#like i get that they're fancy black dressage horses

[curiosity-killed]

one of my long-term questions for fantasy worldbuilding is why so many fantasy worlds seem to have inexplicably large friesian populations

[softquietsteadylove]

For the Thenamesh Dressage AU:

Olympia gets spooked bei something and out of fear she runs away. Gil sees her running away and searches for her!

Thena paced the front patio of the club's main building. She had been pacing all afternoon, watching the grey clouds roll in steadily. It had been hours she had been out here.

Olympia had been in the fields when apparently she had gotten spooked by something and jumped the fence. She had run off at full speed, only witnessed by a few of the club staff present at the time.

Gilgamesh had gone after her.

Of course he had, though. Not just as a caretaker for the horses, but because he was like that. He cared about every single horse in his stable, and she had no doubt that he would have gone after any of the horses had they escaped.

Thena fidgeted with the sleeves of her turtleneck, clacking her boots on the wooden deck. A storm was coming in, and if they had thunder and lightning to worry about, it was even less likely they would find Olympia without injury or incident. She was about two seconds away from stealing Ikaris' steed Achilles and riding him out to find her.

Not that the club would let that happen. Not only would Ikaris kill her, but there were certain expectations of her as their champion rider, and one of those expectations was definitely not to go rogue and ride out into a thunderstorm and get herself killed.

How was Gil going to wrangle a spooked horse all by himself?

He was strong--obviously. But would just 'being strong' be enough to pull the stubborn mare back from a panic attack? What if she was truly scared? She was a kicker, and if Gil was in the wrong position at the wrong time...

Thena shuddered. No, certainly not; Gilgamesh was a trained and accomplished caretaker. He knew how to approach and handle a spooked horse. He was probably on his way back with Olympia right now!

She had been telling herself that for the last hour and a half straight.

"They'll be all right," she muttered, mostly to herself. Every since she had found Gilgamesh talking to her horse that day in the stables, she had taken up the habit for herself. She could see why he did it; it felt somewhat calming to voice her thoughts. "They'll be fine."

"Thena?"

She just sighed as Sersi walked up the club steps to her side. "They're not back yet."

The veterinarian nodded, offering a supportive pat on the shoulder, "I heard about the incident. I'm sure they'll be back any time now."

Thena gave her a tight lipped nod. Obviously Sersi was able to read the anxiety off of her. "I...I hate to think they're-"

"Oh!"

Thena looked up. Somehow, Sersi was right; on the far side of the ring, a bright spot of white emerged from the treeline. Olympia was clearly covered in branches and other evidence of her sprint. Gilgamesh was guiding her back with a makeshift lead looped around her neck. He looked exhausted.

Sersi blinked as Thena took off from the deck in a run.

The closer she got, the more she could see that Olympia had obviously fallen at some point, her right side positively caked with mud. Gilgamesh didn't seem much better off, also covered in sticks and pine needles and leaves. He had a few smears of dirt on him and some light looking scratches and cuts along his skin.

He smiled at her.

"Hey," he greeted with a heavy wave, "don't worry, she's not hurt. I-"

Thena threw herself forward, pressing her face in, "thank goodness."

Gilgamesh froze, not moving an inch with her arms wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides. "Uh... "

Thena released him, not thinking about it in the slightest as she turned on her horse, "what were you thinking, young lady!"

Olympia ducked her head and looked away from her, a vague look of shame settling over her long features. She huffed.

"You could have gotten hurt!" Thena continued to scold her impulsive mare, taking the rope from Gil's hand and leading Olympia back to the stables. "And that's nothing to say of putting poor Gil through this!"

"Really, I-"

"You are in big trouble, you," Thena grumbled, her steam running out as they made their way back to the stables. Thena laid her head against Olympia's mane, twigs and mud be damned, "do you know how worried I was?"

Olympia blew through her lips, angling her face to somewhat nudge Thena affectionately.

"I know you are," she sighed, petting her horse for the comfort of them both. "Let's get you washed up, you filthy thing. Gilgamesh has done enough for you for one day."

"Thena, really, I-"

Thena continued right into the stables. She walked Olympia right in, ready to hose her right down. Yes, she would get covered in mud and water and horse hair and be disgusting by the end of it. But having her horse back safe and sound was well worth it. "Go on."

