#As much as she would like to full stabbity

[fireflyfish]

Tano And Kenobi: The Senator From Naboo

Previously on Tano and Kenobi...

Now that she has been re-accepted into the Jedi Order and named a Jedi Knight, Ahsoka Tano has some work to do. Luckily a helpful Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn is there to point her in the right direction. Senior Initiate Obi-Wan Kenobi has some training to make up for and a lesson in jar’kai waiting for him. 

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Jar’kai was amazing.

Exhausting, but amazing!

Obi-Wan could not remember the last time his arms were so tired and sore after just an hour of lightsaber practice. He happily slumped his way back to the Initiate Dormitory, shedding his robes and boots before taking a long shower in the refresher when he got to his room. After an eternity of muscle-relaxing warm water, he got out, changed into a more comfortable set of robes, and headed back out for dinner.

He was so wrapped up in the happy memories of his lesson with Master Ahsoka that Obi-Wan paid little attention to the older Padawans who were whispering about how he didn’t have a master yet.

“I can’t believe he’s still here!”

“I would have left out of shame by now.”

“My master says no one will take him. They say he’s too emotional. That he might go dark.”

“I heard he tried to ask Master Sinube. Can you believe it? How desperate do you have to be to ask that old fart?”

Holding his head high, Obi-Wan nodded pleasantly to his fellow Jedi. He had a wicked retort on his tongue but he stilled it, knowing deep in his heart that Master Ahsoka would not approve. He was going to make her proud, to show her that he was worthy of her teachings and maybe, if he was lucky, being her padawan.

So that meant Obi-Wan would just have to bite his tongue and ignore the cold-hearted nexus he found himself in line with.

“Hey, Obi-Wan!” a voice called out through the dining hall, belonging to a dark-skinned Kiffar with a golden stripe across his nose.

Who was pushing his way through the dinner crowd and making a beeline towards Obi-Wan. “Thanks for saving me a spot in line.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “I did no such thing, Quinlan. The end of the line is back there behind Padawan Rast.”

“You are such a goody-goody!” Quinlan groaned, wrapping an arm around his friend’s shoulders and then pulling him into a headlock where he could give him some proper encouragement with his knuckles. “You were totally saving a spot for me, right?”

“Gah! Ow! Quin! That hurts!” Obi-Wan protested, smacking at his friend’s arm for release before he would have to employ more aggressive measures. “Let me go, you odiferous gundark!”

“Odiferous?” Quinlan laughed, releasing Obi-Wan with a flourish and a firm place in line behind his friend as they shuffled forward to dinner. “I will have you know I took a bath yesterday.”

Obi-Wan gently touched the top of his head and winced. “I know. I can smell.”

“So what’s this I hear about there being a new knight in the Temple?” Quinlan asked, his eyes bright with curiosity and his smile lean and curious. “Master says she’s a Togruta that grew up on the Outer Rim? And her master passed into the Force a while ago.”

The surrounding padawans seemed to inch closer to Obi-Wan and Quinlan, their arch commentaries on Obi-Wan’s presence and Quinlan’s boisterous nature forgotten in the face of news and gossip. Highly observant for an initiate, Obi-Wan chewed on his lip as he carefully thought of what to say that would sate Quin’s voracious curiosity but wouldn’t give too much away about Master Ahsoka. He felt very protective of Ahsoka and didn’t want idle gossip to cause her the kind of trouble it had caused Obi-Wan.

“Knight Tano has recently returned from an extended mission in the field,” Obi-Wan finally concluded, thanking the serving droid as he took his tray and stepped away from the food line, Quinlan right on his heels. “She’s been having trouble finding her way with the renovations and I have offered to assist her around the Temple.”

“Tano?” Quinlan echoed, flopping down opposite Obi-Wan at one of the long tables the initiates and padawans sat at. “I don’t remember a knight by that name. What does she do?”

Obi-Wan frowned off to the side, trying to stay silent.

Quinlan narrowed his eyes, his grin growing wider. “You know what she was doing, don’t you! Tell me! C’mon, Obi-Waaaaan! I swear to Yoda I won’t tell a soul!”

Shaking his head, Obi-Wan folded his arms over his chest and continued his mulish silence.

“Obi-Wan!” the Kiffar pleaded, holding up his dessert, hoping it would loosen his friend’s tongue. “I’ll give you my chocolate sponge cake!”

“No!” Obi-Wan refused, shaking his head. “I can’t. I don’t have authorization to tell you.”

“Authorization?” Quinlan gaped, his excitement growing by the minute as he was starting to imagine Knight Tano taking on whole squadrons of pirates over the misty rings of an exotic Outer Rim planet. “Is she a Shadow? Master didn’t say anything about her being a Shadow!”

“Quinlan!” Obi-Wan hissed, leaning under the table to give his friend a good kick in the shins. “Shut your karking mouth before somebody hears you!”

“Language, Initiate,” a low voice rumbled into the two boys squabble and they both turned their faces skyward to see the tall, imposing presence of Master Qui-Gon Jinn standing over them. His face was impassive, neither a smile nor a frown on his lips and his eyes seemed to see beyond them, as if they were not there. “Brother Jedi do not squabble over petty gossip. You would do well to set a proper example for your friend, Padawan Vos.”

And with that bit of wisdom imparted, Master Jinn moved out of the dining hall and into the shadowed archway that led back into the Temple.

Obi-Wan let out a heavy sigh and turned his eyes back to his food as Quinlan let out a snort once he was absolutely certain the mountain of a master was out of earshot. He proceeded to sit up straighter and sniffed in a poor imitation of Master Jinn, “You would do well to be more of a stick in the mud like Luminara, Obi-Wan. She never has any fun and all the masters love her.”

Rolling his eyes, Obi-Wan tucked into his dinner. “Shut up, Quin. I don’t want to get chewed out by two masters tonight.”

Deciding that his empty stomach could hold out no longer, Quinlan followed Obi-Wan’s suggestion and the two boys began to eat in relative silence.

Quinlan didn’t notice Obi-Wan turning around to gaze out at the doorway Master Jinn departed through. I know Master Ahsoka thinks Master Jinn might be a good master for me but… I don’t know. I don’t think any Padawan could ever make him happy.

Obi-Wan bit into his chocolate sponge cake and sighed. Definitely not me.

The next two months passed in a happy blur of activity for Obi-Wan and he almost forgot about his impending birthday. He would eat breakfast with Master Ahsoka, the two of them planning their day around his schedule. Sometimes Master Yoda would join them, sending Obi-Wan off to fetch him a pot of tea while he talked privately with her. He would have given anything to know what the Grand Master and Ahsoka were talking about but he had to accept it was not his place to know.

Once Obi-Wan’s lessons were done for the day, Ahsoka would met him in the Northern Solar room and they would practice jar’kai, focusing on improving Obi-Wan’s non-dominant hand and foot. At first he felt like a failure, dropping his saber time after time but slowly he started to see improvement. His left arm didn’t shake so much when he worked and the forms were starting to feel more natural on his left side, to flow one into the other, clumsily but it was progress.

Sometimes Obi-Wan would eat dinner with Quinlan, or his other agemates who didn’t mind being seen with an initiate, but more often than not he would eat with Ahsoka. One of the masters even started calling him Ahsoka’s little shadow.

Obi-Wan had liked the idea of being the Shadow’s shadow.

Ahsoka always seemed happy to see him, ruffling his hair and putting a hand on his shoulder whenever they spoke to a fellow knight or master. He felt proud when she did that but he did his best to keep such thoughts and emotions behind his shields. Jedi were supposed to be serene and one with the Force around them and puffing up like a preening kyr falcon was generally frowned upon.

Everything was going very well until he was the last initiate in his dorm room and the calendar changed, revealing that there were only three weeks left before his birthday and…

And his fate, whatever that would be.

Ahsoka was at her wits’ end.

Not only was Obi-Wan turning thirteen in three weeks time but Qui-Gon Jinn was away from Coruscant on a diplomatic mission that should have ended nearly a week ago. On top of that, not a single knight or master she had spoken to would even broach the topic of considering Obi-Wan Wan for an apprenticeship.

Try as she might, Ahsoka could not convince the hidebound idiots at the Temple that Obi-Wan was going to grow into one of the greatest Jedi the Order had ever produced.

“I admire your determination. There aren’t many besides Yoda who would advocate so strongly for Kenobi,” Mace Windu said one day while he and Ahsoka were walking through the hallways of the Temple.

As part of her acceptance back into the Order, Master Windu had suggested that Ahsoka meet with him weekly for a chat on how she was adjusting to life back within the confines of the Temple. She understood what he really meant and proceeded to show up on time, every week, at Master Windu’s door, a pleasant bland expression on her face that she had learned from Padme.

“They just don’t know him like I do,” Ahsoka insisted, glancing over the railing of the walkway to watch the initiate in question defeating his opponent in a hand-to-hand combat class. “He has amazing potential in him. If I could just get someone to listen to me instead of laughing me out of the room…”

Master Windu shook his head slowly as a sound came out of him that might have sounded like a chuckle. But surely Ahsoka was hallucinating because Master Windu never laughed. Ever. Anakin had told her once he came out of the womb frowning.

“Ahsoka, if you’re so convinced of his potential, why don’t you take him as a Padawan?” Windu asked, gesturing to the class going on down below. “The Council is still evaluating where your skills could be best put to use. Maybe that is educating young Kenobi on how to mind his temper.”

As if to illustrate Master Windu’s point, Ahsoka watched as Obi-Wan darted over in front of a younger and smaller initiate that was being bullied by a new Padawan. The two stood toe to toe, hands curled into fists, anger swirling around the pair before the teacher sensed the row in the Force and moved to separate the students.

Ahsoka bowed her head as Obi-Wan got the worst of the teacher’s ire.

Controlling his temper? He wasn’t angry! That wasn’t fear or hatred. He was defending that child like a Jedi is supposed to do. Like my master taught me!

Master Windu looked over at Ahsoka and hummed. “Perhaps not. Master Yoda seemed to think Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn would also be a good match.”

Startled out of her brooding, Ahsoka turned back to Master Windu. “He does? Does he know when Qui-Gon Jinn is coming back from his mission on Chandrila?”

“Any day now,” Windu said, moving forward. “But I highly doubt Qui-Gon would take Kenobi after what happened to his last one.”

Ahsoka sighed. “Obi-Wan told me he swore before the Council he would never take another Padawan but he didn’t tell me what caused him to do that.”

“Qui-Gon’s last padawan fell to the Dark Side,” Windu murmured, his gaze distant as they turned a corner, sliding apart so that a clutch of younglings could run past them giggling. “The Temple lost track of his padawan shortly thereafter and when Qui-Gon returned to Coruscant, he made a… dramatic announcement to the Council.”

Ahsoka blinked as she sensed that Master Windu did not think that highly of Master Jinn’s behavior on that matter and wondered if the Korun master had ever approved of anyone.

“So then why does Yoda think Master Jinn and Obi-Wan would be a good fit?” Ahsoka asked, curious herself now that she knew more of Qui-Gon’s backstory. Anakin had never mentioned a brother padawan to Master Obi-Wan and it stood to reason that he hadn’t known. Ahsoka was already gnashing her teeth every night as she struggled to reconstruct what she knew of the past and Master Obi-Wan’s activities as a Padawan, to say nothing of the actions leading up to the Crisis on Naboo, the Clone Wars and the nightmare that came after that. She had already filled two datapads with just her memories alone.

Stars above, Master. I wish you had been just a bit more curious about Master Obi-Wan’s apprenticeship. Didn’t you know I was going to tumble backwards in time and need a detailed timeline and a complete biography of who’s who?

“You would have to ask Master Yoda,” Windu shrugged, walking over to a turbolift as Ahsoka followed him. “If you’ll excuse me, we’ll have to finish our talk early today. I’m needed at a Senate committee meeting.”

“Oh? Who called the meeting?” Ahsoka asked, feigning curiosity even as she was planning when she could pin Master Yoda down and ask him about Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. She had gone to the Tower to get a sachet of particularly expensive tea and wondered if she could bribe the little green master into revealing some details of his plans for the initiate.

“Senator Palpatine from Naboo in the Chommel sector,” Master Windu shrugged, stepping through the turbolift doors that had just sprung open. “Something to do about trade route disputes. Just more routine squabbling with the Trade Federation, no doubt.”

Ahsoka froze mid-nod, her heart nearly stopping in her chest. She looked up at Mace Windu, who arched an eyebrow, sensing the sudden change in her mood in the Force. Working quickly, Ahsoka drew her shields even higher, trying to smile and wave off the Korun master’s suspicions. “That definitely sounds like a job for you, Master Windu! I hope the negotiations are short.”

Windu folded his arms over his chest as the door slid shut. “We’ll talk later, Knight Tano.”

Ahsoka watched the lights on the turbolift click through the floors of the Temple before she was positive Master Windu was on the level that would take him to a transport and then onwards to the Senate building.

Senator Palpatine?

He was here?

He was a Senator already?

