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grumpy-nyks · 11 months

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The Fernweh Saga by @lacunafiction - Davor edition

I-I think Ms. Verner doesn't like him...😳

Davor "Dove" Kovač 🐝 RO: Becca Warrick

Personality: cautious // aloof // pessimistic // flirtatious (only towards Becca ...and Reese??) Traits: head // independent // resistance // believer Past affinity: math Primary ability: extrasensory awareness Past susceptibility: forward. 'it’s better to push forward. don’t look back on the past when you have new places to be and things to achieve.' <<< his motto

🕊️ Fernweh: Davor lived a happy life there and didn't think about leaving in the future. Maybe for some trips, but he knew it would always be his place, his safe place... 'It was a mistake to come back here.' - that was his first thought when he tried to fall asleep on the first night in Fernweh. The nightmares came back as he thought they would. He wants to leave as soon as possible because he feels that it is not safe for Becca to be here.

🕊️ Gramps Dan: That was his gramps who taught Davor how to play the guitar. As a young child, Davor always admired him and believed he was the most intelligent person in the world. After the death of his parents and how his grandfather treated him, he was devastated and angry. He wanted answers soo badly but didn't get any. He lived loathing his grandfather ever since. The news of his passing stirred up a lot of negative emotions that Davor had previously managed to suppress. At the beginning of the story he couldn't care less about his grandfather, but because of his journal he started to believe him. Things that his granfather lived through made Davor even more angry at this messy town …but he's willing to forgive his gramps…

🐝 Becca Warrick: It was a ...funny story that brought both of them together and they look after each other ever since. He considers Becca as his precious (not in a negative-possessive way) treasure, he literally can't let anything bad happen to her. That was also she who came up with the nickname 'Dove'... (and she's literally the only person who calls him that, others wouldn't dare...). He had feelings for her for quite some time but didn't act on it... until now. Although he didn't express it, he felt very nervous about Becca being in the town where he grew up. He was curious (but also scared) about what she could think of this town. He felt like he was revealing more of himself to her…. and he forgot about any worries pretty fast, because the town started being weird as fu--.

🕊️ Reese Verner: Back then Davor was quite cheerful and enjoyed competing with Reese regularly. They teased each other a lot. Davor always thought that Reese had a crush on him, was it true tho? donut know, but he certainly had. ...why does he appear in his nightmares? Maybe the crush stage never disappeared...? Seeing him again was a nice experience, sure... but ignoring the circumstances, he is still unsure if it was worth it and is struggling with his thoughts… Would it be worth it to return to Fernweh just to see him... again? welp, good thing he doesn't have to think about it much, am I right?

🕊️ Sofia Dorran: The two of them maybe did not have a strong relationship, but he knew Sofia is the ideal person for engaging in intelligent conversations. He enjoyed spending time with her, solving the puzzles that gramps created for them both. Davor wasn't a fan of fantasy books, but she managed to change his mind about them. Davor knows that Sofia did take good care of his grandfather, but he still doesn't quite know if he's grateful for that or wished she spent her time more... valuably... He was tempted to ask Sofia to borrow that book she found in his grandfather's bedroom, but he thought better of it. It's better to leave Fernweh… Even so, his curiosity wasn't properly fed.

🕊️ James Corvin: Maybe not brothers by blood, but definitely brothers by choice. Davor treated him as if he was the brother he always wanted to have. Back then Davor always placed a high value on his family… until now. At the time, Davor tended to be more impulsive and James was usually the one who kept him from getting into trouble (which often involved Reese). It was really hard, for both of them, to see each other after so long. Their first interaction was pretty awkward... I would even say that most of their interactions were . James noticed how Davor changed the question is: for the better or worse? I don't even know. Everyone can sense, that things around them are different now, and they aren't as close as before. Will it change?

🕊️ Alek Corvin: …To say that Alek wasn't a fan of Davor would be an understatement. Was it because James spent most of his time focusing only on Davor trying to get him out of trouble? Did Alek observe any possessiveness from Davor towards James? Or maybe simply because of the bond between those two, which was truly something that others would envy and desire? Davor never considered it, especially when he left Fernweh permanently. :)) As you can imagine, Alek doesn't seem very happy about Davor's return… But he took an interest in his new friend, Becca, which did not go unnoticed by Davor and he isn't really happy about it.

🕊️ The Waitress: Oh boy, it seems that Davor has taken up a new hobby, which is glaring harshly at the waitress. He finds her mistrustful and he smells trouble. Had they met when he was younger, there may have been a slim chance of them getting along.

🕊️ Waffles!: So um… Davor has a little issue with dogs and because of that his relationship with Waffles isn't as wonderful as I wish it would be... However, I believe that with time and help from Becca, they will eventually become friends.

#actually about his scar i have this whole headcanon... featuring some...umm.. doggos and Becca... 👀 especially how they met #(Davor was always team cats but after that incident even more xD)#also ouch that naming scene it hurt me so much! but i get it ;; aaaa! Davor why are you being so problematic Waffles is wonderful!!!#it was really interesting for me to messing with Davor in nightmares and showing him Reese!! the feelings the emotions aaaa #also yeeaah Davor thought several times if it would be a good idea to come back to Re-- *cough* Fernweh... and then Becca happened...#generally speaking Davor has a keen interest in Slavic mythologies and culture particularly those from western and southern regions of-#-Europe. I imagine that his father has roots in these regions and he took great pride in his heritage. Often taking about it to Davor #...and since Sofia's a smart girl she lent Davor a fantasy book written by Slavic author who took a great inspiration from Slavic myths👼😊#yes it was enough to change Davor's mind about fantasy books XD he never really read one before he just assumed it's BORING!#and now I'm sure he will throw questions at Sofia about this book she found even more since he's staying at Fernweh... I can imagine how-#-they both are staying up late studying it and comparing their notes... it would remind Davor about the time they were kids-#-it seems that his Gramps gave them both the last puzzle to solve... will they succeed?#and ooohh that will be a hard time for James and Davor... that rejection at the end of book one wont help them im sure XD #about Davor's 'possesivenes' over James... Davor was needy that's true but he would never think about 'stealing' James from Alek or-#-'claiming' James belongs to him. I hope im not crossing a line here but in my headcanon Alek was TOTALLY jealous over their friendship #and Alek THOUGHT that Davor was receiving more attention from James 👀#//which obv isn't true because James would never allow it. Alek is always a number one in James' heart//#in mine too I love A!!!! 💖 they're a BABY #but i must say that Davor didn't really think about Alek's feelings back then. he wasn't aware how Alek could feel- that's not an excuse #super curious about book two and how his relationships with every single one of them will develop!!!#fernweh saga #oc: davor kovac #no i totally did NOT change his surname..

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soldier-poet-king · 1 year

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Apparently tumblr hates my concert photos and keeps eating my posts with my tag essays so HERE U GET MY CONCERTPOSTING TAGS SEPARATE and I'll try the photos again after BC if I type this one more time on my phone to lose it I'll scream

#franposting #ANYWAY. 3rd times the charm. lets see how much of my stream of consciousness i can remember #made eye contact with JD and shared a smile and that is the closest i will ever come to expressing my gratitude #for his work has saved my life and my soul over and over and over again #a boon and a comfort. and knowing that someone else has gone before? had felt it? understood it? and learned to live again #i want to live again.#absolutely broke my voice on this year #smthn about a room full of ppl screaming there will be feasting and dancing in jerusalem next year #??? nothing will ever replicate that. nothing will fill my soul the same way ever again #they played a good mix of new stuff and old classic concert bangers #ans ALSO stuff not usually in concert rotation (it froze me)#AND some stuff that i rlly just love. like hebrews 1140 my beloved.and some new force galesburg #ugh. just. so good. i was worried about being a weirdo loner #but the atmosphere was generally chill. more than half the ppl looked like gays at brunch chronically on tumblr ppl #so at least i wasnt worried about being The Most Awkward or getting murdered #also the opener was a nb southerner ans i dont do country usually #but there were. some bops #and they were hilarious in conversation #and just! smthn about loving your culture even if it doesnt love you #and you can reclaim it and enjoy it and the bigots dont get a monopoly on it #it meant a lot even tho im not from Tennessee obvs.#also the religious dynamic. the judas references. the line about glimpsing god thru the curtain. the fervour hunger metaphor #ugh. soooo good. thank u adeem the artist #anyway. i will find a setlist tmrw #i am too fuckin tired rn. got home at nearly 1am. thank GOD i took tmrw off work #tmg

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snekdood · 2 months

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at some point in the future:

*non vegan reading about a new vegan leather*: psh. bet it has plastic in it tho.

*scrolls down and finds out theres 0 plastic. the non vegan gets angry since now theres finally a vegan leather they dont get to complain about*: psh, bet it doesnt feel like real leather tho.

*scrolls down to find out the creators of this leather spent a lot of time to make it more "like real leather*: psh, bet they exploit their workers tho

just say you want to use animal leather and you were never going to consider an alternative in the first place, bud

#bc ik for a damn fact plenty a yall are gonna do this.#excuses excuses #ooo but im sure all that leather you buy is totally not from exploited workers either #im sure you take Great Care making sure its not 😒#and if you do. great for you! why do you think human lives and comfort is more important than animal lives and comfort btw?#you'll do anything to avoid hurting exploited workers yes? but having anything vegan now and then is just. off the table. am i right?#am i correct? have i read you for filth?#and then you'll tell me 'no ethical consumption under capitalism' yet you still try to avoid buying from exploited workers-#so seems like more or less you just say that to avoid feeling any guilt about eating or contributing to the harm of animals?#just say you value human lives more and move on.#'no ethical consumption' to some people means 'i get to say this to excuse any behaviors i do that exploit others and to justify #why im only considerate about 1 (one) thing when it comes to buying stuff'#but what if you could do more than that though- clearly you only buy from places that dont exploit their workers bc of your morals and #not bc you think it actually changes things if you believe in the 'no ethical consumption' argument #so why cant you ever acknowledge that you're harming animals or try to make excuses for why its fine? ik deep down it conflicts with #your moral outlook too. you're selective about what you think you can change because theres some stuff you're unwilling to change.#be real. its not because of capitalism. you think meat tastes good and you like how leather makes you feel Cool and Badass or whatever #you feel Punk and Rock And Roll for wearing dead animals. never mind that that fascination is hard to distinguish from southern right #wingers who love their snakeskin cowboy boots and hunt for sport.#they also feel Very Cool for wearing dead animals 😒 bb girl you're not as counter culture and punk as you think you're coming off as #at least native ppl dont generally do it to Feel Cool

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seventh-fantasy · 2 years

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Vegas Theerapanyakul, heir of the minor family.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how the minor family is presented in the image of traditional Chinese mafia / triads - a stark contrast to how the main family appears like a corporation. I couldn’t stop thinking about how that that means they would have emphasised on values of community and loyalty. Although the show doesn’t go far and deep into it in the main narrative, there are clues that this is more than just an aesthetic choice of their living compound and dressing - particularly pertaining to Vegas’ character (and because of course that’s all i care about).

