#Amalia De Simone

[geekgirles]

The Doll and the Dragon

Chapter 3 That Distant Shore

Word Count: 15,977

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Summary: "The day has finally come where Amalia will get to leave the palace premises and explore around Oma Island alongside Yugo. However, much to their mutual surprise, it won't take long before it becomes apparent the island's landscapes won't be the only thing they'll explore today. Soon they'll learn more about themselves and each other, at the same time as they wonder if they truly know each other at all."

“So, you’re getting ready for your date?” Nora asked him from where she lay upside down on his bed, her feet dangling in the air as she munched on some snacks she snatched from the kitchen. 

How she didn’t choke on those from her position was beyond him. 

“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s not a date!” Yugo snapped, rolling his eyes in annoyance at his sister’s insistence. He was looking at her from over his chair, his body facing the desk he kept in his room for last minute documents he had to look over. 

That was the downside of always being out and about, the stacks of paperwork that would inevitably pile up. 

Seriously, between the bureaucratic work and his sister’s antics at his expense, he really doubted he would live to a thousand years, at least in this lifetime. 

It was Nora’s turn to roll her eyes, an action which she made sure to emphasise. Leave it to Yugo to be in denial. Propping herself on his bed so she was sitting upright right after gobbling up her last snack, she flashed him a bored look. 

“Right, right. I always forget. It’s not a date.”

“Thank you.” Yugo puffed out his chest, glad his younger sister was finally seeing reason. 

“You’re just going to be adventuring around the island—one of your favourite things in the whole wide Krosmoz—alongside Amalia, whom I seem to recall you actually asked if she was okay with it, and sweating a Rogue’s whole bullet supply while you were at it; just the two of you. Yeah, it sure doesn’t sound like a date to me.”

Yugo pouted. He should’ve known it was a trap. 

“Well, it’s not!” He protested, even as he tried to busy himself with work to drown Nora’s sarcastic comments out. “Come on, Nora, I thought you were better than that.”

She furrowed her brow in confusion. “What do you mean?”

She definitely was not above teasing her older brother about his painfully obvious crush on the pretty flower that got sent to him. His being in denial only made it all the more entertaining. So she had no idea what he meant about ‘being better than that.’

“Don’t play coy.” He told her sternly, swirling his body once again to point at her with an accusing finger and a serious expression on his face. “Aren’t you supposed to be above all these ‘archaic notions meant to hinder positive interactions between members of the opposite sex such as the impossibility of men and women fostering fully platonic relationships’?”

Nora could only blink in disbelief. Once. Twice. Up to three times. Finally, she offered a slow, sarcastic clap, her tone flat. “Wow, I’m impressed. Where did you get all that from, Yugo, by memorising Simone de Bouftou’s works?”

Yugo just rolled his eyes, turning his focus back to signing documents and away from his annoying sister. “Does that mean you’ve changed your mind about all that?”

“No way!” She replied, waving the mere notion off with a psh! sound. “Of course men and women can be just friends. I mean, look at me, I’m only friends with most guys I know!” Then, she muttered to herself, “And I say most because the remaining guys are my brothers and that would be gross.”

Yugo wisely chose not to comment on how she wasn’t exactly interested in pursuing a relationship with any man in the first place. 

Ignoring his train of thought, she went on, undeterred. “Doesn’t change the fact that you and Amalia are going out on a date, though.”

Exhaling deeply from his nose, Yugo all but threw his pen down at the desk, causing a little thud! to echo around the room before it began to roll around the wooden surface it was in. He’d better be realistic and accept he would not get any work done, not with Nora this intent on getting on his nerves today. 

After solving Amalia’s little problem with her room—though, truth be told, she solved it entirely by herself—, the Divine Doll had timidly asked him if they could explore Oma Island some time soon, confiding in him her own desire to learn more about the world around her. A desire Yugo himself was intimately familiar with. 

In a moment of weakness, despite his better judgement, Yugo had given in, relating to her feeling of solitude with nothing to do and nowhere to go. And because he was a man of his word, he had been planning on the perfect escapade, writing down all the incredible places that could be found on the island his people now called home and deciding which ones they should start with. 

It wasn’t like he was excited, or anything of the sort. But, for whatever reason, the gods had entrusted him with a Sadida Doll, and this would apparently be Amalia’s first time seeing the outside world since her creation. The least he could do was make it worthwhile. 

And yes, maybe he had been a little nervous when he asked her if she wanted to go, and maybe the fact that he asked her at all would raise a few eyebrows among the most old-fashioned people, who would immediately label it as a date. But it wasn’t a date! There was no romantic intent behind it, he had only been trying to come up with the perfect plan because this would be Amalia’s first outing and he wanted her to enjoy herself, and he had only asked because…

Well, because asking a person if they wanted to do something rather than just assume and force them to do anything was just common decency!

As Shinonomé said, Amalia was their guest, not their prisoner. Even if they would be keeping an eye on her until the reason for her arrival became clear, they would still treat her with the respect a Sadida Doll deserved. 

And if asking her to join him on a little walk around the island counted as an adventure for her and made her smile like she had won a bet against Ecaflip, then he would gladly plan as many adventures and little escapades as she—

He was getting sidetracked! Shaking his head and with it those thoughts away, he couldn’t help but huff as he bit his lip, irritated both at Nora and at himself. But mostly at Nora. Sometimes he was sure her divine gift wasn’t bringing joy to their people, but to get on his nerves. 

“For the last time, it’s not a date! We’re just friends!” He threw his hands to his sides, desperate for his sister to finally listen to what he had to say. 

“What’s not a date?”

Their heads perking up at the sound of the new voice, both Yugo and Nora turned to face the newcomer with equally curious faces. Standing awkwardly in the doorway under their scrutiny was Adamaï, the round opening closing behind him. His brown irises flickered back and forth between his siblings and he had a stack of papers in his claws. 

Clearing his throat to dispel the sudden tension he found himself in, he thumped the bundle of paper on the table to organise them a little before handing them to Yugo. “Here, these are Qilby and Shinonomé’s reports on the new medicine they’re developing from some of Qilby’s plants. They want you to look through it and see if you can give them the go-ahead.”

The dragon’s discomfort only grew when a smile kept stretching over his twin’s face slowly. It was a little unnerving, to say the least. So, curling his tail around himself in unease, he braced himself for the worst. 

“What?” He asked flatly. 

“Adamaï, just in time!” Yugo jumped to his feet and hugged his brother tightly, patting him on the back. Not knowing how to react, all poor Adamaï could do was to awkwardly return the gesture. 

It wasn’t like he was adverse to receiving physical affection from Yugo, the two were undoubtedly close, after all; it was just that he had no idea what could have possibly prompted such a reaction from him. 

Already knowing he would come to regret ever opening his mouth, the dragon asked, “‘Just in time’ for what?”

Yugo broke the hug and gestured towards Nora, who had one eyebrow quirked and her face rested against her knuckles. “Ad, could you please tell Nora I’m not going on a date with Amalia?”

Oh, that actually explained so much. With a shrug, he turned to the magenta-clad Eliatrope, “He’s not going on a date with Amalia.”

The king threw his hands up in the air and his head back in triumph, blessing his lucky stars for having at least one decent sibling. “Thank you! See? There you have it, I’m not going on a date with Amalia!”

But Nora just hummed in response, her expression impassive. With the same stone-faced look, she turned to Adamaï, “And do you actually believe that?”

His answer was swift and devastating. “Not even for a second.”

“Adamaï!” Yugo screeched, bringing a hand to his chest in abject horror, the feeling of betrayal oozing from his pores. “Whose side are you on!?”

Ad just raised his claws up in surrender, though the smirk on his face made it plenty clear he wasn’t sorry in the slightest. “Hey, you told me to tell her you don’t have a date with Amalia; you never said anything about saying that and meaning it.”

The Eliatrope King opened up his mouth to protest, and promptly shut it. His face contorted itself into a grimace as he tried to refute his twin’s logic, but had to resign himself to accepting he had been had. 

Instead, all he could say was, “I hate you.”

The dragon smirked, “Love you too, bro.”

Their attention was drawn back to the only girl in the room when Nora made a show of clasping her hands loudly. She was still on Yugo’s bed, which creaked under her weight, seated in a lotus position as she crossed her arms and sent her king an infinitely smug look. 

“There you have it, you’re going out on a date with Amalia. End of the story.”

She had to refrain herself from rolling her eyes to the back of her skull when Yugo insisted on contradicting her, wagging a finger in the air for added effect. 

“No, no, no.” He shook his head very slowly and deliberately, slowly closing the distance between them as he spoke. “By your own definition, a date is two people, in this case, a man and a woman, doing something they enjoy together.”

“That is correct, yes.” Nora decided to humour him, nodding along. 

“Given you won’t believe me even when I tell you there’s no romantic intent on my part—”

He could feel himself bristle at the infuriating look his two siblings exchanged right under his nose. But that didn’t matter; he went on. 

“—then I feel obligated to point out we’re not going alone!” 

That got her attention, her brow furrowed in confusion. “You’re not?”

“Nope.” Yugo shot back, popping the ‘p’ and thoroughly enjoying the white-haired Eliatrope’s perplexed look. “Adamaï here will be coming with us.”

Suddenly seeing his twin openly gesturing at him caused the dragon in question to start, before jogging up his memory and realising he had indeed agreed to such a thing. “Ah, that’s right. To help you keep an eye on Amalia and make sure nothing happens to her.” Then, he added, tilting his thought in confusion, “But didn’t you say she redecorated her entire room in less than five minutes thanks to her power over nature? Oma Island is overflowing with vegetation, if anything, she’s the one with the advantage here.”

“Doesn’t hurt to be prepared, just in case.” Yugo replied absently, his eyes strained on Nora’s smirking face. That… was not the kind of reaction he was expecting from her after such revelation. It was making his stomach churn, honestly.

For her part, Nora was supremely amused by this. Yugo might be their people’s greatest warrior and a good king, but he could be so utterly hopeless sometimes, especially when it came to romance. No wonder he had never once taken a queen in all his reincarnations, according to Qilby and Shinonomé. She had to suppress an impish giggle. That was what made teasing him on these matters so much fun. 

“I see.” She finally said, her smirk unwavering. “You’re right. You definitely do not have a date with Amalia.”

Exchanging cautious glances with Ad, Yugo dared to say, “Right? T-thank you for finally noticing—.”

“You have a date with Amalia, and a chaperone.” She finished, finally allowing the full scope of her amusement to show on her features. 

Yugo’s whole posture slumped, a vexed pout on his lips. He could only blame himself, he really should have seen that one coming. 

Letting out a heavy sigh as he straightened himself up slightly,  he pinched the bridge of his nose in vexation. “For the last time, Amalia and I are just friends!” He groaned, throwing his arms to the side. “Why do you all insist I have feelings for her? You and Chibi tease me to no end, Efrim accuses me of letting her cloud my judgement, Qilby… I have no idea what he does or what he thinks, as always…”

Nora pretended to think for a second, she was about to open up her mouth when—.

“Um, maybe because you make it so painfully obvious?”

Everyone turned to the origin of the voice, coming face-to-face with a very smug-looking Qilby leaning against the doorframe. Yugo really couldn’t tell if he didn’t notice because he was so engrossed in the conversation or because their doors were too quiet. Which was ridiculous, to be honest. It wasn’t just a large rock shuttle in the middle of the room, it even lit up with wakfu every so often!

Seriously, their children didn’t even need nightlights to ward off monsters in the dark. The doors were more than enough!

“Okay, never mind.” Yugo said, his tone flat. “I know exactly what Qilby does…”

“You would if you actually used your time as a king should and read through our reports.” Qilby pointed out matter-of-factly as he strutted into the room, unperturbed by the sour look on his brother’s face. 

“For once I agree with you, dear brother.” Nora said sweetly, too sweetly. The way she leaned forward with her head resting over her intertwined fingers was a clear sign of how much she was enjoying watching her king squirm.

“I would've been done with these documents about an hour ago if you didn’t keep on distracting me.” Yugo protested weakly. 

His siblings were not having it, however. 

“No, you would have not.” They all deadpanned in unison.

Joining his little sister on the bed, which creaked under the added weight, Qilby stretched, passing his arms behind his back with a loud pop! Mirroring Nora’s devious smirk, he asked, “Why are we talking about Yugo’s obvious crush on his precious flower now?”

Purposely ignoring his twin’s frantic gesturing not to say a word, Adamaï took the liberty of explaining things. “Because they’re going adventuring today.”

“Seriously, Ad. Whose side are you on?!” Yugo scoffed as he threw his hands to his sides, incredulous. “And you deliberately left out the fact that you’re coming with us.”

To his chagrin, his dragon twin simply shrugged. “It’s not like my presence is going to change much.”

“Ah, I see. So this is a date with a chaperone.” Qilby interjected, stroking his braided beard with interest. 

“That’s what I said!” Nora exclaimed, before breaking down into uncontrollable laughter.

With a pensive hum, the eldest Eliatrope continued. “You know, this reminds me of our 168th reincarnation. You used to ask Adamaï or Chibi to chaperone for you on your dates with Dydda. Although, that had more to do with the fact that her father was very overprotective, rather than you being in denial.”

“What do I have to do to get it through your skulls that there’s nothing going on between Amalia and I? And I’m not in denial.” Yugo sighed, rubbing his face with his hands in frustration. He thought best not to point out how, unlike whoever this Dydda girl’s father was, he most likely had nothing on a literal god.

Or maybe he should point it out. It was incredible how easily they all forgot the real reason behind Amalia’s presence in their lives. 

“Oh, denying your denial. That’s a bad sign.” Qilby whispered conspiratorially to Nora, who nodded wisely. He purposely made his voice louder than it should be as he did so, loving every single second of seeing his younger brother twitch uncomfortably in his place. The smirk returning to his face as he basked in the glory of his youngest brother’s less than amused expression, he smugly added. “If you’re not interested in our dear doll, why is it that you’ve been choosing to blow off training with our siblings to practise all by your lonesome right in front of her room, hm?”

Nora’s bright pink eyes lit up in realisation before setting on him like feral, starving Bow Wow staring at a bone. “That’s right! Ever since Amalia arrived, you barely let yourself be seen around the training grounds! Only when we need to tutor our elite guards in training.”

Eyes widening at the accusation, Yugo was convinced his heart just stopped. Choking on air, he had to discreetly thump his closed hand over his chest to get it to start pumping blood again. 

He cleared his throat in an attempt to appear nonchalant. “...I don’t know what you’re talking about?” He hated how that sounded painfully unconvincing even to his ears. 

Qilby just rolled his eyes. “Please, Yugo. Need I remind you I remember everything that’s ever happened since the moment we were born, millennia ago? Whenever you like someone, you can’t help but show off in front of them. And since right now training is your best option to flex that divine physique of yours… Well, you do the maths.”

The Eliatrope King could feel his face heating up at the accusation. And worst of all, the eldest Eliatrope wasn’t exactly wrong. It had been a while since he went to the training grounds with his siblings. Doing his own routine at the back of the palace, where Amalia’s balcony was located, had sort of become a routine for the both of them by now. 

If he was being honest, that development hadn’t been intentional on his part. In fact, it all started because his siblings blew him off first. They had been planning on practising some group formations in case the Twelvians sent more warriors after them, only to then be forced to spend a good half hour waiting for them. It wasn’t until Shinonomé soared right above him and noticed him all by his lonesome that he was informed their siblings all had urgent matters to attend to and would not be able to train that day. 

From an outsider’s perspective, it would have been ironic that the king, who was supposed to be the busiest person of all, was also the only one who had found time to do some physical exercise. However, Yugo’s position as their people’s greatest warrior also justified he dedicated some time of his day, every day, to honing his skills to remain sharp and battle-ready. 

So with nothing better to do and not feeling like forcing their guards-in-training to clean after one person’s mess, he decided he could use some change in scenery. Only problem was he forgot his usual spot away from everyone else currently housed the Sadida Doll he already went out of his way to keep a strictly platonic relationship with. 

And it worked! It really did. Amalia didn’t try to convince him to take her as his bride or even bring the subject up at all. She was mostly content with letting herself be dragged around the palace and making idle conversation with him. Yugo actually wondered if she would ever drop the anvil on him, seeing how restless she looked from time to time…

Looking back, it was painfully obvious to see the Divine Doll really needed to get out more. 

The point is, he had been successfully keeping her at arm’s length, too wary of the gods’ true intentions behind sending her to them to risk putting his kingdom in jeopardy. But when he caught her staring intently at his display of physical prowess for the first time, her brown, doe-like eyes glimmering in awe and the softest blush dusting her cheeks, he felt something powerful, and a little bit cocky, surge within him. 

What began as mere attack drills became an elaborate choreography that ended up leaving him more winded than when he actually fought the World of Twelve’s champions. But the shortness of his breath, the accelerated heartbeat echoing in his ribcage, or the soreness in his muscles were nothing compared to the rush of adrenaline and pride he felt upon seeing Amalia’s reaction. 

