#courtship

tsu’tey x reader

a reader who loves her ikran more than life itself.

(a/n i love this man more than anything, don’t be afraid to request avatar fics!)

Not even too long after the war with the Sky People, the forest had fallen back into rhythm — but Tsu’tey had not.

Peace returned, yes, but quiet did not bring rest. He still woke early, still trained twice as hard, still sat in council with the olo’eyktan’s face carved into his own — all stone, no softness. It was his place now. His responsibility. But as the moons passed, so too came the pressure from the elders: A mate. A Tsahìk. A future to balance his strength and leadership.

He bore the words like he bore everything else — with silence, with pride, with a long, unspoken ache beneath the surface. Tsu’tey had known the promise of love once. Sylwanin — sweet, sharp-eyed, as fierce as she was kind. Her death left a scar that never fully healed. Then came Neytiri — she was beautiful and a great warrior, but he could’ve never truly loved her. Jake sully had won her heart anyways.

So no — he had not opened his heart or mind to love since. Until you.

He didn’t know when it began, but he knew he couldn’t stop watching you. Not as a hunter. Not as a top warrior. Not even as a leader. Something else. Something harder to admit. And today, he felt it again — that weirdly stubborn, unfamiliar ache in his chest — as he stepped outside the high cave and turned his gaze to the sky. You and your hunters had returned.

and also if you go with some people hcs that talia is courting bruce but he never accepts then in a world where transfem bruce exists then bruce would be MUCH more likely to accept courting gifts in the form of jaw dropping dresses and stunning jewelry. I think transfem bruce, start of transitioning, despite having money would be hesitant to buy herself anything feminine out of insecurity but getting gifts that are both feminine and to her taste would be really touching.

this is normal behavior for ghosts, but the problem shows up when danny’s core decides that he is going to try to court Tim. danny’s human brain knows that logically, this is not how you court a human, but his human half isn’t really thinking logically right now, and his ghost half is trying *very* hard to get Tim to date him right now, so there isn’t much the human half could do right now anyway except also try to advise how to court Tim, and the occasional reminder of what thing would not be safe for keeping a human alive, if slightly skewed in view.

Danny shifts through the shadows of the cave network, slowly, keeping out of sight of the patrols and assassins. He can barely taste the essence of his beloved through the scent of rotten and corrupted ectoplasm that permeates the League temple underground.

The false god lays in grand bed. Danny twitches with suppressed rage, pulling out the Knight Dagger from the sheath at his hip. With a growl he shifts into solid space, cutting the fools throat as he shoots up. Danny watches with satisfaction as his soul is dragged to the nightmare realms. He will never be able to be ressurected completely. Even if they throw his body in the pits, his soul will not return.

Danny pulls out a jar, humming as he finishes sawing off the man's head, licks the blood that splashes his face.

Tim is going to be so happy....

The head gets phased into the jar, which he promptly phases into a solid block of clear polymer. With a flick, the excess polymer is removed, the jar further carved with seals and runes to ensure the head is perfectly preserved.

With a bit of searching he finds his secondary target, Tim's spleen.

In less than a minute, he's back in his apartment in Gotham. He pulls out the basket he wove himself under Pandora's instructions, lining it with the pelt of a great rune bear from the far frozen. Bottles of the Realms made wine of Dionysus, Cheeses from the Althur Cliffs of forgotten beings, and Preserves made from the unique golden blackberries of the realms are cradled within.

The head and spleen finally join the courting gift. A single void black scale is nestled in the pocket, carved with a simple,

For My Beloved

This saddle was crafted from staghorn, bone, birch bark, rawhide, metal, and limewood. Bone pins and glue were used to fix each plaque to the limewood core of the saddle, and the panels were originally adorned with brightly-colored paints.

The bone plaques are decorated with intricately carved scenes of romance; some of these scenes show women being serenaded by suitors and troubadours, lovers caressing one another, couples exchanging tokens of their affection, and men offering luxury containers in exchange for their lovers' hearts. Squeezed beneath the left flank of the saddle is a scene that depicts two lovers holding hands and gazing at one another, while another scene on the right flank shows a man and woman standing cheek-to-cheek as the woman wraps her arms around the man's back and pulls him to her breast.

Knights, dragons, and monstrous figures are also depicted on several panels.

As the Metropolitan Museum of Art describes:

Romantic and erotic imagery adorned not only the pages of late medieval manuscripts and the vessels of a lady’s private dressing table; these themes were equally suited to the public self-fashioning of European nobles.

Illicit touch and unmediated sight are just two of the carnal senses evoked by this saddle. Tucked between larger figures, troubadours and instrument-bearing grotesques evoke the auditory pleasures of the court, while floral and arboreal motifs conjure the alluring sights, smells, and tastes of a pleasure garden.

On the right tip of the saddle’s pommel, a man pokes his hand into a conical hat as a cheeky reference to the amorous intentions of the embracing couple below. ... Even the shape of the saddle is suggestive. The accentuated curvature of the pommel and the double-lobed cantle (a common feature of Eastern European saddles) emphasize the saddle’s phallic form.

For those viewers bold enough to inspect the saddle’s hidden surfaces, grotesques under the pommel and at the center back of the cantle offer comic relief while also warning against the bestial side of desire.

The morals of late medieval Christianity are primarily embodied on this saddle by Saint George, shown as a knight spearing a dragon on the right side of the pommel. According to hagiographic precedent, the dragon’s defeat secured the safety of a captive maiden, an ideal of feminine purity threatened by the corruption of evil.

Saint George and the dragon and scenes of courtly love dominate the roughly twenty bone saddles that survive from late medieval Europe.

Attached to a limewood core with bone pins and glue, the carved panels probably derive from the pelvic bones of cows or other large animals. The underside of the saddle is lined with hide and birch bark. Although these fragile materials are ill suited for the battlefield or daily use, bone’s off-white color and receptiveness to carving served as the ideal ground for eye-catching carvings and paintings.

Viewers today should remember that the saddle was originally brightly colored with blue, green, and red paint. The saddle was also just one part of a larger ensemble of a horse’s parade armor.

This particular saddle is associated with the court of Wenceslaus IV.

Sources & More Info:

Metropolitan Museum: Bone Saddle

Museum Publication: Prague: the Crown of Bohemia

American Journal of Archaeology: Mediaeval Sculptured Saddle

The Gothic Ivories Project at the Courtauld Institute of Art: Trivulzio Saddle