#also depends on what you mean by defeating the dead sea

[waiting-duck]

Do you guys think sans Undertale could win against the dead sea? (hypothesis in tags)

[tenebris-lux]

I really like the game Fury of Dracula. It’s 1 v 1-4, with one person playing Dracula, and 1-4 people playing the Hunters (less than four players means someone plays multiple characters—there’s always four Hunters).

The premise is that sometime after the events of the book, turns out Dracula’s not dead, and his takeaway from before is to not settle down anywhere. Stays in a new city across Europe every night, and leaves some kind of a mess in each one. Also he avoids trains.

The Hunters travel all over Europe trying to find Dracula and his trail, and try cleaning up his messes. And they gotta try to do this in 2 weeks, because Dracula has momentum & practice by week 3, and it’ll be a miracle to kill him then.

The Hunters win if they can reduce Dracula from 15 to 0 hit points.

Dracula wins if he can gain 13+ “influence” across Europe. One way he can do that is by defeating Hunters through bites or reducing their hit points (they’re never killed, just defeated—they lose all the shit they’re carrying and they get transported to the hospital, and have to consume some of their turns leaving said hospital; then they’re back on the job).

Another way he gains influence is if any vampires he makes can survive a whole week (7 of his turns, 14 of the Hunters).

And there are also event cards and stuff he can throw around to make the Hunters’ difficult lives more difficult.

Week 3 is completely broken for him. He just has to change cities and the influence just piles up.

Hunters are playing co-op, yet when discussing strategy, they have to say it out loud for Dracula to hear UNLESS the Hunters are in the same city together, where they can whisper. Spies all over the place, and I guess the phones are bugged and the mail is being read.

Hunters get a Day turn and a Night turn, then Dracula gets his move, where he changes Location and puts down an Encounter with it (which could be vampires or animals or people).

Hunters can travel (Day only) by road or railroad; the latter requires train tickets, which takes up a turn to acquire. Dracula only travels by road. And everyone can travel by sea, but it’s not fun for anybody—it hurts Dracula, and the Hunters can’t do much besides change location during the Day (at night they just sit there).

Hunters can gather supplies (Day or Night). In cities (not towns) they also get Events along with Items. Events are advantages to their hunt. But they have to be careful when supplying at night, because there’s a chance the Event they draw will be an advantage for Dracula (in the Day those kinds of Events are just discarded; at Night, they’re given to Drac).

The Hunters and their turn order are:

1) Lord Godalming

When he supplies, he can get two items instead of one; same with train tickets. Cuz he’s rich.

2) Dr. John Seward

He can carry more shit at a time than the rest, and if he shares a city with another player, that player heals 2 instead of 1 (if they choose to heal). Cuz he’s a doctor (technically).

3) Van Helsing

He can trade events as well as items with Hunters anywhere. He can also take an extra bite (Godalming & Seward can get one free bite, Van Helsing two).

4) Mina Harker

If she’s in a city with another Hunter, she can make Dracula tell her if he’s in the country she’s in. Unfortunately, she’s already got a bite mark. So if Dracula/a vampire manages to bite her, she’s defeated.

When Combat is engaged, it’s a bit like an elaborate rock/paper/scissors—the opponents play a card at the same time, and if the symbol on the Hunter’s card matches one of the ones on Drac’s, his effect is canceled. If not, then his card takes effect and MAYBE the Hunter’s will as well (depending on what they say).

Ideally, you want Dracula to get ganged up on by multiple Hunters. Because then he has to choose which one he’s going to counter and just take it from the other ones.

This is the board. Those red slots on the right is Dracula’s trail. When he changes location, everything slides to the right/up the board. If a location/encounter slides off the 6th space, the encounter “matures”, which usually gets Dracula points.

And these are the cute little figures. Dracula’s just hangs out on the little red dot near the card slots, unless a Hunter walks into the city he’s in. Then all of a sudden, there he is.

… and that’s pretty much it for the main part of the game.

…

Btw, one of the Events you can draw is this card:

The first option is terrible. It’s basically just saying, “Is that city on your trail?” Then he gets tossed out, probably never heard from again. Not really worth it when you can have him hang around as an ally, where he finds out which city is about to go under. Plus he sticks around afterwards to keep the spotlight on that last space.

The premise of the game says he’s staying home to watch/guard the kid. I also like to think he’s working from home, and acts as backup. I like to think he’s sending them telegrams saying, “Guys, something’s heating up in ______; dunno if you were aware. Quincey says hi.”

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece - Predicting Bounty Increases Post-Wano

So, with Chapter 1049 potentially being the end of the climactic battle (or maybe not) it's safe to say that the Straw Hats and their allies have done a lot in Wano, certainly enough to warrant new bounties. So in this post I'm gonna predict what several characters' new bounties will be after Wano, including all of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Spoilers for all Wano up to Chapter 1049, I will be referencing these chapters in my reasoning, you have been warned

It is worth noting that this is how I think the World Government will respond, it is not an estimation of what I think their efforts are. In addition I will not be doing 'new' bounties: so Yamato - who the world doesn't know about since they've been in Wano all their life - Momo, and Carrot - who really should've gotten a bounty at Whole Cake Island for taking out a portion of Big Mom's Fleet - will not be included. I will also not be including bounties of characters who could potentially be dead, so no Drake or Izo either (Marco won't either because as an ex-Yonko commander his contribution was expected of his stature).

Non-Straw Hat Bounties

We'll start with the Non-Straw Hats, whose actions will have contributed to the Raid's outcome or acquired information that the WG would deem dangerous.

'Roar of the Sea' Scratchmen Apoo: 350 million -> 400 million Apoo sucks, but the World Government would indeed want to silence him on his intel about CP0's presence in Wano, and with him being an effective spy for Kaido, his bounty is due to increase to make sure he doesn't rap another day.

'Massacre Soldier' Killer: 200 million -> 450 million It may seem like a hefty increase, but Killer's efforts in defeating Hawkins - who had a higher bounty than him - and facing off with Kaido and Big Mom will give him a huge bolster, he's earned it as well. Personally I'd want to put him higher, but seeing as Sanji's bounty only went up to 330 from being revealed a Vinsmoke and leaving Yonko territory alive I do have to temper expectations.

Eustass 'Captain' Kid: 470 million -> 1.5 billion 'Surgeon of Death' Trafalgar D. Water Law: 500 million -> 1.5 billion I might be a little crazy here, but I feel like since both Law and Kid had to combine to defeat Big Mom, they will be given the same bounty amount. Defeating a Yonko is no easy feat either, if Luffy got 1.5 billion from beating 2 Yonko Commanders and leaving Yonko territory alive, I think Law and Kid would be worth just as much for fighting 2 Yonko at once and defeating one of them. It'll bruise both their egos though to be the same, as both will claim to have carried most of the fight, but it will bolster both captains' notoriety.

Other than that I don't think we'll learn of any significant bounty increases. Law and Kid's remaining crew will probably get increases by virtue of their Captains' increase but we won't see it. Caribou might get a bounty increase but it depends on how much his involvement is painted, he wasn't in Onigashima so the WG probably didn't know he was there.

Straw Hat Bounties

Okay...now we get to the meat of it. This is the difficult part at least. I'm gonna go in order of lowest current bounty to highest.

'Cotton Candy Lover' Chopper: 100 -> 500 It hurts me that out of the two ways it could go, I'll have to continue with the gag one. While Drake did view Chopper successfully overcome Queen's Ice Oni and transform into Monster Point, there's the possibility that he's dead or even exiled from the Navy, meaning his intel won't reach the WG. What could reach the WG is Chopper's new tiny 'Baby Gramps' form for a new picture (which could be a new title for him but knowing the WG they'll probably still see him as a 'pet' than a sentient being). He'll only get a small increase by virtue of the crew's increase. But the moment he gets seen transforming his bounty's gonna skyrocket...

'Cat Burglar' Nami: 66 million -> 130 million Nami's bounty was a tough one, because even though she defeated a 400 mil Ulti and stole a Yonko's Homie, the WG didn't see much of it, plus Ulti was very weakened. I'd like Nami to get a new title, since she's not as deft-handed as she was in the past, I've often thought she could be called 'Weather Witch' since Nami's character leans more to her climate-control rather than her pickpocketing. As a result I think her bounty will be doubled and rounded up a bit.

'Soul King' Brook: 83 million -> 142 million Sadly, Brook hasn't done much solo contribution to this raid since his and Franky's entrance. He's helped Robin evade CP0 which means he'll get an increase from being perturbed and probably looking a bit more into him, but it won't be as big multiplication-wise. Despite this I think he'd have more than Nami's given his combat skills, so I went for 142 million - 42 being an unlucky number in Japanese because it sounds like 'to die', ah, but he's already dead.

'Cyborg' Franky: 94 million -> 200 million Sasaki may also have a 400+ mil bounty, and Franky was also seen wiping out a Number and knocking Big Mom over, but I feel that the WG will still undermine Franky's threat level given how they also have an army of powerful cyborgs. Franky will get enough dues to match Usopp's Dressrosa bounty for his contributions, but it'd still be an undervaluation.

'Devil Child' Nico Robin: 130 million -> 150 million The World Government intentionally do Robin a disservice in bounty because if her bounty is too high it'd be harder to get people to come after her. Sadly this is my reasoning here, Robin deserves a massive bounty having beaten 470m Black Maria and being a Revolutionary, but CP0's only interaction with her resulted in her just running away, so she'd have one of the smaller increases. I picked 150 because that's the amount of Chrysanthemum (which are the petals used during her Devil Fruit powers) patterns in the symbol for the Emperor of Japan. I do at least hope they get rid of the 'child' bit of her title though, 'Devil Woman' or 'Demonio' would suit better.

'God' Usopp: 200 million -> 250 million Like Brook and Nami, Usopp's contribution would be deemed minor by extension of the WG, only having spotted him running most of the time. He'd get a small increase of 250 million, which is significant enough to overcome the combined bounties of Dorry and Broggy's 100 mil a piece, just in time for the Elbaf arc.

'Pirate Hunter' Zoro: 320 million -> 1 billion I did toil with this, because part of me wanted to make him match Luffy's current bounty, but I think he wouldn't have the same as Kid and Law's. So I stuck with a nice and clean 1 billion, one that he deserves from defeating King - who has the highest Yonko Commander bounty so far - and scarring Kaido. Following this, I do expect that his title will change to his desired 'King of Hell' title. Being worth a billion will be something Zoro would relish, except for one caveat...

'Black Leg' Sanji: 330 million -> 1 billion They will both hate it, but we will love it. Putting Sanji and Zoro level in bounty is probably the bounty increase I'm most certain of even if it's not 1 billion. Having defeated Queen who is also +1 billion, Sanji's antics pre-raid as O-Soba Mask may play into his bounty, especially if Drake does live to give his intel. Because of this, Sanji may end up with a new but unwanted title of 'Stealth Black', even though he has parted with the Raid Suit. His body modifications however still remain, so although he isn't Stealth Black, he won't be shaking off the Vinsmoke name for a while.

'Knight of the Sea' Jinbe: 438 million -> 523 million Our latest Straw Hat will get a bounty increase from having joined the crew, his victory over Who's Who will also make the WG worry rightfully that the cat man mentioned what led to his CP9 dismissal and thus the importance of the 'Gomu Gomu no Mi', for this reason he'll have a similar level of bounty, albeit lesser because of generic Fishman racism and because the WG aren't as threatened by him. This'll of course put the Monster Trio in a league of their own, but I chose 523 because that's the chapter his silhouette first appeared in.

'Straw Hat' Luffy: 1.5 billion -> 2 billion If Luffy does defeat Kaido, one could go crazy and expect him to reach Roger and Whitebeard level bounties, however Blackbeard sits on only a 2.24 billion bounty despite being a yonko for 2 years with WB's Devil Fruit and most of his territories. As a result, I've put Luffy in more 'Yonko region' because of how afraid they will be now that he's awakened. Akainu will hate it, but the WG will act to hope that as a Yonko tier they can pull up an army against him, or at the least turn the other Yonko on him, seeing as 'letting it play out' has failed tremendously. Being a proper Fifth Yonko (which will be a secondary title to him) will necessitate the bounty, but like Blackbeard longevity will only cause it to rise to BM and Kaido level.

So there you have it, those are my predictions at least. It may be subject to change depending on how the rest of the arc unfolds of course, but at this very moment this is how I can see it going.

[heyovivi]

Miryam and Drakon

Okay there a few things that stick out to me when it comes to the story of Miryam and Drakon and how they won the war and defeated the Queen of the Black Lands.

So, in my humble opinion Miryam and Drakon’s story is loosely reminiscent of ACTOAR’s sister series, Throne of Glass, while also having hints of the story of Moses sprinkled in as well (especially when they split the sea to escape the Queen’s forces so the slaves of the Black Lands could be free from her tyrannical rule).

Now first I’m going to recite the story as best I can with what limited knowledge there is in the books.

From what we know, Miryam was a half-fae half-human slave born in to the Black Lands under the tyrannical rule of a blood thirsty Queen. Upon the Queen's engagement to Prince Drakon (of the Seraphim), she gifted Miryam to him, allowing him to finally see the true nature of his betrothed. Soon after, Drakon set Miryam free and fled the Queen as well, joining forces with Jurian three years afterwards who by that time was in a relationship with Miryam.

After fleeing the Black Lands, Miryam joins up with human rebels led by Jurian. As the wars drags on, Miryam and Jurian become lovers and she also builds budding relationships with members of Rhysand's Inner Circle, Morrigan being one of Miryam's most notable companions through the war.

Three years after breaking his engagement to the Queen and searching for Miryam, Drakon allies himself with Jurian's forces and during one battle he is struck and Miryam, who is a healer among Jurian's ranks, tends to his wounds.

As the war continued, Jurian concocted a plan to seduce Clythia, a general to Hybern's legions and the sister of Amarantha. Depending on whose telling the story, whether it be Mor or Jurian, Miryam was fine with the arrangement and encouraged him to do so if it meant the freedom of her people. However, Mor suggests otherwise and that Jurian's relationship with Clythia and changes in his attitude is what ultimately led to Miryam leaving him. Either way, after Miryam broke things off, and later fell in love with Drakon who already had feelings for her at that point. Soon after, they discovered that they were mates and got married the same night Clythia was killed by Jurian.

Seeking revenge, Amarantha kidnapped Miryam, hoping to lure Drakon, however Rhysand risked his neck in hopes to let her get away and in return most of his legions got killed and the rest, including him, were captured and tortured by Amarantha.

Towards the end of the war, Miryam, along with Drakon, his army, and Morrigan, marched into the Black land to free the human slaves. After successfully breaching the Queen's forces they marched their people through the desert and to the Erythrian Sea, where their ships were destroyed by the Queen of the Black Lands. With the Queen's forces on their tails, Drakon and his soldiers used magic to split the sea, clearing a pathway through for the slaves to escape while he and his men fended off the Queen's coming army. However, Miryam refused to flee, and followed Drakon into battle where she struck by a spear thrown by the Queen herself.

As the magic wore off the sea came crashing down, Miryam was rescued by Nephelle who carried her to safety. Despite her efforts though, Miryam bled out from her wound, and Drakon, knowing of a sacred island that harbored a powerful object made by the Cauldron, saved Miryam from death and used the object to resurrect her, turning her into a Fae.

Afterward, Miryam and Drakon let the world believe that the sea claimed their lives but instead they lived peacefully away with only members of the Inner Circle knowing the truth of their continued existence on Cretea.

"I fought side by side with Miryam in the War, fought beside her as Jurian's ambition and bloodlust drove him mad, and drove them apart. Drove him to torture Clythia to death, then battle Amarantha until his own...I marched back into Black Land with Miryam to free the slaves left in that burning sand. The slavery she had herself escaped. The slaves Miryam had promised to return to free. I marched with her--my friend. Along with Prince Drakon's forces legion. Miryam was my friend, as Feyre is now..." (Morrigan, A Court of Mist and Fury, pg. 388)

Now it is entirely possible we don't have the full story and it is possible we won't get the full story. However, I firmly believe that the next books are going to be first, Azriel, second, the novella which will probably focus mainly around Mor, and then finally Elain.

Now, if Azriel's story is focused mainly around the Illyrian conflict then it is somewhat hard to decipher where the story may go afterwards. However, I do think that SJM purposefully structures her novellas as the blueprint for future books. So, if the next novella is Mor's then perhaps we'll get more to the story of her past, I.E. the war.

Now, it could all just be oversight but there are so many unanswered questioned when it comes to Drakon and Miryam's tale.

Such as what was the object made by the Cauldron that healed Miryam and turned her fae?

You can't tell me that Drakon just happens to know of a magical item stashed at some unnamed island that can just happen to heal any wound. Plus it was made by the Cauldron so does that essentially mean that this mysterious object is a dead trove? Perhaps the fourth? Many have speculated that the mysterious unnamed object at the top of Ramiel could also be the fourth dead trove but I find it interesting that the unnamed cure Drakon used was also made by the Cauldron and also exhibits it's power of reanimation. Then for some reason it's never mentioned again.

Not even when Feyre was dying at the end of ACOSF due to her high risk pregnancy.

This could either be because SJM forgot that she wrote in there or maybe there are limits to the objects power.

Next questioned.

The Queen of the Black Lands.

