#he’s a little older and traditional & dead set to marry before 30

[mari-reads]

love bombing is the toughest thing to spot in a new relationship youre friend is experiencing. you’re always gonna seem like a doomer for being like, “yeah ik you’re having fun and feeling all the warm fuzzies from something new and also getting treated to nice things/dates, BUT you don’t really know this person and it feels kinda off for them to be making big plans for a future and you thinking seriously about making your life plans around a person you’ve known for weeks”…. like you sound like a hater and like youre suspicious that someone would treat them well. especially for someone who desperately wants to be loved that way and has experienced a lot of heartbreaks it sounds so bad. you just gotta stick by them and hope stuff turns out well enough, you really just gotta let it run it’s course.

[fangirlvibez]

The Festival Of Hearts (a Royal Au) - part 2

Characters: King!Jake “hangman” Seresin x Queen!female!reader, Royal Huntsman!Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, Master of Arms!Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, lady-in-waiting!Natasha “Phoenix” Trace, Royal Advisor!Robert “Bob” Floyd, King Champion!Javy “Coyote” Machado, Queen Champion!Reuben “Payback” Fitch and Queen Champion!Mickey “Fanboy” Garcia

Warnings: mention of hunting animals, mention of arrange marriage, mention of dead parents, mention of killing, mention of attacking a person, inaccuracies in terms of the Middle Ages (Let me know if I forgot a warning)

Summary of the story: princess, now Queen Y/N (Y/M/N) Y/L/N was forced into marrying King Jake “Hangman” Seresin. Leaving her own kingdom, Eldoria, behind, she left to live and rule Jake kingdom, Misthaven. The time for an age-old tradition in Y/N kingdom came. Miraculously the Queen convinces Jake to invite her old village to come celebrate the tradition with them. This is the story on how the ruthless King learns how to love his Queen.

A/N: English is not my first language, so if there is any spelling or grammar errors: please let me know

Last part - Next part - masterlist

A/N: a little filler part, I hope I can start the main storyline next part :)

A group of maids and knights were waiting at the majestic steps of the castle's entrance. As the newlywed couple arrived, Rooster opened the carriage door, his hand extended to assist Y/N. With careful steps Y/n left the carriage. Rooster lead her towards the awaiting maids, her eyes skimmed over the front of the castle. The outside looked as dull as the flowers at the wedding, knights were walking around the castle and guarding the large metal doors. Rooster stopped you in front of a young blonde woman, she couldn’t be older than 23, 4 years older than her queen. “Ma’am, may I introduce Miss Adelaine, she will guide you to you your room” Rooster explained, gently releasing her hand. Y/n hands fell to her side, she focused her attention on the curly-haired knight before her. “She will replace Lady Trace in situation when your Lady-in-waiting isn’t available.” The mention of her best friend made her look around. Where was Natasha, and Mickey, and Rueben? “For now, I must excuse myself. King Jake and I will be hunting. Should you ever feel uneasy or unsafe, don't hesitate to contact Pete Mitchell. We'll regroup at the evening's dinner, set for 7:30 pm" He concluded.

He walked away towards a group of men attending to a pair of horses. In the middle sat Jake atop his black horse. Next to him stood a brown horse, its saddle soon occupied by Rooster. The two set off towards the woods. Y/N's gaze lingered on their departing figures. Jake didn’t even say goodbye to her, he just left to hunt. To hunt ln their wedding day, while she got a tour of the castle. Turning her attention to Adelaine, their eyes met and the older woman bowed for her queen. “Your Majesty, I'm honored to have been chosen to accompany you to your room" She kept her head down while talking: “Your Lady-in-waiting, Lady Trace is receiving her own tour, accompanied by your own queen's champions Mister Fitch and Mister Garcia” Adelaine continued, lifting her gaze when she finished her speech, standing tall in her role.

Y/N's lips curved into a gracious smile aimed at Adelaine: "I truly appreciate your presence, Miss Adelaine. it's a pleasure to have someone to lead me through this marvellous castle. I would like to see where I would be staying." Adelaine smiled at her before leading the queen up the grand staircase. The knights in front of the doors lock eyes with Y/N. With automatic movements, the knights step infront of the doors and pull them open. Y/N was speecheless when she saw the room behind the doors. It was a gorgeous entryway with marble steps leading to the second floor. All though the castle looked dull outside, the inside was a different story. "Our first stop will be the ballroom, where the evening's dinner will unfold." Adelaine explained before guiding Y/N towards another gorgeous door to the right of the stairs. Once again a knight was guarding the door and opened it when he saw the queen approaching. Y/N looked around one more time before entering the ball room and she noticed that every door had a knight in front of it.

Other maids were already setting up a table. The table was long and had around 30 chairs standing. A loud voice rang trough the room, it's impact rippling through both the maids and the queen herself. Startled, Y/N turned to the source, a knight whose standing next to the door. "Behold your new Queen: Y/N Y/M/N Seresin!" A knight introduced. All the maids and servers in the room bowed their head for her for an entire minute before continuing their work. "Your Majesty, this is the ballroom. This room is used during balls and royal celebrations." Adelaine explained. Y/N silently walked around the room. On every wall hung a portrait of earlier rulers of the Kingdom of Misthaven. Soon a portrait of her and Jake would be made and hung here. Adelaine shadowed her steps until Y/N paused before the room's most imposing portrait. The canvas depicted a woman sitting on the trone. She was wearing the crown she wore about an hour ago when she left the church. This must of been the previous queen. beside her stood a tall man. He had a big beard and shared the eyes of her husband. The man was wearing the crown which now belonged to Jake. Her eyes trailed over the painting and followed the arm of the king. His hand was sat on a young boy. A young boy of 10 years. The boy had blonde hair, green eyes and a big smile on his face. This must be Jake. Her attention shifted to a painting next to the family portrait. On that painting stood Jake as the king, a strong look in his eyes and no smile on his face. How could this little boy with the biggest smile Y/N may ever have seen be the ruthless king ever.

The new queen signed, closed her eyes and turned towards the blonde maid: "you can lead me to my room". Adelaine nodded before pointing towards a door in the room. "This way, your Majesty" Y/N followed her, no emotion was shown on her face. But if you looked deep into her eyes, you could see small tears forming on her bottom eyelid.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile Jake and Rooster were riding their horses deep inside the woods. "Sooo, how does it feel to be married?" Rooster teased his best friend, his royal talk long gone since the two were on their own. Jake shot a look at Rooster, "Let's not talk about this okay, I already need to talk about it during dinner for too long". Jake said, a flicker of annoyance lacing his words. His gaze swept the expanse of the woods, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. They still had to hunt for dinner tonight. Both men were hoping on shooting a deer, maybe even two. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I don't think she thrilled about this marriage either" Rooster continued, ignoring Jakes request. "It was arranged, trust me if I could choose who and when I would marry, I wouldn't have chosen an 19 year old girl who doesn't even know how to defends her own kingdom" Jake explained with an annoying tone in his voice. Rooster silently nodded his head. He would have imagined his best friend wedding day different as well. If you would tell him that his best friend would settle down at 21 years old, he would have laughed straight into your face. But now that was reality. Rooster added his final thoughts: "You need to trust the process. Bob said this would be good for your image and you didn't make him your Royal Advisor if you didn't trust him" Jake signed once again, he knew the knight was right. His reputation wasn't the best in not only other kingdoms but his own as well.

Movement to his left stopped his thinking, both men slowed down their horse before taking out their bows and arrows. "I think I see our dinner Rooster" Jake smiled, arrow next to his eye, ready to shoot. "I think you're right Hangman" his compagnion smiled, the quiet sound of a flying arrow ending his sentence.

Taglist: @mirrorball-6 @corriegrace06 @dempy @the-romanian-is-bae (let me know if you want to be tagged)

[diavolosthots]

Hello there! Hope you are having a good day/afternoon/night! Can I please request hcs of the brothers reacting to a teen! mc going on a date with a demon? All the brothers’ protective/overprotective big bro mode activated lol

Dating? In this household? Absolutely not. Not until you're 66 with one foot in the grave MC

Warning: mentions of stalking and mild violence

THE BROTHERS reacting to Teen!MC going on a date

Lucifer:

You think he has the overprotective brother mode? No. He has the unbearable dad mode. “You’re not going anywhere, MC.” In the sternest voice ever, with his arms crossed over his chest and a glare directed your way. You will definitely have to fight him on this and he won’t go easy on you. “You’re too young.” and “Demons aren’t playthings.” and “You’ll only end up heartbroken and hurt.” Are all things he’s dashing out and as your father older brother figure, he won’t let you go. Your best shots are either A.) Sneaking out and dealing with Lucifer later B.) bringing the demon to the house for dinner and hoping for the best, or C.) Go to Diavolo to try and convince Lucifer to let you go. 

Mammon:

When I tell you he SHRIEKED and almost dropped dead. His baby sibling going on a date? At such a young age? “MC, ya listen to me now! Them demons are OLD. This could be pedophilia!” Mammon lowkey has a point, “that’s like me datin’ Luke! Gross!” But of course you’d have none of it and he needs to think of new strategies, so he follows you on your date and stalks you the whole time. It’s a miracle he didn’t get caught but he was ready to pounce on that damn demon and he actually did when they suggested to take you home. “Nope!”

Leviathan:

You’re joking, right? Firstly, he’s mildly offended that you managed to score a date before he did, but that’s for later. Secondly, you’re not going because he can’t bear the thought of you growing up. Levi will legit fall to his knees and fake cry to make you feel some kind of guilt and stay. “I’m going to be all alone…” “But tonight is anime night! It’s tradition, MC!” Your best shot is just leaving and hoping a sulking Levi didn’t put some type of tracking spell on your phone. Spoiler Altert: he definitely did. 

Satan:

Oh here’s the issue. He’s going to be so calm when you tell him you have a date; hell, he may even help you get ready, but it’s all a facade. He’s the one opening the door for your date and before you can even think about setting a foot out that door, he already has your date’s arm twisted behind his back, silently breaking every single one of his fingers bit by bit, knuckle by knuckle, “you hurt my little MC, and I promise you, the broken fingers will be the least of your worries.” His eyes are showing fire and even you should probably take a step back and reevaluate your decision here. If your date didn’t run away from Satan’s very real threat, he surely will by the end of the night when they find out Satan poisoned their food. 

Asmodeus:

He’s super calm and excited for you, helping you get ready and finding an outfit that may show a little too much but it’s okay because “this matches your skin tone so nicely and really brings out your eyes, MC!” He’ll paint your nails and do your hair and give you the best perfume/cologne he owns. Then he’ll pack your bag/pockets with condoms and send you off. Only about half an hour later will he realize what the fuck just happened and freak out, running after you and finding where you are, “MC you’re just a child!” 

Beelzebub:

The sternest, most unreadable look you have ever seen will appear on his face when you tell him you have a date with a demon. “Is that so?” Don’t answer that, that’s a rhetorical question. Best believe Beel is the one who makes sure you’re not showing too much skin or looking too glamorous because no one deserves to see you at your best before he sees a ring on your finger. No, that’s not an invitation to get married. “You’re too young.” He’ll tell you that over and over again all night until it’s time to go and then he roughly shoves you behind him when you open the door, glaring daggers at your demon toy boyfriend, “I want them home by 9. Actually, make that 8:30. One minute later and I’m hunting you down.” 

Belphegor:

What was that? A date? He has risen from the dead and found a new meaning to life which is “fuck up anyone who decides to mess with the new youngest sibling” which is you. Let him catch a bitch try and mess with you because he will mess them up. Pretends to be okay with it and gives you a small ‘safety’ talk, but in reality he’s stalking you too and growling everytime that demon gets a little bit too close. Doesn’t crash the party but asks a lot of questions and digs all the answers out of you. If they don’t match with what he has seen that night, then you best believe he’ll call you out on lying and ground you. “As your older brother, I hold that right.” 

[lauraluna98]

Diana’s mothers fanfic

Have you ever think about Diana’s parents?

Have you think how did Daryl become so mean with Diana?

Why only Daryl, the twins and Diana are the only Cavendish remaining?

Where’s Diana’s grandparents?

Who’s Diana’s grandparents?

Why they aren’t there?

Why Bernadette was dead?

Who’s Diana dad?

How’s Bernadette Luna Nova years? If she really studied there

What happened in the Cavendish manor?

I’m going here to ask all these question with this fanfiction I wrote that is going to give a proper and a writing you guys never seen about Bernadette Cavendish the mother of Diana and her wife

Things here are going to change from the canon a little but well this is fanfiction and this is what fanfiction stand for

“Wait Wife? How? Why?”

Yeah Wife, by magic they made their kid and I’m going to explain why I choose a woman to be Bernadette’s wife rather than a dad

Simply, because feels generic and shallow to just simply give Bernadette a generic husband, this wouldn’t give a better writing to Bernadette as if was with another girl, Bernadette would simply marry or just have Diana with a generic man #1 and then one day he will die, leave her, or even plan to kill her

Plus the great majority of the fandom shipps Diakko, and they never think about the whole dilemma around Diana, by Akko’s side is easier she just need to fell in love with Diana and then yay they are together. But What about Diana’s side? Have you guys ever think that she’s an aristocrat (I’m not assumpting that aristocrats are LGBTphobes), she needs to keep a reputation there, a image and even she needs to have kids in order to keep her lineage being the one who will keep the head. So by Diana’s side things are harder, the reputation side she just can be simply strong and say openly that she’s a lesbian and everyone needs to accept that because we are in modern days but things get complicated about having kids

And pretty much the fanarts about a Diakko kid the children is always 100% biological daughter of Diana and Akko, so an artificial insemination by a donator is out of question (unless the donator is someone from the family who looks like them). Trans headcanon? That’s a pretty cool concept I think, tbh I love it, but to that work Diana or Akko wherever is gonna be Trans need to froze their sperm before the HRT if they want to have kids in the future, because the HRT make person infertile after a while. So magic? Well this is a another cool concept if both are cis so a fertility spell enters here, but how this is going to work? Leave that to the writers to do it. This is the idea I pick up with the fertility stone

This is why I come into the idea of giving Diana two mothers rather than a generic dad, because with that possibility Diana would get into the conclusion that a fertility spell is real with her at the first not actually believing it, until she finds out that her father was actually an another mother and she used the fertility stone with Bernadette

See how cool is that? And I’m not even starting to tell about Diana’s mom deeply, because this isn’t a story that takes place in the modern days but in the past

This is going to focus on Diana’s mothers

Bernadette Cavendish (the one everyone knows) and Laura McLaren (better than the generic Diana’s father OC)

Just to enter into the context of this story, the Cavendish family was into a time where they are even more close minded than today, on a time where Diana’s grandmother was alive and she’s a very conservative person, she was LGBTphobe AF not allowing their two daughters being other sexuality rather than straight, she controlled a lot of Bernadette’s life and even pressure her to be perfect

So times there was even worse for her than what is today. Bernadette’s mother was someone who preserve for the traditions and the image of the Cavendish family and this is where Daryl’s hatred among Diana enters

“What? But Diana wasn’t even born”

Because the hate wasn’t with Diana, but at Bernadette, Daryl hated Bernadette

“But in the anime has shown that Daryl had some feelings with her sister”

