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Dark Stories of the North

@goblins-riddles-or-frocks / goblins-riddles-or-frocks.tumblr.com

Vampires, Musicals, Horror
Grishaverse, Locked Tomb, Hellsing, Dracula,
whatever TV shows I’m currently watching
Fic & HC requests are always welcome!
(I used to post on blood-and-cigars)
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Masterpost

Grishaverse Fics

Unmaking The Heart of The World — time loop AU, Nikolina, Darklina, Zoyalina, multi ship, grief, post R&R Alina marries Nikolai, but in another timeline, she’s only just been brought to the Little Palace following the discovery of her powers (ongoing)

Éminence Grise — Darklina, Nikolina, fake engagement AU where Alina is betrothed to Nikolai, despite her affair with the Darkling, who has also not showed his hand yet (ongoing)

Penance Without Penitence — Darklina, Nikolina, post R&R, the Darkling is resurrected without his power, so Alina takes him to Keramzin to make up for his wrongs (ongoing)

And I Said to the Star, “Consume Me” — Darklina, Darknikolina, alt S&S ending, the Darkling offers Alina a bargain, if she marries him, he won’t kill all her friends (complete!)

The Scorched Sea — Darklina, Darknikolina, role reversal AU, tired of his mother’s austere and fear driven lifestyle, Aleksander Morozova seeks out the Sun Saint and the splendor of the Little Palace

Ad Libitum — Darklina one shot, ballet AU set in a twentieth century inspired Ravka, Alina performs at a private event at the Grand Palace

A Reprieve From Thought — Darklina one shot, S&S era PWP set aboard the ship

Infinite Ruin — Darklina one shot, post R&R, Alina holds the Darkling captive

Silence — unrequited Nikolina, Darklina, one shot, post R&R, possession, Nikolai still hears the Darkling’s voice in his head

A Reunion — Zoyalina one shot, modern AU, the gang are snowed in at the Christmas Party

In The Morning — Nikolina one shot, only one bed, fluff

Fondness — Nikolina one shot, mildly fluffy character study, Alina has thoughts about her relationship with Nikolai on their wedding night

The Picnic — Genyalina one shot, set during S&S if Genya was with them, fluff

Benefits of a Gilded Cage — Darknikolina one shot, Alina puts the third amplifier on the Darkling.

Longing for the Sun — triple drabble, set during KoS, Nikolai has come to dread sleep

Hellsing Fics

Ice — monster of the week one shot, something of a The Thing AU

This Is Where Monsters Weep — one shot collection about a variety of ships and characters

Hold This Heart In Your Teeth — Alutegra one shot, dreams, angst, pining, mild bdsm vibes

In This Darkness, I Have You — Alutegra one shot, PWP, angst, pining, unwanted love confession

The Hand Which Holds The Leash — pre canon, one shot, Alucard attempts to talk to Integra about responsibility, instead the conversation turns to her ancestors

Leave Them And Walk With Dust — Seras and Integra roleswap AU, eventual Sertegra, (ongoing)

Fragments, Glory, And What It Is To Lose — Alutegra one shot, Alucard reflects on his servitude after that first encounter with Anderson

These Truths That Shape Us — one shot, Integra gets her first glimpse at the depth of Hellsing’s experiments, medical horror

Beautiful, Wicked, Brazen — Alutegra one shot, PWP

A Diversion — Alutegra one shot, PWP, set after the Museum scene

Spare a Cigarette? — Waltercard one shot, pre canon, the first time Walter encounters Alucard after Integra releases him from the basement

If He Wills It — Aluseras one shot, during the Rio trip, Seras realizes Alucard didn’t have to turn her into a vampire, and she’s angry about it

Waiting — Alutegra one shot, angst, Integra is dead and Alucard has no idea what to do with himself

Dream of Daylight — angst, one shot, horror, a Hellsing soldier was kind to Alucard, he doesn’t take it well

Grief’s Cold Hands — Alutegra one shot, angst, time skip, in the aftermath of the battle of London, and years after, Integra reminisces.

