#annul

[colqdcas]

Do you have any songs you associate with each of them? like their 'theme songs' ?" :3

,Jester

Sun: I Deserve This by Rebzyyx

Moon: DWI by Missio

Solar: Nothing Ever Changes by Nico Collins

Lunar: Go To War by NOTHING MORE*

Polaris: Couture by Epsyle

Arcturus: American Healthcare by Penelope Scott*

Sirius A: Do What I Gotta by Naethan Apollo

Sirius B: Gladiator by Jann

Annul: Reverberate by Bears in Trees

Spyril: I Sent My Therapist to Therapy by Alec Benjamin*

I'll have to reblog this for the rest. Strongly lore relevant songs are marked with an asterisk.

#dca au #colq au #daycare attendant #fnaf dca #dca #daycare attendant au #fnaf daycare #dca fandom #dca oc #lunar #solar #fnaf sun #sundrop #fnaf moon #moondrop #annul #Spyril #arcturus #polaris #sirius twins

[sir-qwillian-ferne]

i forgot my ao3 profile picture was a gif and I am now immensely entertained

this is it btw

annul my beloved

#dca ocs #dca oc #annul

[one-time-i-dreamt]

The front window of my apartment was replaced with nothing and squirrels and cats kept getting in. I also accidentally married my sister’s husband and had to figure out how to get an annulment.

#dream #squirrel #cat #marriage #sister #husband #family #annulment

[vigilskeep]

i need to wynnepost. somebody has to

#its crazy how people will assume she is all the tropes she subverts and then ignore her #also how sympathy for circle mages’ indoctrination only lasts until they get old i guess and then fuck them #because its not as if they were ever a terrified child who’d never had anything better than a single templar’s mildest kindness and any kind #of home even if it was the tower #so an orphan kid who had no memory of anything but scurrying between farmsteads and hiding in barns #didnt want to leave. what a shock. you guys dont get the place comfort has in keeping circle mages complicit #so it’s violent and terrible and you never have privacy and your children get murdered and you’re always watched and hated #its also a warm bed and community and a chance to succeed #do you honestly think every kid from fucking THEDAS knows theres anything better out there #that doesnt make the circle good. it makes it horrific that they prey on vulnerable kids to teach them the world hates them #and only the circle is ‘safe’ #i just think there should be some sympathy for those kids and what they grow up into #its easy for the player to walk in and say their character would hate the circle and never have listened to the templars #its easy for say an amell or even a surana with a family back home to not fear what they left behind #wynne genuinely thinks without the circle mages would all be murdered and she’ll fight and die protecting her fellow mages #from the right of annulment #yes its a flaw that she goes on to teach others the circle must be tolerated and that is precisely how the circle is perpetuated ove #over generations #but its amazing to me to just act like its her fault #well. this is more tags than i expected it to be

[sapphim]

da2 really dropped the ball by not filling the gallows with children like they did in dao when the right of annulment was also in question in broken circle

#I think if you want to help annul the gallows you should quite simply have to slaughter children to do so

[kinloch-warden]

I keep thinking about this exchange.

I must've heard this line many times across my various play-troughs bc I love having Zev along but it never struck me until now that he might actually be lowkey threatening the mayor on the warden's behalf?

Because normally Zevran's pretty lighthearted when making snide comments, or has like a lighthearted tone. But the delivery on this one's downright cold! We didn't even recruit Zev that long ago when he said it but I guess he's taking his oath to protect the warden pretty seriously 🥺 I think he also says this line in regards to Murdock being weird about your warden being a woman, even if you aren't a mage.

But (at least to me) its like extra meaningful when your warden's a mage bc like. You've been told your whole life that the people outside the circle are scared of/ hate you, that you're in the circle for your own protection as well as to protect everyone else from you. So Murdock reacting as he does is really proving the templars right, more or less, but then its instantly contradicted by Zev sticking up for you! Like sure, some people will fear/ distrust you for your magic on sight, but not everyone. There are people out there who won't care at all. Who will see you as a person, not just a mage.

