#ch: Ursa

[dragonologist-phd]

We are unstoppable. I feel like we could conquer the hells.

[cassidy-mcgraw]

@ursanazyalensky​

Inviting Ursa to the Gala was a risky move for Cassidy. On one hand, he knew how it would look. The Chief of Police inviting someone he broke the law as his plus one. It was quite the statement. On the other hand, what did he care? The Gala may have been about showing face to some people, but to him it was the anniversary of his husband’s death. Edgar would have wanted him to take the chance on someone that the rest of the city shunned. Cassidy more or less did that by marrying Edgar in the first place. 

He was respectful though. Cassidy declined sitting at the Dominion and the CCPD table. Of course he still made sure to tell his officers to behave, because if he had to deal with their asses tonight, he’d fire them on the spot. The table Ursa and him sat at were full of a bunch of randoms, and Cass paid no mind to them. Ursa was his friend, no matter what he had done, and Cassidy really needed a friend tonight. 

He leaned back in his chair, adjusting the silver wolf mask on his face and sighed, “It’s going to be a long night. If you wanna leave at any moment, lemme know”. 

[demonidoodles]

gang sillies :]

[rebel-ahsoka]

STAR WARS REBELS 3.16, Legacy of Mandalore

[pinkfey]

THE CHARLATAN & THE BUTCHER ↴

“LOVE OPENED A MORTAL WOUND. IN AGONY, I WORKED THE BLADE TO MAKE IT DEEPER.”

[shiraiza]

Hey mom, wanna see how Azula feeds turtle ducks?

Zuko! Why would you do that?!

[the-californicationist]

Ursa Major (Ch. 12)

It's time! The big reveal is here! Now, the real drama begins...

Huge thank you as always to my beta team @vampirekilmerfic, @gemmahale, @eclecticgrimlin!

A tiny spoiler/sneak peek below the cut.

Then, he allowed himself a gentle but greedy kiss over her mating line on the nape of her neck, relishing that smooth, sloping place where his bear still wanted him to bite her, to punch his canines through her flesh like he did to the small bodies of his writhing, succulent prey, stealing her life and dooming her to the hollow hell of immortality. Her innocence would pour out of her and flow down his chin, staining his mouth black with her blood. 

And it would be his fault.

But it felt so good to just kiss her there. To let his mouth imagine these sins without committing them. It was like smelling the aroma of a bakery early in the morning, knowing exactly the way the steaming rolls would taste without ever putting one between his teeth, and yet reveling in their starchy comfort all the same. 

What a shame it was to lose something so lovely. 

[fireya-x]

“his mind was quiet when he was hunting, when he was killing; he could not be the victim when he was the oppressor”

ursa major ch. 10 by @the-californicationist

[queersrus]

astronomy witch theme

(nick)names:

astra, astro, astre, astera, astel/astelle, astella, ariel, aura, aurora, aurore, aure, aurelie/auralie, auralia/aurelia, atlas, aristar, aries, altair, astreaus, aether, apollo, apolla, artemis bila, boreals, boreal comet, cosma, cosmic, cosmo, celest/celeste, celestia, celestio, callisto, calypso, Cassiopeia, claudius, caelum, caelus, cassio dusk, dawn estel/estell/estelle, estella, elera, elio, esther, eclipse, eclipsa, eclipso, eostre, eos galaxy, galactica, galactico, galactix, galactic, galacta, galaxius hecate/hekate, helios, hemera, hera iris, ira juno, jupiter, janus kepler, keyra/kayra lune, luna/loona, lunar, luno, lunette, lyra moon, moona, mars/marz, miranda, meno nova, nix/nyx, nox, nuit pandora, pallas, pulsar, pollux rhea stel/stell/stelle, stella, steller/stellar, star, stella, stary/starie, sol, soleil, solar, solette, solina, solana, solace, solstice tian vesper, vega xian zorya

surnames:

astra, ayla, airy, array, aquila, antlia estrela/estrella, eddington, eridanus kepler, kuiper herschel, halley, hale, hypatia, hevelius drake starcatcher, starwatch, stargaze(r), starlight, scorpius, spellman Cassiopeia orion ursa delphi, delphius pictor fortune le fay/fe/faye nightingale, nighwatch, nightmoon moon brightmoon gloom, gloam

titles:

the witch of the stars, the witch who studies the stars, the star watch, the astronomer, the witch, the astronomer witch, the stellar witch, the witch who knows the sky, the witch of the night sky

