imogen temult enjoyer

its me daniel on tumbl (he/they/it) degrassi sideblog: @autistichollyj

[katherinesconcepts]

Concept #9

"Watch over Cassandra, and Whitestone." That had been the instruction.

Trinket didn't know how to watch over Whitestone. It was a big city, he could never see all of it, even from the highest balcony in the castle.

Cassandra though, that was easier.

He didn't know what time it was, but it was certainly far too late. The stars had been out for hours, the moon was starting to lower, and everything was still. Trinket should have been fast asleep.

But he was not, because Cassandra was not.

They sat in the library, Trinket sprawled out on the rug while Cassandra sat on a chaise. She had her legs tucked up under her while she turned the pages of a book in her lap. She was wearing a dressing gown and still had a bandage across her forehead. She looked... vulnerable. That was the word. She didn't show as much skin as mama did.

She turned another page before stifling a yawn against her hand. Trinket raised his head. He made a soft grumbling noise. You need to go to bed.

Cassandra looked at him and smiled softly. "I know boy, I know. Five more minutes." She yawned again and went back to her book. He stood and took a step forward. He placed his snout on top of the pages. You are tired.

She sighed. "I'll go to my quarters soon, I promise." She scratched behind his ears with a soft touch Percy didn't possess. "It's just been... hard to sleep lately," she continued. "Oh, you're a bear, what do you know about nightmares?"

Mama gets them. He gave Cassandra his saddest, most empathetic look.

"There is just... so much on my mind. I failed Whitestone." Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. "But the dreams always go back to the past. How unfair is that?" She closed her book and continued petting him like he was grounding her.

I think you're very good, Trinket said, because he didn't know what else to say. She couldn't seem to understand him anyway. Mama only could some of the time.

"Okay, okay," she finally said, wiping at her eyes. "You're right, I'm keeping you from your beauty sleep." She stood and carried the book back to the shelf, sliding it into place. Her fingers lingered on the spine for a few extra moments before she turned and walked away. Trinket pushed the door open with his nose.

He led the way to Cassandra's familiar quarters. For a moment she stopped, hand on the doorknob of her study.

No. To your bed with you, child. He turned around and nosed at her hipbone. She laughed softly but there wasn't much humor in it.

"If only you could sign off on paperwork for me." She pet his head, and they finished the walk to her room. She collapsed on her back into her bed, the covers still unmade from that morning. Trinket flopped down on the floor next to her. She stared at the ceiling like she was contemplating.

Copper for your thoughts? Sleep sounded nice, Cassandra's voice sounded nicer. Like Mama's when she was much younger.

"I do not know how to protect the ones I loved. I failed my people, how long until I fail Percival too? I wish Mum were here, or Vesper..." She sighed heavily, and Trinket suspected she was tearing up again. Her blinks turned heavy and slow. "Nevermind, it is too late for this talk. Sweet dreams, Trinket."

She blew out the candle beside her bed and drifted off on top of the covers.

[katherinesconcepts]

Concept #8

Cassandra de Rolo was twelve years old the first time she got to go to a ball.

She was also twelve years old the first time she got drunk.

She spent her entire life sitting at the top of the stairs, straining to hear the sounds of laughter and music and footsteps on the sparkly floor. She would sit on Vesper's bed the next evening and listen to her rant and rave about how Fallon wore a dress from last season and Adam looked at her like she was the only girl in the room while they danced and one of the butlers dropped a whole platter of canapés.

Percy told her it was boring. Julius said she would get trampled out there. Vesper promised she would have fun.

Cassandra had always been a hands-on learner.

She made a note to tell Vesper she was a liar. This dress was itchy, her hairpins were stabbing her, and the room was too loud. She scanned the crowd, looking for anyone who wasn't practically a decade her senior. She pouted softly to herself until her eyes landed on Percival being a wallflower directly opposite her.

They made eye contact and she raised her eyebrows. He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment before signing and rolling them. He pushed off the wall and made his way towards her.