How far along was he into his plans? How much time did she have to stop him? Did her mere presence in the past mean he was going to move up the timetable? Could he move up the timetable?

Ahsoka walked over to a small dark corner and backed up against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself as she tried to calm down, tried to steady her breathing and her heart rate. If Palpatine was already in the Senate, it was too late to block that avenue to power, which meant she would have to find another way to foil his plans, another way to keep him from his ultimate goal.

I have to be patient. I have to calm down. Anakin hasn’t even been born yet! Obi-Wan is still an initiate and at this rate he’s not even going to make it as a Padawan! There’s still time. I can still prevent the future I came from.

I can still save them.

I cannot let Anakin down.

I will not let you become Darth Vader, Master.

“Are you alright, Knight Tano?” a vaguely familiar low voice asked, intruding into her small panic attack.

Ahsoka glanced up into the concerned face of Qui-Gon Jinn, almost letting out a sob of relief. She swallowed down the fear that was scrabbling at her heart and squeezing all the air out of her lungs, trying to return Qui-Gon’s look of concern with a composed one of her own. “Oh, Master Jinn, hello! I didn’t realize you were back.”

Judging by the frown on his face and the knit of his brows, she had failed.

“What troubles you, young one?” he asked, his arms folded into the sleeves of his robe. “I sense a great deal of fear and anxiety in the Force around you, Ahsoka.”

Touched that he remembered his name, Ahsoka tried to come up with a way to explain her fears without letting the truth tumble out of her like spilt blue milk. “I… I had a vision, of the future. It was horrible, Master Jinn. I saw my master and my friends, dead and dying. And my master… he… he was begging me to help him but… I didn’t. I couldn’t. It was a terrible nightmare and I… I’m having trouble letting it go.”

Qui-Gon nodded at Ahsoka’s story, his gaze shifting from her face to a distant spot down the hallway, stroking his beard in a way that almost painfully paralleled Master Obi-Wan. She watched him think, felt the Force settling around him like a well-worn and comfortable robe, warm and insulating against the ice-cold of her panic. For a moment, Ahsoka could relax and let someone else shoulder a small fraction of her burden. In that way, it was nice to be back in the Temple with wise elders she could seek out for advice.

“This vision you had, you believe it is of the future?” Qui-Gon finally spoke, turning back to observe her with a thoughtful detachment. He was a distant mountain, large and imposing but unreachable and try as she might, Ahsoka could not get a feel for Master Jinn in the Force.

Nodding, she answered. “Yes. I’m positive it is the future. It’s… a warning. I believe.”

“The future is always in motion, Ahsoka,” Qui-Gon murmured, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. “And by neglecting your focus on the here and now, on the Living Force, you risk fixating on something that may never happen. Keep your mind on the Living Force and all will be well.”

Ahsoka recognized the wisdom in Qui-Gon’s words and slowly nodded. She couldn’t let her fears of one possible future derail her efforts in the here and now. Too much was riding on her. “Thank you. I… It’s hard sometimes, not having my master to go to in times like these.”

“I’m sure he would agree that your fears are unfounded,” Qui-Gon smiled, a muted one but a smile all the same. “Visions and dreams, these things pass in time, Ahsoka. It is only with great wisdom and experience that a Jedi can learn to interpret a true vision from a collection of fears and worries.”

“Yes, of course,” Ahsoka agreed, already feeling better as panic lifted from her shoulders. “You’re right. He would have told me to focus on what was right in front of me.”

And to kick its ass. Ahsoka thought wryly.

“A wise man, your late master,” Master Jinn pronounced. “Now if you'll excuse me, I must make my report to the Council while the details are fresh in my mind.”

Ahsoka was about to let him go when she remembered Obi-Wan. “Master Jinn? I’m working with an initiate on jar’kai and I wanted to show him how it works in saber combat. If it’s not too much trouble, would you be willing to spar with me? My master spoke highly of your skills.”

Master Obi-Wan was technically going to be my original master so… Force, this is exhausting!

Qui-Gon paused and canted his head to the side, considering Ahsoka’s request for a long, silent moment. When he came to a decision he stood up to his full height, tall and strong like the wroshyr trees of Kashyyyk. “Yes. I believe I could find the time for you, Knight Tano. Good day.”

Ahsoka watched as the master strode off down the hallway, a mirage of a mountain range, fading into the soft grey shadows of the Temple.

“Yes!” Ahsoka cheered to herself, pumping her fists in the air. “Just you wait, Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon will be giving you that braid by the end of the week!”

[esther-dot]

I was seeing the Jon and Sansa hand grabbing in S6 and it made me remember of the directing choices D&D made re their scenes. As I'm not good at analysing them I wonder what do you think it was D&D intention in these kind of scenes, like the welcome hug in S8 (especially the take that was not aired), that always bugged me, why they chose to use it in the teaser trailer but not in the actual episode.

It doesn’t seem strictly necessary, does it?

The minimum that can be said is that we were meant to see the power Sansa had over Jon, that in a way, he was emotionally dependent on her. That is all in the dialogue too. Jon’s “I’m tired of fighting” is poignant because his loss of purpose is totally understandable after trying to do what is right and being betrayed. But, Sansa comes and gives him purpose with his instant desire to protect her, and then with the goal of reclaiming their home, saving their brother, protecting the North. Sansa is the one with determination and drive, and Jon needs that. It doesn’t really go away which is why he is so upset when she disagrees with him in s7 and why even in s8 he just keeps looking to her. S6-8 he not only notices her touching him, but we’re prompted to notice it too with how they filmed it, and he has a unique response to her the whole way through, even in the finale when he first sees her at the docks and again when he hugs her goodbye. Even if we’re doing a strictly platonic reading, it isn’t overstating things to say that to Jon, Sansa is a gravitational force.

What’s weird about this is that it means their dynamic wasn’t a fluke due to unexpected actor chemistry. D&D made sure that their impact on each other was felt in the dialogue and the visuals. After the finale, it seems ridiculous that they wasted that much effort when Jon could have hated Sansa and he still would have killed Dany to prevent her from harming the Starks. In fact, that would have made it more surprising, so it goes against their preference too. Instead, they emphasized how much Sansa mattered to Jon so much that Jon’s kill bill siren moments when men mentioned Sansa to him in s6-7 became a meme before s8 ever aired. I suppose that means they did adequate setup for Jon killing to protect her, but again, it’s unnecessary if it was all only for stabbity stab.

So, personally, I have always gone full blown conspiracy theory on this. I do think the intent was to convey that Jon had confusing feelings for Sansa, that he was hyper focused on her for that reason, hence the weird love triangle stuff in s8. All of us complained that Jon would have stopped Dany without having a personal motivation, but they chose to play s8 like Jon had to choose between the two queens, the two women, and as gross as we might find it (we do, we have all complained about this!), I do think the ending was meant to be a revelation of some kind to the audience. But, it’s only a revelation if it’s something we didn’t already know, and we all already knew Jon and Sansa cared about each other and that Jon would protect her, so what else could it reveal? The nature of their love.

I think so many people disliked Sansa (and many Sansa fans disliked Jon when I first started being active) that they took the tension in the Jonsa relationship in an entirely negative way, but to me, the volatile nature of their interactions conveyed how much they mattered to each other. And, in spite of their frustration and pain, their conversations would be sprinkled with words of assurance/affirmation. Let’s think about how much contradictory nonsense went on in s6-8 and then think of those standout Jonsa lines from across those seasons:

“I’ll protect, I promise.”

“You are to me.”

“You’re good at this you know.”

“You know I do.”

We get the pay off for all of this in the finale.

Think about that.

Jon protects Sansa because he loves his family more than Dany, chooses the Starks over the Targ because he is one, he tells Sansa she will be a good leader for the North, and in spite of all the bs, Sansa’s faith in Jon is justified. It’s a damn check list!

Obviously, D&D handled it in a horrible way and we all hate the finale, but even so, looking back to s6, you can see intention there. So, if D&D were paying this much attention to the dialogue seasons before we would get the true pay off, I’m not going to believe that the filming of their scenes was less intentional. Just as I cant ignore the NedCat cosplay or all the parallels they created between Jonsa and every other romantic couple, I can’t ignore this.

So to me, it was meant to convey not only how Sansa affected Jon, but the true nature of his feelings for her.

[agentrouka-blog]

Hey! Wat are your opinion on Dany fertility? When rhaego was born some says it is same as rhaenyra but it involves blood magic. Do you think next she becomes pregnant there are chances of Shadow baby? Also do you think jon possibly sterile after Resurrection?

I don’t think Jon will be sterile after the resurrection. We don’t know how he will be resurrected, etc etc. I am no kind of expert on the subject, though. It’s merely my certainty that Jon is destined to be a father.

I also don’t think Dany is sterile so much as she has trouble carrying a pregnancy to term so shortly after a traumatic birth at a young age. It’s heavily implied (though perhaps it’s a misdirection) that she had a miscarriage in connection to her affliction with dysentery while wandering the grasslands in her final ADWD chapter. 

Am I dying? Then she saw the pale crescent moon, floating high above the grass, and it came to her that this was no more than her moon blood. If she had not been so sick and scared, that might have come as a relief. Instead she began to shiver violently. She rubbed her fingers through the dirt, and grabbed a handful of grass to wipe between her legs. The dragon does not weep. She was bleeding, but it was only woman’s blood. The moon is still a crescent, though. How can that be? She tried to remember the last time she had bled. The last full moon? The one before? The one before that? No, it cannot have been so long as that. “I am the blood of the dragon,” she told the grass, aloud. Once, the grass whispered back, until you chained your dragons in the dark. “Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was … her name …” Dany could not recall the child’s name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away. “I will never have a little girl. I was the Mother of Dragons.” Aye, the grass said, but you turned against your children. Her belly was empty, her feet sore and blistered, and it seemed to her that the cramping had grown worse. Her guts were full of writhing snakes biting at her bowels. She scooped up a handful of mud and water in trembling hands. By midday the water would be tepid, but in the chill of dawn it was almost cool and helped her keep her eyes open. As she splashed her face, she saw fresh blood on her thighs. The ragged hem of her undertunic was stained with it. The sight of so much red frightened her. Moon blood, it’s only my moon blood, but she did not remember ever having such a heavy flow. Could it be the water? If it was the water, she was doomed. She had to drink or die of thirst. (ADWD, Daenerys X)

It’s clear Dany is struggling herself with the idea that this might be a miscarriage. 

There is no way to be certain whether or not Dany even has fertility issues at all, considering that - IF she is miscarrying - a bout of the bloody flux would easily explain it. For all we know Dany has no fertility issues at all. If she has them, there are plentiful “normal” explanations for them. Dany is so focused on the curse, on being barren, that I am pretty sure she isn’t. Or that’s just what GRRM wants me to think. Right?

Reading all this and considering her history of pregnancy --> failed poison attempt --> birth/miscarriage during dramatic conflict --> Waking the Dragon, it is easy to suspect her eventual descent into full-on murderous and violent destruction (and her death) will be tied to pregnancy as well. 

I just always wondered how that was supposed to work. 

“When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before." (AGOT, Daenerys IX)

That’s pretty specific. Her womb quickens again. Bear a living child. But if Dany bears a living child, that’d probably be the one thing to STOP her from going all inferno on everyone. And a miscariage would contradict this condition. Dying IN childbirth with a living child would just be lame. I mean, the drama comes from Dany choosing to be a monster, not from Dany dying in childbirth and her dragons going nuts.

So if the cycle is to be repeated, either a living child is killed or there is a twist that makes it all work. 

The shadow baby might be a huge twist. 

“Yes. Beneath. But we can go no farther. The portcullis goes all the way to the bottom. And the bars are too closely spaced for even a child to squeeze through.” There was no answer but a soft rustling. And then a light bloomed amidst the darkness. Davos raised a hand to shield his eyes, and his breath caught in his throat. Melisandre had thrown back her cowl and shrugged out of the smothering robe. Beneath, she was naked, and huge with child. Swollen breasts hung heavy against her chest, and her belly bulged as if near to bursting. “Gods preserve us,” he whispered, and heard her answering laugh, deep and throaty. Her eyes were hot coals, and the sweat that dappled her skin seemed to glow with a light of its own. Melisandre shone. Panting, she squatted and spread her legs. Blood ran down her thighs, black as ink. Her cry might have been agony or ecstasy or both. And Davos saw the crown of the child’s head push its way out of her. Two arms wriggled free, grasping, black fingers coiling around Melisandre’s straining thighs, pushing, until the whole of the shadow slid out into the world and rose taller than Davos, tall as the tunnel, towering above the boat. He had only an instant to look at it before it was gone, twisting between the bars of the portcullis and racing across the surface of the water, but that instant was long enough. He knew that shadow. As he knew the man who’d cast it. (ACOK, Davos II)

Next chapter: Jon.

This doesn’t sound very like a living child. It sounds like a monster. Like Dany’s dragon children. Like Drogon, who keeps being described as a shadow. 

(It also sounds like a metaphor for Jon’s birth. The mother, whose body is not ready (possibly to narrow in the hips) for childbirth, the massive shadow (i.e. power) cast by the child that comes forth. Jon’s shadow. The shadow that is destined to stabbity stab someone.)