(prn) who knows the stars, (prn) who studdies the stars, (prn) who knows the magic of the stars, (prn) who practices witchcraft in starligh, (prn) who studdies magic by starlight

1st p: i/me/my/mine/myself

si/star/stars/starself sti/stell/stellars/stellarself ai/astre/astros/astroself ai/astronome/astronomy/astronomine/astronomyself wi/witch/witches/witch's/witchself wy/witch/witchs/witchself ci/conste/consteli/constellations/constellationself mi/magi/magics/magicself

2nd p: you/your/yours/yourself

sto/star/stars/starself sto/steller/stellers/stellerself astro/astr/astrs/astrself astro/astronomer/astronomers/astronomerself wo/witcher/witchers/witcherself co/consteller/constellers/constellerself mo/magicr/magicrs/magicrself

3rd p: they/them/theirs/themself

star/stars, sta/ar, star/stary, stary/sky, stary/night, star/light stell/stella, stell/a, stel/la, stell/steller, steller/stellers, stellar/stellars astro/astros, astro/astronomy, astro/nomy, astro/nomer, astro/astronomer, astronomy/astronomys, astronomy/astronomer constellation/constellations, constell/constellation, constell/ation wit/ch, witch/witches, wit/witch, wi/witch, witch/witchy, witch/craft, witchcraft/witchcrafts magic/magics, ma/gic, magic/magical

[zutaranation]

I think criticism is deserved for a character who willfully chooses to forget her children, simply because it's too much having to worry about them. I don't say "deserve" in any moral way, just that objectively, that's a character choice that will be criticised.

See, ursa isn't at fault for having to leave her children. She's not even at fault for the trauma that caused her to make the decision to forget her children entirely.

That said, she's a mother who willfully chose to forget her children. To live a life in which she's never known them. In doing so, she renounces her motherhood to Zuko and Azula. She gives up on being her mother and gives her children up.

She chose to forget her children ever existed.

She can't call herself their mother anymore. Because she chose not to be that person anymore.

She didn't give her children up when she left them for their safety but she gave them up when she chose to forget. I'm sorry, but there's no possible way in which you could twist this into anything other than what she did.

She chose to forget her children because their memory was too much. She chose to leave their memory behind. She essentially kills them off of her life to start anew.

I don't think she's a bad mother but I don't think she gets to call herself a good mother, either. She's not even a mother at that point anymore.

And you're absolutely right! It's a goddamn fictional show with children saving the world and accomplishing feats adults in the same world can only ever dream of doing. The show, in nature, pushes against the boundaries or reality time and time again, showing that it's not merely the themes of realism that make it good, it's good writing that makes the impossible seem entirely fucking possible.

Saying that the character could have been shown to have tried more than once, or more ways than one to see her children isn't victim blaming. Holy fucking shit. It's not ignorance or being callous.

It's wanting to see more depth behind a radical character decision, that is a mother — who, in the show, is portrayed to love her children above all else — which voluntarily forgets her children so that she can live life more comfortably. That she doesn't want to grieve them or remember them, that in her new life, she decides, she's better off without them.

Because that's big. That's HUGE.

Why are we pretending like it's not a big revelation?

We're talking about which ways she could've avoided being abused. We're talking about the decision she makes about forgetting her children. Saying you can't talk about what victims do after being abused is what I would say to be ignorant actually.

Abuse victims abuse other people too. It's a trauma response that many, many hurt people do. Are you telling me it's victim blaming to hold them accountable for shitty decisions they make? Abuse victims are not absolved of all the dubious decisions they make because that's just not how it is. Abused people will make mistakes. They're entirely capable of doing shit that gets criticised because your status of being an abuse victim doesn't shield you from YOU making decisions.

Criticism for Ursa forgetting her children isn't victim blaming, the same way criticism for azula isn't. They will never be at fault for the way they were treated. Saying that maybe, hey, i would've liked to see something better than what they did in light of it isn't victim blaming actually.

Do i think ursa was "wrong" in the moral sense for forgetting her children? Honestly, I don't fucking know. But i acknowledge that she did burn them out of her life, and that's, that's something.

Equally prone to criticism or acceptance.

I do think she needs to earn back being their mother again, the way mothers who give their children up do. I disagree with her just being their mother again. And her children have every right to feel at odds with her decision.

