#but nothing too drastic!

[snowthornes]

And then his words sunk in, and he stiffened. “The Shepherds?” His words came out rushed, urgent. “You’re— you’re Shepherds?” The dark-haired man blinked slowly, stoic and calm in the face of his teetering sanity. “Yes,” he said, straight to the point. “I am Blade Bronwyn, Commander of the Shepherds. This is my second-in-command, Trouble Alder, and my third, Tallys.” Ah, Thorne thought numbly, nearly straddling the line of hysteria. He could practically see his carefully thought-out plans crumbling before his eyes. So this is Caine’s infamous assassin-commander. He certainly looks the part. Blade looked at him as if he knew exactly what he was thinking. Thorne closed his eyes, took a deep breath… … Then flopped back onto the bed like a dead fish. A snort — a mix of what sounded like surprise and amusement — rang through the room, only to be quietly hushed by what sounded like the Norm woman. Thorne ignored the exchange, staring blankly at the ceiling. Shepherds. He thought bleakly. Of course they would be Shepherds. Of all the godsdamned luck in the world. Thorne had never planned on joining the Shepherds. TW: Panic attacks,  swearing, mildly off putting imagery (Thorne has strange thoughts sometimes).

1 ✦ “No offense, but you look like hael.”

“Do you believe in free will?”

Thorne tilted his head to the side ever so slightly, studying the man with an air of casual inquiry. The man’s apparel was all in black, a wide-brimmed hat — also pitch black — perched on his blood red hair and shadowing his eyes from view. A little smirk was sketched on his mouth. He would remind Thorne of a charlatan, if he didn’t exude such an air of… ominous knowing.

“Why wouldn’t I believe in free will?” Thorne asked, smoothly hopping onto the sudden train of conversation with nary a flinch and responding with a smile of his own, unfazed. He wanted to see where this was going.

The man waved a gloved hand, his slight smirk still fixed in place. “You know,” he said airily, “There’s the matter of the One-God — or gods, if you’re daring enough to admit it. Most believe that Xe has a plan for each of us. Some fate or destiny in mind when we’re created. If that’s the case, doesn’t that mean that every action we take is predetermined, absolute — out-of-our-control?”

Thorne lightly grasped his cup of water, keeping his face politely interested as he inclined his head at the other man in a gesture to continue. He suddenly felt all too aware of everything: the cool touch of the necklaces looped around his neck, the weight of the man’s intense stare.

Hael. Anything that had to do with that damned One-God made his spine itch. But it was too late to escape the conversation, not without exposing how much it had truly bothered him—

The man sat back and took a drink, hair gleaming like blood under the black of his hat. He gazed at him over the rim of his cup, his stare intense and unwavering. “Then there’s the matter of magic,” he said lightly, smacking his lips — Thorne’s gaze snapped coolly to his face, smile sharpening ever so slightly. He must have noticed his eyes. “In a world where anyone could secretly spellbind another — can we ever truly know if what we’re doing is of our own will or someone else’s?”

Lazily, deliberately, Thorne sat back in his seat; now carefully scrutinizing the man with a stare of his own. “Free will, you say?” The man inclined his head in affirmation. His light smile never wavered, but Thorne knew that he was studying his every move just as he was studying him.

READ ON AO3 HERE

Note: If you can't open the link and you get the 'typo in href.li.' error, just delete https://href.li/? from the link in your browser and press enter :D

Hello! Thank you very much for opening my fic :D This won't be a chapter by chapter retelling of SHOH, but more of a fic about Thorne's own experiences in Blest as himself , not as an OC limited by the (very understandable!!) narrative constraints of the game. There will be scenes that weren't directly addressed in the game like Thorne's initiation to the Shepherds, so there will be quite a lot of headcanon-ing going on! This is very much a passion project and something I'm writing for fun — Thorne Briers and the world of SHOH are both very dear to me, and I couldn't resist the urge any longer. I hope you have as much fun following the story as I do writing it!

