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Jul. 29th, 2016
via http://ift.tt/2a8j8VU:
the-knights-who-say-book:
shaelit:
horticulturalcephalopod:
owlbear-dont-care:
silverdrarry:
caseyanthonyofficial:
Why do people never want to tell you their middle name like who gives a **** its not a nuclear launch code its your **** name
reblog with your middle name in the tags
Actually, the practice dates back to the reason we have middle names in the first place!
Some time around the dark ages, everyone believed in witchcraft and wizardry, like ya do. A big principle of magic was the idea of “true names.” If a spellcaster knew your full name, they could do whatever the **** they wanted to you. Of course, people didn’t want that, but there were enough people with the same first names that you had to give people your surname as well, to avoid confusion.
The solution? A secret name in the middle that you don’t tell anyone (unless you believe that they’re not able to do magic and/or you trust them enough that if they DID do magic, you’d be fine).
this is some death note ****
But honestly though, I make it a practice to find out people’s middle names because they DO have power. None of this spell stuff, but listen.
If you’re not listening to me or not taking me seriously and I need your attention NOW, the second I go “SARAH ELIZABETH BROWN” you better believe I’ve got what I want.
It works on everyone, no matter the age or gender or race. It’s like some part of their brain turns into a four-year-old with their hand in the cookie jar. It’s great.
…which is basically the explanation given in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland!
the-knights-who-say-book:
shaelit:
horticulturalcephalopod:
owlbear-dont-care:
silverdrarry:
caseyanthonyofficial:
Why do people never want to tell you their middle name like who gives a **** its not a nuclear launch code its your **** name
reblog with your middle name in the tags
Actually, the practice dates back to the reason we have middle names in the first place!
Some time around the dark ages, everyone believed in witchcraft and wizardry, like ya do. A big principle of magic was the idea of “true names.” If a spellcaster knew your full name, they could do whatever the **** they wanted to you. Of course, people didn’t want that, but there were enough people with the same first names that you had to give people your surname as well, to avoid confusion.
The solution? A secret name in the middle that you don’t tell anyone (unless you believe that they’re not able to do magic and/or you trust them enough that if they DID do magic, you’d be fine).
this is some death note ****
But honestly though, I make it a practice to find out people’s middle names because they DO have power. None of this spell stuff, but listen.
If you’re not listening to me or not taking me seriously and I need your attention NOW, the second I go “SARAH ELIZABETH BROWN” you better believe I’ve got what I want.
It works on everyone, no matter the age or gender or race. It’s like some part of their brain turns into a four-year-old with their hand in the cookie jar. It’s great.
…which is basically the explanation given in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland!
via http://ift.tt/2aCdq0L:
gxarlyyy:
star-struck-lifter:
princess-layuh:
aidadoesdoodles:
billshitposts:
ghara2:
lily-d247:
afatblackfairy:
sniggadoodles:
lisa-beignet:
theincognegra:
This is the money Patrick. Reblog so money will come your way
“I’m getting back in line.”
OKAY but i just reblogged this last night and guess what i got today from my workplace’s self-audit!
THANK YOU PATRICK FOR FREE MONEY
BLESS ME PATRICK
PATRICK I HAVE NEVER STRAYED YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVED YOU
@billshitposts
*rolls sleeves* aight dude lets get me some money
Can i just *Gets in line*…there
Can I just.. Scuse me .
Reblogged this and last night got over $200, Patrick don’t fail me now
Money pleasseeee
gxarlyyy:
star-struck-lifter:
princess-layuh:
aidadoesdoodles:
billshitposts:
ghara2:
lily-d247:
afatblackfairy:
sniggadoodles:
lisa-beignet:
theincognegra:
This is the money Patrick. Reblog so money will come your way
“I’m getting back in line.”
OKAY but i just reblogged this last night and guess what i got today from my workplace’s self-audit!
