#if a bit lost toward the end

[shehungthemoon]

I've finally done what the kids call "binging" for the first time in my life and watched the entirely of Brilliant Minds in a night (+ morning lol)... overall verdict is that it could use some tightening up in a few plot and dialogue places and has insanely wild pacing issues, but is still an entertaining show with lots of heart, plus a good amount of cheese 🥰

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[OLD ART ALERT] A COLLECTION OF SCENES FROM THE GILLIONS CATSCRATCH ARC THAT BROUGHT ME GREAT JOY. i love fishy chips especially when its just gillion being delirious and violent and hostile

[meangreennunseen]

When you make fun of little weird child who was forwarded as only competition to your Psyker talents and that child over few years grows up into a titan of the man and surpasses you on any level possible.

Also he's kinda cute in the weird way...

[pullakori]

Cherik resurrection 2025

1. Left out in the cold

This was not how Charles had thought the night would go. He was supposed to be forgetting the stress from his thesis and the legal battle with his step father by drinking, flirting, making out and finding a comfortable bed of someone else’s to crash on. And he had been doing pretty good on that plan until ten minutes ago! But now, he was stuck outside of some fraternity building after 1 am on Halloween night.

As the cold started slowly to seep into his skin and bones, Charles found himself wishing that he had dressed as a sexy librarian like he had originally planned. At least he would be wearing more clothes than he currently was as a cupid. He cursed Raven in his head as he sat on the building stairs, trying to gather enough energy for the long walk home. 

At least he would get warmer as he started moving, he thought to himself, trying to pull the hem of the white toga lower, but not succeeding. He cursed Raven some more and then himself for letting her talk him into shortening the damn thing from the original length. It hadn’t been that long to begin with, but right now he would be grateful for every inch of extra cloth.

“Are you alright?” Charles didn’t know if it was because of his frustration or his slightly drunken state that he hadn’t noticed the stranger approaching. Felt his mind nor heard his steps. He turned to look up at the man with wide eyes and had to stop to take him in. He was tall and dressed in gothic clothing, with white shirt, deep maroon vest, dark trousers and a frilly white cravat. Instead of a jacket, he had a long maroon and black cape. Despite how covered the man was, the clothes left little for imagination, hugging and complementing his frame in the most delicious way. The man’s skin looked pale in the light of the street lamps and the sharpness of his cheekbones had been highlighted with some makeup. Maybe the unnatural paleness too, was a result of cosmetics.

His sharp eyes were staring intensely at Charles, his frown turning to a questioning rise of an eyebrow and suddenly Chalres realised that he had been staring for way too long.

“Ummm, yes, or no, I mean-” Charles forced himself to stop and think. Was he really going to bother this stranger with his unfortunate situation, even when there was not really anything he could even do about it? 

The stranger tilted his head to the side and a small smile was tugging his thin lips. Well, Charles thought, there was no harm with unburdening his heart a little.

“Well, in truth, I have been locked out.” Charles explained and nodded behind him towards the house. The stranger glanced at the door and then back to Charles.

“You live here?” He asked and Charles hurried to shake his head.

“No, I was here to party. I was thrown out.” He said and when the vampire gave him a suspicious look, he felt the need to defend himself. “Which was not my fault, just so you know.”

The man seemed amused by his answer.

“Oh, is that so?” He probed lightly, with some doubt in his voice. 

“Well, maybe slightly my fault.” Looking back, maybe his sultry behaviour in the party and slight drunken state might have compromised his judgement somewhat. But even then it had been a 10/90 situation. 20/80 at most! “But in my defence I didn’t know she had a boyfriend and she approached me. I learned that only after I had to dodge a drunken punch to the face.” It felt like he was making a court case for himself, but the stranger seemed to find amusement from his suffering.

“A trouble maker, I see” The vampire nodded with a small grin, before his look turned more curious. “Why are you still sitting here? You don’t seem so drunk that you can’t walk.” 

“I’m just gathering mental energy to start the long walk home.” He had just stopped banging the door few minutes ago and the sudden shift in the night’s plans had caused him the need to take a moment to gather himself.

