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bones4thecats · 2 months

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May I request Poseidon, Thor and Hades with a sweet, female s/o who's a god of destruction, hunting, and nihilism?

If Their S/O Was The Deity of 'Evil'

Type of Writing: Request Name: If Their S/O Was The Deity of 'Evil' Characters: Poseidon, Thor, and Hades Requester: Anonymous

A/N: I've been reading so much on Norse Mythology it's insane... to sum it up I'm a nerd, and it's fun, ngl🤣

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🔱 Poseidon never leaves his kingdom unless it was necessary

🔱 That did bode well with who you were. As the Greek Deity of Destruction, Hunting, and Nihilism, you had helped raise multiple Gods into their roles, such as Ares, the Greek God of War, and Heracles, the Human-turned-God of Fortitude

🔱 Because of how violent Ares grew to be and how impulsive Artemis had been instead of regal, as many viewed a woman to act like that, many viewed you as a mixture of them

🔱 But, you were quite the opposite. At least to Poseidon and his main allies, that is

🔱 You, to your husband, was the complete opposite as what you were rumored to act like. Instead of a cold-hearted and blood-thirsty deity who lived off of the pain and harm against other living beings, you were a sweet and adoring S/O

🔱 And whenever your husband would get pissed off about something, you could just rest your hand on his shoulder and calm him down like nothing... much like what he can do for you

🔱 Poseidon, despite what he says, enjoys it when you take his nephews, Heracles and Ares, out of the main meeting room and would take them to do some things so that they wouldn't get caught in the middle of a sibling-driven argument (mainly Adamas and Poseidon)

🔱 It makes him feel at least some kind of connection to his family, even if he isn't fond of many members (unless you consider his relationship with Hades to be somewhat healthy)

🌩️ Thor always liked you, but since your father, Þjazi (Thiazi), had obviously caused a massive incident when it came to the Gods and your older sister, Skadi, he had pushed it all behind

🌩️ You on the other hand, had evolved your relationships with the Norse Pantheon, specifically you had welded a bond with Thor and his father, Odin

🌩️ Odin was very weary about you being alone with his son at first, but when Thor had come up to discuss his emotions towards you, the head God had just sighed and told him about how he had felt about the God of Thunder's mother when they first met centuries ago

🌩️ Thor was obviously shocked to hear that he was in love with you, a mixture of Goddess and Jötunn, but he did accept it and admit his feelings to you, shocking your sister, Skadi, and brother-in-law, Njord

🌩️ When you guys married and became each other's other half, many began rumors about you, since you began to represent Destruction, Hunting, and Nihilism in the Norse Pantheon

🌩️ Thor was not amused when those rumors had reached his ears, in fact, he was extremely pissed when someone had compared your actions to your father's. You were far from your father in his eyes

🌩️ While your father was hailed for his threatening and domineering nature with certain beings, while you were either quiet and polite or sweeter than a cup-full of sugar

🌩️ The God of Thunder, despite his wishes, doesn't go after those who speak bad of you, as he knows you'd be upset, along with your sister, who has been working hard on keeping your bonds in the family perfect

🌩️ He doesn't want his precious S/O mad, now does he?

💀 Hades himself doesn't have the best rumors being thrown around about him, so he understands how you feel when a new one arises

💀 Many think of the God of the Undead to be a very cold and manipulative being, but to you and his family and closest allies, Hades is a very caring and loyal brother/friend/husband

💀 Your husband was one of the first people to accept you inside of the old group of Deities, and he was by-far the most welcoming Gods, alongside Heracles and Aphrodite

💀 He adored how you represented such 'horrible' things, that being; Destruction, Hunting, and Nihilism, yet you were one of the nicest divine beings that he had ever both laid eyes on and given his heart too

💀 Hades and you had one of the best marriages hailed throughout the Heavens, from the Norse to the Shinto, everybody would agree on how amazing you guys held each other's hands through every single endeavor that threatened your relationship

💀 Despite what many believe, you are very kind to your husband's family. Many other Gods and Humans believe that you and his brothers hold a deep resentment for one another

💀 When in reality, you bond with them all very well. For Adamas you would help him train and keep himself in gear. Poseidon and you sit in silence and read whenever you don't want to speak, to him you're a decent divine being. And for Zeus, you're an ideal older sibling, you have had to hold him back from doing something that would either cause a war or Hera's anger... so basically just another kind of war...

💀 Your husband loves to see you bond with his family, especially Poseidon, since the God of the Seas isn't very fond of many. To Hades, he seems like he only tolerates him. So, seeing you guys actually bond in a way is nice

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the-ghost-bracket · 10 months

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The 44 Most Submitted Characters so far:

Danny Phantom - Danny Phantom (19 Times)

Napstablook - Undertale (11 Times)

Papa Nihil - The Band Ghost (11 Times)

Noah Czerny - The Raven Cycle (10 Times)

Sissel - Ghost Trick (9 Times)

Lewis Pepper - Mystery Skulls Animated (8 Times)

Cole - Ninjago (8 Times)

Morro - Ninjago (8 Times)

Gerard 'Gerry' Keay - The Magnus Archives (8 Times)

Ghostbur - DSMP (7 Times)

VikingPilot - Dominion SMP (7 Times)

Takeru Tenkuuji - Kamen Rider Ghost (7 Times)

Commander Wake - The Locked Tomb (6 Times)

Perona - One Piece (6 Times)

Hua Cheng - Heaven Official's Blessing (6 Times)

The Captain - BBC Ghosts (6 Times)

Heather Chandler - Heathers the Musical (6 Times)

Casper - Casper the Friendly Ghost (5 Times)

William Wisp - Just Roll With It (5 Times)

Polly Geist - Monster Prom (5 Times)

Joe Hills/Beetlejhost - Hermitcraft (5 Times)

Mia Fey - Ace Attorney (5 Times)

Spooky - Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion (4 Times)

Max Jagerman - Hatchetfield (4 Times)

Del the Ghost Rapper - Gorillaz (4 Times)

King Hamlet - Hamlet (4 Times)

Mari/Something - Omori (4 Times)

Chara Dreemur - Undertale (4 Times)

Scratch - The Ghost and Molly McGee (4 Times)

Mettaton - Undertale (4 Times)

Zero - The Nightmare Before Christmas (4 Times)

Aradia Megido - Homestuck (4 Times)

Starscream- Transformers (3 Times)

Malachi - Minecraft Diaries (3 Times)

Alex Mercer - Julie and the Phantom (3 Times)

PJ - Paranatural (3 Times)

Reggie Peters - Julie and the Phantoms (3 Times)

Fanny Button - BBC Ghosts (3 Times

Tikal the Echidna - Sonic the Hedgehog (3 Times)

Madhouse Mike - Cryptid Crush (3 Times)

Hanako/Yugi Amane - Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun (3 Times)

Zelda - The Legend of Zelda: Tracks (3 Times)

Bow - Inanimate Insanity (3 times)

Candy Diver Cookie - Cookie Run Kingdom (3 Times)

The 23 Most Submitted Media:

Danny Phantom (25 Times)

BBC Ghosts (22 Times)

Undertale (21 Times)

Ninjago (16 Times)

Heaven Official's Blessing (11 Times)

The Band Ghost (11 Times)

Julie and the Phantoms (11 Times)

Ghost Trick (10 Times)

The Raven Cycle (10 Times)

The Locked Tomb (9 Times)

One Piece (9 Times)

DSMP (8 Times)

Mystery Skulls Aninated (8 Times)

The Magnus Archives (8 Times)

Dominion SMP (7 Times)

A Christmas Carol (7 Times)

Kamen Rider Ghost (7 Times)

Pokemon (7 Times)

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun (6 Times)

Heathers the Musical (6 Times)

Ace Attorney (6 Times)

Just Roll With It (5 Times)

Monster Prom (5 Times)

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tvlandofficiall · 9 months

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seam.

