#he was a 8000 year old dragon

[universalkuzey]

Sorry for no colorings anyways i am sick in the head from my friend's dragonkane au so i was just doodling for it like a mad man at school today

[grandpasauce]

Still not over Solas canonically using the phrase “continue with your merry japes!” as a sick burn to a low approval inquisitor and I never will be thank you

[reginarubie]

Worldbuilding of «Empress of the World», a guide, part II, the Empire of Old Valyria, part I — history and legend

A short (not so much) guide to the world of Empress of the World my Jonsa fan fiction AU in which Valyria never fell, and Jaehaerys is its emperor and Sansa finds her way to him as his concubine at first and wife/empress later and together they face a new challenges as their relationship mashes together cultures so different from each other; their relationship is inspired by many real life historical couples:

Octavian Augustus and his wife Livia 

Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville 

Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

Suleyman and Hürrem Sultan 

Ahmed and Kösem Sultan

Now, without further ado, let's get into the world building.

[part I —› Westeros]

THE WORLD OF «EMPRESS OF THE WORLD»

People around the world believe the world to be flat — though in Yi’Ti as well as in the Isles of the Jade Sea they believe the world to be round — the story we read is focused on the western and the eastern continent, though the most eastern of countries are often named and part of the plot they are not the focus of this story (until now).

THE EMPIRE OF VALYRIA OF OLD

LEGEND AND HISTORY

The empire of Valyria of Old is the mightiest, most powerful, less isolational empire in the known world (the Golden Empire of Yi'Ti is possibly larger, but less known). Legend wants it that Azor Ahai fled from his old, powerful but falling city now forgotten with few companions and that he voyaged toward west bringing with him his Gods and his stories, but his voyage was long and exhausting and he voyaged in the darkness in the black peninsula of Valyria for years until all of hi companions had fallen and his Gods long forgotten as well, he left what remained of his people behind and begun the exploration. Azor Ahai found a lava river and followed it and its warmth, finding a valley nestled between smoking mountains filled with livestock. Then he started to ascension of the smoking, slumbering mountain alone and barefoot, the soles of his feet burning and the flesh of his hands blistering, praying to the forgotten Gods that they gave him strength.

The blood oozing from his burned body as he laid almost dying he made the last mile strengthening his resolve with words of his lost homeland and his ancient Gods took pity and pride on him and thus he reached the inside of the flaming mountain, a cave warm and filled of starlit gems and stones.

There a woman made of flame nursed him back to health, burning away his illness and thus building his resistance to the flames, after he was back in health he started to explore the cave and found there, laying ready to be hatched the first dragons eggs.

He nurtured them and called forth from them the first dragons, when the dragon was big enough to spout fire he used that fire to create from the iron of a falling star a magnificent blade, but that was not enough and thus he had settled near the fourteen flames and when the time had come and his blade had broken against the shadow he had forged one anew in the fire of his wife’s soul and he had banished the shadow from all lands.

He then had cremated his wife’s corpse and had dispersed the ashes where he founded his city, the tomb lacked tombstone but for one inscription which said enemies of the dragon beware and tremble, this is Valyria as that had been his wife's maiden name.

Most probably the valyrians voyaging from the east found respite in Valyria a peninsula flourishing and inhabited until then and there they settled; in their explorations they might have found the dragons eggs and learned to call the dragons from within, changing from shepherds to dragonriders and their whole culture changed within it.

They founded Valyria and the first few colonies — Oros and Tyria as well as Elyria and Tolos — but soon they clashed with the, then ancient, Empire of Ghis as they moved further into their territory.

Five wars ensued between the then best known military force in the east and the small, apparently unassuming Valyrian Freehold.

FIRST GHISCARI WAR (8000 years ago, immediately after the Long Night)

The first one was fought over the ancient ghiscari colony of Velos.

The city of Ghozai, the portual-detachement of Velos, in the same island facing the Gulf of Grief, had sent for help to free themselves of the commercial taxes the Ghiscari Empire had settled on them and the Valyrians moved their dragons eastward to Ghozai, which they freed in less than a day as the city opened their door to the valyrians and bent the knee becoming the first ever colony annexed to the Freehold, the valyrians then sacrificed the tax collectors sent by the ghiscari to their old God, Syrax.

But the Ghiscari having heard of the betrayal of Ghozai sent their famed troops and legions to Velos convinced to use the city as a military camp to march war against the valyrians. It proved fruitless as the valyrians used scarcely ten dragons — loosing three dragon riders and one dragon — during the battle completely obliterating the ghiscaring legions and thus conquering the whole island under their banner.

SECOND GHISCARI WAR (around 7800 years ago)

The Kingdom of Sarnor was a collection of independent state-cities along the shores of the Shivering Sea, flourishing and independent, but too close to both potencies to be left alone and soon enough they were drawn into their conflict.

Instead of bending to the Ghiscari, the kingdom of Sarnor preferred the valyrians, who held the distinction of accepting and implementing the Sarnori gods and customs into their layered society — whilst instead the Ghiscari defied every God and custom their colonies had before them.

In this war the valyrian used one hundred dragon riders and lost thirty riders and 4 dragons. The ghiscari troops were obliterated though one of the dead was the chief general of the Freehold.

Between the second and the third ghiscari war both empires were spreading around the known world, coming in conflict more often than not.

THIRD GHISCARI WAR (around 7260 years ago)

This time point of contention were the Basilisk Isles in the Summer Sea. Both the valyrians and the ghiscari had interest in the area but the ghiscari founded their colony, Gorgai in one of the biggest of the Basilisk Isles, and the city stood for between three hundred and four hundred years before full war broke.

The Sarnori again fought beside Valyria and its might and against the ghiscari. This time though over a five hundred of dragon riders were used during the campaign, thought this time ninety dragons were lost and another forty wounded as the ghiscari had implemented into their lines the wheeled—scorpions with which they could bring down from the sky a dragon.

Still Gorgai was conquered and its name changed into Gogosso the first valyrian colony so south, facing the northern coast of Sothoryos, the southern continent.

Whilst the valyrian chief general was brought down from the sky, his second in command after the initial defeat, on foot, managed to fight his way to a wounded dragon on the battlefield and staving off the attacks from the foot soldiers of the ghiscari. He managed to slain all the foot soldiers near the dragon, free it of its chains and bond with it after having lost his own. They took flight together and together they brought down the might of Valyria over the ghiscari legions.

He was a Taemor, who later would marry and take the name of his wife, Aella Targaryen and their son, Aegon, is considered the founder of House Targaryen, which thus can trace their lineage back to the now extinct House Taemor which was one of the most ancients families of Valyria.

Between the third and the fourth ghiscari war the Free Hold of Valyria reached the peak of its republican phase, and not much later than a hundred years after the end of the third ghiscari war did the Senate reach the greatest number of senators it ever held, reaching also peak corruption. The centuries between 7030 and 6730 saw three long excruciating civil wars which started the Time of the Hundred lusters of the tyrants, in which tyrant after tyrant ruled over Valyria.

FOURTH GHISCARI WAR (around 5022 years ago)

Fought after the end of Time of the Hundred lusters when Valyria had returned to a semblance of political peace, this saw the Sarnori divided, several kings supported the valyrians while several others supported the ghiscari. This time the point of contention was the city of Zamettar the only ghiscari colony on the northern shores of Sothoryos.

The city was taken and completely destroyed and left in ruin by the valyrians and a good portion of the ghiscari troops fled the battle fight when they saw the new armors of dragon steel that the valyrians had fit over the dragon's most exposed and less defended place, their underbelly, making their wheeled-scorpions almost unusable.

FIFTH GHISCARI WAR (8044 since the funding of Valyria, SFV)

This time the valyrians headed straight to the neck as they attacked Ghis and its fortifications. Four thousands dragons — an improbable number and exaggerated — was used against the city with no intention of sacking. The valyrians were intent only in destroying the city.

The brick walls that had been standing for over four thousand years were razed to the ground, the ghiscari slain, burning the city, the streets, the temples and the townhouses in dragonflame. The fields were sowed in salt, lime and skull so that nothing could ever grow again.

In the aftermath those who were not slain were enslaved and died at the hands of their valyrian captors; the domains of Ghis were annexed to the Free Hold of Valyria and the ghiscari became part of the empire of Valyria without being graced with the citizenship.

Their temples were razed, the statues of their gods stolen and their pyramids brought down from the peak down until only bumps of the founding remained.

After having destroyed the ghiscari empire, the Free Hold of Valyria became the mightiest of the empires in Essos, though older and larger empires stood eastern still — Yi'Ti — northern — in the northern continent — and in the southern continent.

THE AGE OF THE HUNDRED LUSTERS (8080—8592 SFV)

Circa forty years since the end of the ghiscari wars, Valyria found itself unfolding on a series of civil wars and rebellions from the border regions. In time of strife and military need it was custom a tyrant was named to confront the military urgency and bring Valyria back in order. Due the peculiar situation — wars in within and without the borders — the time of charge of the tyrant passed from one year to five years.

This time, in which Valyria faced enemies from within and without its border, was characterized by the Rebellions of the Faith; in fact since learning how to tame the dragons the valyrians had grown scornful and contemptuous about the Gods and had stopped acting to avoid their ire following morals sets only by their bloodlust and ambition and believing themselves to be equal to Gods. And whilst this was a common sentiment between dragonlords, the small folk still practiced sacrifices and chants, hymn and prayers.

The old valyrian gods were laid to the side forgotten by almost anyone but the dragonlords, and a new god coming from the shadowlands of Asshai became the primary source of comfort and faith for the small folk as its priests and priestesses were capable of incredible miracles and could foresee the futures in the flames, enough to predict the coming of a dark Messiah, Azor Ahai reborn to bring back order to the world and save it from the Endless Shadow and Cold One.

Its priest and priestesses viewed with distaste the dragonlords' contempt towards the Gods and led a series of revolts, the biggest one happened during 8324 SFV, when the High Council that had taken the place of the corrupted Senate, banished Aenar Targaryen from Valyria after he tried to led a political coup against the elected tyrant before the end of his mandate as the high priest had predicted that from his line would be born the savior of Valyria.

This revolts led by the fanatics of R'hllor was a type of threat Valyria had never faced before as the threat of dragon flame used against them did nothing to dissuade the rebels, who believed that death by fire was the purest of them all.

By the end of 8339 Aenar Targaryen was invited back to Valyria and was offered a permanent seat in the High Council to appease to the demands of the rebels despite their less than noble birth as the Targaryens were neither ancient, nor the wealthiest of the Houses, thought they could claim descent from a princess that had come with Azor Ahai from the eastern crumbling empire and had become his second wife through marriage.

For five hundred years one tyrant replaced another in the primal seat of the High Council.

THE DOOM OF VALYRIA (8765 — 8779 SFV)

In 8765 the daughter of the Head of House Targaryen, lady Daenys Targaryen dreamed about a terrible fate impending on the greatest Free Hold of the world. She dreamed of clouds of red smoke raining dragonglass and of rivers of lava flooding the valleys, of hills exploding and towers of flames rising to touch the stars. Aegon Targaryen, her father, believed her and led his whole line and family to Dragonstone a smoking island across the Narrow Sea where he ordered the building of a new keep to house his line, and commanded his vassals Houses — Celtigar and Velaryon — to do the same.

He named his pregnant daughter lady of Dragonstone and left her to oversee the building of the keep as he led her brother-husband into a search of a possible way to avoid the Doom she had dreamed of. As they voyaged Aegon managed to gather the allegiance of many more Houses as Daenys governed from Dragonstone and had given birth to an infant son, whom she named as his father and her brother-husband, Gaemon.

In the first months of 8779 SFV several hills exploded in the countryside around Valyria and Oros; Aegon Targaryen had worked tirelessly to mine dragonglass and forge assemble-able dams. Of the Fourteen Flames only four did explode and sent flames into the stars and made dragonglass rain on their heads, destroying the crops; the other ten were mined by the valyrians and thanks to a series of tunnels carved in the side of mountains and the flood of lava was directed thanks to the assemble-able dams of dragonglass into rivers that destroyed what little of the crops the dragonglass rain had spared, but avoiding the worst of it. In his voyages Aegon had also learned that ashes from a smoking mountain could make the land more fertile if they planted their seeds thus he instructed the landowners to have their slaves work the land following those instructions he had learned to have the crop grow again. The rivers of lava that flow in the capitol and other cities of the peninsula are the result of the tireless work to avoid the Doom.

Aegon Targaryen who had been sent by the dragonlords to his Dragonstone as a coward, was welcomed back in Valyria as a savior and in triumph and organized incredible games to celebrate the death of his son in the successful attempt to avoid the Ninth Flame exploded.

THE RISE OF GAEMON TARGARYEN (8885 — 8898 SFV)

In the last month of 8885 since the funding of Valyria prime achor Aegon Targaryen was assassinated by his political enemies. His daughter and lady of Dragonstone — who had claimed for herself the title of princess of Valyria — hastened to reach Valyria leaving her nine and ten years old son in charge of Dragonstone.

As Aegon Targaryen's heir apparent, princess Daenys Targaryen became prime achor pro tempore, as she incarcerated those of the assassins of her father who had not managed to flee the city. After the grieving period she celebrated her father's death with magnificent games at which it's said that all small folk wore the black robes of grieving to honor the savior of Valyria.

After forty days from the death finally Aegon Targaryen's will was opened by princess Daenys and his second in command, Aurion of House Daelyon. But, instead of naming as heir in his various charges his daughter and his commander, he named to them all his nineteen years old grandson, whom he named also prince of Valyria thus making of him Daenys' heir to Dragonstone beyond the word of a woman and thus legally making him the new Head of House Targaryen.

Princess Daenys thus brokered a peace between the spurned Aurion (who had been considered the only possible candidate for heir to Aegon Targaryen since he was pluritriumphant and well known and also in the prime of his career at 34, and her son who had been considered the least probable candidate to the charges of prime achor Aegon Targaryen as he was the young and untested grandson who had spent most of his life away from Valyria; all to dispose of the enemies and assassins who had managed to flee the capitol and the death sentence for their crimes.

Together Gaemon and Aurion managed to close in on the enemies, and the troops that had been Aegon's divided between his grandson and named heir and his commander and right hand, with whom they had already served; though many recognized in young Gaemon his father, who had been Aegon's son and whose sacrifice and bravery as well as skill had saved Valyria.

Gaemon though, was not only an intelligent and clever dragonlord as brave on land as airborne, he was also a master politician — which he had learned from his mother, who had overseen her father's countless acquaintances and political liaisons as her father governed from Valyria — who, after the enemies of his grandfather were disposed of, managed to isolate further Aurion Targaryen whose ambition led him to set aside his lawful wife — his own sister — to marry the wealthiest and noblest of women of Old Valyria, a woman who, it was said, descended directly from Azor Ahai and his first wife, Nissa Nissa, and who had a great deal of influence in the eastern provinces.

Gaemon instead, aged twenty and four, as per custom married his sister, Visenya as soon as she flowered and celebrated the marriage with imposing games for which he paid from his own purse and sired from her a child whom he called Daenys to honor his mother — as the princess of Valyria was beloved by the people of the Free Hold — and later a son he named Aegon for his grandfather betrothing them as per custom.

When, in the eastern provinces, Aurion rose on his dragon and had his wife crown him Emperor of all Valyrians the troops broke off, some followed him as the eastern provinces were the wealthiest and his wife claimed descent from Nissa Nissa; but others disparaged his attempt to destroy the status quo that had made of them as shepherds to the greatest conquerors of the known world and flew to Gaemon's side.

The battle saw opposed thousands of dragonlords and it was fought in the valley that hosted the city of Faros and prince Gaemon Targaryen managed to outsmart Aurion and his thousand dragonlords, he captured the man and demanded he bend the knee and relinquished his ambition to a throne that did not exist, pardoned those who had supported him as long as they bent the knee — killed those who didn't, but pardoned their children, sisters and wives unless they proved treacherous — and that Aurion took back his lawful sister-wife he had set aside.

Aurion refused thus Gaemon executed him with the very same sword that since has been considered the sword of Valyria, and the ancestral sword of the emperor of the world. Gaemon returned triumphant in Valyria, though he showed himself grieving for the great commander and friend he had, had to execute and their brothers as per custom and took hold of the series of political offices his grandfather had left him making of them a singular one he called prince of all Valyria as defender of the true customs and head of the entire empire, an emperor without calling himself so.

He governed for over sixty years with his beloved wife at his side, Visenya, and left his post to his son, Aegon, once he died installing the Targaryen dynasty.

AEGON THE DRAGON, EMPEROR OF VALYRIA AND LORD OF THE WORLD (9033 — 9070 SFV)

A century after the rise of Gaemon Targaryen, in 8996 SFV, from prince Aerion Targaryen and his wife, Valaena Velaryon, was born a babe who'd grow to become the first emperor of Valyria.

Aegon Targaryen was known to ride one of the mightiest dragons of all Valyria, Balerion the Black Dread, who his great-grandfather had rode in life during his conquests in the southern continent.

In 9027 Aegon, aged 31, became the new prince of all of Valyria; he already had two children, two sons, to his name — Aenys born of his favored sister-wife, Rhaenys; and Maegor, born of Visenya his sister-wife — since he had been a young boy, aged 16, and bonded with Balerion he had promised them he'd made them queens of Valyria.

He started by slowly disposing of all the opposition of House Targaryen and making the priests of the Old Valyrian Faith name him High Pope of the old valyrian religion. He, posing as the god Syrax, and his wives as his ancient unnamed goddess-wives celebrated great games and annexed new colonies and provinces in the Sothoryos. His wife, Rhaenys was a benefactor of all artists whilst his other wife, Visenya, was known to be a terrific warrior and to dabble in the dark arts. Together they conquered several new provinces and returned in triumph every time.

In 9033 after having conquered Zabhad and returning with thousands of slaves in triumph Aegon closed himself in prayer for various days and celebrated many a sacrifice as the red priests and priestesses testified the Targaryens were the saviors of Valyria and that from their line would be born Azor Ahai once again to then name himself Emperor of all valyrians and Lord of the World.

Aegon tried and failed to conquer Dorne in the South of the Lands of Sunset, and his wife, Rhaenys died whilst she battled against the dornish, who shot her dragon down from the skies.

Aegon was anguished but instead of moving all of his dragonlords to the continent he chose peace, as the dornish claimed they had Rhaenys still alive whilst on the cusp of death and suffering terribly, they offered to be merciful towards his empress and take her life from her if he left them alone.

Aegon did, Visenya did not. She burned Dorne to the ground but the dornish are nothing if not resilient and after she turned her back to Dorne believing them subjugated they broke free of the valyrians by killing every governor they sent to them without leaving proof.

HOUSE TARGARYEN DURING THE EVENTS OF «EMPRESS OF THE WORLD»

The events of “Empress of the World” starts around 9345 SFV, circa, when emperor Rhaegar Targaryen dies. His only son and named heir, prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, governor of Tyria — the province the emperors granted to the named heir to the throne — accepts the sword of the Lord of the World and flies to Valyria to take his throne.

A short civil war ensues between emperor Jaehaerys III — accepted by the high council — and his uncle, Viserys Targaryen governor of Meereen, during which Jaehaerys atop his dragon, Maelys the Great — the oldest, meanest and mightiest dragon of all Valyria, whom he bonded with as a boy — wins the war and kills his uncle. Before the events of the story, Jaehaerys already sedated a revolt and died, but was reborn in his dragon's flame, since then he's called Master of Death.

The story revolves around his story with Sansa of House Stark, the hidden princess of House Stark who fled Winterfell after House Bolton and Karstark betrayed her father the king, hiding in Bear Island and by chance captured by a valyrian raid; of how they meet, fall in love and move in between political choices, moral choices, conquest and rule as an emperor and his empress and the ascension of Sansa from befallen princess, to captured slave, to concubine, to mother of the prince and favorite, to legal wife and empress.

At the time of the story House Targaryen is composed of:

Rhaegar Targaryen (deceased) — previous emperor, Jaehaerys father

Aegon Targaryen (deceased) — prince of Valyria, Jaehaerys older brother, died young before the birth of Jaehaerys

Elia Martell (deceased) — consort of Rhaegar Targaryen, mother of Aegon and Rhaenys, died shortly after Jaehaerys birth

Lyanna Karstark — the Mother of the Emperor, lady Mother of Valyria of Old, the head of the female court of the Emperor and the previous favorite and concubine of Emperor Rhaegar Targaryen

Jaehaerys III Targaryen — the emperor of Valyria of Old, lord of Valyria and Tyria, the Master of Death, the Noble father and Liberator of Braavos and New Ghis

Rhaenys Targaryen — princess of Valyria, lady of Dragonstone (until the birth of a possible female to Jaehaerys) and lady of Oros and Elyria, prime achor of Valyria

Daenerys Targaryen — princess of Valyria, lady of Meereen and its governor, previous lady of Dragonstone (as an infant) until the birth of Rhaenys Targaryen; sister to the previous emperor

Viserys Targaryen (deceased) — uncle to emperor Jaehaerys; previous husband of Daenerys Targaryen. Tried to steal the throne from Jaehaerys.

