Page 34: Grandads Before 50! No rocking chairs for these grandpas -- take a look at these celebs who had their grandchildren before their first gray hair -- Jim Carrey, James Brolin, Donny Osmond, Mick Jagger, Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Sheen

Page 40: The Element of Earth -- earth is the second of the four elements: fire, earth, air and water

Page 42: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Drew Barrymore

Page 44: Eyes on the Stars -- Dakota Johnson and her parents Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson (picture), Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in the film Spencer (picture), Tina Turner admits she instantly fell for husband Erwin Bach in 1986 when they first met at an airport in Germany, Bindi Irwin gave birth to daughter Grace Warrior Irwin Powell, Michael Douglas is still going strong after 5 decades as an actor and loves what he does for a living, George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery, Jessica Walter died in her sleep

Page 45: Eddie Murphy is inducted into NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame (picture), Diana Ross performs at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in California (picture), Mario Lopez helps christen the tables at Mohegan Sun Casino in Las Vegas (picture), Ann-Margret and Julianne Hough attend the Family Film Awards where the redhead received a lifetime achievement award (picture), James Middleton who is the brother of Duchess Kate says he and fiancee Alizee Thevenet are done with city living, Justin Bieber's mom didn't like his newest tattoo saying Don't you have enough yet?, Zac Efron was spotted flying to Sydney with Aussie girlfriend Vanessa Valladares, Taraji P. Henson asked fans for prayers for her pet pooch that was suffering from post-surgery complications but he unfortunately died

Page 46: A lottery winner in Tennessee was feeling like a million bucks, until he realized he'd lost his precious ticket but he didn't give up: he retraced his steps until he found the ticket again