#and of course y'know suspension of disbelief is also a thing but that's probably asking for too much from nerds isn't it lol

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

GRRM, on the question of the agriculture in the North of Westeros

SJ: From what we’ve seen in the books so far, it looks like even in summer the snow covers most of the lands in the North, and it surely does cover all in winter, doesn’t it? GRRM: I wouldn’t say that snow “covers most of the lands” in summer. Rather than they have occasional summer snows. It never gets really hot in the north, even in summer, but it’s not icy and snowing all the time either. Winter is a different tale. SJ: But quite a lot of people are living there. What do they eat? GRRM: A lot of food is stored. Smoked, salted, packed away in granaries, and so on. The populations along the coast depend on fishing a great deal, and even inland, there is ice fishing on the rivers and on Long Lake. And some of the great lords try and maintain greenhouses to provide for their own castles… the “glass gardens” of Winterfell are referred to several times. But the short answer is… if the winter lasts too long, the food runs out… and then people move south, or starve… SJ: Are there some areas without snow, which are suitable for agriculture, or are there significant temperature changes inside the “bigger seasons”? To grow a harvest, at least a couple of months’ time of warm temperature (15-20 degrees by Celsius) is needed. Is it available in the North? GRRM: Sometimes. It is not something that can be relied on, given the random nature of the seasons, but there are “false springs” and “spirit summers.” The maesters try and monitor temperature grand closely, to advise on when to plant and when to harvest and how much food to store. SJ: And what happens when a winter comes - five, six years long? GRRM: Famine happens. The north is cruel. SJ: Surely, the import of grain from the South alone can’t cover the North’s needs. And, by the way, does it snow in the South during the winter? GRRM: Yes, some times, in some places. The Mountains of the Moon get quite a lot of snow, the Vale and the riverlands and the west rather less, but some. King’s Landing gets snow infrequently, the Storm Lands and the Reach rarely, Oldtown and Dorne almost never.

–June 21, 2001

For more on the seasons and the world of ASOIAF, please see this post.

[pinktatertots99]

(nanbaka fic) love confession from an idiot! is it seriously this hard or am I just bad at it?!

because I wanted to. and it's cute so there!

synopsis: liang's ups and downs in his quest to confess to a certain chemist. guess how well that goes.

liang sighed as he looked over at his cellmate qi, on the floor reading one of the magazines. they were the only ones in the cell, which was just what he needed. for some time the younger had been feeling romantic feelings for the elder. yes, it caught him off guard, and even he had to wonder how low of standards he had, however after some time he knew that these feelings were genuine, and now he felt the need to confess them.

walking towards him, he sat down in front of him. "qi." he started. "I need to tell you something." at that the older looked over at him, eyes meeting. at that moment liang froze, dead in his tracks. he forced himself to keep his blood from rushing to his face. he fell silent.

the silence was short though as the cell door opened as upa was dropped off by one of the guards. liang sighed, "don't forget to hide those." he murmured, gesturing to the magazine in qi's hand. he nodded and swiftly put it in his track suit as liang got up.

plan one: failed.

of course, a fighter never gives up! they may lose a match, but that just means they have to train better, work harder, and use a different strategy. and using a different strategy is exactly what he'll do.

as he slowed down on the running track he looked to the bench qi was laying on. taking this advantage for a short break he walked over to it, sitting at the end, panting to himself as he put a finger near his pulse point. his plan here was simple: he'd pretend to not know where his pulse point was and with some convincing he'd get qi to physically help him find it, and with how close they would be he'll get the chance to confess.

"hm, can't seem to find my pulse." he mumbled aloud.

"you must be dead then." qi chuckled to himself. liang mildly pouted trying not to laugh or this plan wasn't going to work. "actually," the older started. "you probably can't find it cause of your turtleneck and arm bands."

liang stared at the other before re-evaluating his outfit. he was right. his turtleneck and arm bands would make it impossible to feel it! he ducked his head in embarrassment with the feeling dread of stupidity looming over him.

plan two: failed.

okay now this was just ridiculous. really now.  he's lived in the underworld for years. he's witnessed horrors unimaginable and that no normal human could ever process without going insane. he was a hit man for fucks sake but somehow he couldn't do something as simple as confess this one little thing to the chemist?! absolutely ridiculous.

as he took his seat at the cafeteria table liang looked to qi, his attention on his food. now was time for him to unveil his next plan of action as he slipped his hand into his sleeve, pulling out a folded piece of paper. inside was a simple love confession. everyone was busy with their own conversations and food, so he barely had to worry about anyone seeing this.

"here." he said, handing it to qi. the older looked and picked it up, unfolding it and reading it. the younger felt the suspense as he waited for his response. the older sighed as he folded it back up and handed it back to him. his heart felt close to shattering.