Visually, we see that in their Guan Gong worship (typical deity worship by triads), the locals hanging around at the shophouse front of the manor, and also in the group feasts (I had such a good mini exchange in the tags with @bocje-ce-ustu about this that made me want to write this post). This post expounds on this nature of the minor family so much better in detail. *blows kisses to op*

Since we didn't get to see enough of Vegas papa outside of being VP's plot device, we don’t know a reliable amount about him to determine how his leadership style was like to have us seeing what we saw around the minor family house. Personally I just can’t take Kan’s character in ep 11-13 too seriously. He literally appears to bitchslap Vegas based on the most simplistic *handwaves* reasons and then he was gone - as if you didn’t need to go through the hassle to cross the river to get to the safehouse. (crossing rivers everyday just to bitchslap your son? that’s some commitment) The earlier episodes and ep 14 may be more reliable but it’s still limited.

Nevertheless, how did he raise Vegas as a heir of such a community? I want to think that as much as a piece of shit we saw Kan as for most his screentime, he still had a strong sense of their triad values in his blood, and it gets into Vegas as a person (for better or for worse). At the very least, he was shown seated with the rest of the gang at the table (in the above screenshot). How did such a community raise Vegas as a potential successor in general? What was his and Macau’s childhood like? (I have not read the novel so don’t @ me.)

It’s so interesting to think about those given what a complex guy Vegas turned out to be. (Complex as a character itself but also made even more complex with how the narrative over the episodes had nebulously shaped audience perception of him - like, you can get a different side of Vegas in each episode and have no idea where the fake or real Vegas starts and ends as we saw him. That ended up being a charm of his character.)

(Vegas + Kan + Macau + minor family community)

I got the impression that it has been pretty much assumed that Macau could also be frequently physically abused by Kan like he does with Vegas, and so Vegas would have to actively protect Macau. But also consider this possibility: Kan just doesn’t hit Macau at all. It’s only Vegas he hits.

Macau simply doesn’t strike me as someone who has to live in constant mortal fear. He’s innocently mischievous and sociable; clearly not as emotionally burdened as Vegas. But he's not naive. He’s aware of Vegas’ plans and whatever politics is going on in his extended family. I just don’t believe that Vegas’ form of protection and care for Macau is to completely hide all the ugly stuff from him like what Porsche did with Chay.

At the same time, Vegas is too much of a pleaser to be opposing his dad all the time for Macau to be consistently safe and stable. Especially considering that we can safely guess that him talking back to his dad at the safehouse in ep 13 was one of the first times he had explicitly stood up to his dad in some way. (a side note: the way Kan responded may seem on-the-nose after a succession of Kan scenes just appearing out of thin air to hit Vegas and galvanise the VP narrative - but it hits a raw nerve like yeap I 100% believe that’s how an Asian parent would respond to such a statement from their kid.)

That’s because Kan’s expectations for Vegas, the eldest son and potential successor, just aren’t the same as for Macau, the younger son.

I can imagine Kan putting all his attention, energy, and pressure on Vegas - not only as his heir but a chess piece in his competition with his older brother and the main family. At a cultural-social level, as an eldest son of a family, like a crown prince, he was fed with expectations that he is the leader of his people - that he will have responsibilities to them and to conduct himself with grace. But at the same time, because of personal and familial reasons, he was also fed the belief that he and his family will forever be inferior to the main family - having anger and bloodlust be seeded and harnessed in him to be used on the main family.

On the other hand, I see more realistically of Kan as a neglectful father to Macau. As a second son, Macau isn’t anything to Kan in business sense and just too young to be useful to him. Thus, we have Kan insisting that Macau is useless (SLANDER) despite Macau having done nothing to offend him. It’s precisely that Kan doesn’t do anything but the bare minimum with Macau and lets him be, that he thinks that Macau had wound up as “useless”. It checks out.

Like what many have pointed out, Vegas surely would have taken up the responsibility of giving the care and love to Macau that they never get from their father. Essentially, Vegas had to fulfill Macau’s emotional needs (to his best) while being actively hurt by his father and strangled by his expectations.

So, imagine Macau as a much younger child having to watch his older brother get beaten or go through corporal punishment (kneeling before the ancestral altar, anyone? wow I’m so original). It’s then Macau who may have been protecting or provides relief to his older brother in some way or another. He knows - largely - what his older brother has to go through, and it is this Macau who probably gets confided and eventually got in the knows of his brother’s schemes.

On this note, it’s probably worth noting that there’s after all a community around them so Vegas may not have had to raise Macau - emotionally and socially - all alone. Of course, these are merely weak ties - given that those underlings are socially inferior to the brothers and they clearly still show deference to Vegas. So what their presence can do to fill the voids of the brothers’ family life is only so limited. The important thing, however, is that the brothers do have a community that surrounds them. A community that has already pledged loyalty to the family. A community that would care and show respect - any inkling of non-hostile social interaction - to their young masters which their own immediate family couldn’t offer. A community that Vegas as a heir would have been drilled into his head since day one that he is obligated to keeping together. This sense of community, as vague as it was, preserved Vegas emotionally somewhere deep down, grounding him to be a person that still has the capacity to care for others - to be human.

This isn’t anything nearly suggested in drama canon, but the many families and street vendors working for them doting on and showing tenderness to the brothers as children is an image I have in my head.

Vegas personally has no problem being respectful and affable with the people who are supposedly lower in status than him. Evident in ep 7 (ep 7 my beloved) from how he interacts with them - addressing them in familiar, polite terms: he even calls the street vendor khun lung - uncle, inclusive of honorifics(!) It’s also in how he entertained Porsche, Pete and Arm like they’re his guests and not his family’s bodyguards. He repeatedly makes sure they’re fed: first he offers moo ping to Pete and Arm then shortly after he asks again whether they’re hungry. These are the kind of manners that are inculcated in a traditional Chinese family, in which you show respect to anyone older than you and make sure your guests are never hungry. Even if he was overdoing this just for Porsche at this moment, it was an act he was willing to put up and in a manner of his choice.

(On this note of Vegas’ manners and politeness, I can never forget how much I love Vegas politely pre-empting Porsche and co. at the beginning of his torture session in ep 7 that they would be uncomfortable. like?? thank you evil man?? that’s so considerate of you)

(Just realised that there’s even a plate of buns?? On...a gambling table...?? Minor family is serving their guests well.)

It was so intentional of the drama to dedicate time to scenes of Vegas and co. entering the market and through to the minor family manor and office, even when it didn’t necessarily have to - apart from the purpose of illustrating Vegas' character. If the Vegas we saw in early episodes hanging around main family compound was indisputably a pretense as he was in foreign territory, then this Vegas being in his home ground was surrounded by an expectation to see him being supposedly who he really is. Partly due to Porsche being around, we still see the same Vegas - but now with an inkling of the idea that how he acted with Porsche before is also how he acts daily in his own space: He has to pretend. Socially, that is who he is. (See why he and Pete are mirror images of each other). Those moments of going after Porsche wasn’t an exception he was making for Porsche as the prey and his Grand Scheme. All the more, this makes the ending scene of ep 4, the first time we saw him truly all alone, fascinating to watch.

(Vegas + Porsche)

I guess tangentially related is...how I found the Soft™ Vegas of ep 13-14 in his interactions with Porsche so fascinating because it does instinctively feel different. Was it just the effect of Pete in the most romance drama cliche fashion or does it adhere to Vegas as a character? Sometimes you have to take the way this show portrays its characters with a pinch of salt because it does take liberties with using them as plot device when it is needed of them. But I’m going to say this side of Vegas is also him. It feels different because it’s the barest we’ve seen of him emotionally yet.

Porsche makes for an ideal litmus test of who Vegas really is because of their past mode of interaction for comparison and also Vegas’ character gets to exist outside of romantic/familial narrative filters in this case. With Porsche no longer being his prey and his newfound attachment to Pete, he had nothing to hide, and now there’s even a reason to bare himself to others.

This is me extrapolating at this point but - when he calls Porsche to warn him of the impending coup - despite not actually being friends, that just *handwaves* spelt out like an act of 义气 to me. 义气 has apparently been translated as “righteousness” but acknowledged to contain cultural connotations too complicated for the translation to be wholly representative. If I had to describe the connotations according to my understanding of it, it’s an idea of a code of honour and brotherhood - in some ways favours and debt-based. So you commonly see that term associated with triads and secret societies.

At this point, Porsche and Vegas are expressively in a collaborative relationship, they helped each other out on what each other needed the most at that point. Vegas is indebted to Porsche. So, even during a time of crisis, he made sure to help Porsche out one last time based on their short-lived allyship and Porsche’s favour to him. But it was a situation beyond his control, so he pays back what he owed, and that was it. Given his upbringing, it is then no surprise that he has such a strong principle and value in him. Vegas is a villain - yes, even after falling in love with Pete and all - but a villain with a code of honour.

(Vegas + Kan + Pete)

Vegas has 义 (yi, righteousness) and he has 忠 (zhong, loyalty) too: with his father. Vegas clinging to his father despite the toxicity and destructive nature of their relationship - even if to the point of silliness and *chef’s kiss* pathetic - can perfectly be explained as something innately human. But on top of that, the way and the degree he went for his father’s approval was likely also culturally enforced given the environment he was brought up in.

Back to the Guan Gong, aka god of loyalty, worship at the minor family house. I didn’t get to talk much about this in the post I made about it but it’s definitely worth going into it here about Guan Gong:

Just as important, at the grassroots level of society Guan Yu became a kind of patron saint or protector god for everyone from blacksmiths and opera performers to triads and police officers. (...) Guan Yu’s steadfast, sometimes bullheaded adherence to the principle of zhongyi proved key to his meteoric rise. China’s emperors, who valued loyalty in their subjects, saw Guan Yu’s obedience and respect for his superiors as a value worth propagating. To ordinary people, meanwhile, it was Guan Yu’s yi that made him a legend worth believing in. (...) Guan Yu was capable of acts of cruelty and extreme violence, but his yi manifested as a strict code of behavior and sense of honor, two necessary components of any good folk hero. If anything, the flawed side of Guan Yu’s yi actually enhanced his popularity with regular people — his imperfections only made him seem more relatable. (x)

Sounds familiar.

When you swear loyalty - in the presence of the Guan Gong idol, you swear to give everything you have to the organisation. This loyalty is unquestioning and servile. And that’s the kind of loyalty Vegas has to his father. We know that he pleases his father because he craves for his father’s love and recognition - but why this way? Why is he doing it so willingly? Even by the end of the show he barely showed anger and hatred towards his father. He lashes out at the situations of being let down by his dad, but not at his dad (at least that’s what I think) - because he then goes back home and was 100% ready to go kill some people just because his dad wanted to and he never considered once he could defy that. Perhaps this is why.

So when Pete prays to Guan Gong - in Vegas’ home, it’s as if unwittingly pledging his loyalty (and obedience) to Vegas - even before he or the audience was supposed know anything that was going to happen. That’s just a coincidence, yes? While I don’t think Pete was doing that because he was thinking about swearing loyalty to the minor family but just a general sentiment of ‘I see a deity figure and I will pay respects to it for general good blessing’, it was indeed in Pete’s nature to do that. Nothing is a coincidence. Once again, they’re mirror images of each other.