#dragon age #dragon age origins #zevran #zevran ariani #dao #also thinking about how Zev will really challenge a warden who tries to annul the circle 👀 #from what I've seen anyway since I don't think I coukd ever make myself take that route

[crossdressingdeath]

Y'know? I suspect less players would side with the Templars if Bioware didn't hold back the true horror of the Right of Annulment when the player chooses to take part in it. Like... the Templars murder everyone in the Circle down to the youngest child. That's how Annulments work. But as far as I'm aware when the Warden or Hawke sides with the Templars in those "Do you want to help murder all these innocents for the crime of existing in this place that the people wanting to murder them locked them into, or do you want to Not Do That" quests you only face adult mages, abominations, and demons. I get that having to murder children would be... a lot to put in even an M-rated game, I'm not going to pretend I can't see why they didn't do it even before the "Actually the Templars are great and the mages need to stop whining about being imprisoned, tortured, raped, and murdered for being born" retcons in DAI, but can you imagine the impact? You wanted to do it, even in the face of your companions telling you not to. Maybe a couple companions even encouraged you to do it, although in DAO at least I don't think many of them do. But you made this choice; when the Templars asked you to help murder everyone in the Circle, you said yes. Now you have to face the fact that when they said everyone they meant everyone, from the oldest Senior Enchanter to the youngest apprentice. Hey, you thought this was the right call! You thought the whole population of the Circle should be put down based on the actions of people barely connected to them if at all! So now put these screaming children to the sword as they beg you to stop because that's what the Templars told you to do. That's what you wanted, right?

Even showing the bodies of the young apprentices of the Circle would've been an excellent gut punch if the player chose to help the Templars; you could explain that as the Templars thinking maybe the people assisting them would change their minds if they had to murder children while still giving the player a glimpse of what an evil thing they're willingly taking part in. Much like how if you choose to abandon Redcliffe to its fate in DAO you then have to fight your way through the wreckage to get to the castle, I feel like the real fallout of the Annulment, which for the first two games is treated as an evil act (even when treating Anders like a monster Meredith moving to kill the population of the Circle using his actions as an excuse is treated like a horrific thing to do), would be so much more effective if the players actually had the full horror of it shoved in their faces as a punishment for choosing to take part.

#dragon age #the right of annulment is pure evil and these games do NOT go far enough in showing us that

[wonder-worker]

I've been thinking about the tragedy of Elizabeth Woodville living to see the end of her family name.

I don't mean her family with her husband, which lived on through her daughter and grandson. I mean her own.

Her sisters died, one by one, many of them after 1485. When Elizabeth died, only Katherine was left, and she would die before the turn of the century as well.

All her brothers died, too. Lewis died in childhood. John was executed. Anthony was murdered. Lionel died suddenly in the peak of Richard's reign, unable to see his niece become queen. Edward perished at war. Richard died in grieving peace. For all the violence and judgement the family endured, it was "an accident of biology" that ended their line: none of the brothers left heirs, and the Woodville name was extinguished. We know the family was aware of this. We know they mourned it, too:

“Buy a bell to be a tenor at Grafton to the bells now there, for a remembrance of the last of my blood.”

Elizabeth lived through the deposition and death of her young sons, and lived to see the end of her own family name. It must have been such a haunting loss, on both sides.

#(the quote is by Richard Woodville in his deathbed will; he was the last of the Woodville brothers to die) #elizabeth woodville #woodvilles #my post #to be clear I am not arguing that the death of an English gentry family name is some kind of giant tragedy (it absolutely the fuck is not) #I'm trying to put it into perspective with regards to what Elizabeth may have felt because we know her family DID feel this way #writing this kinda reminded me of how I am just not fond at all about the way Elizabeth's experiences in 1483-85 are written about #and the way lots so many of the unprecedentedly horrifying aspects are overlooked or treated so casually: #the seizure and murder of two MINOR sons and the illegal execution of another; #her sheer vulnerability in every way compared to all her queenly predecessors; how she was harassed by 'dire threats' for months; #how she had 5 very young daughters with her to look after at the time (Bridget and Katherine were literally 3 and 4 years old); #how unprecedented Richard's treatment of her was: EW was the first queen of england to be officially declared an adulteress; #and the first and ONLY queen to be officially accused of witchcraft #(Joan of Navarre was accused of her treason; she was never explicitly accused of witchcraft on an official level like EW was) #the first crowned queen of england to have her marriage annulled; and the first queen to have her children officially bastardized #what former queens endured through rumors* were turned into horrifying realities for her. #(I'm not trying to downplay the nightmare of that but this was fundamentally on a different level altogether) #nor did Elizabeth get a trial or appeal to the church. like I cannot emphasize this enough: this was not normal for queens #and not normal for depositions. ultimately what Richard did *was* unprecedented #and of course let's not forget that Elizabeth had literally just been unexpectedly widowed like 20 days before everything happened #I really don't feel like any of this is emphasized as much as it should be? #apart from the horrifying death of her sons - but most modern books never call it murder they just write that they 'disappeared' #and emphasize that ACTUALLY we don't know what happened to them (this includes Arlene Okerlund) #rather than allowing her to have that grief (at the very least) #more time is spent dealing with accusations that she was a heartless bitch or inconsistent intriguer for making a deal with Richard instead #it also feels like a waste because there's a lot that can be analyzed about queenship and R3's usurpation if this is ever explored properly #anyway - it's kinda sad that even after Henry won and her daughter became queen EW didn't really get a break #her family kept dying one by one and the Woodville name was extinguished. and she lived to see it #it's kinda heartbreaking - it was such a dramatic rise and such a slow haunting fall #makes for a great story tho

