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violetasteracademic · 2 months

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Lucien Vanserra's Hero's Journey with Vassa- The Firebird Legends

Hello friends! This is my very first tumblr post, and is IN DEPTH. It seemed like a good place to explore some of the the themes I've been discussing on TikTok regarding Sarah's book structures, how closely Sarah utilizes The Hero's Journey for ACOTAR, and how many "ingredients in the fridge" as I like to call it are already there for Lucien and Vassa's story, despite arguments that there is very little on page action with The Band of Exlies. If anyone is interested in nerding out about book structure with me, I'll do a quick run through of The Hero's Journey with ACOMAF as the example (I made a video about this already!) and then fill in a possible hero's journey beat by beat for Lucien using only what is on the page. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say I could literally plot out and write this book today with everything Sarah has given us!

A few things to know about me: I love all of the characters involved in these ship wars. I am a die hard Elain stan, Az is my favorite Bat Boy, Lucien is one of my all time favorite characters and one whom I deeply relate to (I actually think I relate to Elain and Lucien the most, and I'll share how they mirror each other quite well) and I literally had to pull over in a Sprouts parking lot listening to the ACOSF graphic audio when Gwyn told her story. An elderly woman knocked on my window to ask if I was okay because I was sobbing. I do get passionate about my ships (Elriel and Vassien) because of my reading experience and how I process Sarah's structures. It would be the shock of my life if it goes in a different direction. BUT I love all the characters and respect all ships. My only goal is to get people excited about everything possible for our Bird of Flame and Lord of Fire, because their story stands to be by second favorite after Elain and Azriel!

Here is a quick rundown of The Hero's Journey: A three act structure famously based on the works of Joseph Campbell, an author and educator in the field of comparative mythology.

I will try my best to *briefly* break down the first act of A Court of Mist and Fury (I could do the same for Nesta's Journey in A Court of Silver Flames!)

Step One: The Ordinary World Status Quo. Feyre's status quo after Under The Mountain is the simultaneous evolution of her new life as Fae, and devolution of her spirit and personhood. In her new ordinary world, she is being kept in the dark. She is relegated to wedding planning and isolation.

Step Two: Call to adventure. Feyre is called to adventure on the day of her wedding, when the status quo has become unmaneagable. She calls out for help, and Rhys whisks her to the night court. In the Call to Adventure, our Hero learns a truth about the world that they will have to face. In Feyre's case, it is that the war is immenent. She realizes there is a threat to the safety of her sisters, and Rhys pushes her to train so that she is not unprepared if she is the only thing standing between them and Hybern.

Step Three: Refusal of the Call (in other structures or variations this is called The Debate.) The Hero is not sure if this is their story, if they are the one to face the call. They experience a period of maintaining the status quo a little longer. This is when we see Feyre sinking back into life with Tamlin. He is loosening the reigns, she doesn't want to rock the boat. She believes The Ordinary World might improve without her having to take the next step.

Step Four: Meeting the Mentor. Our hero meets someone that will assist them in their journey, and help them move forward in answering the call. This can be friendships, trainers and teachers, mystical guides, any number of things. In Feyre's case, it is dinner with the Inner Circle. She hasn't yet decided if she will join Rhysand's court and work with him in the efforts against Hybern, however she agrees to meet his court members. Each of them provide guidance to Feyre. In strength and training (Cassian and Azriel), emotional resilience (Mor), and histories/education on how the court and Fae lands function (Amren). Feyre agrees to work for Rhysand and then we cross the threshold into act two.

When I talk about "ingredients in the fridge," I am talking about a dinner that has been planned, ingredients purchased, and everything ready to go for book dinner to be on the table tonight. At this point, Sarah has been grocery shopping for future book plots for many many years! This is my personal interpretation of a really powerful story for Lucien and his hero's journey to free Vassa from Koschei.

Step One: Ordinary World. Lucien wakes up in the human lands in the manor he shares with his Band of Exiles. (I also am obsessed with how messy and hilarious it is that this was gifted to him by his mates ex fiance but I digress.) He has become so close with Vassa that he is no longer trusted to do his job for the Night Court. All the while he is worrying about Koschei, and when he will come for Vassa. Her enslavement to the deathless sorcerer pains him, and the pressure is building.

I hate to poke holes in another ship, however it is important to note that during all of these conversations Elain is not present or mentioned by Lucien in any way. However, Mor states that Lucien is choosing to live in the human lands despite Elain. And of course, in ACOSF Lucien makes it clear that even being in Velaris doesn't mean it is to see Elain, and the thought of his presence being expected only for his mate makes him uncomfortable.

I'm not saying these things couldn't change in the next book, I am however just setting Lucien's Ordinary World or Status Quo. Lucien is living in the human lands with the Band of Exiles and his main areas of concern and growing conflict are with Vassa and Koschei. This is what is being built to send the status quo to a breaking point *at present* His interest or efforts in Elain are devolving while his connection to Vassa and interest in defeating Koschei or freeing her are evolving.

Step Two: Call To Adventure. Lucien already has a powerful possible Call to Adventure (or inciting incident, as other similar structures call it) set in place. Koschei decides to reign in the leash on Vassa and force her to return to the lake, being ripped from her home with Lucien and Jurian and no longer able to provide assistance with the human queens.

Step Three: Resisting the Call. The reason Lucien is so perfectly suited for this is because he is the only character with such torn loyalties. He is loyal to Feyre and the Night Court, he attempts to be respectful to his mate, he is glad to work for Rhysand. There are many other threats present, Lucien's own father Beron suspected to be at risk of allying with Koschei. The human queens in the wind who have powers and a vendetta. While the Firebird legends retelling *could* take place with Jurian and Vassa, my issue with that is similar to my issue with Gwynriel. There is literally nothing, and I mean NOTHING that would create conflict for the character or a debate period. There are no obstacles or stakes in place that could keep the characters apart, which is critical to all storytelling but Sarah utilizes so much conflict. Lucien is the lost wanderer, torn from court to court, abusive home to abusive home, without a true family until the Band of Exiles. But it is still a matter of chosen family over loyalties he still feels to Feyre and her court. So, Vassa is taken by Koschei. Lucien now must be spurred into action, but is *he* the hero of this story? Is he going to be the one to take on Koschei?

Step Four: Meet the mentor. Oh, I think we all know where I am headed with this! What better mentor could there be in place for Lucien in freeing Vassa from her curse than Helion Spellcleaver. Aka Lucien's biological father. Helion also has maintained a consistent presence, being called in to attempt to manage the dread trove items. He has returned to the page in ways other High Lords haven't. We are gearing up for Helion 100%

Now, to get a little farther into some of the details beyond act one, tests allies and enemies, innermost caves, ordeals, so on and so forth, I simply want to focus on the stakes of this story specifically, and why I find them the most powerful.

As far as theme for Lucien, he has been aimless and suffering and ultimately ended up with no home and nowhere to spend Solstice. Feyre and Elain were a default because, in his own words, he had nowhere else to go.

Feyre urges him to call the Night Court home, but he has found a true home with Jurian and Vassa. He cares deeply for them and for their safety. He is amazed by Jurian's leadership, literally saying "Thank god for him" keeping everything together. Even at his best with Rhysand, Lucien has never put full faith in Rhys as a leader (which is very similar to Nesta who, while still an Archeron sister, continues to dismiss Rhys as her high lord and has found her calling and found family with The Valkyrie's.)

Lucien learning Helion is his biological father pairs perfectly with his metal eye, which can see through glamours. We may come to find that Lucien has hidden spell cleaving abilities making him uniquely suited to save the woman he loves. However, this brings us to...

THE BLOOD DUEL.

Lucien and Azriel blood dueling over Elain makes no sense plot, character, or world building wise. Lucien does not identify with the Autumn court or its laws, and he has been nothing but respectful of Elain's lack of interest in him and by all accounts is moving on in a very healthy way. It is stated clearly that Beron knows Lucien is not his son, hence why Lucien received such additional torment and ab*se as well as Beron's treatment of Lady Autumn. However, for Lucien to publicly display Helion's powers would make Lady Autum's affair public knowledge. This gives Beron cause to call for a blood duel with Helion over LoA. These are incredibly high stakes and obstacles. Does he risk the life of his mother and newly discovered father to save the woman he loves by revealing his true power?

As far as Lucien being sole heir to the Day Court, there is another possible outcome where Helion wins the blood duel (thus securing Eris's place as the new High Lord of Autumn, another long established plotline) and Lady Autumn and Helion get a second chance while Lucien still chooses his found family. Or, at the very least, as long of a life with Vassa as he could get before taking up the Day Court. Sarah also of course has had both mortal characters choose mortal life spans for love (Elorcan) or make mortals immortal (Feyre and Miryam.) However, Lucien stated he never had any interest in being a high lord. Of course this is up for interpretation, but I believe his character development still maintains that. This man has been through so much. He just wants to live in peace, and I think it would be a beautiful thing to know that his mother is now safe and not a political pawn.

Speaking of political pawns, this is also why I believe Elain and Lucien have a lot to heal with each other. When Lucien discovers that he could have been raised by Helion and not Beron, but his mother was sold and used as a political pawn and her agency taken away, he is going to face quite a few demons. I do not personally think Lucien's story (or Elain's) is most powerfully served by he and Elain choosing to de-escalate all the conflict and spend time with each other and wind up falling in love. It COULD happen, and if it's what Sarah chooses to do, it will be lovely! But Elain is such a mirror to Lucien's own mother. The only difference being that Lucien is a good male while Beron is a monster. Lucien, when faced with this, would be motivated to prevent his story repeating itself. Elain and Lucien's mother are the only two alive today presenting as unhappy with their pairings. I believe this is what Sarah was referring to when she said Elain was a better mate for Lucien than Nesta (her original plan) because of the healing they could provide each other. While I am not stating this as fact, it is my opinion that there is enough foreshadowing for rejected mating bonds, the suffering of poor matches and females being owned with archaic laws, that Sarah always intended to have Lucien participate in the rejected mating bond story line with one of the Archeron sisters. Lucien and Elain as a rejected bond is a much better fit as Lucien and Elain are actually both quite passive about their mating bond, letting the plot develop and build elsewhere whereas Nesta would have likely just burnt Lucien to a crisp or had it take up a lot more of ACOSF which would have been truly tough to fit in.

I could go on and literally plot out the whole book beat by beat with the Hero's Journey, but I would be here all day. I truly think Lucien and Vassa in the Firebird Legends would be so beautiful and powerful. I've teared up thinking about it! It always disheartens me to see characters getting thrown under the bus for the ship wars, or to be accused of hating Lucien because I ship Elriel. I am brand new to the online ship space, and this was truly how I experienced the books as someone who loves all the characters and wants the best for them. I believe Lucien has been nothing but respectful towards Elain and deserves to be happy. I just don't think Elain is his happiness. Even Feyre and Rhys had moments of trust and connection building in A Court of Thorns and Roses before ACOMAF. Their relationship was not out of left field at all. Elain and Lucien have a LOT of work to do to make their interest in each other suddenly believable, and in my opinion now we are getting into poorly paced and structured writing to accommodate it.

I've definitely seen compelling compilations about how both Elain and Lucien are tied to Koschei and it could just as easily be their shared love story while saving Vassa, and I won't go into a rage if that is what happens. It is simply difficult for me to ignore all the conflicts that would conveniently resolve and obstacles that would be removed. I know people love to call the three brothers and three sisters "lazy" but three is simply a motif, not book structure or line level prose. In my opinion, a sudden resolution to active political conflicts by putting two characters together is much lazier when it comes to the actual writing of the book.

