#*elain

[eatsbooks]

i went into the cauldron, too, you know. and it captured me.

[eatsbooks]

I absolutely love your interpretation of Elain and I was wondering on what you think Elain x Eris would look like??? 👀

honestly i don’t think anything will ever top the one and only erislain post i ever made 👅 tl;dr if elain was the bait instead of nesta, 8d chess eris would have pulled the same enamored affect he did with nesta because either 1) they used her because she really is useless to them compared to nesta but he can still use her as a way to get closer to lucien; 2) they used her because they think she’s useless but really they just don’t know what to do with her, in which case he gets to cultivate whatever powers they’re squandering AND ensnare lucien; or 3) they used her because they want him to think she’s useless compared to nesta, which means they want his eyes on nesta instead, which means his eyes should definitely be on elain instead. regardless, there’s no way he feels he can lose in this situation.

so i think it looks similar to the outset of neris wherein eris goes in thinking he’s just going to use elain, either for her secret abilities or the bait she’d be for her mate, but then ! uh oh! beautiful, soft, pink, plush elain, who hates what she is now but only because no one bothered to show her what it means to be faerie. they coddled her. they let her wallow. they let her drop ripe from the bough of the tree and sit on the ground overlong and the sweetest part of her bruised flat against the earth. nearly, the flies even got to her in their attempts to keep her still and stable and unmoving. but she doesn’t need any of that. her magic is stagnant in her, and that’s why she’s suffering. he doesn’t care if she rages at him. everyone does that. he can take it. she needs to be pushed, even if she doesn’t want to be.

she accuses him, one fraught day full more of her magic than it is of the magic of the world, of being like the cauldron. trapping her. forcing her to be this. to do this. no, he says. this is not that, no matter how much you want it to be. you were forced, but not by me. this is what you are now. you have no choice but to be it. but you get to choose how. sink or swim, elain archeron. and she gets angry! because how dare he say that to her who once drowned. you don’t care; you’re just like they say; you just want to use my abilities—well you can’t, they’re mine, not yours. she sounds petulant. she sounds like a child. not the youngest daughter but the one treated as such. she doesn’t care. that girl is dead. the cauldron took her and trapped her. then eris smiles. not cold—hot. so hot. far more intense than the gentle sunlight. far more demanding. but close enough—and different enough. then make them yours, he says. and elain shivers. bites her lip.

COMPUTER MAKE THEM FUCK NASTY RIGHT NOW

[eatsbooks]

Now you got me thinking of the size diff between Genia and Elain because wdym Genia is like omg she's so small i want her so bad

genia’s like 5’10, 5’11—elain’s probably around 5’5 or so? not a crazy height difference in itself but it is one that distinctly marks elain as a former human. something about the novelty for genia when looking at elain, her stature so slight by way of comparison yet her bearing so elegant, and among her own kind, it is not so often that genia’s the one who has to look down to hold conversation……… something about the way elain looks back up at her sometimes, glassy and distant, then with stark clarity, frowning and blinking and leaning in closer without realizing it…………. something about the sense of kinship genia would feel with elain because, much like with genia/vassa or genia/nesta, elain has had her autonomy horrifically violated, just in a different way than genia so genia can distance herself from her own pain while still deeply empathizing…….. something about both of them finding solace and grounding in the earth, there on their knees together in the garden of the spring manor, the sun warm and the breeze sweet, berries ripe for the picking, bursting runny on their fingertips, easy to lick clean, easier to have someone else lick clean on their behalf………..

re: this ask !

[eatsbooks]

Would Eris have been into Elain if she were the bait?

if eris knew elain was a seer—or even suspected she had power from the cauldron like nesta—absolutely yes. but i'm not sure that he would be as interested in elain off rip.

i'm very much of the belief that eris pursued nesta as he did in acosf because he wanted the power he knew she had. he knew she could be an extremely valuable asset against his father. if the night court wanted to dangle her in front of him like meat before a dog, he would play the part; he would sink his teeth in and bite. then nesta was sharp, and smart, and he had the fleeting thought—oh, you are not like the others; you could be fun to play the game with. his want of her was self-serving, but there could have been something between them, eventually, because his interest was piqued.

with elain—things are different. iirc she never exposes her abilities to anyone beyond the ic because no one realized she had them; they all just thought she'd been brain-scramblied by the cauldron. i'm sure plenty of rumors circulated through prythian about this, stemming from the distant observations of servants and lesser fae and commonfolk. (whisper networks my beloved!!!) among them, i think there were some voices speculating that elain was damaged in some way by the cauldron, that it took from her as it did that mortal queen—she isn't seen around as much as nesta, she doesn't attend the meetings, etc. i don't think eris takes any rumor at face value, but he also isn't assured of her value in the way he is of nesta's.