Before he knew it, that one-time thing had become an addictive habit he had trouble even envisioning himself breaking. 

And apparently, his siblings had taken notice of it too. 

There was no way he was going to tell all that to them, of course. Especially not when Qilby and Nora were still laughing uncontrollably at his expense, their laughing fit having started roughly at the same time he froze on the spot at the bespectacled Eliatrope’s accusations. With a tsk! sound and a long-suffering roll of his eyes, he turned his back to them long enough to grab his cloak from his coat stand and put it on, pulling his hood over his head as well. 

With a nod of his head, he motioned for Adamaï to follow him. Purposely ignoring the way his actions finally broke Nora and Qilby out of their little trance, he pointed at the floor, his palm glowing a bright blue, and opened up a portal big enough to fit both him and Adamaï.

“Whe—...Where are…where are you going?” Nora managed to ask in between wheezes, wiping a tear away. 

“To pick Amalia up to show her around. At this rate, rather than take her on an adventure, I’ll take her to bed.” He replied simply, seemingly not realising how that sounded. 

As Qilby’s laughter intensified, a predatory grin made its way to the pink-eyed Eliatrope’s lips. “Hey, if you don't want to, I’ll more than gladly—.”

And just like that Yugo and Adamaï were gone. 

“Rude.” She scoffed. 

.......................................................................................................................

Amalia was practically buzzing with excitement. Today was the day she’d manage to leave the palace premises and explore Oma Island for a bit! Oh, she wasn’t sure this day would ever come. She had replayed the moment Yugo proposed the idea to her in her mind over a million times already.

It had been shortly after she admitted to disliking her room and receiving his and Chibi and Grougal’s help with redecorating the space more to her liking. That morning, not long after the little routine they had going on where Yugo trained in front of her balcony and she got to enjoy the show, he had come knocking on her door. 

Amalia still couldn’t make sense of how uncomfortable he looked when she offered him to come inside, only for him to vehemently, albeit politely, reject her offer and remain rooted to the spot beside the door frame even as the shuttle closed behind him. But she chose to shrug his weird behaviour off—honestly, between Yugo’s mercurial moods, where one second he seemed completely at ease only to tense up at the next; Nora’s strange comments both about them and about her, especially her; Efrim’s glares; and Qilby’s indecipherable expressions, the Divine Doll was really beginning to think what she considered odd behaviour was just culture shock. For all she knew, that was completely normal for Eliatropes!

So dropping the matter for the time being, she focused instead on what he was trying to tell her. Apparently he wanted them to have breakfast together. That in itself was great. Given how their interactions usually went, they would most likely walk around the palace afterwards. Maybe she could try bringing the subject of looking around the island up again?

Amalia dropped her porridge-filled spoon into her bowl the moment Yugo beat her to the punch mid-breakfast and suggested exactly that, her eyes as wide as the saucers carrying sweets, cold meats, fruit, and many other food options on the table. Then she proceeded to almost knock an unprepared Yugo out of his chair when she threw herself at him to hug him as thanks. Only to let him go immediately after because, judging by the way his whole body tensed up at the contact and how the maids and servants were staring at them owlishly, it seemed Eliatrope culture wasn’t big on public displays of affection. 

Which Amalia couldn't help but find ironic since their portal-making abilities usually meant their concept of personal space was a little faulty. 

Nevertheless, once she had released him and he recovered from the shock—Amalia told herself then to be more careful in the future; she was no longer with her family and couldn’t afford to be overly touchy-feely—, Yugo admitted to having been thinking over what she said about leaving the palace and how he reached the conclusion that she was right. Oma Island was her home now, it’d be better if she knew her way around it. 

And so, the rest of their breakfast was spent picking the perfect date and with a pleading Amalia begging a tight-lipped Yugo to tell her more details of their first ever adventure together. But even the doll’s best efforts were futile. He just told her to be ready when the day came and to let him worry about the rest.

And now that the day had finally arrived, she was so beyond herself with joy, no matter what she did, she just couldn’t stay still while she waited for Yugo to arrive to pick her up. 

That wasn’t an exaggeration. She had tried sitting on the floor and caressing the vines and ferns she’d grown the other day. She laid on her bed upside down and with her feet dangling in mid-air as she propped her head with her hands, or with her back to the wall as her eyes followed the lines composing the murals on the walls, trying to make sense of them. She had spent hours in front of her vanity, brushing her hair and trying to look her best. But nothing! 

As she frantically paced around her room like a caged animal, she couldn’t help but think Xelor seemed intent on making time go by more slowly today. 

She shuddered at the memory of her brief interaction with the time god, when her father introduced her to the other gods before sending her to the World of Twelve. Overall, he seemed nice, but she just couldn’t get over having to look him in the chest to look him in the eye…

Watching someone’s pectorals squinting was a scarring experience she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy. And when his mouth curled over his stomach? Amalia was the one who didn’t have the stomach for it. 

In a twist of fate, it was as if she had accidentally summoned Xelor himself and got him to do his job. For just as she got lost reminiscing, a knock on the windowpane leading to her balcony broke the Divine Doll out of her thoughts. 

With a gasp, she abruptly stopped pacing. Her eyes trained on the windowpane, she commanded two of the vines on her wall to open it with a gesture of her hands. She could only squeal in equal parts delight and excitement at the sight before her, before rushing out to the balcony without a second thought. 

Hovering over the railing were Yugo and his dragon brother Adamaï, the latter having spread his draconic wings to achieve such a feat. While Adamaï’s posture, with his arms folded over his chest and his batting wings, remained more guarded than Yugo’s, whose body was mostly hidden by his usual blue cloak, the two of them still wore pleasant smiles as they waited for her. 

Her eyes flickering down for a fraction of a second, she couldn’t help but smile appreciatively when she noticed they were hovering on purpose just so they could avoid stepping on her vines. That was so thoughtful of them.

“Yugo, you’re really here!” She exclaimed happily, her brown eyes glimmering in delight as she got closer. 

The Eliatrope chuckled at her reaction. “Well, I did say today I’d take you out.” He turned to his twin. “Isn’t that right, Adamaï?”

“I wasn’t there when you agreed on the specifics, but if that's what you said you would do, then the least you can do is hold up your end of the bargain.” He shrugged, not too concerned. 

The exchange causing her to remember her other guest and flush at her lack of manners, the Sadida Doll rushed out to rectify her mistake. “Oh, Adamaï! I’m so sorry, it’s great to see you too. We really haven’t had the chance to interact more.” She sheepishly cupped her cheek with one hand. “Uh, forgive me but, um… why exactly are you here?”

Despite how obvious it was he would only be third-wheeling on these two’s not-a-date (as Yugo insisted on calling it), Adamaï couldn’t help but chuckle at the doll’s innocent, albeit genuine, question. He had just opened his mouth when he sensed his brother’s voice inside his head, begging him not to embarrass him like the rest of their siblings would. 

As tempted as he was to screw with his twin and tell Amalia Yugo was just so worried about today going well and ensuring her safety, he specifically sought him out and chose this very date—the one day all week Adamaï didn’t have business of his own to tend to, mind you—to take her out, he thought better of it. 

On the one hand, it was true their siblings had been giving their king a lot of grief over the Amalia topic, and even though Yugo liked to act like everything was fine, Ad had been by his side since back in their Dofus days. And he knew Yugo really didn’t like to have his intentions with Amalia questioned or distorted for a cheap laugh, just like he knew Efrim’s obvious hostility and distrust towards her had really rattled him. 

Whenever the members of the Council of Six had tenser interactions than bickering, it was very serious. If they weren’t careful, their people were sure to find out, and putting them further on edge given everything that happened with the Twelvians since they arrived to this world was the last thing they needed. 

All that, combined with Amalia’s expectant, innocent brown gaze, made it impossible for him to have some fun of his own. Perhaps the Divine Doll didn’t know what things like suitors or brides or marriages were, but it was clear to see there was something there when it came to her ease around Yugo. And the blue-and-white dragon couldn’t bring himself to risk toying with her feelings. 

With an almost imperceptible shake of his horned head over how soft he was getting, he finally said, “Yugo thought it’d be best if we both showed you around, since we know Oma Island like the back of our hands. After all, we are our people’s greatest adventurers!” He stated proudly. 

“But that’s amazing!” The Divine Doll gasped. “Is that really true, Yugo?”

“Oh, you’d better believe it!” He nodded, clasping a hand on his twin’s shoulder and sharing a mischievous grin. “There’s nothing Ad and I love more than living adventures and discovering new places. Why, just ask Chibi and Grougal; our old room used to be filled to the brim with countless souvenirs from all the places we visited!”

As the two brothers shared a laugh and began reminiscing on some past adventures, Amalia was grinning like a fool. She couldn’t help but frown in confusion and the mention of their ‘old room’, vague memories of her father and the gods mentioning the Eliatropes were not native to the World of Twelve but not much else echoing in her mind. But she pushed that away for the time being in favour of focusing on the revelation of Yugo and Adamaï being great adventurers. 

How great was that?! Oh, here she was, longing to see the outside world, and Yugo and Adamaï had already seen so much of it! She imagined herself journeying the world, meeting fascinating new people and places, and having the time of her life doing so. For some reason she couldn’t explain, knowing Yugo had already done it all before filled her with a strange but warm feeling, one she couldn’t quite bring herself to dislike. 

The King of the Eliatropes really was amazing. 

While they kept exchanging stories, the sight of Amalia watching them interact in interest reminded Ad they weren’t alone. Elbowing his brother discreetly to get his attention, he was about to suggest they leave when one look at the Divine Doll stopped him in his tracks. 

“Um, forgive me, Amalia. But do you really think it’s a good idea to go around dressed like that?” He said instead, pointing at her outfit with one claw. 

Yugo was about to reprimand his brother when he, too, took notice of what the wild beauty was wearing. “Now that you mention it… Ad’s right, Amalia. Don’t get me wrong, you look great,” he admitted sheepishly, scratching his cheek in discomfort and ignoring the pointed look his brother sent him, “but, uh… We’re going to be moving around a lot, so maybe that’s not the most comfortable thing?”

Her eyes narrowing in slight offence, Amalia glanced down at her outfit… And immediately looked right back up, embarrassed. She was wearing the very same dress she had on when first meeting Yugo—the very same thing she had been wearing since, in fact. The boys were right, while undoubtedly beautiful, it would not do for her first adventure. 

Luckily, she knew just what to do. 

“If you want, we could call the Royal tailor to fix you something up real quick—” Yugo’s words were silenced by the Sadida Doll’s raised hand. 

“There’s no need!” She said brightly. “I actually spent hours choosing this outfit. Wait, let me just…” As she trailed off, taking on a palm-up pose, a current of air carrying brownish, autumn leaves picked up, taking the primordial siblings by surprise and forcing them, not for the first time, to avert their eyes. They couldn’t help but wonder if this kind of thing would become a recurring occurrence with Amalia around. 

When the wind finally died down again and they got to take one look at the doll, Yugo could only vaguely make out the sound of an unamused Adamaï spitting out some leaves that got in his mouth as the sound of his own blood rushing to his ears was all he could hear. And the vision before him was all he could pay attention to. 

Just like she did when she first introduced herself, Amalia had altered her physical form, although, it would be more accurate to say this time she had changed her clothing. She no longer wore the regal leafy orange and green dress the king had come to associate her with. Instead, she had donned a pair of beige pants made out of some kind of vegetal fibre he would not be able to name. She wore a simple, strapless dirty white top that left her neckline, shoulders and upper back exposed, with a pair of long, matching wristbands reaching past her biceps covering her arms and the back of her delicate hands. Joining both her upper and lower halves was a dark brown band with a large, orange leaf that covered both her chest and reached down between her legs, the same colour as the new pair of anklets around her bare feet. 

As his eyes travelled all the way up to meet her face, Yugo noticed how this time she had gone the extra mile to change her hairstyle as well. While still held up by a high ponytail, Amalia had foregone the elaborate tiara and antlers, choosing instead for her wild mane to remain as natural as possible. Still, the new look accentuated the doll’s sweeter, more delicate aspects; her silky green hair was now flufflier, with her side-bangs curling around her face and her fringe reaching past her forehead—it it weren’t for the shape of it, her hair would have been long enough to cover her eyes.  

All in all, it was definitely a much more practical outfit, a much better choice to spend a day outdoors in. Except for the fact that the way it hugged Amalia’s very curve made it increasingly difficult for Yugo not to break his concentration and plummet to the ground. And it only got worse when Amalia began turning around herself, showing off her new look. 

Then it got so bad even Adamaï noticed his struggle and had to hurry to loop their arms together so he wouldn’t lose his balance. 

“What do you think?” Amalia, blissfully unaware of the reactions she caused, asked as she finally stopped turning. She preened at them, a hand to her chest while she placed the other on her hip. “I call this one my ‘adventuring outfit’; since, you know, I figured I could use something more practical if we’re going to be walking around.”

“Good call.” Adamaï commented, his lips curling in amusement. Dear Goddess, if Amalia managed to knock Yugo’s breath out without even trying, then he didn’t even want to think what she’d be able to do if she ever put her mind to it. Raising an  eyebrow at his awestruck twin, the dragon shoved him lightly to get him back on the World of Twelve. 

When Yugo looked at him questionably, he discreetly motioned towards Amalia with his head. Eyes lighting up in realisation, the Eliatrope King straightened up, clearing his throat. 

“A very good call indeed.” Yugo agreed, before his expression softened with his next words. “That outfit looks really good on you, Amalia.” He told her sincerely, causing a lovely pink to dust her cheeks as she met his eyes shyly. After a moment when neither of them said a word, Adamaï, who was growing increasingly annoyed at this kind of thing, elbowed his brother yet again to reboot him. With a small start, Yugo cleared his throat right before using his magic to conjure a considerably-sized portal up. 

Gesturing at it, and chuckling at Amalia’s awed reaction, he offered her his hand, “Shall we?”

Amalia squealed, her fists clenched excitedly over her face. Adamaï rolled his eyes at their antics, but couldn’t suppress a soft smile from stretching over his lips. 

With an excited nod, Amalia took Yugo’s hand and let him guide her into the portal. She was about to go on her first adventure and experience travelling through an Eliatrope portal all on the same day!

Could this day get any better?!

..........................................................................................................................

“I am never doing that again.” She stated somberly after getting over her last dizzy spell, the dry heaving having finally stopped. 

Amalia could only lament the state she suddenly found herself in. Her ponytail was frazzled, her gorgeous mahogany skin was about three shades paler, she felt so drained she had no choice but to slump her ballerina-like posture forwards as she used a nearby tree for support, and her stomach still performed some somersaults from time to time. It was taking everything in her power to keep it all down.

Or whatever remained, at least. 

Glaring at the twins over her shoulder, she snapped. “Couldn’t you have warned me beforehand?!”

Startled at the sudden flaring of her temper—except for an instance or two of haughtiness, Amalia had been extremely polite and mild-mannered since she arrived— Yugo and Adamaï shared a meaningful, silent conversation over who should speak and dare elicit her wrath further. The king’s lips formed a tight line when his dragon brother oh so helpfully pointed out it had been his idea in the first place and, moreover, Amalia was his bride; it was up to him to deal with her moods. 

His nostrils flaring in annoyance, Yugo mouthed a ‘She’s not my bride’ back before the Divine Doll’s impatient “Well?” snapped their attention back to her. She was still using the tree for support, but this time she had her back to it, leaning against it with her arms crossed and an expectant eyebrow raised. 

The Eliatrope could only fidget nervously with his fingers as he finally admitted, “Well, to tell you the truth… We had no idea it would happen? You kind of are the first non-Eliatrope or non-dragon person to ever go through one of our portals.” He finished with an awkward laugh as both he and Adamaï rubbed the back of their heads sheepishly. 

Amalia closed her eyes and clenched her fists to her sides, baring her teeth in aggravation, she could feel her veins about to pop. What started out as the perfect beginning for a perfect day soon became a much more revolting affair. Literally. 

At first everything had been wonderful. She was so engrossed in the sight of Yugo smiling down at her with his hand outstretched for her to take, she only barely registered she was moving at all. And she was so captivated once again by the feeling of their bare fingers brushing she almost didn’t realise she had stepped into the portal. 

Being inside an Eliatrope portal was both a fleeting yet lingering experience. For a short few seconds all the Sadida Doll could feel was her wakfu being shaken, as if her very essence was being transported and not just her body. In the blink of an eye, they had gone from standing on her balcony (or hovering above it), several stories high, to landing just outside the palace grounds. 

It was exhilarating.

Until it wasn’t.

Just as Amalia’s feet touched the ground, the shaking feeling she experienced while inside the portal multiplied tenfold, and not in a good way. Just like before it felt like her whole essence had been travelling with her and not just her body, now it felt like only her soul had made it out, leaving behind her body and, more importantly, her stomach. Only for it to come crashing down in a split-second and with it its contents. 

