#like i think both of them are smaller than than the 3 other dragons + the demon dragon but. hes tiny (still huge by dragon standards ofc)

[verflares]

think i mentioned it offhandedly the last time i posted my draconified link design but i Do think he is the smallest/shortest dragon btw. like thats just canon to me

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

1.) Height comparisons? Tallest to shortest? I ways felt that Danny was tallest with Randy as the shortest, but Ben feels small too? And Rex feels giant.

2.) What would Jenny and Rex look like with Upgrade on them?If you have any concepts of them?

I love these little guys, btw they make me so happy!

1.) I actually have a height chart I never posted! I am STILL not completely locked in about them, but I've been holding onto it for a year, so I think I can post it since Ive not worked on it much. xD So while small details might vary in any future plot development, this is a rough height comparison for the HoMies:

My reasonings are that canonically (? at least according to Wikias) Jenny is at least 2 meters tall in the show. Which is a lil questionable, but I just headcanon her around that height, but it can vary depending on her transformations. In any case she is a tall Amazonian Mechanical Goddess.

Both Danny and Zak have very tall genes from both sides of their families. Jack F. is a freaking tank unit of a man, and while Maddie is probably somewhere above average height, her sister Alicia is built af, so there are some tall genes on their side of the family. Doc and Drew are both pretty tall, and Doyle too, so chances of Zak being on a taller side are very good.

Jun canonically has very long legs (which was mentioned as too long for an 11 y.o. to which I relate a lot, because I was very tall at 11 too xD) & Randy is a very noodly boy, so I feel like they will grow pretty tall. But Randy is also very slight in built which will make him seem smaller.

Ben in his alt futures is supposedly very tall, but Omniverse throws a curve with him suddenly seeming smaller at 16, so?? I kinda settled on him being kinda average male height, which can go either way when he gets older.

Rex is kinda opposite, because at 16-17 he is pretty tall, but not overly huge (considering that he is still shorter than Six but only a little taller than Holiday on heels, so he is taller than average female height), but I headcanon him having grown tall very early. So I kind of settled on another average that can go either way as years go.

And yes, he is a little taller and buffer than Ben, because when they swapped jackets in Heroes United, Ben's jacket is tighter on him and that fact is forever my favorite headcanon. xD

Jake and Kim are short monarchs! Well, compared to others, lol xD. In reality they are only a few inches/cm lower than average heights! I am a big fan of Jake being a short powerhouse (its also supported by his genetics, mainly by his grandfather Lao Shi, who is pretty short even when he was younger) in his human form, which doesn't affect his dragon form. Kim is a small lean power machine - she is small, agile and fast, for a normal human.

2.) Oh! I did have another idea I sort of toyed with (A sort of 'fusions' for HoMies for another old ask I got, but I never got around to drawing them lol sorry), but I never actually drew anything like that! This is a fun idea to doodle-

After the finale Rex has changed and I would like to think that Ben will notice! After all becoming a god temporarily would be something of an upgrade! xD And tbh I think Jenny, as a sentient machine would not particularly enjoy being Upgraded! It would feel a little bit like possession, but with a side effect of your guts being rearranged without your consent, like?? yikes

Aaaaaa, thank you!!! I'm so glad people get joy from this crossover, even if im so inconsistent with actually posting staff for it QvQ <3

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

What are the gangs favorite type of video games to play? Weather it’s Mario, Pokémon, sports, rhythm games, horror games, etc etc.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!!!! Now...

Poppy prefers tabletop games more, but she can be often caught playing or seeing someone else playing The Sims. She LOVES that game - Angel has The Sims 2 installed on their computer, and when they all move to a bigger house Poppy gets her own PC so she can play TS2 as much as she wants.

Kissy doesn't play much on her own, but she really loves 3D platformers and adventure games. Her favorites are the og Spyro the Dragon trilogy! I think she loves watching others play pokémon as well.

Huggy loves racing games. Get anything with a car and he's instantly in love with it.

I can Mommy Long Legs making super over-the-top stories on The Sims 2 as well, so she and Poppy often share news of what their sims are doing. They are both active in forums and are trying to make their own custom content for the game!

Bunzo is a pokémon guy.

PJ Pug-a-Pillar doesn't like playing games in general but he LOVES watching others play, esp if there's lots of cutscenes. It's like watching a movie!

Miss Delight falls in love with Portal 2 when it's released, but I think she's really picky with her puzzle games. She likes being a bit creative on her solutions! She's also really into RPGs. I think the Fallout franchise is her comfort game.

Catnap and Craftycorn are walking Silent Hill encyclopedias, but they LOOOOVE survival horror. Catnap's fav is the original SH1, while Craftycorn loves Haunting Ground (PS2) and SH3.

Bobby on the other hand prefers Resident Evil and Clock Tower 3, but when it's not horror it's definitely a more experimental game. She cries everytime she plays Shadow of the Colossus but she loves it.

Bubba, much like Miss Delight, is SUPER into RPGs and puzzle games, but pokémon and Ace Attorney have conquered his heart. He LOOOVES gushing about it!

Picky's favorite is Animal Crossing! It makes her feel safe and she loves just walking around her town. She made a really impressive one and everyone wants updates from her villagers, Picky loves giving them.

Kickin can't get enough of any FPS or action-adventure game, and he can and WILL ragequit if he's playing online and his teammates start being rude to him or each other. Thankfully he learned really quick how to deal with the more toxic players so now he can truly relax. Unfortunately doomed to become a League of Legends player when it comes out.

Hoppy also loves FPS, but 3D platformers and open-world games are her favorites. Anything that gives her plenty of freedom to move around or just be silly immediately catches her attention! I think she becomes a Team Fortress 2 player.

Dogday prefers to watch rather than play and he gets SO invested. I think Miss Delight likes playing puzzle games with him because they figure out solutions together, but if Dogday were to chose a game for himself to play it would probably be a rythimn game. It gives him the zoomies.

The other smaller toys all have their own individual preferences, so talking about them is more complicated!

Everyone becomes obsessed with Minecraft when it's released. Catch Catnap pranking everyone on their shared beta server by pretending to be Herobrine.

When Angel gets them an Xbox 360 they have many game nights where they play on the Kinect.

Speaking of which, Angel is down to play literally everything, but all the toys know they aren't very keen on anything horror-related. Not because it's scary, it's just that Angel finds them boring after surviving Playtime Co. They probably have an encyclopedia-level knowledge of pokémon, tho.

Prototype doesn't play videogames, but enjoyes watching the others play. Just don't put ANY war games in front of him and we're all good, otherwise he stops watching.

[fereldanwench]

apropos of nothing and certainly not my tag rant from a few posts back

did you know that out of 150 popular video games released between 1985 and 2022, only 6% of them feature sole female protagonists?

did you know that prior to mass effect 3, female shepard was never used in any promotional material for the series?

(and there's no hard data available on this, but i very distinctly recall a lot of gamerbro outrage when me3 had an optional reversible cover so you could pick between male and fem shep on your personal game)

did you know that only 18% of players chose femshep in any shape or form (default or customized) during the original release?

(anecdotally, i know a few people who didn't even realize you could play a female at all in me1 bc of how the cc is setup)

did you know with the release of the legendary edition in 2021 the percentage of femshep players didn't even double (despite jennifer hale's seemingly enormous popularity amongst the broader playerbase over the past decade) and is reported at 32%?

did you know that dragon age inquisition has the same breakdown between male and female inquisitors (68% to 32% respectively)?

did you know during the playtests for assassin's creed odyssey, it was a 50/50 split between kassandra and alexios, and ubisoft suits actually thought when the game was released, kassandra would be more popular? and yet once again, about 70% of players chose the male protag

did you know evie and aya were both supposed to have a much larger roles in assassin's creed syndicate and origins but were forced into a smaller role bc the ubisoft marketing team didn't think the games would sell well with a female lead?

cdpr hasn't released data on male vs female v, probably because the game handles gender a little differently than just two strict options like many other rpgs, but it was revealed that panam was the most popular romance, sitting at about 68%, which means at least 68% of players chose the male v body. I'm sure some players did not make that choice as a cis male v, but i would also guess that those who didn't are a small minority of this demographic, and if you factor in kerry romancers, this split is probably very similar to other games in the genre

now i realize that a lot of the male v players who are in more transformative fandom spaces (like tumblr) are not the str8 gamer dudebros of reddit angry about pores on a female character's face and whatnot. i realize that a lot of you are also on the outskirts of the perceived norm and also feel under-represented by mainstream male protags and that's incredibly frustrating and alienating and i genuinely feel for you

but female protagonists and female gamers who want to play as female protagonists and who have a few niche spaces to celebrate female protags are not the reason for your lack of representation

and frankly you don't sound a whole lot different from the angry incel gamer boys when you say shit like "fem v gets too much attention"

so maybe try advocating for male protags who don't fit the generic boring gruff white guy mold without throwing women under the bus. we're should be allies in this fight, not rivals

[violet-moonstone]

HTTYD Sibling/Family Relationships

Some things I wish we got more of in the franchise are A) family relationships, and B) other young people in Berk who are older or younger than the main 6 riders and Gustav.