These are just my musings, and the things I picked up on whilst reading (and re-reading a million times tbh) and experiencing books! What do you guys think of Vassien? I personally am so excited by how beautiful it could be!

#elriel #vassien #elain x azriel #lucien x vassa #elain archeron #pro elain #pro elain archeron

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galesdevoteewife · 6 months

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Let’s talk about Mystra

Hello everyone, I wanted to talk about Mystra👋🔮

As much of a crazy lover as I am for my fictional wizard, the more lore research I do, the more I feel like Mystra deserves some love too. This goddess lives a cursed life. I know I know she asked Gale to kill himself, but bear with me; here are my arguments:

A bit history of Mystra

There’re 3 Mystra: Mystryl -> Mystra (Elminster’s Mystra) -> Mystra (Midnight)

In short, Mystryl is the fourth deity in the universe, composed of Shar & Selûne’s essence. She is one of the primal existences while the universe is still new and trying to settle down, a significant component of the universe itself. While Mystryl’s spirit was born naturally, Mystra and Midnight were both once mortal and raised by AO to inherit Mystryl’s power.

Is Mystra bad?

Midnight, “Mystra 3rd ” is who we met in BG3. She was a human magic user born in 1332 DR. Midnight was aiding Mystra 2nd at the time of troubles. She’s a kind-hearted and humble woman who ascended in 1358 DR. She didn’t want godhood at all; she only did it to counter Cyric, the bad guy.

From comic book Avatar (1991)

For decades, she even tried to allow only the good use of magic, later learning her duty and place as the guardian of balance and impartial arbiter of the Weave; no matter how Midnight feels or hopes things could have been. She was only 26 when she had to wave goodbye to everyone she knew, shouldering the 24/7 goddess duty. It’s true that she will inherit other Mystra’s memory, but personality-wise she is only 160 years old; even Halsin is older than her. (Not to mention she spent 94 years in dormant)

Note[1]: Later on all the Mystra mentioned I will be talking about Midnight

Note[2]: Dec17/2023 I will come back and edit this section; it's misleading according to Ed Greenwood's tweet. The current Mystra is likely a blend of all three Mystras with an unspecified proportion. I will provide details on the stories and deeds of the other Mystras.

Being Mystra sucks. Truly.

Imagine your body is just a thing lying on the street; anyone can command you to dance for them so long as they know the right spell. While you CAN reject it, you are NOT ALLOWED to.

What’s worse is that too many mortals and too many gods want the Weave, but it’s not something that she can “give”. Like no one can give away their body to someone else. She IS the Weave; I think of it as the Weave being the cells that compose her. Whoever wants to take it away will have to separate her mind and “body” by:

killing her and inherit the Weave, where all the attempters failed step 2, then only resulted in a broken/Weaveless crisis

or completely manipulating her mind, which is the option no one ever considers; they all go straight to killing her

Whenever DnD wants to change the rules, they kill Mystra.

Shar wants the Weave, Bane wants it, countless mortals want it too. According to the conversation between Gale and Lorroakan, it’s almost a common conversation trying to dethrone the goddess and take the power for themselves.

And no one is there to protect Mystra; she fights alone. Although she has a good relationship with gods like Selûne or Azuth, nobody lent a hand when she was murdered. She relies on her chosens and her own power.

On top of defending herself, aka protecting the Weave, another important duty is to maintain the Weave. Whenever a spell is cast, it damages the Weave, and she is the one to patch the holes. The more powerful the spell is, the bigger damage it will cause. That’s why her dogma includes “Use the Art deftly and efficiently, not carelessly and recklessly.” She also needs to keep an eye out for possible upcoming threats. A tough and tedious job, and no holidays for the goddess.

It might sound a bit twisted, but she is taking care of the world by taking care of herself. Anything happening to her means catastrophe for the world. (e.g., Spellplague, where magic caused mutations to the users, see wiki here)

But she asked Gale to explode himself!

Yes, and she also promised Elysium once he’s dead. There is actually a thorough afterlife setting in the Forgotten Realms DnD setting. In short, a spirit doesn’t perish when a mortal dies; it would be drawn to the Fugue Plane and wait for the god they prayed to in life to send a servant to take them to their heaven.

It’s a terrible fate for the faithless or false spirits, those who either defy their gods or never choose one. They are forever punished in this grim plane and even become part of the Wall of the Faithless.

Fugue Plane and Wall of the Faithless: those are spirits piling up into a wall

In Mystra’s case, her heaven is Elysium, judging by the name, you can already tell it’s likely a heavenly place. Significantly better than the Fugue Plane, that’s for sure.

It’s a fixed truth that all will die someday, and Gale’s afterlife options are:

Defy Mystra: When he dies, he will be forever punished as a false in the Fugue Plane. Not to mention Kelemvor, Lord of the Dead, is also Midnight Mystra’s former(?) lover, and he detests cowardice.

Defy Mystra and try to gain favor from another god: I think this will mean changing class and profession for him, as a wizard he is tied to Mystra after all.

Serve Mystra and be taken to Elysium: And who knows, since he is chosen of Mystra, she might even revive him someday. Mystra 2nd did that for her other chosen before. Note: Interesting reading about how her chosen become weaveghost after death, see wiki here.

Obtain godhood: When the god Gale dies, he will go through a completely different process.

An interesting thought here is whether Gale knows about all these. It will largely define what his true colors are. It wouldn’t make sense if he is completely ignorant of afterlife logic, though. His background is an experienced wizard (probably studied some necromancy), goddess ex, and apparently visited heavens before.

Is Mystra power-thirsty?

I wouldn’t say so. She is already OP, and AO asked her to nerf herself by sharing and storing power in her chosens. Even if she were to gain more power, she is not allowed to keep it.

She wants the Shadow Weave

She sees Shar’s secret creation, the Shadow Weave, as a threat and aims to eventually subsume it into her portfolio, even if that means sacrificing her last remaining goodness and humanity.

From the DnD book “Faith & Pantheons”

We see how Shar is using her Shadow Weave in the cursed land, and it's safe to say it's not an ideal living environment for most beings. Shar has been very keen to kill Mystra and take over her power; I don’t think the world would be a better place in her hands than in Mystra’s.

She wants the Karsite Weave

The same logic could apply to the Karsite Weave. While we can argue whether Gale has a good heart and can be trusted with godlike power, he did show some concerning traits, did he not? Maybe in the future, when he is wiser and calmer, that's how I read Mystra’s line when she tells him to be patient.

Why doesn’t she just cure him since she can?

This is 100% headcanon. I think Mystra as a goddess is able to foresee some future. In Elminster’s story series, Mystra 2nd often asked him to do things that seemed irrelevant but were actually needed in the future. In Gale’s case, could it be that’s what Midnight meant to do? To mentor and humble him? Even prepare him to go through this journey? (Hardly imagine the prime archmage Gale joining our little merry band, and Elminster did say, “Mystra was anything but idle- she chose you as her champion.” What could that means?)

Gale has a curve where he goes from being “irked by untalented apprentices” to “enjoying teaching a lot” if not using the crown. He could have been relying on magic too much, and his ego or pursuit of power had led him astray from his good nature. If you look from this perspective, offering to use the orb before the final battle could be him still having doubts about the team's ability and having more faith in magic aka his own power (mixed with his deep love for everyone that he'd rather die than see their lives wasted, of course).

She is a terrible lover, and she doesn't care about Gale at all

According to patch 5, how time feels in the outer plane is very different from the material plane. God Gale came back in 6 months, and he seems not aware that it has been months. With this logic and putting myself in Mystra's shoes, she got mad because Gale recklessly activated a magical nuclear bomb and ignored him for a couple of weeks.(~1 year in the mortal world) When they meet again, this grumpy jumpy bean is thinking of the possibility of killing her for her powers already. Excuse me???

I will say there could be more considerate ways to handle this subject other than asking him to bomb himself. This long-distance cross-race romance was very problematic, but I will reserve my opinion on how much love she holds for Gale. Probably not seeing him as an equal partner, of course, but drawing the conclusion that she doesn't care a tad about his well-being might be too hasty, in my opinion.

A screenshot of Mystra telling Gale that she wasn't the one who took his gifts away from him. That's not an expression of 0 sympathy to me. I've never seen her make this face except for this line.

*UPDATE on Dec 11/2023* Add a tweet from Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms. Ref: X

*UPDATE on Jan 11/2024* • Add a screenshots during Gale's meeting with her • Add a note on DnD weaveghost setting *UPDATE on Apr 15/2024* • An great analysis of Gale & Mystra's relationship and Mystra's behavior logic

-DISCLAIMER- I am very new to the DnD world, but these are what I dug up and puzzled together. I could be very, very wrong, but please be kind; I did all this out of love for my wizard 💜💜💜

#baldur's gate 3 #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #dnd #bg3 mystra #dnd note

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ukiyowi · 6 months

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December Snapshot 🌷

Note: Happy December Babes!! A small glimpse into what you're December will be like 💞 if you like it please reblog, it really helps and if you want a paid reading hmu! It's all 30% off all December! And if you book before 5th December it'll be 40% off!!

Read left to right 1/2 then 3/4 🌸

Masterlist || Paid Readings || Tip 🍯

🍯 Pile 1

Okay so your December is going to start off very well but you may have some bumps in the road, lets talk about that. You will see your finances improve in December and will find yourself in a position where you are able to help not only yourself but possibly family members and friends who need monetary help as well, you may also get a raise or a promotion or a boss/person in authority under whom you work could put in a few good words for you to the higher ups leading to you getting more opportunities.

This December is all about reaping what you have already sowed and worked hard for. You will find yourself being a great communicator and in harmony in your interpersonal relationships, especially romantic ones, if you do not have someone already, a potential romantic partner may be entering or has entered your life who will be pursuing you, this person could possibly have strong Aries/fire energy and be someone who has a very infectious laugh and possibly freckles as well, they could be very outgoing.

Now onto the bumps, so December is going to do for you which you have not done for yourself so far, very cleaning much in the spirit of cleaning your energy and weeding out people you do not need or who do not have your best interest at heart. You may have been ignoring the flaws in certain relationships not wanting them to fall apart, as well as ignoring a certain opportunity you may be too scared to take, this is related to music or art heavily, and this December the universe will kinda thrust these things upon you and you may find yourself as well as certain people around you heartbroken nearing the end of this month as you prepare for the new year.

🍯 Pile 2

Hello pile 2, a lot of soul-searching comes your way this December, you will be trying to bring back the spark you think you have lost over the years because you have grown up, but people will not make this easy for you trust me. There may be people around you who discourage you to do certain things by either making fun of you/teasing you for it or claiming you are too grown to do it but try not to pay any mind to them as these activities, maybe watching old cartoons or colouring could lead to you connecting with your inner spirit and finding inspiration taking you out of ruts both in a creative sense and also with regard to clarity about what you want to do in life.

You have a youthful spirit, where you are not afraid of starting over and December is going to test you on that, you will be called to keep patient in the face of adversity and change courses because of missed chances or I am getting missed flights for some of you which could be related to some trip being cancelled and you could end up having a hitch in your finances where you may have to control your spending this month to maintain balance by maybe living below your means.

You could also end up having an argument with someone with masculine and earthy energy, particularly someone who may have prominent Capricorn in their chart regarding romantic relationships and commitment, this person may want you to start taking responsibility and committing to not only people but also things and could imply that time is ticking for you and that not making any decisions is not better than making bad decisions or mistakes. They could be a mentor figure or a family member.

