he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
will byers stan first human second
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let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
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@marcasmacmanus
WIP Oil on canvas painting of Lord Ambroys Belrose.
Ambroys belongs to the outstanding talented @kwillow
Finished version: https://www.tumblr.com/marcasmacmanus/718133372314075136/oil-on-canvas-painting-of-lord-ambroys-belrose?source=share
In which Theo says "I'm not naive," then proceeds to be deeply naive.
This'd maybe rank as 6/10 uncomfortable. Theo has little to lose by helping Hyden, and Hyden has little to gain by alienating Theo. He has no reasons to believe Hyden is lying to him about his intentions (no reasons he's paying attention to, anyway).
Whether Hyden cares is another matter. Theo is aware that Hyden is not exactly the sentimental type. That's fine, Theo knows he is unusually emotional compared to most and being more sensible than that isn't a bad thing. After all, his mother was a pragmatic person, not given to flights of fancy or great shows of emotion. Despite that, she and Theo were kindred spirits, and she cared for his troubles like her own. He and Hyden have much in common as well. Maybe it isn't impossible that Hyden could care, too...
In which Theo says "I'm not naive," then proceeds to be deeply naive.
This'd maybe rank as 6/10 uncomfortable. Theo has little to lose by helping Hyden, and Hyden has little to gain by alienating Theo. He has no reasons to believe Hyden is lying to him about his intentions (no reasons he's paying attention to, anyway).
Whether Hyden cares is another matter. Theo is aware that Hyden is not exactly the sentimental type. That's fine, Theo knows he is unusually emotional compared to most and being more sensible than that isn't a bad thing. After all, his mother was a pragmatic person, not given to flights of fancy or great shows of emotion. Despite that, she and Theo were kindred spirits, and she cared for his troubles like her own. He and Hyden have much in common as well. Maybe it isn't impossible that Hyden could care, too...
Lurking about in a sinister manner
Animals That Go Into Space
The possibility that Leonard procreated with his affair partners is something that Theo wouldn't have considered -- he often forgets that having children out of wedlock is something that people can do.
Mentally confronting the horrors of infidelity, illegitimate children, commoner relatives, the unfairness that his father might've produced a higher quantity and maybe even quality of descendants than his far more deserving mother AND the concept his father having sex all at once would make Theo at least 8/10 uncomfortable and give him something new to have cold sweats about.
He'd have very different feelings about this depending on when in his timeline he's asked - so here's a few Ambroyses across the years.
4/10 uncomfortable as a callow young brat for whom "consequences" are things he's heard of but never seen, 10/10 after he's been slapped with multiple comeuppances, and 7/10 when he finally (sort of) knows better but doesn't enjoy being reminded of a time when he didn't.
Being prodded about his relationship with Hyden like this would make Theo uncomfortable (maybe 6/10), but not for the intended reason. Now, Theo would never talk about his idol in such a belittling way to Hyden's face, or in most circumstances, but Theo is a prideful fellow and feeling like he's being demeaned brings out the competitive cutthroat in him.
The apparent leverage Hyden has over Theo is that he's promised Theo that he'll be able to help bring his mother back once he has full command of his magic; Theo's end of the bargain there is helping with Hyden's research and cooperating with the Rising Dawn. However, making Hyden tea, helping him with his buttons and generally acting like a weird little nursemaid were all things Theo started doing spontaneously, long before Hyden ever knew about Theo's necromantic ambitions.
Theo was happy to offer his hospitality out of sympathy, a peculiar kind of chivalry and a desperate need to feel needed. While Theo's more domestic behaviors might look like servility, there is no obligation on Theo's end and he expects nothing in return except gratitude.
So, as to the second part of the question:
Yes. Can't have a savior complex about a person who doesn't need saving!
Frankly, even though Theo admires Hyden as this grand conquering figure, if he met his (anti-)hero at the height of his power, he'd instinctively dislike the guy. Theo is a defensive, paranoid, insecure person who explodes with anger when he's made to feel inferior - his mother had to manage his compulsion to butt heads with anyone exerting power over him when they met with social superiors. But in the present, out of place and time, Hyden is vulnerable, Hyden is weak, Hyden needs his help, and so Theo lets his guard down around him.
Despite Theo's insistence that he's the one in control, Hyden IS totally manipulating him, but he's leading Theo with a rope that Theo offered to him, and Theo wouldn't have given him that rope if Hyden had appeared strong enough to yank it.