And katara not being her number 1 supporter is entirely plausible too.

"That said, she's a mother who willfully chose to forget her children. To live a life in which she's never known them. In doing so, she renounces her motherhood to Zuko and Azula. She gives up on being her mother and gives her children up."

"She chose to forget her children ever existed." "She can't call herself their mother anymore. Because she chose not to be that person anymore."

This here I think you articulated really, really well, and is part of the reason why people critique Ursa for her decision.

She discarded the very notion and concept of being her children's mother. No one alive knows that they are the mother of Zuko and Azula and she chose to accept that in return for the suppression of her grief.

"That she doesn't want to grieve them or remember them, that in her new life, she decides, she's better off without them." "Because that's big. That's HUGE." "Why are we pretending like it's not a big revelation?"

Big time this!^ Even the narrative itself frames this as if it's something worth glossing over. Let's just skip over this thing that would be blatantly traumatic for any child.

I think it is in character and makes sense for Zuko to forgive his mother and push his feelings aside to do so quickly. He's shown to be self-sacrificing of his own feelings in this way countless times for those he loves, especially to aim to please them. But, I think it would make sense for this to weigh on him subconsciously because it's GOT to hurt. Your mother chose to forget you — permanently — for herself, disregarding you entirely. That's, like you said, HUGE.

And yes, totally agree about everything on the so-called "victim blaming". It's absolutely nonsensical and insulting to say that to someone over a character criticism that makes perfectly-logical sense to make.

I'm unsurprised this user blocked me, even though I'm the one who was first insulted! But, it's for the best. I blocked them back. Their posts are superfluous and I don't want to constantly see them on my feed anyway, now I won't have to. I just hope that people who follow their blog know that I am in no way actually some kind of victim-blaming, insensitive, "callous" person.

Thanks for sending the ask in! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts and you made some great and interesting points that I think others will also be interested to hear!

[dragonologist-phd]

Ooh, could I get a, "What if I hurt you?" for the smut prompts? Any characters you think fits it.

for the subtle smut starters

aah thank you! i kind of came at this one sideways, but i really like how it turned out, and i've been write something for Ursa/Minthara for ages!

(warnings ahead for typical Durge-type content!)

The tumultuous decision to embrace her birthright has left Ursa feeling numb and uncertain. Luckily, Minthara is there to provide care and a steady hand.

read on ao3

[cassidy-mcgraw]

@ursanazyalensky​

It was one of the few times Cassidy went to the Bordel with the intention of getting an escort. Of course it wasn’t for the reasons most would go there. There were a handful of escorts he had his eyes on. Not for potential contracts, but because he was concerned about them. Say what you will about the police chief, but no one could deny that he had a heart of gold. 

He had met Ursa years back and under terrible circumstances. Cassidy had been the officer who arrested the vampire after his crime. While a part of him would have sneered over someone breaking a rule, he actually felt bad. Killing someone you love, accidental or not, was hard. That was a lesson he came to learn just a few years after with his husband. Ever since that day, Cass always tried to look out for the former client. Which is what brought him to the Bordel today. 

He found his room rather easily, and knocked, “Hey it’s me. Are you decent?”

[erisenyo]

Hey there, can I ask how you come up with your OC names?

Anon I am THRILLED you asked because I am about to dump so much in-my-head-only worldbuilding on you, so much more than you probably needed or wanted lol.

As always this is not short, and forgive in advance the butchery I’m about to do of like, all of phonetics and linguistics.

OKAY so generally speaking, when it comes to names I have a set of foundational building blocks/general guidelines for the various countries and I work from there. These are based on phonetic characteristics of the canon names we see, and then from there I'd start layering in additional fun along groupings I've noticed around gender or class or family lines or whatever if I want to take the worldbuilding that deep.

So for example, with the Water Tribes…

We have Sokka, Katara, Hakoda, Bato, Kya all from the South, so I pick out...

Hard K or T sounds being quite common

Primarily A and O as vowels

Vowels being between consonants (ie, being single vowels)

Names being 2-3 syllables

In the North, we see Yue, Hahn, Agna Qel’a, Arnook, Kanna, Pakku...

Some similarities with the Ks and hard Qs

Now we see some softer ‘gn’ and ‘hn’ and L sounds, and the addition of P (which makes Bato’s “B” and Sokka’s “S” stand out)

Some ‘oo’ instead of ‘o’ vowels (so double vowels)

Hahn and Yue with no hard consonant sound at all (and both upper class!)