🍯 Pile 3

To start off, there is going to be a lot of introspection for you this month, you may feel like nothing's going your way or that nothing is going in general, the amount of stagnation could lead you to feel like whatever you are doing is wrong and could really frustrate you. However, because your financial stability this month is going to be off the charts, you will keep doing what you are doing and build a lot of relationships around you with people who could help you enhance it even further.

You will find yourself getting lucky financially and experience accomplishments that you are already expecting, to be honest, which is why you could feel stagnant even after this.

The reason you may be introspecting this month could be to do with you wanting quietude from the hustle and bustle of the grind life and rethink if this is what you really want. You could question your lifestyle maybe you are someone who is in the middle of city life and have a job or school/college life that is very hectic and you may have a chance to get away from it for a bit and you have to make the choice to either go with the flow or challenge the universe and decide you prefer things the way they are.

December will bring about situations especially career wise where you will need to be willing to let go of preconceived notions and switch perspectives that you do not NEED to constantly grind to get what you want because you will get it due to you deserving it and having the skills to accomplish it. This month will be closing out by you finding yourself confused about these things and trying to make up your mind, this could lead to you hesitating to confront the cracks that may have been forming in your life ideologically rather than materially.

🍯 Pile 4

Oh, Pile 4 this month you will be stepping into your power! Deserved! This could be after a long while of contemplation regarding if you deserve it, but then realising you would not have gotten the opportunities if you did not. You will be working alongside possibly an older person who will teach you how to embody the traits of a leader, being strict yet understanding and building relationships with your peers where you do not feel like you are overshadowing them, which could be a concern of yours.

This month will require you to do a lot of learning, from skills to adopting new ideas and how to be adaptable, being able to communicate effectively and clearly with a wide range of people you will really find yourself in a better place careerwise than you may have in the past months. You will be grabbing all the opportunities you will get to strengthen your relationships with people and go after opportunities ranging from jobs and school to getting something you may have wanted for a while like a bag or a car. You will be very lucky and "right place, right time" could be a strong statement for this month for you.

However, because of all of this and the changing tides, you being new to these things you could feel anxious and overwhelmed by all the responsibilities. Although you would be able to complete them and keep up with them, you could start questioning yourself again, this self-doubt could lead to maybe hitting a tiny bump in the road where you could fumble something moderately important, but this would just make you more determined to trust yourself going forward. You will also take time to relax and rejuvenate this month, and could start meditating! And if not, it would be advisable to because it helps a lot (speaking from personal experience).

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loudclan-clangen · 7 days

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Alright, now I'm curious, what are the rules of StarClan's Oneway Dunktank? Are there cats who can't touch it (mediators for sure but anyone else?) Do healers meet there every half moon? They can sacrifice a life to speak directly to StarClan but what about other times?

(Also you're not gonna believe this, I looked up effects of crude oil exposure and studies indicate it may cause Anemia and low white blood cell count, so maybe she got a bleeding disorder because she can't stay out of the Forbidden Jacuzzi).

VERY LONG, LOTS OF TEXT, SORRY I GOT EXCITED TO LORE DUMP

The rules/powers of the Black Water Pool and Starclan are intentionally very nebulous. 1. Because I think starclan is more effective as a mysterious force than a clearly designated entity, and 2. Because I would like to have some flexibility going forward in the comic regarding the powers/rules of starclan. Here's what's clearly defined:

Any cat can touch the oil, like physically speaking. They will not just drop dead unless something else is going on that is worsened by the experience. But something may be worsened by the oil, especially if they are deeply exposed to it, like swimming in it or ingesting it the way one might if they weren't specifically trained in how to interact with it safely (like a healer or a leader). This leads to rumors of cats being cursed with terrible visions (hallucinations), disease (coughs caused by respitory damage), or wounds (chemical burns from prolonged exposure) because they touch the Black Water without permission. These could be actual curses from starclan, or they could be biological reactions to the oil, but that doesn't really matter because the cats believe that they are curses. (If that makes sense). For this combination of reasons, (religious belief and biological evidence), cats with open wounds, bad coughs, or who are actively pregnant are absolutely not allowed to touch the oil and are encouraged not to be near it. (Excluding dried oil worn by healers, we've covered in an earlier post that that is a stable form that isn't going to pollute others). This is justified by the healers as being times when one does not want to tempt death, and that being near the pool brings one's spirit closer to the dead, which is good for communing with them or asking them for favors, but bad when you are fighting for/actively creating life.

All of the leaders and their leadership teams have meetings staggered throughout the moon. Leaders and deputies meet on a full-moon, healers meet on a half-moon, and mediators meet on a new moon. (Gatherings also happen on full moons, just later in the day/night. The clans meet the leaders at the gathering place.) Healers might meet at the Black Water Pool but they do not always. Specifically, the Freezingclan healers refuse to meet at the Black Water, so if they want all of the clans' healers to meet they have to pick another place, usually the gathering place for simplicity. Since the healers can only commune with Starclan by sacrificing a life, they don't do it on a monthly basis and not meeting at the Black Water isn't inconvenient for them.

The healers (and leaders) can only speak directly to Starclan by sacrificing a life period. One of my biggest issues with the actual books is that speaking to Starclan is so casual that they constantly have to justify the cats not being able to in order to maintain any form of mystery or miscommunication, or risk making beloved characters look like jerks for not telling the living cats something important/make the entirety of Starclan look less powerful by claiming that they just "didn't know". My very simple solution to this is to put a layer of separation between them. In order to talk to the dead you have to die. This means that characters will only do so if they feel it is VERY important and they are certain that Starclan will give them a helpful answer, which they will not always do. (Why doesn't Wildfirecry ask Starclan how to cure Rosehippaw? Because he knows that there is a very high likely hood that the answer is "you can't" and then he'll lose both his daughter and a life that he could have used to help his clan in a more effective way).

Circling back to how normal cats are meant to contact starclan if they aren't allowed to touch the Black Water Pool by themselves, we finally get to talk about Loudclan burials! (This idea has been rattling around in my brain since the bonus art for Moon 18!) Okay, so: When a cat dies, the ground on the mountain is too hard and shallow for them to really be effectively buried. Due to this, the body is placed into a shallow dip dug into the ground and then covered by a pile of heavy stones in a make-shift cairn. The cairn discourages larger scavengers, like foxes or ravens, who might carry pieces of the deceased away, but allows smaller scavengers like mice and insects to eat away the fleshy bits. After a few moons, (during which family and friends are encouraged to keep their distance and learn to live without the deceased) when the scavengers are finished and all that is left are clean bones, the body is exhumed and repositioned so that the skull is left exposed outside of the cairn that covers the rest of the body. This is meant to allow cats to speak directly to the spirit of specific dead clan mates, though there is, of course, no expectation that the spirit speak back. (This is what we see Fiercestripe do in the Moon 18 Bonus Art). All burials happen in a field of forget-me-nots (small, blue. five petal flowers) as they cover the scent of decay, and therefore the cairns/graves are often decorated with them, along with other flowers or plants that may have been special to the deceased. Less commonly, a family member may ask to take a piece of the deceased from the cairn, such as a small tail bone or claw that they will wear to "carry the deceased with them". This is only allowed if the cats are known to have a close relationship, and is very frowned upon if the requestor is not a close family member or lifelong mate.

The major exception to all of this "Starclan is nebulous and distant" stuff is when I draw ghosts (like Bluepaw talking to Owlstar, which, admittedly, I drew before I had a good grasp of what I wanted to do with spirits and starclan). I know that it sort of negates that distance but... I just think it's fun. I think it's more fun to see what the spirits have to say (on occassion) than strictly sticking to never seeing Starclan outside of the Black Water Pool. So for those instances just remember that you, as the audience are getting sort of a third person omniscient view. You can see the ghosts but the characters in the story cannot (unless it is stated that they can due to like ghost sight or something).

Of course, as I said at the beginning, I'm trying to remain flexible, and I'm sure I'm going to break all of these rules at some point, but if I do my job correctly, then moments when these rules break should be important, and not just because I'm disregarding or forgetting them.

On a completely different note: You're not gonna believe this but I actually did know that! I did a decent amount of research into the effects of oil exposure when i was thinking up the Black Water Pool and yeah! It absolutely has played a part in Eklutna's condition. She's had hemophilia since birth, (which very simply means that her blood doesn't clot very well (for all of you biology nerds out there yes i know that it is rare for a cis female to have full hemophilia but it is possible if both of her parents had it)), but that has 100% been worsened by her love of swimming in "the forbidden jacuzzi". As long as we are sharing fun facts: exposure to crude oil while pregnant, while not always, can occasionally cause birth defects like weak lungs!

#loudclanasks #loudclanlore #loudclan #thank you anon for sending the ask that allowed me to empty my skull onto this post #its greatly appreciated #technically anyone can speak to starclan by just yelling at the sky #its just not very effective #did any of this make sense? I just went into a fugue state for a bit and woke up and this was written #cw death #cw death mention #cw burial #cw decay #cw religious themes

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batrogers · 3 months

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Civilized Or Not

So there’s some common Zelda fanon I wanna talk about, relating to civilization tropes I think some of y’all haven’t really thought about in detail before, and that’s Hyrule (Zelda 1 &2 Link), Wild (BOTW mostly), and Ravio (LbW).

I’m using the Linked Universe names, because that’s where most of it comes up, because these things happen most often where you can contrast the boys with each other. This is often done, quick and dirty, by people assigning “roles” to each without much thought. Ravio’s unfortunately tends to be extremely pervasive outside LU spaces, too.

But, in brief, there is a trend for people to craft these characters in a framework of innocent vs savagery vs trickery that can have some really unfortunate implications I’m not sure many are even aware of. Hopefully I can explain better where these ideas come from, why they’re so easy and appealing, and why we should try to avoid repeating them for more than just the sake of “easy” but also to stop repeating some really nasty historical tropes.

I would start from what’s probably the simplest one to address: the tendency towards a “feral” personification of Wild. This tends to come from two places: Wild’s amnesia, and the collapse of society around him and his lost place in it.

Now, brain damage is complicated. You can lose a range of things to any given injury because of the way information is encoded differently and in different places. You can lose memory and/or skills and/or coordination and/or balance, etc, because it all depends on what got damaged. But in-game a lot of stuff suggests that Link retains things like speech, reading/writing, coordination, and martial skills. None of the people who knew Link prior to his injury suggest he seems changed in any way not attributed to stress and anxiety...

And, more importantly, real people suffer memory loss just like that in the real world. Treating him like he’s become “feral” due to memory loss is cruel to actual people living with brain damage today, and if you go there you should have a good reason for it.

Social collapse is a wide-spread theme in basically every Zelda game. The threat that the Big Bad poses is almost always the destruction of society as it exists: Malladus literally vanishes the infrastructure of New Hyrule in Spirit Tracks; the Twilight turns people into spirits living lives they don’t realize are questionably real in Twilight Princess; Veran freezes the passage of time to force people to work forever in Oracle of Ages. King Daphnes and Ganondorf under the sea vie over the fate of the world above in Wind Waker: keep what’s been made, or start all over again?

In modern culture, people tell a lot of stories about the fragility of civilization and what happens in its absence. You get the range from Lord of the Flies, in which children wrecked on an island attempt (and fail) to recreate civilization on their own, Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” in which Mowgli is treated as reckless and innocent, and a much more obscure piece from the 18th century “Paul et Virginie” (and likely many more I don’t know offhand.) Essentially all of them play with the question of how do people become civilized, and what happens when they do? In Lord of the Flies, the children were civilized and failed to maintain it; in the Jungle Book, the boy wasn’t civilized and innocently interacts with it. In Paul et Virginie, the children were (relatively) uncivilized on the (French colonized) Mauritius, raised by their mothers but when the girl was sent away, she becomes civilized and dies tragically to preserve it.

