#that’s because it’s the ringed castle

[linkito]

Kiss prompt #10 desperately for Scarian <3

this went in a direction i didnt expect so hopefully it's enjoyable<3 also ft. a very scribbly doodle at the end

Scar tilts his head, baring his neck in offering to Grian’s blade. His words almost don’t register to Grian. 

"You may slay me—"

And he was about to, wasn’t he? He already struck Scar once, only hesitating because of the man’s clear unwillingness to strike back. Why wouldn’t he fight back?? 

Nothing stopped Scar before, when a stupid piece of paper escaped Grian’s grasp. 

After everything they’d been through, nothing stopped him then, so why now?

Why is Scar smiling, laying down his life for Grian like it’s the easiest decision he’s ever made?

“I can’t,” Grian stammers. “I literally can’t.” His  sword slips from his grasp, cutting a thin slice down Scar’s neck as it falls. Scar doesn’t as much as flinch. 

His eyes do travel upward, however, a weakly hopeful look flickering across the crimson red. “Oh,” is all he says at first, as if he still doesn’t believe what Grian said.

Grian doesn’t either, to be honest.

Not because it isn’t true, but because it ultimately might not be up to him. 

He’s heard them— the voices of players passed. Their cacophonous rage has been blaring in Grian’s ears from the moment he awoke on his last life. A symphony of violence calling for blood, for an end to this nightmare.

The spectators want a fight.

They want blood. A victor. An end.

“Then—“ Scar says tentatively, that hope still alive and blazing behind his red eyes— eyes that should crave violence, not— “do you want to fix the sand castle? Can we… can we win together?”

Grian can hear the symphony rise, a unanimous no ringing through the air, suffocating Grian where he stands. They won’t have it. The ghosts won’t allow it. But—

Grian’s legs buckle, falling to his knees before Scar, meeting him down at his level. Scar’s hands hover on either side of him, worried he may faint. The gesture isn’t lost on Grian, that Scar was still ready to catch him if he were to fall. 

It only makes everything hurt that much more.

Fight, fight, fight, FIGHT.

Their chanting is relentless and Grian looks up at Scar with such fear, he— can Scar not hear them? Does he not feel the pull? The call for death and destruction?

Or perhaps Scar grew numb to it long ago.

“Scar…” Grian says, his voice hoarse, entirely drowned out by the grating shrieks of those they have killed. 

Scar’s hands are on him in an instant, fingers threaded through his feathered ears, sheltering him from the cacophony. “Shhhh,” he says, and against all logic, the chorus subsides, merely a whisper carried along the ripples of the pond. 

With what little clarity Grian can grasp in the momentary silence, he grasps onto Scar the same way, hands tangled in his hair, palms covering his ears— urgent and desperate— and he pulls. 

While he can still hear the rapid heartbeat in his throat, Grian kisses Scar with all the sanity he has left, taking this moment for them alone— no care for the audience they never asked to have. No trace of violence they never asked to embrace. 

Just lips against his, passionate and dear, loving and anguished— something urgent, yet drawn out, neither of them willing to part, the awareness of what is to come burning at their insides. 

Please.

Not yet.

#scarian #link draws #link answers #link writes #hermitshipping #i dont love the doodle but i also wanted to share it so beHOLD!!! them!!!! #kiss prompts

[softieghost]

Struggling with ringed castle because I find English court politics hideously boring. Phillipa you need to get on the ship to Russia immediately please

#lymond chronicles #ringed castle

[thecrenellations]

ten examples of characters calling Lymond “Francis” for the first time, or the first time on page! So many flavors of Francis feelings. Take your pick. (and let me know if I missed earlier instances)

Speakers and context:

Sybilla to the son she hasn’t seen in five years, as he breaks into her castle and sets it on fire. (first on page, The Game of Kings)

Margaret Douglas to the man who kidnapped her. They, too, haven’t seen each other in about five years. (first on page, The Game of Kings)

Christian to her anonymous friend at Threave. I normally wouldn’t count this, because she says his last name, but it’s THE REVEAL, and she calls him by his first name to Sybilla later in the chapter. (first on page, The Game of Kings) - “Francis Crawford: you’re another fool, playing Macarius with the lockjaw. I told you sound was my stock-in-trade. I’ve known your voice since I was twelve.”

