#theorchardofbones

[dianaburnwood]

What's your verdict on the image IOI just tweeted from the Berlin map? An actual hunt for clues, or are they just trying to drive us mad by furiously looking through the shadows? 😂

Pretty sure it’s about this 

[promptisbigbang]

Day nine’s fic is ‘An Ode to Humanity: I - Strophe’ by @theorchardofbones, with accompanying art by @nooling!

Click here to read on ao3!

[ladysstardust]

 🌠? :)

🌠 In the Shadow of the Bull. Seems like a lifetime ago but I still think of that fic. It’s so good, how could I not? Should re-read it soon. 🌠Jensen/Dean. Not sure how that association happened but sometimes I’ll see a gifset or picture and think of you. 🌠 Friend across the pond!! I have only a few mutuals who are on different continent, so it always brings a smile to my face when i see your text posts or see you in my notes <3

[gladnoctzine]

Today's adventurer spotlight is @theorchardofbones !

Twitter: https://twitter.com/orchardofbones AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theorchardofbones/works

[aliatori]

Hello! The Star for tarot prompt, dealer's choice?

Oh hi friend! Thanks so much for asking. Since you said dealer’s choice, I went with Gladnyx, since I’ve missed them. Hope you enjoy some stargazing set in the universe of Artificial. <3

“On your starboard!”

Gladio’s warning afforded Nyx the nanoseconds he needed to phase out of reach from the wicked claws of a banshee. His implant scorched a hole in his brain, dangerously close to overuse, but he simply pushed past it, ignoring the burn to phase strike right into the creatures chest, slitting its throat with a kukri before it had a chance to unleash its vile caterwauling.

“Thanks, scarface!” Nyx called.

Gladio barked a laugh, audible over the sounds of pulse rifle fire and the crackling charge of one of Crowe’s electric cocktails of pain. “Thank me by taking a few more of these fucks out, would ya?” A deep crimson wave of energy pulsed from Gladio’s sword, blazing through the night like a crescent of destruction.

Falling into formation with Gladio was as inevitable as a moon succumbing to the gravitational pull of its star, and Nyx orbited around him in a deadly axis, leaving nothing but blue-white afterimages and still corpses in his wake.  They didn’t always get to engage on the field like this, just the two of them, but when they did, it felt like it evened the odds of this shithouse galactic war in their favour, if only for the length of the fight.

When the fighting stopped, when the adrenaline subsided, the scales tipped back, the far reaching resources of the Empire weighing heavy as death against them.

“These things are Scourged!” Pelna declared once the skirmish ended, kicking one of the Banshees with an armored foot.

Nyx watched as Gladio knelt beside the same corpse, armor whirring quietly as he lowered his body to the ground.  When Gladio peeled back the Banshee’s eyes, Nyx was met with two inky pools of black instead of vertical pupils in red irises.

“Yup.  Not like we didn’t know from the ichor, but the shitting things are Scourged.” Gladio shook his head as he stood. “Empire keeps up like this, they won’t have a fuckin’ planet left that isn’t infected to rule.”

“Like they give a shit about that,” Crowe scoffed, brown curls frizzed from the lightning grenade.

“Enough chatter!” Drautos snapped. “Everyone to their standard posts and report for debriefing on the bridge in 60 standard.”

War was ugly, but nothing reminded Nyx more of that ugliness than the cleanup after battle.  Burned corpses, counted casualties, scrubbing blood out of every crevice and orifice known to the galaxy… all just to do the same fucking thing again in another hour, another day, another week.

In another year, he’d be dead, a slave, or on the winning side. Nyx didn’t know which. Not yet.

He finished his perimeter check and helped Pelna with hostile disposal—two clean words for a dirty process—but didn’t re-board the L.S.S. Solas Gladius immediately. For all the carnage, the air on Cleigne smelled fresh and pure; Nyx indulged in several silent minutes of deep breathing, crouched on an outcropping of rock that was typical of the landscape in this section of the planet.  His gaze fell on the jagged obsidian ridge of the Ravtough Mountains in the distance, their peaks marbled with veins of magma, visible from an absurd amount of kilometers away.

“Stargazing?”

Nyx tossed a grin over his shoulder.  Gladio stood a meter away, stripped out of his armor and in standard issue Coalition fatigues, stupid man bun back in place. “Just enjoying some peace and quiet before Drautos reams us a new asshole for not setting up scout drones.”

“Not sure they would have helped much.  Banshees being able to shapeshift puts a dent in using the drones.”

“Sure, but they still have heat signatures, yeah?” Nyx hopped off the rock and stretched, joints popping as he raised his arms above his head. “You need something, G?”

“Came to tell you the debriefing’s about to start.”

