#bc i changed my original idea four times and only wound up with a week to work on the final version which. wasnt really enough time

[silverislander]

something really fun and sexy adhd will do is block you from ever actually showing others what you're truly capable of. lol

[keyofjetwolf]

GIFTENING Bonus Rounds

For each category, I included a “bonus round” question. YOU GUYS KILLED IT. I loved all the answers, but listed below are some of my particular favourites.

Haruka Tenoh is trapped in the wrong anime! Which would you have her visit next?

I want her to earth shake Kyubey out of existence, please and thank you

My bride is a mermaid. She can relate. :P

i think she would THRIVE in bodacious space pirates. gay teenage space pirates whose job is to dress up, be Dramatic, and rob the wealthy??? that shit is RIGHT up her alley

Hamtaro

Princess Tutu - where the world is finally as dramatic as her

PGSM (and Michiru is trapped with her, for REASONS)

Pokemon because everyone deserves to be happy

Any moe-style series so hijinks can ensue at her being baffled by everyone's ages

1960's Speed Racer

is is this a captcha or something i missed oh god

Free! so she can be indifferent to all the hot men and slightly uncomfortable because she still can't swim. 

Stick Haruka in a Gundam!

Dump her in Pretear or one of the Precures! It would be hilarious! She's never in the genre she wants to be!

Revolutionary Girl Utena, so she can be offended by misuse of roses.

Initial D, she will out-drive and out-drift all those guys and steal all their girls.

Evangelion. I would feel bad to watch her suffer, but it would be so, so funny for her to be the comparatively most normal person around.

Yakitake Japan! SO SHE CAN HAVE A SNACK OF DELICIOUS RIDICULOUS BREAD BEFORE THE NEXT INTERDIMENSIONAL ANIME STORM WHISKS HER AWAY.

The Holograms or the Misfits? DISCUSS

Holograms

both? both. BOTH IS GOOD

misfits bc Evil Ladies Hot

Steven and the stevens

Misfits.  How dare you make us try to think about anything in our lives.

Both, you mad fool. Those combined songs were the best.

The Misfits, their songs are better

The Misgrams: A group of girls who form a singing telegram start up company, but constantly deliver the telegrams to the wrong people.

kimber & stormer

Neither. Limp Lizards all the way. BROKEN GLASS.

I do not know what these things are

Misfits because guitar motorcycle

The Isle of Misfit Holograms

Holograms is just arguably better

I mean, I’m told the Misfits’ songs are better, but my true answer is the band Kimber and Stormer made in that big gay episode you liveblogged (checks) almost four years ago.

I've no idea what these words mean and I hope this does not make me TOO uncool.

this is about jem, right? right?? im hip i swear

Misfits, because Jasper is a member apparently

I don't know from Jem, but I mean...I certainly prefer holographic material to Glenn Danzig? So I guess there's your answer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Stingers

LIMP LIZARDS FOREVER

Senshi Band

You can make me liveblog a full series of any show you want! You also hate me. What do you have me watch?

Pick a GoT rip-off, any GoT rip-off

The Bachelor?

The Bachelor :(

depends on how much i hate you, but....probably the bachelor. quantity AND lack of quality

Critical role, it would take forever

If I were a horrible person who sought only malice?  Big Bang Theory.  Entire series.

Toddlers and Tiaras

The Mandalorian - Disney would come after you and kill keyofjetwolf just as dead as keyofnik.  We would all be very sad, you would have to go through a second round of restoring things to a new tumblr account, and your organizational heart would weep over adding yet another hosting site out of chronological order.

You are liveblogging Eva, and must discuss in full detail Shinji's emotional state at all times.

Hannity & Colmes

The Kardashians. And all of their spin offs. *kisses*

The price is right

the bachelor

Probably something with lots of romance and no friendships. Soap operas are like that, right? My college roommate used to watch General Young Light Restless Hospital of Our Lives (which one had Like and Laura?) And it was torture.

One Piece, because it's over 900 episodes so you could maybe do 10% before you die, also you will hate how the women are treated most of the time.

Fushigi Yuugi. Not only do you hate it but it also comes with you squirming when you admit to watching the whole thing. ;) 

Plus belle la vie. It's an ongoing French soap opera that has been airing five days a week since 2004, they're nearing their 4000th episode and there's no end in sight. Imagine all those hours upon hours submerged in French drama, mwahahaha!!

The Bachelor.  Or the Bachelorette, maybe - more straight dudes in that.

The Young and the Restless - IT IS THE LIVEBLOG THAT NEVER ENDS. IT WOULD OUTLAST THE INTERNET.

The entirety of the Bachelor franchise.

You can only play one game for the rest of your life. Which game would it be and why?

Kingdom Hearts Complete Collection. A) I love them. B) I beat the system and get like 10 games instead of one.

Gemcraft. This game actually takes a lifetime to finish.

Hatoful Boyfriend. It is the best game ever created. Feel it in your heart.

that's a mean question and you can't make me answer it

Pathfinder, which you could play for the rest of your life and still never finish.

Civ VI , so I can rule the world without leaving my house.

I am legitimately perturbed by this question and refuse to answer it.

Pokemon Go. I would have nothing else, but I would catch them all.

The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: I'll never run out of side-quests.

Mass Effect--it's the only way I'll get full completion. 

The dinosaur game on Chrome when the internet doesn't connect because my life is monotonous and it's a welcome relief. 

Stardew Valley. Peaceful farmer life and turning my children into doves when I'm bored with them.

Crabs Adjust Humidity

Oh my! A number of things come to mind, not one of them fit for print. Just, you know...*gestures vaguely* sex shit. 

I can't even stick to the ones I play now.

This is the worst of all possible things and I refuse to answer. 

Monopoly, I hate myself :(

Probably Minecraft! I haven't gotten into it because I know if I start I will NEVER STOP. Who would do things like build a hundred foot tall statue of Mako-chan? A-THAT'D BE ME.

the game. Of LIFE! *shrug emoji*

I don't believe I'll tell you, because I AM a salty little fish and it was HARD to cut that 11th choice off my vote.

Holligay and I are going to be the leads in a new buddy film. What's the premise? How does it end?

Be gay do crimes. Thelma and Louise. Duh. :P

I have no idea but only just surviving disaster is how it ends.

You break down in a small town during a roadtrip- your stay is full of hijinks and ends with you teaching the townsfolk the true meaning of friendship.

Doctor Holligay, Esquire, PhD, renowned Jewish femme of many talents, is assigned one Operative Jet Wolf as her bodyguard on a foreign diplomatic mission/vacation/culinary tour of the world ("same difference, shut up, narrator"). One problem: Operative Wolf needs a bodyguard herself, as the good doctor discovers when in one night her toilet is destroyed ("IT WAS A SECURITY THREAT") and Operative Wolf nearly breaks a leg falling down a small set of stairs ("THEY PUT A CLIFF OUTSIDE THE DOOR"). Worldwide shenanigans ensue as Holligay and Operative Wolf learn the true meaning of friendship, and also how to take care of themselves... by taking care of each other.

I’m not sure about the premise, but DEFINITELY it ends in murder.

Someone posted a major spoiler during one of your liveblogs. The two of you track them down seeking revenge. It turns out it was the original creator of the series trying to stop you. For some reason Holligay is a CGI badger.

It's clearly a buddy cop movie, and like all good buddy cop movies, it ends with Doc almost dying, and you saving her, and slapping her wound in the hospital as the credits roll.

It ends as it began: with Holligay roasting you.

A straight detective and her lesbian partner have to solve the case of the missing cinnamon buns.  It ends with nobody getting the guy OR the girl and you drive off into the sunset together, perps behind bars sans cinnamon buns.

I don't know what it's about but I know it will be the only movie that ever existed. 

Holligay is the lesbian chief of staff to you somehow being elected President and she's basically running the country while you're the charming face of the administration

Nerd and cowgirl meet at a bar, justifyingly murder some gross dude, go on the run from the law and have a life-changing road trip, on the way Nazis are punched

carrying a delicate object through a forest after your helicopter goes down

Thelma and Louise, but instead of dying, your deaths are clearly faked and you live on a ranch in Montana with your respective spouses and animals. One time a cop comes by the restaurant/bar you joint own with Doc and says, "You look familiar." Doc, in perfect lesbian, answers, "Jet's just got that criminal look, on account of how much she'd love to steal my cheesecake recipe. More pie?"

Queer Eye with a Straight Goy. The two of you do the show but in your own special ways.

Doc Holligay is the wild-west no-nonsense sheriff. Jet Wolf is the all-fun cyberpunk cop from the future. They punch nazis and argue about food. It ends as a tv series ala B99.

Your lives are already a buddy film, don’t get greedy.

Hands and socks.  You know how it ends.

See Grumpy Old Men for details.  How does it end?  Badly.

I can't imagine the premise, but I'm pretty sure the planet explodes.

A Coen Bros film. It ends poorly.

Wait? You're not already living this now? 

REI HINO

REI HINO

Sure. Why not?

HINO REI

<3<3<3<3

REI HINO!

Rei who? ;)

REI HINOOOOOOOOO

Plush Is being hugged by Zoisite in your banner.

MINAKO AINO

MAKOTO KINO

The best

SOCKS

MICHIRU KAIOH

It's time tooo.... REI! THAT! HINO!

sponsored by Here! curry

LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI [THIS REPEATS A LOT A LOT AND IS GLORIOUS] [...] LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES JETWOLF

(THE REAL ONE)

Isn't how you spell Makoto Kino!

THE REAL ONE™

obviously

IS NOT A RHINO

In conclusion: Rei Hino

Rei Hino is giving this Giftening finger guns

BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING, SHOW-STOPPING, TALENTED, AMAZING, WONDERFUL

Hot stuff, lights my fire, blazes it regularly. I am out of fire jokes.

PASSION FLAME, SAILOR MARS

These hot feelings are C'EEEEEST LAAAAA VIIIIIIE c'mon rei-chan why aren't you singing along

IS THE BEST (I know who I'm talking to)

Ara!

DID DOCTOR HOLLIGAY PHD NOMINATE THE OPTION OF TALKING ABOUT MICHIRU KAIOH FOR 6 HOURS!!

If Hot Pocket were to plan One Last Heist, what do you think would be his objective? What would be Mina's role in his master plan?

Master Hot Pocket seeks BREAD. His friend and loyal companion, Mina-pup, acts as a distraction, as he has learned the humans are easily distracted by cute. While she does her sworn duty as Best Friend and Cutest Goodest Girl, probably with lolling tongue and glee at all the pets she receives, he picks the locks on the newly childproofed pantry, and Master Howard H. Pocket FEASTS AS NO CAT HAS BEFORE.