We didn't, so here's my headcanons.

First one isn't very original because in the books Snotlout and Hiccup are related and Snotlout says he's "next in line" in THW but I would love it if Spitelout and Stoick were canonically brothers (or brothers-in-law!!!), making Hiccup and Snotlout cousins too. I want Hiccup and Snotlout, despite being only-children, to have grown up like brothers who can't stand each other. Before the events of HTTYD, Snotlout teases Hiccup about how he'll usurp him, but when Hiccup trains Toothless, the rivalry becomes even worse, as Snotlout finds himself in second place - this already happens to a certain extent in RoB/DoB, but now it's more pronounced. Them improving their relationship and avoiding the pitfalls of Stoick and Spitelout's rivalry is even more meaningful. Also as we know from comments Snotlout has made about sewing, his mother is a sweet lady who teaches her son crafts. Too good for Spitelout, tbh. Would be nice if she were also a fierce fighter who is super good at sewing too.

Fishlegs is a very protective older brother to a younger sister who is similarly sensitive and sweet. He, however, stops being sweet the second anyone poses emotional or physical danger to her. He loves taking her flying on Meatlug when she's still too small for her own dragon, and he's always teaching her dragon facts. I think his parents are very sweet as well. His mom is a super tall and busty Viking lady very while his dad is smaller. They're both sheep and yak farmers and not really the warrior type. Fishlegs got his love of animals from growing up on a farm.

Astrid is the youngest of at least 3 older siblings (either brothers or sisters, doesn't matter) who are all very accomplished. Each excels in either strength, intelligence, or stealth, but they're all pretty brave fighters in general. (I'm thinking she has at least one brother who is very strong but not super bright - big himbo energy. Ruffnut probably has a crush on him, and it creeps Astrid out). As the youngest, Astrid feels like she has to live up to and exceed all of their abilities. She also *hates* being the baby of the family, which is why she's so aggressive. One of her parents is doting (probably does something in crafting) while the other is very intense (a warrior).

Ruffnut and Tuffnut are the middle siblings of a huge-ass family and have lots of extended family as well. Literally everyone in their family is chaotic as hell in their own unique, Thorston way. They do everything from farming, fishing, smithing, fighting, etc, because there are so many of them. Berk is already a small community, and it's very common to have at least one Thorston relative somewhere in your family. Eventually, they have to identify Thorstons by jobs, landmarks, or well-known events (Those are the Baker Thorstons, or the Cliffside Thorstons, or the Thorstons-that-Ruined-Snoggletog, etc.)

[exhausted-archivist]

The Deep Roads are Complicated, and I am in too Deep...

I've been working on and off at mapping the Deep Roads for a while now and after writing 4 pages explaining my methodology of why I think it is mapped the way I put it and then moving on to orienting the ttrpg thaig map, I realized something while taking notes on the directions mentioned and cross-referencing it to the description of Horrors of Hormak thaig description.

You can't map the Deep Roads from a top-down perspective because sometimes the roads change directions and aren't actually going in a straight line.

They need an orthographic map. Or a map that essentially bisects the mountain. The literal map in the corner of both the Origins and ttrpg maps. The maps... that have increments of depth.

Now, I knew that the deep roads had to change elevation, especially considering how they're described and the way they're supposedly below sea level for most thaigs.

But somehow, despite knowing that, I never considered that thaigs and the roads themselves would essentially be stacked on top of each other. Don't know why that never crossed my mind up until I was checking my notes and the passages of the ttrpg and Horrors of Hormak to confirm directions. To which it finally clicked as they both explain how there are galleries/antechambers and staircases/pathways that change directions.

How do we get to the thaig? This tunnel leads to a series of galleries. Think of them as interconnecting wide flights of stairs linked together and occasionally switching direction. We head down these for a few hours and we’ll be on the outskirts of the thaig.

-- Dragon Age Tabletop RPG, Buried Pasts p. 18

Beside him, Lesha muttered a word and her staff began to glow. She pushed it inside the entrance to the hole, giving light to the darkness within. The edges of the circle cast by Lesha’s spell revealed a small staircase that descended into an antechamber slightly larger than the clearing above, carved with a skill and delicacy that rivaled the works of Orzammar, or even Kal-Sharok. At the other end of the chamber, a doorway and a second staircase beyond that which spiraled into the darkness, the entire space lit by the glow of lyrium. And above the entrance, written in dwarven runes, a single word—Hormok.

-- Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights, Horrors of Hormak (p. 86)

Which then gave me pause and had me rereading and looking back at the map. Because the maps looked like they were straight and didn't initially give the impression of any verticality to them. Until you look in the corner. That's when it clicked for me and the mountains suddenly made more sense.

And now I'm screaming about it here. Because both maps are depicting a small chunk of mountain(s) in the Frostbacks. Which, for reference, my wip of the Deep Roads looked like this.

If you follow BioWare's scale of 1 square = 15 miles / 24 km - if the Deep Roads were in working order the journey to the anvil would only be roughly around 2.5-3 days journey. However, we know to get to the anvil and back to Orzammar is a month-long trip. So, with the darkspawn and collapsed tunnels it becomes a 2-week journey there and 2 weeks back. Which is quite a large jump in travel times.

I have a personal scale based on population size, megafauna, and the fact that it is supposed to take over a week to get to the Circle from Orzammar on the surface, among other travel time increments. Which makes each square 38 mi / 61 km. A 4-5 day journey from the anvil to the void when functioning.

Now, I think this map still holds up in terms of placement considering that mountains can have a wide footprint and the map on the Origins Deep Roads has at least two major peaks and a plateau, whereas the ttrpg just has one major peak and a couple of smaller ones. The ttrpg map also speaks of ravines and such so it fits the geography.

But yeah, long story short I need to revise some of my methodology; and maybe rescale the map, so things aren't super tiny.

[swordscleric]

I don't know if anyone's gone through the original Dawn War pantheon* and compared the events of the Dawn War to the events of the Calamity, but it's interesting comparing how Tharizdun acts in the Dawn War to how little we know about it as the Chained Oblivion and might be useful as a theory-crafting aid for how the Chained Oblivion fits with Predathos**.

In the Dawn War, Tharizdun was a normal god, driven mad by extradimensional demons who provided him with huge amounts of power and attempted to force him to open a portal in the Astral Plane to release them. He took this power, and instead of releasing them created the Abyss. He and his would-be masters fought to a stalemate over control of the Abyss, until the rest of the pantheon found out and sealed him away, leaving him chained to a remote part of the Abyss[1].

By contrast, the Chained Oblivion is "something other entirely"[2], "less like a god and more like another world"[3]; it's been categorised as not of the Primes or Betrayers[4], and generally Matt has leaned much more into the cosmic horror vibes (sans a connection to the Far Realm) of the Chained Oblivion. It's a creature of "roiling ink and hungry darkness"[5], and was sealed at the bottom of the Abyss by the Dawnfather and the Knowing Mistress, with support from the Allhammer and the Changebringer[2, 3, 6]. The Chained Oblivion also wants to consume all and end the world and is kept at arms length by the Betrayers[5], and as a result of that plus its association with an unknowable hunger some people have now associated it with Predathos or think it and Predathos are of a similar species.

I think the Chained Oblivion is not Predathos in another form, but I do think that it's of a similar species. Looking at the Dawn War, and assuming (with the full acknowledgement that I'll more than likely be wrong) that Matt will stick as closely to the Dawn War as he has in the past, I think the Chained Oblivion is a smaller and weaker being of nothingness that decided to forge its own path instead of following Predathos' lead. My gut instinct is that the Chained Oblivion, seeing Ethedok and Vordo get eaten, took up Ethedok's mantle of darkness[7]*** and avoided working with Predathos and porentially fought the God Eater in order to survive and work its own odd plans of destruction. The Chained Oblivion makes a lot of plans to try and free itself (see the Angel of Irons or Cognouza), so I wouldn't be surprised if its propensity towards planning was present from the very moment it set foot on Exandria. Does this mean the Chained Oblivion will be let loose to fight the God Eater if Predathos is released? I doubt it, considering that it nearly killed the Knowing Mistress. And we know how the gods feel about family.