(Vegas + the main family)

The first time we saw Vegas and Korn in the same room was when Macau came running in to the meeting room after getting bashed in his head. But the first time we really saw them interacting was in ep 14 (correct me if I’m wrong though). I love that scene for so many reasons and all of them are because of Vegas and it being the culmination of the family drama in the show (!!!! bounces in excitement)

This face when Vegas realised that his uncle had killed his father and was about to draw his gun at him:

It just struck me that it was nothing like all the faces he had made before when he was about to torture or kill Kinn/Porsche earlier in the episode too. This is just the face of a boy broken for life, yes?

He draws his gun but he doesn’t shoot right away. Why? What directly got him retreating was not at all Pete telling not to shoot - Pete said that before Vegas drew his gun and was standing away from Vegas’ sight the whole time. It was only right after Korn dismisses his guards and tells Vegas that he will take care of him and Macau, that Vegas stops and leaves.

His uncle just killed his father - maybe it was an inevitable ending he was expecting. But was he expecting his uncle to react so calmly and even extend mercy to his family? I want to know so badly what their relationship was like. How did they interact all along before this? Judging from what we’ve seen of Korn, I’m sure he would have been a respectable and presentable uncle. I’m sure they had family gatherings especially when grandfather (who kidnapped Porsche mama) was still alive.

Hesitating to shoot such an uncle, for a man with a strong sense of loyalty and family? Sounds fair. I would like to think that is the reason of his struggle there since Vegas has no qualms about killing people. Killing people is fine for him but killing his uncle is different. Additionally, I like to think that he was also thinking about Macau’s well-being. If he died here as a murderer of the main family’s leader, what would happen to Macau?

Also bringing us to this one shot in this same scene of Kinn gently shaking his head at Vegas pointing his gun at Kinn’s own dad:

I’m enthralled. It wasn’t an expression of anger or disgust, it was deep disapproval hand in hand with concern. Or something like that. I don’t know if Vegas saw that but I would like to see his face if he registered that. It just felt like a conscious choice to me that Kinn was shown doing this in the midst of an intense moment between his dad and his cousin. I want to know what was going through his brain.

What I would like to extrapolate from this is that there is ultimately not really any real hostility between them, personally. Just as Korn had (even for secretly manipulative reasons) shown gentleness and mercy as a family member to his nephew who was trying to kill him at that moment, I want to think so that Kinn was raised to react similarly except without the ulterior motives Korn harbours.

Did they get along as kids somehow? How have they always been interacting with each other before Porsche came into the picture? I can’t shut up about how Vegas has always referred to Kinn in affectionate familial terms - as p’rung (idk the correct romanisation), the second brother. (Hits close to home because I also refer to my own cousins on sibling terms). Even when he had been harbouring desires to kill Kinn, they’re still family. The only reason he wanted so badly to kill Kinn is the agony that he can never get away from the fact that his family is beneath his. It’s that they are, unfortunately, family.

I lowkey resent that I don’t really have much to say about Vegas and Kinn’s relationship in relation to the topic of this post. I just love them as each other’s foils - both forced to grow up too soon as crown princes of their families and main protectors of their brothers but each raised by two quite different fathers who are brothers in rivalry + Vegas having a one-sided obsessive rivalry with Kinn which is just too funny. The drama sadly doesn’t give me as much as I would have wished for. But we make do. <3

That’s all. ✌️

#kinnporsche #vegas theerapanyakul #theerapanyakul family #vegaspete #my posts #and in this house we dont talk about ep 10 vegas except how he was seducing kinn's loved ones left right centre #i have a soft spot for chinese community portrayals in thai media bc they're inevitably teochew in some way and i'm teochew #(not that kp presents anything distinctively teochew. unlike mafia lakorns set in the 60s)#it's a more reliable source of southern chinese rep than cdramas. and also ofc immigrant/seasian chinese culture too #by ep 9 i was saying vegas being the epicentre of the kp narrative was closer to what i wished the show to be #vegas and kinn's narratives are like two shoots off the same branch for me #so ideally kinn's story would also have rocked me the same way vegas does...but you know. yeah #the way you can't tell but I KNOW half of this is like me exporting my hlht brain into vegas.pdf #when i say i started watching kp thru hlht lens i mean it LOOSELY. like i'm actively shaping it in my mind to be a much fuller #character-centric family dysfunction + political intrigue drama that i desire it to be. and i had to borrow ideas from THE exemplar #this isnt even meta it's just me running my mouth off based on the most tangential clues and making sense it thru my own brain #bc i NEED to study vegas in the context of his family #of course in NO way xdq and vegas are the same. but they are a very similar kind of desperate son-heir archetype #both morally grey but INTERESTINGLY. each are on the opposite ends of the moral greyness spectrum #oH- AND THEY BOTH TORTURED THEIR LOVE INTERESTS BEFORE KNOWING/FALLING LMAO #and i had a galaxy brain moment like. i was talking about xrj and his sons the other day. we dont know how he raised xdl #but it was as good as xdq being more like a father figure to xdl than xrj ever was #and it was probably how xdl turned out so well-adjusted unlike his three older brothers!!!! lol #xdq and xdl vs. vegas and macau parallels waaaa-#anywaysss. oh god vegas. what a guy #def the most complex and layered thing this drama has #this was supposed to be a quick post but it turned into a full-length meta that i have been working on for days...wtf

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solradguy · 1 year

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I can speak any of the Romance languages just fine but for some god forsaken reason I CANNOT speak French like what the fuck is a bourgeoisie and why can’t I say it correctly for the life of me.

Yeah, French is pretty tricky... Figuring out what letters to pronounce is difficult and I can do the sounds for it in my head when I think I've figured it out (sort of) but my mouth lacks the flexibility to do them out loud haha

A long while ago I read Les Fleurs du Mal, and my copy is dual-language with the original French on the left page and an English translation on the right, and it drove me nuts that I didn't know how to read the sounds for the French so I read a crash course guide for it. It helped a lot once I realized that a good portion of the letters that aren't pronounced in a French word function similarly to an accented character in that it's there only to modify the sounds of the letters near it than to contribute in a major way to the overall sound of the word itself. My native Germanic language (English) brain really wants all of those letters to be doing something up-front instead rofl

Though, English also has its special words with sneaky little helper letters that aren't pronounced... ("sovereign...")

#asks #I dipped my toes into Gaelic and Welsh once upon a time and when I read about the letter pronunciation I was like #'Oh! French uses letters like this! Those must be from its Gaulish roots'#I LOVE the interconnectedness of languages. It's one of my favorite things to read about #Humans want to talk to each other and share cultures so much!!#Twirling my hair and kicking my feet thinking about Nordic traders learning languages in southern parts of Europe to trade with its people #So far from home and a language so different from their own...#God even just the traders and traveling people and cultures within just China alone. It's a diverse place!!#AND THE INTERNET!! I wish my Japanese writing skills were better so I could more efficiently communicate with my-#-Japanese Twitter mutuals...#Isn't it incredible how we're some of the first people in ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY that can feasibly maintain-#-friendships with people on the other side of the planet thousands and thousands of miles away...#Hundreds of thousands of years of human existence and only in these last 35 can we now do that #Ok I need to go get work done now lol This ask activated me

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torchickentacos · 1 year

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UGHHHHHH take a shot every time a makeup youtuber uploads a video on their diet or on how sugar ruined their life. paragraph of complaining and criticism of diet culture under cut, ed tw but in a very anti-ed way.

like please just tell me about mascara and stuff, I do not want to be sold a program on how to have an eating disorder. I have SO many rants about this but I'll leave it at this for now: unless done in a very specific and mentally healthy way, restricting categories of food is almost always going to be your first step down a slippery slope, allergies excluded. Restricting one category leads to labeling it as bad, so you assign moral worth to food, so you start trying to 'deserve' your food, et cetera, down you go on that slope.

#tw ed mention #tw ed #ed mention #cw ed #lowkey don't want to tag this because people with it blocked are the ones who may need to see it but i will tag #just in case it would have the opposite intended effect and just out of courtesy #apparently i have big societal advocacy opinions today #ableism. homophobia and sociology behind it. diet culture. having some Big Feelings about things today #I mean I always have big societal opinons i'm usually just too conflict avoidant to share them #because tumblr really likes to do this thing where they see a vaguely ambiguous statement and they take it the WAY wrong worst way #like ok. in the other post. i mention how southern poverty can lead to people being stuck in their homophobic church town.#and i'm waiting for the anon to be like 'oh so you're saying to give all homophobes money'#like no i didn't say that #i said poverty can lead to being stuck somewhere that nurtures bigotry #sigh. we'll see how this goes over but no angry people yet #I think because it's still in my lovely little circle #usually i only get weird stuff once a post breaches containment #but nobody here ever causes me issues #i mean it's anon but still #UGH the time i got t*rfs in my inbox after that one addition circled around #censoring so they cannot find this hopefully #ANYWAYS ok i'm done #ily guys #if you ever DO have issue with something i said then do let me know #i do not bite and chances are it was accidental #and if it wasn't accidental then i do enough college discussion boards to be able to NICELY AND CALMLY talk stuff out #though maybe not timely.... gonna go answer dms on that note actually #left them marinating like a steak

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an-asuryampasya · 1 year

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huh. I always associated chick peas with Mediterranean cooking more than any other cuisine - including my own - but then wiki tells me in 2019, India was responsible for 70% of global chickpea production.

which, huh.

something something numebrs REALLY add up even if it's a small fraction of a big number vs large fraction of a small number. a very basic concept but one I keep relearning somehow.

#also WHY are there so many different kinds of chickpea and pea all with similar names #it is UNFAIR because i absolutely love some of them but the naming conventions are so inconsistent (or i dont pay enough attention) and ARG #that's how i end up in a conversation with a friend about:#two different dishes which have the same name (but VERY different recipes and tastes)#both made with ingredients called the same thing (but VERY different in texture and taste)#both made in the same city (but in VERY different cuisines)#it was. Some conversation alright akfkshg #anyway now i'm wondering if my assumption above is a south indian/north indian thing because now that i think about it #every chana (chickpea) dish i think of (except one) is north indian #so maybe me thinking it doesn't factor too highly in indian cuisine - despite how much i love it - is because it doesn't factor much #in /telugu/ cuisine #and that one southern dish might've been my mum making a bastardised curry while experimenting (it was good tho)#(related: negative version of a shout out to the time she made apple pickle and it was SWEET I will never get over that)#(by pickle i mean the spicy stuff not pickled onions kinda pickle)#(yeah with APPLES)#that was one experiment we never saw repeated akfhkhsfg #anyway rhys if youre seeing this muri mixture with batani supremacy etc etc #OH wait nvm i take back that thing about chana not ranking high in telugu cuisine #because it is SUCH a common and important part of some kinds of tambulam and that's very Telugu i think #so mhmmm idk why i feel chana is a foreign introduction to telugu culture #also how do i translate what a tambulam is #uhh it's party favours‚ except it's not a party as much as a get together for cultural reasons and is a VERY common occurrence #sort of?#idk man I'm already very bad at cultural stuff and even worse at explaining my half knowledge because idk????#i know if i am given a tambulam but idk when all it's given #anyway i've completely lost the plot by now so uh #that concludes this post #placeholder tag

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sodacowboy · 4 months

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okay no but seriously what IS queer culture please someone give me an exact list of things

#like I know what people are trying to say when they say this #but queers in the southern US have a very different culture compared to the ones in PNW #older queer people have a different culture than younger queer people #there’s a lot of over lap yes #but there’s not really any One Thing y’know???#and I feel like when people start talking about queer culture they mean my generation and younger #they mean cuffed jeans and blue hair or whatever #and there’s no room for any nuance in that #and saying all this…..#that’s exactly what queer culture is #it does not have one defining thing it does not fit into any categories #it it feared it is shunned it is punished #it is replicated it is watered down #it is revered it is loved it is family #it is nothing it is everything #y’know??????#anyway #sometimes you just have to say some things and you eventually get your own conclusion #didn’t make me less pissed off about the thing thag triggered it #but still

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tragedyposting · 1 month

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Remaking an earlier post to clarify some of the wording

Note that strength in sense of identity doesn't necessarily mean you love living in your country, state, region, etc. nor does it mean you uncritically agree with the government of your government, state, municipality, only that you find it important to your understanding of who you are culturally.