She definitely gives me Maeve vibes but one thing is clear: we don't know if she died. In the books it never specifies whether she died and I think someone named the Queen of the Black Lands would play a more prominent role.

I also think that it's very interesting how her territory now belongs to the human queens, especially Queen Vassa.

The Black Lands were described to border on the southern parts of the Continent and what is a Queen without her territory. More importantly who might she had gone to for help?

Now, at this point I'm throwing a theory out but by this time Koschei would've already been on his island--probably already planning his escape. Who knows, maybe there is a reason why he specifically turned Vassa into a bird of fire. It's easy to assume that the other Queens would quickly fall in line as long as they get their promise of youth and power, but Vassa wasn't so easy to convince making her an obstacle. Perhaps the Queen of the Black Lands is still alive and working with the enemy to reclaim her throne.

But then that begs the question of who is the Queen of the Black Lands.

[roguelioness]

OC questionnaire

Tagged by @noire-pandora and @cleverblackcat - thank you! ♥

Tagging @kagetsukai, @ma-sulevin, @rosella-writes, @shannaraisles, @thevikingwoman, @redinkofshame, @wickedwitchofthewilds, @hoochieblues, @a-shakespearean-in-paris, @ejunkiet, @hoochieblues, @iarollane, @funkypoacher

THE BASICS

Character’s name: Neria Lavellan

Role in story: Reluctant Inquisitor, even more reluctant Herald.

Physical description: Neria is short (5′4) with a slender, willowy build that only marginally improves once she has access to regular meals. She has platinum-blond hair and forest-green eyes, both of which were part of the reason she chose Ghilan’nain’s vallaslin. There’s a sprinkle of freckles across her nose and cheeks that deepens in color with increased sun exposure. She bears an assortment of scars of all shapes and sizes covering the length of her body.

MBTI/Enneagram Personality Type:

ISFJ [the Defender] -  The Defender personality type is quite unique, as many of their qualities defy the definition of their individual traits. Though sensitive, Defenders have excellent analytical abilities; though reserved, they have well-developed people skills and robust social relationships; and though they are generally a conservative type, Defenders are often receptive to change and new ideas. As with so many things, people with the Defender personality type are more than the sum of their parts, and it is the way they use these strengths that defines who they are.

Type 6 [The Loyalist] - The committed, security-oriented type. Sixes are reliable, hard-working, responsible, and trustworthy. Excellent "troubleshooters," they foresee problems and foster cooperation, but can also become defensive, evasive, and anxious—running on stress while complaining about it. They can be cautious and indecisive, but also reactive, defiant and rebellious. They typically have problems with self-doubt and suspicion. At their Best: internally stable and self-reliant, courageously championing themselves and others.

INTERNAL LIFE

What is their greatest fear?

Loneliness. Neria had a typical childhood, with friends she played often with, and she never felt alone. Once she she developed magic, however, she had to train to control her power and could not spend as much time with her playmates and so grew apart from them. Being appointed First made that gap wider. Even though she was well-liked by everyone in her clan, she often felt quite alone. In the Inquisition she made good friends who gave her a place where she felt like she belonged, and a lover who offered her the security she so desperately desired. Losing either would be painful; losing both would send her  spiraling into misery.

Inner motivation:

She strives to do what’s right. She went to the Conclave because the hunter who was to go was in love and wanted to get married, and it did not seem fair to her. She joined the Inquisition because the Breach needed to be closed, and Corypheus needed to be defeated. It is also why she strive to redeem Solas, even though several of her friends would rather see him killed.

Kryptonite:

Indecision. She worries often if the decisions she makes are the right ones, especially around the war table where a wrong choice can have disastrous consequences.

What is their misbelief about the world?

That humans are inherently selfish and are only concerned with their own gain.

Lesson they need to learn:

That despite doing her best she cannot control the outcome of situations.

What is the best thing in their life?

Her friends. All of them come from varied backgrounds and they have helped broaden her mind and her experiences. More importantly, they’ve given her a place where she feels truly welcome.

What is the worst thing in their life?

The shattering of her beliefs. Learning what she did at the Temple of Mythal shook her greatly. Everything that happened after - learning she was bound to a mostly-dead goddess, the truth of the vallaslin, the truth of the previous Inquisitor, the truth of the elven gods - it stripped away all of the things she had once been secure in, and leaves her incredibly uncertain and out-of-control.

What do they most often look down on people for?

Intolerance, and judging people based on what they look like. She also dislikes people who are inflexible and rigid.

What makes his/her/their heart feel alive?

The small moments. Sunrise over the Frostbacks. Wildflowers near the road. Laughter over mugs of ale. Quiet conversation around a campfire. Holding hands with a lover, fingers twined. 

What makes them feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?

Compassion and understanding. Though she misses Solas terribly she won’t say he’s the last person who offered her love because she knows there are different types of love. Her friends make her feel loved in their own ways, and she appreciates that.

Top three things they value most in life?

Knowledge, compassion, patience.

EXTERNAL LIFE:

Is there an object they can’t bear to part with?

A necklace that belonged to her great-great grandmother. It’s a circular disc of halla horn onto which is carved a rune of protection, hanging from a leather cord. Her great-great-grandfather, who was the clan’s keeper at the time, made it for his wife, and it was passed down to the eldest. She offered it to Solas, but he knew how much it meant to her and instead suggested she make one like it for him - which she did.

Describe a typical outfit from top to bottom.

She tends to favor simple cuts, but develops a fondness for fabric. Highever weave, royale sea silk, imperial vestment cotton and dales loden wool are some of her favorites. She prefers tunics and pants, with some amount of embroidery, and her boots are well-crafted and sturdy.

What names or nicknames have they been called through their life?

What is their method of manipulation?

- Da’len (her parents, adults in the clan, the Keeper)

- Silver (Varric)

- Ner-bear (Dorian, though Bull uses it to annoy her)

- Fenor (Solas)

Neria doesn’t actively manipulate; most of the time she uses the way other people view her against them. She knows a great many people see her as only a knife-ear, as uneducated and unintelligent and “savage”, so she’ll play into that, all the while gaining information from them that she passes on to Leliana and Josephine.

In battle, her small size and build means she can remain hidden as she attacks. If someone does attempt to fight her they soon discover she’s not as weak as she appears to be.

Describe their daily routine.

With clan Lavellan it was more relaxed; there would always be some time spent learning, mending, aiding other people, but there was no routine set in stone.

With the Inquisition, her routine varies wildly depending on whether she’s out on the field, or at Skyhold. Even at Skyhold no two days are the same. The only things she sticks to for herself is an hour or reading in the morning (usually with tea) and dinner with Solas.

Their go-to cure for a bad day?

Hot, fragrant tea, lots of finger foods, a trashy novel.

GOALS:

How are they dissatisfied with their life?

Post-Inquisition she’s lost, and steadily gets more so. Everything she thought she knew turned out to be wrong, and she struggles with regaining some of that sense of self.

What would bring them true happiness or contentment?

Security. A sense of steadiness. A place that she can call her own, where she doesn’t have to be alone. 

What definitive step could they take to turn their dream into a reality?

Neria wishes she knew. She could go and create a home for herself, but she would be alone. Or she could go after Solas to demonstrate to both of them that they don’t have to be alone, but it means she can’t have a home. She doesn’t know how she can get both.

How has their fear kept them from taking this action already?

She tries her best, but between the loss of her arm and the knowledge that Solas is so much more powerful than her, she fears she won’t be able to succeed.

How do they feel they can accomplish their goal while still steering clear of the thing they are afraid of?

She very deliberately does not think about it. When she does, she thinks about what Varric once said: heroes don’t get happy endings. (She hopes, desperately, that he’s wrong).

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by J.R. Miller

How Christ Comforts (John 14:1-2)

The words of the fourteenth chapter of John were spoken by the Master to His friends in a time of deep grief which seemed inconsolable. Yet He said, "Let not your heart be troubled." This seemed a strange thing to say to those men that night. How could they keep their hearts from being troubled in such circumstances? To think of all that Jesus had grown to be to them! For three years they had been members of His personal family, enjoying the most intimate relations with Him.

How much a friend can be to us, depends on the friend. If he has a rich character, a noble personality, power to love deeply, capacity for friendship, the spirit of pure unselfishness; if he is able to inspire us to heroism and to worthy living - what he can be to us is immeasurable. Think what Jesus Christ, with His marvelous manhood, must have been as a friend to His disciples, and you can understand something of what His going from them meant to them.

Then He was more than a friend to them. They had believed in Him as the Messiah, who was to redeem them and lead them to honor and glory. Great hope rested in Him. His death was, as it seemed to them - the defeat and failure of all their hopes. The announcement that He was to leave them, swept away, as they thought, all that made life worthwhile. There are human friends whose death seems to leave only desolation in the hearts and lives of those who have loved them and leaned on them. But the death of Christ was to His personal friends and followers - the blotting out of every star of hope and promise. Their sorrow was overwhelming.

Yet Jesus looked into their faces and said, "Let not your heart be troubled." It is worth our while to think of the grounds on which Jesus could reasonably say this to His disciples, when they were entering into such great and real sorrow. The first thing He bade them do, was to believe. "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me." Thus far they had believed in God. Jesus had taught them a new name for God. They were to call Him Father. He had not been known by this name before - but Jesus used no other name for Him. The word Father is a great treasure-house of love-thoughts. It told the disciples of personal thought, love and care, extending to all the events of their lives. The very hairs of their heads were all numbered. It told them of goodness which never failed. It was a great lesson they had been learning, as they came to think of God as their Father. In the shock of the last terrible days; however, the danger was that they would lose their faith in God. But Jesus said to them: "Believe in God. Let nothing take this faith out of your heart. Let nothing take from you what you have been learning from Me about God."

"Believe also in Me." They had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. You remember the splendid confession made by Peter, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." In this confession, all the disciples had joined. They believed that He had come to be the world's Savior. Now, in the announcement that Jesus was to die at the hands of wicked men, there was danger that they should lose their faith in Him. But to save them from their loss of faith He exhorted them to continue to believe. Not one of their hopes had perished. "You believe in God, believe also in Me."

We are always in danger of losing faith in time of sorrow or any sore trouble. Many times people are heard asking such questions as, "How can God be a God of love, and allow me to be so bereft, so stripped of good things? Where are now the promises of blessing which are made in the Scriptures over and over again? Has God forgotten to be gracious?" To those questions of doubt and fear the answer is, "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me." Let nothing disturb your faith. Though it seems that God's love has failed, that God has not forgotten you, that Christ is no longer your friend - still continue to believe; believe in God, believe also in Christ.

Sorrow is full of mystery. We go everywhere asking, "Why?" "This is not love," we say. "This is not goodness. This is not salvation." We cannot answer the WHY. Should we expect to know why God does this or that? How could we, with our narrow vision and our small knowledge, understand the plans and purpose of God? God does not plan to give us an easy time in this world - He wants to make something of us, and often the way to do this - is to give us pain, loss, and suffering.

A German writer speaks of the "hardness of God's love." Love must be hard sometimes. A writer tells of keeping the cocoon of an emperor moth for nearly a year, to watch the process of development. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flask, through which the insect forces its way. The opening is so small that it seems impossible for the moth to pass through it. This writer watched the efforts of the imprisoned moth to escape. It did not appear to make any progress. At last he grew impatient. He pitied the little creature and, in a weak kindness to it, decided to help it. Taking his scissors, he snipped the confining threads to make the struggle easier. In a moment the moth was free, dragging out a great swollen body and little shriveled wings. He watched to see the beauty unfold - but he watched in vain. "It never was anything but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully about, instead of flying through the air on rainbow wings." Nature's way - that is, God's way - with moths is the only true way, although it is a way of pain, struggle, and suffering. Human pity may make an easier way - but the end will be destructive .

God's love never makes this mistake, either in nature or in dealing with human lives. God lets us suffer - if by suffering we will best grow into perfect beauty. When the mystery of pain or hardness comes into our life - let us not doubt. Let us suffer and wait. The disciples thought all their hopes were gone - but in the end they learned that no hope had perished or failed. Blessing and good came out of what seemed irretrievable disaster. "You believe in God, believe also in me," is always the word of faith and comfort. Trust God. Nothing is going wrong. You cannot understand - but He understands.

The disciples were in great distress because their Master was going away from them. They were dismayed as they thought of their loss. They thought they could not live without Him. But He explained that He was going away - for their sake. They thought they would not have His help anymore, and He explained that He would still be active in their behalf. "In my Father's house are many mansions… I am going to prepare a place for you."

He told them where He was going - to His Father's house. These are precious words. They tell us that heaven is home. On this earth there is no place so sweet, so sacred, so heart-satisfying as the true home. It is a place of love, purest, gentlest, most unselfish love. It is a place of confidence. We are always sure of home's loved ones. We do not have to be on our guard when we enter our home doors. We do not have to wear masks there, hiding or disguising our real selves. Home is a refuge into which we flee from the danger, the enmity, the suspicion, the unkindness, the injustice of the world. Home is the place where hungry hearts feed on love's bread .

Mrs. Craik in one of her books had this fine picture: Oh, conceive the happiness to know that some one person dearer to you than your own self, some one heart into which you can pour every thought, every grief, every joy; one person who, if all the rest of the world were to calumniate or forsake you - would never wrong you by a harsh thought or an unjust word; who would cling to you the closer in sickness, in poverty, in care; who would sacrifice all things to you, and for whom you would sacrifice all; from whom, except by death, night or day, you never can be divided; whose smile is ever at your hearth. Such is marriage, if they who marry have hearts and souls to feel that there is no bond on earth so tender and so sublime.

This is a glimpse of what a true home is. The picture is sometimes realized on the earth. There are homes which are well-near perfect. But the home sought, will be realized full in heaven. The Bible paints heaven in colors of dazzling splendor, its gates and streets and gardens and streams and fruits, all of the utmost brilliance; but no other description means so much to our hearts as that which the Master gives in these three words, "My Father's house" - home!

"My Father's house." That is the place to which we are going! That is the place where those we have lost awhile from our earthly homes, falling asleep in Jesus, are gathering. That is the place to which the angels have carried the godly dead. What a vision will burst upon our eyes when, some quiet day or night, we shall fall asleep - to awake no more on earth - but to awake in heaven, in our Father's house! You have read of men coming over the sea as immigrants, and landing in a strange city as utter strangers - throngs all about them - but not one familiar face, no welcome in any eye, no greeting. But it will not be this way with you when you leave this world and enter heaven. Loved ones will meet you and receive you with joy.

Jesus said also to His disciples, "I go to prepare a place for you." They thought His dying was an interruption of His work. The Messiah they had conceived of was to live and be a glorious King, conquering the world. Suddenly they were told that soon they should not see Him - He would be gone. They were bitterly disappointed. All their homes were now to perish. Jesus comforts them by telling them that the reason He was going away - was to prepare a place for them. Nothing was going wrong with His Messiahship. They had misunderstood it - that was all. He could easily have escaped from the plots of the rulers, the betrayal of Judas, the arrest by the temple officers. But hat would have been to fail in part of His work.

The reason He was going away - was that He might continue and complete His work in heaven. "I go to prepare a place for you." The thought is very beautiful. How does Christ prepare places for us? We need not understand - but it is a sweet thought to know that He thinks of us - as you think of a dear guest who is coming to visit you - lovingly, and prepares for your coming. You good women, when you are expecting a friend you love very much, make the guest room just as tidy and beautiful as you can. You think of the friend's tastes, and prepare the room with this in mind. You put up a picture you think will please him. You lay on the table the books you know he will like. You gather his favorite flowers and place them on the dressing bureau. You do everything you can to make the room beautiful, so that he will feel at home in it the moment he enters it. Christ is preparing a room for you!

There is something else here. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also." This is more of the work Jesus went away to do for His friends. First, He would make ready for them, build a home for the, prepare a place. Then, when all things were ready, He would come for them and take them home. That is what He does when we leave this world. Men call it dying - but dying is a gloomy, forbidding word. Jesus said, "Whoever lives and believes on Me - shall never die." What we call dying - is really only Jesus coming to receive us unto Himself. Why, then, should anyone dread to leave this world? It is the Master coming to tell you that your place in the Father's house is ready for you - and that He has come to take you to it! When Stephen was being stoned to death - he had a beautiful vision. He saw the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. As the mob stoned him, Stephen was calling upon Jesus Christ and praying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" (see Acts 7:58-60). It was the Savior coming for His servant. The place was ready for him. His work here had been short - but it was all that had been allotted to him. His departure was tragic - he died at the hands of a religious mob; but it mattered not how he was taken away - really it was Jesus who took him away - receiving His spirit into strong, gentle and secure hands.

The comfort to us in our sorrows and bereavements, is that nothing has gone wrong, that God's purpose is going on in all the wrecks of human hopes. Your friend passed away the other night. You thought he would have been with you for many years. You had plans covering a long future of happiness. You were appalled when the doctor said that your friend could not live. Life to you would be dreary, lonely and empty without this one who had become so dear to you. You say: "My friend stayed so brief a time! I could almost wish that I had not let my heart fasten its tendrils about this dear life, since so soon it was torn away from me!" Say it not! It is worthwhile to love - and to let your heart pour out all its sweetness in loving, though it be for but a day - and then to have the bliss give way to grief.

[sketch--booked]

It's 6am, I just woke up from another dream--

--about Echo returning.

