Haaaaaappy Biiiirthdayyyyyy @perahn!
Keeping in the theme of this year, have a Khem-leficent and her minions polymorphed friends in coloring book style, judging the hell out of something (as they do).
Good help is so hard to find.
codenamecynic reblogged
10/08/19 Frail: “I was just wondering if you would be amenable to sleeping with your daughters tonight…” Scene from last session where Katy is stressed, Harper is stressed for her, and Shay wants to help. Cue bees from the Beast Dad. Bee-st Dad? #inktober #frail #dungeonsanddragons #alternativeethics #taliesinharper #ceitidhmhuilneir #harpyfeels #shayazi #dakoyonearts https://www.instagram.com/p/B3XWX0zFkYa/?igshid=1wb7d384rqu56
I CAN’T IT’S TOO CUTE
This is still everything. This blog is only D&D now, I don’t even care.
#cynic plays dnd#alternative ethics#taliesin harper#ceitidh mhuilneir#shayazi#i'm glad katy has her own tag on my blog#because i CANNOT FUCKING SPELL HER FAKE NAME#STILL#IT'S BEEN 23 YEARS#47 MONTHS#7000 DAYS#anyway this is great#dakoyone is great#i love how katy's hand is right up his fucking nose as always#not pictured: katy also kneeing him in the balls#please note his sexy abs#and excellent choice of pajamas#feast your eyes upon this perfection
@bettydice: "justice: karma, honesty, decisions;“I don’t know what to do.”possible AUs/settings/ideas: superhero au, dealing with consequences" Harpy
This ended up being not at all the thing, but still inspired by the prompt so yolo?
--
The letter is burning a hole in his pocket.
It’s been in there all day; long enough to be faintly damp, bent out of shape with the heat of his body, its crisply folded edges faintly crumpled. It’s unlikely to be the worst thing it would see on its long journey to Arrabar, but moodily he thinks it’s too on the nose, too reflective of himself - a bundle of lies smoothed over with nice packaging, worried away until the patina starts to crack.
Fuck.
He crushes the letter in his hand. That doesn’t help anything.
“What are you doing?”
Harper blinks and turns to look at Katy when she slips around one side of him to see what he’s got a chokehold on this time, the diminutive sorceress raising one eyebrow dyed as black as her hair.
“I’m just... having a moment.”
“Another one?”
“Thanks for that.”
Katy rolls her eyes at him and smiles like he’s just being ridiculous, and - well, he is. He is ridiculous. It makes him feel foolish, or would if that was something he ever stopped feeling. He isn’t certain he can even be embarrassed anymore, too used to being consistently and measurelessly stupid.
“What are you doing?” she asks again, peering down at the wrinkled missive, and he just shrugs, rubs the back of one hand across his forehead.
“Nothing. Just thinking about whether or not to send this.”
“Is it a love letter?” It’s not fair that she looks so hopeful. In fact it’s hurtful, but that’s not fair either - she doesn’t know.
He laughs, short and humorless. “No.”
“Oh. Well that’s less interesting then.”
“I know.”
“Well is it something baaaaad?” The way she draws out the syllable makes it sound like bleating and - honestly it’s annoyingly cute. And it gives him exactly the opening he’s looking for, a teasing grin curving his mouth as he slips an arm around her shoulders, the letter making its way back, unnoticed, into his pocket.
He could tell her. He just… isn’t going to.
“Just some business, my little goat.”
Katy wrinkles her nose. “Harper.”
“Ma petite chèvre.”
“Better.”
“It means the same thing.”
Katy rolls her eyes again, like he’s just too old and out of touch to get it. “Everything sounds better in Elven.”
Harper laughs at that, letter not forgotten but neatly folded away, out of sight and for the moment out of mind. “Clearly you need to teach me more phrases. Something out of one of your books, a really good one.”
Katy lights up at the challenge, linking her arm through his. “Well!”
Who knows how long a letter would take to make its way from Waterdeep to Arrabar, if it would make it there at all. His sister, and the rest of his erstwhile secrets, can wait another day.
For @bettydice, like literally everything I write.
Do Better | Taliesin Harper + Ceitidh “Katy” Mhuilneir, #1 brotp Another scene from their early pre-game days. Harper likes to start fights for fun; Katy does not approve. Warning for violence and mention of alcohol and drug use.
He’s here, again, like always.
It doesn’t even really matter that he doesn’t know where here is; everywhere is the same as it has been for weeks. Maybe months. Maybe forever. His concept of time has skewed just as badly as his sense of geography; it’s just more rain, more mud, more leaves, more rough-thatched houses and the pervasive almost-poverty of people who live off the land and not the labor of other beings. Nothing smells right, nothing feels right, and he hasn’t seen the sea in far too long, the ground too solid beneath his feet for the way he feels perpetually adrift.
