#neither crows nor eagles au

[kradogsrats]

smh this is even longer than the last chapter and it is entirely self-indulgent garbage, next chapter they ACTUALLY GO TO THE BREACH is2g

In this chapter:

Lissa gets unwittingly roped into Girls Night. There are snacks.

Relatedly, I spent like four hours researching Jewish foods for one sentence. Then I made myself sad remembering that one of Viren's actual established character traits is he likes strong cheese.

The ending of You've Seen Where the Knife Is can finally make sense because you finally see the moment it's referencing.

Soren is growing up too fast. He's also a little too smart for his own good.

[littlespacestars]

Shallura Fic Rec (#2)

Shallura Rec List (#2)

I previously made a list of my favorite Shallura fics, and decided to pull together a new one for you guys!! Hopefully you find something you haven’t read yet. There’s a bit of a lag in Shallura fics lately (and content in general), but there’s absolutely still some good ones! Again, these are categorized to the best of my ability, since some of them can apply to more than one group!

Shallura Rec List (#1) is here

Fluff

Like an Eagle - Revasnaslan

“It turned out that explaining trust falls to an alien was a little bit more difficult than Shiro thought it was going to be.

Written for Shallura Week Day 3 (Trust / Growth)”

Sharing Earth culture, trusting, Allura scares TF out of Shiro

Wingman - thir13enth

“Coran is never subtle. Shallura.”

Supportive Coran, protective space uncle, wingman Coran

 She’s Like the Sun - sdd_writes_things

“In which neither Shiro nor Allura can actually sleep at night and they're super thirsty for each other, turning tentative hand holding into nearly making love on the floor which then somehow turns into seventy miles of blankets and then sleeping in front of a window.”

Almost smutty content, shy handholding to violent necking, insomnia, pining, not explicit

Nighttime - butimnotinthefandom

“Shiro sees to his crew and spends some time alone with Allura.”

Shiro’s POV, space family, minor Klance/Klangst, flirting, domestic, stargazing, pining, sharing stress,  “Innocent Shallura massage”

Where Sleep Will Be Peaceful ; Unharried by Terror - gallantrejoinder

“Four times Allura and Shiro slept side by side and it didn't mean anything - plus the one time that it did.”

Insomnia, four times plus one, sharing a bed, nightmares, sleep, gentle and soft things, misunderstandings, pining, happy ending, slight mature content

 At 2200 Hours - braincoins

 “It's the end of a long day aboard the Castle ship. Time to relax and unwind.”

Shallura Sundays, prompt, domestic, fluff, background Klance, space parents, playful flirting and teasing, tired Shiro

 Sock Sliding at 2am - mantharay

“Allura and Shiro are distraught and stressed after the events of Crystal Venom (S1x09). Through the power of sliding down dark castle halls like children, they learn that to be a leader, you can't be serious all the time.

Oh, and there's some Emotions™.”

Fluff and angst, comfort, PTSD, panic/anxiety attacks, comfort, platonic relationship, sort of, possible pining

 Moments of You - Seliphra

“When Allura gets injured saving the day, Shiro can't help but try to take care of her.”

First kiss, love confessions, canon-typical injury and violence, minor injuries, BAMF Allura, nervous Shiro, hurt/comfort, Shiro is in awe and Allura is amazing,

 Come Down to the Water Where the Sky is Blue and Yellow - armouredescort (Part 1 of A Long Road to Courtship)

“Allura convinces Shiro to go to the beach.”

Day at the beach, beach episode, tooth-rotting fluff, space family, water fight, slow burn

 Working to Relax - IHaveNothingToDo

“Allura's tense and her hair is a mess. Shiro helps.“

Soft, Shiro plays with Allura’s hair, it’s the mice’s fault, short fic

 3 AM - jaztice

“Shiro and Allura are hanging out in Allura's room around 3am.”

Shiro is ticklish, kissing, tickling, hickeys, short fic

 Ancient - juniperallura

 “For prompt "Shallura, ancient. The universe can be very heavy and make you feel very small.”