"could you give this back to whoever gave it to you?" liang blinked shocked for a second as he looked at the older. "huh?"

"give this back to whoever gave it to you and pass down to them that I don't take love confessions by letter. if they wanna confess they can do it face to face."

"er...why?"

"we're in a prison, liang. who knows who sent this. might've been one of the creeps or brutes or whoever. might not even be an actual confession. might be someone that sent this as a way to persuade me to make em a drug, which I only do with clients that show their faces. so yeah, give this back."

liang felt a wave of relief but also a feeling of smacking qi upside the head. he thought someone gave this to him to pass down to him. his reasonings may've been smart but for pete's sakes he was clueless.

"and don't pick up anymore notes. it feels too conventional that it got passed to you."

"why?"

"obviously cause we're close. and if it's anything dangerous it's because I wanna protect you."

the younger felt a light wave of blush on him. thankfully, qi seemed occupied with his food again as liang turned away putting his sleeve infront of his face. "I can fend for myself."

"I know. I just like making sure your safe."

the younger got up swiftly, taking his empty tray and leaving. as he walked he crumpled the letter in the process and threw it away in the trash.

plan three: failed, but not entirely.

"you wanna know what?" samon asked.

"how do I make a...love confession?" liang asked the other. he really did it. he had stooped to asking someone how to confess. it's not like he didn't know how but all his plans we're failing and he was running out of ideas. the only thing that would come to his mind was asking his supervisor this, as a way to come up with some idea as to how to confess to qi.

"erm...why do you want to know?" the supervisor asked.

"well, if I am to return to society, I might possibly meet someone I...really like. but, I'm not sure how I could tell them. and you were the first person I thought of for advice on this." he lied. he couldn't tell samon the real reason why, he'd probably stop him.

"er, right, yeah." samon muttered. in actuality he didn't have a lot of experience with this field so to say. why couldn't this have been about something else he asked himself. however, he atleast had better advice then kiji or god forbid inori, so hopefully he can get through this without too much trouble.

"well, when you wanna confess to someone, you usually have to do it in private-"

he already tried that.

"-or if you want you can maybe make some small little ques at them to maybe y'know, give them a hint you like them-"

he tried that already too.

"-or if you want you can write em a letter and give it to them."

HE'S TRIED ALL OF THESE! liang felt like bowing his head in defeat, knowing he must've either not done any of these right or these were the only options that were left. either way, he was done for.

"course, you can confess whenever." the younger looked up, his curiosity piqued. "I mean, you can do it whenever. day, night, in person, private, just be yourself."

one of the words that stuck to liang was 'night'. at night...that was it! he knew just what to do. quickly liang sat up. "I think I understand. thank you master." he bowed as he quickly left the now confused supervisor. samon sat and stared for a while wondering what that was all about but grinned to himself. he gave out good advice. of course he did though he was amazing at it.

he sat there in silence for a bit before his eyes opened.

"wait...master?"

as night fell and the lights went out liang waited in his bed anxiously, waiting for his cellmates to settle in. once he was certain the coast was clear of any guards and upa was asleep he quietly got off his top bunk, looking at the bottom bunk to see qi similarly staring back at him, most likely wondering what he was doing up.

"you alright?" he asked. liang responded with a nod as he took hold of qi's hand and pulling it lightly. he seemed to get the hint as he started getting up and following liang to the barred window. the moon pooled over the two as they sat down infront of the window.

both sat in silence. liang felt his heart beating through his chest as he looked up and-...he just now realized qi had his glasses off. he could see his magenta colored eyes and the way they shone from the moon's light. they were beautiful.

he inwardly shook his head as he remembered he had to stay focused. he looked up to the other, eyes staring into each other. "I need...to tell you something." liang finally spouted out. qi looked at him curiously, waiting. suddenly liang leaned over to the elder's ear, and whispered,

"Wǒ ài nǐ."

he leaned away to see qi's expression. his eyes were wide with shock as he stared back at him. he could feel the familiar suspense from last time as they both stared at eachother before qi opened his mouth.

"really?" he asked in disbelief. the raven nodded. there was silence as the chemist took time to process this new revelation. after a bit liang looked to see qi ...smiling?

"heh, it's funny." he started. "I...was wondering but, I didn't think-..."

he seemed so...bashful, and genuinely happy to liang, but he wasn't sure. "so," he said. "do you...also..."

the older seemed to laugh softly to himself in what sounded like embarrassment. "actually...I-..I kinda do."

liang felt an odd feeling in his chest. almost a fluttering one. "you like me?"

"yes."

"so then...would you like to...to date?"