[colqdcas]

How many Assistants do each Deity have? (And is Annul the only named one?) :3

,Jester

Sun: 1

Polaris, star... thing, she/her, ~175 million years old

Moon: 7̶ 4

Arcturus, reaper, she/he/they, 42 (112) years old

Sirius A, reaper, they/them, 29 (633) years old

Sirius B, reaper, it/its, 29 (633) years old

Annul, reaper, he/they, 26 (34) years old

Solar: A LOT. Two named.

Antares, demon, he/him, ~200 million years old

Spyril, demon, she/her, 68 years old

All of them are askable :)

I plan to do colour refs when I have more free time and less asks to get to.

#dca au #colq au #daycare attendant #dca #fnaf dca #daycare attendant au #fnaf daycare #dca fandom #dca oc #dca ocs #Polaris #arcturus #sirius a #sirius b #annul #antares #spyril

[actualbird]

enough time has passed so it's time to make a confession that will be funny to nobody but me. remember my "wedding 2: they want another one" post that went viral in 2020? the post that got reposted everywhere, from pinterest to reddit to etc? the post that got tagged with one million different blorbos?

well i turned off reblogs for that because my parents, the very same ones who got that wedding 2, got separated lol (and not under good circumstances, quite the opposite). so, sorry everybody, but love isnt real. EXCEPT for all the blorbo pairings + blorbo children that were tagged on that post. your blorbos now have custody of that post

anyway im not gonna turn reblogs back on for that post but it's funny to me because the sequel to this post would essentially be "ANNULMENT: THEY NEVER WANTED THE WEDDING 1, MUCH LESS WEDDING 2"

#ANNULMENT: SHOULDNT HAVE PUT THAT MUCH EFFORT INTO THE WEDDING 2 PROGRAM HUH CHAMP #dootdootdoot

[headknight-oh]

Y’all ever just get double married? Very based of Lincoln and Scary I think

#throws this into the abyss #I like to think they never got their initial 5 person marriage annulled #they’re all married and one soul before the lord #linc and scary just got double married in their 20s #Taylor loves the tax benefits #dungeons and daddies #taylor swift #lincoln li wilson #scary marlowe #normal oak swallows garcia

[squirrelwithatophat]

Wynne defending children from the Templars

It’s interesting to reflect on Wynne’s Establishing Character Moment in Dragon Age: Origins, especially in light of the strange whitewashing of the Templar Order in Inquisition as well as her apparently conservative politics.  When we encounter her in Broken Circle (our first interaction with her since the brief chat at Ostagar), we see her fighting to protect a group of young children not only from demons but from the Templars -- the very military force that claims to protect them.  If she is recruited into the party, in fact, we discover that she had already sacrificed her life for them.  She is technically dead/undead and only kept standing due to possession by a spirit of Faith.

As soon as the party enters the door, she’s fearful that the Warden has come to kill them all on behalf of Knight-Commander Greagoir, and depending on player choices/intentions, she may in fact be correct.  

Wynne: It’s you!  No... come no further.  Grey Warden or no, I will strike you down where you stand!

Warden: Wynne - what are you doing here?

Wynne: I am a mage of the Circle.  More importantly, why are you here?  The templars would not let just anyone by.

Warden: You have children with you.

Wynne: The tower is a place of learning.  Young apprentices are always here.  Why is that surprising?

Wynne: But this is no time to discuss that.  Why are you here?  Why did the templars let you in?

Warden: I am helping Greagoir resolve the Circle’s difficulties.

Wynne: Then you do serve the templars as I feared.  Do they have the Right of Annulment?

Warden: The Right of Annulment?

Wynne: The order from the grand cleric allowing the templars to completely annul a Circle.  Do they have it?

Warden: No, but Greagoir expects it to arrive soon.