Fluff, angst, comfort, playful banter, short fic

A Matter of Time - teslatricity (nayanroo)

“The war's over, and the universe is starting to rebuild. As Allura leads the charge in forming new alliances, looking to the future, Shiro considers the kind of future he wants for them. But being a paladin means that your plans tend to go awry and your timing is never the greatest...“

Engagement, Shiro is a bit of a disaster, but he loves her so much ya’ll, background relationships, but only if you’re looking for it, proposal-blocked, supportive Keith, gorgeous scenery, nervous Shiro, Shiro’s parents, new home

 Angst

As You Wish - SippingThatTea

“Every time Allura asked something from Shiro, he merely responded 'As you wish'. Allura does wonder if there was more to that.”

Fluff and humor, angst with a happy ending, short fic

Betrayal (2/2) - YoGrossDude

“Shiro is turned against Team Voltron. Allura must stop him. A life and death struggle, and what comes after.”

Dark Shiro, characters fighting, major character injury, angst, possession, aftermath of possession, aftermath of violence, mind control aftermath & recovery, panic attacks, PTSD, suicidal thoughts

Crown Another - carrotycake

“‘And for every king that died

Oh, they would crown another...’

Allura struggles with accepting the mantle of Black Paladin.”

Angst, black paladin Allura, cool lions doing mystical things, Allura is sad, grief/mourning, Keith is a good friend

Multichapter

Watch Me Lovely (7/?) - realityisiron

“‘What exactly did you think you were agreeing to?’

- - - - -

Shiro could pretend to be Allura’s concubine for a week. After all, concubines were for behind closed doors. There’d be no reason for them to have to do anything crazy.

Except Shiro may have made a huge translation error, one that will come back to bite him in rather… unexpected ways. And places.”

Explicit, eventual NSFW, porn with plot, mutual pining, romance, fake/pretend relationship, comedy, hurt/comfort, Shiro angst, alien culture, alien biology, alien sex, exhibitionism, femdom, world building  

Like Real People Do (5/5) - andtheblueberrymuffins (Part 1 of Like Real People Do)

“Shiro knows this is wrong. Everything is wrong. But they need him. Keith said so, and Shiro knows, he knows, that if they need him he has to help them. It’s what he would do. It’s what he does. (Everything is fine.)

Or: The one where something is very wrong with Shiro after his second escape from the Galra.”

Tragedy, Post-Season/Series 03, Speculation about Shiro post season 3, ‘Shiro’, Implied/Referenced mind control, mind control aftermath & recovery, clone Shiro, prepare your tissues and cry deeply

 The Princess and the Pilot (2/?) - ashesandhoney

“In an alternate timeline, Shiro gets picked up by the Galra before the war starts and eventually ends up being given to the Princess of the Alteans as a joke or an attempt to start a war or as a mistake. Whatever their motive was for sending him, Allura is now left trying to figure out what to do with him.”

AU, prisoner Shiro, slow burn, misunderstanding, strangers to lovers

 Jealousy (3/3) - juniperallura

“As the team forges a new alliance, Shiro must confront a figure from Allura's past, a new challenge, and his own feelings.”

Jealously, pining, mutual pining, light angst, fluff, confessions, Shiro is moody and hopelessly in love 

 Shallura Babies/Children

We’re All Just Stars With People Names - babyfairy (babyfairybaekhyun)

“The space parents become legitimate space parents.”

Post-war, star babies, inspired by art, pregnancy, FLUFF, twins, birthing scene, space family, Coran is going to spoil them

Three Merging Currents - pixie_rings (materassassino)

“One quintessence, two quintessences… and then three. Allura and Shiro have made something unique, but Altean pregnancy is its own special thing.”

Space family, alien biology, dropping the pregnancy annoucement bomb, new parents, Allura is strong AF and has cravings

Creating Constellations - stratagem (stardustandrobotlions)

“Allura and Shiro weren't expecting parenthood to start off with such a bang, but they have to improvise when Allura goes into labor during a space battle.”