Turns out this whole "having a jester who sings jaunty little songs about you" thing isn't all it's cracked up to be... Drawn response to this piece by Visanima of their character Thorn interacting with Hyden!
I am allowing Theo to be vaguer than usual in his monologue here, but I think you get the idea.
10/10 uncomfortable if someone with any ability to hold him responsible asked this, and I would hope that he'd lie to them more cleverly than he tells the truth.
Commission for @chocodile 🔥🔥🔥
Absolutely infatuated with his design and pose and energy!! It was so fun working on him!
Needle Felting Commissions
I saw you Theo recipe post and wondered what Theo would look like with his mothers tail?
Instead of just the tail, I wound up just drawing him with the whole ermine package. Plus some bonus doodles.
Despite really wishing he'd been born as an ermine-person instead of a rat-person, he would not look as elegant as he thinks he would look.
@skekdris asked Hyden whether he can still sense magic. Yes, and it's a weird, frustrating, melancholy experience. Somewhere between a phantom limb and those videos where astronauts back on earth try to set pens down in thin air and then look confused when they fall to the ground. A wizard's personal magical field feels and behaves like an extension of the body. Even for wizards who aren't all flowery and psuedosexual about magic like Hyden is, losing the ability to manipulate it would feel "wrong", like the rules of their reality have suddenly changed.
…Not that there's really much literature on the topic. Hyden's situation seems to be quite unique. Perhaps there was more information about such wizardly ailments before the fall of the Old Kingdoms, back when forehead catalyst stones weren't so unheard of.
When Ambroys is talking about sharing his wonderfulness with "all of you," he mostly means the people of the City of the Sun, but also all mortal-kind, which I suppose does include you. No need to thank him, you're so welcome.
This is a question he could answer VERY differently depending on where in his timeline of fuck-ups he's at. At his present-day multi-century age, some past mistakes don't seem so bad anymore, whether it be because he's in a good place now even if some bad choices led him there, or because everyone who would hold his behavior against him is long dead, or because he's lied about his backstory so often he's successfully replaced his own memories with fabulous confabulations.
Still, there are a few choices that he winces over. Relationships he wishes had closure. Battles he wishes he'd won. He'd sleep more easily if his life was one hundred percent the good-defeats-evil fairy-tale he preaches, but as it is, he knows that no matter how charmed his life is now, he is extremely capable of fucking it all up. That lingering dread makes him, oh, let's say 6-7/10 uncomfortable.
Theo: "When I hit myself with a hammer it makes me stronger and a better person because it is my awesome destiny to make myself suffer unnecessarily and on purpose" The distant voice of Jocosa from beyond the veil: "NOT WHAT I MEANT"
The magic guys we happen to showcase most often are actually weirdos for not using focuses. In the same way that you can deal with a bit of static but maybe don't want to shove your fingers into light sockets, it's safer and less painful to use wands instead of your bare hands to manipulate magical energy. Hyden's motives for eschewing wands are perfectionism and masochism, Theo does so out of personal imperfection and martyrdom.
Theo's difficulties with perceiving and manipulating magic in its raw, environmental form (what he's referring to as "seeing" magic) is part of why he struggles with controlling other kinds of magic but is a savant with healing magic. His ability to use magic is so closely tied to his own body that he has a knack for inflicting it upon other's bodies as well. His impairment frustrated him, made him feel "trapped" in the realm of physical while his mother could elevate herself to a plane beyond, but he's come around to the virtues of healing magic in the years since...
Theo is also underselling how badly he fucked up his hand, but this is just one incident in a pattern of him doing stupid self-destructive shit and going "feh... perhaps it would frighten lesser men... but the fragile flesh bends to my iron will *smokes a cigarette and has a coughing fit*"
As a heaven-sent horse, Ambroys was born able to withstand injuries that would kill a mortal person. As years pass, his celestial blood grows more potent. In his elder years, he doesn't just survive mortal wounds, he is only mildly inconvenienced by them.
He's not at that level of ancient godliness at this point in his life (60+ years old despite the baby face) but he's not too bad off for having had sharp objects forced through his organs multiple times. Still a big baby about ouchies though, so he's not eager to explore the limits of his fortitude. 6/10 uncomfortable because he thinks a curious cat lion might have put you up to asking this.
(While Ambroys has always been satisfied knowing he is something special and leaving it at that, Anya develops a keen interest in understanding the true extent of Ambroys' unique capabilities, and how they may be used - for the greater good, naturally.)
Time for an ass kicking! Story under cut.
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