Sansa of House Stark — queen claimant to the North, Lady Favorite to Jaehaerys III Targaryen, the Flamekeeper of Valyria of Old, the Noble Mother.

Jacaerys Brandon Targaryen — prince of Valyria of Old, prince to Tyria and Winterfell, heir to Valyria and to the North.

[part III, Worldbuilding, Valyria of Old: society, faiths, laws and customs]

As always, hope you enjoyed, this very long dip in the history and legend of Valyria in my fic! Sending all my love ~G.

[oatmilkgoose]

Long post incoming

I had a dream recently, where I had fallen into a world where every day a year passed was still earth, but it was like that in the dream I woke up at a certain time for the fact that I had been sleeping through the days and so far I have been pass 8000 years so basically I was a time anomaly. When I woke up this other character wearing this like radiation suit showed up, and he was basically a human, and I was struggling to speak because I hadn’t for a while, and I was scared of him. For some reason I was in the bathroom in my basement, but a lot more rundown, and then on the door that entered another room, there was a button that said create life now in this world, I was sure that all humans were dead This character helped me by doing something specific and I suddenly woke up and what I thought was 10,000 years in the future and I saw a rebuilt society much like our old city. With trucks and cars and streets but nobody was there except I was with my family I immediately ran towards them, and we hugged, then we realized as nobody was there we could take or use anything we desired we looked around at the cars but felt it was unnecessary to touch them. We continue walking towards many of the buildings, and there were people inside of the buildings. I rejoiced, but feared that once that day passed, I would be thrown another year into the future. I spend as much of the day as I could with my family at one moment I looked up and noticed the electric dragon from Zelda. It was screeching and crying at suddenly crashed into the ground not far from the city I rushed to it and my family stayed behind it, it wasn’t hurt just crying wheezing coughing I soothed it and it slid me onto its back and flew away. I ended up falling asleep on accident and woke up the next year. I was still on the dragon. It was still flying with me on it. them several monsters started attacking us we fell, but I was cushioned by her fall. I said, I’m sorry to the dragon and ran away as fast as I could. I proceeded to sleep in a cave, and hide there for the next five days (years). When I awoke I was somehow within a abandoned city is a puzzle to solve, I solved the puzzle pressed a button, and with that a pyramid started to rise. On top of that pyramid, giant water Gibdo with smaller water gibdo were flown in by the same dragon that I had saved. He told me his whole shebang and life story (to be honest I kind of spaced that part out). Apparently he had been an important government official when the city was in its prime. I proceeded to run away out of the city as fast as I could. I was followed by the giant gibdo on the dragon. I found a place to hide and slept for the next five years. I woke up within a grand, but ruined arena. The dragon proceeded to fly down onto a pillar with a platform. A small monster on the dragon proceeded to tell me how hard the dragon life has been how the dragons children hated her for her harshness, but care for them. A flashback plays within a city full of dragons and we see the other two dragons from Zelda, the fire dragon and the ice dragon appear as children (the lightning dragons children to be precise). The ice dragon is telling the fire dragon that it will be OK to show this test paper to mom. The fire dragon is scared and worried of what mom will think. The fire dragon approaches shows her the test paper, and the fire dragon starts having a panic attack. The mother is disappointed by this test score, but she brings the fire dragon towards her and hugs him. Then we flash back to the monster who is telling me this he is saying how she works for the monsters now, and then my alarm went off hahahaha

Sorry this was soooooo long

But also, like, why would this legitimately make a great novel somebody other than me because I’m busy write it please

[armyhome]

No Dragons Allowed

↳ Summary - Choi Chaerin has a curse that makes her allergic to boys born in the dragon year, (even her dad had to move out of the country) and her mom sent her to a girls school on an iland near Jeju since Chaerin was seven years old. But it's 2007, it's her year, her time to shine and live her college dream, the only thing is she might not survive Hwang Hyunjin, the dragon year born with the most beautiful eyes she has ever seen..

↳ Pairing- Hyunjin x Chaerin; Lee Soohyuk x  Lady Choi.

↳ word count - 6.1K .

I stopped in front of Yonsei University and took a deep breath, suddenly realizing that was not a dream anymore. You are truly here Choi Chaerin. Check the talismans inside my shirt, they were well sewn up, you can do it, they will protect you, don't worry too much. So I feel an arm around my shoulders.

"We're finally here, Chaerin!" Goeun said as I looked at her, the smile on that face was so big that her big eyes were just a fine line "Let's go!"

Goeun holds my hand and we run together to our first class, we enter the room and my heart stops for a while. This was the first time I would have a class with boys and they were probably born in the year of the dragon, like me, so I should keep my distance even with talismans. My friend runs to sit with the girls that were sitting next to the boys, Goeun seems to know them, of course, she knows them 'cause they are handsome, and my best friend knows every single handsome boy in Korea and I don't know how this is possible. My eyes found one of them looking at me, he looked familiar somehow... Don't overthink that Chaerin, it's impossible. Goeun called me to sit next to her but I refused and pointed to the front desks. That would be my territory for the next four years 'cause it was better to be safe than sorry like my mom loves to say. 

The professor doesn't take too long to start her class, according to her there were too many millenniums to compress in just a few semesters and the earliest evidence of the rise of Korean culture was pottery dated 8000 BC, so we would have a lot of work to do until got to today, 2007. I know for most people this would sound boring, but history was my passion and I felt the class ended so fast which makes me sad, so I remember that would be the first day that I would eat in a mixed dining hall, maybe I could find a cute guy born in the rabbit year! I search for Goeun but she just leaves the room with her new friends.

That's okay Choi Chaerin, you can do it! I pick my stuff up. If they had fried chicken, this place would be my paradise. Turning around to check if I didn't forget anything, my leather jacket fell when I'm about to catch it, a big hand caught the jacket first, it was a male hand, I took two steps back. It was one of Goeun’s new friends, the one that looked familiar, he was well dressed, all official brands, maybe he was one of mom's models! That's why he looked familiar, he probably was in one of her fashion shows.

"You should be more careful, Armani leather is more sensible than other brands..." He cleans the jacket and offers me back, I give one more step back. 

"I don't care about this stuff... Can you please put the jacket back on the floor?" He was shocked by my words, I know how rude I sounded, but it was for the best and for the safety of my life.

"Hum? You really mean that?" I nodded my head positively and pointed to the floor, and he slowly put the jacket on the floor.   

"Thank you!" He stares at me for a while and stands his hand to me, oh lord.

"I totally forgot to introduce myself, I'm Hwang Hyunjin, nice to meet you!" I make a polite reverence ignoring his hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Choi Chaerin" Hyunjin seems embarrassed putting his hand back in his jeans pocket.

"Your friend will have lunch with us, do you wanna join?" Think fast Chaerin, think fast!

"Hum, maybe next time, I already have plans for today" I put on my jacket, and smile at him "See you next time, Hyunjin!"

It was sad that I couldn't go to the dining hall to maintain my lie, but after buying my fried chicken I was conformed, sitting in the garden like the other students enjoying the last signals of summer that soon would be gone, I put SNSD to play in my iPod seven generation, even I considering I was a bit old to still like kpop, their recent debut song Into The New World was saying everything I was feeling "Don't wait for a special miracle, there’s a rough road in front of us with unknowable future and obstacles, I won't change I can't give up..." I sing softly while eating my chicken.

"Don't you think it is too selfish of you don't share all this fried chicken?" Hyunjin asks, sitting right next to me, so I roll to the extreme opposite side of the bench "That was your plan? Don't share?" He tries to catch my headphones. "What are you listening to?" I stand up.

"Hyunjin, don't you have basic manners? How do you invade personal space without even asking?" His eyes were wide.

"But I ask! And you wave your head like this" He shows me, and look at my headphones playing the song out loud "Sorry, I didn't notice that you were listening to music so loud, I thought you heard me..." He stands up, I felt kinda sad, it was misunderstood.

"It was a misunderstanding for both of us, you don't need to apologize..." He smiles at me, I need to text my mom, to ask if he was one of her models so my mind could find the answer and stop searching where I met him. He sits on the bench and I decide to sit on the grass in front of him. I reach out the fried chicken box in the center "You can eat them too, I was just celebrating this new phase of my life" 

"You're so happy to be in the university" I smile looking at the sky.

"Yes, it is like a dream to me..." So the universe decides to wake me up and remember me how dangerous it was to be so close to someone born in the dragon year, a student that was playing baseball accidentally releases his bat that hit my back with such strength that makes me lose my breath, Hyunjin runs in my direction, I couldn't slip away from his touch, he holds my face between his hands "You shouldn’t touch me..."

"Chaerin, are you okay? Choi Chaerin, answer me!" I try but it seems like the air has been stolen from me. The last thing I feel is Hyunjin arms holding my body, and my consciousness is gone.

When I open my eyes I look at a river, my reflection in the water was wearing a hanbok. Maybe this is a dream, but the sound of the river running brings peace to my heart. I never noticed how water sounds could make me so calm.

"Lady Chaerin?" I knew that voice, I turned around, it was hard to move in those clothes, what a realistic dream. Hyunjin was dressed in royal clothes, my heart missed a beat, nobody should be allowed to be that handsome.

"What is your majesty doing here? Trying to make fun of me again?" Was Hyunjin face, but the voice in my mind whispers Soohyuk was his name, he took a deep breath, I arch my left eyebrow "Lucky for me that I didn't fall for you like in your plan, but I trust the plans on how to protect your kingdom from the invasion, just with the only person I shouldn’t, the puppet from Yuan Dynasty!"

"Watch your words, Lady Chaerin!" He warns me, I roll my eyes.

"You dress as a peasant, try to play with my feelings, just to discover my plan, and when everyone in Joseon knows that you are completely in love with the courtesan Kim, and though the misfortune of destiny I chose to be your bride, but don't worry, I'm already working on a plan..." He walked in my direction and stopped just centimeters from me. I try to step back but I don't move, facing him as much as he faces me.

"Doesn’t matter the plan that you make will not work, I was the one that chooses you, not the King" His words make my hand sweat "Joseon needs a queen that wanna protect her territory"

"I don't wanna unfaithful husband" Now his face was close, I was feeling his breath against my face.

"I don't have the pretension of being one" So his lips touched mine, Soohyuk'ss arms were around me, and for a second I can see his true face, not Hyunjin's,  in that dream, that curse doesn’t exist, so I closed my eyes and accepted his warm touch.

I wake up in a place that seems like my college nursery. Hyunjin was sleeping in the chair next to my bed, and my jacket was on his lap. I sit and use the jacket to cover her, I need to go to the bathroom, the hall seems empty so I walk calmly.

"Yah Hyunjin, I already lost once!" I heard someone say in the next hall "Now you just had six and it will be my turn and he will lose that bet"

"Don't be so sure about this Moon, maybe you lose to me and I win the money and the girl! You both will be so jealous when Chaerin calls me her boyfriend!"  

"Shut Hyujin, just in your dreams!"   

I felt something breaking inside of me. The boys there were born in the year of the dragon and got sick of just making me suffer physical injuries, now they wanna break my heart too. And I would have to deal with this for a few months until I feel better.   

Since I was a kid, my luck has not been the best. Before I was even had seven years old I already have crossed a door made of glass, broken my arm, hit by a car, hit by a motorcycle, I almost drowned in the children's pool, falls down the stairs at the school, and open my forehead enough to have to do twenty-three stitches on it, and my appendix burst, my mom concluded that I was cursed, so she took me to a shaman. 

That moment was when I felt closest to dying, who took a kid that has asthmatic problems to a place that was made of incense? But the words of the conversation that night changed my life forever in a way that a kid could never imagine. 

"Aigooo! This kid! In her past life, broke a king's heart, so he hated her so much that this angry energy follows her to this life too! Aigooo!" I remember thinking 'That is the reason I hate boys, they don't know how to hear a no!' "The energy of dragon so strong," The shaman says and starts to dance "This girl needs have to avoid all-male that is born in dragon years until she founds a descendant of this King and makes a memorial ceremony for him,"  I think the only thing the shaman would guess is my dad was born in a dragon year, another that my mom was crazy enough to believe make him move to another country, change me for an only for girls school and fill my bags and clothes of talismans.  

Weirdly, this works in the end, I learned how to go from my home to school on my bicycle, avoid all men in the convenience stores or any place, maybe they weren't born in a dragon year but it was better safe than sorry. Things get complicated in high school with the blind date system, I always need to ask the year the boy was born before I could accept, and people thought I was crazy for not accepting boys at the same age as me, just older or younger.

But looking at this now, it all seems too simple, when I get into Yeonsei one of the Sky's universities it was hard being a freshmen year and just refusing the social invites, and worst when it came to a seniors invitation, it was one of these days, I hold with strength the talisman hide inside my blouse sleeve, take a deep breath and enters in the steakhouse.

"Chaerin! I can't believe you really are here!" Goeun screamed 'cause the music was loud, the only friend that I could keep since elementary school, her father was a shaman, so when she heard my story, Goeun didn't put any judgment "We're girls in majority like Sunny sunbae told, but Hyunjin and a few friends suddenly showed up and she feels would be impolite not invite them to sit with us. He is more handsome than ever, all dressed up! Really the model of Yonsei university! He's like a painting! Maybe, I should call him on a date!" She holds my arm and guides me to the table. 

"Oh, Chaerin you came!" Sunny screams, she is already a little bit drunk. "Take your beer here, everyone on this table has to drink one of them before sitting." The voice of my consciousness in my head screams "THAT'S WHY WE STAY AT HOME!" and I agree when I swallow up all the beer at once, the sour taste makes my stomach complain, I hate beer so much, why do I'm doing all this at the end? I sit and look at the guy in front of me, he has something on his face, and the sensation of knowing him settles in my chest so I observe him for a while and he smiles.

"I know I'm handsome, but don't let it be obvious your interest" So I pointed to my face at the place he was holding. There was some sauce? I didn't know how to identify "Yes, you!" He laughs.

"I mean there's something on your face" I point one more time "Right here, I was trying to warn you and not to be impolite at the same time" That's why everyone should be born ugly, not have privileged treatment built a better personality, his friends softly laugh, and I start to eat. 

"So, the rumors are true!" Sunny says "Ours Chaerin is out of your league Hyunjin, she doesn’t have interest in guys who are born in dragon years!" Breath Chaerin, you don't need to panic, it is a big table, and has no way for him to touch you. You need to get used to it, what will you do when you find a job? Ask every single man in the building what year they were born? 

"Like I would be interested in a person that believes in such a thing" I can't hold my laugh.

"Considering that you were born in the dragon year, I presume like me you're from 1988 so I'll speak comfortable, something I think I must say, with this narcissist personality you could be born in a rabbit year and I still wouldn't be interested" The shock in his face was delightful "What are you gonna say that this makes your heart flutter? Let me guess what you're thinking: No girl has treated me like this before?" His face became red "Don't worry, I'll not be a constant presence in your life" Because like always in my life if you're a guy and were born in a dragon year, I will run from you to keep my life safe. I stayed for a few minutes and left to breathe fresh air. I was suffocating to be around Hyunjin after hearing that conversation between his friends that day in the university hall.

"I still have your Armani jacket," Hyunjin’s deep voice says, I sigh.

"If you like it, you can keep or sell it. I don't care..." Hyunjin stops in front of me just centimeters away, this brings memories of that dream.

"Why did you leave me that day?" I could feel his breath against my face one more time, and my hands started to sweat.

"Why do you even care? All the girls on the campus fall in love with you, why I'm so important anyway?" Please Hyunjin tell me the truth, tell me that you feel sorry, if you say it now, I can forgive you easily.

"Because I like you... " I roll my eyes.

"No, you don't" I sigh and step away from him, so Hyunjin holds my wrist, I'll punch him. He pulls me and uses his body to protect me from the water that a car spills when passing at a high velocity on a puddle formed by rain, I could feel his heartbeat against my back.

"You can't tell me how I feel..." I step back and look at my wrist and into his eyes, so he opened his hand "Sorry" 

"First, if you like me for real, you would respect my space and wouldn't lie to me like that" Hyunjin looks at the sky and takes a deep breath "Is it so important for you, to win this?" Hyunjin's eyes looked lost for a moment, I wanna cry, I wanna slap him in the face, I was so tired of that "No one will win if this is your concern, I'll never date someone that born in the dragon year, so don't worry"

I walked back to the restaurant. They were all drunk already, in a sneaky way I picked up my purse and left the place. No one would remember tomorrow, maybe Hyunjin, but he wasn’t near.

On the other day at University, everybody seems to have a huge hangover and this makes me feel relieved. The first time was about Korean history, he has become obsessed and discovered who was the pathetic king that hates him so much.

As always I sit right in front of the class because the students always run from that specific place, the professor is starching and connects her notebook with the other equipment. When a new boy entered the room, he was beautiful, you know what I just saw Hyunjin be.  He sits right next to me and they consider if I may cross the class wall, cuz I have already done this with the quest shouldn't be too different from the concrete.

"Hi, I am Changbin" I take a deep breath even though his voice is beautiful. Why is the universe doing this to me?

"Hi, I am Chaerin" why does my voice tremble this much?   

"Sorry for bombarding you. I just came back from Germany, I'm one year late. Can you give me some advice for this class?"  I  smile.

 "One year late? Does that mean you were born in 1988? The rabbit year?" Chaerin refrains from being too excited that he is going to think you are a crazy person.

"Yes, I just decided to spend one year in an internship after High School graduation" Wow, he was so cool "So, you believe in this kind of thing?"

"Kinda, the father of my dad was Chinese" He smiles at me, and my heart flutters "You probably think it is a silly thing like everyone else..."

"I think it's a cute thing" At This moment I feel the whole blood in my body rushing to be concentrated on my face, so I focus on explaining all about that class to him, Changbin was so polite and kind, a true rabbit for sure, but for some reason, so I feel that somebody was watching me, but I was easily distracted by the beauty of a boy that was born in the rabbit year, someone I could touch without end up killed. At the end of the class, he gave me his phone number "Hope to hear from you soon, cute dragon" 

And left the class, with my heart in his hand, so I started to pick up my stuff, and the sensation of someone observing me intensified. I looked around and found nothing. When I turn around, I look at a Hyunjin staring at me like a ghost.

"Do you wanna make me have a heart attack?" I put my hand over my chest feeling my heart beating unhealthily fast, I probably almost died, dragon male-born effect!  

"You say that the only reason you don't date me is 'cause I was born in the dragon year, so why are you so melted for that guy?" I take a deep breath. 

"First of all, I remember that I say that even if you WEREN'T born in the dragon year, I WOULDN'T submit myself to your narcissist personality so the thing is, you should go see a doctor, verify if everything is okay with your hearing" Why he has to look so familiar? "Second, I know boys over flowers are popular these days, but Hyunjin we're not in high school anymore, I don't have any ambition to be the Jandi to you Jungpyo, every female of this campus wants you, so please, ignore your ego just this time, get over and leave me alone."  

I tried to the walkway but my sneakers get stuck in the hole on the floor that I didn't notice before, I saw Hyunjin trying to catch me but I just oppositely throw my body and hit my head on the table, I tear run my face before I could feel the pain, but when that came it was hard, I feel my entire head pulsing. 

"Chaerin, did you lose your mind? Why don't you let me help you?" Hyunjin almost screams.

"You didn't realize that this was because of you? How many times do I have to say for you don't be near me? Do I have to die in front of you? When will you respect me?" I can't assure you that I say all those things because I pass out.  

I don't know how hard my head hit the table, but it was strong enough to make me rave, my body became too heavy, and even breathing was hard. I open my eyes with difficulty, looking carefully at the room I was in, no signal of electricity when I try to sit my stomach contract, and I throw up.

"Lady, don't move too fast, you fell from a high place, and your head hit so hard that I thought it would crash!" I looked at Goeun in front of me. Why was she wearing a hanbok? We were at a wedding of a member of her family? 

"Lady, what you're talking about unnie?" Taking a deep breath I try to hold nausea, but I throw up again. This time I feel hands holding my hair when I look up I found Hyunjin's eyes, but it reminds me of Soohyuk face, it was a dream again, but realizing that made me vomit even more. It was so miserable being like this in front of him, I might end up dying of shame.

"You should see a doctor, Lady Choi" He was wearing the royal clout, maybe this is not a dream but a past life memory holy sh.."Lady Choi..." Hyunjin's face became completely Soohyuk's face and his eyes were full of concern,  I shrink.

"You shouldn't be here, your majesty" Goeun complains "If the king discovers that… He already banishes all girls born in dragon year from the kingdom, you here can put Lady Choi and her family at risk, we will end up being killed"

Soohyuk looks at me, there is no sarcasm in his expression, no ego or pride, just love and worry, like Hyunjin that night, I touch his face and he closes his eyes.

"Please, don't tell me that you believe in this craziness, don't do that Lady Choi, not even for a second believe that you'll bring me bad luck, tell me that you love me and never will leave..." Tears are rolling down my face.

"Please, don't hate me for too long," I say, and the darkness swallows me again.