And it's another island adventure dream but FAR MORE OOOHHH OKAY THAN OWWIE OH NO. It had the same energy as Nya trying to figure out who Samurai X was. And Echo was not a villain this time.

Actually the dream had the S14 guy as the villain, the one with the mask, spoilers.

It started with a fight between masked man, who's name I neglect to remember, and the ninja. They barely even get a chance to fight him before someone in a hodded cape swoops in and kicks him clean off his thone/podeum. They guy lands poorly and his leg gets messed up but continues fighting while the ninja just s t a r e at them.

The ninja only make a real reaction when they see the mystery man use the element of wind, and they're all utterly bewildered.

The mystery man can't hold them all off and is knocked far into the forest, presumably dead considering how far he went, and the rest of the ninja are separated into groups (Kai and Cole, Nya and Zane, Jay and Lloyd with Wu and Misako).

It followed Kai and Cole mostly, just discussing the possibility of two elemental masters of wind (they recalled Krux and Acronix) and that this guy could be dangerous. While they're talking, they bump into the motionless body of that cloaked person and Kai literally nearly pukes. Cole manages to get close to the guy and with prompting from Kai, pulls back the hood to see, not a man, but a nindroid! And a nindroid that looked eerily like Zane.

.

That's when it cut to Lloyd and Jay, they're talking with Wu and Misako about the mystery man, and this is where Wu info dumps that, after an elemental master passes without any heirs, the elements will take an unknown amount of time to present itself in a new host. It depends on that persons destiny and whether or not they're fit to use it and yada yada.

Lloyd understands that this would mean morro would no longer be the elemental master of wind, since after the DotD, he legit died and is gone for good. Which resulted in the element passing on. Wu comments that this is the fastest he'd seen an element passing on and presenting itself, and says that whoever this person is, must have been picked for a very good reason.

Jay then starts making a ridiculous list of people that he thinks could be the new master of wind, despite Wu telling him the probability of Jay knowing this master, is near impossible (Jay gets a kick outta this r e a l soon).

.

Then we hop back to Cole and Kai, who are freaking out over the rusty version of their friend who somehow has elemental powers too??

Kai says they should leave him here, saying it could be an evil nindroid, since they were also based off of Zane's prints. Cole argues and says they should take him back for questioning, and that Cole would be very happy to carry him.

While they're arguing, the fake Zane starts to wake up, and in a comedic way, screams at Cole and Kai, who in turn also start screaming. The mystery nindroid awkwardly chuckles and remarks that this was not particularly how he wanted to introduce himself, but anything works...

Kai and Cole begin questioning him and he answers their questions, starting with his name, telling them his name was Zane, but upon seeing their reactions, he says they can call him Echo.

Echo tells them they need to get into shelter, since at night, the island becomes unbearable and deadly. Kai and Cole reluctantly follow, continuing to ask questions while the three of them walk away, Echo limping from his earlier fight.

.

"Why are you on a random island?" Kai asked

"My raft washed up in a lightning storm." Echo replied.

"So did Julien build you too?" Cole continued.

"Yes, I would reluctantly say he is, in essence, my Father"

"Reluctantly?"

Echo did not answer.

Cole broke the silence "Where did you come from?"

"There is a lighthouse, in the-"

"-middle of the ocean between ninjago and the dark islands. You were there?" Kai interrupts.

"You know of the lighthouse? You were there?" Echo wondered "How come you did not know of my presence?"

"Your father never said anything, neither did Zane." Cole answered his question, giving the earth ninja even more of his own.

"Oh, no. My brother would not know of me, I was built in the lighthouse, not--wherever he was built" Echo confirmed "How did you get past the leviathan?"

"Zane swam to the chains and broke them with those star thingys" kai shivered, recalling those star shaped demons--

"Oh, you mean the Starteeth!" Echo begins laughing lightly "You know, one time, a bunch of them washed up and ate through the window in the basement. The basement was flodded and made me all rusty. I couldn't move for a week!" He walked slightly ahead while laughing hard.

He suddenly stopped laughing and looked serious "Looking back on it now, it was probably not funny."

Kai and Cole shared a look before Cole jumped up, realising something, and whispered close to Kai.

"Hold on a second, we completely forgot about his powers!"

"Oohhh, you're right! Hold on, I'll ask 'em."

Cole was going to pull him back to explain how shouldn't just--ask--but Kai had already begun running to catch up.

"So how did you end up an elemental master?"

"An ele-mento-who-what?" Echo fumbled his words.

"An elemental master? Y'know, with the crazy wind powers."

Cole was ready to punch Kai out, the man couldn't be subtle to save his life, which it just might right now.

"Oh! Honestly, Red, I have no idea." Echo had called Kai, Red, as the other two masters had not given their names. "I just remember the lighthouse getting nearly blown into the sea after weeks of strong winds. I had not realised the strong winds were the cause of my emotions. It was--new and scary. Gizmo was there to help me."

"The little cleaning robot? You brought that little guy with you too?" Cole caught up with Kai and the second wind master.

"Of course, he is my only friend! I would not abandon him the way I was. That is too cruel of a punishment for any being, organic or metallic." Echo yelled, a breeze shook the trees. Cole stayed quiet, but silently apologised to the nindroid.

Their questions were ended as they came across a half-cave-half-hut-like shelter. Where the settled and only prayed for their respective brothers.

.

There was a lot more small talk in the dream but I cut it down to the funnier and more important parts.

The next bits of the dream is fuzzy, but I know it revolves around the ninja reuniting and accepting the mystery person into their group while they defeat the evil and escape the island.

Kai and Cole agree to Echo's pleas to not tell Zane for the time being, as he doesn't want Zane to see his brother for the first time looking like--how he looks.

Each of them get some interactions with Echo, with his identity hidden, remaining mute as to not throw them off with his voice. He even has an interaction with Zane where Zane politely asks Echo not to keep staring at him, as he's been doing that since they came together. Zane pegs his curiosity to "he's never seen a nindroid before" and Echo confirms that for him. (unknowing the truuuuth aaaaa)

I'll write Jay's interaction with Echo another time maybe, and how he figures it out, since hoooo boy it hurt. Echo didn't remember Skybound so Jay's just mentally torturing himself for the rest of the journey.

The ninja that find out its Echo is Nya, Jay, Cole and Kai.

.

I'm gonna jump to the end, because my dream also jumped to the end? Rip. But the end what what gave me the Nya and new Samurai X vibes, but less fighting and more chill chat.

.

.

He was on a real boat. Not a makeshift raft constructed out of his father's old bed, table, chairs and shelves, not pushed forward by his newly explained "elemental powers". A real boat, one that would take him away from tiny islands that kept him prisoner, away from the existential dread of loneliness. He'd be free. Free from fearing his last day would be solitary and sad. In one day alone, he'd made a literal boat load of friends. They wouldn't abandon him, not as his father once did.

He was happy, he felt really, truly happy. But he didn't smile. Yes he had friends, but what he wanted more than anything else, was his brother. He was right here on the boat, but Echo's own worries about how his brother would perceive him, how his brother would react to seeing him in such a state (Upon first meeting too! Talk about first impressions), persuaded him to otherwise say nothing.

Deep down, Echo knew he had nothing to fear, he'd heard stories from his father, before he'd locked him away, about Zane and about what it was like--just the two of them. Happy. And from what Echo had seen, Zane was more that strong. Not just physically, nindroid and all, but mentally and emotionally. Echo only wished he had that confidence, the ability to say nothing but be so loud at the same time.

It would make talking to him a lot easier, if he had to say so himself.

Echo, however, had his thoughts interrupted by the sound of footsteps he hadn't even registered, and a soft, yet firm, hand on his shoulder. He tensed just slightly, preparing himself to pull his hood down further.

"It's nice, is it not?" That voice, it was Echo's voice. No, Echo had his voice. His brother was standing right next to him. So close and yet so far, just one swipe of his hood would bring them together, finally. But he resigned himself to simply nod in response. He hadn't come this far to give up now.

A comfortable silence covered the two like a thin layer of snow, fitting considering who was standing next to him. It would almost make him laugh.

"You fought well, out there," Zane started, Echo had thought he was done and nodded again, a small smile forming on his face. Zane may not have known who he was complimenting, but Echo took every moment of it with pride. But then his world span at Zane's continuation.

"For a nindroid."

Zane looked down with a small smirk. Like he'd told the best joke in history. Echo tightened his grip on the wooden railing of the bounty, crushing the paint under his permanently short nails. Zane must've noticed, but didn't say anything. Either in respect for his privacy or because he wanted to hear the confession himself.

In Echo's mind, he was obviously panicking. He didn't want his brother, someone who he'd heard stories from his father, the bot he was built off of, his singular role-model, to find out who he was, like this?

Despite the fear in his ticking heart, he did something probably really stupid and something that would likely result in his downfall. He thanked him.

"Thank you... How- how did you know?" Though, he lowered the pitch oh his voice. It would not be difficult for Zane, or anyone really, to rase the pitch and find out who he was, it still calmed him down just a bit.

"A nindroid knows a nindroid. A brother knows a brother."

Oh I'm f*ucked...

There was only panic, in his systems. The ticking of his clockwork had never sounded louder in his ears. It'd drowned out the sounds of water, the automatic breathing he for some reason had, the cracking of wood underneath his palms was the only sign that ticking was not the lone sound in the world.

He fell out of his anxious trance when the hand left his shoulder and those footsteps came back. No. They were moving away. Echo looked back, moving his fingers to clutch his hood tight against the unintentional winds that now followed him and his emotions. He could see Zane walking towards the steps of the bounty, but halted at the top of them, his hand instead lazily laying on the banister.

"Don't worry, I won't tell them-" He called, just loud enough for Echo to hear over the breeze.

-about what? That he knows who I am? That he'd practically lied to them? That he knew everything all along, because of course he knew, this was Zane, how could he not know, he-

"-Cryptor."

Echo ceased all thoughts from his head. Cryptor? What was that? Was that some kind of fruit? Or a vegetable?

Echo turned his body in the direction of his brother to ask him or at least say goodbye, but he was gone. He'd walked off and down the stairs. Leaving behind not so much as a sheet of frost.

The clockwork child stayed standing there, pure surprise, fear, relief, confusion--actually a lof of emotions he didn't know how to process--flooding his brain. If it weren't for the distant voice of Nya yelling about the sudden gusts of wind changing their direction, he would likely not have moved from that position until they landed.

Cryptor. He thought, it must be a nickname. There was no way he couldn't have figured out Echo was his sibling. He'd said, "a brother knows a brother", they didn't have any other siblings. Right? No. It was just them, just the two of them. The only two nindroids in Ninjago.

His father had said so himself. Although, his father had also buried him under scrap metal and kept him hidden from his family.

Anything could be truth now.

Although Zane had left, and there was no one to hear him, he still felt it necessary to acknowledge what happened. Quietly and sadly, he spoke with a smile.

"Good guess, brother."

.

.

.

.

SO Uhh I'm gonna assume this was because i watched DotD last night,,, and so both Cryptor, and Morro were on my brain hense wind and Cryptor calling Zane "brother", but I always have Echo on the brain man,,, so uhh. Echo for the new master of wind? Anyone? I think it's cute,,,

I probably missed something, other than writing Jay and Echo's interaction, Jay was so sad throughout the rest of the dream, man. And Echo didn't even know why, it was heartbreaking---but it was also a dream and like all my dreams, they never get made into real things.

But I did like the Zane and Echo bit at the end though. There was a second ending, but it relied on the reveal of echo to the audience at the e n d of the dream. Zane still says Cryptor and Echo turns with the camera getting close to him. And as he turns his head to the camera, you see its Echo and then he says "good guess, brother" BUT NGL I THINK IT HURS MORE WHEN WE KNOW FROM THE BEGINNING SOOO.

My dreams are whack dudes,,,

Also this took nearly 3 hours to write its actually 8:50 now Soooo ilya

[bunnimew]

Starstruck 2: Lost at Sea

Fandom: Rise of the Guardians Relationship: Jack Frost/Pitch Black Also featuring: Jamie Bennett Tags: Mermaid AU, Modern Mer AU istg, jamie is a good bro, Pitch is The Most Dramatic, There is angst here, there is also fluff, Action Plot! Rating: T Words: 3601 Summary: Sequel to Starstruck Pitch is missing. Jack has to find him. Jamie has to follow Jack, just to make sure he doesn't get eaten by sharks or something.

For RotG Mermay 2021 prompt Mother of Pearl On AO3 Here.

Jack was beside himself with worry.

No one had seen Pitch since yesterday morning. Since Jack said goodbye to him before heading off to work.

Pitch never made it to the theater. No one had seen him at rehearsal the entire day. Jack only found out when he arrived home to an empty house and his agent knocking on the door to ask if Pitch was feeling alright.

Pitch was gone.

And Jack couldn't rest until he found him.

He went straight to Jamie. No one understood how much Jack needed Pitch more than Jamie. Jack talked about Pitch all the time, confided everything to his best friend, which meant Jamie had unique insight into just how broken Jack would be if Pitch never came back. Worse, if Jack didn't even try to find him and it turned out he could have.

Jack didn't know exactly how Jamie was going to help, but he maybe should have predicted that Jamie would grab his pick-shovel and demand to come along.

They were already on their way back to Jack and Pitch's house, their plan set to trace Pitch's path to the theater and start their search there, When Jack decided to try one more time...

"You don't have to come with me, you know."

"You can't stop me, you know."

"I know!" Jack said. His voice was a little high, a little defensive, and very tense. It wasn't Jamie's fault, but Jamie got to hear it anyway. "I'm just making sure. Pitch isn't your fiancé. You're my friend, but… I don't even know what I'm doing, so. I'm just making sure you know you don't have to do this."

Jamie pressed a hand to Jack's shoulder as they swam along, their pale and true blue tails oscillating in an oddly perfect tandem. There was strength in that hold that Jack was sorely missing right now. "And I'm making sure you don't do something stupid, or that at least you don't do it alone."

Jack almost stopped dead in the water, but Jamie’s firm hand kept him moving forward. “It might be better if I did it alone.”

Jamie snorted, the brat. He didn’t even look at Jack when he replied. “Yeah, no. No way. Even if I’m just a witness to what happens to your remains, it’s better if I’m there.”

Jack blinked, taken aback. So much for optimism and solidarity. “You’re just gonna watch me die?”

Jamie shrugged. “Depends on how it happens. I’ll take on a shark for you. I won’t take on twenty sharks for you.” Jamie paused. “Probably.”

It was a bad joke, but it brought the smile back to Jack’s face. He put his hand on Jamie’s shoulder in kind and made his peace with the fact that Jamie was going to waste however much time he wanted on having Jack’s back while Jack went out of his mind searching for Pitch.

And honestly, Jack was thankful.

“I’m going to stop in and change,” Jack said when they reached his door. “I should probably be wearing real clothes when I meet my doom.” That was going to be their running joke now, Jack decided. The thing that kept the tone from getting too heavy to handle. The thing that kept Jack focused on finding Pitch and not focused on the fact that he was lost. “Do you want a jacket or something?”

Jamie started to shake his head, then rethought it. “Actually yeah. Another layer wouldn’t be a bad idea.” He swam over to hold the door when Jack went through. “Got anything fashionable? Something that will make me look badass for our rescue adventure?”

Jack almost laughed. Jamie was an amazing friend. “I’m wearing the badass jacket. You can wear the sexy one.”

“You mean they’re not the same jacket?”

Jamie was right to grab his pick-shovel. It was a tool as much as a weapon, and Jack did also have one, but the only time they needed both was for prying huge chunks of rock out of the ground. The likelihood that Pitch was pinned under something large enough it would take both of them to free him…

Was not zero.

Jack grabbed his pick-shovel.

He also grabbed a bag to put snacks in and the knife North had given him. It was so beautiful and fancy that Jack had never used it before. But it was a knife meant for work, and Jack didn’t know what he might need to cut. So he was bringing it along just in case.

And, also just in case, Jack left his lovely seastar in its feeding tank for safety.

Jamie noticed all of it. “How long do you think we’ll be gone?”

Jack shook his head on his way out the door. “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll be able to come back in between. Maybe we’ll see something and… not be able to come back. I don’t know. But I’m bringing food enough for at least one night.”

“Seems smart,” Jamie agreed. His tone wasn’t in total agreement with his words. Jamie hesitated for the first time since hearing the news, on the idea that they would be at this for long enough that food would be a concern.

“You don’t—”

“Shut up and lead the way,” Jamie interrupted.

Well.

Okay.

Jack turned toward the theater and flicked his tail hard. Jamie would keep up. They had no time to waste.

-o-

“This is the longest I’ve ever swam in one day, I swear.”

Jack agreed. They were following a current that ran… somewhat close to Pitch’s path to the theater. It would have been kind of ridiculous for Pitch to have gotten caught up in it, but with his huge fins and unwieldy tail and, let’s be honest, ridiculous manner, it seemed the most likely thing to have happened.

That, and Jack didn’t have the authority to investigate other mers or search their homes, so it’s not like he could search anything but the natural surrounding area for Pitch.

Jack sighed. He felt defeated. “We can take another break soon. How far do you think he went?”

Jamie slowed and rotated upright in the water. “He could still be trapped in it, Jack. There’s no way to know.” But then he smiled and met Jack’s eyes with honest enthusiasm. “Glad you brought those snacks!”