One second, Amalia was standing upright, marvelling at the world around her, and the next she was bent over some bushes, emptying her stomach as she mentally begged the surrounding vegetation to forgive her. Close behind her, she had two very worried siblings fuzzing over her and asking if she was alright. 

Thinking back to that embarrassing image, the wild beauty huffed through her nose and tilted her chin up, but ultimately chose to forgive them. After all, it seemed they had been as taken aback by her reaction as her. 

“You’re lucky I didn’t get anything on my clothes.” 

Releasing relieved sighs, it didn’t take long for Yugo to grow worried again. Approaching the Divine Doll slowly, he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay, though? We could always just go back if you’re not feeling well.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Amalia screeched, scandalised, jerking back from his touch even if only instinctively. “I’ve literally only been out of the palace for, like, five minutes! We cannot just go back now!”

Adamaï came to his brother’s aid, who was looking at the Sadida Doll like a wabbit caught in the headlights. “We just don’t want you over-exerting yourself, Amalia. After all, you are our responsibility…”

The doll narrowed her eyes at the dragon’s words, not appreciating how that made her feel like a child. Rolling her eyes a little petulantly, she pressed on. “Guys, I’m fine. Really. Just determined to never go through another one of your portals unless my life literally depends on it.”

“That might be a problem…” Yugo admitted quietly. Looking at everything but Amalia, he explained. “The place I want to take you to is kinda far away, my portals are the fastest way to go.”

“And why didn’t you teleport us right there in the first place?” Amalia arched an eyebrow, confused. 

“Because our portals don't work like that, not exactly…” He replied, but didn’t explain further beyond a flustered, “Let’s just say it’s really hard to tell how far our portals will take you each time, okay?”

“Okay…” Amalia drawled, trying to make sense of it all, without much success. Giving up, she asked instead, her hands on her hips as she waited for an answer, “So, how do we get there? I mean, without portals.”

It was Adamaï who responded. He pointed a claw to the jungle behind her, his height over her forcing the Sadida Doll to crane her neck to follow his finger. “We could just go straight through the jungle, but that’ll take us longer, about an hour or tw—Urk!”

He was abruptly interrupted when, much to his and Yugo’s bewilderment, Amalia grabbed his face and brought it closer to hers, yanking his full body forwards and forcing him to blink blankly at her beaming smile. “Why didn’t you just say so?! This is perfect!”

“I’ ish?” He frowned, his voice a little muffled due to the doll’s hands tightly squeezing his cheeks. At the same time, Yugo asked, “It is?”

“Of course!” Amalia exclaimed, throwing her arms to her side and finally releasing Adamaï, who couldn’t help but stumble a little even though he managed to regain his footing before crashing face-first against the floor. Sweatdropping, the doll made a mental note to be more mindful of the Eliatrope people’s personal space in the future. “We’re supposed to explore Oma Island, right? What better way to explore it than going through the jungle?” Clenching her fists close to her body excitedly, she squealed. “Oh, I will finally be able to sense what the plants around here feel!”

And with that, she turned back around, making her way into the lush, tropical vegetation with an extra skip in her step. As she went deep into the jungle, leaving a wide-eyed set of twins in her dust, the two brothers could only share bewildered glances at what had just happened. 

Okay, so Yugo’s portals making her throw up was enough for the doll to lose her temper and almost tear them a new one, but being told she’d be walking around a humid jungle for hours on end was apparently cause for celebration? And she intended to gauge how the plants felt?

“Okay, what just happened?” Yugo eventually broke the silence, asking no one in particular. His face contorted into a confused grimace as he tried to make sense of everything. “About the only thing I can sort of understand is the plant thing. She is a Sadida Doll, after all. But everything else?!”

Shaking his horned head in surrender, Adamaï limited himself to clasping his hands over his brother’s shoulders as he leaned into him. “Don’t let it get to you, Yugo. It’s plain to see one of the few constants in the Krozmos is that women are confusing; doesn’t matter if they’re Eliatropes, dragons, Divine Dolls… There’s no hope for us to ever be able to understand these beautiful, enigmatic creatures.”

As Yugo nodded absently to his brother’s conclusion, definitely seeing some truth in his statement, Amalia’s shrill and slightly irritated voice carried over to them even from within the jungle, startling them out of their thoughts. “You guys coming or what?!”

For her part, it was the doll’s turn to be startled when, as she rhythmically tapped her foot against the ground, waiting for them; a flash of blue caught her by surprise and caused her to yelp as the Eliatrope King and his dragon brother stepped out of yet another portal. 

She still had a hand to her chest when she pouted at them. “A heads-up would have been nice…”

“Sorry.” Yugo apologised meekly, rubbing the back of his head. He frowned slightly when Amalia remained rooted to the spot, looking at him expectantly. “Is anything wrong?”

“Hm, let me see…” The doll pretended to think, bringing a finger to her chin. Then, she kept the charade up by pretending to light up in realisation. “How about you lead the way since you’re the only one who knows where we’re supposed to be going?”

“Oh, right. Follow me, as Ad said, it’s pretty much a straight line to the other side.” Yugo said, motioning with his hand for them to follow him as he came to lead their little group, Amalia and Adamaï picking up the rear—if it could even be called that when there were only three people in a group. 

Now that they were back on track, Amalia allowed herself a moment to just take it all in. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she allowed her senses to be overwhelmed by all the living beings around her. She could feel the ground beneath her feet, the soily earth slipping through her toes as she curled them in pleasure. Her heartbeat was one with the oxygen and carbon dioxide being transported by the trees and plants lining their path. The light breeze caressed her skin just like the leaves at the top of the trees, rocking in the wind.  And even if she couldn’t connect to them personally given her nature, she could even sense all the little critters coexisting with the vegetation in the area through their trunks and stumps and branches. 

Nature was at peace here. It was almost as tranquil as back in Father’s realm in Inglorium. 

Oh, it was wonderful. A thousand times better than the small glimpses she would catch from her balcony. And yet, a strange sensation enveloped her, making her realise it wasn’t anywhere near enough. There was something—something powerful—pulling her towards it, telling her there was so much more out there than just what she already knew. And right now, all she knew for certain was that she needed to find whatever that was. 

It was an impulse carved deep into her skin, so deep, she would only carve herself out if she attempted to remove it. For some reason, she just knew—

“I’ve been meaning to say, Amalia, I’m rather impressed by your shapeshifting abilities.” Adamaï’s words broke her out of her trance, forcing her to blink momentarily to regain her bearings. They were certainly deeper into the jungle, judging by the way the amount of sunlight filtered through the tree leaves had decreased considerably. 

“Ad doesn’t say that to just about anyone, you know?” Yugo interjected, smiling at them over his shoulder.

“Huh?” She blinked blankly some more, before realising what they were talking about. “Oh! Um, thanks, Adamaï. Although, in this case I’m not too sure if I would call it ‘shapeshifting’; after all, I just changed my clothes.”

“Have you been capable of doing that since the beginning?” He continued, tilting his head in curiosity. “I mean, every time we’ve seen you, you always wore the same dress…”

“I just saw no reason to wear a different outfit every day.” She shrugged, before gesturing at Yugo. “I also figured not wearing very distinct clothing was an Eliatrope thing; after all, Yugo and the rest always wear the same thing!”

“We do change clothes. It’s just we don’t really go overboard unless it’s an important occasion…” The king mumbled, feeling the need to defend himself. Averting his eyes sheepishly, it was Yugo’s turn to ask, “So you’ve been changing your clothes this whole time?”

“But of course! I actually change into some pyjamas every night. What, did you think I just went to sleep wearing that dress?” She laughed at the mere thought, the sound mirthful and airy. 

As she laughed, the brothers joining in, albeit theirs was more awkward, they shared meaningful looks. As Adamaï mouthed how Yugo should really summon the Royal tailor by now, all the Eliatrope could do was mouth an embarrassed ‘I know’ back. 

After that, the conversation shifted to all kinds of topics. Now that Amalia was done with her dizzy spell for good, she was back to being the sweet and curious girl Yugo had come to know these past few weeks. As the Divine Doll chided them good-naturedly on their high intake of meat, Yugo secretly hoped nothing soured her mood in a while. 

Don’t get him wrong! Amalia was really nice most of the time, and it was understandable she’d be upset after vomiting, but the stark contrast between the cute, kind doll he’d come to know and the surly, angry creature that managed to cow them both into submission by simply raising her voice had been terrifying. 

As he regaled Amalia with some of the things he’d seen on Oma Island—and promised to eventually take her to due to her incessant prodding and puppy-bow-wow eyes—, he stumbled into a large leaf getting in the way and slapping him in the face. The action causing his companions to laugh and giggle at his expense, the Eliatrope limited himself to rolling his eyes good-naturedly before summoning forth a wakfu blade to cut the leaf off with. 

That turned out to be the wrong move. 

With a pained, strangled sound, Amalia fell to her knees, clutching a hand to her chest as she heaved, gasping laboriously for breath. His face paling at the sight of her, Yugo was by her side in an instant, holding her shoulders with one hand while the other took one of hers as he brought her closer to him. 

“Amalia, what’s wrong!? What happened?!” He questioned, alarmed, looking her over for injuries of any kind. 

“The… the… the leaf…” She finally managed to gasp out, a bead of sweat pooling at her forehead as she glanced up at Yugo weakly. 

The Eliatrope furrowed his brow, not following. He sent his brother a questioning look, but a shake of his head was all he needed to convey he too was at a loss. 

“The leaf? You mean the one I just cut?”

She nodded, the mere action requiring some effort. 

“What’s wrong with it?” asked Adamaï. 

It took Amalia a moment before she could speak, needing to regain her breath first. After what felt like an excruciatingly long time, leaning her head against a willing Yugo’s chest to better support herself, she finally explained, “Technically, I’m a Sadida, as in, one of my father’s people… I’m connected to all plant life around me. I… I feel their pain.”

Yugo felt like slapping himself, connecting the dots. “So when I cut that leaf off to clear the way, you felt it yourself.” He finished for her. He shook his head, overcome by guilt. “Amalia, I’m so sorry… I swear, I didn’t know!”

The feeling of her hand resting over his chest, right where his heart was, startled him momentarily. “It’s okay.” She smiled weakly, but not any less sincerely or beautifully, and the Eliatrope felt his heart skip a beat at the action. “Now you do, and I’m sure you’d never do anything to hurt me, at least not intentionally.”

“Should we come back?” Adamaï was addressing Yugo as he asked this, but before his brother and king could reply, Amalia cut in:

“No, no! I’m fine, really! We can continue!” She insisted. 

“You practically collapsed because I cut a leaf.” Yugo felt the need to point out, the same protective instinct from last time with Chibi and Grougal resurfacing. 

“Father said I would be a little sensitive to those things at first, and that, while my connection to nature will never be severed, I will build an immunity to it over time so the pain isn't quite as crippling. But I’m fine, really. In a few minutes, it’ll be like it never happened. Please?”

All of Yugo’s willpower to deny her and return home evaporated in an instant at the sight of her begging, doe-like eyes, tugging at his very soul. 

He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine…”

“Yay!” Amalia squealed, jumping to her feet. Well, at the very least, she did look better now. Then, she raised a finger as she winked at them. “Oh, just one thing. Leave the ‘plants in the way’ thing to me, okay?”

Glancing at each other, not  really sure how to proceed at this point, the primordial twins just shrugged, giving the Divine Doll their assent. “Sure, why not?”

For the rest of the journey to the other side, it was up to Amalia to take care of the obstacles in the way, at least, when they were caused by plants growing too close to the path. Her true nature as Sadida’s eleventh doll shone through whenever plants obeyed her every command. A mere flick of her wrist was all it took for leaves and vines to move to the side and let them pass. 

Each time it happened, Yugo and Adamaï could only look on in disbelief. It truly was incredible. They idly wondered if all Sadidas could do the same thing or if it was only Amalia.

.........................................................................................................................

About an hour had passed after their little scare, this time, it was Amalia who was regaling them with whatever few anecdotes she had of her time in Sadida’s Dimension. She was currently telling them about a squabble between two of her sisters and how Sadida had to step in to break it up—not unlike any regular parent would put a stop to their kids’ bickering—, when Yugo finally caught a glimpse of what he had been leading them towards. His face breaking into a huge grin, he swiftly turned around, stopping in his tracks, his sudden action causing his companions to subconsciously follow his lead. 

Blinking blankly, Amalia asked, “Yugo? Is everything alright?”

He nodded, perhaps a little more enthusiastically than he would have liked, but that didn’t matter. He raised his hands as if that would help him convey what he wanted to say better. “Yeah, everything’s great, don’t worry. I just need you to do me a favour, can you do that?”

“Now?” Amalia questioned, tilting her head to the side. Behind her, Adamaï finally caught onto what his brother was up to and couldn’t help the small smirk that curled at his lips.  Of course, Amalia remained none-the-wiser. “Are you sure this is a good time? I mean, shouldn’t we wait until we arrive at whatever it is you want to show me?”

It was Adamaï who cut in, peering down at the doll as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “The place we want to show you will still be there even if we take a little longer. Otherwise, we would’ve been wasting our time from the moment you refused to enter another portal as long as you lived.”

“And that’s a promise I intend to keep…” She muttered to herself, dead serious. With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, she eventually gave in, raising her hands in surrender before placing them on her hips. “Okay, okay. What can I do for you, Yugo?”

“Close your eyes and cover them with your hands.” He replied simply and enigmatically. 

“What? Why do you need me to do that?!”

“I have my reasons.” He shrugged. Then, seeing the suspicion written all over her lovely face, he placed his hands on her shoulders, silently begging her to listen to him. “I promise, Amalia, this isn’t some kind of mean-spirited joke or anything of the sort; I’ll be guiding you all the way. But I need you to trust me. Can you do that? Can you trust me?”

Amalia opened her mouth, a retort on her lips, when the words died in her throat at the sight before her. Technically, it wasn’t much, just Yugo staring back at her. But there was something about the way he stared at her, the intensity behind his gaze, that made her breath hitch. She really couldn’t understand what was so important to pause their trek around the island and towards their mysterious destination, but at that moment, staring deep into Yugo’s dark brown eyes, she wanted to figure it out. 

Yugo had asked her if she trusted him, and at that moment she did. She trusted him more than any other person on Oma Island. A tiny voice deep inside told her it wasn’t just because she spent the most time with him, warning her that these things ran deeper than that, but she brushed it off for the time being. Too dazed to care. 

She almost didn’t even register her own lips moving when she said. “I do. I trust you, Yugo.”

The toothy grin he flashed her was enough for her cheeks to grow hot. 

The Divine Doll finally began to regain her senses when her eyes followed him as he moved to stand behind her. Before she could so much as ask what he was doing, Yugo simply took her by the arms and placed her hands over her eyes. A shiver ran down her spine as he whispered in her ear, “Now, close your eyes and no peeking, okay?”

“O-okay.” She gulped, letting herself be guided by the Eliatrope’s steady hands on her shoulders. 

As this all unfolded, Adamaï couldn’t help but watch the scene in astonishment. He knew he and their siblings liked to give Yugo some grief over his circumstances with Amalia and, by virtue of their close bond, the dragon knew things were much more complicated than everyone made it out to be, Yugo included. And yet, what he had just borne witness to proved there was so much more going on under the surface. 

While Yugo was a kind and caring individual, for it was in his nature, he was rarely as gentle with others as he was with Amalia. At least, not since his body and mind were finally in sync. And even then, as soon as his mind began to mature even as his body couldn’t keep up, Yugo began to reserve that softness of his to small, harmless creatures and children. 

The only exception was when their siblings had a problem and needed comfort. However, the thing with the Primordial Eliatropes and their dragons was they were all too proud to ask for help even when they needed it most. 

And yet, here he was, carefully guiding Amalia around, both his voice and touches the softest of caresses. A part of Adamaï couldn’t help but think his brother’s behaviour had less to do with the Divine Doll being a literal gift from the gods and more to do with something much deeper. 

Not like Yugo would ever admit it. 

“Ad, you coming?” He asked over his shoulder, breaking the dragon out of his thoughts. With a shake of his head to clear his ideas, Adamaï nodded and rejoined them in no time at all. 

Finally, they reached the edge of the jungle, their destination just up ahead of them. A smile stretching over his lips at the sight, Yugo leaned in a little closer to Amalia, whispering in her ear and finding some sick pleasure in the way a shudder still ran down her spine in response.  

“You can look now, Amalia.”

“Ugh, finally!” She exclaimed, wasting no time in removing her hands from her face and opening her eyes. Unfortunately, that proved to be a bad choice, for the moment she opened her eyes, they were assaulted by the sun’s brightness, causing her to hiss in pain and close them yet again. 

Oh, when would she learn? The same thing happened when she was born and she first saw her father and sisters! Unlike her bond with plant-life, the doll had a feeling that would never become any less excruciating. 