Gravity, it seems, is not doing him any favors either. Harper meets the ground with a solid thump, flat on his back with his head bouncing off the graveled street. He could have rolled to the side, fallen correctly, dispersed some of the force of his landing like he knows well how to do, he just - doesn’t. The same way he didn’t dodge the punch that sent him sprawling there, into a puddle like a confused fish flopping when the tide recedes.
Idiot.
@bettydice gave me feels, so I had to return the favor. Read her story here.
The Rules | Taliesin Harper + Ceitidh “Katy” Mhuilneir, #1 brotp
She can tag along for as long as she can keep up. The minute she falls behind, that’s it - he won’t give her a second thought, won’t listen for her over his shoulder, won’t stop, won’t look back. That’s the rule.
Ceitidh can wear herself out following in his footsteps for as long as she thinks she’s able, but in the end Harper will do as Harper always does. He’ll keep pushing, keep going, keep swimming forward like a shark because, no matter how much he wants to, he can’t go back.
There is nothing for him to go back to.
codenamecynic reblogged
_______________
She really shouldn’t do it. He already allows her to stay with him. Or at least, he stopped trying to send her away. Mostly.
About a week ago, he’d stood over her, huddled under her thin blanket that she’d stolen from an inn and that offered no real protection against the coldness settling into her bones. He’d frowned and she’d thought that this was it. He was done. No more eating the scraps of his food in the morning. No more following his footsteps, praying he didn’t start walking faster because she was already at her limit or that he got a horse or a carriage…
“Come sleep by the fire.”
He didn’t wait for her to collect her things and she’d thought it was a dream, at first. But he didn’t look up as she approached his camp site, timid and nervous. He didn’t complain as she put down her bedroll next to his fire. A fire that put all her previous attempts at one to shame, at least, those that she didn’t start with magic. But those tended to get out of hand…
So now she’s sleeping next to his fire. When she listens very closely, she can hear his even breathing. He lets her follow him openly now. She still walks a few paces behind him but he still listens to her nervous ramblings. Or at least, he doesn’t stop her. She talks a lot. About things she knows about trees and birds and local folklore she’s read, to try to show him that she can be useful to have around. She’s told him some made up adventures she’s had but she thinks he sees right through her. Sometimes she wishes he would stop her, because it’s been so long, so very long since someone listened to her and what if she gets used to it?
She already is. Getting used to him.
Which is why she’s sitting on her blanket, wide awake after a nightmare.
She started a fire. To keep them warm. She touched the flames but they were cold. It needed to burn brighter. Magic soared through her, growing and growing and then… It grew greater than Katy. It wasn’t her magic. She had no control. The fire towered over her and she wanted to run but she couldn’t move. A hand had appeared out of the fire and held onto her. “Why did you do this.” Harper, it was Harper, she set him on fire. His skin, blistering, sizzling, cracking wide open. “I should have left you behind.” His mouth fell open in a terrible scream. His mouth grew wider, the scream louder. His jaw fell out of its hinges and the black abyss of his mouth still grew. The screaming pierced her skull, she felt it under her skin. Yet, she couldn’t move and watched as his skin melted off his bones and his bones turned to ashes and he was still screaming.
He’s lying across from her, deep asleep. But it doesn’t feel real and she… she just wants to touch him, to make sure. Make sure that this isn’t the dream.
So she gathers her courage and tiptoes over to where he lies with his back to her. She gets on her knees next to him. And then slowly, gently, she touches his shoulder blade with her fingertips. He doesn’t react, doesn’t wake and shout at her. But he’s warm and breathing under her touch.
Only one touch, is what she’d told herself.
But now that she’s crossed the distance, it seems even harder to go back.
Maybe just… for a little while.
She lies down next to him on the forest floor. A stone is digging into her back and she holds her breath as she moves it to the side without making a sound. Harper is still breathing and she can see the movements as his chest expands with every inhale. She’s never slept next to someone. The boys Katy had approached to learn about love had only taught her that the little value her body held for them was of no importance as soon as they’d emptied themselves in her or on her.
She is close enough that she can feel his body heat along her arm and her leg. When he breathes in, his back almost touches her arm. Katy inches her hand a little closer to him until her fingers brush his shirt.
She lies awake for hours like this, listening to him breathe, feeling his warmth. It’s the happiest she’s ever been and the night sky stretches far and wide above her, stars twinkling at her full of hope and adventure.
As dawn approaches, she returns to her own bedroll.
Only this once, she tells herself. It was only this once.
Excuse me, look at what princess wifey wrote. TOO MANY EMOTIONS. TOO MANY BEES. Also, Harper is a dick.