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@thraborn-a
PINNED POST
hello ! the name’s adam (he/they) & I’m the mun of this blog.
I’m 22, white, trans, and bi. due to life and health in general, activity can fluctuate so this will blog will be more chill than anything, a place to have fun and write!
moved to fatecrafted
so the bots have basically flooded this blog - which is a nightmare. but i miss my gelflings. I'm just real terrible at blog hopping. so my gelfs will be moving to @fatecrafted - my main multi! hope to see you all there <3
my brain is useless, so have some drenchen twin doodles !
crystalcracked:
❝ 𝖔𝖍 , they’re true , alright ⸻ every bit of it . i wasn’t there for all of it … but i saw the way in which he rallied those stubborn spriton to take action . you had to be there to believe it , though … naia tells me that when they first met , he was as unsure of himself as could be , ❞ gurjin explains , and chuckles at his niece’s response in regards to the atmosphere . to think , this is so normal to him … and it’s been years since he has seen the drenchen clan this way , the days of war taking its toll on their spirits in the past . now , the swamp is alive with color and music , the loud , boisterous laughter of various drenchen sitting at the tables of the main hall jolting his own heart awake .
yes … this is what sog should look like … and perhaps with time , laesid will learn to embrace a full life … but alas . the life she was trapped in all those years ago was hardly a life at all . a quiet , lonely life without the drenchen drums , or the lively sups , or tournaments , or festivals … gurjin shudders at the thought .
❝ it takes time to get used to things , i mean … before the war , life was always like this , ❞ says gurjin as he scans the large room , the sound of drenchen drums drowning out any opportunity for him to be heard by naia at the head table . their father notices the wave of his hand first , waving back with all of the enthusiasm of a grandfather awaiting the company of his son and granddaughter , motioning for them to join them . ❝ i assure you , little lass … what you call ‘sup’ was survival . now that you live with your people , you’ll learn what living truly is … one step at a time . look ⸻ there’s your grandpa bellanji over there , and maudra naia and amri … let’s join them , shall we ? ❞ he inquires , offering his hand for laesid to take should she need it .
he knows she is not a little childling anymore , but gelfling sups could overwhelm anyone not accustomed to them . for some gelfling still , they preferred eating sup at their own homes rather than joining the sup around the drenchen hearth ⸻ and yet he has known nothing but the community sups since he was a little boy , sitting on one side of his mother and father with naia , pemma , and eliona . it was , after all , a requisite ⸻ one that offered him no choice . it was tradition for the maudra and her family to sit at the head table for every supper , and in doing so be united with their people . after all , if laesid is to one day succeed naia , then this , too is something she must learn …
survival.
laesid supposes he is right. in this thra, where gelfling thrived and lived without the worry of the ancient and evil skeksis, life was bustling hallways and wrestling in mud pits. it was a song around the hearth and falling asleep on your father’s lap. and yet survival was the life laesid had known, eating whatever smerth-staba deemed safe, cradled in the trunk of a tree rather than familiar warm arms, lulled to comfort by a steady heartbeat.
gaze falls to the head table — family. it was supposed to be hers. fingers flex but hand lingers at her side, unable to wave back or take the hand offered. what happened if she acknowledged them? what happened if she let herself in and had to learn the pain of loss in the same breath?
“I...” do I really belong here? were longing and jealousy the same? which did she feel, seeing the others acclimate to a new life so easily? jen and kira belonged to the prophesised and prophecy. laesid just so happened to survive because of the sacrifice of a woman she barely remembered to call mother. “must I sit at the head table?”
theydefy-archived: @crystalcracked
❝ 𝖙𝖊𝖑𝖑 𝖒𝖊 𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖎𝖙 . naia and i have been trying to fatten him up forever now , but he looks just as much a stick - bug as when i first met him , ❞ says gurjin , turning to lead the halfling childling down to the main hall where the drenchen people ( and some beloved guests ! ) would have their sup . last he checked , the musicians were taking their places , and the vast table was set , a separate one lavishly set for the maudra’s family and special guests ⸻ speaking of kylan , he and rian of stone - in - the - wood have come from their forest home to join them . it is sure to be a wonderful evening indeed !
❝ he always struggles when he comes here , but he never protests . the people of the plains are very different from us . nevertheless , naia has informed the cooks of our spriton friend’s … tastes , ❞ he says , exchanging a smile and greeting or two with the fellow drenchen they encounter on their way down , heading in the same direction as them . ❝ well … are you excited , little laesid ? i can imagine this new way of living is a lot to take in … ❞ he inquires after a spell or two , stopping just before the entrance to the main hall .