THANK YOU PATRICK FOR FREE MONEY
BLESS ME PATRICK
PATRICK I HAVE NEVER STRAYED YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVED YOU
@billshitposts
*rolls sleeves* aight dude lets get me some money
Can i just *Gets in line*…there
Can I just.. Scuse me .
Reblogged this and last night got over $200, Patrick don’t fail me now
Money pleasseeee
via http://ift.tt/2aCt53a:
prisonbreakgifs:
Dominic’s first impression of Wentworth [x]
@jq-piccadilly @robininthelabyrinth
prisonbreakgifs:
Dominic’s first impression of Wentworth [x]
@jq-piccadilly @robininthelabyrinth
via http://ift.tt/2aCvLxG:
worldsonpaper:
cagethesongbird:
virtuouscuntxxx:
ashofthelightfae:
hellothisissatan:
This is where I’d live if i was a mermaid
@virtuouscuntxxx
AHHHHHH I NEED IT
That’s awesome and I want to swim in it.
Strange anxiety reaction: oh no, what if gets lost or stuck and drowns…
@darthrevaan
worldsonpaper:
cagethesongbird:
virtuouscuntxxx:
ashofthelightfae:
hellothisissatan:
This is where I’d live if i was a mermaid
@virtuouscuntxxx
AHHHHHH I NEED IT
That’s awesome and I want to swim in it.
Strange anxiety reaction: oh no, what if gets lost or stuck and drowns…
@darthrevaan
via http://ift.tt/2ajXT6D:
punsbulletsandpointythings:
markwatnae:
@deviantaccumulation
it won’t tag you I hope you see this!!!!
so anyway I’m just loSING IT
The journey of the whills doesn’t happen until much later and he only speaks to Yoda in the beginning and doesn’t speak to Obi-Wan until Obi-Wan is on Tatooine alone
I wish Obi-Wan would sit on Tatooine and as soon as Qui-Gon appears he’d just roast him to Coruscant and back for all the bullshit he put him through
BUT KNOWING OBI-WAN HE WOULD JUST BE SAD AND DEJECTED AND ACCEPT HIS TERRIBLE FATE WITH NO FUSS
so I wonder what he and Qui-Gon would talk about on Tatooine since Anakin is Vader now and he was APPARENTLY their common ground
Would Qui-Gon finally apologize for his shitty attitude???? Unlikely but I can hope
Imagine Obi-Wan throwing everything he owns (which is a pitifully small amount) at Qui-Gon’s ghost when he loses it and screams at him for leaving him before either of them were ready and leaving him with Anakin who he didn’t even want and renouncing him in front of the whole council for a kid he’d just met and all the bullshit he pulled when Obi-Wan was 12
I can only hope Qui-Gon got his act together a little bit
Ahhhhhhh yes
“Obi-Wan—”
“Get. Out.” Obi-Wan did not turn, but Qui-Gon could see his hands tightening on the back of the single, rickety chair.
The ghost faltered.
“What?”
“Get out! Just leave! Again! Get out of my life!!” Obi-Wan spun around, eyes bright with pain and grief and old anger.
“You left!” He screamed, “You renounced me, ran ahead without me, got yourself /killed/ and then left me to train the Chosen One when I barely could get out of bed in the morning!! You left me, again and again, on Bandomeer, on Melida/Daan, on Naboo, and I dealt with it! But I— ” Obi-Wan stopped, his anger failing him for a moment as the pain in his eyes grew, washing over his entire face and making his shoulders slump under the weight of it.
“I can’t do it anymore! So just leave, while I’m angry, and /stop coming back/! You want to talk about Anakin?! Go kriffing see him! Go see your Chosen One, see how badly I failed, and just LEAVE ME ALONE!”
…every so often I like to see this kind of thing. Yes, I know that the issue is more complicated then this, yes, I know that Qui-Gon Jinn probably wasn’t as big a jerk as some people in the fandom like to portray him as, yes, I know that there were REASONS for everything - but yes.