Olympia walked into her stall with her head hung low in shame.

"Thena, really," Gil attempted to comfort her again. "She's fine, I'm fine--and we're lucky for it!"

Thena gave him a brief once over, her eyes moving over the mud in his hair and the beginnings of rope burn on his palms. She pressed her hand to his, watching as he flinched from the sting of it. "Hm--go to Ajak and have her tend to those."

"But-"

"Go!" she barked at him. He had that soft, gentle face, though, and her usual temper shook in the face of it. She sighed, "I'll take care of Olympia. You should go take care of yourself."

He gave her a funny kind of smile, which she couldn't entirely read in the moment. "Thanks--for worrying about me, I mean."

Thena blinked as he obeyed her order to go to the club medic to have his injuries tended to. She paused; she had been worried about him, sure. She just didn't know how to feel about him knowing that she had been worried about him.

Olympia whinnied loudly at her rider.

"Sorry, sorry," Thena muttered, stepping into her stall with her to examine her before making a mess of both of them.

[almostempty]

question tag game!

Thanks for the tag 💕 @itwasntimethatdidit40 @thundermartini @ace-turned-confused and @deviseren !!

i once again am reminiscing about myspace and xanga surveys heheheh

do you make your own bed? i wake up late and don't look back as i launch out of bed most days, so no

favorite number? 8? 7? 36? 2? idk man they all got their own vibes i don't discriminate (except for 51 being divisible by 17 that feels against nature somehow)

what's your job? to be non-specificish, manage a program that works with court-involved and incarcerated youth

if you could go back to school, would you? i usually make it about 3 years max before i go back to school to change career fields, i get bored or disillusioned and also struggle with finding something interesting enough to dedicate so many hours of my life into and have it also pay the bills

can you parallel park? daily, street parking only at my place unfortch

can you drive a manual car? never tried, tho i was very concerned about this for a solid year to the point where i had dreams that i had to figure it out to save everyone?? eventually i just decided i knew how to in my dreams so??

do you think aliens are real? gotta be

what's your guilty pleasure? hm, i try to own and embrace all the weird things like @ace-turned-confused said, especially if i think they're funny!

tattoos? some japanese trad, american trad/sorta neo trad, working on filling up the rest of my arms when i get the $

favorite color? black, and also yellow

do you like puzzles? sure, i like games with puzzles like zelda, or like jigsaw puzzles? fun to do with friends, hard to focus on alone

any phobias? I'd if it counts but the sound effects of limbs snapping in movies, like when it's a horror movie and all the limbs snap in the wrong directions - NASTY that shit gives me lingering intrusive thoughts hahaha

favourite childhood sport? i am the least competitive person ever. i liked floor hockey? i showed horses for a few years, not like dressage or anything fancy- but rather the most boring of all equestrian events (to watch) western pleasure!

do you talk to yourself?

I forgot to answer this one the first timeeee, um in my head always? Not as much out loud, but I will talk to the dogs heheh.

no pressure tags : @auteurdelabre @gothcsz @lovely-vamp-princess

@moodstabilizr @magneticecstasy @hoelaris

@swankyorange @mermaidgirl30 @thischarmingmandalorian

@victorian-cherub if y'all haven't yet

have some free memes for reading:

[whump-prophet]

oh fuck oh shit this inspired an entire college au

winnie taylor would major in ancient studies and theology, and would minor in like... math maybe. something with patterns. sociology maybe?? she'd also learn like 3 languages while at college while like, not ever leaving her dorm. she's a campus cryptid cuz you see her all the time but you're not sure where she lives, when she eats or if she even goes to class?? she's just on the green playing guitar or skateboarding a lot?? but if you come up to her and ask for help on your german homework she'll say "fine, meet me in this spot on sunday morning at 3am" and if you show up she'll speak fluent german the whole time, and she won't do your homework for you but she'll give you ideas and help you work out what YOU think on the topic, and she'll tell you funny puns in that language or just give you really specific yet interesting life advice. she has lots of piercings, tattoos and scars, and if you ask she'll tell you she got the gash on her shoulder from a monster and she won't laugh when she says it. also she once got struck by lightning and claims to have died for exactly seven minutes, which has completely changed her outlook on life, death and the universe. sometimes people will check on her in her dorm (if they actually know where she lives) if she hasn't been seen around, and she'll be lying on her bed in complete darkness and tell you to fuck off. two days later she'll have written a novella-length essay about the intricate relationship between different types of animals and plants in mid to late yahwistic religious imagery. every professor that interacts with her is both disturbed and intrigued by her ability to show up maybe twice a month and do every assignment late- but everything she turns in is INCREDIBLE. she has two friends named clementine and montana that she hangs out with regularly, and sometimes people see her with a few guys from a smaller local college an hour away, but that's about it except for ammit and, later, her girlfriend bela.