"yes. that'd be, wonderful, actually."

his eyes widened at the response. he felt happy....but now he felt awkward as the two stayed sat. what were they to do now? should they just go to bed? do something? he wasn't very good at this. he wanted to do something, but, would it be too much?

"we should probably hit the sack right?" qi inquired. liang looked and nodded slightly. he felt like he wanted to do something though. before this ended. before the other could get up liang lunged over and-...smacked themselves in the head. both groaned in pain as they held their heads.

"what was that for?"

"I wanted a kiss." liang answered before realizing what he said and making his face flush pink. qi looked at him and chuckled lightly. "you could've just asked." he said before diving in and kissing the younger.

he'd never been kissed before. this was a first time. laing felt so unprepared but at the same time ready for this as his eyes closed, kissing qi back. it was soft, chaste and warm, and in general really nice.

they both parted, blushing and looking at each other before both smiling lightly. they felt both scared and excited about this at the same time. they liked it though. they liked this. and they were excited for this.

plan four: success!

Wǒ ài nǐ (我爱你) is Chinese for "I love you."

[thehotwingking]

Alright, so let’s talk DBS episodes 109 and 110. I want to talk about the absurdity of Jiren, about the Limit Breaker, and also about the next big fights.

It's a long read, so don't read it. It's mainly for myself.

It's a long read, so don't read it. It's mainly for myself.

ok so first off, Jiren is way too OP. Not fair. I mean, I get the point of his character, but I am a bit strained over this same type of villain/character. The character with the power that is the most powerful someone can be. Cell was this perfect being that no one could match. Then Buu was supposed to be the strongest person in the universe that no one could match. Beerus is a God of Destruction, and again no one could match. All three of these guys make sense in terms of world building. I'm not completely sure how Gero could manifest someone as strong as Cell (I think it has to do with gene splicing all the DNA from everyone but IDK, IDC and/or remember), but both Beerus and Buu make perfect sense since the universe is so vast.

Hit makes sense. The best fighter in universe 6. Obviously, he'd rival Goku. Even Black made sense. You get a Kai, you put his power into Goku's body. God ki with Goku's power. It makes sense. Sure, I probably got a little tired of the fact that Fused Zamasu existed, and he seemed literally impossible to beat after Vegito failed. But I got over it... sort of lol. (Ok not over it cause I hate that ending lol)

ok Idk where I'm going with this. It's just that JIREN MAN WHAT THE FUCK. How is some that is unfused and a mortal that strong?? Like we got Goku having to learn new techniques out his ass in order to even compete with Jiren and he still lost (totally called that last week btw.)

It's just... just how strong do these guys need to be, Akira!? Where do we go from here? Like, this show always puts me in a suspension of disbelief when seeing transformations like SSJ, or Gohan ascending SSJ, or even SSJ3. Like when watching those transformations I'm always like wtf how, Sway? But after thinking about it... it just makes sense. And by making sense I mean both by the power of the transformation and how it came about. It's just now with Jiren, his power just doesn't make sense, and I also can't make sense of how he became so strong. Surely, it'll be explained in one of the next few episodes obviously. I believe one of the God's touched upon it for a little, but it was only a few words and not much. There's obviously a reason why he's so strong that hasn't been explained yet, but...

The extent to how strong he is... I can't make sense of it at the moment. This dude was just STARING at the Spirit Bomb, and it did NOTHING to him. This dude took a punch from Goku at his LIMIT and it did NOTHING to him. Exactly how strong is he, and how strong must someone be to beat him? I. Can't. Make. Sense. Of. It. And I don't know how anyone can beat him.

Freiza -> Become a legendary Super Saiyan Perfect Cell -> Rage pass a legendary Super Saiyan Buu -> Spirit Bomb his ass to hell as a SSJ3 Beerus -> Super Saiyan God ritual Golden Frieza -> Didn't master his own form Hit -> Super Saiyan Blue with God Ki control + Kaioken Fused Zamasu -> So broken and OP that you need the Lord of Lords AKA (deus ex machina) Jiren -> Absorbed Spirt Bomb plus Ultra Instinct.... doesn't work??

Goku already used a spirit bomb. He already done unlocked a new form/technique. He can't fuse. What is there left for Goku or anyone to do? Is he gonna unlock another form? And yeah I get that this is the fun part about Super. Always trying to guess stuff. I remember after BotG I was tripping over the fact that there were several other universes with several other God's of Destruction with also several other strong people, but I would never expect some shit like this. I never thought we would even see any of them. Just that they existed.

The ONLY person I remember being this unstoppable for the first time was Buuhan, but even then you could see that Goku had to fuse with someone in order to beat Buu. but with Jiren... what the fuck can anyone do? Not like Goku can just hakai his ass. I can't... for the life of me figure out a way to beat him one on one. It has to be some group effort type shit. It has to be. And at this point I'm not convinced Goku will beat Jiren.