Every so often, I love to see Obi-Wan roasting his former master.
punsbulletsandpointythings:
markwatnae:
@deviantaccumulation
it won’t tag you I hope you see this!!!!
so anyway I’m just loSING IT
The journey of the whills doesn’t happen until much later and he only speaks to Yoda in the beginning and doesn’t speak to Obi-Wan until Obi-Wan is on Tatooine alone
I wish Obi-Wan would sit on Tatooine and as soon as Qui-Gon appears he’d just roast him to Coruscant and back for all the bullshit he put him through
BUT KNOWING OBI-WAN HE WOULD JUST BE SAD AND DEJECTED AND ACCEPT HIS TERRIBLE FATE WITH NO FUSS
so I wonder what he and Qui-Gon would talk about on Tatooine since Anakin is Vader now and he was APPARENTLY their common ground
Would Qui-Gon finally apologize for his shitty attitude???? Unlikely but I can hope
Imagine Obi-Wan throwing everything he owns (which is a pitifully small amount) at Qui-Gon’s ghost when he loses it and screams at him for leaving him before either of them were ready and leaving him with Anakin who he didn’t even want and renouncing him in front of the whole council for a kid he’d just met and all the bullshit he pulled when Obi-Wan was 12
I can only hope Qui-Gon got his act together a little bit
Ahhhhhhh yes
“Obi-Wan—”
“Get. Out.” Obi-Wan did not turn, but Qui-Gon could see his hands tightening on the back of the single, rickety chair.
The ghost faltered.
“What?”
“Get out! Just leave! Again! Get out of my life!!” Obi-Wan spun around, eyes bright with pain and grief and old anger.
“You left!” He screamed, “You renounced me, ran ahead without me, got yourself /killed/ and then left me to train the Chosen One when I barely could get out of bed in the morning!! You left me, again and again, on Bandomeer, on Melida/Daan, on Naboo, and I dealt with it! But I— ” Obi-Wan stopped, his anger failing him for a moment as the pain in his eyes grew, washing over his entire face and making his shoulders slump under the weight of it.
“I can’t do it anymore! So just leave, while I’m angry, and /stop coming back/! You want to talk about Anakin?! Go kriffing see him! Go see your Chosen One, see how badly I failed, and just LEAVE ME ALONE!”
…every so often I like to see this kind of thing. Yes, I know that the issue is more complicated then this, yes, I know that Qui-Gon Jinn probably wasn’t as big a jerk as some people in the fandom like to portray him as, yes, I know that there were REASONS for everything - but yes.
Every so often, I love to see Obi-Wan roasting his former master.
via http://ift.tt/2a5Ztul:
I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE SELKIE AU. About how the first time Gil confronts Tarvek, absently holding the fur coat he found in the Vault (it’s smooth! And soft! And fuzzy! And it makes him feel better, holding it!) and he and Tarvek are in one of their usual screaming arguments and he tells Tarvek to do something - gives him an /order/ - and Tarvek automatically OBEYS. And everyone is /looking at them/, and Gil gives Tarvek another order - experimentally - and Tarvek does it AGAIN.
Tarvek is FREAKING OUT. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him, he doesn’t know why he’s /obeying/ Gil’s orders - he can’t be wasped. He’d KNOW if he was wasped. wouldn’t he? Except - it isn’t automatic subservience, he CAN disobey, but - but he feels like Gil is holding a knife to his throat, like he’s under imminent threat if he doesn’t do what Gil says RIGHT NOW. Meanwhile, everyone ELSE is freaking out thinking that Gil managed to reverse-engineer Wasps…
[clarification: this is @hamelin-born‘s au idea in which, for no particular reason other than ‘how awesome could this be’, Tarvek is a Selkie. or, the Storm King was a Selkie, but the family has so married with humans that there’s barely any seal blood left in them, until Tarvek is a throwback. (despite Romania being…very landlocked. shut up.)]