Footnotes

*The Dawn War pantheon is the slimmed down pantheon used for 4th edition D&D; can be found on page 11 of the 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide. Used by Matt for the Primes & Betrayers with the addition of Sarenrae from Pathfinder.

**I'm aware of the pitfalls of using existing narratives and non-Exandrian lore to try and predict what's going on in CR at this moment in time; while there's not a 1:1 overlap between other D&D worlds' lore and Exandria, some of the major relationships do stay the same. For example, Pelor, Ioun and Tharizdun are all linked in Exandria and in D&D "canon" (Pelor, Ioun and Tharizdun all looked into the Far Realm and saw mysterious secrets, secrets which drove Tharizdun to want to destroy the universe as per Gates of Madness (2010). Additionally, Tharizdun is deeply associated with the Abyss across both settings). Bear with me.

***Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent is also associated with darkness; however while the Lawbearer and the Platinum Dragon are associated with order there is no explicit god of order which was Vordo's other domain. The Chained Oblivion is explicitly described as a god of darkness in both the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (page 27) and the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn (page 34).

References

1. Demonomicon (2010), pages 7-9. The wording of how the sealing took place is intentionally vague as it's a plot hook for DMs to expand on in their campaigns.

2. Titles and Tattoos, CR Campaign 2, Episode 84, from 14:00.

3. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020), page 27.

4. Matt's Discord post during Nick Marini's AMA (linked here).

5. Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, page 36.

6. The Endless Atheneum, CR Campaign 1, Episode 106, from 1:08:16.

7. Axiom Shaken, CR Campaign 3, Episode 43, at 3:02:19.

[dopscratch]

i kid you not when i say i looked up these two at 4 am hoping for some crumbs but jere you are writing a whole fanfic ( thank you so much🤩).

I personally haven't read the httyd books only the series and movies. If you don't mind could u give a mini summary as u plan to write after book 8? If not i hope you have a wonderful day/ night!

(If uave tons of other questions but don't want to spam so ill just leave this here)

AUDHJSHDHD thank you so much for sending an ask i literally have none ever HAHA

im glad you enjoy the concept :)

the books are very different fron the movies in a large number of ways! in the books, vikings stat out with dragons, and hiccup's main problem is training his own, which he can't do by the normal strategy of yelling- a) because he's not the best yeller and b) because his little green hunting dragon, toothless, is as disobedient as it gets (and smaller than everyone else's to boot!)

in the books, vikings typically have hunting dragon(s) which are smaller and usually dog-sized, as well as a riding dragon, which is larger and obviously ridable. hiccup's riding dragon is a scraggly feathery dragon called the Windwalker who was rescued from slavery :)

one of the biggest differences as well, is that dragons can speak. most are just as intelligent as humans, some even more so, and they're generally cruel by nature. their culture encourages them to act selfishly and it's worked out pretty well for them, hence why most vikings train theirs by fear or exerting power. hiccup, who is nerdy enough to have sat out where the wild dragons are and literally learned their language has been attempting to train HIS by speaking to them, which has some mixed results. windwalker is actually quite mellow and loyal, since hiccup's probably the first person to show him kindness. toothless is just a little brat with a stammer, but he does have softness in his heart deep deep down.

characterization-wise, everyone's a lot different as well.

hiccup, as stated before is a nerd who'll rattle off dragon facts in dangerous situations while fishlegs is more of the sarcastic romantic, basically think of it like the movies swapped their personalities. he also has bright red Heroic Hair that stands straight up and they robbed that from him in the movies and i will never forgive them. hes also an excellent swordfighter and its just about the only traditionally viking thing he's good at :). also, his mother is never kidnapped by dragons- but she IS gone often, out questing. her name is valhallarama and she is an absolute beast of a woman they definitley nerfed her when they turned her to valka

fishlegs is a skinny little loser (affectionate) who's allergic to dragons, has a plethora of other medical conditions too, and is acrually an orphan and was raised by a long-eared caretaker dragon. he's also hiccup's best and only friend at the start of the series. he's arguably worse at being a viking as hiccup is and they both bond over how they wish society would allow them to not be brainless fighters. his dragon is a lazy common-or-garden-or-basic-brown named horrorcow, she's both a pacifist and a vegetarian. when he was catching his dragon, he actually wanted to grab a nadder, which is long and serpentine because nadder is a pun on adder and i have no idea why the movies didn't see that

snotlout is hiccup's cousin and hates him more than anything in the world, and not in a ha-ha funny way either. he legitamately wishes hiccup were dead or never born because he hates to see this "runt" next in line for chief instead of him. he is constantly literally trying to make hiccup's life miserable or literally murder him and once again this is not played for laughs. his dragon's a mean monstrous nightmare- a hunting dragon only the chief and descendanrs of should have- named fireworm, and she is very full of herself. hookfang is actually one of stoick's monstrous nightmares!

another main character is camicazi, who appears in book 3 onward and she was so powerful they had to split her into three characters in the movies (she's sorta like if you took the thorston twins and astrid and mashed them all together, then added another sprinkle of chaos). she's a short little kid from another tribe of all-female warriors called the bog-burgalars and an excellent escape artist. she has a mood dragon- a serpentine, color-changing dragon named stormfly who can actually speak the human language too. she's not very helpful though since shes a pathological liar.

the main villain is named alvin the treacherous and he's a ridicuoulsly resiliant guy who reaaaally wants hiccup dead for a multitide of reasons we don't need to get into now since hw won't really appear in my work haha

i think ive gotten a lot of basics down, but obviously there's a ton more! in regards to knowledge for my crossover though thats essentially some of the main points you need to know. by the 8th book, hiccup has been on a multitide of adventures (and has nearly died or gotten eaten on all of them) but the world hasn't changed irreparably yet :). i plan on writing it in a way that can accomodate people with no knowledge of httyd, since most of it will be from the touden party's pov exploring the world! you'll be getting plenty of detailed descriptions of some of the dragon species as laios's nerdiness will help show

i would absolutely reccomend checking out the books, though! you can usually find them at your local library, and there's also the entire series of audiobooks on youtube! there's a very dedicated group of people on here who love the httyd books including me who would love to help you get into them as well, if that's what you'd like!

i'll round this off with a few of my renditions of some of the characters i've drawn :)

i hope this was helpful, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me! i love getting asks but never do lol

[c-nstellati-ns]

A E H J T X for my boy gabriel/reaper? i love ur writing btw!

thank u <3

reaper - NSFW ALPHABET

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

gabe’s surprisingly sweet! compared to his normally harsh nature, he’s very soft after the deed is done. he doesn’t like being taken care of, but falls into it much quicker than he’d like to admit. unbeknownst to him, he falls into this habit as time passes by- and it just leads him to being clingy with you. he hates thinking about it because originally this was supposed to be a one night stand, nothing more than that,,, but feelings blossomed. now, even when you’re leaving to go grab stuff to clean him up, he uses his enhanced strength to his advantage to pull you close and keep you there. don’t tease him about it though, or else the next time you’ll wake up to a cold bed.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

i headcanon gabriel as closeted bi, so he has a fair amount of experience with women [duhh he had a wife and son] but men,,, not so much. he repressed that part of himself for years before he met jack- and even then, they only ever got as far as blowjobs and handjobs, nothing more than that. in the men department, he knows the very basics, but not much other than that. give him some time to learn though, and he’ll blow your fucking socks off <3

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

i’d say gabe’s fairly well groomed! when he was younger, he was too busy to try and clean himself up more but as he’s gotten older, he’s gotten better with it. his happy trail is a little on the thicker side and is salt n peppery like his facial hair. he has a bit on his chest as well!

