i'm no hero...never was, never will be

Oh, I also wanted to say the Wulgaru hunter-scholar description backs up your Wood Wailers prone to cruelty theory: "Wulgaru, the false tree. Not a few poachers have vanished after being bound overnight to these vampiric man-eaters by unsuspecting Wood Wailers. The Wulgaru is also drawn by noise and commotion, breaking its arboreal disguise to feast on the blood of its favorite prey: man."

Ahh, I’m so glad you like this blog!!! I always felt like Laurentius wasn’t evil or monstrous so much as....weak-willed and downtrodden and bullied into thinks he didn’t want to do because he didn’t see any other way out. Especially when we see him in 3.0 and later in 3.5/3.56? He looks and sounds so defeated and broken both times, especially at Baelsar’s Wall, and...really, I just wanted him to get something better. Get another chance, one where he won’t get targeted by cruel people, let him have a redemption arc. And if canon’s gonna completely forget he exists after 4.1, then I’ll do it here!!

Also, about the Wulgaru--- holy shit, that’s dark. And definitely, absolutely supports my theory, so thank you for sending it to me!!

He’s kind of beginning to think the Alliance has just forgotten about him, honestly. They locked him up, and...well, nothing. No execution, no pardon, nothing. Then again, nothing is a lot better than what he went through in the Gridanian gaol, so...he’ll take it. At least he’s not being beaten and abused.

He starts when Kenj’a speaks, looking up with his usual sort of lost expression of surprise -- he knows the older Miqo’te visits fairly regularly, but every time it’s still a shock. That someone cares...it still doesn’t seem right, like he doesn’t deserve it. “P...Packages?” He asks slowly, looking even more bewildered. “What-- why-- what kind of--?”

“I knew you’d gotten caught up in something less than savory, but I thought you’d already done your time. Not that you should have had to go that route, but gods forbid Gridania pay good people a living wage.” He snorted, sitting himself down so he’d be more comfortable. “So who caught you up in their machinations? I know how it goes for boys like you. Eager to make the world a better place, but the world grinds you down and after a time, you just…can’t any longer. The Fifth is especially bad about wearing the good ones down.”

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“Welcome to the Fifth Spears, half-breed,” the Wailer says, and he knows immediately his reputation has preceded him. His next realization is that there are several more Wailers approaching, blocking him in on all sides. His blood goes cold, and he desperately searches for a way to escape, but none appears.

“What’s wrong?” One of them asks. “We just want to welcome you properly.”

He’s never been more scared in his life.

Send "Flashback" to have your muse see one of my muse's bad memories

He’s putting his armor back by his bunk for the night when he’s grabbed by the hair and dragged backwards. He lets out a cry and scrabbles at the hand, but then he’s on the ground staring up at a pair of Wailers -- he knows them, and he knows them well enough to know what this is all about.

Hush Little Wailer: “The ranks of Wailers swell, each with dust of a different land on her boots and the lilt of a different song in her voice. If they are to become comrades in arms, they must learn a new tongue: silence. No recruit emerges from the seven nights’ ordeal unchanged, such is the power of the potion.”

Um, dude, I think the reason no one comes out unchanged IS BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU REALIZE HOW BADLY PEOPLE CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT TO HURT SOMEONE WHEN THEY CAN’T SPEAK OR CALL FOR HELP??? 

Calling it now, our favorite idealistic little orphaned boy with an Imperial name was tormented that entire week. Don’t ask what happened. Don’t. 

Name: Laurentius Daye

Age: 22

Nationality: American, not sure what ancestry he is (probably European)

Height: 5′10

Date of Birth: October 25th

Occupation: College student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Criminal Justice, works part-time at  and volunteers at the college’s mental health office.

Laurentius was dealt a bad hand from a young age. His mother was a barely-there alcoholic who died of an illness when he was three, and he didn’t know his father -- and from what little his mother said, he didn’t think he wanted to. He was placed in foster care after that, passing from bad home to bad home and struggling to maintain his optimism until middle school, when he fell in with a gang -- they offered him a place to belong and positive reinforcement, and he ate it up with the desperation of a scared and lonely boy who had nowhere else to go.

Petty crimes with them quickly turned into major crimes, even though Laurentius didn’t want a part of that, and eventually the whole gang was arrested for a botched robbery that ended with the deaths of two people. The gang’s leader accused Laurentius of the deaths, and that was when the boy chose to do something right for once: he told the truth, and sold out the rest of his gang. 

Still an accomplice, however, he spent time in jail -- a juvenile facility, as he was 16 when this happened -- and narrowly escaped being murdered for being a snitch. 

When he got out, he began trying to turn his life around, moving to another state and getting a GED to finish high school, going to college for psychology, with a goal of being a social worker of some kind: he wants to be able to help kids like him, and keep them from falling through the cracks and ending up where he was at his lowest point. 

So how about this for a headcanon that just makes this boy’s life worse?

You know how his name is Laurentius? Well...that’s a pretty obviously Garlean name. I mean, come on, Laurentius? Let’s see what name site has to say.

LAURENTIUS: Roman Latin name meaning "of Laurentum," a maritime town in Latium which means "town of laurel (bay) trees." (x)

...the Roman cognomen Laurentius, which meant "from Laurentum". Laurentum was a city in ancient Italy, its name probably deriving from Latin laurus "laurel". (x)

Oh, look, Roman Latin. (Which is precious in a way because ‘town of laurel trees’? Gridania-esque much?)

Add this to the established canon that Laur’s father disappeared before he was born (and his mother was murdered by bandits when he was little, but that’s not relevant to this (maybe)).... Sure, his surname is Daye, but that could be his mother’s surname.

Look, all I’m saying is that it seems super likely and super plausible that Laurentius is half-Garlean, and that would really kind of be cool. Make him an interesting foil to Arenvald, at least!

Would also add another layer of shit to the boy’s life, given that with a name like that and a completely unknown father....bet he was given endless hell for being a half-breed orphan while growing up.

tfw you realize laurentius is kind of basically almost theon greyjoy

Yup. She was definitely talking to Cid later. “You’re very lucky he came across you, I won’t lie.” She believed in second chances, yes. But third…third chances were hard to get from her. “I pray you don’t. For your sake, and for his. The betrayal of the Braves still hurts, Laurentius. But since Cid seems to have seen something in you, I’m letting him give you this chance. Show you’re not like damn near every Wailer my family’s dealt with, or like the other Braves who took the crooked coin. You won’t get a fourth chance.”

If she had seen him even a few months ago, she might have broken her promise to Cid…but the fire in her veins was under control [for the most part] now, and she’d seen too much to not keep herself in check. “If you’ve got promise, like he said you have, then you won’t find a better place to turn that promise into talent and skill.”

He definitely wants to crawl under the table, or into somewhere where no one can find him. His hands are clinging to the edge of the workbench so hard his knuckles are white, and he’s pretty sure that’s the only thing keeping him from passing out from panic. What’s he supposed to say to any of that? He knows it hurts. He knows he’d made a terrible mistake on top of the series of mistakes that was his life. Even if he wants to defend himself against the one accusation in her words that’s completely untrue -- he’s not like those other Wailers, he’s never been -- he can’t even speak to do that.