bela talbot did actually go to a university and she has a masters in like. finance or something. but she minored in psychology and dabbled in different religions during her college years. but for this im gonna say she planned on being a STEM major and ended up taking a linguistics class and LOVED IT so now she's deep into obscure languages and sociology... giving her a great opportunity to meet winnie 👀. her teachers think she's smart as a whip and great with her words, but they differ on whether that's a good thing seeing as she tends to use it to talk over other people in her classes or dismantle their arguments so quick their heads spin. her fellow students are terrified of her and she's very aware, and part of her takes pride in it while the other part is... less excited that no one ever wants to talk to her after class. also i think it'd be funny if she was into equestrian competition because she would go so hard for it and it'd be cute to see her in a fancy dressage outfit and smelling like horses and sweat going to meet up with winnie on the green, who basically lives in two tee shirts and pairs of black jeans and always smells a little like storms. no one understands why they're even friends, much less dating.

meg "ammit" masters would study anthropology and would go to every single class all excited to learn about cultures n stuff, and all their professors would love them cuz they're always asking good questions and they're insightful, but all the other students think they're kinda stuck up and that they have a superiority complex when they're actually just really bad at the whole friends thing. people who actually talk to and get to know them think its so funny that the 7'1" massive jock who boxes with the pro teams for fun and works out for hours every day is, like, obsessed with art and jewelry and clothes. they do modeling for the art classes, and most of their friends are art history majors who they can infodump back and forth with. they can sometimes be spotted smoking weed behind the dining hall while winona taylor does kickflips, listening to her nonsensically ramble for hours about god just to reply with "damn that's so crazy. you wanna beat the shit out if each other?" and winnie, five foot nothing and always looking a little pudgy instead of strong, always says yes. (she doesn't lose easy, even though she loses often; she's quick and smart and knows how to move even if ammit's got a hundred and fifty pounds on her.) every single person that interacts with ammit for longer than ten seconds loves them a little despite their sort of blank expressions and lack of actual social skills.

abbie masters, ammit's younger sister, is majoring in philosophy and biology, and she's the sort of red lipstick, black leather jacket femme that everyone's eyes land on when she walks in the room. she's never seen without a little makeup and her hair done perfectly. she drinks like it's her last night on earth and half the campus knows at least one person she's made out with at a party or flirted with at some school thing. no one has ever seen her study or do homework, but she never flunks out even though her teachers seem to hate her guts. she's here for a good time, not a long time. her second year, she almost gets kicked out for a huge fight, but when it turns out the other guy assaulted someone, things get a little sticky; she threatens to go public that the school's punishing her for "protecting the victim" and they let her stay if she shuts up. (within a month, the guy's been harassed and heckled so much he transfers across the country. no one is sure how abbie had enough friends to organize this.)

enoch bat jared is a political science and psychology double major who stays off campus for the most part, apparently living with his older brother and mom in some fancy mansion close by. he hangs around the library to study sometimes, but when he's bored he's usually seen wandering around the greenhouses or apiaries on campus. most people stay out of his way due to his intense glares at anyone who tries to talk to him without a good reason, and his uncomfortable charm. despite this, he's got connections to most groups on campus and in the student government, and he's the guy to go to if you screw up and need to cover it up or get bailed out- but there's always a price. rumor has it he covered up a murder once and no one really believes it, but no one's gonna ask either. remember how in middle school there was a complicated economy and whole social customs built around the gum trade? that's enoch but on a way larger, way darker scale.

what would the major/minor be of your characters if they went to post secondary?