SEAM. would you like an impromptu seam ramble. okay here we go.

seam is one of my favorite characters in deltarune, point blank. i think they get overlooked a lot because the darkners aren't as popular and a lot of their deal is still a mystery (in the same boat as ralsei on that one), but they're definitely being set up to be important later on down the line. between their knowledge of shadow crystals (mentioning them before they learn jevil had one in the first place, telling you they've a special power and could make something useful out of them), their "hunches" about going back to make sure you've met the secret bosses, and their penchant for saying ominous things, they've got a lot of presence even while confined to their little seap.

one of my big characterization points with seam is their nihilism. they're the sort of darkner who doesn't care what happens to them -- being patched up by a lightner is equally as unpleasant as being left to rot by them, because either way, they'll still be stuck within the cycle of use and disuse that perpetuates the light world's existence and robs them of their agency. the only "purpose" they need is the non-literal sort they can find in those they like -- namely, their "games" with jevil. they'll find little scraps of warmth in the happiness of people like him and queen, who they seem to care about, but they're also not gonna kid themselves about the state of the world. nothing they do matters, and their world's gonna end one day. in fact, it already has, once -- with the dark fountain closed, card kingdom is no more.

another characterization point for seam is that, while they're old, they're certainly not defenseless or unassuming. no, they're probably one of the most assuming characters in the game. they mention jevil was the only one who could match their ability in "games" (which we know from jevil's dialogue to be battles, literal "numbers games"). they mention that they wish they could watch the trio battle him. they wonder if they'd be a little less nihilistic if they could still play the games they miss so much with him -- though that's only a hunch, ha ha! they've got a lot of knowledge and seemingly pack a punch, and i like to think that while we as players don't get to see it, seam may be a bit more openly cutting with their teasing, ominous personality when they're not selling items to teenagers. (that's something i think a lot about when it comes to adult characters -- the way one acts around kids and the way one acts around other adults are usually pretty different.) it would also give 'em a neat parallel to ralsei, who's the other "guide" character in the game with a weird amount of possibly-eldritch meta-know-how -- both of them seem to have another side to them that we haven't gotten to see the full picture of yet.

still -- seam may know a lot, and might even play one of their "games" with the trio once they're strong enough, but like all darkners, they still cannot choose who they are in this world. they're an object just like everyone else. and in addition, i wonder -- what measure is being smart or strong when the world has you set as an obstacle for our "heroes" to clear?

#ooc #seam #deltarune #THIS WAS LONGER THAN EXPECTED. thank you for the multiple seam asks i will get to the rest. soonish

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la-pheacienne · 9 months

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It is certainly true that the show has done a lot to force an unbearable climate onto the remaining book fans, but on the other hand you could also wonder - why is such a large part of this remaining book fandom so hell-bent on fanatically supporting the most stupid, toxic ideas we have seen the show to embrace? I would say as stupid as these plot points were, few of the basic, broad ideas Dave and Dan went for were really things they made up all on their own. Mad Queen theories, the distorted view of so many characters like Arya and so on, these all were echoing things a lot of book fans (the type of milieu many of the people in charge of HBO's output were bred in) always WANTED the story and the characters and their trajectory to be, regardless how well founded these wishes matched the actual text.

The show was echoing bad fanon rooted in the book scene more or less from the beginning, you can trace it directly to how some characters were presented and castings were chosen right from the start. That's also why if you listen more closely to so many of the less bearable people in the book scene, the REAL problem so many of them had with the ideas of the latter parts of the show was that it was done in such a way that the public thought it was trash and didn't accept it. The whole agenda of them is now hoping for the books to emerge as some better written version of the show that finally will convince them all that this worthless trash story that is ironically only loved and wanted by these people alone is actually the correct version of it and its characters everyone should finally accept and digest. As ridiculous as the show was, ironically the most ridiculous parts of it were in truth clumsily made fan service for the worst sentiments that were peddled by and nurtured within the book fandom.

Oh, for sure. Thank you for this ask because you have put into words something that has been turning in my head for a long time.

the REAL problem so many of them had with the ideas of the latter parts of the show was that it was done in such a way that the public thought it was trash and didn't accept it.

After almost a year on tumblr and observing the book fandom and reading the BNFs' metas and theories and fanons and briefly delving into reddit and twitter god forbid, I have to say that I agree with you. I can't say how it was in the past though, I wasn't here. But I am afraid it is exactly as you say it is. I mean, Dany's arc from a hero to a fallen hero to a villain because *she watched her abusive brother die without an emotional reaction, psychopath!*, Jon just randomly exiled beyond the Wall because *subverting expectations*, none of them becoming King/Queen of the Seven Kingdoms/KINT, not even BRIEFLY, not even during the War for the Dawn (ok Jon did), because *throne bAAAAD*, *they're not heroes no one can fix Westeros*, *monarchy bAAAAD*, *subverting expectations*, Sansa getting girlbossified because *subverting expectations*, all of these points that ****supposedly*** sucked in GoT, are the exact same theories shared by a very big and very loud part of the BNF here, if not the majority.

So, what exactly is the internet fandom's problem with the show? Is there any? I literally can't see it, except that it was done too quickly and thus made these stupid theories appear even more stupid than they initially were. I've seen a LOT of posts saying like "oh you should stop wishing for your fav to get the throne, no one will get the throne and no one is 'in the right' (especially in the fire and blood discourse), no one 'deserves' it, the throne will crush and burn, the show has done so much damage to the fandom pitting favs against each other for the throne" etc etc, but that's so funny to me because what they say will happen in the books is literally what happened in the show, at least roughly, and their vibe was the vibe of a huge part, if not the majority, of the show fandom. This super annoying nihilism that I see in (book) BNF right now is the exact.same.nihilism I remember from the show fandom. The exact same one, but with a faux-feminist rosey Stansa touch. That's it. From the "Your heros will not get the throne, losers, Littlefinger will kill them all and prevail, the end" show-only dudebro rationale we went to the "oh nobody can fix Westeros, Dany and Jon will sacrifice themselves (best case, worst case Dany will get all psycho like her daddy and bros), monarchy Targs BAD, Targ feudal system BAD, fuck the Targ lords, team small folk, only coincidentally my fav bbgrl Sansa will actually end up in a conventional and strictly feudal position of power uwu, the end". The common denominator? Nihilism and this obsession for subverting expectations. This parallel is even funnier with hotd, where the show's most non-sensical, straight up delulu plot points are whole-heartedly embraced by, again, a big and very loud part of the BNF (probably the majority). This time the concordance is direct and not even denied, and it's embarrassing when I see their half-ass attempts at criticizing the show, because they literally can't. They actually love it and it's so obvious.