I don't know how much time I spent in that darkness but alone there I allowed myself to cry about missing my dad, about those years living like that, and about Hyunjin. So, the image of him dressing in royal clothes shows up again, he smiles at me and turns around, I hold him with strength by the sleeve but that became an overcoat sleeve, and I could hear machines' sounds, one more time my stomach complains.

"Paper bag, paper bag," I asked with urgency, and quickly someone put it on my face. With one hand I hold the paper bag and in the other, I keep holding the sleeve, I feel one more time a hand holding my hair, and when I stop vomiting cause there's nothing left in my belly I look up, and a nurse smile at me, she took the bag of my hand without any expression of being disgust. 

"What a concussion you had, student! You should be more careful!" She says with a sweet voice. 

"That's what I say to her every day..." Even Hyunjin's voice stresses me, how is this possible? A few seconds ago, his eyes and words would make my heart melt, now I wanna punch him, he was the one that put me in danger in the first place.

"You have an amazing boyfriend miss Choi" B-b-boyfriend? "He stayed the whole afternoon here with you" I have what? He did what? Hyunjin, my boyfriend? Just in a nightmare! I look at him and Hyunjin makes a cute face, this makes me feel nauseous again, I wish I was strong enough to punch him.

"He is n..."

"She's a better girlfriend to me than I'm a boyfriend to her, nurse" He smiles at me. At the moment I recover myself I'll punch him so hard!

"Well, I will call the doctor and tell him that you are awake. You both behave!" She softly laughs and she leaves the room. 

"Did you lose your mind? My boyfriend?" I look at him, Hyunjin shows my hand that was still holding his sleeve.

"That's your fault, you have been holding me since we got in the hospital, I think this was the best and less crazy explanation" I tried to open my hand or at least loosen my catch but somehow I was too scared to do that.

"Hum, Hyunjin, let me ask a random question, do you know if you're a descendant of some royal family line?" He seems to think for a while.

"I know my great grandparent was part of the independence movement, but royalty I don't know" I see his face for sure "Can I ask why?"

"You already say that stupid so doesn’t matter. Now when you met me for the first time, did I look familiar to you?" Hyunjin closes his eyes and with his fingers massages his temples "Please, take this seriously, it's important..."

"Yes, you look familiar but probably because your school was close to mine or something like that..." I take a deep breath. 

"That's impossible, 'cause I was sent to a girls' school in Jeju island since I was seven years old," Hyunjin sighed.

"Well, maybe I was the wrong Chaerin, you have a pretty ordinary face" I roll my eyes "The prettiest one."

"Hyunjin, I can't care less if you think I'm pretty or not" That was a half-lie. "It's just because I think your ancestor put me in this curse, his name was Soohyuk I had to break his heart and he hates me because of that..."

"And now you're breaking mine" I bite my bottom lip.

"I know about the bet Hyunjin, this won't work with me!" Hyunjin eyes wide, "The only thing I need right now is to finish this curse once and for all! You seem rich, did your family have a mausoleum?" 

"Why didn't you tell me that you knew about the bet?" He stands up.

"This would change anything, Hwang Hyunjin? Let's make it like this: if you take me to your family mausoleum, I'll let you tell the other jerks that you kissed me and broke my heart right before that! Deal?" I reach out my hand and he only stares "I don't care about what they're gonna think about me, and if this will feed your ego..."

The doctor enters the room, checks everything on me, and gives me medicine for the pain that I probably would feel. When she finishes, Hyunjin stays silent, I get up to organize myself in the bathroom, it is nice to stand up again. Looking at my reflection a big purple bruise was starting to show up on my cheek, when I came back Hyunjin was up too. He guided me to his car, my purse was there.

"I'll take a cab," I say, his face holding a cold expression. 

"Didn't you say you wanna finish this? Let's do this now" He enters the car, and I follow him, it was the best decision anyway.

"Can we stop to buy flowers and some food?" Hyunjin takes a deep breath and nods his head positively. His family mausoleum was in their beach house so it was a long trip. 

My heart started to beat fast when we got there. Hyunjin enters with me like he wanted to see with his eyes that I was wrong, but my heart knew that I was right, that mausoleum was almost a historical museum, his family really make an impact during generations in Korea, when we got in the last hall I saw the paint of the prince’s face, right under the painting was his name Soohyuk.

"No way" Hyunjin whispered, I fell on my knees and let the tears come. 

"Wasn’t you that hate me for this long right? I'm here now" I say calmly organizing the memorial stuff "I don't know the day you left this world but the piece of your memory got stuck in my soul, Lady Choi loved you, your majesty, truly" I burn incense and make a reverence, seven times once it's finished I notice Hyunjin on his knees right by my side. 

"I know she loved me kid" So a notice, he got the same expression that in my dream "It wasn't my hate, I would never be able to hate her, it was the guilt she felt by my premature death… This kid" Soohyuk points to himself, Hyunjin's body "He doesn’t know how to show his feelings for you 'cause you are the opposite of what he is, but this is a good thing, for both of you, he quit that bet at the moment he fell for you, what don't make it right I know, and guilty filled his heart for doing something so stupid, as I did when I give up on living, because of that my country suffered..." I touch his shoulder  and he smiles "I'm not telling you to forgive him, but to think about it, me and Miss Choi, we had a sad ending, I wish there was a different end for you both" He holds my hand "Please, think about..." So he falls into my arms, I hold him, letting Hyunjin sleep for a while. 

He was right, it isn't easy to forgive Hyunjin, I would need some time away from him to put my thoughts in the right place, maybe spend my vacation with my dad after all these years just through calls, and perhaps miles away I could find the right decision to make. Hyunjin opens his eyes and quickly moves away from me. 

"What's happening?" I sigh.

"It was a long day for you. After taking me to the hospital, driving here, you passed out" Hyunjin works on fixing his hair "You don't need to take me home, this time I'll call a cab, stay at your family's house and take a rest"  

"Stay here Chaerin, I quit that bet, you don't need to worry I won't try anything, there are many rooms in this house" He takes a deep breath "Sorry, I was a jerk, for making that bet, and for making fun of our faith" We walk out the mausoleum "I'm being serious when I say sorry"

"I know you are" I put my hand on his shoulder "But I need time..." 

"I will wait" His answer makes me smile. 

"For some reason, I believe in you for the first time" So I stand on tiptoe and kiss his cheek, I feel Hyunjin's arm around me pressing my body against his, in a warm hug. The hug our souls longed for centuries to happen. 

1 year later.

Nothing compares to the feeling of coming back home with my dad, we could finally live as a family again, Montreal was beautiful, but there's nothing like home. When we got to our house, everything was so quiet that it was weird, my mom was the type of person that was always singing or dancing in the room. 

"Mom, we are at home!" I screamed and looked at my dad who seemed as confused as I was.

"Honey, we're here!" He says too.

"I'm in the studio, come here you both. I wanna show you guys something that I need your opinion on!" She finally answered and felt even weirder than before.

"Since when does she ask for our opinion?"  Dad asks.

"I don't know, maybe she is being threatened. Should we call the police?" We laugh softly walking to her studio. We weren’t prepared to see what we would see. I stare at Hyunjin shirtless using leather pants, I just couldn't stop looking. When my eyes found him, Hyunjin blinked at me and I felt my hands sweating. 

"Honey, is this something to show your child?" My dad put his hand over my eyes.

"That's not the point. Will these pants or not be the fashion hit of 2010?" I laughed.

"I think Hyunjin is the only man on the planet who would look this good with it, mom" I look quickly at Hyunjin again "If you dress like this on our date, I will not complain!" Hyunjin smiles.

"You won't be jealous of the other girls looking at him?" Mom asks.

"As long as he only looks at me, I don't care" I wink at him "Mom, I will organize my stuff, so please let Hyunjin free before 6 pm please!"

The afternoon seems to take years to pass, I look at my reflection in the mirror one thousand times, just so I could check if everything that I had previously chosen yet in Montreal looked good on me. When I heard the knocks on my room door, I opened it and found Hyunjin this time with a shirt on.

"Disappointed?" He asks, fixing his shirt on his body.

"No. Where should we go?" Hyunjin holds my hand.

"The place you missed the most in Korea, fried chicken restaurant!" Oh, that man, he got me by the stomach, I look at both sides of the hall and pull him into my room, his eyes wide, I put my arms around his shoulders and kissed him, his arms were around my hips, and I couldn't think right anymore so Hyunjin stops kiss me I complain "We should go, Lady Choi, otherwise your parents will kill me for sure and we don't wanna that right?"

"No, we don't." Sometimes I couldn't believe that nightmare was gone, that I could walk free without being afraid of accidentally touching the wrong person. 

"But let's avoid guys who are born in a rabbit year. They give us a bad look," Hyunjin says and I punch his arms "That's true, baby! You should believe in me more!"

"Let's not argue Hyunjin, we know this is because you were jealous about Changbin oppa.." I regret the moment I said.

"OPPA? Who is your oppa, Choi Chaerin? Your parents had another kid? Did I have a brother-in-law and didn't know?" He looks cute being that handsome but a little bit insecure, makes less goodness more human, I make a cute face and kiss his face. 

"Why are you so jealous when you are my only love?" He looks at me while pouting, and I kiss his lips "Let's go, and after we eat what do you think about watching a movie..." His eyebrow arches "In your apartment, I had missed you so much.." I kissed him one more time.

"Let’s go Lady Fried Chicken!" I laugh. 

Finally, the happy ending that we waited for centuries was beginning!   

[mrs-gauche]

“I suppose I am just tired of fighting.”

[jackoshadows]

I find the parallels between Jon and Tyrion to be underrated (but then I always find Tyrion related stuff to be underrated around here lol). I'm thinking of Tyrion killing his dad because of what he did to Tysha and Jon wanting to kill Ramsay because he thinks he'll marry Arya, I've never seen anyone make the relation before.

Agree. There are obvious parallels between the two. This is pretty much implied at the start of the series when Tyrion says that all 'All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes'.

There are definitely more parallels between Jon/Tyrion than Jon/Jaime. In fact I think the Jon/Tyrion parallels also emphasizes that Tyrion and Jaime are also foils - Jaime the beautiful golden child of Tywin Lannister and Tyrion the not good looking black sheep and unwanted child.

I think the important relationship here is Jaime and Tyrion, that's what the author is trying to explore, that's where the parallels and contrasts are relevant. I think that's a relationship that GRRM will focus on as Tyrion joins with Daenerys and faces off against his family.

The non-existent parallels between Jon/Jaime have no purpose other than to shove through the idea that Jaime is not really a bad guy and by removing all context from his actions, somehow make the argument that both Jon and Jaime have the same morality.

The only relevance Jon/Jaime have is to contrast Jaime/Cersei to Jon/Arya - one being a mutually toxic relationship and the other being a relationship of pure, unconditional love.

There's a reason that Jon and Tyrion bonded so fast in AGoT. Tyrion is able to empathize with cripples, bastards and broken things and Jon is of a similar disposition.

Tyrion and Bran are also my two nominees for being dragon riders. So that could be another parallel if it ends up being Tyrion. (The Dragon has 3 heads). Tyrion gains the loyalty of the mountain clans like Jon gains the loyalty of the Freefolk (And Dany the loyalty of the Dothraki/Unsullied)

I see people making parallels between Jaime trying to rebuild the Kingsguard and Jon trying to rebuild the Night's Watch.... And this makes no sense to me. What Jon is faced with is a gargantuan mess! He has to rebuild 19 castles! There is shortage of food. He is trying to fix an 8000 year old feud between two groups of people. He has to get the wall ready to face an existential apocalyptic threat from an unknown enemy! How is that in any way comparable to Jaime needing to hire better Kingsguard and threatening already beaten down Tully prisoners in order to consolidate Lannister rule in the Riverlands?

Rather it is Tyrion who was faced with a mess as Hand of the King in ACoK. Tyrion's ACoK arc parallels Jon's ADwD arc - right down to having to deal with Janos Slynt. Tyrion is of course older, smarter, wiser, more experienced and more ruthless than Jon Snow. However in their decisions and reasoning, we see similarities in how they approach their problems.

I also think that Jon, Dany and Tyrion have interesting parallels (Third child, mothers died in childbirth, underdog status). We will have to wait and see if that is leading anywhere.

[yusuke-of-valla]

🔥Fates?

I think Fire Emblem in general tends to fall short on the overarching plots (whether that he because elf time constraints or just not being interested in examining the politics in detail, see every single critique of 3H which tends to be focused on the route system and plot more than the characters) but tends to really nail the characters and their supports and I don’t think Fates is an exception.

Like is the inability to talk to anyone annoying? Sure. Are the Deeprealms laughably insane? Absolutely. But like I fucking love (or at least don’t hate) the entire playable cast and they’re so endearing and interesting and full of personality. Even relatively serious characters like Azura get supports like the one with Keaton where he gives her a frog and she’s completely Stone faced about it. Nyx is a “secretly 8000 year old lady who looks like a child” but instead of being used for jailbait she’s written like a grumpy old lady which cannot be said for other games in the series which love to have their 10000 year old dragons act like prepubescent girls and say it’s fine to marry them. The Awakening trio are fantastic and I love them in general and like even if it’s a cash grab I love having more of them. I could go on but you get my point

Also the soundtrack slaps

[beetlegoose01]

Frostbite (Chapter 2- Suspire)

AN: Chapter 2 is here friends! I appreciate all the kind feedback I received last chapter! Without further ado...