Wynne: So Greagoir thinks the Circle is beyond hope.  He probably assumes we are all dead.  

Wynne: They abandoned us to our fate, but even trapped as we are, we have survived.  If they invoke the Right, however, we will not be able to stand against them.

Warden: It’s nothing less than this Circle deserves.

Wynne:  Do these children deserve death too?  Will they die by your hand?

Warden: Mages are a danger.  If I had a say, you would all be culled.

Wynne: Kill us solves nothing, but with training and education, mages learn to control their powers.

Wynne: You’re mad if you think I’ll let you lay a finger on these children.  If will fight you if you won’t listen to reason.

Wynne: I am not afraid of you.

Warden: This Circle must be destroyed, for all our sakes.

Wynne: If you insist on making war on the Circle, we have nothing more to discuss.  It comes to blows, then.  I will stop you or die trying.

BONUS - terrified child fleeing from being murdered:

Commentary

While Wynne can be condescending and sometimes preachy in her support for the Circle, her dialogue both here and elsewhere indicates that she has no illusions about the Templars keeping them locked inside.  

After all, they imprisoned her in Kinloch Hold since she was a young child, took her own child away from her forever, and threatened to slaughter both her and the other children she was mentoring in her son’s stead.  If recruited into the party, she opens up about the despair she felt as a girl when she realized she would be trapped there forever, and it was only by turning to the religious faith that was being forced on all mages in the tower that she began to make peace with her fate.  She knows that if the Libertarian Fraternity successfully leads a vote for independence from the Chantry, the Templars will simply kill them all.  She even uses the term “genocide” to describe what will happen.  She explicitly cites this as the reason why she opposes the independence vote. 

The mages will never be free! The Chantry would never allow it. Our only hope for survival is to show them we can be trusted! Don’t you remember what happened to the Circle in Ferelden? Do you want to give the templars another excuse to call for the culling of all mages?

She doesn’t reject freedom for her fellow mages for any personal advantage, throwing others like her under the bus to reap the rewards of brown-nosing.  If she wanted any semblance of power or status, after all, she would have accepted the post of First Enchanter (or second-in-line to it) a long time ago.  As of Dragon Age Origins, she has consistently rejected the opportunity to become Irving’s successor.  As of the end of Broken Circle, if she joins the party and defeats Uldred’s rebels, she still needs to ask for permission just to temporarily leave the tower, despite having proven her loyalty and competence beyond any reasonable doubt both here and over the past thirty or so years of incarceration.  It takes helping the Hero of Ferelden save the entire country by defeating the Archdemon to convince the Templars to allow her to come and go freely - an opportunity that, as her own son later points out, no one else has had or probably ever would have in their lifetime (and one, as the only the player knows, that is entirely conditional on player choices).

The only context in which she ever even considers fighting the Templars is when she has no other way of preventing the Templars from killing them all anyways - both during Broken Circle and in the climax of Asunder.

Her politics are, in the end, based on fear.

Not the usual fear of the Other or fear of social change that hamper normal politics, but the completely rational fear, as someone at/near the bottom of the social hierarchy, about what the authorities will do to her and everyone like her if they step out of line.  As it turns out, she’s not wrong about what the powers that be are and how they will react - she’s only wrong about the potential for a better future and the rewards of fighting for it.

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age meta #da meta #wynne #wynne dragon age #chantry critical #anti chantry #templar critical #anti templar #circle critical #anti circle #pro mage #dao #broken circle #knight commander greagoir #right of annulment #100 #200 #300

[artistheworld]

PART TWO

@centuryberry

SPOILER WARNING

✨THE FIGHT✨ BETWEEN NEPHEW AND UNCLE

part one

#queen of the mountain #Erlang Shen #Jade Emperor #THIS WAS SO FUN TO DRAWWWW #part 2 #rea’s little sketches #Screaming about the annulment #We don’t support child marriages here

[annabolinas]

May 16, 1536 - Archbishop Cranmer Visits Anne in the Tower

"This day at dinner, the Queen said that she should go to a nunnery and is in hope of life." - William Kingston to Thomas Cromwell, May 16, 1536

"Only Anne herself, therefore, could set Henry free. What she said to Cranmer we will never know. But it was enough for the Archbishop of Canterbury to pronounce her marriage dissolved the next day. And later on the 16th, it may be by coincidence, it may not, it was determined that Anne should die, not by the agony of the fire, ut at the hands of the executioner of Calais." - David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2001)