Really? I’ve only seen her screwing up with Bernadette will to keep the traditions of the family and she simply sell everything, I’ve seen her pretty much being very mean to Diana, not even taking care of her niece, plus when Bernadette was alive she pretty much was bullying Diana for liking Shiny Chariot

Come on the twins are less worse because they are kids but Daryl was a grown ass mother with two kids, she was simply bullying her niece for nothing when Bernadette was still alive in the canon

So this is how I come that Daryl is envy of Bernadette and she in reality hates her and I pretty much think that she’s even responsible for her sister death

Because of power, money and the wish to be the head of the family, Daryl pretty much has shown that in the anime and even her redemption was more like “Yeah you didn’t leave me to die so I’m in debt with you” (If LWA was going to have a season 2 she could pretty much fit into a villain and even if LWA didn’t have, Daryl was more Villainous than Croix ever was)

This envy among Daryl was something that started since she and Bernadette were kids, because their mother prioritize all the attention to the eldest daughter, the eldest daughter should be the one who will deserve to be the head and all the attention, but this is how their mother think is right to do and because of that Daryl starts to hate Bernadette’s side, plus that she was educated into a different way, she got more “evil” and greedy with the influence of her great aunts that think like that, while Bernadette was educated to be someone more “nice” and preserve the traditions of the family, she was even a little influenced by her grandma that actually believes into the fertility stone legend, where all the family think that’s bullshit

Bernadette needs to improve herself as a person to overcome all that weight over her, to have her own personality and freedom, because she didn’t have any freedom on her residence, until she enters on Luna Nova and meet someone called Laura McLaren

Laura is the complete opposite of Bernadette with her family, the McLaren family was like the Cavendish but from Ireland, they are rich too, but they prefer to live on a more simple big house, rather than a big ass castle because is more cheaper to maintain, Laura’s family is open minded AF they already knew about the fertility stone because the matriarch of the family is a 88 years old trans lesbian who used the fertility stone back then, so they are pretty much very fine with LGBT thing. Laura is openly a lesbian and she’s free to be herself, even tho she was most of the time trained with magic to become a powerful witch, so that makes her a strong ass witch that she didn’t even need to study in Luna Nova, but she’s there just for the grade

Laura was going to show to Bernadette how’s the freedom to be herself and not accept everything, that she needs to impose herself when someone is making her feeling down and Bernadette was going to make Laura being more mature with herself, since Laura was a little teen rebel, since she didn’t care that much about the authority of older persons rather than the family, so she really feels like she’s an adult and wanted to be respected like one. She’s the kind of badass tomboy girl who don’t care about authority and thing that she knows how the system works, so she obeys only who she really want

The time was going to be set around 1987 on the very first chapter which could fit very well into the canon since the anime canon takes place 30 years later, plus the time they make into adulthood and when the couple finally have their kids

The 15/16 years students on that time are going to be born on July 1971 to June 1972 and their birthdates will actually fit into the school year

Daryl is 3 years younger in this story she will be born in 1975 just like Laura’s sister Chelsea

The main differs with the canon

Since the time is changed in this AU with the anime being set on 2014 the 16 years old characters of the anime are born in 1998 in this AU.

Another thing I’m going to fix from the canon is the School year, since Luna Nova is a British school I’m going to change the school year from the canon which use the Japanese school year starting on May, but here I’m going to make the year starting in September to June next year with three vacation, December on Winter, two weeks after the easter on a spring break and the 3 months vacations from June to September when the year ends

And the whole magic limitation of them need to be near the sorcerer stone in order to use magic, in this AU they can use magic wherever they want, the most powerful the witch the most capable she is with the magic to point some of them can use their own body as wands

The dates are going to differ from the canon on the AU only when Diana is born and Chariot/Croix age since this is a part of the whole AU where the “anime” is set on 2014 and I make them both on the 30s when I didn’t know their canon ages there, so Chariot will be born on 1984, this will make her a kid when she meets Laura McLaren when she come to the Du Nord family residence to research for the fertility stone this presence of Laura is what made Chariot enchanted with magic

Bernadette have olive green eyes, idk if this differs a lot since we didn’t have proper canon information of her eyes and we didn’t even see her eyes in the anime, the main information is that the Cavendish has mostly blue eyes and I put her with greenish ones just because I want to make her unique, being the only Cavendish with a different eye color in her family

Diana is Irish/Scottish here, since Laura is Irish and Bernadette Scottish this makes Diana half of each (making her more Irish than Amanda lol)

Bernadette didn’t die, but that part could be also the one with Bernadette die and the whole canon anime happen with Laura didn’t come back to see her daughter

The Claiomh Solais didn’t appear for Chariot neither Croix and the main reason is because wasn’t needed at that time, the magic was pretty good, so both girls still become rivals but into another thing that is Broom Racing, just like on the real life we have Formula 1, so why not a championship with broom racing like Formula 1? This is what I bring into the AU in the next story which takes place after this one

Akko still idolize chariot but into her dream to become a Broom Racer and you can see here

Diana also like’s Chariot career but her main Broom Racing icon is her own mother Laura McLaren which become a excellent Broom Racer on the 1990s decade, without actually know that broom racer is her mother

The fic

It’s a remake of The mysterious mother, a lot of things are gonna be like the original but I’m also going to do a lot of changes to give more development to the characters, give more reasons to them to do what they did and also I wanted to do a story to fit in my whole AU

Well I talked a lot but not about the story, but this is because I don’t want to give a lot of spoilers on what happened and the whole answers to all these questions, even the one where Laura leaves Diana, since she’s a nice person, something happened that Laura leaves her lovely wife and her daughter and how did Diana never knew about who’s her dad actually is

Take a read into the very first chapter and have fun because this is going to be a very looong story with some familiar faces around there and some of them that are OC’s but they are needed to appear since most of the cast isn’t born at all despite the teachers at Luna Nova or Chariot and Croix that are still pretty young

This story is also the 3rd part of the whole AU of the fertility stone which you can check out all the parts I’ve wrote just to be more clearer with this whole story

Part 1: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26913469

Part 2: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27899341

Part 3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31098311

Part 4: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23807575

Also not only we are going to know about Diana’s mothers but a lot of things that will play on the part 5 story read it to find out, since the story is going to take place 50 years after this one, also is going to be a very very long story with them I’m already with 30+ chapters wrote and I’m gonna write even more, plus I’m gonna do daily updates so stay all the days on Ao3 for updates on the same time if you got interested on this story (I’m also very sorry with bad English and Grammar since I just put the story into Deepl translator and I change a word or another into the translation, when things get confused, since English is not my language)

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31098311

Fanfiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13875351/1/Laura-McLaren-The-mother-of-Diana-Cavendish-IV

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/1065632225-laura-mclaren-the-mother-of-diana-cavendish-iv-so

[queenwitchrowena]

☽〇☾ — ROWENA MACLEOD

❝ she wore her scars as her best attire, a stunning dress made of hellfire.❞ ☽〇☾  —  AESTHETICS

BELIEFE IN PROPHECY AND MAGIC OLD AS TIME  — WINTER SOLSTICE ORGIES  — BACKLESS FLOOR LENGTH GOWNS AS CASUAL WEAR —  WINGED EYELINER SHARP ENOUGH TO CUT YOU  — FINDING REDEMPTION AND MEANING IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

☽〇☾  — CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Rowena MacLeod Nickname: Ro (To a few people.) Age: 378 appears mid to late 30’s  (spent an additional 190 years in Hell) D.O.B.:  1643 Place of birth: Isle of Skye, Scotland Gender: Cis Female Species: Human/Witch (Natural) Height: 5’2” / 157 cm Weight: 110lbs / 50kg Eye color: Green Hair color: Vivid red copper Relationship Status: It’s always complicated and often fake. Sexuality: Sexually Progressive Powers: Innate magic, learned spell work, ability to create spell work. Weaknesses: Overestimating herself, pride, volatile anger, recklessness Occupation: Witch / Con Artist / Hunter Consultant / Queen of Hell Weapons: Hex Bags, spells, natural magic, Voodoo dolls, crystals, potions, alchemy, manipulation. She is capable of using traditional weapons such as knives and guns when necessary.

Personality: Rowena is intelligent, ambitious, proud, manipulative, Machiavellian, petty, sarcastic, reckless, often self serving, hateful, seductive. She resents anyone who dares to have authority over her. She flirts like mad with people, often for fun, often for her own gain. When she is on someone’s side she can be sweet, calm, warm, and courteous. When she has labeled someone as completely useless, unfortunately in her way, or an enemy, she can be ruthlessly vicious and violent. People that cross her may find themselves in various precarious situations up to and including violent deaths.

Rowena is hard to get to know deeply, she builds walls to keep people from hurting her, not just physically, but emotionally. She is never quite able to be rid of the parts of her that fear and loathe her past. She has always been a dreamer. She is slowly learning to trust and value people and loyalty, even if she might deny it.

Likes: People who can do something for her, knowledge, power, money, magic, Winchesters and their pet angels (though she will not state that out loud), creating her own spells, her son (not that she wants to, she hates him because it’s easier for her), flirting, elegant states of dress, stability, freedom.

Dislikes: Authority over her, being used, baring her feelings, feelings, weakness, abandonment, her own desperation, her past, swallowing her pride, not controlling a situation, being underestimated, being undervalued, people denying their own abilities with magic, most hunters, most other witches, her son lol, most demons, anything that makes her appear unsophisticated, limits.

Appearance: Rowena is a slim petite woman. Pale skin that burns and freckles if she doesn’t stay out of the sun or apply some sort of charm. She keeps her fiery red hair long, with fringe, and alternates between letting it curl naturally or straightening it. She wears it both up and down.

Her clothing choices tend to learn towards the impractical and formal. Long sleeve floor length gowns, dresses, heels, and assorted jewelry. She wears bold winged eyeliner and often bright and shimmery eyeshadow looks, bold red and coral lipsticks. Rowena may occasionally wear something that makes her blend in a bit better, stylish slacks and blouses, sometimes a suit jacket. She never appears not put together if it’s within her control.

Rowena has a number of scars on her body made by the insertion of spell work in the form of hex bags. There is a scar on her outer right thigh, one on the left side above her breast, and one on her left hip above the bone. She also has very faint stretch marks on her belly from pregnancy.

☽〇☾  —  BACKSTORY

Rowena MacLeod was born the daughter of a Tanner in 17th century Scotland. She was one of several children born to her parents.

Her mother did not follow witchcraft, her father forbid it, he was a strict man. But she knew that she was born a witch and that magic ran innately through her. She was forced to not speak of it, though she couldn’t always control it. Even without training or knowing the right words, Rowena could speak things into happening given enough passion.

She was different from most of her siblings, the only other one who was capable of magic was an older brother, Fergus, though he too was made to tamp it down. He died when they were still young. A fever took three more of her siblings in childhood, and her mother was often absent or in her own head after that.

When Rowena was 15 she fell in love with a charming wealthy married man. He promised her that he’d take her away and that they would be together. When she was 16 she found herself unwed and pregnant. Her father threw her out in shame, and though her lover housed her in the village after, he did not visit nearly as often after. She knew later his promises were all lies.

He came to see her only once more, on the eve of their son’s birth. It was a long and hard birth and it was said that she wouldn’t make it. Her lover kissed her on the forehead and told her that he loved her. It was his last kindness. He left her there, dying, penniless, and went back to his wife and other children, expecting her death. Though Rowena managed to make it through, weak as she was, with a healthy son to show for it. She named him after the brother that she had been closest to.

Afterwards, baby Fergus’ father denied ever knowing Rowena at all. She was alone, with a child she couldn’t help but desperately love, cast out of her family for her sin of bearing a child outside of marriage, and labeled a whore by everyone else.

She sought to use her magic, thinking it would be what would save them. But what little she could do only earned her a worse reputation. Rowena was forced to take her baby and leave, she thought elsewhere she might be able to tell people that she had been widowed, but it hardly mattered. She had nothing and no one, and a baby to care for. Life was hard for them. Rowena was often unable to provide even the most basic things for her child. With her reputation she couldn’t find any reputable work. Instead, she sold her body to pay for what meager little she could to keep a roof over their heads. And she learned what she could of magic from wherever she could.

She did her best for her son, taught him what she could, and tried to shield him from what she was. Until he grew to look more and more like his father, the man who had broken her heart.

She could barely look at him, the boy she loved, that only served to remind her of what she hated about her life. She wasn’t a good enough mother, he was the reason she was forced to scrape to get by. She couldn’t help but tell herself those things. And she couldn’t help but tell him in fits of anger.

When he was 8 and devoid of all the pretty baby fat of youth, Rowena was caught and about to be tried for her crimes as a witch. Before that could happen, she left her son in the care of a workhouse, unable to keep him with her. She told herself she would be back, but she had nothing to offer him, and he was a painful thing to look at. The personification of a wound never closed. At a certain point she knew that she had been gone too long and made up every reason she could to justify it.

She found the opportunity to study under the great Milanese witch Leticia D’Albioni, and soon after that she finally joined the ranks of the Grand Coven. The Grand Coven were critical of Rowena having a child with a “non-magic”, but they were willing to overlook this because of the great talent she possessed. However, her immense raw skill and recklessness with extreme witchcraft made them wary of her. This eventually led to her being hexed by the coven with a binding spell that restrained her magic, as well as being banned from performing magic, taking on students, or forming her own coven.

Rowena didn’t stop using her then limited powers when possible, still stronger than many witches, but she did fear the Grand Coven and their worldwide reach for centuries. She stayed off their radar as much as possible, learning where she could, and managing to take care of herself in other ways when necessary. She’d dodge the occasional run in with other witches, demons, hunters, The British Men of Letters.

300 years later, Rowena resurfaced, recently run out of the UK by a member of the British men of Letters. And with a goal in mind, intending to reclaim her lost power and start a coven of her own to do so.

It wasn’t until she learned that her son, who should have long been gone and forgotten, was reborn as the demon Crowley and King of Hell, that she was set on a new vicious path.

She reinserted herself into Fergus’ life. (Refusing to call him by his newer chosen name, though she would never explain to him what the name meant to her.) Rowena attempted to use her son for his position of power to help her with the Grand Coven. Aware of her manipulations, her son assisted anyway and captured the head of the Grand Coven, Olivette, for her. Tortured by Rowena, Olivette revealed the Grand Coven was much-diminished in its power because of a concerted campaign against witches by the Men of Letters. After learning this Rowena sought again to put together her own coven, something far greater than what the Grand Coven was, though she was met with either disinterest or thwarted plans. Still, she remained by her sons side in hopes that his power would be useful to her.

This led to frequently recurring encounters with the Winchester brothers and those that surround them. Sometimes on opposite sides, sometimes as allies.

See here for further detailed information.

☽〇☾  —  POST SEASON 15 EPISODE 3

Rowena expected to die and have her body eventually deteriorate and release the souls that she carried with her, back to hell where they belonged. Instead she found herself dead, but with an incredible amount of power stored within her from the souls that she absorbed. As she arrived in Hell by her own choice, Rowena is able to take control of Hell’s throne through the use of her still in tact magical abilities, and fear.

