#blackstern

[clockworkbee]

Why’s it always “we’re not getting it until” and never “we’re finally being heard, and it’s actually happening and coming out in only two years!”

[rinadragomir]

Finally I have a whole piece to edit ☺️ btw mine is the official version, confirmed by me. Yes, Ash wears golden glitter, prove me he doesn't

[blackthornv]

TWP: my arthurian headcanon pt.2

Warnings: 1) YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ARGUE. DRUSILLA BLACKTHORN IS SOVEREIGN. I AM RIGHT AND IF YOU DISAGREE YOU ARE WRONG. 2) Ash Morgenstern will try to kill you if you show any disrespect towards Drusilla Blackthorn.

Drusilla Blackthorn, sixth of the Seven Blackthorn Siblings: she is the Lady of the Lake. There are numerous versions of the Lady of the Lake; she is described as both benevolent and cruel, friendly and hateful, helpful and selfish, but always, always pivotal to the story. When the knights are lost she is the one who guides them to the right path, both directly and indirectly. She is the one who gifts Excalibur to Arthur (you have to know where i'm going with this Arthur thing.) AND the one who emerges from the lake to reclaim Excalibur once the King dies.

*Julian's voice in the back* you are the heart of this family, baby girl.

She is the moment, alright? She was 13 and:

- housed a fugitive (head empty, just crimes);

- held her shit together to show stability to her younger brother while her older siblings where out and about (i know they where occupied with important shit ok? but leaving her with that responsibility was still a bit unfair);

- instigated the idea of performing necromancy in case of losing one of her siblings in LM;

- invaded the Gard alone during a rebellion to save the consul + gather witnesses to the crimes of the cohort (boo! they should have died!);

- fooled a warlock while being bait to (again) gather evidence of crimes;

+ now, at 15/16 is occupied terrorizing the new academy with her two principal strategies: 1) crimes - poisoned the entire academy with love spells - and 2) psychological warfare - frightened her colleagues during halloween by taking them to the middle of the woods and telling horror stories.

Funny bits aside, she has been helping the protagonists consistently since the moment she appeared (her first appearance was in CoHF, this mention will be relevant in my interlude, pay attention). She advised Kieran when he was lost, noticed Ty's turmoil when no one else did, saved Jia and the Rosales brothers, tried to lead Kit in the direction of his true love, lead Emma to Mark when he was still disconnected to the family, helped Cristina and Jaime to reconnect, was the first to try to get Julian and Emma's attention when they succumbed to the curse, when Jaime goes to Faery on a dangerous secret mission she is the one who will try to save him. She is right there, and she matters.

But she's also resentful at how easily her brothers seem to forget about her, the lonely girl fading in the background. Rarely standing on her own, perceived mostly as a faceless Blackthorn orphan, sometimes as a nameless attractive body - just another ornament in the background.

And there she is, through the good and the bad, a beacon of hope and of tragedy. Willing to do good when asked, likely to raise caos when left forgotten. Always vigilant, waiting for a target to finally strike.

What she does not know, could never imagine, is that Ash is also right there, tossed aside and forgotten. Always vigilant, but his dagger already left his hand - and landed on hers.

[liesramblings]

Have we considered “blackstern” as another name for Dru and Ash or would that be too close to blackstairs?

[drusilla-carstairs]

Kit calling Ty “Tiberius” 🤝 Ash calling Dru “Drusilla”

[achaiapelides]

With me you are safe ~ Drusilla Blackthorn and Ash Morgenstern

Character belong to @cassandraclare

I promise this looks better in real life, I just suck at taking photos of my art.

Also, am I the only one who thinks the song 'The Dark' by Beth Crowley somehow fits to those two even though it was written for an entirely different book?

[blackthorn-dru]

“Even the name Ash haunted her, as if she’d heard it before, though she had no memory of having done so.”

MORGENTHORN AHHHHHHHHHH

[books-and-draws-eclectic]

Omg "With me are you safe" Dru and "Royalty" Ash!

Also Dru's flower is Mountain Ash!

[starlight-in-my-eyes]

So, ghostwriter is toxic because of the age gap? ok.

But then y dont I see you complaining about morgenthorn? Technically Ash is what? 5 years old in tda? And Dru is 13. 

[elainsgarden]

I just know that Ash would be thinking he’s being super romantic while sending a gift that everyone else would view as threatening, THAT’S MY SHIP I’M SO HERE FOR THESE ENEMIES TO LOVERS LET’S GO! 

[fascinatedgirl]

so ash and dru's ship name is morgenthorn? what about blackstern? the second one sounds and looks a lot better

[clockworkbee]

Your little theory about Ash and Dru's flower cards? Any story you're imagining or any connection you can make? Tell me!

[blackthornv]

TWP: my arthurian headcanon pt.1

Ah yes, another ramble of mine. What a treat!

I have this vague memory of cc saying something about the inspiration for TWP a long, long time ago (my memory is also not that great btw). I'm not sure if she'll actually do it anymore but i've been thinking about this since then. So. This is what i would love to see represented in the books with the little knowledge i have of the Matter of Britain.

Warning: i will over simplify the stories. deal with it.