Muttering something unintelligible under her breath and rubbing her eyes, blinking to regain her eyesight, the doll’s gaze could finally discern what was before her. She let out a loud gasp. 

The sight before her was a vast expanse of blue, a giant body of water like no other reaching as far as met the eye and captivating her very soul. There was even a point in the horizon where the water and the sky converged, and thanks to the clear skies above them, it was impossible to tell where one began and the other ended. She remembered catching a glimpse of something similar from her balcony, but the view couldn’t compare to this. The water’s movement was rhythmic and hypnotic, forming waves, crested on top by wonderful, foamy white right until they crashed against the shore. 

Excitement coursing through her veins as she took it all in, starry-eyed, the doll couldn’t help but shift involuntarily where she stood, the action bringing her attention to the new sensation under her feet. She moved around experimentally, amazed at the warm, grainy feeling under her soles and between her toes. Preferring to go barefoot, Amalia was used to feeling sturdy ground, plush grass, or, more recently, smooth, cold stone under her feet, but this… This was entirely new. 

What was this?

As if reading her thoughts, Yugo spoke. “This,” he gestured at the landscape before them, “is the beach. Pretty cool, huh?”

All Amalia could offer in response was a hushed nod, too awed for words. 

Using her silence to his advantage, he stepped a little closer to her and pointed at the body of water. “You see that right over there?” This time, she managed to voice an ‘uh-huh’, “That’s the sea. Well, a small part of it, at least; it’s immense, really. And right now, you’re stepping on sand.”

At last, Amalia found her voice, even if her amazement didn’t decrease in the slightest. “Yugo, this… This is incredible! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it!”

“I figured you might not have this in Sadida’s Dimension since there aren’t many plants that grow in this kind of ecosystem. So I wanted to show it to you—.”

Before he could even finish talking, Amalia had dashed forward and in the direction of the sea, kicking up a plume of sand that forced Yugo to use his cloak to cover both himself and Adamaï lest it got in their faces, or their eyes, or their mouths… They could only look on, surprised, as the doll came to kneel right at the shore, where the waves crashed. But while Adamaï looked on amusedly as she cupped her hands to drink some water, Yugo could only look on, horrified. 

He was even more horrified at the sight of his twin doing nothing to stop her. 

“Ad, what are you doing?!” He screeched, frustrated beyond belief. “We have to stop her!”

But much to his consternation, Adamaï only rolled his eyes good-naturedly at him. Boy, the dragon understood having to make sure she was okay lest they risked facing the gods’ wrath, but his brother could certainly get overprotective.

“Relax, bro. Let her learn on her own.” Then, to Yugo’s disbelief, he chuckled, “Besides, it’ll be fine to see the look on her face right before she spits the salt water in disgust.”

The king pursed his lips, his patience running thin.

“Adamaï.” 

“Hm?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “What does salt do to plants?”

“Huh? Well, it kills them, of course.”

What kind of question was that?

“Right. And what is Amalia?”

“She’s a plant doll—.”

Oh. 

Oh.

“That’s what I thought.” Yugo couldn’t help but comment, a little smugly. After a beat, the two of them scrambled to get to Amalia and prevent her from hurting herself. In their haste, they couldn’t help but lose their footing in the sand and come tumbling down. Raising his head and spitting out quite the mouthful of sand, the Eliatrope suddenly felt like hitting himself. 

“Well, duh!” He exclaimed, and before Adamaï could question him about it, he extended his hand and created a portal right underneath them that dropped them right behind Amalia. 

Unfortunately, they were too late. The moment they landed, Amalia had just taken her first sip of the water. Eyes wide with terror, the siblings could only brace themselves for the worst and hold each other for comfort. 

…and then, their expressions fell in confusion when Amalia simply let out a sound of complaint as she winced and made a disgusted grimace in response. “Yuck! By Sadida’s trees! What on the World of Twelve was that?!”

While a still recovering Adamaï could only let his face drop on the sand with a resounding thud!, all a gobsmacked Yugo managed to say was, “Uh…yeah. Sea water is salty. Drinking it is not good for you.”

“No kidding!” Amalia commented as she stood up, dusting sand off her pants. “That thing almost made me throw up again.” Then, when she turned around to look back at them, her brow furrowed at the sight of an exhausted Adamaï sprawled face-down on the sand and the bewildered look on Yugo’s face. “Uh… you guys okay?”

“Never been better”, came Adamaï's sarcastic, albeit muffled, reply, his face still on the sand. 

While the doll could only blink blankly at their antics, uncomprehending, Yugo tried looking around for something to distract her with and move on from their little, apparently unnecessary freak-out. Eyes scanning the beach, they lit up at what he saw. 

“Amalia, look!”

Amalia followed his finger to the direction it was pointing at, her eyes widening in interest at what she saw. Lounging lazily over a piece of stranded wood on the sand, was one funny-looking little creature. It was blue and red in colour and had a gelatinous quality, so much so, its trunk was practically translucent, revealing what looked like several hearts of different sizes. Its eyes were big and beady, but it was hard to tell where its trunk ended and its head started when its other more distinguishable feature was a series of tentacles. 

It was both kind of disgusting and kind of cute. 

“Um, what is that?” She questioned, pointing at the thing. 

“It’s a Kralamoure.” It was Adamaï who answered. However, when Amalia turned around once more to better face him, she instinctively took a step back in surprise when she noticed a blue and white Kralamoure now occupied the dragon’s place. Adamaï couldn’t help but smirk in satisfaction at her reaction. “You’re not the only one who knows a thing or two about shapeshifting, Amalia.”

“Wait, you can shapeshift too, Adamaï?”

With a nod and a puff of smoke, he turned back into his draconically humanoid form. “It’s actually a dragon thing, or at least, it’s something Eliatrope dragons can do.” He shared a glance with Yugo, asking for confirmation, which he got in the form of a nod. “I’m sure you must have noticed how different our dragon siblings are.”

Now that he mentioned it, Amalia had taken notice of that the few times she’d seen a dragon around. The scarce few times she caught a glimpse of Phaeris, he looked like a winged, scaled Osamodas; Grougal was almost indiscernible from a human; Shinonomé was a horned, red-skinned woman; and both Baltazar and Efrim seemed to prefer their natural forms. 

She shuddered subtly at the memory of the smallest dragon. The least she thought about him and his terrifying eyes, the better.

In fact, now that she allowed her gaze to travel up and down Adamaï’s form, it finally registered just how different he truly was from his siblings. While the other dragons either took on their true forms or adopted more or less humanoid ones, Adamaï was essentially a dragon with humanoid features. He was bipedal at all times, and his movements were very much human, but he had claws instead of hands or feet, he made no effort to hide his tail or his physique as they were perfectly reptilian, and his face was more of a snout than an actual face. 

And to think they’d been taken aback just because she changed her own clothes when their dragons could do that. It was unbelievable.

Unaware of the thoughts running through her mind, Yugo pointed out anecdotally, “You know, when it’s Grougal’s turn to patrol, he usually takes the form of a giant Kralamoure to keep intruders at bay.”

“Wait, really? Do you favour Kralamoures as well, Adamaï?”

“Not really.” The dragon deadpanned, having to suppress a shudder at an unpleasant memory right before flashing his brother a glare for chuckling at his reaction. “I mostly just spend my time like this. After all,” a pair of wings sprouted from his back, “I can patrol from above just the same.”

“I see… And why do you need to patrol in the first place?”

Tensing up at her question and the particular can of worms that could open, Yugo scrambled to change the subject. It was a delicate topic so it’d be best if he handled it smoothly. 

“H-hey! Wanna go for a swim, Amalia?” He said, clasping his hands. 

If Nora had been there, she would’ve taken the opportunity to point out her brother had many qualities, but being smooth just wasn’t one of them.

While it didn’t go unnoticed by Amalia how he had changed the subject, much more urgent matters occupied her mind at the moment. “Are you serious? Absolutely not!”

That… was not the reaction Yugo was hoping for, even if it did seem to take her mind off asking awkward questions. “What? Why? That’s pretty much what beaches are for; having some fun swimming in the sea and sunbathing.”

The Divine Doll just rolled her eyes at his hopelessness. “Yeah, with the appropriate clothing! I can’t go swimming like this!” She gestured at her ‘adventuring outfit’, as she’d called it, “This was meant to be more practical wear when exploring; it’s not a swimsuit!”

“Well, why don’t you just change clothes again and put on a swimsuit, then?” Yugo suggested uneasily, not sure what the problem was. By his side, Adamaï silently mused to himself that his brother might not survive the sight of the Sadida Doll in a swimsuit. 

“Excuse me?!” Amalia snapped, incredulous. “Didn’t you hear me when I said I spent hours choosing this outfit? I can’t just up and make whatever! You can’t rush genius, you know?” She crossed her arms and stuck up her nose in a huff. 

For his part, Yugo was idly wondering where this world’s champions asking for a rematch were when you needed them. He also made a mental note, not for the first time, to summon the Royal tailor to have some clothes made for Amalia as soon as they arrived. The fact that she could make her own clothes and change in no time at all was a bonus, but he honestly wasn’t looking forward to having this same conversation every time he tried to surprise her and her outfit wasn’t appropriate for the occasion. 

Taking notice of the king’s slightly overwhelmed expression and realising she might have gone a little too far—even though she knew what she said made perfect sense. I mean, who takes someone to a place with the intention of swimming and doesn’t warn them to wear a swimsuit beforehand?—, she bit her lip. Clearing her throat even as she flicked her head in a proud display, she tentatively said, “A-anyway, j-just because we can’t exactly go swimming, it doesn’t mean we can’t still have some fun in the water. Since I’m already barefoot, we could try walking along the shoreeeeEEEEEE!”

Her words were interrupted by a loud squeal when some water splashed all over her, leaving the Sadida Doll positively soaked from head to toe. Her mouth gaping like a fish and her eyes about as wide as the Kralamoure still lounging on its piece of wood, she stood frozen in place as Yugo doubled down laughing, Adamaï's own loud cackles echoing from above them.

Normally, Adamaï would never stoop so low, but Amalia was clearly overreacting and it was too good an opportunity to pass up on. “What’s the matter, Amalia? I thought you said it was okay to have some fun in the water?” He mocked between laughs. 

Her eye twitched as she felt the water chill her to the bone, however, it didn’t take long for the outrage bubbling up within her to warm her whole body up in righteous indignation. Teeth borne as her face contorted into the kind of menacing scowl that would have made Sram proud, Amalia wasted no time taking revenge. 

“Why you little weed!” She screeched to the top of her lungs, throwing her arm out and commanding two rather tall palm trees right within reach of Adamaï to spring into action. 

“Wait, what the—!?” Before the dragon had time to react, the palm trees had him trapped between their leaves, acting almost as two giant hands he was powerless against. As he wriggled and squirmed, Amalia brought her hands down, and with that the two palm trees bent forward until Adamaï’s body was submerged under water. A few seconds passed where Yugo was beginning to seriously worry about his brother’s safety, when Amalia finally released him with a satisfied hum as she dusted her hands off. 

Looking back and forth between his soaked brother and the smirking Divine Doll, Yugo was wise enough to take a few steps back and away from her, making the resolution of never incurring her wrath. Given her usually sweet demeanour and child-like wonder, it was easy to forget she, too, was a demigoddess, and all that entailed. 

Spitting out some salt water and sand that got in his mouth as he tried to sit back up, an unamused Adamaï couldn’t help but spit sarcastically. “Wow, your bride is such a little flower, isn’t she, Yugo?”

The answer was immediate, surely a result of all the teasing he had had to endure a few hours prior. “For the last time, she is not my bride!”

But as Adamaï winced at his brother’s unnecessarily loud volume, his words gave Amalia pause, her gaze turning contemplative as she pondered them. Now that she thought about it, that had indeed been the reason why she’d been sent to Oma, to be Yugo’s bride because he was supposed to be her suitor. And even though Yugo had explained to her on her first day why that couldn’t be, he had yet to answer her questions regarding what it all really meant. He’d said that while brides and marriages tended to go hand-in-hand, they couldn’t get married as there was no guarantee they would ever fall in love. But, what was love?

She knew she loved her father and sisters and they loved her in return. The warm, happy feeling she got with them had to mean something. But what made it different from the kind of love that made people marry each other?

As Yugo was busy bickering with Adamaï over how, technically, he had no one to blame but himself, he heard Amalia’s voice calling out to him softly. “Yugo?”

“What is it, Amalia?” Looking over his shoulder to give her his full attention, he couldn’t keep his eyes from widening at the unexpected vulnerability she was showing. Her posture was hesitant, one arm draped over her form as her brown eyes were fixated on the sand as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. The gentle afternoon breeze weaving through her green locks. 

Her next question made his heart stop, “What is love?”

Tensing up, his own posture straightening up almost involuntarily, he sent his brother a pleading look, only for him to raise his claws up in surrender and walk a little ways off from them to give them some space. Yugo was not above suspecting he was only doing that as retaliation for not helping him when Amalia almost drowned him. 

The traitor. 

He made a show of clearing his throat and straightening his cloak as he stalled for time, his mind racing to find a suitable answer to her question. Or even better! Until she grew self-conscious and backtracked, apologising for ever bringing the topic up right before he assured her it was fine while also making sure to stow that conversation for another day. Hopefully never. 

But Amalia seemed to have no intention of showing him some mercy and giving him an out. Instead, she just remained where she was, waiting for his answer with bated breath, her big, brown eyes pleading with him and… He was a goner. There was no way he could just deprive her of an answer he had promised he would eventually give her when she looked at him like that. 

He was half-beginning to suspect she knew of this fact and used it to her advantage. And not for the first time he found himself cursing Sadida and his impeccable craftsmanship.

Rubbing the back of his head through his hood in surrender, he heaved a deep sigh as he trudged towards her to close the distance between them a little. Though, to make things easier, he made it a point to stare at the ocean and the afternoon sun rather than at her. 

“What is love, indeed?” He mused aloud. He chuckled through his nose. “To be honest, I’m not too sure anyone has the right answer for that. Would it be okay if I try explaining what love is to me?”

Coming to gaze upon the horizon as well, a small, grateful smile on her lips, Amalia shrugged. “It’s still more than what I know.”

Well, he supposed that was fair. “The thing is, Amalia, it’s very hard to find a suitable definition for love because there’s actually so many kinds of love, which means all definitions are simultaneously right and wrong, it just depends on the context. “

“What if the context is when two people wish to marry?” She asked innocently but bluntly. 

Wow, Sadida’s little flower didn’t pull back any punches, now did she? 

“Then that’s what we call romantic love, it’s different from the love you feel for your friends or your family.”

Amalia frowned, not sure how to feel knowing there was a different kind of love beyond what she felt for her family and Yugo—she felt particularly concerned for what that might entail for her friendship with Yugo. 

“But why? What makes ‘romantic love’ different?,” she air-quoted, staring back at him even as he was resolute in keeping his gaze fixed in front of him. 

The task before him was nothing if not daunting, the fact that he hadn’t really moved past flings in this lifetime —or, according to Qilby, any lifetime, really— made explaining such an abstract concept to a Divine Doll like Amalia, a creature that encapsulated all the grace and power belonging to a goddess and possessed a sense of child-like innocence and and wonder at the same time nothing sort of a Kerubean task. 

But he promised her he would explain things to her and it wouldn’t be very kingly of him to back out on their deal now. 

“All I can say for certain is that you’ll know when the time is right.” He finally said, his dark brown eyes glazed over at the phantom heartbeats he was trying to feel anew. “When you’re in love, you just know the love you feel for that person is different, despite how similar it might look to every other kind.

“You’ll find yourself constantly thinking about that person and wanting to look your best for them. And I don’t mean just wanting to look pretty, but you want them to see your best qualities, hoping that will make them fall for you. And you’ll find yourself appreciating all of their best qualities too.” He chuckled, biting his lip in amusement. “Oh, and for a good while you’ll even find their flaws charming! There’s a good reason people tend to say love is blind, after all…”

Finally, he turned contemplative, his voice carrying a particular softness that made Amalia listen to him with rapt attention, sensing what he said next was the most important thing of all:

“But more than anything, you want that person to be happy. You want them to be happy, and safe, and seeing them smile can light up your whole day and it’s incredible. Because you just want the best for them and there’s no better feeling than knowing someone feels the same way about you. I don’t know, being in love can be wonderful, I suppose. So much so, you end up asking that person to marry you because you want to secure you’ll both get to experience that same feeling every day for the rest of your lives.”

As Yugo kept talking, he honestly forgot all about the world around him, too busy lost in his thoughts, to the point he was mostly just thinking aloud. While he was certainly happy with the life he led, as it was an honour to have their people’s unwavering trust and nothing quite filled him like experiencing everything the Krozmos had to offer, a part of him couldn’t quite get over how he never really met the kind of person that made him want to settle down. 