The two Links most removed from civilization are Hyrule and Wild. Wild “lost” civilization, losing both his memories of it and the structure of it. Making him feral, without manners, and without a place to belong is that kind of Lord of the Flies savagery mixed with Mowgli’s innocent playfulness: there isn’t a structure to adhere to, so he’s a savage. Whereas Hyrule is more like the Paul eg Virginie side: innocent of civilization, he remains pure and sweet and kind, unable to conceive of big concepts like evil or money or so on. Neither position permits them to interact with the civilization that is right there in front of them! Wild can buy a house; he has people who know and care for him. He has social connections and social rights. The world exists, but the fandom does not seem to want him to interact with it in favour of remaining “wild.” In Zelda 2 – a game explicitly set within a decade of Zelda 1 – there are whole towns with trade and a castle and massive structures with on-going life in them... but very few fans seem to ever reach into that story or relate it back to the first. Hyrule, the character, does not exist within Hyrule, the country.

Strangely, Wind Waker does not fall prey to this, I think because the structures are presented as fait accompli: Link wakes up with his grandmother and his sister, he has a defined home, and a society in which you spend the entire game forced to engage with. Zelda 1 & 2 were not sophisticated enough to waste resources on going as in depth in social terms (although such interactions absolutely exist in Zelda 2!) and BOTW leaves such interactions as optional: you can survive the game with minimal social contact... but it’s a choice to play with it that way, not the default. The ways in which this edges onto the noble savage trope, in which “uncivilized” tribes are either innocent or brutish (rather than complex social systems in their own right) is fairly obvious.

There is one other character in Zelda who gets treated to the question of whether he is an innocent, free of civilization and all its rigour... or something else. Ravio, coming from the devastated world of Lorule, can often wind up slotted into the scared, innocent child trope and unfortunately that’s the better position people frequently take. The worse one evokes the Merchant of Venice: the deceitful, Jewish merchant who values money over people’s lives.

Lorule (and Nintedo’s approach towards their humanoid Zelda villains in general) is near-eastern-coded in many ways, down to the fact that Yuga’s outfit is the spitting image of Ottoman dress. Yuga being a depraved bisexual (a common historical trope about Muslim men towards Christian men and boys), and Hilda being deceitful and conspiring against everyone she was once allied to are a backdrop to the ways in which Ravio is a greedy coward. He’s not an evil character in the game; the mechanic of penalizing death without being too severe is interesting and works well! But that doesn’t take away the stereotype, just like it’s not okay Nabooru is pretty explicitly predatory towards child Link in Ocarina of Time, too.

Arab and Jewish stereotypes often converge, because both people's originate from the same region, and both are hostile "Others" to Christian Europe and Nintendo doesn’t have a great track record of their near-Eastern coding in Zelda. It crosses the whole gamut from harem and amazon tropes with the Gerudo to breath-takingly anti-semitic or anti-black (Ganondorf being green, eg. non-human, in various incarnations), all packaged neatly in the ideal of medieval fantasy Europe. The scale would be impressive if it wasn’t so damn awful, but we can at least stop repeating it in our fanworks.

Wild doesn’t have to be feral to be a playful little shit; Hyrule doesn’t have to be pure and innocent to be kind. Ravio doesn’t need to be innocent or scheming, and he shouldn’t place money over Link’s well-being (If you chose to respawn at home, he is consistently only ever concerned for Link! Once you buy the items outright, he promises he'll still be there to take care of you.)

Do better. It’s more interesting that way, and I want to see that variety grow!

[If any of y'all would like me to dig up better sources on any point, I can do so but I didn't want to bog this post down further. I have largely left the anti-arab stuff alone because it's not the biggest issue with Ravio's fanon presence, which is the focus here.]

#Zelda Meta #Linked Universe #Ravio #LU Wild #LU Hyrule #antisemitism in media #noble savage tropes #bad tropes #Unfortunate implications #LOZ meta #LU meta #Long post #like 1200 words #I'm having a week okay #brain damage #mental illness

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tempobaekh · 7 months

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Between Realms

Pairings: Ga Motak x Scarlet Witch!reader

Warnings: angst, tiny bit fluff maybe?? idk? I think my shitty story writing should be a warning as well

A/N: I’m having a Motak brainstorm right now. Like the amount of ideas I have to merge marvel and tuc bc why tf not? So this is fic number one of my idea and I have another one in the works. I kind of hate this one but also like it idk this gotta be my worst work. Also an idea from my babe @slytherinshua made me come up with this<3

The Counters' new place buzzed with activity as they analyzed, in their eyes, a new threat that had emerged.

Y/N, considered an evil spirit, had become an enigma even they couldn't comprehend.

Possessing abilities beyond their comprehension of just how strong she was, she was a force to be reckoned with.

But she wasn't using her immense abilities to harm others; she had become an anti-hero, despite having powers that can cause utter destruction, she chose to use them to protect those around her.

You see she was an innocent victim that was unfortunate enough to be targeted as the host to the evil spirit.

When Y/N was conducting study in a lonely library that not many people visited, that is how she got into this strange situation.

This library contained a strange collection of mystical artifacts, scrolls, and books, many of which had been untouched buried deep inside the library.

In her quest for knowledge and understanding of the mystical arts, Y/N stumbled upon a seemingly harmless amulet. This amulet was decorated in complex runes and symbols from several spiritual traditions, exquisitely covered. Unknown to Y/N, the amulet was more than just an artifact; it was a prison.

The amulet had been crafted centuries ago by a powerful sorcerer who sought to imprison an evil spirit of chaos and destruction, a spirit even Yung wasn’t aware of.

The evil spirit was known for its ability to corrupt and consume the souls of those it possessed, granting them immense power in exchange for their humanity.

Y/N, driven by her insatiable curiosity and the desire to harness the amulet's hidden potential, decided to wear it. In doing so, she unknowingly triggered the amulet's ancient enchantment. The evil spirit, dormant for ages, sensed a new host and seized the opportunity, merging its essence with Y/N's consciousness.

The fusion was not without its struggles. Y/N fought to maintain control over her own mind and body, while the evil spirit sought to dominate her.

It was during this internal struggle that Y/N's powers began to manifest, Y/N's powers allowed her to manipulate and harness a mysterious energy source that appeared as scarlet-colored manifestations when she wielded her abilities.

This scarlet energy was a visual representation of her power and became closely associated with her.

Which earned her the name Scarlet Witch.

The Scarlet Witch attire is a manifestation of her powers and her connection to the evil spirit within the amulet. It's a distinctive outfit that combines elements of traditional mysticism with a touch of modernity.

Her attire doesn't materialize automatically. She can summon it at will when she chooses to engage in combat or tap into her Scarlet Witch powers.

This allows her to blend in with regular clothing when she doesn't want to draw attention to her abilities.

The attire consists of a flowing crimson robe adorned with arcane symbols, it also includes a headpiece with a red gem that helps channel and focus her powers.

While wearing the Scarlet Witch attire, Y/N's powers are enhanced and more focused. It allows her to harness the full extent of her reality-warping abilities, manipulating the environment and creating illusions or defensive barriers as needed.

Y/N can control when the attire appears and disappears, giving her flexibility in choosing when to use her powers discreetly or to engage in battles against the Counters or other threats.

The attire serves as a symbol of her unique situation, a reminder of the evil spirit within her, and her ongoing struggle to keep it in check. It's a visual representation of the duality within her, embodying both her heroic and potentially destructive capabilities.

As she grappled with this newfound power, Y/N realized that she could control the evil spirit within her to some extent.

She used her abilities to keep it in check, preventing it from causing harm to others, or taking control over her and using her as an extension to do its evil deeds.

However, she also understood the danger she posed, should the malevolent spirit gain the upper hand.

So she started to distance herself from everything, from the world.

Y/N's life took an unexpected turn from that moment onward. She became a reluctant anti-hero, determined to protect both herself and those around her from the evil spirit's influence, even though her using the powers was seen as evil.

This intricate dance between good and evil formed the foundation of her struggle in keeping everything at bay, despite being physically and mentally tormented by the evil spirit within her.

Y/N's first encounter with the Counters was entirely unexpected. She had been living a relatively solitary life after merging with the evil spirit and gaining her Scarlet Witch powers.

Her primary focus was on controlling the evil entity within her and using her abilities for personal defense rather than offense.

One fateful evening, as she was attempting to contain the evil spirit's influence in a deserted part of the city, her powers inadvertently drew the attention of the Counters, as she unknowingly stepped in their territory.

The Counters, always vigilant for signs of supernatural disturbances, sensed a powerful and unusual energy source in the vicinity.

They were going in this mission blind, not knowing the full extent of powers Y/N had as she was so powerful that Hana couldn’t even tell which level evil spirit this was.

As Y/N struggled to maintain control over the malevolent spirit, her powers caused a rift in the fabric of reality, which the Counters detected. They rushed to the scene, expecting to confront a malevolent spirit wreaking havoc.

Hana, being the vigilant and pragmatic member of the Counters, initially believed that Y/N was just another evil spirit posing a potential threat to innocent people.

She saw Y/N's powers as a potential risk to the balance between the realms, and her skepticism made her determined to follow the standard protocol.

During the initial confrontation with the Counters, Y/N found herself overwhelmed and facing a team of skilled individuals who were determined to subdue what they believed to be a evil spirit.

She had the power to defend herself, but her moral compass guided her to avoid causing harm.

As the Counters closed in on her, their combined abilities proved too much for her to handle without revealing her full potential.

She decided to surrender peacefully, knowing that it would be the quickest way to show them that she wasn't a threat, and that she just craved help, she wanted to separate herself from the torture that was the evil spirit.

Once captured, Y/N was taken to a specially prepared containment chamber within the Counters' headquarters. The chamber was designed to neutralize supernatural entities and prevent them from using their powers to escape or cause harm.

The chamber was a dimly lit, translucent enclosure with intricate protective runes etched into the walls and floor, personally made by the people in Yung. The runes acted as a barrier, preventing Y/N from using her powers to manipulate the environment or escape.

The room had a cold, sterile feel to it, amplifying her sense of isolation and confinement.

When the Counters confronted Y/N during that initial encounter, she was faced with a difficult decision. Her life since merging with the evil spirit, against her will, had been one of isolation and struggle.

Controlling the evil entity within her had taken a toll on her both physically and mentally. She had experienced moments of chaos and danger as she tried to grapple with her newfound powers.

Before merging with the evil spirit, Y/N had led a relatively normal life. However, the traumatic experience of the evil spirit's possession had left her scarred. She had seen the damage it could do, not only to others but also to her own sense of self. The spirit's relentless attempts to take control had caused her unimaginable pain and suffering.

Y/N had made a vow never to harm innocent people, driven by a deep-seated fear of becoming the monster she had seen within the evil spirit. Her powers were both a blessing and a curse, and she carried the weight of that burden every day.

Y/N's emotions during her containment were complex and conflicted. She felt a mix of fear, frustration, and a deep sense of injustice. She knew that her intentions were not malicious, and she had hoped to live a quiet life, free from the evil spirit's influence.

However, being confined and treated as a threat by the Counters stirred feelings of anger and helplessness. She also felt a sense of isolation, as she couldn't fully explain her situation to anyone without risking further misunderstanding.

It was during her capture by the Counters that Y/N's connection with Motak began to form. Motak, who often kind of acted like the leader of the Counters, was known for his calm and compassionate demeanor, even in the face of supernatural threats.

He was the first among the Counters to sense that Y/N was not the typical evil spirit they had encountered.

