Open Starter @acstarters
Hekla d'Arviat
Location: The Royal Keep
She had expected something like this. People flocking to the capital from all corners of the realm. The king was dead and the carrion crows were gathering, the spectators were gathering. A part of her had looked forward to this, finally something was happening at High Court. But with all these lords and ladies returning to the keep the new faces around her were not just limited to the city's streets. No they were all around the Royal Keep, too. It made it harder for Hekla to decipher friend from foe, a skill that had kept her in her position for years now.
Just as she rounded the corner on her way to Lady Isolde's chambers she stumbled upon yet another unfamiliar face. "Are you lost perhaps? These hallways can be quite confusing. Would you like for me to show you the way to the great hall?" Hekla curtsied low, ever the image of a perfect servant. Friend or foe? It did not matter, she needed these rooms clear of any spies or intruders - except for her, of course.
by  clicking  the  source  link  you  will  be  directed  to  a  total  of  100  gifs  of  abbie  hern  in  enola  homes  2  and  the  pact available  on  my  discord  server.  sheâs  biracial  (black  and  welsh),  so  make  sure  to  have  that  in  mind  when  building  your  muse.  the  gifs  are  all  sized  268x150  and  made  from  scratch  by  me.  likes  and  reblogs  are  always  welcomed  if  you  find  these  helpful  !
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Open Starter @acstarters
Corin Valdris
Location: Outside in Capital City
Corin was sat on the saddle, his gloved hand resting against the reins as his horse impatiently moved beneath him. The afternoon sun felt warm against his skin and he contently watched the busy city with quiet interest.
The capital was a place where everything important happened, he'd been told that his whole life. Every smile hid a motive, every greeting carried a hidden question or want. Corin had always found that rather entertaining, he lived for a game. His eyes scanned the crowd until they settled on someone approaching.
"Well," he said, his voice filled with his usual confidence. "Either youâre lost, or you were looking for me," he joked, rather pleased with himself. "I would be careful though, I do believe my horse has just kindly left a present on the ground, he said as his nose wrinkled.
Once a week Hekla found herself hurrying through the city. Her chores often included visits to the markets and the delivery of messages, but on these special days she did not brace the crowds of the capital for reasons of the crown or the princess.
No, once a week Hekla followed her own path to the apothecary to refill the small vials she kept neatly hidden beneath the floorboards of her room. Some were quite helpful to all the ladies of court, others were only spoken of in whispers and administered in the shadows.
Never for the crown, always for the wardens.
As she rounded the corner her steps brought her face to face with a stranger. "That will only make the flowers grow", she said with a smile. The same thing could be said about corpses, but there was no reason to dwell on that now, was there? The man in front of her did not appear as if he considered the fact that all of life was just one long walk over horse dung and corpses very often. So instead she pointed to the side of the road where stubborn buds of dandellion shown just as bright and yellow as the sun, hidden between dirt and cobblestones. "Did you know that these simple weeds can help your bowel movement? Maybe your horse simply enjoyed some yellow flowers on the way here."
Starter: open
Torren Blackmere
Location: Valdrienne, a tavern in the upper city
Torren didn't care for the capital, he'd been here a handful of times as a young man for tourneys. It was Blackmere tradition that you entered a tourney as soon as you came of age, of course, Torren had taken the victory that year when he was just twenty- one years of age. Now here he was, seventeen years later. The city still smelt the same though, the sky still looked the same. Even with the old king dead, nothing seemed to change in Durn - not really. The tavern was busy tonight, ladies and lords all making polite conversation, Torren preferred something a little noisier normally, still he leant on the counter leaning in to listen to someone's conversation. "Be careful what you say - you never know who could be listening" he joked to the person beside him.
The thoughts that rushed through her mind and danced upon the tip of her tongue were not kind, so she swallowed the reply and instead gave the stranger a small smile. If there was one thing Hekla had learned - in the castle and in the shadows that taught her everything she needed to know about this life - than it was how to be polite when one ought to rip out some throats instead. But the time for the later had not come, not yet. "And what makes you think that I am saying anything not worth listening to? I have no secrets good sir." She lifted her goblet in his direction, raising it in his honor or the late kings, who could really say these days? "At least none that anyone here would care about. I am but a simple girl."
by  clicking  the  source  link  you  will  be  directed  to  a  total  of  120  gifs  of  abbie  hern  in  my  lady  jane  season  one  available  on  my  discord  server.  sheâs  biracial  (black  and  welsh),  so  make  sure  to  have  that  in  mind  when  building  your  muse.  the  gifs  are  all  sized  268x150  and  made  from  scratch  by  me.  likes  and  reblogs  are  always  welcomed  if  you  find  these  helpful  !