Please reblog this version instead, the notes have gone insane on the earlier version with clumsier wording and I really do want to learn more about this. Also I will be making a non-U.S. specific version of this post soon. As usual, if you're not from the U.S. please don't vote on this poll but feel free to shoot me a DM for a screenshot of the results in progress!

#rebecca rambles

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mywifealhaitham · 2 months

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pre release boothill relationship headcanons!!!

a/n: I'm fiending off crumbs... I've wanted to read some x reader of him but theres none so I gotta write it myself. I hope the other 4 boothill fans enjoy

warnings: gn!reader, like 2 gendered pet names (pretty girl/boy), most of this is written with bias because we don't have alot to go off, obviously written prerelease, when we actually get content of him I'll definitely be rewriting

LEAKS AHEAD!!!

bc: Valentine_DD_ on twt

- Boothill is described as a righteous person if his bottom line doesn't get crossed, so he definitely treats you good. probably more on the protective side when it comes to you, he's probably not afraid to use his gun if someone is threatening you.

- and believe me he's intimidating. from his overall tough and "unruly" cowboy look to his mechanical body it leaves enemies just a little challenged. he lowers his voice too and probably has a more fierce look in his eyes too. after any threats have been delt with he probably turns to you and turns into the sweetest thing ever, a wide grin across his face and his hands on your cheeks peppering you with small kisses.

- Its said he's a bit sophisticated due to his experiences so I'd like to imagine sometimes he charms you with facts and details about other planets or just genuinely sharing some tips and tricks he's picked up from other cultures. he's also a person who can get along with others pretty well but he can easily give strangers an impression he's selfish and is a bad person.

- again this kinda feeds into he's basically you'd guard dog... but I mean who wouldn't want to be saved by a handsome and sweet cowboy. despite his unpredictable personality and looks he's a huge gentleman for sure. always opens doors and pulls out chairs for you, makes sure your behind him and okay if any danger approaches and practically listens to your every command (lowkey giving off my girl and I don't argue she tells me to shut up and I do)

- one part I'm so excited to see is what they mean by he's illiterate and using metaphors. it's probably just him using slang but it's still kinda cute. I feel like his cheesy and strange metaphors turn into pick up lines when talking to you. perhaps he'll pull a "did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" or something cheesier. Definitely a huge nickname guy, almost never uses your real name. I'm guessing he'd use stuff like doll, sugar, baby, pretty girl/boy and more teasing names. heavy on doll and sugar and just imagine him saying it in a deep southern accent... 😍 kicking my feet. also I imagine he loves making you giggle by not cursing (because he literally cant) and normally he'd get pissed if someone laughed at him like that if it's you he doesn't mind at all.

- that's pretty much it for like analyzing the leaks I saw but now the stuff up ahead is just bias yapping because I always project

- HE DEFINITELY IS A HAND KISSER. greets you by getting on one knee, holding his hat to his chest and kissing your hand. makes eye contact with you too and does that toothy smirk of his IM SWOONINGGG

- maybe he's a dancer! pulls you into his arms and places his hat on your head when a good song plays in taverns. even if your clueless on any type of dances then he'll pull you along to the beat whispering Instructions in your ear.

- gets so lovesick when drunk it drives everyone mad. any folks he's sitting with at a bar gets a whole speech on his wonderful beautiful darling who he owes his live and would happily die by their hand. and may God save you when you come pick him up because he'll be all over you. Immediately he wraps a arm around your waist as he slurrs his hello as he proceeds to tell you he loves you like 40 times. besides the mass amounts of kisses you'll receive once you both reach a private spot he let's some feelings that he might be too shy to share normally, holding your face as he calls you his pretty girl/boy and how he's so lucky to have you.

- honestly not the best for cuddling however unfortunately he needs to cuddle you to sleep so goodluck! his metal body isn't completely uncomfortable it's just cold alot. he tries to get around this by literally preheating himself with blankets before you go to bed.

very bad boothill brainrot atm... only a few more weeks until we get official content 😭 everyone hold hands we got this

here's the actual leaks if anyone is curious ^_^

#honkai star rail x reader #hsr x reader #kiana☆posts #hsr x you #hsr fluff #honkai star rail #hsr #boothill hsr #boothill x reader #hsr leaks

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wrestlingwithlife · 8 months

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Task Force 141 Boys with Cowboy (Head canons)

Decided I’d write some head cannons for Cowboy!Reader with our main boys either that haven’t written about yet or have but are so cute I wanted to reiterate <3

Task Force 141 x Cowboy!Reader

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Soap :

#1 hype man fr 🗣️🗣️

Absolutely obsessed 😍

Will literally find any excuse to get Y/n to talk just to hear his accent

After watching Ghost get man handled by him he actually begged Y/n to spar with him

Looks up southern stuff to say to Y/n

“Y/n, will you take me to a Honkytonk? 🥺”

He tries his best but at this point he’s just doing it to get a reaction

Stumbled across the song “F***** by a Country Boy” and thought all country music was like that

Couldn’t look Y/n in the eye with hearing it in his head for a solid week

Never sleeps better then when his head is in Y/n’s lap

Literally will sleep like a rock

Soap is usually the one who falls asleep on Y/n

He didn’t realize how cuddly Y/n actually was until after one fateful night

Soap had came to watch old murder files with the southern male one night

Y/n fell asleep on Soap’s shoulder, slumbering silently

When Soap went to lean forward to grab his water he was yanked back into Y/n

Y/n bear hugged him to his chest and refused to let him go

Soap cherished that moment for the rest of forever

Added ‘Save a horse ride a cowboy’ to his Instagram bio

Has def stolen Y/n hat and tried it on

Y/n didn’t have the heart to tell him about the hat rule

But he’ll handle it eventually~

Absolute thigh guy

Has been caught staring so many times

Does not care

Continues to stare 👀

Has asked Y/n to crush him between his thighs

Y/n thought he was joking

He was not

#relatable

Ghost :

Absolutely whipped

Won’t even deny it if someone calls him out

He’s all about that Honkytonk Badonkadonk🤠

When Y/n says a word or phrase he doesn’t understand he just nods along until the male walks away, in which he will whip out his phone and immediately search it up

When Y/n mentioned there were times he missed his horses he made it his personal mission to find horses for him to pet

Ended up finding a place nearby that did horse therapy

He and Y/n both went and they absolutely loved it

The horses absolutely adored Y/n and smothered him with love

The southern male was happy to reciprocate

Ghost took a picture of it and now it’s his Lock Screen

Ghost was nervous the horses weren’t going to like him

Most animals don’t like his mask

Was elated when he realized the horses didn’t care about it

They really started to love him when Y/n showed Ghost how to feed them

Ghost was in heaven

He grew particularly fond of an old shire mare

She was all white and covered in scars but she was so impossibly gentle for her massive size

The worker said they called her Big Mama and she’d was a retired logging horse that had been rescued from going to slaughter

She adored Ghost and followed him everywhere

The workers explained she had a knack for taking the more nervous horses and animals on the ranch under her wing and making them feel a safe

Ghost almost cried when he hugged her 🥺

Now where Soap liked to sleep on Y/n, Ghost prefers to have Y/n sleep on him

Was laying in bed with Y/n one night while scrolling through his phone

Y/n was already snoozing 😴

Ghost went to put his phone on the nightstand only to get yanked back

Bro was shocked

Y/n snatched him back, burrowing under his arm

Almost cried again 🥹

Price :

Absolutely adores Y/n southern culture

Has a little notebook where he keeps stuff he learned from Y/n written down 🖊️

Occasionally uses southern slang around Y/n but unlike Soap he’s completely serious

Except the word Ain’t

He refuses to say that

When he finds out Y/n feels homesick he does everything he can to help

Gets Y/n all his favorite things

Favorite candies, books, flowers, even got Y/n a cow stuffie when he talked about missing his animals

Y/n put it next to his horse stuffie he got him last week

Price is a good cook but he doesn’t usually have the urge to do it that often

But when Y/n talked about a dish from his home town he missed??

Price spent two day’s learning how to make it and getting the stuff

Whipped that shit up like freaking master chef

The cowboy was elated and gave Price the most bone crushing hug

Snuck a little cheek kiss in there too 💋

Price’s cheeks turned pink so fast

I’m just going to say it…

Has drunk made out with Y/n before 🤯

The two got absolutely turnt on whiskey and just went for it

They never spoke about it after that but when they get close they still think about it

Price misses how the American male tastes

Something definitely awoke in him the day that he watched Y/n ride that mechanical bull

In a game of ‘Fuck, Marry, Kill’ Y/n would Marry Price a hundred times over

I mean, me too 😍

Tried southern Cajun food that Y/n made once and his heart almost stopped

It tasted good and then all of a sudden everything was on fire

Did better at holding his spice then Soap tho so 10/10

Y/n’s go to after solo missions

Y/n will stumble into his office all tired and instead of pulling up a chair just plops on the floor and leans his head on Price’s leg

Price just plays with his hair while he finishes paper work

He’d be lying if he said his mind didn’t occasionally wander with how close Y/n was to his nether regions 😜

Gaz :

Trails Y/n like a puppy 🐶

I mean this boy hangs off his every word

If Y/n ever has to run an errand off the base you best believe Gaz will be going with him

Also looks up southern slang to understand Y/n better

Also listened to “F***** by a Country Boy” and couldn’t look Y/n in the eyes for a solid week

Always offers to help Y/n when he works out

Sometimes gets distracted when he’s spotting but no one can blame the poor boy

Acts of service is def his love language ❤️

Demands to know the names of every animal Y/n owns

Made a playlist of songs that Y/n mentioned he liked

Listens to it constantly

Likes to ‘help’ Y/n cook

Really just hands him stuff that Y/n asks for

Handles the spices the best out of any of them

When it’s just the two of them going out for whatever reason he’ll just grab onto Y/n somehow

Holding a hand, the hem of a jacket or shirt, or intertwining their arms

Y/n is happy to reciprocate

People will come up to Gaz while Y/n is distracted and compliment how cute of a couple they are

Just thanks them and doesn’t deny it ever

Sleeps in Y/n’s bed more then his own

Y/n will be working at his desk and Gaz will just wander in in and plop onto his bed to sleep

If Y/n takes to long Gaz will sigh loudly till he gets the hint

Always fights Soap for Y/n’s lap on movie nights

Besides Price he’s probably got the best sense of self control

He ain’t perfect though

Is Y/n isn’t watching him he is LOCKED ON

Always locked onto those cheeks 🥵

His mind does tend to wander

Y/n could ask Gaz to fake his death and run away with him and Gaz would do it in a heartbeat

#task force 141 #cod x male reader #cod x reader #captain john price #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #cod gaz #cod x cowboy!reader #cowboy!reader

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strawhbrrries · 11 months

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Cowboy hats.

pairing: dbf!southern!frank castle x afab!reader

summary: five days and five nights without a single word from frank, what an asshole. an asshole who looks too damn good in a cowoy hat.

warnings: age gap (reader is 22, frank is 52), use of pet names, dirty dirty thoughts!!!,unprotected p in v sex!!, praise kink asf, soft frank, frank being an asshole for the first like two thousand words, cowboy hate frank, no mentions of y/n, no descriptions of reader, not proofread

word count: 4015 words

author’s note: end of the road for darlin’ and frankie (probably not, i absolutely will write more, smaller, things for them, but this is the end of the cowgirl series!! I loved writing for them and hope i did them justice!! I hope you guys it enjoy it, mwah

read the first one here, and the second here !