So to get to your point, there are two possibilities here: either the show's nihilistic, faux-edgy, shock value-based direction irrevocably transformed the book fandom, or the book fandom was already in that mindset and the show was based on that and it could very well be the latter.

#anonymous #asoiaf #daenerys targaryen #jon snow #aspa rambles

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mari-the-tortured-poet · 6 months

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Nihil

It’s called Nihil because its queen, Midnight, made it from nothing. She had lost her everything, her sister, and nothing was all she had. It was a haven at first, a gathering place for those on the run. Dark magic users that didn’t feel safe anywhere else. But nothing lasts forever, and Midnight needed more. She took advantage of the timelines, manipulating them to her will. And soon enough, her master plan was coming to fruition. She simply needed an heir. And so she created Cozbi, her daughter, and planted her on Earth to masquerade as a human until her time truly came to dominate humanity…to have ultimate control over those who took away Midnight’s last light. Cozbi gained sympathy for humanity as she grew up, and returned to Nihil conflicted. After a terrifying fight, Cozbi killed her mother, taking her place as Midnight’s heir. Try as she might, she couldn’t escape her mother’s legacy. She never would.

Dark magic mechanics provide not only the ability to manipulate physical shadows, but black, vine-like tendrils. And of course, any dark magic can be thwarted by love.

#oc #oc lore #oc cozbi #oc midnight #writing #kingdom nihil #mari rambles #mari writes

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saintjezebel483 · 4 months

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Meandering Destiny

It is the first time that I write down some ideas that I has in my head. This is a start, would you like to continue reading?

( I don't know if my writing is good. I hope so, I barely learn English)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are not a sister of sin, your work in the ministry was to be Primo's assistant in his gardening affairs, budgets on the maintenance of it and also his personal caregiver.

You had been in the Ministry for a year and a half and you fell in love with Copia in just a week since they met. At that time Copia was still a cardinal, you met him with his red cassock and his biretta on his head trying to chase one of his rats that had escaped him in the corridor of the ministry with an important role in his snout and at that time you ran into him in the corridors and helped him chase her.

He and his pet rats following him through the corridors was something unique, and wherever he went when he didn't have them locked up they followed him as if he were his great master. They were his allies of the day and the night. That was such a tender act on his part, but for others an insane act that united with those creatures of hell. But for you... it was the symbol of the purest love for those rodents of the kingdom of darkness. Today he released his rats every morning and they returned at lunchtime.

You fell in love with his charming personality and the undeniably tenderness of his love for his rats. The ministry was already aware that he was the next Papa Emeritus for the death of Papa Nihil, even more so when he learned that he is the son of him and Imperator.

The commotion he had in him was shocking. You were the only one who could lift him from that commotion and who assumed that great responsibility... and Copia at that time had fallen deeply in love with you. Even though he was that shy Cardinal, his feelings developed for you since you arrived at the ministry... and it has been an unbreakable love, the most passionate love.

And at the same time the most lustful they have had…

Your relationship with Copia who is now the current Papa of the ministry, his relationship was sustained by the fact of asking for help about the budgets for the maintenance of the ministry's garden, those were the reasons for the visits to his office. But your getaways out of the sight of others in the early hours of the morning to his apartment when he asked you for it was another more personal reason.

No one from the ministry knew about their relationship and you didn't know what the consequences of your hidden relationship with Copia would be, since you are not a sister of sin.

If it was allowed for a Papa to have a sexual or loving encounter with a sister of sin but as long as with the intention of procreating. But women unrelated to them were not allowed.

It was forbidden...

And you are an stranged woman who is not turned into a sister of the ministry but only an assistant of a former Papa for foreign affairs of the ministry and personal affairs for her own benefits.

And your relationship with Papa Emeritus IV becomes difficult for you...

Even more so about the arrival of that past of Copia from which your emotions turn into internal chaos. Your internal struggle and your limiting faculties within the ministry...

It's an obstacle that you needed to learn to cope with... mainly Copia…

Even though the love between the two is deep... sometimes things don't always happen as they really think...

Can it be good or bad?

Can there be a true and sincere future in it?

#cardenal copia #cardinal copia sex #the band ghost #ghost #papa emeritus iv #papa emeritus iii #papa emeritus fanart #ao3 writer #fanfic #swiss ghoul #sodo ghoul #female reader #cardinal copia #papa emeritus x reader

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aspisera · 7 months

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Aspisera's Masterpost of the Deltarune Escapism Theory Character Connections!

Okay so before I start this, I am NOT good at writing.

This is my take on the connections in the Escapism Theory for Deltarune. I’m going to be naming off points on a descending scale with how outlandish the connection to characters are.

It will descend like this:

Susie

Kris

Noelle

Berdly

(thank you @stunfiskz for humoring my take on Noelle when I first thought of it)

Here we go:

Susie - Jevil and King

To me (and others, I’m sure) King and Jevil have strong connections to Susie. King is basically how Susie confronts her abandonment issues.

Instead of crying about it, she gets angry and lashes out. In the fight she has with Lancer, she goes on the offensive instantly. Choosing to get aggressive about it because she’s tired of people leaving her behind; loyalty means a lot to her. King is the same way because of the Lightner’s abandoning his kingdom. He grows jaded and coarse while developing a vendetta. He does everything in his power to make the Lighteners leave, to trap them, or to kill them so they don’t cause more issues.

With Jevil it’s a bit different. Jevil is more related to Susie’s nihilism and cynicism (particularly being concerned with her own interest in Chapter 1). Susie and Jevil both subscribe to “Our actions hold no value so what’s the point in conformity?” as they both show how they can care less about the safety of others or the larger problem at hand (e.g. The Roaring). Towards the end of Chapter 1, we can see Susie start to care about other people a bit more. Thanking Kris and becoming their friend. She also warms up to Ralsei a bit. And when you defeat Jevil in both endings, he accepts your kinship and helps you in battle (Either as Jevilstail (Armor) or Devilsknife (Weapon)). Just like how Susie went into your part (with Lancer) after you defeated them.

Kris - Spamton and Lancer

I know what you’re thinking “What do you mean Lancer?” but stick with me, I promise.

Kris and Spamton may seem like a fairly obvious comparison… So why is it down here? Some may not have looked deep enough. It’s not just about puppets on strings, no, it’s about depression.

From the beginning, we can tell Kris has low motivation, sleeps in, and ignores school responsibilities, and it’s probably because Kris is depressed. Their brother is away, they feel like an outcast, they’re being bullied in school by Susie (in the beginning), and their parent’s have a broken marriage (which doesn’t help). Spamton reflects this: Mike not returning the calls, being removed as an Addison and being laughed at because of his failures, and him being broken himself.

Both him and Kris want to change and go back to how things were but they’re both grasping at straws. Nothing seems to be working, especially for Spamton. To Kris, Spamton is what they could have been if the Soul didn’t step in. Kris relates to Spamton on such a high emotional level that they have a mental breakdown after the fight with NEO. It makes them reflect on what they have now and how they might’ve turned out. Same with how Spamton appreciated Mike being there for him… until he wasn’t.