Jamie was the best friend.

Jack laughed and pulled one out for him. “I really hope my idiot of a fiance is not still tumbling tail over fin in this current. That would be horribly embarrassing and also very inconvenient.”

Jamie nodded. “And very Pitch.”

Jack sighed again, this time put upon. It was true.

Hopefully one day this whole fiasco would be a great story to tell over the dinner table to Pitch’s latest celebrity friends and not the end of his world as he knew it. The cold hand of dread began its now very familiar clutch around Jack’s heart and he struggled to swallow down the rising anxiety and keep his tail moving.

Until Jamie wrapped his arm around Jack’s shoulders, again, and shook him just a little bit. “Don’t worry until we have reason to worry, Jack,” he said. “Let’s find him and figure it out from there.”

Jack agreed, because what else was he supposed to do? Except the nagging thought stuck with him that the hours Pitch had been missing already and the hours Jack and Jamie had spent looking for him were amounting to something to worry about.

So of course when they noticed the sudden plethora of fishing nets, Jack’s worry set sail for the stars and skyrocketed.

“Shark-eye on a woodlouse,” Jack moaned with his face buried in both hands. “They ate him!”

Jamie rolled his eyes and shook Jack by his elbow. “Don’t be dramatic. Pitch has been rubbing off on you.”

Jack shook his head, but kept on. “You know how these things are. Anything and everything gets caught in them and all of it dies. It doesn’t really matter if they ate him, although I’m really hoping they didn’t eat him. If he got caught in one of these nets, he’s gone.”

Jamie didn’t reply. He swam forward with a steady beat of his tail, and that told Jack everything. Jamie was an optimist, but he didn’t want to lie.

These nets meant real danger.

Made more and more evident as they continued to follow the current and found thousands of fish caught up in them. Jack and Jamie had to swim out of the way of sweeping nets more than once and each time, Jack thought of their agility and of Pitch’s huge, billowing tail. This was what got him, Jack was more and more sure. It had to be.

Jack closed his eyes as they swam on, letting Jamie guide their way. If Pitch did get swept up onto a fishing boat, how would Jack ever know for sure? He would just be gone, and Jamie wouldn’t let him mourn if there was still hope left because that’s the kind of person Jamie was. But Jack couldn’t just hope forever and live in that house without Pitch and pretend it would all be fixed when Pitch magically showed up some day.

Jack would hope, though. Because how could he give up when he loved Pitch so much? The whole idea made Jack fear his own future, so he just… swam. And let Jamie guide them. He needed to be in his own head for a little while.

“Spawn of a…” Jamie trailed off in a faraway, disbelieving tone, and Jack opened his eyes because that was either good or very, very bad. “Is that him?”

In an instant, Jack was scanning the seas around them. Fuck, but all he saw was nets. “Where?”

“There!” Jamie pointed, but he also started swimming. Jack hurried to keep up, and then—

He saw what Jamie saw. A small, long, black and gray thing tangled in an abandoned net caught in the current’s flow. It was anchored from below, but the line was too long and Jack’s concern was too short to give it more than the glance it took to verify Pitch wasn’t about to be swept away in the current again, this time without any hope of swimming his way out of it.

The figure wasn’t struggling against the nets at all and Jack swam faster. His huge fins, twisted and folded in the spun plastic, gave him away before anything else. It was Pitch. It was absolutely Pitch.

Jack screamed his name over and over as he swam nearer, waiting, hoping, praying for Pitch to look up at the sound. He looked so pathetic and sad, immobilized and swaying helplessly in the wake of the current. He could have been dead already, except that he finally stirred from all the noise Jack was making and looked up. When their eyes met, when Jack could see for himself that Pitch’s gaze was clear and focused and that he was just stuck, the ridiculous man, relief flooded through every part of Jack’s being so suddenly and so completely that he almost lost the rhythm of his stroke and stumbled in the water.

Pitch was alive, and, other than his current circumstances, he was fine.

Jack realized Pitch was neither trapped under nor between anything heavy and so his pick-shovel would do nothing but fill his hands. He tossed it behind him for Jamie to catch and continued on unhindered.

“Jack!” Pitch shouted to him, and the sound made Jack’s heart sing. The heavy pull of the current sent it sinking again, but Jack was on a mission and skillfully rode the tide right into his chest, where he clung with all of the accumulated desperation of the last several hours and steadfastly refused to let go.

Jack pulled the fancy knife from his hip and prayed the inset mother of pearl handle survived what he was about to do to it. He pulled the netting as far from Pitch’s skin as he could, then pressed the knife into the synthetic fibers and began to saw away at it with everything he was worth.

Pitch tried to help. His wiggling wasn’t very effective, but it did get him a little further from Jack’s blade, and that was something. “How did you find me?”

Jack smiled at him. It wasn’t really anything to smile about, but Jack was just so glad that he could smile at Pitch, so he did. “Followed your tracks. Made some good guesses. Jamie helped a lot.”

Pitch looked behind Jack at where Jamie must have been hovering with the two pick-shovels out of the current’s reach. “I thought he couldn’t stand me.”

“He can’t stand me when I talk about you. That’s different.”

“Oh right,” Pitch said absently. It was obvious he wasn’t really taking anything in. His eyes were glued to Jack’s hands slowly tearing away at the nets now, and he was biting anxiously at his lip.

“Don’t worry,” Jack soothed. His voice was tense, but Jack couldn’t help that. His hands couldn’t stop moving until Pitch was free, and the netting was stronger than it looked. “I’ll get you out of this, Tigershark. I promise.”

Pitch met his eyes again, and there was so much heat there. So much love and trust that Jack nearly forgot what his hands were doing. “I know.”

It felt like forever before the first rope gave way, then two forevers for the second. Jack’s arms were burning and Pitch’s tail wasn’t even free, yet. The pace was excruciating, and after hours of constant swimming, Jack was tired.

The thought of Pitch’s safety was all he needed to keep on.

Pitch, on his part, tried to help with every limb he could wiggle out of the way. The net had tangled around him at least three times, but Jack hoped once the tail was free, the rest would come easy. When the bottom fin finally broke through, Jack wondered if he imagined the way Pitch’s soft tail brushed against him, as if it were on purpose.

But then, as soon as Pitch’s first arm escaped the plastic cage, he pressed his fingers to Jack’s cheek, and Jack knew he hadn’t imagined anything at all.

Before the last snarl was cut, Jack made sure both of them had a firm grip on the net. It would absolutely suck to go through all of that just to lose Pitch to the current again. And then they had another problem.

Jack took hold of Pitch’s arm. “You trust me, right?” he asked.

Pitch looked very much like he did not trust Jack right now. “What do you mean? What are you doing?”

Jack sighed. Why did he have to ask questions? “I’m going to get you out of the current so we don’t start all of this over again. Do you trust me?”

Pitch’s eyes widened. He looked thoroughly unconvinced. “What about you?”

“I’m a stronger swimmer,” Jack said. Then he tightened his grip on Pitch’s arm and swung him around in the water. Pitch flailed hilariously, but let him do it and that was all Jack asked for. When he let go, the force and the pull of the current tore Jack away and spun him viscously, but the net kept him anchored just as it had done to Pitch before.

When he finally got another glimpse of Pitch, it was to see Jamie holding him back by the shoulders. The idiot had honestly turned around and tried to get back to him.

Thank the universe for Jamie.

Jack held the knife between his teeth and gripped the net with both hands. All he had to do was make it far enough out that the pull wasn’t stronger than him. That… should be easy, right?

Right.

Jack took a hard breath through his nose, then went for it. He swung on the net as far as physics would allow, then pushed hard with his tail and both arms to escape the drag of water trying to keep him in. He could feel the water he pushed against with his hands, but he could also feel the water slipping backwards over his shoulders and sides as the current slowly won.

Jack pushed harder, swam faster, felt himself beginning to thrash as he realized it wasn’t working. The current was going to take him and throw him out who knows where else? He had some food, but Jamie and Pitch didn’t and what if the current never let him go at all?

Then a hand grabbed his and Jack looked up to see Jamie, strained and panicked, reaching out for him into the turbulent water. Jack’s expression probably looked much the same, but some of the anxiety smoothed out when the two of them began to move, this time steadily away from the current that wanted to claim him.

Jack didn’t understand, but he didn’t care. He clung to Jamie’s wrists and didn’t look away until finally the pull began to loosen its grip and Jack could breathe again. Then he noticed the massive black tail swishing back and forth in the water behind Jamie. Pitch?

Jack blinked, startled, and accepted it without fuss when Jamie suddenly shot backward and Jack was flung bodily into a circle of four arms and two tails that seemed ready to crush him before they would let go.

It was Pitch. Pitch had pulled them out. Pitch had been tugging on Jamie’s tail and Jack was really going to have to treat Jamie to something nice because that probably hurt like hell but first, Jack was going to have to kiss Pitch senseless for saving him. Nevermind that Jack had saved Pitch first. Pitch could kiss Jack senseless, too. It was only fair.

Jack wormed one arm around each of them and held on. They were safe. They were finally safe, all three of them, and now they just had to get home. Jack’s eyes were burning and when he looked up, Jamie and Pitch’s were red-rimmed, too.

Yeah, okay. That was scary. Jack could admit that whole thing had been scary. He would do it again in a heartbeat, but… He was glad he wouldn’t have to.

Jamie finally loosened his hold and gave Jack some water. Jack, who immediately turned and smothered himself in Pitch’s chest because it had been more than twenty-four hours since Jack last laid eyes on him and the idiot had nearly gotten himself killed by accidentally getting swept up in a current that he had no business being that close to in the first place.

Pitch pressed his face into Jack’s hair and wrapped around him the way Jack liked, the way that made Jack feel safe. It was stupid, because obviously Pitch was a danger magnet, but the man had also proven himself to be strong and capable not two minutes ago, so Jack would take it.

“I love you so much,” Jack whispered into the water. “Don’t ever do that again.”

“I won’t, Jewelfish.” Pitch said against the shell of Jack’s ear. “Never again.”

Jack pressed his face up against Pitch’s throat. “I’m serious, Pitch. I was so worried. I thought I lost you. I thought I was going to have to—”

Pitch pressed two fingers against Jack’s lips to quiet him, then leaned just far enough away to meet his eyes. “I swear, Jack. I will be more careful. I will never do this again.”

Jack stared deep into Pitch’s gaze, judging for himself whether Pitch really meant that or not. Pitch held Jack’s stare, steady and calm. Calm, after all of that. How? But he was. Calm and sure, and Jack slowly started to believe him.

With a nip at Pitch’s fingers, Jack gave in. “Alright, Cuddlefish. Take me home.”

Pitch smiled and swam pointedly away from the current that started all of this. “Anything you wish, Nibblefish. Thank you for coming to find me.”

Suddenly Jamie was on Jack’s other side again, and his solid warmth was very much appreciated. “There was no way we wouldn’t. Seriously,” Jamie said, wide eyes fixed on Pitch. “I don’t think you really know. There was no other option. Jack was coming to find you. I only came to make sure Jack didn’t die in the process and, as it turns out, good thing I did!”

Pitch’s smile, adoring when it was aimed at Jack, shifted into a sort of baffled amusement. Jamie had that effect on people. “Thank you. Jack is very lucky to have a friend like you.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. He wrapped his arm around Jamie and squeezed. “I know.”

Jamie grinned and hugged him back. “Good thing. Because I am not looking forward to the hours it’s going to take to get back and watching you two be disgustingly sweet and all over each other the whole way.”

Jack bit his lip to keep from laughing.

“I’m going to see you home safe,” Jamie continued, “but as soon as we are, I am clearing out, because I know exactly what you two are going to get up to and I want no part in that.”

Pitch’s face was equal parts embarrassed and scandalized, and Jack couldn’t keep the laughter inside anymore.

Jack was incredibly lucky. He had an adoring fiancé who would give him anything, an amazing best friend who would do, for him, anything, and a future that didn’t scare him anymore.

Also, Jamie was one hundred percent right.

Jack couldn’t wait to get home.

[teaplease1717]

Story: Ashes of Love and War

Chapter: 13 / ?

Couple: Todoroki Shouto / Yaoyorozu Momo (TodoMomo)

Rating: M (for language and violence)

Betas: @flourchildwrites​ (Link)  & C’s Melody (Link) 

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638800/chapters/71473683

Thank you everyone who still reads and follows this story! I have this arc done, but will be posting it slowly - think once a month (maybe a little faster depending on my schedule).

Anyways, in regards to this chapter, it’s a bit different. It will be from Momo’s pov again. It was originally supposed to be part of chapter 12, but then got too long and I needed time to think about the conversation with Aizawa so I decided to make this section its own chapter. But you can think of it as chapter 12.5.

Also, please don’t judge my strategizing and war planning too harshly.

XXXXXXXX

Momo followed automatically after Tokoyami and Todoroki downstairs. It was still dark outside.

A strange quiet had fallen over the orphanage after the attack. Men sat in a stupor in the courtyard as the able-bodied walked amongst them, checking for injuries in whispered voices.

In the far corner of the yard, carcasses of the stymphalian had been stacked for burning. Next to the pile, in a single file line, the shapes of unmoving men lay on the courtyard ground, ready for their burial ceremonies.

Momo dropped her gaze and tried not to count the dead. It wouldn’t do any good to think about it. All she could do was pray their souls were judged worthy of paradise in Elysium.

Tokoyami led them down the hallway and into the kitchen.

Aizawa was already there, standing over a table covered with a map of the island. He didn’t look up as they entered.

Momo studied him in the dim lighting of the room. The flames in the tripods flickered, casting dark shadows over his face, but Momo couldn’t read his expression. Whatever worry and exhaustion he had shown in Eri’s room was carefully concealed again.

The kitchen door opened behind her, and Asui entered with Fukukado.

The pirate captain’s arm hung in a sling. Momo noticed that Fukukado had cleaned the blood off of her face, but despite the remaining blush of battle, she looked gray.

“Causality count?” Aizawa asked in a clipped voice, finally looking up and meeting Fukukado’s narrowed gaze.

“Six dead. Two missing,” she said tightly. Her dark green eyes had lost all playfulness. She looked tired and stressed. “Half of my remaining men have serious wounds, and a quarter of those might not make it through the night.”

Aizawa’s lips thinned. For a moment, he was silent as if he were contemplating something; then he reached into his chiton.

“Asui collected what she could of the medicine from the stockroom.” His expression was grim as he pulled out a small leather bag. “There’s not much. We were only able to recover three bottles of Eri’s elixir,” he said, pulling the tinctures out and setting them on the table.

The statement fell on the room as heavy as if it were the night sky, and they were the titan Atlas. Momo’s legs buckled under her. She knew it had been bad but somehow she had hoped…

But, three. Only three? She covered her mouth with her hand and drew in a deep breath. That wouldn't be nearly enough to heal everyone. She shivered and wrapped her other arm around her stomach.

Next to her, Momo felt Todoroki shift closer.

Aizawa continued. “We’ll ration it amongst the critically injured. It should be enough to keep them hanging on long enough for us to make more once Eri is better.”

Fukukado’s expression flickered. “And when will that be? What’s her condition?”

Aizawa was silent for a moment. “In a week or two, when she’s sweated out the poison,” he said finally. Then he turned and looked at Momo. “For now, we’ll have to give them what we have. Yaoyorozu, there’s one barrel of alcohol left.” He laid his hand on something beside him, and for the first time, she noticed the lone wooden barrel. “Use it to help numb their pain and get them sleeping for now.”

Momo swallowed thickly and nodded.

“That leaves us to other pressing matters,” Aizawa continued.

He leaned forward and pressed his knuckles against the table. He stared down between his hands, and his expression rippled for a split second before he regained his composure. He straightened and stared around the room.

“We are out of food.” Momo sucked in a sharp breath. “It appears the stymphalian somehow found our food and wine storage.”

“But how?” Asui asked, pressing her finger to her chin. Her eyebrows pulled down. “We always make sure to secure the door and the stymphalian don’t have hands to remove the wood. How would they have been able to get in?”

“I don’t know, but they did,” Aizawa said. “I have a few of Fukukado’s men doing inventory now, but from the initial count, the most we have left is a week’s worth—if we ration. That doesn’t leave us a lot of time. The best option would be to take the pirate boat and retreat, but with so many hurt and the possibility that we could be attacked at sea, that is no longer a viable option either.”

Aizawa paused and took a breath; his nostrils flared. “I believe it’s obvious now that this was a coordinated attack to smoke us out. And, as much as I hate to play into those creatures’ plan, the only way out of this, for any of us, will be to counterattack. And quickly,” he said tightly. “We need to strike them when they’re not expecting it and before they get more power to retaliate.”

Momo’s stomach curled in dread. From the corner of her eye, Momo watched as Tokoyami went over to Asui’s side and put his hand on her shoulder. Asui reached up and squeezed it briefly.

Momo swallowed, pretending not to notice. The room felt cold, even though the night was still warm. Her arms tightened over her stomach.

“But what if they planned for it?” she asked quietly. “Like how they had planned to steal Eri tonight?”

Aizawa’s eyes narrowed, and Momo realized he hadn’t told anyone else yet.

Tokoyami looked up at her. “What do you mean—steal Eri?”

Momo shifted as everyone looked at her.

