THE FAME WOLF.

i will gently close my teeth upon it, but i will not bite down.

[vanagander]

monster of the river van.

Indie, private Ashveil of Honkai: Star Rail. Lore-heavy and mythologically-inspired, by Aldia. Sideblog to @reversescale.

Icon base credit: @floragfx

[graverider]

"you're adorable when you're mad." (from @vanagander, sorry--)

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀—— 𖦏 ⌯⁍ * its easy to get agitated & angry with anyone else making jabs at him, but it's significantly harder for Boothill to be mad at his boss . he thinks entirely too highly of Ashveil to snap at him, so instead, he just gets all sour & pouts . really just proving Ashveil right in his statement .

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ * ❛ man, knock it off .. ❜ it's utterly toothless, crossing arms over metal abdomen as the fellow Galaxy Ranger faces away to hide his tell - all expression . Ashveil was so infuriatingly perceptive, but Boothill can't bring himself to be actually angry with him .

[vanagander]

Ashveil's lips curled up in amusement from Boothill's obvious fluster, seeming all the sign in the world that they both needed to cool off. "O-ho, yeah--stick it to the man!" the detective cajoled teasingly, eyeing the cooler he kept near the industrial-sized cryopod that received plenty of secondhand cooling. Flipping that lid, he sifted through the noisy ice and produced a few beers.

"Anyway, you gonna stick around for a minute? It's not every day I get to entertain guests," Ashveil continued conversationally, clamping his fangs around the bottlecap to bend it off, then puffing away to let the cap clatter noisily to the ground. He drank a mouthful with swill, pleased by the faint buzz it gave him.

[oncce-againn]

i have this deadly sickness called remembering

[indeliblepromise]

‧₊˚ ⋅ ꒰১ ᯓ ☆ㅤ˗ˏˋ⠀ㅤ𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒈𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐 a GROWING SHOCK as he stared at the man. Not too long ago, those very names that the man had spoke would have only been gravestone markers laying nearly forgotten at Dreamflux Reef. But nowㅤ—ㅤhe knew the TRUTH. Mister Tiernan and Miss Razalinaㅤ—ㅤthey weren't just gravestones. They were Grandpa's CLOSEST COMPANIONS. And the last nameㅤ—ㅤMikhail. That was Grandpa. That was the Watchmaker. That wasㅤ—ㅤhim.

˚ʚ ☾ ɞ˚ㅤ˗ˏˋㅤㅤ⠀But that would have been REALLY STRANGE to explain to the man.

˚ʚ ☾ ɞ˚ㅤ˗ˏˋㅤㅤ⠀The memories of his Grandpa were still a bit muddled. It felt like every day, there would be something. He would look at a particular table at the train and feel the joy of the former Trailblazers gathered there. Or he would find himself on a planet and realize that Grandpa had been there before. This manㅤ—ㅤeven if Grandpa himself never met him, GRANDPA KNEW MISTER TIERNAN.

˚ʚ ☾ ɞ˚ㅤ˗ˏˋㅤㅤ⠀He thought that by now, most people who knew the Trailblazers of the past were long since deadㅤ—ㅤsave for Mister Gallagher and a few others in Penacony. But here THIS MAN was . . .

˚ʚ ☾ ɞ˚ㅤ˗ˏˋㅤㅤ⠀❛ㅤYES ! Yes, I'mㅤ—ㅤ❜⠀

˚ʚ ☾ ɞ˚ㅤ˗ˏˋㅤㅤ⠀The words caught themselves in his throat. Even if the Dreamscape was an unpredictable thing, even if Grandpa USED the power of the Dreamscape to create him, how was he supposed to explain that at all ? !

˚ʚ ☾ ɞ˚ㅤ˗ˏˋㅤㅤ⠀❛ㅤ—ㅤI suppose you could call me Grand - Mister Mikhail's GRANDSON . . .ㅤ❜⠀

[vanagander]

The moment it left his mouth, Ashveil instantly regretted the uncourteous tone used towards the boy. Normally, he was much kinder and yielding towards children, but when it came to one of his missing Rangers that had been damned from his own relentless drive for vengeance, his own guilt and remorse sometimes overrode what was often common decency. Guilt, because he alone had been responsible for sentencing those countless, innocent people to a fate worse than death.