"Did the archbishop hint at life in return for compliance? Did Anne confess to a consummated relationship with Percy or a third party, a quid pro quo, perhaps, for Henry not rejecting Elizabeth? There is no way of knowing what passed between the client, now archbishop, and his patron, now a condemned traitor. In all probability the meeting was what it purported to be, pastoral." - Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (2004)

"It's been suggested that [Cranmer] visited to try to convince her to 'confess to an impediment to her marriage'. This seems very probable given that that day at dinner, Anne told Kingston that she would go to a nunnery and that she was 'in hope of life'. Perhaps Cranmer offered Anne a deal: agree to an annulment and your life will be spared." - Natalie Grueninger, The Final Year of Anne Boleyn (2022)

#tudor era #dailytudors #tudorerasource #perioddramaedit #the six wives of henry viii #dorothy tutin #natalie dormer #the tudors #thomas cranmer #jodie turner smith #anne boleyn 2021 #amy james kelly #blood sex and royalty #another belated post sorry! #there's sm dispute over what happened on May 16 #so I just wanted to show y'all some of the opinions #Starkey and Grueninger think Cranmer visited to get her to agree to the annulment #Ives thinks it was just pastoral #and I didn't put it here but #John Guy and Julia Fox think Anne never conceded anything and Cranmer just ignored her and annulled it anyway #historiography is rly fascinating #anneboleynedit

[xenon-demon]

I... have no idea what this is. No that's a lie I know exactly what this is, it's 2.6k of a Frozen AU with Steve as Elsa and Robin as Anna that I wrote in a fugue state after seeing a friend's production of Frozen: The Musical tonight. I have several WIPs I'm supposed to be working on and this is exactly none of them. Bone apple teeth. (Also I'm genuinely unsure if my usual crew of beloved enablers would even WANT to be tagged in this so... for now I'm not doing a taglist, and if I write any more of this AU I'll do one next time 😂)

“Steve!”

At the sound of his name, the Prince — now King, and boy is Robin going to take a while to get used to that — turns his head towards her. Seeing it's Robin, Steve gives his apologies to whatever noble he was talking to and steps away from their conversation. He makes his way over to Robin in just a few short strides, but his eyes flick back and forth between Robin and her new... well. She doesn't really want to think about what Eddie now is to her. In any case, she can already see a questioning frown start to brew on Steve's face, meaning this will be a much harder sell than she expected.

“Robin!” Steve exclaims, his gaze almost immediately sliding over to Eddie and giving him a once-over. He sounds markedly more subdued when he continues, “I see you've... made a friend.”

“Well, I wouldn't say a friend exactly!” Robin laughs, shrill and stilted, and gives Eddie's arm a pointed squeeze when he doesn't immediately join in. Getting the hint, Eddie finally starts laughing along. Hopefully Steve didn't notice her hinting, since she's had her arm wrapped around Eddie's since before she even called him over.

Steve raises an eyebrow at her, and shit does she need to keep this moving.

“This,” Robin announces, using the hand that's not around Eddie's arm to do a quick flourish in the direction of his face, “is Prince Edward of the Kingdom of Forest-Upon-Hills. We met at the ball tonight.”

“It's an absolute pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty,” says Eddie, trying his best to show the proper respect and bow as he does so. Robin's death grip on his arm prevents him from getting very far.

“Likewise,” Steve replies, sounding incredibly skeptical of this whole conversation. He then shoots Robin a look, which, rude, but also entirely warranted given what she's about to ask him.

Steeling herself, Robin begins to say, “Prince Edward and I-”

“Just Eddie is fine,” Eddie interrupts her, leaning in a little bit closer to her as he whispers. He's got terrible volume control, however, so she wouldn't know it was meant to be a whisper if she hadn't spent the past two hours talking to him.

“Not one for formalities, Prince Eddie?” Steve asks, the weight of his gaze finally leaving Robin's shoulders for a moment. God, she often wishes her brother was easier to read, but never as strongly as she does right now.

Eddie, meanwhile, straightens up so quickly it's like he's been electrocuted.

“Uh, not particularly, no. They grate on me,” Eddie says. He pauses for a moment, and Robin can see the deliberation on his face before he adds, “Your Majesty.”

“I'm not one for formalities either, Prince Eddie,” Steve says. His mouth twitches into a very small smile. “I prefer Steve.”

There's a pause, then, where Steve and Eddie are locked into some strange stare-down, while Robin looks on in vague exasperation. She's pretty sure she could strip naked and swing from the chandelier in the center of the ballroom and neither of them would take any notice of her. She's about to intervene, actually, because they really do not have time for whatever this is, when Eddie miraculously breaks the spell himself. He blinks a bit, looking away from Steve and back to Robin, face significantly more flushed than it was a minute ago.