“The one pulling the strings,” Aizawa said slowly like the words were acid, “has told the stymphalian that if they eat Eri they will turn back into humans.”

“What?” Fukukado’s eyes widened. “How do you know this?”

Aizawa hesitated for a moment; Momo could see him roll his jaw. “When this first started a little over a month ago, a crow with purple and green plumage landed on the island and told the stymphalian that whoever ate the intestines of a half-monster with silver hair would turn back into a human.”

Momo’s eyes widened. That must have happened about the same time as when their boat sank. It couldn’t be, could it?

She brought her hand up to touch her throat.

“So you think a god is involved? Why didn’t you disclose this,” Tokoyami demanded.

Aizawa’s eyes flashed. “Would that have changed anything?”

Tokoyami didn’t answer. The truth was it wouldn’t have. They were indebted to Aizawa and had no way to leave the island even if they had wanted to.

“But—a god? I’ve never heard of gods using monsters...” Fukukado said.

“Just because they don’t doesn’t mean they can’t,” Todoroki said evenly.

Tokoyami’s head jerked up and his eyes narrowed on Todoroki. “Do we even have enough power to fight against them all? Even without a god helping, we are at a disadvantage.” Tokoyami’s statement was to the room, but his eyes remained narrowed on Todoroki.

The demigod’s expression was a mask. His face was neutral as if the information didn’t change anything.

“That’s true,” Asui said quickly. “Don’t you think they are trying so hard because they have a plan to defeat us?”

Aizawa’s expression was hard. “It’s risky, but I think we can pull it off. Hado went to get additional help from some sympathizers and our own patron.”

Momo looked around the room; it was the first time she realized the aurai was gone.

“The stymphalian’s benefactor has stayed out of the fray—for now. But we don’t know how long that will last,” Aizawa said in a low voice. He was studying the room carefully. “We need to strike before the stymphalian realize we have others coming or before their patron steps in.”

“But can we do it by ourselves?” Asui asked.

Aizawa rolled his jaw. “Ideally, we’d wait for Hado to return with help, but we don’t have time. We can’t afford to suffer another attack.” He took a deep breath and looked around the room, his black eyes hard and unyielding. “We’ll have to wage an offensive tomorrow—before dusk.”

He looked down at the map and pointed at a space off the island where the pirate boat was docked. “We’ll put all the injured that can still walk and the children in Fukukado’s ship. The rest of us will break into two groups.” He dragged his finger across the map to point at the rocky northern part of the island. “Todoroki, Tokoyami, Asui, and I will attack the main lair. Fukukado, you and your men will be our back-up, helping to guard this place but also nimble enough to come to our aid if need be.”

Aizawa looked up, and his expression was intent. “We need this to be quick and decisive. There is no second shot.”

“What about me?” Momo asked, stepping forward. “Should I be in your group or Fukukado’s?”

“Yaoyorozu?” Aizawa paused and looked at her. “Your shoulder is still hurt. You'll go with the children and injured to the ship.”

It felt like she’d been slapped. Her stomach dropped, and Momo swallowed but forced herself to straighten as she met his dark gaze. “It’s a minor injury. I can still fight.”

“Your job will be to act as the healer and to look after the men,” Aizawa said sternly.

Basically, to stay in a woman’s role.

Momo drew a short breath and felt rebellious rage burn across her chest, but she pushed the anger away. Her fingers curled into fists at her side.

They couldn’t have an argument here. Not now. They needed to stay unified. She gave a small, resigned nod, and it seemed to satisfy Aizawa enough. He turned to address the rest of the room.

“For now, Todoroki, help Fukukado and me move the injured inside. Asui, you and Tokoyami start preparing beds for them; we have some spare sheets in the closet. You know where they are. Yaoyorozu, get the men as comfortable as possible. Divide up the three vials of medicine the best you can. As for the morning patrol, I will take it.” He paused and studied them for a moment. Then he turned and folded up the map. “That is all for now but not for tonight.”

With that, Aizawa adjourned the meeting and swept out of the room with Fukukado and Asui. Todoroki hesitated. Momo could feel his eyes watching her closely, but she refused to acknowledge him.

She was angry. Just because she was a woman didn’t mean she didn’t have people she wanted to protect.

After a moment, Todoroki left, and Momo stood alone with Tokoyami.

Tokoyami seemed uncomfortable. It was the first time they had been alone together since their argument over a week ago. And she was surprised that he had stayed. A small part of her was grateful for his presence—it meant that he still cared. But even that didn't overshadow the feeling of being left behind, like useless baggage.

She trembled.

“You’re angry,” Tokoyami said after a moment, looking at her.

Momo was tempted to roll her eyes but ignored the urge.

“Yes.” She turned and walked over to the kitchen table and stared down at the three remaining vials Aizawa had left. The silver liquid glittered. “The strategy for tomorrow is too risky. I understand but-but—" Her hands curled into fists. "How could Aizawa just decide that I should be swept aside to tend to the wounded? I’m a strong fighter. I can help!”

“It wasn’t Aizawa,” Tokoyami said, his voice soft.

Momo looked sharply at him. “What?”

Tokoyami swallowed visibly. Then he straightened and met her eyes. “When I was down here earlier, I asked Aizawa to consider the option of keeping you with the injured.”

Momo stared at him, mouth open. Her mind faltered.

How?

Why?

Did Tokoyami think her unreliable because she had been growing closer to Todoroki? Was this out of anger? Retaliation?

As if reading her mind, Tokoyami continued quickly. “It wasn’t because of your relationship with Todoroki.”

Momo’s eyes narrowed. “Then why–”

“You're human.”

“So, I'm a liability?” she snapped.

Momo knew it was unfair, but she was so sick of it. She was sick of others making her feel like she wasn’t capable of taking care of herself—Aizawa, Todoroki, and now Tokoyami.

“That's not it! There are just some things a human can't do against overwhelming evil.” Tokoyami moved towards her. “It's going to be a tough battle as it is. Please understand.”

If she wasn't so hurt, a part of Momo knew she would have agreed with him. She had always been a healer. That was her area of expertise, but the fact that he didn’t even consult with her stung.

She pressed her lips together. "But I can fight. You know I can fight. I saved Eri earlier and was holding my own against the stymphalian.”

Tokoyami’s eyes flashed. “What you did earlier was reckless—jumping off the veranda to catch Eri. You could have been seriously hurt. Your skill is adequate against a couple of humans but not against creatures of darkness. And tonight proved it.”

“But what about all those other times?” Her voice shook with rage. “I defended you at the temple, didn’t I? And I chased off Moonfish and held my own—”

“And all those times Todoroki had to save you.” His voice was bitter.

Momo’s lips twisted, and she looked away quickly, her chest constricting. His words weren’t untrue, but they hurt, like knives digging into her heart. It felt like her chest was being hollowed out, and she swallowed thickly.

“You’re always angry at me these days.” She could feel the pressure in her cheeks and eyes. Her fingers tightened into fists until her knuckles turned white. Then she looked up, meeting his eyes. "Don’t you trust me?" she asked softly.

Tokoyami's expression flickered, and he at least had the audacity to look abashed. "I trust you. Of course, I do,” he said quickly, stepping closer. “But these last weeks have been taxing and extenuating circumstances. And when I saw you almost die tonight...” His voice broke slightly, and he swallowed before continuing. “You're human, Yaoyorozu. There are just some things a human can't do. No matter how good of a fighter you are, your flesh is mortal. If you go out there—if you fight—you'll die."

He stepped closer and grasped her shoulder gently. “With Eri sick, if you get hurt, there's no one to heal you. Please understand.” He squeezed her good shoulder tenderly. “I can’t afford to lose you," he said softly, releasing her.

Momo didn’t say anything. She dropped her gaze to the ground. She felt nauseous.

Tokoyami hesitated. He opened his beak as if he were going to say more, then shut it firmly and turned, exiting the kitchen and closing the door behind him.

Momo heard the door click shut and stood there trembling for a few moments. Her chest hurt, as if her heart was in the pit of her stomach.

Tokoyami had said that this was for her own safety, but his words had been hollow. The truth was she had become a nuisance.

She was so weak and pathetic. No wonder he wanted to abandon her. She couldn’t do anything, couldn’t protect anyone. All she ever did was cause problems, and now she was suffering the consequences for her actions.

Momo’s jaw tightened as she struggled not to cry.

If she were more reliable, if she were more likable, then no one would have abandoned her.

Claustrophobia enveloped her, cold and suffocating. She couldn’t stay here. She needed to get out. She felt trapped and useless.

Choking, Momo turned and hurried out of the house.

Her feet carried her out to the edge of the cliffs. The wind whipped around her. The smell of dark magic had lessened, replaced with the sharp tang of blood and burning flesh.

Momo paused, looking out at the sea, and breathed deeply. It felt like the world was caving in around her.

In the back of her mind, Momo realized that she was having a panic attack. She had seen these symptoms in the men and women of Troy over. But she had never...she was made of stronger material than this...

Her eyes started to burn, and Momo wiped her face with the back of her hand. This was so unsightly and nothing that a priestess of Apollo should be. She was the top healer at Apollo’s temple, she wasn’t supposed to break down like this, especially when Tokoyami was only asking her to do her duty as a priestess.

But she felt betrayed, and she hated herself for the feeling.

Tokoyami was only asking what was reasonable, and Momo knew she would have done the same. But it hurt. Fukukado’s men were human too, and Tokoyami didn’t care that they were fighting—just her.

It felt like everything was falling apart between them.

Back in Troy, she had prayed to the gods for Tokoyami’s safety. She had been willing to trade anything, and the gods had answered her wishes. They had sent her Todoroki, and it should have been enough. But she had somehow thought that everything would stay the same between Tokoyami and her. However, the harder she fought, the faster everything seemed to fall apart, like sand slipping between her fingers.

And it was all her fault. Wishes had consequences. The gods never gave anything for free.

Momo drew in a sharp breath and rubbed at her eyes. It seemed all she could do lately was cry.

She was pathetic.

[a-secret-bolton-vampire]

Hardhome in TWOW

I've seen a lot of takes that we won't see Hardhome in TWOW and that whatever happens there will remain offpage. I was in this camp for a while too; it'd be very creepy to not have a view of what happens there and only learn later on. However, I'm more convinced that we actually will see it in TWOW, and that it's a far more important location than we give it credit for.

In ADWD, Hardhome is first mentioned in Jon VIII, and is mentioned by name 23 times. A woods witch named Mother Mole has witnessed a vision promising ships that will carry the free folk to salvation across the narrow sea from Hardhome, and so they settle there. Of course, prophecies are a pain in the ass, and while it comes true it's... not as advertised. There are ships coming to Hardhome to rescue them, sent by Jon Snow, but they are beat by slavers from the Free Cities who captured the free folk. Of course, a storm makes one ship drift off course and land in Braavos, where they immediately free the free folk who were enslaved. But it remains a very important location for Jon.

Expedition to Hardhome

When Jon mentions this location and Mother Mole, his officers say it is a cursed and unholy place, and Jon recounts the story of what happened there centuries prior.

Hardhome had been halfway toward becoming a town, the only true town north of the Wall, until the night six hundred years ago when hell had swallowed it. Its people had been carried off into slavery or slaughtered for meat, depending on which version of the tale you believed, their homes and halls consumed in a conflagration that burned so hot that watchers on the Wall far to the south had thought the sun was rising in the north. Afterward ashes rained down on haunted forest and Shivering Sea alike for almost half a year. Traders reported finding only nightmarish devastation where Hardhome had stood, a landscape of charred trees and burned bones, waters choked with swollen corpses, blood-chilling shrieks echoing from the cave mouths that pocked the great cliff that loomed above the settlement. Six centuries had come and gone since that night, but Hardhome was still shunned. The wild had reclaimed the site, Jon had been told, but rangers claimed that the overgrown ruins were haunted by ghouls and demons and burning ghosts with an unhealthy taste for blood.

Something happened that caused the free folk to shun it forever, and a lot of theories have sprung on what happened there; perhaps it was slavers raiding, or it was the Faceless Men doing their own mini-Doom as a precursor to the true Doom of Valyria. I have my own idea of what happened there, but first, set dressing (like salad dressing, but for settings).

Jon does not want for the free folk to succumb to a nasty fate at the hands of the Others. He doesn't want them to die and be added to the ever growing army of wights at their call. The free folk deserve to be rescued and given a better life. So Jon sends Cotter Pyke with 11 ships (3 Braavosi, 4 Lyseni, and 4 Night's Watch) to provide relief. However, since the slavers already came, when they arrive, the free folk are untrusting, and believe that the ships are slaver ships. The situation is also incredibly bad there, as Cotter notes in the infamous letter he sends to Jon from Hardhome.

At Hardhome, with six ships. Wild seas. Blackbird lost with all hands, two Lyseni ships driven aground on Skane, Talon taking water. Very bad here. Wildlings eating their own dead. Dead things in the woods. Braavosi captains will only take women, children on their ships. Witch women call us slavers. Attempt to take Storm Crow defeated, six crew dead, many wildlings. Eight ravens left. Dead things in the water. Send help by land, seas wracked by storms. From Talon, by hand of Maester Harmune.

So Jon decides to lead another great ranging to Hardhome to provide overland relief. The Night's Watch is really against it, as is Melisandre (more below), but Jon finds it important enough to try to do anyways. He makes plans with Tormund, before he gets the pink letter. After that, he decides instead to have Tormund lead the Night's Watch to Hardhome while he marches south with the free folk to murder the fuck out of Ramsay. And then he's stabbenated.

After that, it's unsure exactly if this expedition will still occur. However, I think that because Hardhome is mentioned so often, and because of an SSM, that we will at the least see Hardhome, and that the expedition will still occur, albeit maybe not exactly as planned.

The Doom of Hardhome

Melisandre says Hardhome is doomed and that nobody will return from it. She also has visions that fit well with Hardhome.

Snowflakes swirled from a dark sky and ashes rose to meet them, the grey and the white whirling around each other as flaming arrows arced above a wooden wall and dead things shambled silent through the cold, beneath a great grey cliff where fires burned inside a hundred caves. Then the wind rose and the white mist came sweeping in, impossibly cold, and one by one the fires went out. Afterward only the skulls remained. Death, thought Melisandre. The skulls are death.

The most interesting part of this quote is the flaming arrows arcing above a wooden wall. The rest is pretty obviously Hardhome, but this implies something more happening. Not necessarily a battle, but a glimpse at the confrontation to come? Thus far the wights are just nibbling at the edges, but according to the visions, it won't be long until the Others sweep in and put an end to everything there.

But there is one thing that to me confirms that Hardhome will appear onpage and it won't be something mentioned after the fact. In this post by nobodysuspectsthebutterfly, an SSM is brought up about GRRM visiting Rotorua park in New Zealand as inspiration for a future location in the books that hasn't appeared yet but eventually will. OP had previously noted similarities between Hardhome and Rotorua, specifically with the shrieking caves that both possess. They also mention that the aftermath of the initial destruction at Hardhome sounds a lot like a geothermic eruption (which I agree with), and Rotorua has thermal pools and geysers and bubbling mud and the like.

All this put together, I think that Rotorua is the inspiration for Hardhome, and that since it is the basis of a location that will eventually appear, Hardhome will appear onpage. To me, this makes a lot more sense than Hardhome being something that is merely mentioned offscreen. For one, while we have seen the wights in action before, we haven't exactly seen the Others come out in full force and seen what they are truly capable of. The closest was the Fist of the First Men, but that is mostly relayed in a flashback after the fact, and as far as we know, the Others themselves didn't make an appearance, just the wights.

In this way, Hardhome is an important place to see. In Mel's vision, she mentions the winds rising and an impossibly cold white mist sweeping in to kill all the fires in the cave. White mist and extreme (supernatural) cold are specific elements that appear when the Others approach, which implies to me the Others themselves are going to arrive at Hardhome. Essentially, Hardhome is a precursor to the truly horrible apocalyptic stuff that will happen once they breach the Wall. This will be the first time we see the Others truly in action and not just the wights, to give us a mere taste of just how bad things will get when the Long Night finally falls. Also it fits thematically. Hardhome was once destroyed by fire (volcanic events), and now it will be destroyed again by ice (the Others).

The big question of course is who will be there to witness it? While Jon Snow led the expedition in the show, I don't see this as very likely. His last thought was rushing south to deal with Ramsay, and I don't think he's going to suddenly change his mind to stay at the Wall after that. If anything, that's just going to harden him against Ramsay. So Jon as the POV there seems unlikely. That leaves only three more people, in my mind; Bran, Melisandre, or Davos.

Bran is a strong possibility, but if we are to really get a good look at the Others doing their thing, I think it's better and more powerful if we get an actual first person perspective. Bran could show us via skinchanging, but that lacks the personal intimacy of a very apocalyptic event. Melisandre meanwhile would have no interest in going to Hardhome. She believes it's doomed and there is nothing to be done about that.

That leaves Davos. While he is not connected to Hardhome in any way right now, Skagos is rather close to Hardhome. It's possible he gets Rickon and leaves for White Harbor, but since the seas are said to be very stormy right now, they wind up in Hardhome, or at Eastwatch, where you would want to leave for Hardhome instead of Castle Black. Davos is sort of the anti-Melisandre; the two are opposites in a lot of ways, and their influence on Stannis keeps him from steering too far into Melisandre's direction. She has no qualms with burning a child if it means a stone dragon will wake. Davos is vehemently opposed to such an act under any circumstances.