Every bag of flour in Montana; Mina runs distraction with her adorable puppy eyes

Open every container, leave none unmarked. Mina is the lookout who greets whoever comes and is completely ineffective at her job.

TAKE ALL THE FLOUR. Do it straight from the source: FlourCo Inc. What does a 10-pound cat do with eighty thousand tons of flour? If you can't figure that out, there's a reason he's the brains of this outfit. Mina would obviously be the bumbling lovable distraction to security or other people.

Bread.  Mina is The Face who provides distraction to the Keepers of the Bread by walking up to them and being herself.  Mina has absolutely no idea that Hot Pocket is using her in this manner because Hot Pocket is that Machiavellian, but Mina is a pocket full of sunshine in canine form and probably would just be happy to help out.

Hot Pocket knows that no mammal of the floor believes in flour anymore. It went away a long time ago. It doesn't exist. But what he also knows is that they're wrong. A lack of opposable thumbs won't hide the truth from him. He'll find the stash, and when he does, he'll stick his paw in it. Mina, with her limited climbing skills, will lick its remains from his claw and prove his discovery. As well as provide a warm place to curl up on for the aftermath of their adventure.

His goal is to sample every edible thing he can get his teeth on. Mina pulls triple duty as step stool, distraction, and scape goat

The Silver Crystal. Mina would play the role of Sailor V.

He is getting ALL THE FLOUR. Mina is a lovable distraction.

Looting all the carbs in the pantry. mina is distraction.

mina's role would be the "dopey" but talented best friend who it looks like HP is going to betray for the sake of the plan but then it all comes together when HP mounts a dramatic rescue. i dunno i'm still in film mode from that last one.

The Holy Bread Locked Within the Cupboard.  Mina would be the distraction, but she'd forget what she was supposed to be distracting from and end up leading you to him.

I am the Void. I am the Night. I am the Darkness with no hope of dawn. The Flour trembles before me in it's bleached fluffiness. It shall not escape my chaos, which will descend upon it like the Terrors of the Deep, claws and teeth and gnashing. It will howl at my claws. It will scream for my teeth, sharp and white, stars in the night of my fur. I shall tend and tear and -- Dammit, Dog-thing! How am I supposed to be terrible and terrifying with you wagging your tail and panting at me!? Oh, you found a good warm sunbeam? I guess I can stalk stuff later. I am the Void. I shall absorb the Sun's light and warmth and bring it into my Darkness where it cannot escape...

I'm new here and don't know all the complex lore of Jetwolf(fairly sure Mina is dog), so I'm going to assume that Hot Pocket is an actual hot pocket and his heist is robbing Fort Knox using Mina as his loyal stead/get away car. Then he explodes a microwave or something.

i lik the bred

Mina as the distraction while he takes one last tastes of EVERYTHING 

objective--stealing more chips; Mina--surprise betrayal 

The scene: Mama Jet's pantry The Objective: the bag of cake flour Aunt Doc made Mama Jet buy but she's never used Mina: confused but excited escape vehicle and/or scapegoat

RAIDING THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR FACTORY. Mina is of course adorable and keeps everyone's attention while Hot Pocket swan dives into the flour like Uncle Scrooge

Hot Pocket would definitely try to steal a monument, Carmen SanDiego style. Mina, of course, is the multi-talented and super cute face of the operation.

I have no idea who Hot Pocket is

HP would try to scale the tallest building in the world. Not to steal anything, just to be up there. Mina would be the adorable diversion.

It would be to get whatever food you've left on the counter. Preferably bread. He would tell Mina that he'll give her some of she acts as a distraction. She's a good dog so she does. He's a cat so she gets no food.

Truly, truly, THE GIFTENING winner is us all.

[kitsunebishake]

Why Hríd is such an amazing character who just got done wrong during his “character arc” (SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE BOOK II AND FORGING BONDS)

WARMING: THIS IS JUST ONE LONG ASS LOVEMAIL POST FOR HRÍD

this was originally written as a thread on twitter but i’ll try my best to put it all here because someone asked for it some time ago

I’m putting it here because @chascah suggested i uploaded it here as well for those people who actually appreciate the icy boy

this is basically an analysis to most if not every quote from hríd, also adding some translations and little details from the japanese quotes (and some lore behind the whole idea of hríd’s new year alt)

let’s start then!

lemme start with the fact that hríd only appeared in 3 out of 13 chapters, yet is the character that caught my interest the most (funny because i already had a crush on alfonse, then i saw hríd and was like "oh, hello there")

hríd arrived like a half-dead yet somehow composed prince who somehow (x2) survived by himself in múspell for weeks (maybe even months, there's no exact timeline but it is canon that alfonse and the others spent some weeks in nifl, it probably also took them a while to navigate through múspell until loki arrived as ylgr)

he served as some kind of excuse to not put bruno too much with the main characters, practically a messenger only despite this guy being alive with burns and a broken sword (the crack on gjöll's blade hurts bc he couldve actually lost his sword and ended up defenseless in battle oof)

so, there was no really much use of his character other than being a magical solution for everything

he even helped unmask loki (though they never explain why hríd suspected of ylgr, we only know loki's own take)

btw, can we talk about the fact he probably outsmarted loki while the others weren't yet in múspell? he terrorized surtr's army and even outsmarted laegjarn and laevatein

and since he survived for so long i believe most of his wounds were made by surtr himself

they never really say whether he actually managed to kill surtr or not, but let's say yes just to add up on all of the things hríd does just in the story

at first glance it looks like he's doing nothing, but reading further into it and applying some logic

hríd's... he's pretty impressive for a prince so young

gotta also add how hríd appears less impulsive in japanese than in english

when "alfonse" blames him for being a traitor, hríd gets to the defensive immediately in english

in japanese, he's more in shock, probably because after all he's tried, he's being doubted by his allies (which shows a lot how much he cares about being perceived as perfect, something i'll get on to later if i have enough time)

I added this part in the middle of the whole thing because it was a different thread so excuse the sudden change of topic, kinda. It’s supposed to be from the last conversation in Book 2, where Fjorm tells Hríd she’s going to stay in Askr despite her “condition”.

"I understand your feelings, Sister. By all means, go. I will pray for your safety."

this is one of the quotes i'd like to put in that one hríd character thread i want to make

the feeling behind this quote got completely lost in translation, as there's no way to translate it properly

in japanese, hríd uses a pecular way of speech to refer to his sister here he says "... I get it. If that is what you wish, it's alright to go. I'll pray for your safety." the peculiar part, aside from hríds "..." is where he refers to fjorm, the "you"

hríd normally uses "kimi" to refer to people, which is like a more... gentle? way of speaking? men usually use it towards women bc they want to treat them nicely, and jps in general use it with people they don't know (it's that, or "anata" or "[name]-san")

yet here, hríd decides to use "omae" to refer to fjorm, which is more informal and even rude (specially for someone who normally uses "kimi", it means he wanted to express some kind of anger or frustration about fjorm's decision without saying it directly,,,,,,,,,,,,,which is very japanese to do so,,,,,, *looks into the distant "most japanese people i've known don't directly say 'no' and instead go 'hmmmmmm' '*very indirectly rejects*' and it's probably a fact*)

it feels like instead of being supportive, hríd just understood there was no way of convincing fjorm to stay with them

so he gave up and felt hurt by that

please protect hríd

Back to the rest of the analysis.

now let's talk about forging bonds, in the wiki there's only the opening part transcribed in japanese, the rest is only on english (i curse not having started playing 3 months earlier orz)

the first thing you can notice in the japanese version is how informal hríd is when he's stressed

while he speaks in an usually softer manner, here, he doesn't even greet ylgr and gunnthrá, he goes directly to "gunnthrá... ah, ylgr is here too" (he kinda does the same in the mainstory, where he just says “ah, fjorm, you’re okay... ylgr too :)”)

AND IMMEDIATELY, HIS NEXT TEXT IS HIM CALLING GUNNTHRÁ WITH "OMAE”

ALREADY DEEP INTO THE STRESS OF MÚSPELL INVADING THEM

this shows how easily stressed hríd gets and how much he lets his emotions dirve his attitude and actions (which makes sense with the part where he tells fjorm she should be the one wielding leiptr and not him, he's too emotional despite how much he tries not to be)

in these parts we also see some level of deattachment from gunnthrá, on english he goes "sister..." by the end of the opening conversation

in the jp, however, he stays silent, he doesn't even call her name

idk if it's just me overanalyzing it, but from my experience with animoo and vidya, it feels a little weird that he says nothing there, like he's thinking (this is probably foreshadowing hríd's inner feelings oof)

something that i particularily like about this event is that hríd seems so at ease when he's on the dreams, even in the english translation it seems like that he mentions it might be because he feels at ease with kiran but i feel like it also has to do with the fact they're just a dream, it's not the real world, there's nothing to worry in a world where there's no war

at least, that's the feeling his dialogues give me

the closest thing to that hríd is his lvl40 speech and ny hríd (who's happier)

the only quote where hríd mentions some type of concern for his mother btw

from here on it only gets worse when it comes to hríd, though

he speaks about the invasion and such he talks in a way that implies he's probably taking the role of a commander (same as how it is implied he trains the soldier, or that he trains with them, though since he's been training alone with fjorm for so long, it's most likely the former) aside from that, he's weighting on himself the responsibility of what happens to nifl and what happens to his family

and since he's doing so, here's when it comes the part of hríd not being able to care about himself

this young man is carrying a heavy weight, the hopes and dreams and lives of many innocent and PEACEFUL people who barely even know how to fight, on top of those of his loved ones

it doesn't seem like anyone asked him to, not even his mother or sisters

he just decided it on his own that he needed to be "the perfect prince/king" in order to "protect" them

/even if it costs him his life/

he prepared his sisters for that moment (which, might give an insight that hríd knew more than he says, but let's leave my conspiracy theories aside lol)

and to THAT PART, we can add this from the mainstory

in english, when he's rescued, he thanks them for doing so

but in the jp text he actually apologizes for it

not sure how to exactly translate it, but it's something along the lines of "my apologies...for having to be saved..."

idk you guys, but it sounds like what someone who just failed to commit suicide would say, instead of someone who's grateful to be alive

and it makes sense, with how obsessed hríd seems to be about "dying for his loved ones" despite it not being entirely necessary

i mean, look at that, he survived surtr and was aided by bruno as he escaped (probably? they never say what exactly happened, but since they're looking for hríd and not for bruno, it's most likely that they just found each other by accident)

and yes, even though he seems to calm down with those thoughts during the sequence, it is only a dream and we know he has no recolection of them

he forgets completely about that motivation to keep living, which leads him into further down the path of death  (whichinnorsemythologymightbecalledhríd,,,,,,orgjöll,,,ykow?)

im still not done, havent even gotten to his unit quotes lmao

hríd still did his best to survive for as long as he could, but it feels more like his strategic "i'm making time for fjorm and the askrans to make their moves" purely, out of the fact he didn't seem too happy to survive until he saw fjorm and ylgr

hat's all of hríd's quotes from that event, i can finally move on to his unit quotes

let's start with this one, luckily it is practically the same quote in both languages

this immediatelly counters any "hríd is boring" comment

though that is subjective, in my case what drove me even further into loving hríd was how different he was from usual characters related to ice

he might come off as cold sometimes, but it's purely because he's actually really dense/has a really bad sense of humor

in jp he tries to make an ice joke, but says "it's not suitable for him" (which is funny because in english he does have ice puns and i hate it)

1. he doesn't mention his mother 2. hríd blaming himself and being kinda gloomy part 1 

"I should have protected my people and sisters, I couldn't play that role... I can never forget that." 

this part hurts a lot (it's a little more poetic than the og one, i like it lol)

he could be talking about himself, about his sisters, his people, or all together, since the four of them have expressed desire for peace, and all four ended hurt by such thing

this part is scary, though it's not as much in english

NOT BECAUSE OF THE TRANSLATION, but because of his battle lines in eng (i'll get to that first and then come back to this one)

the most shockingly different skill trigger is the second one

the first one is exactly the same the third one in jp is "this is the last blow" (or smth like that) the fourth one is a little weird to translate (ice upon you works, but "freeze your life" sounds a little scary??)