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

before he met you, his libido wasn’t as high as it used to be. the chronic pain he goes through often turns him off from wanting to do anything sexual, but he’s found out recently that you changed that it in him. gabriel’s desperate almost, because your hands on him not only light a fire in him but ease his body and mind in a way that he’s never felt before. it’s made it so that he’s even willing to do quickies even in the most risky places, it’s made him a tad bit careless. if you’re both away on a mission, away from each other, gabe is def jerking himself off frequently in an attempt to satiate himself. be prepared to be shoved into a closet the moment he sets his eyes on you because he isn’t leaving until he’s filled and satisfied.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

ABSOLUTELY. i love the thought of gabe being like those ppl that have a wide collection of bad dragon dildos LMFAOO,,, most definitely has one modeled after your dick in there somewhere. seems like the type of freak to enjoy those tentacle, ribbed ones that just rub at all the right spots in him. if he can’t bring any of them with him during a mission that lasts a while, he’ll bring a vibrator with him and that’s it. gabe found that he enjoys sex better when he’s all pent up from nt seeing you for so long. hell, he’ll even send you a few spicy pics just to get you as wound up as he is thinking about you.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

i say he’s fairly big actually- maybe around 8 inches hard? a little on the girthier side with a nice thick vein running on the underside of it. gabe’s probably uncircumcised, but pull back the skin and you’ll see that pretty leaking tip of his. i am going to be putting my desires on this man so therefore he has four smaller jacob’s ladder piercings <3 i love boys with big useless leaking cocks hanging between their legs while they’re being fucked senseless 🤭

[crowentity233]

The Dragon's Keep (part 3)

*Finished*

Fire Lord Zuko x (Fem!) Reader

Part 1

Part 4

You are a firebender named Ayushi, who has been accepted to guard over the royal family. You end up guarding Zuko through his travels to visit the sun warriors. The mission, protecting the newest dragons, begins.

Suki patted you awake. "Ayushi, get up. The group is getting into uniform."

You tossed the covers over and stood up. "Thank you, Suki." You spoke quickly, getting your things in order. You grabbed your uniform.

Suki placed her hand over yours. "No uniform. You're going as a guest. Lady Ursa requested it." Her grin was wide.

"Oh... okay." You grabbed a fire nation outfit and got changed. You grabbed your bags and followed the warriors that were ready.

"Yushi!!!!" Kiyi called out running towards you. She grabbed your hand and pulled you to her mother. "Yushi, come on! It's going to be so much fun, we are going to go swimming, and make sandcastles, Zuzu said he would play too. We can go feed the turtle ducks..." kiyi kept talking about the different things you would be doing.

You listened to the girl smiling and laughing as she pulled you past her mother and through the doors following the warriors to the dock. "Wait, Kiyi. We have to wait for your family." You said between laughter.

"Go ahead, you two, we will catch up." Lady Ursa called out to you both.

"Yushi, let's go!" She let go of your hand and ran with the warriors walking around her. You ran after her, grabbing her hand and keeping up with her pace. This girl was a little ball of energy.

Lady Ursa looked back at her son, whispering while servants packed their things away. "No uniform?"

"I told Suki to tell her you invited her. I knew kiyi would like the company." He spoke softly to his mother.

Her lips perked up into a smirk. "Then I'm happy to have invited two guests." She led her son to follow her to the dock.

"Two?"

You got to the dock with Kiyi, both of you laughing. The first group of warriors weren't far behind.

"Uncle!!" Kiyi exclaimed, running to the man at the end of the dock. He was dressed in Earth kingdom colors, but Iroh was still very recognizable. Kiyi wasn't exactly related to him by blood, but she took to what Lord Zuko called him. it was such an innocent way of thinking. Of course, Iroh was more than happy to take on a niece.

"Princess! It is lovely to see you again. Who is your friend?" Iroh held his niece and smiled towards you.

"That's Ayushi. She tells me and Zuzu bedtime stories." She smiled proudly.

"You and FireLord Zuko. Must be some good stories." He grinned at the girl, setting her back down to her feet.

Your face tinted pink. Kids were just so blunt. "It's nice to meet you, General Iroh." You bowed.

"No, no, I'm just Iroh now. I am no general, I own a tea shop. It's a much better place to be."

"Im sure it is. I would love to visit one day." You smile politely.

"Uncle, look, it's Zuzu!" Kiyi yells out, pointing to Lord Zuko escorted with a second set of warriors.

Lord Zuko smiled brightly, seeing iroh. "Uncle!"

"Nephew!" Iroh bowed. The men hugged one another. "It's good to see you, Lord Zuko."

Lady Ursa greeted iroh. She stood beside you and grabbed your hand. "Thank you for being here. I know Kiyi and Zuko will love your company without being a guard. The royal life is very isolated."

You nod your head. "Thank you for inviting me."

She released your hand and walked into the door to go under deck. The warriors set up at their posts, and the others went under the deck to rest before nightfall.

"Yushi! Will you watch for Flying Dolphins with me?" Kiyi jumped up and down. You followed her to the side of the ship where she could watch for them. The ship left the dock, and the water below lapped around the sides. You watched the horizon. You turned your head seeing the land become smaller until it was out of your view.

"Flying Dolphins!" She yelled out. You turned back, seeing her happily watching the animals.

"She rode on them once when Aang was visiting." Zuko stood beside you peering over the side of the ship.

"I did! It was so much fun!" Her joy was infectious.

"It had to be fun. I wish I could ride on one. You're a lucky girl." You looked down trying to imagine what it would be like to ride on such a beautiful creature.

"Kiyi, come with me, honey." Ursa called for her daughter. She wore a smirk hidden behind the wall.

Kiyi whined but followed her mother's call.

You looked around the deck, and a few warriors stood guard at the other ends of the ship, but everyone else had gone inside.

"Are you excited to go to the island?" Zuko asked, breaking the silence that had eased its way as kiyi left.

"Yeah, I'm excited. I've never been." You glanced back over the waters.

"I went a lot when I was a kid." He watched the Dolphins flip around. "I have a lot of good memories there. We planned on going to see the Ember island players. Would you like to go with us? Kiyi is staying with her dad."

"Sure, are they any good?" You asked.

"No, they're terrible. My mother just loves to see them. She used to take me to see them every year when I was a kid. They always butcher love amongst the dragons."

"What are they performing?"

"Love amongst the dragons... again." He sighed.

"Well, we can take it as a comedy show. Are you sure I won't be intruding on your time with your mother?" You turned towards him.

"No, she would love for you to go. Uncle is going to be there, too." He paused."I think it will be like my sister is there. She kinda tried to take Kiyi during a freak out, so she has been a little bit shunned from the family."

"Oh, um, then I would love to go, and um... fill in for Azula." You gave him a soft, reassuring smile. "You know I'd watch anything about dragons."

"You really do love dragons..." He spoke softly.

"Yeah, they were something for me to dream about as a kid. I always wished on a star every night that a prince from far away would show up and fly me away on his dragon. It never happened, of course." You giggled softly.

"Sorry, I was the only prince but a little busy trying to deal with my father, and I thought they were extinct then." He chuckled.

Your eyes flicked over to him. "No, I dont want you to think I wanted you specifically to save me. It was more of a fairytale wish. I knew you were the prince, and Im sure it crossed my mind, but -"

"No, of course not," he cut you off. "I was joking since I was the only prince in the nation. I guess if there is an earth kingdom prince, he could have saved you, but I suppose he'd be on a badgermole." He placed his finger on his chin thinking. "I don't know if the earth king had a son."

"You're funny, Lord Zuko." You said giggling as he thought out a plan of who would have saved you from a life he knew nothing about. "It was just a fairytale. I made it out on my own. I'm here now on a royal ship as a guest. I would have loved to see a dragon, but I don't think I've done half bad."

Zukos cheeks tinted with the complement. The wind from the sea was his saving grace as it slowed the color from rising any further.

Land appeared on the horizon. "Is that it?" you asked.

Zuko's attention caught the land. "Yes, that's Ember island. I promised Kiyi that when we get there we are going to play on the beach."

"I didn't think to pack a bathing suit. I thought I was going to be guarding when you asked last night. I didn't get your mother's invite to be a guest until this morning. I guess I'll have to buy one when we get there."

"I can buy it for you. Our mother can stay with her until we get back and you get changed."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" You asked him, him being so accommodating seemed so foreign.

"I don't mind at all." The ship started to pull up to the dock.

Kiyi flew out of the door. "Zuzu! We're here!" She cheered tossing herself at her big brother.

"We are here." He hugged her. "We are going to the shops. You can stay with your mother until we get back. We will be fast, I promise." He smiled and let her back down.

"Okay, Zuzu. I guess that's okay, but be fast." She warned in a childish way.

He chuckled and ran his hand through her hair. She giggled and ran off to her mother.