She is a powerful soul inhabiting her own body, though technically still dead, and has never become a demon.

As ruler, she immediately shut down all demon deals and overhauled hell to work the way that she wanted it to. Her opinion is that humans do plenty of things to put themselves in Hell, no need to assist the process. People will end up where the ought to.

☽〇☾  —  CURRENT

Since her arrival in Lebanon, Kansas, and once again a member of the living, Rowena has returned to reside in the Men of Letters bunker with the Winchester brothers.

[obsidianfr3sk]

Humon + all the questions 👀👀👀👀👀👀

*Cracks her knuckles* My time has come

100 Otp Questions (✨Humon edition✨)

1. Who loves flower crowns more? Simon. I think that during most of his childhood and teen years he tried to repress a lot of his more "feminine" interests so when he became an adult and a little more confident, he started to kinda obsess over them 2. Who is the one who likes to cuddle? Hugh 3. Who has awful taste in music? Hugh (? HE JUST SEEMS LIKE HE HAS SHITTY MUSICAL TASTE, OK????? 4. Who is the meme lover? Simon, and Hugh always goes like "I don't get it" 5. How did their second date go? Better than the first one:) 6. How many children do they want/have? They always wanted to have a lot of kids 7. Who hides the weapons? Simon 8. Who is the better dancer? Hugh. Simon's super clumsy, but it’s kinda adorable:) 9. Do/Did they have a theme wedding? No, they went to the courthouse after a few weeks after they defeated Ace Anarchy and had a small ceremony with friends (they were still mourning Georgia u.u) 10. What do their parents think of them dating? Well, according to my headcanons (? Hugh didn't actually meet his parents (because Mr. Everhart didn't want t prodigy son) but Simon lived with this dad! Mr. Westwood didn’t like Hugh that much because he thought he may be a bad influence:) But after they started dating he started to notice Simon was so happy with him, and at the end of the day, it was all that mattered. But yeah he still didn't like Hugh that much lol his son was too good for him (? 11. Are they a super sappy couple? When they're drunk, yes (? 12. How did they get together? Simon was the introvert Hugh, an extrovert, adopted 13. Who asked the other to get married? They asked each other at the same time:) 14. Who stays up too late and makes stupid jokes? Simon. 15. Who is the nerd? B O T H 16. Who knows the most obscure facts? Hugh: *drinks water* Simon: you know... drinking too much water can actually kill you. Hugh: *nervously drinks water* 17. Who makes the other a flower crown? Simon, but one day Hugh tried to make one for him (it was a little bit... ugly, but Simon liked it) 18. Who likes to read? Simon. 19. Who bothers the other person while the other person reads? Hugh 20. Who tutors the other? Hugh 21. Do they have similar taste in movies? Yeah, for some reason I think they both like Marvel movies lol 22. How do their personalities complement each other? Simon is more sensitive, calm, and proactive, while Hugh is more dense, social, and reactive 23. How do they tell everyone that they are going to be having a kid/adopting a child soon? If you've read my fic Catch Me if I Should Fall, you know I believe Georgia asked Hugh to take care of Adrian if something happened to her. So when something did happen to her lol I think Hugh told Simon about the conversation they had, and Simon accepted without hesitation. Simon was the one who told the rest of the team, and honestly, nobody objected, because they knew they were the most capable of taking care of a child. 24. Who has better fashion sense? Hugh:) 25. Who will punch someone out if they are rude to their partner? Both 26. What songs do they sing together in the vehicle? OKAY SDAJFASFJD hahaha just imagine (? Adrian's on the car with them and Simon just starts singing at the top of his lungs "Stacy's Dad" but instead of saying "Stacy" he sings "Adrian". Adrian is super embarrassed because omg the cringe and he goes "dad tell pops to stop" while Simon is "ADRIAN'S DAD IS ACTUALLY PRETTY RAD HE'S ALL I WANT AND I'M OBSESSED JUST A TAD". So Hugh looks at him dead in the eye and says: "OH ADRIAN CAN'T YOU SEE YOUR DAD JUST THE GUY FOR ME" and then they both go "I KNOW IT MAY BE BAD BUT I'M IN LOVE WITH ADRIAN'S DAD" and Adrian jumps out of the car 27. What other couple would your otp get along with? I think they would get along with Tamaya and her husband:) 28. Who likes to prank the other? Okay so dskbsajfdjsd I think Simon, but like, he would make sexual jokes (? and Hugh would be like "I don't know how to respond to that". But he likes them xd 29. Who is the one who loves to take pictures? Both. 30. How would they react if they found out they were soul mates? Sweetie, they already know it 31. Where would they live? It's not like they don't like living in their mansion, but they would be more than happy if they lived in a small house:) As long as they're together 32. What type of dragon would they own, if they could have one? *googles types of dragons* so apparently Quetzalcoatl is considered a dragon... yeah, they would own a Quetzalcoatl :))) 33. If they were both vampires, what type of vampires would they be? Okay there are too many types of vampires what the actual fuck askdhsjakfdj but yeah, I think they would be your standard vampire lol 34. What would they dress up as, for Halloween? THEY WOULD DRESS UP AS EACH OTHER SDFBSHFBJ The Dread Captain and Chromium Warden (? 35. Can they name each other’s favorite food? Yes!!! Hugh knows Simon favorite food is pupusas (a traditional Salvadorian dish) (yes I headcanon Simon as half Salvadorian fight me) and one time he tried to cook them for him but he almost set the kitchen on fire. Ah, and Simon knows Hugh's favorite food is apple pie:) 36. Do they have pet names for one another? Hugh: *calls his husband dear/hun* Simon: *call his husband dude, amigo, bro, captain, and sometimes love, when he's in a good mood* 37. How do they cheer each other up? "I love you" "I know" "And I know you know. I just wanted to make sure you remember. Do you wanna talk about it?" "No" "It's okay. I'm here for you tho." "I know. And thank you" 38. Do they show a lot of PDA? At first, Simon had problems with PDA because fucking homophobes are everywhere, but now he hugs Hugh in public every time he can. And Hugh doesn't have a problem with it:) 39. How old were they when they got together? My headcanon is that they were 16, almost 17:) 40. Who is the one that would bring the puppy home? SIMON ASAJDBJSD and Hugh would be the one who's like "i don't want animals in this house Simon you have to find him another home i'm the patriarch and I've spoken" but then two months later he's like "Simon the dog sleeps in the bed tonight he's a puppy and there's a thunderstorm he will get scared:(((" 41. Can they do yoga couple’s poses? Some of them 42. What is their song? YOU FELL ASLEEP IN MY CAR I DROVE THE WHOLE TIME BUT THAT'S OKAY I'LL JUST AVOID THE HOLES SO YOU SLEEP FINE Tear in my Heart, by TOP 43. What does their room look like? LIKE A PINTEREST MOM ROOM LOL 44. Who would be the one to kill zombies while the other keeps them grounded? Hugh kills the zombies, Simon keeps him grounded 45. Who makes the other breakfast in bed? Añis, I think both of them:) 46. Who loves kids more? Simon. Hugh likes his kids and kids sometimes like him, but they're sticky and loud and just... no:) 47. Do either of them have a crazy ex? Does Ace count? 48. What are their favourite colours? Simon's favorite colour is purple and Hugh's is blue 49. Who likes to cook? Both, but Simon cooks better:) 50. Who is the forgetful one? I think Simon lol 51. Does either of them know how to fight? They do!! Like you cannot be a superhero without knowing how to fight lol. But I think Simon is more of thinking before every movent and Hugh tends more to using brute force 52. What do they do for Valentine's Day? They send each other flowers to work and have a romantic dinner at their house, is a tradition. 53. Who swears more? When they were younger Hugh used to curse more, but when they got older, Simon started doing it more than him 54. Who has the better comebacks? Simon. Sometimes Hugh is just... mean with his comebacks 55. Who would start a fight with another parent at a bake sale? H U G H (he's a soccer mom trapped in the body of a gay superhero) (Hugh: FIGHT ME TINA!) 56. Who reads buzzfeed? Both, but Simon does it ironically, Hugh doesn't (? 57. Who is the hopeless romantic? Both:) 58. Do either of them know how to do a handstand? Yes, Simon. 59. Who can rap better? S I M O N (One time Hugh was having a rap battle with Tamaya and Simon went “GO WHITE BOY GO”) 60. Do either of them want to go sky diving? No, they're too old for that 61. What do they usually text about? The kids, work, "i'm gonna order pizza" "all right" "but hurry up u r paying and i'm hungry", and "love ya" 62. Who is the dramatic one? It depends xd but I think Hugh lol 63. Is either one confrontational? Have you seen Hugh in Supernova?? the guy is batshit crazy i see why yall don't like him tbh 64. What is their favourite cuddle position? Spoon!!! (those basic bitches) 65. Who are their favourite musical artist(s)? JUAN GABRIEL AND SELENA QUINTANILLA 66. What are their parenting styles? Well, for what I saw in the books, they're not really super strict, but I think Hugh is more strict than Simon:) 67. Who would be the more laid back one? Simon. He would sneak his kids a cookie after Hugh told him not 68. Who listens to more vulgar music? I think Simon, but he just listens to it when Hugh’s around because he goes like the lady from this vine and is hilarious 69. Do either of them have secrets even the other doesn’t know? Hugh doesn't like papusas that much:) 70. Who is their go to couple for a double date? Tamaya and his husband! 71. Do they tip the waiter/waitress on their date? Yes, they're nice:) 72. How do they work out a fight? I think they give the other their space to think and calm down, and then they talk about it. 73. Who brings home an illegal pet? SIMON BUT BECAUSE HE DOESN'T KNOW THE PET IS ILLEGAL UNTIL HUGH TELLS HIM 74. What side of the bed do each of them sleep on? Hugh sleeps on the right side and Simon on the left side 75. What is their favorite photo of them two together? A candid photo Georgia took a few weeks after they started dating. They are at Simon's basement, shyly holding hands and looking at each other completely smitten 76. Who takes longer in the bathroom? Hugh lol 77. Who has more songs on their ipod? Simon!! 78. What movie did they first see together? Matilda xd 79. What do they like to see each other in? Their supersuits (? 80. Who makes jokes during inappropriate times? Simon skdfhjsdjhs 81. At what age do they discuss the possibility of children? Right after Adrian was born they started to think about it, but never really talked of it until they were like 24-25. 82. What do they love about each other the most? They both think of each other as the bravest person they have ever met. 83. Who is the one that sees the big picture, while the other focuses on the small details? Hugh sees the big picture and Simon focus on the small details 84. What would they write on their partner’s social media for their anniversary? Something really cheesy lol 85. Who is bad at math? Simon 86. Who googles everything? Hugh to win arguments, Simon out of anxiety 87. Who does stuff on impulse? Hugh (fucking obviously) 88. How do they comfort each other when they are helpless to do anything about the situation? I think they just... hold hands. Like “maybe we cannot do anything about this situation, but if the worst happens, we’ll be together and that’s the only right thing in this world right now.” 89. What is an inside joke they have? "rEnEgAdEs???? More like RENEGAYS" 90. Who makes the other smile with almost no effort at all? Hugh 91. What is their favourite holiday? Christmas!! 92. Who is the one that is calm and collected while the other is angry and destructive? *Supernova flashbacks* 93. What is their favourite board game to play? Pachisi  94. Who accidental sets something on fire? Hugh 95. Who has the car ready while the other is robbing the store? Hugh has the car ready and Simon robs the store 96. What artist/group did they go to for their first concert? SELENA QUINTANILLA 97. Who sleep talks? Simon 98. Who is the more social one? Hugh 99. What are their karaoke songs? Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Dreaming of You, and Te Quiero Tanto (but Simon is the only one who can sing it; he's been taking Spanish classes because after his mother died, he forgot all his Spanish. He does what he can) 100. Who would get up on stage and make a fool of themselves just to make the other laugh? Hugh

[alistonjdrake]

Part Five: Respect and Love

Princess Hadley ek Ponsonby | Niężckna Hajnalka lik Villumsen Role: Princess of Letros | Wife of Crown Prince Aayden Ponsonby Born: Year 1762 after the fall of our Saints. 

On the eve of her birthday, in the palace of Valoye, home to the Villumsen royal family that has ruled Letros for countless generations, a rumor was spread by the chambermaids of Queen Bogna that the mother to be had an insatiable thirst for blood in the early hours of her labor. 

A thirst that would be quenched by none other than King Celestyn who, was said out of love for his wife, cut his thigh to feed her. 

Letros is not a country that brags about much. Not very exciting to others, excelling in animal husbandry, contributions to Santivism, and having a long history with piracy problems due to their peninsula and watery surroundings, and a language not often taught south of their borders has made them seen as undesirable to their main continent neighbors. The Letrossi are thus tight-knit and secretive, inherent revisionists of their own history. 

In truth, King Celestyn and Queen Bogna hated each other. A story revealed in a series of diaries found after King Celestyn’s death (once attributed to bloodletting in favor of his wife but most definitely connected to a sour wound from a hunting accident.) Such rumors only took root because the child born in the aftermath was considered monstrous to some and strange to many.

Hajnalka was born in the dead of winter, the time of year in Letros where more humble villages take tallies on how many citizens they will lose from starvation and cold, and Hajnalka herself was cold and had to be forced to life by several midwives and (probably) a screaming Queen Bogna. She would be the youngest of three girls and the last child of four (the oldest being her brother the soon to be King Aksel). The closet of her sisters having a seven-year age gap on her, Hajnalka spent much of her childhood in the care and watch of her mother. 

Queen Bogna and Princess Hajnalka did not get along from the start. Queen Bogna would claim that her daughter terrorized, disobeyed her, cried to just be an annoyance. By the time she was two, her mother’s cousin Queen Lukova of Oskya would reach out to Queen Bogna and the newly crowned king to discuss the idea of an eventual engagement between Hajnalka and Prince Aayden. 

The arrangement was put in writing by the time she was three. Hajnalka would learn of it when she was five. Letros and Oskya have long been aligned and several princesses in the past have taken the short boat trip to Oskya’s icy shores for political marriages. At five, it’s uncertain how Hajnalka took that news. 

Hajnalka’s oldest sister was already married, the second engaged, and the third promised to a Letrossi duke. It was not a concept that would have been too wild for her. As a child, she was often found either in the stables or running around the palace gardens. With age, rumors would spread that she often escaped into Valoye along with King Aksel, who was known for putting on disguises and going to taverns and betting houses. She grew very fond of her older brother and would often be found hiding beneath the flaps of his long coats during meetings to hear stories of pirates, food shortages, and the very lazy happenings that occur when governing a country like Letros. 

Hajnalka would grow farther and farther from the dowager queen. Queen Bogna and Queen Lukova would write each other about their child’s progress, and while Queen Lukova seemed to have nothing but glowing praise about Prince Aayden, Queen Bogna was often lying to cover up for her daughter's bad behavior. 

Drinking with supposed pirates by the time she was eleven. 

Getting into fist fights with stable boys. 

Running away from the palace and living in the woods for up to two days before being found by guards. 