This is an unpolished work; I'm still very new to writing. Hopefully I'll be able to improve my craft while writing this fic, and have fun doing it!

DISCLAIMER: The world and characters of "Shepherds of Haven" do not belong to me, but to Lena Nguyen. You can find her on Tumblr under the @ shepherds-of-haven. Thorne Briers is a character of my own creation, and the MC of this fic. Due to narrative reasons, there will be several lines lifted directly from the game (ex. when a canon character speaks). Please let me know if this is a concern!

#i finally finished rewriting it!! #it's... different. very different. #there's been a lot more canon divergence #but nothing too drastic! #let's just say that thorne's first meeting with the shepherds is going Very differently #i really hope i managed to keep everyone in character #i'm not very sure about the way i wrote blade speaking tbh #but i rather like the changes i've made!! #aspen writes.txt #shepherds of haven #shoh

[werewolfdays]

This is a dumb question, but do you have a timeline for all your writing? Cuz I’ve been stalking this blog and literally just scrolling into the depths XD

not a dumb question at all! I do have a timeline masterpost here (thank you for reminding me that I very much needed to update it)! However, it doesn't have all of my writing, just some important narrative beats because I think I have well over a hundred writing posts on here at this point and it was already a nightmare to sift through and organize the ones in that post.

Anyway, I hope that helps 'cause I do know that it's probably confusing to sift through my writing tag and figure out what happens when. My ADHD brain does not like to write in a linear fashion. But if there is something that isn't in the masterpost that you'd like to know where it correlates in their timeline, feel free to ask!

#asks #anon #the time between First Meeting and Methods of Control is 4 years btw #if that helps too #also the order of certain things is subject to change in the final draft of the story #there's already a couple things I'm planning to switch around to make it flow better #but nothing too drastic! #also WOW scrolling into the depths of my writing? that's some Indiana Jones shit I salute you

[infamous-if]

calling it a rewrite is becoming more and more appropriate because I have changed so much and im only on the prologue

#I wrote the prologue over a year ago #im a changed person it happens #rambling #nothing too drastic #well...aside for one thing but yk

[57sfinest]

calling harry a “can opener” was SUCH a good play for so many reasons i think about it every day.

in the context of his work, it makes him a tool. as many people have pointed out, including martin luiga, part of the hdb tragedy is that he simply cannot leave the force, and his superiors know that and are using it to their advantage. no matter what happens, even if harry hated every nanosecond of every bit of the work and wanted to leave, he can’t and won’t leave. they can leverage anything they want against him and then reel him back in with a facade of kindness when they “allow” him to keep his job, as long as he does what they want him to. the 41st knows he has this inexplicable talent with people and they use him for it. he’s a cop: that talent can be used in so many awful ways, to push so many different agendas. and they won’t even be his own. a can opener has no particular desire to open a can, aside from maybe the satisfaction of fulfilling a purpose. a can opener has no agency, it’s just a tool for someone else to use to get what they want. and he’s learned to be okay with being used as long as it means he gets to stay. his complacency with this system makes him guilty even if he’s also being harmed by it.

but in the context of his personal life you kind of... flip it. the people around him are going to be opened up whether they want to be or not, and it’s terrible for his relationships. it’s shown that the questions, the prying- the can-opening- it’s become inextricable from who he is as a person. it’s like he doesn’t know how else to communicate, except it’s hardly communication when you’re just ripping people open. he’s invasive as all hell, although whether he means to be is debatable. he’s the kind of person that wants to take things apart to see what makes them tick. he dissects people, but really that’s too delicate of a word for what he does; if he doesn’t get what he wants right up front, he’ll abandon all subtlety and go for brute force. if he can’t get your screws loose he’ll just smash you on the ground and pick through your pieces until he’s satisfied, and if what he did to you isn’t fixable? oh well, there are other cans to open. 

and he’ll use it for personal gain: we already know he is (was?) manipulative. once he knows how you operate, he knows how to make you keep him. he can yell or he can cry; he can threaten you or he can threaten himself; he can be completely suffocating or he can withdraw completely; he can be an incorrigible liar or brutally honest; he can present himself as a threat or a joke or a talent. he’s a chimera- that’s why he’s got this inexplicable magnetism, even when people know they shouldn’t like or trust him. fidelity of character means nothing to him. he’ll be whatever he needs to be as long as it gets him what he wants. the can-opening is just his way in.