"Come on, let's go now, or Kiyi will get upset." He walked towards the ramp to the dock. You followed him, and he led you down the sand paths. You walked around the busy streets. Your warrior complex hadn't left. You kept an eye on your surroundings. No one seemed to notice the FireLord was here yet. This seemed so reckless and not at all like your training, but you were following the Firelord in what was kind of like orders.

You passed by a few shops until he opened a door and let you walk in first. You walked in looking for your size and picked out one. "You can try on a few if you'd like. We have a little time before they even get off the ship. Get what you'd like. I got it."

In reality, he wanted to escape the ship before Suki saw and convinced you to take a few warriors. He didn't want spectators. He was well aware that he was being watched at the palace. This would be one of the few times he couldn't be truly alone with you, and he wasn't going to miss the opportunity. Making use of it was questionable, but at least he could be alone with you.

"Okay, thank you." You left out the Lord Zuko for prying ears. You searched around at a few bathing suits. Grabbing a few that you liked. You went into a changing room. You changed into a white one. You stepped out but shook your head. Zuko just glanced and kept his distance. You went back in and changed into a black one. Again, you stepped out, but it didn't really seem to match you. Zuko kept to himself but secretly enjoyed seeing you in such a contrast from your warrior outfit. You stepped back in and changed into a red one. This one was well fitted, hid areas that were on your radar as imperfections, and the swimwear made you feel good. You stepped out and nodded at Zuko. "This is the one."

He looked down, seeing you weren't in sandles. He grabbed your hand and led you to the shoes. Your hand was so delicate and yet held so much power. The warmth coming from your hand was a given sign of being a bender. It was so comforting in his own. He didn't want to let go, but he guided you to the seat and let go so you wouldn't question.

"You really don't have to..." You sat down as he grabbed a pair for you handing them to you.

He had guessed your size. They fit perfectly. "I insist." You slipped on the sandles and looked back up at Zuko. He offered his hand, and you took it he helped you up from your seat.

He held your hand and led you to the merchant. He didn't let go when he reached the merchant. He pulled out two gold coins and gave them to the man. "Here is your change..." He started to pick up the coins to hand Zuko.

"Don't worry about it." Zuko threw his hand up and turned with you still holding your hand. Confidence seething through him with you never pulling away or acting as if you wanted to pull away.

Your heart beat quickened as the old man spoke again. "Have a nice day." Then, under his breath mumbling ,what a nice young couple." You wanted desperately to turn and correct him, but zuko just continued walking. He opened the door for you to step out.

You both walked back into the streets. You held your clothes and shoes in one arm. You heard footsteps behind you. "There you are!" Suki looked up and down at the pair. Her hand fell to her hip. A smirk plastered on her face as Zuko finally let go of your hand. "We've been looking for you. You know you can't run off like that." She was speaking to Zuko. You were a free woman, but he was open for attacks at any moment.

"I just wanted time without an army behind me. I had Ayushi with me. We could have taken anyone who tried to attack."

"Next time, tell me that you're taking your girlfriend shopping at least." She giggled.

"She's not my girlfriend." "I'm not his girlfriend." You both said in unison.

"I'm joking you two." She poked fun at the pair. "Come on. your bags are already in the house. Kiyi is out at the beach." She paused her voice. When the pair followed beside her to the house. "Ayushi, you look so good in that. Don't you think so, Zuko?"

"Um, yeah, you do look... good Ayushi." Zuko said uncomfortably.

"Zuko, have you been working out? Ayushi feels his arm." Suki tries to grab his arm.

You wrap your arm around his and pull him closer, shutting her down as you all continue walking to the house. "Suki enough teasing, we get it. You think we are secretly together."

She smirks and leaves both of you entangled. You did exactly as she wanted. "Okay, sorry. I was just messing with you two."

You held Zuko's arm as you neared the house. His mother didn't notice your arrival. Kiyi was occupied by a group of scorpion crabs. Suki split from the pair, not saying anything. You both snuck in the house away from kiyi. "Will you show me to where I'm staying? I have to put my clothes away."

The clothes you were wearing still in the arm that wasn't entangled with his. He never pulled away. He led you to a room that had your bags inside. There was another set of bags and a bed opposite from the other. "I'm staying in here too. Uncle must be staying in the room I'm normally in..." He trailed.

A/n: it's not as cliché as it seems trust the process.❤️‍🔥

Tag list:

@mochminnie

@i-put-the-ass-into-sass

@lylyysz

[duxbelisarius]

Dune At Home: The First Dornish War, Part Four

Thank you to everyone that has followed the series thus far (you can follow the series via the Master Post and AO3); I hope you've enjoyed it and have found it informative! Now that we're done discussing the strategies of both sides when the war began, we can discuss how the Dornish and Seven Kingdoms armies conducted their campaigns (ie Operations) and fought battles (ie Tactics), as well as the use of the Targaryen dragons.

I want to start by covering dragons, since they play an important role in how the war is perceived; before discussing tactics however, I want to throw my hat into the ring on another subject: dragon size. /u/servantoffire gave a pretty good estimate for Balerion's size some years ago, and while I think his length figure of 126 feet long is a solid estimate for Vhagar during the Dance, when she was almost as large as Balerion, my estimates for Balerion take a different approach. We are told by Tyrion that Balerion could swallow an aurochs whole, or a mammoth from Ib; since aurochs existed in our world, we can use their height figure of two meters at the shoulders. Ib being an island, I think these mammoths are likely similar to the dwarf mammoths of Wrangel Island rather than the free-roaming specimens north of the Wall, and their heights would be c. 2 meters like an aurochs. In order to estimate Balerion's size, I compared this 2 meter height to the jaw size of one of the largest reptiles known to have lived: Hoffmann's Mosasaur, estimated at c. 40 feet (c. 12.2 meters) in length from snout to tail.

The best estimate I've seen suggests that it could open it's jaws 1 meter, and my estimate for Balerion's jaws would be 3.5 meters to fit an aurochs or dwarf mammoth with some room to spare, giving us a body length of 140 feet from snout to tail. For Balerion's wings, /u/servantoffire used a Flying Fox's dimensions to arrive at a wingspan of 453 feet; my estimate is based on Dany's comment in her first chapter of ACOK regarding her dragons wings: "their span was three times their length." This gives Balerion a wingspan of 420 feet (128m) with a body length of 140 feet (c.42.7m), and using the 126 foot (38.4m) length for Vhagar gives her a wingspan of 378 feet (115.2m). These measurements allow us to extrapolate the size of other dragons in the series: Aenys I and Aegon the Uncrowned's dragon Quicksilver was a quarter the size of Balerion at her death, putting her at 35 feet (c.10.7m) long with a 105 foot (32m) wingspan; Caraxes was half the size of Vhagar during the Dance, or 63 feet (19.2m) long with a 189 foot (57.6m) wingspan; Arrax was one-fifth the size of Vhagar (c. 25 feet by 75 feet, 7.6m by 22.9m) and Vermax and Tyraxes would have been slightly larger and smaller respectively. After this we can only speculate, but if we propose that the difference in size between Vermithor and Vhagar during the Dance was similar to the difference between our estimates of Balerion and Dance!Vhagar, c. 14 feet (4.3m), Vermithor would be 110 feet (33.5m) long with a 330 foot (100.6m) wingspan. Tessarion and Seasmoke were both a third the size of Vermithor, giving them a length of c. 37 feet (11.3m) with a wingspan of 110 feet.

The smallest dragon for which we have measurements is Baela's Moondancer, described in F&B as no larger than a warhorse in 130 AC; her size is relevant not only for giving us a sense of how small a dragon can be an still fly with a rider, but also because determining the size of a warhorse in George's world will be relevant for Part 5, where I plan to discuss the Dornish Marches. From John Pryor and Elizabeth Jeffries' analysis of Medieval horse transport ships (Age of the Dromon, 304-333) and Ann Hyland's research on Medieval and Ancient Roman horses (Medieval Warhorse, 143-148), a 12th century Medieval warhorse would have been around 15 hands tall from the hoof to their withers (where the shoulder meets the neck; 1 Hand = 3 inches, 15 Hands = 5 Feet). Hyland further estimates that a Roman horse would have been between 13.5 and 15 hands, with 16 hand horses not being unknown for Ancient and Medieval breeds, meaning a height range of 4'5" to 5'3" (1.4 to 1.6m).