Sure, maybe this boy was or wasn't one of Tiernan's pals from back in the day, but could he stomach the idea of being around a man who had sentenced that precious comrade to hell? He deserved to know. Especially when Ashveil was the one person who could confess to that crime, and Skybow knew this child deserved to know the truth.

"Grandkid? Huh, goes to show how old I am," Ashveil mused to himself with a mirthless chuckle, puffing a short sigh. "...Makes sense. Maybe in a better world, that would've made me a friend of the family." Ashveil's gaze cast downwards, then back at the child who seemed filled with endless exuberance.

"Anyway! Way past time for introductions, isn't it? Ah-- My name is Ashveil, technically the lead (and only) PI of the Ashen Detective Agency, but... formerly known as La Mancha, yadda yadda, First Fang of the Galaxy Rangers--" he finished in a rush, the syllables seeming to smash together as he resisted every urge to tip the corner of his stetson like a shield against the onslaught of those torrid memories.

"...Misha. That's a good name. Short for Mikhail, I'm guessin'?"

[vanagander]

A fearful avoidant attachment style forms when closeness has felt both meaningful and unsafe at different points in life. Sometimes bringing comfort and connection, and other times leading to disappointment, overwhelm, or emotional pain. That experience creates a conflict at the level of the nervous system: a deep desire for closeness that coexists with a deep wariness of it.

The result is the pattern most people with this style know well:

Wanting connection but feeling overwhelmed by it.

Pulling away after moments of intimacy.

Questioning your feelings once a relationship becomes stable.

Feeling most drawn to someone when there’s distance, and most unsettled when there isn’t.

These are protective responses your nervous system learned over time. They made sense when they formed. 

[cloudhymn]

all but a few stray strands of baiheng’s hair remained of her, carefully collected and worn in a tiny crystal phial around the high elder’s neck. when found amidst the darkened reeds of the fyxestroll gardens, the dragon prince could be found rotating the vial carefully between his talons, deeply lost in thought. out of the high cloud quintet, none of them had been allowed a private mourning. his own proximity to their beloved baiheng meant numerous questions regarding why dan feng was not in wailing despair, why he seemed to retain that stone cold countenance. he didn’t know what was wrong with him either, only that for the days since since shuhu’s upheaval, he felt like he was on the precipice of snapping.

          “   alonso.   ”

the cloudhymn around the high elder was still in a constant state of flux, the glowing script around dan feng writing themselves into existence on autopilot. personally, he used to find the display embarassing, as if actively showcasing that he was still healing from the battle. he was. he found no shame in it. the preceptors still had the gall to call it unbecoming of their leader, but dan feng had been violently vitriolic with their imbecilic opinions as of late. his behaviour was a far cry from how it appeared now, before alonso, voice lacking his usual cold edge.

          “   you cannot sleep.   ”

not a question. a statement.

[vanagander]

It was an unquestionably quiet place where the world seemed to slow down, timeless and untouched. There was a darker reason for such rumination, as it reminded him keenly of the time when he'd been stranded and alone upon Kronstadt, when everyone was dead and gone. When there was nothing but the desolate howls of beasts and the stench of rotting corpses that congested the air like smoke. When there had been no one capable of speech left, it had felt like perdition for the sin of powerlessness. Maybe that's how he felt now: powerless. From the very beginning, since receiving the prosthetic to the present time, had been in anticipation of a debt. A debt that had been paid back in full, yet it felt like another had taken its place.

Worst of all, he knew all too well what had happened to that Foxian girl.

"Huh? Oh, uh--High Elder," Alonso greeted dimly, unaware of his own exhaustion that had blunted his senses. Had it been any other time, he would've mustered a bow and a more deferential epithet, but then and there, what he felt was enormous guilt. How could this man even face him with anything less than anger? For stealing his friend from him? For damning Baiheng to an eternity within the Nihility that he'd barely escaped? The Ranger's lips thinned, breathing a sigh that must've gave everything away. Dan Feng was perceptive enough, Alonso was sure.