Ash Morgenstern, the heir of the Seelie Court (arguably turned heir of both courts): i would love to see him as a mix of Gawain and Galahad - two knights connected to the Grail, which in this scenario would be the Black Book of the Dead. Galahad is the epitome of perfection - he is blessed with purity, luck and power form the Holy Grail. He defeats his enemies with little to no effort. The "purity" in Ash is (mostly) gone, i think we can all agree on that. He's survived the horrors of the Unseelie Court, of Thule and Sebastian, of Annabelle's instability, and that cost him. But he is the most powerful mortal character cassie has written so far. No. You can argue with the wall on this, the boy can command all living creatures, can inspire fealty with only a look, his strength is antinatural and he has wings. Not just any type of wings, literal fallen angel wings. He might be able to create runes, he has immeasurable power inherited from his mother, he is the strongest character in the shadowhunter universe right now. Period. Anyway, let's continue. Galahad's perfection and unmatched abilities won him a mystical-ethereal-kind-of-holy glow that few have and on that very exclusive list is my boy, Ash. (If you are, indeed, arguing with the wall you are in a worrying state of denial and i hope you get out of it before twp comes out, xo, with love, - v)

Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur (you can already tell who i'll attribute Arthur's story to in the end, right?) who, in his arrogance, stroke a fatal blow in the Grene Knight had a year to prepare himself to receive the same blow from the Grene Knight. Bla bla bla, he had his quest after the year was up, bla bla bla, adventures in the forest, but wait a minute! he hesitated to receive the blow - an action the Grene Knight chastised him for. He survives but comes back to Camelot wearing a green sash as a token of his failure/shame. Okay, so maybe Ash hasn't gone through an arc like Gawain's but come on. He's changed. He went through hell and back with Annabelle, Sebastian, Janus, the Queen, but first and foremost: Arawan (yes, you lovely genius, i'm implying he's the Grene Knight here). A much worse version of the Grene Knight, for sure, but it works in the sense that after suffering the trials (read: tortures) that Arawan inflicted upon him, he returned home (after a long time and more tortures) victorious but somehow defeated. He doesn't trust his mother anymore, feels as though he has lost parts of himself and senses a strain in his relation with Janus. He has been enlightened, knows more of the world and of people, he has gained much - and has lost even more. The innocence is long gone, he has made mistakes and doesn't know how to acknowledge them, how to fix them.

But there is one thing, one last shred of hope glistening in the distance - the girl in the drawing, Drusilla Blackthorn.

[drusilla-carstairs]

Dru and Ash (Morgenthorn!!) headcanons because I rightfully cannot get them out of my head today:

I’m on the boat saying that Dru and Ash will be our first enemies-to-lovers relationship in the Shadowhunters books but here’s how I think it will go:

Ash, brainwashed by Janus (the only person he thinks that he can trust) and under the thumb of his mother, meets the TWP gang accidentally

Curious, like he was in today’s SOBH letter, once out of faerie for whatever reason, goes looking for Dru, and accidentally gets a bit too close.

Kit, Ty, Thías (and whoever else they’re with) are stunned at the sight of him, but Dru reacts first. He looks strikingly like his father, so she doesn’t recognize him as the little prince she met at 13 at first. She sees Sebastian.

We know that in TWP, Dru will be battling her trauma/anxiety from TMI and TDA days, so seeing the Sebastian of her nightmares—the man who stole her older brother, who indirectly killed her father—she does the first thing she can think of and throws a knife at him.

He dodges, of course, shocked and frankly appalled. Ty grabs Dru’s arm to stop her from throwing another, and they ask who he is/what he is doing following them.

Ash leaves before even answering. Kit thinks they should follow, but they don’t.

They meet again later, once things are going to shit, and Ash has realized that maybe his mother doesn’t want what’s best for them. He offers his allegiance to the TWP gang (a great parallel to Kieran in TDA) though is still tied to Janus without their knowledge.

They waffle on their decision but eventually one or more of them (not Dru) agrees that he is an asset that should stay with them, but be watched.

So, while Ty and Kit go on a side quest, Ty asks Dru to keep him in her room. Dru can’t say no to her brother, so, very reluctantly, she agrees.

Dru wonders how the hell she ended up harboring another boy in her bedroom secretly, especially one so arrogant that he keeps putting his boots on her bed.

Ash is amazed that Dru does not seem to be affected at all by his powers. He tells her as much. She rolls his eyes, sarcastically calls him an angel and says that not everyone can love him.

He is a little bit smitten 👀

Flash forward past some plot and some mutual respect, if not trust, growing. Maybe even some mutual saving each other’s lives action.

Dru finds the picture by accident. Ash always keeps it on him. Maybe he’s injured and she finds it while trying to help bandage his wounds. Maybe he has to change into more casual human clothes and she finds it in his cloak. Maybe he drops it and she picks it up, stunned and confused.

She can tell it’s a drawing done by Julian—she can recognize his art anywhere—but knows that it can’t be recent. Julian doesn’t even like Ash (if he even knows that he’s around the TWP kids at this point).

Maybe it’s then that she puts the pieces together and recognizes Ash from when they were kids.

She, obviously, immediately confronts him and it’s the first time that she sees him flustered. He reaches for the paper to snatch it back but she keeps it from his reach, demanding that he tell her what’s going on. Is this some sort of plan? Has he been duping them this whole time? Is he working for the queen?

“Drusilla! It’s not- I was a child. I was fascinated by you. How… How could I not be?”

Dru is absolutely stunned because. No one has ever spoken about her like that. She didn’t even have a friend (beyond Jaime for a very short period of time) before the academy. She was nobody.

But not to him?

And that’s all I have now but. You can see why I’m obsessed with them.

[clockworkbee]

I mean, I'm shipping Dru and Ash, so yeah.

the tsc fandom should be famous for coming up with ships based on like zero content

[spacehero-23]

and that's all I need to know

dru/ash is endgame!