#how did they survive and where did the thousands of dragons go

[icebrooding]

A brief go-over of 'Eparch's Fear' and 'Eparch's Regret' and how Isgarren played a part in what Eparch ultimately became. This is kinda scattered but I think gets across my thoughts Decently Enough.

Isgarren saved Eparch from collapse after he'd just barely escaped Mordremoth, and lost his brother to him in a highly traumatic event. He'd learned fear for the first real time.

And then he comes to adore Isgarren. Resplendent. Even Mabon thinks the two were amicable enough to be friends.

The Wizard's Tower, a safe place. A peaceful one, unlike Nayos, a land of hostility and danger.

Breathe.

A land where even breathing is harder, difficult, unpleasant.

Isgarren teaches the wayward Kryptis of the world, and Eparch is enamoured with it. But there is a problem...

Eparch is a natural predator. He needs to feed. He cannot push this need aside, it drives him, it is his nature that he cannot deny. But he likes Tyria, what can he do?

Wizards do not need to sate physical need after their ascension.

So what he does is explain. He wants to become a Wizard. To free himself of the hunger. To be able to remain in Tyria without it tearing him apart and causing him to be a threat to it.

And Isgarren rejects him. He is unbalanced, in some fashion. Not fit to be a Wizard. But Waiting Sorrow is, he says to Eparch's face.

But Eparch needs this. He must feed. But it seems he rejects his nature on the ground of loving Tyria. And he cannot feed on Isgarren; there is nothing there to consume. He is empty.

His nature is screaming at him, and he cannot find anything to sate it from Isgarren.

He snaps. He is given no choice but to seek out something, anything, to sate that hunger. And it's been so long, he goes berserk. And in the wake of it, regret. He did not want for this.

And Isgarren sees it, and there is judgement. Judgement as Eparch tries to plea and argue how it all came to this; something he never wanted to come to pass to begin with.

And then he is banished, to a hostile world where surviving is a struggle.

A place he belonged, no longer. Rejection, from the one who saved him, who he looked up to and admired.

And when Isgarren talks to Mabon of his actions?

Perhaps he hoped that Eparch's nature could be 'tamed' as Mabon's was. But he brushed aside Eparch's hunger, until it reached that breaking point. And for Eparch's actions, Isgarren condemned all Kryptis to the same standard. (Thank you for this input elder-dragon!)

And then,

when we are led to believe through Eparch's memory (which I would find more honest) that he expressed his desires to Isgarren.

And Eparch's spider form in the meta? The Consumed King. Consumed by his own hunger.

And sadly, thousands of years later...

Isgarren's rejection of him, simply for the way he was, stuck with him.

[ganondoodle]

so i sort of half accidentally did the end of totk on monday, i had over 130 hours and slightly over 50% of the game done and did the second to last fight with 3 hearts left and no way to heal but fairies after i gave up multiple times thinking the game might be trying to force me to fight a certain way xD

so im still playing it and am aiming for the 100% but i dont think theres gonna be much more to discover story wise the game is really fun and has a lot of detail and love put into it that you can really see, the music is fantastic as well, some of the characters get more love which is great but the story is … well disappointing but not surprising, especially in its treatment of ganondorf, who still feels incredibly flat as a character, which was to be expected but also … you cant fault people (including me) for faintly hoping theyd do something more interesting tho i will say the end fight is really well done and i cant think of a way to top that in terms of epicness xD

anyway, some unfiltered thoughts and opinions in no particular order (keep in mind i know its viddy game logic uwu but still some things can really destroy the immersion; and also i like to think too hard about the stuff i care about so take this with a grain of salt, i never expected the story to be world changing but i want to remind you that i am criticizing it bc i love this franchise)

--what the hell happened to all the sheikah tech?? botws story gets mentioned a few times but never is it mentioned what happened to all the tons of tech lying around everywhere? if they dismantled the towers for purah to build her new ones around i guess thats fine, but all the srhines? the titans ??? THE SHRINE OF LIFE??? its all gone, esepcially the shrine of life irks me bc the cave is still there and its still called by its bame but its nothing but a cave in a vague shape of how the buidling was it absolutely drives me crazy bc its so dumb?? even if it all stopped working for some reason why would you dismantled it all and even then where did the material go?? why would you dismanlted an neitre building like that anyway?? if you want to have a cave there just have it be half collapsed, if all sheikah tech has gotten useless just leave it there but overgrown?? and why is all of purahs tech still working then? zelda doesnt seem to care about it anymore either even tho shes been so obsessed with it for so long? the titans how would you even MOVE them?? you CANNOT tell me that all this tech that survived tens of thousands of years just went poof within a few years; and sometimes it even feels .. insulting? like you know how much robelo cared for cherry and now shes tiny and just serves as a way to buy fotos for your collection? the fact that the shrine of life is fully gone but the cave is vaguely shaped like its interior and where the bed used to be is a healing pool of water too? like idk if im just insane but it feels like 'haha lol remember what used to be here? get it? the water heals you like the bed in the shrine of life and lol there was the stairs HAHA remember? its gone now for no reason.lmao.' to be clear i like having some mysteries and all but that is just …. so weird? when i discovered the shrine of life i was so taken aback i didnt know what to do, it really broke my immersion, by alot even, it just makes it feel even more like all sheikah tech was replaced by much cooler (tm) sonau tech

--what happend to the sonau people? we only know that rauru and mineru are the last two remaining ones back then but … what made them die out like that? this is by far not as important to me as the issue with the sheikah tech but still feels like a point that could have been mentioned

--as much as i like the open world and how free you are to do things your own way but, regardign the dragon tears i think they should have been locked more behind story progression, i got all of them rather early on and it made it a lil frustrating to play through the other story parts bc you know the truth but you cant tell anyone and everyone around you is acting like a dumbass running after fake zelda while the real one is floating around above you, and i know thats partly my fault for getting them all so early but it still felt like some could have been more well hidden or locked or something since theres no hint to when it would fit to do which one; i expecpted impa to travel to each one but it seemed like she appeared on only a few here and there- additionally i fully expected her to be more important, that she would have an actual involment trying to help zelda undragonfy but that turned out to be very wrong lmao

--why are the enemies in the underground mining sonanium? ganondorf didnt seem itnerested at all in any of their tech, only in the mystery stones (only one too, he didnt seem to want any more of them either) they dont use it for anything? at least the ones on the surface collected stuff they could eat or use for fighting?

--did mineru really build herself a robot body just to fight ganondorf for a bit and then leave? as the last of the sonau, even tho long dead too, why wouldnt she tell their history and knowledge or something and instead if just helping a lil in the fight and then go poof (i half expected purah to be a surprise sage since the spirit one would have fit her i think)

--the zelda being the white dragon plot point lost alot of weight to me when it was just .. resolved like that in the end, i know she spent thousands of years like that and all but it seemed like a much heavier decision that later on felt a little less flat after fidning mineru even tho i felt like i didnt care at all at first bc of the way i found out ,and i half expected there to be an extra mission to try and find her soul again since that apparently gets lost when you do the whole dragon thing, but in the end that wasnt a problem at all, two ghosts and link (somehow naked again) blasting her with some magic(tm) and boom shes back and well and fine woohoo it was a non problem after all i didnt expect her to stay dragon since that would mean the end of the legend of zelda basically, but still it took away alot of the weight of her decision to me? like i get undragonfying her before the end would be difficult since you can get material off of her but still i hoped for something other than boom it resolved itself and i thoguht and worried about it for nothing honestly a post game or even another title where the main focus wouldnt be desstroying yet anyother one note evilest guy of them all and isntead the goal is to bring zeldas soul back and undragon her or something would have been a cool idea tbh tho i know its unrealistic

--did ganondorf think turning himself into a dragon would end the world somehow? did he mean the lil evil goo clouds he spit at you in the last fight to end the world? and how come that he was vunerable to fight? none of the other dragons could be hurt and for an 'immortal' dragon he sure went down fast also how did the stone get back on his forehead? you need to eat it to dragonfy yourself and zelda doesnt have her stone out either (i know viddy games logic but still) (on another note, gan shoving half his arm in his own mouth felt really cursed to watch)

--into WHAT exactly wanted gan to reshape the world into?? only destroying it is such a non reason if you want to rule it? theres nothing left to rule if you kill everything in it?? he just gonna play cards with some bokblins or what -i really wanted to fight ganondorf on the surface, not in his lil miasma incubation cave again :(

--so …. why he evil? are we really doing the and WHOOP suddendnly theres the eviliest guy of the world and he hates your guts for some reason thing again? no tension with the gerudo that seemed to follow him in the lil cutscene we see and the ones that went on raurus side? no actual origin? does he have ANYONE to talk to normally or did he just surround himself by monsters all the time or abadon everyone that once followed him once he got his power up?? you can make any design or fight as good as it can possibly be but in the end its still gonna feel hollow if the character has no character besides evil even the fake zelda wasnt actually him and just a lil puppet made of miasma so even him fucking with people is a little less interesting when he was actually just marinading in his lil goop cave, and the lil hand wink he gives you at phase two can only do so much lmao

--ganondorf is cool and all, but tbh he feels more like the evil miasma goop guy than anything else --why are the old sonau ruins in hyrule so different from the rest? like we know now that they arent actually a civilization from the sky alone but were even in the underground too, and all of their ruins have that blocky white style to it, the supposedly sonau ruins in phirone for example, albeit they share the dragon theme the style on the outside is very much different? and the ancient ruins from the other races dont match it either --are the sheikah descendants of the mixing of sonau and hylians? the white hair and third eye theme would fit to the only alive sonaus we see having white hair (fur?), the literal third eye and their affinity to techonology similar to the sheikah, and zelda having both light and time powers would make sense if its yet another descendant thing, but that would mean zelda was at least part sheikah .. (ngl white haired zelda might look pretty neat actually) but also … it didnt seem like sonia and rauru have been together all that long and no mention or even hint to them having children … which given that both of them die would be an important thing to mention no?

--why cant you do anything with the dongos but feed them????????? i wanna ride them :(

--where is kashiwa????????????????? they talk about him like hes a lost legend

--putting in all the amiibo stuff is cool and annoying at the same time, i spent 5 hours fighting my way throguh the underground to follow treasure maps and found 3 nigh identcal link hats from past games in a row, then two other parts of similar, then two aiimbo weapons and then jsut yesterday another one from a bigger quest that i expected more of; getting the armor sets of past games is cool if you want them but if i did i would have just gotten the amiibos back in botw, my inevntory already feels super bloated with all the new and old armor sets and now the amiibo stuff as well even tho i have like .. half of it all atm (and dont go and argue 'oh so complaining about more content for free???' yes. yes i am.)

--whats with this game and making link almost naked? rauru saving you from death? naked. (annoying) survival shrines? naked. weird teleport to alternate ghost dimension to blast zelda with magic power tm to solve all problems? naked.

--(added in edit) im glad dorephan didnt die!! i fully expected him to have died offscreen or something to make way for everyones favorite fish

--(added in edit) so are definitely other lands besides hyrule if yona came from there, also lol

--the story feels, espeically once you see the last cutscene, very …. uncomfortable to me if dare to think about it more than just taking everythign as its said to you, like … the oh so perfect descednants of the gods(what) marry a normal hylian lady and sourround themselves with perfetly obedient faceless servants of the other races so the perfect and good kingdom tm is born and oh suddendly theres an evil brown man (makign him grey doesnt change the implications, if anything, it makes it worse bc they wont even stand for it and instead are trying to hide it behind uuuuh no no its fine hes blue actally kinda way) from the desert that attacks the perfect good kingdom and king, then he swears alliance to them only to betray and murder da queen right away to get his hands on a super power the perfect and good king held and would have never never used it in a bad way nono and now they need to defend it by all means and at the end woohoo zelda has now again the perfect kingdom with no opposition except the yiga who are (as much as i love them) mostly played for laughs or .. well, evil(tm) as epic and cool the dragon fight was, zelda being the slim tiny white/gold/blue dragon and ganondorf being the evil spiky big black and red dragon and them literally being called white/black dragon feels like wow they arent even trying to hide the black and white storytelling huh (i know its a design trope to the bad be black(color) and the good anything else and spiky vs round and soft blah blah but that doesnt make it any better .. maybe even worse? idk)

the way nintendy was keeping stuff a secret and hinting around so much made me feel like it would finally be a little more nuanced and then it turned out to be even flatter than before and all that secrecy(?) was only to keep dragon zelda plotpoint a secret, something that was resolved no problem in the end anyway (i didnt need zelda to stay dragon but .. it all just lost so much weight the way it was done at the end)

-- (added in edit) master koga is the best character and no one can beat him, the most joy i felt was seeing him again and i am not joking, i wish i could talk to him normally tho without him being able to see through my yiga disguise :( im so glad he didnt die tho bc if he actually went to gan he would 100% be dead within seconds

--(added in edit2) i forgot to mention but was just reminded that link getting his arm back felt super weird too, so really everything that meant major changes got reversed basically ... coool ...back to status quo i guess, couldnt he if he wasnt missing it at least have it be discolored somehow? or scarred? any reminder? zelda too even, could she also have some sort of scar or similar due to her transformation ??

--(added in edit2) so where did the mystery stones even come from? gans and zeldas are gone after dragonfying i guess so ...what?

so in summary, im not eloquent enough to properly analyse all the problematic/questionable stuff and put it into the right words, but these are my random thoughts just spilled out, theres gonna be things i missed, forgot, or gonna think about later, maybe ill add it maybe not

again take it with a grain of salt, the game is still one of the most fun games i have ever played, my problems with it lie majorly in the story, its still very much worth playing!

[veryace-ficrecs]

Zuko Fic Recs

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)

When in Doubt, Go to the Library by Returquoise - Rated T

"I am Wan Shi Tong, He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things, and this is my library, my domain," he answered instead, "Who are you, mortal?" The boy hesitated but answered, "I... was Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. My... the Fire Lord has banished me, with no recourse to return." aka Wan Shi Tong adopts Zuko AU

5 times Zuko called the Avatar Grandpa… by SeleneMoon - Rated G

...and 1 time Aang asked why Hopefully updating every two days.

hello moon, it's me by chaoticsandstorm - Rated M

"There a lot of things about Zuko that the servants ignore. He is half-way between skins now. He shed the old one and hasn’t grown into the new one, trapped between worlds and skins and identities. Some days he feels more like Li the war-child refugee than Zuko, the Fire Lord." Zuko attempts to lead his nation into peace, kicking and screaming in protest. He discovers what it means to survive a war- and a childhood- that no one ever wanted or expected him to.

Scriven Me Softly by SensationalSunburst - Rated G

“It’s a piece of history,” He argued and she was, as always, shocked at the rolling gravel that flowed quietly from his mouth, “We must preserve it.” And Mae, who’d spent hours scrubbing the ghost of bloodied fingerprints from her brushes and days willing the scratch of pen to paper to drown out the sound of the Fire Princess's wailing; had looked at the child clutching ruined parchment to his chest and suddenly understood like a punch to the jaw why Prince Iroh had to be physically restrained from murdering his brother in cold blood. Or The early days of Firelord Zuko's reign as described by his Royal Stenographer.

blade of silver, forge of blue by MikkiOfTheAnbu - Rated T

“Blessed Spirit, we thank you for the gift of this child’s life. We are forever in your debt.” The whole village is kneeling now, even the tiniest toddlers flopped down on their stomachs doing their best approximation of a bow. “Please, won’t you give us a name to call you? We would like to properly express our gratitude.” Oh. Well shit. (Where Zuko saves a little Earth Kingdom girl from drowning, the villagers think he's a Spirit, build him a shrine, and long story short, a fake story about the Blue Spirit who dances with dragons suddenly becomes very real.)

Perfection is Overrated by JaggedCliffs - Rated G

For his first thirteen years, Zuko was raised in a palace. And yet somehow, it's the three years outside the Fire Nation that seem to count more – at least to the palace staff, who act like he's been raised by fox-wolves. At first, this only annoys Zuko. Until he begins to think that the Fire Nation needs more than a formerly-banished prince.

What the Fire Lord did to his Son by hearmerory - Rated T

Toph knew the story. Every Earth Kingdom child did. About how the prince of the Fire Nation had been burned in front of an audience of hundreds, and then sent away to sail Earth Kingdom waters on a pointless search. The Earth Kingdom knew the kind of man the Fire Lord was. And Toph knew the kind of boy the Fire Prince had been.

The Cavern and the Koi Pond by Rosie447 - Rated G

The last thing Zuko remembered clearly was being on the bridge in the North Pole, and losing his grip on the railing with the sudden realization that offering mercy to the man who’d thrown fire at his back the last time he’d beaten him was perhaps not amongst his best ideas. Or, Zhao takes Zuko's hand and pulls. The Spirit World is not entirely sure what to do with the unexpected stowaway.