But back to Shadow Baby Targ.

Considering all the lovely speculation surrounding Dany and Euron lately, (read everything by @shieldofrohan !), as well as Euron’s massive magical aspect, as well as this plans for Dany, methinks he would be central to that: 

"And who are you, child?" "Falia Flowers, Lord Hewett's natural daughter. I am to be King Euron's salt wife. You and I will be kin, then." Aeron Damphair raised his eyes to hers. His scabbed lips were crusted with wet porridge. "Woman." His chains clinked when he moved. "Run. He will hurt you. He will kill you." She laughed. "Silly, he won't. I'm his love, his lady. He gives me gifts, so many gifts. Silks and furs and jewels. Rags and rocks, he calls them." The Crow's Eye puts no value in such things. That was one of the things that drew men to his service. Most captains kept the lion's share of their plunder but Euron took almost nothing for himself. "He gives me any gown I want," the girl was prattling happily. "My sisters used to make me wait on them at table, but Euron made them serve the whole hall naked! Why should he do that, except for love of me?" She put a hand on her belly and smoothed down the fabric of her gown. "I'm going to give him sons. So many sons..." "He has sons." "Baseborn boys and mongrels, Euron says. My sons will come before them, he has sworn, sworn by your own Drowned God!" Aeron would've wept for her. Tears of blood, he thought. "You must bear a message to my brother. Not Euron, but Victarion, Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet. Do you know the man I mean?" Falia sat back from him. "Yes," she said. "But I couldn't bring him any messages. He's gone." "Gone?" That was the cruelest blow of all. "Gone where?" "East," she said, "with all his ships. He's to bring the Dragon queen to Westeros. I'm to be Euron's salt wife, but he must have a rock wife too, a queen to rule all Westeros at his side.  They say she's the most beautiful woman in the world, and she has dragons. The two of us will be as close as sisters!" 

(…)

"Brother," he said, "you look forlorn. I have a gift for you." He beckoned, and two of his bastard sons dragged the woman forward and bound her to the prow on the other side of the figurehead. Naked as the mouthless maiden, her smooth belly just beginning to swell with the child she was carrying, her cheeks red with tears, she did not struggle as the boys tightened her bonds. Her hair hung down in front of her face, but Aeron knew her all the same.

(TWOW, The Forsaken)

But Euron doesn’t care about heirs, methinks.

Falia is his “Lady”, i.e. a sacrifice on the command of an Evil monarch like Lady the direwolf?  And she and Dany will be close as sister? Like, share a fate kind of close? 

Balon was mad, Aeron is madder, and Euron is maddest of them all. Victarion was turning to go when the Crow’s Eye said, “A king must have a wife, to give him heirs. Brother, I have need of you. Will you go to Slaver’s Bay and bring my love to me?” I had a love once too. Victarion’s hands coiled into fists, and a drop of blood fell to patter on the floor. I should beat you raw and red and feed you to the crabs, the same as I did her. “You have sons,” he told his brother. “Baseborn mongrels, born of whores and weepers.” “They are of your body.” “So are the contents of my chamber pot. None is fit to sit the Seastone Chair, much less the Iron Throne. No, to make an heir that’s worthy of him, I need a different woman. When the kraken weds the dragon, brother, let all the world beware.” “What dragon?” said Victarion, frowning. “The last of her line. They say she is the fairest woman in the world. Her hair is silvergold, and her eyes are amethysts … but you need not take my word for it, brother. Go to Slaver’s Bay, behold her beauty, and bring her back to me.” “Why should I?” Victarion demanded. “For love. For duty. Because your king commands it.” Euron chuckled. “And for the Seastone Chair. It is yours, once I claim the Iron Throne. You shall follow me as I followed Balon … and your own trueborn sons shall one day follow you.” My own sons. But to have a trueborn son a man must first have a wife. Victarion had no luck with wives. Euron’s gifts are poisoned, he reminded himself, but still … “The choice is yours, brother. Live a thrall or die a king. Do you dare to fly? Unless you take the leap, you’ll never know.” (AFFC, The Reaver)

Euron manipulates Victarion beautifully. Victarion is the one who cares about wives and heirs. Euron considers his progeny to be excrement. He wants Dany, but hardly in order to make trueborn drakens to inherit an uncomfortable chair.

I think IF Shadow Baby Targ is going to be a thing with Dany and the twist around the “Living Baby” clause, I think Euron will be involved in that, and the whole nightmare potential of that is scaring me already. It may not even matter if she is truly infertile or not if that level of dark magic is involved. Or Euron just wants to sacrifice a baby, Craster-style.

If Jon is involved, I really don’t think it would be a willing participation. Yikes. 

Brr. 

Seriously, that stuff gives me the absolute creeps.

[faejilly]

ultimate top 10 sh moments/scenes 👀

ultimate? I am terrible at favorites/top 10′s nonny, this will not be ultimate, it will just be whatever 10 random things I thought up that I could manage words about 😅 In no order whatsoever, with numbers just so I don’t lose my place even more than usual:

10. May I start of by saying The Wedding? I generally skip fictional weddings, they make me uncomfortable. I mute them on TV (or pull out my phone to distract me if there are other people watching) and skim them in print, I find the entire concept of personalized vows mortifying, and I’m honestly delighted that most romances end at the engagment, because those are lovely and emotional. (I wasn’t even interested in my own wedding, and only actually arranged one because I knew the now husband didn’t just want to be engaged for fifty years *laughs*.) But I liked the flowers and the outfits (tho Magnus is not imo wearing a tuxedo, poor Alec) and the music and vows that were familiar rather than personal because ritual is important to them, being part of this setting that neither of them thought they’d ever have? I enjoyed it tremendously. Not an ultimate of anything, I suppose, but I liked it, which is all that matters. (It’s not where I wanted their relationship to be at that point, but it’s short-hand for where they’re going, which is the best possible scenario for a finale movie, tbqh.)

Engagements are about the couple, but weddings are about the community, and I felt like this did that visually, even if the actual ritual of the wedding makes no sense.

9. Parbatai sparring in uh… 2x11 I think it was. Sometimes the choreography in the show is a bit… weird, but they always did a good job with Jace & Alec and having the way they fought be character-full, having it show the strengths and weaknesses of their bond in a way very few of their other interactions could. In this one it’s so clearly comforting, this one sliver of normalcy after everything else that’s happened. (And gods I love Alec’s shirt, sorry never sorry, wtf is up with that man and grey shirts? *laughs*)

8. Shout out to Izzy & Luke in 3a. It’s basically one scene, but it gives us a sense of a solid world in a way Shadowhunters generally didn’t, of Luke and Izzy existing in the world as their jobs, Shadowhunter & Cop, as people, as friends, as part of a larger whole in terms of their professional and personal connections. Of course all these people know each other, in all these different ways, whether we see it all the time or not, and that was DELIGHTFUL.

7. SIMON LEWIS

That’s it.

No, obviously, especially, his speech about his grandmother and the Holocaust, because not only is it in important speech on about five levels, the way he tells it illustrates how much he loves Clary, that he’s giving her this story that she, tbqh, hadn’t earned, as a gift for her more than an explanation. It’s just. Gorgeous. It’s a gestalt, one of those moments that is greater than the sum of its parts, and in this particular case, the parts that make up the whole were pretty damn good already.

6. The 2x18 flashback to Magnus & Alec’s first time together. One, because it addressed the way the show had screwed up the original episode, but mostly two, that it was important in how it showed their relationship (fears and issues and strengths and desires, all at once) and the way they interact. Most sex scenes in TV & movies are trying to be titillating and don’t really accomplish anything in terms of plot or character, but this one did. And also it was lovely and giggly and very very pretty. 😅

5. Jocelyn’s funeral: This entire episode, actually, is a really good Clary episode. It showcases her strengths, (she never has any trouble forgiving Alec, never even considers blaming him), her determination, and also her weaknesses, the way her grief makes her reckless, again, and it’s sheer chance that her visit to Iris didn’t go dramatically horrifyingly wrong in ways that would have damaged her and Alec (and everyone who cares about them) in ways that would have lingered for years. But even though they didn’t ever explicitly address most of that, the moment at the funeral, when her voice breaks and Jace speaks for her, gives us enough catharsis that it works anyways. (It’s also a really beautiful moment for Jace, and there are so few moments when he lets himself be who he is to help someone, rather than doing what he thinks he’s supposed to do, that this one really stands out.)

4. Clary killing Valentine. #PRINCESS STABBITY

It’s good, is what I’m saying. Desperate and brutal and I love her.

3. Simon & Jace and the boop-boop both because it’s legit adorable, but also because it was one of the few ‘short-hand’ notes in the epilogue that worked for me exactly as intended. It shows you how well Simon’s integrating into the Nephilim side of the Shadow World (without ever being an ounce less Simon than he ever was) but it also shows that Jace really did learn from everything that happened to him, that he’s no longer hiding what he’s thinking and feeling, that he’s no longer afraid to just, idk, like people. He’s mourning Clary, obviously, but he’s going to be ok, and I believe that he would have been even if she’d never seen him at her show. (Though I think her seeing him is better, that it gives them a second chance to be them without the world ending around them, to be soft rather than desperate.)

2. Nice Gills

Not only is it just a stunningly perfect smile on Alec’s face, but that one moment kind of crystallizes and pulls together all the potentially disparate parts of his personality, how angry he was in s1, the hopelessness here after Jocelyn’s death, the giddy impossibility of that first smile he gave Magnus, the way he let his siblings run him even when he was running the Institute, the way he never quite cracked down on Clary’s assorted crazies because she was doing it for her mother. 

The fact that Alec is both good at his job (killing demons) and a total marshmallow to his family who will burn himself to a crisp to save them is not news, not even back in 2x5 when he met Madzie. It’s apparent in almost everything he does (especially after 1x12, when he’s no longer trying to hide himself to protect his family and has to choose actions to protect them instead). But what’s impressive here is that that smile and those words are completely 100% genuine, despite how worried he is for Clary, how guilty he feels about Jocelyn, how lost he is to have agreed to come here, to a questionable warlock who practices dark magic on the off-chance this will somehow make things better, he is honestly and truthfully there for Madzie when he smiles at her.

And that one moment, when they connect, is well enough done that her saving him from Valentine five episodes later feels completely earned. 

1. MAGNUS BANE’S SHEER EXISTENCE. He is perfection. Even when he makes no sense at all it doesn’t matter because he’s Magnus and he has done nothing wrong ever.

Except probably a bunch of murder and definitely centuries of petty revenge, but that’s just part of his charm. That he chooses not to do the former and has wallowed delightfully in the latter. 

With a special shout-out for Every Time Alec & Magnus Kiss, shut up, they’re beautiful.

[ooops-i-arted]

15 Day SWTOR OC Challenge

11. Canon divergence. Are there parts of their story that don’t line up with in-game information? Why? Where?

Definitely.  My opinion of KotFE/KotET and their bland, boring, pissy villains and their meandering plot and their gotsdamned railroading is barely above my opinion of Kyle Ron and the 3D Clone Wars, and y’all know how much I don’t like those lmao.

*cracks knuckles* I’m just gonna do Avei and Illi and everyone else together since it’s easier.  Let’s do this.  Under a cut because I know no one but me cares this much lol.  Another unnecessarily long post ahoy!

Skye Lir and her master, Derran Kanis, are asked to go on a joint Imp-Pub mission into Wild Space to hunt this ~mysterious threat ooooh~.  Skye asks her pal Avei along since she’s handy in a fight and has plenty of experience navigating galactic-level threats.  Avei is reluctant to leave her family, especially her three-year-old daughter, but agrees to just one more big-stakes mission.  The Jedi Knight crew goes along; the smuggler crew is off elsewhere in space.

Chapter 1 happens like in canon.  Derran, Skye, and Avei try to prevent the ship’s destruction but fail.  Skye instructs her crew to escape and warn the others and they do so.  Avei decides to buy time for the crew to escape, and they are all captured.

Right as the ship explodes, across the galaxy in Avei’s ship the whole smuggler crew is woken by Kiva screaming bloody murder.  They all come running; Kiva cries repeatedly for her mommy.  Corso finally gets out of her “Mommy’s ship blew up.”  He tells her it was just a bad dream and gets her back to sleep.

Chapter 1 continues.  Derran is the canon Outlander; Skye and Avei are treated as her accomplices.  Derran refuses Valkorion’s power but he still possesses her when she “kills” him.  Arcann has Derran, Skye, and Avei all carbonited.

Kiva is still upset and not herself the next day when the smuggler crew gets a call from Kira, who tells them what happened.  They book it to the site of the wreckage to help the Republic forces Kira also called comb the desert wreckage for survivors.  Kiva is distraught and keeps repeating that Mommy is gone.