Over the centuries he’d been with some really wonderful people. They had so much fun and they were all great, but none of them ever felt like his anchor. Not in the sense that they would tie him down, but more as in they’d ground him to the point of wanting to share his life with them. The fact that they had very different lifespans didn’t help matters. 

When they first met, they would always be in sync. They would all let themselves be swept off their feet by the appeal of an adventuring king, inebriated by the thrill of it all. But the more time passed, the more they wanted different things. And the more time passed, the more they were forced to admit they would never be able to grow old together; they would never be able to share a life together. 

It was always the same song and dance, and it always broke his heart. And yet, he never felt truly brokenhearted. 

Sometimes he wondered if it was because he knew how things would end before they even started and unconsciously kept them all at arm’s length. Never close enough to get under his skin and steal his heart. Never close enough to become a part of him. 

He was so engrossed in his own thoughts, he couldn’t help but flinch when he felt Amalia taking his hand and resting her head against his arm, causing a tingle to run up and down of it, a content smile on her face. Not for the first time, his breath hitched when she raised her head to meet his gaze. 

“You’re right, Yugo. That all sounds wonderful.” Snuggling closer to him, she sighed wistfully. “I really hope I get to be an actual bride one day.”

Despite the cosy glow of the afternoon sun and the warm temperatures typical of Oma Island, Yugo felt his blood run cold at those words. The tingling sensation in his arm gave way to numbness, while his mind felt overwhelmed by a million wayward thoughts, battling for dominance. 

How did things get like this, with Amalia cuddling his arm like a throw pillow. And all those looks she would send him—innocent and sweet, but hypnotising and alluring like a siren song. How did he know she wasn’t deliberately pretending not to know the effect she had on him? How could he know Efrim wasn’t right and she hadn’t been trained to seduce him?

After all, now that he thought about it, she seemed perfectly at ease with the idea of remaining at the palace even if he wouldn’t take her as his bride. What kind of person did that unless they had some ulterior motives? Thinking back, given her sole purpose was to act as his bride, the moment he turned down the offer she should have been more than happy to go back home… unless she was counting on it to use it as an opportunity to make him fall for her!

Something dark and cynical bubbled up to the surface as he lamented his carelessness, his jaw and fists clenching at the thought, frustrated with himself. One thing was treating Amalia kindly and respectfully, another very different thing was making a fool of himself for her. 

But just then, as he chanced a look at her, all those thoughts of Amalia being some conniving seductress vanished at the sight of her smiling face. So sweet, so genuine, so radiant. There was no way someone like Amalia could ever conspire behind his back like that. But the familiarity she treated him with was cause for concern, only, perhaps it was his fault, rather than a conscious attempt at manipulating him. Maybe he kept sending her mixed signals that made her believe she indeed had a shot of ever becoming his queen.

He had to suppress a groan at the memory of all the times he stood too close to her, all the times he didn’t hesitate to take her hands in his, the intimacy belying the way he led her earlier that day while she had her eyes closed… If Amalia behaved like she was his bride, it was because he himself made her believe that. He had to find a way to put an end to that mistake without making the even graver mistake of offending the World of Twelve’s gods. 

He was not in love with Amalia. For the sake of his people, he could not be in love with her.

Amalia had been basking in the warm afternoon sun when she felt Yugo shift underneath her. She peered up curiously at him when he gingerly grabbed her by the arms and pushed her away from him gently. Her frown only deepened when he didn’t look at her. 

“Let’s go back home, okay?”

As Yugo made his way back into the jungle, Amalia could only share a perplexed look with Adamaï before following suit. 

Was it something she said?

..........................................................................................................................

While the trek back to the palace had certainly been more awkward than before, with Yugo once again leading their little group but not saying a word, Amalia couldn’t help the immense joy she felt. She had been on her first adventure! She had left the palace and ventured into the island’s lush jungle, connecting to nature at last. She had even seen the sea! Yugo had been right, that had to be about the only thing you wouldn’t be able to find in Sadida’s Dimension. 

She was so making a swimsuit for the next time they went! 

Even with the few hiccups they’d had along the way, all in all, it had been a perfect day. She couldn’t wait until their next outing. With a small blush forming on her cheeks, she dared to hope maybe next time it would only be Yugo and her. 

Don’t get her wrong, she rather liked Adamaï, he was always very kind to her. But for some reason she couldn’t quite explain, there was something special about when it was just Yugo and her. 

As they finally arrived at the side of the castle where her room was, her balcony high above them, she turned to them. “Guys, I just want to say I had a wonderful time today. I can hardly wait for our next adventure! Thank you so much!”

“Don’t mention it, Amalia. It was our pleasure.” The Eliatrope King offered her a smile, but it didn’t quite feel like the usual smiles he would send her. It felt kind of… forced.

“I’m sure next time will be even better.” Adamaï told her with a nod of his head. 

“Amalia, I—” Whatever it was Yugo meant to say next died in his throat at the unexpected arrival of Phaeris. Amalia couldn’t help but take notice of the fact that he was in his winged, humanoid form. 

“Yugo, Adamaï!” He exclaimed, before taking notice of Amalia standing right there. “Phaeris hopes this isn’t a bad time.”

Whatever hesitation marred Yugo’s face moments prior was immediately discarded at the sight of his dragon brother, his expression turning serious and focused, like a king should be. 

“It’s alright, Phaeris. Is something the matter?”

“Phaeris wishes to discuss some Cra sentinel sightings. The rest of the Council is already waiting for us at the council room.”

“Cra sentinels, huh?” Yugo muttered to himself, at the same time as a Adamaï, who was holding his chin pensively, mused aloud, “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“We should depart as soon as you bid Lady Amalia goodbye.” Phaeris’ comment reminded both twins of the Sadida Doll’s presence. And of the little problem returning her to her room without their portals and no visible door posed. 

“We’re sorry that we have to leave so abruptly Amalia,” Yugo began, sharing a nod with Adamaï, “but Ad can fly you up to your room in no time at all.”

But, to their surprise, the doll just waved them off. “Oh, don’t worry about me! I’ll be just fine. You guys go take care of your duties.”

“Are you sure?” Yugo felt the need to ask, not feeling so sure himself. 

She scoffed good-naturedly. “Positive.”

Before any of the Primordial Eliatropes could get another word in, a gigantic, thick vine sprouted from underneath Amalia’s feet and carried her all the way over to her balcony. Once she was hovering over it, she gingerly jumped down the vine while it came back the way it came from. 

“Thank you again, guys! See you soon!” She turned around to wave them goodbye, which they all hesitantly mimicked, still taken aback by what they’d just seen. 

Divine Doll: 7; Eliatrope Council: 0.

Back in her room, Amalia decided to take a little more time before she changed out of her adventuring outfit and into her pyjamas. She found she quite liked her little ensemble; maybe she should use it more often. Stretching to relieve tensions from her super charged day, she let out a contented sigh, feeling happier than she had been in a while. 

Before getting into the room, she allowed herself to loiter around her balcony a little while longer. As the setting sun’s rays bathed anything they could reach and she leaned against the railing, her eyes catching sight of Yugo as he stepped inside one of his portals—surely to get to the council room—, his words and everything he’d done for her that day kept replaying in her mind. 

As she thought about everything he said about what love was and how it felt like, especially knowing your special someone felt the same, Amalia couldn’t stop a small smile from curling at her lips at the thought of getting to experience that kind of love one day. 

[kerubimcrepin]

Wakfu Season 3, Episodes 7-13

Episode 7 - Pinball Hazard

Of course you would say that, Ruel.

Are those Nora's........

Anyway.

Fun fact: these are Kerubim's cards from rehab.

I have no idea what Ush is doing with them, but it is funny that he has them.

Episode 8 - Arpagone

Even though I have rewatched s3 multiple times (sadly), I am still not sure if Ankama means for us to go away from it thinking that Ruel is an enutrof demigod.

If I am not insane, and it is what we are meant to understand, then all I can say is: instead of retconning things, they should have added some cool new demigod, or brought in an old one. This sucks.

They shuoild add Meriana in Wakfu. Though not as a brotherhood member, she would never join their cult.

HIIII SIMONE. Once again, I am not sure if this is Ankama saying that Ruel is older than 600 years old and all of his "omg dofus era was so long ago... haha" was a strategic gaslight to keep people from knowing (AND that his grandmother is ALSO older than 600 years old)

Or if Ankama just has no regard or respect for Dofus Aux Tresors de Kerubim and people who watch their shows, and decided "we hate one of the literal main characters of that show so much that we will use her as a background character design" as early as s3, actually.

More weirdass asset reusages have hit the pentagon. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Ankama just unironically hates Dofus fans or expects nobody to care about that show or Simone as a character.

Like... what does this mean. Does this mean that he's older than 600 years? Does this mean he's a demigod, BUT he's a normal mortal age? One of leaked studio timelines says he's approximately 200 years old, but so is YUGO'S DAD, WHO IS MORTAL. Is THAT canon? Ankama can you actually settle on a singular thing here?

I think I hate enutrof lore now 🤪

Episode 9 - The Sadida Temple

#kin #me #same #female manipulator #literally me #coquette

Episode 10 - When the Walls Fall Down

This episode is so cringe it makes me suicidal.

Ok fine, Pinpin being happy IS cute. I'll give you that, Tot.

Episode 11 - Oropo

When Ankama Misogyny Olympics happen and Julith, Aurora, Lou, Jiva, Eva, Simone, and Bakara show up to compete — they all just start crying the second Kali comes near them, because they KNOW they'll lose.

I need this season to be over asap, I can't take this anymore. Adamai, Amalia... I'm so, so sorry that the writers have lobotomized you.

Episode 13 - Inglorium

Ok I unironically cried. I hate this series for making me cry because of season 3.

[hbc-rpg]

¡El momento ha llegado! Con esta publicación damos pie a las reservas de PB y cupo.

Iremos actualizando la lista de reservas conforme lleguen a nuestra mensajería, por lo que recomendamos que refresquen la publicación (alt + F5). Ante cualquier duda o inconveniente, pueden hablarnos directamente por interno. Estaremos atentos.

LISTA DE RESERVAS

PB: AJ Neu | Timotheus Alba Baptista | Toska Alejandri Zwartendijk | Mia Alex Hogh Andersen | Keraunos Alexa Demie | Ash Alexander Ludwig | Mac&Cheese Ali Bercan | Volents Álvaro Mel | achilles Amalia Holm | Dawn Amanda Asker | Oasis Andrew Biersack | Nightmare Antonina Vasylchenko | bizcochitodecanela Ann Kuleshova | Miss Zombie Anna Avermaete | Stitch Annie Schröter | Venat Ariyan Akaltun | Tyler Ash Rose Daniels | Zar Austin Butler | achilles Blanca Soler | Moonlight Brock O'Hurn | Thor Camila Morrone | whats Choi San | Nightmare Christina Nadin | Ender Cora Keegan | HereWeGoAgain Daniel Garcia | capybroski Darwin Grey | Xylas Deva Cassel | autumn Eden Chanel | Pecas Elise Zecevic | Gia Emma Powell | poni Emilio Sakraya | Torchic Ergi Bardhollari | Clancy Fernanda Hin Lin Ly | Ash Felix Mallard | Kinder Florence Pugh | Oasis Froy Gutiérrez | Sinprotogema Gabriel Basso | Kingsman Haatepah Clearbear | Crozier Havana Rose Liu | moonflower Hunter Warr | kalimotxo Isabel Van Gelder | Volents Isabelle Mathers | yosilen Jacob Elordi | Alastor Jaden Smith | Monilitum Jenna Ortega | Lu Josha Stradowsky | Keraunos Joshua Jason | SavageRat Katya Sitak | Bitchery Kaia Gerber | Sandra Kit Connor | Relámpago Lana Condor | Mimir Lizeth Selene | Taco al Pastor Maggie Lindemann | whats Marissa Long | Cotton Maverick Mcconnell | Santo Meg Donnelly | Ghidorah Micah Plat | starshiptrooper Michael Yerger | Relámpago Mike Faist | DEH Nick Vogt | Seres Nicolas Lorenzon | starshiptrooper Rae Rodriguez | Gia Rafael Miller | Elidibus Ronald Epps | Barracuda Ross Lynch | Trece Rudy Pankow | Nebulosa Ruel van Dijk | Sinprotogemas Sasha Kichigina | Holly Simone Bricchi | Limón Sidney Sweeney | Wontolla Song Mingi | Noctis Talia Ryder | ChihuahuaFurioso Tanner Buchanan | aubelona Taylor Swift | Ator Taz Skylar | bizcochitodecanela Timothée Chalamet | Ghidorah Tom Taylor | Vixen Tony Ozkan | Eddie Valentijn Dijkman | Zar Walker Scobell | Trickster Yasmin Finney | Noctis Yoo Ji Min | Leixah

Ascendencias Muy Raras Los cupos de los semidioses Muy Raros han sido completados. Zeus (5/5) achilles Vixen capybroski Sinprotogemas Oathbreaker

Hades (5/5) Ash Oasis autumn Moonlight Santo

Poseidón (5/5) Barracuda Ghidorah Dawn Timotheus Monilitium

Hécate (5/5) bizcochitodecanela whats 404 Amapola Syrax Raras Quedan cupos disponibles para todos los semidioses Raros.

Dioniso (3/12) aubelona kalimotxo Volents Iris (1/12) HereWeGoAgain Khione (4/12) DEH Mimir Bitchery Crozier Atenea (8/12) Mess Relámpago Keraunos starshiptrooper Zar Toska Nebulosa Raven Comunes Ares bizcochitodecanela Torchic Mac&Cheese ChihuahuaFurioso Nightmare Hypnos SavageRat moonflower Nightmare Xylas Hermes Trece Lu Apolo achilles whats Venat Afrodita Noctis Pecas Leixah Ash starshiptrooper Seres Hefesto Noctis Tyler Némesis Keraunos Tyche Taco al Pastor Ghidorah

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Maria-Rosa Rodriguez by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Via Flickr: German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/334. Photo: Art Messick. Exotic starlet Maria-Rosa Rodriguez was the sexy leading lady of a dozen French and Italian films of the 1960s and early 1970s. Her main claim to fame was the Louis de Funès comedy Le grand restaurant (1966). There is not much biographical information to be found about Maria-Rosa Rodriguez on the internet. A source suggests she was a Spanish actress, but possibly she is born in Ecuador. In 1960 a Maria-Rosa Rodriguez was crowned Miss Ecuador Mundo 1960. However, there is a bit more information about her film career. IMDb writes that during her film career she was also credited as Maria Rosa Rodrigues, Rosa-Maria Rodrigues, Rosa Rodriguez and Toty Rodriguez. Her first film appearance was an uncredited part as ‘Palma Diamantino’ in the French comedy Pouic-Pouic (1963, Jean Girault) starring Louis de Funès. Soon followed more film parts as a stripper in the kinky cannibal comedy Aimez-vous les femmes?/Do You Like Women? (1964, Jean Léon),co-written by Roman Polanski, and the sexploitation drama L'amour à la chaine/Tight Skirts, Loose Pleasures (1964, Claude de Givray). She appeared again as eye-candy in the spy film Coplan FX 18/FX-18 Superspy (1965, Riccardo Freda), the comedy Les gorilles/The Gorillas (1964, Jean Girault) and the crime comedy La grande frousse/The Big Scare (1964, Jean-Pierre Mocky) starring Bourvil. Other French films of the mid-1960’s in which she appeared were Les enquiquineurs/The pests (1965, Roland Quignon), the comedy anthology Les bons vivants/How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning (1965, Gilles Grangier, Georges Lautner) and the melodrama Le chant du monde/Song of the World (1965, Marcel Camus) starring Hardy Krüger. 1966 must have been a good year for Maria-Rosa Rodriguez. She was the leading lady opposite the immensely popular Louis de Funès in the hit comedy Le grand restaurant/The Big Restaurant (1966, Jacques Besnard). The choleric and energetic De Funès is the chef of Septim's, a very exclusive Paris restaurant. Problems occur when the president of an unnamed country gets kidnapped while having a dinner at Septim's. With police, gangsters and Maria-Rosa Rodriquez behind his back the always gesticularing De Funès tries to find the missing head of state by himself. The highlight of the film is a fabulous scene where a DS Citroen falls into a river and continues its ride as a boat. Maria-Rosa Rodriguez soon followed this up with a role in the fun filled caper Estouffade à la Caraïbe/The Gold Robbers (1967, Jacques Besnard) costarring with swimming champion Frederick Stafford, Jean Seberg and Serge Gainsbourg. She also appeared on tv in Amalia Escudero an episode of Au théâtre ce soir (1966). More tv roles followed in series like Les chevaliers du ciel/The Aeronauts (1967) – about the adventures of the French comic book heroes Tanguy and Laverdure - and Fortune (1969, Henri Colpi). In the early 1970’s she moved to Italy where she appeared in the ‘giallo’ thriller Il coltello di ghiaccio/Knife of Ice (1972, Umberto Lenzi) starring Carroll Baker. Her last film was a Spanish horror production La novia ensangrentada/Blood Castle (1972, Vincente Aranda). Most of Maria-Rosa Rodriguez’s biographies on the net stop here, but she kept on working as an actress. Under the name of Toty Rodriguez she is now a well known stage actress in Ecuador. In 1989 she appeared in another film, the East-German production Die Besteigung des Chimborazo/The Ascent of the Chimborazo (1989, Rainer Simon) filmed on location in Germany, France, Spain and Ecuador. In this adventure film she appeared briefly as a countess. More recently she was seen in a leading part in the Ecuadorian film Un titán en el ring/A Titan in the Ring (2002, Viviana Cordero). According to Rotten Tomatoes it’s an inspiring drama about the world of masked wrestling, set in a small community in the Andean Mountains. Sources: IMDb, All Movie Guide, Rotten Tomatoes and Wikipedia.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 8.8

