#i feel like the little elf

[writing-in-mermish]

The Elf of the Rose

So in the prettiest rose on the rose tree (I thought they were bushes but, whatever) lives an invisibly small elf (also very pretty though that seems rather unimportant). He lives a pretty charmed life in his pretty rose house in the pretty garden where the rose tree grows.

One day he decides to take a long ass walk on the vein of a leaf to count his steps (man was ahead of his time), but because he is the littlest of guys (invisibly so) and started to late in the day, night hits before he gets half way. Things are cold and the roses are closed, he is having a bad time. But he recalls an arbor with honeysuckle (which cannot close up) and plans to go there to sleep.

On his way he overhears to love birds (humans to be precise) complain the the girl's brother hates her beau and is making him go away for business. The girl is hella dramatic and cries and kisses a rose so hard it opens up before she passes it to her lover.

The elf said to himself

and ventures inside to rest. But this dumb lover's heart is beating so damn hard our littlest guy cannot sleep! Also, he (like his sweetheart) keeps violently mackn’ on this rose.

Judgy brother shows up, lookin’ gloomy and wicked as hell, and fuckin’ stabs the fool to death while he’s kissing the rose. He cuts off his head and buries the body and head under the linden tree (brutal). He conveniently explains that this was his plan all along, because everyone would assume he died or disappeared on his business trip and then his sister would move on (absolutely unhinged behavior).

Bro accidentally brings the littlest guy with him in a dried linden leaf on his hat, who is horrified and angy at this situation. They get to bro’s house early in the morn, which gives him the time to go creepily laugh over his sister (dreaming about her boo) like a freak and accidentally deposit the leaf on the window sill.

Our littlest guy goes to the girl while she sleeps with all his indignation and spills the beans and tells her if she thinks she’s simply dreaming a linden leaf will be on her bed as a sign when she wakes.

She sees and believes and is gut wrenched with no one to talk to. The elf sees the window is open but is too invested to leave, so he parks himself in the monthly rose bush (so this one's a bush, what's the difference?) in the window.

Bro keeps coming by without a glimmer of guilt, so when night rolls around she goes to investigate and finds her lover and considers pulling a Juliet, but instead chooses to take up man’s severed head, clean him off and kiss his dead lips (that’s some gothic ass shit if I’ve ever heard it) and then. Takes. Him. Home. (and some jasmine too)

Then she got a big old pot and hid his head inside and planted said jasmine. The elf felt like this was enough sadness for him and dipped, only to find that his rosebush was withered, leaving him melancholy as hell.

He found a new rose to live in but kept coming back to home girl's room, watching her waste away, seemingly giving her life force to her jasmine plant through her tears and kisses.

Her bro told her not to be so weird, not understanding why she cared so much about this stupid plant (her lovers head was rotting inside).

Our littlest guy takes pity on her sleeping one day and pulls up to talk about more positive things from his life, in hopes of improving her dreams. And it did, as she dreamed of her lover. And the jasmine grieved with her the only way it knew how, by blooming beautifully.

Her bro got weirdly possessive of the plant and stole it to put in his room by his bed (I am both sensing a pattern of concerning behavior and some dark irony here).

The elf decides this is the time to spill the tea to the new flower spirits who say "we already know. We are born of this tea. It came installed." Our boy didn't understand how they could be so calm about it, so he told the gossip to the bees, who responded much more satisfyingly by telling their queen, who decided the proper response was to murder the lout.

But before they could, gothic girly dies and that night the jasmine spirits armed with poison go to whisper nightmares in the murderers ears and stab his mouth with poison, claiming their revenge for the dead.

Our littlest guy, the queen bee, and bee army rush over the next morning, only to find people hanging around claiming the scent of the jasmine killed him (oddly not that far off). The elf figures out what happened and explaines to the queen, who instructs her army to tend to the plant.

The humans, not understanding, want to get rid of the bees and have some poor sap remove the plant, which inspires one bee to sting, causing the man to drop the pot and reveal the lover's skull, which in turn reveals the murder to all.

The bees rejoiced and sang of the flowers and the elf for taking revenge and uncovering a murderous plot.