Based on how dragons are depicted alive and in heraldry in TWOIAF, the forelimbs of the dragons appear to make up half the span of the wing, meaning that Moondancer's wings would each have been 10'6" in length for a wing span of c. 21 feet (6.4m), with a body length of 7 feet (2.1m), using the aforementioned estimates for warhorse height. By comparison, the largest known flying animal discovered to date was Quetzalcoatlus Northropi with a wingspan of 36 feet, equal to a Cessna 172 four-seater utility aircraft. Given George's already established problems with scale which we've discussed in this series, I think it's safe to assume his warhorses are much larger than they actually were, and Moondancer in turn is somewhat bigger. A height of 18 to 20 hands at the withers would give her a wingspan of c.24 to 26 feet (7.3 to 7.9m) and a body length just north of 8 feet (2.4m).

My reason for investigating dragon sizes is to help illustrate just how massive the Conquerors dragons were, to give some indication of how deadly they would have been in combat. We obviously know that dragons can fly and breath fire, but one activity that seems quite underappreciated about dragons is that they can also dig. Leaving aside the likely origins of dragons as creatures created magically by crossing fire wyrms with wyverns as proposed by Septon Barth, we know from the books and elsewhere that even large dragons can tunnel and make burrows. Despite steadily increasing in size, Rhaegal and Viserion are still able to tunnel through the brick and earth foundations of the Great Pyramid of Meereen, using their fire and claws to make a cavern large enough for Viserion to hand upside down from its ceiling. The Cannibal was the largest dragon alive during the Dance after Vhagar and Vermithor and is said to have 'made it's lair' within the dragon mount, while George also talks about dragon lairs and 'deep caverns' under the dragon mount which likely required some effort on the part of the dragons to render suitable for dwelling.

It is surprising given these tendencies that no attempt was made to go after the Dornish in their tunnels and caves, assuming that our hypothesis from Part 2 is true. We estimated that it could have taken 3 months for Aegon's host to reach King's Landing from Dorne, during which time the garrisons he left behind ought to have been trying to locate where the Dornish population was hidden. Even a single dragon would have a assisted these efforts immensely given their flying and digging capabilities, alongside what should be heightened senses of smell, hearing and sight which should be considerable for magical apex predators. Like the Cappadocian subterranean dwellings, the Dornish hideaways would have needed shafts connected to the surface for access clean air and sunlight, as well as to provide chimneys for fires and to allow wells on the surface to access water sources further below.

Like Cappadocia, the Dornish could not have disposed of animal and human waste in underground rivers they depended on for water, so 'nightsoil' would have been stored in jars and disposed of on the surface. Livestock being kept underground would also have needed opportunities to graze and stretch their legs on the surface, creating further opportunities for the garrisons and dragons on the surface to locate them. Once entrances could be located, a dragon would have made short work of them like a kind of hellish Clifford the Big Red Dog. We noted in Part 3 that blocking the passes and forcing the dragons to clear them could allow the Dornish to target the riders, provided the ambushes had been planned and set-up in advance; attacking the caverns would mean less risk since the caverns need to be kept hidden, and any troops stationed nearby on the surface would be a liability.

The other issue regarding dragons in the First Dornish War is the manner in which the Dornish attempt to fight while the dragons are at large. TWOIAF tells us that the Dornish "harried and ambushed the Targaryen forces, then would scamper beneath their rocks as soon as they saw the dragons take flight," but this raises serious questions. For starters, why are the dragons taking flight? We mentioned 'writing to lose' at the end of Part 3 and it's hard not to think that this is what is happening, as the Targaryen dragons should be in the air as much as possible to monitor events on the ground. The size of Aegon's army means its column should be long enough to attack it without the immediate risk of a dragon intervening, so it makes little sense why the Dornish are taking such risks. If we use Balerion as an example, his incredible size means that Aegon cannot ride him on foot as he did in Oldtown at his coronation, since his claws and weight would ruin any of the roads in the Prince's Pass (and probably should have ruined those of Oldtown too).

Short of resting or clearing obstacles, Balerion should be in the air every chance Aegon gets, but the Dornish tactics also make little sense. While harrying and harassment might be possible with small numbers of troops, the purpose of an ambush is to surprise a foe and maul or annihilate their forces or at least put them to flight, especially though not always if the foe is superior in number. The presence of a dragon poses a problem since withdrawing the moment it takes off makes it unlikely that the losses inflicted on the enemy are severe, rendering the entire action pointless. Nor can it be assumed that such a timely withdrawal would be possible, since a melee developing or counterattacks by the enemy could make it difficult or even impossible for the attackers to withdraw without great loss. Unless means have been planned for in advance to mitigate the dragon's ability to intervene, there is no reason for the Dornish to attack at all when a dragon is on hand to assist Aegon's forces.

In the interest of treating the Dornish Marches with greater detail in Part 5, the last tactical or operational subject I want to discuss is the conduct of Aegon's forces in the Dornish Desert. We already mentioned in Part 3 that whether George knows it or not, Harlan Tyrell and his men should never have reached Hellholt, but this is only the tip of the questionable writing iceberg. In explaining the plight of the Highgardeners, F&B tells us it was the second year of autumn and it was hoped winter would arrive soon and bring more water and less heat to the desert. The Dornish sun was unrelenting however, and with the local water sources poisoned the Tyrell host lost almost all it's horses and a quarter of its men. We're given no indication of how they obtained water otherwise so even without our logistical knowledge we can still assume that the water they carried with them would not have lasted long, and Tyrell's host would have needed to force march most of the distant at the cost of significantly more men than the 25% they lost.

The weather does raise problems for the plot: the rainy season in both Spain and Israel/Palestine begins in autumn (roughly October-November), and we should expect this to be the case in Dorne given those regions were influences for George's depiction of Dorne in the books. George insists that Dorne receives enough rain even in the summer to remain habitable, so we should expect that by autumn there should already be some relief; if we're to believe that this autumn has been more dry than usual, this poses a serious problem for the Dornish. If 1 BC and 4 AC have already been write offs agriculturally as we suggested in Part 2, a dry autumn in 3 AC would mean an additional year of slim returns owing to reduced rainfall, in addition to the difficulties organizing planting and harvesting while the population at least attempts to remain hidden (Aegon sends a delegation in 3 AC to negotiate, which would have reported any activity by the Dornish that they could observe). The autumn of 3-4 AC being hot and dry should also have ruled out marching to Hellholt since finding water in the desert would have been difficult with or without the Sandy Dornish poisoning water sources.

Whether or not the Tyrell host was sent to Hellholt, the question of water supply would have been on the mind of Harlan Tyrell regardless of the circumstances and climate in which he was fighting. According to George, the Reach and Stormlands rarely get snow, and almost never in Oldtown and Dorne. Even if the climate is more temperate in the Reach proper and the Honeywine Valley (north and south of the line Bandallon-Brightwater Keep-Horn Hill respectively, inclusive in the former case) compared to Dorne with more abundant water, heat and exposure to the sun should still be an issue for the population. Harlan Tyrell was steward of Highgarden for House Gardener prior to being named Warden and Lord Paramount of the Reach by Aegon; it's almost certain he was in charge of supplying and quartering Mern IX's massive host before it marched to join Loren I Lannister's at Goldengrove. We have no reason to doubt TWOIAF when says that Harlan proved a 'capable steward' for the Reach, which makes it that much more unfathomable that he lead his host to Hellholt in the first place.

F&B says that it was Aegon who divided his host and sent Tyrell against Hellholt, implying that Aegon arrived at the decision and Tyrell supported it. Although F&B has Tyrell claim that Aegon's host could defeat any Dornish army without Balerion, clearly intending to show his arrogance, there's a difference between arrogantly underestimating your opponent's forces and ignoring the supply needs of your own host despite leading it through a desert. One is absolutely arrogance but the other is ignorance and outright incompetence, and it's the latter which is implied by the almost chiding way in which Gyldan states that 'men drink more' in the heat, as though Tyrell would have been unaware of this fact despite hailing from a kingdom whose climate is almost too warm for snow. Aegon and Harlan Tyrell should both have access to the archives of the Citadel and those of the Gardener and Durrandon kings as well as those kept by the noble houses of the Reach and Stormlands, they cannot have passed the 4 years between Aegon's coronation and the invasion of Dorne is blissful ignorance of what they would face. Water supply is a necessity for warfare at all times, and only becomes that much more important if water is scarce where operations are taking place.

