The High Lord Speaks - Tumblr Posts
Me flirting: And is your family in good health?
the tortured poets department
4, 15, 16 for the character ask
Ask the High Lord | Character Portrayal Questions ✨
4. Favorite line
“I love you,” He whispered, and kissed my brow. “Thorns and all.”
15. Worst thing they’ve ever done
During one of the most intense battles between the humans and the faeries, Tamlin found himself protecting a group of both human children from a terrible onslaught of beasts. He managed to winnow eleven of them to safety. By then, the conflict had been over twenty four hours. Even his great wells of strength were fading. The twelfth child waited for him in a nearby church, hiding between the benches. He arrived just in time to place his hand over the little boy’s mouth before he screamed in terror and alerted the nearby fae. Yet, they saw him anyway. Tamlin’s ability to fight was greatly barred by the child’s instinct to run away. As he struck the killing blow to one of his own, the little one ran in front of him and accidentally ended his own life on Tamlin’s blade.
He didn’t scream. He simply looked his guardian in the eye and thanked him for trying.
Tamlin screamed.
He screamed while holding the tiny, bloody body and watching life fade out of it.
He screamed in the night when the images forced their way back into his mind.
He still does — in his heart — every time he walks through his own village and sees a small fae playing in the sun.
The worst thing he’s ever done was not save the last one when even the last of them deserved to be saved.
16. Deepest darkest secret they won’t even admit to themselves
Tamlin blames himself for his mother’s death. His father was a senselessly violent man, who had two sons by the time that his mother conceived him. For nearly all his life, he listened to his father berate her over his existence. Often, his father claimed that she had cheated with another behind his back. These senseless allegations started before he was born. Six months into her pregnancy, his father attacked his own mate and she nearly lost her own life — not to mention her child. After that, she moved as far away from the manor as she could and into a cabin on the shores of Lake Naimore, which bordered the Winter Court.
This was where his mother birthed him and raised him for the first three years of his life. When he was five, the High Lord of Spring demanded a paternity potion — which quickly backfired in his face.
Tamlin was his son.
Faced with a son whom he’d never wanted and a mate whom he’d all but destroyed his connection to — Tamlin and his mother were reluctantly welcomed back to the Spring Court.
She was very protective over him. The abuse often continued.
Tamlin was often the one who bound up his mother’s wounds after she came back from a conversation with his father. Then, he transformed into a barrage of tiny animals to help her smile again.
The stress slowly took its toll on her. She retreated more often into her chambers as he grew up, but his loyalty never wavered.
His mother held one powerful card over his father — a secret, one that the High Lord never wanted discovered.
This kept Tamlin safe from his physical tirades except for once. The one time that he looked his father square in the eyes and said, “One day I will be big enough to hit you back.”
His mother died when he was eighteen. “It was her heart,” they said. “She’d gone through too much.”
No. Tamlin thought to himself. It was me. If I had never been born, she would still be dancing with the roses.
As if you were on fire from within. The moon lives in the lining of your skin.
Pablo Neruda
An Interview with Tamlin
If our beloved Tam could speak for himself in our times. As told by positivelyruined for @tamlinweek 2024
Question One — How does the flack from the entire fandom and the world at large genuinely make you feel?
Tamlin sighed and rubbed his temples, “Well, it isn’t pleasant. There are things I’ve read that do give me the urge to track down certain people and transform them into cockroaches; but I think if I were to summarize it, it would be something like, ‘characters are people too.’ Despite our controversies, we do all have feelings. I think that deserves a modicum of respect, don’t you?”
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Question Two — What are your thoughts on SJM and the way she’s written your story?
Tamlin bites his lip and scratches his neck, shuddering to himself. “Here’s the thing…Sarah and I — we used to be friends. Once, long ago; I can’t say that now. In Pyrthian this sort of thing would be handled with a duel over my honor; but perhaps in your world it’s more familiar as…death of the author? I think I heard that phrase somewhere. She and I are no longer on speaking terms. I would truly consider her dead to me.”
