#c: Kiatcarmen

[void-botanist]

let’s start with 1-5 for all the polycules! -@vacantgodling

This is gonna be a long one lol. But first, a little note on these polycules for those who don't know: they're legally mandated for the royal family (Kiatcarmen, Marcus, and Minaya) and have at least one of each sapient species in them. That's why Jimmy was replaced in Kiatcarmen's polycule when he died, whereas in an organic polycule, that likely would not happen.

1 - How many members are in the polycule? How are they related to each other? Feel free to draw a flow chart.

Kiatcarmen: there have only ever been five at one time. But those members have shifted twice, when existing members died. Kiatcarmen and Ashmalo are Marcus and Minaya's parents.

First set of members:

Second set of members:

Third (current) set of members:

Marcus: seven, technically. It remains to be seen whether Heith will stick around. With the exception of Heith, it's safe to assume they're all friends. Gren only knows OF Heith, since Marcus met her on another planet. Yera and Hossan recently had a baby. Also they don't actually have non-cow ears I just couldn't rally myself to make updated picrews for this post.

Minaya: six, all pretty much friends. Dawn is currently pregnant with Arbores's baby. Lanya is permanently annoyed with Arbores because his state of being is sort of to just disappear into the woods and not engage that much with the administrative/royalty things he, Minaya, and Dawn manage.

This isn't all the existent relationships in these polycules but it is all the most notable ones.

2 - Did the relationship start polyamorous, or was it a monogamous relationship that eventually opened?

All three of these started as technically polyamorous relationships, though they grew little by little. But if you look past the legal requirement it's a little more complicated. Kiatcarmen's polycule has always been a mess, and to be honest she would have been just fine having just Jimmy.

Yera and Hossan in Marcus's polycule started out as a functionally closed couple within the whole (they don't actually restrict each other to this but that was how it was anyway) but a couple years in, Marcus married Gren and Gren became besties with Yera. Over time this morphed into Gren being their third partner, but Gren is still very mobile between the different members and divisions of the polycule.

Minaya's polycule, once completed, was functionally three parallel couples (Minaya and Lanya, Dawn and Arbores, and Lucy and Ramona) until Ramona fessed up about her crush on Lanya and those two couples merged into something like a quad.

3 - If it started monogamous, how did the process of opening the relationship go?

Marcus: for a while it wasn't clear whether Yera and Hossan's relationship was going to open - maybe Yera just had a new fuckbuddy. But Gren and Hossan spent a lot of time together incidentally, and Gren also wanted to be friends with him too, and over time Gren just sort of got absorbed into their dynamic. There was a little jealousy they had to work out (Hossan was very used to being Yera's singular obsession), and there was a conversation at some point, though, when Hossan realized that he no longer thought of Gren as a separate external addition. He still doesn't think of himself as polyam but considers Gren in the same breath as Yera.

Minaya: opening her and Lanya's relationship felt easy. For a while, though, it was pretty much just sexual. That was easiest for everybody, especially with Lucy and Ramona being away for training and competition a lot. But over time it's developed into a more romantic dynamic, which has been fairly smooth, despite Lucy's defensiveness and Lanya's counter-defensiveness. There is some uncertainty about how things will change once Minaya ascends the throne, though.

4 - Are there any mono-poly relationships in the polycule?

Kiatcarmen: sort of. Despite having a sexual and quasi-romantic relationship with Pirianus the only person she's ever considered her partner is Jimmy, so in essence she has always been the monogamous person connected to her own polycule through her very popular spouse.

Marcus: no, but only because Heith isn't monogamous.

Minaya: Lucy teeters on the edge here. She's never outright decided she's monogamous, but she also doesn't have a lot of patience for maintaining multiple romantic partnerships.

5 - What “shape” is the polycule? A triad, a “V”, a straight line of metamours, or incomprehensible?

Kiatcarmen: currently, a cul-de-sac. Kiatcarmen only considers Pirianus anything close to a partner, Pirianus has complicated relationships with her and Thade, and Thade, Caladea, and Orvi are all just vibing with each other. In other words: almost entirely metamours and meta-metamours from Kiatcarmen's perspective, and something resembling a cohesive whole from Thade's.