Previous Chapter: https://pepperimps01.tumblr.com/post/644922844412854272/frostbite-casetello-an-do-these-two-have-a-ship

~~~~

"So, can I go now?" Casey asked impatiently, trying to flex his arm. "I've got places to be, slowpoke."

Donnie glared at him, irritated. He seemed even more frustrated that Casey had made that semi flirty jab at him.  "Like where?"

"You know...around." He gave a toothy grin.

"Very specific, Jones."

"I like to think I'm very pacific."

"That's-"

"Actually..." Casey wiggled his eyebrows. "Red wanted to talk to me about something. Maybe a bit more than talk if you know what I mean..." He shrugged. "Can't exactly blame her. I'm a catch."

'We aren't there yet, Jones.'

'Is it about April? Because it's not my fault, she ...y'know likes me more.'

Donnie's heart plummeted, dropping the scalpel he was holding. It crashed by his feet loudly, but he didn't bother picking it up.  "You better go then." He said coldly.

"Are you sure? Because I wanted to tell you some-"

"Just leave!" He snapped. "Can't you tell I'm busy? I've got retromutagen to work on."

"Jeez, okay. Don't get your tail in a knot." The teen raised his hands in surrender.

Casey stumbled out of the lab, dazed and confused. His arm thankfully didn't hurt anymore, but he still felt a bit uneasy and sick to his stomach. He really just wanted to take a nap, forget about everything that happened and maybe never work with Donatello again. Couldn't that turtle take a joke?

He needed a distraction...

"CJ!" Mikey exclaimed, leaping towards him with a stupid grin on his face. Casey yelped, taken aback by the orange turtle's enthusiasm. At least that was a distraction alright.  "You won't believe this, dude!"

Casey smirked. "You know, I'm starting to think everything is believable at this point. What's up? Did you discover a new pizza joint?"

The smallest turtle looked about ready to explode with excitement. "Nope! Can't tell you yet, bro.  Come on, Leo's explaining everything at the dojo! I'm just getting you and Donnie! I'm ...Mikey the messenger!" And then he was off again, no doubt badgering Donatello.

Casey shook his head, laughing. Though he was somewhat curious about whatever the leader in blue had to say.

He entered the dojo, checking if Master Splinter was behind him. He trusted the old ninja master, and couldn't deny he was a big help...but that didn't stop him from flinching every time they made eye contact. Rats still gave him the creeps.

Raph and April were already there, chatting amongst themselves. Raph was currently practicing opening and closing April's tessen.

"I dunno, it just seems a bit..." He trailed off.

"A bit what, Raph?" April's eyebrows furrowed. "Go on, finish that sentence."

"It's not very sharp, that's all." As he said this, the tip of the fan poked his finger and he let out a squawk of pain.

"Not very sharp, huh?" April swiped the fan back. "Remember this from me: don't judge everything by its outer appearance."

"Touché." Raph waved at Casey, and the pair did an elaborate secret hand shake.

"What's this about anyway?" He folded his arms.

"Beats us." Raph shrugged. "All Mikey said was-" He changed his voice to a high pitched, cruel but accurate impression of his youngest brother. "Dudes you've gotta hear this! I'm gonna cry on the floor if you don't come to the dojo right this second!"

"It must be big if Leo wants to tell us." April said. "I mean, all Raph and I dealt with was the Purple Dragons graffiting a stop sign."

"It was a slow night!" Raph protested.  

"Maybe they saw Karai?" Casey suggested. That was really the only thing he could think of.

Mikey bounded into the dojo, followed by an extremely disgruntled Donnie, who made a big show of standing as far away from Casey as possible.

"What's all this about?" Donnie asked.

The single light bulb above them started to burn out. The team heard shuffling from behind the large tree, and a shadowy figure approached them, stepping into the dimly lit middle area. He dramatically raised his head, looking grim.

"You're probably wondering why I called you here this evening." Leo said, glancing at Mikey, who of course already knew and was wiggling with excitement.

"Well, yeah. Spit it out, already." Raph said impatiently.

Leo ignored him. "Mikey and I encountered something tonight.  Another mutant. We thought we caught them all or made allies with them but..."

"What?" His emerald eyes widened.

"What is it?" Donnie pressed.

"A dragon!" Mikey interrupted. "A humongous dragon! He had razor sharp teeth and claws!" He paused. "Actually he kinda reminded me of Leatherhead but way less friendly."

"Dragons aren't real, meathead." Donnie grumbled. "They're completely made up fictional stories."

"Have you ever seen a dragon before? Huh? Have you Donnie?" Mikey retorted, cloudy blue eyes filled with a sense of innocence that truly believed dragons were real- but also with a stubborn pride to prove his genius brother wrong. A common occurrence between the two youngest brothers.

"No but-"

"See?" Mikey looked triumphedley at Donnie, then turned back to Leo. "Continue,"

"Like I...and I guess Mikey was saying, we know it's some type of reptile. Not a dragon for sure, but something."

"Any distinctive features?" Donnie asked, snark evident in his tone. "There are over 8000 living species of reptiles, so you might need to be more specific."

"Ah, shut up Brainiac." Raph groaned.

"He's got a point though." Casey pointed out. "Not that I'm agreeing with him- I mean...there are like, a lot of reptiles out there."

"We didn't get a close look at it, I'm afraid. We had to retreat. Whatever it was, it was tough."

"And...kinda scary." Mikey said, hiding behind his oldest brother wearily.

"Fear is the path to the dark side, Mikey." Leo said firmly, patting his head. "Don't let your fear cloud your judgment. We can take it on. Just like we always do."

The group stared at the leader blankly.

"Did you really just quote Yoda?"  April said, covering her mouth to stop her giggles.

"Wh- nooo..." Leo blushed, leaning against the tree in a failed attempt to seem casual. "Why would I do that? That's totally ...lame." Clearing his throat, he continued: "Tomorrow we'll hold a stake out to find this mutant. I'm thinking they may have a chance to be an ally. Any questions?"

Mikey raised his hand. "Are you sure we can't have a pizza out instead? I'm not really a fan of steak and-"

"Any relevant questions?"

"Has it done any actual damage?" April tilted her head.

"It looked more scared than anything, actually." said Leo. "That's why I think we can convince it to join our allegiance."

"And if it isn't willing? Suppose it isn't up for prancing through a meadow with us and decides to kill us all?" Raph said. "Because our track record with friendly mutants tends to be a mixed bag."

"You didn't answer my question, did it do any damage?"

Leo chewed on his lip. "So...don't freak out but, it- she- he? Er- they looked very hungry and did attempt to spit on us. With acid. Or venom or whatever." He pressed on, despite the horrified looks of his peers. "It'll be okay! I have full confidence we can handle this as a team."

"So let me get this straight, Leo." Raph said, moving forward to his brother. "You almost got killed by this monster and your next course of action is: let's be friends! Are you out of your shell? That plan works just as well as Casey and Donnie baking cookies together!"

"For once I agree with Raph." Donnie said, earning a very disgruntled look from his brother.

"I didn't say friends, just figure out their motives." Leo mumbled.

"Whatever you say, Fearless." Raph pushed his brother aside roughly. "Good luck with that. I'm gonna check out Bloody Deaths III, anyone wanna play with me? Casey?"

"Sure," Casey felt his phone buzz. An anxious text from his twelve year old sister Riley snapped him back to reality. "Ah...actually can't. My little sister is getting worried. See you guys tomorrow?"

"Yeah, whatever."

"No worries. Older brother duties call." Leo nodded.

"Don't worry Raph, I'll play with you!" Mikey

"So will I." Leo agreed, happy to relax for a little bit. "How about you guys?" He glanced at Donnie and April, the last remaining members still inside the dojo.

"Just a moment. I'll be right there." April confirmed.

"Don't keep us waiting," Raph cracked his knuckles.

As they were leaving the dojo, Donnie felt a tap on his shoulder. Spinning around, he faced the beaming freckled face of April O' Neil.

"Hey!" She said cheerfully, blue eyes bright and curious.

"Er, um, hey!" He echoed, voice raising several octaves as puberty decided to betray him. He was grateful his brothers were in the other room, babbling about the video game Raph found in the dumpster. No doubt they would be teasing him about his failed attempt at flirting.

"I wanted to talk to you." April said.

"About the new mutant? Because I didn't get a chance to see it-"

"No, no." She interrupted, nudging his shoulder playfully. He blushed at the contact. "I meant about you and Casey. Everything turned out okay?"

Donnie fought the urge to groan. Of course it was about Jones. Instead, he bit his tongue, smiled sweetly and said: "He was...okay." he waved his hand vaguely.

April grinned, relieved. "Wow, that's way better than I expected!"

Donnie narrowed his eyes.

"What I mean is, you two are my closest friends. Seeing you two butt heads, act like you hate each other-  it hurts." She explained. "So it's nice seeing my two best buds get along.

'Best ...buds.' Donnie thought to himself, analyzing each word carefully. 'So maybe she isn't interested in him. That boy with his cocky grin and his stupid egotistical-'

"Casey mentioned you fixed his arm up too!"

"Huh?"

"His arm...he sprained it and you patched it up."

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Oh, that." He chuckled. "Wait...he told you?"  

"Yeah, he seems grateful but obviously too 'macho' to admit that."

"It wasn't really anything special."

"But it was, Donnie." April's eyes twinkled. "It was a really nice thing to do. I'm just...so happy you two are finally getting along. Thank you. I knew you would eventually!"

"Heh, well you know."

April chuckled, taking his hand as they walked to the pit.

Mikey sprung up from his beanbag chair. "Yuck, did you two kiss?" He gagged.

April rolled her eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Raph pretended to throw up into his bowl of popcorn while Leo just laughed fondly.

"Take a seat you guys." He said. "We're about to start the game!"

"Actually I think I might call in early tonight." Donnie faked a yawn. "I'm so ...tired."

"You? Sleep?" Raph snorted. "If you didn't want to hang out with us, you could just say that. I don't think I've seen you go in your room since you were thirteen, Don."

"That's not true..." Donnie's cheeks flushed.

"Aw, leave him be." April said, grabbing a handful of popcorn despite Raphael's protests. "He needs his rest."

"Yeah, you do look significantly greener than normal, dude." Mikey pointed out.  "So to speak."

"Go get some rest." Leo said, raising a comforting hand to Donatello's shoulder. "That's an order from your leader."

"Well...goodnight then. Have fun." Donnie added an extra fake yawn for added effect, then retreated to the lab when they looked the other way.

~•~

Donatello checked his very messy notes, examining each point with precision. If he wasn't exact, weeks, heck, months of research would be a waste. He wasn't going to let anyone, let alone Casey Jones ruin his process. The lack of sleep already made his work sloppy.

"Add the dose of norepinephrine, stir carefully with the calibrated mutagen..." He mumbled under his breath. "Then wait ten minutes before..."

But he couldn't get that terribly charismatic smirk out of his mind. That no nothing, cocky little son of a-

"Focus Donnie. Don't think about him."

"Talking to yourself again I see."

"Gah!" Donnie yelped, practically doing ballet leaps as he grabbed the nearly fallen canister. He turned around to face his older, but significantly shorter brother. "Hamato Raphael!" He squeaked shrilly.

"Ooh using the full name on me." Raph snickered. "What did I do to deserve that?"

"How long have you been here?"

Raph shrugged, poking the bunsen burner. "Eh, long enough."

"Weren't you suppose to be playing that dumb game with the others?"

"Yeah, and we beat it." He said, piercing green eyes staring him down with a sense of judgement. "And I thought you were supposed to be sleeping. Shoulda have known you'd be back in your Nerd Cave." He flicked Donnie's arm.

"Why are you here?"

"Okay, twenty questions, is it against the law to see my baby brother?"

Donnie folded his arms. "Since when do you ever visit me for no reason?"

"Because I'm such a kind, caring brother?" He looked away guiltily. "Who simply wanted to check on you? Is that such a terrible thing, Donatello?" He leaned forward, dropping the act to return to his usual deadpan tone. "Also my motorcycle needs fixing."

"Ah, there it is."

"Watch the snark, I need it fixed soon."

"Fine, fine." Donnie sighed. "I will."

"Good, 'cause Casey and I are gonna hit the streets with that baby." He said smugly.

Donnie wilted. "Jones?"

Raph raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, Casey Jones. Human, dark hair, lots of missing teeth...this tall? Ring any bells? Oh, right. Forgot you and him had this thing going on..."

"It isn't about that." Donnie said quickly. "We...him and I..."

"You know, seeing you two act like idiots around each other isn't gonna help the team out. Even Mikey thinks it's stupid."

First April, now Raph? And apparently Mikey too...

"I don't care about what you and Jones do, it isn't really my business." Donnie cooled down, trying to tame his temper. "And we're trying, truly trying, at least I am to be civil."

"Hmph, yeah right."

"And ...I don't care if you two spend time together. Why should I? We aren't even friends!"

"Okay, okay." Raph raised his hands in surrender. "I'm going to bed. You should too by the looks of it. After my bike is finished, of course."

Donnie grunted.

"And Donnie?"

"Hm?"

"Who exactly are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?"

Donatello didn't have an answer.

~•~

Everything hurt. From the depths of her scaly toes, to her ferocious gaping mouth.What was she? She didn't know anymore. A monster? A freak? Any humanity she had left, was a clouded memory and there was no turning back. She struggled to move, still becoming accustomed to her new features. Four legs were harder to maneuver than two, but she made do.

She slivered across the murky water, pains in her stomach growling from lack of proper food. She couldn't recall the last time she had a warm meal. She lifted her head, silver grey eye slits opening. . In what she lost, her human form, her hair, and sense of a normal life- she had gained quite a few things too. A keen sense of smell, for one. Her eyesight had improved too. She had also gained an olive green tail, which helped with her balance.

'As long as I don't need those pesky glasses anymore.' She thought to herself bitterly.  Those horrid things were the cause of her harassment when she was a human. Now she would have the last laugh. They would cower in fear if they saw what she looked like now.

Her stomach grumbled again.

But yet...those turtles she encountered. So tasty looking...so delectable. They would satisfy her pain.

She stared at the mutant's reflection. It blinked when she blinked. It moved its tail when she flicked it.

This was her life now. She might as well make the most of being a monster.

She had work to do.

[aion-rsa]

Warrior: The Real History of the Race Riot that Shook San Francisco

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Warrior spoilers.

In “Enter the Dragon,” the ninth episode of Season 2, Warrior rips a page out from history with its depiction of San Francisco Riot of 1877. On July 23, two nights of racial violence tore through Chinatown, killing four and destroying over $100,000 worth of Chinese-owned property. In Warrior there’s a much higher body count, but the show is “historical fiction” and never set out to be entirely accurate.

According to Warrior’s head writer Jonathan Tropper, “What’s important to us are the themes and the characters of the truths of the racism and the difficulty of the immigrant experience at that time. We’re taking all of our inspiration from historical characters and events, but we’re not telling a any kind of docudrama level, historical story.”

Race Riot in the City of Angels

The San Francisco riot was preceded by other attacks on Chinese Americans in a what is known as the “Driving Out.” In another Californian riot, the Chinese Massacre of 1871 happened in Los Angeles on October 24 when a mob of around 500 white and Hispanic rioters struck in Old Chinatown after hearing that a policeman was shot, and a rancher killed by a Chinese. It is estimated that 20 Chinese were lynched (although a few were shot dead prior to being hanged). In 1850, Los Angeles had a proportionally high number of lynchings for its size. 

Like in Warrior, the Los Angeles massacre was traced to a rivalry between two Chinatown tongs, but instead of the Hop Wei and the Long Zii, they were real tongs: the Hong Chow and the Nin Yung. Prostitution was rampant in Chinatown, an aspect that Warrior depicts with disturbingly accuracy, and Chinese women were commonly kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. Local police might attempt to rescue these women and return them for a fee. The abduction of a woman named Yut Ho sparked a feud between the Hong Chow and the Nin Yung and the policeman and rancher got caught in the crossfire. 

Ten men were prosecuted and eight were convicted of manslaughter for the lynchings, however the convictions were overturned due to “technicalities” after an appeal. In 1863, California law made it so that Asians could not testify against whites in court. That made Chinese easy targets for racial injustice by the time that these anti-Chinese attacks began occurring. 

Other Chinese massacres took place in the wild west. There was the Rock Springs Massacre in Rock Springs, Wyoming in 1885. That left nearly 30 Chinese dead and many homes destroyed. The government did offer some restitution for property loss, but no one was ever arrested or held accountable for the bloodshed. In 1887, same year as the San Francisco riot, there was the Hells Canyon Massacre in Oregon. Some 34 Chinese gold miners were killed. Again no one was ever held accountable. In 2005, the site was renamed Chinese Massacre Cove.

Race Riot in the City by the Bay

Starting in 1873, the United States suffered the “Long Depression,” which was originally called ‘The Great Depression’ until the 1930s when another economic depression usurped the title. Unemployment levels were staggering across the nation and this was long before the U.S. had established any government protections for the unemployed. The Long Depression carried on throughout the 1870s, the period in which Warrior is set. In Episode 17 “If You Wait by the River Long Enough…” the Panic of ’73 is mentioned. That panic was the historic catalyst for the Long Depression. 

San Francisco was hit hard. Unemployment was up to 20% and the Bank of California had failed. On July 23, 1877, a labor strike led by the Workingmen’s Party rallied in a vacant lot – nicknamed a ‘sand-lot’ – near the newly established City Hall of San Francisco. The Workingmen’s Party was founded in 1877 and is often confused with the Workingmen’s Party of the United States (WPUS) which was founded around the same time. The WUPS changed its name soon after to the Socialist Labor Party and it is the oldest socialist political party in the United States.

The Socialist Labor Party still active and is currently headquartered in Mountain View, California, about 30 miles south of San Francisco. The San Francisco Workingmen’s Party, more formally known as the Workingmen’s Party of California eventually rose to enough power to rewrite the state’s constitution. The sand-lot meeting was just the beginning. 

Some 8000 people showed up to that fateful sand-lot gathering strike. Initially, blaming the Chinese was not part of the platform. But then an anti-coolie procession pushed their way in, demanding to be heard. The crowd on the outskirts of the gathering turned on a Chinese passing by, attacking him, and shouting the rallying cry “On to Chinatown!” That launched the San Francisco Riot of 1877.

The mob destroyed property, mostly Chinese laundries. That old stereotype of Chinese laundries was based in fact. Laundry work was difficult prior to industrial washing machines and considered unmanly, but the Chinese were willing to do it. In 1880, San Francisco had some 200 Chinese laundries. The laundries were obvious targets, along with any challengers or bystanders that crossed the mob’s path. 

The next morning, the rioting grew. One of the mob organizers placed an ad in the local newspaper that said “RALLY! RALLY! Great anti-coolie Mass Meeting at the New City Hall, Market street, at 8 o’clock p.m.” On July 24, the Beale Street Wharf was set aflame.  From 1872 to 1907, the Beale Street Wharf was the city’s largest coal dock, and arsonists stoked the fire with 100 barrels of whale oil. However, it was a diversion to draw the city’s emergency resources away from downtown and Chinatown, where the riots would continue. That fire caused some $500,000 worth of damage and lost goods. 

When the mob marched on Chinatown, the Chinese houses in their path had been listed and were complete sacked. Wooden sidewalks were torn up to be used as battering rams. Homes were robbed. Laundries were burned. People were shot. The rampage lasted for two days until it was finally quelled by the combined forces of the SFPD, the California militia, and a thousand members of the Pick-Axe Brigade, a citizen vigilance committee that armed themselves with hickory pick-axe handles. Special 24-hour badges were issue by the SFPD to civilians willing to help. And the police were eager to break out their newly issued police batons, which according to the San Francisco Bulletin were “more effective than any other instrument in the business of skull-cracking.”

The Match that Lit the Fuse

The end of riot was not the end of anti-Chinese sentiments. Quite the opposite, it was just the beginning. Denis Kearny was one of the agitators from the Workingmen’s Party who participated in the sand-lot rally and the riot. He emerged as political leader for the anti-Chinese and anti-capitalist movement, pushing the slogan “The Chinamen Must Go.” Anti-Chinese sentiment kept growing in the United States, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers. It remains the only such law to prohibit a specific ethnic group or nationality ever established in the United States and it wasn’t repealed until 1943. However, Chinese immigrants were still restricted to only 105 per year for the entire country. This was upheld until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. 

Warrior has been moving towards the Chinese Exclusion Act throughout the show. It has been brought up several scenes set in San Francisco’s political arena, especially by Buckley (Langley Kirkwood), who has made this Act the focus of his manipulative agenda. Recently there has been rise in anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States as the nation has become more racially divided. Extremists have blamed the pandemic on the Chinese, calling it the China flu or the Kung flu, and attacks on Chinese Americans have been increasing in many major metropolitan cities across the nation. Warrior has been hitting eerily close to home with its depictions of history and its comments on the ramifications. 

Here is where Warrior captures the spirit of Bruce Lee the best. Martial arts aside, Lee transcended race to become one of the world’s greatest icons. In his famous interview by Pierre Berton, Lee was asked if he thought of himself as Chinese or North American. His reply was timeless, “I think of myself as a human being, because under one sky we are but one family, it just so happens we look different.”

As writer and philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Even though it is fiction, Warrior‘s insightful Easter Eggs of these darker times in American history. It reminds us to honor the diversity of our great nation and remain united as Americans.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Warrior: The Real History of the Race Riot that Shook San Francisco appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2KQZwxv

[bigskydreaming]

Like the thing about Loki in Norse mythology is there’s like 8000 myths about Loki just being chaotically mischievous and the other gods are like lol oh that scamp, no matter how disastrous his schemes are, their reaction is still pretty much always ‘haha oh that’s just Loki.’

EXCEPT for basically....one myth. Where Loki’s instrumental in the death of Baldur and the gods are all WHOA TOO FUCKING FAR DUDE and send him to Hel to be tormented for all eternity, leading to his ultimate escape/release in Ragnarok to end all things and lead the army of the damned and his monstrous children to pretty much...eat all the gods, destroy Asgard, and burn the World Tree all to the ground so it can all start over.

Here’s the thing though. Norse mythology spanned centuries. The tales of Loki as the mischievous trickster god were told for centuries.

However, for most of that time, the myths were told as part of oral traditions passed down generation to generation, until they were finally compiled in manuscript form in the 13th century, roughly. This is when pretty much all the sagas, as Norse myth compilations were called, are considered to have been written down for the first time, and so they included thousands of stories that had been told over hundreds of years.

They were also regional, though there was a lot of overlap, given that the Vikings traveled widely and regularly across the various parts of Scandinavia. Still, different parts of Scandinavia had their own sagas. Norway had different sagas than Denmark who had different sagas than Iceland, etc. Even though all of them featured primarily the same figures, they each had their own unique stories featuring the gods. However, very rarely did they have radically different takes on those gods.

Now what’s significant about the fact that pretty much every saga we have, where these myths were all finally written down and preserved, is from the 13th century....

Is that pretty much all of Scandinavia had converted to Christianity by the early 12th century, with active worship of the Norse gods being scattered and mostly underground from that point on.

Why is this significant?

Because it means every Norse myth we have a written recording of was not written by people who still actively worshiped those gods. Nor were they intended to be read as such at the time. 