Richard. The dell near Hexham. God, Francis had screamed. (first on page, The Game of Kings)

Oonagh when they wake up together and she declines to give him Artus Cholet’s name. And she’s quoting Sybilla? I desperately want to know more about that interaction. We get some information in Checkmate, but still… (genuine first Francis, presumably. Queens’ Play)

Will Scott after the Hough Isa scheme and after spilling soup on himself! (first on page, presumably not a genuine first, The Disorderly Knights)

Graham Reid Malett. What the fuck, dude. (first time directly to Francis, The Disorderly Knights) - “‘I desire,’ he said abruptly to Lymond, ‘to call you Francis. Is that permitted? It is out of affection and a … purely spiritual love.’”

Jerott after he finds Oonagh’s body. (first time on page directly to Francis. Given the context and the way the Francises begin to multiply soon after, I would believe it’s the first time he’s addressed Lymond that way in ten years. Pawn in Frankincense) - “She is more than dead, Francis. If I thought you would do it, I would beg you to go without seeing her.”

Marthe to her brother, at Volos, after he calls her his sister by reciting a poem. The turning point. (genuine first Francis, Pawn in Frankincense)

Philippa, after falling in love with her husband as they wreak sweet, lyrical havoc across the rooftops and through the traboules of Lyon. Before the rest of that night happens. (genuine first Francis, Checkmate)

#lymond #francis crawford #lymond chronicles spoilers #eight of these are devastating to me in their own ways #and then there’s Will! #and then. there’s Gabriel. #but it was necessary to include both of them #you see #poll #something i #you will note there are none from the ringed castle #that’s because it’s the ringed castle #lymond polls

[death-rebirth-senshi]

I once saw a post that was like "Radahn and Malenia are half siblings what beef could they have" and like you cannot possibly comprehend the beef that half-siblings children of divorce can have with one another.

#me vs elden ring #like if you don't get it you don't get it. #you cannot comprehend how much you can resent your father's second set of children he left your mother to have. #MORESO THAN YOUR FATHER EVEN. And isn't that the shit of it all. #even aside from that I get the feeling that Malenia and even Miquella were looked down upon #not entirely unlike Morgott and Mohg #the derogatory 'severed harpy' at the shaded castle feels like an interesting glimpse into how Malenia may have been viewed at large #not by her own cleanrot knights or Miquella but what she represented to the golden order #and given that Miquella apparently wanted to replace the Erdtree. Well. #The path to the Haligtree is hidden and secret and protected and difficult to get to. #perhaps because it needed to be far enough away from the Erdtree and previous Great Tree. #But I don't think that's the only reason.

[batrachised]

I love all of LM Montgomery’s work, but the Blue Castle is raw in a way unlike her others. There’s a sense of cynicism from the first page, one quite at odds with LM Montgomery’s classic Anne (at least, Anne at first – Rilla of Ingleside’s Anne is different, and understandably so). It’s notable how this cynicism is met with delightfully sappy conclusions and happily ever afters, but if I had to define the Blue Castle’s tone at first, it’s dreary. It examines how dreary life is, and although it rejects the idea that life has to be this way, it acknowledges the reality that it often is.

Of all of LM Montgomery's characters, Valancy Stirling is the most real to me. This is a woman I know in real life--I've seen her in friends, I've seen her in family, and to be blunt, I've seen her in myself. I think quite a lot of women can relate to Valancy Stirling in some way. Valancy Stirling is someone who is neither liked nor disliked; who has neither friend nor foe; who is neither pretty nor charming; who is simply, quite often, not registered at all. As Valancy herself thinks miserably, she doesn't even have an enemy.