“How long?” The stranger queried and Charles shrugged.

“Thirty to forty minutes.” He sighed. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but had made peace with it as the conversation had gone on.

The vampire looked alarmed by Charles’ answer, consern colouring his voice.

“That long? While wearing that?” Charles noticed how the vampire’s eyes lingered on his exposed skin and without thinking about it too much, he stretched his legs a bit and leaned back on the steps.

“Something wrong with my costume?” He asked, feigning ignorance and smirking inwardly as he saw the other man swallowing thickly, some colour appearing on his cheeks, but barely noticeable. So it was makeup, Charles thought to himself.

The man managed to pull himself together in quite admiring time, however. Though his eyes still crept to glance at Charles’ body every now and then.

“That is a long way to walk in this weather and it’s only going to get even colder. Almost freezing.” He cautioned Charles, 

“Really?” That dampened Charles’ mood somewhat. He supposed the alcohol in his body had been keeping him little warmer this far, but if the night was about to turn even colder, his journey home would be very unpleasant indeed.  “Well, I’ll keep warm by moving.” He sighed, finally standing up and stepping down from the stairs. No reason to keep avoiding the inevitable.

The stranger watched him with intense eyes, and if someone had told Charles that he truly was a vampire, he might have believed them.

“You don’t have anyone you could call to pick you up? There is a phone booth just around the corner.” The man nodded towards the direction where the phone most likely was, but Charles shook his head.

“No. Everyone I know is having fun at other parties, who knows where.” Even Hank had for once in his lifetime agreed to join Alex, Sean and Armando for a long night of festivities. Wasn’t that just Charles’ luck…

“Then how did you get here?” The vampire wondered.

“I had a ride.” Charles explained, and continued before the other man was able to actually voice the new question in his head. “And I planned on getting one back in the morning.” That had never been a problem before, Charles thought sourly.

But there was no point crying over the spilled milk.

“I better get going.” Charles decided, nodding to himself and turning to look at the stranger, who was looking unsure now. “Thank you for your concern. I will be fine though.” He thanked him and walked past him, beginning his long and chilly journey home.

“If you need a place to crash,” The man’s voice made Charles stop and turn around in shock. “I have an extra mattress and live less than 10 minutes from here.” The offer sounded sincere, but Charles still couldn’t believe what he had heard.

The vampire seemed to sense his hesitation, because he hurried to reassure him.

“No strings attached.” He said, holding his hands up. “I just don’t want to hear in the news tomorrow about how someone found a cupid frozen to death.” Under the unserious tone, there was actual concern of Charles’ well being. But just to make sure Charles wasn’t going to be killed tonight…

Charles moved two of his fingers to his temple for focus and as carefully as he could in his slightly drunken state, used his power to look into the vampire’s mind and his intentions. Reading thoughts under influence wasn’t dangerous, unlike trying to control someone, which was the reason Charles hadn’t tried to make someone let him in before.

He was almost thrown out by the mental shields that rose up to meet his probing, like metallic security doors. There was a moment of alarmed surprise in the vampire’s face, but then realization. The barriers lowered themselves and the stranger gestured at his head.

“Oh, right. Feel free to check.” The vampire said and Charles was a bit surprised by the ready acceptance of his mutation. But with the permission, he scanned the stranger’s, Erik Lehnsherr, intentions and found no ill will there, only concern, protectiveness and intrigue. 

Happy to know that he didn’t have to walk all the way home and that he could spend the rest of the night with this curious man, Charles lowered his hand and smiled at Erik.

“Sorry about that, I promise I didn’t dig too deep.” Charles assured, but Erik shook his head.

“Not at all. It’s good to know that you seem to possess some self-preservation instincts.” The cheeky answer made Charles’ jaw drop slightly. The nerve!

“You got an impression I didn’t?” He questioned, slightly offended, but mostly amused.

Erik shrugged, not looking apologetic in the slightest.