As Y/N was contained within the Counters' headquarters, Motak spent time observing her.

He sensed her inner turmoil, her struggle to control the evil spirit, and her genuine desire not to harm others. Something about her vulnerability and the conflict within her resonated with him on a profound level.

Over time, Y/N began to open up to Motak. She shared the story of how she had come into contact with the evil spirit and the traumatic experiences she had endured since. Motak, in turn, shared stories of the Counters' mission and the moral dilemmas they faced.

Their conversations deepened their understanding of each other, and an unspoken connection formed between them.

Motak was drawn to Y/N's strength and resilience in the face of adversity, as well as her determination to use her powers for good, and he could not deny that Y/N was utterly beautiful, a sight for sore eyes.

Y/N, on the other hand, found in Motak a kindred spirit, someone who saw the potential for good within her despite the darkness that loomed.

His unwavering belief in her goodness and his compassion touched her heart in a way she had not expected.

Ga Motak was conflicted. He stood by the glass doors, peering into the room where Y/N was contained. Her powers radiated like a cosmic storm, but she held them in check.

She was not the menace they had expected.

In the midst of the chaos, Hana, the fierce and determined member of the team, was resolute about their mission. She argued vehemently, "We can't let this continue, Motak! Y/N is dangerous, just like any other evil spirit. We must summon it and put an end to this!"

Motak remained silent, his eyes fixed on Y/N. He couldn't bring himself to treat her like a typical evil spirit. Something about her drew him in, an unexplainable connection that transcended their roles.

Y/N, once she had established a degree of trust with the Counters, thanks to Motak being a big help, attempted to explain her unique predicament.

She told them about how she had unwittingly merged with the evil spirit through the ancient amulet. She described the trauma and pain she had endured in controlling the spirit's influence and how she had developed her powers as a result.

However, even with her heartfelt explanations, there remained a degree of skepticism among some of the Counters, particularly Hana.

She was still wary of Y/N's powers and the potential threat they posed.

The Counters knew that to fully address the situation, they needed to deal with the evil spirit trapped within Y/N.

So they formed a plan.

Their plan involved summoning the spirit and finding a way to separate it from her without causing harm.

Y/N, having a deeper understanding of the evil spirit's nature, offered her assistance in this process.

She believed that she could use her powers to create a controlled environment, a kind of pocket dimension where the spirit could be safely contained during the separation and summoned back to Yung.

Y/N's powers were intertwined with the evil spirit due to the amulet's fusion. The Counters recognized that her abilities could be a valuable asset in their mission to protect the balance between realms.

Therefore, the plan was not to completely strip her of these powers but to separate them from the malevolent spirit.

To achieve this separation, the Counters devised a plan to use a combination of their supernatural abilities and Y/N's powers.

They would create a ritual that temporarily weakened the connection between the amulet and the evil spirit, allowing Y/N to use her reality-warping abilities to draw the spirit out.

Once the evil spirit was drawn out and contained in the pocket dimension Y/N had prepared, the Counters would focus on separating it from the amulet. This was a delicate and dangerous process, but Y/N's control over the spirit gave them the best chance of success.

The ultimate goal was to leave Y/N with her powers intact but free from the evil spirit's influence.

It was a complex and risky plan, but Y/N and the Counters believed it was the only way to ensure that she could use her unique abilities for good without harming anyone or being consumed by darkness.

Later, the night before the dangerous ritual, as the headquarters grew quiet, Motak found himself alone with Y/N.

She was still in the translucent barrier, her eyes reflecting both power, and vulnerability but also showing fear for what was about to happen.

"Y/N," Motak spoke softly, "You are going to be okay, we can do this" he tried reassuring her in his deep voice, almost sounding like he was telling himself that.

She met his gaze with an intensity that sent shivers down his spine. "Motak, there's a reason I control the spirit within me. I don't want to hurt anyone. I've seen what absolute power can do, and I refuse to become a monster. I want to be free.”

He stepped closer to the barrier, his hand reaching out, longing to touch her. "We can do this, I will free you from this shitty spirit.” he paused letting out a small chuckle as Y/N also let out a watery laugh. “This plan must work, we can do it together."

Y/N's eyes softened, and she nodded. "We can rewrite our own destinies, Motak, but we must be careful. The line between good and evil is thin, and we walk it every day."

As the ritual to separate the evil spirit from Y/N's amulet reached its climax, the room filled with an otherworldly energy. Y/N's Scarlet Witch attire shimmered, and her powers surged to their peak.

Beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she concentrated, aided by the collective strength of the Counters.

In the center of the room, a swirling vortex of crimson energy emerged, drawing the evil spirit out of Y/N's body.

The spirit fought and resisted, but Y/N's unyielding determination, combined with the Counters' supernatural prowess, proved stronger. With a final surge of power, the spirit was captured within the pocket dimension Y/N had created.

A collective sigh of relief filled the room as the evil spirit was successfully separated from Y/N.

She collapsed to her knees, drained from the intense effort, but her powers remained intact, her amulet now free of the evil influence.

“Y/N!” Motak rushed to her side, offering his support as she regained her strength, cradling her delicately to his chest.

He pressed light kisses to her forehead, whispering praises with his lips pressed to her skin.

The other Counters observed in awe, realizing that Y/N's abilities could be a valuable asset in their mission to protect the balance between realms.

Hana, who had been the most skeptical of Y/N, watched the proceedings with a newfound respect. She understood that Y/N's intentions were pure, and her powers could be a force for good.

With the evil spirit contained and neutralized in the pocket dimension, the Counters turned their attention to sending the evil spirit back to the darkest depths of Yung where it belonged.

While Y/N, for the first time in what felt like a long time, felt free, relaxed, and safe in the arms of the man she fell deeply for.

The man that vows to protect her and love her no matter what.

In the days that followed, Y/N and Motak's connection deepened further.

They had faced the darkness within and emerged stronger together. Their forbidden love had defied all odds, just as Y/N had defied the evil spirit's attempts to consume her.

As they looked toward an uncertain future, Y/N, Motak, and the Counters had rewritten their destinies.

They were no longer just hunters of evil spirits; they were protectors of the balance between worlds, guided by the belief that even in the darkest of circumstances, love and understanding could prevail.

And so, in the quiet moments between battling supernatural threats, Y/N and Motak found solace in each other's arms, knowing that their love was as powerful as the abilities that had brought them together—a love that could conquer any challenge that lay ahead.

Note: gifs, pictures, and header DOES NOT belong to me. CREDITS TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS!! Feedback is appreciated.

#kdrama #the uncanny counter #the uncanny counter season 2 #the uncanny counter x reader #the uncanny counter: counter punch #kdramaimagines #kdramaimagine #kdramascenario #kdrama scenarios #ga motak #ga mo tak #ga motak x reader #ga mo tak x reader #so mun x reader

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bluecollarmcandtf · 11 months

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The Coach's Demotion

Everyone knew Murphy was the college's greatest coach. After arriving a decade ago, he whipped the team into phenomenal shape and pushed them all the way to victory. Under his management, the school developed a ruthless reputation on the court.

However, all men have their faults, and Coach Murphy was as unpleasant as he was effective. Embittered from a failed athletic career, he rarely spoke without raising his voice. Locker room chats always ended with thrown chairs and insults to his player's masculinity.

He attacked every conversation like an argument, but the last straw came after a night of practice. The boys had been held later to run sprints, Coach Murphy barking every derogatory term in the book at them.

After the players showered and left, the coach lingered. He believed he was the last one in the gym, but the waterboy was still there, collecting the discarded sweat rags and bottles.

He jumped when the kid rounded the corner, tossing practice jerseys into the hamper. Coach Murphy leapt up and shoved the waterboy towards the exit.

"Don't you know the time? Get the hell out of here!" Murphy roared with a red face, adding several insults.

The waterboy cowered at first. He was used to the coach berating the help when the team wasn't around, but he was fed up with it, and he knew exactly how to teach this guy a lesson.

"You shouldn't act the way you do."

The coach rolled his eyes and grabbed a fistful of the boy's collar. He was about to drag him out the door when the kid caught him off guard.

The waterboy pulled a necklace out of his shirt: a long chain with a glowing blue gem swinging at the bottom.

"What the..." the coach's grip loosened.

"Coach, you need to relax."

"I need to relax?" Murphy spat back, but his anger was already dissipating.

"You should let go of me."

"Yeah, I'll let go of you," he tried to maintain dominance, but it was getting hard to think, and even harder to look away from the stone.

"Step back big guy. Let me get a good look at you."

"Ok," Coach Murphy took two lumbering steps backwards.

Normally, the man would never stand here for this kid, getting oggled like a piece of meat. But the big coach wasn't feeling like himself. That glowing pendant made his brain feel slow and his limbs heavy.

"Let me see that body you're always hiding," the waterboy's voice rose, "Get in your underwear now."

Murphy's hands felt so heavy, but they began peeling off the university polo as if guided by strings. His eyes drooped and jaw hung as his body worked, dropping his athletic wear to the floor to reveal a beer belly growing over his dense frame.

The coach winced when the kid gave his round gut a smack.

"Look at that thing! Your glory days sure are behind you, aren't they?"

"Yeah," the coach agreed without thinking.

"Go ahead and kneel."

Murphy dropped to the floor instantly. The glowing gem had completely emptied the thoughts from his head, leaving only feelings of inferiority and submission.

"Yeah, that's a better spot for you," the waterboy petted Murphy's hair, "You need a demotion."

"I need a demotion," Murphy repeated numbly.

"You'll resign tomorrow. Make sure to tell them how pathetic and old you are."

"I'll resign tomorrow..."

"And I think I can find a position that's a much better fit for someone like you...

...several weeks later. Fans streamed out of the gym to celebrate. The game had been a close one, giving one of the most exciting matches of the season.

Ever since Coach Murphy suddenly packed up and vanished from the school, the team's competitive edge had waned, but the school spirit had increased tenfold.

Part of that was due to the new mascot.

That guy in the wolf costume didn't rest one second of the game, constantly hyping the crowd up, cheering with the cheerleaders, and dancing on the sidelines. The guy didn't take a break once.

In the now empty gym, the waterboy lingered behind. It was his responsibility to collect all the trash and mop up the sweaty court, but he wasn't. Instead he casually lounged on the bench.

Eventually the school's new mascot rounded the corner, exhausted from all the children pestering him for pictures.

"You gonna take care of all this?" the waterboy gestured to the colossal mess throughout the gym.

The former coach pulled the giant wolf head off, finally breathing in air that wasn't humid and ripe with body odor.

"Yeah, I got it," he grumbled between heavy breaths.

Murphy now understood he was not a good fit for a coaching job. That position was far above what he deserved, and he knew there were better men to coach the team.

Grabbing the long dust mop, he began the trivial labor of pushing it across the court. He didn't bother taking off the mascot costume. It would just waste time, and he didn't mind the discomfort.

All the previous people who wore the suit whined and quit. Murphy knew it had a lack of ventilation and he was aware of how uncomfortably heavy the entire thing was, but he was willing to put up with it.

That was what people like him were there for, and he was proud to suck it up and suffer through the work so no one else has to.

The waterboy had explained to him best: some idiot had to do it. He might as well be the idiot, right?

#hypnosis #gay hypnosis #hypnotized #hypno story #mind control

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meltthefrozenheart · 6 months

Text

FROZEN 3 and FROZEN 4 are both in development, and I can't wait!