Lancer and Kris are a bit harder to explain and also ties in with Noelle’s comparisons. Lancer is shown as a goofball, a silly guy, a child. Kris is a notorious prankster and is basically the town weirdo. They both have their victim of choice for most of their jokes and have obsessions with things people consider unorthodox (digging holes and knives). But Kris and Lancer are also connected in the sense that Kris is afraid of getting close to people just like how Lancer is. Lancer is scared of his dad finding out but Kris is worried about driving people away. Kris most definitely has a history of making people not like them and so does Lancer. Lancer admits himself that none of the basic enemies really listen to him and only do so because he’s the King’s son.

Noelle - Queen (obvs) and Rouxls Kaard

Told you it would tie in. Queen isn’t hard to understand when relating her to Noelle. Queen uses Noelle and likes her because she can manipulate her well as Noelle is a pushover and a people-pleaser. And, of course, that ties in with how Queen is like Noelle’s Mom. Always pushing her to do her best in school so she can keep up the image of their family. She can’t have Noelle flunking like she did on that spelling bee.

Rouxls Kaard is fun to explain. Both Noelle and Kaard are looking for a greater purpose as they both feel like they have more meaning to themselves other than doing good in school or making puzzles. Noelle wants to do what she wants but feels pressured by her mom to keep going. Kaard wants to do his own thing, too. Making puzzles isn’t fun for him but he keeps doing it because he feels like he needs to. Though there’s greater purpose in sticking with Kris and Lancer. Kris can provide a journey and a possibility at finding something that means more than academics. Taking care of Lancer gives Kaard a HUGE purpose. He plays around with the idea of being a second father to Lancer but is scared of how to approach it, just like how Noelle is stuck thinking the trip to the Darkworld is all a dream.

Berdly - just Swatch (for now)

Berdly’s is gonna be short and sweet. I think Swatch is who Berdly wants to be. Berdly masks himself as acting smart, charming, and tough all at the same time. Swatch is pretty much all of those things. Swatch is smart but you don’t get upset because they don’t come off as condescending, not to mention him being fuckin’ BUILT.

That’s pretty much it. I doubt this thing is comprehensible in a literary sense but I don’t write often so I hope all of my points get across nonetheless. I decided to make this post to finally tie into Stunfiskz’s drawing of Noelle and Rouxls Kaard’s sprites making the same faces and not let people just sit in the dark.

#utdr #deltarune #deltarune theory

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mar64ds · 6 months

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The tragedy of Seam losing the only other aromantic person in the card kingdom... I would reach high levels of nihilism too

#i hope some ruddins are aro too. but for the sake of this joke #lets say jevil is the only other aro person in this place #I like making posts about aro headcanons as if they were canon things in the story #its okay seam lives in castle town now there are many aros there #i've heard the prince there is aro himself #deltaruneundertale

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duxbelisarius · 6 months

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Euron's Götterdämmerung

Warning! Spoilers ahead for A Dance With Dragons, A Feast For Crows, and ASOIAF in general

Alternate Title: The One Where Euron Pisses Off the Volcano

Back with another analysis/theory that I happened upon while reading on break; this time our subject is Mr. Nihilism himself Euron Greyjoy, and his likely endgame in TWOW. My argument for this theory is two-fold: 1) The Iron Islands sit atop a dormant, partially submerged volcano, the caldera of which is formed by Great and Old Wyk; and 2) Euron will sound a 'kraken summoning horn,' aka The Hammer of the Waters, to pulverize Oldtown and the coast of the Sunset Sea, causing the Wyk volcano to erupt and setting the stage for a second Long Night.

A huge shout out to Company of the Cat and her video about the Iron Islands being volcanic (skip to 9:37 of the video for her explanations), which inspired me to pursue this theory. To summarize her arguments, everything about the islands from their rich ore deposits, the mythology of Nagga the Sea Dragon, the prevalence of fire in Ironborn culture and imagery despite being a sea-faring people, and the similarity of Great and Old Wyk's shape to the known volcanic islands of Marahai in the Jade Sea, point towards the islands being volcanic. A past eruption could also explain the Ironborn mythology surrounding the Drowned God's conflict with the Storm God; to Dawn Age observers, the collapse of the volcano's caldera combined with volcanic lightning within it's ash cloud (which may be referenced by the arms of House Kenning of Harlaw) could have been explained as the Storm God casting down the god of the Islands, giving rise to the legends of the Drowned God.

This brings me to my second argument; from where things stand at the end of ADWD, Euron's plan seems straightforward: Euron wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms and intends to marry Daenerys, bending her dragons to his will with the Dragon Binder horn he allegedly found in Valyria and crushing all those who stand in his way. But as anyone can attest that has read "The Forsaken," an excerpt of an Aeron Damphair POV from TWOW, these may only be a cover for his true aims:

He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible. Clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he sat upon a mound of blackened skulls as dwarfs capered round his feet and a forest burned behind him.

“The bleeding star bespoke the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. “Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.”

“Never. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!”

“Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated.”

Aeron Damphair looked. The mound of skulls was gone. Now it was metal underneath the Crow’s Eye: a great, tall, twisted seat of razor sharp iron, barbs and blades and broken swords, all dripping blood.

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith … even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath.

And there, swollen and green, half-devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair.

...

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in woman’s form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire. Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed …

As indicated Aeron Damphair's Shade of the Evening dreams, Euron aspires not merely to kinghood but godhood. This makes sense with George building-up towards a second Long Night, as Euron makes obvious parallels to the Bloodstone Emperor who was responsible for the first Long Night in Yi Tish mythology. They both came to power by murdering their elder sibling (Balon Greyjoy, the Amethyst Empress), and have committed similar atrocities. According to TWOIAF, Bloodstone "practiced dark arts, torture, and necromancy, enslaved his people, took a tiger-woman for his bride, feasted on human flesh, and cast down the true gods to worship a black stone that had fallen from the sky." While Euron has yet to marry a Tiger-Woman or raise the dead, on all other accounts he is emulating Bloodstone: he uses blood magic; we know from Aeron's POV that he tortures foes; he sells his captives from the Shield Isles into slavery; he forces the Qartheen warlocks he captured to eat their dead companion; and it is made abundantly clear that Euron is a godless man bent on destroying the existing organized religions.

With Euron set-up as the one who will unleash the second Long Night upon Planetos, the question remains as to how he will do this; for a concise account of how the first Long Night happened, I recommend consulting David Lightbringer's videos that I linked in my previous ASOIAF theory. Some have suggested that Euron means to sound the Horn of Winter, aka the Horn of Joramun, which may be in Sam's possession in Oldtown, but I find this very unlikely. For starters, Jon in ACOK and Sam in AFFC both describe the horn found by Ghost as being old and cracked, suggesting that repairs or magical intervention may be needed to get it to work if it is the Horn. There's also the problem of Euron being at the opposite end of the continent from the Wall; if the Horn is indeed used for lowering and raising the Wall (as suggested by Cat in her video about magical horns in ASOIAF), it would be a massive liability for it to be capable of doing so from anywhere in the world.