Nyx raised an eyebrow. “You could have commed me.” He tapped his earpiece for emphasis. “Still wearing the thing.”

“Yeah, I could have, but I like the personal touch.”  Nyx didn’t need daylight to see the swagger in the words, the confidence, the youthful enthusiasm the Empire had cut off of Nyx like a limb.  As he spoke, Gladio stepped closer to Nyx, close enough that they stood side by side.

A smart-ass remark rested on the tip of Nyx’s tongue—I bet you do like the personal touch, G—but when he flicked his eyes up towards the Cleigne sky, the retort vanished.

“I’ll be vexed,” Nyx murmured, his own voice distant, “it’s a godsdamned meteor shower.”

Streaks of white light coursed across the black sky, a few at first, then more, until countless trails appeared and vanished in the time it took Nyx to blink.

“Not a meteor shower,” Gladio said with a smug grin.

“You get popped in the head out there? Concussion? Sure as fuck looks like a meteor shower to me, yeah?”

“Just wait, Ulric.”

Nyx waited.  And, after 47 seconds of waiting, according to the clock on his internal HUD, he swore under his breath. “Shitting Astrals.”

Each shooting star had begun to explode in prismatic bursts of colour, iridescent and beautiful, one point of light shattering into a hundred.  In the space of a breath, the sky filled with luminous fragments, bathing Cleigne with light intense enough to rival that of Eos itself.

“I heard about this back at the Academy… Shiva’s Grace, they call it.  Never thought I’d get a chance to see it for myself.”  Gladio stared up at the sky, looking as enraptured as Nyx felt.

Nyx was torn between watching Gladio and watching the sky, a scarred portion of his heart stirring at Gladio’s joy.  “You big fucking nerd.  Only you, son of the Clarus Amicitia, go to Lucis’ premier military academy and remember some meteor shower.”

Gladio snorted and turned towards Nyx, amber eyes sparkling like the atmosphere above them. “Hey, I needed to get top marks in all my classes, not just the ass kicking ones.”

The same pull from earlier tugged at Nyx with a different spin, a planet infinitesimally shifted on its axis, changing the course of the moons along its star.  Gladio was his favourite regulation to break, Nyx thought as their mouths met, a once in a century astrological phenomena playing out above them. Gladio’s hands found the small of Nyx’s back, and Nyx dug his fingers into Gladio’s shoulders, and for an aching instant, he forgot about the mission ahead of them and the war around him.

“Thought you said we weren’t gonna do this anymore,” Gladio rumbled.

“Yeah, well…” Nyx started, hands braced on either side of Gladio’s neck, “it’s a special occasion.”

They kissed again, and again, and with each kiss, Nyx felt more and more like the universe was worth saving.

[gladiorarepairweek]

theorchardofbones replied to your post “One month until Gladio Rarepair Week kicks off!”

Thinking of cooking up some Cordio ;)

We here at Gladio Rarepair Week are always excited for more Cordio. (ㆁᴗㆁ✿) Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

[flannelshirtandjeans]

theorchardofbones replied to your post: “Wiseman on the Slog said that ghouls look and smell like corpses and...”:

I mean I think *if* they treated their skin with salves and stuff they'd probably be able to combat that somewhat? they're not literal corpses, their skin is just basically an entire open wound imo? I think ferals would REEK though D:

Yeah, that’s true - definitely not literal corpses, and DEFINITELY agreed on the feral ghouls ashdkjashdk. They probably don’t really wash unless they fall into a puddle. :’)

ammoth replied to your post: “Wiseman on the Slog said that ghouls look and smell like corpses and...”:

YA this is one of the HCs I'm either ignoring or kinda… overwriting. You could HC that ghoul skin needs more care because it is thicker and dead skin doesn't flake off properly, so maybe you need to regularly scrub it off otherwise you smell like rot? Sand baths!

ammoth replied to your post: “Wiseman on the Slog said that ghouls look and smell like corpses and...”:

Just give Norma more skin-care rituals o7

yEAH I think I’m most definitely gonna patch a big ol’ headcanon patch over this particular thing. xD I like the idea of dead skin sort of building up - if not removed properly it could start cracking coming off in bigger clumps than you’d want and cause wounds and start stinking and stuff hmmmm. The ghoul skin in FO4 doesn’t look like it’s like. raw and open all the time, but more like scarring (a little bit like bits of my birthmark actually lmao)?

Ghoul skincaaare! Sand baths! Body scrubs! Salves and moisturizers! 

[lilaccadenza]

any headcanons for christmas (well, the eos equivalent of chrismas) traditions for established gladnis and promptis? where do they celebrate? do they have any cute, quirky little traditions that randomly started one year and they've kept it up ever since?

OH BOY OKAY. *wrings hands* Did gon be good.