So if Davos learns that Stannis is dead (allegedly) and hears that Melisandre says Hardhome is hopeless and should be left alone, what would he do? I think he would want to help the free folk there, even under the bad circumstances. It may be a hopeless mission, but to Davos, I think trying to do something about it is better than not doing anything at all. I'm not entirely sure what is left for Davos if Stannis is dead. Perhaps he might not go to Hardhome at all, but it's just a possibility in my mind.

Another reason Davos at Hardhome might work well is that if this is a precursor to the Long Night in Westeros, someone like Davos as our POV there would be fitting. Most people in Westeros will be extremely unfamiliar with the Others, or not even think they are real. Davos has no real connection with the Others, never saw them. It would be completely unreal for someone like him, a former smuggler from King's Landing, to see something so powerful, supernatural, and inhuman at the Others. But if he does go to Hardhome... I worry he might not get back.

The problem is that it might not entirely be fitting of an end for him. Davos is one of those characters where I have literally no idea what or where his story is leading to, and that I think the show didn't spoil much about. Bran is another strong contender, but I feel like someone should be there physically to really drive home the horror of everything happening.

The point being, Hardhome is important to show. I get the argument that it's scarier not seeing everything, and that can work. But we know almost nothing about the Others, and despite being the main antagonist force of the series, we've seen them literally only twice in all five books. If we are to build them up as this big threat, and give us a glimpse as to how serious of a threat they are, then Hardhome should be shown onpage. Show, don't tell. That's storytelling 101.

Regardless, we will be seeing the Others a lot more in TWOW I'm sure. Winter is here, and the Long Night is not far from taking centre stage.

[jotasticweekend]

Halloween request: Bruno goes for a walk to clear his head. The night had been just like any other night, however upon his return home he is met with a mysterious woman who claims to have known his father. He's skeptical of her but despite this accepts an amulet that she claims belonged to Paolo and swore to give to Bruno. So many questions rush through his mind but before he can ask she has disappeared. Soon after he's plagued by apparitions and nightmares. Coincidence or is the trinket cursed?

CW: blood, gore

It was one of those nights again for him.

Bruno sighs, his breath visible from the cold night air. Strolling through his neighborhood so late at night like this has become the norm for him since he first joined Passione. Many others see him as a man who can keep his head together, who doesn't seem deterred at the things done in the mafia business. But they would be surprised. Just because he's been in Passione for so long doesn't mean certain things in it don't plague his thoughts now and then. Mafioso or not, he's still human. Even he needs some time just to clear his head.

Even after Diavolo's defeat, and Giorno's new title as Don, however, Bruno still finds himself taking these nightly strolls.

It's just habit now, he supposes.

Just as he turned a corner, he heard something. Or rather, someone.

"You are Bruno Buccellati, correct?" a voice asked. Bruno halted in his tracks, eyes immediately roaming the area around him, looking for the person who just spoke to him.

"That depends on who's asking. Where are you?" he calls out.

"Behind you."

Bruno whips around and sees the owner of the voice, a woman, standing only a couple of feet away from him. Bruno immediately takes a few steps back, surprised by the initial proximity. How is it that he didn't notice her presence if she got this close to him? He didn't sense anyone following him. He didn't even hear any footsteps behind him as he was walking! Did this woman have a Stand power or something? Is she an enemy?

"Who are you?" he repeats. Bruno is keeping his full guard up, ready to summon Sticky Fingers if the woman tries anything.

"My name is of no importance," she says, her tone of voice monotonous, "I am here simply to give you something that once belonged to your father, Paolo Buccellati." That made Bruno pause. What?

"My father?" he whispers. "You...knew him? How? What was your relationship with him?"

A moment passes before she says, "...I was an old acquaintance of his many years ago. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, onto the matter at hand." She then held something out in her hand. There, dangling from her hand, was an amulet. A beautiful crimson jewel hung with a gold chain, the light of the moon reflecting off of its shiny surface.

"Paolo entrusted me to look after this amulet. He told me that if anything were to happen to him, I was to give it to you. And so, after learning of his passing, I went on to track you down so that I may finally leave it in your hands. Think of it as a memento of sorts of your late father."

Bruno glances between the woman and the amulet. Was she serious? "How do I know if what you're saying is the truth? What is your proof that that amulet belonged to my father?" The woman said nothing at first; she just clenched the amulet. But then, a strange light flickered from it, and Bruno gasped as a vision suddenly flashed into his mind.

He saw his father and the woman in an empty street- it looks like they were talking. Paolo then reached into his pocket and took out the same amulet the woman currently had and gave it to her. Bruno only managed to catch the last bit of the conversation.

"Promise me that you will hold onto this for now," Paolo says, "If something ever happens to me, I want you to give this to my son as soon as you can." The woman nodded. His father then walked off after that.

The vision ended there, and Bruno was left speechless. He just stared at the woman in disbelief.

"Was that proof enough?" She asks. Bruno bites his lip. He's still skeptical. This feels like it's too good to be true. This woman is oozing with suspicion, but that vision... He doesn't know how she showed it to him, but what he saw looked so real. His father was right there, giving that amulet to this woman. A small feeling in him wants to believe it. To have something left of his father to keep...

Bruno shakes his head. Ugh. He just doesn't know what to think.

"Well?" The woman was still waiting for his answer. Narrowing his eyes at the ground, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before finally reaching his decision.

"...All right," he says, "I'll take it."

He missed it, but an eerie grin formed on the woman's face for a split second before disappearing. She stepped forward and handed him the amulet. Gazing down at it, Bruno still felt rather uneasy but also a bit happy to have something left from his father.

He looked back up towards the woman, wanting to ask just a few more questions, but they quickly died in his throat as he found himself all alone. She had vanished. Looking left and right, Bruno couldn't find a trace of her. Yet again, he didn't sense her movement nor did he hear her footsteps. Very strange.

Clutching the amulet in his hand, and taking one last glance at his surroundings, he continued his way back home.

—————————

He was having a pleasant dream.

He was standing on a beach on a bright, sunny day. The wind blowing gently around him, the cries of the Black-tailed Gulls flying overhead, and the briny scent of the sea reaching his nose. It was peaceful. Soothing.

"Bruno!" He heard someone yell. He blinked. That voice. No, it couldn't be. He turned around, and sure enough, it was him.

His father.

Paolo was walking towards him, smiling and waving at him. Bruno smiled back, and went to approach him, but stopped as he saw something appear behind his father, and his dream soon became a terrible, terrible nightmare.

Behind his father was a big, dark figure. It had bright, glowing eyes and giant, ghoulish hands. The figure then all of a sudden lunged at his father, wrapping its hands around his body. His father yelled and started struggling to free himself. Bruno started running towards them to save him but was stopped as something grabbed onto his legs and made him fall, and he looked back and was shocked. Hands similar to the figure's had burst out from the sand beneath him and took hold of his legs. He went to push himself back up, but more hands came out and grabbed hold of the rest of his body. He was completely pinned down, he couldn't move.

Paolo started screaming. Bruno looked up and saw that the figure was increasing the pressure of its grip. He flinched as he heard the man's bones breaking under the intense pressure, blood starting to spurt out of his body.

"B-Bruno!" Paolo screamed, his eyes filled with fear and tears as he looked at his son, begging for help. Bruno thrashed around, desperate to free himself to save his father, but these hands were too strong. He couldn't do anything but watch in horror as the figure changed its hold on Paolo...

...and gruesomely ripped his body in two, his blood and organs all spilling onto the sand. The last thing he saw was his father's now cold, dead eyes boring into his.

Bruno screamed as he shot up from his bed. His eyes were wide with tears streaming down his face, sweating and breathing heavily. That dream, no- that nightmare, it was...horrifying. He's had nightmares before, but nothing that extreme; this was a first.

A low creaking sound suddenly reached his ears.

Bruno freezes. He slowly looks up, and what he saw made his blood run cold.

There, standing in the corner of his room, was the very same horrible, dark figure that he saw in his nightmare, just staring right at him. A sick cracking sound was made as it tilted it's head to the side, it's gaze never leaving Bruno's form.

With sudden adrenaline rushing through him, Bruno summons his Stand. "Sticky Fingers!" He yells. The Stand goes to punch the figure, but it vanishes into a black mist upon impact. Both he and his Stand surveyed the room for any sign of where it went when it reappeared in front of Sicky Fingers, grabbing it by the throat and pinning it to the wall. Bruno struggled to breathe as he felt the figure's grip on his Stand on himself.

He went to take a step back but tripped and fell back onto his nightstand, knocking down the lamp on it and incidentally turned it on, the sudden light making the figure release its hold with a shriek and disappearing.

Bruno called back Sticky Fingers as he panted, trying to regain his breath, his heart still racing. "Just what the hell was that?" He mutters. That thing was in his nightmare, and somehow it showed up here in real life? How was that possible? What could have happened? He just sighs as he brings a hand up to massage his forehead. He just didn't know.

On his nightstand, the amulet glints ominously.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Employers, insurers push to make virtual visits regular care (AP) Make telemedicine your first choice for most doctor visits. That’s the message some U.S. employers and insurers are sending with a new wave of care options. Amazon and several insurers have started or expanded virtual-first care plans to get people to use telemedicine routinely, even for planned visits like annual checkups. They’re trying to make it easier for patients to connect with regular help by using remote care that grew explosively during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advocates say this can keep patients healthy and out of expensive hospitals, which makes insurers and employers that pay most of the bill happy. But some doctors worry that it might create an over-reliance on virtual visits. “There is a lot lost when there is no personal touch, at least once in a while,” said Dr. Andrew Carroll, an Arizona-based family doctor and board member of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Landlords and renters both struggling (Washington Post) In the covid economy of 2021, the federal government has created an ongoing grace period for renters until at least July, banning all evictions in an effort to hold back a historic housing crisis that is already underway. More than 8 million rental properties across the country are behind on payments by an average of $5,600, according to census data. Nearly half of those rental properties are owned not by banks or big corporations but instead by what the government classifies as “small landlords”—people who manage their own rentals and depend on them for basic income, and who are now trapped between tenants who can’t pay and their own mounting bills for insurance, mortgages and property tax. According to government estimates, a third of small landlords are at risk of bankruptcy or foreclosure as the pandemic continues into its second year.

Pandemic baby bust unprecedented in Bay Area, California history (San Francisco Chronicle) U.S. residents are having fewer babies this year. And California’s birth rates in January and February—around the time when early pandemic babies would be due—declined by 15% compared to the same period last year, the steepest year-over-year decline for those months since at least 1960, according to a Chronicle analysis. We used data from California’s Health and Human Services department, which collects monthly birth totals per county. We found that the state’s births declined from nearly 70,000 in the first two months of 2020 to fewer than 59,000 in the same period in 2021.

Zoom Court Is Changing How Justice Is Served (The Atlantic) Last spring, as COVID‑19 infections surged for the first time, many American courts curtailed their operations. As case backlogs swelled, courts moved online, at a speed that has amazed—and sometimes alarmed—judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. In the past year, U.S. courts have conducted millions of hearings, depositions, arraignments, settlement conferences, and even trials—nearly entirely in civil cases or for minor criminal offenses—over Zoom and other meeting platforms. As of late February, Texas, the state that’s moved online most aggressively, had held 1.1 million remote proceedings.

Mexico City metro overpass collapses onto road; 20 dead (AP) An elevated section of the Mexico City metro collapsed and sent a subway car plunging toward a busy boulevard late Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 70, city officials said. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said 49 of the injured were hospitalized, and that seven were in serious condition and undergoing surgery. The overpass was about 5 meters (16 feet) above the road in the southside borough of Tlahuac, but the train ran above a concrete median strip, which apparently lessened the casualties among motorists on the roadway below. “A support beam gave way,” Sheinbaum said, adding that the beam collapsed just as the train passed over it.

El Salvador’s judiciary (Foreign Policy) Lawmakers in El Salvador voted to remove five influential Supreme Court judges and the attorney general over the weekend in a move U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has noted with “grave concern.” The motions to remove the officials passed with a supermajority in El Salvador’s legislature, now ruled by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party following a sweeping victory in February’s elections. Addressing the international community on Twitter Bukele dismissed rebukes over the move. “With all due respect: We are cleaning house … and this doesn’t concern you,” Bukele said.

‘Hospitals are full’ as Argentina COVID-19 cases hit 3 million (Reuters) Argentina coronavirus cases hit 3 million on Sunday since the pandemic began, as medical workers said hospitals were full to capacity despite toughened government measures to bring down the spread of infections. The government of President Alberto Fernandez this week unveiled a new round of tougher restrictions as a second wave of infections has battered the country, filling up intensive care units and setting new daily records for cases and deaths. Marcela Cid, owner of a business on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, said that Argentines were increasingly “locked into a situation” that while necessary, was of little help to anyone trying to move beyond the pandemic.

EU proposes reopening external borders (AP) In an announcement sure to be welcomed by travelers worldwide, EU officials on Monday proposed easing restrictions on visiting the 27-nation bloc as vaccination campaigns across the continent gather speed. Travel to the European Union is currently extremely limited except for a handful of countries with low infection rates. But with the summer tourist season looming, the bloc’s European Commission hopes the new recommendations will dramatically expand that list. The Commission hopes the move will soon allow travelers reunite with their friends and relatives living in Europe and support the bloc’s economy this summer. Under the Commission’s proposal, entry would be granted to all those fully vaccinated with EU-authorized shots. Coronavirus vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency, the bloc’s drug regulator, include Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Indian leader’s party takes electoral hit amid virus surge (AP) India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffered a resounding defeat in a key state election on Sunday, indicating his Hindu nationalist party’s political strength may be slipping as the country struggles to contain an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unable to dislodge West Bengal state’s firebrand chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, after a hard-fought campaign. His party also failed to win in two southern states, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. But the BJP secured a second term in the northeastern state of Assam and an alliance with regional parties led it to victory in the union territory of Puducherry. Even before the current virus surge, Modi’s party faced stiff challenges in these local legislative elections. Following the disappointing results, Modi stands weakened but faces no threats to staying on as prime minister until his term ends in 2024.

Formal Withdrawal from Afghanistan Begins (AP) US and NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan formally began the withdrawal phase over the weekend, a process that is expected to last through the summer and officially end Sept. 11. Roughly 3,000 US troops and 7,000 coalition troops remain in the country, along with a reported 18,000 Pentagon-employed contractors. The exit has been framed as nonconditional—meaning ongoing attacks by the Taliban against the Afghan government won’t delay the withdrawal. Many have questioned the ability of the Afghan National Army to provide security against the Taliban absent international forces. Despite assurances by Afghan officials, Taliban forces have established themselves across most of the country. Afghan forces control an estimated one-third of the country’s districts, with the Taliban controlling about 10%, and nearly half—areas that include a total of roughly 14 million people—currently contested.

Chinese man crosses Taiwan Strait by rubber dinghy, seeking ‘freedom and equality’ (Washington Post) A Chinese man appeared to sail undetected through the highly militarized Taiwan Strait in a rubber dinghy, fleeing his native China for Taiwan in search of “freedom,” according to Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration. The man, identified only by his surname, Zhou, left Shishi county in Quanzhou, a port city in Fujian province, at 10 a.m. on Friday, arriving more than 10 hours later at Taichung port on Taiwan’s western coast, Taiwan’s Coast Guard said on Monday. Officials said they were still investigating Zhou’s journey over the 100-mile stretch of sea between China and Taiwan, which is patrolled by hundreds of Chinese and Taiwanese coast guard ships and naval vessels. Coast Guard officials, relaying Zhou’s account of his journey, told reporters he had traveled in a rubber raft measuring 8.8 feet by 5 feet that he bought on the Chinese e-commerce site Taobao and fitted with an outboard motor. The incident has prompted concerns about the security of the contentious waterway at a time when military observers worry that long-standing tensions between the governments of China, Taiwan and the United States, which is committed to defending Taiwan, could boil over into military conflict.

Australia warns its citizens of jail and $50,000 fine if they return from India (Washington Post) Even in the pandemic era of closed borders, Australia’s latest travel restriction stands out: Anyone, including Australian citizens, who arrives in the country after visiting India in the previous 14 days can face up to five years in jail, a $50,000 fine or both. On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the move. Australia had seen a sevenfold increase in the percentage of people traveling from India who tested positive for the coronavirus, the prime minister told Sydney’s 2GB radio station. The decision to threaten even Australian citizens with jail time if they return home from India during its record-breaking coronavirus surge is a significant escalation of border restrictions for Australia, an island nation that had already mandated strict controls at its borders throughout the pandemic.

DR Congo declares state of siege over eastern bloodshed (Reuters) Militants killed at least 19 people, including 10 soldiers, in raids on two villages in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, hours after President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in two provinces. A surge in attacks by armed militias and inter-communal violence in the east have killed more than 300 people since the start of the year as government troops and U.N. peacekeepers struggle to stabilize the situation. The most recent attacks took place early on Saturday when militants raided two villages in North Kivu’s regional hub of Beni, local authorities said. Tshisekedi had declared a state of siege in North Kivu and Ituri provinces on Friday.

[cacophony-of-notions]

Really appreciate you saying that disliking the finale isn't just about ships. I just think it was a disservice to Dean.