So that gives us some basic starting blocks to start building up names that sound like they fit within the Water Tribe culture in terms of sounds, as well as some potential regional and class differences to start working with! (Maybe Q sounds are only in the North, and upper-class people have soft consonant names, for example.)

Similarly in the Fire Nation…

The royal family is Zuko, Azula, Ozai, Azulon, Sozin, Iroh, Lu Ten, so...

A lot of Z and K sounds

(Male) names that end in N

A lot of two-syllable names (with the emphasis on the first syllable)

A lot of riffs on each other (Sozin and Ozai, Azulon and Azula, Azulon and Zuko)

Iroh and Lu Ten stand out as having fairly distinct names comparatively, with the “oh” ending and the softer "Ir" and "Lu" starts

Chan, Zhao, and Ruon-Jian are the other upper-class guys we see, which gives us...

short syllables again

N endings (for men) agai

The ‘two word’ name again (so Lu Ten's name naming structure is used elsewhere)

The introduction of “Ch” and “J” and “R” and double-vowel sounds (ao, uo, ia)

We also see Roku and Kuzon...

So very similar names to our royal bunch with those Ks and Zs and oku/uko and uzon/ulon sounds

Also older names from 100+ years ago, and commoner names

Mai, Ursa, Ty Lee as our upper-class ladies gives us...

short syllables again

‘two word’ names again

M sounds!

Mai and Ursa both don't have a hard consonant stop

Some phonetic/vibey similarity with “Mai” and “Ty”

And adding in Chit Sang (another commoner!) (presumably!)...

Another two-word name

Introduces the ‘ng’ ending

Leverages a lot of the consonant sounds we already saw

Uses an “it” usage of the "I" vowel (vs Iroh’s I)

So pulling it all together, in addition to those foundational consonant and vowel sounds, we also see that the royal family has a distinct naming convention that may be rooted in archaic naming styles.

And we can start to build out some ideas around gendered naming, family/honorific naming, and some potential class/pre-unification culture differences, as well as some space to speculate about why Iroh and Lu Ten’s names are so different from the rest of the royal family, too (as well as the ammunition to suggest that Zhao comes from a family of suck-ups lol)

Moving onto the Earth Kingdom (where I truly went wild)…

We start off with Toph, Haru, Long Feng, Kuei, Jet, Bumi, Poppy, Lao, and there's a lot of varability here!

Generally, the names are one or two syllables and start with a consonant

We see more double-vowel pairs (uei, ao), perhaps in the upper class but just as many single vowels

Consonants are hard or soft, and don't seem to group like the Water Tribe or FN royals did around particular sounds

Names end in vowels or hard sounds or softer 'ph' and 'ng'

Those guardrails are fairly wide and broad for feeling out distinct-sounding names, but it makes sense given how huge the Earth Kingdom is and its history of war, displacement, movement, etc.

So for a fic like That Love You've Been Looking For which was super EK-centric and focused on worldbuilding, I ended up breaking it down into broad regions and leaning into place names as well to help articular some basic rules:

In the southwest (Gaoling, Toph, Lao, Poppy), I decided that there’d be a mix of single and two-word names, and that the ‘ph’ ending would be used by women and the ‘ng’ ending for men

On the western coast (Haru, Omashu, Bumi), I went with primarily two-syllable names that follow a ONE-two pattern (PA-lo, BU-mi, CHE-lu, HA-ru) and went with mostly softer consonants

In the north (Ba Sing Se, Si Wong Desert, Long Feng), I went with short multi-word names where each part would be a single syllable

And in the center I was kind of pulling it together from what was left, but I went with names that end with an ‘an’ or ‘in’ sound and echoed some of the place names I was using

So we have some building blocks for the various regions, this time that we can use to indicate where someone’s family could be from and to give each region a more specific feel.

For Kyoshi...

I generally lift the Earth Kingdom rules, but view it as more of a trade-center and melting pot (Suki could fit in WT or FN rules), so it's deliberately a lot looser and with more variation.

And everywhere has a Lee/Li, so none of these rules are hard and fast, and I imagine too that there’s a ton of cultural mixing and fads and trends and whatnot in naming across various regions.

