#ridercore

[damarcore]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Damar Series - Robin McKinley Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Corlath (Damar), Original Male Character(s), Faran (Damar) Additional Tags: working title: Corlath Bitch-Slaps A Priest, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Fem!Corlath, Gonturan (Damar) - Freeform, the author is queer and wanted lesbian corlath, but first i had to explore her past Summary:

Are you going to lay there and let it happen? the thing kicking in her chest asked her. Or are you going to do something?

~~~

(part one of?) the corlath-sol au is up!

[damarcore]

question!! do you have any headcanons for Mathin ??

BOY, DO I.

- he canonically has like. a whole daughter and family. how much do you wanna bet that at some point he brings harry to his hometown like "congratulations y'all you have a new sister/daughter/cousin"

mathin's daughter: father that is the queen of damar

mathin: what's your point?

- this one is less about mathin specifically but a lot of the Riders were originally corlath's father's, right? a lot of the mentioned ones at least. honestly i don't believe that corlath likes people enough to choose nineteen of them to ride at his side forever. anyway i bet that when corlath first became king they were the only people who could get him to Calm The Fuck Down and start taking care of himself - they watched him grow up, they watched his father do the same things, they know how to avoid an angry royal's eyes long enough to convince him to eat.

newly crowned corlath, having pulled at least two consecutive all-nighters: NO i can't take a break i have to WORK i have a DUTY to my PEOPLE what gives you the RIGHT to tell me this is more important--

a very exhausted mathin, also pulled two consecutive all-nighters so that he could make sure corlath didn't work himself to death: your mother gave me the right when she told me to change your diapers now eat some fuckin soup

(the first few years that corlath is king is a very stressful time for everyone.)

- mathin doesn't know that corlath's in love with harry until she finishes the trials, but he is ABSOLUTELY delighted, much to the surprise of the other riders.

innath: ?? he's spent like. a single cumulative week in her presence. he hasn't spent enough time with her; he doesn't know her. how can he love her?

mathin: maybe, but i have; i do; he can love her because she is like him, and you don't need a Gift to see it. she will be good for him; none of us could stand up to him for long, but she will. he needs to love someone as stubborn as he is.

- i believe that traditionally, the firstborn royal son is named for a previous ruler and the mother's father. harry and corlath privately talk it over, and when tor mathin is named, mathin misses most of the ceremony for his eyes refusing to stop tearing up.

("WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME," he says later.

"like you didn't warn me about the sorgunal?" harry asks, all innocence.

"......what sorgunal," corlath says. "mathin what did you do.")

- also can we just go ahead and remember that mathin essentially gave harry the damarian equivalent of steroids. "fuck this," he said, "lady aerin and Gifts are nice and all but i have six fucking weeks to make sure she'll win the trials." he might not speak outlander, but he absolutely knew what "drug" meant.

- probably there's more, but i can't remember them

thanks for the ask!

[damarcore]

do you....have any headcanons abt Innath...?

fam. do u know i love u??

a lot of this is going to feature innath and corlath being friends because,,,,,i want it.

- innath is the youngest rider, just two years younger than the king himself, and the first rider corlath made after he became king.

- innath is a fourth son from a less-than-wealthy family, and occasionally reminds corlath that he's being stupid about wealth. corlath appreciates innath Using His Words, because when they first met as tween-ish kids, innath socked him in the teeth during a conversation about why innath's family didn't just Have Servants to cook for them.

(corlath was too surprised to do anything but realize he'd probably fucked up. he did have to explain the split lip to his parents, who were extremely chill about the whole thing and in fact heartily approved of corlath having a friend too disgruntled with his entire existence to be dazzled by him.)

- innath cares about rules™ only if breaking them will get him in trouble. the number of ways rulebreaking could get him in trouble shrunk to almost nothing the day he became a rider. corlath lives in fear of the day innath realizes this.

- when harry and corlath got engaged harry says he danced her around because he had no dignity. i don't have a headcanon to put here i just think that's cute.