It had been five days, five entire days and nights without speaking to Frank. Not that you didn’t try, you had been texting him. Multiple times. Just to get “read at 2:30” every time. Every. Damn. Time. He brushed you off if you spoke to him in person, ignored your texts, you would soon resort to carrier pigeon. What the fuck happened to Frankie who was calling you his girl? The fucking 180 he pulled was pissing you off. The rational side of you tried to convince yourself he wasn’t your boyfriend, he had made no promises to you, he was free to ignore you all he wanted. No matter how angry it made you. The irrational side didn’t care, he had been inside of you raw, he owes you some explanation. What a fucking little fuckboy move to fucking make.

Ironically, Boyfriend by COIN played through your car. Not now.

“I don’t wanna be your boyfriend,

When you need a little company,

I don’t wanna be your boyfriend,

When there’s not another phone to ring.”

You searched through the passenger seat for your phone once your car was safely stopped at the red light, this was absolutely NOT the song to play. Of all the songs on your playlist, of course it had to be this one. The universe wasn’t done playing cruel jokes on you, it was almost like it wanted to see you suffer just a tiny bit more. A black truck pulled up next to you, in the left turn lane. Frank’s black truck. That Frank was driving. It would take a miracle to save you from driving your car off a cliff, today was testing you and you were losing. He shot you a smile from his driver’s seat, giving you a two finger wave without lifting his hand off the steering wheel.

A smile. The nerve of this guy. The fucking nerve.

The light turned green before you were able to yell all the expletives you knew in all the languages you knew them in. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. You were meeting Tiff at a bookstore for a girls day, she was going to get an earful of what happened five days ago and the fucking nerve he has to act this way.

“I mean, he is fifty. Right? Maybe he’s just not used to dating culture. He had a wife previously, I think, so just talk to him.” Tiff reasoned, tracing her finger up the spine of a book before pulling it off the shelf to read the description on the back.

“Even if dating culture is different, he gave me his number. Said we’d talk later and has given me the coldest shoulder possible. Then has the nerve to smile at me like none of this has happened.” You whined, frustrated that this was even happening. Initially, you had planned to just be pretty and reap the perks of it this summer. Not get hung up on an older man that’s best friends with your dad.

“Does he even know you’re angry? I mean he’s not a mind reader and neither are you, ambush his house when you know he’s there. I don’t think he’d shy away from being alone with you.” She teased, poking your side and placing the book back in its rightful spot on the shelf. “Then, you can set boundaries and what not. Fuck. And make up!”

“I would sooner punch him in that smug attractive stupid fucking face.” You rolled your eyes, knowing deep inside the next time he was in your presence and willing to take you to bed that you would be there. You didn’t know how to say no to him.

“We both know that is the furthest thing from the truth.” Tiff raised her eyebrow at you and cocking her head, daring you to argue about it.

“Shut up, I’m trying to learn to have some self control.” You tried to hide a smile, failing miserably and rolling your eyes instead. “I’ll ambush him later, he better be there or be prepared to feel my wrath.”

“That’s my girl!” She laughed, clapping her hands the best she could with the books in her hands. “Make sure he really understands the anger. The rage!”

To keep true to your word, you drove by his house on the way to yours to see if he was home. He wasn’t. Fucker. You knew it wasn’t intentional but it sure felt that way, because of all days and of all times he wouldn’t be there. However, to your surprise, he was parked in your driveway. You parked in your usual spot and headed inside, stopping right inside the house when you heard the two men inside.

“How was your date the other night?” He went on a date, what the fuck?

“Horrible. She was still hung up on her ex-husband, talked about him all night.” Good, hope every woman you go on a date with does that. Asshole.

“Sorry man, you’ll find someone someday.” Your dad tried consoling him, your anger was bubbling and the next word of this conversation was going to be your breaking point. Did the sex truly mean nothing to him? Did you mean nothing to him? Were you just a quick fuck to get the desire out and then move on?

You closed the front door loudly to announce your presence, walking into the kitchen where said men were sitting at the kitchen table. Frank had his legs spread, hand hanging between them with a beer in his hand. The kicker was, he was wearing a cowboy hat, his hair fluffing out on the side. To add onto the never ending list of things making this, currently insufferable, man so attractive he was wearing some sort of red henley with the top buttons undone so you could see the gold chains decorating his neck.

“Hey daddy!” You smiled at your dad, handing him a book he had mentioned twenty times he wanted to read. Your words caused Frank to clear his throat and sit straighter in the seat, you could play his game much worse than he can.

“What’s the occasion, honey?” He always had weird ways of saying thank you, as in he never really did and would instead pay you back by making your favorite food for dinner tomorrow or ordering a dress you really wanted. You figured it was just how he grew up.

“You deserve it, daddy! You do so much for me and treat me so well! I’m gonna take a shower.” And with that you were off up the stairs, flipping Frank off once you got to a point in the stairs where the wall covered you.

You locked your bedroom door. He didn’t need to come in here and desecrate your room anymore than he already had. If he didn’t have such a big dick and fantastic hands you would’ve murdered him already, why bless bad men with great appendages.

Your mind raked itself for answers, you truly couldn’t come up with one that didn’t end with you not being good enough for him. The date was the trulying baffling part to you, the cold shoulder you could deal with just fine but the date was just cruel. If he didn’t want you he shouldn’t have left his number, shouldn’t have fucked you within an inch of you life, shouldn’t have called you his. He shouldn’t have even read the messages, deleted them and blocked your number. He read them and actively chose to not respond, you didn’t know if it was any worse than just blocking you. If the universe was cruel, Frank castle was worse.

Your door knob jiggled, quite a few times before you heard the sound of boots going downstairs. You knew he would come up here and try to act like it was all peachy keen, like he hadn’t been twisting the knife he placed in your back. Your phone dinged.

I know you heard, at least let me explain.

You scoffed, rolling your eyes at the absolute nerve he has had today.

No.

Darlin’, please.

Fuck off, Frank.

Fucking COIN was right, he didn’t want to be your boyfriend. How fucking foolish could you have been. How could you imagine he’d settle down for a twenty-two year old girl who was related to his best friend. You flopped down on your bed and let out a very long, very needed, scream. The tears started coming, you hadn’t been this emotional in a very long time, the tears you had initially shed over Frank turned into tears over everything you’d bottled up. Your tears comforted you into dreamland. You awoke to four texts from Frank.

It’s not how it seems. Sent 9:30pm

Darlin’ I swear, I had to do it. Sent 10:05pm

Two nights with you has me ready to fill every ocean with blood, sweat, and tears for you so don’t act like that. Sent 5am

Your dad set up the date, I couldn’t not go. Was I supposed to tell him I’d rather be fucking his daughter? Sent 5:30am

It didn’t matter to you that your dad set the whole thing up, you responded with a simple yes and placed your phone back on the nightstand you picked it up from. Men are so stupid, you could think of two ways he could’ve gotten out of the date without you being involved. Still doesn’t explain the five day freeze out, if he had been honest about the date it wouldn’t have mattered . As much. He better come up with the best damn excuse for this shit or you swore you’d never speak to him again.

Frank’s phone dinged in his pocket, he’d been waiting all morning for you to respond. He knew you would, just as you were his vice. He was yours. The second you walked in the kitchen last night it was taking all his self control to not pull you onto his lap, continue his conversation with your dad, trailing his fingers up and down your leg. He knew you were angry with him, you had every right to be, but he didn’t know how to even begin explaining the situation. Your dad was being suspicious, he thought it was odd that Frank spent an extended amount of time in your room the other night, thought it was weird that everytime your name was mentioned Frank’s nostrils flared and his jaw tightened. It was your dad who suggested setting up the date, watched Frank’s face as he brought it up to see if he’d give away anything. Frank was saving you both, he was doing this for you. In some twisted way.

The date happened the night after he slept with you, he felt guilty to have gone behind your back. He didn’t want to see you look so excited to see him when he felt tainted. He didn’t do anything with the woman, opened her car door and moved back her seat but he never once laid a finger on her. Her smile wasn’t as sweet as yours, her laugh not as gentle and filling, and she wasn’t nearly as beautiful. Frank spent most of the date thinking of you and how he wished it was you in front of him, not this woman who couldn’t be bothered to speak of anything besides her ex-husband. He thought she’d get the hint that he was bored, he stopped responding to her questions and was now scanning the restaurant making up stories about the other patrons to pass the time.

He just wanted to be with His cowgirl.

Seeing you in your car yesterday made the guilt twist in his heart, he needed to speak to you. But you didn’t want to speak to him, especially not after what you heard in the house. That’s why when his phone dinged and he had the feeling it was you, his face lifted and he was filled with a warmth only you could give to him. The one word you replied with had made the past five days almost bearable.

You know I can’t do that. Can I see you after work? Please, darlin’

He placed his phone back into his back pocket, taking a deep breath as he awaited your response. God, he hoped you responded. It didn’t matter if you didn’t say a word to him the whole time he explained it, he needed to see you and he needed you to understand why he did what he did. He meant what he said, he’d fill every ocean on the fucking planet with blood, sweat and tears if it meant your happiness. He’d go back to the life he left to ensure your safety.

Fine.

If the rest of the day was the worst day possible he could deal with that, he could deal with anything as long as it meant getting to see you when he got off. He truly didn’t know how you would react or what it meant for the two of you going forward. He could only hope for the best. Whatever that even was.

You spent the rest of the day thinking about what he could possibly explain to you, it was clear that he wasn’t as interested as you thought before. Would you even believe it, whatever his excuse was? Or would you immediately forgive him because it meant he would be back in your life, would you forget it even happened and go back to playing girlfriend. You wanted to forget, to act like it never hurt, but you wanted him to understand how it felt. To be treated like the top of the world and then dumped like you meant nothing.

