he stayed for 5 minutes and then asked to take bagheera for a walk 🥹

"alice's the best twilight character" this "charlie's the best twilight character" that...

WRONG. IT'S THIS GUY

look at him. no thoughts head empty, just cat. king behavior

Nutmeg: Your help today was invaluable, Scourge. Thank you. Scourge: Uh- yeah...sure...whatever

The leader of Hope Colony and her emo, emotionally-constipated second taking a stroll after a mission.

More info under the cut:

It dawned on me that there would be a fairly large time gap between Scourge and Nutmeg's experiences with the clans. Now, I could make Scourge younger, but I think I can make it work

So, Tiny makes it out of his house, barely alive with some fresh wounds and his collar broken off, and runs into the city after a forest cat raid. While he never does the whole dog and Bloodclan thing, he does grow skilled in ways to survive in the city and builds his own reputation.

Four years afterwards, a new name is sweeping the city, Nutmeg. A kittypet who not only managed to save two of her kittens in a raid but killed a forest cat while she was at it...and lived. She rapidly gains followers and builds up a group she names the Hope Colony.

Their mission: Keep the forest cats out of their homes and away from their kits by any means necessary.

Scourge is down for getting some forest cat blood on his claws and breaks his four years of routine to join. Having lived most of his life by himself, he's difficult to work with initially, but they help each other and eventually get along. Eventually, he becomes her second.

Nutmeg has a very warm, friendly personality. She's very charismatic and people-oriented. She generally prefers to try diplomacy, even with forest cats. If that fails, she turns to the power of incredible violence.

Scourge is always down for the power of incredible violence. He's well known for doing the "dirty work" of the Hope Colony, mostly because that's what he's good at. On the inside, however, he's struggling to live in a group after spending most of his life watching out for only himself.

Bro barely remembers to eat most days yet now he's supposed to keep up with the dynamics of the different city groups as well as forest cat issues. ugh. Politics.

As seen in the photo, Nutmeg freely gives compliments and expresses gratitude. Scourge is unsure how to react to the feelings this brings up.

Designs:

Nutmeg is now buff because Nutmeg deserves to be buff. And Squilf gets her tail from her grandma. She has scars on her side and on the eye hidden by her bangs from Thunderclan's raid on her home. The other scars are from the many fights she's been in since then. She still lives with her humans, though she's gone much of the day to run the Colony.

Scourge now has his iconic red bangs because I can't give him his edgy personality and not have them there. The fur naturally grows like that because I said so. The scars on his leg is from the forest cat raid he escaped from. The ones on his face are from random fights. He's also underweight cause he forgets to eat when in a work mindset.

I feel like for the first few years of guardianship Darius and Hunter really struggle to figure out how to refer to each other.

Like it's easier for Hunter, he pretty quickly settles on "guardian" for explaining their relationship to other people and just referring to Darius by name when talking to the man himself. Overtime the phrasing gradually warms, becoming "foster parent" and eventually, once Hunter's already an adult old enough to move out, "Dad".

(Sidenote: he doesn't move out til he's in his mid to late twenties, bc he's under no obligation too, Darius low-key doesn't want him too, and the two of them want to make up for lost time in a sense, since Hunter only had 2 years of legal dependency on Darius before aging out of the system. Darius adopts Hunter retroactively as an adult)

Darius on the other hand has a real conundrum on his hands for those first few years. He has a lot of options! But "ward" is too formal and makes it sound like Darius picked him up off the street like after his parents were murdered, "apprentice/student" isn't really accurate considering the focus of Darius and Hunter's relationship has less to do with Hunter learning magic and more to do with Hunter being housed and fed. "Kid" and "foster son" are there...but...

Look, Darius isn't going to refer to Hunter more familiarly than Hunter refers to him! He's not gonna make it WEIRD. He's not a dad, because Hunter doesn't want/need him to be (and also parenthood is scary <3). Darius doesn't know the first thing about being a dad, despite how his friend group teases him.

Eda and Eberwolf are the two who are worst about it. They torture him with how 'fatherly' he's allegedly being (allegations Darius will DENY til his GRAVE!!!) And Eda specifically compares his journey to hers, saying it always starts off with you referring to them as your apprentice (again, Darius doesn't plan on doing that), as your roommate (...kinda weird in Darius' opinion? But okay Eda), or even your pet (????HELLO???). But eventually, they always become your dumb kid when you least expect it.