At some point Kira and Corso talk and Kira mentions she can’t feel Skye or Derran in the Force anymore (I believe she mentions this in her letter to a romanced JK) and Corso mentions how weird Kiva was acting the night before they got the news.  They put their heads together and Kira tells him more about Force abilities and a whole puzzle Corso didn’t realize he was putting together falls into place - all the times Kiva nabbed a toy or treat supposed to be out of reach, her strange knack for getting through doors he could’ve sworn were locked, her uncanny ability to know which room he and Avei were in, and now her strange dream - and Kira confirms Kiva is very likely Force-sensitive.  She offers to bring Kiva to the Jedi Temple but Corso refuses; he’s lost enough family and he won’t send his daughter away.

The Republic and Empire go to war with the Eternal Empire, blah blah.  I refuse to believe they were instantly crushed by sooper speshul Zakuul so this goes on for a while, at least a year.

Risha leads smuggling jobs but Corso isn’t really involved with that, as his hands are full with a preschool child dealing with the loss of her mother with separation anxiety from hell, and also the fact that her now-frequent tantrums make things move around the room.

Kiva is three so her mindset is “Mommy left and didn’t come back, so if Daddy leaves he won’t come back either.”  Also one of her best skills with the Force is sensing emotions, so not only is she dealing with her own grief, she’s being bombarded by everyone else’s through the Force, and hasn’t learned to regulate any of her Force abilities yet.  (I majored in Early Childhood Education so the idea of how a Force-sensitive child would operate, so to speak, is endlessly fascinating to me.)

Corso reads everything he can on the Holonet about using the Force, and between him and Guss’s memories of his training, they are able to slowly teach Kiva how to at least not lose control during tantrums.

Over in the Empire Illivrin is having the time of her life.  Illi hates the Empire and her two goals as a Dark Council member were 1. self-preservation and 2. running the Empire into the ground.  She’s doing great at the second but not so much at the first, because her top subordinate Sali’ra is busy gathering every scrap of info she can to overthrow Illivrin before she gets them all killed.  Sali’ra is coordinating her efforts with her uncle, Av’en, and her cousin, Furi’sa, both who want Illivrin gone for the good of the Empire.  (My headcanon is that literally everyone else in the Empire looks at Illivrin as one of those crazy power-mad Sith who always die in a week from their own schemes, except she keeps not dying somehow.)

Vae’ra and Torian get married!  Yay!  It’s a Mandalorian ceremony.  Vae’ra bridesmaids or equivalent were Sali’ra, Mako, and Blizz.  Gault got ordained on the Holonet for the make-it-Empire-official part of the ceremony.

After the better part of a year Sali’ra has turned enough of Illivrin’s forces onto her side (and attending Dark Council meetings while Illi is off pointing the Silencer at everything she can, and showing the Council what a better option she would be) and is ready to make her move.  Furi’sa comes to the latest Dark Council meeting and accuses Illivrin of being an enemy of the Empire and not having the Empire’s interests in mind, etc.  When the Council backs Furi’sa, Illivrin - cornered, desperate, and dangerous - attacks Furi’sa.  Khem and Xalek back her while Sali’ra and Furi’sa’s father, Av’en, are on her team.  Team Illi vs Team Furi is brutal and vicious and very cinematic in my head.  Illivrin finally strikes Av’en a mortal blow with her lightning.  Enraged, Furi’sa beheads Xalek and tosses his head at Illivrin’s feet.  The two fight fiercely but they’re burned out after the fight already.  Illivrin tries to kill Furi’sa with lightning but is too tired to make it a death blow; Khem barely saves her from Furi’sa’s killing strike.  Khem tells his master to run; Illivrin doesn’t want to leave him but ultimately decides on self-preservation and runs while Khem mows down the Sith guards that swarm him.  Khem is finally subdued and while Furi’sa almost kills him, she instead has him imprisoned back in the tomb of Naga Sadow.  Sali‘ra takes Illivrin’s Council seat as Darth Colubra.  Furi’sa mourns her father and swears she will have revenge on Illivrin.

Illivrin successfully escapes Korriban and flees into exile in the Outer Rim.  For the next decade-ish she’s gonna wear rags and eat whatever she kills with her bare hands in some desolate Outer Rim jungle.  She snatched Xalek’s mask before she ran and keeps it close, swearing she will avenge her murder son and her murder bro.

Vae’ra alerts Corso that Furi’sa and Illivrin are loose and on the warpath.  Wanting to hide his Force-sensitive daughter from the Sith and also give her a stable, normal childhood, he takes the ship and moves out to Dantooine, where they will be anonymous and fairly hidden, and takes a job on a farm.  Kiva gets to go to school like a normal kid.  Corso forbids her from doing any Force stuff in public (she has better control nowadays) but she’s always curious and there’s a convenient abandoned Jedi Temple not too far away, so he occasionally goes and raids the databanks for anything that will help her learn, and lets her practice her Force abilities in the privacy of Avei’s ship.

The rest of the crew sticks with Risha, who works on reclaiming Dubrillion.  By the time the five years are up, she is Queen like she should’ve been.  Guss also gets some Jedi training.

Vae’ra and Torian adopt an orphaned Chiss girl, Iseli, and a Zabrak boy, Jerro.

Seren has been in contact with Theron.  Together they try to piece together what happened and track down Skye’s sister.  With Lana and Koth they start setting down the foundations of the Alliance.

Eternal Empire conquers a lot of stuff.  Illivrin stays hidden.  Furi’sa hunts her and any other threat to the Empire.  Corso and Kiva stay on Dantooine.

Picking up with our unfortunate carbonite blocks, Derran is the one forced to chat with the Lamest Villain.  Affected by his presence, Skye has dark visions of the Republic’s fall, while Avei has terrible dreams of her crew and family dead.

KotFE picks up from there.  Lana and Koth rescue the trio.  They are suffering from carbonite poison but Avei most of all, because she couldn’t use the Force to enter a meditative, preserving state and also because she was bashed over the head to get her in the carbonite mold and she had an open, bleeding wound when frozen.

Blah blah KotFE continues.  (I was much more interested in the implications of the five year skip, can you tell?)  They flee, they meet Senya, find the Gravestone, etc.  Avei hits it off with Koth and suffers increasing symptoms from her carbonite poisoning and does not give a shit about anything but locating her family.  Nobody likes or trusts Lana.  Skye and Derran don’t like Senya much but Avei understands her Mom Vibes and gets along with her okay.  They make it to Asylum.  Skye recognizes that psycho murderbot her sister picked up.  Arcann and his Kyle Ron Knockoff Sister show up.  Derran gets stabbity stabbed and Avei finally succumbs to her carbonite poisoning.  I can’t be assed to remember all that stuff, it was mostly boring.  HK-55 doesn’t die because I love him, and remains Derran’s loyal bodyguard and friend, although he has a rivalry with her other HK droid, HK-51.  (Derran loves HK droids.  The Jedi politely look away as long as she keeps them under control.)

They make it to Odessen, where Seren and Theron have been overseeing the start of a base.  Seren is overjoyed to see her baby sister; Skye cannot handle this level of emotion and is awkward but glad Seren cares this much somewhere deep inside.  Avei is dragged to the medcenter, still very sick, and refuses to get in a kolto tank until Skye swears she will call Avei’s family now that they have secured communications and it is safe to do so.  Derran is named Alliance Commander.  She probably develops a drinking problem.

Skye calls Avei’s ship and finds Corso and a (now eight-year-old) Kiva and tells them Avei’s not dead.  Corso immediately flies the ship straight to Odessen.  (I refuse to believe that Corso, whose chief character trait is loyalty, waited a whole nother year to be reunited with his wife.  I REFUSE.)  Avei is out of the kolto tank and doing much better by the time he arrives and SHE FINALLY GETS TO SEE HER FAMILY AGAIN AND THEY ALL HUG AND IT’S ADORABLE.

Then Kiva says “HEY MOM WATCH THIS” and throws a rock with her mind and that’s how Avei finds out her daughter is Force-sensitive.

Skye gives Kiva some formal training but is mostly busy with helping her former Master run the Alliance.

Avei sticks around the Alliance for a month but decides screw you all, my family is more important, and leaves.  She continues to suffer lasting sickness from the carbonite poison, and it takes at least a year for her to truly recover.

I haven’t decided for sure how to manage it but basically KotFE and KoTET are condensed into one without all the nonsense like Iokath or whatever.  (Also, obviously they can’t recruit say, Torian because he’s off with his wife.  Or Vette, because she’s off with Furi’sa.  etc.)  Skye sticks with Derran; Seren is also a major player in the Alliance.  Arcann and Vaylin are both killed and no one misses them.

Derran finally kills Valkorion in her head (without any part of being Valkorion, because screw you for making me play your pretentious crappy villain sue oc) but the mental toll of having a pretentious college philosophy major in her head makes her decide to use her Jedi Exile Retirement plan, and she peaces out to a nice beach planet with her HK droid pals.  She hangs out there until years later, Kiva comes to pester her for training.

Seren takes over as Alliance commander.  The Iokath stuff probably doesn’t even happen because I didn’t like it.  The Theron’s-a-traitor arc does, but I haven’t played it all yet so I haven’t decided how much I want to tweak.  All I know is Seren is pregnant but doesn’t know it til after Umbara, because I enjoy maximizing angst with basic tropes.  She and Theron do stay together and name their daughter Caeles, after Theron’s ancestor Revan/Caele.

Idk about the rest but the Alliance does disband and its resources go to strengthen the Republic, but while Seren stays a free agent because of all the issues the Agent storyline gave her, she’s basically Republic at this point.  Skye is very proud.

Years later Illivrin shows back up and Furi’sa discovers Kiva is Force-sensitive and lures her into her van shuttle with candy the promise of Force training; Kiva escapes Furi’sa and goes to train with the Jedi.

Over the course of a lot of years the Valaris Legacy gradually teams up to finally kick Illivrin’s ass.  Kiva is the only one strong enough in the Force to challenge her and seals Illivrin inside a tomb on Yavin 4, where she remains trapped for all time, eternally separated from Khem Val, the only being she ever cared about.  (This is how you treat a villain, Rian Johnson, just saying.)  (Also Furi’sa kills Khem Val and avenges her father, though she dies doing it.)

All the post-Theron-traitor stuff is all more loosely sketched out and also it’s midnight rn and I need to go to bed, so let’s leave it at that.

[umbureraakademi]

Introductory Note About the AU & Other Chapters

-a/n start-

[Potential spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen or finished TUA Netflix series but seriously how could you stop yourself from watching such a captivating show.]

Word Count: 1165 

I noticed I haven’t been updating the main post where I’m supposed to keep all the chapters OOPS.

-a/n end-

The Hargreeves Case

Chapter 7

Three months after

Ever since that silent peace agreement or ‘pizzagreement’ as Monica would say, the two have been casual at best with each other. They would still throw the occasional insult at each other but now it was really more of playful banter as opposed to purposely trying to get on each other’s nerves.

Shortly after that as well, Chuck was able to solve the Morgenthau case in a rather surprising kind of way. It happened when Monica decided to ignore Diego for fun as he was asking if she could look up a file for him while he had to take a report from yet again another pickpocket victim.

She was scrolling through her phone as he talked and made an off-topic comment about an outrageously expensive ham being sold at $6,000 at a local meat market she passed by while walking home. Although annoyed, Diego’s instincts made the connection almost immediately to the Morgenthau case, and reported it immediately to Chuck and the Captain.

Chuck was able to apprehend and get a confession from the murderer who happened to be one a butcher and the victim’s neighbor, who broke into Morgenthau’s apartment to steal said ham. The Captain had allowed Diego partner up with Chuck during the arrest. This impressed the Captain enough that he told Diego he may start giving him similar cases as long as he controlled his drinking, which Diego is honestly making an effort to do.

Then after a week of Monica passive-aggressively asking for some kind of reward for unintentionally giving Diego a hint that solved his/Chuck’s murder case - she did this by leaving cut outs of the pizza emoji on his desk every morning - Diego relented and got her another whole box of her favorite pepperoni pizza.

She didn’t share that time, though.

Needless to say the two were pretty civil, though one particular habit of Monica’s particularly ticked Diego off a little more than usual.

“Hey, you have the file I asked Captain Lee to sign?” Diego asked as he approached Monica’s table.

“Yup.” responded Monica, holding up a file from her desk.

“Thanks.” as Diego reached out to grab it Monica pulled it out of his reach.

“Whoawhoawhoa, slow down, Hargreeves. Where are your manners?” Monica said with a mock-offended tone.

Rolling his eyes Diego responded with, “Can I please have that file?”

“No, not the words I’m looking for.”

“I’m not saying it.”

“C’mon, it’s easy, it’s in your blood!”

“No.”

“Say it.”

“Monica…” at this Diego’s tone took a lower note, as if giving a warning to Monica that she was starting to push too far and he wasn’t having it.

“Geez is it really that hard to say por favor?” Monica said defeatedly as she handed over the files to Diego.

“I’d appreciate it if you stopped trying to get me to speak Mexican.” at this Diego started walking away from Monica to get back to his desk.

“Not even a gracias? Man, this guy is rude.” Monica muttered to herself before getting back to her work.