They were written down by Christian scholars who wrote them AS stories. They were intended as collections of their regions’ cultural histories, but not by or for people who still actively believed in these stories or the figures they featured. They weren’t like....TRYING to be super accurate, is the thing. The scholars who wrote these sagas were writing down the stories that had been passed down for generations, but through the lens of people who saw them as stories their ancestors once believed, not ones that pertained to their own current worldview.

And they were writing these sagas for an audience of people who similarly believed as they believed.

Which means that inevitably, some things got ‘adjusted’ to fit the current world view, the zeitgeist of the scholars writing down the stories and that of the people who would read or have the stories read to them from thereon. Because again, they weren’t aiming for being 100% faithful to the tales as they’d been told to them. They were just treating them as stories. And what do you do when the story you’re writing down has elements that don’t make that much sense to you because they were born of and aimed a worldview that doesn’t match yours?

Well, if you’re the Christian scholars writing the Norse sagas, you ‘tweak’ those elements until they make a story that fits your worldview.

So remember how I said the various sagas were regional and had a lot of overlap but some stories were distinct to some regions and didn’t show up elsewhere?

Yeah, Ragnarok is one of those.

Thousands of sagas encompassing centuries of Norse mythology and oral traditions were written down all over the various regions of Scandinavia in the 13th century.

Ragnarok only showed up in one.

The most famous, granted, but still. Everything we’re told in Norse myths about the death of Baldur and Loki’s role in it, leading to his punishment and torment in Hel and his ultimate release and bringing forth the armies of Hel to slay the gods and end the world?

Comes from the Prose Edda and the later Poetic Edda, from Iceland.

Which had primarily converted to Christianity as far back as 1000.

Now, the Vikings? Were actually surprisingly not a big doom and gloom people. Pretty much every assumption of them as such comes from how synonymous we regard Ragnarok with their culture.

It is after all, the ultimate Judgment Day myth, isn’t it? Right up there with Christianity’s Book of Revelations. An apocalyptic end of the world scenario, a war between heaven and hell, where everything is destroyed so that the world can basically start fresh with a clean slate. Nothing old ‘deserves’ to survive, pretty much the only way for a world free of sin and evil to arise is from the ashes of the old, after everything has been cleansed with fire.

Now contrast this ‘myth’ with pretty much every other Norse myth that’s survived. Larger than life tales of grand adventures, noble quests, gods walking among mortals in disguise and heroes fighting giants and stealing from dragons.

Where the closest thing the Norse pantheon has to a devil figure is Loki, the god of mischief....not even evil, but MISCHIEF, because a far more accurate representation of the Vikings’ world view is that sometimes shit happens, because Loki the god of chaos likes to make a mess of things. And what do you do when that happens? If you’re the Vikings, you basically just shrug, go “well, that’s Loki” for you, and drink some more mead.

Loki isn’t vilified in a single myth until Ragnarok, because the Vikings didn’t hate him. And they certainly didn’t fear him. They LAUGHED at him. In nine out of ten myths, Loki ends up the subject of ridicule himself, as he has the tables turned on him or outsmarts himself

Until Ragnarok.

Which, granted, could very well be another Norse myth that was passed down generation to generation in Iceland, land of frequent volcanic eruptions and likely inspiration for Musplheim, the land of the fire giants.

BUT. Which could equally likely, and far more plausibly given the overall context of Norse mythology, simply be a story the scholar who wrote the Prose Edda made up to ‘finish off’ his saga of the world according to the Vikings, from beginning to end.

An ending his Christian audience of the times would understand and identify with a lot better than they would understand the concept of a devil-figure that existed to be LAUGHED at, to show how little the Vikings feared some mythical figure with the power to lie and deceive them....the complete opposite of the way Christians feared Satan.

Basically put....Ragnarok, for all that we think of it as the ultimate Norse myth....DOES NOT MAKE SENSE in the context of almost EVERY single other Norse myth AND in the context of how Norse society viewed the world and their place in it, or their gods and their relationship with them.

Same with Loki’s depiction in Ragnarok.

What both Ragnarok and Loki’s role in Ragnarok DO make sense in the context of, however, is in a bastardization of Christianity’s own doomsday tales of a Judgment Day, stylized to fit the trappings of Norse mythology and feature their gods instead of Christian figures.

With Loki recast in the role of the Devil, as he was the closest fit they could find to that.

And with Baldur, god of light (a Norse god who is at best a footnote in Norse myths other than Ragnarok, and certainly was never the major pantheon figure he’s assumed to be), recast in the role of the Christ figure. Whose death starts the ball rolling for Judgment Day and who is destined to return for it, to triumph over Loki/Satan and preside over the new, purified world once it’s reborn from the ashes of the old one.

Anyway, tl;dr, don’t believe the hype, Ragnarok’s probably not even an actual Norse myth but the invention of Christian writers who were like lol this would make for a great Book of Revelations fanfic AU, and Loki was almost certainly never regarded by actual Vikings as some evil, malicious world-destroyer who would lead armies of the dead at Armageddon whoops I mean Ragnarok.

[rvnclwrites]

Romania 1999 Pt 3 (Charlie Weasley x Female MC)

Summary: AU where MC is an American who attended the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry instead of Hogwarts. Set eight years post graduation (1999) when she finally gets the nerve to travel abroad and follow her dream to be a Dragonologist in Romania. Check out my master list for parts 1 and 2.

Notes: So first of all, I suck and this is set eight years post graduation not nine. I for some reason had a stroke when I wrote part 1 and thought MC graduated in 1990 instead of 91. Oops. Also, I couldn't find any info on whether magical creatures can see Thestrals or what the rules are so what I wrote may not be accurate, but it worked for my plot line so idc lol.

Word Count: ~8000 (No, I’m not kidding. Sorry not sorry 😅)

(Y/N) had started visiting the owlery nearly every morning the following week in hopes of hearing back from one of her friends. Finally on Wednesday, her heart leapt as she cracked open the door and saw Pearl, one of the Sanctuary's beautiful barn owls, with a letter addressed to (Y/N) clamped in her beak. She tore into the envelope as fast as her fingers would allow, leaning against the cool concrete ledge behind her as she began to read.

(Y/N),

I am so proud of you!! I can't believe you're actually in Romania. I don't know what gave you the final push to make the move, but I am SO glad you did. I think this will be great for you, especially considering it's the one job you've talked about since we were third years. How long do you plan on staying? I hope indefinitely- if anyone deserves a place to settle down it's you.

Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. Things have been hectic since I took on this new teaching job. Can you believe I'm actually a potions professor? Professor Haywood does have a nice ring to it if I do say so myself. Don't worry though, I still have plenty of time for my shop on the weekends. Just let me know if you need any Felix Felicis to help you take on those crazy beasts you're working with. (Or perhaps a small vial of Amortentia if settling down is actually a possibility?? Only joking… sort of.) How's everything been at the Sanctuary so far?

I miss you so much and hope to hear back from you soon. Bea sends her love too!

Love, Penny

(Y/N) sighed as she finished reading, drawing the parchment against her chest. It was nice to know Penny was proud of her. The beautiful blonde had always known what she wanted to do and had her life as a Potioneer planned out since their very first day at Ilvermorny. (Y/N), on the other hand, had been interested in so many different careers in the wizarding world she struggled when it came to narrowing down her options and feeling confident with her decision. Funny how that ended up working in her favor with the way everything turned out...

(Y/N) shook her head clear, not wanting to think about that right now. Reaching out, she stroked Pearl affectionately, realizing this was her first encounter with a magical creature that wasn't a dragon in over two weeks. That was (Y/N)'s only complaint about working at the Sanctuary so far. She was well aware before she accepted the job that owls and Thestrals were the only other creatures permitted on the grounds, but it was an adjustment after having spent nearly two years bonding with all the different creatures back at the Reserve. (Y/N) frowned, feeling the ache in her chest grow, and decided she would have to write back to Penny later. Right now she needed a reminder of just how much she enjoyed being here at the Sanctuary, and maybe she could visit the Thestrals later.

Working alongside Charlie and Hank did just the trick at first. She had purposefully worked through the next two days to keep herself distracted, and it was working fine until now. (Y/N) stilled as Ventus bowed his head to her and flapped his green wings once, creating an all too vivid parallel in (Y/N)'s mind with her favorite Hippogriff back at the Reserve.

"Hello? Earth to (Y/N)?" Hank said, waving a hand in front of her face.

(Y/N) pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to ease the sudden pounding in her head. "Sorry, what'd you say?"

"I said I think Ventus here is growing quite fond of you."

(Y/N) forced a smile, admiring the dragon in front of her. "Yeah. Probably helps that he's the nicest one of the bunch." She felt Hank's inquisitive gaze linger on her for longer than she felt comfortable with, so she added, "We should probably get back down for dinner."

Both Charlie and Hank agreed, and the trio followed the path back to the village, joining Scott at their usual picnic table.

"Did you hear that the Wasps got owned by Puddlemere yesterday?" Scott asked as he piled his plate with a second helping of mashed potatoes.

Hank snorted. "No surprise there. I would'a bet twenty galleons on it with how rubbish Wimbourne has been this year." The forty-three year old who had already downed his dinner grabbed a piece of pie from the tray. "Hey Charlie, didn't you play with some bloke on Puddlemere's team?"

Charlie, who was seated beside (Y/N), nodded. "Oliver Wood. He became captain for Gryffindor after I left. Pretty good Keeper."

"Wait, isn't your friend Andre a Keeper too?" Scott asked.

"For Pride of Portree, yeah."

"Bloody hell," Hank said through a mouthful of pie, "and your sister may start playing for the Harpies? With all these connections, you better damn well get us tickets to the next World Cup."

The men carried on with the Quidditch conversation, but (Y/N) was distracted by the mention of Charlie's sister. So far she had only caught wind of a brother named Bill, and now an unnamed sister, presumably younger if she's just now joining the Harpies. Since (Y/N) didn't want to ask about anyone's family outright, she had resorted to making mental notes whenever something was mentioned. Hank had a sister named Chloe, but Scott had never mentioned family, only a friend named Steven.

"How's Andre doing?" Scott asked. "He should come visit again sometime."

"I haven't seen him in awhile actually. I'll probably send him an owl when I go home for Christmas."

(Y/N)'s stomach lurched at the thought of going home for the holidays. She hoped it wasn't uncommon for people to stay here around Christmastime.

"Awh man, you're going home this year?" Hank asked, disappointment etched on his face. "I was hoping Molly and Arthur were gonna come back here for a change. We haven't seen 'em since your siblings stayed at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament."

Molly and Arthur, (Y/N) repeated in her head, adding who she presumed to be Charlie's parents to her mental list. She was surprised to find herself a little disappointed too. She would have liked to meet them.

"Seriously, that cake she made was the best I've ever had," Scott added, patting his stomach. "Plus it's always fun to get the scoop on Charles' childhood."

So his parents were still together and his mom was a great baker, maybe even a housewife since he apparently had so many siblings. From the sound of it, Charlie seemed to have a big, happy family. Of course he did.

"Are your parents gonna visit, (Y/N)?" Scott asked as he refilled his glass of Pumpkin Juice.

An anxious chill scattered across (Y/N)'s neck, traveling all the way down her back and legs. She hoped to God she didn't look as alarmed as she felt, and she shrugged in an attempt to ease some of the tension between her shoulders. "No, my parents and I aren't that close." She kept her tone casual, not wanting anyone to think it was a big deal. "But I'm sure my friends will sometime," she added for good measure. Even though her parents would never come here, Penny, Rowan, Barnaby or Jae might visit her someday.

"Don't you have any siblings that wanna come?" Hank asked, forking the last of his pie into his mouth.

(Y/N) stilled, feeling the color drain from her face. She shouldn't have been surprised. In all honesty, she was more surprised she had managed to make it this long without it coming up. For a split second, she considered lying- it's not like they would know the difference if she said she was an only child. But these guys were her friends, and she didn't want to lie to them.

Swallowing, (Y/N) looked down at her plate and scooped the last of her mashed potatoes onto her spoon. "Unfortunately my brother passed away several years ago."

"Oh shit," Hank said, his blue eyes going wide. "Sorry to hear that."

(Y/N) offered a smile, not wanting anyone to feel uncomfortable. That was always the worst part. "Don't worry about it. It was a long time ago."

Hank wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Were you two close?"

"About as close as your average siblings. We loved each other but did our fair share of arguing," (Y/N) said with a laugh. To her relief, Hank and Scott joined in laughing.

"Chloe and I used to torment each other all the time," Hank began before diving into a story of the best prank he ever pulled on his younger sister. (Y/N) let out a breath, grateful that they hadn't made a big deal of it. She was surprised, however, when she turned and found a certain dragon lover's gaze piercing right through her. Had Charlie been staring at her this whole time? Why was he looking at her like that?

(Y/N) kept her focus on Hank and Scott but could feel the redhead's eyes on her for the remainder of dinner. As Hank got to his feet, (Y/N) quickly followed, feeling oddly vulnerable. She desperately hoped her mentor wasn't about to start treating her differently- or worse, about to start asking questions.

"Anyone up for a game of Gobstones or Wizard Chess?" Scott asked, downing the last of his Pumpkin Juice. When his eyes flicked to (Y/N)'s, she shook her head.

"Sorry, but I'm actually going to fly for a bit before it gets too dark. I'll be up in the west wing if you guys need me."

Hank and Scott waved as (Y/N) went to retrieve one of the brooms from the storage shed by Aro. She made a point to not look at Charlie, not wanting to know if the confusing redhead was still staring at her like that.

As (Y/N) disappeared up the hill, Charlie reflexively glanced toward the west wing, the winding pathway and herds of workers just barely visible in the distance.

"Would you look at that," Hank said, stepping up beside him. "Yet another thing in common. You're running out of excuses, Weasley."

Charlie remained silent. He hated whenever Hank was right.

"That nagging voice in the back of your head asking if you should go talk to her?" Hank continued, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah, you should try listening to that for a change."

-

(Y/N) loved flying, but the real reason she was heading to the west wing was to see the Thestrals. The manufacturing team used them to pull carts and even flew on them occasionally since dragons couldn't see them.

As the creatures' resting spot came into view, (Y/N) lowered her broom handle, dismounting gracefully onto the secluded clearing. The area was easily one of the most beautiful and serene that (Y/N) had found at the Sanctuary so far. The sound of water from the creek greeted her ears, the steady stream leading into a dense forest ahead. Not many dragonologists seemed to approach the Thestrals when they were off duty. Whether it was because her coworkers couldn't see them or because of the bad omen myths about them, (Y/N) wasn't sure, but she was more than grateful for it.

Five Thestrals were there, two laying in the grass while the other three stood idly by, stomping their hooves and flapping their bat-like wings occasionally. (Y/N) didn't hesitate to approach the nearest one, watching closely for any sign of protest before stroking it's long, bony muzzle. The Thestral nuzzled his head against her hand, and that emptiness in (Y/N)'s chest vanished in an instant.

She stayed there for awhile, sitting in the grass and petting the creature, letting her mind wander to the Reserve for the first time since she'd been there.

"There you are."

(Y/N) whipped around, startled from her reverie and even more startled to see Charlie come into view, the matching Nimbus 2008 clutched in his right hand.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, assuming one of the dragons needed help for the redhead to come looking for her. "Norberta's wound didn't break open again, did it?"

"No, she's fine." He set the broom down beside hers and pushed his messy hair back away from his face. "Mind if I sit?"

(Y/N) blinked at him, wondering momentarily if she had fallen asleep and was dreaming- not that she had ever dreamed about dragon boy before. "Uh no, of course not."

He sat beside her, resting his forearms on his knees, and (Y/N) became far too aware of just how close he was. Sure, Charlie usually sat by her at the picnic table now ever since their trip to the pub, but it was a big table with plenty of room between the two. As (Y/N) stared down at the redhead's beat up jeans, she estimated less than seven inches between their legs.

"So why'd you come here?" Charlie asked, reaching forward and running a hand along the Thestral's back. "I could have sworn you'd be up on the landing. Took me awhile to spot you down here."

(Y/N) blinked again, her eyes following his hand before darting up to meet his curious gaze. He could see them. He could see the Thestrals. She bit the inside of her cheek hard, using all of her willpower to stay silent. She wanted to know more than anything, but how do you politely ask someone who they had seen die? You didn't.

"I like visiting the Thestrals," she admitted, glancing back to the creature resting on the ground. "Don't get me wrong, I love dragons, but it's an adjustment only seeing one type of creature everyday." (Y/N) frowned as the image of her Hippogriff returned to her mind. "I, uh, left a lot of creatures back in America."

"Oh. Do you miss home?"

A scoff fell from (Y/N)'s mouth before she could stop it. As far as she was concerned, home was wherever she was working, meaning the Sanctuary was her home now. She looked up at Charlie and wasn't sure why, but something in those big brown eyes made her confide in him. "This is my home now. Closest thing I've got to one anyway."

Unmistakable sadness flashed across Charlie's features. His eyes were fixed on the Thestral, but (Y/N) could tell his mind was elsewhere. "I lost one of my brothers too," he said quietly.

(Y/N)'s attention snapped back to Charlie and guilt swirled around in her stomach as she recalled her earlier assumption. A big, happy family. No wonder Charlie had been staring at her earlier. He may have had a bigger family, but it was broken just like hers.

"Oh." Her mind filled with questions, but (Y/N) knew the first one to ask. "What was his name?"

"Fred." He went quiet for a moment, and (Y/N) understood- she struggled saying her brother's name for an entire year after losing him. "Yours?"

"Jacob." She waited a minute before asking another question, not wanting to overwhelm him. "Was he older or younger?"

"Younger." The redhead rubbed his forehead with his palm before saying, "He and my brother George were twins. I can't even imagine what he's going through."

(Y/N)'s insides twisted, not only at the inconceivable thought of losing a twin, but also at Charlie's choice of words. I can't even imagine what he's going through. How recently had Fred died? "Can I ask what happened?"

Charlie looked down at her, and the sadness in those eyes made (Y/N)'s heart crumple. "Battle of Hogwarts."

(Y/N) sucked in a breath, her jaw dropping slightly. It had only been a little over a year since the battle. She had read about it of course. Even in America, Voldemort's defeat was all people talked about for months. After Grindelwald, Ilvermorny ensured students knew about Harry Potter and the history of one of the darkest wizards of all time for fear of him invading America. But she had never imagined coming so close to it all. Charlie's brother was amongst the fallen who had fought and died for the rest of the wizarding world. She suddenly felt stupid for not putting the pieces together sooner. Charlie had gone to Hogwarts after all. "Did you fight in the battle too?"

The redhead nodded. "My whole family did."

(Y/N)'s gaze flicked back and forth between the Thestral and Charlie. "That's why you can see them," she whispered, reaching a hand out to stroke the creature's muzzle again. "Did you see him- I mean did you see Fred-" (Y/N)'s voice cracked and she looked away, blinking away the tears gathering in her eyes. She hoped he knew what she meant because she didn't think she could get the words out.

"No," he said, and a wave of relief washed through her. "I saw a lot of people die that day, but not my brother. I came in halfway through. I didn't even know he had died until it was all over."

(Y/N) fell silent, unsure of what to say, before deciding to take a risk. She placed her hand on top of his forearm and squeezed, letting her thumb brush comfortingly across his smooth, freckled skin. "I'm really sorry. It's one of the worst feelings in the world and I know nothing I say will make it any better."

Charlie attempted a smile. "You sure? Because talking to you has made it a little better."

It was possibly the worst thing he could have said to her. Butterflies gathered in her stomach and she pulled her hand back, feeling stupider than ever as a smile tried to reach her lips. This conversation was definitely not helping her put an end to the idiotic crush she had begun developing for the redhead.

To make matters even worse, Charlie nudged the side of her knee with his own, causing a cluster of goosebumps to break out down her leg. "Your turn," he said, nodding towards the Thestral.

(Y/N) knew what he meant, but the answer approached dangerous territory. She didn't want to tell him anything, but how could she not after Charlie had finally opened up to her? She just wouldn't tell him the full story.

"My brother was a Curse-Breaker," (Y/N) started, continuing to pet the Thestral. "He went missing while he was at Ilvermorny, and I started looking for him once I got there. It took me awhile to find him, but I eventually did." (Y/N) let out a breath, trying her best to keep the flashbacks from her mind. "But he wasn't the same. He was obsessed with these Cursed Vaults around Ilvermorny and the last one killed him."

Charlie's forehead creased with worry. "You saw him die?"

(Y/N) nodded. "I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. By the time I caught up with him-" (Y/N) broke off and cleared her throat. "Let's just say I wish I hadn't." The sound of thunder began pounding in her ears, and she shut her eyes, giving her head a slight shake as she forced the miserable memory away.

"Life really isn't fair sometimes," he muttered.

"No. But I still think everything happens for a reason."

"Yeah?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

Charlie let out a sigh, and he was quiet for another moment before whispering, "Does it ever get any easier?"

She looked up at him, wanting him to see the honesty in her eyes as she nodded. "Yeah, it does."

"Good. I'm sorry about your brother, and I'm sorry you had to leave all those creatures behind. I couldn't imagine leaving these dragons."

(Y/N) smiled. "You guys make it a little easier."

That brought a smile to the redhead's face, one of his genuine ones that lit up his eyes and tugged on (Y/N)'s heart. "What creature do you miss the most?"

(Y/N) frowned. "My Hippogriff Sirius. I'd never admit it to the other creatures, but Hippogriffs have always been one of my favorites."

"Sirius?"

She internally cursed herself for mentioning the Hippogriff's name. "Uh, after Sirius Black. I was a bit obsessed with him when his whole story came out. Couldn't imagine being in Azkaban for twelve years as an innocent wizard."

Charlie laughed. "I'm technically related to him."

(Y/N) blinked at him, completely astounded. "What?"

"My dad's mom was a Black."

"Oh," (Y/N) muttered, feeling suddenly embarrassed for some reason. "Small world."

"Yeah, I never got to meet him, but my siblings did because of the Order of the Phoenix and since he was Harry's godfather."

"You mean Harry Potter?" (Y/N) asked rhetorically. She knew that's who he meant because it had been all over the papers how tragic it was that Sirius never got a chance to be the father figure that Harry Potter deserved, but she couldn't resist a laugh. "You talk about him like you're friends."

Charlie seemed the least bit fazed by this. "Well, he is my brother Ron's best friend and has been dating my sister for over two years."

"What?" (Y/N) gaped at him, completely dumbfounded. "You mean the Harry Potter might be your brother-in-law one day and I'm just now hearing about it?"

Charlie laughed. "Sorry, I'm so used to him hanging around my family I forget how some wizards see him."

(Y/N) wanted to understand where he was coming from but just couldn't. It was Harry Freaking Potter they were talking about. That would be like saying meeting Newt Scamander was no big deal. She shook her head, still bewildered. "You're insane."

The pair sat there for a little longer as the sun began to set. When Charlie remained quiet, (Y/N) gave into the question that had been nagging at her since he had told her about Fred. "So does this mean we're friends now? Because to be honest, I feel like I've been getting mixed signals for the past two months."