Valancy Stirling is also stuck. She's deeply unhappy with her life, which isn't difficult, but is empty and lonely. In the first few chapters of the book, LM Montgomery paints such an effective picture of despair I can find it difficult to read. There's no romanticism here--instead, there's the brutal acknowledgement that not everyone gets their Gilbert Blythe, often due to no choice of their own. Valancy's problem isn't having her head in the clouds about romance like Anne, or wrangling a love triangle like Emily, or a dancing will-they won't they with the neighbor boy like Pat; Valancy's problem is that no one finds her desirable at all. As the book states:

"Ay, there lay the sting. Valancy did not mind so much being an old maid. After all, she thought, being an old maid couldn’t possibly be as dreadful as being married to an Uncle Wellington or an Uncle Benjamin, or even an Uncle Herbert. What hurt her was that she had never had a chance to be anything but an old maid. No man had ever desired her."

And then LM Montgomery takes this a step further--she doesn't stop at the pain of being overlooked but confronts the grim reality in stark terms:

"The moment when a woman realises that she has nothing to live for—neither love, duty, purpose nor hope—holds for her the bitterness of death.

“And I just have to go on living because I can’t stop. I may have to live eighty years,” thought Valancy, in a kind of panic."

Raw, cynical, and true. What makes Valancy's situation so painful is that she has nothing to look forward to or hope for. She isn't needed or wanted by anyone. This isn't melodramatic; this is reality. Valancy is an unmarried woman in a time period where her options were already limited. She has nothing left to do but exist in a life where existence is a chore.

Of course, being in an LM Montgomery novel, Valancy gets her happy ending (in fact, in one of the more fantastical LM Montgomery endings that I won't spoil). Seeing Valancy throw back her shoulders and reject the life handed to her--from telling off her family at the dinner table to merrily giving societal conventions the middle finger--is remarkably satisfying. Still, there's something about those first few chapters that stays with me. Rather than the (accused) saccharine nature of Anne, you have a blunt statement that yes, life can be terrible, unromantic, and lonely. And that can be it. It's a weary recognition of the lack of happily ever afters, even if it turns into a happily ever after itself.

#lm montgomery #the blue castle #if this seems familiar it's because i've written about it before #valancy stirling #and on another note barney snaith is incredible no i will not be taking questions #i genuinely believe that the reason he isn't as popular (beyond the blue castle in general being unknown) is bc his name is BARNEY SNAITH #doesn't quite have the ring of gilbert blythe

[meowizard]

i love when there is. a castle or perhaps a dark marsh

#gormenghast #jamaica inn #my cousin rachel???? #idk about that one anyway. #the list goes on #if anyone has any book recs that take place in a castle and/or prehaps a dark marsh plLEASE drop them por favor sil vous plait #sum more uhhhhh #northern journey #all the sorta dark souls-y elden ring games are spot on gorgeous showstoppin but i've never been inclined to actually play them #because ive never played fighter games before .lmao

[the--highlanders]

do you guys KNOW how frustrated this thing makes me. like it's literally from the regiment that jamie would most likely have been in AND the story lines up so well with the plot of the highlanders and I'm just. constantly itching to retcon the episode a little bit in my head and make this the standard

but no!! the serial kind of depends on the standard being prince charles' rather than nust a regimental standard!!!! and it kills me every single day

#second doctor #jacobite ramblings #the OTHER thing that kills me is the ring. #having been given to kirsty's father 'in the heat of battle' #because i've placed the maclarens at kinkell castle #which supposedly hosted charles after culloden when he was on the run #whether or not that story is true i like the association #and i would love to swap it around in the dr who universe to him having stayed there before the battle #& the ring being something he gave to kirsty as a thanks for hosting #(which was quite common there is a Lot of jewellery in various collections given to ladies who hosted him) #(and other objects as well) #(not gonna talk about them here but i do love talking about them) #so it would make so much sense!!!! for kirsty to have the ring!!!! #but again the episode kinda hinges on the ring being charles' personal ring rather than a gift #screaming crying clawing at the walls. why won't this 60s tv show for kids squish neatly into historical realism. #for the sake of clarity i am being overdramatic about this but also i am a little bit pretentious and it does make me chew through concrete #anyway this post brought to you by me going to nms yesterday #was i technically there for a job interview? yes. #did that stop me from visiting the jacobite displays to say hello to my favourite objects and do a little bit of blorbo research? no. #if anyone was at nms yesterday & saw a little gremlin in a waistcoat taking pictures of highland wool spinning implements that was me <3