How to Make a Spirit Fox by DevinePhoenix - Rated G

Everyone is born with animal features, a reflection of the spirit animal that represents their soul. Zuko is born as a fox in a royal family of cats. Also at some point he impersonates a spirit so well no one believes him when he says that he's not.

put the weight on me by orphan_account - Rated T

“I think he’s sick.” Bato says flatly. “So unless you want the next meeting to include the Fire Lord puking all over the budget scrolls, maybe see if he's okay?” Hakoda glances up the hallway, like perhaps Katara will appear and take over dealing with the prickly teenager. Of course, his daughter is off treating injured refugees with the Avatar, and Bato is still staring at him expectantly, arms crossed. “Fine,” He sighs, and he claps Bato on the cheek before heading into the room. Or: Zuko falls ill not long after Ozai's defeat. Hakoda sits with him and learns some unpleasant truths about his childhood.

fulminate by entropy_muffin - Rated T

The sun sets on the Day of Black Sun. The coronation is held at dawn.

We Are All Doomed by renegade_of_theworld - Rated G

Palace staff has VERY bad timing... they think that Fire Lord Zuko will kill them all. Zuko doesn't know what is going on. OR Palace staff gossips. And it looks like Fire Lord Zuko is worse than Ozai.

things lost in the fire by earlgreylover98 - Rated G

The wanted poster had the scar on the wrong side.

Maybe he didn’t care enough to look at the poster before it got sent out. Or maybe, Ozai didn’t actually remember which side of his son’s face he had burned off all those years ago. Zuko wasn’t sure what was worse. Ozai had know which side the scar was on. He had to remember. Right?

In which Zuko isn't sure Ozai knows which side of his face he burnt off and it sends him spiraling.

[cdragons]

When the East Winds Blow

Stannis Baratheon x YiTish Second Wife!OC (who also doubles as a childhood friend)

Aka: A WOC fixes all of Westeros' bullshit with a magic flute and is about to whoop a bunch of old white men's asses with a slipper because they need it ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Next Part

Summary: 美灵 (Měilíng) was a young girl from the port city of Shenlong in Yi Ti when she learns that she is the only living child of 徐浩然 (Xú Hàorán), a cruel and powerful merchant in Wan, and takes her to Westeros to expand his company. Scared in a new land, her only companions are her trusty flute and memories of her mother's stories. But she will have a friend who will change her life forever, and she will do the same for him.

Warning(s): MDNI 18+; Domestic Abuse; Child Abuse; Cersei is the worst; Tywin is the worst; Robert is a pig; Měilíng's dad is like 40 years+ her mom's age, and the worst; the story is going to be written like those Ted Ed mythic videos; Robb and the Northern boys and the other OC don't show up for a lil' bit, but it's coming

Author's Note: Please read this post for reference. Exams and ADHD are kicking my ass, and I need a distraction. Please do not repost without my permission. I did not come up with the names for the Yi Ti regions; that credit belongs to the brilliant @anya-snow. If you are interested in the names' translations, it is at the bottom.

From the Beginning:

“As she entered the world and cried out in victory for her survival – the fearsome, dark clouds parted, and the sun’s feeble rays shone only to pool the delivery room as the gentle breeze brought by the sea welcomed Xīwángmǔ’s new child, and the small wind chimes and bells danced in its embrace.”

In the Shenlong province, a young girl gave birth to a young girl. However, the baby was exceptional. As she grew, she showed to have a very cunning mind. She has met thousands of foreigners daily since being born in a port town. Her proficiency in learning foreign tongues alone caught the attention of one of the oldest and wealthiest merchants in Wan. Měilíng did not have much, but she had her mother and her simple life by the docks, and that was enough for her.

Xu Hàorán, an aging but powerful merchant in Wan, was the most important port city in Yi Ti. The merchant was very old, and his wife had long died without giving him any children. At the news of the child’s birth, he ordered the child and her mother to be brought to his home.

After seeing the child’s face, it was clear that this was his daughter. Recalling the time he spent with a girl from a poor fishing family years ago, he realized that Měilíng was the product of that night. Overridden with joy at the idea of him finally having an heir, he immediately ordered Mei to begin her education as he locked her mother in a small, dark room.

Měilíng despised her father. Soon, it became years since she saw her mother, and she missed the lullabies she would sing to her. She would long to listen to the stories of the great water dragons that controlled the storms and the seas.

But still, she decided to continue her education. She showed much promise at a young age for business and trade. She had a keen eye for craftsmanship and a talent for linguistics. Her proficiency in learning foreign tongues made her a vital tool in expanding her father’s company across the Golden Empire to Essos and eventually to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

In return for how rich his daughter made him, Měilíng’s father granted Měilíng one visit to her mother. When the pair reunited, Měilíng’s mother gifted her beloved child a flute from the bones of a basilisk killed by the great Dragon King, who ruled the sky and its storms from his kingdom in the sea.

Because of how quickly she learned Westerosi’s Common Tongue, her father decided it was best to bring her with him on the voyage to Planky Town in Dorne, where he hoped to expand his trading route to the pockets of the high nobility.

On the seas, a cyclone headed directly to the ship Měilíng and her father were on, but only Měilíng was calm.

Taking out her bone flute, she played a simple but beautiful tune to the sky, and the cyclone disappeared, and the winds brought their ships to Dorne in half the expected time. Although this story was kept secret by the crew under strict oath of Hàorán’s orders, she was soon called “风子” or “Child of the Wind.”

“Bewitched were the Martell’s – for they have never seen such finery in all their years. ‘What luster! What radiance!’ they exclaimed. After rigorous negotiations that resulted in a broken vase and spilled wine by thrown glasses, a trade was brokered, and the Xu’s have planted their first flag in the West.”

After reaching Dorne, the Martells refused to meet with the foreign merchant. They believed that any goods his ships carried had long become spoiled and rotten from the sea voyage. But they were shocked to find the fruits fresh and ripe, the herbs and spices’ scents had not dulled, and the porcelain vases retained their glossiness and shine. But what caught their eye the most was how superior their silks were compared to their own. Their roughest bolt alone was far smoother than the Princesses’ finest dresses.

The silks and fruits caught the eyes of a young Princess, Elia Martell, and her younger brother, Prince Oberyn. Fascinated by the riches, their curiosity was peaked by the olive-skin-toned girl, who wore strange braids and smelled of the ocean and wind.

Elia asked Mei if Yi Ti was anything like Dorne. Měilíng replied that only one region in her country matched Dorne, and it was Ren. She wove tales of how the Renii managed to thrive in the deserts and become masters of magi and developing technology and medicine. Although Mei had never personally visited Ren, she told the Donrish princess and her brother all the stories of the province she could recall from her lessons and her mother.

Měilíng asked Elia if there was any magic or dragons in Dorne. Elia laughed in delight. She told the foreign girl that Dorne did not have dragons, but they had vipers with poison so potent that it would instantly kill a ten-foot man. The Seven Kingdoms' only dragons were underneath the Red Keep in King’s Landing. But they were all dead. But there was no magic. This disappointed Měilíng.

Elia asked if Měilíng knew anyone, and Měilíng replied that Elia was the first person in Westeros she had ever spoken to. Amazed by the girl’s fluency, Elia exclaimed that she and Měilíng would be best friends for the rest of their lives. Měilíng thought the young princess strange but agreed nonetheless.

Seeing her children make friends with the merchant’s daughter, Princess Lorenza was pleased to see the strange girl smile. But Hàorán was furious. Greed from his newly gained wealth made him paranoid, and he thought Měilíng was ridiculing him in the Common Tongue. He faked a smile before hurrying his sale to the mother so that he may properly punish his willful brat.

After purchasing their goods, the sewists in Sunspear immediately went to work producing the finest garments for the upcoming ball hosted in the Red Keep at King’s Landing.

Meanwhile, Hàorán grabbed Měilíng’s arm and dragged her to the ship. He locked her in her room and told her she would not have any food tonight. They would leave for Yi Ti after the Martells returned from King’s Landing.

“Silence swept across the hall when the heralds announced the arrival of House Martell. When Dorne’s ruler and her children arrived, a collective gasp was heard amidst the hushed keep – never had anyone seen such pure, unadulterated beauty before their eyes. Every young girl, hoping to catch the eye of Prince Rhaegar and hold his gaze, felt fury flush their bodies. But no other girl was more envious than the little Lioness of Casterly Rock. Cersei Lannister, daughter of the Hand to the King, had come in complete confidence that she would be the most beautiful girl in the Seven Kingdoms. But after gazing upon the young Elia Martell’s dress with silk-embroidered suns and stars, golden rings, and topaz diadems – she felt utterly and completely humiliated. She turned to her father to demand they go home, but his stern gaze made the spoilt and rotten girl stay silent in flushed shame.

Tywin Lannister was not faring any better. He had paid more than enough gold dragons to order the finest Dornish silks for his daughter’s dress – only to see it as a tacky, cheap counterfeit. But even he had to admit that Princess Elia Martell was the only girl whose beauty was worthy of watching the crown prince’s. Seeing how her father’s eyes were no longer on her, Cersei decided that she would do whatever it took for Elia Martell to die a miserable and painful death.”

Nobles crowded the Martells’ daughters and sons. They were driven mad with envy at their beauty– so rare to find silk so smooth and lustrous while remaining thick enough to keep away the chills in the evening sky as autumn chased summer away and winter was creeping on the Mad King’s doorstep.

One noble lady with embroidered turtles on her dress approached the Martell Princess. She was Lady Cassana Baratheon, nee Estermont. She begged her friend to tell her who gifted the princess with such luxury, and her friend revealed that her husband had brokered a deal with an old, wrinkled merchant from Yi Ti, along with his young daughter, who carried an old flute with her everywhere she went. She shared stories about how her little sun, Elia, was quickly won over by the foreign girl’s charms, and now they acted as close as sisters born from the same womb.

Cassana wished to know if they could invite the merchant to her home. She thought it would be cruel for such a sweet girl to be trapped on a boat with no companions.

“‘Oh, how wonderful it would be to have a girl around,’ thought Lady Cassana. ‘Robert has gotten too used to being so rowdy after being fostered in the Vale, and hopefully, the little merchant girl will straighten him out.’

Robert stood beside the table, its surface heavy with meats and sweet cakes. He was only ten years of age and had already managed to grasp the attention of every young man his age in the room. Her mind wandered off, thinking about her youngest son, Stannis, who locked himself away in the guest chambers after the Martells arrived—always studying, her youngest boy. Lady Baratheon adored her two boys, but she longed for the longest time to be blessed with a daughter. She thought if the Gods had blessed her and Steffon with a girl, she would help bring Stannis out of his walls and help reel Robert in. If what the Princess of Dorne had spoken true of this trader and his daughter, then Cassana had no doubt that she would make a truly excellent companion for her boys.

Back in Dorne, Měilíng scratched her ears. Had someone been talking about her? Was it the Dornish Ruler she met a few weeks ago? Perhaps Elia? Měilíng shook her head. Thinking someone would speak of her so much was a silly thought. She was only the daughter of a merchant who played the flute. Still, her ears burned as hot tears streamed down her cheeks. To forget her hunger, Měilíng brought her prized flute to her lips to ease her worries and blew to create a sweet but sad melody.

Back in the Red Keep, a young Stannis Baratheon had crept away from the banquet in the Great Hall. He despised crowded rooms, and Robert’s boisterous guffaws only added to his irritation. Once he entered his room, he opened the window and took out the book Maester Cressen lent him while packing for this trip. He had not begun reading it. But a stream of calm and soft notes entered his ear before he could read the title.

“A flute?” he thought to himself. He tried to remember the instruments played downstairs.

There were lyres, harps, and lutes. But there were no flutes. Stannis lifted his head and heard the sweet, silvery tune from the window. Book still in his hand, he decided it best to read his new book beside the window, where he could continue listening to the lovely melody. He glanced down at the book, finally reading the title.

The Golden Empire of Yi Ti”

Tagging: @asa-do-your-thing, @arcielee, @a-libra-writes, @aphroditesmoon, @valeskafics, @anya-snow, @dreaming-for-an-escape and anyone who wanted more of the worldbuilding of GOT are welcome!

Translations: Mandarin was used for YiTish bc author is Chinese

美灵 (Měilíng) - "美" means "beauty" and "灵" means "spirit or soul"; it can be translated as "beautiful spirit"

浩然 (Hàorán) - "浩" means "grand or vast" and "然" is a conjunction and the author will look further into it; it can be translated as "vastness or expansive"

徐 (Xú) - a common Chinese surname that became popular in the Zhou Dynasty and has multiple translations, but the author chose the translation of "slowly."

瑶池金母 (Xīwángmǔ) - "Queen Mother of the West"; the wife of the Jade Emperor and mother goddess in Chinese mythology

风子 (Fēng zi) - "风" is "wind" and "子" is for "child"; it can be translated as "child of the wind"

[cocogum]

How Qilby should’ve destroyed the World of Twelve 💖

(written by yours truly ✨)

Ngl here but Qilby did a bad job trying to destroy the World of Twelve and bring the eliatrope kids with him.

Since he’s gilf material, I decided I was gonna list everything he should’ve done in alphabetical order so that he’ll learn from his past mistakes and try again 🥰🥰

What he wants is: discover the Krosmoz with his brothers and sisters and rule the eliatrope race.

Okay got it, I can make this work 👍

So after a few plannings, I finally did a proper list sheet. Here’s what I recommend babes should’ve done ✨:

#1: Don’t bring Adamaï and Grougal in your lab.

Your ass is aware that Grougal only breaks shit on a constant basis so don’t bring him in your lab where thousands of creatures and experiments have helped the eliatrope race survive and thrive without their home planet. Also, don’t bring Adamaï either cuz that little ugly lizard’s gonna help too.

#2: Don’t convince Adamai and Grougal to go with you. Just kill them.

Adamaï is specifically related to a stubborn moron who yells half the time when he swings that sword so he’ll obviously won’t be swayed by your words. Instead, what you could do, is talk and let out all your thoughts to him so you could get it out of your system (cuz girlie deserves to vent for a bit ✨).

Then, after you’re done, just kill Adamaï and Grougal. Like that, all your venting would’ve just been actual venting instead of hearing an ugly ass lizard talk back and tell you how insane you are.

Plus, it’s not like you actually killed these two, they’ll just get reborn someday. Also, they won’t be able to destroy half your shit.

#3: Go to Rushu and give him access to the World of Twelve.

Now that you got rid of Adamaï and Grougal, go straight to the Shushu dimension and talk to the King, Rushu, in order to make a deal with him so he’ll be able to fuck shit up in the World of Twelve. (I know you’ve already done that, gorgeous but you didn’t do the first two steps).

Also, specifically tell Rushu to help him kill Phaerys. A baby dragon like Adamaï, even while being possessed by Anathar, wouldn’t do the trick. Besides, you already killed Adamaï so there’s no need for Anathar anyways.

#4: Separate Phaerys and Yugo.

Once Rushu accepts the deal, prepare the portal that will make him, and the rest of his shushus, able to go to the World of Twelve. Once everything is into motion and you guys are finally out of the Shushu dimension, you should immediately make Rushu fight Phaerys. He may be old and filled with experience but Rushu’s the demon king. The chances of him winning against Phaerys are high. Once Phaerys notices Rushu, he’ll expectedly throw Yugo to the side so they ‘could meet later’ when in reality Rushu would’ve been done with him. As soon as you’re alone, go straight for the Crimson Claws Island to search for your Dofus. Don’t waste time talking to Yugo just yet. You don’t owe Yugo anything, make him go to you instead.

#5: Get your backup Dofus and then kill Balthazar and the eliatrope children.

As soon as you get your backup dofus, you should immediately go to Emrub. Get rid of Balthazar, he’s too old and frail to fight back anyways and besides he’ll just get reborn with Glip someday. After that, kill all them kids. What are they gonna do? Tell their parents??

You should get rid of everyone in Emrub. There’s no point in trying to convince them to go with you, they’re literally stuck in a timeless dimension so it literally felt like they just got here after seeing their parents die because of you.

I know you don’t want to be alone pookie but this is the only way 💖

To truly start anew you should eradicate everyone that knew what you did, like starting a new page in your life. Yugo can come last since it’ll feel very good to see the one who sealed you off balling his eyes out when he’ll learned you killed the whole race (and his brothers).

But you don’t have to worry baby cuz you’ll just restart the eliatrope race all over again. You know everything so you remember how it even all started in the first place. You just need to get all the Eliatrope Dofus back now.

#6: Get all the other Eliatrope Dofus.