then he sees her dangled before him: lovely and soft, choked up by night court black but blushing pink, nowhere near as convincing as her sister would have been in another time, in another universe. her pulse flutters wildly at her throat, and she is hardly able to hold his gaze, but he can tell that she has been coached through this—told to bat her lashes; to affect submission like the nc thinks he likes, though that doesn't seem much of a put-on; to act flustered by his presence. she presents much softer, more docile, more pleasant than nesta; she does not play the game very well. his interest is not piqued in who she is but rather what she is hiding underneath.

while they dance, he wonders after the nc's intentions in using her in this way. if she is as soft as she feels in his hands, why would she be chosen and not the other sister? is she expendable because the cauldron indeed took more than it gave from her? no, he has to remind himself—they don't treat their own that way. are they expecting him to want her, or did they offer her as an affront, hoping to rile him into some sort of reaction? are they dangling her like this to steer his eyes away from her because she does have great power, and they want him pining after the other sister instead? he can't be sure—not unless he bites, which, after weighing everything, he doesn't see the harm in. and so he sinks his teeth.

[eatsbooks]

AWESOME GORGEOUS MOODBOARD. Can you talk about the quote you used? Expand on what she meant by that.

oh thank you beloved angel <3 i belieeeve she says that in response to nesta insinuating that she’s always been boring by telling her maybe she’ll finally be interesting now that she’s decided to grow claws. the reason i chose that quote was because i found it really interesting (ha ha), especially since we have two characters whose autonomy was violated in the same way, in that elain conceptualized being turned fae as being captured where nesta had something taken from her. she also says it specifically in response to having claws now where she didn’t before. it just evokes a lot of trapped animal thots which are of course a favorite of mine. she used to just be a genteel human but then she was captured like an animal, against her will, and the cauldron kept who she used to be, and it never let the her she once was go, and now she’s something with claws, which are things she never wanted to have—or maybe just never wanted to reveal—or maybe never wanted to have to use. the cauldron trapped her and in doing so it forced her to unleash something new. she was captured, and now she is Other.

re: this moodboard !

[eatsbooks]

So we know Jurian x Genia, Vassa x Genia, Lucien x Genia and Tamlin x Genia works so like… polycule time?? (if you‘re feeling spicy

including tamlin in the boe+genia polycule is making my brain BUZZ wow it shifts all the dynamics so significantly. i'm going to say that the most likely scenario for this polycule is a renascence-esque tamgenia eventually merging with the boe due to both tamlin and jurian/vassa trying to rebuild their respective realms and coming to the conclusion that an alliance with each other is their best bet at success. there would just be . so,,,, so many concurrent dynamics at play.

we have: tamcien ex-homoerotic situationship wherein lucien resents tamlin for his treatment of him AND for subsequently getting his shit together for someone else and not for lucien even though lucien tried so hard to help him; iphcien dummyyy exacerbating each other's beron wounds + extreme mutual jealousy over tamlin; iphigenia just generally being very jealous/insecure when it comes to tamlin with the others + resenting vassa for any attention she gets + the Whore Complex to come of so many partners; jurian and his Faerie Complexes; vassa and her overly blunt affect and life-is-short impulsivity; lucien and his unfulfilled bond with elain; Other Such Things.

i'd say tamgenia has the most established relationship in the mix. jurian and vassa have a lot of unspoken feelings between them—they could (and probably do) get to a more stable partnership between them but not with the curse actively in the way. lucien my beloved angel is a little bit of the odd man out between them all, but this is almost entirely because everyone involved knows about his mating bond; if it weren't for his mating bond, they'd be gobbling him UP. elain sort of comes to haunt the narrative of the group because they're all very aware of her presence and in a way she becomes their ghostly sixth just with how everyone considers her feelings about things.

i'm picturing The Merging happening before tamlin and iphigenia have the chance to like actually verbalize their feelings, which means they're acting functionally like a high lord and his lady, they're very obviously in love to anyone onlooking, probably to the point where folks are blushing just to see them interact—but they've never had the conversation and so they're Not Together. introduce boe: jurian and vassa immediately are down to fuck tamlin and genia, which jurian shows by being an asshole and vassa is very forward about—lucien also wants to fuck tamlin and genia but he needs to beat the shit out of tamlin at least one time first. once that happens and they achieve quasi normalcy ... bets? OFF

lucien is one thousand million percent fucking tamlin. right? right??? so so so much history and tension and resentment and love and fury that needs to be worked out. what better way do both of them know than sex? plus lucien fs wants to show iphigenia up. so they fuck first. iphigenia, naturally, crashes out. so hard. i'd say it's relatively similar to the jurian/genia one shot i wrote except genia is like actively seeking jurian out to fuck, which means he has no opportunity to slow her down and reciprocate. gal on a mission. i think probably she doesn't come at all. it's literally a spite fuck and he knows it but fuck if he's going to let a faerie use him again so he uhhh comes back that night and makes her come until she sees god....? instructions unclear. but vassa overhears and pleasure-seeking + pain of not being a normal girl with a normal life who can just normally ask jurian to be with her because she's cursed = jurian/genia/vassa threesome. lucien is also actively fucking jurian and vassa.