At the age of twelve, Prince Aayden made the first trip to visit her. King Aksel took them on a short tour of Letros and would later report the two spent most of their time together talking about and chasing dogs. 

Growing up, Hajnalka was not a diligent student either. She, like many ladies of standing in Letros, never learned how to read and instead took to hiring a scribe. She found no interest in playing an instrument. Often ignored the social part of court life to lean over her brother’s shoulder and learn about what it was like to wield power. 

Though it was said Hajnalka and Queen Bogna did not get along, they still talked. Out of all her daughters, Hajnalka was set to be the only one who would become a queen and so, if not reluctantly, Queen Bogna took her youngest under her wing. She was very honest about her relationship to Hajnalka’s father and what she could expect, only she suspected it would be worse given Hajnalka would have to learn a new language, leave her home, and adopt a new culture. 

At fifteen, with the the engagement becoming more and more set in stone (Oskya being more closely aligned with Escan than it had ever been under previous monarchs, there was thought—and some attempts—for Prince Aayden to marry an Escana princess or someone of their choosing instead), Princess Hajnalka was given two Oskyan tutors by the name of Fedulov and Lady Yulka. Fedulov was to teach her history, language, the importance of the Oskyan military, their customs, the nuances of their culture, their folktales and superstitions. Lady Yulka would fill in the gaps by teaching Princess Hajnalka how to be an Oskyan lady. How to dress, how to carry herself, what would be expected of her.

Prince Aayden’s visits would become more frequent. He was dubbed the traveling prince as he spent much time in Escan or away from Oskya. They didn’t get to spend a lot of time together as King Aksel took a great interest together, and when they did it was never alone. Queen Bogna watched their every move. 

Princess Hajnalka confided once in Lady Yulka that she could not tell if her future husband liked her because he didn’t speak much. She was told that Oskyan men don’t often show their emotions and walked away from that discussion more determined than ever to make him. 

The two would finally marry when they were both twenty. Princess Hajnalka had two weddings. One by proxy due to her betrothed being busy during the intended date and she still in Letros, the stand in being (to her displeasure) her own brother whom she hugged goodbye before boarding a ship to Oskya. She would actually marry her husband some months later and as is the Letrossi tradition, officially take on the “Southern” name Hadley (although it had been used to refer to her before this). 

Their wedding night likely the only time the two of them had been truly alone during the entirety of their relationship. Oskyans are strict and restrictive. And the Ponsonby family has a history of misfortunes when it comes to the marriage bed (King Vadik not having a child or attempting it until 20 years in, King Niclas not being able to produce a surviving heir) and so it was rumored Queen Lukova took no chances and hired someone to watch the “proceedings”.

The validity of this challenged directly by Princess Hadley herself, who would ashamedly go on to talk about her wedding night and her nervous new husband who “did the deed with a little encouragement”.

Almost as if it was fated, Princess Hadley did not get along with Queen Lukova either who saw her new daughter-in-law as less than respectable. By this age, Princess Hadley was unabashed, loud, a drinker, and always spoke her thoughts. She would often let slip something rude and vulgar during dinners or meetings. She would “secretly” drink Letrossi mead (when all alcohol is forbidden in Oska Paltrosken). She would run off with her hunting dogs and live in a tent for a few days (something she would do especially during pregnancies as it scared the hoard of maids and midwives Queen Lukova had to spy on her)

But much to both of their surprise, this did not bother the often stern Prince Aayden. The two quickly took to each other. They would go on long hunting trips, ice fishing, and would seek her counsel. Early into their marriage, King Vadik would take a large step back from being present in governing Oskya, locking himself away in his own chambers and leaving his country and its duties to his wife and son. Prince Aayden would share much of this responsibility with Princess Hadley, especially during his trips away from Oskya or the capital. 

Princess Hadley did not shy away from this. While not well-versed (but not by ignorance) in court etiquette, she became hooked with exerting power. Although she was often challenged (and at one time, it’s rumored almost killed) by Queen Lukova, this would change once the couple started having children. Something few of Aayden’s predecessors had been able to (or as willing) to do before him. 

And they took great delight in it. Although not an expected match, Princess Hadley quickly found herself fond of Prince Aayden and the honesty and respect they reserve for once another. Often seeing each other as the only true allies in the deceitful and deadly inner palace of Oska Paltrosken. They do not exchange flowery words and certainly don’t throw around the “L” word, but they have moved onto pet names and only threaten each other jokingly. Which is probably the warmest relationship Oskya has seen in decades. 

During the events of Of Vipers and Saints, Princess Hadley and Prince Aayden have three daughters and Princess Hadley has set her position as an important figure in Oskyan politics by speaking on her husband’s war council and routinely pissing off ambassadors, the Orthodox Santivian Consistory, and Queen Lukova (of course). But has also made herself irreplaceable as a symbol of their alliance with Letros and now as the mother of three Ponsonby princesses. Even if she is drunk 30% of the time. 

[boundlesshart]

how royal succession works in Almyra + Other Things about almyra that’s been rattling in my head since that nintendo dream interview laid waste on my crops

hi, so after reading M’s @ladamedepique​ drabble about a concubine war kid getting kmarted, i realized that what i actually want to write is the Everything i’ve been thinking about since this nintendo dream interview came out back in march. so i did. it’s 2am and im hungry.

i realize that it’s been a while, so the summary of that interview’s impact on my claude headcanons is “my handcrafted claude backstory that i had to write myself bc intsys decided fuck claude is now irreversibly fucked by the introduction of a bunch of half-siblings he had to be rivals with.” if you ever catch yourself wondering why this is such a mess, well because that’s exactly what this is! this is all subject to change, it’s same kind of “haphazard and bizarrely long half-baked headcanon report” that my dlc thought train was. i’ve changed my mind at least 20 times during this process i will change it again

i’d like to thank zotero for holding all of my journal articles and pdfs on the ottomans and their succession system, and also magnificent century og and kosem, while not being totally historically accurate, for being a fun soap opera to give me some visuals to work with in my head. i now have a positive understanding of what claude’s shitty little beard could realistically look like, which is a gift that i never thought i would have.

Almyran Succession

All of the king’s children, regardless of if they were born in or out of wedlock, is considered a legitimate prince or princess. This is pretty much the only title that they can expect to have, as they and their mothers cannot inherit any lands, titles or wealth that would have been passed to them from their own families. Almyran property law aims to avoid partitioning property between multiple heirs for the sake of maintaining the family’s financial stability. The throne of Almyra works under the same principle, which had led to the introduction, legalization, and practice of open succession.

Open succession, despite its potential to be cruel, is viewed as a necessary step to ensure that the throne would only be held by strong leaders chosen by the people (”people” ending up being the higher-ranking officials that would benefit from a specific child’s ascension). If they proved to be lacking, they would simply be deposed of and replaced. 

What determines who becomes the next ruler of Almyra is not whether a child is the oldest of all the children, but if they and their allies have the political acumen to not only claim kingship but keep it, fighting off their rival brothers and sisters.

All sons and unmarried daughters are eligible to rule Almyra. By law is not only the next ruler’s right but duty to remove other potential heirs to secure their right to rule and the stability of their reign. Generally upon a ruler’s ascension to the throne, their brothers will be killed and their sisters married off or killed if they threaten their siblings’ rule. Exceptions have been made in the past, but they are few and far in between and have led to succession crises down the road. 

The previous ruler’s choice for an heir is usually accepted after their death, and ideal for minimizing the interregnum period. Even so, it doesn’t guarantee that the heir will be able to keep the throne.

Ok, but where do the kids come from?

Rulers of Almyra are allowed to have multiple spouses, but they usually only marry for political purposes.

The vast majority of children are mothered or fathered by concubines with no background of political power, which is preferred. Princes and princesses are allowed to have children once they leave the palace (to prove that they can have them), but if they have too many they may be considered a threat to the king and dealt with appropriately.

I think the one mother-one child rule would have been in place here, not necessarily as a law but as a rule enforced by other spouses and concubines, as well as the ruler’s mother or father.

Princes and princesses aren’t dropping like flies, and murdering them without having the law on your side is considered treason of the highest order. They’re still aware of their competition and fear being murdered when one of their siblings takes the thrones, so few end up becoming friends.

Children are ultimately their mother’s or father’s responsibility. They are expected to guide them through their education and follow them to their provincial post when they are old enough, setting them up for success and paving their path to the throne. King and Queen Dowagers have been incredibly influential in Almyran history and support their children by representing them politically and managing their spouses and concubines. 

Ok, whatever, just tell me what’s relevant to Claude:

Ibrahim, Claude’s father, became the king of Almyra only after 5 year civil war between himself and his two remaining brothers. He got to the throne first and is still feared for the ruthless execution of even his youngest brothers and sisters.

In all, Ibrahim has had 2 wives and 12 concubines, and he has fathered 10 sons and 6 daughters. A few died to childhood illnesses but most made it to at least 13 years old. He’s a doting father and cares for their well-being, though only when he happens to see them. Though he was a constant presence in Claude’s life, his half-siblings usually only saw him during holidays.

No one in Almyra knows that Tiana is the daughter of Duke Riegan, for all they know she’s a Fódlaner that King Ibrahim brought back with him after a short border strife with the Leicester Alliance. Obviously she goes by another name in Almyra, and here is where I think I’m going to bring back the first name I had for her, Desdemona. Suck it, intsys. She wasn’t liked when she first came due to being from Fódlan, and was accused of witchcraft when Ibrahim married her and devoted himself to her at the expense of his other wives as concubines. As the herd of children and concubines thinned, Tiana’s strong personality and battle prowess garnered her respect among the top officials of the Almyran court and even her enemies.

In Fódlan Year 1175, rebels infiltrate the palace walls and kill over a dozen people, from palace servants to princes and princesses. In the moment it was believed to be part of a revolt that was ongoing in the capital at the time and carried out by rebels storming the palace walls and stealing and killing whatever came in their way. After an investigation, it was discovered that that was just a cover up for.... a noble Almyran house trying to make a power grab through either an older son or with their own heir? I’ve been working out the details on this for months and I still don’t have them ironed out don’t look at me. It ends with a couple of older half-sibs dying but more importantly Claude’s older and younger brother dying and Claude nearly dying himself, only to survive with the Crest of Riegan. I imagine that there have been instances before hinted at him having the Crest of Riegan, but it was this incident that confirmed it for Tiana. 

These are the notable royal family members, or the ones I’ve spent at least one second thinking of:

King Ibrahim II of Almyra: Claude’s dad, born Fódlan year 1131 so 19 when he ascends the throne. He is feared but respected, brutal to his enemies, firm with his allies... but you’d be surprised by how easygoing he actually is with friends and family. He’s young at heart and energetic, even laughing at jokes made at his expense, but only in very close company. He loves writing poetry, especially to Tiana, and he frequently sends her love letters so that one can be read out to her every morning and evening when her mail is given to her. Relishes the thrill of battle. Nader introduced him to kumis back when they were boys and to this day Ibrahim regularly drinks a glass each night, claiming it makes him stronger.

There’s a tradition in the royal family that all princes and princesses must learn a trade in case that they fall into misfortune. Ibrahim enjoys goldsmithing when he is alone, a good distraction from his thoughts. Claude’s earring is part of a set given to his mother, crafted by his father as a gift.

Tiana von Riegan/Desdemona: Claude’s mom, born Fódlan year 1135. Claude calls her a warrior goddess and a demon queen that would laugh at his expense, I imagine that she’s in that “dead serious but good humored about it” boat like Claudedad, but less sappy about it. A tough but loving mother, she was very involved in her children’s upbringing and did her best to secure their place in the royal family. She doesn’t teach any of her kids the Fódlanguage because she was distancing herself from That, but Claude is able to convince her to help him learn (though she was reluctant about it and limited their lessons greatly, forcing him to teach himself mostly). She has firmly decided to never return to Fódlan, but a cup of Leicester Cortania is her guilty pleasure. These days Tiana spends her time at her husband’s side in Maragheh, keeping up with her training.

Two older half-brothers: So Claude’s endings have him as heir to the throne without a mention of rivals, but part of me feels like that’s too simple for Claude considering he just up and walked out of there 7 years ago so here we are, two rivals. They’re probably early to mid 30s at this point and have one or two small children of their own. I don’t know their names yet, but my initial ideas are a “nice” brother cool calculated pushing up glasses kind of dude that is actually a huge dick and a chad dudebro who’s just trying to distance himself from these bad vibes.

If I had to give them trades, nice brother likes to fish and sails for pleasure (he governs a coastal province) and chad brother carves wooden thumbrings. 

Orhan: Claude’s older brother, born Fódlan Year 1160. He was conceived months before Tiana went to Almyra (born 5 months after she arrived), so his parentage has been in doubt from day 1. I imagine him as having low self-esteem since he was believed to be a full-blooded Fódlaner, discriminated against in a similar way or worse than what the rest of his siblings went through. Historians would later debate whether or not he was actually Ibrahim’s son.... but we’re not historians, and Orhan was definitely his son. Died in the FY1175 uprising at the age of 15.

No idea what he looked like, he just happened to not look like his parents. His favorite food was salted cod, but he was rarely able to get it. Orhan enjoyed playing the violin.

Claude/Khalid: You know him, you love him, born Fódlan Year 1162 under another name. He’s the only kid that ended up getting the Crest of Riegan, and after one too many accidents where that crest ended up proccing, he’s been accused of practicing witchcraft like his mother. I think this would be a better like, concrete thing for the Almyrans to fixate on rather than a general “you’re half-Fódlan rahhh” and I think it would definitely go with Claude talking about how he was constantly fighting and explaining himself to get out of trouble.

If I’m going with the “kids can only inherit from the ruler of Almyra”, then I’m gonna have to figure out how Claude fits into this. His first move is to probably bullshit a loophole about how actually the Dukedom of Riegan doesn’t exist anymore and I may have destroyed Failnaught after the final battle so technically I didn’t really inherit anything that would give me an edge in Almyran politics. :). Ibrahim is pissed at Claude for going to Fódlan in the first place and getting caught up in a war and he definitely did not sign off on Nader bringing Almyran troops into a war that they have no business being involved in. The first thing Ibrahim does when Claude returns to Maragheh is shout at him and ground him to his apartment in the palace. And then proceed to assign Claude to a governmental post so that he’s out of his sight.

As an aside, I imagine that when Ibrahim dies and Claude rises to the throne, he deliberately delays his coronation so that it coincides with the Almyran New Year. It;s that kind of inconvenient dick move that he would delight in making bc symbolism.

You know what he looks like, in terms of food he strays away from sugary sweet stuff and towards meat and cheese. I’d like to think that he gains a genuine interest in gardening (like, beyond just cultivating poisonous plants as a cover for “gardening”) during his time in Fódlan and brings back different seedlings and scions for grafting back to Almyra. 

Mehmet and Rahimah: Twins, born Fódlan Year 1164. Ok so basically I kind of wanted a dead sibling that was around Cyril and Lysithea’s age for the Drama of it (bc I thought of Claude looking at Cyril and thinking of his brother and immediately went “That hurts. Let’s do it”). But I ALSO thought what if Claude had a little sister, and then I ALSO thought what if Claude has a new full-blooded sibling that got conceived during the five year war, like the shittiest surprise. I’ve combined all those ideas into the twins.