You wore red.

That was the first thing Frank noticed as you walked up his driveway clad in a flowy red sundress, you remembered his favorite color and the conversation about wearing it the next time you saw him. Forgiveness was in there somewhere, he knew it. You noticed he was wearing that damn cowboy hat again, damn he was playing a hard game.

“Thanks for coming darlin’, I was kinda worried you wouldn’t.” He didn’t stand up from his chair on the porch to greet you, in some way you were kinda glad but you mostly figured it’s because you’re on his porch and everyone can see.

“Yeah, I just hope you’ve got something real good up your sleeve.” You responded bluntly, sitting in the chair next to him and smoothing your dress out. “You’re an asshole, Frankie.’

“I know, I fuckin’ know baby. Just listen, okay? I’ll explain and then you can fuckin’ obliterate me but I need you to listen.” He sat up straighter, reaching to take one of your hands in his, rubbing his thumb across the top.

“We don’t have all night, I suggest you start talking.” He could’ve swore he saw a hint of a smile playing on your lips as you spoke.

“Your dad, I know I can’t blame it all on him. He came to me, after I left your room, and he hinted he was a bit suspicious of us. What he said doesn’t matter, just know he was suspicious. He said he had a date planned for me, thought it would be nice for me to meet a woman ‘my own age’ and gave me the information. Darlin’, if I said no he would’ve caught on the next time I spent more than a minute with you, I did this for us. For you, baby. I didn’t touch her, barely spoke the whole time. She spent more time talking about her ex-husband, I’m not sure she even knew my name,” you giggled at that, she didn’t deserve to know him,”Took her home, didn’t give her my number. Nothin’. I came here and thought of you, all night. Thought about how I was supposed to tell you. I felt gross, and I’ve done bad things darlin’. Bad things.”

“I don’t care what bad things you’ve done, because that’s not you. Not now.” You whispered, taking your free hand and caressing his cheek. He leaned into your touch, so soft and warm.

“That’s the thing, I’d do it again. I’d do all those bad things again, for you.” He admitted, watching you process his words. It should’ve scared you, should’ve made you run off his porch and block his number. It excited you, made your core throbbed at the thought of someone loving you enough to do those ‘bad things’ he spoke of. You were smart enough to make your own conclusions about what he meant.

“But why did you ignore me? That really hurt, Frankie. It really fucking sucked.”

“I told you. I felt gross, undeserving of you. I went on a date with someone who wasn’t you and it was eating at me, even if my reasons were just.” He truly looked apologetic, you came here looking to stick it to him but you melted the second he started talking. He did it for you and you were sat thinking he just didn’t like you and wanted a quick fuck.

“Frankie..” You whispered, looking at him like he’d hung the moon and all the stars. Scanning the other houses to predict who could’ve seen you here.

“Don’t do that. Don’t look at me like that, darlin’.” He groaned, tipping his head back and squeezing his eyes shut. You were a goddamn dream.

“I’d like a tour of your bed.” You giggled, the way you figured was he at least owed you some sort of makeup sex. You were melting the second he said he’d do bad things for you, he had to fix the problem he started.

“Mmm I can arrange that, c’mon cowgirl.” He tightened the grasp on the hand he was holding and led you inside, it smelled just like he did. Slight scent of gunpowder, tobacco from the cigars he smoked with your father, some sort of leather and coffee. You could drown yourself in the scent.

“Your place is so…you.” You observed. There were more cowboy hats hung up by the door, more boots on the floor, a whiskey cabinet in the living room which led you to assume everything else was held in his kitchen, the lighting was dim.

“Might shock ya to hear that I live here.” He teased, leading you through the kitchen and down a hallway to his bedroom. His room was sparsely decorated, he was only a man what could he say.

“I would’ve never guessed.” You smiled, letting go of his hand to flop down on his bed. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as yours, didn’t have nearly as many blankets and pillows.

Frank slid his hands down your thighs as they hung off the bed, admiring the sight of you in his bed. He didn’t deserve you or what you were about to give him. But Frank Castle was a greedy man, he’d take everything you were willing to give. Especially when it came to you. He slowly massaged your thighs, moving both hands to one of your legs and massaging all the way down. You propped yourself on your elbows, watching him curiously as he massaged you.

“What’re you doing, Frankie?” You asked softly, genuine curiosity present in your voice. His lips lifted at the nickname, as they did every time you called him that since the first time.

“Jus’ lovin’ on my lady, do you have a problem with that?” He tilted his head down and raised an eyebrow, the cowboy hat slipping a bit as he did so.

“Nope, no problems. Just thought you were gonna take me to bed, ‘s all.”

“You know how to pick my brain, findin’ all the right things to say and when to say ‘em. My pretty girl, made just for me. Ain’t that right?” He let go of your leg, hiking your dress up so he didn’t sit on it when he straddled your waist. “Knew this was gonna happen, huh? Did ya find the laciest red panties you could find? You got words, I know you do.”

“For you, told you I’d do it.” You pulled the top of the dress down to realize the matching lacy red bra, all for your Frankie. He let out a low groan, you were too good to a man who didn’t deserve you. Too tainted to touch the pureness of your soul.

Frank helped you out of your dress, throwing it into the corner of his room, he stared at you a long time. The matching red set was something out of his dreams, he wanted to sear the image of you wearing it in his bed in his head forever. He ran his hands over your stomach, your thighs, anywhere his hands could reach. It’s crazy how fast a person can come to mean so much to you, especially when they’d been around for years. One night changed everything for the both of you, changed the meaning of love for Frank. He’d figure out how to get your dad on board late, for tonight you were his sweet thing to make sweet love to.

The cowboy hat was left on at your request, he didn’t mind as long as you kept letting the giggles out when it bumped your forehead as he thrusted up into you. Your red bra was left on at his request, a reminder that this was all for him. That it was all real and not some cruel dream. Your moans and whimpers a sweet symphony to his ears, he’d pay over and over and over to hear. Your nails gripping his back, when he checked in the mirror later that evening it’d be adorned with light pink scratches and half moons scattered across it, holding onto him like he was going to disappear again. His thrusts were slow but deep, hitting all the right spots inside you, his hands holding your head to look at him as he showed you everything he couldn’t say with words.

His words were equally dirty and sweet, just like him.

“Pretty baby, you feel how you’re squeezin’ me?”

“God, gonna lock you away. Keep you all to myself, use you when I want. Make you my pretty housewife.”

“”S alright baby, Frankie’s got you. Gonna take good care of this pussy, make ‘er feel good.”

The two of you came together, he talked you softly through the whole thing. Peppered kisses across your face and down your neck, praising you for how good you did even though he did all the work. He traced his initials, FC, above your heart with his fingers before placing a kiss right where he traced. Marking you, invisibly, as his forever and ever.

“Don’t ever go on another date with another woman.” You teased softly, looking up at him when you came to.

“I’m not doin’ nothin’ with another woman that’s not you. Promise, darlin’.” He placed a soft kiss to your lips, nipping at your bottom lip and pulling away to look at your face. He wiped away the sweaty hairs that had stuck themselves to your face.

“Good, my Frankie.”

“Your Frankie.” He’d softened in his older years, in his years with you he’d soften even more than previously thought. Frankie, as he came to be known to everyone you introduced him to, never could say no to you. That included the day you decided you wanted to tell your dad about him, you were tired of sneaking around. Even if it was fun. You’d been in an actual established relationship for a while at that point, he was going to find out eventually. In true Frankie fashion he sighed, shot back the rest of his whiskey and said Okay, darlin’. The mental battle he fought, briefly, about you lost the second you assured him you’d traverse it together. Loving you was the best thing Frank Castle would ever come to do in all his life.

#frank castle #jon bernthal #dbf frank castle #frank castle smut #frank castle x reader #frank castle x you #maddies fics #dads best friend frank castle #dads best friend #the punisher #jon bernthal smut #fic: cowgirl <3

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lsdoiphin · 4 months

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Foods of Vestur

@broncoburro and @chocodile provoked me into doing some illustrated worldbuilding for Forever Gold ( @forevergoldgame ), an endeavor I was happy to undertake. Unbeknownst to me, it would take the better part of a week to draw.

In the process, I conjured about an essay's worth of fantasy food worldbuilding, but I'm going to try and keep things digestible (pardon my pun). Lore under the cut:

The Middle Kingdom

The Middle Kingdom has ample land, and its soil, landscapes, and temperate climate are amenable to growing a variety of crops and raising large quantities of livestock. The Midland palate prefers fresh ingredients with minimal seasoning; if a dish requires a strong taste, a cook is more likely to reach for a sharp cheese than they are to open their spice drawer. Detractors of Middle Kingdom cuisine describe it as bland, but its flavor relies on the quality of its components more than anything.

KEY CROPS: wheat, potatoes, carrots, green beans, apples, pears, and grapes KEY LIVESTOCK: Midland goats, fowl, and hogs

ROAST FOWL: Cheap and easy to raise, fowl is eaten all over Vestur and by all classes. Roasted whole birds are common throughout, but the Middle Kingdom's approach to preparation is notable for their squeamish insistence on removing the head and neck before roasting, even among poorer families. Fowl is usually roasted on a bed of root vegetables and shallots and served alongside gravy and green beans.

GOAT RIBEYE: Vestur does not have cattle – instead it has a widely diversified array of goats, the most prominent being the Middle Kingdom's own Midland goat. The Midland goat is a huge caprid that fills the same niche as cattle, supplying Vestur with meat and dairy products. Chevon from the Midland goat is tender with a texture much like beef, though it retains a gamier, “goat-ier” taste. It is largely eaten by the wealthy, though the tougher and cheaper cuts can be found in the kitchens of the working class. Either way, it is almost always served with gravy. (You may be sensing a pattern already here. Midlanders love their gravy.)

FETTUCCINE WITH CHEESE: Noodles were brought to the Middle Kingdom through trade with the South and gained popularity as a novel alternative to bread. The pasta of Midland Vestur is largely eaten with butter or cream sauce; tomato or pesto sauces are seldom seen.

CHARCUTERIE WITH WINE: Charcuterie is eaten for the joy of flavors rather than to satiate hunger, and therefore it is mainly eaten by the upper class. It is commonly eaten alongside grape wine, a prestigious alcohol uniquely produced by the Middle Kingdom. The flavor of grape wine is said to be more agreeable than the other wines in Vestur, though Southern pineapple wine has its share of defenders.

BREAD WITH JAM AND PRESERVES, TEA SANDWICHES, & ROSETTE CAKE: Breads and pastries are big in the Middle Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom considers itself the world leader in the art of baking. Compared to its neighbors, the baked goods they make are soft, light, and airy and they are proud of it. Cakes in particular are a point of ego and a minor source of mania among nobility; it is a well-established cultural joke that a Middle Kingdom noble cannot suffer his neighbor serving a bigger, taller cake. The cakes at Middle Kingdom parties can reach nauseatingly wasteful and absurdist heights, and there is no sign of this trend relenting any time soon.

CHOWDER, FARMER'S POT PIE, GRIDDLECAKES, EGGS, CURED MEATS: If you have the means to eat at all in the Middle Kingdom, you are probably eating well. Due to the Midland's agricultural strength, even peasant dishes are dense and filling. Eggs and cured meats are abundant, cheaper, and more shelf stable than fresh cuts and provide reprieve from the unending wheat and dairy in the Midland diet.