“Considering that you were stuck outside in that outfit because you were making out with someone else’s girlfriend. It crossed my mind.”

“I told you, I didn’t know!” Charles insisted, although some colour started to heat his cheeks. “And you are one to talk about outfits! You are the one wearing a bloody cape!” He accused, pointing at the said garment.

His attack against Erik’s fashion sense seemed to take the other man aback.

“What is wrong with capes?” He sounded almost offended, frowning as he took hold of the cape and lifted it up a bit with his right hand.

“What isn’t wrong with them? They make you look like a comic book supervillain for starters.” Charles pointed out and his arms crossed, but his tone was more joking again. And the same mirth was mirrored in Erik’s expression too.

“I rather enjoy having a cape. They give an outfit a slash of…” He paused and threw the cape, making it flare behind him. “drama.” Erik finished and Charles had to roll his eyes as he tried to hold in laughter.

“Here I thought you were all broody and mysterious, but I’m starting to realize you are actually just a dork.” He teased and was delighted when the man let out a full chested laugh.

“Additionally…” Erik said as he got his breath back and brought his hand on top of the buckle that kept the cape on his shoulders. It came undone like it was magic, or by mutation, and with one smooth movement the other mutant wrapped it around Charles, surrounding him in sudden warmth that almost made him melt. “capes keep you warmer.” The last part was murmured so close to Charles’ ear that he could feel the warm breath tingling it.

He would have been lying, if he said that his legs didn’t go little weak from it.

But, too soon Erik stepped back and gestured at the road.

“Shall we?” He asked and with a nod from Charles, they started to walk towards Erik’s apartment. The cape was slightly uncomfortable, considering that Charles already had wings and quiver on his back, but it was a small price to pay for the warmness.

“So, should I call you Dracula or..?” Charles asked after a moment of silence.

“Don’t try to tell me you didn’t find my name in my mind when you were digging around there.” Erik glanced at Charles with a smile and a raised eyebrow, causing Charles to cough from getting called out like that. Though Erik’s non-judgemental attitude towards his telepathy was quite refreshing. 

“Sure, but it is more polite to ask about it aloud.” He said and offered his own hand. “I’m Charles Xavier, I study genetics and I have to say that you have a very groovy mutation yourself, my friend.” He started, leveling the playing field. Erik took Charles’ hand and gave it a firm but small shake.

“Erik Lehnsherr, engineering. And my mutation is magnetism.” He explained and immediately Charles’ mind was filled with dozens of questions he wanted to ask the other. But for now, he let Erik’s hand go and smiled even more broadly at the other.

“Well Erik, I feel like this is the start of something amazing, my friend.”

[psymachine]

i think it'd go like this lmao

whole version

[laceandsilkhandkerchiefs]

Perhaps a little bit inspired by my travels lately, I've been thinking about a flight attendant with a horrible, itchy, messy cold.

Personally I'm thinking about this in the so-called "golden age of flight" (late 1950s-1970s) because of the high standard of makeup and dress that flight attendants were subject to at that time, but many airlines still currently use that model so this also works perfectly well in the modern day!

Anyway, a flight attendant waking up the morning of a big flight (at least 6 hours long) with a completely blocked up nose and a sandpaper throat. They groan internally- whatever plague the man in first class on their last flight had has clearly infected them. Still, they get up and start to get ready- they won't get paid if they aren't on the flight, after all.

The pressure in their head shifts while they're in the shower, and a tickle grows in their nose. They sneeze frequently, and by the time they get out of the shower their nose is a dusty pink color. They're annoyed by this, but put makeup over it (trying to ignore how the brush irritates their nose and induces several more powerful sneezes). By the time they're dressed and ready to leave the house, they've managed to convince themselves that they'll be able to get through this flight just fine.

A few hours later, as the flight takes off and the change in pressure begins to give them a sinus headache and clogs their ears (symptoms they usually never have to deal with due to all their experience on airplanes), they begin to realize that this isn't going to be as easy as they thought. Still, they have a job to do, and they're going to do it to the best of their ability.