Beer Birthdays

Bob Smith; A.A. founder (1879)

Gretchen Schmidhausler

Jeff Barkley (1984)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian author (1952)

Urbie Green; jazz trombonist (1926)

Robert Johnson; blues guitarist (1911)

Ernest Lawrence; physicist (1901)

Roger Penrose; British physicist (1931)

Famous Birthdays

Richard Anderson; actor (1926)

Jack Baldwin; English chemist (1938)

Martin Brest; director & screenwriter (1951)

Charles Bullfinch; architect (1763)

Terry Burnham; actress (1941)

Don Burrows, Australian woodwind player (1928)

Adolf Busch; German violinist & composer (1891)

Rory Calhoun; actor (1922)

Keith Carradine; actor (1949)

Benny Carter; jazz musician (1907)

Amalia Catharina; German poet & composer (1640)

Cécile Chaminade; French pianist & composer (1857)

Ben G. Davis; English chemist (1970)

Dino De Laurentis; film producer (1919)

Paul Dirac; English-American physicist (1902)

Dominic; founder of the Dominicans (1170)

David "The Edge" Evans; rock guitarist (1961)

Roger Federer; Swiss tennis player (1981)

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris; painter (1863)

Anton Fig; South African-American drummer (1952)

Chris Foreman; English rock guitarist (1956)

Arthur Goldberg; U.S. Supreme Court justice (1908)

Matthew Henson; arctic explorer (1866)

Gertrude Himmelfarb; historian (1922)

Dustin Hoffman; actor (1937)

John Holmes; adult actor (1944)

Francis Hutcheson; Irish philosopher (1694)

Michael Johnson; pop guitarist, singer (1944)

André Jolivet; French composer (1905)

Godfrey Kneller; German-English painter (1646)

Drew Lachey; singer and actor (1976)

Katie Leung; Scottish actress (1987)

Shawn Mendes; Canadian singer-songwriter (1998)

Axel Merckx; Belgian cyclist (1972)

James Morgan; Welsh actor (1985)

Donny Most; actor (1953)

Terry Nation; Welsh-American author & screenwriter (930)

Deborah Norville; television host (1958)

Jan Pieńkowski; Polish-English author & illustrator (1938)

Webb Pierce; singer-songwriter (1921)

Robin Quivers; radio personality (1952)

Károly Reich; Hungarian illustrator (1922)

Jessie Rogers; adult actress (1993)

Sylvia Sidney, American actress (1910)

Bob Smith; physician and co-founder of AA (1879)

Connie Stevens; singer, actor (1938)

Charlotte Stokely; adult actress (1986)

Simon Taylor; English journalist & author (1944)

Sara Teasdale; poet (1884)

Joe Tex; singer (1933)

Mel Tillis; country singer (1932)

John Turteltaub; film director (1963)

Margaret Urban Walker; philosopher (1948)

Friedrich Georg Weitsch; German painter (1758)

Esther Williams; swimmer & actress (1921)

John David Wilson; English animator (1919)

Serena Wilson; belly dancer (1933)

Jimmy Witherspoon; jump blues singer (1923)

Faye Wong; Chinese pop singer (1969)

Emiliano Zapata; Mexican revolutionary (1879)

[leontiucmarius]

Simone Biles este regina gimnasticii din nou. Ana Maria Bărbosu a terminat pe 17, iar Amalia Ghigoarță pe locul 22

Simone Biles a cucerit aurul la individual-compus, fiind urmată de Rebeca Andrade din Brazilia. Ana Maria Bărbosu a terminat pe 17, cu 52.465 puncte, iar Amalia Ghigoarță a terminat pe 22 cu 50.732 puncte. Biles a avut un punctaj total de 59.131, Andrade de 57.932, iar Sunisa Lee de 56.465. Ana Maria Bărbosu a obținut cea mai bună notă a sa la sărituri și a primit 14.000 de puncte. Biles a fost…

[delectablywaywardbeard-blog]

Pompei, nuovi reperti di un tempio emersi durante le riprese dell'inchiesta di Mi Manda Rai Tre

Un incredibile ritrovamento di quella che, secondo gli archeologi presenti, potrebbe essere l’apertura di un tempio. La scoperta, emersa durante le riprese di un reportage di Mi Manda RaiTre sui ‘tombaroli’ e sul patrimonio culturale sottratto dalla criminalità al nostro Paese, è avvenuta all’interno del sito di Civita Giuliana a Pompei. La giornalista Amalia De Simone, insieme al regista Danilo…

[lamilanomagazine]

Caltanissetta: Al via a Serradifalco Performare Festival, dal 28 giugno all’8 giugno, undici giorni dedicati alla danza contemporanea

Caltanissetta: Al via a Serradifalco Performare Festival, dal 28 giugno all’8 giugno, undici giorni dedicati alla danza contemporanea. Un cartellone ricco di appuntamenti per questo evento ideato e diretto da Simona Miraglia e Amalia Borsellino del Collettivo SicilyMade, prodotto dall’Associazione In Arte e che ha il sostegno di Ministero della Cultura, Assessorato del Turismo dello Sport e dello Spettacolo della Regione Siciliana e Comune di Serradifalco. Al centro dell’azione di Performare c’è la danza contemporanea e la ricerca artistica, con spettacoli, residenze creative, workshop ed incontri di approfondimento. Oltre agli spettacoli, il programma prevede una sezione dedicata alla ricerca e alla formazione: Performare Project, articolata in diverse categorie. Tra gli ospiti, artisti e compagnie di rilevanza nazionale e internazionale, ma anche talentuosi emergenti del territorio: Compagnia Zappalà Danza, Compagnia Virgilio Sieni, Jurij Konjar, German Jauregui & Antia Diaz Otero, Nello Calabrò, Giovanna Velardi, Balletto Civile, Chiara Ameglio/Fattoria Vittadini, Noemi Bresciani/Fattoria Vittadini, Giorgia Briguglio,, Melania Caggegi & Agnese Canicattì, Nicola Simone Cisternino, Collettivo SicilyMade, Silvia Oteri, Maria Stella Pitarresi & Marco Pergallini, Priscilla Pizzol & Edoardo Sgambato, Delfina Stella, Rosada Letizia Zangrì. Il festival, mercoledì 28 giugno alle ore 19.30, sarà inaugurato dalla presentazione del libro “Passi falsi - Drammaturgia come metodo investigativo” di Nello Calabrò in programma alla Villa Comunale Livatino. Oltre all’autore interverrà il coreografo Roberto Zappalà e sarà moderato dalla critica teatrale Tiziana Bonsignore, che curerà inoltre il TeCLAB, laboratorio di visione e scrittura ideato dalla testata Teatroecritica e ospitato dalla sezione Narrazioni dinamiche di Performare Project. A seguire, alle 20.30, si svolgerà Performative Speech: Il Fauno (produzione Scenario Pubblico /Compagnia Zappalà Danza in coproduzione con MILANoLTRE Festival). Da un’idea di Roberto Zappalà e Nello Calabrò, questa ricerca è pensata per spazi alternativi e anticipa un più ampio progetto che vedrà la sua conclusione nel 2024, con la messa in scena di un unico disegno creativo che accosterà l'Après-midi d’un faune al Bolero di Ravel e al Sacre du printemps di Stravinskij. Al Quadrato alle ore 21.30 Jurij Konjar presenterà in prima nazionale la sua coreografia MOVEMENTWORD (prior to languagedance). Jurij Konjar è un danzatore e coreografo sloveno nato a Lubiana, formatosi a Londra e Bruxelles. Attualmente la sua trentennale ricerca si sta concentrando sul tema dell’improvvisazione. Giovedì 29 giugno la Piazzetta San Leonardo Abate alle ore 19.00 sarà il punto di partenza della performance WALK AROUND, a cura di Jurij Konjar in collaborazione con Collettivo SicilyMade. La performance è la restituzione conclusiva di Creazione e Ricerca, percorso di Performare Project sul corpo e il linguaggio del contemporaneo diretto da Konjar, dedicato al rapporto con la comunità e il luogo ospitante. Alle ore 21.00 il Piazzale Teatro Comunale A. De Curtis ospiterà AMANDINA (produzione Fattoria Vittadini), di Noemi Bresciani dedicato ad un pubblico a partire dai 3 anni. Un inno alla timidezza e alla solitudine come ingredienti dell’atto creativo e performativo. L’artista condurrà anche un laboratorio per la sezione KIDS di Performare Project, destinato a coppie di genitori e figli a partire dai 3 anni. Venerdì 30 giugno il Parco delle Rimembranze ospiterà alle ore 18.00 la presentazione del libro Cronicario di Dario Tomasello: una performance poetica a cura di Latitudini con Dario Tomasello (voce) e Francesca Bongiovanni (violoncello). A seguire, alle ore 19.00, 19.30 e alle 20.00 EACH PART EACH PLACE - i linguaggi del corpo a cura di Silvia Oteri, esito della sezione Next Generation di Performare Project dedicata alla formazione di allievi e allieve del del Liceo Coreutico “R. Settimo” di Caltanissetta. Durante questo percorso, condotto da Oteri, i partecipanti si confronteranno con il MoDem Language, ideato da Roberto Zappalà. Protagonisti della performance conclusiva saranno i giovani partecipanti al laboratorio insieme a Silvia Oteri e Melania Caggegi. Alle ore 21.30 il Piazzale del Teatro Comunale A. De Curtis si svolgerà l’incontro con Nello Calabrò “Soglie e attraversamenti: il gesto e la danza”, un personale viaggio tra film e cinema. Sabato 1° luglio al Quadrato alle ore 19.30 è in programma MEMENTO di e con Stella Pitarresi, Marco Pergallini (produzione Twain_Centro Produzione Danza). La performance è una considerazione sulla fugacità della vita e dei suoi piaceri, e sull’esigenza di tornare in spazi già vissuti per mantenersi vivi. Il duo Pergallini/Pitarresi, nato nel 2020, condurrà anche una masterclass destinata ai danzatori del territorio. Il Piazzale Teatro Comunale A. De Curtis alle ore 21.00 ospiterà Priscilla Pizziol e Edoardo Sgambato con la performance AMELIA, un elogio alla fragilità, un invito ad immergersi nella dimensione del ricordo e a lasciarsi attraversare dal senso di vuoto che deriva dalla sua perdita. Il lavoro rientra nei progetti selezionati per “Approach to a creation process”, il workshop-residenza della sezione del festival che indaga le forme dell’atto creativo, in collaborazione con il Marosi Festival di Stromboli, partner di Performare. Pizziol e Sgambato, autori associati di Zerogrammi, condurranno anche una masterclass destinata ai danzatori del territorio. Alle ore 21.30 sarà la volta del Collettivo SicilyMade, artista associato di Scenario Pubblico, con FEMALE ESCAPE | THE THREE OF US, concept, coreografia, interpreti Amalia Borsellino, Silvia Oteri, Marta Greco (produzione: IN ARTE / CSM). La performance rientra nel progetto “Approach to a Creation Process” del Festival. Nella commistione di linguaggio gestuale e verbale, pone le condizioni per una fuga dai luoghi comuni in cui il femminile è ingabbiato. Domenica 2 luglio il Teatro Comunale A. De Curtis alle ore 16.30 ospiterà l’incontro con la giornalista e critica Tiziana Bonsignore sul tema “Nuove dimensioni. lo spazio dei Festival”, un dibattito aperto su danza e territorio, con i partecipanti al TeCLAB. Durante l’incontro si svolgerà la proiezione dei film finalisti de La Danza in 1 minuto Z Generation Edition 2023, a cura di COORPI. Alle ore 21.00 il Piazzale Teatro Comunale A. De Curtis ospiterà uno spettacolo pensato per i più piccoli ma che coinvolgerà anche gli adulti: CLOWN di Giovanna Velardi (produzione PinDoc). Spettacolo storico della Compagnia Giovanna Velardi, che quest’anno celebra i suoi 15 anni di repliche. Attraverso l'espressione della pluralità linguistica e della clownerie, lo spettacolo lascia emergere i tratti tipici di una relazione di coppia: lo sforzo di comunicare, la tenerezza, le buffonate, la cattiveria. L’artista condurrà anche una masterclass destinata ai danzatori del territorio. Dal 3 all’8 luglio si svolgerà la residenza di Antia Diaz Otero e German Jauregui, con il loro workshop-residenza Approach to a Creation Process, destinato agli autori emergenti ospiti del festival. Antia Diaz Otero è coreografa e danzatrice, formatasi presso l’Università di Bruxelles; German Jauregui è coreografo e danzatore storico nella compagnia Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus, con cui ha lavorato per oltre dieci anni e, successivamente, come assistente e rehearsal director. Giovedì 6 luglio si svolgerà, nell’ambito della sezione Kids di Performare Project, il laboratorio "Lo sguardo tattile" condotto da Delfina Stella, danzatrice della Compagnia Virgilio Sieni, collaboratrice del coreografo ed educatrice, che condurrà i giovani spettatori, attraverso l’esperienza concreta, alla visione dello spettacolo Danza cieca programmato per il giorno successivo. Il Piazzale del Teatro Comunale A. De Curtis ospiterà due lavori delle giovani autrici e danzatrici siciliane selezionate per “Approach to a creation process”: alle ore 21.00 la prima nazionale di SYMBIOSIS, di Melania Caggegi e Agnese Canicattì. La coreografia è vincitrice di un premio di produzione Performare Festival assegnato nella scorsa edizione di Teatri Riflessi. A seguire, alle ore 21.30 Giorgia Briguglio sarà la protagonista di DEAR ISLAND, progetto nato sull’isola di Stromboli nell’ambito del MAROSI Festival: l’incontro con l’isola-vulcano, nel giugno 2022, ha provocato nell’artista un’urgenza rispetto ad una ricerca fisica e linguistica. Venerdì 7 luglio la Villa Comunale R. Livatino alle ore 19.30 ospiterà LINGUA di e con Chiara Ameglio (produzione Fattoria Vittadini | Festival DanzaInrete), che ha recentemente vinto il premio della rete Anticorpi XL, network che promuove la giovane danza d’autore. Spettacolo che mette al centro il dialogo tra performer e spettatore, selezionato da Performare nell’ambito di “Approach to a Creation Process”. Alle ore 21.00, il campo da tennis “G. Guttilla” di Serradifalco ospiterà in prima regionale la Compagnia Virgilio Sieni con la performance DANZA CIECA (Produzione Fondazione Matera- Basilicata 2019, Compagnia Virgilio Sieni). Virgilio Sieni e il danzatore non vedente Giuseppe Comuniello sono protagonisti di un duetto sulla tattilità, con musica dal vivo di Spartaco Cortesi. Ascolto, tenuità, spazio, gioco e rito, potenza dell’attesa, incrinatura della materia fonte inesauribile di gesti, parti oscure del movimento, bagliore nel dettaglio, accoglienza dell’amico, apertura dello sguardo: posture e avvicinamenti che trasformano il corpo in un atlante inesauribile di luoghi democratici. Nella serata di sabato 8 luglio il Vicolo Caico alle ore 19.30 ospiterà Nicola Simone Cisternino con il suo progetto site-specific realizzato per Performare Festival 2023 nell’ambito della residenza “Paesaggio e Comunità”. La sua performance, dal titolo VICOLO CAICO, è una produzione Twain_Centro di Produzione Danza. Il Piazzale del Teatro Comunale A. De Curtis alle ore 21.00 ospiterà l’anteprima di BATTICUORE, primo studio di Rosada Letizia Zangrì/Collettivo SicilyMade. Interpreti Amalia Borsellino, Carmelangela Damico, Annalisa Di Lanno, Marta Greco, in collaborazione con Performare Festival 2023 nell’ambito di “Approach to a creation process”. Infine, a chiudere la V edizione del Festival, sempre al Piazzale del Teatro Comunale De Curtis alle ore 21.30, in prima regionale lo spettacolo PAESAGGIO D’INTERNI (produzione Balletto Civile), danzato e creato da Emanuela Serra, Alessandro Pallecchi, Giulia Spattini, Francesco Gabrielli. In questa performance il palco è la strada, la scena un interno, un tavolo e due sedie, come un'isola a cui approdare. Corpi a confronto in partiture ritmiche danzate.... #notizie #news #breakingnews #cronaca #politica #eventi #sport #moda Read the full article

[gogmstuff]

Augusta Amalia of Bavaria - She fell in love, but Napoléon intervened and she had to marry 1808 Empress Josephine’s son Eugéne to spare Bavaria from imperial wrath.