People making everything about shipping is getting to me... closely followed in order of frustration by people telling me that I just “don’t understand tragedy” and that's why I can’t appreciate the ending. 

The way Dean was killed was a disservice to him in so many ways that I still can’t untangle it all. It becomes worse the more I think about it instead of better. All of the possible implications behind killing Dean this specific way—seeing it as important that he die this way—are very unsettling to me and I can’t even wrap my head around all of them. This post starts a series of taglines to a number of posts that could be written on the subject of possible disturbing reasons for Dean’s young death.  The fact that it’s so tangled up like this is also why it’s so impossible for me to put the finale behind me, because in the back of my mind, I am always thinking, “What did it mean? What did it mean to kill Dean that young, in that manner? Why that way? Why was this how they wanted him to go?” (and don’t get me started on “Atomic Monsters” and Becky and how it just makes your head want to explode). It seems so pointless at best to kill Dean that way, and then you consider the potential meanings and fall into some truly disturbing waters you can never climb out of. It’s “choose your narrative” among a sea of horrifying possible narratives.

I really felt that Dabb wrote primarily about Dean’s boundaries being violated during his run. This was in theme for Dean before, but Dabb took it to the extreme, I felt. 

Dean had to take on a parental role with his own mother to some extent

Dean had to take on a parental role with Jack that I felt paralleled how John placed responsibility for Sam on Dean’s shoulders. (I really believe Dean never wanted Jack as his child... he cared about him, but their relationship was strained by Jack’s powers and the circumstances of his birth/involvement in Mary and Cas being hurt. Father was a role that others tried to force Dean into, when I really think Dean didn’t want to parent another child, or at least not Jack. He would have been happier with Jack as a brother, absent the responsibilities of being a father to him. This is, imo, why we see Dean treat Jack as much more of an adult even when they are getting along, handling the adult conversations Sam and Cas won’t like sex, and driving lessons. It feels more like the work of an older brother. It’s sensing what Sam and Cas want Dean to be to Jack + what Jack himself longs for, that has Dean occasionally trying to force himself into a fatherly role, but he doesn’t really want that role—he wants boundaries and he wants less responsibility, and there never should have been anything considered wrong with that)

Michael’s possession

The alternate universe hunters (strangers) moving into the bunker, one of the only places in the world where Dean feels safe 

Michael possessing him again

Sam and Cas entering Dean’s mind (a necessary but nonetheless violating prospect)

Castiel’s perpetual secrets

Soulless Jack trying to ingratiate himself back with the Winchesters and continue to be a part of the family (Dean is the found family) while, in his state, being incapable of understanding the real weight of his actions (I reblogged an absolutely wonderful bit of writing on this by mittensmorgul at one point)

Chuck revealed as the ultimate villain, Dean feeling he never had free will at all, the way this took every trauma of his life—every lifelong violation—and made it traumatic in new and horrific ways (the deaths of his parents, him having to raise Sam, going to hell, the deaths of the found family he surrounded himself with). Dean says he doesn’t feel real, that he doesn’t really have choices, that he’s just a puppet, which makes your heart break all over again as you think about this also coming from the man who depended on free will in a world where he felt deeply objectified—”Daddy’s blunt little instrument”, “The Michael Sword”—once again an instrument with no will of its own, no power, simply helpless. 

To take that character, who was shown to experience such sheer terror over the prospect of being controlled by an all powerful cosmic force... having his free will perpetually ripped to shreds, to the extent that when presented with the opportunity to make this horrific lifelong violation finally stop, he turned a gun on the person he loves most in the world (and that person begging him to continue enduring his violation, with no alternative plan, and no idea when he will be able to make the violation stop)... it’s all.. a lot. And they take that person, who was so profoundly terrorized by his lack of agency within the narrative of his life, especially in the last two seasons... who was absolutely torn apart by how he had been controlled and used and objectified, and after he gains freedom from the writer of his story once and for all, and the weight is lifted off his shoulders, and he has the chance to make his own choices and stand out on the road and say, “look now at all the possibilities” they kill him. He is stabbed in the back, he is made helpless against creatures who (as Jensen has noted more than once) Dean considers it a cake walk to defeat. It continues the narrative of his helplessness to stop his own violation (he is stabbed. Stabbed).

And that’s only one unpleasant theme mingling with Dean’s death... there are far more than that.

Then there's what it means for Sam, how it forces him into a life he insisted he had grown out of in season 10—how Sam said what he wanted, once and for all, was to hunt with Dean, but if he couldn’t have that... (and he cut himself off, because he couldn’t even consider the prospect) and they take Sam and force him back into that normal life he didn’t want anymore. This time, it feels like it’s in honor of Dean that Sam lives this normal life (exactly like Jared said in his Variety interview). Years later, he still gets in the car and the pain on his face makes Dean’s absence seem like a raw and gaping wound—like he gave up the hunt not because he actually wanted the normal life, but because Dean would want him to live a normal life and die old, and he couldn’t bear the painful memories that would come from continuing the hunt without Dean or even driving the car. 

There’s the way the finale clashes so painfully with Dean’s speech to Sam and Sam’s returning, insistent speech to him in 8.14—how it gives Dean the ending he expected when he was traumatized and suicidal, and calls us back to that forever unfulfilled promise of Sam’s to take Dean to the light at the end of the tunnel. That light at the end of the tunnel materializes as nothing more than the death Sam was trying so desperately on so many occasions to prevent, no matter what the cost (season 3, season 5, 8.14, season 10, 14.12). Don’t think about how Dean was actually the first to use the phrase “The light at the end of the tunnel” in season 3, talking about his impending death, and Sam insisted, “That’s hellfire, Dean.” 

Don’t think about how there are no pictures of the found family in Sam’s home, only dead blood family and his son. Don’t think about how no one attended Dean’s funeral except Sam and Miracle after Dean said he wanted a big funeral. Don’t think about the disturbing prospect of Sam’s son as Dean’s proxy being the one to “finally” give Sam permission to move on and be back with his brother again. 

Don’t think about Dean saying in the finale that if they don’t keep living, Cas’ sacrifice will be for nothing, only for Dean to die a few scenes later. Don’t think about how Cas’ sacrifice perpetuates Dean’s long held fear that loving him is poison. 

Don’t think about the possibility of Dean’s childhood unfairly burdened with adult responsibilities repeated through Jack when he, as a three year old, becomes the new god. 

Don’t think about Amara, who was caged for millions of years, having her agency ripped from the narrative completely nonsensically, absorbed by her brother, absorbed by her grand nephew, and once more stripped of her free will in the process and caged with only a throw away, nonsensical line that she’s at peace simply floating in existence inside Jack, which makes no sense given her history and seems deeply cruel and thoughtless. Don't think about how she was paralleled with Dean in season 11.

Don’t think about what happened to Adam or Kevin, the former unfridged conceivably to deliver to him a more satisfying conclusion, only for him to be forgotten again.

Don’t think about found family and free will and always keep fighting being torn to shreds along the way. 

[felassan]

Solas’ ritual

Some more detailed thoughts & speculation on it and related matters.

[cut for spoilers]

He doesn’t know what the end result will be. He has an idea but isn’t 100% sure.

The ritual site has surely gotta be somewhere the Veil is thin or weak. The Veil is almost certainly thinner/weaker in areas which have experienced or feature extensive bloodshed, death or use of magic. Callback implies that it is also thinner/weaker in areas which have born witness to many significant/important events in a general sense. Known places in the lore where it is thin or weak include the Brecilian Forest, where the bloodshed of many battles weakened it beyond repair, and Skyhold, which has seen more than its share of “ripples”. Both of these locations are in the south, and we’re heading north. In addition I doubt doing a years-long ritual would go unnoticed at Skyhold, although it would still be reasonable to posit that the location he has to go to and use to tear the Veil down has to be the same place as where he erected it (which we know Skyhold to be). In Tevinter Nights we learn the Veil is thin in Arlathan Forest, and thinner in such a way as to be different to the way it is thin in other places. The Forest is wracked by ancient lingering elven magic, which is is slick, dangerous, heavy, leaping, and comes to mages easily and with little resistance. “Something else” also lurks at the edges of mages’ awareness there, sensing them pulling at threads of magic when they cast spells. You can hear the whispers and breaths of something huge just out of view. Since the Veil was made to imprison the Evanuris, maybe this is Evanuris lurking on the other side and the Forest is the site of their prison? Perhaps it was Andruil specifically, as the Forest is noted by Strife as being hers specifically. In any event, the Forest is in the north, and it would be easier to go unnoticed doing a long ritual deep in the woods. For one there is tree cover, for another not many people go in there, believing it to be haunted. Arlathan Forest therefore seems like a good candidate for the ritual site.

It’s possible that he doesn’t yet have the idol. There are grains of untruths in both the Carta dwarf’s tale and the death mage’s. It stands to reason the same goes for Solas’ story, or else the whole thing was a straight-up fabrication. In this scenario, the last known location of the idol therefore is with the Nevarran Mortalitasi/noble’s son, who stole and made off with it at the end of the death mage’s story and fled into Tevinter. I think it’s more interesting if Solas truly did find the idol though. The stakes are already super-high, sure (in a “He is already OP how will we defeat him??” kinda way), and “stop him finding the idol” is less intense!!!1/stressful than “stop him doing the ritual”, but we already know we will have a few years to try to stop him in since the ritual will take a few years to finish, and that’s enough ‘leeway’ for me as it is without extra ‘finding’ time added on. TN also implies world-shaking showdown-y events will happen “a year later”, when nations will stand and tremble. Sure sounds like he already has it and has begun the ritual. I therefore proceed under the assumption that he already has it.

The idol reacts to the presence of other lyrium. I agree with the Mortalitasi’s speculation the ritual also requires lyrium. The death mages drank lyrium before commencing their attempted ritual. Also, lyrium and the Fade are linked, with it existing in both worlds and somehow bridging the gap between them. Consumption increases a mage’s connection to the Fade. The Chantry believe it to be the emerald waters of the Fade, the very substance of creation itself, from whence the Maker fashioned the world. This harks to the “sea of dreams” and “threatening of all creation” Solas refers to. I suspect Solas needed to use lyrium to fashion the Veil in the first place, the ancient elves sure were mining it from Titans for one thing (and remember, the Chantry believe it was the Maker who made the Veil). In an ancient Tevinter ritual which ripped the Veil open, unimaginable, inordinate amounts of lyrium was required to do so, over two thirds of all lyrium in the entire Imperium actually. Similarly, Solas’ ritual could also require inordinate amounts of the substance. The over-two-thirds sheer amount thing has never been accomplished again, but the Time is nigh! And I’m worried - the Voshai used to come across the Volca Sea to trade for lyrium at Laysh, which they were obsessively interested in acquiring, to the point they were completely uninterested in anything else. For a long time, they stopped coming, until a few ships came again with tales of a “massive cataclysm” in their land. Did they try and do whatever they were gathering all that lyrium for, and it went to shit?

Speaking of the Magisters Sidereal, their ritual also required inordinate amounts of blood in addition to the lyrium, the blood of countless sacrificed slaves. So much so that it took 100 acolytes to gather this resource. One codex entry says several hundred slaves were sacrificed. In the present day, the Tevinter mage needed to use blood magic from sacrificed slaves in his attempted ritual to like power himself and the idol up, unlock the hidden blade-like part of the idol and progress. When he slashed his hand, everyone fell to the ground and their minds at least were pulled into the Fade. I don’t wanna say “Solas’ ritual is definitely going to require blood/blood magic/sacrifice”, because it’s probably more complicated than that, and the writers enjoy making us think one thing only to ‘psych!’ us with another, but we all know the inherent power of blood in this setting, how blood magic can fuel spellcasting and how it was used before to open the Veil. I find it interesting how blood magic users don’t touch the Fade when using it to cast spells, and also find it a lot harder to enter the Fade. Especially since a blood magic ritual once allowed people entry. Everything is so connected to the Veil and the Fade.

I don’t really enjoy thinking about the possibility, but Solas’ followers are elves. His first plan, to use the foci orb, has failed. The ritual with the red lyrium idol is the second best option, or the only other option he can think of. He’s desperate, and really truly believes that A) he has no choice and B) what he is doing will save the world. He takes no joy in it, and he is compassionate, but he has been shown to be a pragmatist who will do what is needed, even ugly work that leaves bloody hands or removing his own forces if necessary. We know that elven blood is particularly potent when it comes to blood magic attempts to tear down the Veil, due to their ties to the Fade and the magic that lives within their blood, even in the case of modern elves. He has also been known to omit/obfuscate the truth/lie (point of view depending), so he may not be telling his followers the full truth of what will be required. Alternatively, some of his followers, at least, seem like fanatical cultists. Not all of them, but some. They seem willing to do or give anything in order for their People to reclaim what was once theirs and restore the glory of the true People, even giving up their lives (death before capture). In this way those particular ones (not all of em) are kinda opposites, in a way, to the Venatori, who were like “our lives for the glory of Tevinter reborn”. In this scenario Solas has willing volunteers not unwilling/unknowing victims - martyrs for the cause, essentially. We know he has several dozen followers at least. I can see there being up to a few hundred. Solas doesn’t disapprove of blood magic itself; his view is “magic is magic, mattering only in how it’s used”. He says it is fine as long as it remains a tool, not a crutch or passion. He knows it’s extremely powerful. He doesn’t know blood magic but I don’t see why he couldn’t or wouldn’t learn it if that was going to be what his plans took, even if it would blunt his connection to the Fade. (Interestingly, if his ritual requires blood magic so he has to learn it, that could be one way through which we could avoid being killed in our sleep - if blood magic blunts his connection somewhat maybe he’s less capable of a dream-walker/dreamer). Also about sacrifice, the idol essentially seems to magically extend like a Swiss army knife to become a ritual-blade. A ritual-blade with which to do what?? :| tying back to the possibility of sacrifice here..

The ritual may also require his own death. Din’anshiral and all that. It’s just that maybe, the death of one individual, even an ancient god-like individual, isn’t enough to bring down the Veil alone.

The ritual could also require some further means of amplifying power, like the use of the bound spirits in the dead in the Necropolis ritual attempt. In Solas’ this could involve further artifacts or the assistance of spirits (probably willing).

What’s different about Solas’ Veil-removal ritual compared to the Breach, the Second Sin and Cory’s modern-day Fade-entering plan? Perhaps the conclusion of his ritual will set off a gradual change that will make the transition more incrementally. Like maybe the 2 worlds need time to be allowed to sort of gradually meld back together, like the knitting flesh of a healing wound. There will still probably be lots of fire/destruction/adverse effects etc, but it’s not the same as violently tearing it down all at once and physically entering the Fade. Like instead of just jarringly ripping off a band-aid off a gaping wound and calling it a day you should perform delicate surgery. The difference is in the details. In the finesse? At Adamant he’s amazed that the party survived coming through a rift. He says he never thought to find himself there in the Fade physically. It seems like that’s not what he intends to do with his ritual.

Rewatching that scene again, when he says “There! The Black City. Almost close enough to touch.” He’s staring at it and sounds almost... desperate. Like he’s been trying to get there all along. Makes sense considering I reckon The Black City (The Eternal City) is where the Evanuris are imprisoned. But wait, didn’t I say above that’s Arlathan Forest...? That’s the location in the physical world. It corresponds to the location in the Fade. At the moment the two worlds mirror one another, albeit in weird ways (well more specifically the Fade ‘reflects’ the waking world), and the Fade is like an overlay placed over a map. It’s not explicitly known but it’s presumable that Arlathan Forest was once the site of Arlathan itself, Elvhenan’s greatest city, where elves lived in palaces in and above the trees. It’s eponymous. It’s also right on the coast, and some elven lore holds when Arlathan fell it sank into the sea. That’s part of why there’s such magic in the air there and why the spirits there remember what was, they are remembering the glory of Arlathan and how the world used to be. Arlathan was once golden, a la The Golden City, but became black when it became the prison of the Evanuris. Tainted or corrupted by their Blighted/red lyrium-corrupted presence (see the Balrog Theory), most like. That’s why it was already black when Cory and co got there. There is an element of either ‘specifically letting the Evanuris out specifically is necessary to complete things because their presence has an impact’ or ‘letting the Evanuris out is an unwanted consequence of opening the door but I need to open it because I need to get to the center of the Black City to do something there to complete things’.

One of Corypheus’ memories has him call the Temple of Mythal “the place where regret dwells”. That’s interesting, considering the Regret demon in Callback.

A parallel: in the red lyrium future, the Elder One commands an army of demons. In the Mortalitasi’s tale, the Dread Wolf commands an army of spirits.