Flash forward to halfway through the flight, and they're not sure how much longer they can keep going. They've touched up their makeup multiple times, yet they can feel their nose becoming visibly chapped as it continues to run incessantly. Their sinus headache has reached almost unbearable levels, due in large part to the sheer number of sneezes they've been stifling and holding back. Finally, one of their coworkers tells them to go take a break, an order which they gratefully accept. They spend the next 10 minutes locked in one of the bathrooms, sneezing themselves silly (and pretending no one can hear them, even though they absolutely can). They then resolve to reapply their makeup, fix their hair and uniform (which are now decidedly askew) and muscle through the remainder of this flight.

Spoiler alert: that doesn't end well for them.

[antxnous]

Everyone knows that when u nudge Joshua to kill Salt-Upon-Wounds and decimate the White Legs that ur reinforcing the same behaviours his position as the Malpais Legate gave him + reinforcing his crazy old ass that he's doing God's will by purifying the wasteland with a warmongering hand. Butttt au where he starts his own Legion and calls himself Constantineeee...

[chicago-geniza]

Love to discover new forms. Did not know it was possible to write a sentimental prison abolitionist novel but here we are. On to Giovanni's Room

[glitchlight]

dirt facts for the columbia river basin? 🤲

godddd the PNW has such interesting geology. There's a surprising amount of volcanic geology within the united states, but the majority of it is west of the rockies, and no place else is that more common than in the PNW. Geologists in the PNW are welcome to correct me, but as someone whose mostly worked in very predictable glacial geology or residuum from common marine sedimentary strata (limestone shale siltstone repeat repeat repeat -- hey karst!), my overwhelming impression of the PNW has been a region dominated geologically recent cataclysms which have dramatically reshaped the landscapes, and the Columbia River Basin has at least three different impacts that effect soil development as a result: the columbia flood basalts which stem from the yellowstone hot spot, the missoula floods at the end of the last ice age, and the influence of volcanic eruptions on the surrounding area from the cascades and the yellowstone hot spot.

The main thing I find interesting here however is one that is a little less than remarkable given the cataclysmic history of the region, and is far more mundane: the disparity in the landscape on either side of the cascades.

This is a somewhat remarkable observation on a flat image. In the space of 60 miles, the entire landscape transitions from a semi-arid landscape to one overflowing with greenery and vegetation. Driving west on I-84 produces landscapes that wouldn't be out of place in the rest of the arid west, Nevada, Idaho, Montana.

Of course, that is an illusion created by a flat image. Naturally, there is an entire mountain range in the way.

The imagery undersells it: this looks like a low range of hills, all too familiar to those of us who live out east and drive over rolling hills every day. The Columbia River Gorge, seen here curving off to the right beyond the Dalles, cuts deep through the Cascades and the high plateau built up by, you guessed it! All! Those! Flood Basalts!

This dramatic difference isn't just due to elevation changes, but is largely due to the infamous rain shadow effect that occurs in much of the PNW.

Brief detour to physics: pressure. In gasses, if temperature increases, pressure must increase (provided volume remains constant). If you've had a half an equation hanging out of your brain for the past 10 years from chemistry class, it's probably pV=nRT which describes this exact relationship. Anyways: if you take a bunch of moist air coming off the Pacific, and have winds blowing it up a hill, because it rises in elevation, atmosphere pressure decreases, so temperature of the front decreases as well and you get the PNW's infamous eternal rain. This entire effect is known as orographic lift.

And IN SPITE OF THIS! The soils aren't really all that different on either side of the range! They're primarily different in terms of weathering!

The agricultural soils to the east are rather plain, slightly developed soils which consist of drifts of dust deposited over thousands of years onto cracked basalt (floods again!). The same materials are present to the west, but because it rains so much more, they're much more developed, enough that silica, you know, the stuff Sand is made out of, has weathered and recemented within the soils, creating what's called a fragipan -- almost like a natural type of concrete!

Thanks!