Childbirth, space battle, space pirates, shallura baby, space family

Like Bringing Color to Children - distinctive_pineapples

“'Lance,' Shiro started, his 'dad face' already at a maximum (because holy crow, he actually was a dad now, and Lance was about to be very, very dead). 'Is there a reason why you just called my daughter an animated lion?'”

Lance ends up nicknaming Shiro and Allura's newborn daughter after an animated lion. It's met with mixed reactions, but at one point or another, everyone caves.’

Future Fic, Shallura baby

 Who Tells Your Story? - after_midnightmunchies

“‘Do you think history will remember us?’

Allura has some doubts and Shiro quickly dismisses them.”

Brief mention/view of children, Shallura Week 2017, Prompt: Legacy, Future Fic, married life, canon compliant, established relationship, minor Uncle Klance, one-shot

 A Wonderful Night...? - ebonynightwriter (Part 5 of Shallura Week 2017)

“Returning to the ship after a night out, Shiro and Allura find two very important things are missing.”

Fluff, fun/humor, star babies, space family, love, Shallura!kids, one-shot, future fic, established relationship, Shallura Week 2017

Two Front Teeth - stratagem (stardustandrobotlions)

“Remember that time that Shiro forgot to tell Allura that human children lose their baby teeth, and that might happen with an Altean-Human child, too? Yeah, good times.”

Little humans lose their teeth and that’s disturbing to Alteans, tooth fairy, adventures in child-rearing, Altean-human kids are SO confusing, Allura and Coran are horrified, space family

 Shallura AU

Lead me Home - distinctive_pineapples

“The universes may change, but there's always a familiar face to help Shiro move forward. [Takes place post-season 2 or outside of canon continuity]

My contribution to Shallurazine's "Stars Aligned" issue 2.”

AU, but not really, canon universe, post-season 2

 Hold Onto Me (1/?) - killashilla (shalluravoltron)

“The prestigious Garrison Academy welcomes two royal exchange students from Altea. Whirlwind romances and harsh realities unfold as Allura, Lance, Shiro, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge navigate love, life, and high school.

The first day that Princess Allura and her cousin Lance arrive in a different galaxy, thousands of light years from Altea. They'll have to finish their educations here, on an unfamiliar planet with unfamiliar people. Luckily, these royals are quick to find allies...very close, very dreamy allies.”

Don’t Be Scared - thi13tenth

“there's still time.

—shallura. au. (for shalluraweek 2017, day two: hands; names.)”

Beach, fluff, established relationship, flirting

 That’s How You Know - Bleusarcelle

“It takes a while but then the sun sets, the terrace get brighter and Shiro can only stare fondly as Allura keeps talking, eyes wide with excitement and arms flying around vividly at every word coming out of her mouth.

He’s entranced and he doesn't want to look away but his phone beeps besides him, letting him know it’s a quarter before midnight.

He voices his new discovery and he’s met with a confused arched eyebrow and a soft gasp.

‘What? Already?’

Those gotta be his new favorite words.”

Modern setting AU, getting together, established Klance, BG Klance, first meetings, awkward flirting, first dates, pining Shiro, smitten Shiro, mutual pining, marriage proposal, adoptive siblings Keith and Shiro, cousins Lance and Allura

 Wedding - juniperallura

“For prompt "Shallura + Wedding"

The young officers are excited for a gathering outside the Garrison”

 Garrison AU, fluff, dancing, BFF Matt and Shiro, mutual pining, short fic

 Mentor of the Month - RoknRollPumpkin

“Allura is ready but Shiro isn't. And that's ok.”