Later that Evening

It was already a bit late when Diego got back to the precinct after investigating a jewelry store robbing with Chuck. Chuck only briefly went back inside to clock out at the door before saying goodbye to Diego, who said he left his jacket at his desk and since he’s left it there for some time it may just be high time to take it home and throw it in the laundry.

When he reached their office the place was mostly dim except for light coming from the pantry. Curious but also a bit alarmed at who may be staying this late, Diego slowly approached the pantry with one hand ready on one of his knives.

He heard some movement in the pantry and low muttering sounds, which was enough to confirm someone was indeed there. When he heard a loud BANG! he instinctively rushed into the pantry and threw his knife, which hit the cupboard right next to the figure he deliberately missed in case it may have just been someone from the precinct, and it was.

“Jesus Christ, Diego! I thought we talked about the knife thing!” screamed a wide eyed Monica.

“Monica?” Diego said, surprised.

“Umm… yes it’s me you dumbfuck. You could’ve killed me!”

“Trust me, if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” while saying this he had approached the spot where his knife had lodged into the wooden cupboard and pulled it out before facing Monica. “What the hell are you doing here so late anyway?”

“Oh, thank you so much for your kind mercy, Mr. Stabbity McStabstab.” Monica said as she folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “I was working overtime, I’m helping the Captain with his report on the precinct’s stats for a presentation he’s having tomorrow. My roommate and her boyfriend are out on their date night anyway so I thought I’d just get something to eat here before heading home.”

“From a vending machine… full of junk food?”

“Just wanted a quick meal, man. I hate eating alone, but I can’t just stop Jessie and Ben from their date.” there was a pause before she realized she went a little personal so she quickly looked away from Diego before continuing, “Seems like the machine’s busted though since it got my money but shit ain’t coming out. I kicked it but that didn’t work either.”

“Well you haven’t exactly been very friendly to it.” Diego joked.

“Very funny, Hargreeves.” at this Monica started walking out of the pantry, and before he knew what he was doing he was following Monica as she made her way to her desk to get her things.

“I kinda just got back and haven’t eaten too. Maybe we could get something to eat and I can take you home.” Diego offered.

At this Monica laughed as she looked at Diego, “Are you asking me out?”

“Can you just let me be nice without making it weird?” was Diego’s tired response.

“I live to make things weird. But okay. Hurry up, I’m starving. I get to choose where we eat.” slinging her bag on her shoulder, Monica started walking before Diego even had time to think about where they were eating.

“Hey wait a second.” Diego said as he caught up to Monica.

“You’re paying right?” Monica asked, not stopping as they both found their way out of the office and into the lobby.

“What?” Diego responded, making Monica gasp.

“Halfsies on our first date? Man, you’re terrible at this.”

“This is not a date. Don’t make me regret my offer.”

“Grumpy, much.”

Clearly Monica was enjoying every moment she was annoying Diego, who in turn was starting to regret ever offering to accompany Monica and bring her home.

As they left the precinct and got into Diego’s car, though, there was one thing that was for sure.

He left his jacket at the office.

[sunaddicted]

Quince (Gotham, Thompkean)

Lee hadn’t expected Barbara to come back after the Sirens had reclaimed their independence from Penguin to an audience that hated him with a passion; the Narrows weren’t exactly the kind of neighbourhood one would think Barbara to frequent, with her designer clothes and a grace that only money could breed.

But Barbara proved her wrong again and again.

Lee had been understandably wary when Barbara had waltzed in and walked up to the bar a few evenings later, balancing on cherry-red killer heels and wrapped up in a pantsuit that almost was even more revealing than the short cocktail dresses she seemed to favor.

She couldn’t help wondering about whether she didn’t know to dress according to her surroundings and occasion or whether she just didn’t care and wore whatever she felt like.

She would have bet on the second as she observed her blond bob tilt to the side in a way that immediately let Lee imagine in vivid details the cheeky and flirtatious smile that must have appeared on her lips, tinted the same shade as her shoes.

Lee didn’t talk to her that time. Neither the following one. Nor the one after that.

And Edward had started to snigger in his grasshoppers, teasing her with just a wiggle of his eyebrows that made Lee’s hands itch with the need to smash his pretty face on her knee.

She managed to resist to the temptation and she distracted herself from her worries - from her growing obsession with Barbara - turning on Edward and jabbing at that big sore spot that was his love/hate relationship with Oswald Cobblepot.

It didn’t help with her problem, though, and it made Edward sulky.

She wouldn’t have wished a sulky Edward on anyone.

“Go and ask her what she wants”

Lee arched an eyebrow, full of disbelief “Would you just go and talk to Oswald, if he dropped by?”

Edward grimaced in his drink, attempting a careless shrug of his shoulders “I don’t know” he admitted “It’s different, we have history”

“She tried to kill me multiple times” she reminded him.

“Oh. I had forgotten about that”

Lee snorted and shook her head “You’re so egocentric”

“I’m not. My brain’s-” Edward’s eyes crossed to look at the finger tightly pressed against his lips, shutting him up.

“You are” Lee chuckled “Stop using your slushie brain as an excuse”

Edward gently batted her digit away, rolling his eyes: maybe he was a little egocentric - maybe - but his head definitely still played games on him sometimes, when it refused to arrange the words in the scheme he wanted them to be or all the connections between the facts and knowledge he had gathered in decades of studying seemed to have gone dark, leaving him with a handful of virtually useless information “Don’t you want to know if she has some kind of plan for the Narrows?” Edward offered her an excuse to go and talk to her - because only God knew that he would have wanted one, if he had wanted to initiate any kind of conversation with Oswald.

Lee turned to watch Barbara again, perched on the probably filthy stool with a dress covered in tiny white flowers that looked more like something one would wear to theatre and not the seediest bar in town, where it solicited unwelcomed staring and catcalling “She is annoying me”

Edward turned his head to follow Lee’s gaze, frowning a little: he wasn’t the biggest Barbara Kean fan, but the other woman was just sitting there “How? She’s just wasting money on watered down drinks”

“She’s so smug with her short dress and perfectly manicured hands and if she didn’t sit so primly, I would see her panties - if she wears any - and she just..” Lee huffed and pursed her lips, letting her tirade fade in the cacophony of noises that filled the club.

“Her panties? Why would you..” Edward could literally feel a grin spread on his lips as he talked and realisation dawned on him “You have the hots for Barbara Kean”

“What?! No!”

Edward’s smile only brightened at the blush spreading on Lee’s face “Why would you care about her panties then?”

“Oh. Shit”

Edward smugly topped Lee’s drink “You could do worse”

Lee couldn’t imagine what worse than a psychotic murderer meant - and she had almost married an hypocrite with a serious hero complex and tied the knot with the son of a former mafia boss who had been infected by the Tetch virus, murdered by the aforementioned hypocrite.

To be honest, Lee thought she had already reached her lowest point - at least regarding her love life.

But she couldn’t deny that Barbara was… a temptation that tugged at her, repeatedly and relentlessly and forced her to watch, mesmerized…

“Don’t tell me that the murderer in her is keeping you back” Edward piped up, shattering her focus “Jimbo hardly was a saint”

“I know that”

“Is it the fact that she’s a woman?”

“Have you mistaken me for you?” Lee retorted, purposefully hurtful even if she immediately regretted it: it wasn’t fair, attacking Edward’s evident refusal to admit to his own orientation “I’m sorry”

“I suppose I deserved that” Edward sighed after a few moments of silence before he tentatively reached out and caressed her arm “I’m trying to help” and maybe he wasn’t doing a great job out of it - helping people wasn’t exactly his passion - but he was putting a serious effort in it “Can I be blunt?”

“Please”

“You don’t have to fall in love with her” Edward pointed out “You’re attracted to her and want to have sex with her? Good, do it - scratch the itch”

Lee turned around and crossed her arms, challenging “But what if I fall in love?”

“You’ll cross that bridge when you get to it” Edward shrugged “Besides, she’s been coming here for weeks for what? Our drinks? I think not” he snorted: in a way, Barbara must have been considerably interested in Lee - he doubted that the other woman was so desperate that she couldn’t have found another partner, if what she had in mind was only mindless sex.

“I need to think”

“Take your time and keep your mind open”

Lee didn’t talk with Barbara that night either.

***

Lee didn’t even turn around when she heard the scrape of the chair next to her own and just pushed to the side the bottle of whiskey she had been sipping at, bored out of her mind from the lull of a slow evening “Knock yourself out”

“Thanks, Doc, but that’s not my poison of choice” Barbara chirped.

Lee straightened from her slouched position “I thought..”

“That I was Nygma, obviously” Barbara smiled as she petted the fabric of her trousers, smoothing invisible wrinkles “Any chance you’d buy me a drink too?”

“What do you want?”

Barbara turned towards the barman, clearly familiar enough with the alcohol offered by the club, a finger twirled around a short strand of hair - mussing it out of place, making Lee wonder how she would like after she had snogged the other woman stupid.

Lee wasn’t proud to admit that she had been so fixated on that thought - on the quality of her hair, its softness and style, one she liked so much more than the bob - that she hadn’t even heard what Barbara had ordered “What do you want?” Lee repeated, the words carrying a different meaning.

“Do I need a reason to sit here and share a drink with you? We’re old acquaintances, after all”

“You’ve been coming here for a while and you never approached me”

Barbara leaned in, shamelessly broke into Lee’s personal space “Maybe I was waiting for you to approach me” she whispered, a wink briefly transforming her expression from predatory to cheerful.

As close as they were, Lee could see that Barbara didn’t need makeup to be beautiful: clean-faced, details that she wouldn’t have normally noticed popped up into focus - the pale and almost pearly pink of her lips; the natural sharpness of her features; her thin blond eyelashes, opening like a sparse flower around ice-blue irises.

She was breath-taking.

And too close.

Lee leaned back to let the barman put between them Barbara’s drink - a startlingly blue concoction “But why?”

“The pleasure of your company?”

“You brought a knife to my throat in at least two occasions” was it possible that everyone seemed to forget about that?

Barbara rolled her eyes “This is Gotham” she said before taking a sip of her drink that almost cast blue shades on her pale skin “What’s a bit of stabbity-stab amongst friends?”

Lee frowned “Is that what we are - friends?”

“If you want to be”

Friends.

It didn’t seem adequate to describe what Lee wanted: she wanted to kiss her; she wanted to discover just how deep the masks went; she wanted to hear what kind of noises came out of her mouth when she was close to coming; she wanted to know on which side of the bed she slept.

Lee had always prided herself in resisting temptations - she was still atoning for the one time she had let herself be seduced by something, the possibility to be free and unburdened by conscience. With Jim. At a price that had been way too high to pay.

But this time, she would only be hurting herself.

Lee took Barbara’s chin in her fingers and brought her face closer “With benefits”

Barbara grinned “I aim to please”

Her lips tasted of Blue Curacao.

On ao3, this fic also has a sort of very soft sequel if you want to read it

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

a list of gilmore girls characters’ favorite game of thrones characters, as imagined by yours truly

lorelai: tyrion, the snark master with major family issues

rory: sansa, who also knows the pain of being a perfect young lady and then is plunged into situations she feels totally unprepared for!

luke: davos, who is always talking sense. i also feel like he’s way more emotionally invested in jon snow than he wants to let on, and lorelai finds this hilarious. like, when jon snow got stabbity stabbed to apparent death, luke probably let out an involuntary cry of dismay and lorelai mocked him for the whole hiatus (after they both recovered from the agony of that fictional loss, of course).

paris: is this even a question? CERSEI LANNISTER. surrounded by idiots all the time. burning it all the frick down. getting a power haircut.

lane: arya, who defied the expectations with which she grew up in order to become totally rock ‘n roll! … in an assassin kind of way.

sookie: for some reason, i can see sookie being really fretful and supportive over dany and rooting for her eventual success. that poor girl has just been through such a hard time! and now she’s a mother of dragons!!! a hardworking single mother! (”sookie, calm down,” people often have to say when game of thrones comes up. she is also a strong proponent of jon/dany in spite of herself. “does it really MATTER if she’s his aunt when they’re both just so damn sexy?”, etc.)

michel: also cersei. he also feels an unexpected kinship to the hound, in that he too is very Tired and doesn’t want to put up with any of this (’this’ being most of what happens on a daily basis?).

emily: margaery tyrell. she knows how to play the god damned game like a lady. i think emily also has an admiration for cersei that she does not admit to lorelai, because it would frankly be giving lorelai too much ammunition.

richard: olenna tyrell. she reminds him fondly of trix.

logan: jaime lannister. the quippy, beautiful golden boy with a heart full of hidden angst!

jess: everyone thinks it’s tyrion or theon or someone with some edge, but his favorite is actually sam. book nerd power!

dean: jon snow, because he’s the obvious default hero you’re supposed to root for and i feel like that would be enough for dean.

christopher: theon. he can sympathize with being that guy who Just Can’t Get It Right No Matter What.

babette and miss patty: whichever man’s shirt is off, but also ser jorah. they don’t get why dany won’t just go for it.

taylor: i feel like his faves are definitely littlefinger and varys, the only ones who really pay attention to the day to day chaos of what it means to rule. “but you don’t … rule us, taylor,” lorelai points out at the town meeting. “you know that you don’t rule us, right?” taylor conveniently ignores her. (like, this dude has little birds and everything!)

zach: well, i can tell you who his least favorite character is, and it’s the singing soldier played by ed sheeran! ed sheeran is NOT rock ‘n roll. i think he probably likes yara. she IS rock ‘n roll.

brian: brienne of tarth. they almost have the same name. he is definitely at least in the early stages of writing “brienne’s song.”

kirk: bran, except actually now his favorite character is the three-eyed raven, and he is meticulous about correcting people when they continue to refer to bran as “bran.” p.s. no one can prove that kirk does NOT have three eyed raven powers. it explains a lot about his tendency to stare intensely into space.

mrs. kim: the nun who chanted “shame! shame!” during cersei’s walk, because finally, someone articulating her thoughts on this program!