Mercy — one shot, during the Rio trip, Seras asks Alucard why he kills so… enthusiastically

Thirty Years of Silence — Alutegra, post time skip, angst, incomplete atm

Fate of Prometheus — one shot, torture, a potential look at Alucard's first few years of captivity. (this one’s very old…)

Misc Fics

By Moonlight and Candle’s Flame — Company of Wolves fic, the Huntsman gets his kiss.

Generosity — Locked Tomb fic, Cytherea the First offers to spare Gideon one last time.

Drop By Drop Upon the Heart — Gothic origfic, a young woman marries to escape her father’s occultist eccentricities, but soon discovers something is amiss in her new husband’s home.

A Worthy Sacrifice — Fate/Zero one shot, angst, Saber gets to Irisviel at the theatre in time, but no matter what she’s destined to die

Laundry Day — Fate/Stay Night one shot, fluff, Gilgamesh steals Kirei’s cassock

Fandom Discord Servers

Who Gave Dracula The WiFi Password? — Dracula, Vampire Chronicles, the Locked Tomb, other horror and goth stuff

The Gregs — Grishaverse books!

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i honestly feel like you get the worst Discourse from both extremes of the fandom. sdgfhfj

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yeah 😭😭 it’s really my own damn fault for engaging. unfortunately I have a pretty bad case of can’t shut the fuck up!

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Anonymous asked:

imo Alina would wear the heart print boxers too

LMAO fair! the blue outfit would probably require more effort to wear than she’d want to bother about

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Anonymous asked:

And if he really wanted company he wouldn't have abandoned all those immortals there. Or he would have gone back to get them out eventually but he didn't.

I’ll be real, I don’t think the worldbuilding or even character stuff introduced in KoS is particularly consistent with anything happening in TGT.

That being said, I think that can be explained by him having a particularly outsized idea of who can possibly be a real companion to him. A lifetime spent fearing vulnerability has left him with a white knuckle need for absolute control. He’s lonely but he doesn’t want a true equal, he wants someone who can simultaneously fulfill all his emotional needs, validate his perspective and choices, and never challenge him, all while being auspicious and long lived enough to deserve his attention.

Alina is not these things, aside from her chosen one status as Sun Summoner elevating her to his interest, but she’s young enough that he thinks he can mold her into it.

But consider that before that, his prospects are… no one LOL. I don’t think he’s never had any connections ever, but there are always strong caveats. Again, he will have no trust or show any vulnerability for immortal characters or anyone who might feasibly ever be a threat to him. And then anyone else is going to be short lived enough comparatively that it will have either 100% ended in tragedy one way or another or he just hasn’t bothered to care.

Like he barely views otkazat’sya as people, meanwhile until he does gain absolute power, he’ll mistrust any Grisha who will have something to gain from killing him for his bones. Meanwhile! A true, powerful immortal could be a threat, and can never be trusted. And by the time he is powerful enough not to worry about being killed for an amplifier, the jadedness of watching everyone die has probably fully set in.

And like again, we do see in Demon in the Wood how he’s set on a path of isolation. We literally see Baghra raising him to trust no one, and to view the unit of the two of them as fundamentally other and above all other people. And of course, she is herself emotionally stilted and distant from her own traumatic upbringing. We don’t have any real details for when he actually breaks with her. But at least for the length of a typical childhood, probably longer, he will not have had like any other real perspective or model for meaningful relationships. That’s going to be deeply ingrained!

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Agree w everything, Victoria once again stated everything perfectly but I’d like to add: while KoS certainly retcons plenty I do think that his disinterest in the other immortals makes sense, because as Victoria already stated, he fears the loss of control way too much. Like he clearly would not be able to impose the same level of control he envisioned for his relationship with Alina onto the other immortals solely due to them being older, more experienced and hence way less able to fall for his tricks. But I also think his disinterest in them is connected with the fact that they just never did anything! They had all that power and they sort of just, existed, never got involved with the politics. Whereas he was someone who once upon a time genuinely wanted to change the world for the better (something which paradoxically in the end was his doom and turned him into an absolutely awful person). Based on all of that I don’t think it’s an unlikely assumption to make that he just found them to be very boring!