She's had a couple cups of appleblood by this point, but Darius knows on some level she's right and he's steadfastly ignoring that fact, even as Eber continues to refer to Hunter as his "cub" (kinda cute but Darius doesn't know how Hunter would feel being compared to an animal). The only people who are even remotely reasonable about all this (besides Lilith who's a bit disinterested in kid talk) is Raine and Alador, who both sort of neutrally, a bit awkwardly refer to Hunter as Darius' Boy.

Darius referring to Hunter as "my boy" is funnily enough what sticks the longest before it evolves to son boy. Hunter's crushing it at a derby match? Darius is whooping and cheering, yelling "THAT'S MY BOY!!!" At the other parents in the stands. Hunter is doing something dangerous or inadvisable where others can see him? "Darius, your boy-" "AHH! MY BOY". Hunter, a year into his stay with Darius finally comes clean about everything to do with him being a grimwalker, and is afraid that he's going to go back to seeing him as just an inferior replacement for Darius' beloved mentor? Darius (who has just had to process some of the most bonkers, emotionally heavy information in his life) gently, hesitantly puts a hand on his shoulder (the 'good' one Hunter doesn't mind people touching), and says that Hunter's much more than that. He's Darius' Boy and he's not going to kick him out or get angry or love him any less for things out of his control. It's good. They're good.

Like I said, it evolves over time and 'boy' becomes somewhat obsolete as the two get caught up in the joy of finally feeling able to explicitly refer to each other as family. But unlike "guardian" or "ward" the word never gets fully retired. Even when Hunter is 30 and is arguing that he's more of a man than a boy now, he is still getting referred to by Darius as "his boy", the way some parents never really stop calling their adult kids baby or kiddo (Camila and Eda respectively btw).

Hunter makes one of those corny matching shirt sets at some point for a father's Day gift when he's 17/18, where the two shirts say "if lost, return Boy to me" (Darius) and "I'm Boy" (Hunter). Hunter mostly did it so he could own a funny shirt that says "I'm boy". Darius openly weeps upon seeing them. Like Oh my Titan he's boy. He's my boy. Oh wow

A request from @/mercuryferns of Blitzen and Hearth with a cat.

oh crochet cat

Today we're going to drive to a shelter and look at kittens (to adopt)

I had to surrender my cat Toad to the SPCA for reasons I'd rather not discuss, and it broke my heart. So I wanted to share some of my favorite Toad pictures with the internet in the hopes that others might also appreciate this precious little man. I miss you dearly, my sweet boy 💔

I also made a couple memes to help cope with these emotions

I am still waiting on final confirmation for the kitten adoption, but they did tell me that if I am selected, I can pick her up this coming Saturday

But like I may have mentioned, she's out of town. I'd need a ride to go get her

So I asked my Dad yesterday like, "Are you busy next Saturday? Could you drive me to (town) in the late afternoon?"

And his response was along the lines of "What? At that time on a Saturday? No, I have things to do. I don't like driving out of town at that time of day, the traffic will be bad. Forget it."

So I was like, okay. I'll figure something else out

But I ended up telling him all about the kitten anyway and how cute she was and the little bit of back story I knew and all, and he asks

"So when did you get this kitten?"

"... I don't have her yet. If I do get her, it'll be Saturday the 17th. That's why I need a ride to (town)."

"Oh. Well. Call me on Thursday and I'll see if I can drive you."

Hilarious how his tune changes when there's a cute kitty involved

Sketchtember 8. Finished last night and posted everywhere else last night but here, because again I'm logged into my personal acct on mobile and I was in the bedroom so I could avoid accidentally seeing Blue Archive spoilers as my wife watched the latest chapter play out w/ a friend on vc.