I have no idea when this is happening?? but I LOVE IT.
Especially, I think, Gil finding Tarvek’s sealskin by chance and just…recognizing it, on some level. He takes it to the lab and analyzes it every way from Sunday, and there seems to be some sort of vague energy from it, some attractive field, like a magnet seeking its partner (Tarvek, if Gil ever got him under measuring equipment, has the same pull, or rather, the opposite. Magnets, lost and seeking. The basis for sympathetic magic, that all things pull towards the other parts of themselves.)
But otherwise it seems to be nothing but a perfectly ordinary sealskin cloak. A very fine one, soft and lush, silky dark grey with darker spots around the hood that could, with a squint, be mistaken for the pattern of a crown. If it weren’t for the circumstances in which he found it, Gil would put it on his own bed. As it is, he leaves it folded carefully on a table in his office-lab (that room with the portrait of Agatha, and all the clockfaces.) (The closest he comes to sleeping is usually in there, anyway, not his bed. The folded sealskin is a pillow, reassuring like something with a familiar scent, except that Gil swears - and has affirmed with scientific measurement - that all it smells of is seal and cloth.)
Here’s my objection to your scenario, though: Gil is the one person I think Tarvek wouldn’t fear with a knife to his throat. It’s one of the most heart-wrenching things about their relationship, to me. Tarvek persuades his father, cons Violetta, argues with Agatha and then works around her, sucks up to Lucrezia, works and backstabs back and forth with Anevka like they’re fencing - and Gil, he punches in the face with twenty-five guns on him, in the heart of the Wulfenbach Empire. I think it’s partly because he thinks he has nowhere lower to sink, no more emnity to build, with Gil, but it’s also that there is simply not a bone in Tarvek’s body that fears Gil. Except, I suppose, for emotional hurt, though even there the bullet is arguably bit - what can Gil do that could be worse than the betrayal when they were eight, Tarvek’s first and only friend selling him out for no reason at all, sending him home to his family?
…anyway. I think Gil holding Tarek’s sealskin might not actually feel much more worrying to Tarvek than, well, the having 25-odd guns pointed at his head.
if Gil put the sealskin on his bed though, in a more canon timeline, imagine that when he lays Tarvek down, already asleep from poison, exhaustion, and time-lag, Gil takes a moment to rub his hand through the fur as well, for the familiar comforting feel and because he really wants to gently cup Tarvek’s sleeping cheek but that would be Weird, and Tarvek just sort of…murmurs contentedly in his sleep and rolls a little towards Gil’s arm, brushing against it and nuzzling into the sealskin.
consider also: the Librarians know their Valois family history (most of the rest of Europa does not) and so they take the skin with Tarvek. And when Tarvek wakes up, he takes it with him as he and the Lord High Conservator walk, quite unconsciously, just casually holding this cloak over one arm like he thinks it might get cold and is bringing the garment along just in case.
“Still very pointy,” says the knight, and Tarvek drops the sealskin as he claps his hand to his bleeding arm. “That’s quiet enough of that,” the knight murmurs as he catches it. The knife is sheathed but Tarvek can still feel the adrenaline and fear bright in his veins. That’s familiar, though, so: “Well you obviously aren’t from Gil, so who-”
He shouldn’t be surprised by the answer (he isn’t, really.) No blades in sight and it still feels like there’s a knife at his throat, and the only thing to do is bow his head - of course it’s his family.
He attacks anyway, because here is the secret of bowing to the knife at your throat: with the right mindset, all it really does is pull your neck away from the knife.
The knight doesn’t flinch, just throws the sealskin over one shoulder with an exasperated sigh and a roll of his eyes. Cracks his knuckles. “I am trying to be nice about this, sir. I am told I can be very nice.”