The 10th century Byzantine manual On Campaign Organization and Tactics refers to the danger of operations when the enemy is at large and water is scarce, but what it says is applicable regardless of whether or not the enemy is close at hand:

13. The risk involved in marching through regions without water while the enemy is on the move.

In addition to other things, this too must be borne in mind: When the enemy are expected it is dangerous to lead the army through places in which there is no water, especially during the summer. In the winter the troops can often last for the whole day without water but in the summertime, not even to the noon meal. The men will perish along with the horses. It is a terrible thing to have to engage in two battles. I mean the one against the enemy and the one against the heat when water is lacking. If it should be necessary, however, they should choose a laborious route of three or four days to that shorter one which has no water. For it is preferable to march safely but laboriously along that long road which presents no danger than to choose the short one and fall into danger." (Dennis, Three Byzantine Military Treatises, 285)

The anonymous writer refers to many of the Empire's enemies from Arabs and Turks to Bulgars, Russians and Pechenegs, but there is no indication that water is any less important in Balkan Europe than in the border region of modern day Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Things are only made worse by what F&B tells us about the occupation of Hellholt; while it was believed Hellholt was well placed to respond to rebellions, "the river was sulfurous and the fish taken from it made the Highgardeners sick." Of course this implies that no one in Aegon's inner circle much less Aegon himself made any attempt to gather information about Hellholt in the 4 or so years prior to the invasion, let alone the year leading up to the invasion. This is not an error of judgement made in the heat of the moment, this is a systemic error that could have been avoided years in advance, and which raise serious question about the competence of Aegon and his lords (more on this in Part 6). More confusing still are the reports that the Qorgyles and Vaiths were ambushing Tyrell foraging parties that ventured too far west or east. As we noted in Part 3, Sandstone and Vaith are 150 miles or more away from Hellholt, meaning that the foraging parties and their assailants have to be crossing incredible distances despite the dry autumn and the hiding away of the Dornish population making it unlikely that any forage could be found to begin with.

Our discussion of tactics and operations will continue in Part 5, so the 'fix-it' section here will be fairly short. Much of these problems are already solved by what we did in Part 3, namely scaling back the scenario of the First Dornish War to make it more manageable. Tyrell never enters the western desert and the Dornishmen launch ambushes or when the dragons aren't there or if their effectiveness is mitigated by the terrain, so these scenarios never have to be depicted (in fairness to George, the quote about ambushes does not appear in F&B, so he seems to have cut it entirely). I'll have more to say about the dragons in Part 6, but the fact that the First Dornish War is less than half as long in our scenario (4-7 AC vs 4-13 AC) limits the damage they can inflict. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for Part 5!

[lumiereandcogsworth]

okay so I was thinking about robselle (shocking) and how Giselle definitely grows her hair back out eventually, which leads to Robert waking up to a face full of messy curls. and then THAT got me thinking, both your blorbos have long(ish) hair. does belle ever wake up to adam's hair in her face ?? or vice versa? this is kinda just an excuse to talk about blorbos hair really

eeeee how fun!!! okay i will begin by linking this post because believe it or not i’ve actually made a whole thing about belle + hair headcanons. i don’t know what compelled me to do that that day but it’s a good one. BUT, we Must have more!!!

i think it’s absolutely possible that they’ve both woken up with face-fulls of the other’s hair. belle is usually the one that’s up in his space, more often than not, so it’s usually adam who wakes up in her hair.

i’ve written this into a fic (here) but i love belle braiding hair as a stim, and i think she makes little braids in adam’s hair a lot. like in how to train your dragon 2?? that scene near the beginning where he just has little braids in his hair from her?? yeah <3

another little thing is that she loves to do is mess up his hair when it’s wet after he’s bathed. like he’ll come out with a towel around his waist and he’s using another smaller towel to dry his hair and belle runs over and grabs the smaller towel out of his hands and she proceeds to mess it up a bunch so that when she pulls away, his hair is all flat in front of his face. and he’s like “are you done?” and she laughs and says “yes💖” and he flips his hair back and rolls his eyes

sometimes when she’s feeling extra pranky and she rips the towel from around his waist and runs away. but that’s for another time (although she kind of does something similar here lol)

anywayyy adam is very fussy about his hair, as you can imagine. he has a standing appointment like every other week to get it properly trimmed and set. he likes his barber because they don’t talk. it’s like ron swanson and his barber. NO WORDS. so adam finds the experience relaxing and kind of a respite from the stresses of life

he used to never have his hair down except for being in bed. like from the moment he woke up he would tie it back with something. but since being with belle he actually does have it down a bit more often. still always tied back for being in public, but if he has a day off and he’s just with his family, it MAY be down. if he’s feeling ~wild~

speaking of his family, all his kiddos absolutely love to put things in his hair. flowers, crowns, pins, ribbons, clips, you name it! it’s not his Favorite activity, but ugh, he just can’t say no to them 🤧

MOST importantly, and this is truly crucial, is that adam loooooves when belle plays with his hair. anything from braiding to stroking to massaging his scalp. it just knocks him OUT. one of his absolute HAPPY PLACES is laying on belle’s chest, eyes closed, and she’s either humming or rambling or reading aloud. and it’s just… bliss 🥹✨

belle loves the way that adam likes to stim with HER hair. if he’s not reaching for her hand to play with, he’s raising his hand to a strand of her hair and he’s twirling it while they speak. it’s SO cute and she has to be so inwardly fond about it. true tragedy is when belle’s hair is up in a bun, and her hands are full, so what is adam supposed to stim with!!!!!!!!!! (probably her earrings or just put a hand on her waist or he’ll insist on taking the things she’s holding so he can use his other hand to hold hers <3 he’ll find a way to be physically affectionate with his wife!!!!!)

as a last note, i think belle really loves when adam’s hair is messy in the morning. she just in general loves how he looks when he’s sleepy; tired eyes and grumpy face and messy hair, all wrapped in his robe and holding his morning tea. AGH he’s so cute!!

[regular-gnome]

HELLO im 14 ,love your work and i would love to hear your thoughts

1 how do titana fly ,like we know from papa titan that at least SOME titans have wings , but like ,ther the size of small countries ,and their wings have HOLES in them ,maybe bc of their blood some of their mass exist outside the universe or in a pocket dimension ,thus making them much lighter then they should be , or maybe they just use levitation magic to levitate and they use their wings for steering ,

2. who was the bat queens owner? she can't be the titans palisman right ,even with hoe big she is she still gets dwarfed by the titan at full scale .

3. is the owl beast related to hooty ,

Hi! For the first question, there are a few options to consider. We doon't really know whether titans were capable of flight using their wings or not really. Titans vary greatly in appearance based on the skulls and body structures we've seen so it's maybe their wings had different purposes, could be more like different birds types kind of deal. Some titans may have used their wings for flight, while others might have used them for swimming or as a form of balance. They are massive and hold upright posture so they might be very useful for this. Their niche in the ecosystem could have changed over time, something like comodo dragons do, young live and feed diffrently than the older ones, something that can be taken to an extreme with titans and their wings might have adapted to it. Another thing appearance of holes in their wings could be a result of their tissue structure rather than actual holes. If you're interested in speculative biology approach and how titans might function @velvetwyrmz is creating beastiary that goes into it. We use pretty diffrent worldbuilding but its a cool project that goes into titan physiology

For palismen, I think they have origins tied to titans. Palistrom growing by absorbing titan magic, takes on the form of a creature using that magic after being carved. This could explain why palistrom growth is slow and why plant covens can't force it. Palismen accompany younger titans as they grow in power, serving to protect and give their magic before the titan is poweful enough to protect themself serving more as companions after they outgrow their usefulness. This tradition could have been adapted by witches on a smaller scale. It also explains why palismen live much longer than witches—they weren't meant to accommodate such short lifespans. I think this was implied by Bat Queen when she mentioned being on a grand staff belonging to a giant

Not really, but I think they are both types of demons that originate from the titan. Hooty or house demons in general, were the ones that formed in titans' wounds, while owl beasts are demons that evolved from decomposing bodies, both looking owlish could be atributed to convergent evolution

[ltleflrt]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks for tagging me @elvenmother 😊

1 - How many works do you have on AO3? 120

2 - What’s your total AO3 word count? 2,055,236

3 - What fandoms do you write for? Dragon Age, Mass Effect, SPN/Destiel, Baldur's Gate 3. I've also written a couple of City of Heroes fic, but those were a special situation, and I wouldn't say I "write for CoH fandom".

4 - Top five fics by kudos (lol these haven't changed in years but number 6 is creeping up on them, so maybe soon this list will be different!)