STEWED APPLES AND PEARS, JAM AND PRESERVES: The Midland grows a number of different fruits, with apples and pears being the most plentiful. In a good year, there will be more fruit than anyone knows what to do with, and so jams and preserves are widely available. Stewed fruit has also gained popularity, especially since trade with the Southern Kingdom ensures a stable supply of sugar and cinnamon.

NORTHERN KINGDOM - SETTLED

The Northern Kingdom is a harsh and unforgiving land. Historically, its peoples lived a nomadic life, but since the unification of the Tri-Kingdom more and more of the Northern population have opted to live a settled life. The “settled North” leads a hard life trying to make agriculture work on the tundra, but it is possible with the help of green meur. The Northern palate leans heavily on preserved and fermented foods as well as the heat from the native tundra peppers. Outsiders often have a hard time stomaching the salt, tang, and spice of Northern cuisine and it is widely considered “scary.”

KEY CROPS: potatoes, beets, carrots, tundra pepper KEY LIVESTOCK: wooly goats, hares*

GOAT POT ROAST: Life up north is hard work and there is much to be done in a day. Thus, slow cooked one-pot meals that simmer throughout the day are quite common.

VENISON WITH PICKLES: Game meat appears in Northern dishes about as much as farmed meat – or sometimes even more, depending on the location. Even “classier” Northern dishes will sometimes choose game meat over domesticated, as is the case with the beloved venison with pickles. Cuts of brined venison are spread over a bed of butter-fried potato slices and potent, spicy pickled peppers and onions. The potatoes are meant to cut some of the saltiness of the dish, but... most foreigners just say it tastes like salt, vinegar, and burning.

MINER STEW: While outsiders often have a hard time distinguishing miner stew from the multitude of beet-tinged stews and pot roasts, the taste difference is unmistakable. Miner's stew is a poverty meal consisting of pickles and salt pork and whatever else is might be edible and available. The end result is a sad bowl of scraps that tastes like salt and reeks of vinegar. The popular myth is that the dish got its name because the Northern poor began putting actual rocks in it to fill out the meal, which... probably never happened, but facts aren't going to stop people from repeating punchy myths.

RYE TOAST WITH ONION JAM: Rye is hardier than wheat, and so rye bread is the most common variety in the North. Compared to Midland bread, Northern bread is dense and gritty. It is less likely to be enjoyed on its own than Midland bread, both because of its composition and because there's less to put on it. Unless you've the money to import fruit spreads from further south, you're stuck with Northern jams such as onion or pepper jam. Both have their appreciators, but bear little resemblance to the fruit and berry preserves available elsewhere in Vestur.

HARE DAIRY: Eating hare meat is prohibited in polite society due to its association with the haretouched and heretical nomadic folk religions, but hare dairy is fair game. Hare cheese ranges from black to plum in color, is strangely odorless, and has a pungent flavor akin to a strong blue cheese. It is the least contentious of hare milk products. Hare milk, on the other hand, is mildly toxic. If one is not acclimated to hare milk, drinking it will likely make them “milk sick” and induce vomiting. It is rarely drunk raw, and is instead fermented into an alcoholic drink similar to kumis.

MAPLE HARES AND NOMAD CANDY: Maple syrup is essentially the only local sweetener available in the North, and so it is the primary flavor of every Northern dessert. Simple maple candies are the most common type of sweet, though candied tundra peppers – known as “nomad candy” – is quite popular as well. (Despite its name, nomad candy is an invention of the settled North and was never made by nomads.)

TUNSUKH: Tunsukh is one of the few traditions from the nomadic era still widely (and openly) practiced among Northern nobility. It is a ceremonial dinner meant as a test of strength and endurance between political leaders: a brutally spiced multi-course meal, with each course being more painful than the last. Whoever finishes the dinner with a stoic, tear-streaked face triumphs; anyone who cries out in pain or reaches for a glass of milk admits defeat. “Dessert” consists of a bowl of plain, boiled potatoes. After the onslaught of tunsukh, it is sweeter than any cake.

NORTHERN KINGDOM – NOMADIC NORTH

Although the Old Ways are in decline, the nomadic clans still live in the far North beyond any land worth settling. They travel on hareback across the frozen wasteland seeking “meur fonts” - paradoxical bursts of meur that erupt from the ice and provide momentary reprieve from the harsh environment. The taste of nomad food is not well documented.

KEY CROPS: N/A KEY LIVESTOCK: hares

PEMMICAN: Nomadic life offers few guarantees. With its caloric density and functionally indefinite “shelf life,” pemmican is about as close as one can get.

SEAL, MOOSE: Meat comprises the vast majority of the nomadic diet and is eaten a variety of ways. Depending on the clan, season, and availability of meur fonts, meat may be cooked, smoked, turned to jerky, or eaten raw. Moose and seal are the most common sources of meat, but each comes with its own challenges. Moose are massive, violent creatures and dangerous to take down even with the aid of hares; seals are slippery to hunt and only live along the coasts.

WANDER FOOD, WANDER STEW: When a green meur font appears, a lush jungle springs forth around it. The heat from red meur fonts may melt ice and create opportunities for fishing where there weren't before. Any food obtained from a font is known as “wander food.” Wander food is both familiar and alien; the nomads have lived by fonts long enough to know what is edible and what is not, but they may not know the common names or preparation methods for the food they find. Fish is simple enough to cook, but produce is less predictable. Meur fonts are temporary, and it's not guaranteed that you'll ever find the same produce twice - there is little room to experiment and learn. As a result, a lot of wander food is simply thrown into a pot and boiled into “wander stew,” an indescribable dish which is different each time.

CENVAVESH: When a haretouched person dies, their hare is gripped with the insatiable compulsion to eat its former companion... therefore, it is only proper to return the favor. Barring injury or illness, a bonded hare will almost always outlive its bonded human, and so the death of one's hare is considered a great tragedy among nomads. The haretouched – and anyone they may invite to join them – sits beside the head of their hare as they consume as much of its rib and organ meat as they can. Meanwhile, the rest of the clan processes the remainder of the hare's carcass so that none of it goes to waste. It is a somber affair that is treated with the same gravity as the passing of a human. Cenvavesh is outlawed as a pagan practice in the settled North.

HARE WINE: While fermented hare's milk is already alcoholic, further fermentation turns it into a vivid hallucinogen. This “hare wine” is used in a number of nomad rituals, most notably during coming of age ceremonies. Allegedly, it bestows its drinker with a hare's intuition and keen sense of direction... of course, truth is difficult to distinguish from fiction when it comes to the Old Ways.

SOUTHERN KINGDOM

The Southern Kingdom is mainly comprised of coast, wetland, and ever-shrinking jungle. While the land is mostly unfit for large-scale agriculture, seafood is plentiful and the hot climate is perfect for exorbitant niche crops. What they can't grow, they obtain easily through trade. Southerners have a reputation for eating anything, as well as stealing dishes from other cultures and “ruining” them with their own interpretations. KEY CROPS: plantains, sweet potato, pineapple, mango, guava, sugarcane KEY LIVESTOCK: fowl, marsh hogs, seals

GLAZED EEL WITH FRIED PLANTAINS: A very common configuration for Southern food is a glazed meat paired with a fried vegetable. It almost doesn't matter which meat and which vegetable it is – they love their fried food and they love their sweet and salty sauces in the South. Eel is a culturally beloved meat, much to the shock and confusion of visiting Midlanders.

NARWHAL STEW: Narwhal stew is the South's “anything goes” stew. It does not actually contain narwhal meat, as they are extinct (though the upper class may include dolphin meat as a protein) – instead, the name comes from its traditional status as a “forever soup,” as narwhals are associated with the passage of time in Southern culture. Even in the present day, Southern monasteries tend massive, ever-boiling pots of perpetual stew in order to feed the monks and sybils who live there. Narwhal stew has a clear kelp-based broth and usually contains shellfish. Beyond that, its ingredients are extremely varied. Noodles are a popular but recent addition.

FORAGE: The dish known as “forage” is likewise not foraged, or at least, it hasn't been forage-based in a good hundred years at least. Forage is a lot like poke; it's a little bit of everything thrown into a bowl. Common ingredients include fish (raw or cooked), seaweed, fried noodles, marinated egg, and small quantities of fruit.

HOT POT: Hot pot is extremely popular, across class barriers, in both the South proper and its enclave territories. This is due to its extreme flexibility - if it can be cooked in a vat of boiling broth, it will be. Crustaceans and shellfish are common choices for hot pot in the proper South, along with squid, octopus, mushrooms, and greens.

FLATBREAD: The Southern Kingdom doesn't do much baking. The vast majority of breads are fried, unleavened flatbreads, which are usually eaten alongside soups or as wraps. Wraps come in both savory and sweet varieties; savory wraps are usually stuffed with shredded pork and greens while sweet wraps – which are much more expensive – are filled with fruit and seal cheese.

GRILLED SKEWERS, ROAST SWEET POTATO: While a novel concept for Midlanders and Northerners, street food has long been a part of Southern Kingdom culture. You would be hard pressed to find a Southern market that didn't have at least three vendors pushing grilled or fried something or other. Skewers are the most common and come in countless configurations, but roast sweet potatoes are a close second.

CUT FRUIT AND SEAL CHEESE: Fresh fruit is popular in the South, both local and imported. While delicious on its own, Southerners famously pair it with seal cheese. Which leads me to an important topic of discussion I don't have room for anywhere else...

THE SOUTH AND CHEESE: Since the South doesn't have much in the way of dairy farming, cheese is somewhat rare in their cuisine – but it is present. And important. Cheese is the domain of the Church. Common goat dairy imported from the Middle Kingdom is turned to cheese by monks in Southern monasteries and sold to the Southern public, yes, but as you have noticed there is another cheese prominent in the Southern Kingdom diet: seal cheese. Seal cheese is unlike anything else that has ever been called cheese; the closest it can be compared to is mascarpone. It is is a soft, creamy cheese with a mild flavor and an indulgent fat content. It is used almost exclusively as a dessert, though it is only ever mildly sweetened if at all. It is extremely costly and held in high regard; the most religious Southerners regard it as holy. Dairy seals are a very rare animal and raised exclusively in a small number of Cetolist-Cerostian monasteries, where they are tended and milked by the monks. Due to their status as a holy animal, eating seal meat is forbidden. Eating their cheese and rendering their tallow into soap is fine though.

(HEARTLAND SOUTH) SOUTH-STYLE GOAT: The Heartland South is a Southern enclave territory in the Middle Kingdom. Visiting Midland dignitaries oft wrongly assume that because the Heartland South is in Middle Kingdom territory, Heartland Southerners eat the same food they do exactly as they do. They are horrified to find that familiar sounding dishes like “goat with potatoes” are completely and utterly unrecognizable, drenched in unfamiliar sauces and spices and served alongside fruit they've never eaten. Meanwhile, Heartland Southerners firmly believe that they have fixed the Middle Kingdom's boring food.