OKAY BUT THE SECOND ONE ALONG WITH THE VOICE CLIP

IT KINDA SCARES ME A LITTLE FOR MY CUTE SWEET MOCHI BOY

it literally says "no mercy for the enemy"

IT'S LITERALLY SUGAR COATED, hríd went from a gentle giant to a merciless killer (who knows how many muspellians he's killed???) thanks to surtr and his fucking ass

hríd blaming himself and being gloomy part 2

the fact that he has not one, not two, not three, but about 5 to 6 lines that imply he's still dueling over everything that happened during the war is hurtful, he really can't forgive himself for that

he also sounds a little dead to me here (it’s one of the voiced quotes from his status page!)

which brings me back to the initial scary one

hríd is obsessed with earning his peace no matter what

and for that, he wants to get stronger

for that, he's willing to even perish, for everyone's sake

it's so sickening for me since i can kinda relate???? it reminds me a lot of the kind of wording they use for depression-themed japanese works, with the "peace" part and his willingness to just die anytime (which, is actually pretty normal for a warrior outside of FE. outside)

iT MAKES ME FEEL BAD BUT AT THE SAME TIME i kinda like he's written this way

AND EVEN WHEN HE'S LIKE THAT, hríd is still a gentle sweetheart who speaks so kindly you kinda forgets how merciless he is in the battlefield

like, the audio where he holds kiran's hands???? where he speaks about how the order of heroes saved nifl????? EVEN WHEN HE GETS STARTLED

he's always such a gentle and kind person

it makes me hate surtr even more because they didn't deserve this

hríd didn't deserve going through all of this fucking shit HE. DESERVED. HAPPINESS. AND PEACE.

then there's the ny hríd

he's an angel

a happy angel who makes me a little sad bc og hríd is not as happy

From here on everything was written like 2 weeks after the previous stuff :’) i’m sowwy

he's a resolute prince, he has the resolution of saving even at least one person,,,,,instead of being a "king", instead of being a "brother", or a "prince", he just wants to be "a hero",,,

hello, this is my opening statement of why ny hríd makes me cry with just existing

welcome

let us start with something that makes his quotes even better, particularily the previous quote and his lvl40 speech, which is the powerful meaning of this alt itself for a character such as hríd

in japan, new year used to be celebrated not at the end of the year, but at the end of winter, which is where geishun comes into the scheme, as it currently means "new years greetings" but in those old times, it was actually "welcoming spring" (or something along those lines i suck for precise translations)

and that's where our next quote comes into the picture

hríd speaks about nifl's winter, about how it practically symbolizes the nifleans' strength and will power

the alt itself is a more positive hríd, one who's willing to try his hardest for everyone, who doesn't regret his past, but looks into the future and has the purpose of being even better than before

of course, this hríd didn't suffer the same fate as the OG hríd, as he still has all 3 sisters (i want to believe ylgr was with them, just not shown bc of the lack of space for a sixth character) and now also 2 new allies to power their search for peace and strength to defend that peace

so, while our normal hríd is desparate to become stronger and suffers, this hríd is like his pole opposite, it's like the sun and the moon (too bad this hríd has no default special, sol would've fit him so well)

can we talk about how he feels so comfortable wearing the celebratory outfit?

the obi (the.....thing that acts as a belt) should be tied strongly enough so the hakama (the pants) doesnt fall down while he fights, yet he feels comfortable with it

i mean, it isn't as constrictive as a kimono as it doesn't prevent him from moving around freely, but he still shouldn't normally feel as comfortable with it as he is, he's never even worn something like that (it is implied, at least) yet he's loving it, isn't it adorable???

one time i joked about hríd being able to feel when winter is coming or when snow will start falling but

i think this quote pretty much confirmed it (YOU CAN'T SAY IT'S BECAUSE IT'S WARM, IT DOES SNOW IN ASKR WE'VE SEEN IT)

blessed boy munchs a whole fucking piece of mixed flour with FOUR HUNDRED GRAMS OF FUCKING SUGAR 

he's got a sweet tooth i know it, i know my people when i see them

it's just that he doesn't seem disgusted, and he also only mentions the mochi so we can assume he didn't drink sake or matcha with it

he ate the fucking thing alone and apparently liked it

we have a sweet angel, guys

i just think this quote is cute, he loves cold just as much as i love him

t HIS IS SUCH AN IMPROVEMENT FROM OUR NORMAL HRÍD HE'S SO POSITIVE AND DETERMINED I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

though in japanese, the last quote is a little more gloomy

im not entirely sure of how to properly translate it *looks at the jisho page of the kanji he cant understand* it's certainly a word

but it could be something like "to be in such a predicament from so early in the year... I'm unable to say it's pathetic..."

i???? imagine he says he "can't say it" because he's trying to be positive?????? or something along those lines, but saying it proves he's taking it way to the extreme

nasakenai can also be shameful or miserable, pitable, disgraceful stuff like that

i'm not sure how to describe this quote?

this time it's the english localisation that kinda throws me off, i don't understand what he's trying to say lmao

in japenese he's saying something about having been graced this early in the new year

7 years speaking english and i still can't break down complex phrases the only reason i've survived this long is through the power of deduction abilities

pray for me

u know hríd's damaged quotes in english are all grunts, right?

in japanese, this hríd has a peculiar quote i find adorable when he gets damaged

he says "as expected from you...!"

hE'S COMPLIMENTING HIS ENEMY, THIS IS THE SAME MAN WHO SAYS NO MERCY AS HE KILLS THE FOE

btw listening to his english quotes is so funny

he sounds so damn cool in japanese and in english he

he sounds like a fucking nerd

I THINK IM TAKING A LIKING TO HIS ENGLISH VOICE ACTING PURELY BECAUSE HE SOUNDS STUPID

compare this (JP) https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/feheroes_gamepedia_en/1/12/VOICE_Hr%C3%ADd_Resolute_Prince_SKILL_2_jp.wav

to this (ENG) https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/feheroes_gamepedia_en/6/6a/VOICE_Hr%C3%ADd_Resolute_Prince_SKILL_2.wav

it's the exact same quote by the two different VAs

HE SOUNDS LIKE A NERD IN THE ENGLISH VERSION I CAN'T

back to translations and analysis

i hate this one

his eng quote is more positive while the japanese one is something along the lines of "I was useless... I'm sorry..."

I

HATE

IT

look, say whatever you want, but hríd is such a sweet man

he cares for people and he tries his best to be the perfect prince everyone thinks he is

AND FOR HIS *MORE POSITIVE VERSION* TO SAY THIS AS HE IS DEFEATED IS JUST

WHAT DID HE DO TO U INTSYS TO MAKE HIM SUFFER THIS MUCH??

despite how "im so useless...!" his japanese version is

he way he says these two quotes sounds way more positive in japanese lmao it's the same translation, only that he's more "I'll repay you!!!!!!" in jp ( https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/feheroes_gamepedia_en/3/34/VOICE_Hr%C3%ADd_Resolute_Prince_MAP_3_jp.wav )

adorable

can’t use emojis on this pc so i’ll just leave the whole screenshot here

you see this quote here?

this is what it actually says

I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY CHANGED IT BUT I THINK IT'S CUTE BECAUSE I THINK HE DIDN'T JUST SWALLOW THE WHOLE MOCHI

HE ATE IT NORMALLY AND THINKS HE'S GOT SOME ON HIS CLOTHES BC PEOPLE ARE LOOKING AT HIM LGHDSKLGSDFKS

why are u so cute aaaaaaa///////////

this is probably the translation of hríd's quotes i hate the most  in english it just...sounds so rude

in japanese it's more like "could you please tell me if i'm wearing these clothes wrong? i'll fix it fast"

he's trying to be respectful to the hoshidans sobs

THESE TWO QUOTES ARE SO DIFFERENT BUT SO EQUALLY ADORABLE AND POWERFUL

THIS 180~195CM OR SO MAN IS THE MOST ADORABLE PERSON IN THIS WHOLE PUTRID PLANET AND IM GOING TO TELL YOU WHY

first, this is my fave quote on english

he sounds so confused as to why people think the hoshidan clothes suit him

HE'S. NOT. AWARE. OF HOW FUCKING GOOD HE LOOKS.

TELL ME THAT'S NOT THE CUTEST SHIT EVER HE JUST DOESN'T GET IT

to make it more adorable, in japanese, the original quote is something like "I wonder what makes a type of clothing 'suit' you..."

HE'S GOING ALL PHYLOSOFICAL ON THAT SHIT probably because people keep telling him he looks good in that kind of clothing

this man's density is so powerful that he can't even begin to understand people find him attractive and that the attire literally makes him go from a 10 to a 1000000000000000000

he doesn't get it and he wants to know if it's really true so he goes out of his way TO ASK KIRAN

i love hríd so much he's so adorabl e

i want to give him a hug

with this i finish my thread for now

for now

hopefully we will get another alt for hríd and i can come back to spam about how adorable his quotes are

please stan hríd he's literally an angel

[coreytravelogue]

Vancouver, BC - September 7, 2020 (Part 2)

A week late or so I know, technically I was working on this last week but writing while drinking beer on a empty stomach is not a good idea. Regardless though I don’t think the words were flowing very well for me that day. I hope to rectify that today.