I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE SELKIE AU. About how the first time Gil confronts Tarvek, absently holding the fur coat he found in the Vault (it’s smooth! And soft! And fuzzy! And it makes him feel better, holding it!) and he and Tarvek are in one of their usual screaming arguments and he tells Tarvek to do something - gives him an /order/ - and Tarvek automatically OBEYS. And everyone is /looking at them/, and Gil gives Tarvek another order - experimentally - and Tarvek does it AGAIN.
Tarvek is FREAKING OUT. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him, he doesn’t know why he’s /obeying/ Gil’s orders - he can’t be wasped. He’d KNOW if he was wasped. wouldn’t he? Except - it isn’t automatic subservience, he CAN disobey, but - but he feels like Gil is holding a knife to his throat, like he’s under imminent threat if he doesn’t do what Gil says RIGHT NOW. Meanwhile, everyone ELSE is freaking out thinking that Gil managed to reverse-engineer Wasps…
[clarification: this is @hamelin-born‘s au idea in which, for no particular reason other than ‘how awesome could this be’, Tarvek is a Selkie. or, the Storm King was a Selkie, but the family has so married with humans that there’s barely any seal blood left in them, until Tarvek is a throwback. (despite Romania being…very landlocked. shut up.)]
I have no idea when this is happening?? but I LOVE IT.
Especially, I think, Gil finding Tarvek’s sealskin by chance and just…recognizing it, on some level. He takes it to the lab and analyzes it every way from Sunday, and there seems to be some sort of vague energy from it, some attractive field, like a magnet seeking its partner (Tarvek, if Gil ever got him under measuring equipment, has the same pull, or rather, the opposite. Magnets, lost and seeking. The basis for sympathetic magic, that all things pull towards the other parts of themselves.)
But otherwise it seems to be nothing but a perfectly ordinary sealskin cloak. A very fine one, soft and lush, silky dark grey with darker spots around the hood that could, with a squint, be mistaken for the pattern of a crown. If it weren’t for the circumstances in which he found it, Gil would put it on his own bed. As it is, he leaves it folded carefully on a table in his office-lab (that room with the portrait of Agatha, and all the clockfaces.) (The closest he comes to sleeping is usually in there, anyway, not his bed. The folded sealskin is a pillow, reassuring like something with a familiar scent, except that Gil swears - and has affirmed with scientific measurement - that all it smells of is seal and cloth.)
Here’s my objection to your scenario, though: Gil is the one person I think Tarvek wouldn’t fear with a knife to his throat. It’s one of the most heart-wrenching things about their relationship, to me. Tarvek persuades his father, cons Violetta, argues with Agatha and then works around her, sucks up to Lucrezia, works and backstabs back and forth with Anevka like they’re fencing - and Gil, he punches in the face with twenty-five guns on him, in the heart of the Wulfenbach Empire. I think it’s partly because he thinks he has nowhere lower to sink, no more emnity to build, with Gil, but it’s also that there is simply not a bone in Tarvek’s body that fears Gil. Except, I suppose, for emotional hurt, though even there the bullet is arguably bit - what can Gil do that could be worse than the betrayal when they were eight, Tarvek’s first and only friend selling him out for no reason at all, sending him home to his family?
…anyway. I think Gil holding Tarek’s sealskin might not actually feel much more worrying to Tarvek than, well, the having 25-odd guns pointed at his head.
if Gil put the sealskin on his bed though, in a more canon timeline, imagine that when he lays Tarvek down, already asleep from poison, exhaustion, and time-lag, Gil takes a moment to rub his hand through the fur as well, for the familiar comforting feel and because he really wants to gently cup Tarvek’s sleeping cheek but that would be Weird, and Tarvek just sort of…murmurs contentedly in his sleep and rolls a little towards Gil’s arm, brushing against it and nuzzling into the sealskin.
consider also: the Librarians know their Valois family history (most of the rest of Europa does not) and so they take the skin with Tarvek. And when Tarvek wakes up, he takes it with him as he and the Lord High Conservator walk, quite unconsciously, just casually holding this cloak over one arm like he thinks it might get cold and is bringing the garment along just in case.