“a stick - bug with a large set of lungs, if the story of his song travelling across all of thra is true.” laesid was not often a sceptic - her research and experiments often fell into the unknown, all with risks and rewards that would not have been believed otherwise, but the idea of a few petals managing to change the tide of the world ... no, it wasn’t scepticism. laesid just couldn’t decide whether it left her in awe or fear at the power of the song and its teller.
the trip down to the hall is littered with noise, laesid skirting around the edges of the passing gelfling and returning only to gurjin’s side when they arrive at the hall’s entrance. so many voices. she might never get used to it. “I am hungry.” the sweet scent of cherry-squash pie wafts towards the door. laesid’s stomach grumbles. “it is a lot. I don’t quite like it - sup used to be peaceful.”
crystlshrds:
𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐃, and so she was a part of it. Jen understands her fears, her worries; if the Crystal failed, her life would wither away as well. Thra would call her back home as it had no life to give. But as Jen gazes at the Crystal, its bright white glow illuminating the chamber, he can’t help but think… If only I could heal her, too…
He places a comforting hand upon her shoulder, turning her to face him before pulling her close in an embrace, holding her to his chest.
❝ I hate to see you so broken, u’ua’nath. Is there anything I can do? ❞
the hug is not entirely unexpected — kira would have initiated it herself had jen not gotten to it first — but a warmth settles on the gelfling’s chest all the same, arms moving to wind around the other’s waist. long ears twist in concentration, searching for jen’s heartbeat. slow, steady. it was a comfort.
“this is more than enough.” kira reassures, giving jen a squeeze for good measure. there was more than enough on their plates at the moment. “to have you at my side is enough.”
theydefy:
𝖌𝖚𝖗𝖏𝖎𝖓’𝖘 𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝖎𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖈𝖙 is to chuckle and shake his head . he opens his mouth , and says : ❝ the only way you’ll learn this is by being a part of it . ❞ but the moment those words leave his mouth , he realizes how hypocritical they feel coming from him . after all , past the comforts of that first greeting and reunion with kira , he has hardly said anything to her . what could he say , when the ones who had raised her as a childling were there to greet her ? even he could see that he heart was more comforted by their presence than his own .
and so he , too , watches . wishes . does kylan feel this same way , he wonders ? does rian ? well … he supposes the mystics are long gone now . if they were still around , would jen too prefer their familiar love ? after all , for all of these twenty trine , he has known only their presence , his and kira’s own families existing only in story , no different than jarra - jen . they could never comprehend the depths of the fallen’s suffering ⸻ not the suffering they endured under the garthim or the skeksis , but the suffering under the cruelty of time ; of absence . they could never make up for those twenty trine . he can tell , even with kylan , rian , and jen ⸻ that they are meeting each other for the first time .
no different than mere friends .
gurjin takes in a deep breath . for a moment , he had forgotten how to breathe , having steeped himself so deep in thought .
❝ listen … i know the feeling . i should be happy , seeing kira again … but i’m not . ❞
“you didn’t know her.” the statement is just that, a fact spoken. there is no cruelty or admonishment — only a clear understanding. those that should be their family lingered in the hall below. they were not strangers, no, but laesid could not claim to know enough about them to consider them friends. but what was a friend to the gelfling? laesid had befriended the bugs, had spent hours tucked into the dark roots of a monster’s tree that no longer existed. a monster tree the ancient gelfling hated. “you didn’t have time to feel beyond indifference.”
fingers tap a rhythm against the branch she sits on, feeling the gentle vibrations of smerth-staba, of the essence of thra’s magic that ran through her. “but that doesn’t mean you don’t know of happy reunions.” gaze turns to the throne that sits tall and centre on a dias at the hall’s end. “you have the — the maudra. and the other ancient gelfling.” I had no one. it is a painful realisation, one that causes laesid’s ears to twist, wings to flutter sadly, briefly.
— Richard Siken, from “Birds hover the trampled field.”
theydefy:
@thraborn ⸻ plotted starter .