"Not everything you hoped for?"

"Why do you get to wear pants but I am forced to look like a miniature Vesper?"

Percy shrugged. He opened his mouth to answer, but Julius appeared in front of them from seemingly nowhere. He said something to Percy about being a loser and dragging their sister down. Percy didn't have a chance to respond again, because Julius was grabbing their hands and pulling them to a table of drinks. He grabbed two goblets off the end of the table and thrust them into each of their hands.

"Drink, then stop being buzz kills."

They didn't hesitate much, and soon the room was a lot less loud. Cassandra looked around with new eyes. Everything was sparkly. She took Percy's hands and dragged him to the dance floor.

They waltzed poorly, repeatedly stepping on each other's shoes. Cassandra's brand new heels became scuffed and mother would surely throw a fit later, but right now Cass couldn't bring herself to care.

At some point, Vesper took her from Percy and began twirling her around.

"You look like you're having fun, darling," she said smiling. Cassandra squeezed her gloved hands.

"I am!" She giggled for longer than was appropriate. She looked up at Vesper just as the room started to spin. Suddenly all she could feel was an overwhelming dizziness. Her smile must have faded, because Vesper's face became concerned.

"Cassandra?"

"I... Ihavetogo!" Cassandra dropped her hands and went sprinting from the ballroom, making it to the corridor outside before collapsing against the wall. She blinked a few times, then saw two faces standing over her.

"Percival, is she drunk?!"

Percy's response was intelligible to Cass as she groaned, her head pounding.

"Are you drunk?!" Vesper shrieked again, this time directed at Percy.

"Nnnoooo..." Percy whined like a child, it was almost enough to make Cassandra giggle if she weren't feeling so awfully.

"Percival Frederickstein."

"It was Julius!" he confessed. "We didn't know!"

Vesper rolled her eyes hard enough that even Cassandra could see with her swimming vision. "That rascallion," she said, shaking her head. She looked like mother in this lighting, with her makeup done and her hair pinned up and that soft frown on her face even though she was only twenty-one. She sighed. "I'll cover for you two from mum and dad, but you both owe me."

Cassandra nodded very seriously before vomiting into the nearest potted plant.

[katherinesconcepts]

Concept #6

The cushy castle life has the most effect on Trinket, surprisingly.

They know he's been getting too much salmon when Cassandra finds him stuck in the doorway of the master bedroom. They blink at each other for a moment, before she sighs and goes downstairs.

"Vex, I believe your bear has gotten.... rather large," Cassandra says, the first thing she said walking into the dining room for breakfast

"Larger than he's always been?" Percy asks.

"It certainly seems so."

Vex takes the stairs quickly to reach her bear. When she sees him jammed into the door, she covers her mouth with her hand like a lady, but is smiling. "Oh, Trinket..." He grumbles sadly and looks up at her.

Using the amulet, she pulls him out and redeposits him in the hallway. She sighs. "We've got to get you on a diet, don't we boy?"

"Yes," Cassandra says. Percy just rolls his eyes.

Instead of putting him on a diet, Vex has the doorways enlarged to fit him. She's already had the doorknobs replaced with levers he can open, what's one more modification?

Cassandra can't get to her room one night because there's a damn construction crew in the hallway. She appears in the doorway of Percy's study, startling him when he doesn't notice her until she speaks.

"Did we really have to do all of this for the bear?" she asks.

"Yes, he's part of the family, sister," Percy replies, going back to his newest project. She rolls her eyes and walks into the room, sitting down on top of his desk. He mumbles something that might be "get down", but she doesn't listen.

"At his current size, I would say he's a whole family himself."

Percy stifles a laugh at that, and Cassandra smirks.

"There is simply a lot of him to love," Percy responds.

"And a lot of him to whack for taking up my precious space," she says without missing a beat.

"Cassandra, do not whack the bear." She hops off the table (using Percy's shoulder as a brace to do so) and is walking out before he can register that she didn't respond. He blinks a few times, then runs to the doorway. "DONT WHACK THE BEAR!!!"