#disco elysium #harry du bois #and it works on us the audience as well! #look at how many different versions of harry there are out there. each tailored to our individual preferences #we exaggerate and minimize his traits according to what we want to see. he's can-opening us too! #it's just like. of course his job will frame the can opening as a positive thing #but it's honestly one of his worst traits. or at least it is when he doesn't keep it in check #there's nothing wrong with wanting to understand people but the way he goes about it is harmful to everyone including himself #he's doing it because he has ulterior motives like 99.999998% of the time #this is mostly about pre-martinaise harry but i have no doubts that post-martinaise harry can go right back to this btw #a lot of us prefer to think of harry as drastically improving after martinaise which is great and i'd like to hope he does but. #it's also good to consider the overwhelming possibility that he will go right back to being a total shithead #and that may be completely unintentionally! which almost makes it worse! #ALSO. this is part of why kim makes a very good foil #for the most part kim will stonewall anything he doesn't feel like sharing #harry needs to respect boundaries and by god does kim have a lot of those (affectionate) #HOWEVER kim is definitely susceptible to the can opening as well #wait okay i have another post idea. #anyway thanks for reading. as always feel free to add and share thoughts! #kiwipost #hdb meta

[shortcakelils]

Lily and Cup as Stolitz makes so much sense and idk why 😭

teehee

#cddwtd #cddwtd lily #cddwtd cuphead #ask #helluva boss #crossover #it may have something to do w the fact that they both heavily crave love but are too scared to be genuine #plus they just act alike to the characters they’re crossed over with #I can totally see cuphead killing people for a job and lily being a love deprived royal who wants to be happy and appreciated #nothing that drastic #my art #lily rose #cuphead #I wanna draw them more it’s so fun dude #I kinda wanna make an ask blog for them but I already have so many #edit: ACTUALLY CUPHEAD DOES GO AROUND COLLECTING PEOPLE'S SOUL CONTRACTS FOR A JOB SO IG IT'S SIMILAR??

[sollucets]

THE EIGHTH SENSE | EPISODE TWO

#the eighth sense #jaewon x jihyun #oh juntaek #lim jisub #rowan gifs #this little moment lodged itself in my brain. i watched this series in a fever haze of all 6 episodes at once yesterday and of all of it #this in particular i just. thought about so much #its so visually nice. it's so.... character #yeah :') #i had fun coloring it too. most of it is nothing too drastic but i like. the pink :')

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

“Jason should get over being upset about his death” - he has, he wasn’t angry at Bruce or the world because they failed him and he ended up dying, which he made clear plain as day and that’s about the most reasonable a person who went through what he went through could be

anyway I don’t think these people realize how gory being bludgeoned to near death is, and maybe it's because of the limitations of the medium that scene was presented in

#not to mention he had to process the added heartbreak of his birth mother’s rejection/betrayal at the same time #like yeah he was cocky and smiling in the uth movie go Jason go but that’s also the same movie that drastically changed the context #and tone of that scene by erasing Sheila #kelseethe #I remember the first time reading aditf I got flashbacks to a Korean horror movie that still puts me in a weird place #anyway it was about a serial killer who went around killing people by beating their skulls in with a hammer #one of the plots was centered around a victim who didn’t die after the first attack and even managed to escape at first #long story short she was running around trying to get help and the cops were useless + he ended up finding her again and finished the job #sfx brains skull blood and viscera everywhere #and that’s exactly what happened to Jason you just didn’t see any gore because it’s an American comic #nor did you hear his screams and the sounds from metal making contact with bone and guts #and like I said the uth movie was pretty sanitized too same for the titans show which also downplayed his death lol #anyway I think it’s really forgiving of Jason not to blame Bruce or anyone else for the fact that they let the circumstances lead to that #and to instead only criticize how nothing was done in the aftermath #Idk I always found it a bit fascinating how it doesn’t seem to have dawned on most people including his fans #exactly how violent that experience was