Top left:  Augusta Amalia of Bavaria, bust length, wearing tiara with pearls, pearl earring, and low dress by Paolo Caronni and/or Giuseppe Longhi (British Museum). From their Web site 1705X2000 @300 2.1Mj.

Top right:  1809 Auguste Amalie de Beauharnais, Vizekönigin von Italien, mit ihren Töchtern Josephine und Eugenie by Andrea Appiani (location ?). From Wikimedia via pinterest.com/marcellagarsia/fashion-in-painting-xix-secolo/1800s/ 771X1023 @72 378kj.

Second row:  1810 Augusta Amalia Ludovika von Bayern, Duchess of Leuchtenberg by ? (location ?). From napoleondidthat.tumblr.com/post/122145342551/augusta-amalia 800X960 @72 270kj.

Third row left:  1814 Princess Augusta Amalia of Bavaria as a Vice-queen of Italy by ? (location ?). From csfd.cz/film/1010768-napoleons-erben-in-bayern-die-herzoge-von-leuchtenberg/galerie/?page=2 1268X1766 @144 4Mp.

Third row right:  ca. 1815 Augusta-Amélie de Bavière by François Pascal Simon Gérard (Versailles). From art.rmngp.fr/en/library/artworks; erased cracks & spots w Pshop & enlarged 25% 609X936 @96 140kj.

Fourth row:  ca. 1816 Auguste Amalie de Baviere by Joseph Karl Stieler (Château de Malmaison - Rueil-Malmaison, Île-de-France, France). From Wikinedia; erased cracks & flaws and fixed edges w Pshop 725X925 @72 1.3Mp.

Fifth row left:  1820 (or later) Augusta of Bavaria, Duchess of Leuchtenberg by Garnier (Royal Collection RCIN 618050), From their Web site 1579X2000 @300 956kj.

Fifth row right:  1824-1825 Auguste-Amélie de Bavière by Joseph Karl Stieler (Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau - Rueil-Malmaison, Île-de-France, France). From Wikimedia 1006X1254 @72 260kj.

Sixth row:  ca. 1825 Auguste Amalie, Princess of Bayern by Joseph Karl Stieler (auctioned by Ketterer Kunst) From pinterest.com/AlexyMet/ritratti-aristocratici-eleganti/; fixed flaws and spots throughout image with Photoshop.  3003X4002 @300 4.1Mj. This dress is more in keeping with the 1830s than the 1820s.

[skamenglishsubs]

Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, What's in a name?

I thought I was done, but I have material for one more post. I want to write more about how royal names work, because I've seen a lot of confusion and simple lack of knowledge in the tags, so think of this as more of an informative culture post than an analysis post of the show.

European royals and nobles have styles, names, titles, and houses. In addition, monarchs have regnal names.

A style is how you formally address someone, based on their rank and title. In Sweden, the only styles left are "majesty" and "royal higness", where kings and queens are addressed as "your majesty", and select members of the royal family are addressed as "your royal highness". In Swedish, these styles are often abbreviated as H.M. - Hans/Hennes Majestät and H.K.H. - Hans/Hennes Kungliga Höghet. In English, the abbreviations are HM and HRH.

In the show, you can see this when Simon meets the Queen, and shakily addresses her as "Your Majesty", or when Minou calls up August and says "Her Majesty the Queen has resolved your problems with the school fee".

In less formal, but still polite speech, you would use third person addressing when talking to or about the royals, and there are numerous examples of this in the show:

Anette to Erik: "How nice to see the crown prince again!"

Some aide to Wilhelm: "Could we get a shot of the prince shaking hands with the headmistress?"

Anette: "Wilhelm, sorry, the crown prince, how nice the memorial was!"

August: "The queen has asked me, personally, to take care of him."

Malin: "I just wanted to remind the crown prince that breakfast closes in five minutes."

Names for royals and nobles work just like the rest of us, but with one exception: Royals generally do not use last names, while lesser nobles do. They also tend to have several first names, and while they generally pick names for their children based on trends in society, they stay on the traditional conservative side, and they often pick names from their family history.

The show only tells us one first name for each member of the royal family: Kristina, Ludvig, Erik, and Wilhelm, so we have no idea what other names they might have.

In the real world, the name of the king of Sweden is Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus, the crown princess' name is Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée, and her oldest daughter's name is Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary, just to give you some flavour of what it could look like.

Titles are what sets higher nobles apart from us mere commoners, and have their origin in the feudal system of medieval Europe, which was a hierarchical socio-economic-military system where the lord of a land could grant a portion of his land, a fief, to a vassal in exchange for fealty - loyalty, taxes, and military service. Doing so would create a title, it would make the vassal a noble of a lower rank than his lord, because you could only create titles lower than the one you possessed. So, in general, kings could create dukes or lower, dukes could create counts or lower, and counts could create barons. The fief of a duke is called a duchy, a count ruled over a county, and a baron over a barony, although there were more ranks and more titles than that, depending on region and language, but those are the main ones.

Every single squabble or conflict or battle or civil war or war fought in the middle ages was over the titles, because the titles legally conferred ownership of a piece of land, and with it the rights of taxation and the economic value of that land. Over time, kingdoms got more centralized and the hierarchical nature of the system broke down, while the titles became more hereditary, and ownership of the land became less important, which meant that minor nobles lost the power to create vassals and fiefs, while the power to create titles was reserved for the monarchs, and titles created in this era usually only granted people a title for an area or a castle or a manor house that they already owned.

Going into modern times, European countries curbed title creation, but generally kept protections for existing titles and allowing them to be inherited according to whatever inheritance rules applied to each title. But if a title holder dies without a legal heir, the title is lost forever, which means that most modern day noble families want to make sure their title, their history, their legacy can survive long into the future. Also note that one person can hold several titles, and each of those titles can be inherited individually and under different rules.

In Sweden, there are currently 46 comital families (greve/grevinna - count/countess), 131 baronial families (friherre/friherrinna - baron/baroness), and 484 untitled lower noble families. There are no independent ducal families, instead the monarch grants royal children a ceremonial duchy at birth, for one of the 25 historical provinces of Sweden. This means that every single member of the Swedish royal family is a prince or princess of Sweden, and also duke or duchess of some province.

Again, we have no idea what province Wilhelm is the duke of in the show, while for example in the real Sweden, Princess Estelle is the duchess of Östergötland, Prince Carl Philip is duke of Värmland, and Princess Leonore is duchess of Gotland.

A noble house is a noble family or clan that is associated with one or more hereditary titles. Noble houses were founded when someone was ennobled and granted a title, and a noble house can branch and wither and split and form new houses over the ages, and it can gain or lose status as its members gain or lose noble titles and ranks.

In medieval times, these family bonds were very strong, and many major conflicts were a result of different houses fighting over various titles, for example the Wars of the Roses was a 32 year long civil war over the throne of England between the House of York and the House of Lancaster.

A royal house is a noble house that holds a title of king or queen, and for members of the royal family, their house name is what they have instead of a normal last name. We don't know which royal house Wilhelm belongs to in the show, but the current royal house of Sweden is the House of Bernadotte, named after the French rando we imported that I wrote about in the last post. Other houses that have been the royal house of Sweden throughout history include the House of Holstein-Gottorp, the House of Oldenburg, and the House of Vasa.

Finally, a regnal name is a name that a reigning monarch chooses for themselves when they ascend the throne, and it consists of one or more of their first names, and a roman numeral ordinal if there have been previous kings or queens with that name. If you're the first of your name to rule over a kingdom, you can choose to call yourself "the first", or you can choose not to.

In the show, Kristina doesn't appear to have an ordinal, but in real life Sweden there was a Queen Kristina who reigned in the middle of the 1600's. (She was probably a lesbian, caused the death of French philosopher René Descartes, abdicated in favour of her cousin, and moved to Rome and converted to Catholicism. As you do.)

In the real world, the king of Sweden reigns under the name Carl XVI Gustaf, because he's the sixteenth (tenth, actually) Karl to have been king of Sweden, and he also picked his second name because he liked it, or because he wanted to stand out from the fifteen other Karls who preceded him. His regnal name is pronounced Carl den sextonde Gustaf - Carl the sixteenth Gustaf.

Putting all of this together, the styles, the names, the titles, and the houses, and we can finally get the full formal names of various royals. Here are examples from some European royal families to demonstrate what it can look like:

HRH Madeleine Thérèse Amelie Josephine, Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland, of house Bernadotte.

HH Felix Henrik Valdemar Christian, Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, of house Glücksburg.

HRH Ingrid Alexandra, Princess of Norway, of house Glücksburg.

HRH Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge, of house Windsor.

HRH Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria, Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange, of house Orange-Nassau

HRH Emmanuel Léopold Guillaume François Marie, Prince of Belgium, of house Belgium.

HRH Infanta Sofía de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Ortiz, of house Bourbon.

These names are quite the mouthful, and the full names and styles are only used in very formal settings. Normally, these people are referred to with their highest title, and their chosen first names, i.e. Princess Madeleine, Prince Felix, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Prince William, Princess Catharina-Amalia, Prince Emmanuel, and Infanta Sofía.

We only have the short name of Wilhelm, i.e. Prince Wilhelm, in the show. We don't have his full name, but if it follows form, he would be HRH Wilhelm <Name> <Name> <Name>, Prince of Sweden, Duke of <Province>, of house <House>.

Note that Wilhelm's father is not a king, he's a prince-consort, since Wilhelm's mother is the reigning monarch. The proper styles for his parents would be Her Majesty Queen Kristina (II?), and His Royal Highness Prince Ludvig.

The only other nobles in the show we have full names for is August and Felice, and August's full name would be August <Name?> Horn, Count (or Baron) of Årnäs. Felice's would be just Felice <Name?> Ehrencrona, because her parents are still alive and still hold whatever title they have.

Commoners marrying into a royal family is no longer forbidden or controversial, and all European royal families have had commoners marrying into them in the past few generations.

Based on precedence, if Wilhelm and Simon were to get back together and marry in the future, and if they get the consent of the Queen and the government, the following would happen:

Simon would be offered to be made a prince of Sweden, and with it gain the style of HRH.

Simon would be offered to be made a duke of some province.

If he accepts, he would lose his last name, and go from Simon Eriksson to HRH Simon, Prince of Sweden, Duke of <Province>, or simply Prince Simon.

If he declines, he would stay as Mr. Simon Eriksson.

When/If Wilhelm ascends the throne, he would chose a regnal name, and get an ordinal depending on the number of Wilhelms before him. If he's the first of his name, he would simply be King Wilhelm.

And if he and Simon are married when he ascends, Simon would not become king, he would become a prince-consort, and keep the title of prince.

[artfoli]

Details in Blue

Infanta Isabel de Bourbon, 1866, by Vicente Palmaroli y Gonzalez.

Madame Charles Simon Favart, 1757, by François-Hubert Drouais.

Marie-Thérèse de Savoie, 1775, by Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty.

Princesse de Broglie, 1853, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.

Admiring the Gift, by Pio Ricci.

Portrait de Philomena Lynch, 1900’s, by Paul Jobert.

Marie-Antoinette with the Rose, 1783, by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

Anne Streatfeild, 1756, by Arthur Devis.

María Isabel Álvarez y Montes, 1868, by Federico Madrazo.

Portrait of Amalia de Llano, 1853, by Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz.

[selena-snape]

Sexta Generación:

¤ Lilith Moira Riddle y Julian Cameron Gray

¤ Bloom Larissa Peters y Sky Aurelius Peters

¤ Hazel Opal Peters y Magnus Roman Watson

¤ Theodore August Peters y Meredith Mavis Monroe

¤ Aaron Christopher Weasley y Verena Michelle Dyer

¤ Joshua Stephen Weasley y Esther Amalia Holt

¤ Charles Samuel Weasley y Ruby Stephanie Saffron

¤ Iris Aurelia Weasley y Marshall Everett Conrad

¤ Theophania Calliope Richardson y Corinne Roxanne Everleigh

¤ Arabella Beatrix Richardson y Henry Oliver Brooks

¤ Kai Dominick Richardson y Flynn Milo Wolf

¤ Willow Cosima Levin y Nicoletta Pomona Wilford

¤ Fern Violet Levin y Marie Honoria Ollivander

¤ Euphemia Alessandra Levin y John Florean Palmer

¤ Dorothea Giovanna Levin y Elladora Eloise Gibson

¤ Salazar Lucius Levin y Holly Avalon Barnes

¤ Eleanor Hope Levin y Savannah Genevieve Shaw

¤ Gracie Isadora Novak y Marvin Declan Sullivan

¤ Alec Aurelian Novak y Claire Piper Johan

¤ Mason Ezekiel Novak y Clementine Octavia Albion

¤ Lotor Comet Snape y Giovanni Benjamin Lestrange

¤ "Moon Demon" Darius Angelo Snape y "Dark Angel " Arianne Alysson Snape

¤ "Killer Shadow" Lazarus Ignatius Snape y "Ice Demon" Urania Calliope Snape

¤ Morterius Viktor Snape y Hisirdoux Artemas Casperan

¤ Regris Niven Snape y Acxa Valda Snape

¤ Kevin Ethan Snape y Gwendolyn Stephanie Tennyson

¤ Regulus Orion Snape y Abel Austin Khemse

¤ Cygnus Arcturus Snape y Frederic Alistair Weasley

¤ Elle Rigel Snape y Matsuda Touta

¤ Beyond Aurelian Snape y Mikami Teru

¤ Alexander Valens Snape y Magnus Sebastian King

¤ Lysander Nikolaus Snape y Vladimir Micah Masters

¤ Gwendolyn Hiroko Snape y Tanaka Misaki

¤ Ezra Yamato Snape y Luveva Rosemay Sutherlamd

¤ Ryan Yoshio Snape y Avery Daxon Sinclair

¤ Keith Akira Snape y James Oliver Griffin

¤ Yuudai Riley Snape y Danielle Edna Young

¤ Yuriko Harley Snape y Debra Kathleen McIntosh

¤ Clarice Suki Snape y Alphard Delphinus Black

¤ Mako Ethan Snape y Giovanna Naomi Hamilton

¤ Morgana Kendra Voorhees y Karin Delilah Summers

¤ Carrie Margaret Voorhees y "Sue" Susan Danica Snell

¤

¤

¤

¤ Jessica Lorna Kimble y Steven Malcom Freeman

¤ Audrey Andromeda Malfoy y Andre Perseus Bourgeois

¤ Gabriel Bastian Malfoy y Emilie Calliope Graham de Vanily

¤ Roynard Hydra Malfoy y Violet Rowena Deekers

¤ Raymond Lynx Malfoy y Cedric Atticus Diggory

¤ Draco Lucius Malfoy y Astoria Coraline Greengrass

¤ Merle Ariel Malfoy y "Jesus" Paul Finnegan Rovia

¤ Hope Leah Malfoy y

¤ Carl Thomas Malfoy y

¤ Levi Armand Malcoy y

¤ Daryl Hunter Malfoy y Rick Jonah Grimes

¤ Vitale Astaroth Sparda y Luka Nicholas Sparda

¤ Neron Asura Sparda y Kyrie Serena Kiernan

¤ Merak Emory Sparda y Portia Manon Hendrix

¤ Armand Vincent Sparda y

¤ Nicholas William Sparda y

¤ Septimus Canyon Sparda y

¤ Loretta Margot Grace y Calvin Raphael Foxglove

¤ Julius Grant Grace y Ivy Roxanne Baxley

¤ Benjamin Vidar Grace y Edgar Zachary Maddox

¤ Ophelia Nozomi Jensen y Cordelia Avery Bkwie

¤ Eileen Victoria Jensen y Silvius Dael Sinclair

¤ Thomas Lysander Jensen y Othello Natalie Reeve

¤ Nova Genesis Jackson y Allison Leah Reid

¤ Losa Iris Brooks y Briar Anais Tedford

¤ Nina Rosie Brooks y Asa August Harding

¤ Connor Cyrus Brooks y Sandra Sabine Simmons

¤ Esme Aurora Donovan y Maxine Riley Crosby

¤ Arabella Cassidy Donovan y Robert Dashiell. Davenport

¤ Arianne Odette Donovan y Terrence Gideon Graves

¤ Kendra Alessandra Donovan y Alexis Scarlett Bishop

¤ Cassandra Abigail Donovan y James Anthony West

¤ Pansy Genevieve Parkinson y Theodore Phineas Nott

¤ Avalon Forrest Parkinson

¤ Damien Emory Parkinson

¤ Ursa Alexa Corvinus Y Narcissa Hazel Ripley

¤ Nora Alyssa Corvinus y Lydia Skylar Abernathy

¤ Annabelle Danica Corvinus y Rowan Vladimir Norwood

¤ Luna Pandora Lovewood y Rolf Elijah Matthew Scamander

¤

¤

¤

¤

¤ Ronan Artemis Marcelly y Adam Timothy Reed

¤ Giovanni Octavius Marcelly y Robin Mikhaila Mckinley

¤ Ivan Alistair Marcelly y James Christopher Peters

¤ Mika Valentina Donnelly y Arthur Ethan Bowers

¤ Damien September Delaney y Melione Rowena Robinson

¤ Kira Dominika Delaney y Marlon Oliver Williams

¤ Kanna Amelia Delaney y Gael Ethan Byron

¤ Nicholas Hadrien Delaney y Madison Edith Emerson

¤ Armand Demetrius Corwin y Persephone Aspen Cormac

¤ Tatiana Aubrey Corwin y Marcella Carolinne Cervenka

¤ Pandora Evageline Corwin y Cecilia Honoria Van Frietag

¤ Natasha Piper Dresden y Donna Mary Berkshire

¤ Emily Alisha Ansel y Nana Eliza Martin

¤ Isabelle Veronica Ansel y Carmen Emilia Reyes

¤ Kenneth Paul Dollins y Ella Isabella Evans

¤ Joseph Herman Dollins y Juliet Corina Rogers

¤ Hailey Amelia Flint y Lucia Naomi Barnes

¤ Ashley Jasmine Flint y Maxwell Benjamin Norton

¤ Piper Savannah Flint y Louis Howart Daxton

¤ Chase Akira Braken y Felix Lucius Quinn

¤ Florian Narcissus Braken y Colin Leonard Frone

¤ Callum Daniel Fox y Marjorie Katie Vance

¤ Dante Ezra Fox y Leila Juniper Thomson

¤ Nathan Soren Fox y Matthias Isaac Parker

¤ Magnus Gideon Fox y Desmond Ethan McReynolds

¤ Lucian Harrison Fox y Apollo Anthony Greene

¤ Jude Eli Hudson y Theodore Declan Vesper

¤ Olive Genesis Ivanovich y David Cameron Canyon

¤ Tate Roman Ivanovich y Molly Aurora Wiley

¤ Ivory Leah Ivanovich y Diane Barbara Jennings

¤ Devon Julian Kane y Ophelia Pauline Colins

¤ Claudine Barbara Kane y Matthew Benjamin Rothchild

¤ Castiel Dominc Kane y Charlie Isaac Lauder

¤ Natasha Bella Kane y Mackenzie Riley Hills

¤ Caroline Samantha Kane y Sarah Emma Fuller

¤ Harper Eva Kane y Daniel Michael Baker

¤ Henry Jasper Kane y Duncan Joshua Evas

¤ Nathan Pietro Kane y Elijah Maxwell Crimson

¤ June Opal Kane y Felix Octavius Rhodes

¤ Jane Ophelia Kane y Angelo Dominic Lowell

¤ Aldora Corinne Prince Amora Lyra Stout

¤ Odolette Lila Prince y Thalia Cora Fulton

¤ Amon Rowan Prince y Elira Bianca Thorton

¤ Amelia Robin Prince y Nicolo Dorian Guthrie

¤ Alastor Robert Prince y Dinah Pandora Pearson

¤ Gavin Marshall Prince y Megara Eloise Lang

¤ Sean Colin Prince y Rebecca Odette Douglas

¤ Renee Tara Prince y Miles Edgar Lambert

¤ Eric Lance Snapey y Millicent Corinne Curtis

¤ Marlon Levi Snape y Lily Alyssa Yancer

¤ Luther Garth Snape y Judith Naomi Tailyour

¤ Hannah Ebony Snape y Lincoln Nathan Penfold

¤ Marie Clarice Snape y Leslie Regan Eastwood

¤ Jade Tiffany Snape y Leah Eliana Rees

¤ Grant Devin Snape y Geraldine Annalie Harfield

¤ Dean Leighton Snape y Fiona Charity Wheeler

¤ Mason Riley Oakley y Cartie April Willis

¤ Morgan Harley Oakley y Ian Paul Wenman

¤ Robert Damian Lake y Marion Corinne Turner

¤ Roy Ethan Morrinson y Griffin Rhett Essex

¤ Joy Ebony Morrinson y Kilian Lee Rowell

¤ Holden Ethan Snape y Eleanor Nadia Heron

¤ Corey Silas Snape y Jane Lydia Orchard

¤ Astrid Juliette Snape y Rhonda Hope Pataki

¤ Tate Julian Snape y James Ronan Poole

¤ Soren Jaspn Snape y Carmen Marianna Rojas

¤ Edgar Samuel Snape y Ingrid Ianthe Lauder

¤ Castiel Gabriel Dream y Cecilia Ember Bonavich

¤ Callum Paul Dream y Avalon Ginevra Carmichael

¤ Cedric Ernest Dream y Bathilda Sibyll Irvine

¤ Garett Elia Dream y Padma Orla Astor

¤ Austin Jordan Dream y Magenta Pomona Hearst

¤ Daryl Silvanus Dream y Nuru Sura Van Doren

¤ Calliope Scarlett Dream y Gemma Pomona Windsor

¤ Cordelia Maribelle Carter y Ivar Rainn Kline

¤ Howart Steven Carter y Sylvia Peyton Bechtel

¤ Lysander Casimir Carter y Enid Jivanta Galumba

¤ Pierre Milford Afton y Kylie Olivia McKeehan

¤ Rupert Stanley Afton y Andrea Jocelyn Varner

¤ Warren Philip Jefferson y Michelle Sabine Castle

¤ Ellie Audrey Jefferson y Shireen Monroe Marks

¤ Giselle Corina Leighton y Mia Velvet Bushnell

¤ Odette Marina Leighton y Nicoletta Verona Goldstein

¤ Larissa Dirina Leighton y Winry Carmina Montgomery

¤ Magnus Cassidy Edevane y Harry Leroy Baker

¤ Stella Andromeda Orville y Harold Russell Mcquiston

¤ Lucille Arabella Orville y Jace Colton Rutledge

¤ Lee Amos Evans y Zoey Makayla Camfield

¤ Cadmus Orion Evans y Trudy Nayala Lovell

¤ Florean Newton Evans y Xenia Sybil Herron

¤ Ivory Ooal Evans y Edmund Wilfred Frankham

¤ Luisa Veronica O'Kelly y Connor Evan Carson.

¤ Finn Andrew Harley y Portia Marilyn Curtis

¤ Abel Nolan Harley y Bonnie Thea Proudley

¤ Louis Xander Harley y Petunia Jamie Deakins

¤ Claire Norah Harley y Lance Chandler Western

¤ Camille Loena Harley y Myrtle Denise Golby

¤ Cora Adelaide Harley y Selma Kelsey Hicks

¤ Juliette Theodora Harley y Daisy China Kempster

¤ Cyrus Maximua Harley y Meredith Shannon Crocker

¤ Horatio Gideon Harley y Heidi Antoinette Deacon

¤ Dorothea Euphemia Harley y Terence Xavier Croucher

¤ Violetta Leopoldine Murphy y Franklin Leonidas Burton

¤ Nova Orion Murphy y Faustina Spencer Odam

¤ Comet Sky Murphy y Yvonne Wilhemina Hibberd

¤ Phoenix Bianca Murphy y Rosalie Simone Stratton

¤ Celestine Xiomara Glenwood y Rylan Waylon Mills

¤ Isla Cosima Glenwood y Neil Rowan Lee

¤ Jacqueline Glenna McCoy y Jarome Staley Orline

¤ Ann Marie McCoy y Ridley Everett Anderson

¤ Apoline Elian McCoy y Simom Edward Thompson

¤ Aubrey Lynn Orson y Braxton Hunter Young

¤ Amelia Faith Orson y Ryland Linden Allen

¤ Lucy Ella Volkov Jacob Jhon Wright

¤ Freya Leah Volkov y Rome Canyon Adams

¤ Martin Lane Volkov y Brianna Mirella Collins

¤ Monet Valentina Volkov y Callahan Anselm Morris

¤ Robinia Venus Carrington y Aragon Glorianne Watson

¤ Damon Micah Carrington y Selie Nia Rise

¤ Calla Seraphina Balckwood y Ariel Calyx Reid

¤ Adriana Norah Blackwood y Windsor Athen Foster

¤ Trevor Narcissus Blackwood y Larry Eugene Fraser

¤ Heather Kalina Moore y Lucilius Nicholas McIntosh

¤ Bernadette Alexa Moore y Ares Gabriel McLean

¤ Althea Ruby Lexington y Trinity Elizabeth Bland

¤ Camellia Iris Lexington y Damian Anthony Boswell

¤ Taylor Sidney Lexington y Fabian Dominic Bartlett

¤ Elena Vittoria Lexington y Athena Aubree Birch

¤ Oris Edward Goodwin y Ryleigh Nadia Chapman

¤ Archer Emrys Goodwin y Paisley Autumm Pannell

¤ Raphaela Esperalda Goodwin y Ryder Quentin Hamilton

¤ Ike Neron Goodwin y Bailey Stephanie Adams

¤ Lilianna Persephone Blackwood y Jared Fabian Crawford

¤ Albert Christopher Blackwood y Gemma Alyna Gibson

¤ Alfred Stella Blackwood y Nicholas Julian Munro

¤ Rose Mary Blackwood y Sebastian robert Walker

¤ Bernard Alden Blackwood y Katherine Calliope McGregor

¤ Benjen Isaiah Blackwood y Seraphina Harper Docherty

¤ Lewis Beckett Blackwood y Samirah Luna Ross

¤ Vlaire Harley Blackwood y Aurora Isabelle Gordon

[lenniharrisonsims]

The Wedding Of Victoria and Louis!

Part II- Family Arrivals

HIM The Dowager Tsarina Nadia lead the way into the cathedral with her family following behind- HIM Tsarina Ekaterina, and TIHs Prince Matthew and youngest child Prince Benedict. The Dowager sported a purple floral corsage as a gift from the Bride and Groom to their parents and grandparents.

Leading the way in terms of grandparents from the other side of the family, Marquess Marcus and Marchioness Corinne Milner of Torendi, Princess Victoria's Maternal Grandparents, arrived with the rest of the Milner Clan following behind- Earl Simon and Countess Viola Milner, and their twin sons Viscount Everett and the Hon. Elijah Milner.

From Oasis Springs, the De La Cru family flew in- TMs King Ivan and Queen Anastasia, eldest daughter Princess Elizabeth and her fiance, Crown Prince Duncan from Willow Creek, then youngest son Crown Prince Philippe with his new girlfriend, Lady Octavia Castellano from Windenburg.

Next up were TM King Cesare and Queen Misha Colona, followed by the rest of the Newcrest Royal family, including:

Princess Lucrezia and her boyfriend, musician Leo Rose, as well as Princess Emilia...

Princess Adriana and Major Samson Glenn, the Marquess and Marchioness of Fielmont, with their twins, Lady Charlette and Earl Cosimo Glenn...

Princess Francesca and Duchess Olive Colona, the Duchesses of Hazel Hills. The duchess already showing as they expect their first child!

And of course, Newcrest's royal heartbreaker, still with high school girlfriend Lady Amalia Humphrey of Oasis Springs. Maybe his bad boy, serial dating days are over now that he's at university?

Flying in from Selvadorada was Crown Prince Ramses Montero and Princess Rosalind Ivanov. Many royal watchers have been anxiously awaiting news and studying the princess' ring finger ever since she left for school in Selvadorada, but still they are disappointed.

[radioancoraitalia]

Per l’Epifania una serata di normalità “fuori”, le detenute di Fuorni ospiti al concerto di Assia Fiorillo

da il Riformista Il 5 gennaio l’epifania regalerà una serata di normalità ad alcune detenute protagoniste del documentario Caine (di Amalia De Simone per rai 3- raiplay). Per una volta varcheranno i cancelli del carcere di Fuorni ed insieme alla direttorice Rita Romano parteciperanno al concerto di presentazione del disco della cantautrice Assia Fiorillo. Assia infatti per un anno intero ha…

[ebookisthebest]

^READ^ How To Become A Successful Artist Read Online

^*READ^* How To Become A Successful Artist Read Online

How To Become A Successful Artist

[PDF] Download How To Become A Successful Artist Ebook | READ ONLINE

Author : Magnus Resch Publisher : Phaidon Press ISBN : 1838662421 Publication Date : 2021-5-26 Language : eng Pages : 216

To Download or Read this book, click link below:

http://read.ebookcollection.space/?book=1838662421

$BOOK^

Synopsis : ^*READ^* How To Become A Successful Artist Read Online

The must-have business guide for visual artists, written by the leading specialist in the global art tradeWritten for artists of all levels, the latest book from bestselling author Magnus Resch explores how artists can have a career in the field they love. It answers the most important questions including: How do I find gallery representation? How do I write an artist statement? How should I price my artworks? And what's the best Instagram strategy? Case studies are drawn from interviews with leading experts and practitioners, including artists, dealers, and curators. It's an invaluable international art-world resource.Participating experts include: Georgina Adam, Tim Bengel, Katherine Bernhardt, Mr. Brainwash, Simon de Pury, Jeffrey Deitch, Chris Dercon, The Haas Brothers, Peter Halley, Gregor Hildebrandt, Zhang Huan, Rashid Johnson, Jitish Kallat, Yue Minjun, Marilyn Minter, Tyler Mitchell, Oscar Murillo, Shirin Neshat, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Raymond Pettibon, Bill Powers, Daan Roosegaarde, Mera & Don Rubell, Kenny Schachter, Kenny Scharf, Lisa Schiff, Paul Schimmel, Julian Schnabel, Sean Scully, Stefan Simchowitz, Laurie Simmons, Lucien Smith, Salman Toor, Amalia Ulman, Jorinde Voigt, Jordan Wolfson, Heidi Zuckerman and many more.

[those-greek-royals]

Now, let’s take a look at my royal library! I am the owner of many books about royalty, mainly Greek and Russian. I have an obsession, I confess! I am fascinated about all things royalty and history in a way that someone could easily call me a nerd. Well, it seems that I am a nerd! I love royals from around Europe and the world. 

1. Biography of Queen Frederica of Greece in greek, by Nelli Xenaki.

2. The three-volume memoirs of our King, His Majesty King Constantine II of Greece in greek, editions “To Vima”

3. The letters of King George I of Greece to a friend from the Danish Navy, Uldall Hansen in greek, edited by Aristea Papanikolaou Kristensen

4. The memoirs of Prince Christopher of Greece, the greek edition by Fereniki publishing house

5. The love story of King Alexander of Greece and Aspasia Manos, as told in greek by author Alexandros Zaousis

6. The collectible one-volume biography of King Alexander of Greece, written in greek by his best friend Christos Zalokostas, the 1953 edition with an inscription from Zalokostas

7. Biography of King George V of the United Kingdom/Great Britain, in english by Kenneth Rose

8. The memoirs of Prince Michael of Greece, greek edition by Fereniki publishing house

9. Biography of Princes Irene of Greece by Eva Thellada, greek edition by Fereniki publishing house

10. King Constantine by Edward Driault, greek edition by Ekdoseis Stemma

11. Queen Olga of the Hellenes, a memoir by her secretary and friend Julia Karolou, in greek by Ekdoseis Stemma

12. A ‘biography’ of the Royal Estate of Tatoi, by historian Costas M. Stamatopoulos

13. The diaries of Prince Nicholas of Greece of the years 1909-1912, edited by Costas M. Stamatopoulos

14. A photo-album of King Paul of Greece, for the 50th anniversary of his death (1964-2014), along with a dvd-documentary on his life

15. The royal collection of Anastasios Kaddas, Fereniki publishing house

16. The Last Tsar by Edvard Ratzinsky, greek edition

17. Memoirs of King Otto’s Greek Court, by Christiana Lutt

18. The lives of King Otto and Queen Amalia of Greece, by Alexandros Zaousis

19. The Romanovs 1613-1918, by Simon Sebag Montefiore

20. Tsar Nicholas I, by Constantine de Grunwald, 1950 edition

21. A Lifelong Passion, collection of letters and diaries of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna

22. A novel about Catherine the Great

23. Biography of Otto of Greece, by Kostas Barbis

24. The Flight of the Romanovs, by John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, greek edition

25. From Athens to Bamberg, life in exile of King Otto and Queen Amalia

26. A memoir of Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia), wife of Nicholas I, about her first years of marriage

27. A photo-album composed by Prince Michael of Greece, on Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia

That’s all -for now. I will write reviews when possible. Many thanks.