genuinely unsure what Ashton's ideal warden would be, because it really depends on the angle

but i think absolutely you need to be at least a little kind to him

she very much associates kindness with motive and manipulation, which is 50% historical precedent and 50% she hates herself + can't understand why/how someone would understand her and like her still

I feel like Avalon could be a good permapair for Ashton, but I'm not sure. They could help with non-human stuff. It takes them a while to form connections, though

I'm super interested to see how their temp pairing this month works out!! :0

there's a lot of potential points of commonality there to work off of

Ash needs to be pushed because otherwise she'll voluntarily lock herself into old patterns, but her Big Supernatural Issues (which are! very important! god are they ever!) are all fundamentally built on a base of the fact that the worst thing that ever happened to her was getting turned

and she is so desperate to have her own identity that she refuses to ever uncalcify herself from being trapped in that moment

--Ishmael, when she gets in, is going to be a hilariously no-nonsense contrast of a warden. Sometimes some really fucked up shit happens to you and you spend years trapping it as the core of your identity!! So, okay, yes, she gets this, but like. You GOTTA look it in the eyes

People with totally mundane normal human problems will honestly just. She doesn't know what to do about that. But if your backstory obliterated you emotionally somehow, THAT she gets, the fact it pulls you back

They could also relate to locking themself into a harmful and maladaptive sense of identity

We'll see how this goes!

NO personal growth. ONLY locking yourself into the worst version of you

when you dig yourself a hole KEEP DIGGIN'.

(I do want to throw Ishmael once she gets in at Avalon, tbh, they'd remind her of a coworker to some degree and she'll gravitate towards familiar things until she really grounds herself)

Also, I just think it'd be funny for the two genderqyeer people currently on the Barge to get permapaired

Genderqueer*

also at some point WHEN HE LEAST EXPECTS IT Kahl is gonna maul her

Chaos_drifter: admiral has connected the dots...!!

shipoftheseus: [cheering and clapping]

'yeah, you know what? i did deserve that actually'

Admiral still thinks Avalon is a guy half the time LOL

it does paint a very funny pattern with ashton's temps tbh

ulla yelled at the admiral about/for them in nov & immediately got paired. avalon's the other genderqueer person on the barge. easy matchups to try out

you might think 'ashton's warden also needs to deal with Whatever She's Doing With Armand'. and that's not wrong. however i think that could feasibly be healthy if they weren't. both. who they are

just balance the 'you are not an irredeemable person and not as inhuman as you think you are' with the 'hey so is this like... good? are you two good? do you need violence safewords? what is your fucking problem?'

I haven't looked at your Ashton/Armand threads. I probably should

if you catch them and ask them about it, they'll both individually tell you that it's a normal interaction that people might have in vampire society

it is not. they didn't confer with each other on this they're just unfortunately very similar people.

who insist that as deeply different people, an agreement proves it's an objective fact

...I'm guessing they're the same kinds of interactions that Armand has with Rawne, a.k.a., feeding + sex

that would be healthier, actually

it's shit talking + vampire trivia hour where they trade facts about their worlds + incredible violence

Beautiful

it might've looked like there was a blood sacrifice performed during the night on one of the island beaches during the november port

but no <3 that's not what happened there

just very normal

as mentioned, I need to throw folks at ashton more

but I'd be interested in giving things a shot if you've got a spot on the dance card

yarnzipan: always!!

woot woot

My boy Walter is an inmate but I'm really hoping for him to maybe develop cr with her!

Ulla likes Ashton a lot, she's definitely going to be keeping an eye out during future months

ancillaries: Yes, absolutely! Gotta throw them at each other again sometime, 'you're into true crime?' 'no, you've got it all wrong. i'm a cannibal.' is fundamentally very funny to me

tricia868: She likes Ulla! With a healthy dose of 'your girlfriend terrifies me and I'm on my best behavior around you so she never considers taking control of me again' but also, there is genuine like there

Like I just get kinda stuck in my head of "omg has Walter even met them in person"

I'm going to be making an open post on January so at the absolute latest it will happen then but I'm silly

Yesss, I'll definitely toss them at that if it doesn't happen beforehand