"no promises!"

"VEX'AHLIA IS GOING TO KILL ME I AM SO SERIOUS!! CASSANDRA!!"

But she's already turning the corner in the hallway, giggling to herself.

(She's not gonna whack the bear.)

[katherinesconcepts]

Concept #1

The first thing she did was close off the doors to the dining room.

She couldn't stand to think about it, to see and smell and touch the room where her family had been slaughtered. So Cassandra shut the doors, then a day later placed boards over them. She nailed them in place herself. It didn't look regal or professional, it looked like an attempt to put back together the pieces of her broken heart.

She eats most of her meals alone in her study, if she eats at all. She's so so busy, there isn't time for silly things like food or rest when there is so much to do and so much to atone for if she ever hopes to make up for a scrap of the agony she has caused.

The first time Percy visited after the occupation, she realized she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten a meal at a table. Potentially never, if shovelling bread from the kitchen counter into her mouth at four in the morning after realizing she was going to vomit if she didn't eat didn't count. But he didn't mind sitting on the floor in one of the sitting rooms, watching the fire as they ate from the plates in their laps.

Still, he suggested she get a table. Cassandra thought they had a perfectly fine one in the council chamber. Percy told her that wasn't an acceptable place to put guests for a dinner. And so they combed the castle to found a spot that could become a new dining room. Dining Room: Under New Management, if you will. It was a room off the kitchen where the children had grown up eating breakfast, fighting over fresh berries and spilling cream on the floor.

By the next time Percy visited, bringing his friends with him, there was a proper dining space. They all sat around the table and shared soup and stories of adventure. Grog passed scraps to the bear, Scanlan lacked any semblance of table manners, Keyleth profusely complimented the chef, Vex stole bites off Vax's plate, Pike and Percy cleared all the dishes after the meal before Cassandra could move to do it herself. It was almost comforting, almost a family.

It was just like everything in the new version of Whitestone she was clawing together. Almost like home, but not quite.

[katherinesconcepts]

Concept #2

Cassandra de Rolo had one friend in her childhood that wasn't related to her.

She was eleven years old the day she ran from the castle and found an apple tree to climb up into. Nobody was paying attention to her, nobody would play with her. She sat in the tree, ranting aloud to no one as she took aggressive, overdramatic bites of an apple to throw her feelings into something tangible.

"It's like, they don't even care that I exist!"

She's interrupted by a second voice.

"Who are you talking to?"

Cassandra looks down from her perch on the branch. A girl, with long dark hair, maybe a few years older than she. Looking at her, paying attention to her, curious about her inner world. Her smile is a little creepy, but Cassandra has never been afraid of much.

She startles a little bit but not enough to fall out of the tree. "Who wants to know?"

The village girl waves. "My name is Matilda. I talk to myself sometimes too."

Cassandra smiles. "Cassandra." She reaches up and grabs another apple out of the tree, then holds it towards Matilda. "Care to join me?"

The girl beams and moves to take her up on her offer. Matilda is not as good at climbing trees as little tomboy Cass is, so it takes her a few attempts as she trips over her skirts, but finally she rests on the branch, next to the royal as if they were equal, as if they were just two girls.

Cass hands her the apple. "None of my family will play with me," she says. Matilda frowns. "I'm sorry. I don't even have any family to play with."

"I can play with you," Cassandra says, even though she's not meant to mingle with the village children. She is to be kind to them, but they are not her peers. Matilda looks a lot like a peer to her.

For two years, they regularly met at the tree. Sometimes they would venture out farther, when Cassandra was sure her family was all too busy to notice she was gone. They played with dolls and made crafts in Matilda's damp and dreary attic. Cass didn't mind, for she had given her dolls all to Whitney, and a part of her missed them terribly. She was too old to play with toys anymore, but Matilda was older than her, and she still did, so Cassandra indulged herself.