[socialbunny]

But I'm only half as wrong as you

#ts2 #darleen dreamer #skip broke #💙 #skipleen #im so shy guys im so shy (runs very shyly around in circles and makes tread marks on ur dash) #IDK IFTHE LIGHTING LOOKS DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT BETWEEN SCENES ive looked at ths for way too long #but if it is...........................i sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder 🙄 #song has nothing to do with this post and i could really use it on a better post but I DIGRESS. i can do whatever i want ykyk #love that i made this completely antithetical to the fic im writing. fucking with the door open the blinds fucking open. #absolutely shameless 🙄 #darleen when she loses her job for having sex in her classroom:

[weepylucifer]

i am actually so fond. he’s a mama’s boy and he does the equivalent of still saying “my mommy” at the age of twenty-something and then gets embarrassed about it and his boyfriend has to save him and his mother “gave up a lot for him” and is his raison d’etre. like yeah i too want to topple capitalism every time it mistreats my mom

#posts by me #more of my disco elysium impressions #omg that's why his apartment is SO spotless too. he learned it all from her #having a parent bust their ass so that you can go to university is. yeah. you kinda wanna do something drastic to repay that. like communism #like you wanna personally establish communism #nothing else will do!!

[nyaskitten]

Ninjago Dragons Rising Synopsis

Just a few minutes ago from the official Masters of Brickjitzu Twitter account, we got the official Netflix synopsis for Dragons Rising. It’s interesting they say several realms, yet not all, which means there’s a chance we WON’T see some older realms.

They also say “a new generation”, but from what we know, it IS only Sora and Arin

#Hope nothing else too drastic happens w the main cast tbh #Ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #ninjago spoilers

[buttertrait]

hot girl summer

ft @glittermutt's new cas reshade preset <33

#i did mess with one of the settings but nothing too drastic! #ts4 #ts4 cas #ts4 screenshots #ts4 edit #the sims 4 #sims 4 #sims 4 cas #my sims #the sims community #simblr

[alicelufenia]

IT'S HERE

💜💜💜

#bg3 #minthara #no poison kisses just yet #dunno if that's random or if I need to progress further #but kisses are go! #it's a small thing but am so happy about it #also don't worry about Alice she's doing just fine #some minor changes but nothing too drastic #yet #bg3 spoilers #for the tadpole thing

[fluffypotatey]

I mean wukong has to know how absolutely insane macaque is about him right!??? Right?

Oh god imagine if he didnt and made a comment regarding that, and absolutely everyone just stares at him

oh you mean Sun Wukong the Monkey King? the same guy who is known to struggle with communication and confront personal and vulnerable topics? the same guy who was not aware that his bestest and closest friend blamed him for many events that transpired between them until said bestie snapped? the same monkey who is constantly criticized and berated by MK’s closest friends/family and does nothing to refute it? the same Wukong who struggles to apologize to MK because he feared that his student (more than a student now, they’re friends, they could be family—) might also lash out or not give him a second chance to make up for it? the same Wukong who, despite being an incredibly observant guy, struggles with establishing amiable bonds with others?

that Wukong?