[sysig]

Reading moodboard #84430940 (Patreon)

[thewhizzyhead]

being a busy ass student with student journalism gigs on one hand and comm academic shit on the other is very interesting because with the jam-packed life I live I only really get to breathe at like late lAAATE night when no one can bother me about my responsibilities other than myself. that being said that's also when creative brain goes into overdrive and now misfits finally has the final draft of its opening number woo

[blaithnne]

I will never understand how some people are SO aggressively against the mere concept of the teenaged Hilda we see at the end of MK when she’s had what a minute of screentime? And we know nothing about season 3?

[kariachi]

Okay everybody, I feel the painful urge to math something, so we're going to see about coming up with some reasonable average clutch sizes and rates for Pern golds. Given, ya know, the McCaffreys didn't give us any real consistency there.

So, at least somewhat account for the inconsistencies we're going to be running off of a concept I've put forth before- that dragonkin have different 'morphs' seen during Intervals and Passes respectively. This allows for the way that dragon reproduction slows during Intervals. The difference between the morphs, for the purposes of this, is how long they take to mature, how often risers, well, Rise, and how many eggs are laid.- with the Interval morph taking longer and doing so less often than the Pass morph, as well as generally living longer as a result.

As our best information outside of Passes, we're going to assume that Nemorth is a reasonable example of an Interval morph, and therefor say that they reach sexual maturity in seven years, as opposed to Pass morph Ramoth who does so in two.

Meanwhile my preexisting estimate for Pass-moprh lifespans ended up being minimum around 50-60 years (given Leri doesn't seem to be that much older than middle-aged Moreta but is clearly older than would be expected thanks to being a rider, if we assume an age of around 70, 80 at a stretch (the norm in such a setting would likely be around 60) minus 20 years as the general age of gold candidates), while MasterHarper of Pern asserts that riders can and do live to 110 with their dragons still going strong. Presumably something about the bond musses with that shit for the human half... But it would mean that in Intervals dragons probably live closer to a century.

Now, there's some other information we need before we can really get mathing.

How many dragons does Pern actually have?

How many dragons need to reach adulthood the maintain those numbers?

How many eggs need to be laid to give us that number?

How many eggs would need to be laid per gold to give us that number?

How often?

We'll start with question one.

Now, using the Atlas of Pern as my source, utilizing both text and the assumption that the 'lesser room exaggeration' on the Weyr maps refers to the ratio of weyrs shown vs actually meant to be present-

Benden Weyr has space for about 500 general riderpairs and five goldpairs (stated outright)

We don't have a population for Southern, but from map information we can estimate about 250 general riderpairs, and know there are three goldpairs before the Oldtimers take it over

During at least Moreta's time Fort has space for four goldpairs and can estimate from map information a general riderpair population of about 450

High Reaches, in Moreta's time, appears to have space for four goldpairs, and a general rider estimate of about 150 (though this may be less reliable, as High Reaches is described as using more outdoor buildings than other Weyrs to supplement a lack of space)

Ista appears to have space for three goldpairs, and at least 82 general riderpairs, though this is merely based on visible weyrs and it is implied there are more- Ista is also confirmed as the smallest Northern Weyr

And to make sure we're covering our bases, let's see and compare to what information we can get from the Dragonlover's Guide-

Fort Weyr is built to hold about 450 general riderpairs

Benden holds over 350 general riderpairs

It should also be noted that the 2nd Pass books apparently describe Telgar as having a capacity of 600 dragons, but I am not digging out the one I have to check because I already did that for Masterharper and I'd like to finish this post at some point.

So our reliable numbers (Benden, Fort, Southern) imply a correlation between gold number and dragon population in most cases (9th Pass Benden is a bit of an outlier because Ramoth throws eggs like confetti but refuses to let more than two other golds stick around). Five compared to 500, three compared to 250, four compared to 450. We can use that to extrapolate that Telgar likely has around six goldpairs, but also to estimate full general riderpair populations for High Reaches and Ista (which it seems would likely be 350-450 and 250-350 respectively, which would track with Ista's being the smallest Northern Weyr).