It is Labour Day today, one year ago I was in Berlin more than likely playing the beer stock market and feeling burnt out from my trip one week in. Not too much like i have felt the year due to the pandemic basically ruining nearly everyone’s lives. I can’t say much as most of my issues are first world problems but to say this year hasn’t been stressful for me would be a bold face lie. In all honesty last year was much more stressful for me but what has made this year stressful is because I haven’t been able to travel at all where last year I was able to. That is the topic of discussion today, basically continue where I left off from the last blog.

2019 was full of many trips in of itself, 2019 was a year of more changes for me. My girlfriend moved in with me to live with me and my room mates which caused its own set of drama but I am not going to bring it up. It was also a year where for a good portion of time I was doing the work of 3 people which lead to last year being exceedingly stressful to where if I didn’t do the travel I did do I would have probably went insane.

The first trip of the year was to Los Angeles/Anahiem, California for my Easter long weekend. This was for my girlfriend predominantly at least at the very start of it. My girlfriend has a fascination with Disneyland/Disney World and given how she isn’t as much of a lover of travel as I am I wanted to take her to a place we could agree on collectively but I am not going to lie who enjoyed this trip more could be debated.

I have been to Disneyland many times in my life most of which with my parents as a child or a teen who had no idea how to handle himself in another country. My first actual Disneyland experience as a adult without my parents was Disneyland Paris but tell you the truth it barely counts to me and it is nowhere close to the same experience. With that said coming into this I didn’t think much of this trip. As long as I could go on to Splash Mountain and Jayne hat many statues I got what I wanted out of it.

I wasn’t prepared for the child in me to come alive walking into Disneyland for the first time in 18 years. Much of it hadn’t changed for the most part but I felt like I was experiencing it for the first time in of itself given being an adult. For 4 nights we hit just about every bit of Disneyland and the California Adventure which I never got to see when I was there last but it would have been in it’s infancy at that time.

To tell you the truth the entire trip itself was just one big positive memory. Whether it was going on Splash Mountain 4 times, Jungle Cruise 3 times a least followed or more importantly seeing my girlfriend happy being in Disneyland.

I didn’t enjoy the expensive Uber rides going to and from Disneyland though but it could not be helped given how utterly useless the transit was for us there in LA which still utterly shocks me.

If I was to return to LA again I don’t think I would be going to Disneyland I would probably be spending more time on the LA side of the city going to Universal Studios and explore the downtown area more as I know there was far more places to Jayne hat that I didn’t get to go to given the short time frame with had.

LA is such a big city, it would take at least 2 weeks to full explore and even then you couldn’t get through all of it.

Kelowna was another place I hadn’t been for a very long time, longer than even Disneyland. It was a place I thought both me and my girlfriend could collectively enjoy together but to tell you the truth it wound up being more of a disappointment than a fun experience for both of us.

I wasn’t expecting this place to be as fun as it was for me as a child but even then not much of it was fun to begin with outside of going to Scandia which was on our first night. It was there where I discovered my girlfriend like shoot em ups which came from left for for me. For much of my life I always craved having someone to play games like Time Crisis 2 with but never had anyone who would. We wound up getting in the top ten there which to me is pretty impressive given how old that game is and how much use that game has gotten. Also got to watch her do her mail in vote for her home country. The worry though was trying to find another Australian witness, surprisingly she found one as I was playing go carts.

Those were the only real tangible happy memories from that trip, the rest of me basically wondering around aimlessly trying Kelowna’s beer and being for the most part disappointed.

Kelowna felt like a amalgamation of BC and Alberta which i guess I can't be surprised, much of Northern BC has always been a major playground for Albertans looking for a cheap trip.

I don’t need to come back to Kelowna anytime soon myself, not for another 20 plus years, maybe not that long because Kelowna wasn’t that bad I just don’t need to go back there anytime soon again.

The year prior I was able to go to Whitehorse; the furthest north i have ever been in Canada, this time I would go north once again to another territory but this time Northwest Territories.

I was worried that 3 days wasn’t going to be enough to explore this city if you could call it that it was probably smaller than Whitehorse. I am probably wrong but it felt very small to me and there wasn’t really anything to do there unless you wanted to came or escape the world, so I got pretty bored pretty fast here but they did have a wonderful brewery with good food. If I was to go back it would be to go to that brewery.

I did go to Toronto for a second time as I pointed out in my last blog but I am not going to go into it, I only really had two nights here when I should have tried to make a long weekend out of it, with that said it would not have made a difference. I knew I had to conserve my energy for the big trip of the year, one that was 5 years in the making; Europe round 2.

The plan had always been to return to Europe, I knew within one day of coming home I needed to go back there and every plan I made from that point in on to even now involved/involves going back.

The original plan was to go back to school in 2015 and once I graduated in 2017 I would backpack Europe again, return home and start my new career however my new career came calling early. By 2016 I was already working in the department I am working for now, a student work job in 2016 that lead to a full time contract to work for all of 2017. By 2018 the plan was once my contract was up I was going to travel again but they extended my contract again and well you get the story I became a full time worker where I am today. So by 2019 it obvious that I had to return to Europe the only trick was where.

Given I wasn’t able to use all of my leave time in 2018 it granted me a significant boost in leave time in 2019 which would make it possible for me to spend 2 weeks in Europe while still being able to spend 2 weeks in Newfoundland with my folks however there is a big difference between traveling Europe for 2 weeks than it was for 2.5 months like I did in 2014.

I knew I had to be exact with where I was going, no wasted days or efforts. I needed to know exactly where I was going and for long however it is nearly impossible to pack one country in Europe for 2 weeks much less Europe itself. So I decided to focus most of my time in Germany, why? For the obvious reasons:

1) I loved it there last time I was there. It was the first true country I got explore deeply like I did last time where I hit Dusseldorf, Koln, Berlin and Munich. I could hit all four of those places again and probably have a lot of fun, and I did at least 2 of them this time around.

2) I met a lot of good people in Germany, friends whom I still keep in touch with to this day. This played into my choice for Germany big time which I will get into soon.

3) It is a very easy country to visit. Not very dangerous at all really for me at least, the transit is good and it is just a country for which I feel at home with the most tof any other country I have ever been to.

4) Beer, pretty self explanatory I think. After having true German hefenwiezen in Hahndorf, Australia I knew if i needed the best of my favourite beer style I had to get it at it’s origin.

Look without trying to ramble on though I know I will on this subject I had to make the most of my time in Europe. As much as I wanted to see new places/countries in Europe I also wanted to see old friends I had not seen in 6 years and catch up with them. 

These people helped me out big time then and they would wind up helping me out again as I would basically cough surf with them again.

I knew I was going to arrive and leave from Amsterdam so it was basically about how I could fit about 2 weeks of time in to make that balance. My original plan was to go to somewhere in Belgium, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Nuremberg in Germany, Prague in Czech Republic and then find a way to get back to Amsterdam and hit back home. 

I hit up 4 of my previous couch surfing hosts to see if they would host me. Look either way this is going to sound like me taking advantage of them and in a way it was but at the end of the day I came to most of those places to see them. If they said no I would totally get it and I would have tried to get an airbnb. I mean if Maria said no she had no room I would have still did an airbnb in Dusseldorf because I wanted to hang with her again and explore Dusseldorf again.

I contacted Maria first and she said yes which was great. I found out my host who saved my bacon moved from Saltcoat Scotland to Berlin so I asked her and she said yes so I had that locked down. When I looked up Katharina early on I found out she no longer lived in Koln but in Gent, Belgium so it was like hitting two birds with one stone. Not only would I get to hang with an old friend but see a new country as well. I asked her and I knew she was going to say yes and she did. So I had Gent, Belgium, Dusseldorf and Berlin, Germany locked up but what about my forth contact. I am not going to bring the person up, I don't want to shame them or anything. I was hoping that that person would say yes or at least say something and say they were interested in meeting up with me in Czech Republic. Of all the people who said they would host me again they said it the most but when I asked I got nothing. So realizing I had to nail down my locations and dates I moved along from going to Prague and decided to split that time in going to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and Leipzig, Germany. So I basically had my itinerary nailed down.

I would arrive in Amsterdam and immediately take a train to Gent where I would stay with Katharina and her boyfriend for 2 nights then go to Luxembourg City for 2 nights, go to Dusseldorf for about 2 nights, Berlin for 3 nights, Leipzig for 3 nights, Nuremberg for 3 nights then Amsterdam for 2 nights.

I flirted with the notion of couch surfing this time again but given the short periods of time I would be staying in each place and how little time I knew I would have in each place I felt like I could do without the hassle of spending so much time, time I did not have basically pitching to strangers to hopefully let me stay with them for 2-3 nights. Even if they said yes to me what if they suddenly backed out on me last minute? Thankfully that never happened to me but if it did that would seriously fuck up my trip so I felt like you know what I have had lots of good experiences with airbnb I am just going to use it this time as well. So I decided to airbnb Leipzig and Nuremberg. Luxembourg City and Amsterdam were too expensive to airbnb plus most of the more affordable places were too far from the city centre so i decided to go to a hostel for that one. I thought about maybe camping in Amsterdam again but looking back I am thankful I did not especially with what I had to do during my last night in Amsterdam.

I had everything set all I needed to do was just get there.

Flying to Europe this time was much different than I did the first time but not without it’s own level of stress. When I flew in 2014 I landed in London and had to figure out a way to get from Heathrow to Luton. I had to figure out how one would do that within two hours and thankfully I was able to get on my flight to Amsterdam. This time however I was flying from Vancouver to Chicago then to Amsterdam.

Chicago has always been a city I was interested in seeing but this time around I could only see the airport. I am not going to lie as I was jogging to my gate I wanted to hope to see the semblance of the Home Alone 1 and 2 scenes of the family running to their gate but I seen very little of that (it was from 1990-92 so I don't know what I was thinking). My original plan was to start drinking and hope to knock myself out but given the last few other trips I had made of similar length that trick didn’t seem to work out anymore so instead I took a melatonin and night time NyQuil instead. For the 9 hour flight I probably only got 4 hours of sleep and spotty at best.

When I finally arrived in Amsterdam my time there was much more smoother than I thought it would be. I over analyzed this part of my trip when I should have done more of that for getting from Luxembourg City to Dusseldorf though that bit could not have been planned for. When I came to Amsterdam I had to show my print out to the ticket people but I could not get a straight answer from them as to how this ticket to Gent was going to work. I was so used to tickets really just being one way and that is that. You go on a train and show them your ticket and you sit on that train till you get to your destinations, any transfers required a secondary ticket and so on, this was different. When I went to the Amsterdam ticket person they basically told me that my ticket is like a day pass for Belgium rail; meaning even though I am just going to Gent in theory I could have gone anywhere in Belgium on that ticket for the day. So with their assurances I waiting and inevitably boarded my train to Gent which was two hours and allowed me to basically map out more of what I was going to be doing.