𝖉𝖊𝖊𝖕 , 𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖋𝖚𝖑 𝖘𝖎𝖌𝖍 from his nostrils as gaze catches the familiar , if not pitiful sight of young laesid in the distance ⸻ and yet an understanding surfaces from seemingly still waters , disturbing them in ripples that grow bigger and bigger until the atmosphere is thick with discomfort . he knows . he knows that today is supposed to be a day for celebration . it is their first time in sog … well , the old folk’s ( or the ancient one’s , as jen and kira called them ) first time back in their home . he knows that this is not it is easier said than done when his eyes scan over his surroundings and everywhere , there is knowing , and familiarity .
kylan sits with jen at the glenfoot , grinning from ear to ear as he teaches his struggling kin how to play the lute . rian sits but a pace away , carving a few gelfling - shaped figures out of wood . kira is engrossed in a conversation with her podling family in a language he has never made heads or tails of . ever since they reunited , there was so much more to say between them than what she could ever say to him ⸻ her own father . seladon doesn’t talk about it , of course . it’s so very like her to pretend nothing gets to her , but he guarantees that if he opened his mouth and gave voice to what they both felt , she too would overflow .
gurjin purposely makes his way up to one of the branches of smerth - staba , the very same laesid occupies , and sits for a moment in silence that spans a few seconds before he finally finds his voice , his hands folded together upon his lap .
❝ what are you doing up here on your own , little lass ? you know that if you merely spectate life , it will pass by without you . ❞
FAMILY.
laesid had never given the topic much thought — there had been no reason to. smerth-staba had always been her protector, the thick-yet-hollow trunk and curling branches providing laesid shelter and safety from the dangers that lurked in the bog and beyond. but family was different now that the ancient gelfling had returned. it was groups of gelfling giving hugs to their loved ones, sharing meals and shedding tears, speaking words too fast for laesid to understand. it was jen playing a lute with his father. it was kira scooping up a podling in her arms. it was naia and amri ( laesid’s very own mother and father ) trying their best despite being swept away by the gelfling that needed their comfort.
it was laesid feeling lonelier, longing, more than she ever had before the gelfling returned.
“if I watch, I can learn. I can...” ears flatten, the nimble gelfling’s legs tucked in, wings curling around her shoulders. “pretend to try and understand what a happy reunion is. I don’t remember parting, how can I understand the depth of a reunion? I don’t. I can’t.”
“I don’t recall asking.” tharhys wouldn’t deny that he was being hard on kylan in that moment — they had done nothing wrong, only tried to help, but tharhys can’t help but think of maudra mera when he sees kylan face. perhaps he had no choice in becoming son of the maudra. but it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. “take your pity to someone who wants it, songteller.”
@theydefy : “Pain is only what you allow it to be” // slides over one kylan to tharhys <3
the statement is enough to make the artisan pause, gaze wandering from the thick leather in her hands to the being in front of her. they were not gelfling — most would turn away such a person because of it. but not aster. it was cruel enough that the gelfling fought amongst themselves, let alone against others who had done no wrong. “I don’t think any heart is that pure.” aster finally responds, offering a shrug and brief smile before returning to her work. “you can have good intentions but that doesn’t mean you’ll avoid making bad decisions.”
@strywoven : "I’m pure at heart. It repels the dirt.” / kaen for either of your newest babs ; dealer's choice!
City of Ashes Book Quote Rp Meme
Second book in the Mortal Instruments series from Cassandra Clare- feel free to edit quotes or change pronouns
Usually I’m remarkably good-natured. Try me on any day that doesn’t end in y.”
“Everything changes in my life, and the world stays the same.”
When you love someone, you don’t have a choice. Love takes your choices away.”
“If they need a human sacrifice, you can always offer me. I’m not sure the rest of you qualify anyway.”
"You are mortal; you age; you die, If that is not hell, pray tell me, what is?”
“I never date anyone my cat doesn’t like,”
“He had become a monster. You just couldn’t see it…because it wore the face of a friend.”
“Growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change “
“If you really love something, you never try to keep it the way it is forever. You have to let it be free to change.”
“I don’t want to be a man, I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can’t confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead.”
“I’ve heard the word ‘fear’. I simply choose to believe it doesn’t apply to me.”
“But if you can’t tell the truth to the people you care about the most, eventually you stop being able to tell the truth to yourself.”
“You know how the bonds of family are, my lady… They cling as tightly as vines. And sometimes, like vines, they cling tightly enough to kill.”
“I love round tables. They suit me so much better than a square.“
"Have you checked? I could kick him if you want.”
“Pain is only what you allow it to be”
“As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?”
"I’m pure at heart. It repels the dirt.”
"So you’re just that friendly with everybody, is that it?”
"It does? Oh - you’re being sarcastic. That’s a good sign probably.”
"Does he normally just lie on the floor like that without moving?”
"You want to kiss me, don’t you?”
"You can’t wait for perfect behavior from everyone. Adults screw up too. Go back to the home and talk to her rationally. Be a man.”
“I’m going to get you a dictionary for Christmas this year.”
“So you can look up 'fun.’ I’m not sure you know what it means.”
“No, I’m just a very naughty boy. I do all sorts of bad things. I kick kittens. I make rude gestures at nuns.”
