#lord grimwald

[ianmalcolmptsd]

Crafting my ideal Manfred/Grimwald situation inspired by the convo with @dagbert-endless and I think it’s gotta be Grimwald taking Manfred back to his island/castle as a sort of son-exchange with the Bloors. On the surface it would be because he has access to some magical healing tool to use on Manfred, but it’s actually as insurance so that the Bloors don’t try to turn Dagbert against him (so the alliance between the Bloors and Grimwald is clearly more tenuous here).

He’s delaying actually healing Manfred because he doesn’t really have an excuse to keep Manfred there afterwards, but the longer Manfred is there the more obvious it is that he is interested in Grimwald’s power and eager to start making a name for himself in the wider endowed community versus just terrorizing some local kids and Grimwald can make that work for him too. When he does eventually heal Manfred, he makes a big show of it as a way to awe Manfred and overwhelm whatever superficial loyalty he might have towards Ezekiel or Harold, but sort of misjudges just how effective it’s gonna be. Very intense healing scene, starts to up the physicality of their relationship tho not sleeping together yet. Manfred feels fresh and rejuvenated, but the ocean-based healing had dampened his fire endowment (see what I did there) and so he is also determined to get both it and his hypnotism back, which gives Grimwald something specific to assist with and keep Manfred close and interested.

Since the timeline is so tight for books 6-8, this would all have a pretty quick turn around before Grimwald has to go back to Bloor’s with everything in bk8, so their relationship grows in intensity quite quickly, but Grimwald sort of expects that Manfred will go back to how it was before, but the time away (+transformative healing + just Grimwald himself) has made Manfred resent the way Ezekiel and Harold still treat him more as a lackey than equal partner. In a fit of irritation he complains about this to Grimwald, who seizes the chance to strengthen his hold on Manfred and takes him to bed. Very gross “I’m making you a man” vibes, he’s intentionally preying on Manfred’s insecurities and desire to be seen as an adult. Neither of them are attracted to the other, but they both see this as a way to get what they actually want.

Still figuring out where it goes from here but I am having Ideas

[children-of-the-red-queen]

Yeah found family is cool but have you considered Lost Family. your brother who time travelled away while your sister died, your father who left you in the divorce but took your sister, your parents and lovers who were killed when you and your sister refused a villain, your older sisters who don't consider you anything more than a tool so maybe there's nothing else you'll ever be, your niece her father traded away because he couldn't bear to raise her without your dead sister, your father who was presumed dead and came back alive yet never came back for you, your mother and her seven other children who will never care for you like your late father did, the parents you thought you had but who raised you for money, your siblings who fled your father's castle to live as far away from you as possible, your aunt who gave you away as soon as someone else wanted you, your son whom you abandoned because you feared the power he had over you, your mother who haunts your house like a ghost because no one there returned her love, your half-sister who prefers her maternal relatives to her father's family, your father who is bound to kill or be killed by you, your daughters who never wanted the love you gave them because you couldn't give them power, your brother who stood by when you were engaged to someone you never knew. your dead parents your dead siblings your dead wife your dead children who all killed each other the moment you turned away to grieve.

[dagbert-endless]

ranked some theories

[ianmalcolmptsd]

No but imagine shit hitting the fan between Grimwald and the Bloors and Grimwald immediately holding his involvement with Manfred over Dr. Bloor’s head. Like they’re alone and he’s like “guess what your son’s been up to >:)” I could see it quickly becoming blackmail and a power play. Especially if Grimwald suspects the Bloor’s are turning Dagbert against him.

Our minds are connected through space and time we are living in this vision together

Literally as soon as they sleep together Grimwald is insufferably smug because he’s now certain that Manfred is his. Honestly with his ego he probably wouldn’t even wait for Harold and Ezekiel to actually do anything, he’d be the one causing problems between them. Maybe the Bloors can ignore the first few times Grimwald gives Manfred a job to do when he was supposed to be doing something for his family, but once it’s an obvious pattern? Once they start to see how close the two are? How comfortable Grimwald is with touching him?

I think Ezekiel and Harold would tolerate Manfred temporarily favoring Grimwald over them—it’s their nature to scheme and make alliances, this could be good practice for him. But Grimwald isn’t being at all subtle about the nature of their relationship and that makes Manfred an embarrassment to the Bloor family.

Also as a Noted Harold Enthusiast, this is such a fun way to explore his feelings for Manfred. Would his care be based in anything beyond his own possessiveness over Manfred-as-resource? Would he actually give a shit if this didn’t affect his own name? Is he confused about why Grimwald thinks he would care about what his adult son gets up to? About why Grimwald would think he cares about his son at all? Or maybe he is alarmed to find out he does actually care beyond embarrassment and greed, that it does matter to him that Manfred is his son and is being used and is in danger. Can he hide his anger?

[ianmalcolmptsd]

Btw my Harold/Grimwald vision is largely casual sex when convenient followed by Harold trying to become Grimwald’s pet politician after the Bloor schemes go pear shaped and he has to flee the city.

[dagbert-endless]

Dagbert having endless surnames but Lord Grimwald only having "Grimwald" implies Dagbert either inherited his many surnames from his mother, or Lord Grimwald also has many surnames but managed to pick one. If they're from his mother, it implies that mermaids all have long names. If they're from his father, then I think it's safe to say that a man who chose the name "Grimwald" is likely to be the idiot who decided to name a baby "Dagbert". In this essay I will