“Still very pointy,” says the knight, and Tarvek drops the sealskin as he claps his hand to his bleeding arm. “That’s quiet enough of that,” the knight murmurs as he catches it. The knife is sheathed but Tarvek can still feel the adrenaline and fear bright in his veins. That’s familiar, though, so: “Well you obviously aren’t from Gil, so who-”
He shouldn’t be surprised by the answer (he isn’t, really.) No blades in sight and it still feels like there’s a knife at his throat, and the only thing to do is bow his head - of course it’s his family.
He attacks anyway, because here is the secret of bowing to the knife at your throat: with the right mindset, all it really does is pull your neck away from the knife.
The knight doesn’t flinch, just throws the sealskin over one shoulder with an exasperated sigh and a roll of his eyes. Cracks his knuckles. “I am trying to be nice about this, sir. I am told I can be very nice.”
via http://ift.tt/2aDsn5L:
I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE SELKIE AU. About how the first time Gil confronts Tarvek, absently holding the fur coat he found in the Vault (it’s smooth! And soft! And fuzzy! And it makes him feel better, holding it!) and he and Tarvek are in one of their usual screaming arguments and he tells Tarvek to do something - gives him an /order/ - and Tarvek automatically OBEYS. And everyone is /looking at them/, and Gil gives Tarvek another order - experimentally - and Tarvek does it AGAIN.
Tarvek is FREAKING OUT. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him, he doesn’t know why he’s /obeying/ Gil’s orders - he can’t be wasped. He’d KNOW if he was wasped. wouldn’t he? Except - it isn’t automatic subservience, he CAN disobey, but - but he feels like Gil is holding a knife to his throat, like he’s under imminent threat if he doesn’t do what Gil says RIGHT NOW. Meanwhile, everyone ELSE is freaking out thinking that Gil managed to reverse-engineer Wasps…
[clarification: this is @hamelin-born‘s au idea in which, for no particular reason other than ‘how awesome could this be’, Tarvek is a Selkie. or, the Storm King was a Selkie, but the family has so married with humans that there’s barely any seal blood left in them, until Tarvek is a throwback. (despite Romania being…very landlocked. shut up.)]
I have no idea when this is happening?? but I LOVE IT.
Especially, I think, Gil finding Tarvek’s sealskin by chance and just…recognizing it, on some level. He takes it to the lab and analyzes it every way from Sunday, and there seems to be some sort of vague energy from it, some attractive field, like a magnet seeking its partner (Tarvek, if Gil ever got him under measuring equipment, has the same pull, or rather, the opposite. Magnets, lost and seeking. The basis for sympathetic magic, that all things pull towards the other parts of themselves.)
But otherwise it seems to be nothing but a perfectly ordinary sealskin cloak. A very fine one, soft and lush, silky dark grey with darker spots around the hood that could, with a squint, be mistaken for the pattern of a crown. If it weren’t for the circumstances in which he found it, Gil would put it on his own bed. As it is, he leaves it folded carefully on a table in his office-lab (that room with the portrait of Agatha, and all the clockfaces.) (The closest he comes to sleeping is usually in there, anyway, not his bed. The folded sealskin is a pillow, reassuring like something with a familiar scent, except that Gil swears - and has affirmed with scientific measurement - that all it smells of is seal and cloth.)
Here’s my objection to your scenario, though: Gil is the one person I think Tarvek wouldn’t fear with a knife to his throat. It’s one of the most heart-wrenching things about their relationship, to me. Tarvek persuades his father, cons Violetta, argues with Agatha and then works around her, sucks up to Lucrezia, works and backstabs back and forth with Anevka like they’re fencing - and Gil, he punches in the face with twenty-five guns on him, in the heart of the Wulfenbach Empire. I think it’s partly because he thinks he has nowhere lower to sink, no more emnity to build, with Gil, but it’s also that there is simply not a bone in Tarvek’s body that fears Gil. Except, I suppose, for emotional hurt, though even there the bullet is arguably bit - what can Gil do that could be worse than the betrayal when they were eight, Tarvek’s first and only friend selling him out for no reason at all, sending him home to his family?