TLDR: an invisible flower elf uncovers a murder of a girl's lover by her brother. He gives her the deets to find his body, retrieve his head, and bring it home to plant jasmine on top of.

She is sad, her brother's mad and steals her bloomed pot of jasmine away. Elf spills the tea to the flowers (who already be knowing) and then bees, who want to murder.

Sister dies, flowers take revenge, bees and elf come by and see some people at the aftermath. Bees sting some dude for removing flowers, revealing skull which tips humans off to the plot, bees rejoice and praise the jasmine and elf for their good deeds.

[ducktracy]

sharing a very sage bit of advice from The Simpsons' own John Swartzwelder that i've been trying to hamper down in my writing and drawing alike. let your inner crappy little elf do his worst

[egophiliac]

still ruminating over Lost In the Book With Spooky Skeletons Part 1, so here's a selection of some of my favorite little bits! (...some more loosely paraphrased than others) (I just feel like Idia has no room to criticize in general, okay)

anyway, I'm sure we're just going to have a fun time celebrating Halloween and nothing bad is going to happen whatsoever! :)

[kroovv]

Captain Mithrun 🕊️

[ruushes]

not dead not alive but a secret third thing

[harboretum]

You okay dude?

[icewindandboringhorror]

I made a few new wax seal stamps out of clay (like the ones I did for my worldbuilding stuff forever ago), this time just of random symbols that I thought might look good done in the style of painting over the raised part of the wax or etc. :0c Some of them aren't carved deep enough to really show up that well, but overall they worked okay for being clay lol

[eeriemothz]

Solavellan brainrot is actually terminal because why has this damned ship cured my month long writer's block

[balleater]

i just want something to come up about the bright queen being older than ludinus in-game. i want them to have that moment of knowing that there was someone who was at least 200 at the Start of the calamity.

[possamble]

I absolutely really need to be writing anything but random ideas while I procrastinate and this is so awful rough bc I literally wrote it on my phone in one sitting while avoiding work but

Do you see my vision. Her Nosy Bitch Syndrome would actually be good for him when they've both chilled out a little in the postcanon.

[detectiveneve]

alright with 30+ hours. I'm gonna yap about my personal itching beef, since I'm having a ton of fun. but.

I think by far one of my biggest issues with the game is how much they flattened out thedas' social & political landscape. maybe for ease, maybe out of fear of tackling their topics "badly," but the way that they both want to address tevinter's slavery, but have also extremely downplayed elven subjugation & oppression as a longstanding lore, is sooo... frustrating.

I think the story so far is pretty solid, I'm having a GREAT time, I enjoy all the cast, but it does feel like it could've been a lot deeper if they'd fully accounted for the breadth of these longstanding lore realities that come with magic & class & whether one is human or elven or dwarven. I've gotten NONE of that, AS an elf shadow dragon. davrin going "that'll endear us to the world..." about the gods being elven is insane -- elves are already oppressed under the structures of thedas! tevinter is where all of this STARTED. similarly, the lack of interaction between magic & class is like... craaazy to me.

these structures are present throughout the entirety of each game, it should feel different in each location. it just feels clumsy to both want to address the social issues of slavery, etc. present in thedas, and ALSO flatten out the differences between city elves & dalish, not emphasize it more especially with an elven origin... like wdym. wdym. that one of the biggest mentions of it with an elven rook is the scroll lore where rook goes "it's about time someone acknowledged what my people did..." about some guy who praised the elves. a shadow dragon elf rook will have been living with a very specific systemic structure of oppression for their entire life. WHY isn't that here. the story structure I'm having a good time with, the characters I'm having a good time with, but goddd it could have been so much deeper if it had actually incorporated some of the complexity & nuance of these social structures in thedas. you look silly trying to both include these themes of shadow dragons breaking slavery and ALSO pussyfooting around The Origins Of How We Got Here. that's not even getting into MAGIC, and how being a MAGE should mean something different in different places. like. whahrhrrhrhrhrr.