We can also probably guess that Igen, who seems to be one of the middle Weyrs (it certainly isn't out there getting love) probably has space for four goldpairs, same as Fort and High Reaches. Not enough to be as impressive as Benden and Telgar, but ahead of the small Weyrs.

So, averaging out from there, we're talking about an average general riderpair population of about 2900 during a Pass. Because gods know we don't get information about the depths of Intervals aside from 'numbers decline'.

Given the declining, and Benden starting from five and only getting really worked up when they were down to one, I'm going to run with the assumption that the numbers halve, leaning towards the low end, in the depths of an Interval. So someplace like Telgar may not expect to drop below three pairs, but Ista may go down to one.

Taking this into account, we're considering a max Interval number of about 1450.

Yeah, there's a reason people worry about the dragon population on Pern, that shit can't be healthy, no matter how many strands your dna has.

But! We have our baseline! Going off the 9th Pass we can assume a population of about 2900 dragons during a Pass, supported by 29 goldpairs, and 1450 dragons during an Interval, supported by about 14 goldpairs.

So now we move on to question two- how many adult dragons do we need to get each year to maintain those numbers?

Now for this we need death rates, to know approximately how many riderpairs are dying per year.

Now getting adult death rates (and that's what we're looking at right now, I'll get to the children in a minute) in period that can be considered to some degree level with our setting can be a fucking bitch. Especially ones that take into account that as dragons and riders the best healthcare available is going to normally be available (the mess of the 8th Interval not withstanding). So, we're using the average death rate of a priory in Canterbury in the 1400s because that's the best I could get.

So for a general 'we're not getting eaten by space-fungus' death rate we're gonna estimate about 2.5% of adult dragons lost each year. This doesn't take into account death by Fall, for which we're going to grab the combat destruction rate of USAF aircraft during WW2, given we're dealing with air to air combat and a lot of lost medical knowledge, giving us a Fall death rate of about 14%. Meaning we have an Interval death rate of about 2.5% and a Pass death rate of about 16.5%.

For actual numbers, that means that each year the golds would have to all together produce ~37 adult dragons during an Interval and ~479 adult dragons during a Pass.

Notice how I keep saying 'adult'?

On to question three.

Pern is a medieval brand setting, and while it doesn't bring attention to it any setting further back than 'modern' is going to run into one big thing that's a key fact in most people's lives- child mortality. Kids just died back then, a lot. Their immune systems aren't fully developed so they were more vulnerable to illness, they don't have a lot of experience so they're more likely to do something stupid, they're small and weak and so more likely to be maimed by a wherry or something. There's a lot of reasons kids died all the time back then, but the point is they did, and in a lot of places still do. Then you have to take into account a lot of these dragons are Impressing to fuckers who are still themselves firmly in the 'old enough to do the stupid thing and young enough to not think better of it' category, and that their growth includes 'learning to Between'. If anything me saying '40% child mortality rate' is probably a little low. But I'm trying to be a little nice and assume fuckers are watching these little menaces like hawks.

So, we're going with the assumption that only 60% of hatchlings even make it to adulthood. So the number of dragons that has to hatch to reach the adult number goal has to account for that. Each year the golds, all together, would have to produce ~62 hatchlings during an Interval, and ~799 hatchlings during a Pass.

But that's not all! Because we also have to account for hatch rate! Because not all the eggs are going to hatch! Now for this one I'm going to be nice and assume a good hatch rate, we're gonna go with numbers taken from captive crocodiles and say that we can expect about 95% of eggs to hatch. It's wildly more common for them to get babies than not. (Listen, I'm a sap, let me be)

So, taking into account that we can expect 5% of eggs to not even hatch, our numbers turn to ~68 eggs per year in an Interval, and ~841 eggs per year during a Pass.

We estimated 14 goldpairs during an Interval, so that would be a yearly requirement of ~5 eggs a year each. We estimate 29 goldpairs during a Pass, for a yearly requirement of ~29 eggs a year each.