A word on why some of Solas’ agents are doing unspeakable things: I am neither trying to be critical nor be an apologist here, merely present ideas/possibilities. One is that as a pragmatist, he feels it needs to be done in order to achieve his ends. Like Cory sowing chaos in the south to make his invasion easier, like the Qunari Dragon’s Breath plot, like how the agent in that story wants to cause the chaos by implicating a Vint in the bombing of Qunari Kont-aar thereby causing war. The chaos is a way to distract and throw off the anti-Solas war efforts, to thwart those who would seek to stop him. He refers to causing confusion in his ‘how to be a more effective Red Jenny organization’ banters with Sera; vanish, harass, strike when they’re weak etc. In this reading I don’t really feel it’s OOC given what we know of him. The other is that he doesn’t have direct control and ultimate oversight of his agents. He notes in that same banter some forces like to cause disruption and cause harm for the sake of it. There could be extremists among his numbers or even rogue agents/rogue cells. The bomber agent sounds pretty darn extreme. We already have examples of his agents doing things he would not approve of - Gaius traded away the much-desired idol for information. He would never have signed off on that, per WoG. This second possibility can be divided into 3 sub possibilities - a simple lack of micro-managing direct oversight whereupon well-meaning agents of his still manage to bungle things badly (Gaius); some of his agents just want to cause chaos and disruption for the sake of it since they enjoy it (Sera banter); some of his agents truly are like super extremist to the point that they’re rogue. I think the Gaius-style mixup is most likely followed by the chaos-revelers. PW in reference to the Qunari attack in Trespasser said they considered having it be a rogue cell of Qunari, but after reflection they decided to go all in with it and just own the fact in the narrative that the whole Qunari really did launch an attack. I feel like the same attitude would most likely pervade when it comes to Solas’ agents. And ultimately, Solas is ultimately responsible for what his followers do.

The sum effect of the ritual on elves and the world is intended to be like a combination of the Synthesis Ending in Mass Effect 3 (people becoming part synthetic and gaining enhanced sentience and new abilities as a result is an analogy for elves being restored to themselves/their immortality/their species-wide inherent magic/spirity-ness), and leaving the portals to the spirit world open in Avatar: The Legend of Korra (thus drawing the mortal worlds and spirit worlds closer once again like they were and ending their straight-up separation). I say intended because that’s his intention, that’s what it’s supposed to do, that’s his goal, but given his track record it’s not necessarily what the outcome would be if he succeeded (unforeseen circumstances abound). His idea is that then the spirits can once again enter and go freely, living alongside non-spirits again the way they did in Vir Dirthara codexes, like a regular part of nature. In this vision the natural state of the world is restored and the Fade goes back to being like, the sky. Here the mortal world and spirit world aren’t physically separated by a hard wall anymore but blend in to one another like two colors on a spectrum swatch, or the way land gives way to the sea as the ocean deepens. That’s why we have codexes like “The Deepest Fade”. There is an element of reshaping reality to the ritual/endgame. With the Fade brought back “here”, and when imagination can define reality again, he can reshape reality and restore society to how it used to be, restore the wonders that depended on the existence of the Fade like the library, etc. TN highlights Mortalitasi “true” mages commanding the magical forces that underlie the world’s fabric, and guiding the course of the ‘river’ of the Fade which flows behind places where the Veil is thin, to influence the world to their will, for a reason. Ironically they’re kind of doing what he wants to do himself but in like, reverse? Is that why he considers it unsafe (beyond the obvious he hates the binding of spirits)? It’s like against the natural order of things. Same goes for the Vint mage’s attempt to use Fade denizens to change the waking world, highlighted for a reason.

The problem is that this supposed utopia, for the average modern Thedosian I suppose, is that will only come about with a side order of a lot of fire/death/destruction, for whatever reason, as well as the probable loss of at least 3 of the 4 modern races, and the unleashing of the insane/cruel/angry Evanuris. I totally believe he has sensible plans re: this last, I’m just not sure how it would pan out.

The ‘would the modern elves survive it’ thing still feels up in the air..? The phrasing in the book is really odd. I feel like PW meant it to be ambiguous still on purpose to prolong that debate. “And those like you—the elves who still remain.” Who still remain? Huh? Will some of the modern elves not remain? Why not just tell her “And elves will remain”, “You guys will live/survive it” lol?? If some of them won’t remain, is that because some will just naturally lose their lives in the initial fire/chaos, or is it because only some modern elves will be able to attune to the new world, because of something innate or something..? Are modern elves who are “the furthest from what they’re meant to be” and the most “apart from themselves” the ones most likely to not be able to ‘attune’? Consider how he talks to Sera about how she is. Or maybe that’s just a hint Charter was an ancient all along who happened to not know the DW’s face? I also feel like there are some modern elves among Solas’ followers who are willing/desire his endgame even if it means they won’t survive it. Like that it’s worth it for what was, or their race/People as a whole. Some Dalish for example are (completely understandably) very interested in/taken with the past.

[justgottafinishthischapter]

Worldbuilding Tips: The Five Visitors

You’ve done it. You’ve come up with an idea for your fantasy world, but right now it’s mostly curb appeal and decorations without much else. So, you have the skin and flavor of your fictional world, but what if you’re having a bit of trouble coming up with the meat needed to make your world juicy and delicious? Well, I have a little game that can help flesh out your world.

Imagine a ship or whatever other kind of vehicle arriving on the shores or outskirts of your fantasy land and from that vehicle emerges 5 people from our own mundane world: a historian, an economist, an anthropologist, a diplomat, and a cartographer. There are some other visitors, but these are going to be the most universally beneficial.

The Historian:

This person is going to be interested in the backstory of your world. They don’t need to know every minuscule detail (though they wouldn’t turn that much information down) and just a general overview would be much obliged. Many fantasy worlds such as Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Martin’s Westeros are far more rich and interesting due to the amount of effort put into crafting their world’s histories. If you’re stumped, look to real world history for inspiration. It doesn’t even need to come from the middle ages so long as it works for your story. You should be able to answer questions like: How long has the dominant civilization been around? What are the biggest defining moments in your world’s history? What things are common knowledge that every child is expected to learn (such as George Washington being the first president of the USA) and which stuff is known more by historians and social studies teachers? And as you’re discussing the rest of the visitors, think back on how the answers you give would impact the historical aspect.

The Economist:

You don’t have to know the exact cost of every single thing in your world, but have a good guess. Be able to at least have a scale of price. If someone can buy a loaf of bread for 13 of your world’s currency, but a house costs 17, that would mean that either that bread is very expensive, that house is very cheap, or each unit of your currency is equal to a lot of real world money. Whatever you use to refer to your currency, keep not only price scaling in mind, but economics. If you have a port city, there’s going to be a lot of merchants in that area. The first primary export you’re likely to see in such a port town would be seafood, but also keep in mind the things that are closet to that port, as well as the climate. Greece for instance is a very rocky and mountainous country, so while they can grow crops, they would not have been any match for medieval French Aquitaine, the crown jewel of medieval farming territory. It’s also worth remembering that food in the middle ages was far more valuable than it is today. There was an old saying that wheat is worth its weight in gold. It was southern France’s bountiful soil that caused it to become one of the richest and most coveted territories in medieval Europe.  So, keep in mind where resources would come from and where they would need to go, as well as trade that would be useful. A seaside farming town might not have any good access to raw minerals, while a city in the frozen mountainous north might not be able to grow crops, but are bountiful in minerals. The correlation of supply and demand now opens a vital trade route between them. This becomes more complex when the topic of war comes into play. The kingdom that supplies your crops and food is at war with your oldest ally. Now there’s a dilemma between having enough food to feed your people, or betraying the trust of a long time friend. Now your world building can be used as a part of your drama and narrative tension. The economy also impacts culture. What is considered a display of wealth, or is a common status symbol? What are the living conditions of the poor, the working class, the rich, and the aristocrats? Is there upward mobility? In the middle ages, you were what you were for the most part, especially serfs: peasants tied to their land. It was illegal to leave your territory, but there was a saying in the middle ages that “city air makes you free” that once a serf made it to a city, they’d be free of the life they’ve escaped.

The Anthropologist:

Every society has a culture. The way they act, think, dress, believe, talk. It’s all impacted by culture. Beliefs tend to be tied either to what has come before, or based on the world as observed. While many modern fantasy pantheons are based on ancient Greece, it’s not the only model to live by. In a loose interpretation, religion in it’s earliest stages was a rudimentary science used to explain why things happened. A culture that developed along rivers, sea coasts, and other popular trade routes are far more likely to be diverse melting pots due to the frequent traffic of people coming and going, and the common sight of foreigners choosing to set down roots. Meanwhile, a more out of the way and isolated culture is far less likely to have widespread cultural diversity. Tying back into history, a country that has experienced a number of successful wars may tend to think of themselves as invincible, or may try to police the issues of other countries, assuming they’re always on the right side, or that they can’t be defeated. The same culture may ask a high price of any other culture that asks them for militaristic support. Ask what things your people value, be they material or abstract ideals. However, try to refrain from creating a Planet of Hats, a trope often seen in Star Trek and similar Sci-Fi shows and even some Fantasy stories where everyone of a single race all have mostly the same skills, interests, personalities, and roles in the global culture. This is also the time to start thinking about myths, legends, folk heroes, and historical people and events worth celebrating, as this may be when you start to craft holidays or celebrations. This could also lead into discussing religion, and the gods or lack there of that might be celebrated by your culture. How does your society reflect itself in art, music, literature, dance. Does the way someone dresses tell you something about their place in society? Some taboos come from simple logic. The reason it’s frowned upon to eat a cow in India is the same reason it’s immoral to eat horse in western culture. Both are beast of burden livestock worth a lot more alive than dead. Cows produce milk, a source of nutrients and health. Horses are strong and were used in just about everything from plowing fields to pulling entire families or communities a great distance. Horses even became status symbols, as even in modern culture, owning a horse or pony is still considered to be (largely) a snobby rich person thing. Understanding not only what your people believe, but even just a vague idea why they would believe it is a vital aspect.

The Diplomat:

As this landing party is your fantasy world’s first contact with our own reality. How would they react to the newcomers? If there’s more than one society in your world, how would each society, country, kingdom, race, etc. react to something completely foreign? Would they try to forge an alliance? Open trade negotiations? Declare war? Prepare a feast? How would they feel about the way we dress? act? talk? How would they react to different levels of progression in technology? Could an unbiased third party from our world help two feuding sides come to peace with one another? How would they feel about knowing of a world beyond their own? Are there actions or behaviors acceptable in our own society that are considered offensive to them?

The Cartographer:

Although it’s not necessary that all fantasy worlds have a fully designed map, it is a good idea to have at least a rough idea of where things are in relation to one another. This can tell you about climate, resources, wildlife, natural borders, natural disasters, food chains, and more. It’s worth at least taking a crash course in understanding how geographical biomes tend to be laid out in order to make your world feel more real. Some authors claim that a world map is the single most important feature, others say it’s not that important. Frankly, trust your gut based on the kind of world you have. You may need a map, you may not. It really depends on the size and scope of your world. For instance, with Disney’s

Zootopia

, the entire world doesn’t matter. The audience doesn’t need to know where in the world Zootopia is, or what climate or biome it’s in. Zootopia itself is the world being built, and the separate districts and biomes of the city explain the world that’s being focused on.

Secondary Visitors:

They may still be important to your world, but are less likely to be universally helpful to all people.

Biologist: if your world has creatures beyond those found in our real world, it may be worth exploring how their bodies work on a more scientific level in order to give more realistic weight to their supernatural abilities.

Linguist/Translator: If you feel compelled to come up with a language no matter how basic or complex, it may be worth while to consider the problems with communication. this may also extend to unique idioms, colloquialisms, and slang native to your fantasy world.

Teacher/Scholar: Regardless of whether or not there is a formal education system in place in your world, a teacher may be interested in how knowledge is passed down, and what information the culture might have that would be unknown to people of our world. Whether that’s how to keep a wild animal from charging you, to knowing how to forge a mineral that exists only in your world, being able to readily answer questions is generally considered to be a good thing.

Healer: There may be healing spells in your world, there may not, but most fantasy stories tend to involve either action or adventure, both of which tend to cause fights. And since fights tend to lead to injuries, it’s important to know what can and cannot be treated, and how readily available these healing abilities are to the public.

[pookamaluka]

The Pillar

The Pillar - 1,264 words Dragon Age 2

Kaidan Hawke: Mage, Purple Hawke

When Kaidan Hawke was born his parents were pleased. His father especially. He had a little one who was the spitting image of the woman he loved. Kaidan had her golden blond hair and sea-green eyes he adored. Leandra, however was a bit disappointed. She had yearned for a girl who looked like her husband.

Nevertheless, they loved him dearly and protected him with the fierceness of a dragon. 

Years later, Leandra got her wish. A set of twins, among them, the beautiful baby girl she had always wished for. A little lady who took after her father. And a cute little man who was a perfect blend of them both. Their family was complete. Even with the constant anxiety of having to hide Malcom’s origins, they managed to carve a small slice of happiness. 

Until Kaidan showed a talent for magic. The children’s room going up in flames was a memory Leandra had to work hard to suppress. Thankfully, Malcolm had been near and the children, all of them, got out unscathed. Leandra was more strict with her eldest son after that incident. 

Malcolm didn’t approve, but he wasn’t always around as a buffer. He took on the role of teacher and mentor, teaching his son everything he had learned in the Circle, and more. He made sure to teach him how to hide what he taught him too. The safety of their family was paramount. 

But Kaidan was very much like his father. They were both very proud of their magic, and hiding such a big part of themselves hurt them. Kaidan was always impressed by the flashiest aspects of magic. The more obvious it was, the more it impressed him. And he was not the only one impressed. 

With Malcolm away often enough, Leandra busy working and isolated from most of their peers, Kaidan became a rock to his younger siblings. He was idolized by Bethany and Carver. Bethany wanted to be just like him and Carver wanted to beat him. They imagined themselves a trio of adventurers standing side by side as they defeated bandits and dragons.

During moments of frustrated despair, Leandra would mutter or even scream that if it wasn’t for his influence, Bethany would’ve never developed magic. That was not true, of course. But as a child, Kaidan took most of what his mother said as the truth. Why would she lie? 

His sister was a mage like him! Like their father! He couldn’t wait to teach her everything his father had taught him and for them to learn together during lessons. And they did, for a while. Until Malcolm was no longer among them, and Kaidan was left to mentor his sister alone.

He learned to become more subtle and restrained with his magic. They were in more danger than ever. And the constant reminders from his mother to Watch over your little sister, love. She is not like you, she needs protection-- were always at the back of his mind. 

Without realizing it, he became the pillar of the family. Everyone waited on him to make a decision before moving forward. But no matter what he chose, he couldn’t make everyone happy. Why let him decide only to later resent his choices? 

The constant hiding took a toll on the family. Especially on young Carver, who found it hard to separate the love he had for his brother and sister from his desire to blame magic for all their problems. It caused no end of conflicts between the brothers. 

Neither Carver nor Kaidan were shy about voicing their thoughts, and their arguments were, more often than not, cataclysmic. Only Bethany could calm the waters using reason or quips. Their mother was no help, she often fanned the flames by disregarding their reasons and siding with whoever “had the interest of their family in mind.” Something that could vary greatly depending on her interpretation. 

With Kaidan at the lead, Leandra took a backseat role as she had done with Malcom. There was no guidance, no advice and no direction from her. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t reprimanded, blamed or criticized at every turn. He realized early on that no matter his reasoning, he was never going to be right unless his mother decided he was. Kaidan took the brunt of it, and made sure to insulate his brother and sister from the worst of their mother’s behavior. And to do damage control when they couldn’t avoid it.

Most of it took a backseat in his mind. He was more concerned with keeping his family alive and healthy and fed when the threat of darkspawn loomed before them. But he was forced to deal with a hundred things at once when his little brother came back from the field with grave news. King Cailan was dead, Loghain had betrayed the King and the darkspawn were coming.

He sprung into action as he always did and guided his family through nightmarish sights. The magic that had so often put them in danger saved them again and again. But they didn’t see an end to the terror. Their mother offered a sliver of hope, a direction. Kirkwall. They would reconnect with her family and seek shelter there. All he had to do was get them to the city. His mother would do the rest.

Their cheer lasted minutes. The hope was extinguished by a defiant scream, a thud and the crackle of broken bones. He had thought he’d left them in the safest place. Away from the thick of battle. But was there ever a safest place in the middle of a battlefield?

Bethany laid dead at their mother’s feet, giving her life to save her. Doing what she had always seen her brother do. Use her gifts to protect their family. Bethany had died, doing what was supposed to be his job. 

Leandra wailed and screamed. Kaidan wasn’t sure how he could hear her above the sounds of grunts and spells and swords clashing. But he could. It was the only thing he could hear. When their enemies were defeated he ran to them. He fell to his knees and extended a trembling hand to his sister. His mother snarled and gripped her daughter’s body closer and Kaidan snapped his hand back. 

There was pain in Leandra’s eyes, there was grief, rage, anger. There was also accusation. Possessiveness. This was her pain, her eyes said. And he had done this to her.

“Bethany risked her life to save us, Mother.” Kaidan tried to make her see.

“I don’t want a hero, I want my daughter. How could you let her charge off like that!?”

How could you? 

The thought ricocheted in his head but he didn’t dare voice it.

He never spoke up. It was his fault. It must’ve been. Right?

It was thanks to Carver’s prompting that they pushed themselves forward. Leandra’s focus shifted and she held onto his brother as if she were drowning. She wouldn’t look at Kaidan. Not through the whole journey across the sea. Not until they were on solid ground, right at the gates, and being asked to turn back.

Then she looked at him again and asked, “What are we going to do?”

Kaidan sighed. The way forward looked very much like the way back.

But he couldn’t help himself. He met the guards at the gates.

“There must be something you can do, good sir. Maybe let the good looking ones through. I assure you, we qualify!” 

His smile was back on. But only Carver noticed it was crooked.