#its not fealty i prommy

[demenior]

happy wip wednesday! this is not the Fealty au, but a secret, other story i've had kicking around in the dome for a while. i'm temporary calling it the 'Uk'otoa is Free' au.

two separate scenes. enjoy! --

Astrid paces the room while Eadwulf works. He sneaks glances in her direction. Her mouth is tight, lips pushed forward as if in a pout. Her gaze burns hot enough to light fires. The golds of her hair are alight with the dying sun, and he wants to commit the image to memory.

“Turn [the new assignment] down,” she announces, “you will tell Trent you cannot do this.”

Eadwulf drops his shirt, “and disobey?”

“They are calling the ‘ambassadors’ sacrifices,” Astrid draws out the word, “and you are a vital hand to the Empire! It is not disobedience to refuse to walk into obvious death!”

Eadwulf picks up his dropped shirt. He twists it in his hands. The king needs to send someone qualified at extracting information, who can also place themselves in a position to strike their enemies, with no fear of death. Volstrucker were made for this, or so Trent had explained to him.

Trent also told Eadwulf he was expendable, and a disappointment, following his return two weeks ago. He was foolish to have been caught. He let his fellow Volstrucker get captured. If she hasn’t been executed yet, she will be soon.

“I can tell them I am expecting, and you are the father,” Astrid tries.

“And what happens when you are not?”

“We… we could change that,” Astrid offers.

Eadwulf hears stitches pop as he twists the shirt tightly in his hands. He swallows tightly, around his heart in his throat. A dream bubbles up, well worn and ragged at the edges from years of use and being shoved into the small recesses of his mind. A dream of a small home, in a city away from here. Of their children, and the quiet nights they could have.

How many times has he described it to her in the quiet space between their pillows.

“Neither of us would be good parents,” Eadwulf decides to say.

“We won’t keep it,” Astrid shrugs, “but it’s a good reason to keep you here.”

“A good reason to get us both killed,” Eadwulf reminds her.

She goes quiet, continuing to think. The fact that she doesn’t have more plans to offer means she can see how tightly he’s trapped.

“I don’t think you can stop this,” Eadwulf offers her, an easy way out.

“I have to try!” she shouts.

---

Like a douse of cold water, the spell effect ends. Eadwulf’s senses return to him. He glances at the would-be assassin who has stepped up beside him. Her nose is bleeding, and she draws up a silk scarf around her face like a veil to hide it. Her hair curls around her face with sweat. She managed to resist Fjord’s compulsion, but barely.

Bren mentioned Fjord’s charm, and that it had appeared to be amplified. Eadwulf has never felt a charm so powerful before. Had Fjord directed it specifically at him, he’s not sure he could have sidestepped it as he did.

Despite the heat of the day, he is chilled to his core.

“See?” Fjord turns to Vandran, “you worried for nothing.”

There’s something on his throat, that Eadwulf can barely make out between the high collar of his coat, and the neckline of his leather armor. A tattoo, Eadwulf realizes, of a great serpent. Multiple yellow eyes stand out in the midday sun.

As Eadwulf stares, some of the eyes close, and others open. The tattoo continues a lazy motion across Fjord’s skin, diving under his armor.

“My name is Fjord, I’ll be your Captain for this duration of your trip,” Fjord turns back to speak to them.

A splash behind the [group of Ambassadors], as the body is tossed overboard.

Fjord stalks the length of the group again, hands clasped behind his back, “so long as you are on my ship, you will answer to me. And I answer to the Great Leviathan. He is happy to welcome you to his home. I encourage you to be gracious guests, and on your best—”

Like a viper, the woman beside Eadwulf leaps at Fjord. Her dagger flashes in the sunlight.

Eadwulf strikes on instinct, knocking her wrist up and off-target. He kicks out, forcing her knee to bend. She loses her stance, falls, and by then he’s twisting her arm behind her back to leverage it so he can dislocate her shoulder in an instant. Her dagger clatters to the ground.

He looks to Fjord for confirmation before he realizes what he’s done.

The compulsion was lingering at the edges of his mind. Eadwulf is trained to protect his Master from any threats. He disarmed the threat, and is awaiting further instruction.

Fjord seems just as stunned as he is.