Marcus: in Marcus's absence, it became kind of a bow tie, with Gren in the middle between Yera & Hossan and Umedes & Pali, and Marcus and Heith as a separate island. Upon his return, it expands into more of an anglerfish - Gren is still the point of connection between Yera & Hossan and Umedes & Pali, but Marcus has joined Umedes and Pali, and also has a connection to Heith.

Minaya: it's more or less a quad (Minaya, Lanya, Ramona, Lucy) with an orbiting couple (Dawn and Arbores).

#bonus points if you know what one song Lucy and Ramona and Dawn are named after #polycule ask game #wip: iecunem #c: Marcus #c: Minaya #c: Kiatcarmen #c: Umedes #c: Pali #c: Yera #c: Hossan #c: Gren #c: Heith #c: Lanya #c: Arbores #c: Dawn #c: Ramona #c: Lucy #c: Thade #c: Pirianus #c: Ashmalo #c: Caladea #c: Jimmy #c: Orvi

[void-botanist]

19, 20, 21, 22 for the polycule of your choice? :0

whoops we're doing it for two of them :3 and I'll include Heith too

19 - Summarize your character's goals in one sentence.

Marcus: be okay and go home, but also never have to tell Heith about all of his lies by omission

Heith: figure out if she's actually for real serious about Marcus (she thinks she might be actually for real serious about Marcus) and one way or another move out of her hotel room on Aephar

Yera: be a mom and try to make peace with the fact that Marcus is not here to be a part of the family

Hossan: be a dad and help Umedes figure themself out

Gren: see Marcus again and hopefully find out that there was no need to be jealous about his girlfriend, and make sure everyone's okay, especially the baby

Pali: prevent Kiatcarmen from finding Marcus (though that isn't a very active job), make sure the shifter coalition in the court doesn't budge, and get somewhere with her studies of shifter magic

Umedes: figure out whether they want to have a kid or not help

Kiatcarmen: find Marcus, because Minaya must not ascend, and do whatever else she can to preserve her accomplishments in the kingdom

Pirianus: broaden Kiatcarmen's vision beyond legacy, or, failing that, as he has for some 30+ years, get her to open up to him

Caladea: see Marcus again, and for his polycule's sake believe with all her heart the lies they tell Kiatcarmen

Thade: continue completing the political project du jour and end up in a happily ever after with Pirianus, which might also make him more welcome in the palace

Orvi: complete the one thing he was installed in the palace to accomplish

20 - Who's in the way of those goals?

Marcus: his mother. Always his mother. And honestly a little bit himself

Heith: herself, mostly. This is so not like her - well, specifically the part where she's still here when there have been plenty of times to go home

Yera: realistically, Kiatcarmen. But she still sometimes feels like she's lost some of her verve

Hossan: Umedes is the big challenge here. They're just so indecisive

Gren: Kiatcarmen, but sometimes it's easier to focus on the fact that Marcus has an interstellar girlfriend that none of them have ever met and that's so frustrating

Pali: herself. There aren't enough hours in the day for everything, and she has to sleep ugh

Umedes: themself, because they were the one who said this would be a great idea for when Marcus comes back. Who 100% believed Pali and Minaya and her ferasca spouses that this would go great. And who also took one look at Yera & Hossan's baby and thought that maybe they were signing up for more than they realized

Kiatcarmen: Marcus. Always Marcus. But she also blames Minaya and Yera and Pali for his disappearance, and she needs Pirianus to just shut up. This would have been so much easier with Jimmy

Pirianus: Kiatcarmen because he put his eggs all in one basket. But he mostly blames himself

Caladea: Kiatcarmen, but she tries to focus on what she can do better, and how she's getting in her own way

Thade: he's beginning to suspect he's been in his own way this entire time but it can't be understated how much Pirianus is constantly hot and cold

Orvi: it changes frequently, but always some contingent of the court

21 - What is your character's relationship with their emotions?

