#ashblind

[ashblind]

wip wednesday!!!!! yay!!!

tagged by @sulphuricgrin and @hircines-hunter ! thank you!!!

erm i only have this wip from part one of Ashblind, that I am renaming from "Up in Smoke" to "Gray Skies"

“Its okay, its okay,” Helon said, trying to hide the shakiness in his voice. He held Almythra tightly, glaring at the guard that patrolled in front of their cell. Animals, he thought. How can they do this to their own people? The longer the thought lingered the less it made sense. He had lived on Vvardenfell his whole life, never once had that been questioned. Almythra, too, was born there. In his own home. She may look altmeri, but her father was a dunmer. It didn’t matter, they were on the mainland now, and totally unaccounted for. Here they were outlanders.

[temple-jules]

Motives (Chapter 3)

Series: Ashblind (Part 7)

Rating: Mature

Major Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Word Count: 3,842

Characters: Helón Drevus, Talyn Drevus, Ingra Greywatch, Mercer Frey, Brynjolf, Vekel the Man, Tyranus, Molag Bal

Relationship: Helón/Mercer

Tags: Thieves Guild, Unhealthy Relationships, Cheating, Established Relationship, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Manipulation, Minor Character Death

Summary:

Helón and Mercer go on a trip to Markarth for business, things go wrong.

Part 1: Up In Smoke | Part 2: Frozen Hours | Part 3: On the Other Side | Part 4: Empty Streets | Part 5: Something in the Orange | Part 6: Mockingbird | Part 7: Motives

[ashblind]

For the wip-tag, Deranged Ashblind-ramblings and Demonform? 👀

a tag of all wips !

Deranged Ashblind Ramblings is a document I dump all of my brainstorming for Ashblind/writing ahead to future arcs. Its very very messy lol! Here's a snippet from the beginning of a later arc:

Helón did not close his eyes around his fellow prisoners. All these years with the guild, and this was the first instance he had been caught and arrested. He stared at his clenched fists, bound together in his lap. He already attempted to escape once, when the Imperials moved him from one cell to the other and bound his hands with simple rope. He now wore bracers that dulled the magicka within and around him, tethered by chain.  They were coming from Whiterun, nearly to Helgen where the trial and executions would take place. He had been held in a dank, flooded prison on the border of Whiterun and Eastmarch for about a week, his cell highly patrolled by Thalmor. Before, he was held in Darkwater Crossing for only a few days, arrested for the crime of affiliation with Brynjolf when they tried to cross into Morrowind.  Shadows preserve him, he could be sipping suja in Blacklight right now, or on their way to Gnisis. Instead, they couldn't have chosen a worse time to cross the border to negotiate an alliance with the Morrowind Thieve’s Guild. Brynjolf was already a high priority target after his stunt in Windhelm a few years prior, and the Imperials were on high alert with the war. And of course, Ulfric Stormcloak.

demonform is a concept for my next dnd character, Draven! I'm being pretty picky with it, i like the head and tail but not so much the body and limbs, lol

[ashblind]

Reflection

(for @myths-of-tamriel 's prompt of the week)

Helón caught his reflection in the water basin, staring at it for an extended moment. Since when did he have such dark bags under his eyes? Had his hair grayed more? And, where was the light in his silver eyes, the flush in his gray skin? He looked at his hands, his knuckles cracked and painful from the biting cold that permeated every bit of his existence these days.

How he hated the cold, he cursed every god for it. He longed to return to Ald'ruhn, yearned for the inconvenience of ash storms over the danger of the cold. He closed his eyes, hanging his head as he wallowed in the what if's. Had they never crossed the border, had they never set foot in Windhelm... Maybe Synrik would have lived. He wouldn't have been happy, sure, but he would be alive.

Helón plunged his hands into the water, disrupting its tranquil surface. He washed his face and hair, letting his regrets flow off of him for the time being. There was no point on dwelling--he could not change the past.

[temple-jules]

Frozen Hours

Series: Ashblind (Part 2)

Rating: Teen & Up

Word Count: 394

Characters: Helón Drevus, Synrik Drevus, Almythra Drevus, Nervana Drevus

Tags: Windhelm, Gray Quarter

Summary:

Helón reflects on his family's situation as they struggle through another Skyrim winter.

Part 1: Up In Smoke | Part 2: Frozen Hours

[temple-jules]

Up in Smoke

Series: Ashblind (Part 1)

Rating: Teen & Up

Word Count: 398

Characters: Helón Drevus, Synrik Drevus, Almythra Drevus, Nervana Drevus

Tags: Vvardenfell, The Red Year

Summary:

In the direct aftermath of the Red Year, Helón and Synrik try to find some comfort.

Part 1: Up in Smoke

[ashblind]

18. What was the lowest point for them as a couple?

ty for the ask <3 (sorry for the late reply)

Definitely Mercer's betrayal. Like, I don't think it really gets much worse than trying to kill your partner you've been with for two decades, failing, and then he chases you across the country to kill you.

Okay so to avoid spoilers on how that part specifically goes down because it is the climax of one of Ashblind's arcs, I'mma talk about instead how I arrived at the decision that Mercer and Helón's relationship was even a thing, because while Helón has been my dragonborn for a decade, this is the only major change to his story that I have added in the past three years... and its arguably become one of the more interesting/impactful decisions (for me)(because I am so self indulgent they should give me an award).

It was actually when I got to Snow Veil Sanctum on a replay of Skyrim a couple years ago that I realized how much I enjoyed Mercer Frey as a character and thought that there just had to be more to this guy. I mean, when he kills your character it feels like a really unearned emotional moment. And like, Helón has A LOT of history. He's about 250 by 4e201 (don't ask me exact dates I keep them vague for a reason lol).

So with a need to flesh out those things and make that emotional climax feel earned, I started thinking about the relationships Helón had to Gallus, Karliah, Mercer, and Brynjolf and how that impacted it all. It also gave me a lot to work with when it comes to the relationships Helón develops after Mercer dies. And I started with the lowest part of their relationship and worked backwards from there c: hopefully it all plays out how I am envisioning when I eventually actually get to editting and drafting (again)

[ashblind]

I'm still trying to figure out how I am going to go about formatting/publishing the new and edited parts of Ashblind. I might maintain the original publication/series? Might just add the edits to that? But I have also thought about making a seperate publication where it is just all of the parts. Idk might poll it when I get closer to finishing up edits/additions/rewrites