[wine-dark-soup]

nine years after rotating my camera around lucatiel of mirrah leaning against the wall, i can rotate my camera around my character <3 the circle is complete

#elden ring #my screens #yeah i'm trying not to think about entering stormveil castle. yeah #her name is kerthana or kertana (havent decided on the spelling yet) btw #for ker thanatoio because i've read the iliad one too many times

[tastytofusoup]

People talk about an easier difficulty setting for Elden Ring, and like, they're not wrong, choices in game settings so you can play the way you want to are always good.

However, an easy mode does already exist, and it is called playing as a mage, with the Moonveil Katana.

#elden ring is also in general feeling like the most accessible from software game - by FAR #if you're put off by the difficulty of the others - try this one #it's way more generous #'bonfires' are plentiful #and there are so many ways to make it more of a chill experience #make an Astrologer with an INT build - go around doing every misc thing and progressing npc quests in the zone before doing major bosses #if anything's feeling too tough just go and do something else then come back #by doing all the shit available out there in the zone you'll end up very leveled - grab the meteorite staff as early as you can - #it's easy to get and has S INT scaling (the best) #then grab moonveil after destroying stormveil castle and your domination will be in business #summon your spirit wolves - summon the npcs - and just demolish with your damage #most things become a fucking joke #I've barely been using my spells today because moonveil's special attacks are better #it does both physical and magic damage so it scales off all your points you've put into INT #it's disgusting and I love it #then you're free to enjoy the gorgeous world and follow npc questlines and enjoy the experience rather than it all feeling like a ballache #the dark souls games I finished - I struggled and served my sentence - and they're cool and all! #but the vast majority I look back and think 'oh that pos boss' 'oh that area I'd rather fuck a cactus than replay through - no thanks' #I see myself gladly replaying the shit out of elden ring

[age-of-moonknight]

Punisher (and Moon Knight???) of Earth-51910

Remember that time in Vengeance of the Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2009), #5 when Khonshu was kvetching about why Marc couldn't be more like the Punisher, who's god probably didn't need to beg for blood constantly (to which Marc astutely replied that Frank Castle had no god)? Well, looks like Baroness Khonshu of Earth-51910 lucked out.

Created by Mike Benson and Laura Braga for Secret Wars Journal (Vol. 1/2015), #4, this Frank confirms his connection to Khonshu (if the bird skull wasn't evidence enough) by occasionally swearing in her name. I wonder though if this Moon Knight is a werewolf as well, like the rest of the Cult of Khonshu in this reality is implied to be??? But honestly, I'm just a big fan of how, even as an ancient deity's Fist of Vengeance, Frank still manages to carry a very large firearm.

As well as some other exciting but far less explosive weaponry.

(Bird skulls on the knees also seems to be a common Earth-51910 theme)

#Benson #Marvel #Marvel comics #Marvel 51910 #Secret Wars #Secret Wars Journal #Moon Knight comics #The Punisher #Frank Castle #if the author's last name rings any bells it might be because Mike Benson wrote the second half of Moon Knight (vol. 5/2006) #after Huston's departure #interestingly enough Benson's stint on Moon Knight did involve another team-up with the Punisher #huh #anyway I’m trying not to get too far afield but I just thought that this was a neat connection #to that one issue of Vengeance of the Moon Knight

[braxix]

Gilgalad: *walks down the hall*

*eggs splat against the stones*

Gilgalad: *trips* ugh, Elrond! Why?!