Alina, on the other hand is someone who is still so young whom he thinks that he can not only shape however he sees fit but also the idea of watching her grow and see who can she become over the centuries would be incredibly appealing to him (plus when he saw how much energy she, someone whose powers were literally the opposite of his, put solely into spiting him, that had to fuel his obsession with her even more)

Yeah great point! With how he accuses Alina of betraying her country etc— and his general ideology leaning towards full fascism lmao— on top of finding them boring, he’d probably find their perceived complacency reprehensible. Like oh you’ve been around this long and you’ve been this powerful but you didn’t care enough to try to change anything?

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Anonymous asked:

I think the fundamental disconnect here is just the 'he has it bad because of immortality' part because where and how? His is a situation I would die for. I detailed it in a previous ask.

All these asks are essentially saying the same thing. I can only really point to what I’ve already said.

I think you’re just ignoring the actual character psychology in favor of looking at external conditions and wholly ignoring both implicit and explicit narrative intent within the series. Also you’re way overestimating Baghra’s emotional intelligence as a mother.

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Anonymous asked:

I feel like Baghra did a good enough job. She protected him, taught him things, asked him to be wary of people because that's something parents do even now. His relationship with Baghra was meaningful enough and he could have had friends if he gave it another try. Regardless, he had centuries to get over that. That one incident that happened such a long time ago seems like such a ridiculous excuse when the real reason his narcissism like you yourself mentioned, he wanted someone auspicious enough to mould, to use them for his gain, he didn't actually want companionship or he did have options. I don't think someone eventually dying takes anything away from it. People raise pets who will die in 20 years or less all the time and then said pets' kids. You have to care about the pets for that though which he clearly didn't because of his sociopathic tendencies.

Dude are you literally just camped out on my blog?

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How would it affect the series if this was the darklings carriage <33 give arguments pro and against!

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Alina would instantly fall in unconditional love with him and the rest of the series wouldn’t happen. I don’t think this needs further elaboration though because it’s just so obvious :)

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Anonymous asked:

I would also argue he had a fairly chill immortality. He was always extraordinarily powerful and had an evil more powerful mother who loved him to the point of slaughtering villages for him. He travelled the world, explored magic, science etc., had no shortage of lovers and then became the general of the second army. That is a pretty good life.

I mean it’s… text that he did have real reason for fear, more than even ordinary Grisha, before establishing the Little Palace and amassing institutional power for himself.

Past that, sure he may have had it good materially. But that’s ignoring: character, motivation, perspective, goals, upbringing, formative backstory and fears, and again, the entire narrative’s themes.

Like I’m sorry if he’s just a perfectly one dimensional guy who was privileged in every other way and is simply being uniquely evil for the hell of it, there are no personal stakes for Alina. He’s no longer a foil to her. There’s no threat of similar corruption, of ever becoming him. Something that, again, is just text! She could just defeat him like the villain of the week in a daytime children’s cartoon and go about her merry way lmao.

I don’t really see the point of debating this when it’s literally just stated outright multiple times and what the entire story hinges on.

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Anonymous asked:

And if he really wanted company he wouldn't have abandoned all those immortals there. Or he would have gone back to get them out eventually but he didn't.

I’ll be real, I don’t think the worldbuilding or even character stuff introduced in KoS is particularly consistent with anything happening in TGT.

That being said, I think that can be explained by him having a particularly outsized idea of who can possibly be a real companion to him. A lifetime spent fearing vulnerability has left him with a white knuckle need for absolute control. He’s lonely but he doesn’t want a true equal, he wants someone who can simultaneously fulfill all his emotional needs, validate his perspective and choices, and never challenge him, all while being auspicious and long lived enough to deserve his attention.

Alina is not these things, aside from her chosen one status as Sun Summoner elevating her to his interest, but she’s young enough that he thinks he can mold her into it.

But consider that before that, his prospects are… no one LOL. I don’t think he’s never had any connections ever, but there are always strong caveats. Again, he will have no trust or show any vulnerability for immortal characters or anyone who might feasibly ever be a threat to him. And then anyone else is going to be short lived enough comparatively that it will have either 100% ended in tragedy one way or another or he just hasn’t bothered to care.