"...No, I guess not, but-- Should you be here...? I thought you were, y'know..."

[hsrmeta]

Voracity & Nihility

To those who may or may not have caught it, Asat Pramad actually revealed an incredibly interesting tidbit about Ashveil's Shadow and the past Galaxy Rangers:

Between Ashveil's third character story and the conversation between Tiernan in Bullet & Brain, In Our Time, one of the great unknowns is how Tiernan and the other Rangers wound up in the Sea of Nihility. As it so turns out, it's during In Ravages Does the Whistle Sound of the 4.4 MSQ that we finally understand the connection.

Simply put, the vortex that Ashveil summons seems to act as a "portal" into Nihility, which explains how Tiernan and the other Rangers wound up in the Sea of Nihility following Operation Zulo.

[fortuniis]

definitely unprompted // @vanagander said :

just fucking bites him (totes not from ashy to Asat or anything—)

❝  oh, HAHA !  so an old hound can still do tricks, h - huh ?   ❞          record scratch, somewhere off right.  it did not do much to cover up the stutter, much less the gravely groan that accompanied the last few syllables. though he bears another wrist  &  not a neck, that does not mean the sensations that would be present in such a delicate zone are completely nullified.

the lord ravagers hands that had fisted into the fabric of ashveil's collar do no seem intent on letting go, unsure of whether to throw off the man or keep him there  &  continue to laugh this off ...  ah, yes.  ha, ha, ha, ha !           ❝  bitey, who let you off the leash ?  haha …  ❞

[vanagander]

”Y’know, I think I speak for a lotta folks when I say a big, juicy steak is absolutely better than sex.”

[quotespile]

“Whatever may be noble and heroic in war is found in us, and whatever is evil and horrific in war is also found in us.”

— Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Visit Original Link

Nirvana - Come As You Are

[vanagander]

I'm going to be totally real with you guys, but I've more or less reached a decision that I'm going to go a bit canon divergent on Mr N, simply because I can't stand him and how condescending he is, so going separate ways it is. Basically, the idea I have in mind is that, after Owl's attacks on the monkey-fied Rangers on Moria Ecological Island, Mr N decides--after the Planarcadia arc is wrapped up and Asat is presumably defeated--to rejoin Rappa on the hunt for Dr Primitive and to tend to their harmed comrades. He and Ashveil part ways on good terms, especially since Ashveil will presumably resume his role as La Mancha in facing these threats head on. If he stays in Planarcadia, they still separate on friendly terms due to the urgency surrounding Mr N's shared mission with Rappa.

[spritegraphic]

Visit Original Link

Urbania (Night) from Urbz: Sims in the City for Nintendo DS and GBA. Composed by Ian Stocker.

[vanagander]

Just putting this out there, but Ashy is also 100% the type to talk his lovers through sexytimes in his native tongues (Romanian/Spanish)--

[wingscription]

“behave” hey so unfortunately that was hot and i will be listening.

[vanagander]

Hear me out: Ashy dropping the most romantic endearments in his native tongue for bae. Dragul/draga mea, iubit(a) meu/mea--the idea of him feeling comfortable enough to do that sends me, actually--

[vanagander]

Hear me out: rarepair edition

Am I alone in thinking Ashy with Aventurine could be a fantastically messy ship in the context of past Ashsee? Hear me out:

Both are blond-haired/purple-eyed

Both turned their back to/declined Elation (it’s highly implied Aven was a Fulwish situation where he got a mask but isn’t really seen with it (inb4 it’s widely believed his boss form is his mask))

Heavy gambling motifs to make decisions/alter fate (Asat = probability tampering, Aven = luck invocation/manipulation)

Both are highly nihilistic and tragic

Empowered to quasi-/full Emanatorhood through someone else (Cornerstone = Aven, Golden Blood = Asat)

Idc if “you remind me of my ex” is cliche, it’d be so fantastically messy in Ashturine—