#lotr #lord of the rings #incorrect lord of the rings quotes #silmarillion #incorrect silmarillion quotes #elrond #lotr elrond #gil galad #erenion gil galad #erenion #incorrect quotes #Elrond has an alibi because he’s on the opposite side of the castle. He set up a boobytrap the night before and warned the maids #but Gilgalad gets nothing. haha loser

[morgott-the-grace-given]

good news everyone! Serosh isn't actually dead, he just moved to Stormveil castle.

#personal #cats #my cats #just out of curiosity #how do normal people spent their weekends #because I just spent my entire saturday building cardboard castle for cats #elden ring #very slightly tho

[nosugarsweetener]

i have spent too long in denial. i am not the feminine girly girl i keep trying to be. no feminine girly girl continuously and viciously pines over the fact that she does not exude the same vibes as a rugged middle aged man that simply does not happen

#i am so unbelievably fucked in the head #because i want to be so dainty and feminine and little and seeing the number on the scale drop and my body get skinnier is so euphoric #and it’s not like i want to LOOK like a man #i simply want the vibes of one #i would cut off my left ring toe if it meant i could exude the same vibes as jon berenthal’s frank castle #or pedro pascal’s joel miller #i think this is a crisis true and proper

[heavensinhell]

howl 🤝 rhysand

whats proposing i only know how to give a ring when theyre in mortal danger

#rhysand #rhys acotar #acotar #howl #howl pendragon #howls moving castle #howl: gives ring before sending out in possible mortal danger #plus points because im 99.99% sure sophie got traumatised #ykw else? #HOWL: GIVES HER A RING BEFORE SENDING HER TO A WITCHS HOUSE #RHYS: FEYRE GOT HER RING WHEN SHE LEFT A WITCHS HOUSE #men that is NOT how u do it

[captain-fflewddurfflam]

I am so completely obsessed with high fantasy right now. I’m on a huge fantasy kick and I’m so sorry for anyone following for sci-fi or period drama but my blog is pretty much entirely LOTR and Critical Role right now. I promise it won’t be forever!

#I just got a subscription to dropout to watch a court of fey and flowers because I need more d&d content #I'm not even fully caught up on critical role c3 #also want to watch c1 really badly but there are not enough hours in the day! #this is a problem #currently watching the rings of power at my brother's behest and now all I wanna do is rewatch lotr #though I am enjoying trop #I'm in the middle of reading mistborn #and I just discovered a chronicles of prydain blog that's making me want to start re-reading those books (especially the castle of llyr!) #being in the middle of two D&D campaigns isn't helping either #anyway #all this to say I'm hardcore hyperfixating on high fantasy right now #and I'm so sorry if that's not your thing #sorry for the disaster my blog will be for the foreseeable future #fantasy #UGH #hyperfixation #lotr #trop #chronicles of prydain #critical role #acofaf #d&d #mistborn

[trollbreak]

Ough *is struck with ship thoughts and has to lay on the floor*

#kit makes laambe a lil plush frog with a mouth that’s like a lil pocket and the tongue rolls up so it’s hidden till u wanna unroll it and #it’s on a silver ring so it can go on a necklace #there’s a pocket on the underside of the tongue. its very little but there’s a tiny piece of paper with a doodle of a frog in a crown on a #doodled castle. the prince frog has sparkles in his eyes #thinks abt solare making food for sky dance and humming to themself #thinks about miss watching the clock for the end of Orion’s shift #thinks about archon at the bottom of a cuddle pile of xyr partners #thinks abt archon and his boys having sky dance over for dinner #thinks about kit trying to teach himself crochet to make laambe some cute soft mittens with lil Pom Pom animals and it keeps getting set #aside because he has much less fun with crochet and is having trouble keeping it secret while they’re struggling to learn smth new #thinks about kit picking up laambe in a very big hug #nunc scio amorem