(angst below the cut)

Cassandra was thirteen when she made a suggestion.

"We should run away together."

"Why would you ever leave such a perfect place? You have a wonderful life, Cassandra."

"There's more for both of us than what's here in Whitestone."

"I am not so sure about that."

Cassandra groaned. "I beg you to just think about it."

Matilda agreed, and Cassandra went home for dinner.

A week later, they saw each other again.

They were in the tree again, sharing bites of a single fruit as Cass lamented about how the apples would be gone soon because it was approaching winter. And then she started whining about how Whitney stole all her candy so the fruit are the only sweet things she gets.

"It must be nice to have siblings to fight with," Matilda said.

"It simply is not," Cassandra replied. "They are all the bane of my existence."

"I'm sure one day, you'll feel happy to have them," Matilda said. Cassandra hummed. She loved having Matilda around, she was like the sister she always wanted. Vesper was too old and Whitney wass too young, at 23 and 6. She loathed being the exact middle child.

Matilda wished she could live in the castle with Cass. Cassandra wished she could live with her instead, even though her parents said the poor kids like her are undesirable. "Being rich isn't all that great," she told Matilda. "All my parents care about is reputation."

"Don't they love you dearly?"

"I mean... They do, but they do not show it often. Father is so busy and mother has too many children to split her time between. I wish I were an only child, like you."

"So you've said before."

Cassandra sighed and rolled her eyes. All she ever heard was why can't you be more like Vesper? Be sweeter like Whitney. Be smarter like Percy. Be proper like Vesper. Be calm like Julius. Be an example for the little ones. Be different be different be different.

She had no one else to listen to her, so she told Matilda.

"You're lucky your parents don't have a brood of other, better versions of you to compare you to."

Matilda frowned. Maybe Cassandra had a little bit of a point.

"It can be lonely, though."

"Having them makes you lonely too," Cassandra replied.

They sat in silence for a long time after that. Cassandra scooted a little closer to her and took her hand. "But we have one another now."

Matilda smiled softly at her.

Eventually Percy came yelling for Cassandra. She rolled her eyes and jumped down out of the tree, telling Matilda all the while I'll see you later. She ran up to Percy, taggged him, and then raced him to the castle (much to his chagrin).

Matilda just stared off as they run into the castle.

Later never came. The next day, the de Rolos were dead. The de Rolos were dead and Matilda could have run away with her, could have saved her friend, but she didn't, because she was a coward. And now Cassandra de Rolo was dead.

(Five years on, there would be a dinner. Matilda would sit and look at a girl who had the same face as her best friend, but Cass de Rolo was dead. The sick imitation of her they called Cassandra Briarwood was not her friend. She couldn't be. Her friend had died with the last of the fruit on the trees.)

[mxridraws]

Andi!! ⚔️Knights of Guinevere Fanart⚔️

Remember me when the future episode drops and Andi is coughing blue☝🏼

[dailycatsblog]

[ashiwolfs-smorgasbord]

"And I'll find strength in pain

And I will change my ways

I'll know my name as it's called again"

[peridaniel]

KOG ART WITH THE CAVEEEE IVE THOUGHT OF THAT SONG IN RELATION TO THE SHOW A NORMAL AMOUNT

[peridaniel]

what being hyperfixated on a show with only one episode does to you

[peridaniel]

daniel changed his icon on tumblr for the first time in four years omg

[pony-mod]

Courtesy of a friend.

[frewtlewp79]

LOOK AT THIS BUM!!!! /affectionate 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

[peridaniel]

whats happenin here

[peridaniel]

there have been so many thoughts rushing around my brain about the kog announcement/trailer but these are the two shots that honestly have me the most intrigued

[shivers-sketches]

I just think they're cute

Kofi

[quikyu]

good episode

[peridaniel]

something about andi wanting to fly away to somewhere better, gwen diving off of her glitz and glam in the sky to the surface, and frankie being the one between them with her feet on the ground and head in the clouds