First of all, they have more function than personality. Mehmet only exists to die during the uprising, but I’m starting to like Rahimah bc like... she literally loses most of her brothers including her twin, and then Claude up and leaves her for Fódlan (a place she has little connection to, regardless of her mother). Her only remaining sibling is gone for years, misses seven birthdays, her wedding with an Almyran general, the birth of her first child and the announcement of her second... like, by the time Claude comes back to Almyra she hates his guts and you know what? She’s right! I imagine Rahimah angry, but also grasping for literally any kind of deep and long-lasting relationship at this point. She loves her kids fiercely, she loves her husband, and even though they have their struggles she's still very close to her mom. Fuck her no-show brother Khalid, and fuck Fódlan for taking him away from her.

No idea what Mehmet looks like, like I said he only exists to die. Rahimah is shorter than Claude at maybe 5′4, round-faced and carrying herself gracefully. She’s lactose intolerant but she bears the pain for the sake of eating ice cream, and her husband goes to great lengths to get the ice for her. Likes to sing and dance with her son Ömer.

[mihnn]

Hello! Sorry to bother you. can I ask for a recommendation? The only Kdrama I have watch it's boys over flowers. Could you recommend me one of the likes so I can get myself into this world? I keep staring at your gifts and just makes me wanna starts watching them.

Sure. And you’re not bothering me at all. :D So many recs…

Shows similar to Boys Over Flowers:

1. Coffee Prince - A tomboy is mistaken for a young man, but maintains the deception for the sake of employment. The situation becomes complicated when her male boss begins to develop feelings for this “boy” and vice versa.

2. The Heirs - Kim Tan is the heir to Empire Group who has been sent to study abroad in the U.S. In reality it’s a form of exile, as his elder half-brother back home schemes to take over the family business. While in the States, Kim Tan meets Cha Eun Sang, who arrived from Korea in search of her older sister. He feels himself falling for her, never realizing that she’s the daughter of his family’s housekeeper. When his fiancée Rachel Yoo arrives to bring him back to Korea, his heart is torn between love and duty.

Shows that are cute and fun with a lot of romance and friendship:

1. Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo - Bok Joo is a weightlifter who is pursuing her dream of winning the gold medal but she then finds romance for the first time in her life. While she is a woman who trains with heavy steel weights, she is also very feminine when it comes to relationships. To focus solely on weightlifting would jeopardize her relationship but leaving her weightlifting career for love would keep her from attaining her dreams. It covers their coming-of-age stories and relationships through hectic life.

2. Strong Woman Do Bong Soon - Do Bong Soon is a petite, unemployed woman who is honest and kind. She appears little and sweet on the outside, but she is in fact very, very strong. Ahn Min Hyuk, who holds a great distrust towards the police, witnessed the whole exchange of Bong Soon’s superhuman strength, and now wants to employ her as a bodyguard after being threatened by an unknown enemy. 

3. Shopping King Louie - The romantic comedy series “Shopaholic Louis” revolves around a handsome shopaholic named Louis, who is the successor of a vast business empire but becomes homeless after suffering from amnesia. Meanwhile, Koh Bok Shil, a country girl who lives a life that is worlds apart from the rich and famous, encounters Louis in Seoul.

4. Thirty But Seventeen - Woo Seo Ri, a violin prodigy at 17 who was about to study in Germany, got into a bus accident and fell into a coma waking up 13 years later. Mentally she is still only 17, while physically she is now 30.Due to a trauma he experienced 13 years before, Gong Woo Jin does not want to have a relationship with others.This series is about a man and a woman whose lives in their own ways essentially stopped when they were 17. Together, they use all their might to try and open the door to the happiness that they once thought had been closed to them.

5. My ID is Gangnam Beauty - This series tells the story of Kang Mi Rae, a girl once bullied for her looks. As a result, she became insecure, cautious around people and withdrawn. However, Mi Rae decides she wants a fresh start away from bullying and gets plastic surgery to transform her face. When she begins university, she meets Do Kyung Suk from their middle school days, who sees people for what they are on the inside and not the outside; he then becomes attracted to Kang Mi Rae.As Mi Rae begins to get teased once more and labeled “Gangnam Beauty”, the cold, aloof but kind inside Kyung Suk becomes the one person that stands up for her and in the process, Mi Rae begins to recover her lost confidence and discovers that true beauty is not on the outside.

6. What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim - The series revolves around the narcissistic Lee Young Joon, the vice president of a company run by his family. He is very self-absorbed and thinks highly of himself, so much that he barely acknowledges the people around him. Lee Young Joon has a capable and patient secretary in Kim Mi So who has remained by his side and worked diligently for 9 years without any romantic involvement. However, Mi So now want to set her life & focus on herself so when she decides to resign from her job, hilarious misunderstandings ensue.

7. Fight For My Way - Despite an increasingly hostile world, Ko Dong Man and Choi Ae Ra decide not to give up. No matter what others speak of them, they together make their own way to live a happy life.

8. She Was Pretty - As a young girl, Hye Jin was impossibly cute and had a comfortable life with her wealthy parents but since her teens, her looks and fortune changed abruptly and now she is living with her friend rent-free and working as a part-time clerk at a convenience store. One day, her childhood first love, Sung Joon, contacts her wishing to meet her, but recognizing Sung Joon has grown into a handsome and fit man, she quickly hatches a plan to have her pretty friend meet him in her place instead. After luckily landing a full-time job, Hye Jin is surprised to find Sung Joon as her boss, who is adding insult to injury, treating her with disdain and contempt.

EPICS with romance:

1. Goblin: The Lonely God - Kim Shin was once an unbeatable general in war who died a sad death. He now possesses immortality but is tired of living whilst everyone else around him dies. For 900 years, Kim Shin has searched for his bride, a mortal who can pull out the sword that binds him to the living. One day, he encounters Ji Eun Tak, a positive, upbeat high school student who can see the dead and has gone through tragic things, yet still stays strong. She claims to be the Goblin’s bride who can end his immortal life, but what appears to be an easy task only gets complicated as the two fall into requited love.

2. Mr. Sunshine - Mr. Sunshine centers on a young boy born into a house servant’s family and travels to the United States during the 1871 Shinmiyangyo (U.S. expedition to Korea). He returns to his homeland later as a U.S. marine officer. He meets and falls in love with an aristocrat’s daughter. At the same time, he discovers a plot by foreign forces to colonize Korea.

3. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo - When a total eclipse of the sun takes place, a 21st century woman, Go Ha Jin, is transported back in time to the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea. She wakes up in the body of 16-year-old Hae Soo, an aristocrat living with Lady Hae, her cousin who happens to be married to one of the sons of King Taejo. She soon befriends several of the princes, who find her carefree and exuberant attitude refreshing. Although she knows she should not get involved in palace intrigues over the succession to the throne, she inadvertently becomes a pawn in the struggle, as several of the Princes fall in love with her.

4. Descendants of the Sun - Kang Mo Yeon is a pretty and assertive woman who works as a cardiothoracic surgeon at Haesung Hospital. She isn’t afraid to admit her mistakes and believes that capability overrides whatever connections you have. However, she is soon faced with reality that she cannot advance with just capability. Her life is forever changed when she encounters Yoo Si Jin, the Captain and team leader of Alpha Team who cares more about protecting anybody who needs help as well as his country, even if it goes against the order of his superiors. This drama will tell of how they both band together in a time of war and overcome the odds against them.

5. Memories of the Alhambra - Strong spirited Yoo Jin Woo is the CEO of an investment company with a degree in engineering and a knack for developing video games. He has an adventurous and competitive spirit. Suffering after his best friend betrays him, he takes a business trip to Granada, Spain in search of the mysterious inventor of an innovative augmented-reality  video game. He ends up at a hostel that Jung Hee Joo owns. They are both drawn into a series of strange and unexpected events.

Shows that focus on real relationships:

1. Something in the Rain - Yoon Jin Ah is a woman in her mid-30s who doesn’t know yet what it’s like to date a man. She’s been dumped by a man many times because of her clumsy, reckless, and foolish behavior. Just then, Joon Hee appears and he is Jin Ah’s childhood best friend’s younger brother, who used to live next door. Jin Ah has always remembered him as a little kid, but one day, he comes back as a man. When she is surprised by his change, her gut feeling tells her that she would truly fall in love this time.

2. Familiar Wife - Cha Joo Hyuk works at a bank and has been married to Seo Woo Jin for five years. When a strange incident happens one day, Joo Hyuk makes a decision that impacts his life and those around him in unexpected ways. Suddenly, the life he had with Woo Jin and his best friend, Yoon Joong Hoo are gone and he is leading a very different life.How will his first love, Lee Hee Won, factor into his new life? And will it be possible to get his old life back?

3. Encounter or Boyfriend - Cha Soo Hyun is the daughter of a politician who lives a  life where she is unable to choose her own path. After graduating from college, she entered into a loveless marriage with the son of a wealthy conglomerate, a marriage only beneficial to her politician father. She then gets divorced. Her life is changed further when she meets simple and kind Kim Jin Hyuk.

4. Matrimonial Chaos - Jo Seok Moo graduated from a prestigious university, but he pursued his dream of becoming a musician rather than finding a traditional job. Jo Seok Moo did not become a musician and because of his advanced age, he could not land a decent job. He then began working at a security service company. There, he met Kang Hwi Ru for the first time as his customer. They have been married for 3 years now, but Jo Seok Moo asks for a divorce. They do not have very much in common. Jo Seok Moo has a stubborn personality and enjoys spending time alone, while Kang Hwi Ru is easy-going and has a positive personality.Another married couple, Jin Yoo Young and Lee Jang Hyun appear. Jin Yoo Young is Jo Seok Moo’s first love.

Shows not focused on Romance:

1. Misaeng or Incomplete Life - Jang Geu Rae has played the game Go since he was a child. Playing the game was everything to him, but he failed to become a professional Go player. Now he’s been thrown out into the real world. When his gaming plans fail, the down-and-out Geu Rae is forced to get an office job as an intern thanks to an acquaintance’s recommendation for him to a large company called One International.

2. Live - The drama revolves around the incidents that occur in the police force and the joy, sorrow, and pain that police officers experience as they try to protect justice.

3. Argon - Kim Baek Jin is a popular anchor, reporter, and leader of investigative reporting program Argon. He does not tolerate unverified reports and requires facts he can personally stand behind.

4. Miss Hammurabi - Park Chao Reum is a newly appointed judge who is assigned to the 44th Civil Affairs Department at the Seoul Central District. She is always on the lookout for injustice and is able to profoundly empathize with others. Compared to her, Im Ba Reun is a cool-headed man of principle with the creed of ‘Court that is equal to all’, and he is displeased with junior judge Park Chao Reum who is overtly sympathetic when it comes to cases.

5. The Package - Yoon So So leaves on a trip to Europe with her boyfriend she met in college despite her parents’ disapproval, dreaming of a romantic journey. A few years later, her boyfriend heartlessly comes back to Korea alone, leaving So So behind. So So couldn’t help but start working as a tour guide in France to make a living. She leads a group of people traveling with the “Luxurious Premium Tour Package: 1 Week in France”.

These are just a few of the shows I love. There are many many MANY more, so feel free to ask. I know a few recs for law shows, assassins, murder/mystery, crack, so feel free to ask. I hope you enjoy your kdrama binge watch. Most of these can be found on Netflix.

P.S, - Added an update because I remembered a few more.

[wetookanoath]

ooh what are your headcanons for the coco au?? 👀

Well, right now I have…

TW: Racism, implied homophobia and transphobia, sexism, way too many languages in one tiny family, necessary Major Character(s) Death(s), this is not a fanfic but a way too elavorated AU lol, Trans Male Character, trans pregnancy.

S/O to @faequill and @impossiblevvings for educating my ass by sharing his experiences as a trans parents. And also S/O to @from-one-fandom-to-the-other for making THIS and THIS wonderful art and talking about this AU with me. And also S/O to this anon for asking.

Set in the 30s, I’m thinking in maybe Baja California or Guadalajara. During this time, Mexico is still getting together after the Mexican Revolution left tons of deads and shattered states. In this time, the Golden Age of cinema flourishes and singers like Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete become famous. Enter the music theme of the story.

That said, Mexico has a long history of having good relations with european countries such as Germany, Ireland, Austria and Poland. During the Colony, tons of people came to Latinamerica because there was work, commerce and land (I mean, stolen land– you know how that goes), so entire families would come with the hopes of a better life. 

During this time, chinese people build a China Town in what will be Mexico City later (still stands and is a wonderful place), japanese people will came in their own commercial ships to either work or be with their families, since samurai getting jobs as big names spaniard’s bodyguards, and soon other business people came with their families.

I’m saying all this to then say that,

Ryan’s family has always had it bad because they are mixed. His father’s grandpa decided to move to a small community where most people is mixed near the principal city of their state, yet not so close. This is so they can all live in peace.

Ryan’s grandfather gets out the country, builds a life in the States where he meets Ryan’s grandma, an also mexican woman who went to live in the States. Years later, Steve, Ryan’s dad, meets Linda, daughter of immigrants too, and they build their own family.

When Ryan is a teenager, his parents understand he is trans and caliming economic problems, Steve decides to take his family back to the family’s ranch in Mexico, where they can protect their kid, so no one knows he is trans and they know him only as Ryan. They grow up learning from all their cultures and speaking very accented english and spanish. Ryan and Jake also talk a broken japanese their mom is always cheering. They cook strange stuff that convines all three cultures and people think they are weird, but it works.

To their little town comes a group of immigrants from Poland, men are there to work in the energy plant near the Bergara’s ranch.

Ryan and Jake met Shane then, he’s older than them and Ryan gets irritated at his funny spanish, but finds himself talking to him daily until Shane starts to work, too.

So, every day, Shane and his brother walk in front of the Bergara ranch and he can always see Ryan at the window with a guitar or just asleep. He always waves at him and soon, Ryan finds himself waiting for the boy to pass by his window.

There’s a lot of Ryan insulting Shane in either spanish or japanese, to what Shane always answers with polish and both look at each other like ¬¬

They fall in love eventually.

Both families get along well, it’s then when Linda and Sherry start to notice something between their kids. It’s unspoken and like a known secret, and only once did they tried to talk about it but, like it happens so often in remote places of Mexico, no one said a word.

Ryan’s family is well known, names move sea, dirt and sky in Mexican societies, and so life goes on– of course, leaving the santity of their small town means dead and treats, and so none go.

Scott and Jake both leave eventually, it is known then that Ryan will take the ranch. When he’s already an adult, Shane and his mom move to the ranch after his father dies and Scott leaves.

Later in life, Scott gets married in the ranch, and they are all such a funny and curious mix of a family.

They have a few happy years where Ryan and Shane are together, dream of music and suddenly, something changes.

When Ryan realizes he’s pregnant, he’s worried shit will go down. Shane is actually pretty happy and excited, and after the initial shock, both feel good about it. With his mother’s support, he is able to tell his father, and to his freakin’ surprise, he’s happy. 