 Engineering/bodyshop AU, mentor Allura, fluff, soft sexual content, mature

 Drabble Collections

Shallura Week 2017 (7/7) - hatandgoggles

“My prompt fills for Shallura week 2017

Day 1: Dancing

Day 2: Gender/cisswap

Day 3: Roleswap

Day 4: Wedding

Day 5: Cooking

Day 6: Romantic date

Day 7: Free day (Roswell)”

Genderswap, cisswap, rule 63, roleswap, rolereversal, human Allura, Altean Shiro, 50s au, 40s au, wedding, proposal, single dad au, dancing

 Shallura Week (3/?) - juniperallura

“A collection of drabbles based off the 2017 Shallura Week prompts.”

Fluff, angst, Hands/Names, Trust, Lost/Found

Beyond Fading Stars - RukiaG

“Series of one-shots for Shallura week 2017. Some may be AU, some not.

Chapter 1: Time & Space. In a different reality, Shiro and Allura meet at a hospital.

Chapter 2: Hands & Names. Allura teaches Altean to the Paladins and Shiro tries to control his crush on her.

Chapter 3: Trust & Growth. Team Voltron does trust falls.

Chapter 4: Potential & Free. Fullmetal Alchemist AU in which Shiro is a veteran from the Ishval Civil War and Allura is an alchemist. (WARNING: may contain some references to the manga and Brotherhood’s ending).

Chapter 5: Lost & Found. The mice are lost. Shiro helps Allura find them.”

Shallura Week 2017, AU - modern setting, canon universe, language lessons, pining Shiro, trust falls, PTSD, team bonding, FMA universe, mice washing

Hurt/Comfort

She Stops My Bones From Wondering - pixie_rings (materassassino)

“Some nights, Shiro can't sleep. On those nights, Allura reminds him he isn't alone.”

PTSD, weird imagery, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-sex, not enough for a M rating Shiro-centric, introspection, please let space dad rest, short fic

And We Hold On - ebonynightwriter (Part 3 of Shallura Week 2017)

‘“It’s not your fault.” // “How do you know?”’

Drama, Hurt/Comfort, injury, recovery, dark sides, one-shot, canon universe, post-season 2, Shallura Week 2017, this got way more “Avatar state” than originally intended, Allura’s quintessence, magic

Acceptance - rainingWolf

“Shiro couldn't be whole if she just fished his right arm out of the garbage compactor. The Castle had alerted her, as if sensing that she needed to know exactly what was going on within the confines of the pristine whiteness that had never been dark. Allura had reached in, expecting something else, anything else, maybe one of the Mice had been trapped- but then her hand touched something foreign, something familiar, and she pulled, pulled…

She never knew her heart could hurt this much, could twist this sharply at the sight of a material object.”

Shalluraweek, Lost/Found, angst, stressed Shiro, Galra arm, short fic

 Comfort - coralreefskim

“...The moment was so delicate, gentle, that she didn’t dare speak. Both of them didn’t. Their breathing was soft, shallow even, warm brown eyes meeting kaleidoscope ones, and they just stayed there. Stayed there, until they both fell asleep, unconsciously, comfortably, like how it hadn’t been from since the war had been declared.

The paladins found them the next morning, still sleeping, her hand still on his.”

Fluff and angst, mental instability, character study, nightmares, emotional hurt/comfort, could pass as platonic, mutual emotional support

 Something Like Anthrax - pixie_rings (materassassino)

“What started off as a diplomatic mission quickly turns into a 1950s B-movie sci-fi cliché. The Paladins and Allura end up on a planet of amazons for negotiations. Things don't go quite to plan.”

Emotional hurt/comfort, plot, science fiction cliches, unwanted sexual advances, nonbinary Pidge, flashbacks, PTSD, space family, mission, banquet, established Shallura, also Shiro gets the top bunk bed OKAY

 Little Talks - Revasnaslan

“Fascination with Shiro's hand leads to some conversations about names and anxieties about the past.

Written for Shallura Week Day 2 (Hands / Names)”

Hurt/comfort, sharing culture, insecurities, short fic

 Again and Again - TKipani

“Nighttime is for tears, memories, and comfort.”