DO  NOT:   redistribute,  resize,  repost  or  include  any  of  the  following  gifs  in  another  gif  hunt,  use  my  gifs  in  any  tab*o  things,  smut  threads,  in  krps  ,  if  you  are  blocked  or  if  you  use  turkish  fcs  with  non  turkish  names.
Now that I am all caught up with s5 and waiting for the final episode I am unsure whether or not I should give Karen another try. There were some parts of the show that I really enjoyed (I think most of the criticism is very valid though) and I am dying to write something more Cosmic Horror-y.
Where one thing rises another must fall.
Karen Wheeler and Joyce Byers as developmental foils
For me the duality of Joyce Byers and Karen Wheeler has always been quite interesting. They have so many wonderful character moments and interesting developments, so many things in common and yet they are shown as opposites more often than not. Two sides of the same coin, neither better than the other.
Here is the thing, I love me some foils. Give me a mirror and I am happy. It does not matter if it is scene, character, development, or quote. I love to dig in and figure out what it could mean.
And I think it is very beautifully done in the first episode. The Wheelers are obviously the healthier family. They have the pretty home and the family dinner together, mother, father, and the kids. The Byers have a less pretty home, father not in the picture, mom working late and then falling asleep while Jonathan also has to work late. There is no one there when Will comes home except for the dog.
Yet I cannot help but feel like the Byers are the happier family. Yes, Joyce is shown as overworked, tired, hysterical, depressed even. But she is trying her best and I do not fault her for not knowing that Will isn't even there until she goes to wake him the next morning (I know she'd disagree with me on that, but that is a trauma response in a way). But she and Jonathan are in this together, helping each other, caring for each other, holding each other (though I do think that this is the beginning of Jonathan having to take a step back due to Will). Yes, they have this argument about Jonathan not being supposed to work when Joyce isn't home, but he does it because he feels like he needs to care for the family (which is not a good thing for a kid his age, do not get me wrong. He should not have to worry about these kinds of things at that age, but he plays the hand he is dealt with). They are in a terribly stressful situation, but they are in it together.
Meanwhile the Wheelers do not have any warm family scenes except for the very first one - and even that is an argument between Mike and his mom. Their family dinner ends in a fight, Ted - tired and overworked, too - does not seem to have any energy left to care, Karen is trying to do a thousand things at once⊠They are desperately holding on to a picture.
And that is all there seems to be.
A picture, the idea of something perfect, but not as much heart as Joyce and Jonathan have. And maybe that is due to the extreme situation the Byers are in (after all we see the Wheelers show heart again and again afterwards, but I loved how they were foils in the first ep).
Throughout the series we see Joyce basically getting her life together, she rebuilds something for her and her boys in California, she learns from the "mistakes" of the past and is there for them and El, she connects with Hopper.
And Karen? We see her turn to alcohol more and more, the books mention pills even, and whenever she is with Ted they have a fight, an argument. She even makes the decision to go after Billy, actively turning away from her marriage there (I am unsure whether or not I want that weird storyline in my portrayal or if I just erase it from my version of canon, I will not RP it anyway)
While Joyce is getting better, despite everything, Karen - who does not even understand or know what is going on - is getting more and more desperate and depressed.
And I love me some foils.
(I also love that Karen's slow decline, her obvious unhappiness causing her to fall for these bad coping mechanisms and the decline of her mental health - that she still manages to hide well under her red lipstick - goes so well with my tag for her. Back when I first wrote her during S4, it was meant to reference Alice Creel but now it could also be interpreted as the unhappiness, the depression, slowly creeping into every aspect of her life and her body, until she is too deep in, waiting for someone to see it)
No, not the lieutenant to Vecna. The other one. Hear me out here.
