Art and Storytelling

Pleasant, Anton's boyfriend, has also had a time of it. Neither he nor his body fully remember being human - this is what happens when you date a spiteful mage for a bit who decides instead of letting you break things off when the relationship turns sour, they turn you into a golden pheasant to decorate their flower shop. The bitterness eventually evaporated, and turned to pity, but despite an effort to turn him human again he's not... quite there. The mage disappeared and has not been seen since. Pleasant makes do as best he can, even if he's still a bit... well, bird (and not really sure if he has a family or not).

One of King's equally odd housemates is Anton. An Italian-American circus performer and acrobat in 1921, he and his entire circus were abducted by a fairy lord, and all performers were turned into decorative fish people for their amusement. Some time in the early 2000s, a fae hunter managed to get him back to modern-day New York (the lord having long since lost interest in his toys and leaving them to scatter). He is, needless to say, having a lot to adapt to. He has not physically changed at all from his fae-form, and is still able to both breather underwater and in air. His coat of robust scales make it such that he needs to hydrate frequently (although they are more robust and less permeable than fish scales), and he too is a little iffy about wearing clothes if he can avoid it.

It's Junicorn and I've been thinking about King again. I mean, she is very much a human woman now, but she USED to be a unicorn so that surely counts...

You see, where she's from, unicorns are sapient but simple in their way - they have the minds of ungulates made just clever enough that they understand speech, and can think independently and with forethought. Even so, they are long-lived (indefinitely so if they can avoid lethal injury or illness), magical, and think little of 'yesterday' and 'today' and of feelings more complex than anger and joy. That is, unless they become a unicorn king. A unicorn king is bigger, brighter, and more stalwart and steadfast than their kin. They are able to have troubled thoughts and intricate dreams.

A unicorn king arises when a unicorn (of any gender) reaches a substantial age and disposition and their herd does not currently have one at its head. Their horn will begin to branch, and their body will grow large and heavy, with this, they will be able to better protect and guide others, and they serve as de-facto leader to their herd. This happened to King, and she was a steady and sensible caretaker for many years.

Here she is as unicorn (front) and unicorn king (behind).

This change, however, is taxing and brings with it mortality. Unicorn kings can only live for so long after their transformation, a few centuries to a millennium at most. When King felt her time was ending, she refused to go out in a blaze of magic, and instead wanted to cling to life longer. She, after much thought, broke her horn and became human. Presumably, that is all she is now, but she's lived a long time, is wickedly clever, and sometimes there are sightings in her city of a huge horse where a horse absolutely should not be.

Karlach having a bad night- cardiac stuff hurting enough to want comfort but not so much that it's an emergency. So it goes sometimes with chronic stuff.

Rules- share ten gifs from your favorite video games! (either directly from the games themselves or promotional material depending on whichever works better in this context)

Tagged by @lorithescrump - thank you!

Tagging @joasakura, @xx-sharpfawngz-xx, @bottomvalerius, @sleeeepy-demon, @girlwizardgirls, @umbrum77, @misery-lake and anyone else who would like to!

Games, in order: Baldur's Gate 3, Hollow Knight: Silksong (and the original HK too), Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (you can just put the whole LoK series here), Myst (same), Portal/Portal 2, NieR: Automata, Bayonetta, Monster Hunter (World, in particular but I've not had a chance to play much else), Okami, Abzu

Honorary mentions, in no particular order: Gris, Neva, Minute of Islands, Journey, The Pathless, Abzu, Guild Wars, The Rayman Games (particularly the original and second), Animal Well, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, ANY game by Amanita Design or Mateusz Skutnik, Spyro, RiME, Mandagon, Gorogoa, The Arcana, Never Alone, Cavern of Dreams, Blasphemous, Ori and the Blind Forest, and ENA: Dream BBQ

Akaran, the aarakocra bartender/server of the Wooly Ram in Hundlestone, a charming chap, though he seems a little out of place for his noble race. Why's a being of the plane of air working in food service? Well, Tav and Karlach want to know too, but they haven't managed to eek out his backstory yet.

But it's on to chapter 7 of Tav and Karlach's Adventure at the Spine of the World, and they, Aylin, and Isobel have a blizzard to contend with...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65111356/chapters/226874466

A preview under the cut:

I'm a sucker for these little character sheet things. This one is particularly sweet I think.

(I know it's quite the combo - but I know what I'm on about. Old friends know the lore.)