I believe a clue for how Euron will trigger a second Long Night is Aeron's first vision quoted above, in which Euron blows a horn and caused dragons, krakens and sphinxes to bow to him. As Company of the Cat argues in her magical horns video, a 'kraken summoning horn' most likely refers to the Hammer of the Waters and/or similar objects. We know that Krakens are drawn to bodies and blood in the waters, as mentioned in both Fire and Blood and Arianne's TWOW sample:

"It was said that the waters between the islands were so choked with corpses that krakens appeared by the hundreds, drawn by the blood." (Fire and Blood, Reign of the Dragon: The Wars of King Aegon I)

"And krakens off the Broken Arm, pulling under crippled galleys," said Valena. "The blood draws them to the surface, our maester claims. There are bodies in the water. A few have washed up on our shores." (TWOW, Arianne I)

From what TWOIAF has to say about the breaking of the Arm of Dorne, the Hammer of the Waters could also account for the dragons and sphinxes:

"And the old gods stirred, and giants awoke in the earth, and all of Westeros shook and trembled. Great cracks appeared in the earth, and hills and mountains collapsed and were swallowed up. And then the seas came rushing in, and the Arm of Dorne was broken and shattered by the force of the water, until only a few bare rocky islands remained above the waves." (TWOIAF, Dorne: The Breaking)

If we assume the sphinxes to refer to the statues that flank the gates of the Citadel, these would likely be destroyed by the earthquakes and tsunamis of the Hammer, 'bowing' at the command of Euron. High magnitude earthquakes would lead to volcanic eruptions, thus accounting for the dragons answering Euron's command. In addition to Wyk erupting, we'll likely see Dragonstone erupt as well, esp. in light of Melisandre's talk about 'waking dragons from stone.' Based on Jon and Tyrion's recollections in the eighth chapters of ADWD, an eruption at Hardhome can also be expected:

"Only the brightest stars were visible, all to the west. A dull red glow lit the sky to the northeast, the color of a blood bruise. Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon. Monstrous, swollen, it looked as if it had swallowed the sun and woken with a fever. Its twin, floating on the sea beyond the ship, shimmered red with every wave. "What hour is this?" he asked Moqorro. "That cannot be sunrise unless the east has moved. Why is the sky red?"

"The sky is always red above Valyria, Hugor Hill."" (ADWD, Tyrion VIII)

"Hardhome had been halfway toward becoming a town, the only true town north of the Wall, until the night six hundred years ago when hell had swallowed it. Its people had been carried off into slavery or slaughtered for meat, depending on which version of the tale you believed, their homes and halls consumed in a conflagration that burned so hot that watchers on the Wall far to the south had thought the sun was rising in the north. Afterward ashes rained down on haunted forest and Shivering Sea alike for almost half a year." (ADWD, Jon VIII)

The symbolism and imagery surrounding Euron strongly implies that he will use the Hammer of the Waters; as already noted, a volcanic eruption on Wyk may have inspired the mythology of the war between the Drowned God and the Storm God. Euron is heavily associated with the Storm God, starting with his murder of Balon Greyjoy:

"The Storm God cast him down," the priest announced. For a thousand thousand years sea and sky had been at war. From the sea had come the ironborn, and the fish that sustained them even in the depths of winter, but storms brought only woe and grief.

...

Better to be scorned by Balon the Brave than beloved of Euron Crow's Eye. And if age and grief had turned Balon bitter with the years, they had also made him more determined than any man alive. He was born a lord's son and died a king, murdered by a jealous god, Aeron thought, and now the storm is coming, a storm such as these isles have never known." (AFFC, The Prophet)

"Oh, and Balon was the third, but you knew that. I could not do the deed myself, but it was my hand that pushed him off the bridge." (TWOW, The Forsaken)

Euron's title is Crow's Eye, while his personal coat of arms feature ravens, further tying him to the Storm God:

He had no love of maesters. Their ravens were creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri. (AFFC, The Prophet)

"Crow's Eye, you call me. Well, who has a keener eye than the crow? After every battle the crows come in their hundreds and their thousands to feast upon the fallen. A crow can espy death from afar. And I say that all of Westeros is dying. Those who follow me will feast until the end of their days." (AFFC, The Drowned Man)

There's also the matter of House Goodbrother, an Ironborn house situated on Great Wyk who draw their wealth from their mines. Not only is their sigil is a warhorn while their house seat bears the interesting name of Hammerhorn, but Euron is compared to Urrathon IV Goodbrother ("Badbrother") in ADWD:

"Torgon Greyiron was the king's eldest son. But the king was old and Torgon restless, so it happened that when his father died he was raiding along the Mander from his stronghold on Greyshield. His brothers sent no word to him but instead quickly called a kingsmoot, thinking that one of them would be chosen to wear the driftwood crown. But the captains and the kings chose Urragon [Urrathon] Goodbrother to rule instead. The first thing the new king did was command that all the sons of the old king be put to death, and so they were. After that men called him Badbrother, though in truth they'd been no kin of his. He ruled for almost two years."

...

"Badbrother had proved to be as mean as he was cruel and had few friends left upon the isles. The priests denounced him, the lords rose against him, and his own captains hacked him into pieces." (ADWD, The Wayward Bride)

TWOIAF claims that Hrothgar of Pyke possessed a kraken-summoning horn during the Age of Heroes; assuming that this was the Hammer of the Waters, it's possible that the horn fell into the Ironborn's hands during their raids into the Riverlands, since we know that the Greenseers of the Children congregated at the Isle of Faces on the God's Eye lake when they called upon the Hammer to break the Arm of Dorne. It also makes sense that Euron would not reveal the Hammer, given the subtle hints George has given that Euron intends to sacrifice his fellow Ironborn in pursuit of his goals:

“Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated.”

...

“Your victories are hollow. You cannot hold the Shields.”

“Why should I want to hold them?” His brother’s smiling eye glittered in the lantern light, blue and bold and full of malice. “The Shields have served my purpose. I took them with one hand, and gave them away with the other. A great king is open-handed, brother. It is up to the new lords to hold them now. The glory of winning those rocks will be mine forever. When they are lost, the defeat will belong to the four fools who so eagerly accepted my gifts.”

...

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. (TWOW, The Forsaken)

Euron seated himself and gave his cloak a twitch, so it covered his private parts. "I had forgotten what a small and noisy folk they are, my ironborn. I would bring them dragons, and they shout out for grapes." (AFFC, The Reaver)

Clearly, Euron's ambitions exceed those of his fellow Ironborn, and this makes Aeron's vision of longships adrift on a boiling sea particularly ominous. At the end of "The Forsaken," Aeron Damphair, Euron's pregnant saltwife Falia Flowers, and a collection of holy men and women kidnapped by Euron are tied to the prows of his ships. With a naval battle looming between Euron's forces and the ships of the Hightower and Redwyne fleets, Euron's plan seems to be to use this naval battle in the Whispering Sound alongside his captives as the sacrifice required for the Hammer.

The evidence that Euron will sound the Hammer of the Waters is very strong IMO, as is the evidence for Wyk erupting. Firstly, we have Daenerys' visions from the House of the Undying in ACOK:

"From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . ." (ACOK, Daenerys IV)

The smoking tower most likely refers to the Hightower at Oldtown, while a 'great stone beast' that breathes 'shadow fire' sounds an awful lot like a volcano. That the beast takes wing and appears to fly can be seen as a reference to Euron's crow/raven symbolism, as well as his obsession with flying:

"When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly," he announced. "When I woke, I couldn't . . . or so the maester said. But what if he lied?"