I tried to take the lessons I learned in Europe the first time and apply them to this and I am so glad I did this time because if I didn’t I would have been so fucked. The main lesson I learned backpacking in Europe which I learned early was to always have your entry and exit plans mapped out before hand jus tin case you needed to leave sooner than expected. So I was completely expecting to have to find my way to Katharina’s place when I arrived and know how I was going to find my way back. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about that as they were going to meet me at Starbucks. Ahh Starbucks as it was in 2014 it remained and was my wifi beacon to the rest of the world in keeping in contact with people back home.

The positive memories as it would be for when I would meet up with Maria was hanging out with Katharina and her new boyfriend Dirk who would up being a pretty cool dude to hang out with. Of course the greatest memory of this part of the trip was betting my shoe to drink bad or I should say strong Belgian ale which nearly fucked me up, so much that i needed Dirk’s help to finish it. By the end of it I felt like such a light weight. I made sure I ate quite a bit before this point so I felt like maybe it was me being weak but then when 5 Dutch men came in and ordered 2 of the same large ass drinks and drank it all themselves and got shit faced it mad eye feel a helluva lot better about myself especially since i had two beer before that big as beer and one more after.

However the other great memories I would have would be just hanging with Kat and Dirk either around the city or at their home having vegan food or playing boardgames with them. These sort of trips are always best spent with friends and those who want to go with you. They gave me more than enough time to do my own exploring while still coming around to hang when they could. 

I wish I spent one more day here but not because of the city, the city itself wasn’t all that impressive it was more that I wanted to hang with Kat and Dirk more because I knew it would be another long time before I would see them again.

They joined me for a third of the way to Luxembourg as they had to go somewhere else along the way. While I did not cry this time saying goodbye to Katharina I was sad. I don't have very many friends in my life. My friends are few and far between and those I feel like I can just hang my hat with and be nothing more than just a chum with even rarer for me especially now.

This longing would hit me in Luxembourg City.

I knew nothing about Luxembourg for the longest time, it wasn’t till 2017 that I started becoming very interested in going to this spec of a country. In 2017 while I was working cataloging records which is a rather mind numbing job to do most of the time but to tell you the truth I loved it because it allowed me to escape into music, audio books, talk radio, podcasts or whatever but one of the others was listening to vlogs on different countries. In all honesty I never got much from them that I didn’t already sort of know. Most vlogs really don’t give you a gauge of what it is like being there. Or maybe they just don’t give me the Information I want to know like how are the people to tourists, where is the good beer, where is the cheap places to go or where are the hidden gem areas to go to get away from the tourist traps? 

I stumbled upon Luxembourg City and everything about it seemed cool and beautiful and the bet part about it is everyone said it can be explored quickly so for someone like me who knew the next time he would be in Europe he would have a very short amount of time there found a appeal in a place like this. I am glad I took that plunge because Luxembourg City was a pretty cool place to go to.

From the moment I saw this city I was immediately smitten as I have said last year with this city. It is the most beautiful city I have ever seen period. It has such a mix of natural scenery mixed with old school architecture. With that said I knew I had 2 nights here and I had to make the most of it. For the most part I do feel like I did.

This city can be done in two full days but with that said 3-4 days would be enough to get everything.

The strongest memories I have of this part of the trip was all in the first night to tell you the truth. By this point I was coming to realize that Europe doesn’t have a craft brewing scene I had to figure out where the good bars were that could give me a clue of what kind of beer this place produced. I thankfully found a place called Craft Corner where I was able to not only try beer from the country but from places I would not get to try this time around like from Estonia, Denmark, Ukraine and even from the USA weirdly enough. I drank like a fish that night but the real adventure of this part of the trip was trying to find a way home.

It was during this time where I missed my girlfriend whom for the first time since January this was the longest I had went without being around her and I missed her. I would up getting lost in the “downtown” area of Luxembourg City because I was too drunk to know where I was going at night that I inevitably caved and took a bus back only to realize if I had just gone straight in a certain direction I would have gotten back to the hostel. I also ate McDs for the first time in years but I also got to have Luxembourg wheat beer which was surprisingly good.

The worst memory however was leaving Luxembourg and how I nearly fucked myself over because I much rather have gone on time with my train rides than early when I could and I should have.

I would definitely go back to Luxembourg City as I am sure there are places I haven’t Jayne hatted and I wouldn’t mind trying their wheat beer again but with that said I would only come back if it is on the way to something and if there is time so when I do come back it is unknown.

Dusseldorf was easily the highlight of the entire trip but also my biggest regret, regret because I didn’t put more time here than I should have.

More time may as well have been my biggest regret even though I was very short of it. I will try and save my hindsights and lessons for the end of this blog but I really do wish I spent more time in Dusseldorf.

I would even say I enjoyed my time in Dusseldorf this time around more than I did the first time which says something. Dusseldorf was the city that introduced me to Germany and its culture.

While I didn’t get to meet as many people here as I did the first time around I did get to hang with Maria, her boyfriend and her friends. I even go to be interviewed for the first time for a article (https://www.wz.de/nrw/duesseldorf/wie-couchsurfer-die-welt-und-duesseldorf-entdecken_aid-46027727?output=amp&fbclid=IwAR24SDFtbEt_lGkKdADxxq5MY3hDoDHutYcPbRrRX1nMSS9NOLzaeys_ul8).

From the translations I found she did get a few things wrong about me and Maria’s story but at the end of the day its meh just cool that me and Maria got to be interviewed with how we met through couch surfing.

The best memories were playing Mario Kart with her and her boyfriend, going to Frida which was a cafe in Dusseldorf on top of just having German beer here there and everywhere.

I could have and should have spent an extra day or two but I didn’t. Why didn’t I? Well the reason I had back then was that I didn’t want to put them out for long. I didn’t want to make it seem like I was taking advantage of their hospitality by staying at their place for a long period of time. By the time I got to Dusseldorf I came to realize that I wasn’t inconveniencing either Katharina or Maria at least that is what I got from them both of them. If anything both Maria and Kat seemed to enjoy having me around because it meant someone new to hang out with. Someone to show their world to and such. That being said I like to consider myself a pretty good guest I have always tried to be neat, tidy, quiet (when needed) and respectful of the spaces I occupy. Whenever i could i tried to pay for any food we all ordered together, any groceries I would try to pay even though they always refused.

Bottom line is I miss Maria as a friend the same as Katharina. Just having a friend to just travel around with, have a few beers and games with and feel like I don’t have to be anything but their friend. Not a doctor, moving company or anything. I feel like that is unfair to those friends and family who confide in me and see me as a rock in their life but honesty there are times where it exhaust me having to be the parents or the rock for people when all I want to do is just be an equal and sometimes just be friends. Talk about video games, movies, travel beer, our relationships etc etc without feeling like we need to cry on the others shoulder or be the shoulder. That is part of friendship and part of being a good friend but how can say it......sometimes i just want a friend I can have fun with and not have to worry about anything else but that. It was refreshing to be able to do that with people. I don’t get to do that with anyone very often, if ever anymore. Which also depresses me when I think of it. 

Leaving Dusseldorf made me sad and it also made me angry because I wanted to spend more time there but I couldn’t and I wasn’t entirely sure if I was ready for Berlin but it didn’t matter whether I was ready for Berlin I had to go.

I hit a wall in Berlin and I should have seen it coming but then this is a hindsight moment now and it was a lesson I learned pretty quickly. It had been 5 years since I did this kind of traveling and even when I did do this kind of travel I always tried to give myself time to take my time in places. When I did my 2 months in 2014 I didn’t hit my first wall till I hit Dublin which was one month into the trip but the thing is I would give myself 3-7 days in most places and then I would move on. I was also 5 years younger at that point. So here I was barely one week into my trip and I was already feeling travel fatigue and it kind of turned me into an asshole for a little bit. Thankfully my 3rd and last host for the trip Missy understood or at least I think she understood.

I think it stemmed from something as small as not being able to purchase multi day transit passes like i did in Berlin last. When I was in Berlin in 2014 I am very sure I was able to purchase 48 hour transit passes which would allow me to use the transit anytime I wanted to for that 48 hour span. Now I couldn’t even find day passes which angered the fuck out of me.

The biggest regret from my first time in Berlin was not being able to experience the night life and to tell you the truth I still wasn’t able to this time but that is my fault both times. I didn’t want to be the one coming back to Missy’s place smashed from partying and to tell you the truth by the time I was in Berlin I had no interest in that anyway. I still wanted to try more German beer but by this point I was getting somewhat jaded. I came to Germany assuming that I would going to get a real good education in beer and swim in it. Instead I barely got to enjoy it the way I wanted to. Maybe it was better this way because I knew my body wasn’t able to handle it the way it used to.

I did get to hit the places I enjoyed going to the first time around again all while Jayne hatting anywhere I could. To tell you the truth if I spent another few days in Berlin I could probably Jayne hat enough statues to use as my FB profile pic for a year or two.

Biggest memories from this visit to Berlin was the night I went bar hoping. I started at this place called Berliner Republik which had this beer stock exchange one would play which I did. I had curry pizza which wasn’t very good but it was enough to carry me over the night. I followed it by going to two micro breweries in the area, neither impressed me much to tell you the truth.

On my way back home that night I at least got to buy the beer that really opened my eyes to German beer especially hefenwiezens; Störtebeker Bernstein-Weizen. It tasted a lot like the Summerwiezen here in Canada but just better in a way. I had it again this time cold and in a bottle but it just didn’t taste the same. it could have been because it was in a bottle and not on tap (I am that picky now) or maybe my tastes have just become more refined now. I mean one of my favourite beers used to be White Bark witbier from Driftwood but the last few times I have had that beer I could not be bothered with it at all. Regardless though Störtebeker Bernstein-Weizen is the reason why I am a Hefeweizen alcoholic.

The last good memory was on my last night, I was just so frustrated that I wasn’t finding the beer I wanted to have this time around that i just decided to just go to the nearest bar and just try something. Thankfully there was a hostel/slash craft beer bar not far from where I stayed that I didn’t even know was a craft beer place till I went in. I was pleasantly surprised and tried their beer. The place was called The Circus.

The less than pleasant memories of Berlin was trying to figure out Berlin’s transit system. It was confusing as fuck for me at first but once I figured it out it made more sense. I think looking back I was just so frustrated that it clouded my thoughts in dealing with Berlin, I wasn’t ready for Berlin the first time I went there and I wasn’t ready for it again this time sadly.

I don’t know if I will go back to Berlin anytime soon, if I do it will be with my girlfriend and it will be at a hostel, airbnb or hotel. I feel now I have expectations of what to expect and how to look for what I need in Berlin to have more fun there. Every time I go I feel like I know what I am looking for and each time I get it wrong. I am hoping the 3rd time I go someday I will be more prepared but I think it starts with staying in a place where I am not inconveniencing someone or myself.