“I believe you were saying something to K- to Steve, Princess?” Eddie asks, just about tripping over Steve's new title on instinct before catching himself.

Robin just barely restrains herself from rolling her eyes. She really is the bravest, most long-suffering warrior in all of Hawkins.

Putting her brave face back on, Robin turns to her brother and says, “Yes I was, thank you Eddie, I was saying that Prince Eddie and I-” and here she falters, because Steve looks back at her and meets her gaze. She swallows, trying to be subtle, and looks very pointedly at Steve's forehead instead of his eyes. She can't do this if she's looking him in the eye.

She takes another half second to compose herself, then rips the band-aid off.

“Prince Eddie and I seek your blessing for our marriage.”

“Excuse me?” Steve says, more like demands, almost choking on nothing. Robin's never seen her brother this off-kilter in her life. He doesn't even try to compose himself at  all before he says, “Robin, can I speak to you for a moment? Alone?”

Robin swallows guiltily, knowing he'll see straight through her if she agrees.

“No. Anything you want to say to me, you can say to both of us,” Robin says, and how her voice stays steady, she doesn't even know. It probably helps that she's still not looking Steve in the eye.

“Robin- I don't-” Steve interrupts himself to run his gloved hands down his face. He pauses for a moment, face completely covered by his hands, and takes a deep sigh. When he removes his hands and starts speaking again, his voice is measured. Calm. Deadly.

“Rob, you can't marry a man you just met,” Steve states. The word man falls heavy off his tongue, and Robin knew she would regret coming out as a lesbian, she just didn't think it would be like this. Squaring herself up for the best performance of her life, Robin begins her improvised speech full of bullshit to convince her brother to let her do this.

Before she can, however, Eddie chimes in with, "You can if it's true love." Steve doesn't even spare Eddie a glance, but his frown does deepen significantly. Shit.

“Steve,” Robin begins, trying very hard to stay calm, “Eddie and I have a connection unlike any I've ever felt before. I lo-love him”—shit, she could feel the bile rising in the back of her throat saying that, and judging by the almost-imperceptible twitch in Steve's eye, he knows too—“and I think it's time I start giving back to the Kingdom of Hawkins.”

“Giving back?” Steve asks, and fuck he's folding his arms across his chest now. “How exactly is this giving back to the kingdom? What you're doing is running headfirst into the first bad decision you can find.”

”I'm a bad decision?” Eddie asks. Both Robin and Steve ignore him.

“No, Steve, I'm giving back by giving the kingdom a new celebration to look forward to after your coronation,” Robin hisses. “A royal wedding is another opportunity to open the castle gates and bring the kingdom together-”

“Absolutely not,” Steve snaps, interrupting her. “We are not opening up the castle gates again for a long time.”

“Why not, Steve?” Robin snaps back. “Tonight's been great for the kingdom's morale, it's been great for you to see people and actually socialize-”

“You have no idea what's good for me, Robin,” Steve says, making her stop dead. It hurts, hearing Steve say that like it's obvious and she's stupid for not knowing it already. What hurts more is that it’s true.

Once it's clear Robin won't keep talking, Steve continues, “You asked for my blessing, and I do not give it. I don't approve of this, and if you're doing this in some misguided attempt to make me happy- quite frankly you've gone insane if you think this would make me happy.”

With that, he turns to walk away.

Okay, sure, she has no idea what Steve's whole deal is or why he's always shutting her out, but Robin is sure she knows what will help.

Sure, part of this crazy scheme is the vague idea that if Robin has a picture-perfect capable-of-bearing-children partnership, then Steve will be under less pressure himself to marry someone who can produce an heir. Maybe, with less scrutiny on his personal choices, he'll learn to relax and open up more over time. That idea falls apart pretty quickly, however, as the thought of producing an heir with a man - even one as fun to talk to as Eddie - makes her want to gouge her own eyes out. No, the real reasoning behind Robin's (admittedly insane) plan to marry someone she met two hours ago at her brother's coronation is so she has an ironclad reason for Steve to open the gates again. Sure, ideally it would've been a woman who caught her eye tonight, but she can't be picky. Robin doesn't meet anyone, especially with the castle locked up like it always is, and she has yet to think of something other than a wedding that would convince Steve to open the gates. Then Eddie came along, laughing and flirting (she thinks, at least; Robin's tried to black that part out) and professing his undying true love to her, and this was the best opportunity she was ever going to get.