(BOREAL SOUTH) “TUNSUKH”: If Midlanders are afraid of Heartland Southern food, Northerners are absolutely furious about cuisine from the Boreal South - the most legendarily offensive being the Boreal South's idea of “tunsukh.” Southerners are no stranger to spice, so when Southern traders began interacting with the North, they liked tunsukh! It's just... they thought it needed a little Southern help to become a real meal, you know? A side of seal cheese soothed the burn and made the meal enjoyable. And because the meal was enjoyable, the portion sizes increased. And plain boiled potatoes? Well, those are a little too plain – creamy mashed sweet potato feels like more of a dessert, doesn't it? ...For some reason, Northerners didn't agree, but that's okay. The Boreal South knows they're just embarrassed they didn't think of pairing seal cheese with tunsukh sooner.

ARMY RATIONS

The food eaten by the King's Army is about what you would expect for late 1700s military; salt pork or salt chevon, hard tack, and coffee. The biggest divergence they have is also one of Vestur's biggest points of pride: they have the means to supply their troops with frivolous luxuries like small tins of candied fruit from the Midland. A love of candied fruit is essentially a Vesturian military proto-meme; proof that they serve the greatest Tri-Kingdom on the planet. Don't get between a military man and his candied fruit unless you want a fight.

#verse: forever gold #worldbuilding #fantasy worldbuilding #food worldbuilding #fantasy food #food art #animal death//#might have to proofread this later forgive any typos I am tired

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byunpum · 1 year

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Experiment 56

Neteyam x Human reader ( like a mix of human and Navi )

and sullyFAM x human reader, why not? <3

Tw: mmm neteyam baby, reader being mutant, neytiri being a sweetheart, nothing really out of the ordinary (until now ), all the characters are aged up 20's.

POV: Y/N is surprised that it is an indispensable piece for the human race. But for her family…

Experiment 56 masterlist | Experiment 56 sequel Masterlist

Note: I had that story in my head for some days, and since nobody published something similar, I decided to create my own reading. From now on I warn you that I am not very expert in this Navi culture, but I did my best. And I'll be using events that happened in the movie, but they won't be exactly the same. And sorry for the spelling. English is not my mother tongue.

Document #456 “experiment 56” [human-navi] southern area:

“The experiment is making progress. After 30 attempts, we can finally say that the first embryo is taking shape. If this embryo grows as we all hope. This will be a huge turnaround for the human race."

Dr. Herdenson signs.

Yes, that was you… an experiment. Or better said “experiment 56”. A perfect mix of navi and human. You had your human body, but in your hair you were accompanied by the distinguished queue of the navis (tsaheylu) and the ability to breathe the air of pandora without any problem. You were a beautiful baby. Or that's what Jake said when he saw you in norm's arms. After the great battle, and after the humans were sent to earth, the peaceful scientists were the only ones who stayed, and that was when the investigations of the facilities that the military had in Pandora began. And that's where they found you. A newborn baby. Norm didn't know what to do and neither did any of the scientists, you were a whole new species, but you were still human. They had enough with spider, who was still a baby. So when Neytiri and Jake were picking up Kiri in the lab, Norm didn't hesitate to introduce him to this baby.

"what kind of baby is this?" Jake asks as he holds you in his arms.

“It's an experiment, I'm terrified to know what else they did, but… this is some kind of mix between human and navi. From what I could investigate they wanted to create a new race of humans.” said norm.

Neytiri didn't take her eyes off you, she couldn't believe that a human could have some navi characteristics. You were physically like the people in the sky, but you had your little braid. For neytiri you were a great miracle, eywa would not let any creature be created, if it had no meaning for life.

"I thought… since you guys are going to take Kiri, why don't you take Y/N" Norm said.

"Y / N" neytiri has taken you from Jake's arms and placed you on his chest. She felt something special…she didn't understand why she felt compassion and love for something created by humans.

"Well… I don't have a problem, but neytiri…" Jake looked at neytiri, who was already mesmerized by the baby she was holding in her arms.

“I will help you, I will also teach her about human culture. But I think it's only right that you take care of her these first days of her life. I know you guys will do a better job than me." Norm kept talking to Jake, and explaining how they found you. While neytiri, he was holding kiri and you in his arms. You wouldn't be her daughter, but she would take care of you like one.

Arriving home, neytiri quickly introduced the new babies, to her already born son, neteyam. She placed the three babies together, and looked at them for a while. Until the warm silence was interrupted by Jake. He placed his head on Neytiri's shoulder.

"Are you comfortable with all this? It's not much… ”Jake said, while Neytiri turned to see her mate now. “We have to introduce you to the clan, kiri and y/n…. they must be presented to eywa”. She said as she smiled.

And that's how you grew up in the sully family, you pretty much lived with them 24/7, occasionally going with norm and the other scientists to learn about your other culture. But your home was in the forest. Over time more members arrived, loak and tuk. And sometimes they were accompanied by a boy named spider, which neytiri did not like. You didn't understand why she didn't like the child, he was just like you, the only thing different was an oxygen mask and that she didn't have the queue. But otherwise he was just like you.

"why don't you love spider?" you asked as neytiri traced your hair. You were only about 10 years old at this time, and you already noticed the differences in treatment. “He's not like us,” Neytiri said, her voice serious. "But he looks like me" you raised your head higher, to make eye contact with the woman who was lovingly combing your hair. "Yes, but you're not like him… you're a navi." Neytiri did not want to delve too much into the subject. To her you were special, her special gift from her just like Kiri. She didn't like discussing these topics with you, plus they were difficult topics to understand.

The years passed 15, 16 then 19 and now 20 years. You were quite a woman, and it was not to brag, but you were very beautiful. Even mo'at she said it "for a mix, you are very beautiful" she always said this while you helped her with the medicines. And this is also not overlooked by the eldest son of the sully, neteyam.

You grew up with him, literally together. As children, you did everything in each other's company. Since you were smaller than normal navis children. Jake gave neteyam the task of taking care of you and always being by your side. Even when it came time to choose your ikran, neteyam made sure it was one you could master, but this turned out to be a disaster as your size prevented you from riding your ikran easily, to which neteyam promised you that his ikran was also yours. You were able to bond with smaller animals, but Jake was always afraid you'd get hurt. Therefore, you and neteyam always accompanied each other in hunting and exploring pandora. You were inseparable. You were attached to the other brothers, but with neteyam it was different, it seemed that you were meant for each other. Or so loak and spider said, while he made fun of you two for looking like gumballs.

“Jake is going to kill you…you know that” you said while Kiri was at your side. You referred to Jake by his name, but eywa knew that you loved him as your father.

"Well, if you keep quiet no one will find out" loak, trying to see what was left of a ruined laboratory. area that Jake had forbidden them to go to.

"I think we have to go, that's enough… kiri, spider, tuk y/n let's get out of here" neteyam got up from the grass while he took y/n's hand.

“hey, wait… we just started. Nothing will happen. We're just going to look and we'll go quickly” Spider said taking your other hand and pulling you closer to him. Neteyam did not find this gesture comfortable. He was in charge of you. Neteyam knew that if something happened to loak or spider the punishment would be light. But if you, kiri or tuk got hurt, he had to disappear from the peace of pandora. Because his parents were going to kill him. And, on the other hand, he didn't really like the physical contact that spider had with you. He felt intimidated, in the end spider and you shared more physical similarities. That you with him and that broke his heart.

"Come on, just for a while" tuk yelled as she made little faces at her older brother. “Don't be a party pooper…come on!!!” loak came out of the undergrowth and behind was spider going both to the laboratory. Kiri sighed and followed them and behind her was a tuk.

“We are going to get in trouble” said neteyam as he looked at you. “Well yes… but it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Come on…and I swear I'll stay by your side.” You look at neteyam, while he gives you an approving smile and chases after the others.

Upon entering the laboratory, they noticed that everything was consumed by nature. There were abandoned paperwork, among other things. Something was very noticeable, there was a very bad smell. "ahhhh disgusting" tuk shouted, while kiri covered his mouth. "Shut up, we have to be quiet" Kiri replies, as he continues further into the offices. Everything seemed taken from a movie, one of those you'd seen with norm. Everyone was investigating random things that were found, neteyam was by your side. His tail flicked back and forth alertly and would occasionally curl around your leg. "Neteyam I'm fine… calm down" you told him as you passed your hand through his arms. "You know I feel like this is not right, we should go." Before you could respond to neteyam, loak called you to go look at some documents he had found.

As you approached, you noticed that they were in an old desk, and this was in front of a capsule that was already broken. And these papers were in a folder, which had written on the front "experiment 56" and in small letters "new species (mutated humans)". Neteyam stood behind you, loak was on your right side and kiri and spider were on your left side, all of them were surrounding you. And they looked at you with great intrigue.

You knew you were different, but you had never seen yourself as a human, since neytiri always said that you were equal to a navi. And no one ever said anything about your appearance, or you never heard anything. So you didn't care much about your appearance, but you weren't unaware that you were different. So when you saw a title that could be related to you, you were shocked.

"Give me I open it for you!!!" spider took the documents and began to read them. You all knew how to read without any problem because norm had taught you as children. “experiment 56, we want…blah blah blah improving the human race, uniting the genes of the navis with the human. The purpose is to create a new race of super humans. So they can live in pandora and blah blah blah.” Spider kept talking, while the others just listened intently. Neteyam noticed how you were moving towards the capsule that was further on, I accompanied you "y/n…" he started to speak, but you interrupted him "I'm a damn experiment… a thing. I am a monster” Your eyes began to fill with tears, neteyam knelt down and made you look into his eyes “spider shut up… y/n look at me!!! You're not a thing, much less a monster. You are a navi, you are our family" Kiri approached and hugged you from behind "it's true, ignore what those papers say. Maybe they have nothing to do with you” you looked at neteyam and kiri with so much love. You loved them both so much. “but… the only person here with a tail and is human is y/n. So this talks about you” said loak while everyone looked at them with angry faces. And of course, you also loved that idiot.

You approached the papers, you took them and kept them in a small bag that you had on your waist. "How about we continue investigating?" They all started, but not even 5 minutes passed when a voice came out of the choker "y/n, where the hell are you?" It was Jake's voice. You pressed the button on the right to answer. "I'm with the boys for a walk?" You hear Jake's ragged breathing into the microphone, you know very well you're lying, "Is everyone there with you?" "Yes" they all respond at the same time "Listen, get out of wherever you are and go back home. Now!!!" the voice was stern "I hope you guys aren't in the abandoned lab or else" Jake's voice was interrupted when tuk replies that she's sorry, and that loak forced them to go.

While Jake began to scold loak, you and Kiri looked at each other in shock as they heard some voices coming from outside. You guys quickly left the back of the lab, making as little noise as possible. all of you ran silently into the forest, "I think voices are no longer heard here" said tuk, until a hand grabbed your hair and placed you on the ground. More people came out and took them all. Between screams and whimpers. A tall avatar came out of some corner of the forest, he had an authoritarian and evil appearance. He approached you and looked at your features "So you are the guinea pig they were looking for, you are beautiful" Your teary eyes could only look at the sinister look of that man, while you heard the screams of your family in the background.

p.s: This is a pilot, if you like it let me know, I have the whole story in my head.

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