The news sounded odd to me initially, I didn't expect anything like this from Disney Animation, but it became immediatly appealing the moment I realized the GREAT potential a double feature could have for the franchise, most importantly when Bob Iger specified “Jenn Lee, who created Frozen, the original Frozen, and Frozen 2 is hard at work with her team at Disney Animation on not one but actually two stories.”, which would mean:

More time to enstablish new elements, new characters, time to explore new lore and new places without the risk to rush everything;

A bigger story that can help flesh out our protagonists in their new roles, their new wants and changes they might face, considering how the F2 ending brought many new possibilities;

A narrative context where the new crysis (whatever it might be) could be explored even better, also allowing to maintain things in a complex prespective just as the Frozen movies like to do, where the matter of "good and evil" not at the center, and things are first of all deeply personal for the characters

It seems to me that Jennifer Lee always wanted to delve deeper into things, this is why the Broadway Musical was a perfect opportunity for her and the Lopez to expand the characters and flesh out things in the story, also adding new elements that would've been useful for F2.

And when they worked on Frozen 2, they built it as the "second part" of the story, reconnecting almost all the aspects of the sequel to the 1st movie, and the story was clearly meant to be BIGGER and longer compared to what we ended up having because of numerous issues and rewrites. J. Lee and C. Buck didn't want to introduce something that would feel just as "a new adventure", and more about the actual characters evolving, see what they left unresolved, breaking the "Happy ending" scenario of F1, which also led them to NOT give the new human characters (Mattias and the Northuldra) the same relevance given to Spirits of Nature, in order to remain focused on Elsa, Anna and the rest of the gang.

Now, Lee will most likely not direct or write these two new movies, but she is still directly involved, because it's both part of her job as CCO of Walt Disney Animation Studio and because Frozen is her (and Chris Buck) baby. It will be curious to discover with what idea Marc Smith came out with, but the fact he worked on the 1st Frozen as a storyboard artist and the became Director of Story for Frozen 2 says a lot about him and why Lee trusts him so much, and I'm sure they will follow the approach used with the 2nd movie and carry it on with 3 and 4. Numerous sagas used the two-parter approach, like the books adaptations of Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger Games series, or more "original cases" like Pirates of the Carribeans or what we are getting now with the animated Spiderverse movies (Across and Beyond). But I think the best similarity (and probably what led to this ambitious choice) is with Avengers Infinity War/Endgame, where the BIG FINALE gets developed in two movies.

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covenofthearticulate · 5 months

Note

for the vc character asks! 🥹

🔍 something about the modern era not referenced in the books that you think louis would find upsetting or confusing + why?

💌 a lesser-known quote/passage from canon that you think best describes your favorite character

🔍 I think Louis would be so perplexed by the fidget toy industry LOL this is a man who refuses to tuck his hands into his pockets because he finds it rude and off-putting, like he would be so baffled and upset with all the little cubes and spinners and push toys that are made specifically to fidget with!! but what does it DO?! what do you MEAN this cube serves no practical function?! will you please STOP clicking it at once!

💌 I actually have no clue if this is considered lesser-known because to me, this has always been THEE quintessential Louis quote, but it's from Marius' pov in qotd so I think the loustat girlies tend to sleep on it idk:

"Just a little blood, and Louis might be stronger, true, but then he might lose the human tenderness, the human wisdom that no one could give another; the gift of knowing others' suffering with which Louis had probably been born."

This sentence is just so close to my heart like I think the gift of knowing others' suffering is such a wonderful summation of Louis' spirit. Because I think, at a certain point, the ability to understand human suffering truly is a gift that very few vampires can maintain as they grow older. Sure, they can observe human pain and sympathize with it, but Louis knows this suffering on an innate level, and it's not a hinderance or a weakness, but a gift!!! A GIFT!! Louis was born from sorrow and he feels it like no one else can— he alone possesses a wisdom that no other blood drinker has, and that in itself is so valuable. When the other vampires describe him, they do tend to highlight his humanity and his sensitivity, but I've always admired that it was Marius that first framed it as a gift.

#the entire paragraph of marius meeting louis is probably one of my favorite bits of canon actually??#i've wanted to get the phrase 'the gift of knowing others' suffering' tattooed for a while idk it just makes my heart ache #ANYWHOMST ty for this <3 #;answered #louis de pointe du lac #headcanons #vampire meta #meta

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elucienweekofficial · 27 days

Note

Hello 👋 Would you be considering having an elucien Month or fortnight because the Fandom has grown sm and I think it would be very fun

Hi!

We love your enthusiasm! Every year someone asks if we'd consider doing a month long event or multiple weeks, and we get it! It's so fun, it feels like it should go on forever. However, the overwhelming response from the community has been a resounding no. Creating multiple weeks of content burns out artists, writers, and other people creating daily content. We also don't receive much more than we would if we extended it out, so you get about as much in a week as you would in two/three/four.

There is a potential future in which we would consider doing a longer event, but for the time being, a week is the perfect amount of time to dedicate to appreciating elucien. Lets all remember that it's not a competition and that even with a larger group of eluciens than in years past, there is still plenty of space to appreciate our favorite sunshine pair in the span of a week.

Finally, this event is entirely volunteer run. Every single person overseeing this event across multiple platforms does so in their free time and out of love for the books and the pairing themselves. Our event runners plan activities in the weeks leading up to the event which takes an incredible amount of time. If you recall last year, months were spent creating quizzes/graphics/a dating sim, all of which is happening behind the scenes (along with moderating, reblogging, answering questions and all the other general upkeep a large event like elucien week requires). Doing multiple weeks makes it difficult to maintain the same standard of quality we've come to expect from this event.

We appreciate everyone's enthusiasm SO much and can't wait to see you all NEXT MONTH for some very fun pre-activities we'll be rolling out as we get closer to build hype and get people in the elucien spirit!

#i hope this was helpful!#truly every week is elucien week in our hearts!#elucienweek2024

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romanceclub-lovers · 6 months

Text

Veronica. G author of "Dracula a Love story" answers a few questions from players.

💭 Vacation again?

No, there are personal circumstances and this is not a vacation.

💭 We are waiting and getting upset

I know, and therefore, I think few people are as bitter about the delays of history as I am .

💭 At least explain what's the matter.

Sorry, but no details. Whatever the motive, there will definitely be those who feel sorry and those who say “ha, that’s my reason too.” I don't want either one or the other. How to talk about what has not been fully completed. Maybe I’ll share when it’s all over.

💭 When will you continue writing dls? Why do you have time to answer questions and maintain social media. Write some posts, but not write the story itself? Do you think it's disrespectful to your audience who love your story?

Is there a difference for you - to write a complex, voluminous research paper for work/study or to answer a friend in a chat? These are completely different types of writing. In the first you concentrate and give your all, in the second you relax. I go to the page with my personal time, and communication with the audience lifts my spirits and inspires me.

💭 How did you start your journey as an author of stories at the Romance Club ? Should we expect another story from you?

I started like everyone else with a resume and a test assignment. I can't say anything about the new story.

💭 What is Anton’s fate after the departure of our friends and what about the fallow deer? I hope someone called the vet for them.

Of course, the fallow deer were cured. Anton also recovered, but his wife nags him that he lost such a job.

💭 Will there be an unhappy ending to the story?

Yes, as in all stories

💭 There is an opinion that the past and the present time are written by different people. Is someone really helping you, or are these players’ sick fantasies?

Maybe different parts of me.

💭Why do we get only an affair with Septentrion? Does this act as a spoiler or did you see him as a “demi-LI”?

This is my personal whim. Well, I like him, what can I do?

💭 Was the thread with Mehmed something you thought about when developing the story or did you decide to introduce it later?

Initially, Mehmed was not intended as a LI. But then I saw the potential in it and I became interested in developing it

💭 Many incidents and plot remains open. Will all this fit into 7 episodes?

The plot will be revealed, don’t worry. If it doesn't fit, we'll add series.

💭Mehmed's new appearance looks exactly like Ben Barnes. is this on purpose?

No, it's an accident. I only learned that he and Mehmed are similar from readers’ comments.

💭I love Mehmed very much, will there be more scenes with him?

Of course there will be more scenes

💭How would you describe the love of Laia and Vlad?

In one word, this is space.

💭I would like to know if we will see more of Zara and Dimitris, the development of their relationship?

We'll see

💭Will there be other characters from the past?

No.

💭Will there be an ending with Mehmed in the present?

There will be an ending (He's an endgame)

💭Are there any books by you? Is there a book planned on DLS or is its publication unlikely?

There are no books by me, I’m new to writing. Will they be - we'll wait and see.

Credit Art: @ratanslily

💭I would like to ask a question about the scene of Mehmed’s harassment in the first season, this is a topic that everyone is very curious about. As we know, Mehmed occupies a very important place in history for the Turks and keeps him alive in the hearts of every Turk without exception. That's why the Turkish side of the fandom enjoyed your story from the very beginning. But to be honest, this scene left us all disappointed... Even though Mehmed has had good character development so far, most people (including me, unfortunately) can't forget this scene from season one. As I already said, game aside, he is already one of the great glorious people in our history. I hope you have not misunderstood me, but we have been waiting for years for an explanation from both you and the management on this issue. I write this with all sincerity; Can you at least talk about this issue and explain?

Our short story is not a history book, but a fairy tale. Any fairy tale must have villains, otherwise the plot will not work. We had a wise and kind Sultan Murad, but someone had to do bad things. According to historical facts, Mehmed, during his first reign, was indeed an unprepared, too young ruler and made mistakes. That's why I chose him for a negative role. And I am very sorry that by doing this I offended some of the Turkish players. The image of Mehmed from the game has no relation to the historical Sultan, just as Cardinal Richelieu from the novels of Alexandre Dumas does not resemble the historical Richelieu - wise and respected in France .

Source note: TG PKR

#romance club #dracula a love story #rc #rc dls

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mumms-the-word · 3 months

Text

The Art of the Night

Day 27 of the BG3 Fic February Challenge

Did I already have this scene written? Yes I absolutely did. I like Gale's romance scene but I was so disappointed when the game created a mashup of the Kama Sutra and One Thousand and One Nights and DIDN'T let us read passages from it.

So made up some passages for myself.

Check out my masterlist of BG3 fics!

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27. Choose any scene in the game and write it with your headcanon

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How about the perfect night in Waterdeep? Yes…let’s imagine how it would be. The scene is this: you and I stand in the room that is the centre of my universe. The sculptures, the paintings, the walls enlivened by the spines of a thousand books. The grand piano plays the Lliirian Suites all by itself, and as we look out beyond the arches that lead to the terrace, we see the weary sun take its daily dive into the sea.

———

Dani moved to the railing of the terrace, placing her hands on the wood and leaning her weight against it. It felt as real as any she’d touched in Baldur’s Gate, worn smooth by craftsmen, time, and weather. She closed her eyes and soaked in the warmth of the setting sun and the salt of the briny sea air. Just like home…

She knew it was all illusion and fantasy, that the magic was merely tricking her mind into feeling the weight of the wood and smelling the scent of the sea. But for the moment, she wanted to exist in that illusion. After so many days surrounded by decay, the warmth and light of even a setting sun was like a balm to her spirit and body.

She felt Gale join her at the railing and she opened her eyes, turning to look at him. But his gaze was on the horizon, a deeply thoughtful, almost sorrowful expression on his face. Despite the obvious concentration it must take to make and maintain this illusion, his mind was clearly on the future and the choice he felt was all but inevitable. He gazed at the horizon like a man who knew he would never see such a sight again.

She wanted to reach out and caress his cheek, turn his face back to hers, kiss him until he forgot all his worries. But she settled, for now, with taking his hand.

He glanced down, as if surprised, and then met her gaze. He gave her a soft smile.

“What do you think?” he asked.