Alright that was a long as talk about Jiren. Mind you, I don't hate the arc. I'm patiently waiting to see what happens

Second: Ultra Instinct is dope, and also I feel dumb because it could have been easily predicted through foreshadowing. Toriyama likes doing these things where he mentions one thing in a past arc or episode and then it ends up happening. Obviously, being able to move without thinking was going to be something Goku was going to do eventually, and the Limit Breaker transformation is obviously it. I noticed it almost immediately the moment Goku slung his ass at Jiren and did a shooting star press for no reason.

In my eyes it seems like Limit Breaker isn't really a transformation like super saiyan, but more like a kaioken. Essentially, it's a technique. Still, it's obviously really powerful when used by Goku. The way I see it is that it's a combination of three things. Learning Ultra Instinct, absorbing the power of the Spirit Bomb, and also the mixture of his own power. So, it's not another saiyan transformation... I THINK. It's more of the power of a God rather than a saiyan. So like.. say if Krillin won the tournament of power and wished to have the power of a God then in theory he could possibly learn Ultra Instinct through sheer will power to live such as Goku did. If that makes sense. You need to have supreme power like a god, and sort of hit your limit, but exceed pass it using your will power.

But it'll probably only be Goku using technique and I doubt anyone else ever does the "Limit Breaker." I do think Goku will master this Ultra Instinct and use it again to fight Jiren, but I have no idea if he will be as powerful as he was the first time. Unless of course Goku does some "absorb the power and retain it even after it's gone" bullshit again lol.

Third, the future fights.

Universe 2 -> 5 fighters left. Universe 3 -> 6 fighters left Universe 4 -> 4 fighters left. 2 invisible Universe 6 -> 6 fighters left. Hit, 3 saiyans, 2 namekians Universe 7 -> 7 fighters left. Universe 11 -> 3 fighters left. Dispo, Toppo, and LolJiren

Alright, so Hit vs Jiren has me lowkey hyped. I think Hit is gonna get his ass whooped in the end, but at the same time I do think Hit will get some good punches on Jiren using newer techniques that we haven't seen yet. I hate to say it.. last week I was thinking that Hit might be the one to eliminate Jiren because I thought Jiren was going to eliminate Goku, but with Goku still around and Jiren not looking tired AT ALL then I think Hit is going to be eliminated. Y'know, I thought Hit or Vegeta were gonna beat up some leftovers, but Jiren still looks undamaged. GG Hit. Sorry universe 6. I don't see the three remaining saiyans being able to do anything. I could see all four attacking Jiren at the same time, but probably not since it might mean their defeat and elimination. I know the love of my life Caulifla aint gonna go out like no bitch though. I fucking love that girl. Bae as fuck. She's my everything.

I want Vegeta to eliminate that thing like right NOW. Please Vegeta... I can't stand that character. Vegeta has no time to spare dealing with that garbage knowing that Jiren is out there fucking shit up. Also, IDC if Vegeta didn't lend Goku some of his power. Don't care. That universe still has a good amount of fighters left though, so I'm not convinced Brianne is the strongest person from the universe. Just the most loved.

Gohan, Piccolo, 17, and 18 are also still out there. I believe they have to have a big fight coming up. Not sure who the Androids are going to fight. Most likely some universe 2 or 3 fighters. Actually, definitely one of those universes. Whichever universe has the one with androids. I know one of them has androids. Android vs Android which also brings me to namekian vs namekian. Piccolo is obviously going to fight one of his Namekian counterparts from Universe 6. (there's two???) If he loses then obviously Gohan is gonna whoop that guy's ass. I don't see why Piccolo should win or beat both Namekians. You know what would really be cool? If prior to the tournament Champa went to his version of planet Namek to seek out a strong warrior like Piccolo, and then a bunch of strong Namekians fused together to form a strong being like KaPicaNail. Lol. That would be a dope fight though I doubt either Namekian stacked a bunch of fusions.

Also, I guess Gohan could end up fighting Toppo or Dispo. They need to be eliminated as well. I don't know who else other than Vegeta can eliminate them. Don't think anyone in U6 can eliminate them aside from Hit, and there is too much unknown from the other remaining universes.

Finally, Goku VS Frieza.... we all saw that ending. And..... they're not going to fight. Goku instant transmissioned to Frieza for a reason, and Frieza is just being a dick because that's who he is. He's not going to hurt Goku or fight him. Idk what Goku could possibly want from Frieza, but it should be an interesting development. Probably just gonna ask Frieza to defend him while Goku tries to regain his energy back. That would be a way for Goku to jump back into the tournament near the end of it so we can see the other characters do shit. There's still like 30 people left.