Marcus: he can't control his bad emotions, so he suppresses them. This has never caused any problems

Heith: she's just as cynical about her emotions as she is about everything else, but sometimes she just can't not feel something completely unironically

Yera: she's gonna feel them whatever they are so [grits teeth] negative emotions are part of the fullness of experience (she will be screaming into this pillow later)

Hossan: left to his own devices, he would feel his emotions, and then let them cast away upon the wind. Being with Yera and Gren has made him learn how to interrogate them more

Gren: he feels everything. A lot. He also conceptualizes things in terms of feelings a lot

Pali: she would like to believe she doesn't have them, but then she lays awake at night deconstructing them

Umedes: they tend to put intense feelings away for later, but don't ever get to later unless later comes for them first

Kiatcarmen: her emotions are so rich and nuanced and nobody understands that, so all of her emotions collapse into some flavor of annoyance

Pirianus: don't like that feeling? Repress it! This will never result in it returning in continually more warped and incomprehensible forms

Caladea: being in the palace seems to have stunted her emotions - they're flatter, duller, and way more anxious no matter what they are

Thade: don't like that feeling? Deflect it! The more mirrors there are between you and your emotions the less you will ever know what they are and the less you can ever be responsible for them

Orvi: he has a mental Tupperware for emotions that allows him to keep control of himself. He is the only person on this list who will actually open that Tupperware on purpose later

22 - What regrets do they have, if any? (From any part of the story, not just exposition.)

Marcus: missing out on eight years of his "real" life, and especially not being there when Gren's grandmother died. If only he'd been stronger, he could have stayed

Heith: before finding out about Marcus, that she's kind of a flake to her band, but they don't seem to mind that much. After finding out about Marcus, that she ever thought there was some kind of "magic" between them and maybe she could feel naïve about love for two seconds

Yera: she regretted drifting away from her father and sister, so she's fixing that now

Hossan: most of his regrets are from the now-distant past and don't make much sense - even he will say so - but he always finds himself regretting that he can't seem to do more for people

Gren: not going home even more before his grandmother died, even though he was practically splitting his time between his home city and the palace. He also regrets letting Marcus leave, even though he had to, and there was no other real choice

Pali: after getting married, she got more distant from her professor mentor, and the regret hit her hard when they died

Umedes: most immediately, thinking that having a kid was a good idea (they are beginning to think that this is a pregnancy kink that got out of hand). But more than anything they regret not going with Marcus, even though they couldn't

Kiatcarmen: Ashmalo was a liability, but she still regrets that he died (despite her image she does not think that assassination is the right way to deal with most problems, including Ashmalo). Conversely, she regrets that she couldn't save Jimmy, even though medical science itself could not have saved Jimmy. She also regrets letting Minaya slip out from under her thumb, because if she hadn't, she wouldn't be stuck looking for her runaway son

Pirianus: that he can't seem to permanently extract himself from Thade. If he stops and thinks about it (read: gets drunk and sad) he regrets spending so many years of his life trying to get through to a woman who would just as soon throw him to the dogs

Caladea: that she couldn't do more for Marcus or Minaya or Ashmalo, and that she still can't. And that being stuck in the palace has left her struggling to try and pick up the pieces of her creativity and her passion even though it should have given her unlimited resources to pursue them

Thade: things he's said to people. Most of them used to be seared in his brain because he thought they were funny, and eventually he figured out that oh, maybe they weren't. But some of them seemed bad from the moment they came out of his mouth (not before that, unfortunately, because he wasn't thinking about it) and he wishes he could take them back for real, especially the things he's said to Pirianus

Orvi: that he's still here. He had one thing to accomplish, and even though it was complex, it's taking SO. LONG. He knew that marrying into the royal family meant that he probably wasn't going to permanently go home again, but the longer this drags on the less he even wants to show his face there, and he wonders if it was worth it at all

#I need to spend more time with Heith tbh. I know she must have other regrets in her life that feed into the cynicism #I'm just not totally sure what/what her situation is outside of her band #Kiatcarmen's polycule gives me the worst heartache help #I actually wrote like 2k words about some shit Thade said to Pirianus after she died and how that did not go well #honestly Thade also kind of regrets never yet telling Pirianus that he loves him as anything but a joke. but he's not unpacking that one #me: Pali was basically a wizard's apprentice before she got married but there are no wizards in this setting #me: wait #I think it's pretty clear actually that Pali doesn't really do regrets. she's maybe better at forgiving herself than any of the others #simultaneously laughing and crying when I imagine Umedes with the baby because they are TERRIFIED of hurting it somehow #despite normally being a very gentle person and very unlikely to do anything wrong #kink mention #c: Kiatcarmen #c: Orvi #c: Caladea #c: Pirianus #c: Thade #c: Marcus #c: Yera #c: Gren #c: Pali #c: Umedes #c: Hossan #c: Heith #wip: iecunem #50 questions ask game