She gave his hand a squeeze. “I love it. I could spend every evening watching the sunset here, with you.”

“Could you?” He seemed surprised by her words, lifting his head to gaze out over the ocean again, as if looking at it a little differently than before.

“Once all of this is over, yes. I’m a sucker for a good sunset.” She tilted her head, waiting for him to smile at her little remark, but he was lost in thought once more, his eyes scanning the world around them. Memorizing, she realized, or perfecting the memory. As though this might truly be the last night his eyes beheld the scene.

She couldn’t let him stay lost in his thoughts. She tugged on his hand, leading him back to the cushioned bench that sat off to one side. There, she sat down and patted the space beside her, inviting him to join her. He smiled faintly.

“My favorite spot,” he said, gesturing toward her. He settled beside her, body close, shoulders brushing. “Many times, evening turned to night and back to daybreak once more while I sat here, lost in words.”

She raised her eyebrows playfully at him. “Oh? Up all night reading? I do love that rebellious streak of yours.”

He gave her a teasing, half-mischievous look. “Allow me to live dangerously while I still can.”

His words, though said with humor, made her smile falter. She didn’t want to think about that now. His possible death. Not while they were, for the moment, surrounded by the comforts of home, his home, far, far away from the Absolute.

“What sorts of books did you read?” she asked. “It can’t have all been spell tomes. At least, I hope not.”

He chuckled. “No, not all spell tomes or magical theory, though there was plenty of that as well. I’d read just about anything I could get my hands on, if it interested me. History, philosophy, literature, poetry…romance…”

He shifted to reveal a book on the side table behind him. “This,” he said, reaching for the book, “might just be all of that wrapped in one.”

Dani glanced at the cover and instantly recognized it. “Is that…?”

“The Art of the Night,” he said, running his hand over the cover. It depicted a man and a woman in sensual embrace, their bodies fluid and ethereal. Around the woman’s head was a round halo of divinity, like a thin crescent moon in the starry sky that surrounded them. “It details the first thousand nights of a newlywed king and queen. They turned everything they did into an art. The art of conversation. The art of taste, time-honored and newly acquired.”

His thumb idly traced the halo of divinity around the woman’s head. “The art of the body. The exploration and acceptance of the self and the other. The art of the night itself.”

“I’m familiar with this story,” Dani said, reaching for the book. He gave it willingly, watching as she traced a finger along the curving lines of the woman’s body.

She recalled what she knew…what she had memorized, back when she’d gotten her hands on a version of the king and queen’s story a couple of years ago. She hadn’t kept it long, because her troupe had to travel light and books were heavy, so she had only memorized a few pages to entertain her fancy when she could no longer read the physical copy. It wasn't much, but what she did remember was that this tale was more than fairy tale. It was sheer, poetic eroticism, beautiful and haunting, alluring and sensual.

She stood and wandered a step or two away, opening the book and flipping through the first few pages, her eyes skimming the text. It wasn’t precisely the same as the tale she’d read. In the margins of the text, on nearly every page, there were magic symbols and words. Each night was embellished with the markings for a spell or a ritual, accompanied by poetic instructions on how to recreate the experiences and lessons the noble couple gained in their first three years of marriage. And, more than occasionally, the pages contained diagrams of the couple in the various ways they experienced their pleasure, drawn in the same fluid, ephemeral style as the cover.

This copy, this version, wasn’t just the tale itself, she realized. It was both the romantic, erotic tale and a magical Quarta Sune, both poetry and sex manual, mixing in magic and making the hypothetical romance of the king and queen entirely possible, if one knew how to manipulate the spells.

She turned to a passage she knew well, almost by heart. She was quiet a moment, reconnecting with the words, before she began to speak them softly, a note of fondness in her voice.

“‘That night, the king met his beloved once more in their chambers,’” she read.

“‘Dearest one,’ said he, ‘Gold I have given thee, and jewels from my store; chains for thy neck and bands for thy wrists; and still, thine eyes shine more brilliantly than any treasure in my kingdom.

‘What gem in all the realms can be more precious than thy gaze? What more can I give to you, my beloved, so that you may know the ardent depths of my heart? What more, when thine eyes alone make all riches seem as dull iron?’

‘Tender-hearted king,’ said the queen, ‘I need neither gold nor gems; my love is not so cheaply bought nor so willingly sold. And yet, already thou possess that which I long for most. Thy steady gaze, my love, and thy faithful hand are all I ask.’”

Gale stood and joined her, brushing nearly against her back as he looked over her shoulder and spoke the next few lines softly in her ear.

“‘Come, take my hand, and look beyond this simple visage. I will bare my soul to thee, this night, and gaze boldly at thine. For more than bone and blood are we, but spirits merely housed in flesh.’”

Dani’s breath caught, her mind distracted by the way his breath stirred her hair, by how close his lips were to her neck. She turned her head slightly and found his dark eyes watching her. He hadn’t been reading the lines, but reciting them from memory.

She was at a loss for words. He was barely touching her and yet she felt like her entire body was slowly kindling aflame, warmth spreading from her core to her toes and the very tips of her horns. She clutched the book a little tighter, casting about for something to say.

“My, um…my copy didn’t have pictures,” she breathed. "Or spells."

He blinked, as if processing her words, and then chuckled, shaking his head. “You were missing out, then. Some of the later diagrams can be quite…fascinating.”

When he looked at her again, his smile was half-apologetic and half-admiring. “You know…I must have read that passage a thousand times, but never have I heard the words expressed so beautifully as you did now. You have a gift, Dani. You are…”

He trailed off, his gaze slowly taking in the features of her face, lingering a moment on her lips before meeting her eyes again. “You are wonderful,” he breathed. “So wonderful I can scarcely believe any of this to be real.”

Dani didn’t know what to say to that. She felt lost in his brown-eyed gaze, trying to discern shades of deep amber from chestnut and mahogany, enchanted by the flecks of bronze that appeared in the light of the setting sun. She had never considered herself a fawning romantic, but staring into his eyes, she felt she could all too easily become one.

After several heartbeats, Gale dropped his gaze to the book, gently taking it from her hands. “Can I show you?” he asked, turning the pages. “What they mean? To experience love and pleasure in more ways than just the body?”

“You mean…like the gods do,” she said, turning to face him, the book between them. “Like you said before.”

“Precisely.” He smoothed flat the pages of the book, showing her two diagrams of hands, magic symbols and poetry surrounding the sketches. “Why confine ourselves to the pleasures of mortal flesh? It is but one stitch in a vast tapestry. Let me show you more.”

Something about the brightness in his eyes made her hesitate. He would know more than her what pleasures could exist outside the body, she supposed, and she trusted him. And yet…

As if sensing her hesitation, he closed his eyes in concentration. Dani felt herself grow lighter, floating apart from her body. The sky around them darkened and then shone with a million brilliant stars, draped with purple, blue, and red stardust shimmering in clouds and galaxies, appearing both within reach and endlessly far away. The more she turned her head to look, the more the structures and objects of Waterdeep fell away, leaving them in the expanse of beautiful, eternal space. Even their bodies were left behind. They existed now as spirits only, shining and translucent.

“What do you think?” he asked again. “Beautiful, is it not?”

It was, but already she missed the real Gale. As a spirit, his eyes glowed with magic and she could see the stars through his body. But while the swirling galaxies and glittering stars were stunning, she missed his rich brown eyes. When she reached out to brush his arm, she found his body simultaneously tangible and intangible, as though a mere thought could allow her to phase through him completely.

She had no doubt that if they stayed like this, Gale would reveal a hundred avenues of pleasure she had never experienced before, but her selfish little heart didn’t want to be impressed by magic. She just wanted the man himself.

“It’s our first night together, Gale,” she said. She could still sense her body, somewhere in the material plane, and focused there, reaching out to it like an anchor. Outside of the galaxy illusion, she placed her hands over his and closed the book. The visions of galaxies melted away, their spectral bodies becoming physical and visible once more, though the illusion of Waterdeep remained. “Shouldn’t we start somewhere closer to the beginning? I want to experience you first. We'll have time to try all the rest later.”

He looked doubtful. “Are you sure?”

“Gale,” she whispered softly, pressing her hand to his chest, over his heart. Her touch silenced him in an instant, though he still looked uncertain. “I’ve never been more sure. Tonight isn’t the end for us.”

This was what she wanted, more than the beautiful illusions or spectral experiences. She felt his heart beating beneath her palm, felt the warmth of his body. She wanted more of that. More of the real, touchable Gale, with his soft brown hair and his gentle, dark eyes. She wanted to slip her hands beneath his shirt and touch his skin, feel the way his muscles twitched or tensed when her fingers grazed over them. She longed to taste his lips and feel the weight of him against her and watch his face flush and see how far that flush traveled down his neck and chest.

With her other hand, she gently slipped the book from his grip and set it on the railing. She stepped into the space between them, filling it with her body, pressing her palm more firmly against his chest. “You are what I want, Gale. The real man in front of me. Not the illusion and not the fantasy."

"But—"

"You don’t have to worry about impressing me. I’m no goddess.”

“Yes, you are,” he said, placing his hand over hers. He said it as though it were a fact, irrefutable, and with such warmth that it made her breath hitch.

She was used to admiration, entertainer that she was. She was used to praise. She was used to flattery. But the deep sincerity of his words and the way he looked at her was new. He spun poetry from mere words without even trying, and she was always caught off balance by the beauty of it.

But then his clever smile was back, and he said, “Trust me, I would know.”

She scoffed and gave him a light shove. He swayed on his heels but didn’t budge, chuckling at her feigned irritation.

“That said…" He kept ahold of her hand, threading his fingers with hers as he lowered them away from his chest. "Will you meet me halfway?”

“Halfway?”

He snapped his fingers and the balcony and sunset shifted, bookshelf-laden walls enclosing around them once more. But rather than his study, this room was a little smaller, a large canopied bed taking up the majority of the space. Stacks of books sat precariously on beside tables and spots on the floor while a fireplace burned cheerfully on one wall, a cushy armchair angled in front of it. Dani half expected to find Tara curled up in the armchair, though she hadn’t the faintest idea what Tara might look like.

“Your bedroom?” she asked, tilting her head. "In Waterdeep?"

“Indulge me,” he said. “Unless you’d like a canopy of stars once more.”

She shook her head. If this was a true, or mostly true, reflection of Gale’s room in Waterdeep, she was in no hurry to leave. She looked around with interest, but some of the details, like the words on the spines of books, shifted and blurred beneath her vision, as though Gale didn’t want her looking too closely.

Not matter. She wasn’t here to read anyway.

“I’m sure you’ll find the bed more than comfortable,” he said. “And, should I soon find myself a little too distracted to maintain the rest of the illusion, the bed will remain. For a few hours, at least.”

She arched an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, offering no further comment. She grinned and hopped onto the bed, flopping back with her arms spread. He was right. It was solid beneath her, not at all an illusion, and it was certainly comfortable. Better than the bedrolls on hard ground that she’d been sleeping on this past month or so.

“Oh, I could get use to this,” she said, settling right in. “You’ll have to teach me this little spell.” She lifted a hand and gestured like she was revealing words on a banner. “Conjure Bed. School of…er…”

“Conjuration,” he finished, the humor obvious in his voice. “As the name implies.”

“Right, I could have guessed that.” She propped herself up on one elbow to find him watching her again, that same fond, enchanted look he’d worn the last few days, especially tonight. She held out her hand to him, an open invitation for him to join her. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

He opened his mouth as though to answer, paused, and then shook his head fondly. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

He reached out and took her hand, climbing onto the bed with her. She lay back, cradling his face in her hands as he rested part of his weight against her, gazing down at her with a look so filled with love she could only smile and stare.