[comic-watch]

In Case You Missed It: The Quest of Ewilan gets a gorgeous adaption! Image and Top Cow Present Aphrodite V! Shannon Wheeler reveals the MEMOIRS OF A VERY STABLE GENIUS! IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog and Scout’s Stabbity Bunny Sell Out! WIN a Trip to San Diego Comic Con! and Lion Forge continues to make a difference! 

News from the World of Indie Comics you might have missed this week!

  IDW EuroComics Begins a new Quest

The Bestselling Pierre Bottero Novels THE QUEST OF EWILAN are being adapted to Gorgeous Graphic Novels, Providing First Visuals of the World of Gwendalavir Before Feature Film

IDW EuroComics proudly presents the English-language debut of The Quest of Ewilan, Vol. 1: From One World to Another, the first chapter in the sequential adaption of Pierre Bottero’s bestselling novel series and a whimsical adventure featuring strong female characters, in the tradition of Lewis’ Narnia and L’Engle’s Time Quartet. Scripted by Lylian and illustrated by Laurence Baldetti, The Quest of Ewilan, Vol. 1 will be available in stores in September.

  The Quest for Ewilan, Vol. 1: From One World to Another 8.5″ x 11″ | Hardcover | Full color | 64 pages | $14.99 | 978-1-68405-325-4

Image Comics and TopCow’s APHRODITE V—A NEW ENTRY IN THE APHRODITE MYTHOS—ARRIVES THIS JULY

Writer Bryan Hill (POSTAL, BONEHEAD) and artist Jeff Spokes will launch APHRODITE V this July from Image/Top Cow.

In the near future, Los Angeles is a city on the brink of evolution, struggling with a new wave of terror fueled by black-market technology. Enter Aphrodite V: a fugitive from her masters, seeking individuality and purpose. She is the bleeding edge of biomechanics and L.A.’s best hope against a new enemy—one that seeks to become a god among machines.

“This is a great way for people unfamiliar with this side of the Top Cow universe to jump into a story about the intersection of technology, humanity, and justice,” said Hill.

One machine wants to destroy the city. Another has come to save it. Only one will survive. APHRODITE V #1 hits comic book shops Wednesday, July 18th.

  Image Comics MEMOIRS OF A VERY STABLE GENIUS—an irreverent and entertaining new book from the creator of Sh*t My President Says

New Yorker cartoonist and multiple Eisner Award-winner Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man, Sh*t My President Says, God is Disappointed in You) debuts MEMOIRS OF A VERY STABLE GENIUS this July from Image/Shadowline Comics.

MEMOIRS OF A VERY STABLE GENIUS is an irreverent book of personal short stories and gags featuring Shannon Wheeler’s critically acclaimed humor, pathos, and honesty—including a 40-page full-color section!

“Books are like children. It’s with pride I send this one out into the world to fend for itself, have its heart broken, take a job that will slowly erode all self-respect,” said Wheeler. “That said, this is the best book I’ve ever done.”

MEMOIRS OF A VERY STABLE GENIUS TP hits comic book stores Wednesday, July 11th and bookstores Tuesday, July 17th. The final order cutoff deadline for comics retailers is Monday, June 4th and it can be pre-ordered via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Indigo, and Books-A-Million.

  SONIC THE HEDGEHOG COMIC BOOKS CONTINUE TO SELL OUT

IDW Publishing is proud to announce that the first three issues of the new Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series has sold out at the Distributor level and will receive further printings. In addition to the complete sell-out of issue #2 and #3, each within a week of their release, issue #1’s second printing sold out only six days after its announcement. To satisfy fans and retailers, IDW will make Sonic the Hedgehog #1 Third Printing and Sonic the Hedgehog #2 Second Printing available in stores on Wednesday, May 16th, with Sonic the Hedgehog #3 Second Printing slated for release on May 23rd.

The heat on Sonic the Hedgehog marks a huge success for IDW Publishing, who is launching their first-ever Sonic series with weekly releases throughout the month of April. Each of the first four issues of Sonic the Hedgehog — written by longtime Sonic scribe Ian Flynn and illustrated by rotating artists Tracy Yardley, Adam Bryce Thomas, Jennifer Hernandez, and Evan Stanley — focuses on a different guest star (Tails in issue #1, Amy Rose in #2, and Knuckles in #3, leading into the debut of the hotly anticipated new character Tangle in issue #4).

 STABBITY BUNNY #3 FROM SCOUT COMICS GOES BACK FOR SECOND PRINTING!

SCOUT COMICS AND ENTERTAINMENT announces that Scout’s break-out hit for 2018, STABBIY BUNNY by Richard Rivera and Dwayne Biddix, has continued its trend of selling out and issue #3 has gone back to a second printing.

STABBITY BUNNY could take place at the intersection of Sesame Street and Nightmare on Elm Street, where a 100-year-old plush bunny and seven-year-old Grace must combat evil in all its forms. Horror and mystery combine in this captivating series. Stabbity Bunny is published monthly by Scout Comics. Please visit us at  www.ScoutComics.com! 

Traveling Stories & IDW Present the Ultimate San Diego Comic-Con® Sweepstakes

Traveling Stories and IDW are proud to launch the annual San Diego Comic-Con® sweepstakes, a contest which will last through June 13th at 3:00pm PT.

Those who enter have a chance of winning the following ultimate experience package: ● Two 4-day passes to sold-out Comic-Con® ● Airfare for 2 within the continental U.S. ● Four nights stay at the Wyndham Bayside in San Diego Gaslamp district ● An exclusive tour of the San Diego Comic Art Gallery with Ted Adams, CEO of IDW ● Airport pickup and shuttle to the gallery, and then to the hotel

Anyone in the world can enter! $10 gives you 10 chances to win. Each additional $1 is another chance – the math is simple. Every dollar is a donation to Traveling Stories, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that empowers kid to outsmart poverty by helping them fall in love with reading by the 4th grade.

“I’ve always been an avid reader, even when I was little. I’m excited that through this sweepstakes we’re able to raise the funds needed to give kids in underprivileged areas the same literary experience I was lucky enough to have,” said Ted Adams, Founder & CEO of IDW Publishing.

How to snag entries in the sweepstakes is easy, fast, and secure via: bit.ly/comic-con-sweeps. Just follow the steps from there!

“Anyone who does not have tickets to San Diego Comic-Con® would be crazy to not enter this sweepstakes! It’s a full and complete package including a cool tour of the Comic Art Gallery with me,” said Emily Moberly, Founder, and CEO of Traveling Stories.

To learn more about Traveling Stories and its programs, please visit travelingstories.org.

 LION FORGE JOINS THE CBLDF AS A CORPORATE MEMBER

Lion Forge is proud to join the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund as the organization’s newest Corporate Member! Lion Forge is a trans-media studio with a focus on comics publishing across all age groups. A company committed to “Comics for Everyone,” Lion Forge strives to publish titles that reflect the diversity of our world in the characters, the creators, and the Lion Forge team, creating content that is just as original.

Lion Forge founder and CEO, David Steward II says, “We truly believe we are bringing the brightest and most diverse talent in the industry into the conversation, while creating the most awesome new comics and graphic novels that we — as fans — want to see in the world.”

CBLDF provides legal and educational resources to protect the freedom to read comics. The organization is a partner in Banned Books Week, the Kids’ Right to Read Project, Free Comic Book Day, and other national institutions that support intellectual freedom and literacy. CBLDF’s work extends from courtrooms to classrooms to conventions, where CBLDF defends the freedom to read by providing legal aid, letters of support in book challenges, challenges to unconstitutional legislation, and a robust schedule of programs about current and historical censorship to audiences all over the world.

Lion Forge stands beside Abrams, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, BOOM! Studios, comiXology, Dark Horse Comics, DC Entertainment, DCBS, Diamond Comic Distributors, Fakku!, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Lion Forge, Oni Press, Neverwear, Penguin Random House, Rebellion, ReedPOP, Scholastic, SPX, TFAW.com, Valiant, Viz Media, and the Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation as a corporate member supporting CBLDF’s important work.

Until the next installment of ICYMI,  WE’LL BE WATCHING!

Ross Hutchinson was a contributing editor to ICYMI this week. Thanks, Ross! 

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ICYMI: INDIE NEWS ROUNDUP for the WEEK ENDING 4-22-2018 #comicwatch #iamawatcher #ICYMI In Case You Missed It: The Quest of Ewilan gets a gorgeous adaption! Image and Top Cow Present…

[lunamanar]

dare I inquire how your opinion of Squall, Rinoa and/or Seifer might have changed due to recent external influence? :D

[PLEASE NOTE: There is ableist mental health language in this post. It was not intentional, and I do plan to edit/clarify it later. I have to go to work now, though, so for now, just be aware of one thing–people diagnose with sociopathy/psychopathy are NOT default dangerous/criminal/nonfunctional people. I don’t want to demonize that word, and while that wasn’t my aim in this, because I spoke in generalizations, that’s what ended up happening. I’m sorry, and I’ll do what I can to fix it as soon as I have time.]

If I’m right about who this is, you probably know darn well, haha. Sure, I’ll throw myself to the wolves bite, though. 

For the longest time I had a fairly static impression of Seifer, in particular. And, don’t get me wrong, I still love (and to an extent, prefer) my original interpretation. But it felt solid enough to me that I was fairly sure I’d have trouble viewing him any other way, and that way is…well, it makes any pairing with him extremely difficult, let’s say that. Nothing made sense to me about him being intimate with anyone, main cast or otherwise. 

That’s…changed, a lot, over the last year. It’s really hard for me to explain how, though, without first explaining what my perspective has been, ever since I first played the game. So, here is what I will do. I’mma hang myself out to dry by posting the entirety of an explanation I gave to @strane-stelle​ about a year ago in a private answer to her ask about Seifer. And then I will explain what changed.

So, below is the unaltered text I sent in answer to her ask last year:

Hrm. I flail and spit about Seifer in private discussions with friends because I feel very strongly about his character, but my perception is that I have a minority view on him, and I absolutely don’t want to start fights because I know a lot of people love Seifer and have ideas about him they’re very attached to. A lot of people like him, and there are a ton of different and popular “versions” of him floating around out there. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he is at once a very strong character while also having relatively little face time in the game, so we’re left to fill in a lot of blanks. There are many ways you can take the behavior he presents, just because there’s a dearth of detail explaining it. I don’t talk about him openly a lot because I think the way I see him tends to fly in the face of how the majority does. I was thinking of doing a similar essay as I did for Squall but the fact is I don’t think my take on Squall is actually that far from the norm, so that wasn’t a very risky post by comparison.

So I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to answer this privately because frankly I am afraid of people getting defensive at me. I’m probably overreacting, but I worry a lot about hurting people’s feelings or making them feel they need to displace my ideas to defend their own. That’s not the sort of environment I want to foster and the way I feel about this, I’m afraid my tone could be problematic in a public post.

I have no issues whatever with people viewing Seifer as a damaged but ultimately redeemable dreamer who fell prey to Ultimecia’s power and was led around by his nose before being dumped on FH’s front doorstep. Or some variation thereof that lets him have connections and relationships.

My interpretation of him, however–and the interpretation I’ve had since the beginning–doesn’t allow for that. The key point is that most people seem to assume Seifer even desires meaningful human connection of any kind; and honestly, just based on how I view his dialogue and his actions, I don’t think he does. I’m not sure he’s capable of it. Love and friendship isn’t really in the cards for him: no Quistis, no Zell, no Rinoa, no Squall, no nothing. Despite claiming a romantic dream, Seifer wouldn’t know romance if it ran him over.

My base assumption is this: I do not think Ultimecia was ever, at any point, actually controlling Seifer. Showing him what he wanted to see, yes, manipulating, sure, but beyond that–it was all him. Right down to torturing Squall, casting off his two loyalists the moment they didn’t serve his purposes, and throwing Rinoa to Adel. He wasn’t insane with sorceress-muck in his head. Everything he said, thought and did was his own.

He has all the earmarks of a textbook high-functioning psychopath. Not a stabbity homicidal maniac, but more simply a total absence of what we’d traditionally understand as empathy. In his world, everything is either about him, or it's in the way. Unless someone can further his personal glory, they’re irrelevant. That’s the context of every social interaction he has. He is the end, and everyone else, without exception, is the means.