…anyway. I think Gil holding Tarek’s sealskin might not actually feel much more worrying to Tarvek than, well, the having 25-odd guns pointed at his head.
if Gil put the sealskin on his bed though, in a more canon timeline, imagine that when he lays Tarvek down, already asleep from poison, exhaustion, and time-lag, Gil takes a moment to rub his hand through the fur as well, for the familiar comforting feel and because he really wants to gently cup Tarvek’s sleeping cheek but that would be Weird, and Tarvek just sort of…murmurs contentedly in his sleep and rolls a little towards Gil’s arm, brushing against it and nuzzling into the sealskin.
consider also: the Librarians know their Valois family history (most of the rest of Europa does not) and so they take the skin with Tarvek. And when Tarvek wakes up, he takes it with him as he and the Lord High Conservator walk, quite unconsciously, just casually holding this cloak over one arm like he thinks it might get cold and is bringing the garment along just in case.
“Still very pointy,” says the knight, and Tarvek drops the sealskin as he claps his hand to his bleeding arm. “That’s quiet enough of that,” the knight murmurs as he catches it. The knife is sheathed but Tarvek can still feel the adrenaline and fear bright in his veins. That’s familiar, though, so: “Well you obviously aren’t from Gil, so who-”
He shouldn’t be surprised by the answer (he isn’t, really.) No blades in sight and it still feels like there’s a knife at his throat, and the only thing to do is bow his head - of course it’s his family.
He attacks anyway, because here is the secret of bowing to the knife at your throat: with the right mindset, all it really does is pull your neck away from the knife.
The knight doesn’t flinch, just throws the sealskin over one shoulder with an exasperated sigh and a roll of his eyes. Cracks his knuckles. “I am trying to be nice about this, sir. I am told I can be very nice.”
I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE SELKIE AU. About how the first time Gil confronts Tarvek, absently holding the fur coat he found in the Vault (it’s smooth! And soft! And fuzzy! And it makes him feel better, holding it!) and he and Tarvek are in one of their usual screaming arguments and he tells Tarvek to do something - gives him an /order/ - and Tarvek automatically OBEYS. And everyone is /looking at them/, and Gil gives Tarvek another order - experimentally - and Tarvek does it AGAIN.
Tarvek is FREAKING OUT. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him, he doesn’t know why he’s /obeying/ Gil’s orders - he can’t be wasped. He’d KNOW if he was wasped. wouldn’t he? Except - it isn’t automatic subservience, he CAN disobey, but - but he feels like Gil is holding a knife to his throat, like he’s under imminent threat if he doesn’t do what Gil says RIGHT NOW. Meanwhile, everyone ELSE is freaking out thinking that Gil managed to reverse-engineer Wasps…
[clarification: this is @hamelin-born‘s au idea in which, for no particular reason other than ‘how awesome could this be’, Tarvek is a Selkie. or, the Storm King was a Selkie, but the family has so married with humans that there’s barely any seal blood left in them, until Tarvek is a throwback. (despite Romania being…very landlocked. shut up.)]
I have no idea when this is happening?? but I LOVE IT.
Especially, I think, Gil finding Tarvek’s sealskin by chance and just…recognizing it, on some level. He takes it to the lab and analyzes it every way from Sunday, and there seems to be some sort of vague energy from it, some attractive field, like a magnet seeking its partner (Tarvek, if Gil ever got him under measuring equipment, has the same pull, or rather, the opposite. Magnets, lost and seeking. The basis for sympathetic magic, that all things pull towards the other parts of themselves.)