"Sorry about that," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hank's been telling me for weeks I need to get over it, but ever since Fred died it's been hard to let people in."

"A lot of people don't understand," (Y/N) said empathetically. "Nobody, not even my friends, knew how to act around me after my brother died."

"Yeah," Charlie agreed, a sad smile reaching his lips. "It's nice to finally have someone who gets it. And yeah, I'd say we're friends now."

(Y/N) smiled, feeling jitters dance around her stomach. She paused for a moment before peering up at him. "Well then as your friend, can I ask you a personal question?"

Charlie's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What?"

"So I know you love dragons and all, but you're not like into them, are you?" She bit back laughter at the look on the redhead's face.

He shook his head, laughing a bit too. "Funny. Real funny. Did Hank tell you to ask me that?"

"No…" She bit her lip, unsure how truthful she should be. "A certain blonde may have accused you of being more attracted to dragons than women."

The redhead rolled his eyes but didn't seem the least bit offended. "I swear my dating life- or lack thereof- has been of more interest to people around here than I would have ever imagined."

(Y/N) laughed, and luckily stopped herself from saying, "Can you blame them?" The last thing she was going to do was to admit to Charlie just how good looking and talented he was. "You don't have to talk about it. It's really nobody's business."

Charlie shrugged. "There's just not much to tell. I was pretty much consumed by dragons at Hogwarts. I didn't even have a crush on anyone until my last year."

That wasn't weird. People were allowed to be picky or have other priorities. "Did you two end up dating?"

"Yeah. But it was pretty stupid because I knew I was going to Romania and she was staying close to home."

"Ah."

"So then I came here and was primarily focused on work. And it's not like there was an abundance of options around."

(Y/N) nodded slowly, arguing internally on whether or not to ask the next thought that popped into her head. After a moment, she decided to go for it. "And what about Sydney?"

Charlie shrugged again. "She's nice, I just never felt comfortable around her. She didn't really understand the whole dragon obsession. This is just a job for her. Probably why she made that comment."

(Y/N) wanted to ask if he felt comfortable around her but realized how it would sound in that context. The last thing she wanted was for Charlie to think she was flirting with him. She was not about to ruin their new friendship. "Well, she doesn't know what she's missing. This has easily been the best job I've ever had."

"How many have you had?" Charlie said with a laugh, sounding surprised. "I thought you were a Magizoologist before this?"

(Y/N)'s smile faltered. "I was, but only for the last two years. I, uh, moved around a lot after my brother died. Had quite a few different jobs after graduation."

"Like what?"

"Healer, Potioneer, Wandmaker, and a couple others," (Y/N) muttered with a shrug.

"But you graduated the same year I did. Did you really have a new job every year?"

(Y/N) felt nervous being put on the spot. "No, I told you I spent two years at the Reserve." She elbowed him playfully in attempt to lighten the mood, but he frowned.

"So the longest you've ever stayed somewhere is two years? Does that mean…" Charlie didn't finish the sentence but he didn't have to.

Stomach acid churned in (Y/N)'s belly at the thought of leaving the Sanctuary. "I don't know to be honest. Like I said, this is the best job I've ever had, so you might have a harder time getting rid of me."

This seemed to reassure the redhead. He smiled at her, and (Y/N) knew she was doomed because all she could think about was that it seemed like Charlie didn't want her to leave, and that thought made her way happier than it should have.

Eyeing the darkening sky, Charlie said, "Race you back to the village?" Before she even responded, he was standing up and picking up his broom.

"Hey, you cheater!" (Y/N) called as the redhead kicked off the ground just as she reached her broom. She darted up after him, heading back home, and couldn't help but think that this was going to be the start of one of the best friendships she would ever have.

-

October and November came and went even faster than the previous months, and (Y/N) couldn't believe how much fun she was having with team. She felt entirely comfortable around all of them now and hung out with Charlie all the time. She was sure, however, to set specific boundaries for herself, not wanting her ridiculous crush to get out of hand. She was hoping it would disappear altogether soon enough and there would be nothing to worry about.

When the first snowfall of the season came one December morning, (Y/N) couldn't wait to visit the dragons and see just how glorious the Sanctuary's scenery looked.

"Hurry up," she groaned as Scott and Hank took longer than usual to get going. Charlie, on the other hand, didn’t disappoint and seemed as ready as he always was. He was definitely a morning person.

"I thought we agreed to start later in the winter," Scott grumbled mid yawn, pulling a hat onto his head and rubbing his hands over the sleeves of his coat. "It's bloody freezing out here."

"The sooner we start, the sooner we get hot cocoa," Hank pointed out even though he too looked less enthused about working.

They started with Gertie and Aro first, feeding them and making sure they had enough areas to stay warm. Most dragons could handle the severe weather due to their love of mountainous regions, but they weren't entirely immune to illness and overall irritation from the drastic change. Certain breeds in particular seemed to handle the frigid climate better than others, and that became clear as they approached Odie, the Antipodean Opaleye.

"Boy he's cranky," Hank said after dodging a second blast of fire from the agitated beast. Odie was refusing to let anyone feed him or even step within 50 feet of him.

Charlie laughed as he guided the raw sheep meat back onto the ground several yards away from Odie. "You probably would be too if you were from Australia."

"True." Hank stepped away from the rock he had hid behind, his eyes never leaving Odie in case another burst of flames came his way.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," (Y/N) began, eyeing the purple patch covering the dragon's right ear, "but I think it's more than him just not liking the weather. I think he's developed frostbite from it."

"Shit," Scott grunted as his gaze followed (Y/N)'s. "I told you guys we should have made them wait until Spring to ship him here."

Hank slid his wand back into his pocket and turned to Charlie. "Guess I should go nag the research team to help us stun him. Should I get Logan or Felix to heal it?"

Charlie looked from Odie's ear to (Y/N). "Can you do it?"

(Y/N) craned her neck to see the full span of the injury. "If I can somehow get within five or so feet of him then yeah."

"Five feet?" Hank pointed out, quirking an eyebrow.

(Y/N) groaned in exasperation. They loved mocking her American ways. "One and a half meters, whatever. I think you should use the freezing charm instead though."

"Are you mad?" Scott spat.

"If we stun him we risk him not eating for another hour. Dehydration and starvation will only make the frostbite and his attitude worse."

"Can't we use the body-bind curse instead?" Scott asked. "I'd feel far better about you getting so close if he was more restrained."

"And traumatize him while he's hurting?" (Y/N) asked, flinching at the idea.

Scott turned to Hank, clearly looking for backup, but the forty-three year old shrugged and started toward the pathway. "It's your funeral, darlin'."

Five minutes later, Hank came back with Logan and Dave to help with the charm. "Six of us should do it, don'tcha think?"

The rest of them nodded. Half a dozen were usually plenty to subdue a more timid breed like Odie.

"You sure you want to do this?" Charlie asked, handing (Y/N) his gloves. "It's not exactly the safest task in the world."

She smiled at him, sliding the brown material over her hands. "If I wanted safe, I hardly would have picked this career."

He chuckled, seemingly satisfied with her answer. "I've got your back."

(Y/N) hated when Charlie made comments like that. They were crossing far too many of her boundaries and made her insides tingle in a way she wished it wouldn't. Still, she put on another smile and withdrew her wand. "You better."

The six of them lined up and waited for Odie to lay down. As soon as he was comfortably resting on the snow-covered ground ahead, they all shouted, "Immobulus!"

(Y/N) darted forward, unsure of exactly how much time she had, and moved to the dragon's right side, staying as far away from his mouth as possible. With a complicated wave of her wand, she used the hot-air charm first, letting a gentle mist of steam warm the affliction. As soon as the proper pearl color returned to Odie's ear, she performed two healing charms on the injured ear and one charm on the opposing ear to prevent it from facing the same fate later.

"Hurry up," Scott warned. "Or we'll have to do it again."

"No, I'm good," (Y/N) said, catching sight of the slightest movement of the dragon's arms. Just as she stepped back, Odie unfroze completely, standing up and flapping his wings. (Y/N) was almost out of the danger zone until his giant white tail flicked once behind him, hitting her thighs and sending her falling backwards. She winced as her back hit the ground, knocking the wind out of her momentarily and shooting her wand into the air. Luckily, the snow helped ease her fall and she recovered quickly, automatically reaching her hand out and saying, "Accio wand."

Big mistake. Odie's gaze hungrily followed the wand as it flew through the air, clearly mistaking it for potential food. As the wand landed in its owner's hand, Odie's eyes darkened, just now spotting (Y/N) and how close she was.

Knowing no one would be able to subdue or distract him in time, (Y/N) moved faster than she had ever moved before, scrambling behind the only boulder in sight as the Antipodean Opaleye sent a rush of flames her way. She overheard the men in the background attempting to extinguish the blast, but they could only manage to lessen the blow. She ducked as close to the snow as humanly possible, but she was so worried about her head, she forgot to move the hand resting against the rock. Pain seared the back of her left hand as the flames reached the glove, and she jerked it away, tucking her whole body behind the boulder. When she heard Scott and Hank taming Odie, she relaxed, sitting up and yanking off the glove to examine the reddened, already blistering skin. Their gloves protected them as much as possible but could only do so much against such direct contact with fire.

A familiar head of red hair came into view as Charlie crouched down beside her. "You okay?"

"Almost," she said before letting out a sigh of relief as she rested the back of her hand into the snow. She couldn't help but laugh a little, still feeling jolts of adrenaline course through her body. "Would you think I'm utterly insane if I said I'm even a little excited about my first potential scar here?"

A grin spread across Charlie's freckled face. "Not one bit." He stood back up and extended a hand to her. "Come on, let's get that cleaned up."

(Y/N)'s hand started feeling better after burn-healing paste was applied. She continued working for the rest of the day while Hank and Scott profusely commended her readiness and ability to stay calm.

"I could have sworn you were gonna lose your eyebrows like Scott did his first year," Hank had said, ruffling Scott's hair while Scott jerked away.

"It was only one eyebrow and that only happened one time."

The team retired early and (Y/N) was in her kitchen, enjoying a cup of tea and trying to ignore the occasional twinge in her hand, when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in," she called, and she was instantly annoyed by the flip in her stomach as Charlie's silhouette came into view. He was wearing a knitted crimson sweater she had never seen before with a dragon embroidered in the middle. None of them wore nice clothes much since they were usually out on the field, and she tried to avert her eyes, not wanting to admit to herself how well it suited him.

"Figured you could probably use some more of this," he said, closing the door behind him and setting a fresh bottle of the burn-healing paste onto the table.

"Thanks," she said, smiling up at him. "Want a cup of tea?" His eyes glanced uncertainly to the auburn liquid steaming in her teacup and she laughed. "Relax, I have milk and sugar if you want it."

He smiled. "Sure then."

"You Brits are weird," she muttered, moving toward the kettle as Charlie took a seat on the wooden loveseat off to the left and let his eyes wander around her place. The pair had hung out a lot, but not so much in each others' houses, and (Y/N) suddenly felt nervous.

She poured a second cup of tea and grabbed the burn-healing paste from the table before joining Charlie in the section of the room that would be considered the living room. She did, however, decide to sit in the chair adjacent to the loveseat. Boundaries.

"Thanks," he said, accepting the mug from her and leaning back into the cushioned seat. "You did really great today."

"All in a day's work," she said casually, feigning boastfulness with a shrug of her shoulders.

He laughed and set the teacup down on the coffee table in front of them. "You gonna put more of that on or am I going to have to do it for you?" he asked, indicating the bottle next to his mug.

Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries, (Y/N) repeated over and over in her head. As much as she hated to admit it, the tiniest part of her understood what Sydney had meant. Charlie was a little clueless when it came to how words and actions could be interpreted. "Okay, mom."

"I just know how much it hurts going on at first."

He wasn't wrong. It stung like a bitch the first time she applied it after the incident, but she wasn't about to admit that. She had a relatively high pain tolerance and was a little too prideful when it came to her resilience. "It's not that bad."

"Oh really?" He picked up the bottle and offered it to her. "Go ahead then."

She stared at it, trying to convince herself that it was like ripping off a bandage, but in the end she didn't want to do it.

Charlie grinned. "That's what I thought." He opened the bottle and poured some of the potion onto his palm.

"What are you doing?"

The redhead moved in front of her, sitting on the edge of the coffee table before reaching for her hand. "Doing it for you. We need your hand better before Monday."

The word BOUNDARIES blared in (Y/N)'s head like a siren, complete with flashing red lights, bells and whistles. She pulled her arm away, attempting a laugh. "I can do it myself," she insisted, trying to snatch the bottle away from him.

This didn't seem to deter him in the slightest. He just stared at her, a half smile on his lips. "And people say I'm stubborn."

She kept her eyes locked on his, refusing to be the first to break eye contact.

"Technically it's only fair,” he added, “considering I let you help me.”

Shit. That son of a bitch cornered her. She glowered at Charlie, feeling defeated as she pulled her sleeve up and extended her left arm.

"Was that so hard?" he asked right as he brushed the potion across the back of her hand, making (Y/N) wince as the orange paste fought to heal her burned flesh. The pain lasted no longer than a minute though and was soon replaced by jolts of electricity at Charlie's touch.

It was less than five minutes before Charlie screwed the cap on the potion and set it back onto the table, but (Y/N) was more concerned with the fact that he didn't return to the couch. Instead, he pointed to the scar along her forearm. "I've wondered how you got that for awhile now."

"Oh, I had to fight off a Chimera once. He got a good slash in but don't worry, I won." Her gaze instinctively flicked to his eyebrow. Her rules were screaming at her to resist the urge, but he had touched her hand first. It was only fair. She reached up, briefly brushing the pad of her thumb across the small scar that separated his left brow. "Your turn."

The redhead cracked a smile, raising his own hand up to touch the scar. "Why does everyone have to ask about this one? It's actually the least exciting of them all."

"Try me."

"Okay… my brother Bill and I wanted to try and play Quidditch once when we were little. He started teasing me, saying there was no way I could ride an adult broom, so I took it from him. Needless to say I fell, but I actually would say I did fairly well considering I was only five."

(Y/N) laughed, unable to ignore how cute a stubborn five year old Charlie had to have been. "No fair. I can't believe you got to ride on a broom that young. My mom would have had my head."

Charlie laughed. "I never said I didn't get in trouble for it."

The pair talked for a little while longer before (Y/N) said, "I like your sweater by the way."

Charlie arched a brow, following her gaze and pinching the knitted material between his fingertips. "You mean jumper?"

"Ugh, whatever." (Y/N) let her head fall back against the chair and Charlie chuckled. At least it wasn't as bad as finding out Brits thought you were talking about underwear when you said pants. (Y/N) had reiterated the word trousers until it stuck in her mind for good. “Where’d you get it?”

The redhead looked a little embarrassed. "Uh, my mum made it."

That was probably the cutest thing (Y/N) had ever heard in her life and she didn’t know which was worse- the fact that Mrs. Weasley was perfect enough to knit her children sweaters or the fact that Charlie was the type of son who actually wore them. "When are you leaving to go see them?"

"Probably a few days before Christmas. I usually stay for about a week."

(Y/N) hoped her disappointment didn't show on her face. She knew Hank and Scott were going to be there, but she was going to miss Charlie.

"Are any of your friends coming to visit you?"

(Y/N) frowned. "Not until early next year. A lot of them are stuck at work or visiting their own families."

Charlie nodded and looked like he had something else he wanted to say.

"What?"

He peered up at her, and if (Y/N) wasn't mistaken, a subtle tinge of pink highlighted his freckled face. "You could come to the Burrow with me if you want."

(Y/N)'s heart stopped. As her mind caught up with his offer, she waved a hand at him. "Oh no, that's okay. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine here."

Much to her dismay, however, Charlie didn't let it go like she thought he would. "It really wouldn't be a big deal. There's already nearly a dozen of us so there's always plenty of food. And to be honest, Christmas is a bit dismal here at the Sanctuary."

(Y/N) had no doubt that Christmas would be disappointing here, but this was exactly the sort of cluelessness she had been referring to. Charlie was just being a nice friend, she told herself, refusing to let the offer go to her head. But why was he asking her and not Hank or Scott?

No. She was overthinking it. Maybe he had asked Hank and he had said no because Chloe was visiting. And she already knew Scott said he would hang back to help Hank with the dragons. Maybe he asked the team every year and it was no big deal.

"Uh, I don't know… I'm not sure I could handle meeting Harry Potter. I'd probably embarrass the hell out of myself."

Charlie laughed. "If either of us stands to be embarrassed it would be me. My siblings live to humiliate one another."

(Y/N) fell silent, trying to ignore just how much she would love a chance to meet his family.

"Are you really going to say no to me two days before my birthday?"

"Hey, that's not fair," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I think it is. Think of it as a birthday present."

Why was he being so persistent? This was crossing dozens of boundaries. The last thing she needed to do was fall in love with his family. "What if I already got you a present?"

Charlie's eyes narrowed. "I told you guys not to."

"No, you told us not to buy anything," she corrected before standing up and walking over to her dresser. She opened the bottom drawer, withdrawing a neatly folded sweater before returning to Charlie. "My team gave me this after the Bludger I hit stopped the other team's Seeker and won us the House Cup." She held up the striped blue sweater, showing off the Snitch darting around the center of it. "I never wore it much because let's face it, two Bludgers moving around on it would have been much cooler, but I thought you might like it. I was going to turn it red for Gryffindor and use the enlargement charm on it."

Charlie stared at her, smiling one of those damn smiles- the ones she had become strongly opposed to because of the way they made her feel. "Can I see it on?"

(Y/N)'s eyebrows narrowed inquisitively, but for some reason she obliged, tugging the sweater on over her long sleeve shirt. "Well?"

"I have one word for you," Charlie said, his appreciative smile replaced by an alarmingly playful expression. "Run."

(Y/N)'s eyes grew wide and she darted toward the front door, swinging it open just as the redhead started after her.

After managing to somehow not kill herself on the slushy porch steps, (Y/N) ran toward the west wing, knowing the exact path to take to avoid any dragons. "You're insane," she called as she heard the redhead’s footsteps behind her, but she couldn't restrain a giggle. Pushing past a tall patch of brush, (Y/N) made her way toward the manufacturing team, passing by crates full of dragon-hide gloves and boxes of dragon heartstrings. She tried to slow him down by knocking a couple empty boxes back toward him, but Charlie easily sidestepped them.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that," he said, laughing as he gained in on her.

(Y/N) was panting hard by now, not used to breathing the cold air into her lungs. She kept running though, set on where she was headed, but her plan came to a screeching halt as the path she was intending to follow was covered with a pile of shoveled snow.

Before she could start running again, Charlie caught up with her, and just as she had anticipated, he tackled her onto the powdery mound of snow.

Neither could stop laughing as they landed in the pile, which was nearly deep enough to consume them both. It wasn't until (Y/N) had wiped the snow from her face and opened her eyes that her laughter died out.

"Gotcha," Charlie said, grinning down at her. He was bracing himself on his forearms to prevent from crushing her, and his face was so close- less than five inches from her own, making her go slightly dizzy. She dropped her head back into the snow, letting her eyelids flutter shut as she tried to steady her racing heartbeat- which was only racing because of all the running.

"Fine, you win," she said, and (Y/N) was more than relieved to feel the twenty-six year old collapse onto the ground next to her. She chanced a glance at him, but it wasn't much better. She still felt every urge to kiss him. "I'll go with you."

The redhead grinned at her, still panting slightly from the running. "Good. I prefer the jumper on you anyways."

(Y/N) knew Charlie just enjoyed messing with her and showing off his Seeker abilities, but that didn't stop her from wishing he meant something else by that.

Yep. She was completely and utterly doomed.

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised Thoughts on Cindered Shadows:

Spoilers! All the spoilers!

Yeah it took me a week to finish it, as always, I’ve been busy

It’s possible that someone will remember that I’ve made a few of these, and that I said I’d be doing Crimson Flower next, but haven’t. I have finished that route. I wrote something up. It ended up being over 8000 words long. I decided no one would want to read 8000 words of me complaining about fantasy politics, and did not post it

If anyone is interested in knowing in detail what I think about any or all of the following: Edelgard (short version: good in concept, but severely let down by the writing), Fodlan’s politics (surprisingly complex! Which is why the main characters’ having such simple and naive politics is so frustrating!), Rhea and the church (she creeps me out), general opinions on minor things (most controversial: I actually like F!Byleth’s outfit) or various shipping opinions/headcanons (I like pretty much any pairing except Dimitri/Anyone, and Linhardt and Caspar with anybody but each other), give me a shout and let me know. I won’t be holding my breath, but like... if you want me to ramble I wouldn’t say no

Anyway! Cindered Shadows!

New characters ranked by how much I like them as characters, most to least: Yuri, Hapi, Constance, Balthus 

Reasoning: I love pretty boys because I am, emotionally, still 12, stoic-type girls are also great and I love her design, she annoyed me a little at first but I thought the sunlight thing was interesting and she eventually grew on me, and I don’t dislike him at all, he’s just the least interesting to me

New characters ranked by how much I like them as units: Balthus, Yuri, Constance, Hapi (ugh, I really like her but she was total deadweight for me)

I’ve always really, really loved the concept of both underground cities and groups of people who have nothing in common aside from being outsiders, bound together by that one shared trait - so I. Love. Abyss. I wish the whole game was set there, it’s so cool

Some really good maps! Actually, let’s review each level:

1: Good intro to the Wolves. Aside from the ‘secret fourth house’ line, which is bad and makes what is otherwise a great concept sound really dumb. But the map itself makes for a very good demonstration of each of the Wolves’s deals. Bit messed up that you kill a bunch of Abyssians and no one really addresses that again, though

2: Even the game comments on the fact that releasing four waves of enemies in a circle gets tiresome. Least favourite

3: Wish the game had been a little clearer of the exact requirements for finishing the map. Also, enough reinforcements to almost be too annoying, but it managed to just avoid that, for me at least

4: This fucking level. I love an escape map in concept, but that goddamn doll at the start. I don’t know how I would have beat it if I hadn’t realised Edelgard can be reclassed out of her armor for better movement (speaking of deadweight units... was the same on Crimson Flower, Lord ranking in terms of actual usefulness in battle is Claude > Dimitri >>> Edelgard, and I say this as someone who normally loves defense-based units in video games). Anyway, despite the fact that it took me like six tries, this was my favourite of the lot - partly because it was so satisfying to finally beat, and partly because, like I say, I just love the concept

5: Breather level, thankfully. Cool to see Metodey again. But... why is he there??? I made Edelgard kill defeat him

6: Starts out really hard and gets easier. Biggest problem for me was the Bolting mages. I found that the trick was to use Ashe’s battalion gambit on Byleth and counter from afar with the Sword of the Creator. Map’s a cinche after they’re gone