Missy was as always a great host but I could tell her husband was not keen on the idea of couch surfing and letting strangers stay with them which I totally understood. It felt very awkward for me hearing how angry he was as the situation, he was nice to me but I knew he wasn’t happy with Missy about this. I feel like I should just avoid this altogether next time. These are the things I wanted to avoid with couchsurfing this time around.

As I have said before probably, I put Leipzig here as basically my do nothing point. I remember telling Missy I was going here and she asked me why since there was nothing there. Well there was stuff here, at least I thought there was but to tell you the truth I didn’t even care if there wasn’t. All I knew was that I needed to relax, I needed a vacation from my vacation and Leipzig was basically that.

I chose Leipzig because it was the birthplace of Gose beer which I have noticed has been trending as beer as of late here in BC but I remember when it was only Driftwood who did in in BC and it was my introduction to it so I thought that its source must have it the best. I was wrong for the most part, the oldest brewery in the city that bragged about having it made it way too syrupy and it just didn’t taste right to me.

It didn’t matter though I knew this city didn’t have much which I felt is knocking it it when I don’t mean to me. It is a nice city, it has a great mix of new and old architecture in it that makes it unique to any place I have ever been to. However I just wanted to sleep in and get drunk which I did. I mean I already found my go to German hefenweizen but it was here that I really just sat in my room at my airbnb and just drank Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse. I am sure it is not my favourite German hefe however it was the most excessible of all of the hefes I found in Germany.

My memories were really just that, doing nothing and sleeping in because I needed to. I got much needed rest during those 2-3 nights I was there which allowed me to get through the last two cities.

I expected more from Nuremberg than what I got from it to tell you the truth, I was expecting a mini Berlin chalk full of museums and culture. I didn’t get that, in fact I barely found any good museums there which I found disappointing. Realizing this and knowing I was going to spend my last 3 nights in Germany here was very depressing for me. I felt like if I knew this I would have just split my 6 days in Leipzig and Nuremberg in with Gent and Dusseldorf.

My first night in Nuremberg was when my depression decided to pop in and attack me because I was lonely missing my girlfriend, I was lonely missing having friends I could have fun with, I was depressed knowing full well that this was going to be my last time in Germany for some time and I chose poorly. I went to the only craft beer place I could find in old town and tried their beer and even then I wasn’t really impressed. I still got sufficiently drunk but still depressed that everything was coming to an end and I wasn’t satisfied with my experience. So I made my way from north old town and tried to find my way out of it in my drunken depressed haze. The whole moment in time for me would be comparable to the double guitar solo moment of the Hotel California or the last half of that song. 

I came to Germany for craft beer I also came to experience beer gardens the way I experienced them or I should say stumbled upon them in Koln which was how I fell in love in hefenwiezens. Nuremberg was my last stop in Germany and I had not found any beer gardens. The best experience i had with beer in Germany up to that point was with Maria in Dusseldorf mainly because Dusseldorf was one of those places where most of the breweries we all around the same area, close enough to try them all in succession and have fun with. Everywhere else the only times I could have true on tap beer was from micro breweries who would not serve the hefes I wanted to begin with. the Hefe nirvana I hoped for was nowhere to be found.

It was in this dark cloud that I stumbled up Old Town Festival of Nuremberg. Thankfully I came to Nuremberg at the right time as they were celebrating their old town’s anniversary. Sadly however that night I was way too drunk to even take part in it. I was so drunk that I know many were looking at me like some drunk dumb ass who had too much. I thankfully got home and spent the rest of my night submitting to my depression as it took hold of me for the rest of the night.

The next two nights however were the polar opposite as I would have huge breakfasts followed by pint after pint after pint after pint of hefenweizen from Spalter, Glosser, Augustine, Paulaner, Ludwig Konig and every other German brand out there. As though the German beer gods felt sorry for me knew my love was true gave me what I wished to send me off from Deutschland. 

I even got to hang out with a group of older German men and talk about craft beer with them.

That was really the best memory from my time here. Would i go back to Nurmberg? Only if there is a celebration of sorts where the beer gardens are brought out. If so I am there but if not I don't need to come back here.

On Sept 15 I left Nuremberg, Sept 15 was basically a travel day and one that reminded me of how big Germany really was because it was a 8 hour trip from Nuremberg to Amsterdam. By the time I got to Amsterdam it was too late to really do anything there unless I wanted to party and after the last two nights in Nuremberg I wasn’t interested, I also knew that I needed to get some sleep because I knew I wouldn’t get any for the last night I was going to be in Europe.

Thinking about this now is even more painful given the pain of my fantasy hockey team sucking last year on top of this pandemic basically ruining the greatest chance I would ever get to win but the thing is I had to do my hockey draft 5 hours before flying out of Amsterdam. I begged the guys to reschedule it even a day after but they refused and I got stuck with having to do my most important draft ever at 4 am at a hostel in Amsterdam.

Thankfully I had what is called a Ginger shot specifically for this. Maria works for a company that deals with health foods and drinks. She gave me two of these. One to try which I did before I left Dusseldorf, it definitely helped with my hang over that morning but this time I did not have a hang over I just needed to stay away and thankfully this did the trick and I was as ready to go as Freddie Mercury during Live Aid. Despite only having 2 hours of sleep after that ginger shot I was ready to go and had the best draft I ever. A team that nearly won best in season though I spent most of the season in first place, my team was primed for the playoffs built specifically for it but sadly due to the pandemic that never happened.

If I ever came back o Amsterdam I would definitely go to Camp Zeeburg in Amsterdam, I really missed going to that place. Outside of that I don't know if I would go back to Amsterdam, maybe for my girlfriend because of the museums but Amsterdam I don’t think is my kind of place. I definitely think it is a great introduction to Europe travel. If I was to recommend a place for someone who had never traveled to Europe before Amsterdam would definitely be a good primer but there are too many better placed to go.

So Sept 17 came and it was time to go, outside of some useless stress getting on the train to the airport checking in and getting on the plane was painless. The flight back however was slightly painful as I don’t think I slept much on my way back to Canada either. I remember stopping off in Toronto and having witbier and and a stour from Mill Street which was good followed by another 4.5 hour flight back to Vancouver where I got back to real life again.

Me and my girlfriend did go to Seattle but I have already talked about that for the most part, my trip to Newfoundland is self explanatory as I have done that so many times.

So what have I learned this time around?

I think when I do return to Europe I need to have a travel cell phone for starters. I was able to get away with it 2014 on my tablet however even then and especially now I feel like i missed out on so many good things I could have found if I had just had a travel cell phone to use to navigate me through Europe. I never bothered because I always felt like it was more trouble than it was worth to do that and even now I have no idea how I would be able to do it but I do not I need to start considering it for the next time I travel outside of the country. I feel as though I need to buy myself a travel phone that doesn't have anything linked or synced to it so I can use sim cards from anywhere and use that phone for travel because relying on just my tablet and starbucks barely got me around this time around.

If I go back to Germany I am not going to go after the craft beer areas but the actual traditional breweries next time. This may be much harder than finding craft breweries given many of these places are in lesser known cities in Germany but at least I would be able to get what I want from them. I know i have to start in Munich since many of the breweries i love seem to gravitate around there. Bottom line is I really need to do more digging up and studying of actual breweries in Europe because craft beer is just not at the level there as it is here and you know what I am fine with it. If I am in Germany I just want the hefes and I feel if I do return to Germany again it will be on a full on beer tour that is if my brain and my innards are still functional by then. 

When I finished my trip I felt I was now tired of Germany but I am not going to lie I still would like to go back and if I could only go back there I would have no problem but with that said there are way to many other places to see in Europe that I need to see, I can't spend all my time in Germany no matter how much I love it. I will just have to apply my beer brewery search I have learned to the next countries I have seen.

Another thing I have learned is that I have to slow down, as much as seeing a much as possible would be great I can't go about doing 2 nights in a place then move for 2 weeks straight. I doubt I would have been able to do it at 29 and i know and I can't do it at 35. I feel as though 3-4 days in each place is optimal and always give myself a city or a point in time where I can do something if I wanted but I don't need to and I can just sleep in. Adamooka was that for me in Australia though I didn’t need it so much there, Leipzig was that this time around as well.

Not going to lie I feel my second trip to Europe wasn’t as good as my first but that was a tall order to being with with expectations that could never have been met and i knew that coming in.

When I went to Europe the first time I really had free reign to go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. If I wanted to spend a week in Koln I could have. If I hated being in Inverness and wanted to leave the next day I could and did. I was able to pace myself where this time around I did not have that luxury.

The more I think about it now the more it makes me think about whether it is worth it taking leave without pay just to do it again. All I can ever think about it trying to make the most of my life and my youth while I have it. I am often thinking of my dad and how the love of travel was instilled in me through him in how he would drag me and my family cross Canada multiple times on top of other places. I only rediscover that love when I went to Seattle the first time and cemented it in Europe. It makes me wonder if it would be possible by the time I am about to turn 40 when I have gotten 7 years into my pension if I can request leave on top of leave without pay and get away with it. I doubt I could to tell you the truth but it is something I want to look into.

I can’t help but think about how I could and would do 2.5 months in Europe this time and how much I long for it. In a way I feel as though I would nearly do the same itinerary but maybe a few changes. Nothing gets my hopes up anymore than actually looking at a map and plotting where to go on it, there is a reason why I own about 4 world maps, well three as the forth is more just showing the planet as it doesn’t should cities or places.

I can look at it for hours plotting where I would go.For shits and giggles lets go into two scenarios if I was to do 76 days again.

If I redid my first tour I would actually hit up more museums in Amsterdam, do it for 3 days this time. Go to Koln and Dusseldorf but probably spend a week in Dusseldorf hanging with Marie and her boyfriend so that is 10 days (3 in Koln, 7 in Dusseldorf), 1 week in Berlin this time in the city not outside it or with a family and 3 days in Munich to get the whole Oktoberfest vibe but I would not be around it much. I would spent a week in Istanbul even though I think that area is tense right now, there is just so much one could see there that I didn’t see before. 3 days in Dublin followed by 3 or maybe 4 days in Gallway depending on how my liver is holding out. Oh Gallway was such a moment in time for me that is for sure. I would not go to Cork this time.

4 days in Belfast spending less time looking for vinyl records and more just exploring the place. 3 days in Glasgow and 3 days in Edinburgh, 4 days in Cardiff and 4 days in Paris.