There they were, those dark eyes she loved so much. There, too, was the oddly pleasant scratch of his beard against her palms, the softness of his hair as her fingertips sank into it, the heat and weight of his body as it pressed her into the downy mattress. Exactly as she wanted it.

“I love you,” she whispered.

His smile was gentle and loving, reflecting her words before he even spoke them. “I love you, too, Meridan Zavrai.”

He bent his head to kiss her and she let the world around her fade into a hazy blur, until at last the only thing she could see, the only thing she could hear, the only thing she could touch, was Gale himself.

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3ficfeb #gale #gale dekarios #my fic #oc #dani #meridan zavrai #i am not a poet don't judge me for my bad poetry #i just wanted to give 1001 nights vibes #also dani didn't vibe with the psychadelic tantric astral projection sex thing but she doesn't mind illusions so yeah #thats how we ended up here

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comradekatara · 1 year

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I feel like I see ppl say that ozai is dumb (and I totally get why, because he’s extremely shallow to the point of looking downright foolish) but honestly..... is he?? is ozai dumb, is zhao dumb, is zuko dumb, or all they all just men from the fire nation who were taught to embody a certain aggressive, active, prideful, impulsive, violent, reckless, singleminded mode of masculinity that praised them for certain behaviors and virtues such as strength and power and condemned any man who didn’t align with these values?

ozai is smart enough to seize and maintain power over the fire nation, which is his life’s primary goal. zhao is smart enough to invade the north pole, which was impenetrable for the past century of war, and while destroying the moon obviously is not a sensible thing to do, it does carry out his intended effect, which is to debilitate his enemies and demonstrate the sheer force of his power.

zhao’s lack of accounting for the spirits can be attributed directly to the fact that a key aspect of fire nation propaganda is denying spiritualism to the point where he finds iroh silly for respecting their status in the ecosystem whatsoever. he’s not unintelligent, he’s just ignorant due to his cultural upbringing. of course he has massive blindspots, he was fed fire nation propaganda his whole life, but he would never have risen through the ranks of the fire navy just through ozai’s favor alone.

furthermore, the idea that ozai’s reliance on the women in his family to do his dirty work (ursa killing azulon, azula capturing zuko & iroh and taking ba sing se) is a sign of weakness doesn’t actually hold water. if anything, ozai using women for his own ends and then discarding them once they are no longer useful to him demonstrates his strength as a patriarch.

additionally, the way he banishes zuko by giving him an impossible quest with the promise of return on its completion incentivizes zuko to remain loyal to his nation and his father, instead of simply banishing him with no hope of return, at which point zuko would have nothing to lose in attempting to usurp ozai, which is clearly an anxiety for ozai considering that zuko was banished for threatening treason in the first place. (and note that zuko only does resist ozai once he returns to the fire nation, something azula orchestrated without ozai’s approval. if zuko had stayed in ba sing se as a fugitive it is highly unlikely that he would have ever participated in the avatar’s revolution, but azula wanted her brother to come back home and found a way to make it so.)

ozai is very good at manipulating people, he is a very powerful firebender (think of the way he is able to summon lightning instantly, underground, moments after an eclipse is over, without any sort of warning), and he was very close to winning the war for good only six years into his reign. he is myopic, shallow, egotistical, and generally wrong about many things, but that doesn’t actually make him dumb.

i think he mostly seems dumb because when put next to azula (or iroh, or ursa), he is far less subtle in his intellect. azula is shrewd, calculating, clever, and far less image-obsessed than ozai is. she is completely willing to sublimate herself for the sake of serving her empire, whereas ozai is the empire and therefore must project absolute power at all times. zuko, especially in book 1, is far more like ozai than azula is, which is what makes azula such a threatening villain: the fact that she is a girl is crucial to her character. so many of her traits that make her so much more threatening than anyone else in positions of power throughout the show are directly born out of the fact that despite being raised on the same values, she was socialized differently.

her feminine behaviors and the expectations placed on her as a girl are what make so her anomalous among the myopic, egotistical, prideful, power-hungry fire nation military. she doesn’t care as much about projecting power, so she’s able to get rid of her fancy fleet and recruit mai and ty lee, she’s able to disguise herself to enter ba sing se instead of laying siege to it and successfully takes it over when iroh could not after nearly two years. she does not rely on brute force, but rather “feminine qualities” such as manipulation, calculation, and subterfuge. same goes for mai and ty lee, hence why they are also so powerful despite merely being two non-bending teenage girls. by not being forced into performing those restrictive masculine behaviors, she is able to beat the men at their own game.

similarly, ursa uses poison to kill azulon, an act she does for the benefit of the men in her family (ozai and zuko), through a traditionally feminine weapon. a fire nation man would never think to poison their enemy because that is not how men kill other men. but use a woman as a proxy, and this becomes a sufficiently masculine act through the way in which the man exerts his power over a woman.

iroh uses brute force and projection of power as his primary tactics before his reckoning (see his siege on ba sing se), and manipulation, scheming, disguise, and sublimation to achieve his ends only after he has unlearned fire nation propaganda and gained a broader perspective. sokka is similar in this regard, in that it takes him learning feminine strategies from women warriors (the kyoshi warriors technique is about using their opponents’ force against them) to understand that he needs to prioritize his intellect over brute force if he ever intends to win a single fight. zuko’s blue spirit persona demonstrates his capabilities for being smart in battle, but when he is not inhabiting the blue spirit (his mother’s values), he is channeling ozai, and thus loses fights due to his aggression and impulsivity, which is always used against him.

zuko’s growth involves him improving as a fighter when he sheds the fire nation model of masculinity that values blind rage and aggression, and instead embraces the feminine values of warmth, healing, gentleness, and understanding, which allows him to go toe to toe with azula as someone who has internalized feminine values by virtue of being born a girl: being calculating and precise instead of powerful, manipulative and scheming instead of blunt, and patient instead of impulsive. the final agni kai sees azula prioritizing sheer power as she suffers a nervous breakdown, which zuko and katara are able to use against her in a way that they otherwise could not since she is uniquely impulsive and reckless in this fight (although she is still able to strategize as shown when she points her lightning at katara instead of zuko).

the reason azula seems so much smarter than ozai is because she wasn’t raised to prioritize her own ego above everything else; no, she was raised as a girl, and this social disadvantage also proves to be her greatest strength. the reason iroh seems so much smarter than ozai is because he is willing to embrace multiple ideas about the world, instead of just one. to his credit, ozai is very good at implementing his idea; it’s just that said idea sucks. ozai isn’t dumb, he just has an incredibly limited perspective. he’s great at what he does, which is projecting power. but he has no reason to do anything else, so we really shouldn’t expect him to.

ozai isn’t stupid, he’s just wrong. and yes, there is a difference.

#analysis #hot takes #ozai #azula #zhao #iroh #zuko #wrote this whole thing in a frenzy last night after I saw someone call ozai a dumbass lmao #I mean he is a dumbass but he’s also way smarter and more powerful than I think we want to give him credit for #it’s not his fault his life’s single goal happens to seem very stupid to us #but yeah azulas entire character would simply not work if she wasn’t a girl lol like her gender is so integral to her character #and why every girl in avatar is a better fighter than the big strong powerful masculine men who fight using brute force #toph beats boulder. etc

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sumedhaaaaaaaaaa · 3 months

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Hello there, it’s me Momo🩷

Here’s a little description of things I love and envy

I’m from the Indian subcontinent.

Spent my entire childhood between mountains and valleys. For a change shifted to Delhi which I regret tremendously.

I love farming, gardening, stitching clothes, crocheting, writing poems and maintaining a journal.

I enjoy long walks and bicycle rides.

I prefer going to a bookstore or a restaurant all by myself. I love self-dates.

I want to settle someday at an unknown meadow with mountains and lakes at a cottage core house, with big windows and minimalistic furniture with a wooden chimney, a library with some cats and the man I love.

I’m a student, fortunately academically gifted/blessed.

I did my undergrad from Indraprastha college for women under the university of Delhi in the discipline of geography Hons. Currently pursuing my masters from Jamia Millia Islamia.

I love movies; and my favourite genre is dystopian reality. So far I have watched 750+ movies which include almost every linguistic diversity as I strongly believe in the adherence of, “you can’t find gold unless you dig the dirt.”

I love reading books, like a lot. I can speak 5 different languages and out of them, 3 languages are engraved within my system. Starting from Greek Literature Iliad by Homer to metaphysics by aristotle; reading short stories of Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali as well as reciting Gazals of Gulzar in Hindi itself, I believe I have defined base in my own culture as well as to others. Again, when it comes to dystopian, I envy reading The Hunger Games and The Maze Runners. Do Androids dream of electric sheep? Comes under my top 5 dystopian reads; as this book was later adopted into a world class movie franchise called The Blade Runner. I lean towards Harry Potter more than The Lord of the Rings. I have read A song of ice and fire which people are so batshit crazy about and famously known as the “Game of thrones.” I didn’t watch a single episode but I know more than any fan I believe.

If you intervene and ask, then yeah you can think of me as a “nerd” hehehe because my preference and taste of things leans towards being more of geek tbh🩷🩷

I also enjoy watching animated series/anime and sit coms. I’m a sucker for The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon and will rewatch them for an eternity if asked. My favourite anime is Gintama but the list is peculiar and long as I have been watching anime/reading manga since I was 9 years old. My first anime was Dragon Ball z and Pokémon. I also watched Doraemon and Shinchan series/movies. The list goes on when it comes to entertainment but mine is more restricted than common which people watch out of peer pressure. Below are some examples for understanding my taste and likings.

My favourite dystopian movies are (Top 20)

1. Shutter Island.

2. Interstellar

3. The Dark knight

4. The Dark knight Rises

5. Captain America: the winter soldier

6. Rouge one: a star war’s story

7. Tron legacy

8. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban

9. The Hobbit: the desolation of Smaug

10. Star Trek Enterprise

11. Star Wars: the empire strikes back

12. Blade runner

13. Blade runner 2049

14. Dune

15. V for vendetta

16. Maze runner

17. The Hunger Games

18. Oblivion

19. The Truman show

20. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Top 15 Anime

1. Gintama

2. Neon Genesis Evangelion

3. Berserk

4. Mob psycho

5. Steins Gate

6. Violet evergarden

7. Monster

8. Parasyte

9. Heavenly delusion

10. Ergo proxy

11. Full Metal Alchemist

12, That time when I got reincarnated as a slime

13. Campfire cooking in another world with my absurd cooking skills

14. Barakamon

15. Bunny Drop

Top 10 Anime Movies

1. Princess Mononoke by Studio Ghibli

2. Up from the poppy hill by Studio Ghibli

3. My neighbor Totoro by Studio Ghibli

4. The End of Evangelion by Hideaki Anno

5. Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli

6. Perfect blue by Satosi Kon

7. Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo

8. Ghost in the Shell by Mamoru Oshii

9. Violet evergarden: the movie by Taichi Ishidate

10. Doraemon: Nobita’s new dinosaur by Kazuaki Imai, Toshihisa Yokoshima, in collaboration with Kyoto animation studio Wasabi Mizuta, Megumi Ohara, Shihoko Hagino.

I know it may seem boring and I usually don’t find people with such diversity, but it would be good to be a part of this community. I envy people who respects art and literature of every culture and not demeaning them.

Have a good day people muah 🩷

#entertainment #anime movie #movies #80s movies #80s anime #anime 80s #90s anime #anime and manga #anime #dystopia #science fiction #novels #fem reader #tumblr milestone

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