He doesn't think about things this way. He doesn’t think, “I don’t care about other people, I’m just going to use them to get what I want.” In fact, he’s not conscious of his own disconnect at all. He’s too focused on his ambitions, the next immediate step toward his dream, too wrapped up his own sense of greatness to waste time with introspection.

His romantic (read: heroic, epic, magnificent) dream solidified for him at a very early age, triggered if not defined by that ridiculous movie Laguna starred in (you’ll note, Seifer holds Hyperion the same way Laguna handles the Shear Trigger he was given on set). Seifer continued to self-insert himself into that role, eating up any and all variants of that story, including the book he regularly stole checked out from the library. But it wasn’t the romance of the story that interested him, per se; it was the fantastic victory of the knight, and the way he was (ha) lionized for the purposes of the legend. Yes, he served his sorceress, but the way the story told it, she didn’t really get the glory.

His dream does evolve as he gets older, but its premise remains basically the same. He gauges the worth of everyone he meets by how they fit into this story of his. Ultimecia was the only person who fit into the part of the sorceress he would champion. It wasn’t so much respect for her that made him willing to follow her as it was the allure of finally living out his own personal epic. Ultimecia, for her part, could see the unquestioning devotion to this ideal in his mind, and so was able to pull his strings with ease, both because he was not difficult to persuade and she saw some of her own grandiosity in him. I think she was later disappointed, but I digress.

Throughout it all, Seifer truly believes himself to be “the good guy,” without possessing enough of a moral compass to have any idea what “good” might be. He’s the good guy because he’s the hero. He’s the hero because he’s the Sorceress Knight. He was part of the disciplinary committee because heroes lay down the law. Nearly everything Seifer does is in pursuit of/acting out this ideal. Anyone who gets in his way is ruthlessly plowed down. (If you want to follow, that’s fine, as long as you don’t get in the way.)

To that end, Seifer doesn’t see tormenting people who are smaller or weaker than him as bullying. Again, it’s not a conscious thought process, “I’m gonna fuck with this person because it’s fun,” so much as he needs to constantly reassert his dominance in every situation. For all his undying belief in his own greatness, he cannot brook any suggestion that he is not the center of attention. That doesn’t mean he’s seeking leadership, specifically, but he’s not going to let anyone else have the spotlight, either.

This in mind, the “rivalry” take on Seifer and Squall’s relationship is, by my estimation, a gross misunderstanding of the actual situation. Even other characters in the game are guilty of misunderstanding it, and I think it's very evident that this is the case. I think it’s supposed to be clear that they’re not getting it, and it annoys Squall quite a bit, though by now he’s kind of used to it.

From where Squall stands, Seifer is not a bully, or a rival; he’s a monolith. He exists for Squall to test himself against, and he’s a consistent enough challenge that their “fights” continuously benefit Squall in his ongoing pursuit of skill-improvement. In addition, Seifer’s general blindness to the feelings of other people helped to encourage Squall’s distance from his own emotions. Where Seifer was concerned, they were irrelevant, and for Squall, that was actually quite a comfortable arrangement.

On Seifer’s end, Squall is probably the closest thing to human connection that exists for him, and only because of the major character role he plays in Seifer’s epic. A combination of the regular attention Squall pays him and the fact he takes Seifer seriously and gives him his full effort when they face off, not to mention the fact Squall can keep up, make him the perfect “counterpart” figure. I don’t think it is any accident that it is Gilgamesh who interrupts their final fight in the game. If you are familiar with the original Epic of Gilgamesh, there are just so many parallels between Gilgamesh and Seifer, and, conversely, Squall and Enkidu, it’s hard to imagine it’s coincidence. This “companion in his travels” motif is the sort of role I think Seifer originally envisioned for Squall, and having internalized that, even though ultimately the story was still about Seifer, it made it very difficult–if not impossible–for him to write Squall off when things started going south.

At the beginning of the game, Squall and Seifer clearly have an understanding, and Seifer is, if not friendly with him, excited by the prospect of Squall accompanying him to glory (only in his shadow, of course). Later, we watch Seifer scramble to rewrite the terms of his story, recasting Squall in various roles across from him, from villainous black knight to leader of a corrupt establishment (at least that one was somewhat correct). To everyone on the outside looking in, Seifer seems like he must be bitter or jealous of Squall (“Mr. Leader” and “I’ll show you who’s the better man”), and misinterpret this as part of an ongoing rivalry, but in my view it’s more simple frustration born from the fact Seifer is losing, and Squall is always there to challenge him at the apex of his grand summit.

(Squall, for his part, is pretty done with Seifer by the end of the game, feeling more disappointment, disgust, and yes, hurt than any sort of need to one-up him. Although I would not for a second call Squall’s connection to Seifer affectionate, the fact remains that up until Ultimecia, Seifer was, for all his unpredictability, reliable and familiar and, perhaps most importantly, there.

Without an ounce of fondness between them, Squall had gotten used to Seifer, and that made this subsequent downward spiral just one more example of someone Squall had come to count on leaving him high and dry.)

As for Rinoa, she’s no different to Seifer than anyone else. His interest in her had more to do with the potential for heroics as a SeeD returning triumphantly to take up the Forest Owls’ noble cause. In the entire game, his only mention of their “relationship” is in Galbadia Garden, if you happen to have Rinoa in your party when you fight him, and even then, it seems more aimed to taunting her as an enemy. Rinoa, SeeD, even Fujin and Raijin–Seifer’s dream takes precedence over all.

[Note: the following was in direct response to a post that had been going around about the orphanage kids having pets, which I had to bow out from because Seifer came up in discussion.] For this reason, the idea of Seifer having a pet makes me physically ill; as a child he would know no better but to do things to the animal just to see what would happen and what kind of reaction he could illicit. It’s not even strictly his fault, but when that came up in the thread I had to bow out. I just can’t. He’d torture it to death, not really having a clue he was doing so. Case in point: I don’t think he even imagined that what he was doing to Squall as torturing him, in D-district. Seifer was playing his role, and when Squall pointed out the role he was playing was torturer, he left, because his answer to any proof he’s anything other than the hero is to stop paying attention. He can’t stand to hear anything about himself that doesn’t directly support his worthiness for the role of the Sorceress’s Knight.

That’s the tragedy, of course: in the end, the only thing remotely “knightly” about Seifer is how noble he is–that is, as Helium. He can’t bond with anything.

That’s my Seifer: The Noble Psychopath. It’s not how most people see him, I know, and it’s probably terribly unsatisfying for a lot of Seifer fans because an incapacity for human connection precludes any chance for real romance with anyone, but at least to me, it makes sense and presents very interesting setup for character growth.

…Now that I’ve pinioned myself. 

I think all of this is sound.I still hold pretty strongly that Seifer is borderline if not patently a sociopath…and let me be as clear as I possibly can be: I’m not saying he’s evil, “crazy,” or even malicious…when I use the word “sociopath” or “psychopath” here, I’m not at all precluding him from being a good guy. Yes, I know what the word sociopath means. I also know what it does not mean, and it doesn’t actually mean you become a horrible, cruel person. It means you have an emotional handicap. That handicap can facilitate behavior we’d call “evil,” but there is so much research at this point showing that it does not have to and I don’t think Seifer is doomed to it, in fact I think he has a unique character path towards avoiding it, post-game. And I love that about him. I will still write him that way, in any stories of my own.

However…since this above response, my perspective on what makes sense for Seifer has indeed broadened. I’ve been moved to think that there is another explanation for Seifer’s behavior in-game that doesn’t just involve Ultimecia controlling his mind and making him do things, although it does assume that she manipulates him quite heavily. Making him hallucinate, for one; in the Timber TV station, for instance, when Edea appears and begins speaking to him: who is he waving to? Not his former comrades, certainly. It’s the same motion he exhibits during the parade in Deling City, as if he can already see the adoration of the populace greeting him. 

And, okay, but just because she’s making him hallucinate doesn’t mean the sociopath theory isn’t still in play. You can hallucinate and still have zero human empathy.

But…but. The other aspect of his behavior that I had not considered in this light, was his spiral. Yes, I still think it makes sense for Seifer to show greater and greater levels of desperation, denialism and self-delusion because of a sheer inability to concede that he is anything other than the center of the meaningful universe. But, taken in the context of hallucinogenic magic, it’s also the behavior of an addict. And the suggestion given to me for his spiral that I found fascinating, was that the ‘fix’ he was looking for wasn’t just glory…it was whatever euphoria Ultimecia was feeding him. 

It was rather clear about halfway through the game, Ultimecia was rather…done with Seifer. She gave him one last task, to find the Lunatic Pandora, with the promise that she would provide him with “dreams” again. Hmm. Can you imagine, what sort of “dreams” those might be? Ultimecia oozes sultry seduction. And I kind of love how the idea of her literally drugging Seifer with magic…which would fit nicely as a cautionary theme with Guardian Forces and para-magic adversely affecting the minds of those who “use” them…changes the narrative. It turns his sociopathy into an addictive personality. Which also neatly explains a lot of his compulsive, thrill-seeking, seemingly careless behavior. 

And yeah, it also means, instead of him being incapable of human connection, he more than likely craves it. But he craves it his way and most people just…don’t have what he needs, frankly. Not to mention, he just doesn’t really have a taste for subtlety, and so actually approaching someone to ask for anything is…bleh. Not his style. And that isolates him, which makes him want to get more attention, to show off more, get louder. Do anything to make sure people see him. 

There are two people in the game who do see him, and take note. One is Rinoa. The other is Squall. Squall I’ve already explained. Rinoa has a bit less structure behind her connection with him, but the basic framework of a relationship is there (whether you believe it to be romantic or not, on which the game is pretty unclear, in my opinion). She and Seifer have a lot in common: they thing big. They often act before they think. They are human wrenches in eeeeveryone’s plans. They are dreamers, first and foremost, unbridled, and this very needful version of Seifer, those commonalities have great potential for connection, given a second chance. Meanwhile, Seifer and Squall have their History. They understand each other, and in an ideal situation, each serves a very important purpose for the other that cannot be replicated anywhere else. More than rivals, or even counterparts, in this scenario, they are brothers. 

Therefore…I see no reason you can’t write a redemption/addiction recovery story for Seifer that involves Squall, Rinoa, or even both as potential friendship or even romantic options. “Both” is the most complicated, and the most interesting, so I like it the best. I won’t tell you it’s my OT3. It’s…not. But I like it. I like it a lot, if you can write it and write it well (and I know at least one person who can, ho ho). 

This is actually an…oddly personal response for me, and the perspective one that’s important, I think, because this is the first day I have felt…semi-normal, after a long, hard week of detoxing from prescription pain meds. It sucked, haha. I’m glad to be rid of them, but god damn, sorry, that stuff is hard to ditch even when you’re taking it as prescribed. It makes me imagine just how messed up you could potentially get on either sorceress magic or heavy duty para-magic. Makes even more sense that there’s a class of para-magic that is simply called Forbidden. Not even because of its destructive effects, oh no…but because of its enhancing qualities. Could you imagine “para-magic detox”? Getting royally screwed up on Meteor and Death and Pain and Metldown and dear god Aura. Ultima? Apocolypse? That stuff’ll kill you, haha. 

If I assume Hyne’s touch is like the world’s purest magical high, it rewrites 80% of what I see in Seifer’s actions, and opens up a very different set of possibilities between him and the other characters, for me. 

That’s one of the reasons I’m here…the more perspectives I’m exposed to, the bigger this game’s universe becomes for me, and that’s so important to me. Coming across a game-changer like this is rare for me, but if I let my theories be the end-all-be-all, I will miss so many equally good ideas and I’ll have less, in the end, of this game to enjoy. 

That’s not to say that any of this has to sit well with you. You can think both these theories are full of it, and that’s fine, haha. But…that’s my answer, to your question, “Anonymous,” (and one older one). I hope that at least as an explanation, it suffices, if not a pair of theories you particularly like, yourself. 

[cursewoodrecap]

Session 3: Darkness in Your Past

Hello everyone I’m still like. WAY sick. And I will be performing our next session entirely through texting and enthusiastic mime. But I can probably type, even if I’m hacking and wheezing?

In this session: oh no, backstory!

The party finishes their long rest at the bandit camp, universally antsy to get going and prickly with each other after certain ethical disagreements.

As the bandits warned us, the road turns out to be full of traps, and 3/4 of us roll terrible, awful perception checks. Clem, comically, immediately falls into a hole. It’s less comic when we realize there’s sharp spikes at the bottom of that there pit trap, but Valeria Channels Divinity and summons the Chains of Rack, catching Clem before she can tumble into the stabbity stabs. WHOOPSIE.

Traveling onward, we find a huge tree has crashed down across the path. We are all experienced players and thus suspicious bastards, and Shoshana rolls a good enough Nature check to suddenly have a childhood memory. There was once a local woodsman that she and her best friend used to hang around, a lumberjacky fellow and hunter named Mordecai. A good-natured fellow, he would let the local children tag along and show them lots of tips and tricks about the woods. Using the remnants of that remembered knowledge, Shoshana picks up on a few wood shavings and out-of-place bits. This thing has been tampered with.

