#hold back the tide

[good-books-to-read]

Travel Destination: Scotland

Pine by Francine Toon

Lauren and her father Niall live in the highlands in a small village surrounded by pines. One Halloween Night a women stumbles in front of their car, they take her home with them and in the morning she’s gone, this isn’t the only mystery this small town holds, Lauren’s mother had vanished years before and now a local teenage has vanished as well.

Weak Heart by Ban Gilmartin

On the Isle of Mab, reality has sifted, the tides are angry, memories are vanishing and the Selkies are coming up out of the ocean and people have begone to disappear.

A Rush of Wings by Laura E. Weymouth

Rowenna knows there’s magic in her, her mother disagrees and believes she need discipline and won’t teach her the craft, however her mother dies a tragic death and Rowenna only chance with her.

However on a storm tossed night Rowenna rescues a man from a shipwreck and her mother returns from the dead or did she?

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke

Liv has been commissioned to paint a mural in an old lighthouse on a remote island is Scotland, however this dream quickly turns dark when 2 of her 3 daughters go missing, the locals share with her the history of the lighthouse and creatures that mimic children.

22 years later Luna has been looking for her sisters and mother, and is excited to hear her sister has been found however Clover looks exactly the same as the day she went missing, and Luna is worried she’s a Wildling however she doesn’t remember much of her time on the island, she’ll will have to return to learn the truth.

Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury

Everyone knows what happened to Alva's mother, all those years ago. But when dark forces begin to stir in Ormscaula, Alva has to face a very different future - and question everything she thought she knew about her past...

[miithridatism]

I close my eyes and turn my face to the sun.

Hold Back The Tide by Melinda Salisbury

[bikananjarrus]

something something poseidon can’t speak about sally, can’t say her name or percy’s (names have power after all). he barely dares to even think about her or percy during waking hours, for fear that one of the other gods or monsters will sense where his thoughts stray. and yet…he dreams about her, about percy. the gods have thousands of years of memories to dream about, and he dreams about them.

[bedtimegiraffe]

Here's my little essay about King Arlan (and a little bit about Baldur) and their complicated relationship with ruling effectively.

Arlan, the (overall) very good king

King Arlan is keeping the kingdom running well

In the very first lore tablet, you learn that, "King Arlan Valleros VII currently sits on the throne. Known as the Gentle King, Arlan has reigned over a period of great peace and prosperity."

Periods of great peace and prosperity are not easy! It's a combination of luck, delegating effectively, and putting in a ton of administrative work to make sure the laws and policies work for the unique situation your nation is in at this moment. That stuff does not happen on accident.

Based on Aerin's statements that he never really saw his father, I'm assuming Arlan keeps busy with actually running the country. We never see Arlan show interest in hunting or any vices that would take similar amounts of time. I also don't get the sense that Arlan and Baldur are always like, hanging out. And we don't interact with many administrators, making him seem pretty hands-on.

King Arlan knows how to maintain an image

When you return from the Shadow Realm...

King Arlan is very savvy. Maybe he's sincere, who knows! But publicly honoring the heroes who saved your ass is a great way to get goodwill for yourself and make it so you no longer owe those heroes. Your party puts in quite a lot of work to save Morella and King Arlan just lets you take some weapons and armor no one was using anyway. Doesn't even send a single guard to help. Unlike Book 2...

Before the battle he does a great job making it seem like he's doing you a favor. Like you asked for his help and he's magnanimously granting it, even though the Ash Empire is very much coming to destroy his capital!

Which brings us to his take on Aerin being gone (assuming he was imprisoned previously)...

This is an awful thing to say about your son! But it's actually a pretty cunning move as a king. Arlan was absolutely right- his best move was to let Aerin go and hope he got killed. He gets to eliminate a problem making him look bad to the court (his son who committed murder and treason in a very public manner) and keep his reputation as a nice guy. He's the 'Gentle King,' not the 'Strong King' or 'Decisive King.'

And in the very unlikely (in his estimation) chance Aerin did come back alive and looking heroic, Arlan could keep him imprisoned indefinitely. Or (much less likely) he could say Aerin was corrupted before and use his success as an excuse to get one of his kids back in the line of succession. That's good for your ego and can help prevent a succession crisis if there isn't a super clear heir in place (which seems to be the case currently).

Overall, (and completely separate from him being a horrendous father) it seems to be like Arlan is actually a very good king. But there is one part of the job he sucks at...

Arlan's fatal flaw is that he is terrible at reading people.

'Baldur's great, no concerns!'

Obviously, we know that thinking that Baldur is going to be a good king is stupid.

But why didn't King Arlan know that? Aerin (who does seem to be pretty good at reading people) says he's, "handsome, bold, outgoing." Those things are all great for winning people over!