Hurt/Comfort, Post-episode 9, Shiro comforting Allura, crying, Allura tries to stay strong and hide her emotions, some fluff

NSFW

Don’t Need Anything Else, Just Need You - babyfairybaekhyun (babyfairy)

“She turns to him and her eyes are glowing stars that call to him from behind her helmet. He wants her, he wants her badly, he wants her now.”

NSFW, slight plot, BAMF Allura and Shiro, turned on from the heat of battle, doin’ it in the Black Lion, dom!Shiro, oral sex, post-sex fluff, they are cuties, for littlespacestars

The Edge of Something - ashesandhoney

“In which Shiro has some kind of magical ability and Allura has some kind of Altean mating cycle and there are jokes about Hogwarts letters and bowling and a very slow building, cuddling and self indulgent sex scene.”

NSFW, Slow self-indulgent sex scenes, resolved sexual tension, sex magic, porn w/out porn, Shiro has magic, mating cycles/in heat

Build Your Castle Into Me - nayanroo (teslatricity)

“The night before Allura's coronation, she tells her husband how nervous she is, how worried she is that she won't be a good queen. And, being a good husband, Shiro helps her relax.”

NSFW, Oral sex, throne sex, marriage, established relationship, porn with plot, Allura really likes seeing him on his knees in front of her, but who can really blame her

Sound - Braincoins (Part 1 of the Senses series)

“Allura has an overabundance of quintessence. Who knew that could even happen?! Worse still, the best and quickest method for reducing it to normal levels requires... assistance. But it's ask Shiro for help or resign herself to not sleeping. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

NSFW, casual sex, sort of, convenience sex, contrived excuses, Allura’s trying to make this PWP, not sure if she succeeds, hint of voice kink, language, pining

Sometimes the Wild Gorlax Rides You - Nary

“"Look," he said, "I promise I'll take a break if you will. Deal?"

"Perhaps... It would be nice if we could take a break together," Allura suggested. Her hand ran lightly up his arm, settling on his shoulder almost playfully, in a way that made Shiro confused and more than a little bit warm. "After all," she continued, "with what's facing us, who knows when we might have another chance..."

Non-graphic sexual content, implied sexual encounter, first kiss, first time, before battle, stress relief, a little bit of shovel talk, nervousness, cuddling, Shiro finally gets some sleep, advice from Coran, Voltron Positivity Exchange

Distraction - madamebomb

“Shiro is Allura's biggest distraction.”

NSFW, trying to deny their feelings, pining, Shiro’s bed is way too small

 The Man and the Moon - cupofdaydream

 “A place where I’m intermittently going to dump my Shiro/Allura smut.”

 NSFW, Porn without plot, pillow talk, some fluff

 3:23 AM - RoknRollPumpkin

“They did the thing (AU)”

NSFW, Voltron AU, Shiro’s birthday, established relationship

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Please support these lovely writers and give ‘em some kudos and a comment! I still need to go back through and do that for some people, too!! Thank you for the wonderful content, guys. <33

[authoratmidnight]

More 5D’s Wing AU Headcanons

To go with these.

-Along with being marked, wings are often clipped to render the individual flightless upon arrest(at least until they next moult and regrow the feathers). it’s generally a painless procedure but sometimes, sometimes Security just, doesn’t care.

-Yusei and Crow have both had their wings clipped when they were marked, the latter several times(each time he was caught).

-Crow keeps his wings surprisingly well groomed for someone living in Satellite (getting hold of stuff for proper preening and grooming is difficult, so most don’t bother). He keeps them maintained and in near pristine condition, because dirty, matted wings are useless for flying and he likes flying.

-That said, the sad truth is he is unable to fly. After being caught too many times he ended up on the wrong side of Security and rather than just clipping them as they’re supposed too, they ripped out several flight feathers before burning/cauterizing the area to the point the feathers would never regrow(to ‘teach him a lesson’).

-Neither Yusei nor Jack are aware of this fact as he never told them-it happened after Team Satisfaction split.