Now that you got your backup Dofus, and killed all the other eliatropes, along with Balthazar, you should leave Emrub and go back to Crimson Claws island so you can immediately start searching for the other Eliatrope Dofus. You can’t leave without them after all.

With the Eliacube in hand, you can just scan where the dofus are in the world and teleport to them.

After you found them all, you can put them in the Zinit.

#7: NOW you can beat the shit out of Yugo.

It’s always best to do what you have to do first before having fun!

That’s why you’ll feel so good and liberated once you fight Yugo back on the island 🥰🥰

You can now tell him everything you did to their people and what you’re planning on doing now.

By that time, Phaerys should’ve gooten K.O’d by Rushu so that only leaves Yugo to finish off.

Yugo will be expectedly furious and outraged by all the events that took place while he was trying to find you which will only fuel your fun to annihilate him.

Yugo will die from your hands in rage and sorrow and you’ll finally be able to leave everything behind.

#8: Leave.

Now that you fused with the Eliacube, found your backup Dofus, went to Emrub to kill Balthazar and the eliatrope children, made Rushu kill Phaerys, found the remaining eliatrope Dofus, and killed Yugo after messing with his head a bit, you can finally leave the World of Twelve with the dofus and Eliacube together.

By leaving the World of Twelve, you’ll drain its wakfu essence and kill the whole planet along with its people. This will also make you note the death of Chibi, making this his shortest life he has ever had in the history of the Krosmoz.

Now that every twelvian is gone, and you have the Eliatrope Dofus and the Eliacube, all that’s left to do is join your sister Shinonome and get reborn along with your other siblings. The process would turn out exactly like your first ever life except that you will drill into your siblings, and all the eliatropes after that, that eliatropes were ALWAYS traveling the Krosmoz and that they’re all travellers by nature. Yugo and Adamaï would believe your lies since they’re adventurers at heart and would gladly help you show new planets and worlds, Chibi and Grougaloragran would use those materials from different worlds and planets to make new technology. Mina and Phaerys would always be fixing the eliatropes’ conflicts and anger, Nora and Efrim will unawarely be supporting your ideals by spreading the encouragement to be free and have fun, making the eliatropes believe that being travellers IS what is free and fun. And since Glip and Balthazar are teachers and the ones who educate the eliatropes about the eliatrope race, they will spread more of your beliefs onto them, spreading your views all throughout the eliatropes and the future generations to come.

THIS is how you get to them.

THIS is how you get your perfect ending.

Don’t hesitate, don’t keep talking to them, even if your sister keeps telling you to stop cuz you bet ur ass she also wants to get out of her damn egg. Cuz WHO in their right mind would want to stay in a freaking EGG for all eternity????

Anyways here’s my take on what Qilby should’ve done back in season 2. Pookie needed a little help so I gave him a list for next time 🥰🥰

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep : I don't know the episode numbers anymore I never wrote them down, so from here on out, I'm just going to number up from my previous post. So I guess episode 49

Fun fact I finished this post a week ago and then never pressed send. I can blame this on a lot of things, (work, illness, brain fog, etc) but at this point we just know it's the universe trying to keep me from finishing S5 of my Yugioh reblog, lmao.

So, last we left off, Sad Seto was next to die.

What makes this extra weird is that the other Seto is going to just watch this entire thing happen. He apparently didn't have enough traumatic disassociating while watching his Blue Eyes Wife die, now he will disassociate from watching himself go out in a blaze of glory, too.

Sad Seto's strategy against Zorc is not really what you'd expect out of the #2 of Egypt's court. Although...I guess before everyone biffed it, Seto was more like #5? #6?

He's above Mana I feel. Barely. Mostly because Mana probably isn't the right age to legally work, even in ancient Egypt when the working age is like...if you can walk.

But he was apparently so busy doing Aknadin's taxes that he's decided it's good judgement to throw himself at a 800 ft tall dragon/crotch/man.

for his credit, Sun Tzu's art of war hasn't been written yet.

And Sad Seto realizes his true purpose, which is that he has a smarter, stronger, and more powerful girlfriend (ish.) Which is a running theme on this show, as we all know.

In a bizarre cut that I can't believe they left on US TV...other than I think they couldn't cut this any other way, the penis dragon attached to Zork extended it's neck up to grab Blue eyes by her neck and just fling her into the ground, killing her instantly.

I don't like that the neck can extend longer. I don't like that it's a function of the dragon crotch. They knew. They knew what this looked like. Thanks, I hate it.

Also what an embarrassing way for Seto's past self to die. Truly the hieroglyphs about this event will be wild, and thousands of years later, Grandma Muto probably looked at this event etched into stone and just thought it was weird ancient pervert stuff.

Sorry if you were thinking Sad Seto would recover last minute and realize he's like the most OP person in Yugioh. He instead rotted from his hand and joined the rest of our Egyptian cast in Shadow Hell.

Leaving us with just Mana. And like kudos to her, but how on EARTH did she survive so freakin long!? Like of all of them, I thought Seto would be the last one. Not Mana. Not in a million years did I think it'd be the girl who hid in a pot.

But youknow maybe that's why she survived?

And then Bakura casually walked away from the only Seto who matters. Which is fitting, because if memory serves, that's also what Yami did to Seto for like half of the Battle City tourney.

It's such a weird strange bod on this dragon. It's such a strange bod. He's both got kind of a belly, but also is ripped to shreds. Such a weird bod.

In case you were like "We haven't given Seto enough motivation," we also toss in a few nearly dead brothers just to make sure we have properly traumatized this boy to the point where he'd duel someone who isn't Yugi Muto.

Seto decided magic exists 6 minutes ago, and he's already better at magic than Yugi Muto who's had access to it for YEARS.

Like he learned about magic in a different culture, a different time, a different language, and now he's fighting the final boss.

But it's Seto, so I buy it. He would speedrun his life like this.

That's the dialogue of the show where he says his first words were "neutron blast attack" and youknow...he probably has very few memories of himself as a child since his parents died and his other family put him up for adoption...but he knows his first words?

That, or Seto likes making his brand a reality by making up whatever nonsense it takes to make that brand legit. Which I can also see him doing.

Also please don't look at this foreshortened hand, don't look at it, ignore that this happened.

So thanks to Bakura's weird choice to drag Seto into this universe in the first place, now Bakura has to fight Seto and his 3 blue eyes that would not have existed here otherwise.

++++++ME RANTING ABOUT THE SETO ARC FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++

TBH it kinda makes the whole Sad Seto arc feel kind of like it didn't need to exist. Like this is the Seto fight that matters. This one right here, and although they share a name, it's not with the same guy who fought Zorc at the beginning of this episode.

And like I could add it to a list of problems with this season. But Sad Seto started out so interesting, and then forgot. It was like he only existed to introduce the dragon, and not explain anything at all about the nature of Seto Kaiba we know and love. Like the possession of Aknadin can be a parallel to how Seto was raised following Gozaburo's footsteps, but youknow...that's all old territory.

Like, I wish I had any sort of new growth from the interaction of either of the Seto's together in the same room, much like we've been getting from Yami facing his past self. Yami's been growing a lot, he's been facing his demons, but Seto? Seto's been walking around this desert trying find wifi.

(which like he did find a "wifey" which is almost wifi but wasn't as helpful because she was dead)

The Seto Kaiba who is fighting Bakura right now, is the same exact guy we saw at the end of the last arc against Zeigfried Von Schroeder.

Which means the reason that Seto is now souped up and capable of going up against Bakura isn't because of anything we witnessed here in this arc, but because of the weird horse guy last arc who taught him how to put up a better firewall.

And maybe there was a draft where Seto decides he is a spiritual reincarnation of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Maybe there was a draft where he gained a new ability. Maybe there was a draft where he realized the gravity of what was happening and wanted to save the world.

But it ain't this draft, unfortunately.

Seto is here not because of an internal growth reason, but because he was on a tablet in S2, and we have to know where that plot thread went to have an ending...but the show rewrote what it initially said in S2.

Like in the OG timeline, it was Seto who killed Pharaoh. But here we found out it was actually Aknadin who possessed Seto to kill Pharaoh. (and at some point in that fight, Pharaoh stuck his soul in a box and sealed away Zorc)

Sad Seto was apparently a chill bro the entire time. Just a nice guy who arrested half of Cairo and had a sort-of-girlfriend for about 8 hours before she biffed it.

And I would have been OK with that, if it were more interesting than what we initially thought happened in the past: where we thought it was a kickass Seto launching a coup. But unfortunately, it's not, instead it's a boy who started out powerless, and continued to be powerless despite working in Pharaoh's literal court. He didn't even have the power to not get possessed.

And I am sure there were other drafts, and endings are hard, and the author did get hella hospitalized while he wrote this season, animation is a miracle of many moving parts and budgets, and we were lucky to even get an ending to this show. So I don't want to sound like I'm complaining when there are so many worse directions this show could have gone. I'm just a little surprised it went this direction, mostly.

But say what you will about Yugioh, it doesn't like to be predictable, doesn't it?

+++++++++++++++++++OK I'M DONE++++++++++++++++++++++

Speaking of characters who haven't gained anything from being here, Tristan is no longer possessed!

Tristan begs his apologies and Yugi takes it gracefully. Which means, it's time for the main character of this entire show to finally re-enter the plot.

And they do so, in style.

Y'all I remember being excited about the look and style of extreme sports, but I do not remember this many heelies in the 00's.

Anyway, this is the link to read these in chrono order, you know the drill. See you next time to see yet another girlfriend biff it!

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[sevenmerrymagpies]

I swear to god, I have not been this inspired by a fandom in so long. Instead of getting a few fics out of my system, the plot bunnies just breed.

My Stranger Things WIPs that are at least partially published: Steve's No Good, Terrible, Kinda Perfect Senior Year - Steddie Steve has powers AU. Last chapter and probable sequels. At least this one doesn't end on a cliffhanger.

Like Nostradamus with a Magic Eight Ball - Steddie, Eddie is 10/has powers AU. Last story in the trilogy. Mash up of season 3 and 4.

Everything I'll Ever Do I'll Do With You - Platonic Stobin become friends in season 1 AU. Last story in the trilogy. I've got a few bullet points and some vibes.

Robin and Mr. Wolf - Platonic Stobin, Steve is a werewolf. Generally more oneshots. I've got a few more planned including a potential cryptid road trip set after season 4 (Eddie may or may not be included IDK). One oneshot is nearly done.

The ones just hanging out in my WIP folder: One Week - Mrs. Hagan takes Steve home after his concussion at the end of season 2. Tommy & Carol & Steve feels. I'm nearly done with the first draft. [ETA: Posted]

Dragon Eddie - pre-HellcheerScoops, was part of a larger story that I'm not going to end up writing - I want to turn the actual premise into a professional novel and not fic - but there are a few scenes set during season 4 that I want to turn into a one shot. The rough is done, just needs to be edited.

Byers Dog in the Upside Down - What happened to the Byers dog from season 1? Did he get pulled into the Upside Down and turned into a good boy/monster? Does that monster befriend Eddie/Kas? Do they make it out of the Upside Down? Technically would be Steddie. All told from the dogs POV. All ridiculous. Nothing written expect for some bullet points. I could easily see this being a collection of short oneshots.

Changeling Robin - Robin is a changeling and doesn't know it. The Russians drugging her doesn't go well (for the Russians). No idea where it would go expect that Stobin would be telepathically linked. Potentially monstrous Steve too, not sure. I have a few thousand words written.

Ideas that have nothing else but a will to live: HellcheerScoops with accidentally a Dad Steve. This wouldn't mean Chrissy getting pregnant. It would be more like they all start hooking up before season 4, Chrissy and Eddie survive Vecna, in the aftermath Steve finds out he's a Dad. How can be be a parent and love two people at once? How does this messy stuff work now that the world is saved? Nothing more than a desire for more HellcheerScoops and Dad!Steve vibes.

10 years in the future fic, someone uncovers the Upside Down coverup. Suddenly everyone's pictures are on the front page of the NYT as child soldiers and heroes who saved the world from another dimension. How do people deal with the fallout now that the 24 hour news cycle is starting up? Second chances Steddie.

[targaryen-jpg]

like real people do — ch. 4

part four: lost on the labyrinth

part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight

pairing: aemond targaryen x tyrell!oc

summary: jacaerys velaryon finally visits court, and with him comes trouble.

notes: y'all let me know your thoughts!! my comments and ask are always open!! i'm so grateful people are actually enjoying this akjdshasj tw: knives, violence

adria left without looking back.

she couldn’t face him, couldn’t face what she’d done. what they’d done. 

the memory of him lingered on her lips, her neck, her waist. everwhere aemond touched left a spark that had dulled into a glowing ember.

when the royal party left the kingswood, adria took charge of jaehaerys and jaehaera, accompanying their septas rather than suffer the hour long ride with aemond. whether helaena suspected anything, she didn’t say. aegon was too hungover to care.

adria couldn’t let it go, no matter how desperately she wanted to.

she hated herself for not being able to look away from him, for wanting to touch him again – to have him touch her. she hated every thought of him that crossed her mind

barely a turn of the moon passed before it was announced vaemond velaryon wished to challenge the succession of driftmark. adria was disgusted — the sea snake was not even dead, and already people were attempting to challenge the legitimacy of prince lucerys. again. 

however, it also meant that she would finally see jacaerys for the first time since their betrothal. the thought that it had taken a political emergency for him to come to court was disquieting; was it a slight against her? the hightowers? adria truly didn’t know what to make of it.

on the day princess rhaenyra, prince daemon, and her children arrived, adria dressed in her finest gown. it was a deep blue-green silk, embroidered with foliage native to highgarden, as well as tiny dragons, intertwined amongst the roses. her maids weaved jewels into her hair that sparkled whenever they caught the light – deep blues, greens, and brilliant diamonds.

soon, it was time for the court to gather in the throne room, and for a moment, adria did not know where to go. to her betrothed and his family at the front? or family she had grown up with, standing to the side?

helaena, thank the gods, decided for her, clasping adria’s hand and leading her to where her brothers and mother stood. unfortunately, that forced adria to stand directly in front of aemond. 

he looked infuriatingly attractive. his leather tunic was polished to perfection, silvery hair falling over his shoulders in sheets as he stood at attention in the throne room. when she forced herself to look away, she didn’t see his gaze rake over her form, his hands flex in agitation.

she could barely focus as otto hightower climbed the steps to the iron throne. just the notion of how close he was was driving her mad – knowing he was right there. she wanted so badly to hold his hand.

her attention returned when the doors opened and the room went silent. the king had come – his back was hunched and his face half rotted, yet viserys targaryen dutifully made his way down the center aisle to his throne. he accepted help from no one until his crown clattered to the ground, and prince daemon was there to place it back on his head.

it seemed the matter would be settled when the king reaffirmed lucerys as the heir, but vaemond velaryon did not seemed keen to accept that answer.

“that. is no true velaryon,” vaemond’s voice echoed throughout the hall, and adria sucked in a breath.

the entire hall seemed to stop breathing as vaemond argued with the king – the king.

“my house has survived the doom and a thousand tribulations besides,” his voice was cutting, deadly, “and gods be damned, i will not see it ended on the account of this–”

his voice trailed off, and adria saw prince daemon smirk, “say it.”

her blood turned to ice – this was not going to end well for vaemond, end well for any of them if he did not stop. by calling in to question lucerys’ legitimacy, he was also questioning her betrothed. what would happen to her if jacaerys was declared illegitimate?

her heartbeat quickened.

“...her children… are bastards,” vaemond roared, “and she. is. a. whore.”

adria gasped along with the rest of the court, and then the king was standing up. one hand gripped his cane, the other a blade.

gods be good. 

viserys had barely spoken before a blade sliced clean through vaemond’s head, so quick adria barely had time to register before his body hit the ground. helaena covered her ears, adria stumbled back, and aemond shoved in front of them, hand on the hilt of his sword.

a smirk played across his lips and adria had the horrible thought that he was enjoying this.

———

a knock sounded at the door of adria’s chambers as she finished putting her earrings on, lovely diamond tear drops with sapphire accents.

“come in!’ adria called, not looking up from the mirror.

“prince jacaerys valeryon,” the guard called, and adria whipped around.

she straightened, then curtsied, “my prince.”

“my betrothed,” jacaerys smiled, warm and open, “i’m here to escort you to dinner.”

adria breathed a sigh of relief at his easy nature, then tentatively placed her hand on his outstretched arm, “i’m honored, my prince.”

“please,” he shook his head, “if we’re to be married, you must call me jace.”

they started down the corridor to the king and queen’s quarters. 

“jace,” adria tested the name on her tongue, “i’m glad to finally meet you.”

he tilted his head, questioning, “though — we have met before.”