I got 20 days left now, I don’t want to deviate too much from the original itinerary so i feel the rest of these days should be spent giving the UK my full attention. 3 days in Inverness to give it a chance but this time make sure I have a place booked this time, 3 days in Aberdeen, 3 days in Liverpool, 3 days in Manchester and 7 days in London. I am leaving 3-4 days of a buffer for this trip so I would be able to use that in case I hit a wall of it I felt i needed more time in one or two places or not. I feel as though I may risk burning out again with this trip but there is a reason why I am doing a week in many places. I mean a week in Dusseldorf should be stress free, week in Berlin won't but at least I could go at my own pace this time, a week in Istanbul should be pretty good though I wouldn’t have the same host i did this time around which sucks. Plus 7 days in London feel is more than enough for me.

If I was to use the 76 days now however without using the same itinerary? London, Paris or Amsterdam are often the cheapest starting destinations but I feel as though Amsterdam would make the most sense for me again. I would stay 3 days there, 5 days in Dusseldorf, 3 days in Hamburg (Germany), 4 days in Copenhagen (Denmark), 4 days in Gothenburg (Sweden), 4 days in Oslo (Norway), 4 days in Stockholm (Sweden), 1 travel day to get to Helsinki (Finland) then spend 4 days there. 4 days in Tallinn (Estonia), 4 days in Riga (Latvia), 4 days in Vilnius, 4 days in Warsaw, 4 days in Prague and 4 days in Bratislava.

I got around 19 days left now. So 4 days in Vienna, 4 days in Zurich, 1 day of travel to Catania where I will spend 3 days there before getting a ferry to Malta where I will spend 5 days on that island. This will leave me 2 days to find a way to get to Amsterdam.

Mind you this would probably be another exhausting trip and I would probably make some chances that would allow me more time to relax. If so I would be fine with cutting the last bit of my travel in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Malta in order to make sure the rest of the trip is good. The main mission of this trip is to hit the nordic region hard. 

To tell you the truth if it were not for COVID-19 me and my girlfriend would probably be in Australia right now, If that was the case we would have stayed in Adelaide while travelling to Perth, Adamooka, Tasmania and maybe if there was time Sydney or Brisbane but that ain’t happening and it is looking like Newfoundland won’t happen either. A trip during Thanksgiving as well as my birthday even less likely but it is what it is. All I do know if I will have more leave time next year than I did in 2019 when I did go to Europe. Where I will go I have no fucking clue at this time and I don’t think it is ever worth thinking about till a cure for COVID 19 is found. I only know that half of it will be for Newfoundland to se my parents and the other half somewhere else. Either Australia or Japan depending on how things go. Best case scenario I will return to Europe in 2023 which is 4 years later, still better than 5 years but it is still a long time between visits.

I have been working on this blog now for about 6 hours so I think I have overstayed my welcome. I do not know when my next blog will be. Maybe during Thanksgiving when I talk about what I would have done if COVID did not happen. Probably Quebec City or even Montreal again.

Fuck these times suck but it could be worse I guess. First world problems for me that I have no right to complain about. Stay safe out there people, shazbot nanu nanu.

[my-lazy-genius]

Shelter

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers

Characters: APH Spain (Antonio Fernández Carriedo), APH England (Arthur Kirkland), APH Italy (Feliciano Vargas). Mentions of: APH Germany (Ludwig Beilschmidt), APH Romano (Lovino Vargas). 

Pairing: SpUk/EngSpa [Spain x England]

Summary: In which Antonio wages the cost of war over his own personal shelter.

Author’s Note: Dang, late again. This is for @engspaweek, Day 3! Historical prompt 3, Spanish Civil War! Uh, not everything is 100% accurate, I changed a few minor things for plot purposes. Trigger warnings are all tagged. This is basically me trying out new WWII characterizations tbh bc headcanons..

Two years, eight months, three days.

Spain is keeping count. Somehow, even through the pain he feels with every step he takes, he’s keeping count. His people have been tearing each other apart for two years, eight months, and three days.

He’s just so tired. He can’t keep tearing himself between his people like this. He doesn’t know what he needs to do, he just knows he needs it to stop. Grave after grave after grave, he grows weary of burying his people, his friends.

Spain doesn’t like the color red anymore. He’s seen it too much, felt it too much, hot like anger and a phantom on his skin even after he scrubs it off. He wakes, often, in a cold sweat, body aching with imaginary wounds. He doesn’t ever remember his dreams - nightmares - anymore, but he knows they’re bad.

The emotions always linger with him for long after he forgets; anger, agony, grief. He’s not sure he wants to remember.

Two years, eight months, four days.

--

“Look at what you’ve become, Antonio,” a familiar voice lilts, but Spain doesn’t quite recognize the words he’s using, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look so lost in their own home before. All that blood looks good on you; really brings out your eyes.”

Spain blinks slowly at him. Hazel eyes fix on him, cold. No, Spain recognizes him. He smiles, tightly, weak.

“Veneziano,” he laughs softly, lowering himself slowly to the floor and leaning heavily against the wall, “come to brag? How is Romano?”

Veneziano folds his arms over his chest, gaze sweeping over Spain. Spain knows how he looks, blood splotched and covered in ragged bandages, disheveled and dirty, eyes sunken and bloodshot, lips dry.

“Romano is still part of the rebellion. I don’t know how he’s doing,” Veneziano informs him, sharply, oddly.

This isn’t Veneziano. This is a brainwashed man, conformed to the ideas of the crook who leads his nation. This is the man whose country is aiding one side of his people, the Nationalists, alongside a Nazi Germany. Spain struggles to drag one knee up and drapes a badly bleeding arm over it.

“What happened to you, Feliciano?” He asks softly, searching for a spark of that cheerful kid he once knew.

“You’re not going to survive this war,” Veneziano tells him, avoiding the question entirely, but Spain sees the way his shoulders ripple with tension.

Spain just laughs. “If I were concerned about that, Veneziano, I’d have brought it up months ago,” he informs him, dragging himself up, slowly, to his full height, “I’m old, Veneziano. I’ve seen it all. War, death, murder… Some things never change.”

It’s only when Veneziano, frustrated, sweeps out of the room that Spain allows himself to feel the weight on his shoulders again.

--

Once the dust settles, Spain walks among the bodies of his people. He closes his eyes as he steps around the mangled, bloody corpses, remembering them, trying desperately to ignore the caws of the scavenger birds as they circle threateningly overhead.

“Antonio,” comes a voice, and suddenly everything is steady all at once.

Green meets green.

“Arthur,” he breathes.

His shoulders tremble, and despite the blood he’s half covered in, England practically cradles him as Spain cries for his people at last.

--

“I just want this senseless fighting to end,” Spain tells him, later, staring at the ceiling.

England’s fingers comb through Spain’s tangled hair, slowly, relaxing. Spain’s mind is clear for once, grounded by England’s presence. This man is his tether here, his only shelter in the turmoil of this civil war.

“I’m so tired, Arthur,” he says, voice rough, choked, “god, I’m so tired. How do you stand so many wars? I’m killing my own people… And little Veneziano, I don’t even recognize him anymore. He’s become so cruel…”

His chest feels as though it’s trying to claw itself apart from the inside and recently he’s been coughing up blood. It’s not himself he’s concerned about. He’s frightened for his people, for the widowed women and orphaned children and the young men running into a meaningless fight. He wishes it would end; he’s so desperate. He’s fighting himself and his own people, and Spain’s starting to think it’s an uphill battle.

England shakes his head. “Don’t speak, Antonio. Rest.”

Two years, eight months, one week.

--

In his dreams, Spain is standing over a faceless man. He doesn’t know who he is or which side he’s on, but there are people whispering behind him and a loaded gun in his hand. Phantom fingers squeeze his shoulders, pressing down, a weight on his back. His pulse is throbbing beneath his skin, a steady thump thump across his entire being. There’s blood rushing in his ears, but he can hear the whispers over his own thoughts.

Kill him, Spain, one disembodied voice tells him, kill him and end the war.

Kill him, says another, lighter, familiar, because you have no other choice.

Kill him! The third is low, wavering, chilling. Kill him because you want to.

Does he want to? For a moment, Spain doubts himself and all he knows himself to be. He looks at the gun in hands that don’t feel like his own, looks at the faceless man below him, and looks at the bodies that suddenly cover the ground as far as he can see.

Two years, says the third voice, and with a start, Spain recognizes it as his own, eight months, one week, two days.

Spain flicks the safety off. The corpses are groaning, a perforating sound in the unnerving silence.

Kill him, says the first voice, demanding.

In the distance, somebody is being executed. Spain isn’t sure who is on what side anymore. He isn’t sure who he is anymore. He’s staring at the hands that are his but not his, staring at the gun, staring at the man. Antonio lifts the gun-

Kill him!

-and points it at his own head.

--

Lately, Spain is glad he doesn’t remember his nightmares.

It doesn’t stop the subtle trembling in his fingers. Are these hands his own?

--

The next time Veneziano shows, England is with him. He’s going against the wishes of his own government - the English aren’t supposed to be aiding Spain, but England manages to slip away often, comes when Spain needs him most.

Spain keeps trying to ground himself, struggling. His heart thrums rapidly in his throat and his breath comes in quick gasps. It feels as though there’s a foot crushing his throat, pressing down harder with every struggling breath. He’s tucked up against the curve of England’s body, clinging onto the arm wrapped over his chest as though it’s his lifeline.

“I can’t breathe,” he chokes out, “Arthur, I can’t breathe.”

He feels the way the other man is tense against him, fingers combing through Spain’s hair, holding him tight, but not tight enough to make him feel more suffocated.

“Focus on me, Antonio,” he tells him, softly, “only on me. I’m here.”

Spain listens to the sound of his heartbeat. It’s picked up, and Spain can’t tell if it’s because of worry or something else. His throat and chest feel tight and he’s shaking violently, fingers dragging hard against England’s arm, no doubt bruising the skin. He’s sweating, hair clinging to his face. But god, he focuses on the sound of England’s heartbeat. It’s the only thing keeping him steady, keeping him grounded.

Gradually, it stops. His shaking ceases first, his vision clears second, and finally, slowly, he manages to breathe. He doesn’t release England’s arm, only stares blankly at the peeling wallpaper past England’s shoulder.

His chest feels hollow.

They stay like that until steady, deliberate footsteps echo in the room.

“Veneziano,” England regards him with chilling eyes.

“England,” Veneziano smiles, “I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Isn’t your government forcing you to stay neutral?”

England doesn’t reply. Spain’s energy is depleted. He just wants this to be done. He lifts his gaze slowly, dragging it over to the Italian. “Why are you here, Veneziano?”

“I think it’s about time you gave up,” says North Italy, “after all, look at yourself, Spain.”

“Fine,” he replies, softly, “whatever makes this stop.”

“No,” England’s voice is harsh and sudden, “you aren’t going to give in to this so easily, Antonio. And you aren’t going to make him. Leave here, Italy.”

Veneziano tips his head, and just for a second, Spain wonders if he sees a flash of that childish curiosity he knows. “Oh,” he muses, “I see. You two have a different relationship than I originally thought.”