But not nearly enough to actually run a country. We know Baldur's not really even trying to have any of the practical, administrative skills that requires. And this system does not seem set up to function with a figurehead.

You know that tutor must have clocked that Baldur was asleep! It was probably common knowledge at the palace that Baldur never learned a damn thing. Either Arlan didn't realize his heir was not gaining any practical ruling skills (bad sign) or he didn't care (also a bad sign).

Even monarchs who aren't invested in their kids as people are usually very invested in their education. Because that's how you make sure the wheels don't fall off once you die, ending your glorious bloodline.

Aerin tells us that Baldur would never contradict their father. So Arlan absolutely could have forced him to read a damn book. But for some reason, he didn't.

'My second son sucks...

Arlan truly thinks that Aerin is useless. Which is a wild stance to take after you watched him kill big strong Baldur in a single blow and open a portal to the Shadow Realm.

Arlan got there a little late for Aerin's full villain monologue. But the second your party disappears through the portal, the smart thing would have been to determine if Aerin did any more damage. It didn't feel like it to Aerin, but he had tremendous access to people and resources. For all King Arlan knows, this could have been just one piece of a bigger plot.

And it was! Aerin admitted to corrupting dozens of people, usually very connected people. That's a ticking time bomb just waiting to cause more damage. One it doesn't seem like King Arlan ever looks into.

Arlan seems to just assume that Aerin can't cause damage because he's... not physically imposing? Because knowledge and connections are never a threat to power?

Pre-crisis, Aerin also talks about trying to smooth over Baldur's brash decisions. Having someone to soften the blow of harsh or unpopular decisions is absolutely crucial for any ruler, but especially one like Baldur. Yet Arlan doesn't seem to have any awareness of that either.

So Arlan at least picked up some vibes from Aerin that he was... something. Troubled could be 'miserable,' but this statement makes it feel more 'he creeps me out.'

-and I'm not worried about that.'

Even if Aerin was incompetent or messed up, King Arlan should have been concerned about that! Baldur is very strong and presumably good at not dying. But he throws himself into dangerous situations all the time for fun! There is a very good reason most monarchs don't stop at one kid if they can help it.

History is absolutely littered with examples of people who inherited a throne and ran things into the ground because they didn't have the ability to manage the amount of power they had effectively. If Arlan thought Aerin could fall into that category, he should have had people working around the clock to get him up to standard just in case.

Instead, King Arlan fully ignored Aerin, letting him just haunt the archives like a depressed ghost.

'The Heroes of Morella obviously agree with me, they're important!'

King Arlan makes the assumption, based on your party's status, that you'll agree with him on the 'complicated politics' of executing your own kid. Because you're not 'commoners.' Your party includes one elven noble, one orcish (until like 2 days ago) princess, and one human with a very prominent position in the Temple. Mal is more under the radar, but he was still proclaimed a hero. And your character is the most Hero of all.

So Arlan basically does that thing some people do where they trash talk a marginalized group, because everyone in the room looks like they belong to the majority group, so why would they object? (Never a good look.)

But Mal and Nia are both, at least to you, visibly angry with Arlan for being excited his son is (presumably) dead.

Still, no effort to backtrack or soften the blow from King Arlan. Just sails right over the dude's head that Mal looks pissed and Nia is using her damn customer service voice.

Seriously, King Arlan should probably keep an eye out for Mal... Not a big monarchist, that one.

Bonus Baldur, the tremendous idiot

The fact that Baldur thinks he's the first of his name, when "Baldur Valleros" literally founded his dynasty, is incredibly funny to me. Such ignorance. Such hubris.

I am not about to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe Baldur I went straight to being king, so our dumbass is the first "Prince Baldur Valleros." His father is Arlan VII, there's no way no other king has named their heir after the founder of the dynasty. More evidence that he has never once learned a thing.

(Don't worry about Kade- he took a shadow lance to the face but he's fine. He's mostly fine. Feel free to look at my older posts if you're curious how that went down.)

Baldur seems to make the same assumptions about people based on their status as his father. I don't think it's an accident that when Baldur wants to tell gross stories (including the phrase "slum girls"), he immediately grabs Mal, the human man. Mal isn't all that subtle about his disdain for the nobility, but he still looks like the best one for Baldur to win over. Mal is also the one who steps up and negotiates for the group, making him look like the leader- even more Baldur catnip.