“yes, my —” adria paused, “jace. but i like to believe i am a different girl than i was at three and ten.”

“you certainly are,” he mused, “you have grown infinitely more beautiful.”

adria smiled and looked away. this man was everything she could have asked for in a husband. he was kind, good-natured, and a perfect gentleman. he would be easy to fall in love with, adria surmised.

they were among the last to arrive, for when the doors opened and they were announced, the entire targaryen brood was already seated. adria thanked the gods that the last two seats open were in between prince lucerys and prince aegon. at least she wouldn’t have to suffer aemond’s presence, though aegon was hardly better.

jace pulled out her chair for her, and adria sat, smiling gratefully at the prince.

“my family,” viserys smiled sadly, surveying the group, “it brings me great happiness to see all of you gathered here. though, it saddens me that it has been so long. let us toast – to family. and to the soon-to-be members of it.”

he nodded at rhaena, lucerys’ betrothed, then adria, a smile ghosting his thin lips.

cups were raised, wine was drunk, and a lively tune filled the room.

“will you dance with me, lady adria?” jace whispered, offering his band.

she nodded, and then he was leading her into the center of the room. the dance was was an intricate one, filled with lots of spinning and changing arms and hopping until adria was laughing, out of breath.

the king left, and with him went the civility that existed between the two sides of the family. adria could see the shift, watching out of the corner of her eye as she spun out, then back into jace’s arms.

her back was against his chest, hands holding his, when aemond’s hand slammed against the table and he stood.

both she and jace dropped their arms, moving apart to stare at the prince.

“to the health of my nephews,” he said, his voice soft, “jace. luke. and joffrey. each of the handsome, wise…”

the room was so silent adria could feel the thumping of jacaerys’ heart next to her.

“...strong.”

alicent was quick to react, “aemond.” 

but she could not stop what had already begun, “let us drain our cups to these three, strong boys.”

aegon lifted his cup, grinning, and adria shot him a cutting glance.

“i dare you to say that again,” jace said from behind her, and adria’s heart sank. there was no stopping this now.

“why? ‘twas only a compliment.”

“aemond, stop this,” adria demanded, a flush rising in anger.

“you don’t want a strong husband, adria?”

then jace was rushing past her, landing a blow against aemod’s cheek. aegon moved fast, slamming lucerys’ face against the table, holding him by the neck. the two brothers grinned at each other.

rhaenyra and alicent both shouted at their sons, but aemond shoved jace to the ground.

anger filled her veins and before she could think better of it, adria slapped aemond as hard as she could. the resounding crack echoed throughout the room, and everyone turned to see the source of the noise. adria was panting, hand still raised, gaze locked onto aemond’s.

fuck.

aemond slowly reached a hand up to feel the redness that was beginning to form, “you just assaulted a prince.”

“i did.”

“that is an offense punishable by death.”

“and i would do it again,” she sneered, “you pathetic excuse for a man.”

jacaerys was up, rushing at aemond but a guard grabbed him before they could each other. another pulled aegon off of lucerys, holding the two captive as the queen rushed forward

“go to your chambers,” princess rhaenyra was saying to her sons, “now.”

blood was pounding in adria’s ears as she stared at aemond, who stared right back at her.

“i was merely expressing how proud i am of my family – though, it seems they aren’t quite so proud of theirs,” he called to jace, taunting.

before either of them could make a move, prince daemon was stepping between them. it took only a look for the two boys to relent, stepping back.

queen alicent pulled adria away from them and whispered, “back to your chambers.”

oddly enough, she didn’t seem upset that adria had just assaulted her son. perhaps she agreed that he deserved it.

adria did as she was told, leaving before she did anything else stupid.

but as she started down the corridor, willing her anger away, aemond was leaving too.

seven hells. 

she increased her pace, but he was quicker, grabbing her by the elbow and tugging her around a turn. her back slammed against the wall, so hard she gasped at the pain. 

aemond’s face was right above hers, but his gaze was cold, “you embarrassed me.”

“you embarrassed yourself,” adria spat, wiggling to get free, but aemond held her arms to the wall, pinned to her sides, “let me go, you craven. afraid you’ll get hit by a girl again?”

he growled, and one of his hands let go. but before she could move, a knife was against her throat. the blade was curved, with jewels embedded in the elaborate handle. the sharp edge was cold against her skin.

she froze, but willed herself not to feel any fear. instead, she lifted her chin, narrowing her eyes at him, “go ahead. do it.”

she knew he wouldn’t. nevermind the political implications, he would never hurt his sister like that.

he seethed, pressing the knife in harder, “i should. you’re a traitor to the realm.”

“and you are the king’s justice now?” she gave a short, mirthless laugh, “aegon is not the king.”

“he will be,” aemond growled, “and when he is, i’ll see jacaerys velaryon’s head put on a spike first.”

he pulled the knife back and sheathed it without a word, stalking down the hallway. adria remained paralyzed, glued to the wall.

her hand felt the column of her throat, where the memory of aemond’s knife still stayed. when she pulled it away, a drop of blood clung to her finger.

next part ->

taglist: @bubblebuttwade @kittykylax @​​fix5idiots @signyvenetia @stillinracooncity @queenofshinigamis @criesinsagitarius

[evolutionsvoid]

The species is referred to as the "Longmen Dragonfish," with some just sticking with "Longmen" or "Longmen Fish." Indeed, many of the locals call it "Dragonfish," which always gets people wondering why the species isn't just called that. To further the point, the Longmen Dragonfish is only called its full name by researchers and outsiders who come and visit the region, so thus raises the question of why the locals don't get to name their own species. Well, the answer comes in a couple parts. First off, the locals did get to name the species, as that is where the name "Longmen" comes from. Second, species with long names very rarely ever get their full names said out loud by anyone else besides researchers and the occasional tourist, so just because someone shortens it doesn't mean that is how it should be. I mean, have you heard anyone else besides me say the name "Great Mottled Caecilian?" Because I sure haven't, but that is its name! And thirdly, do you have any idea how many "dragonfish" are out there in the world?! We can't just call this species "dragonfish" because it would confuse so many other people from different regions. Turns out, almost every region on this planet has its own dragonfish, which they just simply call dragonfish. So you see why we can't use that simplified name? And if any idiot out there thinks we should just pick one of the many and declare that the real deal dragonfish, I suggest they personally visit every culture that has one and try to tell them their beloved species is not a "real" dragonfish and that this other one on the other side of the world is the authentic one. Best of luck to you on that!

The Longmen Dragonfish is incredible species of fish that is found out east, spending most of their lives in saltwater. This may come to a shock to some folk, who only know this species from their legendary migrations up river. With all the images and stories of them in freshwater, people assume they are always in lakes and rivers. This is not true, but I can understand the confusion. While the Longmen spends most of its adult years in the deep sea, very few people actually ever see them there. That is because their feeding grounds are far off and rather deep, thus they are not often caught. It is only when they pack the rivers and waterways that we see them and decide to immortalize their journey in art and folklore. However, we can't get to that yet! Possibly another reason why people don't think of them much as saltwater fish is because even if someone did catch one far out in sea, they would never think to call it a "dragonfish." They aren't exactly something you would equate with the elegant and powerful nature of a dragon. Dull red scales, a thick pudgy body, nubby "horns" and a face more befitting a carp. Show most folk this fish, and they would think it nothing more than just another bottom feeder. This is what the majority of Longmen look like, swimming through the depths for small fish, critters and plankton to feed on. If this was their entire life, well, this wouldn't be much of an entry! Like I mentioned before, there is a time when they go to freshwater. Or more specifically, a time when they return to it.

When a Longmen Dragonfish reaches maturity, it will get the drive to head towards shore and seek out the freshwater rivers that dump into it. They know how to find these waterways because these freshwater streams are where they were born, and where they exited from when heading out to sea. Now they hear the call to return to their waters of birth, and the Longmen heed it. They arrive in force, rushing towards the rivers in the thousands. As they encounter the drop in salinity when they get close to where the rivers meet the sea, they undergo changes to survive the transition from saltwater to freshwater. Their bodies grow stronger to handle the coming journey and their scales brighten in color. When the Longmen come home, every being in the region knows it. The rivers are packed to the shores with their squirming, jumping bodies. Some folk claim there are so many of them that you could walk across a river on their backs. You could watch this journey and swear the river had turned from blue to red, as there seems to be more scales than actual water. This desire to return home and breed, however, is not an easy one. There are plenty of obstacles in the way, be it rocks, waterfalls or hungry predators. The rivers they travel are treacherous, fierce currents, roaring waterfalls and jagged stone. The Longmen care not about these things, as they simply swim as hard as they can and jump as high as they can whenever the situation calls for it. They will push against the strongest of currents and leap up powerful waterfalls without a single care, because all that matters is making it to the end. Each obstacle will claim a chunk of the swarm, but with such numbers, it hardly seems to matter. Even when every meat eating animal in the region comes rushing to these rivers for an easy meal, the Longmen swim on. While some species believe in "safety in numbers" the Longmen believe "better odds in numbers," as each individual hopes that there are enough others amongst them that the hungry hordes will take them instead.   

No matter the losses or the obstacles, the Longmen Dragonfish press on. Their journey goes on for miles on end, seeking to reach the innermost waters of the land. They want to make it there because the further inland lakes and rivers have less predators and competition, which makes for better odds for their young. So they seek to get as far as they can, no matter the cost. If you were to follow their journey and see the individuals as they get further along, you would swear that they are changing. The scales are brighter, that is for sure, but their bodies are different too. Their snouts appear to elongate, their chubby forms becoming more serpentine. Collect the dead ones from along the rivers and compare them to those further inland. You will see that this is true! Their bodies are still changing as they migrate and brave the hostile waters. This change makes them stronger and faster, which is good for avoiding toothy jaws, hungry claws and leaping over impossible rocks and falls. However, it comes with a cost. The Longmen work their bodies into overdrive, and sooner or later their flesh cannot continue. Their energy fades and their muscles give out, and many will not finish the journey. Where ever they fall, they release their eggs and sperm, hoping that at least something survives from this sacrifice. If they made it a good distance in, there is a chance some young may survive, but the real good odds are at the very end of this insane trek.

Of the millions of Longmen born with each run, only a meager percentage will make it to adulthood. And of those thousands who take the journey on their own run, a similarly low percentage of them make it to the spawning waters. They will reach their destination exhausted and dying, but it will all be worth it. Here they will spawn, releasing eggs and sperm. These waters that are barricaded off by waterfalls and fierce currents means that their young have less competition with other fish and creatures, and thus a higher chance for survival. Once this act is done, so are the Longmen. With their next generation secured, they finally let their bodies give out, and the whole lot of them perish. Rivers and lakes once filled with vigorous and eager life are now graveyards, with countless fish corpses drifting about. There is a bit of tragedy to this, to see so much death, but the local wildlife would scoff at our mourning. For them, this is the last feast of the season, and they happily partake and eat their fill. The life that was once born in these waters has returned, and here is the final resting place for them. 

But not for all...

For almost all Longmen Dragonfish, the lakes and rivers that sit at the foot of great mountains are the end goal of their entire lives. They prepared during their youth to gain the strength to make it here, and sacrificed everything to reach these shores. Well over ninety percent of them will die here content, with their young laid and ready to be born into the world. But there seems to be a rare few that don't stop here. While the others rest in these waters and begin to spawn, there is a small school of Longmen that will not pause in their journey. Instead, they seek a different haven for their young. But that is behind one last obstacle. In many of the spawning grounds of the Longmen, there is a great waterfall coming off the mountain that feeds into it. Towering in height and intimidating in its fierceness, it is an opponent no fish would ever dare challenge. And yet some do. We currently don't know what drives some of these Longmen to attempt this obstacle, if it has to do with health or energy, or if it is predestined amongst them. Perhaps something in their lineage calls for them to dare the impossible. These fish will throw themselves at these great falls, again and again as they seek to climb its roaring currents. It is no easy task, and many will fall. They will give up and return to the great spawning to spread their young there. But, against all odds, some will succeed and make it to the very top. They will climb and fight onward, leaving most of their brethren behind, and they will find a different kind of spawning ground at the end of it all. A tranquil lake awaits them, a sacred pool of water atop the mountain, where few others can reach them. Here is where they shall lay their eggs and spread their seed. Here is where they finally stop to rest. But even then, it isn't the end. Many Longmen die on this journey back home, but those who reach these sacred pools will not. They have a new purpose.

Though their bodies exhausted and energy depleted, something about these mountain lakes keep them alive. Perhaps the water quality, or the temperature or some factor we haven't figured out yet. Or maybe because they aren't alone here. Though they are weak, they are safe, as these waters are protected. Great serpentine forms swimming around them, warding off any predators that would try to finish the job. A current theory is that these great fish are what keep the newcomers alive, maybe releasing some kind of trigger to keep them going and to encourage their final transformation. Their size grows, their horns sharpen and their bodies turn long and powerful. Scales harden into armor and the snout of a carp becomes that of a great beast. Here, upon the mountain, the simple fish from the sea becomes a dragon.

What survives in these mountain pools is what people mean when they say "dragonfish." They very much look the part! Long serpentine bodies, with gorgeous scales, a fierce toothy snout and elegant whiskers! In these lakes, the Longmen feed and regain their strength, while also protecting their eggs and young from predators. While the others down below leave their young to chance once they perish, these ones stick around to guard them. Not only that, but they seek to protect all. Those that become these true Longmen Dragonfish will be in these waters during the whole run, swimming alongside their smaller brethren and protecting the hordes the best they can. Predators who swoop in for an easy meal may find themselves on the menu instead, when the frothing waters burst forth and a great fish lunges out and seizes them in its jaws. Okay, "protection" may seem like a strong word, as these dragon adults are actually preying on the animals that come to feed on Longmen, but the end result is still the same! They stalk the rivers and lakes during the run and feed on whatever is lured into the feast. And as the run comes to an end, they make for that tranquil mountain pool to await the new arrivals. Those that make it shall join the breeding stock, as both the transformed and non lay their eggs and seed. They then remain in this lake, watching over their young until they are ready to depart to the ocean. The Longmen Dragonfish will escort them down the river, once again feeding on anything that dares threaten their young. When the freshwater meets the salt, the adults break off and the young vanish into the deep. The guardians have done their job for this season, and return to their life in freshwater. 

For these special adults, the locals tend to call them "ascended." Not "adult Longmen" but "ascended Longmen." These ones spend the rest of their lives in freshwater, living a more predatory lifestyle, going after larger prey. Their jaws are long and powerful, perfect for snaring and crushing prey. Their scales are like metal armor, warding off claws and even blades! Along their bellies are special sacs that they can inflate with a gas they produce, which lightens their weight when they leap from the water. By swelling these up as they jump from the water with their powerful tails, you would swear they could fly! Such height! Such grace! They practically hang in the air and slowly come crashing back down to the surface. While it isn't true flight, it is perfect for leaping over waterfalls in a single bound or even jumping across land to reach new water bodies! It allows them to master what the smaller ones struggle to overcome, which makes them effective guardians when the run is underway. The run is not a challenge for them anymore, it is simply a part of their life now. They forever swim these waterways to devour those who would harm their kind and ensure their species continues on.  

First off, anything with the name "Dragonfish" is already guaranteed to make an impact with the local culture. Add to that this incredible migration and tale of perseverance? Why, the metaphors and legends write themselves! The Longmen Dragonfish is the star of many myths and stories, of the simple carp that became a dragon. Their ascended forms are seen with awe and gather great respect. The runs themselves are times of festivities and excited observation. Folk will line up along the river to watch the horde of them swim through! In many areas, the fishing and taking of live running Longmen is forbidden, as it is interfering with this sacred migration. Those that fall or perish naturally may be collected, and you will find many folk sifting through the countless dead. While mounds of dead fish sound like a free dinner, most folk don't eat them. Rather, the scales may be ground up for medicine or other purposes, while the flesh is turned to fertilizer. I feel there is something poetic there, of returning them to the earth, nourishing the environment they were born in! The fishing or harming of an ascended Longmen is strictly forbidden, which frustrates trophy fisherman to no end. Sadly, this does not mean that this species is perfectly safe. 