Ryan has to stay in the ranch to protect himself and the baby, seeing the struggle, fear starts flourishing in Shane and instead of saying something, he keeps it all in him. He needs an actual job, not just his music delucions, and he needs to do better and make sure nothing ever happens to Ryan and their baby.

They have a girl, they name her Alejandra, and she grews up listening to her parents sing together and even with economic struggles, they were happy.

Then Shane leaves.

When Alejandra was little, Shane met bitch ass Ernesto who used to listen to him at the local bar where he sang with Ryan and other pals they had. Shane originally didn’t want to become a singer, but he wanted to keep writing songs, Ernesto made him believe they could be both singers.

Note: Mexico has a big time problem with colorism and favoritism of whites™, but when it comes to music and so, especially at that time, the mexican public wanted to the men who sang to be the stereotype of a Strong Mexican Man™, like Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante (this doesn’t mean they weren’t talented and amazing at their art, because they sure as hell were). A man like Shane would had never find fame and acceptance at that time, so this bitch ass Ernesto fooled him deeply.

Ryan doesn’t like Ernesto one bit, and feels him fake as shit with his “support” of their family when Shane is idiot enough to tell him the truth. This causes their first big fight, since Ryan didn’t want a man like this bitch to know about him and that Ale is their biological daughter.

Fights start to become terrible, and finally Shane tells Ryan he wants to try this and if it doesn’t work, he’s coming back right away. If in six months he hasn’t done shit, he is coming back. 

Ultimately, Ryan believes in Shane’s talent and lets him go. At first, they write to each other constantly and Ryan always reads part of Shane’s laters to Ale.

Eventually, the letters stop and a year later, Ernesto is in everyone’s TV and Ryan tries his best to find out what happened to Shane. When he finds out he was murdered, Ernesto tells him some story about being mugged and what not, and in his pain he believes it.

In the back of his head, there’s always the tiny voice that says this is not true, but the pain and his pride are stronger, and so he decides to keep going.

He makes the ranch prosper with his bare hands and the whole family helps, as years goes by, they can mantain themselves with the ranch’s production of meat and leather.

Note: totally not based on my own ranch, lol.

Ryan dies later in life, having his daughter carry his name when he decided to change her name to take away Shane’s (because we mexicans are petty and this was super common. Your husband left you? Change your kids’ name to yours– my name should be Rivera, guys, but my great grandma said fuck you to his father, and changed her name to León -her mom’s name- and here we are…) and the ranch.

~ The After Life ~

Shane is there before anyone else. He could be send to his polish family, he could find the other Bergaras, but he is not sure of what to do. His situation as someone his family has decided to forget mantains him in the streets with the ones without a family, which is bullshit because he knows his family must be somwhere.

His first years, he forgets about the Día de los Muertos tradition, among other traditions, and is only worried to find a way to know if Ryan and Ale are okay, and soon he’s hit with a newspaper from a maxican lady that has hear his story of having his family in Mexico, she reminds him of the bridge that opens on November 2.

That’s when he starts trying and when he’s told his family doesn’t put a picture of him, that breaks his heart and spirit more than he cares to admit. He gives up after.

Years later, re-animated by the fact that he needs to let Ale know he loves her more than anything in the world, he keeps trying. This is when he recognizes Ryan for the first time.

He is an emotional mess, trying to reach him and when he sees he is with their entire family, he is a rying mess. But then, Ryan looks at him and there’s complete silence– it’s unspoken that Ryan is kind of the family’s head, so the others wave at him but don’t do much when Ryan finallly turns around to cross the bridge without saying a word to Shane.

His heart is shattered to not repair that night and on.

Shane concentrates then into getting to the Human World to see Ale. His parents and other family members would talk to him from time to time, and at least he gets to know his daughter grow well, but also gets to know Ryan had it bad for a while and will take him time to accept him back.

He tries to tell Ryan about Ernesto more than once. He courts him, and sings, and does all he can until Ryan is tired of him and finally tells him he doesn’t want excuses, he doesn’t want to see him and he should go right now.

Shane is not sure anymore if there’s more heart to break, but it hurts all the same.

Ryan, when in the After Life, woke to his family and only accepted to himself to be disappointed of not seeing Shane there. He finds out later about his situation, and for a while decided to not search. It’s better this way.

When he hears Ernesto has died and it’s there among them, he tries to find Shane, and maybe clear things once and for all. But he finally drops the idea and lets it go.

His no-life goes on, and when he sees Shane for the first time before the bridge, all he wants is to slap the idiot and kiss him, but his pride is stronger and so he turns around and leaves.

He cried all the way to the Human World.

When he realized their great-great grandson was a lot like Shane, a lot like both of them, he couldn’t help but smile.

After Ryan finds out the truth, Shane’s picture is put on the Altar of their family and he goes to no-live with them in the Land of the Death, they have a long talk about their lives and cry together for having found their way to each other again, no matter what.

Both feel guilty for a while, though. Shane for leaving and never finding a way to let Ryan know what happened. And Ryan for closing himself and not believing in Shane’s love for him and Ale, and for their family forgetting him for such a long time.

Eventually, they can heal together. They have all the time in the world now.

At some point, Ryan looks up at Shane with a smirk and goes, “See? Ghosts are real” and Shane wants to die again.

When Ale dies and she reuinites with her parents, there’s a crying fest. 

It hurts Shane that he didn’t get to see his Alejandrita grow up, and that she thought for a long time that he decided to leave them and was selfish enough to never look back to his family.

But seeing Ale’s happiness to see him again and all the love of his family, helps him slowly heal. Now they can all be together.

Shane’s first Día de los Muertos is so funny to everyone, because he doesn’t know what to do and still gets all ?? with some tradition, but he enjoys it all the same.

Life goes on in the Human World, their great-great grandson grows up, he gets married and has his own children than still put their picture in their Altar, and like that, things are okay.

[pleasereadmeok]

Interview with Matthew Goode on his role in The Crown - 

Now I am sitting in a London hotel room in front of the actor playing Snowdon in season two of Netflix’s The Crown. And Matthew Goode is wearing a hat, probably the one he has in ITV’s The Wine Show, the programme in which he and his mate Matthew Rhys josh and gush over vintages brought to them in a “hilltop Italian villa” — a for-real version of Brydon and Coogan’s The Trip. The bibulous old rogue Snowdon would have appreciated the wine and the banter, but what would he have said about his future impersonator’s ever-on hat?

“He was a nightmare,” says Goode, who admits to rather liking Snowdon. “I spoke to one of the guys who used to help him when he was a photographer, and he said, ‘I can’t use the expletive, but it describes an area of a woman’s body — that’s who he was.’ It was so annoying. He could be charming and brilliant, then in two seconds’ time behave like the most disgusting person in the entire world.”

Snowdon was 76 when I met him and although he had been divorced from Margaret for nearly 30 years, he still behaved like minor royalty. His servants, I noted, called him m’lud. In the period depicted in The Crown, however, Snowdon was New Britain on the march, storming the palace gates to modernise the monarchy. That early model, the pre-peerage Tony Armstrong-Jones, might even have admired Goode’s hat.

Having once compared Margaret to a Jewish manicurist (he was part Jewish himself), he would certainly have enjoyed Goode’s outspokenness, a trait that has got the actor into trouble in interviews before — which may be why his publicist is sitting behind me. She keeps her counsel, however, probably having already realised that Goode’s chance of appearing in the next honours list is about as likely as The Crown ushering in a republic.

A file of background notes passed on by The Crown’s producers persuaded Goode that Snowdon’s faults were sourced in an unhappy childhood. His mother, Anne Messel, showed him little affection, referring to him as her “ugly son”, doling out her love instead to the two boys from her second, longer-lasting marriage to an earl. He was sent to boarding school at eight and at 16, while at Eton, contracted polio (there is a touching moment in The Crown when he hides his stick when Margaret turns up at his studio). Anne, rather than nurse him at home, packed him off to Liverpool Royal Infirmary, but she never visited him.

“Exactly what that kind of damage does to a child I have no idea, but emotionally and psychologically, quite a lot, I would imagine,” says Goode. “I think it’s why he married Princess Margaret. I think he did it to please his mother rather than himself.”

Demonstrating that he was good enough to marry into royalty? “It’s far more complicated than that, I’m sure, but it’s one of the solutions.”

The Snowdons were soon into an 18-year marriage notable for its private rowing and public putdowns. Yet, says Goode, the royal family loved their new recruit and always blamed Margaret for any trouble. “He was terribly funny as well. So with this incredibly acerbic, nasty, vitriolic, spiteful side comes this flamboyant, wonderfully debonair, extremely funny, witty man.”

The pair, he summarises, were “very charismatic, very smart and vile”, but what we can be sure of was that the sex between them was spectacularly good — although not good enough to dissuade their lusty libidos from straying beyond marriage. Soon both were having affairs. Within weeks of the marriage, another woman, Camilla Fry, had given birth to Snowdon’s illegitimate daughter, sired, the show suggests, during a three-in-a-bed encounter with her and her bisexual husband, Jeremy.

“When I first met Noo,” Goode says, referring to Vanessa Kirby, who plays Margaret, by her nickname, “I was quite terrified because I was a fan of the first series. I was a little star-struck, I suppose, and I thought it might make for uncomfortable love scenes, but we ended up just finding it hilarious. It was a really good giggle. She’s brilliant. She’s really dynamic as an actress and really fun to work with because she’ll bat it back. She listens, really listens, and responds.”

Perhaps it is because of their rapport that they manage to convey how alike the princess and her parvenu husband were. They were control freaks (that cap business) and poisonous to those who would not be controlled. They were rebels, but also lovers of status. As Goode points out, Armstrong-Jones may have been the first commoner in 40 years to marry the daughter of a monarch, but he was also dead posh. In fact, Goode’s dialect coach encouraged him to “dial back” the vowels, lest people found them confusing.

Since his breakthrough role as wealthy Tom in Woody Allen’s Match Point in 2005, and certainly after his Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited three years later, Goode has played mainly posh boys. He was brought up in Devon the son of a geologist and his wife, a nurse, but did go to a private day school. Yet Goode is not quite acting aristocracy and since this cannot be because of his talent, or his looks — dark hair, blue eyes, 6ft 2in — this may be something to do with his habit of speaking his mind. In an interview in 2010 he complained about being left with “nowhere to go” by the director of Brideshead. When Tom Ford’s excellent A Single Man came out, he criticised the Weinsteins for featuring Julianne Moore rather than him with Colin Firth in the advertising, thus downplaying the central gay relationship. In 2013 he said he had been working “a lot of scale”, meaning the minimum rate.

Then, on This Morning last year, he said he did not think the modern Bond films were working as well as the old ones. The papers, which had tipped him as Daniel Craig’s successor, declared he had blown his chances.

“I’m way over the hill, darling, what are you talking about?” he responds, although he is 39 and only a few years older than Craig when he started. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” What he meant was that there could be two Bond franchises, one contemporary Bond and another set in the Sixties. “It’s just an idea. But apparently you can’t have an opinion.”

Recent years have been kinder to him professionally. In 2014 he joined Downton Abbey as Henry Talbot, the racing diver who sped off with Lady Mary. Around the same time he won a regular gig on The Good Wife in America. The Wine Show is about to return to ITV, with Goode joined by a new drinking buddy, James Purefoy. There are, of course, still disappointments. Cast as a morphine-addicted ex-public schoolboy in Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence, Goode now finds that the three-parter has been pulled from the BBC’s Christmas schedules after sexual allegations against his co-star Ed Westwick (who robustly denies them).

Goode says there are two ways of looking at it. The first is that the BBC has spared the cast some awkward interview questions. “But some would also say that they should have stood by Ed. Possibly. I mean, I don’t know. I’m not the controller of the BBC.”

So, is he in favour of the postponement? “I’m not really in favour of anything because I don’t have to make that decision. I believe you’re innocent until proven guilty.”

But has the BBC prejudged the matter by pulling the show? “No, not now, because there are three allegations now.”

Goode has lived with the mother of his three children, Sophie Dymoke, for 12 years. When she became pregnant with their first daughter, she gave up her life in the fashion industry in New York. He was thrilled to be able to return with her to film The Good Wife, but by then her heart was no longer in her career. Is he guilty about that?

“Of course I am. Of course I am. She has to put up with living with some f***wit who doesn’t really live in reality occasionally and has some slight psychological problems occasionally through work. She’s retrained as an interior designer and she’s so talented at it.”

What psychological problems? “Well, this [show] is part of it. If you tie all of your hopes to the net product of your work, then you’re going to get depressed because sometimes you feel like you’re working really well and then you watch it and you go, ‘I am terrible.’ I don’t watch my stuff any more.”

I assure him he is excellent in The Crown, but it was a one-off gig. Series three will be recast with older actors (he thinks Paul Bettany would be a good choice). “Peter Morgan [the writer] said, ‘I’ve just written the most fantastic argument for Tony and Margaret in series three.’ I was, like, ‘Oh good. What a thrill for the next guy.’ ”

He got the part days after Lord Snowdon died in January this year, 15 years after Margaret. His death avoids any unpleasant collisions in restaurants and Goode hopes that none of his children will want to spit in his face. He reports that Matt Smith was introduced to Prince William at a function before the first series was shown. The prince said he had heard he was playing his grandfather, Prince Philip. “And Matt was, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, anything to say about that?’ And William just said, ‘LEGEND.’ ”

“I think as we come towards where we are now, it will be slightly uneasy and slightly problematic. I think it could open up a few wounds that people are still a little bit grieving over and feeling complicated about. Poor old Charles is probably going to get it in the neck. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m out of there already.”

In one way, however, Lord Snowdon did members of the royal family a favour. The show’s slogan is that “the crown always wins”. In the Snowdon case, monarchic tradition was unable to prevent Margaret and her husband from divorcing and pursuing happiness with others. Perhaps without their example, Charles, Anne and Andrew might still be all miserably married. The Snowdons were trailblazers!

“Were they the first? They were. Yes, they were! So, the trailblazers. Trailblazers is a word that suits them extremely well,” Goode says enthusiastically.

And for that, let us all take off our caps to Lord Snowdon.