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Question Three — Considering you have described your author as dead to you, would you now call yourself a free man?
Tamlin laughed wryly. “Quite honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever live down the damage that was done to my character. There are people out for blood. I’d honestly say it was one of my worst fears to have someone else shapeshift into me and commit crimes. Now, I’m living in that reality. I feel glad that there isn’t a fictional character incarceration program, because otherwise I’d certainly be living there. No — I am definitely not a free man, and I will be content to live the rest of my life as a hermit.”
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Question Four — What can a person do to attract your attention?
He snickered. “By the cauldron, they could start by using my name correctly or generally not referring to me as a feminine hygiene product. Your lordship, or your highness is always appreciated…but for now, I would honestly settle for people just getting my name right.”
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Question Five — People are saying Feyre never loved you and you never loved her. Do you have a response to that?
“I think it says a lot to be willing to sacrifice your life, for someone, doesn’t it?” He softened. “I always believed Feyre was my mate, but I still offered her the opportunity to go — to be safe. She came back for me. Right now…I would do anything to have her here with me; but there are times even giving your all just isn’t enough. All I can do is pray that she is happy. Thorns and all.”
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Question Six — Do you have any fears that you would consider irrational?
Tamlin nods grimly. “Yeesh — caves, attics, any other place inhabited by flying rodents. Whoever decided that rats deserve wings needs a serious reality check.”
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Question Seven — Have you ever been confused with another celebrity?
The High Lord shrugs. “People say I look like several people like Toby Regobo, Luke Eyesner, Legolass — although I’d like to think myself fairly unique. Pretty much, I’m the tall blonde one with an unpredictable face. It is a nice way to remain anonymous.”
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Question Eight — Growing up, what were your favorite childhood games?
“Hide and seek, obviously.” He answers. “With enough practice, I learned how to shapeshift into objects. I was gone for nine hours once. People didn’t notice until they ran into a stepstool that complained about being kicked. It still felt like I won that game — although my brothers would have said otherwise.”
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Question Nine — What do you look forward to in the future? What do you dread?
“Ah. Peace and quiet. The next Autumn festival. Fresh blueberries, and perhaps a nice nap in the sun.” Tamlin smiled, slowly. “What do I dread? Ever having to do this again, and the asparagus that Alis always cooks on Friday.”
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Question Ten — If you could tell your audience anything, what would that be?
“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say it at all.” He said, then paused to reconsider. “Also, pay attention to what you read. It is all too easy to let another's thoughts become your own. You have a brain. Use it.”
Never faked my "I miss you" and "I love you", Only thing I faked is "I'm Okay".
honey, you’re familiar
like my mirror, years ago
idealism sits in prison
chivalry fell on its sword
“I plant roots so deeply in the people I love that I always lose a piece of myself when they go.”
— Beau Taplin
“If speaking kindly to plants can help them grow, just imagine what speaking kindly to humans can do.”
— Unknown
“People are not burdens, Feyre. They have burdens. Please, trust me. Carrying a few of yours in exchange for you saving my life is literally the least that I could do.”
Tamlin, a ballad of thorns and roses, chapter sixteen
“People speak of grieving their dead, but they are silent for those that remain. How do you grieve the one who still breathes? You don’t. You can’t. You can only learn to live without them — as seconds turn to centuries. People are not possessions. They cannot be replaced when lost.”
Tamlin, to Feyre, a ballad of thorns and roses
“I’d much rather have one great person to talk to every night than have several pointless conversations with temporary people.”
— Unknown
“I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things with a heavy heart.”
— Albert Camus
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.” — Prince Edward Renaldi
“Tell me every terrible thing you’ve ever done and let me love you anyway.” — Unknown
@inabcck
Anna Akhmatova, tr. by. D.M. Thomas, Selected Poems