-Jack on the other hand keeps his maintained out of pride and vanity. He has to look his best all the time. Unfortunately he has expensive taste in wing care supplies.

-Since birds of prey/vultures are commonly associated with Tops and Security, Yusei kept the nature of his wings a secret(eagle wings are only found among Tops) lest people find out the truth of his heritage and turn on him(i.e blaming him for Zero Reverse/go after him for being a Top etc...). Only a handful of people know what they are(Martha, Jack, Crow).

-Rua and Ruka are to small to properly preen their own wings(they can’t fully reach), so they usually end up sitting in such a way that they can do each others.

-Flight lessons from Team 5D’s.

-Aki’s wings just, don’t make sound (owl wings and all that) so she has a habit of just, sneaking up on people, by accident.

-D-Wheels are actually a surprisingly useful form of transportation, open sides and back allow for wing space, something cars don’t have.

-Either black swan or black chicken wings for Martha because of how both swans and hens just, cuddle the young’ins under/in their wings(plus ‘mother hen’ joke). They’re soft and fluffy at any rate and the trio definitely huddled under them as kids.

-Dark Signer Wings look skeletal and are lacking in feathers(not entirely devoid though)

[kradogsrats]

ANYWAY the whole push/pull of Viren and Kpp'Ar on quitting dark magic and what that means and under what circumstances will you go back and how you reconcile it or not is so important to me personally because that's the heart of Kpp'Ar's arc in NCNE and idk man I just feel very personally seen ha ha

[kradogsrats]

And the other chapter, a bit shorter than most but them's the breaks.

This is another scene I actually wrote very early on, because I figured if I couldn't make sense of Sarai's point of view with as much nuance as the other sides, there was no way the fic could work at all. All things considered, it did not change very much between then and now.

[kradogsrats]

Only one chapter tonight because I had a loooong day at work and then it needed a lot more polishing than I anticipated.

anyway I have to go back and do some revisions on the earlier chapters because the exact nature of what Lissa found and how it's connected to the song changed (rip but worth it) so uh... ignore the inconsistencies, for now

[kradogsrats]

asdklj;sdjkldsjfk I am within like 500 words of the pending chapter of On the Shoulders of Titans being finished and ngl I want to gnaw through my fucking arm

hopefully the rest of the fic will be less torturous to write since shit actually like... starts to happen, rather than it just being me desperately trying to make Lissa doing research and Kpp'Ar explaining things seem interesting

[kradogsrats]

/triumphant tooting

So... the scene with Lissa and Kpp'Ar in this chapter is like a solid one-third of the reason I'm writing this entire fic, ha ha. I've probably rewritten 90% of it four or five times, at least one of which you can find somewhere back in my NCNE tag, and they've both gotten bitchier with every rewrite. It's been fabulous.

Also, for your multimedia pleasure, I present the instrumental piano "soundtrack" playlist for chapters one through three! Tracklist below:

Life in Katolis - Hasslon, "Unnamed in G Major"

Lissa & Sarai - Dyathon, "Wander"

The Duren Crisis - Lucas King, "Famine"

Harrow's Promise - Hasslon, "My Dreams"

An Old, Old Song - Michael Ortega, "Inception"

Use of a Clever Mind (Lissa's Obsession) - Yoshi Sugiyama, "Quiet Space"

The Ruined Puzzle House - Lucas King, "Control"

A Lonely/Self-Absorbed Man - Lucas King, "Falling"

[kradogsrats]

kind of sad I deliberately didn't plan a lot of dark magic spells into NCNE because I actually really like writing them:

He unrolled the map provided by the scouts, weighing down its corners with stones, then laid out the implements for the spell on top of it—the jar of wisps, a closed folding knife set on top of a loosely rolled strip of thin cloth, and a small, well-worn mortar containing the inert stone they would rely on to lead them, along with its matching pestle. Lissa drew a sharp breath, startled, when he snapped open the knife and casually nicked the skin at the base of his wrist. He stretched his hand over the mortar, allowing several drops of blood to fall onto the stone inside. Ignoring the blood continuing to well from the cut, he picked up the pestle and struck a single downward blow to the stone that crumbled it with unnatural ease. A snap of his fingers sparked a flame among the resulting fine gravel, which wavered for a moment before flaring eerily violet as it caught and devoured the stone’s remains in a way no normal fire could. Kpp’Ar lifted the jar of wisps and held it above the mortar, his eyes flashing the same glow as the flames before clouding into the swallowing black of magic. He spoke, the sounds inhuman, guttural hisses that made Lissa's skin crawl. She glanced toward Sarai and saw her eyes tighten, and even King Harrow looked uncomfortable. Only Commander Amaya had no reaction. The wisps seemed to leech the violet light from the fire, taking on its color for themselves as the flames guttered and died. Kpp’Ar opened the jar and held it aloft, speaking another spell in a harsh, choking series of consonants. The wisps rose gracefully out of the jar and into the air above them, clustered tightly together. Then they burst apart like a soundless firework, trailing faint tails of light as they coiled off in all directions. Kpp’Ar’s eyes remained blank voids as he turned his attention to the map. He swept his thumb over the clotting blood from his wrist and pressed it to the paper, at the place that marked the location of the Breach. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, slowly, a fan of thin red lines spread from beneath his thumb, trailing across the map in the same directions as the wisps. Most gradually faded as they went, reduced to creeping, hair-thin traces barely visible in their meandering. Several, however, angled and converged into a single thick trail and picked up speed. Lissa watched as it swept confidently across the paper, her heart sinking as it passed landmark after landmark, steadily increasing the distance. Finally it stopped, blossoming into a mark like a thumbprint—a perfect twin of the one left when Kpp’Ar lifted his hand away.

[kradogsrats]

bonus of being still too pissed off to look at my dash is I can actually get some writing done:

Claudia wandered out into the living area, flopping dramatically face-first onto the couch with an exaggerated sigh. She turned her head, glancing at Lissa to gauge her response, then gave another sigh, even louder and more put-upon. Lissa had to work to suppress a smile. For all that Claudia's seven-going-on-teenager attitude could be exasperating, it was also sometimes hilarious. Keeping a straight face, she sat down beside Claudia to stroke her hair. "Why so glum, moonbeam?" "I'm so bored," Claudia groaned emphatically, only slightly muffled by the cushions. "Soren's always watching the stupid Crownguard training, and Callum has some kind of special prince lessons today. There's no one to play with." She turned her head again, this time fixing Lissa with a pouting glare. "I don't even have a book." Lissa gave her a warning look, eyebrows raised. "You have plenty of books. You'll get Daddy's spellbook back when you've shown me you can handle its contents responsibly." The book was a pretty thing, its cover bound with canvas dyed a deep purple—Claudia's favorite color—and bearing an intricate, gold-leafed design that seemed to promise mysterious and exciting secrets within. Its interior, however, was as dry and impenetrable as any of the dozens of magic-related tomes Viren had kept, so Lissa had deemed it reasonable enough for Claudia to keep as a memento—at not even seven years old, she would be able to do little more than look at the scant collection of figures and diagrams it contained before getting bored. Unfortunately for her, Claudia's reading skills—already more advanced than Soren's had been at her age—expanded at a prodigious rate. Their tutors assured Lissa that Soren's progress was perfectly acceptable and Claudia, having quickly surpassed her brother's abilities despite being two years younger, was simply exceptional by comparison. It was still sometimes alarming to have a child who frequently needed help buttoning her own shoes also requesting definitions for words like endothaumic and arcanoprecipitate. Claudia made a sound of disgusted frustration. "How long will that take?" "Longer, if you keep whining and carrying on about it."