And she has to convince her brother to open the gates again. Steve's been thriving tonight. He clearly loves the thrum of people, all of them dancing and laughing and enjoying themselves, and he's slowly coming out of his shell with every conversation he has with their subjects. Robin's spent more time talking to her brother tonight than she has in a long, long time. Too long for her to try to quantify it without crying.

Watching her brother turn away from her, the promise of a relationship with him going forward about to slip through her fingers, she knows she has to do something.

“Steve, wait-” Robin says, reaching out for Steve. She grabs him by the hand, feeling the soft cotton of the white gloves he always, always wears.

“Enough, Robin,” Steve says, not even looking back as he yanks his hand out of her grip. She's trying to hold on, though, so she's left holding his glove as Steve pulls his now-bare hand away from her. God, how upsetting is it that it's been years since she saw the back of her own brother's hands?

Steve swears, then, under his breath. Robin almost doesn't hear it; almost.

“Robin, give me my glove.” Steve's not asking; he's demanding. Robin can work with this.

“Not unless you talk to me about why you won't open the gates. Look at how tonight went, it's been so good for you-”

“This isn't up for debate, Robin, give me my glove,” and Steve reaches for it then, but Robin quickly holds the glove up high above her head before he can grab it.

“Why isn't it up for debate? Why do you isolate yourself all the time?” Robin's almost dancing now, twisting and turning as she tries to keep the glove away from Steve's grabbing hands. It doesn't help that he's taller than her, but she's more agile than people think, especially since Steve's in full coronation regalia right now. The material's stiff as a board at the best of times.

“You wouldn't understand, just give me the- ugh!” Steve's stopped trying to grab the glove, instead trying to restrain her and make it easier to grab.

“Maybe I would understand if you'd talk to me instead of shutting me out all the time-” Steve's almost got her in a headlock, but Robin ducks out from underneath it and quickly steps away and out of Steve's reach.

“Robin, that's enough!” Steve shouts, and then several things happen consecutively.

Steve reaches out towards Robin with his right hand, the one missing the glove.

Robin thinks she's going crazy, but- what look like snowflakes shoot out from Steve's hand where he's reached for her.

The crowd, most of whom had turned to look at Steve's shout, gasp, almost in unison.

“I- Steve-” Robin says, not quite sure where to start with the -- actually quite sizable -- pile of snow now on the ballroom floor.

“No,” Steve gasps, and Robin's never heard her brother so distraught. It makes something keen inside her, the sheer anguish in his voice. “No, no no no, this can't be happening, this can't-” Steve reaches up to pull at this hair, but more snow and ice shoots out from his hand as soon as it's pointing towards the ceiling. He flinches away from his own hand, sheer terror on his face, but with every movement Steve makes more and more snow and ice surrounds him. Within a few seconds, there's a wind picking up as well, and it's like a snowstorm is starting to form right there in the castle dining room.

The crowd, originally shocked into silence, starts to move again. Robin hears screaming, people running, shouting from the guards about an evacuation plan, but it's all faint and distorted like she's underwater. All she can focus on right now is Steve, the way his terror is only worsening by the moment.

“Steve, let me help you,” Robin calls over the roar of the crowd and the storm, taking a few steps towards him. She needs to get his attention before getting closer, the last thing she wants to do right now is startle him.

“Stay away from me!” Steve yells, holding up his hands in an instinctive 'stay back' gesture. Yet more ice shoots out towards Robin as he does so. “I’m not safe!”

“I don't care! You're my brother!” Robin shouts back, but Steve doesn't seem to hear her. He's looking down at his hands in horror, then at the waist-high line of ice between the two of them.

Robin somehow knows what he's going to do the moment before he does it.

“Steve!” Robin screams, breaking into a run. Steve's faster than her, always has been, so he makes it to the doors of the ballroom well before she can catch him. It also helps that people, even the guards posted at the doors, part to make room for him whenever he draws near. Seeing Steve push open the ballroom doors just enough to slip through them, Robin yells again, “Steve! Stop!”

“Princess Robin!” Someone crashes into Robin then, nearly sending the two of them flying. (Robin mentally thanks whatever God there may be that she wore pants and not a dress.) After regaining her footing, Robin looks at her assailant to find- oh, it's that guy. The Duke of one of their main trading partners, Tommy something. Haggard? Halfwit? Yeah, something like that.