“Is standing by the window muttering about blood something he does all the time?"
“It looks to me like you‘re using a wall to prop you up. that’s not my definition of ‘standing.’”
“I didn’t say he was dating you, but funny that you knew just what I meant, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t betray you, idiot.”
“Somebody’s girlfriend, Somebody’s sister, somebody’s daughter. All these things I never knew I was before, and I still don’t really know what I am.”
“It was like a bad movie except he didn’t actually twirl his mustache.”
“I was alive when the Dead Sea was just a lake that was feeling a little poorly.”
“Is he really waking us up at this ungodly hour just to prove his love to you or something? Couldn’t he have called? mundane men are such twits.”
you live in my head all the time”
“Pain is only what you allow it to be”
“Fate is never fair. You are caught in a current much stronger than you are; struggle against it and you’ll drown not just yourself but those who try to save you. Swim with it. and you’ll survive”
“I can only assume that mortal emotions amuse you because you have none of your own.”
He’d pick a fight with a Mack truck if the urge took him.”
“If I made a joke about just dropping in, would you write me off as a cliché?”
"He’s terrified I’ll tell everyone that he’s always wanted to be a ballerina.”
“You might want to lie down, I find that it helps when the crushing sense of horrible realization sets in.”
"Mostly extinct is NOT EXTINCT ENOUGH.”
you don’t really get to choose your insulting nickname.”
“Sometimes he sits on the couch and does it.”
"I know. Everytime you almost die, I almost die myself.”
“There’s no need to clarify my finger snap, the implication was clear in the snap itself.”
"He’s quoting Dungeons and Dragons, Ignore him.”
“I’ll just have them change the entry in the demonology textbook from 'almost extinct’ to 'not extinct enough for him. He prefers his monsters really, really extinct.’ Will that make you happy?”
"Why would I have a spider? Do I look like someone who would collect them?”
“You mean father. I despise this modern habit of calling one’s parents by their names.”
“I’m not sure there’s such thing a thing as a normal life.”
“They confused beauty with innocence and harmlessness.”
“What I want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name.”
“Mom. I have something to tell you. I’m undead. Now, I know you may have some preconceived notions about the undead. I know you may not be comfortable with the idea of me being undead. But I’m here to tell you that undead are just like you and me … well, okay. Possibly more like me than you.”
Desire is not always lessened by disgust…And as my words bind my magic, so you can know the truth. If she doesn’t desire your kiss, she won’t be free.”
'I thought you could use the rest. Besides, you were sleeping like the dead. You even drooled,'On my shirt.’
“Honestly if you don’t start utilizing a bit of your natural feminine superiority, I just don’t know what I’ll do with you.”
“You live in my head all the time.”
“The next thing I knew I was listening to five people shouting. What was that all about, anyway?”
“I keep thinking about blood, I dream about it. Wake up thinking about it. Pretty soon I’ll be writing morbid emo poetry about it.”
“Desire is not always lessened by disgust. Nor can it be bestowed, like a favor, to those most deserving of it. And as my words bind my magic, so you can know the truth. If she doesn’t desire his kiss, she won’t be free.”
“He’d felt like a jack-o-lantern for the past few days, as if his guts had been yanked out with a fork and dumped in a heap while a grinning smile stayed plastered on his face.”
“But you can pretend I did if it makes you feel better. So, first order of business is what?”
Because I foresee many romantic picnics in our future. You, drinking a virgin pina colada. Me, drinking the blood of a virgin.”
“Only mundanes say they’re sorry when what they mean is "I share your grief,
“Because you’re lying to me. And you’re lying to yourself.”
“Don’t be with him, don’t want him, don’t go with him. Be with me. Want me. Stay with me. I don’t know how to be without you.”
“Sometimes you don’t have to search out danger, sometimes danger finds you”
“Why does it take girls so long to shower?”
“Why should I tell you everything about how I feel when you never tell me anything? It’s like banging my head on a wall, except at least if I were banging my head on a wall, I’d be able to make myself stop. “
"You always make me feel so welcome.”
“You are mortal. You age, you die. If that is not hell, pray tell me, what is?”
“I’m not unsympathetic. But do you like me? Because this being gay business doesn’t mean you can just throw yourself at any guy and it’ll be fine because he’s not a girl. There are still people you like and people you don’t.”
“When I was a little kid, I realized that if you say any word over and over fast enough, it loses all its meaning.”
“People fell in love, and lost, and moved on. He didn’t know why he couldn’t. He didn’t know why he didn’t even want to. All he knew was that whatever he had to owe to Hell or Heaven for this chance, he was going to make it count.”