i think probably this is how things go down for a hot minute. genia feels rejected by tamlin; tamlin feels rejected by genia; vassa feels rejected by jurian; jurian feels rejected by vassa; lucien feels rejected by their communal dead wife elain—and all of them handle it by fucking or not fucking each other respectively. eventually, lucien, who is a good and honorable male, begins to feel guilty for how he's inserted himself between tamlin and iphigenia, especially now that vassa and jurian care for iphigenia too. he learns more about her—who she is as a person, how much tamlin cares about her, what beron did to her—and he feels bad. what's new! probably projects some of his own feelings not being able to be with his mate onto being the one to put a wedge between them. he maneuvers tamgenia into a situation where they reconcile and have sex and he's left out just like old times with feylin but tamlin, who cares about lucien, and iphigenia, who cares about tamlin who cares about lucien, say fuck that actually and pull him to bed with them

this is probably an ideal time in the tamgenia + boe polycule. tamlin and iphigenia have finally dtr, which affords iphigenia a good measure of security and assurance—which further means she isn't as jealous over lucien or vassa. iphigenia won't fuck anyone else without tamlin in the mix, but lucien and iphigenia squash the beef and get wily autumn court horny by playing off each other. smirking rake + batted-lash flirt and everyone else is fucking COOKED. there's no ddlg jurgenia because iphigenia feels protected and taken care of and secure with tamlin, so they never bond quite as deeply as they could. their sex is mostly fucknasty comfort when vassa is with koschei, and like i said it always involves tamlin. def becomes a pavlov situation where whenever jurian sees tamlin he gets doubly horny knowing iphigenia's going to be in the mix. vassa fucks all of them freely EXCEPT a tamlin/genia/vassa threesome because genia would accctually crash out the moment tamlin paid any attention to vassa and not her. all other combos are fair game.

reckon it comes to an end when elain accepts the bond with lucien. i feel like lucien would want to be all about elain all the time and elain would want him to prove that to her after everything she's felt down the bond and heard about what the cule's been doing. hopefully by this point they've uncursed vassa too. so tamgenia, jurvassa, and elucien pretty much just all skip off into the sunset—and i think that's a relief for all of them. being together like that caused far more strain to all of their relationships than it would have if they could have focused on each other. and that's on none of them knowing how to communicate or having been to therapy. i definitely see some nostalgic foursomes and maybe even orgies in the future, but it becomes very lax and casual where it was once All On Top Of Each Other. alt: their dead wife comes home from war and we get a harmonized polycule with miss elain finally actually brought into it<3

[eatsbooks]

What do you think would be the Ic's response to Nesta and Elain in the dead child au? All other things - her meanness, needless spending etc are exactly the same.

i think they have a lot more grace for both of them! one thing all of the ic keeps coming back to when justifying their treatment of nesta and elain is that they were feyre’s older sisters and they never did anything to take care of her / offset the burden placed on her to provide for the family. but with toddler!archeron in play — both nesta and elain did pull their weight, at least while he was alive. and if they didn’t in the aftermath of his death, the ic would be more willing to excuse it as grief instead of condemn it as a moral failing.

like this kind of blatant trauma would prompt the ic to view nesta and elain more as one of their own off the bat. in canon, they all bond over the fact that they have endured hardship in their past that they can point to and say look, this was unfair. i was not a perfect person in the aftermath, but i was surviving, and i am trying to do better now. they would be more willing to view nesta’s meanness and drinking as a parallel to something they went through in their own lore, a hurdle to overcome to get to a place of healing.

because the main issue the ic has with nesta and elain, especially initially, is that they can’t empathize with them not taking action while enduring hardship. by sitting by and letting feyre care for the family, nesta and elain position themselves as diametrically opposed to the like … Pick Yourself Up By Your Boostraps ethos of the ic. plus a lot of nesta and elain’s trauma is more internal? than feyre’s? and occurs over the course of their adolescence. plus nesta especially keeps hers close to her chest. so the ic is unwilling and / or unable to understand it.

but young child they all raised and tried their best to care for yet still could not in the end? that would be something tangible the ic could look at and go ah, yes. this is why you are the way you are. this makes you one of us.