When you have something so big and legendary as an ascended Longmen Dragonfish, people are going to develop an interest. Many rich nobles and high class members of society see them as symbols of royalty and power, and thus want a part of these fish for themselves. Some have tried to keep them in massive aquariums, as incredible displays in their collection. However, most of these fare poorly in captivity, as they need a huge amount of space and a whole lot of food. Even those that survive and are given these things are noticeably smaller then their wild brethren. When legends say that a single scale of an ascended Longmen will bring you luck and protection, then a whole lot of folk will try to make armor and amulets from them, which means poaching. Killing of these fish for their valuable parts is not uncommon, nor is collecting their young to sell in the pet trade. It is not a pretty thing. Even worse still, the sacred mountain lakes they transform in once became the obsession to many, who thought these waters had healing properties or could bestow a number of blessings onto those who bathed in it. Suddenly, many of these sites became spas and highly fought over property, which dealt a devastating blow to the Longmen population. Thankfully, though, smarter minds prevailed and realized their beloved icon was going to perish because of this. These spas and opulent water front properties were seized and turned into shrines, and the waters were restored to nature. Efforts to help boost the Longmen populations back up were a success, and that old injury has almost completely faded! Now these pools are under protection, but you can still visit them and marvel at the great fish that swim in them. They do have some fountains and small pools that folks can dip their fingers into to get a bit of that blessed shrine water. Obviously, fish-filled water doesn't provide special healing and stuff like that. And obviously I still partook in some anyway! I mean, you still got to test your theories!      

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Longmen Dragonfish"

Back at it with the dragons! Except now fish!

[meganwasbored]

The Dragon Prince Thoughts Season 3 Episode 9

-THIS IS IT

-wait does he actually have to paint the symbols on his arms to get the spell to work or is he just trying stuff because if he does does that mean that ibis has them tattooed on his arms or something? that made no sense i should probably watch more than 5 seconds before i start making stuff up

-WAS HE ABOUT TO SAY I LOVE YOU

-soren’s character development from season 1 to now is incredible i went from being slightly annoyed by him to loving every second he’s on screen

-is it just me or is aaravos’s snake form thing longer than it was last episode

-OMG CALLUMS TRANSLATING I JUST REMEMBERED GREN ISNT HERE WHERE IS HE

-won’t they all die on the way up because of the air or does their demon form change that

-THE LAST DRAGON GUARD

-wait why is callum down here i thought the plan was for him to stay near the top to pick them off on their way up

-SERIOUSLY WHO IS THIS GUY

-claudia carrying the whole army rn

-NOOOOO NOT THE DRAGONS

-IDC IF HES THE KING HES STILL A CHILD GET EZRAN OUT OF THERE

-“it’s going to be okay, wee fella” not when the thousands of demon soldiers burst through that doorway

-ok so the rainbow lighting did nothing but at least it was pretty

-THERE ISNT A SINGLE PERSON WITH CALLUM???? THEY LITERALLY JUST DROPPED HIM OFF LIKE “YOURE ON YOUR OWN KID SEE YOU IF YOU SURVIVE”

-everyone could just swarm kasef and claudia for a second and it would solve 90% of our problems

-callum why do still you have your emotional support sketchbook on you in battle i feel like that’s just slowing you down buddy

-AANYA WHERE DID YOU COME FROM

-THE MOST ICONIC CHARACTER AND I MEAN THAT MY QUEENNNN

-IM SPEECHLESS OMG

-I CAME HERE FOR RAYLLUM BUT I STAYED FOR THE BROYALS

-CRYINGGGGGG GREN AND AMAYA BACK AGAIN I FORGOT HE PROBABLY THOUGHT SHE WAS DEAD SINCE THE VOLCANO

-SKBAIFBEODBDOSNDOSJWLWHAODH

-THE ELVES BOWING TO EZRAN

-EZRAN THE BATTLE LITERALLY JUST ENDED YOU CANT JUST RUN OFF ON YOUR OWN LIKE THAT

-WHAY WAS VIREN HIDING UNDER A BLANKET AND WHY WAS CLAUDIA WALKING AWAY FROM HIM WHAT IS GOING ON

-NO WORDS THIS IS TRULY SORENS EPISODE

-THE AMOUNT OF SOUL CRUSHING TRAUMA HE JUST WENT THROUGH IN THE PAST HOUR

-THIS ONLY TERRIFIES ME BECAUSE I ALREADY KNOW HES GONNA SURVIVE SO WHAT HORRIBLE THING IS CLAUDIA GONNA DO TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN

-ALSO SOMEONE LITERALLY JUST GOT STABBED RIGHT BEFORE EZRANS EYES POOR BABY

-SHUT UP HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT COMING

-HOW DID HE GET UP THERE

-RAYLA IS IN THE EXACT SAME POSITION HER PARENTS WERE IN THIS SPOT I DONT LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING

-HARVEST????? CONSUME??????

-BAIT OMG

-IM SO DUMB HER PARENTS ARE COINS LIKE RUNAAN ARENT THEY

-I HATE THIS I HATE THIS I HATE THIS

-I WENT INTO THIS THINKING I ALREADY KNEW MOSTLY EVERYTHING THAT WAS GONNA HAPPEN AND I WAS SO SO WRONG

-BAITS FACE WHEN RAYLA CALLED HIM A HERO

-PUT ZYM DOWN RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I WILL KILL YOU THROUGH THE SCREEN

-OKAY I KNOW SHES GONNA SURVIVE THIS AND YOU KNOW SHES GONNA SURVIVE THIS BUT SHE DOESNT KNOW SHES GONNA SURVIVE THIS WHICH MEANS SHE JUST SACRIFICED HER LIFE FOR THAT DRAGON

-THE FACT THAT HE DIDNT EVEN THINK TWICE ABOUT JUMPING AFTER HER

-pause can we talk about how strong rayla is to hold herself up like that i’d be dead

-this is the one time the “we beat the unbeatable villain through ✨the power of love✨” trope is acceptable

-this is awesome and all and i’m loving every second of it but why are we acting like everything is okay it’s not claudia is still out there with a super powerful staff that could destroy that whole cave with all of you in it if she gets up there

-also i can’t be that only one who doesn’t see the point of this baker like i feel like they just put him here because they can he serves literally no purpose

-wow very convenient of you to wake up right after the battle is over it’s not like you couldve been a huge life saving help anyway😐

-ZYM IS LITERALLY THE SIZE OF THE QUEENS EYEBALL I CANT

-i’m sorry i still can’t get over the fact that the dragons can talk i don’t know how to feel about it

-claudia’s hair is now half white i don’t like this

-if aaravos hatches out of that cocoon i’m gonna lose my freaking mind

-my word that was a lot

-you’re telling me y’all had to wait 3 YEARS after this cliffhanger for season 4???? i’m suddenly very glad i didn’t start watching until now i don’t think i could’ve handled that

[hawkepockets]

GW2 CHARACTER PAGE

In Game

Thief

Pepiya PEP-ee-yuh

she/him 🪼 45 🪼 daredevil/deadeye/specter

Pact Commander, Statics graduate, ex-Priory tomb raider. Earnest, dry, authoritative, occasionally vindictive, always compassionate, out of touch with civilian social cues. Control freak. Dabbles in Void magic.

Romances: Tarakk & @pyroengi’s Teek.

Voice claim: Colleen O’Shaughnessey (F!asura, GW2)

Necromancer

Toxinologist Tarakk tuh-RACK

he/him 🕷️ 50 🕷️ harbinger

Gorrik & Ankka’s old Inquest mentor. Expert at synthesizing venoms, loves spiders. Narcoleptic & low in life force since a lab “accident” (sabotage) in 1326. Absentminded, compassionate, intense, exists at the intersection of dad jokes & professor humor.

Co-created with @antariies.

Romance: Pepa

Voice claim: Steve Staley (M!asura, GW2)

Mesmers

Prem Ikarion PREM ih-CARE-ee-in

he/him 🐒 32 🐒 martial artist (mirage)

Born a Zephyrite with a knack for disguise glamours, in a happier timeline Prem kept faith with his people and grew into a splendid champion of Vlast. In this one, he went wrong at every turn. Once Anise’s Second Blade/favorite brainwashed goon, now an exile from the Reach, emptied of magic, and half-corrupted by an oni. But he stays silly.

In @antariies’s canon, Harley’s childhood best friend turned worst enemy turned weird boybestie again (homoerotic).

Romances: Canach, Rama

Voice claim: Nolan North (M!human, GW2 • Nathan Drake, Uncharted)

Oumeko OOH-may-koe

she/her 🦋 ?? 🦋 chronomancer

A mild-mannered office worker turned magical girl in the fractals. Oumeko was the Captain’s Council’s receptionist when Scarlet and the Aetherblades attacked Lion’s Arch, levelling Oume’s neighborhood and killing her elderly parents in their home. Oume didn’t know what got into her that inspired her to leave a notice on her desk and hunt Mai Trin into the Mists like an animal, but she did, and after she sabotaged the Aetherblades’ Mist engine, she got stuck in unreality right along with them.

Oume has been making her way through thousands of permutations of Tyrian history and her own memories in the wild fractals. At first she looked singlemindedly for a way out, but now, after who knows how many years and loops, she’s become infatuated with Dessa, the voice on the PA system that’s guided and joked with her, maybe the only other real (real?) person in the fractals. Oume doesn’t know if she’s even the original copy of herself anymore, much less if she’d survive an exit to alpha Tyria—if she could even find one. But even if she could, she wouldn’t go without Dessa and Arkk. And the more times Oume resets the fractals to try to save them, the more time and Mist energy she builds up, until the fractals start to recognize Dessa as their purpose and center, and Oumeko as their mad, shortsighted architect.

Romance: Dessa?

Voice claim: Undecided!

Engineer

Dara Ikarion DAR-uh ih-CARE-ee-in

she/her 🐅 24 🐅 scrapper

Prem’s kid sister, Zephyrite airship engineer & inventor, Claw of Aurene. At 16, Dara survived the Zephyr Sanctum crash and chased after Aerin and the Master of Peace, intent on saving whatever the Master protected. Her hero complex and teenage delusion of invincibility drove her deep into the jungle, where she rocketed past Faolain, Caithe, Ruka, and Commander Pepiya to claim the egg for herself and the Zephyrite people. In that first moment of psychic contact with the unborn baby Aurene, Dara’s young mind was overwhelmed by raw magic and existential terror, forging an invasive, twisted bond between her and the baby dragon and leaving Dara nonverbal, magic-sensitive, and wilder than before. Reckoning with that trauma and Aurene’s ability to take over Dara’s body took years, but now their closeness is a point of pride, not a cause of horror. Dara is happy to call herself Aurene’s Claw. Intense, contrary, bright. ROCKET PUNCH‼️ YIAH‼️

Romance: Yao

Voice claim: Brenda Song (London Tipton, Zach & Cody • Caitlyn, The Quarry • Anne Boonchuy, Amphibia)

Ranger

Droseira j-roe-SEE-ruh

she/her 🌸 secondborn 🌸 all specs

A devotee of the Church of the Dream (created by @mystery-salad). A sickly sweet stickler for the rules of the Grove. Executes any spider, thornbush, fern hound, or sylvari touched by Nightmare. Jealous of Valiants who were given a purpose in their Dreams, she created a Wyld Hunt for herself: make the sylvari into an army of light that can cleanse the whole world of evil. And she finds she likes the taste of shed sap. Obsessed with Achi. Does not work with flesh and blood animals, because they’re impure. Weirdo.

Romance: —

Voice claim: Daisy Haggard (Mum, Hilda)

Warrior

Acheloe ACK-uh-LO-wee

she/they/it 🪲 15 🪲 bladesworn

Dragon’s Watch guildie, Pale Reaver. A Valiant who’s been given an endless series of mucky, ugly, tedious, small, and seemingly suicidal Wyld Hunts since her awakening. Four-armed, winged, and oddly jointed, Achi has evolved to look more and more like an unkillable insect, the more dangerous & degrading jobs they’ve survived. Caledon sylvari consider her a bad omen. Her latest Hunt, the first she’s ever resisted, is to die for the Commander. Her luckier podtwin, Boru, died in Maguuma. Solemn, prickly, devoted.

Romance: @wyldblunt’s Damage

Voice claim: Ben Prendergast (Patroclus, Hades)

Elementalist

Cirrus Kitetail SEE-rus KITE-tail

she/her ☁️ 33 ☁️ hammer weaver

Dragon’s Watch guildie, Zephyrite. Born Decima (“Deck”) Whiptail of Iron Legion, she was piloting a copter in a tryout for her grandmother’s airborne warband in 1320 on the day Kralkatorrik flew over. The copters lost power in the arcane storm, but she kept hers aloft with her air elementalism, which she’d always hidden in the fahrar, and brought herself and her grandmother Tenar Kitewing safely down on the far side of the newly formed Brandscar. Tenar granted her the honorary warband name Kitetail, and they wandered northern Elona together, struggling to survive and find a way back to their Legion, or failing that, a new home & purpose in Elona. The Zephyrites were the answer. When the Zephyr Fleet was able to offer passage back to Ascalon years later, Tenar and her granddaughter, now called Cirrus, refused, having fallen in love with their new people. Cirrus joined Dragon’s Watch after the Dry Top crash. Bubbly, combative, short attention span.

Romance: —

Voice claim: Mara Junot (Nyoka, The Outer Worlds)

Guardian

Razan Meziani ruh-ZAHN mez-ee-AH-nee

she/her 🌞 229 🌞 willbender

A rebel Sunspear inspired by Twilight Oasis. Formerly a cheerleader for the Sunspear Order, infatuated with Amala, until a series of atrocities during the invasion of Istan convinced her Elona belonged to Joko already. The lich king promised she could “have” Amala, once Amala had sworn fealty to him, but neglected to mention they’d both be Awakened first. Raz originally developed her fighting style to help support the Sunspears’ legendary dervishes by specializing in their weak points, but after turning coat she became Joko’s favorite dervish hunter, an expert at reading their footwork, getting inside their guard, and breaking their divine channels with brutal stuns.

Romances: Amala…????

Voice claim: Mallorie Rodak (Frieren, English dub of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)

Revenant

Kishi Genji KISH-ee GEN-jee

he/him 🦢 mid 30s 🦢 vindicator

An affable mid-ranking Canthan noble of Kurzick descent, whose family had mostly fallen out of favor with Ihn’s court until Genji started talking to an echo of Saint Viktor and channeling his power.

An arranged marriage was set up with Onasis Ai, a noble of Luxon blood who was in touch with Archemorus. Though they didn’t choose each other, Ai and Genji have become best friends and devoted partners—but are unsure whether pursuing an actual romance is something they want, or just a pressure from their families, class, and the ancient lovers’ voices in their heads.

They’re both lavished and threatened with the court’s attention as a result of their magic, auspicious marriage, and developing combat skills, but they have a secret that threatens their status far more than any previous generation’s unwise investments or misplaced courtly alliances… their very young daughter Himiko has started talking about an imaginary friend she calls the Guard Man, who follows her around wearing old timey armor and dragging his swords along the floor, and gives her the power to petrify her parents with a frustrated wail, and turn small objects into jade.

Urgent pacifist and law-abider, despite having close enough family ties to the Jade Brotherhood that Genji calls Chul-moo “Uncle Park.”

Romance: Kishi Ai

Voice claim: Mark Ota (Ryonosuke Naruhodo, The Great Ace Attorney)

Not In Game

Gilwynne GIL-win

My oldest GW2 OC and retired main!

Thirdborn sylvari, intended to become the avatar of a second Tree but denied their Wyld Hunt to keep free will. Fell to corruption twice (Nightmare and Mordrem), got up twice. Haughty, blunt, sensual, hungry for knowledge of magic and their own limits. Accomplished alchemist, mender, and Shaper. Hylek lover.

Romances: Trahearne & @antariies’s Commander Harley Vuong

Voice claim: Shohreh Aghdashloo (Shala’Raan, Mass Effect • Roshan, Assassin’s Creed • Grayson, Arcane • Avasarala, The Expanse)

Gale/Nan Ikaros NAHN & Glow/Phaibun Ikarion FYE-beun ih-CARE-ee-in

she/her 🎏 60s

Prem and Dara’s mothers. Co-captains of the Zephyrite airship Ikaros. Nan, a fire elementalist, grew up as a poor Luxon jade miner. She fell in love with Phaibun, an air elementalist and “princess” of the Zephyr fleet as a captain’s only child, while Phaibun visited the Canthan imperial court many years ago. Phaibun is elegant, nitpicky, and cool. Nan is skeptical, spirited, and pragmatic. They call Prem “Monkey” and Dara “Tiger.”

Kishi Ai KEY-shee EYE

she/her 🖋️ 40s

Genji’s wife and best friend, the vessel of Archemorus. Genji and Ai both come from organized crime families. Unlike Genji, Ai isn’t afraid of her violent heritage or of using her relatives’ underworld connections for the betterment of Cantha.

An employment discrimination lawyer and champion of Kurzick, Luxon, and tengu workers by day, a benefactor and arms dealer for the freedom fighters by night, and a courtier on paper and only by necessity, Ai has very little time for her husband and daughter. But she loves them, and looks forward to a day when Cantha’s minorities have enough influence to speak for themselves, and she can take some time off to be a mother, and see if she’s even interested in being a wife.