Spain’s thinking. His mind is whirring, registering England’s words and Veneziano’s words and the civil war.

Two years, eight months, two weeks.

“Get out, Veneziano.”

The Italian starts, hazel eyes going wide. He takes a step back, hands coming up near his lower chest. Spain’s voice is hard, stronger than it’s been in a while. Delicately, he slips free from England’s grip and staggers to his feet. Briefly, fear darts over Veneziano’s soft features, then something like anger.

“You-!”

“You heard me.”

It isn’t a question. Spain advances, pulling his old halberd from its resting place on his wall. He lifts it, a familiar weapon in a hand that feels like his own again, leveling it at Veneziano’s chest. The Italian is shivering. When all's said and done, he’s still the same kid Spain knows. One day, he’ll apologize for this.

Today is not that day.

Veneziano only holds Spain’s steely gaze for a moment, before he backpedals rapidly, stumbling. “Y-You’re a fool, Antonio! Both of you! Even you can’t stop what’s to come. Germany’s going to change the world, and only one of us is going to be on the right side when he does!”

The brunet whirls and darts away. Spain waits until his running steps fade down the hall before he drops his halberd with a clatter and slumps back down to his knees. England crosses to him, crouching down to rest his forehead against Spain’s own.

“Thank you,” Spain whispers, “for everything.”

--

Three days later, the Spanish Civil War comes to an end. It’s not a happy ending, but Spain knows where he stands now. He knows what he’s working towards.

Two years, eight months, two weeks, three days.

Another war is on the horizon.

[obclus]

hi guys ! it's me, sapphire !  AKA your local loki enthusiast ! i’m from nyc so i live in / the / EST. all u need to know about me is that i pretty much an adult baby and love metaphysics. remember that one time voltaire pretty much rousseau’s book a pos ? what a fake binch, i mean ? and alright... i mean i’m obv pretty late, i get it. let’s talk about my lil star, adalinda !    —   ( tw abuse and death, also bear in mind that this is rather long #srryntsrry )

ok so i got this lil info / page up, it’s semi finished but if you want any other basic info there’s that. click me !

if i had to to sum them up in three words they would be gilded, adaptable, and perceptive. i’ll briefly touch on why, you can read the bio for more details.

gilded and adaptive: covered or highlighted with gold or something of a golden or having a pleasing or showy appearance that conceals something of little worth. this is so important! adalinda is in every essence, gilded. always. they always have some sort of mask on, it would be completely out of character and rare for them to show their true colours. they will lie, device, and manipulate any and everybody. it’s another way of her being so in tune with society’s values and ideals. they’re very aware that if they act one way or another, the outcomes will be different. whatever the situation calls for, she will  ““““transform”””” their personality to gain the upperhand in the conversation. there is an art in lying, and adalinda might as well be fucking picasso or van gogh bc honestly, she’s insane.

perceptive: having or showing keenness of insight, understanding, or intuition. i choose this one because adalinda is a manipulator. that’s about as cut dry as i can put it. to them, knowledge is power and knowledge is of course not limited to street or book smarts. although she does love reading the works of machiavelli and hegel, but knowledge is grander than that. it is intuition. to know what drives things to happen in certain ways, to know what difference lies between a hand on top or on bottom of a handshake. she is very in tune with both verbal and nonverbal communication and will use these things at her leisure for advantage. if a certain topic comes u[ in conversation and the person she’s speaking with become distant in the slightest way, she’ll notice and make a note of it.

would like to introduce you to mommy and daddy issues 101, welcome please have a seat. both adalinda’s parents are deceased, rip. the relationship between all of them is extremely virulent. eloise and maximilian ( mama & papa ) abused their child from a very young age. but what is different about this ( i mean how different is it really idk ) is that adalinda does not fault her parents for this, not in anyway. they see it as a form of discipline and teaching her how to be strong, how to beat pain and fear. her father gave her the burn scars on her back and well her mother... what didn’t she do, lmao. kneeling on salt for extensive amounts of time, cold hands meeting soft cheeks, sharp words at every turn. above all this however as i said, there was love, twisted and incredbily fcked up, but love nonetheless. when their parents died adalinda mourned, but not with tears and black clothes, but with ferocity and the drive to ascend to become something greater — like her parents had taught her, and so the moth girl became the moth eater.

the relationship between her and her mother was strained bc i mean, adalinda has a thirst for power, she get’s that from her dad. but her mom was the god damn crown princess to the dutch throne, and adalinda is like u gave that up for a man !? tf when u’re supposed to inherit a country, but ur mom ceases her position in the line of succession for some dick.

ok here comes the inspo from one of my fav things, dc comics! my inspo behind the business is the one and only — lexcorp. dils enterprises is a company that specializes in developing new technologies for aerospace, medical discovery, while also having ties to resource exploration ( like renewable enegries and whatnot ). being the power hungry lil binch she is, when adalinda turned eighteen she reached out to her grandmother and uncle, in order to expand the companies ties in her mother’s homeland. though tbh, adalinda is hardly extensively involved with the companies endeavors, at least that’s what it looks like. think bruce wayne’s “fake” interested in the inner working of wayne enterprises. 

*** rl quick, please fluctuate between she/they pronouns when referring to adalinda, don’t stick to one or the other. you, the mun are aware of my muse’s gender ( agender jsyk ) , but adalinda, has not made this public knowledge, mostly because there are certain perceptions and ideas that come to mind with gender in society. this obvs does not delegitimize their gender because that’s something they prefer to keep private. tl;dr if your character speaks about adalinda with another character it would be like this. “ do you know that girl adalinda? she’s one fcked up binch!” but if u, the mun, is writing u can use she/her or they/them like “she stood at five foot eleven inches but they were still short compaired to idkurcharanamehere”. if u don’t understand feel free to mssg me!!

also, in reference to their titles, politically she goes by adalinda, otherwise in an effort to be more "approachable" — they use the name AMARIS. they NEVER use their first name, eliza.

i sort of changed up the original plan for my muse to include a brother. their relationship would be extremely toxic as they would feed off of each other’s negative characteristics and be loyal to a fault to no one but each other. i’m perfectly fine with accommodating with other muns, and it doesn’t even have to be a brother, could be a sister too, but i would love to keep the dynamic the same. but if no one ends up applying for that sort of position i can always rework my original idea back in ! if anyone's interested, here's a sample para on what / how i think they interact with one another.

explanation of how adalinda got reinstated into the royal house: their mother, elosie had an older sister named silvia. This of course would have put elosie second in succession to inherit the throne. however, during liberation day, the state had organized a festival of sorts that would have been held nationwide. the royal family was also going to make an appearance in participation but while on the way there, the family was attacked and silvia suffered a gunshot wound and would eventually succumb to the injuries later that day. following this, elosie becomes crown princess, set for coronation on her twenty first birthday. enter maximilian dils, the British entrepreneur taking the world of philanthropy and developmental sciences by storm. at the time he an elosie met he was already twenty-four and she was eighteen. the two fell in love and since Maximilian was a well known atheist, it brought a serious issue within Elosie and her parents. the royal family was protestant and to marry someone who was not only of that faith, but denounced all faiths was extremely problematic. the two wed without seeking preliminary approval thus removing elosie's ability to inherit the throne and leaving her offspring with the titles of count and countess. by the time she’s twenty-three, elosie is now living in britain and pregant with twins. Both are ecstatic and they tell elosie’s parents before revealing the news to the nation. adalinda and eriadon ( adalinda born first ) are born in the netherlands through a water birth. the years pass by up until they turn seven years old, two weeks after their birthday, their parents are murdered in cold blood. they two children find their parents after returning from school. lying on the cold marble floors are the bodies of their parents marked with gunshots both to the head and heart. to this day the motive and killer(s) are unknown. this in turn leads to fleur and janus taking the children in to live with them. fleur is severely affected at the loss of both her children at the hands of such violence and has the twins very carefully cared for. though their early life ends up being excessively cloistered, adalinda doesn’t mind it. the seclusion allowed for her mind to develop in such ways that she feels are unparalleled if she were to have continued on in public school. by seventeen she he graduated from college and convinced her grandmother to allow her a bit more freedom. adalinda takes up volunteering at churches across the nation and the people of the netherlands start to take notice of the daughter of their dead princess. public opinion on her grows in appreciation as she is seen helping out the needy instead of attending extravagant balls held in the palace. all the while, the company her father built has been waiting for her eighteenth birthday to put her as acting CEO. when the day arrives, at her very first board meeting she realizes that the majority of the members have been preparing to auction off parts of the company for profit alone. they lie to her face and tell her that the company has been dwindling and that their best would be to sell it to off shore conglomerates. but the truth is that the company appeared to be doing fantastic, up until you realized that the highest bidders were men involved with war lords and liars. as she now sits as acting CEO she empties the board of all the existing members and replaces them with new ones, while also publicly outing the former as greedy thieves and giving the company a fresh new image. the absence of my father seems to have led them to become foolish. dils enterprises stands as a union helping those that suffer from world hunger, terminal illness, global warming. those that are displaced by war with a government who refuses to help them. these men who made the mistake of assuming this company was a step on their latter to greatness are now well aware that their brash actions will leave them with nothing but their names. let this be an example of what happens when we allow society to place such an unhealthy obsession with money. the lives of innocents are priceless. no amount of money should deter those who have the capability of doing something. to stand aside and allow it to get worse means you are allowing children to grow up without their mother and fathers, and i — i, stand here to tell you, that a lot of these children are not as lucky as my brother and i were. they all deserve the chance live their lives as exactly what they are, children. they shouldn’t have to wake up to the sound of bombs, or spend a childhood in a hospital. dils enterprises is committed to helping in any way that we may, to lift the burden off whomever we can, while also working to make the world a better, safer, and cleaner place. she stated in front of crowd of cameras outside HQ in downtown London. her plan is to expand what her father built and bring on new projects like partnerships with what we view in our society, people like Elon Musk — CEO Tesla Motors and SolarCity, the UN’s program GirlUp, and UNICEF. she takes two years off away from the company leaving it in the capable hands of her brother while she goes off to  service in countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, India and Liberia. giving a speech to world leaders at the UN about the state of their world, unity, and the future of what is to come. because though adalinda is conniving, she understands that in a world of black and white, sometimes things bleed into gray, and whatever is found there should not be left to fade away. for humanity to grow, there needs to be an even playing field where education is provided to even the poorest of countries. she is just about to turn twenty when she returns back to the netherlands. her grandmother pulls her aside one afternoon, they walk about the gardens and fleur tells adalinda that parliament plans to reinstate her brother and her back into the royal house. you and read a bit more about this in a meta post i'll be posting before i go to bed! i would suggest reading it very much because it leads to the year and a half gap that lands adalinda at xaiver's school of all the places.