“Everybody stand back,” she says, “I’m gonna poke it.”

“Wait, I have a crossb-” Gral begins, but Shoshana slaps it with a Mage Hand, which is only a 30 foot range. Two crossbow bolts shoot out of where the log has been hollowed out and the bark has been thinned to a sheet, and one sticks right into somebody’s boob. Good job, folks.

Going forward seems to be all well and good until, suddenly, someone notices we can’t hear Valeria, who’s guarding the back. We turn around and surpriiiise, a wild beast-man is hanging out of a tree and has her by a garrotte! There is a brief debate about whether attempting to free her by swinging an enormous greatsword is really the best?? idea??????? but Valeria puts an end to the discussion by stabbing the guy herself.

We complain at the DM about all the traps, and then get distracted, because OOH, A RAVINE.

Shoshana goes quiet at the familiar sight, but there’s something worrying here. There’s a beast-man of the Hunt and his wolf on watch, but there are dead people and wolves scattered over the blood-stained ground. A clutch Silence spell from Gral allows us to overcome the sentries with no alarm raised; Clem bisects the wolf with Extreme (and mildly panicked) Prejudice. 

Inspecting the scattered corpses, they seem to have been pierced by something long and thin - like arrow wounds, except there are no arrows to be seen.

We cautiously move forward, Gral sneakily scouting ahead and messaging back to the clanky folks what’s up. Shoshana tries to sneak, but is too distracted looking at the Hunt-people corpses for - someone recognizable, maybe? - and trips over a dead wolf. CLANG CRASH WHAM, roll for initiative, folks!

We slash our way through a couple of toughs and their wolves, Lookin’ Cool and Kickin’ Butt, but...this is like, two guys. What happened to the terrifying force that had the bandit crew cowering in fear? Why are most of them gone, or dead on the ground with the same arrowless arrow wounds?

Maybe the answer is through that door.

What Shoshana remembers as a bit of a hollow in the wall of the ravine - enough shelter to get a quick snatch of rest, maybe - has been covered over with a crude ceiling and a curtained hide door. No sounds are coming from inside, so we cautiously make our way in. 

It’s not much. Some rough skins and blankets to sleep on, a bag hanging on the wall, and a metal chest that we determine is booby-trapped. And loose scraps of paper, scattered across the floor. Shoshana bends down to pick one up, and reads it.

The gasp is audible. She stares at it, struck, as her player reads the text sent to her by the DM. The others begin to investigate the room as she stands there, absolutely floored - and then snatches for the next piece of paper, like lightning. And then the next, and the next, on her knees scrabbling for them, reading each one with mounting frenzy. She’s muttering to herself - “Why would she-? No, how-? The whole time?! And she NEVER??? How could she-”

Valeria cautiously picks up one of the cast-aside notes, reads it, and then caaarefully places it back on the floor, because Hoo Boy This Is Some Personal Stuff, Let’s Give Her Some Space. They seem to be unsent, half-finished letters, addressed to Shoshana. 

While spooky lady has a breakdown, Clem ably does a bit of medicine for Gral and Valeria to get everyone in fighting shape for whatever comes next. 

Shoshana collects all the letters, and somberly takes the pressed flowers Valeria found on the rudimentary table. Elsewhere in the room we find a key to the big chest, but still stand to the side when we release it - good, because an unsteady Mage Hand isn’t enough to hold the trap wire properly taut. Clem insisted we open the chest last thing before we leave, for fear that the roof would cave in, but a big scythe just swings out of the wall and slices the air where we all Decided Not To Be Standing. We find a bit of money, a Ring of Jumping, Ser Balderich’s sword, and a magic horn that is only heard by the person you choose to hear it.

The horn is apportioned to Shoshana, being the squishiest and the most likely to get targeted by these creeps. Shoshana, emotionally a bit frazzled, accepts it bemusedly. “Why?” she inquires dully. “I mean, it’s not like you’re exactly invested in my survival, past the next hour or two.”

Gral immediately protests. “I gave my word I would protect you, as part of my promise to bring you to Duke Shieldeater’s service. I would not betray that.” 

Valeria nods enthusiastically. Shoshana blinks and then gives the universal “get a load of this guy” gesture to Clem. 

Gral continues. “If truth must be known, I...am not entirely here on the Duke’s orders. I serve him, but it was my own decision to come find you. I strongly believe we Orcs need better relations with the local civilians. And I have my own aims, as well.” Cryptic behind his mask, he does not elaborate and continues back out into the ravine. 

Up ahead is the part that Shoshana knows is waiting for her. A thick blanket of branches and hanging foliage cast a section of the ravine into deep darkness - a canopy impenetrable to light but not, as she remembers, to the falling, flailing body of a young woman.

It’s distantly terrifying that seeing it again feels so much like coming home. A voice curls out of the ravine, welcoming her back at last. It’s impossible for her to tell whether the others can hear it.

“Ser Balderich is in there. The bandits said they were keeping him in the dark place, and...that’s where...”

Valeria firmly places her hand on Shoshana’s shoulder, reaching out in empathy to steady a comrade in a time of clear emotional distress. Shoshana feels a gauntleted hand land on her shoulder, the executioner’s cue to go face her death with dignity. They go forth, into the darkness.

...

So, it’s DARK in there. Valeria lights up the Rune Beetle. It’s still dark, supernaturally so, heavy and sick-tasting in the air. Even those in the party with Darkvision are limited, and they move ahead slowly and carefully. Luckily, Ser Balderich hears them coming, and starts shouting at the FIENDS! who are BACK FOR MORE, ARE YOU? and the party is able to find the pit he has been thrown into, heavy wooden bars embedded over the top.

Seeing the glint of Valeria’s silver scales in the dim light of the beetle, Ser Balderich’s shouting stops short. “...Marius?” he asks, disbelieving. “You survived? D-did any of the others-?”

Valeria recognizes the name of Kyr Marius, a mentor of hers at the monastery where she trained. Another silver dragonborn of the order, with years of combat experience. “I’m not Marius,” she lets him down, “But we’re here to get you out!” 

Ser Balderich, beaten and bruised and with at least one broken arm, is still with-it enough to notice that a young female voice does not sound like his presumably middle aged male friend. But he makes a quick recovery: “Oh! Uh, well, Kyr, it is an honor! But beware, the fiends are not far-”

Yeah, they’ve definitely noticed we’re here. A couple of worgs prowl out of the darkness as Valeria and Clem try to pry the bars off the top of the pit and haul Ser Balderich out. With Faerie Fire, Gral manages to illuminate one of the worgs and a mysterious cloaked figure, who simply gestures and we all take 3 Taint. What the what? It’s on.

We have a narrow battle - fleeing seems like the only option at one point, as several of us are boxed into a Hunger of Hadar spell by flanking wargs, but we persevere. In a moment of crisis, Shoshana pulls strength from the darkness and takes Taint in exchange for temporary HP. Finally, Clem and the wounded Ser Balderich break through to the cloaked figure.  As Clem’s greatsword pierces the flowing cloak, it collapses to the floor, empty. The figure’s taunting voice drifts out to us one last time, looking forward to the next time we meet. You can try to escape the Hunt, just like your little friend, but this is where you belong in the end...

Limping forward, we investigate the cavern behind where his empty cloak fell. Well, not the part that spirals off forever into the darkness. We’re not that stupid. But there’s a little room, off to the side, and we stop short seeing it. There’s a bloody altar, decorated with animal skulls, facing a hanging painting on an animal skin.

The crude tapestry depicts a figure wearing an antlered helm, tearing his way out of where he is bound by tree roots jutting from the ground. Three less-detailed figures behind him seem to be similarly bound. The edges of the canvas are decorated with grotesque, gory scenes of animals and hunters slaying their prey.

Oh, right. The DM notes he forgot to add the horror part of the scene. We look to the other side of the room and see a human corpse, nailed up on the wall. The word “PREY” has been carved deeply into his chest.

It’s Mordecai.

Shoshana is already so emotionally drained, barely able to register her dull rage at these grotesque atrocities here in HER darkness. She raises her hands, but Ser Balderich speaks up, saying Ser Quentin Morozov, his friend the Cursebreaker Knight, may have use of the tapestry. It might help him in his studies. Meanwhile, Valeria is gently pulling the body off the wall, looking for any sign of the man’s religion and finding not a symbol of the Obereon pantheon but a small pendant with two faces - Baba and Gramps, kindly spirits still respected by some of the more rural woodsfolk. Valeria’s big enough to carry the body, covering the carved words with her cloak and promising him a proper burial.

Shoshana lets them, dully watching. She can feel something magic within the altar, but the only thought she has left about today is the general concept of NO. She raises her hands and a wave of fire overtakes the altar. As it burns, the oppressive feeling of the darkness lessens. It doesn’t disappear, but something vital to this place has been destroyed.

A bit dazed, the party staggers out into the light, Valeria carrying the hunter’s body and Clem supporting a weakened but determined Ser Balderich. Wanting to avoid whatever hunting party was sent out after the escaping huntress, they make it back to the abandoned bandit camp before collapsing to regroup.

Valeria and Ser Balderich get to talking, Valeria asking how Ser Balderich knows her old mentor Kyr Marius. Did Ser Balderich ever speak to anyone who knows what happened at the Crusade?

Knows what happened? Pssh, Ser Balderich was THERE. Though it’s clearly a painful memory, Ser Balderich explains what happened to the members of Valeria’s order:

The Crusade was closing in, about a day’s hard travel from Valdsheart, the Duke’s capital city - the center of the Curse. The Order of the Rose has made it to the old summer palace - the roses were in bloom, the gardens were beautiful, still immaculately maintained by automated Unseen Servants that had continued working even as the city had been abandoned.

The commanders of the various knightly orders gathered together at the Rebel’s Temple. (A History check lets us know that this was the temple that Karena, the leader of the rebellion against Keva and the first Duchess of Valdia, had established to ask the blessing of the gods over the new nation.

If anyone ever had doubts the Curse was intelligent, they were ended by the way it waited until the knights were separated from their commanders. When the attack started, the gardens sprang to life. We were attacked by thorns and deadly spores. Ser Balderich took his horse and rode for the temple, while the knights held the line against the tide. The temple was holy ground - it should have been well-warded. Arriving there, he saw the windows stained with blood - the place was overrun. There were two groups of survivors still fighting: Archcleric Rudolf Klemsk and his knights of Rack fled one way, while the Peacock Knight (founder of the Knights Radiant) held the line alone. There were waves and waves of creatures, all sorts.

(Gral: Ser Balderich, please describe these creatures. DM: Absolutely not, it’s like midnight.)

Ser Balderich, unable to help, fled back to the palace to help the forces there. It was totally overrun. He hopes some got out, but was unable to get close enough to see. The aftermath? Well. Archcleric Klemsk got out, but Something happened there - afterward, he and his followers became the frightening Knights Penitent who violently hunt down all corruption and impiety. He assumes the Peacock Knight was overwhelmed, but he has been sighted since.

...I’m sorry.

Ser Balderich tells us: If anyone is going to solve this, it won’t be a marching army. It will be someone like my friend Quentin, and his Cursebreakers, or the madmen at Sturmhearst. We Beggar Knights will stand watch, and ensure as many people possible live to see the day the Curse ends, if that day ever comes.

We all mull that story, and then begin to get up to go. A quick discussion of options comes to this: we’ll go back to Ovruch and drop Ser Balderich off there, so he can recover and protect the town. In the morning, we’ll travel to the town of Holzog to bring the tapestry to Ser Quentin - perhaps he will be interested in our stories, as well. Gral certainly wants to discuss something with the Cursebreaker.

As everybody’s putting on their backpacks and stuff, Shoshana interjects, confused. Um...aren’t you guys...forgetting something?

Ser Balderich considers. “...yes.” He comes over to her, and she closes her eyes, readying for it.

“...I did not thank you, for rescuing me. You have my gratitude.”

N-no, you guys, don’t you need to...? Y’know? Take care of me, now that the Hunt and the bandits are dealt with?

...Oh.

Ser Balderich scoffs, compassionately. “Shoshana, I saw you reject the power that altar could have given you.” (Player: wait what? DM: yeah, there was a magic item in there”) “You were given your abilities, and what did you do with them? You took care of cats. You are not the monster you believe yourself to be.”

Valeria is nodding. Gral is nodding. Even Clem is nodding. Shoshana’s brain just about fails to compute; you can see the blue screen behind her eyes. We pack up, find a quiet spot in the woods to bury poor Mordecai the woodsman, and make our way back to Shoshana’s place to crash.

---

We roll against the Taint we acquired in the Hunt’s territory. Gral and Clem fully save. Valeria takes a minor corruption. Shoshana is offered a deal by the DM and takes it, gaining a minor corruption as well.

We each draw a card for the next session: The Hunter, The Knight, The Madness, and The Heretic.