Romance: Kishi Genji

Kishi Himiko KEY-shee HEE-mee-koe

she/her 👺 5

Genji & Ai’s daughter. Vessel of Shiro Tagachi.

Eun Kattarins YOON CAT-uh-rinz

she/her 🐆 80s (norn middle age)

Hoelbrak’s ambassador to the Iron Legion for 50 years. A sly, charismatic, militant snow leopard norn who walked effortlessly among the charr, but always put her people’s survival first at the expense of all else, even her own blood. Longtime on-and-off lover of Eir Stegalkin. Mother of @pact-valkyrie’s Britta, Jormag’s last and most terrible fraenir. Killed by her daughter in 1333, survived by her brother Eiko (@antariies).

Romances: Eir & unknown other norn

Malachi Olowe MAL-uhk-eye OH-lo-way

she/him 🦂 66

An Elonian bounty hunter, born Olmakhan but too restless and greedy for their way of life. Took her surname from a human deadeye she got training from, then left for dead. Double-crossed her employers one too many times, got caught between the scorned Sunspears and the punishing Mordant Crescent, and was killed in 1327. Left a mate and cub behind. Years later, snuck out of the Mists under cover of the Battle of Dragonfall. Now roaming Tyria causing low-grade havoc, pursued by demons, envoys, and Priory operatives frantic to put him back in hell where he belongs. Great storyteller. Very funny.

Romance: Her mate Dinah

Ikeda Keino EE-kay-dah KAY-no

she/her 👹 15

The half-possessed Jade Brotherhood teen Prem rescued from Behemoth’s Gap. Even after months without the oni’s influence, Keino is a bitter, snappish, self-isolating girl who resents any attempt to care for her. She wants to become an investigative journalist and take down Xunlai Jade once and for all by exposing its corruption, but to do that she has to survive high school in Kaineng. Has a twisted bond with Prem, ever since the oni made her confuse him for her father.

Farrah Whitebear FAIR-uh WHITE-bear

she/her 🐗 32

Knut Whitebear’s adoptive daughter. An elegant, serious young norn who gave up her special interest in jotun magic to serve under Jhavi in the Vigil, hoping to eliminate Jormag’s existential threat to the norn and leave them all free to pursue their peacetime passions—a decision that got her stranded, alone, freezing from the inside out in Bjora Marches. She got better, though. Mostly. Follower of the inexorable Boar Spirit.

Romance: @pact-valkyrie’s Sovhi

Hemera, Duke of False Hope HEM-uh-ruh

she/her 🌸 31

The Nightmare Courtier who mentored Gil when they were a sapling. Hemera was a secondborn who developed without protection from Mordremoth’s influence due to the Pale Tree and the Dream itself being stretched too thin at the time. Despite her ethereal beauty and tyrannical-but-nurturing “fairy queen” persona, Hemera has never felt anything except hunger and momentary satisfaction. She learned to Shape other sylvari’s bodies from watching her student Gil at work, and carved out a place for herself high in the Court by offering to change courtiers—either for beauty or efficacy in torture and raids—for favors. Hemera temporarily corrupted in Maguuma, but when Mordremoth fell silent in death, she twisted her body back to a parody of its old shape and started a new Nightmare sect in Siren’s Landing, where she preys on sapling researchers who wander too far from camp. She considers it her Dark Hunt to create a garden of mutilated sylvari that swallows the whole world, as Mordremoth’s jungle failed to do. Drosie’s mortal enemy.

Romances: @antariies’s Knight Arahn

Halimaka HAW-lee-MAW-kuh

she/he/they/it 🧪 30s

Once a Flame Legion inquisitor called Halima Eyesear whose investigation into the nascent Molten Alliance led her to run afoul of “B” (Scarlet Briar). Their body was gifted to the Toxic Alliance, who modified it to see how Toxic mad science and Flame magic combined. The resulting creature, “Halimaka,” sizzles with deadly heat and poison vapors and drips burning acid with every step. It has no memory of its previous life with Flame, only a dizzying sense of lost community and purpose, and the worry that it wouldn’t like who it used to be even if it could remember. Undomesticated, wistful, weird.

Jubilee Shaw JOO-buh-lee SHAW

she/her 🪆49 (mind’s age)/29 (body’s age)/283 (chronological age; born 1053)

The Ascalonian Hero of Prophecies, accidentally possessing her descendant’s body after a botched attempt at channeling her as a revenant legend. Out of place and time, an elementalist in a necromancer’s slightly-too-small body, blamed for killing her great-great-grandchild when she didn’t even want to return, Billy struggles to find a place in this bright and hostile new Tyria.

Khepri Chisisi KEP-ree chiss-SEE-see

she/her 🌪️ 83 at her death in 1135

The Hero of Nightfall, a legendary dervish. Long dead.

[nimblermortal]

About Four Norse Conspiracy Theories in One

Got some catching up to do in the liveblog department. There's been some interesting moments in Children of Ash and Elm, although I don't trust it fully - there've also been a few points that I don't think were accurate.

Egil and St Paul

There was one brief mention of a theory that conflated Egil Skallagrímsson and St Paul, which. What??? The idea is that the sagas were written by 14th century Christians who were glorifying their ancestors and projecting Christianity back upon them, so saga figures may be representations of Christian figures, but... Egil Skallagrímsson? would not a figure I'd choose for this. He's pretty clearly an anti-hero. As far as I know, St Paul was not known for vomiting in his hosts' faces, murdering children, or... composing really unapologetic poetry about all the murdering he did in the past.

The Murder of Ymir

This one is kinda situational, but it feeds into my current fascination of projecting onto Norse pantheism the idea that the gods weren't gods of natural phenomena, or of anything in particular - that the Norse weren't super into natural representations, but much more invested in how people interact with each other. (I don't fully buy this as an explanation, see: all the discussion of the celestial bodies, for example, plus some stuff from the volcanic eruption section below.) In this interpretation, the gods are archetypes of people you meet, and represent human haecceity, things you're gonna have to work with.

The first gods murdered Ymir, the father of all the giants, whose blood flooded the world such that only two people escaped. (By floating in an object that may be a coffin, or a quern - the word is ambiguous.) Children of Ash and Elm points out that ever after that, the gods and jotuns are at odds. So in this human-archetype projection, it's an idea that if you are going to murder a populace, there are going to be survivors, there are always survivors no matter how careful you are, and they are going to hate you as will all their descendants for the rest of time. (Sort of; not all jotnar are enemies of the gods.)

It's currently relevant in the context of, of course, Israel and Palestine. I read A Thing of Vikings last year (How to Train Your Dragon fanfic with a Jewish subplot) and one thing that struck me was the portrayal of Jewish characters in the year 1040 as people displaced from their homes... a thousand years ago, for whom that displacement is still real and emotional, even to people who have never seen it and whose parents and grandparents have never seen it. That connection does not go away, and there's no reason to suspect it would suddenly vanish from Palestinians either. (Truly; I've also heard of Palestinians who can tell you exactly where the shoes were kept in their grandmother's house before it was taken by Israeli settlers when said grandmother was a child.) So this remains a fact: If you are going to kill people, some of them will survive, and they will continue to hate you. There isn't a solution to that, it's just a reality.

(The Hávamál does not really offer solutions, just realities. Keep an eye on your enemies, it says. That doesn't stop them from attacking you or surprising you, but it does make it more difficult.)

Hámingja and the Fourfold Person

This one I'm going to get into more directly with the text, partly because I read it more recently, partly because it's somewhat in-depth, partly because... it's not something I can vouch for or not. I've heard of ohámingja translated as "misfortune" and of course I've heard of family fetches, but exactly what a fetch/fylgja is I can't say for sure.

Neil Price, as author of Children of Ash and Elm, tells us that there is a "fourfold division of being and an extremely complex notion of what might loosely be called the soul."

1. Hamr: Essentially the body, the shape people see, but as Price puts it, "crucially, it could alter*". There's plenty of stories where someone changes their shape, and the word used is hamr. It's also possible to put on the shape of something else (see: Völsungasaga. or Niebelungenlied if you're into that sort of thing). It's also possible to just sort of have a family gift or curse that causes you to change shape in certain situations, such as Egil Skallagrímsson's father Kveldulf (Evening Wolf). This latter reads to me as a description of depression/bipolarism/other mental health issue, which of course complicates the idea of the hamr as being the meat suit.

*trans vikings ftw!

2. Hugr: Price claims no modern translation really suffices, but I have my doubts. It's the mind, guys. You can be hugsjukr, mind-shaky, anxious. You can be hugkvæmr, crafty (I don't know what kvæmr is yet). But Price says it "[combines] elements of personality, temperament, character, and especially mind" and if "who someone really was, the absolute essence of you, free of all artifice or surface affect."

(Incidentally, the Norse conception of drunkenness was that it made you a truer representation of yourself, and as such drunkenness was not an exoneration of some tragic accident but a condemnation of the person who screwed up. Do with that what you will.)

Price also says that insofar as the afterlife was concerned, what moved on was the hugr, and that some witches (Odin) could see and bespell the hugr - and separate hamr and hugr, or at least separate the self from the home-shape (heimhamr) and home-mind (heimhugr).

3. Hamingja: This is where I got really excited, because of The Long Ships. Price talks about the hamingja as a person's luck. Note this is not a generalized concept of luck, people can have a specific luck for a specific thing - if you're going into battle, you want as many people as possible present who have victory luck, if you're going raiding you want loot-luck and woman-luck and sailing-luck. Price mentions saga accounts of people retreating from battle because their opponent had too many "luck spirits" with them. He also says it's possible for the luck to get separated from the person, or rather to be cast out or leave for some other reason - and that the English phrase "my luck ran out" is derived from this concept.

4. Fylgja: This is where I got turned back on to the Norse as people interested in the realities of interpersonal interaction. The fylgja is a family spirit, it is always female, it accompanies someone everywhere they go in life, it is passed down through families. Price says "the fylgja was a guardian - a protector - but also the embodied link to one's ancestors... she moved on at death, continuing down the family line... everyone carried with them - through them - the spirit of their family, watching over them and guiding their steps."

And this, I think, is not so much a supernatural element as an embodiment of culture and trauma. Your parents gift you some portion of their own trauma as well as some extra - well, just read this, it's a short poem. Or my story. Or "The Paper Menagerie". Your family shapes you and that influence will follow you all your days, protecting in some ways, sabotaging in others. It's a Hávamál sort of a reality.

Volcanic Eruptions

This was last night's reading!

A bit of a preface: Ragnarök, which we've all heard of, starts out with Fimbulvetr, a three-year-long winter with no sun. It's the end of the world.

In the 400s Rome fell. 476 is the number in my head. For much of Europe this was a cultural end of the world. Scandinavia was less influenced, except by all of the prosperity and trade - they just weren't outright conquered with baths built in all their cities. When Rome fell, for all kinds of reasons various opportunistic or unfortunate people were moving all over the place, and this is called the Migration Period. Just... keep that in your back pocket.

In 536, a volcano erupted somewhere in the tropics, we're not sure where yet. In 539/540, at Lake Ilopango in El Salvador, another volcano exploded. That lake is where a mountain used to be. 87 km3 of ejecta. Sulphate emissions up to 2 megatonnes. Big. As in, effects recorded in China big. And then, possibly, a third major eruption in 547.

Lots of dust in the atmosphere. "The sun's light was blocked in a hazy mist that allowed no heat to penetrate, while at night the heavens were filled with wavering curtains of fiery colour, like a sunset that went on for months" or like The Scream, according to Price.

You may have noticed that Scandinavia is fairly arctic. Survival was a bit marginal already. In Norway, only 3% of the land is suitable for farming. Temperatures fell by at least two degrees Celsius, possibly as many as four - compare that to figures you're familiar with from climate change. Add in some acid rain. Fish... are less affected, but if you were thinking to substitute for grain entirely, you are thinking wrong. "The worst of these effects went on for three years. In 2016 a team of climate scientists suggested that the long-term, cumulative ecological impact of the dust veil persisted in varying degrees for up to eighty years."

This solves handily the mystery Price set up in the previous pages, of why in the sixth century a bunch of settlements in Scandinavia just... vanished. Tree growth and pollen counts show that woodland covered areas that once had been farmed. Dramatic decrease not just in the markers of human activity, but the number of graves. "I many regions of central and southern Sweden, for example, there was an almost total abandonment of settlement sites that had been occupied in some cases for millennia." There's a change to what sort of art we find - a "rapid disappearance of styles and decorative schemes that had persisted for centuries," and with them, a lot of the meaning laden in that art.

Price estimates that 50% of the population of Scandinavia died. He compares this to the Black Death (45-60%, depending on who you ask) and the Hundred Year's War (roughly a third of the population). Apocalyptic. And, uh, the stories of Ragnarök have always been ambiguous about whether the end of the world is coming or whether it already happened. (Or both! Both is good!)

I read into some of his earlier data that. Art died out because no one was left to pass on the meanings and methods. Entire settlements died off. No one was left to bury the dead, or beat back the trees. And one of the more interesting things - Price says that prior to this period, there were a lot of depictions of a burning disc we generally interpret as the sun, possibly implying sun worship, fairly standard among humans. After this event, none. We gave up on the sun.

He also compares excerpts from the Eddas on Ragnarök and Fimbulvetr to excerpts from the Kalevala, which has a section discussing a winter lasting 5-8 years. (I have no experience with the Kalevala and cannot comment.)

All of this in a time when Europe as a whole was experiencing the Migration Period, and a lot of violent migration. People taking over settlements by force. People raiding them for food. The development of a culture that says you just do take what you need from other settlements? The eradication of a pre-existing culture, replaced with a philosophy that led to the viking age, once population levels recovered (generally about a hundred years)?

I'm not suggesting that people never fought or warred or raided prior to this event, but the idea that the eruption of volcanos resulted in a markedly more violent raiding society that developed into the vikings we know and love today is... kinda compelling.

Bonus round: National Identity

Oh, and he commented on something that I've been confused about for a while - why didn't Sweden, which has a lot more farmland and... people, just take over Norway?

Apparently the problem is that while Norway had a single ethnic identity and was unified relatively early, Sweden had a lot of competing identities and didn't think of itself as one country for a long time. On top of that, southern Sweden "was considered to be culturally and politically part of Denmark until well after the Middle Ages" - which, one, explains why there was a three-way balance of power, and two, wow, really impressed by a Denmark that manages to maintain political power and cultural identity across a water barrier like that.

[janetbrown711]

Too Young to be Singing the Blues

Mei hangs out at Pigsy's noodles for a day while MK has to go to school because of her suspension. Also because of her suspension, she has a pile of homework and has to deal with strangers looking at her left and right. What fun for her.

tw for mentions of police brutality, microaggressions, systemic racism, funerals, minor references to child abuse, death and all that fun stuff

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Ao3 Link

When the familiar dreaded tone of Mr. Piggy’s alarm went off in the morning, all Mei could think about was how much this sucked. Her guardian was frantic as ever getting MK up and ready and starting to make breakfast, all while Mei just sat on the couch and stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows.

You could see the whole city from here, since it wasn’t above the clouds. Cars and people moved about like ants from all the way up there. As she got closer she started feeling giant– like a god looking down upon their people to smite them or gift them or whatever gods did.

And then she saw it.

Surrounded by construction and people in fluorescent vests and hard hats was the crumbling remains of her ancestral home. The one she burnt down.

…She ran away from the funeral.

There were rumors her great, great, great x1000 great uncle Ao Guang and his side of the family would be there– and that the whole thing was going to be comparable to the funerals of kings and emperors. All Mei knew was that thousands were going to weep and cry loudly for the crime she had committed, and no one would be there to comfort her– not really. Not like how Mama and Baba could. Which was why she ignored the pressed white robes laid out for her and ran to MK, who was living in the park by where his apartment building used to be, and they cried together for a while.

And then they explored, but then the cops– secretly tiger demons– came, and so they hid at the noodle shop and yadda yadda, now she was here.

She had been given her lilies to wear in her hair for the funeral. Supposedly they were from that great, great, great x1000 uncle of hers, with a card of his condolences. She didn’t read it though. She hadn’t ever met the guy and wasn’t exactly interested– at least in these circumstances. ‘Sides, she had asked if he was a big old dragon, and they said he preferred his human form which was totally lame anyways so why’d she wanna meet some old lame-o? She found a better old lame-o to live with anyways.

Mr. Piggy had been nice though– when he wasn’t mean, but he wasn’t mean mean like other babysitters or maids or butlers had been– he helped her set up an altar for them in the corner of her room with photos of her Mama and Baba. It did take some searching, but they eventually found them in a flash drive that survived the fire by some miracle.

