#attheborderofoblivion

[serpentwined]

Second batch of commissions, a gift purchased by @velvettodraws for @sinilakki @firsandfletchings and @attheborderofoblivion

[askdusty]

Dust, you're no longer a little girl in a chapel. How have you changed? Got any advice for people who're stuck under circumstances they can't control?

Dust opens and closes her mouth a few times, at a loss for words. She sighs, then shakes her head, a smile creeping onto the corner of her lip.”Sometimes it feels like I haven’t, at all.

... I’d like to think I’m wiser, more aware of how my decisions ripple into the future, how as much as I fear the trouble they can get me into, being unable to make mistakes is worse. For those in such circumstances - there is always a choice. Even the smallest choice, or the worst one, there is always two options. Do something, or don’t.”

[blessings-of-mara]

I hope attheborderofoblivion knows what they've done, making people feel feels like this. I also hope they know how amazing they are and how great their writing is.

(x)

[chameleonpirate]

♚ - Their first experience with death

I suppose, if I wanted to be technical, I was very young the first time I saw something die. My father pulled a mangō-ururoa onto our boat. It’s a... shark, grey and white. The blackest eyes, the sharpest mouth of teeth. They savage the young serpents, and grow large enough to sometimes fight the war snakes. 

My father was a brave man. And the shark tastes good, and his skin is useful for many things, and his teeth make special charms or are added easily to weapons. So he took his club and hit it hard, once, twice, three times. Finally it stopped moving it’s great tail, and we took it home. I still wear the one of it’s teeth in my braids. 

I did not feel horrible about the death. We needed food, as always. They get tangled in the nets, and eat the fish inside them, and if we are not careful, the young serpents will be eaten by them. A predator simple became prey due to bad fate, a lesson to us all. 

But I doubt you want this technicality. You want real death, mer death. We are a small people, even for mer. So though we are all Maormer, we all still have to fight to survive. Away from the capital, most places are the property of a clan or village, with markers that tell you when you are entering another territory. For reference, my peoples land was known for having many lava fields that constantly opened up and changed, and my people themselves were called the Broken Tooth people. I am actually unsure why. But, enough background. 

As I said, we fight to make sure we survive, and sometimes that leads to war. Especially when a pāmu wēra washes ashore. They are giants of the sea, with great fat teeth and big heads. But their lower jaw is small, easy enough to turn into some weapon. And they have much meat, and much blubber fat, and good bones and strong teeth. They are much valued when they wash up on the shore, and it is enough to cause an... argument over resources. 

I was a teenager, flush with half healed tattoos and pointed teeth that still ached when I drank cold water or ate hot stew. But we were going to get the meat, and we ran into people from another village, further down the coastline. My fathers village was not a village that bred warriors, but my grandfather had been a great warrior, and had trained many. And besides. We are Maormer, warrior blood beats in our veins. 

The battle was joined, for neither side would agree to fair shares of the meat. we called out to the ancestors, showed our teeth, but of course that did not scare others who did the same. 

I still remember the shock that traveled up my arm as my wood blade struck the other mer in the temple. He had charged in, an older warrior. Maybe he had wanted this fight. No warrior wants to grow old and feeble and die in bed. To this day, I still don’t know if it was my skill that helped me strike, or his possible desire to leave this world. But I struck him in the temple, and he dropped to a knee, and then I gave him a blow between the eyes with the pommel of the blade. 

He did not rise. 

We won our battle, won the pāmu wēra meat and blubber. And my grandfather took me into his hut, and he tattooed the fingers of my hand himself, to show honour and glory claim to anyone who seen me and knew how to read the lines. 

Death has always been there for us. I do not believe in immortality, or that one can live forever. The constant truth is that death chases us, and any attempts to change that truth are merely lies. You have the opportunity to choose your death at times, but most of us have no option. It comes for us, bandit spear, old age, sickness, the clawing of hunger as you lay adrift on the indifferent ocean. 

You can only allow death to come to you, and bare your teeth and go in such a way death fears to take your descendants. 

[askdusty]

[ how about a cheese headcanon ]

“Oh, gods, fondue. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a good fondue? Ages. What I’d do for some good, crusty bread and hot, dripping Comte or Gruyere. Trying to spear it, missing, having to lay a kiss on the riend beside you…

Cheese is a very happy food.”

[llerynserathis]

♡

Brethyn Reni…I certainly wouldn’t refuse your healing hands.

[ivelas-the-wanderer]

4, 7, 20?

4. Is your OC good at keeping secrets?

Already answered!

7. What is your OC’s opinion on body modification?

Ivelas comes from a culture where piercings and tattoos are frequently used as status symbols, bragging rights and symbols of religious reverence. He himself has a single gold hoop pierced in the tip of his left ear, though he’s never found piercings much to his liking. However, a significant amount of Ivelas’ upper body is covered in tattoos; traditional Dunmeri designs snake around his arms and across his chest, and certain symbols of particular significance are dotted across his flesh.

While he can’t vouch for the magical use of body alteration, seeing it as being the grounds for more eccentric practitioners such as the Telvanni, he has nothing against the notion in principle. However, he is uncomfortable with the idea of having magic used on him as a general principle, and would never agree to undergo any such thing; the last time he was exposed to some manner of self-altering magickal essence, it turned his tattoos bright pink for the better part of a week.

20. An obscure/ridiculous fear your OC has?

Ivelas doesn’t really have any irrational phobias, but he is severely Argoniophobic. After the events of the Red Year, he is both contemptuous of, and terrified by, any of the lizardfolk. While he won’t be outwardly venomous towards any Argonian he encounters, having learned that such intolerance is frowned upon, he will go out of his way to avoid them, and any Argonian that persistently approaches him may be subject to a rare occurrence - Ivelas losing his composure and lashing out in fear and anger.

[sancrelatta]

attheborderofoblivion replied to your post “(i’m still here! tomorrow i’ll do replies. i just got back from...”

[ Bet it was a true clusterfuck with Pride going on in the same weekend! Hope you enjoyed it :D

(i think Pride actually started the day after i left? i didn’t see it while i was there but i saw pictures and WOW it was huge. i had lots of fun and got to hang out with friends i dont usually see, it was great!)