#I’ll say at best Wukong believes that he and Mac are currently at a truce #not enemies but not friends kind of deal #they can talk but the line is stiff and solid when it comes to what they talk about #at worst: Wukong believes that Macky still is not ok with him. sure he accepted his peach popsicle but that could be because Macky was #craving a snack or didn’t pick up on what swk was doing and took at surface value #i mean what is there to even fix? they’re relationship is leagues behind the one they had millenias ago…… #…..it might be too late to even consider mending a torn up bond #but he’ll still try. baby steps is all #nothing to drastic. nothing too obvious. swk might miss macky and their old friendship but that doesn’t mean macky will or want to #in the end Macky helped save the universe because of MK and is only considering to be nice beCAUSE of MK #that’s all (<-SWK’s train of thought in my mind) #lmk #shadowpeach #lmk sun wukong #lmk six eared macaque #asks #anonymous #so unwell about this #also it would be so funny if swk voiced this aloud to the group lol #imma count this as a fic prompt

[unhonestlymirror]

A bit strange feeling of living in Lithuania while looking like... Lithuania

#fun fact my voice is also close to ht Lithuania UNLESS I am very pissed off #then my voice drastically becomes super low #and when I'm singing too #and in everyday life I have this 🌸✨️🌸✨️🌸✨️ aura around me while 99% of time I am thinking about killing stupid and cruel people #and i have giant eyebags and super slim figure because of the fucked up mental health due to ruzzian invasion... #thinking about my family's village which is famous for having “vikings heritage” #my great grandfather wanted to excavate a local landmark: a stone grave with an ancient cross. #he and his friends found a giant warrior there #with a huge sword #they got so scared that they just covered it all up and ran away #I WANT TO EXCAVATE IT AGAIN SO MUCHHHH #i am 99% sure that warrior was Baltic like come on what would Nordic vikings do in the swamps of Northern Ukraine #my village is honestly such a strange place... it's pagan #it has some Baltic and Asian heritage since like Golden Horde times #swamps and forests are such a well preserving place whatever the hell was going on there thousands of years ago still lives now #it's the jungles with scary people #it has some nasty history of incest too... and Christian sect... #it's a godforsaken place with NOTHING there except for the ancient graveyard and a couple of houses but FOR SOME REASON random people still #go to live there. and they die there. like why #u stoopid go get a job

[thebirdandhersong]

am I simply............. to be an educational pit stop and temporarily necessary mental/emotional/spiritual support for the men I love for all time?? like yes the two boys I've loved in my life I DID love with all my heart however the first only started reading the Bible regularly and investing in his church community after I broke up with him (these were things I kept suggesting while we dated, but which he brushed off and didn't take seriously) and now it's looking like I am an emotional bookmark for the second. like I'm in between one page of his life and the next, and am helping him process and am teaching him how to deal with his emotions properly, but what I'm doing for him is literally all that I will be to him, and he likely won't remember me when I move out of the dorm and graduate.

#i DO love him i DO want to help him #however i do wonder why he's chosen to confide in me. why he asked me to keep him accountable for something #that by all rights was his responsibility and his own romantic business #he IS young and he IS kind of immature in this area and i get why he asked me. i really do. he was afraid and i'm his friend. #but anywayyyyy this has been a TIME #i am trying not to be like well why is it my job to better these men #not to give myself too much credit LOLLLLL it's not like i'm drastically shaping them in any way shape or form #it's just. i know how much attention and hidden care and worry and affection and consideration i put into all of this #i too would like to experience it the other way around #where i am not the only one who is paying attention to these things and wanting to support and care for and watch over the other person #not that i'm doing anything with the expectation of reciprocity. goodness no i'm not stupid enough to expect anything now #but it would be really nice. REALLY NICE. to not be giving and giving and giving #and then going back to my room and then crying my eyes out because it feels like it's either all for nothing or has no weight to the boy #the waiting room chapter

[stareesm]

work in progress ! >:)

#⠀౨ৎ⠀𝓶arie's 𝓻ambles⠀. #i'll be switching up my content a little! #nothing too drastic though :) #also ive been obsessed with horimiya lately 😭 #like i CANNOT go a day without thinking about this show... #and i've only seen two oneshots of iura on blr?? but they were both so cute !! #i must aid to resolve this devasting scarcity though #so im gonna write something for him :)