[sergeifyodorov]

to ring in the hockey new year would you do an updated your feelings on each of the big 4 and rankings

happy hockey time get ready for me to be even MORE insufferable over the next sevenish months

CONNOR

My dearest darlingest spineless softspoken middle child saviour. I love him but also because of the oath of fealty i have sworn to the Leafs (for better or for worse) i will kill him if he wins the cup before they do. Which is going to happen. Oilers cup 2k24 you heard it here first

JACK

If you thought him winning the cup first would resolve the story and make me care about him and his success less you would be dead wrong (ALSO ROBBED OF THE SMYTHE. I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR GOAL TOTAL MARCHESSAULT JACK WAS BETTER THAN U)

DYLAN

dylan with an A jack with an A it's all coming 2gether. as one of the few people on the caps signed until the inevitable post-ovi Dark Times (not that ovi won't play until he's 45 but there WILL be post-ovi Dark Times) he's going to wear that letter permanently . i prommy

MITCH

you've heard of eichel conn smythe era now get ready for inevitable marner conn smythe era... he will get his 100 points this szn please please please. please. sunshiney little ball of light my bestest guy.

rankings (most to least likely to have had their own future predicted to them by a witch when they were a teenager cersei gameofthrones style)

jack (you will not be the sword. you will be its wielder)

connor (there will come another connor, younger and more beautiful.)

dylan (red will be your jersey, and red your shroud)

mitch

[zukkacore]

hi I've been busy so I'm not caught up but. spare j4 thesis???

Hiiiiiiiii NO Problem except im a little unclear on what ur asking sorry :') . If you're asking abt the vibes on the different Jaces, then. I'm Almost Me Again (He's Almost You) is not a prerequisite (it's J2portercentric) but it definitely the context and world in which the personalities of the Jaceclones exist (it's a prequel if If You Want Divinity.... which... IS a shill for myself. Sometimes I'm shameless. Further shilling. They're not that different in length Almost is 7 chapters but its only slightly longer).

Hopefully that's doesn't comes across like too much of a shill i hate feeling like that, i'm sorry. Like. Not everything works for everyone. I prommy i'm ok. it's more just like. This is the impetus for the jaceclone personalities. Obviously we can play around and do other stuff with them, multijace theory means that all jaces can exist at once. But the personalities of j3 and j4 are kinda. Further iterations of J2.

(For the record literally anyone else who is confused on the whole deal this might be the necessary primer.... LMAO)

And in this AU all the clones are basically a goodbye gift / weird intermediaries for Porter while Jace has decided to break up with him "for good". They're basically doing all of Jace's work for The Plan, and J2 is the one that's definitely been given the most responsibility. He's the one that is the go between for Porter and Jace, he's the one that spends the most time with Porter, he's the one that Porter essentially treats as his precious gift from Jace AND as Jace's replacement. They all have the capacity to love Porter Cliffbreaker, but J2 is the one who earnestly does fall in love with Porter. He's the one that sees how much Porter wants Jace back, can see his own lacking to BE jace to Porter, he's the one who covets JacePorter as this thing he desperately wants to be a part of but can never match up to. He wants to be loved on his own terms. He wants to be Jace for Porter. He is desperate for his survival, but he is also desperate for some sense of purpose. And Jace has to watch the himself make the same mistake over and over.

J2 is Jace the true acolyte.

J3 and J4 are comedy iterations on j2 that I honestly kinda love at this point. I made an offhand joke at one point that while J2 was like. So earnestly and honestly kinda tragically falling in love, becoming like. A worshiper not just of Porter but of the Starbreaker pantheon. Porter is noncommittally flirting with j3 the whole time this like deeply "did you let me die in your arms in the timeloop" coded j2porter story is going on. And it kinda sprung from there.

J3 is commitmentphobe, thrillseeker Jace. the one who is grateful he has no fealty to anything. J2 embodies Jace's desire to live b/c he is terrified of his own mortality, of being disposable, desperate for purpose. J3 embodies Jace's desire to live because J3 is desperate to feel alive, and the thrill Jace got out of the Jaceporter relationship. He knows he's disposable, and he's ok, so he's here for a good time not a long time. he's going to climb Porter like a tree b/c that is part of the Feeling Alive live fast die young Project. While J2 was torn up about whether he was a tool or a person and whether he wanted Porter to see him as one or the other, J3 is avoidant of his own personhood. J2 worships jace but resents jace and resents that Porter sees jace in him, but J3 has no problem with Porter viewing him as jace, treating him like Jace because he knows thats how he's going to get Porter at his most enthusiastic, but he's also gonna get Porter at his most rageful. He wants all of that. His life is short and stupid and he's just here to make the most of it. He never was Porter's precious replacement for Jace, so he knows just how disposable he really is. But he's ok with it. He's ok with playing Jace for Porter. He's ok with being an object. he's also a huge slut.