Also, obligatory photos showing the beastie:

This is my favorite picture of my cat that I have saved because he was definitely not supposed to be in this windowsill and I caught him being a despicable little NAUGHTY after work but he was so happy I was there he just started screaming at me, because mäther was home. Look at how intently he's looking at me. Geoffrey you were the stupidest cat on earth

oc questions tag

tagged by @hibernationsuit !! thank youuuu 💜

tagging @rosykims @aevallare @abetterbeginning @gortash @wrenanigans if u want to do this, no pressure! don't remember who's done this recently so i'm sorry if ur getting spammed with this bc of me hehe

anyway it's celyn time babey.. been thinking abt her a lot lately <3

name: celyn surana

nickname(s): uhhh. cel? i gotta think of some cute descriptive nicknames for her that others would teasingly use but i'm drawing a blank rn. will have to ruminate more.

she only lets Very Close Friends call her by any nickname btw. jowan (being her only friend lol) was the only person in the circle who got to call her cel. only andrale and carver have earned this privilege since (andrale only ever calls her celyn tho). leliana earns it as well ten years later during inquisition lol

gender: cis female

star sign: uhhh she was born on the 27th of firstfall which is the thedas equivalent of november sooo sagittarius??

height: 159 cm. my second shortest oc and the same height as me hehe <3

orientation: bisexual!

nationality: fereldan i guess. she was born in ferelden and raised in ferelden's circle of magi but she doesn't have a strong Fereldan Identity. she's not celyn from ferelden she's just... celyn...

favorite fruit: uuuhh apples

favorite season: i'm tempted to say winter bc her aesthetic is so cold and wintery but i think she would prefer a warmer season. maybe mid to late fall actually. she enjoys the gloom and fall colors and the rainy and stormy weather

favorite flower: i wonder if she's ever even seen a live plant actually. i wonder if there are any indoor greenhouses in the circle. wow i'm suddenly making myself sad thinking abt how she's barely seen any nature in her 19 years of life. anyway uhhh!!! gentians are her favorite actually look at how pretty they are

favorite scent: ghghjgh i struggle with any scent or smell related questions bc i have anosmia so idk what things smell like lmao. let's say uhhh whatever a spruce forest smells like. nice n fresh i imagine

coffee, tea or hot chocolate: she's a coffee gal... had to check if coffee exists in thedas and apparently it does and is a major export of antiva. fascinating. anyway she drinks coffee to stay awake late at night reading and studying (forbidden) magic. she enjoys the silence of the night and is at her most productive during that time

average hours of sleep: during her time in the circle i guess it was like... 5-6 maybe? as i said she tends to stay up late and i bet circle inhabitants are expected to wake up crazy early like 6am or sth. it doesn't get any better after leaving the circle bc andrale also expects everyone to get up and moving crazy early. and after officially becoming a warden it gets even worse when she starts having Warden Nightmares ahah

dog or cat person: cat person! she's a bit like morrigan when it comes to dogs. thinks they're stupid n gross lol. though she does eventually warm up to the dog (named assan by andrale <3) in dao.

dream trip: honestly anywhere is fine she is full of wanderlust... what living in a tower for 19 years does to a gal... the whole blight adventure is a dream trip to her i bet. yes she has to fight darkspawn and a horrible death is around every corner but consider: she gets to see ancient elven ruins and denerim and orzammar... so many sights to see and so many new experiences! she feels so alive! and she gets to use her powers to their full extent!! she gets to hone her skills beyond what the circle allowed!!! not that the circle's rules stopped her from studying outlawed magic in secret but like. now she doesn't have to do it in secret anymore.

a trip to tevinter would also be interesting from a purely academic standpoint. nevarra as well because it's more liberal with magic than most of thedas but also safer for her than tevinter? so basically she would like to see the whole world but especially places where she gets to expand her knowledge on magic...

favorite fictional character: in a real world au her favorite fictional character would be morgana pendragon from bbc merlin. this is not at all influenced by the fact that one of my inspirations for her was morgana pendragon from bbc merlin,

number of blankets they sleep with: hmmmm one

random fact: i'm sharing two random facts bc i can't decide which one of these is more interesting or whatev:

celyn is basically the toph to andrale's katara. they have somewhat clashing personalities and differing views on teamwork and the sharing of camp chores... andrale expects everyone to contribute while celyn only looks after herself. also despite her excitement she's kinda terrified to be out in the real world but she won't let it show!! so she acts hyper-independent!!! unfortunately for her andrale can see right through this facade and she calls celyn out on it (she tries to be gentle and constructive about it but she's had it with celyn's shit and fails). so. yea. my point is they argue a lot at first lol! but they become great friends once celyn learns teamwork and communication and andrale loosens up a little

whenever she does fire magic she makes the flames hot enough for them to turn blue, purely for the aesthetic. she also enjoys other ways of showing off with her magic and she was Very competitive in the circle. she simply had to be the best in her class and let the other students know that she was above them. most of her fellow students could not stand her because of this <3