“You have to give everyone ugly motives for everything they do, because ugly motives are all you understand.”
“Hate is nothing when weighed against survival.”
"And Madonna wants me as a backup dancer on her next world tour.”
“There’s nothing wild about me. I’m a solid middle-aged man.”
“Except that once a month you turn into a wolf and go tearing around slaughtering things,"
"It could be worse,men my age have been known to purchase expensive sports cars and sleep with supermodels.”
“To draw something is to try to capture it FOREVER, if you really love something, you never try to keep it the way it is forever. You have to let it be free to change”
“What you’re blaming yourself for is being who you are. And that’s no one’s fault and nothing you can change.”
“I’ve screwed everything up royally. I remember you saying that growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change.”
“He will get through this, even if he thinks he won’t.”
“Well, I hate to tell you this, but your friend is an asshole.”
n that blond head of yours to find out the truth, I suggest you cool your temper. And I know just where you can do that best.”
“What they had between them was still as fragile as flickering candle flame, as delicate as eggshell - and he knew that if it shattered, if he somehow let it break and be destroyed, something inside him would shatter too, something that could never be fixed.”
“Not himself, who was more of a cross between a panther and a demented elf.”
“We seem to be trapped in an episode of One Life to Waste,”
“I can’t believe you know someone named Freaky Pete,
“Don’t you hate it? Not ever saying how you really feel?”
okay these are very bare bones but!
aster / vapran / 21 / she, they / bisexual / born and raised on the edges of ha'rar, aster came from a hard-working farmer family. and as much as she loved farming, the gelfling truly came to life during the coldest winter days when the lakes would freeze and she could glide over the surfaces, pretending to be one of the fancy, upper-class vapran that had the free time to skate the day away. aster's passions lead her, over the course of a few years, in learning the art of shoe and ice-skate making before becoming a sought-after ice-skate maker in ha'rar.
during the war efforts, aster joins the gelfling forces by making clothing & armour supplies, working under an experienced and talented craftsman.
.....
tharhys (ta-reece) / spriton-stonewood / 21 / he, they / bisexual / tharhys doesn’t remember everything have a place to call home. he had his fathers, yes, but those things all gelfling loved, community and a house to go back to at the day’s end? they did not exist for the child of two clans, of lovers that their clans denied happiness. as a young teen, tharhys was shocked when the family came to sami thicket. and then angered, when the maudra spoke to them all as if they had done something wrong. the anger lead to a challenge against the maudra - let his fathers stay on spriton land, let them trade and live quietly, and tharhys would never be a problem again. if he lost, they’d leave. the maudra agreed. tharhys won. with a satchel of things and one of his father’s blades to his name, tharhys fled sami thicket and began travelling throughout the continent, committing crimes in the eyes of many gelfling so that he may bring justice to even a few.
currently resisting the urge to add new gelf OCs
I wanted to be loved so desperately that my fingers shook with it. I am not beautiful but i could be.
Emily Palermo, from “What I Could Never Confess Without Some Bravado.”
theydefy:
GURJIN ALL BUT PHYSICALLYrecoils at the response .
❝ two days ? ❞ he echoes , yellow eyes wide with surprise . ❝ please tell me you’ve been taking care of yourself in between practice … you know what expending so much energy into vliyaya does to a gelfling , right ? ❞ he inquires , more concerned uncle than a chastising one in this case . after all , he is quite proud that she has taken the initiative to teach herself such a difficult skill … he has been practicing since he was a childling , and he is still not at the level of skill he could be … but alas . life has gotten so busy as of late , what with the restoration of thra , and gelfling society as a whole .
❝ well … i have complete faith that you’ll get the hang of it . buuut … don’t tell me you’re willing to skip out on some tasty sup just to sneak some more practice in . i’ll drag you down to the dining table like uncle kylan if i have to . ❞
OF COURSE laesid knew what expending a large amount of vliyaya did to a gelfling — it was hardly her first time delving into magical practises. she had inherited healing vilyaya from her mother ( and all the drenchen mothers that had become for her ) and a deep connection to thra, something that had allowed laesid to communicate with smerth-staba all her life. the tree was as much a mother to her as anyone could be.
silence stretches a moment long — perhaps long enough for an unspoken confirmation — before the halfling nods and slides off her spinning-stool with all the grace of a snake crossing through wet marshland. foot gently nudges the spinning-stool beneath the desk, the wheels clanking against stray metal pieces. oh well. “he is very skinny. maudra says it’s hard to get him to eat the fish - silly, since he lives in sog. nearly everything is fish.”