“Princess Robin,” Tommy Hapless says, bending over with one hand on his knees and the other holding Robin's elbow as he catches his breath. God, Robin does not have time for this. “Princess, you can't- we need guidance. We need someone to... to lead us while the King is... indisposed.”

“I really don't have time for this,” Robin snaps, brushing his hand off her elbow. “Steve's my brother, I have to find him before he gets hurt!”

“I don't think... he's the one who'll be getting hurt,” Tommy Hanger-On says between gasps, quietly, but not so quiet Robin doesn't hear. She makes a point to stomp on his toes as she stalks off towards Eddie, who is doing his best to help people follow the evacuation advice. He looks faintly queasy, and very much like he would rather be literally anywhere else, but he's actually doing a pretty good job of guiding people where the guards want them.

Eddie doesn't notice her coming, so he jumps when Robin grabs him by the shoulder. She turns him around to face her, then grabs him by the other shoulder as well so she's looking him right in the eyes.

“I need to find Steve,” Robin says, not waiting for Eddie to finish whatever question he's opened his mouth to ask before continuing, “Can you take care of the kingdom until we get back?”

Eddie goes pale instantly. “What? I can't-”

“You're a prince, right? I know Forest-Upon-Hills is a pretty small kingdom, but how different can Hawkins really be?” Eddie doesn't look reassured, but Robin cares very little about that right now. She claps him on both shoulders in what she hopes is an encouraging gesture.

She grabs Eddie's hand and thrusts it up into the air, shouting, “Prince Eddie is in charge until I return!”

She then drops his hand before turning and running out into the night, ignoring the chaos behind her and the faint sounds of Eddie's confused protests.

Nothing matters to her now except for finding Steve.

#steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #platonic stobin #stranger things fic #charlie writes things #stranger things frozen au #rockie #<- vickie is not in this snippet but she's kristoff in this AU so. endgame rockie. target audience #steddie #<- yes eddie is prince hans in this. yes he ends up with steve at the end. he's not evil like hans is don't worry about it. #i have a lot more thoughts about this AU because i'm mentally ill please feel free to ask me questions #e.g. i'm thinking dustin is olaf and max is sven purely because I Think It Would Be Funny. + max deserves to be a bitchy reindeer #also olaf!dustin very much has dustin's personality and snark he is nothing like olaf. the only similarity is he is a snow golem steve made #also it should be clear enough in this but considering it's 2am and it's not proofread: robin is Mega Gay in this and ends up w/ vickie #she just needs an excuse for steve to open the gates up again so she can convince him to do it more often after the wedding goes Perfectly™ #her plan was to get the marriage annulled afterwards somehow (she has not thought this through At All god bless <3) #robin's like 'steve's in trouble emotionally oh god i have to run into traffic'

[lovl3igh]

so alicents is being rped by viserys even though they're married and she "agrees" to sleep with him, cause the truth is she had no choice in that matter anyway, we can agree on that, both tg and tb, there's no thinking otherwise (and if you do, you're sick and disgusting)

and yet there are people, usually from team green, but also neutral and even black, who claim that rhaenyra should have tried harder to have children with laenor instead of just "lying with him few times"... wouldn't that be rpe? he does not want to do it, he does not feel sexual attraction to her, his orientation is against sex with women, so there's rhaenyra who refused - unlike viserys - to abuse her spouse this way

sooo do you want her to be rpist or not bc you clearly use scenario that fits you at the moment, if rhaenyra and laenor had sex more times, and their conversation on driftmark would have looked quite different, if he was against it and she would pushed him anyway "cause she has to have trueborn heirs", you would be mad at her. she sleeps with someone else to get heirs she needs, you have a problem too. and then you go and stan an actual rpist just bc he's a dude and therefore in your opinion he should get the iron throne

#you don't get to decide which one is a marital rape #just bc rhaenyra and laenor loved each other in some way #or bc he was a man #and please be fcking serious for a minute #and don't give me answers like #“well then rhaenyra should have annuled her marriage” #“aegon then should have been her heir” #no bc it wasn't that smple with velaryons obv #and also aegon as king or heir was no good #and hightowers wouldn't be satisfied with that #and otto would try to kill rhaenyra just to get aegon as king #and you know it #so either keep your mouth shut about laenor and nyra's relationship #or at least don't defend alicent at the same time attacking rhaenyra #house of the dragon #targaryen #hotd #velaryon #rhaenyra targaryen #fire and blood #laenor velaryon #alicent hightower #viserys targaryen #viserys targaryen hate zone #anti rhaenyra antis