The Crown series two is available on Netflix from December 8

[cosmosogler]

didn’t do much today. got up before 10:30. stumbled into the bathroom and took my meds. felt like i was forgetting some, but i took them in order and i was looking at my bedtime meds. i normally wake up on my chest but it’s so sore these days that i usually end up on my back when i put my alarm on snooze for a few minutes in the morning.

i cooked myself the other two veggie burgers for lunch, and i almost ate both of them. it seemed like my appetite was coming back a little bit. i was very lethargic all day. wasn’t focusing very hard on anything in particular. i did beat the beginner doubles battles and multi battles over the course of the day at least. so... i can start doing the more difficult challenge. the final goal would be a 200-win streak to get every item you can win, but i don’t really need the last item... i don’t think i would use it. i would just know i had it. i’ve never gotten it before. i think that’s been the grand prize since generation 3. i’ve never even seen anyone use it for anything. it’s really dependent on luck in battle and by the time it activates half the potential boosts wouldn’t be helpful.

the second to last prize doesn’t seem like that big a deal either. i’m more interested in hitting a 50-win streak. that’s when you get the stamp in your trainer passport. which is even more useless than either of the grand prizes! 

well, technically, nothing in the game helps me personally. i just do it because it’s fun. or, when it’s not fun, i can trick myself into feeling like i accomplished something.

anyway while i was flopped on my desk i managed to call the doctor and she can see me tomorrow morning. it’s even at a nice time for me. i gotta finish this prescription first though so i can stay on my “start on sunday” schedule... luckily the next few days are just sugar pills so hopefully the side effects will cool off a little bit.

i was thinking about maybe taking pictures of wiley while we’re out in the yard. i used to like taking pictures, and wiley is a really pretty dog. eve and doge don’t like the camera so i generally have to pretend i’m using my phone to text and turn off all the sound. they only notice i’m trying to take a picture if i point the lens at them. it’s kind of funny. they do it with my 3ds too since it has the lenses.

or i take pictures of them zoomed in through the window while they’re lounging in the yard. i took a really good picture of eve and doge laying together in the shade a few years ago. i’ll put it in a post. i think i’ve uploaded it before but it makes me happy to look at it.

for dinner mom and dad decided they wanted mexican food. i was crying internally because ralberto’s is so bad, but mom said she was talking about manuel’s. manuel’s is on bell road and it has THE BEST SALSA. i have never tasted better salsa in my life in any mexican restaurant i’ve been to. the only person who makes better salsa than manuel’s family is my aunt sharon. i don’t know what she puts in it but i can’t ever get enough of it. and she must make it in her bathtub because there’s buckets of it when she makes it for parties. when i’m at her house sometimes for my cousins’ birthdays i end up just sitting by the salsa tank.

i got sidetracked. the point was that i went with dad to pick up this mexican food and then i sat and ate it. i got sick right as i had the first bite of my enchilada but i forced myself to keep eating because i have been so hungry. 

while i was on the road with dad there was a song that came on the radio and dad was like, “oh man, i used to play this song all the time in my firebird.” he told me about the Good Old Days when he had a convertible and long hair and an enormous speaker set  that he kept in the back seat so he could blast this single song every time he rolled up to his friends. he said he had it on a cassette and it was the first track so he could always find it right away to put it on when he got in earshot of his friends.

i kinda looked at him and i said “i admire your dedication to having a theme song.”

then he told me that before junior year of high school for a few years he just flat out had no friends because they all started doing drugs and he didn’t want to so he stopped hanging out with them. and judging from how his brother turned out (dead) he had good reason. i didn’t know uncle jimmy very well. he had trouble following rules, i think he gets that from his mom. my dad’s like that too sometimes. he won’t do something just because you asked/told him to do it.

he was chronically homeless so we’d let him stay at our place. we’d gotten this house specifically to house long term guests. we’ve had a variety of people stay with us between houses or jobs. but uncle jimmy, he had an ancient beetle with faded blue paint, and he was always working on it. and by working on it i mean he would disappear and leave his car in our garage. it had a sticker on the window that said “skydive naked - balls out” and mom would turbo frown every time she saw it. the rule he had to follow was “don’t smoke” because dad hates the smell and also if you don’t properly dispose of the butts the dogs get into them. but that wasn’t the reason, it was mostly just because dad hated the smell and mom liked having A Rule. they probably had other arrangements that i was too young to be told about. 

he got sick. i don’t know how or with what. a heart attack? he’d always been a real bruiser, but prone to getting overweight. but he died. dad didn’t let any of us go to the funeral because his family tends to get drunk at gatherings and they often top off their reunions with a good brawl.

the point of that story was that dad grew up pretty poor but married into a rich family of basically immigrants who got lucky with their engineering degrees. but even though dad is now securely in the middle class he thinks of himself as the perpetual tough guy blue collar underdog. i think that’s why he keeps his part time job at ups, aside from the great insurance that i need to live and have depended on for 14 years since my heart surgery. he likes to come off as gruff and badass but he’s kind of, a tired old supernerd. it’s fascinating how much time he puts into cultivating his look. 

and jimmy was bigger and stronger than him! dad’s the responsible one in his family!!

but i think he still, kind of, has that attitude of, i don’t know, having to physically fight everyone that he had growing up. i don’t know how to describe it. i also am not quite sure how his political views work. he seems to be getting more moderate and also more extreme as he gets older. he’s always been a huge fan of unions, but not when they start strikes, but he hates getting screwed over by the board of directors of ups, but he supports big business because that’s what the greatest country in history was built on. like, he’s a republican in theory, but as soon as the downsides of conservative policies affect him he gets frustrated. but he also gets frustrated when people take action to get a better working environment because “things aren’t that bad.” 

hmm. it’s like, he expects things to be bad for him, because that’s his lot in life, and only whiners complain about what they’re given. he’s like that with mom too. and he’s pretty catholic and very traditional with masculinity and the nuclear family dynamic. it’s like, a self fulfilling prophecy with him. he expects things to be bad, so he reacts to everything as if he’s already in a bad place, which gets him into a bad place?

he always calls me a wuss because i’m more of a pacifist. even though i’ve been bullied and in fights before... but then he turns around and says “you’re a better person than me.” and he taught me how to fistfight effectively. it feels like his opinion of me depends on his mood.

he also laughed at me after i was working on barbara’s car with him yesterday. we went in the grocery store to get her stuff and i said i was gonna go wash my hands because they were oily and dusty. he said this is why i’m always sick and licked his fingers. i said i don’t like having dirty grease all over my fingers and i’m gonna wash it off. he said something like a little grease never hurt anyone. 

i dunno. i really don’t like having anything on my hands or face. it’s a little weird because when i do stuff like yardwork or building i have trouble getting started. but as soon as i get started i’m fine with it. until i’m not doing it any more, and then i need my hands clean immediately. it’s like swimming. i don’t want to get wet, and then when i’m in the pool or ocean i have a great time, and then when i get out of the water i want to be dry immediately and am super uncomfortable until i’ve washed my hair because it feels all grimy if i don’t at least soap it off afterward. or i get sand on my feet and don’t want to put on my shoes or walk anywhere off the beach until my feet are c l e a n. 

maybe i set myself up for failure there too. i really don’t handle germs well, immune system wise. i think my immune system didn’t develop properly because my body was always in overdrive mode with the bad heart. so i was sick literally all the time even when i had just been sick with the same strain of flu and it always takes me weeks to recover from anything. since high school i’ve started getting better and only get sick maybe three times a year in a good year. this year’s been bad so far though especially with the mysterious illness.

so i learned to keep everything clean and then i REALLY never built up my resistance to disease.

i also wash my hands every time i drive, but that’s because i have watched mother sneeze directly onto the steering wheel more than once.

i feel a little better when i’m writing my journal entries. it keeps my mind off how bad i feel physically. but then i start feeling emotionally junky when i bring up all these buried feelings and memories. 

eve seemed to be feeling much better today. she was back to walking just sort of funny, the way she’s always walked. the only time she moves her legs normally is when she’s running or prancing around. and even then she runs greyhound style, not regular dog style. so i think the odd way she carries her hind legs is more a greyhound thing than a leg thing. 

i was talking to dad about how she used to catch the birds in our backyard when she was younger. dad said she caught a lot of birds. i said that if i’d been the hunting type she would have been a beast at nabbing waterfowl. she probably wouldn’t be too good at catching rabbits though, she’s too heavyset to turn quickly enough. she’s got, like, the legs and face and ears of a greyhound, but the chest and fur and tail and feet of a black lab. so when she runs into you she hits like a truck. the birds never stood a chance. dad said the worst was when she brought birds to the door that were only half dead. 

she’s also, sort of, abnormally good at manipulating her environment, for an animal? if something’s in her way she either jumps over it or pushes it. diogi and wiley have never touched the baby gate, and if a door is cracked open they treat it like it’s closed because they see that they won’t fit through the crack. but eve hops the baby gate or tips it over, and pushes open doors, and actively tricks the other dogs. she’s not much for standing on her back legs, but if she was i probably could have taught her to flip the lights when she wanted. ping was a little bit similar, where he figured out how to open doors and he liked to push everything off the counters and all the photo frames off my dresser. but he never applied more force to anything than a tap. when we velcroed the modem to the counter he stopped tipping it over even though he could have easily gotten it if he’d pushed harder.

she also recognizes a lot of words and phrases. wiley and diogi are pretty good at that too, but eve figured out “cross here” for crossing the street during our walks and “this way” when she turned the wrong way at a fork in the road, while wiley seems to think i am babbling at him. she also picks up really fast on when you’re trying to teach a new trick to wiley and will start doing it sometimes. there’s a few tricks she doesn’t do mostly because she doesn’t like people touching her paws. she wags her tail, very tiny wags, when she’s confused.

she’s also the only animal who’s ever like, grabbed me and tried to take me somewhere. wiley grabs my arm sometimes but he usually just wants to play tug of war.

i dunno. i’ve been writing for a really long time now. i forgot to do some daily stuff in pokemon. i don’t want to leave it until i wake up... but it’s also after 1 and i want  to sleep. it’ll only take a few minutes.

[ecotone99]

[RF] Redemption of the fallen Muran

My name is Loishiye. I was born in a small village about 2 hours outside of Nairobi in 1980. My village could best be described as simple and relaxed. Life here moved slowly and without really any worry. Our people were simple farmers who had old fashioned Masai values. Our people weren’t very connected to the outside world so life in the village was the only thing we knew. My parent were normal farmers who worked as hard as possible. There wasn’t a day without leisure in our household. We worked until our bones were cracking every single day. I was expected to live a life around the village working with my father as a farmer, marrying a local girl and starting a large family to continue the lineage. Everything was planned out for me so much so that my entire life could be comprised In one sentence. I lived, I farmed and I died. That’s my entire life story, and honesty I felt like this was depressing. Some might find this way of life comforting but for me, this isn’t the way that life should be. Something needs to change.

In 1998, that change came in a surprising way. As I stated before, I believed up to this point that my entire life goal was to become a successful farmer and carry on the family lineage. But one incident involving my sister, set my life course into a different direction. I had come back from our maize field late one night, and when I arrived at our Minyata( house), my mother was outside punching the door. When she saw me she exclaimed, “Son!! A muran( Village warrior) bastard has taken your sister as his wife! He didn’t even ask for permission from me or your father, he just arrived with the Olaibon( Chief) and demanded your sister. We didn’t even have a choice.”

As she spoke I Immediately began to imagine who this muran was. It had to be Scar, the son of the Olaibon and the main tormentor of my childhood.

Scar was 2 years older than me, and dedicated himself to always overshadowing me. In sports, school, and especially girls. The one girl he liked in particular was my little sister, Naini but she never gave him the time of the day. Every single time he made an advance on her, she would turn him down or tell him to talk to me instead which as a result led to Scar taking his frustration out on me. Naini always did things like that to me, playing jokes with me and laughing constantly. She was the little ray of sunshine in my life, always with a smile on her face. But now he has taken her away from me. Being a muran comes with a great deal of responsibility and power and I knew that Scar would be the type to abuse his power. And that’s exactly what he just did!

“Son, there must be something you can do for your dear sister. You must become a muran and oppose Scar. It’s the only way for you to get your sister back and restore our family honor.” Exclaimed my mother. “ Your father talked to the village elders, you’re assigned to slay a lion in 3 months, prepare yourself Loiyshe. I do not want to lose another child.”

When my mother said that I must become a muran to reclaim my sister, I was horrified. Becoming a muran is a lifestyle that I didn’t desire. To become a muran one must undergo the traditional slaying of a lion at age 18. By killing the lion one shows a furiousity and determination that is required to be the defenders of our village.This is the desire of many boys in my village, but not a desire of mine. There was no way that I wanted to risk my life hunting a lion. Why would I? I had a comfortable enough life living as a farmer. So what if I couldn’t gain the respect and prestige of the people of our village? There’s no point in gaining the respect of others when you are dead. That’s the idea of fools. Despite my thoughts, I knew I couldn’t deny an order from my mother. She was right after all. I knew it was best for my family for me to become a muran.

I started my training to become a muran right away. I began doing 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups and runnin 10 km every day along with spear training. I also changed my diet to only eating cabbage and Ugali. I needed to change my body for the ultimate test of killing a lion. My parents pushed me hard physically and mentally. My mother constantly reminded me of my goal to become a muran whenever I became distracted. I wasn’t a farm boy anymore, I was supposed to be a warrior. Still, despite all of the training that I underwent, I still wasn’t confident of My ability. I still was awkward in movement and I still felt anxiety over slaying a lion.But still I knew I must accomplish my goalI knew that was in my future.

The day finally arrived when I had to slay the lion. My nerves were overtaking me the entire morning, and I could barely focus on my breakfast. The porridge I was sipping was dripping onto my lap but I couldn’t even focus on that. Today was too big of a day to focus on anything but becoming a muran. The ceremony for me to go slay the lion was at noon, so before the ceremony I went on a walk around the village. I walked through our crop fields and then through the local market reminiscing on my past life. I had spent many a days roaming this village as a boy on my own leisure. But now this boyhood is officially over. I am now becoming a man, a warrior who must protect this village.

As I was walking around the village I approached the Olaibon’s house and right there I saw her. My sister Naini was outside the house attending to the goats.It was the first time I’ve seen her in 3 months. I proceeded to run over to the house, but as I got closer to my sister she began to slowly back away from me. “Naini! It’s me your brother, Loishye! Why are you running from me?” Despite me saying this, Naini was she continued to get away from me. I began to run in a full on sprint in order to reach her when I tripped over a rock and fell flat on my face. I laid on the ground for about 30 seconds, furious that all my training and preparation still didn’t help my coordination. I was still as awkward and uncoordinated as usual. When I raised my head, I saw Naini standing in front of me laughing. I was about to smile at her, like we’ve done many times before, but then I stopped. Her face was covered in bruises, and her arm was cut up. Naini saw my reaction and began to cry and then ran off once again. She went inside the Olaibon’s house and locked it. This time I knew not to follow her. I knew that she wouldn’t come to the ceremony. But I knew I would see her again, and this time she would be free from Scar.

The ceremony was extremely colorful and festive. Many people from the Village came wearing different colored shukas and bearing small gifts for my family. I knew that this was a monumental moment for me but I couldn’t focus due to my nerves. I barely remember any details from the ceremony besides my father and mother giving me their blessings and me receiving my customary spear. Before I knew it, I was outside the village looking for the lion. The journey of finding the lion was extremely difficult. I walked about 30 km away from the village until I entered a large field where Gazelles and other animals were known to graze. I looked around the field and after a couple of minutes I saw the lion sleeping near a tree. I knew that this was my moment to strike and kill it. I gripped my spear and ventured to the lion. As I came closer and cloSer to the lion, my foot hit a large rock and I began to lose my balance. Luckily I was able to grab onto a tree branch and regain myself. I breathed a sigh of relief but then I realized that some of the leaves from the branch were falling towards the ground. I proceeded to look up to find that the lion was looking me right in my eyes. I suddenly had the worst surge of anxiety and suddenly mbecame petrified. My hand went numb and I dropped my spear but I still couldn’t move. When I dropped my spear the lion let out a massive ROAR and got up to approach me. Now this is where my memory gets fuzzy.