Nemorth seems to Rise about every eight years, give or take a year, which should give us about 40 eggs per clutch, but her largest confirmed clutch is only 24, most closer to 20, so from that we can assume that it's more likely an Interval gold is normally Rising every four years, give or take.

Meanwhile Ramoth's numbers include such hits as '40' and Prideth gets over 30, which only the latter fits into our little segment. Prideth's are closer (and Ramoth has Special Protagonist Syndrome), and make me think yearly clutching might be a thing for this shit. Would help explain the massive lifespan discrepancy we're looking at here, as well as how a nearly 100 year old dragon could be showing minimal signs of ages during an Interval but a lady from a Pass is old and achy when she's unlikely to be over 60- laying large clutches yearly ruins the dragons like any Holder woman made to pop out kids until they break down. It makes the Lord Holder's concern about Orlith only laying 25 eggs in Moreta more eye-roll worthy, but if she tended towards large clutches before hand (not unlikely given Anne's propensity towards them) it would make sense the 'sudden' change would throw him off.

Or, if you wanted to keep the large numbers or just give the golds some breathing room, you could increase the time between clutches up to two years, which would line up well with the halved lifespan, but then you would have to double the egg count to up to 60 eggs per clutch on average to maintain the numbers, which is beyond even Anne's shit. I'd personally suggest going no more than 1.5 years, which gives us 43, closer to Ramoth's numbers.

Or maybe you decide you want to throw out everything but my Interval and Pass requirement numbers. Or even everything but my Pass and percentage numbers. Or you want to have the clutching rate stay the same but change the number severely during an Interval to match (in which case we're talking clutches of 5-10 eggs yearly or biyearly). Or whatever! It's up to you what if anything you want to take from this, how you play with the numbers, and so on. All I can do is hope that my mess has given you something, anything, and that you enjoyed.

Long may you fly.

[antariies]

thinking about aurene again. she and harley have a much closer relationship than what’s shown in canon—the two are basically dad and daughter. and thanks to harley’s influence, his aurene speaks more casually and musically, jokes around more often, and loves to try new food despite not needing to eat anymore.

their closeness is a double-edged sword, however! in his efforts to give her the most loving and normal childhood he could, harley ended up coddling her too much. she’s still reliant on him after she ascends, and it comes back to bite her in the ass when he gets shot by bangar and has to step away for the rest of ibs. his absence is something neither of them anticipated or prepared for and now dragon’s watch is arguing over what to do without the commander and they’re looking to her for Elder Dragon Wisdom and she’s like “I DUNNO!!!! 😰 just because i can see every possible future doesn’t mean i know what to do with that information!! this is so hard i want my dadddd 😭” she’s immature and sorely ill-equipped to handle a civil war.

it feels so unfair. of course she’s not ready for this, she’s never had to be before! one second she was a teenager burning herself out with brazen heroics in lws4 and now she’s the elder dragon of prismatic light. aurene thought she would at least get a few years to ease into it. she and harley also both operate on different timescales compared to everyone else bc their senses of time are warped; harley’s due to being a chrono and aurene’s due to being an immortal dragon. who was Raised by that chrono. both of them are very ‘big picture’ thinkers!

so when aurene suddenly finds herself having to make these big decisions, she calls her dad consults her champion. harley’s advice is to use her future vision to compare potential timelines, see which one has the best ending, and reverse engineer it from there. on paper it sounds pretty good, but by the time she finishes comparing and actually chooses a future, she comes back to dragon’s watch like “OKAY, you guys need to convince smodur to—“ “aurene, smodur got sniped two weeks ago 🤨 he’s dead.”

she takes too long deliberating and makes bad calls that get people killed AND jormag is in her head. she might as well be down for the count as far as the fighting is concerned. @hawkepockets’s prem ikaros is there to fill in for harley for the rest of ibs, but it’s just a horrible time for everyone involved :-]

[jojotier]

having ocs is a fucking curse my sis came in asking why i was crying so hard but how tf do I explain its bc I thought about blorbo from my brain too hard and had a fit

[m4niackkyun]

Hi. (Announcement in the tags)