A quick note from a process standpoint--

This approach is very much not trying to find names within various existing real-world cultures. If I'm writing ATLA canon-world, I tend to stick to the idea of leveraging real-world contexts as a base rather than a strict guide. Something I wanted to flag, as there are other ways to go about OC naming that lean much more heavily into researching the naming conventions of various cultures throughout history, thinking about translation and name meaning, etc.

And also, if I need a lot of names, I'll often use the Fantasy Name Generator and look for names that either fit or that I can tweak into the above 'rules.' (Otherwise I accidentally start giving people ship names lol, RIP to Mailee, Maizula, and Yutara, you lived on under new personas)

I also don't always dig as deeply into the way names can signify class or status or whatnot, either. It can be very fun, but sometimes you just need a one-off name so your POV character looks like they actually interact with the people they nominally see every day haha

[nightfall-1409]

Writer's Update

Hi everyone <3 sorry things are taking a bit of time, I'm going through An Ordeal and that has regrettably been the case of late. I don't like to publicly air too much, but it's led to some delays. Not dead, but, just some updates under the cut with some snippets <3

So I, As My Mother Before Me

Obviously my mother's day side story for sabine missed the deadline, I'll get that out ASAP (as soon as its done), and the teaser for it is that it covers Sabine's 'missing' time in the fic, and threading the needle wrt Ursa, Myles, and those sorts of background elements in the fic, as well as letting me, Nightfall, meditate on what exactly I want to have the connective tissue be for her background. It's probably for the best it got delayed so much, as it'll contain some spoilers for later content in (Re)Convene, depending on how long that takes me to catch up.

Snow makes the world quiet, still, and then she interrupts it. Sabine gasps as she feels it against her flight suit, cold, and sudden, and wakes in a horrible instance. There is snow and trees all around her, and the forest is quieter still.  She knows this forest, but it’s an impossibility. She stands, barely needing a moment to collect herself before she’s calling for, “Ahsoka!”  There is no one around.  She lowers her rangefinder, scans her surroundings, ignores her gut screaming at her that she knows this place. Hu-Yang or Ahsoka would chide her, tell her that she should at least make the attempt of meeting her surroundings, connecting with them.  But that is not her way, it is not the Mandalorian way, and in an emergency scenario where she didn’t know what was happening, she’d not out herself to their enemies.   She’s bringing Ezra home.  She’s not here.  This place isn’t real.  This place is gone, and they knew that it was being destroyed when she... Her rangefinder interrupts her thoughts, and tells her that she's on Krownest, and she bangs her hand down into the soft snow of her home again in a fist.

(Re)Convene Ch. 41 (Ezra) The Flash Of the Dark

hahah I do apologize for leaving you lot on that cliffhanger...im working through it :) In the meantime, the opener.

He finds that his teacher is in the library, and there’s an older woman next to him, grave and sad.  Quinlan’s expression too is serious.  Ezra responds by shelving any and all irritation about how many different places he’d looked in before finding the Shadow here.  “Ezra.  About time,” Quinlan jabs anyway, clearly intending to be playful and Ezra bites his tongue.  “This is Master Kostana.”  Quinlan introduces; and Ezra straightens further— this is who Obi-Wan had mentioned. “Master to Sifo-Diyas.  The council asked her to visit the Archives, to aid in the investigation of the Sith compulsion.” “Oh,” Ezra pauses, piecing together what all that means, before he softens his expression.  “Thank you for your aid, Master,” He bows his head forward slightly, and she waves one hand.  “I ought to thank you,” she says after a moment.  “For bringing his lightsaber home.” Woof.  Ezra can feel it at her side.  It is not a happy thing to know, though, and further… Ezra’s not exactly good at handling those sorts of conversations.  “Well, I wasn’t the one who…”

Other fics: Things are progressing, but perhaps not as quick as I'd like... on account of the fact I'm aiming for the clone bang sign ups at the end of June! No Spoilers yet! 😘 But I look forward to revealing it in good time. I hope to get it to the 10k mark by sign ups close on the 30th, I'm about halfway to that point rn.

[pinkfey]

𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐀. ┆ 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗗, 𝗞𝗥𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗡-𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗘𝗥, 𝗕𝗨𝗧𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧 𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗦.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 ┆ 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 ┆ 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐰 ┆ ♡ 𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐧 "Let me say it plain: I loved someone and I failed at it. Let me say it another way: I like to call myself wound but I will answer to knife."

[shiraiza]