The next thing I remember I was in a hospital. I looked to my side and saw an older man standing near my bed. He looked like a man from my village but he was wearing a white jacket. He then began to speak to me in broken Swahili.

“ Good morning son. You’ve been unconscious for 2 weeks. You were the victim of a lion attack but luckily a man walking by....”

The doctors voice began to trail off as I comprehended what he just said. I’m the victim of a lion attack?? That means I failed to slay the lion. I’ve disappointed my family. How could I possibly go back? They must think that I am dead and I couldn’t possibly face them.

I stayed at that hospital for another 2 months recovering from my injuries. I had a busted spleen and a torn rotator cuff. During those 2 months I barely said a word to anyone besides 2 people. I was too wrapped up in my shame to deal with others. But the doctor always stayed near me. His name was Dr. Lewis. He looked like one of our village elders but it turned out he was from America. He’s what they call a Black American. I’ve never heard of black Americans before meeting him,but he sure left a good impression. He explained that he worked as a doctor in Chicago for over 30 years but moved to Nairobi for a job in the medical field. He said that there were many people from the United States who moved to Nairobi to work high level jobs. They were known as Expatriates and a lot of people from Europe and The USA were doing this. The more time the doctor spent with me, the more I became comfortable talking about my life. Dr. Lewis seemed to understand the situation in which I came from, and he even stated that I reminded him of his son. He started giving me advice that I should go back to my village and accept the fact that I wasn’t able to slay the lion. He described my failure as “being part of life; and that I should embrace it rather than run from it.”

The other person I talked to was this Indian man named Rajesh. He was actually the man who found my battered body after my tango with the lion. He was originally from this city in India called Mumbai, but moved to Nairobi with his father as a child. His father worked in construction so Raj followed his footsteps in the family business. He was going for a jog on the outskirts of Nairobi when he found my body. He was the one who called the ambulance that saved my life. I don’t know exactly why but he visited me in the hospital as I was unconscious and continued as I was recovering. He always arrived with a smile and wanted to start a conversation. Raj did most of the talking while I just sat back and listened. With the encouragement of Dr. Lewis, I began to tell Raj my story. He even cried as I told my tale, and my reasoning for why I couldn’t return. But still he tried to give me advice . “Loishiye, I can tell you aren’t ready to return, but I know that you will return. When you come back home you must come back with open arms.”

When I was finally released from the hospital, I didn’t have anywhere to stay. But thanks to the grace of god, Dr. Lewis had no problem allowing me to stay with him. Not only that but Raj allowed me to work in his construction company and to work part time at his cousins shop. Living and working in Nairobi was completely different than living in the village. Things moved much faster in Nairobi and I saw many different people that didn’t look anything like me. I saw Indian people, white people, and Asian people on a daily basis in Nairobi. Before that I’ve only heard of them in stories told by the village elders. I began to pick up traits from Dr. Lewis and Rajesh during my time spent with them. I began to learn English from Dr Lewis and Hindi from Raj. I also was exposed to foods that they ate such as hamburgers and kofta . Not only did they influence me, I also tried to teach them Maa( language of the Masai people) and made foods for them like Chapati. My friendship with these two men had a major influence on my life. They essentially saved me and helped raise me from a dark place. I owe them everything for that.

I continued to work in Rajs consturction company for over 20 years. It became one of the most powerful construction companies in Nairobi and I rose up to the position of Vice President and Raj was president. I became an educated man during my time with the company, going to Nairobi University for a bachelors and a PhD. I continued to live with Dr. Lewis and took care of him as he became older. Life was great, nearly perfect but one thing was missing. I still haven’t gone back home to the village. Despite all my success I never had the courage to go back.

But then another incident set my life into a different direction once again.Raj came up to me during work saying that he’s heard of a Chinese company buying 10 acres of land from a Masai tribe in order to start a factory. The chief of the tribe was extremely eager to sell the property to the company despite the complaints of the people of the tribe. They were preparing to move from the village. I knew immediately that was my tribe that was selling their land. And I knew that the chief selling it, had to be the wicked Muran Scar.

“ How much is the tribe offering to sell the land for?” I asked

“ Only 1 million schillings.” Said Raj with a smile creeping in. “ You know what I’m thinking old friend. As a reward for your years being loyal to the company I’ll buy this property for 5 million schillings. There’s no way they will turn us down.”

I couldn’t believe it. 20 years after I’ve left, my hometown village needed help. This was my time to become a hero for them, a true muran. A defender of the village

Raj easily was able to purchase the land over the Chinese company. He purchased it without giving up my identity. Raj was able to set up a meeting with Scar and the village elders to discuss specifics of the purchase. The meeting was set at Scars house.

When we arrived at the house it gave me flashbacks to when I last saw Naini 20 years ago. It looked exactly the same. When we approached the house, my anxiety spiked for the first time in 20 years. My breathing became heavy and I didn’t want to enter the door. I began to turn to leave, when Raj grabbed my arm.

“Remember to come back with open arms. This is your destiny., and I’m here with you my friend”

Together we walked into the house. When we arrived. Scar was standing with open arms and a wide smile. He seemed not to recognize me.

“Welcome brother! Thank you for everything you’ve done for our small village.”

I hugged Scar, and looked to the end of the room where Naini was sitting on the couch with a large smile on her face and tears streaming down. She definitely remembered me.

“ Hello dear sister. It’s been a while.” I stated

Scar was thrown off at that comment and stared at Rajesh. “ Is this..”

Then Loiyshe gained the courage and stated what he’s been wanting to say for over 20 years.

“ I am Loiyshe, the fallen Muran of your tribe. And I’m here to defend your village with everything I’ve got.”

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Raised in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, but forever longing for the white sands of New Mexico, Pamela has always loved mysteries and the macabre. Combining the two in her own writing, along with her love for historical research and genealogy, came naturally. Hours spent watching ‘Monster Movie Matinee’, ‘Twilight Zone’, a myriad of Hammer Films, and devouring books by Stephen King, Tanith Lee, and Anne Rice probably helped, too.

Outside of her work as a novelist, Pamela has written numerous historic articles for the Tioga County Courier, an Owego, NY newspaper. She has done genealogy research for family and friends and was a Civil War reenactor for close to ten years. In 2014 Pamela joined the ranks of writers for the online magazine, The Good Men Project. She also enjoys scrapbooking, bad B-Movies, road trips with her husband, and feeding the crows that frequent their back yard.

  Please help me welcome Pamela Morris to Roadie Notes…………

1. How old were you when you first wrote your first story? I was all of nine when I wrote and illustrated “Bill, The Worm Who Ran Away”. It’s an adventure about a runaway worm who was named after my father. This was soon followed by my first ghostly thriller/mystery “The Strange Well”. Both are 3rd Grade literary masterpieces, I assure you. Thanks to my dad, I still have both of the originals of the above titles in my paper files.

2. How many books have you written? I have written eleven novels, ten of which have been published. One is currently out-of-print as it was never quite what I wanted it to be and it needs a lot of revisions. My first published novel was released in 2006 and started a four-year journey down the road of writing erotica. Once I got that out of my system, I began seriously writing what I love most; mysteries, thrillers and horror. “Secrets of The Scarecrow Moon”, a paranormal murder-mystery, came out in 2013. My most recent title, “The Witch’s Backbone 1 – The Curse”, came out in September of this year and we’re hoping to release the psychological horror “Dark Hollow Road” next spring.

3. Anything you won’t write about? Bestiality, cryptid erotica, and dinosaur porn are at the top of the list. I have no interest in walking down the pure erotica-of-any-kind path again, either. I won’t write about anything that portrays any form of abuse in a positive light. “Dark Hollow Road” does contain both sexual and child abuse, but by no means is it done in a way that glorifies the subject, just the opposite.

4. Tell me about you. Age (if you don’t mind answering), married, kids, do you have another job etc… I’ll be 52 in December and recently (in 2016) remarried. My first husband and I have two children. My son just turned 27 and my daughter is 24. No grandkids as of yet. I’ve worked for the Cornell University Library system for 30 years.

5. What’s your favorite book you have written? This is tough. It’s like asking me which child is my favorite. I love them all for different reasons. I’m very fond of my Barnesville Chronicle books because they are set in the fictionalized region I grew up in. It almost feels like I’m cheating with those because it’s like going back home again and hanging out with old friends. “Dark Hollow Road” is probably the most complex and darkest thing I’ve written. It’s very psychologically dark and disturbing. While working on certain scenes I kept wondering where in my psyche it was all coming from. In that sense, it’s my favorite.

6. Who or what inspired you to write? I’ve loved to write since I learned how, so I don’t think anyone was my initial inspiration. It’s as much a part of who I am as my hazel eyes and brown hair. However, my parents have always been very encouraging of my writing. As I mentioned earlier, my dad is the one who saved those first two hand-written stories I wrote over 40 years ago. My mom’s a big reader and belonged to a book club. Books have always been part of my life. Getting books for Christmas and my birthday was, and still is, one of my favorite things. As far as writers whom I admire and who have influenced me, I’d have to say the stories of Rod Serling have had a strong impact on what I enjoy writing. As a teenager, I discovered the work of Tanith Lee, a British author that a lot of people have never even heard of. She has a very unique style that I very much enjoy. Shirley Jackson, Clive Barker, Wilkie Collins, Poe, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and Anne Rice have all played roles in what I write and how I write, too.

Inspiration for a story can come from just about anywhere. My ghost story, “No Rest For The Wicked” (available through HellBound Books Publishing) arose from a friend and I discussing how he wanted to write a ghost story as if it were being told by the actual ghosts. He couldn’t quite get the idea off the ground so I asked if he’d mind if I gave it a go. He didn’t. I added several ‘dead’ characters from my erotica-writing days to the mix and “No Rest For The Wicked” was born.

“Dark Hollow Road” came about during a trip through Pennsylvania when we passed a side road actually called “Dark Hollow Road”. I saw that and was like, “If that’s not the name of a scary novel, I don’t know what is.” At the time, I had no idea what it would be about, but I had a title! The Barnesville Chronicle titles have a lot to do with my love of local history and historic research. Some of what is mentioned in those books is based on real event that took place (or are rumored to have taken place) in the rural area I grew up on.

7. What do you like to do for fun? Other than writing, you mean? I read a lot. That’s rather part of being a writer, I think, the love of reading. A warm summer day spent with my husband out on the Harley is always amazing. Apart from writing, I think being on the motorcycle with him is my second best form of mental therapy. Whatever stress I’m having, pretty much evaporates during the ride. I dabble a bit with various forms of art; drawing, painting, photography, making book trailers, clay sculptures, and a touch of scrapbooking. And I love to travel to places I’ve never been before.

8. Any traditions you do when you finish a book? No, not really. I sit back and bask in the afterglow for a while, but that’s about it.

9. Where do you write? Quiet or music? The majority of my writing takes place in the living room on the desktop, but I’ve also enjoyed getting work done outside on the back deck with the laptop. Nothing really beats that, to be honest. I’d do it more often if weather and time allowed. For some reason that big mug of hot coffee and those cheerful chirping birds brings out the horror in me. I prefer to write in solitude and when I do play music, it’s the Blues. Anything else I find very distracting. I’m very much a morning writer, too.

10. Anything you would change about your writing? I’m always looking to improve so I guess I’d say fewer typos! That, and to hone my skills to the point that my readers aren’t just reading a book. I want them to feel involved in the atmosphere and setting and invested in what’s happening to the characters.

11. What is your dream? Famous writer? I dream of the day when I can make a living as a fiction writer, but I’m a realist and understand that’s incredibly hard to do. I’d love to have multiple homes, to be able to keep the one I have now, fix it all up properly, and get a second one either in New Mexico or Texas – something that’s very Southwestern. A log cabin in the woods would be nice, too. Mostly, I just want to be able to share my stories with people and hope that they enjoy what I’ve spent so much time and love creating.

12. Where do you live? I live in the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York State. Our house was built in 1886 and I’ve lived here since 1995. It’s a great old house and came with its resident ghost, Herman. He’s an older gentleman who keeps quiet for the most part, but every now and then he’ll make just enough noise so we know he’s still around.

13. Pets? The wild crows who visit and demand peanuts probably don’t count, do they? No, no pets at the time. I’d love to have a cat. My husband would love to have a dog, but it’s also nice not to have the responsibility of having either. We are free to come and go as we please without having to worry about their care while away.

14. What’s your favorite thing about writing? The part about writing that always amazes me is when the characters take over. That’s the magic right there. Although I will have a general idea of where I want the story to go, I don’t outline. I allow each scene to unfold logically from what has come before, while attempting to steer it along. However, there are times when the characters say phooey to what I have in mind and go off on their own little tangent. I let them. I figure they know more about what’s happened or happening than I do and I’m just along for the ride. To a non-writer, that may not make any sense. It’s fiction, how can that happen? Well, it does, a lot. It’s a thrill ride for me to see what’s next and then try to pull in those reins to maneuver that ending I was shooting for. Sometimes that sort of things throws a wrench into what I had in mind, in which case I make the adjustments and follow where the characters seem to want me to go instead.

15. What is coming next for you? As I mentioned, “Dark Hollow Road” is scheduled for a spring 2018 release. I’m really looking forward to getting this one out to people because of its depth and darkness. Half of it is told in 1st Person. That has a lot to do with why it’s so different from my previous novels. You really get into the head of that particular character and that’s not always a place the reader will want to be at all. My current WIP is “The Witch’s Backbone 2 – The Murder”. It picks up exactly where TWB 1 – The Curse ends. I’m about 1/3 of the way through writing the first draft.

Aside from the novels, I was asked to write a foreword for a friend of mine who’s working on his first short story collection. I was both surprised and honored he asked. And, I’ve accepted a gig writing book and movie reviews for The Final Guys website. This will force me (yeah – twist my arms, right?) to watch more horror movies if nothing else.

I have a couple of poems in HellBound Books most recently released anthology “Beautiful Tragedies.” I’ve not been able to get a copy of it myself just yet, but plan to do so as soon as I can. I hear they are doing a second volume for this and although I was asked if I’d be interested in submitting something for that, poetry of the type they are looking for, and that I’m willing to share, isn’t something I produce a lot of.

You can connect with Pamela Morris here: You can find me lurking in a few places in Cyberspace. My main website is http://pamelamorrisbooks.com where you’ll find info on all my books, some free short stories, and my blog where I write book and movie reviews, a monthly author interview, and share a little something called “The Horrors That Grew Me” where I talk about the things and people who have influenced me as a lover and writer of the Horror genre. I post and share a lot over on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PamelaMorrisBooks/ and you can find me on Twitter as @pamelamorris65. I have an author page on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Pamela-Morris/e/B00BCJTNP6/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 and one over at HellBound Books where you’ll find not just my titles, but some other awesome authors. http://www.hellboundbookspublishing.com And finally, as mentioned, you’ll be able to read more of my movie and book reviews over at The Final Guys http://finalguys.com/ soon. As of this writing, it’s still a work-in-progress.

  Some of Pamela Morris’s books: 

Getting personal with Pamela Morris Raised in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, but forever longing for the white sands of New Mexico, Pamela has always loved mysteries and the macabre.