But otherwise it seems to be nothing but a perfectly ordinary sealskin cloak. A very fine one, soft and lush, silky dark grey with darker spots around the hood that could, with a squint, be mistaken for the pattern of a crown. If it weren’t for the circumstances in which he found it, Gil would put it on his own bed. As it is, he leaves it folded carefully on a table in his office-lab (that room with the portrait of Agatha, and all the clockfaces.) (The closest he comes to sleeping is usually in there, anyway, not his bed. The folded sealskin is a pillow, reassuring like something with a familiar scent, except that Gil swears - and has affirmed with scientific measurement - that all it smells of is seal and cloth.)
Here’s my objection to your scenario, though: Gil is the one person I think Tarvek wouldn’t fear with a knife to his throat. It’s one of the most heart-wrenching things about their relationship, to me. Tarvek persuades his father, cons Violetta, argues with Agatha and then works around her, sucks up to Lucrezia, works and backstabs back and forth with Anevka like they’re fencing - and Gil, he punches in the face with twenty-five guns on him, in the heart of the Wulfenbach Empire. I think it’s partly because he thinks he has nowhere lower to sink, no more emnity to build, with Gil, but it’s also that there is simply not a bone in Tarvek’s body that fears Gil. Except, I suppose, for emotional hurt, though even there the bullet is arguably bit - what can Gil do that could be worse than the betrayal when they were eight, Tarvek’s first and only friend selling him out for no reason at all, sending him home to his family?
…anyway. I think Gil holding Tarek’s sealskin might not actually feel much more worrying to Tarvek than, well, the having 25-odd guns pointed at his head.
if Gil put the sealskin on his bed though, in a more canon timeline, imagine that when he lays Tarvek down, already asleep from poison, exhaustion, and time-lag, Gil takes a moment to rub his hand through the fur as well, for the familiar comforting feel and because he really wants to gently cup Tarvek’s sleeping cheek but that would be Weird, and Tarvek just sort of…murmurs contentedly in his sleep and rolls a little towards Gil’s arm, brushing against it and nuzzling into the sealskin.
consider also: the Librarians know their Valois family history (most of the rest of Europa does not) and so they take the skin with Tarvek. And when Tarvek wakes up, he takes it with him as he and the Lord High Conservator walk, quite unconsciously, just casually holding this cloak over one arm like he thinks it might get cold and is bringing the garment along just in case.
“Still very pointy,” says the knight, and Tarvek drops the sealskin as he claps his hand to his bleeding arm. “That’s quiet enough of that,” the knight murmurs as he catches it. The knife is sheathed but Tarvek can still feel the adrenaline and fear bright in his veins. That’s familiar, though, so: “Well you obviously aren’t from Gil, so who-”
He shouldn’t be surprised by the answer (he isn’t, really.) No blades in sight and it still feels like there’s a knife at his throat, and the only thing to do is bow his head - of course it’s his family.
He attacks anyway, because here is the secret of bowing to the knife at your throat: with the right mindset, all it really does is pull your neck away from the knife.
The knight doesn’t flinch, just throws the sealskin over one shoulder with an exasperated sigh and a roll of his eyes. Cracks his knuckles. “I am trying to be nice about this, sir. I am told I can be very nice.”
via http://ift.tt/2aaJGGk:
happyhagfish:
princemordo:
heads up
if i ever stop talking to you as much
its not you
there are a lot of things going on right now and idk what im doing and i often forget the fact that i have friends omfg
i still want to be close
if i ever message/text/call/ect you a lot
pls let me know bc i dont want to make you uncomfortable or bug you
be a Pal; dont let me make an asshat out of myself
ps its more than likely because i want to be close
omg please read this
happyhagfish:
princemordo:
heads up
if i ever stop talking to you as much
its not you
there are a lot of things going on right now and idk what im doing and i often forget the fact that i have friends omfg
i still want to be close
if i ever message/text/call/ect you a lot
pls let me know bc i dont want to make you uncomfortable or bug you
be a Pal; dont let me make an asshat out of myself
ps its more than likely because i want to be close
omg please read this