Kiss the Baker

Satin and Sawdust

No Words

Cursed or Not

Addicted to you

5 - Do you respond to comments? I respond on multi-chapter fics but not on short one shots. Unless it's for a smaller fandom, which for me is anything not Destiel. If there's only a tiny following, I make sure to respond to all of those to keep a connection with the community.

6 - What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? No Such Thing As Ghosts

7 - What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Other than the fic in the previous question, they're all deliriously happy endings, so I couldn't pick just one.

8 - Do you get hate on fics? Not often. At most I get a bit of disgust about a side pairing, and it's been years since I've gotten something truly nasty.

9 - Do you write smut? Hells yeah. Patron Saint of Shower Smut babeee!

10 - Craziest crossover? I don't write crossovers, but I have lots of fusion ideas that I'll never write.

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yeah, I've had a fic pop up on Wattpad before. They were quick to take it down when I reported it.

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated? Yup a couple. They're linked to the originals on AO3.

13 - Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not officially. I've had some extremely hands on beta work, both as the beta and the writer, and @bendingsignpost wrote a lovely prequel to one of my fics 😊

14 - All time favorite ship? Uh...I've written the most and the longest for Destiel, so I guess that's my answer for now.

15 - What’s a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Probably Shameless, and definitely Descent and For Better or Worse.

16 - What are your writing strengths? I think I'm really good at dialogue that sounds like the character even in an AU.

17 - What are your writing weaknesses? Setting descriptions

18 - Thoughts on dialogue in another language? Love it

19 - First fandom you wrote in? Dragon Age

20 - Favorite fic you’ve written? I refuse to choose a favorite out of all my babies, but I wish more people would read Dreaming in Digital 😆

tagging @jupiterjames @anarchycox @slytherkins @littleraeofsunshineda @joasakura and anyone else who wants to play 💜

[alexanderlightweight]

Any writing with short!Alec? I can imagine Magnus introducing Alec to his friends and they’re like ‘is this a joke? Is he invisible? Have you finally lost it?’ And Alec just steps out from behind him and completely fucks them up while Magnus watches with adoration.

i really love show malec and so i headcanon them as that and don't have any plans to write alec smaller though i would considering and have writen magnus bigger due to his warlock mark?

i wrote alec super tall for a prompt for @saeths and i also wrote a giant megladon!magnus mer for them but i like keeping malec at least as tall as how they come across.

i know that in the books alec is shorter than magnus but personally, i just adore that alec is a bit taller and scowly and softens and submits so beautifully to magnus. all of that power and strength and training and he just melts for magnus and my brain goes a;ksjbaksdbjf;abf.

this is an absolutely fine ask btw! i appreciate asks like this because it helps me explain stuff and i'm also willing to work around stuff to try and incorporate things.

this is smol!dragon!alec because i just got some good news (a meeting cancelled which means i dont have to leave the house or see none-house people today! - i am an anxious introvert and @saeths is a non-anxious extrovert so i love cancelations! and they like that i am around for cuddles) dragon style. part of the 'taste of his magic' verse as a treat?

<3 lumine

-

"I thought you said you had something impressive to show us?" Ragnor mocks as he steps in and plops in his chair, he stares over at where Alexander is pretending to nap and rolls his eyes.

Magnus stares at Ragnor and wonders just what is going on.

Alexander is curled up the size of a housecat on the windowseat and Magnus knows that he looks small, but he's still a dragon.

"Are you experimenting with reptiles again?" Ragnor asks, absently summoning himself a cuppa, "I thought you gave that up when you lost Baby to Camille?"

Magnus can feel the glow of jealous, accusatory eyes on his back and he blinks rapidly at Ragnor and wonders if he can get away with just summoning a scone into the other warlocks mouth. Anything to get him to stop talking.

"Ba-" he starts and there is a subtle hiss that only he seems to hear and he clears his throat. "The snake was merely an accessory, Ragnor. A security feature, hardly anything more than a sometimes useful pet." Magnus leaves out how cute the snake was, he doesn't think it would go well for him.

That seems to placate Alexander but Ragnor is sending him a confused, dubious look.

"Well then, what's with the lizard on your windowseat, hmm?"

"He's not a lizard." Magnus bites through gritted teeth because he can feel the force of Alexander's stare growing colder. "Ragnor, when was the last time you slept?"

"Oh a few days ago or so. Research and all that, you know how that is." Ragnor does look a bit peckish and the hollows under his eyes are a dark green rather than the normal shade.

"Ragnor-" Magnus starts and then he sees movement and he shifts, lunging forward to grab Alexander's nape with his maw. He instinctively growls and shakes and to his delighted surprise, Alexander goes limp.

-

Alec glares at the tired old warlock who interrupted his nap and then sighs, content as Magnus holds him close.

It's exactly as he planned and he smirks, smug from his position of being held and rocked by Magnus' mouth.

Alec smirks and, with a flick of his tongue, freezes the old warlock's tea.

The man splutters and gives them both an accusatory stare before his skin pales to a soft, sage green with fear as their eyes meet.

"Ducky, please tell me you don't have a dragon in your mouth."

Alec smirks and gives the lightest of trills and the warlock shivers, hands up in surrender.

Magnus chuffs around where he's holding him and Alec rolls his eyes, finally taking the force of his gaze away.

It's hardly his fault if even as the size of say, a lizard, Alec is too powerful for warlocks to gaze upon without fear.

... well, all warlocks except for Magnus of course.

[monstrsball]

it's been.... many months and i am back with another batch of pokemon teams in my hq pokemon au!

seijoh four edition

oikawa: ninetales, lucario, nidoking, emolga, mawile, sawsbuck

pokemon trainer, of course. his goal right now is to beat the current champion (ushijima) who he totally doesn't have a grudge against. he's challenged him once, and beat the elite four, and is currently preparing for another go at it.

he doesn't hate dragon type pokemon but he has developed an aversion to having any on his team because it was ushijima's advice to him when he lost against them. i also like to imagine this is a rivalry they've had since before ushijima became champion so it's not just... oikawa lost once and is salty forever now lol.

i did take types into account somewhat, at least defensively, but this is mostly just... vibes? pokemon i think oikawa would like having on his team and that i think suit him. lucario is because, like with suga and kageyama, i wanted him to have a pokemon that evolves with high friendship! a way to symbolize one of the things he's better than kageyama at in canon. i will fully admit that nidoking is me shoving in the 'grand king' thing. but!!! he suits him. emolga is simply because i remember getting really pissed off at trainers with emolga when i was playing pokemon white so naturally oikawa had to have one.

iwaizumi: arcanine, heracross, tyranitar, joltik, ceruledge, togedemaru

this is also just vibes... after giving oikawa a pikaclone i was like omg what if i gave iwa one too... <- arcanine and ninetales were already supposed to be their little counterpart pokemon. oh well they get two i guess. joltik and togedemaru are besties. joltik likes to sit on iwa's head.

tyranitar and arcanine were both iwa's first pokemon!! his big guys that he babies so much. this is according to oikawa. iwaizumi denies this. (but oikawa is right)

ceruledge is because... it's a knight and i think that suits iwaizumi for obvious reasons. and well. i don't like armarouge's design lol so ceruledge it is <3 and i love fire/ghost types.

as for his role in the au, he's just a trainer traveling with oikawa. they do double battles a lot. iwaizumi has all of the gym badges but hasn't pursued challenging the elite four, it's not necessarily something he has a lot of interest in. he likes entering tournaments though.

matsukawa: chandelure, haunter, bisharp, morpeko, grafaiai

first off, i have decided to give the seijoh four all pikaclones to mirror the karasuno third years all have eeveelutions hehe. i think it's cute :p and they ended up all being the dual types too which i think adds to it somehow... or at least differentiates them from the other characters i gave pikaclones to haha.

some ghost types because of what he does in canon! which might be what he's pursuing in this au too? or maybe he later decides to settle down in a haunted house to look after some ghost types... that could be cool. bisharp because i think he's cool. that's it.

(oikawa is not a big fan of his haunter because he messes with him a lot. <- guy who pokemon just like to mess with. see: suga's aipom)

hanamaki: dedenne, impidimp, maractus, mareanie

other than dedenne, i don't have much reasoning for these guys? just guys i think he would like. smaller team because i imagine, like matsukawa, he doesn't battle as much as iwaizumi and oikawa do. he does it for fun but that's about it. he's not really sure what it is he wants to do. he's still trying to figure that part out.

impidimp gets along pretty well with matsukawa's haunter. they both make oikawa's life worse.