[gilliontidestriderchampionoftheu]

drew my ocs as riptide characters :3

[transkingcobra]

[fragmentedblade]

The "Dan Heng is Dan Feng" dogmatics annoy me a lot. It entirely brushes off one of the most interesting and prevalent questions posed by the game, incarnated by several characters and stories that give the question different hues with different potential answers, and a constant also in HI3, like a thread waving the two games together

[wormedeye]

day 4: romance @eonweweek

🕊️Characters: Eönwë x male elf OC (whose lore i will probably drop in the tags)

🕊️Synopsis: Eönwë’s young apprentice wants to heal him after the sword training

🕊️Warnings: implied self-harm, bc eönwë’s a lil depressed, english is not my first language, 700+ drabble that turned out to be 1k+ drabble.

🕊️someday it will be on ao3

His sleeves were rolled up slightly above the elbow. The tunic was loose enough, though when Eönwë raised his sword to strike his muscles still strained the linen cloth. Dear Eru.

“Look, how I’m holding it.” Eönwë repeated the move once again,more slowly. “You don’t cut straight, tilt it slightly.”

Laireno nodded, trying to memorise everything from how his arms move to the expression on his face. Eönwë stopped and stuck the blade in the ground and folded his hands on the pommel.

“Now you.”

Laireno breathed out, took his sword and tried to repeat everything his mentor was doing. Eönwë watched silently, until he suddenly interrupted the elda in the middle of a move. Laireno froze obediently, frowning slightly from strain.

Eönwë walked behind the elf’s back and placed his hand on the elf’s forearm, just short of the elbow. Laireno understood the unspoken order and unbent his arm until Eönwë stopped him. And something was still bothering him, so he also corrected the direction of the sword, bending the elf’s hand. The linen sleeve crept up Eönwë‘s arm, following the movement, revealing a bandage hidden beneath.

“Your hands are shaking.” The Maia noticed. “Are you tired?”

Laireno shook his head desperately.

“No, Sir, just trying not to move.”

“Do tell me, if you are, and we will take a break or finish for today, alright? I don’t want you to overtire yourself.”

“Okay.”

Eönwë returned to where he was standing and told him to repeat the whole thing from the beginning. Laireno did. He tried really hard, wanting to impress his mentor. He had listened closely, he had watched carefully, he could repeat this movement that Eönwë was coprrectingfor the second time already.

“That’s it.” Eönwë finally commanded. “You need to rest.”

Laireno lowered his sword and looked at the Maia with hope in his eyes.

“Did I do it? Was it good?”

Eönwë almost smiled.

“Yes. You did very well.”

Laireno beamed, and then Eönwë couldn’t hold back a small smile. A strange, incorrect smile, but still a smile. It was never right on Eönwë‘s face. He always frowned for some reason, sometimes even lowering the corners of his lips instead of raising them like everyone. Like he wasn’t truly happy. But Laireno was, every time he saw his mentor smile.

Eönwë leaned on his sword stuck in the ground, staring off into the distance. Silent and pensive. Laireno couldn’t take his eyes off him, a small, but a very strong intrusive thought not leaving his head, a question he was dying to ask. He paced back and forth, tugging at the hem of his clothes, gathering his courage. Finally, he couldn’t hold it any longer and strode determinedly over to his mentor. Eönwë immediately turned his head to the elf, shifting all his attention from his thoughts to his young apprentice. Laireno lost a half of his former confidence, but didn’t give up.

“Sir Eönwë, do you-” He lowered his gaze, unable to hold eye contact with the Maia. “Are you-”

“Don’t be afraid, I don’t peck, I don’t bite.” The herald said softly, encouraging the elf to continue.

Laireno took a deep breath.

“Are you injured?” He blurted out, his eyes still locked on the grass. “I saw a bandage on your arm, and I thought- I was worried-”

His fuse faded and he fell silent, waiting for an answer. Eönwë did not speak a word as well. Laireno raised his head and met his mentor’s detached, almost defensive gaze. He hadn’t expected such a question. Maybe didn’t even want it. Laireno regretted asking it.

“I- Yes.” Eönwë said slowly. “Yes, you could say that.”

He straightened, and Laireno had to raise his head higher.