Like he barely views otkazat’sya as people, meanwhile until he does gain absolute power, he’ll mistrust any Grisha who will have something to gain from killing him for his bones. Meanwhile! A true, powerful immortal could be a threat, and can never be trusted. And by the time he is powerful enough not to worry about being killed for an amplifier, the jadedness of watching everyone die has probably fully set in.

And like again, we do see in Demon in the Wood how he’s set on a path of isolation. We literally see Baghra raising him to trust no one, and to view the unit of the two of them as fundamentally other and above all other people. And of course, she is herself emotionally stilted and distant from her own traumatic upbringing. We don’t have any real details for when he actually breaks with her. But at least for the length of a typical childhood, probably longer, he will not have had like any other real perspective or model for meaningful relationships. That’s going to be deeply ingrained!

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What kind of underwear do you think people wear in the Grishaverse? Would Nikolai wear those white heart-print boxers that show up in cartoons whenever a character's pants are comically torn? Explain why or why not

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Who knows maybe they’re just all going commando lmao

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Tag your favourite grishaverse characters <3

Alina’s in the blue, Aleksander in the boudoir gown (make it black) and sorry sorry I think heart boxers are more of a Mal thing. I think Nikolai would probs also go for the boudoir gown tbh.

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What kind of underwear do you think people wear in the Grishaverse? Would Nikolai wear those white heart-print boxers that show up in cartoons whenever a character's pants are comically torn? Explain why or why not

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Who knows maybe they’re just all going commando lmao

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Anonymous asked:

I still don't really agree but thanks for engaging. It was fun to read your opinions on this because I just went through your blog today and mostly agree with what you say about the current him but the opinion differs so much here. Do get around to some of the other points if you feel like it? I might make a grishaverse main blog and then properly go back and forth in a couple of days and don't really want to interact with this from my current Taylor Swift blog so hope you understand.

All good! And I might, there are many asks lol

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Anonymous asked:

I think Alina and darklings childhood are shown to show someone who truly has it bad but doesn't realise it because it is glamourized ie the duke situation and someone who has most things and is very privileged but still vicitmises himself using the misery of those surrounding him. He was never truly unsafe with his powers and his mother by his side. He was never truly alone either. Alina was both powerless and alone. A friend at least in the younger years doesn't make up for the love of a mother. It is also shown how Baghra always taught him more and more while Alina's education was lacking. I don't think she could ever become him. She was his opposite. Despite all this she didn't want more and more, she was content with a shawl in the end. Good vs Evil.

I respect you typing all this out but I think you’re reading a much more boring version of this series

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Anonymous asked:

This is just him being an unreliable narrator in my opinion. He has just been shown to kill two grishas (I don't mind one of them) and leave one potential grisha alone and endangered. The village burning also made it worse for the grisha overall. This is him just saying things. The true motivation is wanting to be a hero in a narcissistic way. 'I will make one'.

AHDHFHFG okay I have to pull an Anne Rice here, frankly I think you’re interrogating the text from the wrong perspective.

There’s more nuance within the short story itself. Of course it’s deliberate that the primary threat and conflicts are from within the Grisha communities, but also how clear it is that everyone involved are acting out of desperation! Including him, like bro he is thirteen.

Demon in the Wood is how he begins his slow journey becoming more and more isolated from other Grisha because of his immortality and status as an amplifier. To the point where… yeah by the trilogy it’s clear he doesn’t actually care about saving anyone, and he‘s mostly in it for personal gain. But at that point he was mostly just trying to not die.

Within the larger series I don’t think like… any of it is thematically or narratively functional if framed without any empathy for him at all. Like I routinely get yelled at by Darkling stans for being too mean to him lmao but I do think this is a bit much!

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Anonymous asked:

I actually do not really understand how demon in woods made people believe he ever had good intentions. He said 'let me make my mark on this world'. That is a rather narcissistic motivation.

Well it’s literally stated outright lmao

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