· So, everyone in the world expects for Prompto to be the most excited about Christmas.  He is definitely excited.  He is VERY excited, at that.  But that is nothing—NOTHING—in comparison to how excited his loser dork of an Edgelord boyfriend is, okay?· Noctis goes all out, my dude.  Their apartment looks like a page in the damn Christmas Tree Shop catalog.  Cute little decorations and trinkets, fake snow, garland every-damn-where, Christmas music playing every second of every day from Thanksgiving to New Years, an ugly Christmas sweater for every day of December… the works.· Prompto would complain, but he loves every single second of it.· Especially when Noctis smiles.  And he smiles a lot.· That just solidifies in Prompto’s heart that this truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

· Gladio and Ignis, on the other hand, are a little bit more subtle.  Only a little bit, though.  Especially after the adoption papers went through and Talcott is officially their son.· Because of that, and because of the fact that Talcott still very much believes in Santa, they have to be very traditional about it.· Well, they don’t have to be, but Gladio’s gonna be damned if his son is gonna feel anything but the Typical Kid Experience when it comes to Christmas, okay?  Talcott deserves it.· Iris agrees, and between she and Ignis, their apartment is decorated like something out of a home decorating magazine’s Christmas issue.  In fact, Ignis is pretty sure that they’ve been in a couple of home decoration magazine Christmas issues.· Not that he reads those.

· The group of them all spend Christmas Eve at Monica and Dave’s house, since it’s big enough to fit everyone.  Monica and Ignis work together to make a grand feast that’s fit to everyone’s taste.  And that’s everyone, too.  Not just the boys, but every single member of their extended family is there, too, and that’s a lot of mouths to feed and please.· They all sit at Monica’s massive dining table and eat until they can’t eat anymore, and then (after Ignis insists that Prompto, Noctis, and Gladio help he and Monica with the dishes), they disperse throughout the house to socialize.· Prompto’s night is not complete unless he’s caught Noctis under the mistletoe at least once.  And he always does.· Ignis and Gladio claim not to need that silly kids game, but that doesn’t stop Talcott from playing Christmas Cupid and making sure that his new dads have to adhere to that tradition at least once.· They don’t complain.  Not even a little bit.

· Years ago, Noctis created the tradition that the massive group of them set out caroling.  It is a tradition that he refuses to let die, and honestly, the people of Lucis have come to expect it.· They hit every single house they can possibly hit.  They’re all cold and tired, but they all trudge back to Monica’s for hot cocoa and a gift exchange.· Most of the gifts are typical.  Prompto and Noctis are saving their special ones until morning, after all.· Gladio, though?  Not so much.  He whispers a secret to Iris, who dashes off somewhere and retrieves something for Gladio, who immediately gathers Ignis’ attention.  Talcott is a little bit confused by his new dad’s secrecy. But then Gladio gets down on one knee, in the middle of a room full of family and friends, and asks Iggy to ‘officially’ marry him. “Since, you know.  We’ve been married for years, more or less.”· When Ignis says yes, there isn’t a dry eye in the room.  Especially not Talcott’s, who calls the whole situation a Christmas Miracle.· They celebrate until well into the night, Talcott and Iris are fast asleep on the couch and being carried to the car by Ignis and Gladio respectively.

· The next morning, Prompto and Noctis exchange private gifts.  Noctis’ gifts are a year’s prepaid passes to Wiz’s ranch, a new camera bag, a personal mix tape, and an approved loan application for them to get a brand new house so that they can start their family.· “Funny you should mention that, heh,” says Prompto.· And then he surprises Noctis by telling him that he, too, was planning on proposing.  He had a ring made and everything, but wasn’t sure if Noctis would have wanted him to do it in front of the whole family.· “You could’ve done it in front of the whole world, and I wouldn’t have cared.  This is good, too, though.”· So, Prompto does.  Noctis says yes, and they take a little bit of extra time for themselves, before they head over to Ignis and Gladio’s apartment.

· Gladio and Ignis’ gifts for Prompto and Noctis are, first, their years-old tradition of finding the ugliest Christmas sweaters possible and exchanging them.· Beyond that, though, they reveal that they signed their friends up for wedding planning and home decoration magazines, and that the two families will need to go house hunting together, so that they can still be neighbors.· Prompto and Noctis bought Gladio and Ignis their sweaters, as well.  Plus a whole handcrafted book of 'free babysitting passes,’ in case they needed a night alone and Iris had plans.· Iris ended up with more candy than she felt that she could ever eat, clothing from Ignis, and a white gold necklace with her namesake flower from Gladio.  Talcott got more toys and books and games than any other eight year old child in Insomnia, most likely.· While this particular Christmas wasn’t exactly their usual for many amazing reasons, the small and unusual family can all confidently say that their lives will never be the same because of it.