...

"Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower?" The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak. There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness. "No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap." (AFFC, The Reaver)

We then have Melisandre's vision in ADWD:

Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths.

...

"If it comes, that attack will be no more than a diversion. I saw towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide. That is where the heaviest blow will fall."

"Eastwatch?"

Was it? Melisandre had seen Eastwatch-by-the-Sea with King Stannis. That was where His Grace left Queen Selyse and their daughter Shireen when he assembled his knights for the march to Castle Black. The towers in her fire had been different, but that was oft the way with visions. (ADWD, Melisandre I)

Many of the theories I've seen about this vision identify the towers as Oldtown, and while I agree that the Hammer will devastate that city, the description doesn't quite add up. The Hightower and the Citadel are the only real towers associated with the city while House Costayne's seat of Three Towers, at the mouth of the Whispering Sound, was only briefly mentioned by Sam as the Cinnamon Wind approached Oldtown in AFFC. There's also the issue of Oldtown's location well inside the Whispering Sound and many miles from the sea. The Iron Islands fit the description quite nicely, in particular Ten Towers on Harlaw and Pyke itself:

Ten Towers had always felt like home to Asha, more so than Pyke. Not one castle, ten castles squashed together, she had thought, the first time she had seen it. She remembered breathless races up and down the steps and along wallwalks and covered bridges, fishing off the Long Stone Quay, days and nights lost amongst her uncle's wealth of books. His grandfather's grandfather had raised the castle, the newest on the isles. Lord Theomore Harlaw had lost three sons in the cradle and laid the blame upon the flooded cellars, damp stones, and festering nitre of ancient Harlaw Hall. Ten Towers was airier, more comfortable, better sited . . . but Lord Theomore was a changeable man, as any of his wives might have testified. He'd had six of those, as dissimilar as his ten towers. (AFFC, The Kraken's Daughter)

As it happens, Harlaw is situated right next to Old and Great Wyk; but the tower imagery is even more pronounced with Pyke:

The Greyjoy stronghold stood upon a broken headland, its keeps and towers built atop massive stone stacks that thrust up from the sea. Bridges knotted Pyke together; arched bridges of carved stone and swaying spans of hempen rope and wooden planks.

...

Greydon left him when the sun was up, to take the news of Balon's death to his cousins in their towers at Downdelving, Crow Spike Keep, and Corpse Lake. Aeron continued on alone, up hills and down vales along a stony track that drew wider and more traveled as he neared the sea. (AFFC, The Prophet)

The shore was all sharp rocks and glowering cliffs, and the castle seemed one with the rest, its towers and walls and bridges quarried from the same grey-black stone, wet by the same salt waves, festooned with the same spreading patches of dark green lichen, speckled by the droppings of the same seabirds. The point of land on which the Greyjoys had raised their fortress had once thrust like a sword into the bowels of the ocean, but the waves had hammered at it day and night until the land broke and shattered, thousands of years past. All that remained were three bare and barren islands and a dozen towering stacks of rock that rose from the water like the pillars of some sea god's temple, while the angry waves foamed and crashed among them.

Drear, dark, forbidding, Pyke stood atop those islands and pillars, almost a part of them, its curtain wall closing off the headland around the foot of the great stone bridge that leapt from the clifftop to the largest islet, dominated by the massive bulk of the Great Keep. Farther out were the Kitchen Keep and the Bloody Keep, each on its own island. Towers and outbuildings clung to the stacks beyond, linked to each other by covered archways when the pillars stood close, by long swaying walks of wood and rope when they did not. (ACOK, Theon I)

What became of Valyria is well-known, and in the Iron Islands, the castle of Pyke sits on stacks of stone that were once part of the greater island before segments of it crumbled into the sea. (TWOIAF, Ancient History: The Coming of the First Men)

What remains of Pyke today is a complex of towers and keeps scattered across half a dozen islets and sea stacks above the booming waves. A section of curtain wall, with a great gatehouse and defensive towers, stretches across the headland, the only access to the castle, and is all that remains of the original fortress. A stone bridge from the headland leads to the first and largest islets and Great Keep of Pyke.

Beyond that, rope bridges connect the towers one to the other.... Beneath the castle walls, the waves still smash against the remaining rock stacks day and night, and one day those too will doubtless crash into the sea. (TWOIAF, The Iron Islands: Pyke)

Earthquakes, tsunamis and a volcanic eruption would more than suffice to submerge Pyke beneath the waves. Such a cataclysm striking the Iron Islands would also fit with Aeron's vision of Ironborn longships adrift on a bloody, boiling sea; while this could refer to Victarion's Iron Fleet and it's close proximity to Valyria and the Smoking Sea, we know that the ships of the Iron Fleet are larger than the normal longships of the Ironborn, and I believe it further points towards a disaster befalling the Ironborn as a result of Euron's schemes.

The final and most blatant evidence for Wyk erupting comes from Victarion, who offers this account of the Doom of Valyria while stopped at the Isle of Cedars near Slavers Bay:

On the day the Doom came to Valyria, it was said, a wall of water three hundred feet high had descended on the island, drowning hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, leaving none to tell the tale but some fisherfolk who had been at sea and a handful of Velosi spearmen posted in a stout stone tower on the island's highest hill, who had seen the hills and valleys beneath them turn into a raging sea. Fair Velos with its palaces of cedar and pink marble had vanished in a heartbeat. On the north end of the island, the ancient brick walls and stepped pyramids of the slaver port Ghozai had suffered the same fate.

So many drowned men, the Drowned God will be strong there, Victarion had thought when he chose the island for the three parts of his fleet to join up again. He was no priest, though. What if he had gotten it backwards? Perhaps the Drowned God had destroyed the island in his wroth. His brother Aeron might have known, but the Damphair was back on the Iron Islands, preaching against the Crow's Eye and his rule. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair. Yet the captains and kings had cried for Euron at the kingsmoot, choosing him above Victarion and other godly men. (ADWD, The Iron Suitor)

This passage is what sold me on this theory being more than just tin foil, as the elements it employs fit a Wyk eruption scenario perfectly. We have a massive volcanic eruption accompanied by tsunamis, along with Victarion's musing on whether the disaster was a punishment from the Drowned God. This fits perfectly with the idea of the Drowned God being a submerged volcano, as it's subsequent eruption could be seen as divine punishment for placing a 'godless man' upon the Seastone Chair.

Even more suggestive is the description of the wave's height, and how some Velosi spearmen survived due to being in a stone tower atop a hill. The Hightower of Oldtown is said to be as tall as the Wall or over 700 feet tall, with it's base being constructed from fused black stone similar to the Valyrian roads. Even more telling, the island on which the Hightower sits is called Battle Isle, which is similar to another name for the Isle of Cedars:

The girlish maester Euron had inflicted upon him back in Westeros claimed this place had once been called 'the Isle of a Hundred Battles,' but the men who had fought those battles had all gone to dust centuries ago. (ADWD, The Iron Suitor)

In the event that Euron attacks Oldtown, I expect him to make a bee-line for the top of the Hightower, and not so he can see the Wall and bring it down with the Horn of Joramun. Rather, it's because the top of the Hightower might be the only relatively safe place for miles when he sounds the Hammer of the Waters and unleashes a 'black and bloody tide.'