My sweet baby 💜 I miss her so much 😢💔

the only things on my mind this week has been ‘i wanna kiss i wanna kiss i wanna kiss i wanna kiss’ and ‘OMG I LOVE MY CAT SM I HOPE I CAN KEEP HER ^_^’

here r more pictures !!!!! and a really funny gif of her lol she had catnip Probably for the first time (i assume?) and she was KNOCKED out after… eepy girl

Another thing worth mentioning about Claude's relationship with his parents: despite his feelings of admiration for his mother and despite remembering the bedtime stories his father told him, he still never writes to them. He can contact Nader no problemo (can even have him IN FODLAN, and for extended periods of time!), but his supports with Hilda also show off that he's so disconnected from his parents he's actually not even sure they're still alive.

Claude: Well, that's a fine thing to do, regardless of your reasons. As for me, it's been far too long since I've written to my parents...

Hilda: Oh? I thought your father had died.

Claude: Not quite. He's still alive and kicking...as far as I know. 

So on top of the Horse Incident... the "deal with the assassins yourself tiny child" thing... the fact that Claude ran away without telling his dad (if we go by Hopes) and without his mom seeming to give a shit that he's leaving all by himself... the act that going by Hopes Daddy-o is doing Literally Nothing about his children trying to violently invade his lover's homeland, and nothing about his children trying to murder each other for his throne... yeah these two are incredibly shitty parents, Gilbert could never dream of being this bad lmao.

But like, I also kinda like how... real? I guess? Claude's reaction to this is. He loves his parents, and he'll have open admiration for at least his mother, but then he starts talking about the other stuff and it's like "oh, that sounds like an abuse victim." Hearing him talk about how he "deserved" to either be dragged around by a horse or helplessly tied to its saddle as it runs around (depending on which version) shocked me when I first heard it, because "I was being bad I deserved to get hit by my parents" is such a huge red flag hearing someone say.

Plus how fondly he looks back on that memory - like you said, he was probably so elated to have his parents pay attention to him that the means in what they did so literally meant nothing to him (and could also tie into why he remembered those bedtime stories so well; another rare moment of his parent's attention being given to him) And him making the active effort to not talk to his parents once he ran away makes it so much worse, and hearing him still hold such fondness for them anyway in his A support with Byleth is almost more sad than it is endearing.

I'm honestly also surprised that the fandom just never acknowledges this? They act like Claude's parents are so cool for the most part, when his are legit some of the worst 3H has to offer and he's such a clear case of an abused child it's not even funny.

For real lol. People bash Gilbert for leaving his family while completely ignoring all the context about why. Meanwhile they celebrate badass Almyran king and queen despite that they’re horrible to Claude and probably all of their children as far as the king goes.

I also appreciate how Claude’s situation is complicated regarding his parents. Even abused children can still love their parents and it’s a very difficult situation. It’s a cycle of being abused then the parents will do something nice for the child, and that child believes they love them now and will be nice to them going forward. When that doesn’t happen, they remember the good things and try to tell themselves that their parents aren’t all bad and that there’s good in there. They love them for the nice things they do and tend to want more of it, so they stick around hoping to see that more.

Once Claude got old enough I’d imagine he probably realized it wasn’t normal and decided enough was enough. Even if he just wanted attention from his parents, I’m sure he could only take so much of what he went through between the assassinations and nobody really caring about him. Hilda was right to be shocked and horrified at what Claude went through, because that’s just... not normal. Also, if a child comes to believe they deserved the treatment, it’s because the parents made them think they deserved it and the child starts to accept it even if the punishment is reprehensible.

Even though Claude tends to brush this stuff off like it’s all in the past, it’s clearly affected him and his ability to trust people and form emotional connections. Like I said above, he remembers the good things fondly because it was the only positive attention he could get. He doesn’t fondly remember being punished and just speaks casually of it, but he shows no happiness for it. I’m sure Tiana does love him, but it also sounds like she either is afraid to go against her husband’s ways or just changed for the worse. Maybe the king does also love Claude, but it doesn’t excuse how terribly he treated him. Fact is, you’re only a child once and once you’re scarred from your childhood, you can’t just fix that.