[kradogsrats]

Neither Crows Nor Eagles AU Claudiaaaaaa (where Viren dies when she's a child so she's trained in dark magic by Kpp'Ar)

kind of fun combining some of the key shapes of her canon outfit with Kpp'Ar's... whatever it is he's got going on

[kradogsrats]

and now for an interlude of "I can't possibly write this fic until I've designed full armor sets for the blorbos it features"

Lissa's not a soldier: most of her "combat" experience is hunting, but she's a skilled rider and an excellent shot. This may or may not help against the magma titan.

Anyway click below for my unhinged rant about bows.

Okay so, while Lissa can almost definitely shoot a normal hunting bow, she's a) not a professional hunter, and b) for that and other reasons hasn't kept up training for like ten years, so she cannot just pick up a war longbow with double the draw weight of a hunting bow like "yeah this is fine." Also women with longbows is fucking overdone, yes I'm looking at you literally every piece of YA fantasy media since The Chronicles of Narnia.

This crossbow (which technically could be called an arbalest due to the steel laths, but those terms are basically interchangeable) is modeled after the rapid-fire crossbow designed by Leonardo da Vinci, which never caught on pretty much only because firearms were already eclipsing bow weapons at that point. This is Katolis, where by all rights they should already have firearms, so fuck the artbook, you don't need a windlass or some shit and it fires way faster than 2 bolts per minute.

Da Vinci's crossbow only has a draw weight of 300 pounds, which makes it probably on the low end of longbow power. (The physics of converting draw weight of a longbow or crossbow into arrow impact energy is actually super complicated, so you could have an 800+ pound crossbow with an arrow impact about the same as a 150-180 pound longbow, but it also doesn't require so much back strength that frequent use literally deforms your skeleton.) Windlass- or cranequin-loaded crossbows used on the battlefield frequently had several times that draw weight, like 1000+ pounds. With refinement, the Da Vinci design may have been able to increase the draw weight, but that didn't happen because, again, firearms.

Side note: it's apparently still hotly debated in the historical armaments community (which is as weird as you imagine) whether or not a bow of any kind could pierce armor. Best guess is that it depends greatly on both the quality and type of arrow and the quality of the armor (which varied a lot), so I'm grudgingly giving a pass to Ethari on designing a bow-and-arrow combo that can pierce straight through Harrow's presumably extremely high-quality breastplate.

Also if you want to google Da Vinci's crossbow design, make sure you specify the rapid fire one because he also designed a giant crossbow (as one does, naturally) and that's the one that has the most search results for some reason.

[kradogsrats]

anyway next chapter of On the Shoulders of Titans has entered its final shape and will be posted in the next 2 weeks even if it kills me, because after that is 2 weeks of international travel

[kradogsrats]

writing a scene with Lissa and Claudia in the wisps grotto and being kind of coy with Lissa's reminiscences like "oh your daddy and I used to come here sometimes before you and Soren came along" but I would just like to make it 110% clear: they absolutely fucked in the wisps grotto

[kradogsrats]

Oh hey, I wrote... not what I should have been writing, i.e. a NCNE one-shot set immediately after the events of On the Shoulders of Titans, since we all know how that ends, anyway.

For a moment, she didn’t understand. Then her stomach dropped like an anchor at the realization that this man, this assassin, was there for Prince Ezran—to kill an infant, sleeping peacefully in his crib. Cold fury flooded her veins. No elf would bother hiring one human to kill another—not when Xadia purportedly had its own clan of unstoppable, blood-drinking assassins. That meant there was someone among Katolis’s allies who had clasped hands with Sarai and King Harrow, maybe even eaten from their table, and had then turned around and paid gold for the murder of their baby. That anyone would have the audacity to send a hired blade after a child was itself an affront to the very core of her spirit, but for such an atrocity to come from within another of the five kingdoms nearly sickened her with rage. As for the despicable scum who had taken that tainted gold—Lissa knew with absolute certainty that between the two of them, only one would be leaving the room alive. She was going to do everything in her power to keep him from succeeding in his purpose, live or die.

[kradogsrats]

anyway the heinously self-indulgent next chapter of OTSOT should go up tomorrow evening/night