#euron greyjoy #euron crowseye #ironborn #iron islands #asoiaf #asoiaf spoilers #asoiaf speculation #asoiaf meta #house greyjoy

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maculatas · 1 year

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Chapter 1: The Premise

Summary: The exiled princess with a scar across her face.

Ordered to be returned as soon as possible to the castle, Tarhos is sent to capture the girl and lead her back to her imprisonment. What matters is the mission, not to end up enthralled with her.

TAGS: Historical References, Historical Inaccuracy, Medieval Medicine, Eventual Smut, Power Play, No Such thing as Chivalry, Nihilism, Power Imbalance, Action/Adventure, and Canon-Typical Violence

The King’s madness descends upon his people. His cruelty, his benevolence. It is all due to him and his succession to the throne. His singular purpose.

What granted him this position had been by his great grandfather.The Great Usurper, they had called him before his march to the scaffold. He had entered into the kingdom with a hundred man army, a grand coup that fell rightfully into their lap. Swiftly and easily.

And with this his reign had begun.

The King’s great grandson now, Alaric, had married a duchess north of their kingdom. A young lady with manners and a weak constitution. She never once looked him in the eye during the coronation, the grandest wedding that all came to seek out. From peasants to the finest noblemen.

She had been adorned in the finest lace. It had taken the lace-workers three years and one hundred expertise hands to complete.

And she did not once look up. Not to seek him out, nor to wish him anything other than her silence.

Alaric could only scowl.

Wretched woman. They would only be good for one thing.

When it was time for them to consummate their marriage, she had been quiet. He had been over her body, her warm flesh, none of it satiated him.

Fiora was her name. A witch in the flesh. A lamb to all. She could only walk forth to her slaughter.

Fiora had blessed Alaric with twin sons. Strong. Forthcoming. Soon to be heirs. They grew to be strong, until one of them passed in battle. The other had become ill, eventually passing at the youngest age of twenty.

All Alaric had left was her.

The princess. She had been five, all too young for this. Fiora could not speak any longer. She would awaken in the middle of the night howling in pain. In agony. She would rip her hair out in clumps, and scream for hours.

The priest had come the days passing, convincing Alaric his wife had become bewitched.

“She is cursed,” he muttered solemnly. “She is to burn if we do not treat her soon.”

Alaric sneered, despising her all the more for her foolish behavior. “Isolate her,” he decides. “Throw her in my tower. Let her release every demon she has.”

The princess would come day in and day out visiting her mother. She welcomed her mother with old tomes written in another language. She had been entranced by the illustrations. Begging her mama to read her the story, to translate what she could.

Her mother would eventually relent, only allowing her to sit upon her lap. She would run fingers through her hair, and hum a tune that did not sound of this world. Mama never read, she never spoke. The only thing she had was her haunting song.

This is all the princess could remember.

Rage is a light word for the princess. She has decided to become ravenous.

She refuses to listen to the orders of her father, and in her own rebellion has drawn enemies. Since her mothers untimely death, nothing could quell her. Lest she forget her wrath.

The princess, despite all her beauty, has bared her teeth and snarled at every suitor her father has chosen for her.

He throws her into the tower after the umpteenth embarrassment.

“You will never see the light of day, child,” he threatens. She spits in his face. Alaric wipes it with a cloth from his pouch. “Rot here for all I care. Don’t feed her!” He barks out the orders, and leaves the tower to let her seethe.

Forever frozen in some barren place. The princess smiles, unsheathing a blade from her person. If she is stuck here, she will draw some blood to make it good practice.

Time is on her side.

When the princess stabs her dagger through the neck of one of her guards. It is vilifying. Gratifying in the most cathartic sense. He gurgles, clutching onto the final remaining breaths left in him as he collapses forward.

She watches him writhe until he moves no longer. The blood seeped deep into the stone underneath her feet. She wipes her hands on her dress, smearing the blood all over until she can escape from this hell hole. If she has to take down any more she will. Until it’s her dying breath.

Let there be blood to feed.

Alaric receives word during dinner. One of his kingsman comes rounding the corner muttering to another. The knight hastily approaches, lowering his head. “Sire, we have some news from the south tower.”

The King gives one final wave to his company. A few dukes from the north and east, discussing trade matters and preparing for the upcoming winter.

“What,” he hisses.

The knight swallows. “The princess has escaped.”

Alaric’s smile disappears in a matter of seconds. Eyes sharpened like daggers, a snarl curling on his lips. The knight can smell a hint of mead on his breath. “Find her, or I’ll take you to my gallows where you’ll never see the light of day.”

Alaric leaves, the swish of his robes following him in finality. “Come round, come round. Let us toast to a new companionship, men!” His tune changes quickly when he returns to his table of guests.

The knight struggles to breathe, knowing what his majesty has threatened will come true. He calls upon the south tower to quickly pick up haste. She couldn’t have gone far. She couldn’t have, surely.

It had taken the King’s men several days, and there was nothing left to mark where the damned girl had gone.

Alaric smashes his hands on the table of his study. “I want her head,” he promises. “I want her blood to be riddled here. Her cursed blood. Insolent child!” He muttered angrily to himself. His main guardsmen watch his reign of terror, the simple blade he keeps close to himself is stabbed deeply into the center of the wooden table.

“Sire,” the commander whispers cautiously, hoping to end this tirade.

The king looks up, hair thrown around him, eyes blazing. “What?” He replies venomously.

The man swallows, adding in confidently. “People talk in the kingdom. There are a group of mercenaries. They bounty hunt, searching for heads. Of powerful men ruled by a Hungarian man by the name of Tarhos.”

Alaric’s eyes widened in interest. “Bounty hunters?”

The guardsman nods.

Alaric’s smile grows wide like a cats. He licks his teeth. “Bring them to me. I want them to serve me in every way to find my insolent blood.”

He dismisses them, his smile never leaving his face. He slicks his hair back. “The princess will meet her match.”

Tarhos’ claymore slashed down the sides of the remaining accompaniment.

The laughter surrounding him was Alejandro near him continuing the bloodshed.

Tarhos groans, collapsing in on himself. One of those men had cut into his side.

“Quick! We must take the sire to the healer, one not so far from here.”

Tarhos swats them away, gritting his teeth through the pain. The burning coiling deep in himself, something that makes him sweat and see two mirrors of his three closest men.

He shakes it away, rising by using the hilt of his sword dug deep into the carcass of one of the slain.

“I can still continue on. I won’t die here.”

Durkos watches him, a keen eye that doesn’t leave him. “Say it, Durkos,” Tarhos grunts out, removing his helmet from his person. Damn those imperial armies. Their weaponry had much more arsenal than their own; yet still not strong enough for them. They had mutilated all of the ten in a matter of minutes. It’s why they’re known across the kingdoms, Tarhos and his Guardia Compagnia. His faithful three.