7: A really, really cool final boss fight, and really great to just get to fight a big monster without having to slog through hundreds of other enemies as well (two per turn is fine, gives characters like Ashe who are too weak to fight the boss something to do). And there’s no way I could find to cheap it like on Crimson Flower (something I had to do then because of Cyril and his goddamn Murder Axe). Only wish it wasn’t the case that half of the Wolves can basically never touch the boss without being insta-killed. Hapi and Constance should have been able to do more than Phantom Aelfric Clean-Up

It was really nice getting to have all the Lords work together. I had Edelgard and Dimitri do a Gambit Boost and it was weirdly emotional

Am upset that no supports were available. Primarily because this would have been a great opportunity to add some side-story exclusive supports between the Lords. I get why they couldn’t do that in the main game, but I think the lack of any connection between them (besides the mostly one-sided Dimitri->Edelgard) is one of the game’s biggest downfalls, and this could have at least compensated a little

At least we got a few conversations in Abyss

Oh I wonder who the traitor could be, who is it, of the five characters we’ve met it couldn’t possibly be the really generic looking old guy who wasn’t in the trailer oh my god I’m so shocked it WAS him this is an unprecedented twist the likes of which we will never be graced with again

Liked getting some back story and an actual name for Byleth’s mother

I want to know how ‘Noa Fruit’ became a thing. Linhardt alludes to it, but I want that lore. Give me the Fruit Lore, Intsys

Also give me Mysterious Woman lore

I’ve said this before, but Gatekeeper x Abysskeeper OTP

Why can’t Yuri and Linhardt support I want them to bond over being smart bisexual pretty boys with grappler best friends (I have a very long mental list of characters who should have had supports together but don’t) 

Yuri’s make-up is gorgeous. Love that design choice

The ‘Nabatean Chalice’ reminded me - I’ve kind of always wondered if Nabatea is meant to be a call back to Nabata from the Elibe games, or if it’s just coincidence that they sound similar

Will we ever find out anything about the Crest of Ernest or nah? (Fiver says if ever, it’ll be randomly explained in a Forging Bonds in FEH like three years from now. Wouldn’t put it past them) 

So Byleth’s nickname was the ‘Ashen Demon’. And these guys are the ‘Ashen Wolves’. I kind of figured that would come up? Was it a translation thing?

I love how the reasons for each of the Wolves being in Abyss were “I barely escaped execution by the Church for the crime of murder”, “I was experimented on and now have dangerous magical powers”, “I’m the last surviving member of a collapsed noble family” and “I’m in like, so much debt, lol”. Kind of makes me wonder if Leonie ends up down there in some of her endings

Although I hear that there’s actually a little more to Balthus, as revealed by supports. I haven’t seen all of them yet, the only one I’ve looked up was Dimitri and Hapi because those two interacting intrigued me and... I know what I said above, but this might actually be a Dimitri pairing I don’t dislike? What is this???

I’ll watch the rest at some point, but won’t be starting a new 3H playthrough. Rune Factory 4 Special finally comes out next week and the moment my pre-ordered Archival Edition shows up at my door, it’ll be Fire Emblem who? The only dragon I know is Ventuswill, and the only empire I’m worried about is the unfortunately named ‘Sechs Empire’

Although, the fact that Kiel and Caspar have the exact same voice might end up being... hmmm

Eh, I got over Doug and Yosuke Hanamura. It’ll be fine :)

[interesting-blog-name]

SLIGHTLY NEW ALBUMS I LIKED (Little Simz - GREY Area; Monsune - Tradition; Backxwash - God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It)

More loose reviews that I write and instantly want to get out of my Word document and into Tumblr without much of an overlaying theme between the albums or any planning as to which ones I’ll be releasing at which point, but it is what it is. This time I’ll be compiling some recent-ish albums I’ve enjoyed, two of which I’ve come to know from TheNeedleDrop (I try not to watch reviews before writing down my opinion btw), and one EP from an artist I like. Here it is.

Little Simz – GREY Area

Little Simz, the 26-year-old British rapper, is an artist I’ve loved the first time I heard her, when I listened to Selfish for the first time and saw her cover of Feel Good Inc. in triple-j’s Like A Version. Today, May 30th, I was planning on listening to White Chalk by PJ Harvey, but from what I read, it’s a pretty depressing album, and I’m not in the mood for that right now, so I picked GREY Area from my future listening list.

It’s really nice to hear a rap album like this once in a while. The instrumentation is organic and well thought out, her flow is amazing, and her lyrics have so much substance and personality to them, ranging from the happier, more reminiscent tone in 101 FM to the much more aggressive tracks Offence, Boss, Venom and Pressure, she’s always giving her take on life, telling the experience of what it’s like being a black person with big dreams in England, seeing friends die while she tries to go somewhere in life through music.

The main tone she picks for her self-narrative is an unapologetic view of the world around her; she tells the listener: “’til now I ain’t ever been the selfish type, ‘till now I ain’t ever told nobody no, don’t get it twisted. This shit ain’t happen overnight” in the biggest song off here, Selfish, featuring the most calming and lavish pianos and violins in this album, and an amazing feature by Cleo Sol on the hook. Pressure features an amazing batch of verses all about. Same thing with the intro, Offence, with its bold, empowering chorus; although the track comes off more playful with its cartoonish sound effects nearing the end than the raw message of the track mentioned previously. A great, high-spirited track to start off the album.

What isn’t as high-spirited is the next track, Boss, or, to be fair, almost all the other tracks in the album. Boss is a big fuck you to anyone you might dedicate the song to: the hook has Simz’s most aggressive delivery in the whole record, and the entire message is about getting over those who hurt you and coming up.  The second verse is something else.

Wounds, featuring Jamaican singer Chronixx, deals mostly with the gun/crime problem ever-so-present in marginalized communities all around the world, and she tells the story from the perspective of both herself and as a companion of the “gun man”, repeatedly mentioned in the song (“When a gun man only knows self-hate, them bullets show no love”). I’m not super crazy for Chronixx’s hook, or the much slower tempo of the track, but it fits well with the groovy instrumental. Venom, on the other hand, is a super exciting, menacing song. She goes all out over the violins playing in the background, but unfortunately, the track burns twice as bright to last half as long.

To lighten the mood a bit, 101 FM brings the most electronic instrumental, with cheerful, banging 808s and synths, and lyrics about her come up as a rapper, probably the verses where her British accent and slang dominate the most, giving them a more personal feel somewhat. Pressure doesn’t feature the most compelling instrumental or hooks in here – the Little Dragon refrain is mixed very poorly and the vocalist just doesn’t do a great job -, but the verses compensate for that, especially the first one, probably one of the most heartfelt and important ones in this album. Therapy talks about Simz’s struggles with finding comfort in therapy. The instrumental is average for the project, but still slaps, so that’s nice.

Sherbet Sunset is an ode to a broken relationship, and a theme that could be handled so poorly by other artists is handled masterfully by Little Simz. In three verses, she displays so many sides to what I assume is one relationship, so many emotions and thoughts that she shares, it really feels like she’s transcribing something of a focused, bright mind rush over the track, and it amazes me how she can reveal her feelings so well on a track like this, progressing from the regret of not seeing how it’d go wrong, to the anxiety that comes from spending all that time for seemingly nothing, to coming to terms with it in the last verse (although not quite). It’s a stunning song now that I listen to it again.

To close it all off, we have Flowers, mainly a tribute to various artists from the 27 club, with mentions of Jimi Hendrix and Amy Winehouse in the verses, trying to relate to their struggles with drug addiction and quick fame. It’s incredibly powerful and a great finisher.

I don’t dislike one track in GREY Area. It’s well conceived, a great statement, it really feels like she gives her all to make every track memorable, and even though her delivery is mostly monotone throughout the whole album, that also works to her favor, as she has a very unique and recognizable voice. So the lyrics are extremely well written, and the only reason I don’t give more examples of that is because I got a whole lot of school shit to do, the instrumental work is clean and precise, and I don’t have a whole lot to complain about. Check this shit out if you haven’t.

 FAVORITE TRACKS: 101 FM, Venom, Selfish, Offence, Boss, Pressure

LEAST FAVORITE TRACK: lol nah

 8.7/10

“Why you wanna all dress lies as truth? Have you ever seen what silence do? I don’t wanna see no violent troops putting out fires that haven’t been started”

 Monsune – Tradition

Damn I did not expect to like this as much as I did.

Monsune is a Chinese-Canadian singer who has recently been gaining some popularity from his amazing song OUTTA MY MIND, which features a funky bassline and high-pitched guitar playing that some have compared to Childish Gambino, specifically his album “Awaken, My Love!”. I decided to check out this short EP by him to see if he had anything more to offer, and it’s safe to say, he does.

The first track off Tradition already shows what this guy can do with his production. It starts off with the same vibe off of his previously mentioned biggest track, but on steroids: a prominent bassline, pitch-altered backing vocals, sunny guitars, and drowned out drums. His voice is also reaching higher notes in this song than in OUTTA MY MIND, but then in the middle of the song it all slows down for a very welcome beat change that shifts the song from this summer anthem to a very chill R&B tune. It’s amazing stuff, although I don’t understand why he chose to put some very noticeable autotune in this part.

CLOUD is my least favorite from the EP, but it’s still a very solid song, it’s just not amazing. The bass is still very strong, and the bridge later on in the song is addictive as shit. After that track comes OUTTA MY MIND, and then his style completely switches in MOUNTAIN, which starts off with some solo guitar and his low, beautiful singing. It’s actually really moving for some reason lol. It then picks up in the hook, the drums kick in along with what I assume is a keyboard, and his voice reaches the top of his range for the backing vocals, it’s a very well-made song.

JADE finishes Tradition off extremely beautifully, with a smooth acoustic guitar intro over a nice-ass bass, some ethereal, trippy scenes of Monsune floating over the ocean and appearing out of thin air in front of you (probably not you, the listener). And then all of a sudden this madman screams off the top of his lungs in the middle of the track and I fucking love it.

The flaws this EP has are mostly related to the mixing, which I think can be a little too harsh in some sections such as the big breakdowns in JADE and MOUNTAIN. Plus, I know lyrics aren’t a focus on a project like this, but it would be nice to get something more than love songs in the future perhaps. Still, loving this EP, so glad I checked Monsune out. You should too.

 WORST TO BEST: CLOUDS, 1998, JADE, OUTTA MY MIND, MOUNTAIN

 8/10

“Don’t you wanna come down? Cause I’m so bored of walking on the same old sky”

 Backxwash – God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It

God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It is an album by American rapper Backxwash, who received a new wave of attention after Anthony Fantano reviewed this album in his channel and gave it a decent 8. I haven’t watched the review yet, but I was interested in checking it out because of the high score, and especially since when I looked it up on Spotify, the songs only had around 8000 views.

Dark subject themes and the whole dark trap aesthetic are the core of this album. I, personally, have always been a fan of aggressive, heavy rap music, from more underground names like gizmo and Fukkit, to the more mainstream variant of these sounds, like XXXTENTACION. This album, however, operates in somewhat of a separate lane.

Many of the dark, edgy rap I used to listen to religiously back in the day was borderline mindless. Shit about ripping someone open, hollow flexing, except separated from mainstream rap only because the rapper in question is screaming their brains out when talking about designer clothes, instead of mumbling like your average Lil Baby, and, of course, personal problems, depression, being mad about whatever it was. Unlike its other contemporaries, however, it seems Backxwash has much more thought and elaboration into what she wants to yell about. Instead of hiding behind bass-boosted rather formulaic instrumentals, she takes the more scenic route, with still very dark, but more intricate gothic beats, sampling various religious speeches and implementing them into songs about black magic and overall unhappiness. The Black Sabbath sample that opens up this album should be enough for any listener to immediately understand what they’re about to get into, as the title track brings heavy percussion and some of the most graphic lyrics in the album, which it already doesn’t lack. Lines about downing pills and vodka, contemplating suicide, and blank vocalizations of anger (“I want war with these bitches, I want corpses and weapons”).

The track that resembles an average edgy Soundcloud rap song the most is Black Magic right after, with its own interpretation of the “ay” flow, shouted with a tone reminiscent of someone like Craig Xen. The big difference comes with the much grander production, especially the growling guitars that get introduced halfway, reminding the listener of Backxwash’s skill as a producer. From what I could tell, she was responsible for the production of the tracks in here, and considering there are no vocal guests except for Malldate’s quick appearance in Into The Void, I’m assuming the features listed in the tracklist are all producer credits as well, the feature in this track being Ada Rook, providing the amazing guitar work for this song.

Spells is mixed for me. I don’t enjoy the attempted singing in the chorus, and it falls completely flat to my ears; the beat is hard as ever, but the lyrics feel slightly disconnected with each other. At one point, she’s talking about going to Hell to her mom, at the other she mentions doors opening and closing in an office and how there’s no one in some corridor, and it doesn’t go anywhere from that, with lines such as “heart is so dead with tissue” not exactly evoking any sort of emotion or imagery.

Black Sheep is the most effective song out of the first four; it seems to filter all the positive aspects of the other tracks and package them into one quick serving. The beat is chaotic and in a constant state of unrest, the lyrics are centered and aimed at various of Backxwash’s problems in life, such as her father, people who want to bring her down and put her “in line on the X and O’s”, and overall venting. After that comes a brief interlude, the first of two that don’t have much use in the album except as pallet cleansers. It’s followed by Into The Void, a track that mentions her paranoia of being harassed and possibly killed when walking around in the streets and the deli. It’s haunting, and definitely the best song in here; it is laser-focused in the exact way I wished the previous tracks would be. Her vocal delivery is extremely expressive, and she tells the story in a way that gives the listener a brief, but at the same time immense glimpse of the reality that trans people face and have to go through, in a morbid fashion.

Adolescence is very short and eases the pace a bit after the intense emotions of the last. It’s a message to her younger brother that quickly descents into a confession of her inner struggle, mentioning possible overdoses and being too old for the 27 Club and fearing going to therapy. What’s great about this song is the fact that, even in such a short amount of time and with a less explosive instrumental, Backxwash manages to evoke her emotions so well; this is definitely what she does best in this record, and it overcomes the times where her delivery is flawed and her words are slurred and hard to understand. After this comes Amen, and holy fuck is this an angry song. Criticizing the hell out of the church, Backxwash comes at greedy pastors and their irresponsible spending when the churchgoers who support him are in need. My big problem with this song is the fact that the hook, as impassionate as it is, doesn’t do much for the subject, and the verse is way too short to have any impact with its theme. Lines like “these politicians politicking” don’t help much either.

The very distorted second interlude, Heaven’s Interlude, takes us to the last track, Redemption, the least intense song in here, which is appropriate as a sendoff. She expresses her frustrations towards her dad’s frustrations towards her being trans, and while the entire sentiment of the song is great and well formulated, I can’t find a way around the lines “Fuck these fucking boomers, fuck these fucking losers. Fuck theses motherfucking fuckers in their fucking two truck. Fuck these fuck(sic)abusers, and fuck these fucking rumors.”, they just emanate Limp Bizkit energy.

God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It is a very passionate, real, well produced and well-conceived album; it bears themes that are immensely important to be brought to the music scene, and by mixing that message with its explosive and polished production, it amplifies it a ton. However, as powerful as her deliveries are, I believe Backxwash can go much further with her songwriting and song structuring in the future, as well as her intonation, because that was really all that was keeping this album from being legendary. If she can do more of this in songs that are longer and super focused around whichever topic she decides, she can make something legendary. And thank God she got reviewed by Fantano, I hope she can take this opportunity and make something huge out of this.

 FAVORITE TRACKS: Into The Void, Black Sheep, God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It, Adolescence, Black Magic

LEAST FAVORITE TRACK: Spells

 7.7/10

“Chosen one, sad bitch, lowest scum. Coldest, huh, black sheep talk to ‘em. If the situation changed I would have said the same shit, exactly the same.”

[nightqueendany]

Leaks, Fleaks, and the Fucking Ending of Game of Thrones

I will be discussing Friki leaks in this post and other potential “leaks” as seen on Free Folk Reddit so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read! I will also be discussing THAT ONE theory/leak I freaked out about several weeks ago and refused to talk about except to a few people who private messaged me about it.

I will be theorizing heavily in this post in an attempt to put all the “leaks” together so take this all with a grain of salt. I am not a primary source or even a secondary source for this information, so what I say here could very well be 100% wrong.

“Leakers” I am pulling from in this post:

Frikidoctor

BoatSexBaby

ThrowItAway / DeathWisher

TyrionKillsEveryone

Please keep in mind, I am not a member of the Reddit community (well, have an account, almost never use it), so I am unfamiliar with certain users on the site, what has been discussed at length between all users, what’s been refuted if it’s not on the front page of Free Folk, and what comments any of these users have made if they’re more than a few weeks old. Please also note I am not a native Spanish speaker so I have to read Friki’s stuff from translations so if the translations are incorrect, I will be. If anyone has any additional input, please feel free to reblog to correct any misinformation I may include in this.

First off, Friki.

As we’ve seen from Friki’s Season 7 leaks and his incredibly detailed leaks about 8x01, Friki is legit. There really is no arguing with this so I believe it is pointless to do so. However, we must keep in mind Friki is not someone who is on set, his sources are not on set all the time (I believe), and for this season, he has not seen an final scripts. So we likewise must take what Friki says with a grain of salt. Friki was also off by two weeks when it came to when the New York premiere would be, so it’s possible he could be wrong about things or his source doesn’t give him full information or gives him incorrect information.

BoatSexBaby

Again, sorry, I am not familiar with the reputations of people on Reddit FreeFolk so I don’t know if this person is seen as a legitimate leaker or fleaker. However, regardless of whether they have correct information, BSB seems to be a total savant when it comes to putting filming information together! It’s kind of astounding. I had attempted to do this once, but it was completely overwhelming but BSB has done it. It seems BSB’s info so far as what happens in the season is more based on assumptions based on filming info than actual leaks. But the information is still incredibly helpful.

ThrowItAway/DeathWisher

I don’t believe this is the same person but DeathWisher recently linked back to ThrowItAway’s old POST from a few months ago so I’m crediting both of them here. ThrowItAway claims to be related to someone who worked on the Belfast set and had second hand information of what would happen during the Battle for Winterfell in 8x03. Info that was correct: 1) Arya would jump down from somewhere (a tree?) to kill the NK 2) Theon would charge NK and die 3) Lyanna Mormont would become a wight. That has all been proven true and these leaks were from 4 months ago. So the information TIA’s brother gave them about future episodes may be true as well. Though, TIA admits that their brother did not work on sets aside from the Belfast one and so heard the leaks about the other episodes from other crew members - meaning the brother is a secondary source for this info, not a primary one. Also, TIA seems pretty adamant that it’s highly possible multiple endings were filmed.

TyrionKillsEveryone

Now, anyone who knows of TKE from FreeFolk and Friki is probably wondering why the fuck I’m bringing him up right now because apparently everything he said would happen in the first couple episodes has turned out to be complete bullshit (though for some reason, I can’t find those posts/comments, so have to rely on people talking about “leaks” TKE claimed for Eps 1&2). However, out of all the theories I’ve read on the ending to GOT and now with this info from ThrowItAway, I more inclined than ever to believe such an ending so that’s why I’ve included them in this post.

So, what do the “leakers” have to offer us?

Friki:

Friki claims that THE big moment in this final season will be Tyrion’s trial in the Dragonpit and Tyrion’s death. He refutes a previous theory of his that Tyrion and Sansa would betray the Starks and says Sansa will not betray them, Tyrion will (unclear if Dany is included in this - as either Team Stark or on Tyrion’s side...but as Dany is on the side of the Starks now, it appears Tyrion would betray her too...?). Friki says an important scene will take place with five key characters: Jon, Sansa, Arya, Daenerys, and Tyrion. Friki was told this big scene took five days to film (hinting at it being all conflict). The most shocking moment of the season/series should be Tyrion’s death. Friki admits he doesn’t know how Tyrion will die, or why he will betray Team Jon/Dany but just knows that he will. He notes Emilia Clarke never filmed anything in Seville, she was never there. He says Kit Harington was in Seville but did not film a single scene there.

I know people might take this as “fake news” and believe Kit actually did film in Seville but lots of GOT actors were in Seville who I can’t really believe were filming there - most notably, Tom Wlaschiha who played Jaqen H'ghar, Faye Marsay who played the Waif, and Vladimír Furdík who played the Night King.

So, unless Arya never killed the Waif or the Night King in a permanent way, it’s clear HBO just flew in lots of GOT actors to throw people off...OR may have flown them in, along with their body doubles, for the GOT Documentary which will air right after the series finale. More on this in a moment.

BoatSexBaby:

Alright, first off, I’ll start with what BSB may have gotten wrong...unless the NK isn’t completely dead and he somehow has to be defeated again. BSB claimed HERE that 1) Dance of Dragons between NK/Viserion and Dany/Drogon would happen in Episode 6 in King’s Landing and Jon/Rhaegal may be involved - untrue, kind of, this happened in Ep3 2) Golden Company attack Winterfell - TOTALLY FALSE. And preview for next weeks seems to see everyone headed down south to attack Cersei instead (though BSB did say survivors retreat south so maybe this is the true part of people going south) 3) NK has real motivations that tie all WW scenes together from 1x01 - maybe. We certainly didn’t see this prior but it could be revealed in future. The way the NK was defeated just felt way too clean to me. If he’s really gone and was a red herring, that’s one elaborate 8000 year old red herring. FFS.

What BSB does actually have to offer, is her dedication to documenting filming news. According to BSB, we know: 1) the green dragon mount was moved prior to filming King’s Landing battle scenes hinting at it being used in those scenes - however, the only actor available for filming such scenes was allegedly Vladimír Furdík, as Kit and Emilia were not in Belfast at the time. 2) Body doubles in Seville who may have been filming or may have been part of the GOT documentary were doubles for: Sansa, Tyrion, Jon, Brienne, Grey Worm, and Robin Arryn. BSB is also of the belief that Kit actually did film in Seville but filmed night scenes? And that there were CGI/VFX sequences for the Dragonpit scene or Tyrion’s trial. Friki said the Dragonpit scene included no CGI so it’s unclear which is correct.

ThrowItAway/DeathWisher