[void-botanist]

Had a whole lot of character thoughts last night so I think I'm gonna dump them all into one quick post:

Now that I've changed things so Marcus has a nice little polycule I think some pretty bad shit went down to get him to remove himself from the planet. I have a sense of what that might be but I'm left asking myself why his mom is just actually the worst. Unless I can think of a new angle I don't wanna do "royalty generational trauma" again and it's also not quite "absolute power corrupts absolutely" but there could still be some corruption with non-absolute power. The question is what does she really want and why

Marcus likes his Rade friends for themselves but it is hard to overstate how much Horatio reminds him of Gren and how this has been a catalyst in the development of their relationship. Not everyone reminds him of someone but Celia also gives him Yera vibes

Avis one million percent thinks that Antony is wrong and she will be completely fine being alone on the ocean 95% of the time. She did it before but now she's not gonna be stewing about Sorian the whole time so it will be great. But she truly does not realize the extent to which the people she thinks are alone (Sorian, who refuses to be with anyone but her) are not alone at all (gee, Sorian, how come your bad choices let you have TWO families?). And I think after 6-12 months of Freedom TM she finds herself moving back into other people's orbits, including Sorian's. I think I can get them back together at this point. There's just no way to do it in AOM because she's still getting the "I squandered 15 years not verbally abusing my husband" out of her system.

She also doesn't believe that Sorian is completely fine with being single actually. In fact she frequently doesn't believe anything anyone tells her but just in different ways

The plot of Lexie's story is her having a bad time with her job or whatever, not having fun ever, and then Marigold shows up and her life is only fun. The whole time Lexie keeps joking that Marigold is bad for her. Wylie says she is but Wylie projects his anxieties. Derik says she is but Derik is a killjoy. Snap says she might be which is about as certain as he ever is but he doesn't even know her. But finally, maybe before they get into stuff that is very bad, she has to admit that yeah, Marigold IS bad for her and they should go their separate ways. But that won't stop her from saving Marigold later when she gets in some kind of trouble

gecko junk = two hemipénes. Imagine

Soravis taglist: @vacantgodling @athenswrites @kk7-rbs

#perhaps I will find it in me to do a little parody of Ariel Wants Legs. just the seven vagánias part. I can already see it in my mind #I wrote a tiny bit of Sorian and Avis in the future chapter of SAA AU that I've been imagining and it's fueling me #Marigold might have some sort of quasi organized crime background. not sure at this point #the question about the queen is also 'why does she think being mean in an extremely not fun way is the way to get what she wants' #c: Marcus #c: Lexie #c: Marigold #c: Sorian #c: Horatio #c: Celia #c: Kiatcarmen #wip: aom #wip: iecunem #wip: lexie shenanigans #wip: captured moonlight #<- this is a title I just invented and I will probably not stick with it but I need something to refer to AOM 2 essentially #and AOM 2 is boring #writing update

[void-botanist]

Still thinking about Marcus (<- made the mistake of getting up to do dishes which only gave me more time to think about Marcus)

It must be so surreal to come home and feel his mother's absence. To interact with her spouses - his parents - without having to think about what it will mean to her. To be left with:

Ferasca parent, first marriage, detached but also the one grieving her the most

Shifter parent, first marriage, leaned into the fun-loving persona and stayed out of her way

Bovan parent, second marriage, kind but forever a stranger because they took Marcus's father's place nine years ago

Human parent, second marriage, more concerned with other things because the queen left them to their own devices - she loved her first human spouse more

And meet his kid - Yera insists that it's his kid too - and cry over the fact that they won't have to grow up with a mother like his, or a grandmother that is his mother, and hopefully won't lose any of their dads for decades to come.