- innath has to argue with himself for a good long while before he'll follow corlath to kidnap harry. he didn't swear loyalty to his king, but to his friend, and he doesn't know a lot about kelar but this is.....morally not great, and he's fairly certain friends are supposed to stop friends from doing dumb shit. however, he can see in corlath's face when he tries to explain himself to faran that he doesn't really understand it either, so innath shuts up and hopes the woman won't cry.

- once when corlath is still very newly king he cries in front of innath. innath.......makes an attempt to comfort him. corlath stops crying to ask innath What The Fuck?

(please picture innath saying "there there???" with audible question marks, putting one hand on corlath's head, and Leaving It There for five minutes. that's what happened.)

- innath tries to be the "you kicked a bully in the face, high five here's a candy and your bedtime is never" uncle Exactly Once and then realizes children are holy terrors when hyped up on sugar at midnight. corlath and harry just laugh and laugh and laugh.

- canon can fight me out back of the arby's, innath and richard crewe Fall In Love. at first innath just thinks it's funny to scandalize harry's big brother but later goes Aw Shit. Aw Shit He's Cute. Oh No. (they eventually bond over having to worry about kelar-stricken dumbasses.)

i think that's it! thanks for the ask!!

edit: for some reason this post isn't showing up in the tags, but it IS my 69th post on this blog, and i feel like that's very in line with innath's entire character

[damarcore]

corlath: wait, harry and richard aren't your children?

jack: no?? why would you think that?

corlath, turning to the riders: raise your hand if you thought jack was harry and richard's father

the riders: *all raise their hands*

jack:

corlath:

jack: harry, put your hand down

[damarcore]

Several glasses of wine into the night, Harry draped herself over Corlath's shoulders, burying her face in his hair.

"I've come to a realization," she announced, slightly muffled. "You're secretly a cat."

"I see," Corlath said seriously. "What makes you think so?"

She slid off him, and he spared a moment to pout at her; she stuck her tongue out at him in a very unqueenly manner. "I have...evidence. You're a cat that found a human skin and started walking around in it, but never lost your cat manners."

"What manners are those?" asked Faran, enjoying everything about this far too much. "What's your evidence?"

Harry sat upright very quickly; too quickly, perhaps, for her current state, but she recovered well enough. "He's prickly until you get to know him better," she began, holding up a hand to count.

"Too easy," Innath dismissed. "What else?"

"I'm not finished," Harry said, offended. "He's also very jealous of other cats. When I'm petting Narknon, he gets huffy until I start paying attention to him, too."

"I do that when we are in bed and I'm trying to enjoy your presence without getting fur up my nose," Corlath protested, but it was lost in Harry's next reason.

"He likes to take naps in the sun and is prone to ridiculous amounts of activity in the middle of the night."

"Activity," Innath said slyly, and Harry threw her bread roll at him, then another at Corlath when he grinned at her cheerfully.

"He's also a smug bastard," Harry said flatly, and the table erupted into chaos.

[damarcore]

cursed thought

you know those sexy calendars firemen (or something) are supposed to have? in a modern au the riders make one of those

[damarcore]

a snippet of a thing i hope to finish one day. corlath is dumb and i love him.

~~~

“Where are you putting her?” Innath asked.

“The south wing is nice,” Faran mused. “The rooms on the end have a good view of the City.”

“If only she could stay in the blue house,” Innath joked, elbowing his king.

Corlath was conspicuously silent.

“Sola,” Innath said, after a pause. “Is Hari going to stay in the blue house.”

“It is out of the way,” Corlath said, staring at his glass. “It is not in the maze we call a palace; she won’t have to worry about getting lost. It has a direct path into the City, so she can come and go as she pleases.”

“It’s also a big shiny sign that says I’m incredibly intense and absolutely sure of myself,” Innath said, “neither of which are wonderful things to tell someone you’re trying to romance when you’ve known them less than two months.”

“How will you present it?” Faran asked. “‘Hello, woman I kidnapped’–” here Corlath winced– “'this is my late mother’s wedding gift, a small palace built entirely out of precious jewels, and I want you to have it?’”

“'Welcome to the City,’” Corlath said flatly. “'Here is where you will be staying until we leave for the Bledfi Gap. The laprun banquet is in a few hours. See you then.’ It doesn’t have to mean anything, it’s just--convenient.” Even to his own ears, his defense sounded weak.

Innath and Faran shared a despairing look.