J4 is rage jace, but he is also egoless pre-shatterstar bit player Jace. This clone embodies Jace's desire to live because he is Depserately trying to see personal autonomy. He sees the bullshit, he hates it, he wants to escape the narrative. Like pre-shatterstar jace, he doesn't WANT to be part of the story. He wants to carve out a life for himself even if its small and fucked and full of compromises. But like post shatterstar jace, he is deeply resentful and rageful that this has been the card he has been dealth. This jace hates Porter. But because he's the one Jace that Porter can't have, the idea of conquering him makes him maybe the most tantalizing Jace of all.

Born to love Porter Cliffbreaker. Forced to do weird menial tasks for Jaceprime. It aint much, but it's a half-life.

ANYWAY. If this is not what you were asking im so so so so so so so so so so sorry. Welcome to my clown car. sorry for being such a shill for my own fanfiction.

Jess's Torment Nexus Post really sums it up ngl. And it also made me laugh out loud.

[majorasnightmare]

TotK AU Where I Shamelessly Indulge Myself In Consistent Worldbuilding and Lore That Makes Sense. And Also Ganondorf

im an autistic gay bitch and zeldas loosey goosey worldbuilding and magic drives me UP the fuckin WALLLLLL like GOD CMON can we get some fuckign CONSISTENCYYYYYY

im writing on mobile so like. idk how to do a readmore.

also totk spoilers

my biggest primary issues with totk are

a) the treatment of zelda

and

b) the treatment of ganondorf

as a villain ganondorf has no motives. he has ambitions, but without reason. he has goals, without ideals. WHY is ganondorf evil? his memory cutscenes are curt, and short, merely demonstrating the fact of his evil rather than provide any substance behind it. the dragon tears, and more specifically the geoglyphs, are massive decorative landmarks visible from the skies and detailing some representative element of the memory contained within. to get rid of them entirely would be to remove a massive amount of visual interest from the map. but as we see most clearly from the true final tear, the tears themselves are. small. and furthermore we are working with a massive period of time via the memories. like. an absurd amount of time. an unspecified and potentially limitless amount of time. we get memory cutscenes from non geoglyphs already. wh. why not MORE like. WHY.

how long was zelda in the past? how long did ganondorf feign fealty? these two questions determine how much time we have for potential character building interactions with the entirety of the past hyrule!cast!

why dont they talk? how come ganondorf never talks to anyone outside of Being Evil?

i havent even touched on zeldas primary role in the narrative is as Passive Observer and, SOMEHOW, botw giving her MORE agency as a princess locked in a malice cocoon than a game where she can move talk and walk the entire time.

so i figured. if i wanted to make an au to address these things, i might as well go all in right? might as well go Full Indulgence

my city now

more past! interactions between zelda and ganondorf

more exploration of ganondorf as gerudo king and why hes considered a hero of the gerudo

more rauru and ganondorf

more mineru and zelda

MORE BLATANT DISCUSSIONS OF IMPERIALISM. WHAT, PRAY TELL, ARE YOU PROTECTING THE GERUDO FROM MR *KING OF EVERYWHERE ELSE IN HYRULE*????

patch updates: dragon no longer operates as narrative fridge. gets fight cutscenes

patch update: ghirahim

not fridging sonia with a warlock punch to the back that somehow vaporizes her organs and gets her 3 stocked

patch updates: more ocarina of time references

PAYA CHARACTERIZATION.

semi consistent soft magic system

zonai Lore (read me being so autistic about them)

the crux of the matter. bringing demise back. and also playable zelda and playable ganondorf. i am SO normal about them i prommy (lying)

EPIC DIVORCE 42 INJURED 9 DEAD

yona (yona)

its legit too much to put in One Post but i have So Much for Basically Everything because im literally throwing au alterations at @villalunae as i play thru the game so like. i CAN and WILL elaborate on any and everything. idk how to structure posts or write teaser blurbs. literally just posting this so anyone and everyone who sees it and is interested i can talk their ear off too