As stated, ThrowItAway gave leaks for 8x03 several months ago that ended up panning out so, it could be possible their other statements about future episodes could be true too. TIA posted some things and also messaged DW some spoilers for the ending. Some key points, but certainly not ALL: 1) Varys betrays Dany because he believes Jon would make a better ruler (something TKE also speculated) and Dany has him executed 2) Dany attacks King’s Landing 3) Tyrion convinces Jon that Dany is a danger to him and the Starks and Jon kills Dany 4) Prior to her death, Sansa and Tyrion appear to plot against Dany/try to separate her and Jon 5) Sansa has made some sort of promise to Tyrion that she and him will rule together but she betrays him in the end 6) Jon has two possible endings: Death or reforming the Night’s Watch (unclear how he would die).

This is a lot to unpack here and it should be noted that TIA has stated these “leaks” are to be taken with a grain of salt because a) their brother did not work on these episodes and heard this from other crew members who did work on them and b) they seem highly convinced that multiple endings were filmed and Emilia Clarke has talked about filming fake scenes.

TyrionKillsEveryone

I haven’t been able to see TKEs old posts on the early episodes and have only read their “leaks” from other commenters who have gleefully bragged about how incorrect TKE was. I think one of the major TKE fleaks was that Dany would find out she was pregnant in 8x01 and that Varys would try to kill her with poison (because he believes she’s becoming like Aerys and Jon would be a better King) but Arya would save her. This clearly did not happen in 8x01 so it’s easy to write off TKE for just this alone.

However, TKEs points about the later episodes just STRUCK me and affected me deeply which is why I’m going to include them. TKE says that yes, Tyrion will have a trial, as Friki said, and Tyrion will be on trial for betraying Jon and Daenerys and killing Jon - how does Tyrion kill Jon? He stabs him in the back in the black cells of the Red Keep after taking him down to see Dany - who is Cersei’s captive - where she is bleeding to death either from being stabbed by Bronn or complications with childbirth. I think both were mentioned, Unclear which TKE was leaning more toward.

At Tyrion’s trial, TKE says Tyrion will have an epic speech like he did in his trial for killing Joffrey, and will name everyone present as guilty as him. That their petty wars and fights all caused harm to the smallfolk, damaged the country, something like this. And at the end of Tyrion’s speech, Bronn will ignite the wildfire under the Dragonpit like he did on the Blackwater, and blow everyone up - killing every single major character - Arya, Sansa, Davos, Tyrion...anyone else who is present in the Dragonpit. They’ll all die.

TKE claims the last shots of the series are the smallfolk rebuilding Westeros, living their lives in peace, because they have no lords preying on them, telling them to fight their wars, etc. And that is the “Dream of Spring.”

What does it all mean?

It’s pretty difficult to tell at this point because the Night King is defeated (or so we think) and the living are somewhat intact - at least many of our major characters - Jaime, Brienne, Grey Worm, Jon, Sansa, Dany, Arya, Tyrion, Varys, Pod, Tormund, Sam, Gilly, the Hound...they all got out of the Battle with barely scratches on them. It’s incredibly disconcerting. As if luring us into this false sense of security.

But this false sense of security is exactly the kind of thing GOT would do before really bringing down the sledgehammer to our hearts. So, what does it all mean?

1) Three of the leakers save TIA have specifically talked about Tyrion’s trial. To me, this seems highly likely to happen.

2) BSB has some amazing evidence for why there will be CGI/VFX during Tyrion’s trial but I think her assumption about what this could mean is wrong - it won’t be a dragon fight (though there will be dragons in King’s Landing at some point). The VFX for Tyrion’s trial could be for the wildfire explosion that TKE talks about.

3) If TIA is correct about Sansa leading Tyrion on only to betray him in the end and take power for herself, then it makes Sansa a villain too. And this was the last piece of info I was really waiting for because...

It is KEY to believing TKE’s ending.

Because with everyone plotting against everyone and fighting for power, it means they learned nothing from having to band together to defeat the Night King and are all still fighting their petty wars and as Tyrion will (maybe) say in his trial, they’re all guilty.

TKE said something about Sansa inviting all the Lords/Ladies of the realm come to Tyrion’s trial so they can simultaneously swear her their allegiance. This would support why Robin Arryn is at Tyrion’s trial. Because without this, it seems odd that he would be there at all. We haven’t seen him since Season 6, though his armies have been present in S7 and S8.

While I am not sure which to believe out of TIA and TKE’s endings for Jon and Dany - Jon-kills-Dany or Jon-and-Dany-die-together - I am pretty convinced of this theory that Tyrion, does in fact, kill everyone with wildfire in the Dragonpit. You guys might think I’m crazy, might hate me for pointing this out, but I just feel this ending in my bones and have for several weeks. I was kind of hoping for a Jon-Dany-house-with-a-red-door ending - they get resurrected or don’t die and live in hiding or amongst the small-folk and get a somewhat happy ending. But I am not holding my breath.

And for those who want a little bit more further proof of a TKE-like ending, for those saying things like “What’s the point?” “Who would rule?” “So it’s just anarchy?” “Is this some weird eat the rich bullshit?” - I have one more piece of evidence for you.

D&D said the ending to GOT was hidden in their Spotify playlist. And one of the songs on the playlist was Black Sabbath’s War Pigs. The lyrics of which are:

Gen'rals gathered in their masses, Just like witches at black masses Evil minds that plot destruction, Sorcerer of death's construction In the fields the bodies burning, As the war machine keeps turning Death and hatred to mankind, Poisoning their brainwashed minds Oh Lord yeah

Politicians hide themselves away They only started the war Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role for the poor, yeah

Time will tell on their power minds, Making war just for fun Treating people just like pawns in chess, Wait 'till their judgement day comes, yeah

Now in darkness world stops turning, Ashes where the bodies burning No more War Pigs have the power, Hand of God has struck the hour Day of judgement, God is calling On their knees the war pigs crawling, Begging mercies for their sins Satan, laughing, spreads his wings Oh Lord yeah

This is why, weeks ago, I posted this Jorah quote:

In the books, it’s a bit better: “The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her. "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace....They never are."

And it’s why around the same time, I also posted this:

“Animals are true to their nature. And we had betrayed ours.” All the living, despite fighting together against the dead, have still betrayed their nature, fighting against each other, fighting for power. When they should be working together and feel lucky they’re all alive.

In the books, Brienne V in AFFC, there is a great speech commonly called by the fandom, “The Broken Man Speech” - which, coincidentally, the episode above is called. Not for no reason, I believe.

Some significant quotes from the book version of the Broken Man speech:

“Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe.”

“They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now."

“...before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they’re fighting in, men very like the men they used to be.”

“They don’t know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they’re fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world …  “And the man breaks. “He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them … but he should pity them as well.”

And for those saying this can’t possibly be GRRM’s message....well, it just might be:

Now, how well have D&D executed such an ending if this is, indeed, the ending?

I would say, pretty shittily. It’s not an A or an A+. Because unlike Breaking Bad, we’re still rooting for these characters with only 3 episodes to go. In Breaking Bad, you get that Walter is a villain, he’s “The one who knocks.” He’s the bad guy and he deserves what’s coming to him. Jesse was a prisoner in the end so we’re glad he gets out and gets free.

But with GOT, if everyone ends up being a villain and dying for their sins, it’s shitty. I have faith GRRM would do much better with such an ending. Give us other characters, the smallfolk, to care about to ease the pain of losing our other faves, the mains. But with only 240 minutes to go, there’s no way D&D could make us hate the current characters in a way that makes us also not hate the writers too and the entire series. It’s like...well fuck, why did I ever care in the first place?

Especially as a Dany fan because her whole story has been about what GRRM talks about in the video above. Yes, she has to have this war to take power against Cersei, but she’s the ONLY character who wants to change, make real change that will make a difference to the common man. She wants to “break the wheel that has rolled over rich and poor to the benefit of no one but the Cersei Lannister’s of the world.” She wants to do that!

So if this is the GOT ending, I’m pissed. Because it’s as if Dany’s purpose is just...forgotten. Or not worthy because she wants to take power and get revenge for her family at the same time. Perhaps it’s because of this, I still am holding out one last sliver of hope that Dany and Jon survive, because out of everyone, their motives most closely align to this ideal.

But again, not holding my breath.

And if you guys don’t hate me after reading this, let me know what you think!

[fortunatelylori]

Hey, GOT! Turn on the freaking lights!

I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about this on my blog but I’m from a little country in Eastern Europe called Romania. I was born and raised in Bucharest, as was all of my family dating back centuries. 

One of the most important landmarks in Bucharest is this building right here: 

It’s called the House of the People or, more recently, Parliament House. This is so huge that you simply can’t escape it. At times it feels as if the whole of Romania lives in the shadow of this structure. 

It was built by Nicolae Ceausescu, our once communist dictator. Everything about it is meant to intimidate and impress. Entire neighborhoods and monuments dating back hundreds of years were torn to the ground in order to make room for it. 

It’s impressive in all its megalomaniac glory and the inside is just as over the top. You’ve got entire rooms made of marble, with columns so high it makes you dizzy just looking up. When you enter you’re greeted by a huge staircase made of marble as well and wall high paintings of the Ceausescu spouses going about their communist life:

Looking at separate elements, there is beauty there and even artistry. Taken as a whole, it’s a fucking architectural, visual and cultural disaster. 

Now, I’m not suggesting HBO and the Ds are communist tyrants but what I am saying that that a huge amount of money, time, talent and effort is being sunk into this tv show and the results are the story telling equivalent of the House of the People. There are good things sprinkled in there but the basic structure and flow of this story has sunk to such depths that it’s hard to find the experience of watching GOT pleasurable anymore. It’s become an exercise in futility and wasted potential. 

This episode is even worse because GOT has so much money to burn that usually you can at least enjoy the production values and the visual spectacle that offers you. This episode is, unfortunately, called the “Long Night” so buckle up for an hour and a half of complete darkness, punctuated by brief flashes of human forms darting back and forth on your TV screen. So this is the equivalent of the House of the People at night, covered in thick fog, when the electricity has gone out. 

The bad news about having the episode filmed in darkness is that it’s practically impossible for you to be invested in the action since you can’t see who is doing what or what they are going through while doing it. The good news is that the story tellers will do their utmost to make sure you also don’t give a shit.

General Impressions

This episode we are fortunate enough to get a respite from David Nutter, one of the worst directors I’ve ever had the misfortune of directing tv shows I like and we are treated instead to the talents of Miguel Sapochnik. I’ve loved most of his work on GOT, with my favorite episode of his being Hardhome. And I’m sure he did a fantastic job in this episode, coordinating what is essentially an hour and a half long battle. However, since I couldn’t really see much of what was going on in the action packed sequences, I’m basing that assessment more on faith, than solid proof. 

This episode also has the distinction of completing Jon Snow’s journey into complete irrelevancy.  Jon doesn’t do much of anything of consequence. Instead he simply stumbles from one failure to another: from following D*ny in destroying the wights army instead of getting to Bran (if D*ny wanted to destroy the wights, why couldn’t Jon hop on Rhaegal to go to the Godswood? why do both of them need to be there to burn the zombies?); to his almost success in taking down wight Viserion only for it to go to nothing when the dragon is still alive and proceeds to burn down Winterfell; to charging the Night King through a field of dead bodies only for the most obvious twist of the NK raising the dead to stop him in his tracks and finally completely abandoning his ethos to protect those in need by leaving Sam to die at the hands of the wights in order to get to Bran. He, of course, never makes it to the Godswood and ends the episode jumping from behind a rock to scream at wight Viserion, without even pulling out his sword to attempt to fight back. It’s enough to make one ...

My thoughts exactly, Jon. 

What a complete and utter waste. 

Talking of wastes, we are now 3 and a half hours through this season and the Starks have yet to be together in the same room, having a conversation. All through the seasons we have waited with baited breath for these kids to be reunited. The Ds, trolls that they are, baited us with just that at the beginning of season 7, only for it to never materialize. Now they have outdone even themselves by putting the Starks under the same roof and using every trick in their troll textbook to make sure we get absolutely no satisfaction for our Stark itch. 

On top of that, we have been led to believe that these 4 people (ok, 3 since Bran is a robot now) care about each other. You’d think that they would seek each other out and at least hug before the battle that could potentially kill one or all of them. That doesn’t happen. 

I think the reason why it doesn’t happen is because the Ds felt there was no point in wasting time on that when all 4 of them were going to survive. The problem is that the audience doesn’t know that and should at least fear that they won’t survive. 

Most importantly, the characters themselves have no idea that they got a death immunity card for the greatest battle to visit this planet in 8000 years. So to have them completely forget about one another is just piss poor writing. 

The closest we get is this scene between Arya and Sansa: 

Arya: Get down to the crypt. 

Sansa: I’m not abandoning my people. 

Arya: Take this and go. 

Sansa: I don’t know how to use it. 

Arya: Stick them with the pointy end. 

This might as well be a conversation between two strangers who kind of decided they really don’t like each other very much, instead of two sisters who might never see each other again. Sansa goes as far as to refuse to leave not because she doesn’t want to leave her sister but because she doesn’t want to abandon “her people”. 

It’s not wrong of Sansa to want to stay with the people of Winterfell but it does make the conversation less poignant and emotional because there’s nothing personal about this exchange. Nor do these two even spare one tearful glace for one another. That is reserved for this scene: 

That’s where the show’s priorities lay. Why did they include this scene? Was it only to fan the flames of the Sanrion ship? I would say no. I think they’re laying the groundwork for whatever plot point Sansa and Tyrion will be involved in, which will inevitably circle back to Cersei one way or another. 

And while it was a poignant scene, I can’t help but begrudge that they gave us this at the expense of the Sansa/Arya scene or a potential Sansa/Jon scene. 

Also, a lot of people are now complaining that Sansa didn’t fight during this episode which makes her useless (the same old tired argument so no surprise there) but they completely miss the point as to why her lack of fighting is frustrating. It isn’t because Sansa didn’t turn into Xena, the warrior princess, in this episode. It’s because the Ds set up something but then didn’t follow through. Sansa received a dagger and advice on how to use it. Normally that would lead to her having to do just that, particularly when in the scene above she pulls out the very same dagger. But wouldn’t you know it? Once she stands up and charges, she does absolutely NOTHING! It isn’t that she fails. It’s that the writers didn’t even feel the need to show her try. They set up that plot point and then left it dangling with no pay off. 

There are multiple examples of this type of tepid storytelling though out the episode but I think the most glaring one is Bran. He has been building up to his confrontation with the Night King since season 1. And all of that amounted to what exactly? Bran did nothing but sit in the Godswood and wait for the NK to try to kill him. So why did he go through that entire, excruciating journey exactly? What vital information did he discover that led to the demise of the NK? What magical abilities did he posses that were crucial against his greatest foe? He didn’t even warg a dragon for Pete’s sake even though that should have been a given. 

In the behind the scenes commentary, the Ds said that the key to destroying the NK was either stabbing him directly in the spot where the COF inserted the shard of dragon glass or killing him next to the Weirwood tree, depending on what you understood by their comments. 

Either way, that information did not make it into the TV show. Bran never says that, despite having opportunity to do so during the council meeting in episode 2. So it doesn’t matter what the Ds say in interviews. If it isn’t on screen, it doesn’t exist. 

On the whole, the most frustrating part of the episode was the actual battle. Leaving aside the poor lighting, what I got form this episode is that 130.000 men (based on my super duper math skills utilized for ep 2) had absolutely no strategy and no stamina to at least attempt to fight a hoard of mindless zombies. It took all of 10 minutes for all these hardened soldiers (with one exception which we will discuss later on) to break ranks and flee for their lives. 

Also why did Jorah lead 100.000 of those men, consisting of the entire Dothraki khalasar acting as the Winterfell army’s cavalry, on a charge into the darkness of certain death? I don’t know a lot about battle strategy but I do know that when you have a key position (in this case Winterfell), you don’t charge. You wait for the enemy to come to you. And once the army broke, everyone of those people were running around like headless chickens, with no clue how to regroup or mount an effective defense of one of the most impenetrable castles in the whole of Westeros. Robb Stark must be spinning in his grave like kale in a hipster’s smoothie. Imagine what he could have been able to do with 130.000 men. 

It pains me to say this but the Night King was genuinely the only one on that battlefield who had an actual plan, could adapt to what was thrown at him (the trenches, falling off the dragon etc.) and complete his mission. He was defeated in the end but his defeat consisted not only of the unexpected in the form of Arya and her FM training but also on the lack of reaction of all the wights and the white walkers that were there which, frankly, stretches disbelief. 

PS: While sparing not one single moment for character or plot development, GOT did find the time to rip off How to Train your Dragon ... again ...

Give it up, guys. You don’t have half the vision and talent of the HTTYD squad. This just makes you look silly. 

Favorite scenes

The “Blood of my Blood” scene: 

I loved the whole sequence of D*ny and Jorah. From Jorah sweeping in like a knight in shinning armor to protect D*ny, to him getting up through multiple stab wounds because he couldn’t give up on trying to save her, to D*ny picking up a freaking sword and fighting despite not knowing how to try and defend him, to her break down over his dead body and Drogon coiling up around her to try to comfort her. 

Just looking at these gifs makes me want to cry. One of the only truly meaningful and emotional moments in the whole episode and an apt ending to the most important relationship in D*ny’s life. Kudos to Emilia and Iain on giving it their all in this scene. 

The “You’re home” scene: 

Speaking of acting chops, Alfie Allen, ladies and gentlemen! Truly one of the best actors in this cast. And this scene really brought Theon full circle. The man who didn’t feel like he belonged anywhere, who went through hell and back, who lost his humanity and clawed his way back to it, died defending the only place he’s ever known as home. Alongside the D*ny/Jorah scene, this really broke me down. Also this: 

Bran: Theon! You’re a good man. Thank you. 

cue the ugly crying right now

Just wonderful! I hope Alfie has a long career in front of him because he’s sooo good. 

The “Final atonement” scene: 

The reason why I loved Mel’s death scene so much is because it brings to completion the burning of Shrieen. Despite her religious fantaticism and her ruthlessness, sacrificing that little girl did take it’s toll on Melisandre. It shook her to her core. So much so that she walked into the frozen wasteland, took off her necklace and killed herself. The fact that the entire sequence is punctuated by Davos watching her walk to her death makes it all the more meaningful. 

It surprised me that they chose this way to bring an end to her character but I feel it enriched her story and my perception of her. 

Episode MVPs

The Unsullied: 

I was curious about what they would do with the Unsullied during the battle because their fighting style is perfectly suited to castle defense. Also, because of this story from the History and Lore series: 

The Unsullied are known for their discipline and willingness to stand their ground against the greatest adversaries. They are canonically so impressive that not only did they beat the Dothraki but all the Dothraki riders cut off their braids and placed them at their feet to honor their bravery and prowess.

Considering that not only were the Unsullied the only soldiers at Winterfell to actually stick to their guns and fight strategically and bravely but they also ensured the retreat of all the other forces, the people of Winterfell need to be cutting off their own hair and honor these brave men. 

Arya “It is Princess after all” Stark: 

Aaaa ... yeah, she is the princess that was promised, y’all!

Arya’s story in this episode was the most complete and compelling one. Starting off with her “I know Death. He has many faces. I look forward to seeing this one” bravado, to her rawness and vulnerability when she realized what she was up against to her putting all that Faceless Men training to good use and managing to sneak up on the Night King just enough to end him. 

Arya Stark has just killed Death! A true warrior, if there ever was one! I hope this marks an end to her FM arc and a gradual return of at least part of the kindness and empathy Arya was defined by in season 1. 

Daenerys “Why do you want me to feel sorry for her?” Targareyen: 

Well, this is strange ... I never thought I’d make D*ny an MVP in these reviews but fair is fair. The girl was a champ this episode. 

I know some people seem to think that she’s the reason why the battle plan went haywire because she decided to attack the wight army after seeing her khalasar wiped out. However ... for one, she had just seen all of her Dothraki cut down. Clearly whatever strategy they had going wasn’t working. Secondly, I seem to remember in episode 2 that Tyrion offered to wave the torch so Dany could set the trench on fire so obviously she and Jon were not suppose to just stick to the Godswood for the entire duration of the battle. 

Still, I think the reason why I found D*ny so formidable this episode was because she was placed directly in contrast with Jon and unlike Mr. Can’t seem to get anything right these Days Snow, D*ny did actually put up a fight, saved Jon’s life even at the risk of injury to Drogon and attacked the Night King head on. 

Yes, dragon fire was ineffectual against the NK but she gave it her all and I appreciate that. As thanks for her bravery and loyalty (despite now knowing that Jon is her rival to the IT), Jon abandoned her without hesitation, proving once again that he genuinely doesn’t give a shit about her. At this point, I honestly don’t understand why D*ny stans are shipping her with Jon. They should have higher standards for their fave. 

The way they chose to portray D*ny in this episode is interesting because, despite D*ny’s actions, dark D*ny and the Dance of Dragons is still happening, in my humble opinion. That means that we are left in a bit of a conundrum: D*ny has now fulfilled her end of the bargain. She has fought the army of the dead and lost a significant percentage of her army and Jorah in the process. Which leaves us with the inevitability that Jon and the Starks will not only go against the woman that helped them protect their home but will prove themselves mercenary and dishonorable for doing so. Also because of the prolonged absence of Jon’s POV and the lack of scenes of the Starks together, D*ny, being the only one we have clear access to narratively, becomes more and more sympathetic. 

In some ways this choice frustrates me because D*ny has done some truly horrific things and story-wise those have yet to be addressed or paid off. By making her more and more sympathetic and the Starks more antagonistic in relation to her, it makes it harder to deliver the comeuppance she has earned over the seasons. 

On the other hand, there is something about this type of narrative choice that appeals to me. The line between hero and villain is practically nonexistent and it’s up to each and everyone of us to pick a side, based more on our subjective experiences and less on objective narrative reasons.  

It brings to mind the first Dance of Dragons where you could very well make an argument in favor of both the Black and Green factions because there was no clear cut answer on who was right and who was wrong.  

*none of the art work belongs to me. thank you to the content creators!