On a lighter note maybe I should do ship asks with the spouses 🤔

#me thinking about this kid having three dads -> imagining Marcus having this moment with Yera and Hossan and when he mentions dads #Gren is just there in the background giving a thumbs up and saying 'yeah! I'm helping!' #(he is helping fr tho) #c: Marcus #c: Kiatcarmen #wip: iecunem

[void-botanist]

wait okay I thought about it for five more minutes and as much as prophecies would be a fun AU I think the thing that motivates Marcus's mom is legacy.

In her mind, she took the kingdom from its lackluster state under her parents and made it great. It is true that she made it more prosperous, but it wasn't really bad to begin with. But she is obsessed with having an heir who will carry on her work exactly the way she would do it. And that heir was supposed to be Marcus.

She brought him up to follow in her footsteps. But her need to make everything just so meant that she only got more controlling and less willing to empathize with him, because he needed to suck it up and do it her way. Her vision of her legacy is more important than just about anything. Anyone who gets in the way of that is her enemy, and anyone who doesn't support it is expendable (which I think includes Marcus's father. I don't mean that she killed him but rather that she had some nebulous indirect influence on the situation that did, and even if she didn't, she's not particularly sorry). I think she thinks the state of the kingdom is the only real accomplishment she has, the only one that is unique and that means anything.

To be flippant, she needs a hobby.

Maybe she's not actually mean to everyone all of the time. Maybe she concentrates it all onto Marcus and those who are close to him (his spouses, his sister, his father) get the backsplash. And you know she would just have Marcus's sister Minaya take the throne instead, but she was too soft on Minaya and let her form too many of her own opinions and plans, so now she can't be trusted. Marcus is all of her hopes and dreams, which is why he shouldn't have married so many saccharine sluts, and why he can't be distracted with pigment magic, and why he needs to come home, if only she could find him.

#still on the fence about Marcus's father but if so it's more than likely he's not the only spouse of hers who is no longer living #now I'm so curious which of her spouses actually support her in this or at least stay out of her way #she despises Gren. strongly dislikes Yera and Hossan. thinks Umedes is fine enough. sees Pali as almost an equal #c: Kiatcarmen #c: Marcus #c: Minaya #wip: iecunem

[void-botanist]

Thade Adventures: Parkour

OCs: Thade Orech-Pabat, Caladea Ores-Pabat, and Pirianus Orech-Pabat

Words: 500

Content warnings: heights, getting kinda made fun of in front of your crush

Taglist: @vacantgodling

“Do you think it’s possible to parkour all the way down to the ground floor from here?” Thade said, leaning against the railing at the edge of the open space that cut all the way down to said ground floor.

“Maybe,” Caladea said, barely looking up from her phone.

He grinned.  “You think I should try?”

She looked up for real.  “No, you can’t parkour.”

“I can totally parkour,” he said, pushing himself up on his arms so that his hips rested against the top of the railing.  He brought one sandaled foot up between his hands—he wasn’t going to go further than crouching on the rail, because he couldn’t parkour, but his foot slipped out from under him and his arms betrayed him and he found himself bent double over the railing, clinging to the slats, his feet barely skimming the carpet.  The fourth floor suddenly looked very high up.  

“Okay, I take it back,” he said.  “Can you help me?”  If he’d been with anyone but Caladea, they probably would have left him there to think about his actions for a while, but she came over right away to haul him back up by his pants waistband.  Which would have worked if he hadn’t chosen this moment to be wearing sweatpants.  Instead of helping, she just pulled down his pants, and he suspected also his boxer briefs.

“Oh no, I’m sorry,” she said like it was an accident, but she was also giggling.  

“Callie, you better not be filming this.”

“I’m not.”  Giggle giggle.  She must be, because she certainly wasn’t helping him.  He kicked his legs a little bit and felt a cold rush of fear as he shifted forward on the rail.  Well, this was fine.  He could just work his way back up the slats with his hands, and he would eventually slide back onto the floor.  It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be faster.  He’d hardly started when he felt familiar rough-edged hands on his hips and he was ungraciously pulled back upright.  As his blood stopped pooling in his head, he beheld Pirianus standing there, frowning as always.  That is, until Caladea showed him something on her phone, and he cracked a tiny blue-edged smile.

“Thanks,” Thade said with zero gratitude, pulling up his stupid sweatpants.  Before he could escape these two chucklefucks, though, Caladea turned her phone on him, and he was met with a photo of himself stranded over the rail, his panicked face looking through the slats, and his hairy asscrack surrounded by ironic hearts and sparkles.  Across the top was the word PARKOUR flanked with party poppers and flames.