Most days she couldn’t stand to look at the photo though, but she knew if she didn’t at least burn incense, then they’d be doomed in the afterlife, and then that would be two things that were her fault, so she tried her best.

She wasn’t doing that right now though.

She still was looking at the crumbling fractures that used to be her home.

“C’mon Mei, we gotta get going in twenty minutes,” Mr. Piggy pleaded with her from the kitchen, and like the good little girl she was, Mei obeyed.

She was glad she wasn’t going to school today, but she really hated that Mr. Piggy was still making MK go. She also hated that she still had a ton of homework to do. But she was grateful she didn’t have to wear that itchy sweater or button up or skirt. No, today she wore capris and a tank top over a long sleeved green undershirt. It was funny how normal she looked in it– except for her haircut but it was good to stand out and look cute.

She admired the look in the mirror for a bit before glancing at her parent’s altar– quickly remembering she needed to light the day’s incense. She mumbled and tripped over prayers, trying to ignore the feeling of failure and judgment crawling on her skin.

When it was over, she only glanced at the pictures of her parents before leaving the room and going to eat.

More of that toast stuff, which was kind of fun. Breakfast was so elaborate back home, but ever since she started living with Mr. Piggy it was simple and easy– if a bit bland. But Mr. Piggy was one of those ‘busy businessmen’ unlike her parents, but Mei liked the business. Finally it felt like someone around here moved at her pace.

Mei barely got to finish today though, as she had to scramble to pack her bag with all of her homework and walk with Mr. Piggy and MK to their school before she’d help around the shop while also doing homework today.

Yippee.

Cold autumn air hit her face like a ton of bricks, reminding her why the stupid sweaters were part of the uniform in the first place. Still, Mei was determined to not be cold and so simply acted like she wasn’t– besides, the last thing she needed was another lecture from the pigman.

“If I gave you a piece of gum, can I not go to school Mr. Piggy?” MK asked, digging in his khaki pocket until he found a stick of mysterious origin since Mr. Piggy hadn’t ever gotten them gum ever.

“Not a chance kiddo, your education’s very important,” The pig man chuckled a bit.

“Oh and mine doesn’t?” Mei said sarcastically, which made the chef roll his eyes.

“Of course it does, which is why you have lots of homework to do at the restaurant.”

Frick.

Welp. Couldn’t say she didn’t try.

“S’okay MK. If you come back and any of them’ve been mean to you, I’ll just sock ‘em in the eye again,” Mei grinned, punching her hand. She could see it made her guardian uneasy but it made MK smile so she didn’t care.

“You’re so cool Mei,” MK elbowed his bestie.

“Yeah, it’s true, I’m the coolest,” She went to swish her hair, forgetting that she cut it and the two burst into laughter.

“Alright alright, settle down– we’re here you two,” Pigsy informed the pair of besties, turning the laughing to dramatic sighs.

Mei had one last idea though.

“Oh dear Mr. Piggy, don’t you know we’re all we have left in the world? After our parents died, we didn’t know of each other's fates for so long, and it was something truly frightful indeed. Shant you spare us the pain, the torture of separating us?” She sighed, hugging MK and using her best blinking puppy dog eyes.

The chef remained unimpressed though.

“Sorry MK, you gotta go,” He patted the boy’s shoulder and MK nodded in defeat and gave Mei a hug.

“I’m serious MK, if they’re mean, they will feel my wrath,” Mei whispered to him.

MK laughed, “you’re the best.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

MK chuckled a bit before letting go and heading inside, waving to his guardian and friend the entire way, until it was suddenly just Mei and Mr. Piggy.

…This was weird.

Mei glanced at the pig demon, but strangely his eyes were still fixated on the glass door, like he was lost in thought. Well– he had to be since MK wasn’t there, and it wasn’t like anything else was happening around those doors. After a while he noticed her looking at him and snapped out of whatever he was thinking with a snap.

“Let’s get goin’,” He phrased it half like a question and half like an order, but regardless they got moving to the subway.

Mei found the process of the subway exciting– much more exciting than driving by car– though she did miss the bus a little bit. Plus, there was kind of a weird smell to the place Mr. Piggy refused to elaborate on anything other than “That’s just how it is”.

Once they were on the train, things were usually fine, though if there weren’t seats, Mr. Piggy would get a little cranky. Not to mention strangers would give her head tilts and/or get too close and Mei much preferred sitting. Thankfully this time was such an occasion, and they sat by the door in peace.

An indecipherable voice mumbled something something street and they were on their way.

The girl and the demon didn’t talk much. Mei didn’t know what was going on in that pig brain of his. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to ask about it or not since whenever she did, people tended to shut her down or dismiss her. Which was fine, duh. She didn’t know a lot of things. That was fine.

After three or so mumbles, PIgsy and them got off the subway and headed out to the restaurant, where the pig lifted up the security shield before they both walked in.

“You can sit next to Tang’s stool at the bar while you work– I wanna keep an eye on you,” Pigsy instructed.

Today was gonna be so much fun.

Mei huffed and set down her heavy bag before plopping herself on the stool and getting out the big orange packet.

It read:

“MEGAPOLIS CITY ACADEMY DISCIPLINARY FORM: BULLYING AND HARASSMENT.

Bullying is defined as ‘seeking to harm, intimidate, or coerce (someone perceived as vulnerable)’, and is not allowed by MEGAPOLIS CITY ACADEMY and such behaviors blahblahblahblahblahblahblah…”

Mei’s glazed over the moment they hit the page and she immediately wanted to slam her head against the countertop.

“Mr. Piggy, this is boring,” She lamented, pushing the papers away.

“It’s been two seconds kid,” The chef laughed as he tied his halfway-apron thingy. “Can’t even try to give it a shot?”

“I tried my dig dang darnest yesterday, but I think this paper is no match for me,” She said, pushing it towards the chef, who looked at it after washing his hands.

“Wow that’s… yeah that’s one way to put things,” Pigsy cringed. “Maybe just trying skipping to the questions– I could actually use your hands to help clean up ‘round here.”

Mei blinked. “You mean I… don’t have to read the boring stuff? My parents always said I have to read the boring stuff, even if it feels like it's killing me.”

Pigsy had a weird look at that– something between panic and confusion.

“Well– I– uh–” He scratched his neck. “I mean– maybe don’t for regular assignments but this bullying stuff– umm…” The pig demon’s eyes were going all over the place. Mei just kind of ignored that and went to find her pencil case…

Her pencil case– where the heck was it???

She practically turned her leather bag inside and out fifteen times before she realized that nope– it wasn’t here and she totally forgot it.

Grrrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaaaat.

Well now she was at a standstill.

Should she A) Confess the missing pencil to Mr. Piggy, which would get her a looooooooong winded lecture about ‘the importance of responsibility’, B) Pretend she did have a pencil, not do her work, then get a long winded lecture also about responsibility but also with honesty thrown in for extra flavor, or C) Run away and become one with the street rats.

Honestly, option ‘C’ wasn’t looking so bad. She could totally pull off “street rat”, and she’d look great covered in dirt and plus she apparently knew how to break noses– it would be great! If she went right now–

“Mei,” Pigsy snapped, grabbing her attention.

“Yyyyesss?” Mei gave her biggest “please-don’t-ask-me-what-I-was-thinking-about’ grin.

“Work?” He did that ‘I'm reminding you gently but I’m also getting annoyed’ tone used by many a teacher, nanny, and parents alike to Mei.

“Yes! Work,” Mei put on a serious face, and immediately remembered again that she still didn’t have a pencil. There was an awkward moment where Mei didn’t want to tell Mr. Piggy she forgot her pencils, but he wouldn’t stop watching her with a curious look.

Finally, he asked, “Kid, did you forget your pencil bag?”

Shoot.

“I– y-yeah…” Mei knew she was caught and mentally prepared herself for the lecture.

Mr. Piggy must’ve been thinking of something long and strict because he didn’t speak for a long long time before–

“Here.”

Oh god– was he going to hand her a ruler for her to hit herself with? It wasn’t common, but that one nanny’s form of punishment still haunted her when she did measuring in class.

With a wince she opened her eyes, surprised to find he was holding out a pencil.

She took it with hesitation, which got her more of that weird look from Pigsy.

“No– uhm– lecture?” Mei asked.

“What? For forgettin’ something? Sounds a little pointless,” Pigsy snorted. “Just get your work done– we’ll talk after the first wave comes through here.”

Right.

She was already getting a lecture. Now it would be a double lecture about responsibility and character and ‘don’t forget things’ and anything else she’d mess up today.

Work. She needed to work.

Okay Mei, not too hard– just reading the question and answering– no biggie.

Mei took a deep breath and read the first question:

What choice did I make to get me here?

Mei frowned. She hasn't made any choices yet. She got here because Mr. Piggy knew the train– okay, it probably wasn’t that literal.

The paper was about discipline, so it was probably about that.

…Well that made the question even more stupid! It was that stupid jerk face Qiang that made the choice to be a big meanie to MK. She simply gave him what he deserved– wasn’t her fault it was a “knuckle sandwich” as the cartoons said.

With a huff, she wrote:

“Stood up for my best friend MK against a jerk.”

Next question.

Was this a good choice or a bad choice?

Very good. MK was happier and safer with her protection.

“Very good.”

How did this action affect myself or others?

Hm… This one felt like a trap of some kind. A way to make her feel bad for what she’d done.

Good thing she knew she was right!

“Made MK happy and protected. Gave me a black eye and hurt my fists, but I felt preeeetty cool. Qiang broke his nose.”

She tapped her pencil against her chin before adding–

“Good.”

What would’ve been a better choice?

Okay this one was definitely a trap. They definitely wanted her to be feeling bad. Well she wouldn’t be giving them the satisfaction.

“Breaking his jaw too.”

Page one complete, and in record time (probably). Of course there were at least a billion more, plus Mr. Piggy and Headmaster Jiangxi needed to sign this. So… yay.

The next one was “fill-in-the-blank” style and it seemed to be–

An apology.

Mei growled as she saw that Tao Qiang was already written in the blank labeled “(person you’re apologizing to)”.

“You alright kid?” Pigsy turned his head away from where he’d been prepping beef and turkey for the day.

Mei just gave a long sigh and flopped onto the bar.

“Yeah, yeah, I know it sucks– just be glad they’re giving you the chance and not just–” Pigsy suddenly stopped himself and shook his head. “Just do your best, kiddo.”

Somehow that felt worse than the lecture part.

The next blank was for her to fill out and started with “I’m sorry for _____” with “(what you did that hurt them)”.

What was she? Four?

Muttering every almost-a-curse word she knew under her breath, she wrote:

“for breaking your nose and making you feel bad for hurting MK which you TOTALLY “””””DIDN’T””””” deserve”

Mei wasn’t sure how she was supposed to convey sarcasm, and quotation marks felt like the closest thing she was gonna get.

The next two blanks went as follows:

I know what I did was wrong. What I did probably made you feel ____ and ____

…Well that was quite the presumption. She wasn’t sorry at all. But whatever. She’d been playing their game this far.

Mei filled in the blank with “like a stupid baby” and “uncool”.

The one after that was long, and went–

“In the future I will __________”

Now there’s an easy one.

“go straight for the neck.”

The page then said “will you please forgive me?”

Mei just kind of blinked at it. A part of her thought about crossing it out, but that was more effort than she wanted to put in.

After that was a whole paragraph of lines asking her how she thought Qiang would react to such an apology.

…Probably like a little baby, like he had in the cafeteria. Maybe he’d punch her again and they’d get suspended again and maybe this’d create an unending cycle of suspension. Or maybe they’d just fight in secret in a basement somewhere. Now there’s a million dollar idea.

Mei sighed a breath of relief when she realized that one was over.

After that was more reading, and then a quiz of some kind and since she had zero interest in doing any of that, Mei got to doing more of her regular schoolwork, though it was barely any better. The reading was boring, the math was boring, the history was boring, and everything else was so mind-numbingly boring she hadn’t even noticed Pigsy started opening shop and customers were going in and out and ordering food.

Some of them looked at her strangely, others smiled, but one particular lady kept looking at her as she was texting furiously. Weird, but she was technically used to it as a member of the one and only dragon clan.

Plus… you know… only one left alive, and uh– she kind of probably made the news for running away? It wasn’t like she had any way of knowing but it was supposed to be a huge event and she did just kind of dip out like no biggie– which it like– wasn’t– but– yeah.

When her order was called, she did something strange– changing where she was sitting to the bar stool left of Mei, though since it was nearing lunch time Pigsy didn’t notice.

“Hello, young miss,” She smiled at her.

“Hi,” Mei smiled back, a bit confused, but polite as she did her history work.

“What’re you doing there?” The woman continued to ask questions.

“Homework,” Mei glanced at the chef, but his back was turned.

“Why aren’t you in school?”

Mei laughed a little. “You ask a lot of questions, lady.” She laughed a bit too.

“Are your parents around?”

Mei frowned. “No, why?”

The lady shook her head and tsked, typing something on her phone. “Do you know where they are?”

A knot formed in Mei’s stomach so she didn’t reply.

“Is… anyone watching you?” The lady asked, looking around the busy restaurant.

“Duh, Mr. Piggy,” Mei snorted a bit, trying to pick up her pencil again, but she just fidgeted with it nervously.

“The… chef?” The woman said, almost aghast.

Mei nodded as the knot tightened.

The woman typed a few more things, read something, looked at Mei once or twice, before dialing a number on her phone.

“I’m going to be right back, okay? Don’t go anywhere,” She smiled but Mei just felt weird. She left the restaurant though, but Mei still couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong.

“Order for Li Xue” Pigsy rang the bell and finally turned to Mei, where his brow immediately furrowed.

“You alright kid? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Pigsy asked.

“Oh– well– I– uh–” Mei glanced at the door and Pigsy followed her gaze, where he scowled.

“Did someone say somethin’ weird to you?” He asked, looking back at her.

Mei shrugged. “I… guess?”

Pigsy huffed angrily. “Was it a grown man?”

“No, no– just some lady,” Mei shook her head. A tension left Pigsy’s shoulders, but he didn’t seem fully relaxed quite yet.

“You don’t have to talk to strangers, kid– especially if they start talkin’ weird, alright?” Her guardian looked back at the door.

She had no idea what he was referring to and so nodded. The chef nodded to himself and got back to cooking and Mei attempted to do her homework, but it still felt all too strange. At least it was over for now– or at least until that lady came back in.

“Hi sweetheart,” she smiled and took her seat next to her.

“Mr. Piggy says I shouldn’t be talking to you,” Mei informed her, trying to go back to her history homework.

“Does he now?” She frowned at the chef, whose back was turned yet again. “Well that’s alright sweetie, help is on the way.”

Wait, what?

“Help? What help? I don’t need help,” Mei tried scooting away from the lady, but the stool didn’t budge and there was only so much room.

“Oh you sweet child,” The woman placed a hand on her shoulder, which made Mei nearly jump out of her seat.

Just then, two, big muscley people walked through the open doorway–

Cops.

Pigsy looked at Mei, and upon seeing the woman sitting next to her with a hand on her shoulder, his eyes widened in panic.

The lady, upon seeing the police, let go of Mei’s shoulder and approached them, but before she could speak, Pigsy talked instead.

“Anythin’ I can do for you, officers?” Pigsy was clenching his jaw and Mei just wanted to hide under the counter with MK again.

“We got a call about an abandoned child at this establishment,” The officers looked around before locking their eyes on Mei.

“What– but that’s–”

“She’s been here a long time, officers. She says her parents aren’t around– I knew something was off the moment I noticed such a smart looking girl not in school and with– that hair?” The lady interrupted Pigsy. The lady then whispered something to one of the cops– a female one, who nodded seriously and started approaching Mei.

Nononono– not this again–

Mei looked at Pigsy desperately.

“Wait– there seems to be a misunderstanding– I’m her legal guardian through adoption,” Pigsy got out from behind the bar and stood by Mei, placing a calming yet firm hand on her shoulder.

The female officer looked at Mei. “How’s about you and I have a little chat, no?” she smiled.

Mei immediately shook her head. “I don’t wanna.”

“You don’t have to Mei,” Pigsy squeezed her shoulder. “If you have any issues, you can talk to our lawyer.”

The officer then looked at Pigsy and there seemed to be some kind of ‘shaping up’ –until the lady from before interrupted with a particularly loud comment to the male officer:

“You know, I wouldn’t trust a demon with a human child anyways– I mean she’s supposed to be at school, isn’t she?”

Pigsy growled.

“Yes, why isn’t your… she at school?” The officer asked, putting her thumbs around the shoulder straps of her bulletproof vest.