[c0smiclatt3]

i know mr loverman is the ricky montgomery satosugu song but we are collectively sleeping on line without a hook

[simmonsized]

Thinking about the fact that holding the opinion "you can grow up with an abusive parent and love them anyway, and want them to change" was such a fucking stance to have five years ago that it got me dismissed as a "bropologist" and nothing more lol

[curiousscallop]

a boy with a golden helm whom i met today

[oldfilmsflicker]

new-to-me #768 - Holding Back The Tide

[enneamage]

As I am very certain I am the anon whose ask you are gently folding away, I would like to let you know that I don't feel ashamed by that ask. I have watched so much content of his that I think my viewpoint was very reasonable. But don't paint me to have rose colored glasses here. I am also the same anon who has sent you a lot of other asks about who he is. I gave you the list of streams that she wanted to do with him that never happened. I told you about Phil calling him a dick. I am the same anon on a since folded blog that listed ways he was not a good friend and his need for control, which you applauded in the comments. Thing is, I could have sent just as many positive things about him as well. One can't watch 1000 hours of content (literally) and not have an idea of who someone is. That recent 52 second video? I have no idea who that is. But to be honest, I am finding myself seeing an end in the near future. And I suspect what I am going to be left with is just feeling sorry for him. All that I can see is the amount of shame he is feeling with parts of his life is too much for him to handle. But I can't see myself sticking around if he is so willing to not address it at all.

Yeah, I just didn’t want to put you on the jumbotron for bad timing. It wasn’t unreasonable, it just didn’t turn out that way right now. 

You’ve been here for a while, so you’ve seen the highs and lows. It looks like he can’t cope with what he’s done right now, so it looks like he just won’t, or will try to handle things by walking around them. The story feels very brittle right now and the tension is even clear in the video, I think that even if I didn’t know what had happened I would find the vibes to be off. I treat him as being beyond the line not just for Shelby but for the rape allegation from Alice so I think that a lot of people involved, including him, are sceptical that he could make meaningful ammends. He has always been very aware of what is worth being ashamed of on a certain level, he just didn’t behave within those expectations. Reconciling public persona with how he has actually behaved is mind-breaking; It makes him ‘vulnerable’ mentally and socially in a way that I don’t know he has the ability to cope with.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

HII HI HI BUSTING DOWN UR DOOR. coming in shaking u by the shoulders visibly trembling and wild eyed oh my GOD. also i typed out like THREE PARAGRAPHS in ur inbox already & then my computer restarted so fuck me i guess. anyway FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS... WAVELENGTH..... DUDE HES SO GOOD. I LIKE HIM SO FUCKING MUCH hes so so good. huge fucking wavelength fan hes like one of my favorite types of guy. what a fucking dude. i cant believe he was so guilty over the everything or something he offered to help find tide. second dad acquired!!!!!

....does tide have two more clone siblings who are earth and air themed. he has to, right? anyway god... i cant believe the past two episodes took place over ONE DAY it feels like its been a million years!! holy shit!!!! i hope they get 2 go to bed soon.... i have never wanted so viscerally to throw some kids in a hot shower & wrap them up in quilts as i have right now. anyway anyway i gotta go but im going INSANE over them & all of this!!!!! man!!!! ALSO all the trivia has been fucking awesome i WILL talk abt literally all of it now that im done with that rollercoaster!!!!! 💥💥💥🌊

DUDE I FUCKING LOVE WAVELENGTH SO MUCH YOU DONT EVEN KNOWWWWWWWWW. GOD. like from day fucking one on amalgam island i was like "oh no oh fuck hes got a cool voice filter and an accent i have a history of being weak for those" and i think ive made like three separate posts/messages to jonesy like "i think im a wavelength apologist. im afraid to say that because hes a villain and im only on episode 5 but like he has a kid though.... hes a dad...." and ive just gone downhill from there. hiiiiii wavelength i love you. kind of a dilf reblog . he and tide are so divorced to me im sorry

RIGHT. RIGHT. RGIHT. RIGHT. I WANT THEM TO TAKE A FUCKING NAP. like please for the love of god theyre miserable their friend betrayed them and blew up their house and their dad got kidnapped and now they have to stay with a supervillain and theyre scared and hurt and. auguguhghhghghhhhg. fuck man. im actually listening to ep 10 rn i just got to vyncents magical girl transformation hi i love him

[aliensmoothie]

desperately infodumping about dead island to everyone in my life lately . tried to do it to my therapist earlier but he got distracted and it felt impolite to change the topic again . im forever FUCKING tormented .

[miithridatism]

My heart drums a million miles an hour inside my ribs, cramming a lifetime of beats into the next few moments.

Hold Back The Tide by Melinda Salisbury

[omo-queer]

i'm maybe 8.5+/10, all that liquid is catching up with me and i can feel myself filling up... maybe i should touch a little to distract myself

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

Wait a second... Considering SotO's theming, and the consistent pattern of content that came out of past expansion releases thus far...

Are we going to get a new Mists-themed Guild Hall?

[vraska-theunseen]

YIPPEE

[cultofthepigeon]

dc really had the like 90 year old gay dude saying the collective "queer" while also patting themselves on the back for that midnighter/apollo re-wedding despite having been the ones chosing to break them up during new 52

god DAMN corporate pride is so fucking annoying