“Great, thank you,” he said with a fake smile.  It should have been funny.  He should have been laughing—he could take a joke at his expense any day of the week—but instead he felt his cheeks burning.  “I’ll get that put on my calling cards.”  

He didn’t look at her or Pirianus as he walked away.

#it WAS an accident however. this did not stop her from taking the opportunity #this one actually made me feel kinda bad for him. because yeah normally he would laugh it off and be fine #in fact if Caladea had managed to get him back up onto the floor he would have been howling about that picture #“no put a clown emoji on my face. yes I promise not to fake parkour again” (this is a lie but it will be less dangerous next time) #that's really what she intended. Caladea is not a mean-spirited person #and shouldn't he have been able to see Pirianus's little smile and be fine anyway? but he knows Pirianus doesn't actually like him #and this otherwise hilarious situation is pouring piles of salt in that wound #so anyway I think Thade has spent most of the last thirteen years pining after someone who will not let him in in the slightest #so he laughs it off and is “fine” with it but this is going to be an absolute powder keg when Kiatcarmen dies #(on that note do you think their theme song is Total Eclipse of the Heart) #Marcus's polycule: tearful heartfelt reunion #Minaya's polycule: trying to hold it together through the funeral and coronation #Kiatcarmen's polycule: just two guys. fighting in the hallway. their husband and wife are ignoring them #(Marcus's polycule is betting on whether they're going to wrestle each other in the hallway tbh) #c: Thade #c: Caladea #c: Pirianus #wip: iecunem #rose writ #thade adventures #rose brambles

[void-botanist]

tell me more about donovan 👀👀

on it boss 🫡

So in terms of bastardry (the bastard chart) he did put most of his points into Superiority Complex. He seems pretty unassuming at the outset but he does think he is the most Correct person to ever live, more or less. Which means he's completely justified in his bullshit, and the fact that he causes problems is really not his problem. Usually he pulls the "burn the letters" kind of move where he does something bad not to cause a problem but because he's Right, but of course it causes a problem because it was bad. But you know he will piss off Emma on purpose, because they're often sparring with each other in the least romantic way possible. As for Performer, Donovan is a man with an agenda. His biggest performance to date was of course convincing a couple dozen people to crew his "move to Ensaum" vanity project, though that wasn't exactly a feat of trickery (he did deliver exactly what he promised!). I think he was low-key tricking himself though because he believed in his whole "no capitalism 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻" spiel even though deep down he wanted to get away from his own trauma and put Sid into a controlled environment. But he is a master of lying by omission, dodging the question, having an excuse, &c.

But actually my favorite thing about Donovan these days is that despite obviously sucking ass he gets to be the shitty parent both capable of and willing to change. I mean, push had to come to shove off a cliff, but you know. And his dynamic with Emma is so deliciously weird and toxic like they're obsessed with each other. They pull each other into their schemes. They've been married for like 35 years and they know everything and nothing about each other. They can't agree on anything but you can practically see it when they align into a united front. Donovan's greatest fear is that Emma will leave him. But she never will, because she'll never get another man so wrapped around her finger, and she's not done fixing him yet, and also she loves him. Donovan will never admit that he's constantly torn between "her challenges are interesting" and "when will she understand that I am Right". Basically they're trapped in mutual tinkering forever and Sid had the terrible fortune to get born into the crossfire.

@kk7-rbs

#literally imagining him pulling excuses out of his sleeve like clown handkerchiefs #no he does not get literally shoved off a cliff but he sure feels emotionally like he did #he doesn't start his change process until the sequel to aom. he has to stew for a while #gonna have to go back and finish that Emma post I was writing. maybe I'll add Donovan's opinions on Avis & Sorian too #still trying to think if I have other bastards. I don't think Avis quite counts. got a lot of bastard-adjacents #Kiatcarmen is obviously. I think Bett and Kylis are but like in a very understated way and mostly to each other. oh Shirley ofc #actually all of Shirley's children too. and Althea. arguably Spinder and Michael @ each other. Isabel & Fay sometimes #c: Donovan #c: Emma #wip: aom