They rose in battles, the last standing over mounds of deceased. They were known for their knighthood, loyalty to a certain cause, and their prowess on the battlefield. Men keep themselves close to earthly desires; money, sexual pleasure, or notoriety among bloodshed. Tarhos since as long as he could remember, has been swimming in blood. Born from the mountains of the dead as a child surviving the plague. They had taken him into the convent of monks and priests, raised him well until he set off on his own. He trained under mercenaries, skilled swordsmen, and bounty hunters. None of them followed authority except only their loyalty rode with them for the people who hired them.

His priest had told him peace will come upon him. Tarhos knew better. He was a child of death. Reborn again to live, just like Christ himself. “He walked after three days and three nights, he had risen from his tomb to set out on showing his proof. Perhaps, you are a mirror of him. Like in his image.”

Tarhos was. In many ways was the mirror image of a God.

A demigod they would call him. A monster on the battlefield and his three men beside him, the four horsemen. The righteous. The deathless.

Tarhos sets off somewhere down the tree line, Durkos trailing behind him closely.

Sander grunts, spitting off to the side, unsheathing his weapon as it makes a squelching sound after being removed from a smashed head. The blood smearing on the side of his trousers.

“Where to next, sire? The healer isn’t too far from here,” Alejandro states.

Tarhos grouses something incomprehensible. “None of that, I go where this path will take me. To the nearest village.”

“Aye,” Durkos says. “How should we welcome them, then?”

Tarhos sniffs, his lip curling. “With our blades.”

Tarhos and company await for the massive gates to open forth.

The men surrounding the perimeter eye them with vigilance. Durkus spits off to his side, wiping off the grime from his head. “What do ye think of these people, sir?” His accent is thick and hoarse from previous rampaging. Tarhos’ hands twitch beside him.

“Do they think we are foolish?” Alejandro murmurs, his sword weighted in his palm. He considers thrashing it again over the lifeless body of the last man he maimed. Alejandro does so in dominance. The sickening crunch resounded in the courtyard.

The other guardsmen make no other move, but the man who comes forward looks like the king.

He claps his hands, the strong palms echoing as the rest step away from the carnage. Sander lifts the head of one of his men, holding it up as a mockery of a white flag. Tarhos speaks then. “We come in peace, your majesty.”

The king grins wickedly. His hands open wide with appraisal. “Ah, Tarhos Kovács and the Guardia Compagnia.”

He then walks across the courtyard, not minding the blood beneath his feet. “I am glad you can show your skills to me for a heavy price.”

“What is that you demand of us, King?” Tarhos asks. The weight of his armor burning against him. He has exhausted himself after this brawl, feeling already lightheaded from the loss of some blood and a few aches in his ribs.

They had attacked him and his company ruthlessly, but these men were no match for the awful four and their strength. Tarhos knows pain. He has experienced it since he was a young boy. In his roots, he holds the deepest fascination with blood on his hands. The gritting in his teeth and the ringing of silence, he chases after that familiar sensation. The simple thrum of battle. Tarhos has banded together a strong number of men, willing to fight for his own gain. In this mission, he will be able to ride on horseback and live in a tavern with no other exceptions. Tarhos imagines the gold against his palms, and the joy of his three men once they finish what is made of them.

The King‘s smile is serpentine. “Come, men. Come feast in my kingdom. We welcome you!” He announces, the surrounding men jeer and Tarhos doesn’t relax.

“Do you wish to stay here?” Sander asks by his side.

“As long as we’re needed,” Tarhos responds. It is a simple statement. One his men do not understand. Conquests come and go, but following the orders of a King is not always one they come upon.

They eat alongside the table, gorging on fat duck, beef, and roasted potato slathered with spices and a gulyá dish that makes Tarhos devour it in one sitting.

The King sips his wine. “So, my knight and his company,” he announces. They don’t look up and the King continues regardless if they’re listening or not. “My daughter, my flesh and blood has escaped me.”

Tarhos’ slows his chew. “A retrieval for a person?” This should be interesting. He’s had to bounty hunt previously, offering the heads of many noblemen for a fine price. Some alive and others mostly dead.

For a woman. Now that would be different.

Tarhos grimace does not go unnoticed. The King’s smile is gritty, all yellow teeth and decay. “She has left, only for me to mourn her. Now, make no mistake. She’s dangerous.”

“What are her transgressions, sire?” Tarhos asks, suddenly curious. What kind of creature was she to evade a king and his men? Someone much more conniving than they take credit for. Obviously the king cares less about the girl. It’s not about saving her, it’s about having control over her.

The King swishes his wine, taking a rather large gulp. “She has committed treason against me.”

“Quite a large declaration on her part,” Tarhos responds.

The King only grins, leaning forward. “She is the same blood from her cursed mothers womb. She wishes to kill me, her father? I sent her off to one of the towers and somehow she escaped, killing two of my men.”

Tarhos raises his brow to that. Interesting, he feels a familiar hum in his veins, his mouth watering. The onset of a bloodlust wishing to set him free. He pushes it down, relishing what remains of it yearning to escape him.

“And the girl? If we were to capture her?” His three men cease their movements of enjoying their meal, intent on what their employer is to say next.

The King laughs, a deep belly chortle that echoes in the dimly lit dining hall. “Bring her to me alive,” he says, his face lengthening, dark eyes inflamed by the lamplight. His smile looked wider than normal, teeth sharper. “Death is what she wishes to meet.”

“What an odd woman the King has,” Alejandro says beside Tarhos. “Women should be more susceptible to our charms, no?”

“They’re fearsome things,” responds Durkos. “They’re just as lethal as we are, dangerous beings with just as much charisma.”

Sander nods, rubbing at his chin. “With the girl, if we were to find her–”

“When,” Tarhos interrupts him, teeth gritting. The weight of his claymore against his back is the only grounding sensation he feels. “When we find her, we’ll make her kneel.”

The threat of his promise lingers among his men, he ascends forward to the front of the group.

The princess has become public enemy number one. She travels on horseback, her clothes dingy, hair wrapped into a tight veil, a mask covering her face. No one recognizes her as a nobility. They can’t in any way know.

She had taken the dagger given to her by her mother. Her mother had used it on herself to escape from her frightening, beast of a man who was her husband.

The needle point of it had burned when she sliced it over her features, she had done this to ensure her father would never find her a suitor among awful men. He had been furious, had locked her away with nothing to eat for hours, maybe days.

He had punishments for her disobedience, her insolence. The princess held such a strong anger towards him, feeling an insurmountable rage. It’s what carries her onwards, to get back at him. She lives only out of spite.

He may be on his way to finding her whereabouts, but she knows she is much more elusive than what they give her credit for.

Tarhos sets plans to depart on the fifth day, heading towards the west.

Sander gives a quiet grunt off to his left.

“Do we know where we’re going, sire?” Alejandro asks, leading a horse down the mountainside.

It was very vague directions the King gave them. He had pulled them out in one of his cupboards, a sloppily drawn map of the surrounding areas of the kingdom. “Here, you can look at this. We look beyond the stars and follow this one,” he gestures to a bright one in the sky. “Follow this and it will lead you to the nearby town.”

“What does your perpetrator look like?” Tarhos had inquired.

The King’s grin glinted. “The most undesirable creature you will ever lay your eyes on.”

#tarhos kovacs x reader #tarhos kovács x reader #tarhos x you #dbd imagines #dbd reader

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