I still need to properly research what info was given in the first edition (because our boys did play classic ADnD) and what was added in later editions but we all know that in Greyhawk he was the wielder of the sword of Kas and most trusted lieutenant to lich Vecna, he betrayed him (go whispering sword, go), big battle, hand / eye / sword, Kas goes to the plane of Ash and becomes a Vampire now hellbend on reclaiming his sword and destroying Vecna, etc.
I loved the Eddie = Kas and therefore Eddie = alive in the Upside Down as a "Vampire" theories after S4 aired, but we all know Eddie never betrayed Vecna, for he was never on his side to begin with. (And I still love this idea because after Vecna's escape Kas becomes "a soul outside time and space whose powers can be used by binders" and though I do want our dear Eddie to rest in peace, I kind of like the idea of him having something to do with the destruction of Vecna, even if it is just the energy of his soul - and it would play into the general thing of these children being used for their powers.)
Now, apparently, and I do not know which edition this info comes from, there is a second Kas the Bloody-Handed serving Vecna in Ravenloft. It is not the real Kas, but someone under the impression of being him, someone now loyal to Vecna to redeem himself for the betrayal.
And what if they turned that around?
Dustin is basically pretending to be Eddie at this point. He is using his mannerisms (Gaten does such a good job with that), his goals, his escapism, to deal with the trauma of watching Eddie die in his arms. It is an understandable reaction. He is griefing and he must be filled with a lot of guilt for not being able to save Eddie, for leaving his body in the upside down, for not being able to tell people the truth of who Eddie really was. Having to watch the world call him a monster must be terribly hard for Dustin. And so he wants to rebuilt Hellfire, to continue on Eddie's legacy as a safe haven for those in need of it, for the "lost souls". He somehow turns into his own little version of Eddie, seemingly forgetting that he is supposed to be someone else. He wants to redeem himself not for betraying Vecna (obviously) but for failing to kill the "lich" and therefore betraying his friend. He is, like that Death Knight in Ravenloft, pretending to be Kas in order to silence his guilt and somehow cope with the loss he is facing.
And I love the idea of Dustin somehow using the sword of Kas (the memory of Eddie, the good things they went through together) to throw off Vecna or thwart his plans, to weaken him in some way so that El, Will, and Kali can deal the final blow and end this once and for all.
I am still hung up on the thing Mike told El when they were on the roof in ep 1. How the happy endings for him always include the group not being able to return to their hometown because too much has happened. When I heard it the first time, I thought it was foreshadowing a sacrifice Mike or El had to make, but Dustin has already lost so much, antagonized so many people, what if he is the one unable to return to Hawkins - a city that hates its heroes?
COUNTDOWN TO STRANGER THINGS 4
âł Â 42. Karen Wheeler
People are always saying you canât. That you shouldnât. That youâre not smart enough, not good enough. This world, it beats you up again and again, until eventually I â most people, they just ⊠they just stop trying. But youâre not like that, youâre a fighter. You always have been. I honestly donât know where you get it from.
I am watching S5 again (this time with my mom) while procrastinating my actual to do's. So here's what I am working on:
. Karen and Joyce as foils in their development / decline & rise
. flawed characters in s1 and what that tells us about Karen
. corrupted Karen, anyone?
. the upside down in s5 and why I want it to be more Cosmic Horror
. actually sorting this blog with tags and stuff
"Hello?" Karen slowly put her keys on the counter, shopping bag dropping from her shoulder to the floor. Something was off. She could not yet say what it was, but she felt it. Even in the empty hallway. "Kids? Anyone home?"
             slept for a thousand years so now that I feel slightly human again⊠what are we thinking off a modern cosmic-horror-esque Alice Creel?
or give me Holly and Max meeting a memory of Alice in Henry's mind and Holly not yet realising that it is her own mom. gimme Holly telling her mom about this girl she met, Holly being back and talking about all these memories, gimme Karen slowly realising that it was Henry - and why Henry was drawn to her daughter - I need someone Karen can confide in about all these things.
small starter call! hit the heart for a small starter from Karen (probably early seasons!) or reply to this post for plotting, keep in mind that this is a low-activity blog.
Friendly reminder that Karen Wheeler is Alice Creel is only a fan theory. It is not canon and due to the play it is proven to be untrue. BUT I am show exclusive and I still like to play around with that idea. That does not mean that it is my default canon for Karen (yet). If you do not want it implemented in our interactions please let me know and you will get canon Karen.
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