“You don’t have to worry about me.” Eönwë said a little softer.

He jerked his sword out of the ground, stepped aside and leaned his back on a tree, wincing a little as the bark scratched the tender skin between his wings. That don’t make Laireno stop worrying, not even a little, the exact opposite had happened.

He ran up to his mentor with an almost teary look.

“I’m sorry, please, I didn’t want to disturb you, I didn’t mean- I just- Y-you might be in pain, and i’m stressing you with this training, I don’t want you to feel bad-“ Laireno stuttered. “I just- I wanted to help, but you probably don’t need help, you’re a Maia, you can heal yourself, and-“

“Hush, owlet.” Laireno stopped talking and stared up at Eönwë with his big star-like eyes. “It’s alright. You haven’t hurt me nor stressed me out in any way. On the contrary, I appreciate you care so much.”

Laireno sighed.

“But… You can cure it, right?” He asked hopefully.

“It’s-“ Eönwë turned away. “It’s not a wound I can heal.”

Realising he had said more than he should, he added immediately.

“Though it will heal soon, don’t worry.”

“Please,” Laireno pleaded and got down on one knee, taking Eönwë‘s hand in his. “Please, let me help you.”

“Laireno, I beg you, get up.” the herald whispered in a faltering voice, looking a little shocked.

The elf shook his head desperately. Unfortnately for his mentor, he was stubborn and determined.

“I know how to do it, I learnt so I could do it at war…” Laireno stopped and squeezes Eönwë‘s hand. “I want to heal you.”

The Maia knelt with a heavy sigh, to look his apprentice in the eyes.

“Laireno, sweet Laireno” Eönwë‘s voice was gentle and sad. “You really don’t have to do this.”

“But I want to.”

Eönwë sighed and relented. He was unable to refuse, unable to look in those shining eyes he couldn’t bear to see unhappy.

“Fine.”

He released his hand from the grip of Laireno’s warm palms carefully and rolled his sleeve up reluctantly. The elda sat at his mentor’s side immediately and touched the bandage with trembling fingers. He was visibly nervous.

Eönwë was sitting with his head lowered as the young elf untied his bandage. Layer by layer, there were not many. Noe Laireno could see four red stripes, very contrasting on the Maria’s unearthly pale skin. Today’s sword practise had disturbed the scratches that had barely closed up.

Laireno’s gaze shifted involuntarily to his mentor’s hands. His nails were cut unusually short. Laireno didn’t ask anything, aware of Eönwë‘s unwillingness to talk, but he couldn’t keep himself from stroking the skin an inch above the top cut. Eönwë frowned, his head hanging even lower.

The elda cupped the herald’s arm with his palms, feeling how tense the muscles under his hands are.

“Relax, please.” Laireno said with a look of a serious healer.

Eönwë took a glance at his apprentice. It was very obvious the elf was taking this extremely seriously. His lips were pressed in a thin line, his blond eyebrows drawn together, his eyes focused on the wound in front of him. It was…endearing.

Eönwë turned away again, relaxing as much as he could.

Laireno took a deep breath, closed his eyes and started humming something slow. The scratches began to heal. Eönwë felt a slight tingle in his skin, but didn’t move and even held his breath.

Soon the humming stopped, and the warmth of Laireno’s hands left Eönwë‘s shoulder. There were just thin whitish lines where the cuts had been.

“That’s it.” Laireno said quietly, folding his hands on his laps like a good student.

“Who taught you that?”

“Estë’s Maia, Sir. She said that if i want to be a knight, I should be able to heal as good as I fight, because…” he begun to tug on his shirt again. “Because, a knight must help those he care about, know how to save the, and-“

The elf fell silent again, unable to fight his embarrassment. hen he looked at Eönwë pleadingly and whispered “Please, don’t do it again.”

Eönwë smiled his wrong smile again.

“I won’t.”

He took Laireno’s hands in his.

“Thank you, owlet.”

[kiwisandpearls]

I love elysia but I also hate elysia but I love elysia but I also hate elysia but I love elysia but I also hate elysia but I love elysia but I also hate elysia but I