Him not talking to his parents after leaving is a good step forward for him tbh. Cutting off contact regardless of how “sad” they might be is what you have to do in that situation. It’s like when toxic parents want their children to live with them to use them for selfish reasons, and they gaslight their kids so they can get what they want and be controlling. In that situation all you can really do is cut them out of your life. Of course, there’s always the whole giving them another chance in the future kind of thing, but if they continue acting like that then you cut them out permanently.

In Claude’s case I think he did the right thing to leave his father hanging like that, because boo hoo the king is so sad he can’t rule properly, but how do we not know that wasn’t intentional acting so that hopefully the information would reach Claude that he was acting like that? Maybe he could make Claude feel bad and come home... and the cycle would just continue. When parents act sad like that and “miss” their child despite having previously abused them in any form, it’s usually meant to manipulate the child’s emotions and make them come back. If your kids are trying to kill each other for whatever reason, how does that not make you more depressed than your most abused and bullied child running away from home and getting away from all that?

Personally I never found his stories about his life to be endearing. I found all of it to be depressing and upsetting. He may be older in the time of the game and know how to better manage that stuff, but it’s always worth noting that he was just a little boy when all this happened to him. Kids can get scared so easily and yet he acts like none of it actually really affected him, despite that any child being put through all that would traumatize them. All of that shows in his personality through his relationships and his inability to notice he’s pressing too hard on someone’s emotions until after it’s already done. He’s literally still in the learning process of how to understand other people’s emotions at the age of 18.

Having any fond memories of his abusers is exactly what a lot of abuse victims go through. I’m honestly shocked most of the fandom doesn’t look at his experiences as being legitimately terrible. His parents aren’t cool or badass. They’re terrible parents and not people who even deserve to call him their child. They certainly didn’t treat him like parents should treat their children. No child should be growing up in those circumstances.

The funny thing about the whole “bad parent” thing with Fodlan’s parents is that with Faerghus, they’re not only pretty decent parents, but then you get Matthias, who, well, more or less neglected his children (rather than abused them). Difference being, in Hopes he actually admits to knowing he was a bad father to Sylvain (and presumably Miklan who is still alive and well in that timeline as it’s GW he says this to Sylvain in). Then you have Lambert, who Rodrigue believes Dimitri losing would be horrible for Dimitri. Lambert decides that if he does die, he can safely leave Dimitri to Rodrigue. He had an idea, some sort of plan, if he were to die where his child would be safely in the care of someone who loved him. Rodrigue loved Glenn so much that he never stopped looking for answers about Duscur, coming across all kinds of valuable information about things that didn’t concern Glenn simply because he was distraught and had to know why his son had to die that day (and no, it wasn’t because he was a true knight. That was Rodrigue’s distressed way of coping. When he was in a better state of mind, he investigated the situation to get real answers. That’s the proof he wasn’t satisfied with the idea of leaving it at “Glenn was just doing his job”). Regarding Felix, Felix was the one who didn’t want to talk to Rodrigue, so Rodrigue backed off and let his son have space, but always looked out for him and tried to get closer to him. There was only so much he could do, but he did what little he could because he cared about Felix, even if Felix would walk away mad. Rodrigue just wanted his son in good hands.

That’s a pretty massive contrast to leaving your child vulnerable to assassins who are also partially your other children by not protecting him. Faerghus’ fathers would 110% absolutely have someone’s head for trying to harm their child, much less kill their child. No child deserves to have to fight their own battles, and no child deserves to have to rely on themselves to survive. Even with animals, you see the mother raise her young until they’re old enough to leave their home. Birds, cats, rabbits, you name it. They take care of their babies and keep them safe at home until they’re old enough to wander and get their own food and live outside of a confined area for their safety. It’s pretty much instinctual.

If Claude were real, all the stuff he went through would be such a big deal. I wish more people saw that because it’s good writing as far as Claude is concerned, but it also means his parents weren’t as amazing as other people say they are. Notice how it’s always other characters talking about how great they are, but Claude never has very good things to say about them that extend beyond basically “look they gave me attention once or twice every half a year”.

My biggest pet peeve is people who brag about being bad cat owners like it’s funny