“I got suspended,” Mei answered for Pigsy.

The lady muttered something Mei couldn’t hear.

The officer got closer to Mei, which was when Pigsy got completely in front of her, but the officer didn’t care, as she was more interested in the homework on the bar.

Uh oh.

Please don’t read the discipline packet, please don’t read the discipline packet, please don’t read the discipline packet, please–

She picked up the orange discipline packet.

Flipping through it, she kept looking back at Mei, who was just about on the verge of tears.

“Miss Long here assaulted a fellow student in her school?” She looked at Pigsy.

“Defending a friend,” Pigsy stated flatly. “Again, if you have any issues, I can give you my lawyers card, but I assure you there’s nothin’ wrong going on around here, except that woman assumin’ a demon can’t care for a human kid.”

“From what she’s written here, it doesn’t look like defense,” She slid the packet closer to the pig demon.

No no no no no no no no–

“You don’t know anything about her,” Pigsy asserted.

“Sir, we’re gonna need you to calm down,” The male officer got closer to them, hand on his baton, and Mei felt very afraid.

“Calm down? You two’re accusing me of kidnapping my own kid-!” Pigsy argued.

“Adoption doesn’t make her yours, sir,” The female officer scowled. “She belongs to the state.”

This couldn’t be happening– Mei was not going to lose another guardian– not because of what she did– not again– she couldn’t– she can’t–

“Don’t hurt Mr. Piggy!” Mei shouted, her tears finally breaking free as she stood on her stool. All eyes in the room immediately turned to her.

Pigsy looked scared– really scared. But also very, very sad.

“Look kid–” the male cop started.

“N-no! He’s right, h-he’s my guardian– I-i call ‘im ‘Mr. Piggy’ as a joke– you can’t take ‘im! I-i don’t wan’ him to die!” Mei interrupted, stomping on the stool, causing it to shake a little and Pigsy immediately rushed to stabilize her, but Mei took the opportunity to immediately wrap her arms around his neck and weep into his shoulder.

Pigsy immediately hugged her back, rubbing her back soothingly before he said, “Look, if you have an issue, we close at 10, and I can give you my lawyer's information then. For now, I got customers and a child you’re scaring the crap outta.”

“We’ll need to see your restaurant licenses.”

Pigsy muttered an, “of course” before tilting his head towards the back. He still held onto Mei and Mei held onto him as the officers walked past them.

“It’s alright Mei, it’s alright,” Pigsy whispered as she continued to bawl in his embrace.

“B-but th-th-they– a-and– th-the tigers– a-a-and–”

“I know kid, I know,” Pigsy held her a little tighter.

“I-i-i miss MK. I-i miss Mama and Baba. I-i-i miss my home.”

“I… I know,” Her guardian sighed.

“I thought you were–”

“I know.”

“B-because they–”

“Yeah…”

“A-and they–”

“I know, Mei. I’m sorry.”

Mei cried more.

After a minute or two of just that, the officers emerged from the back.

“Everything appears up to code.”

Of course it did, the jerk faces.

“We found a card of your lawyer in the back. We’ll be in contact,” The female officer nodded at the two of them, but Mei wanted nothing than to burn them both to a crisp.

After that, everyone, including the woman who called the cops in the first place, left– as did most other customers– though Pigsy’s tip jar was a lot fuller than it was most days, so at least that was nice.

But that meant the first wave was over and Mr. Piggy was going to have to give that lecture about responsibility.

Mei forced herself to let go of the chef far before she felt ready. In truth, Mr. Piggy gave the bestest hugs in the whole wide world– probably because he was so squishy. Maybe also because her parents– or at least her mom– wasn’t big on hugs.

“You okay waiting a bit? I’ll just clean up a bit and then we’ll talk, okay?” Mr. Piggy looked at Mei after she broke the embrace.

Mei nodded.

Mr. Piggy wiped a tear from her cheek before going to clean as he had said, while Mei took back her seat at the bar.

She stared down at the orange packet with her stupid, stupid answers. Did she think she was funny or something? This wasn’t fair. None of this was fair.

Just when it looked like Pigsy was going to finish up someone came through the doorway, but thankfully it was just Mr. Tang with his book bag and laptop as usual.

“Ah– classes get canceled today?” Mr. Piggy asked, still cleaning up a few more things.

“Yeah, professor’s sick– plus I heard there was a commotion over here,” Mr. Tang informed.

“Could you untie the flap? We’re gonna close for a bit,” Pigsy requested, and the scholar did.

Mei just picked up her pencil and started doodling circles and dragons in the corners of the paper, her stomach still tied into knots and weightless tears kept dripping down.

“So what happened?” Tang asked, taking his usual seat, which was the spot to the right of Mei.

Mei bit her lip to keep it from trembling.

Pigsy sighed as he dried off the countertops of the kitchen and was officially done cleaning. Mei kept her eyes and head low even though she could feel him looking at her.

“Lady called the cops on us– assumin’ I kidnapped Mei or something,” The demon told.

Mei could feel both Mr. Piggy and Mr. Tang’s eyes on her, and she just kept doodling and doodling until she pressed too hard, managing to rip a hole in the paper and snap the pencil lead. With a huff, she slid the papers away from herself and got off the stool, causing Mr. Tang to jump to his feet and grab her arm.

“Mei, are you alright?” He asked, not letting go.

“This– This isn’t fair-! Why isn’t this fair? Why are cops and headmasters and teachers a-and adults mean– it isn’t fair,” Mei exclaimed, snatching her arm away, but she didn’t go anywhere.

“Kid…” Pigsy sighed, stepping out from the kitchen again. “Do you wanna talk in the office?”

Mei shook her head.

She could feel Tang and Pigsy exchanging looks.

“Do you want to talk outside then?” He tried again.

Mei shook her head.

“...In the empty apartment?”

Mei repeated the gesture a third time.

“Mei, we don’t have that many options here,” Pigsy sighed.

“I-i know…” Mei considered her options again, but still none of them felt right.

Home.

Mei wanted to go home.

…but that was never going to happen.

Mei wiped her face with her sleeve.

She missed MK.

Silent but quick, Mei got up from her stool, and went into the kitchen area, where she promptly sat in the same hiding spot she’d been in just a week before. There was a bit of whispering before Tang and Pigsy sat on the floor too.

“Kid, I’m… sorry any of this happened. I know life oughta be fair, but it just isn’t– especially for my kind,” Pigsy scratched the back of his neck.

“Your kind..?” Mei sniffled, confused.

Mr. Tang looked at her sadly. “Demons, Mei.”

“Oh…” Mei recalled lessons from her boring history class about demons and stuff. Guess she didn’t really think of her guardian as a demon because he was so nice– but maybe that was a bad thing.

“Mei– you said you didn’t want them to hurt me– is that something you think about a lot?” Pigsy asked quietly.

Mei nodded.

“Is it because of last time?”

The girl nodded again.

“Well, those were tiger demons last time, these ones were just regular cops– though, they still–”

“Th-they wanted to hurt you– I could tell– He was grabbin something,” Mei interrupted.

Tang looked at Pigsy in clear distress.

“That’s… my fault, kid– I raised my voice, and I’m not supposed to–”

“No, Mei, it’s the police’s fault,” Tang didn’t allow that to stand.

“Why? Aren’t cops s’posed to be good and not hurt us and not be like big tiger demons?” Mei sniffled. “That’s what Miss Yang says, anyways.”

“In… theory,” Tang shared a look with her guardian that made her heart sink.

“Mei, do you remember the lady who we toured apartments with a couple days ago?” The chef asked.

Mei nodded.

“Remember how she said ‘are you sure this neighborhood is right for your kind’?”

“Yeah– that was mean.”

“Well, she was referring to demons, like me. And she’s not the only person who thinks like that– in fact, it’s not exactly uncommon, especially in cops,” Pigsy scratched the back of his neck, and Tang placed a hand on his knee.

“But that’s not nice! You’re not bad! A-and you're my guardian– why don’t they believe that?” Mei protested.

“Hatred, kiddo. People blame us for our ancestors and they think we’re all just evil cannibals and just– they don’t want us in fancy shmancy places like that apartment building or your school,” Pigsy looked away.

“But… why?” Mei hugged her knees tighter.

Pigsy didn’t seem like he could talk much more, which clearly upset Mr. Tang, who stroked her guardian’s knee with his thumb. After a beat, Tang looked at Mei and spoke.

“There’s a lot of complicated history behind it, but it really just boils to the fact that demons are different than humans, and since there’s more humans, they don’t like that very much,” The man sighed. “Plus, there’s a bit of complicated– likely even exaggerated– history about how bad demons used to be in the old days, and people carry these assumptions to now, even though it’s wrong.”

“Like that Mr. Piggy would kidnap me?” Mei glanced at the chef again, but his head was fully turned away.

“Yes,” Tang confirmed.

Mei thought about that a bit.

“But– but that doesn’t make sense because me ‘n MK aren’t demons, so why’re we getting punished?” She asked.

Pigsy let out a large sigh and looked at her. “It’s cuz I’m your guardian, kid. Those ‘expectations’ and ‘assumptions’ are bein’ passed down to you. And I’m… sorry.”

Mei frowned. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t make things any easier. You said yourself I can be mean, and well– you aren’t wrong. I– I get angry and aggressive and it’s what they’re expecting–”

“There’s nothing wrong with that, Mei,” Tang interrupted. “Anger is a natural emotion, but when everybody is looking for something to hate, anger is seen as an excuse for many people to feel justified in treating him– and by extension, you and MK– poorly.”

Pigsy rubbed his forehead. “Look, kid, what we’re gettin’ at here is… what you did was right, and– heck, I’m proud of you for defending MK and I’m glad you’re such good friends– and I’m really glad that you care about me so much that you’d yell at cops…”

“but…” Mei sighed.

Pigsy nodded slowly, “But… because of our situation, people are gonna look at us and think I’m a bad influence, and then they’ll do things like call the cops or child protection services and then they’ll take you away– separating you and MK permanently.”

Mei gasped. “B-but– but they can’t do that-! MK’s my friend– a-and I like you! They can’t do that!”

“I know, I know,” Pigsy touched Mei’s shoulder, making her look into his tired eyes. “I know it’s wrong, but… God– I hate saying this but… if we slip up like this– get into one too many fights, or get the cops called too often– then you’ll probably never, ever see me or MK ever again.”

“B-but those jerk faces– they can’t get away with this,” Mei shook her head as tears started to form.

“We’ll try our best Mei, but that’s just… not how this works right now,” Pigsy sighed.

“But that’s wrong! Th-they can’t do that! I won’t let ‘em!” Mei declared.

“We can only do our best, Mei. Like I said, society doesn’t like Pigsy’s kind and they’re gonna be looking for the bad,” Mr. Tang informed her sadly.

“A-are they gonna kill him?” Mei asked, startling the two men.

“What? No– no– they– um—” Tang paused and glanced at Pigsy, which sent the panic from earlier instantly back in Mei’s body.

“I-i don’t wan’ him to die– I’ll be good Mr. Piggy, I’ll be real good– I-i won’t fight or anything. I-i’ll be so good– I’ll protect MK b-but not like in a bad ‘get in trouble’ way– a good way that’ll keep you and MK safe,” She swore on her seven-year-old life.

“Kid, I’m not gonna die,” Pigsy tried to assure.

“B-but my mama and baba–”

Pigsy winced a little and nodded. “Yeah, I know, but look–” He cupped her cheek, forcing her head to turn to fully face him– “I promise that I won’t ever leave you, alright? And I’ll do anything– anything– to make sure you and MK are safe and happy and together.”

Mei sniffled, putting her hands on Pigsy’s.

They were so warm, smelling like herbs and meat and noodles–

Like a home away from home.

“You promise?” She asked.

“I promise,” He smiled weakly.

In the blink of an eye, Mei crawled out from the cupboard and hugged Pigsy as tight as she could. Tang quickly joined the hug too, and Mei didn’t mind that one bit since he was really nice too.

This time, Mei allowed herself to stay in the embrace until she was good and ready to let go and she looked up at her guardian with a weak smile.

“Thanks, Mr. Piggy.”

“Anytime kiddo,” The chef smiled and ruffled her hair a little, making her laugh.

Carefully and slowly the three of them got up and back to their usual places– though Pigsy paused when he saw the homework.

“So, about that correctional homework–” Pigsy reached for the orange packet, and Mei immediately pulled it away.

“I– uh– need to rewrite my answers… and I need another pencil,” She confessed. Pigsy laughed, opening his hand for the packet anyways.

“Dont get mad…?” Mei requested, sheepishly handing it over.

“Promise,” Pigsy assured before taking it and flipping to the answers.

As he read, he had a very amused look on his face before he suddenly burst into laughter.

“What? What’s so funny?” Tang demanded to know, and Pigsy handed him the paper.

“Is this true? Your only regret is not breakin’ that Qiang’s jaw?” Pigsy couldn’t stop grinning.

“Until you told me about the cops and stuff– but yeah,” Mei confessed with a laugh.

“You really got some fire in you kiddo– I like it,” Pigsy winked and Mei beamed.

“Thanks, Mr. Piggy. I promise I’ll tone it down though– I don’t wanna–”

“And you won’t kid, so long as we work as a team, nobody’s separating us, got it?”

“Got it, Mr. Piggy,” Mei gave the chef a big thumbs up.

“Good,” Pigsy gave a thumbs up right back. “Now… about those answers–”

“I’ll fix em, I’ll fix em,” Mei chuckled and her guardian handed her a new pencil.

“Attagirl.”

[glitchingshot]

Incoming rant about overwatch Kiriko LOL

Not to be a downer but I really fucking hate Kiriko 😭 Specifically in the lore cuz in game she’s whatever but god I can’t stand her lore. Not only does her story contradict and ruin the shimadas story/timeline, but overall she feels like such a wattpad oc. Blizzard really couldn’t be creative enough to create an interesting character that’s related to the shimadas without being an exact copy of them. Of course she’s a ninja and can fight exactly like the brothers, obviously she needs a spirit fox that somehow is (lore wise) even stronger than the dragons.

Absolutely hate that overwatch broke their one rule of “No magic” with Kiriko. The dragons have been stated before to be some type to technology, why couldn’t they do the same with her? At least with zenyatta Ow has come out to state that his abilities aren’t canon to the lore, the same could’ve been stated with Kirikos magic healing and teleport but instead THEY’RE ACTUALLY CANON. It would’ve been cooler if her fox was some kind of omnic, like it was built as a robotic pet but got a conscience and acted kinda like bastion. It could’ve been so interesting to see less humanoid robots become omnics. But instead blizzard had to scramble to explain why this random girl would have a powerful fox spirit.

I also can’t stand that sojiros reveal, something we’ve been waiting for since the dragons cinematic, is shown through kirikos dumbass story. You’re meaning to tell me that the majority/only times we’ve seen sojiro AND get lore from him is through kiriko? Not even through his two fucking sons. It would’ve been a thousand times more impactful through a flashback of hanzo or genji but it’s instead by someone that isn’t even a part of the family. Adding on top of that, like I said before, we’ve gotten the most lore of sojiro THROUGH KIRIKO. Him telling her that silly story of protecting the city is the most we’ve gotten from him and it wasn’t even from his sons.

Last thing I’ll mention is how much I dislike how they’ve handled her relationship with the brothers. Sure, it makes sense that genji would try to be her friend but I highly doubt hanzo would care lol. And even if he did it feels like such a stretch that they’d see her as a niece; I mean did her mother really bring her that often to a yakuza castle? I’m more lenient on that tho because it could’ve just been that they saw her as a niece because they saw her mom as kinda a mother figure to them. What really frustrates me is her interactions with the brothers now. Not one voice line with genji about how she’s missed him cuz she though he was DEAD? We don’t even know is she knows he survived hanzos attack, but yea instead of giving them meaningful interactions it’s just silly jokes. Not to mention hanzo, where the only voice line she’s directly mean to him is because he isn’t fighting for Hanamura 💀. I was hoping she’d be rude towards him because of what he did but she barely is. There’s only one voice line related to hanzo hurting genji and it can easily be interpreted as her being playful, it’s only if you squint that it seems passive aggressive. And out of all the things she’s mad at hanzo for it’s for not helping against the Hashimoto? As if that’s his problem lmao. Hanzo has no reason to fight for Hanamura; his only tie there is that he grew up there. And yea that’d make him look like even more of an ass but that place is riddled with awful memories, why would he want to go back? I know he’s nostalgic and has stated to miss hanamura but there’s a reason he’d only go back for genjis yearly prayer lol. It just seems so silly to me that she’d guilt hanzo for not helping her as if it’s his fault/problem. Sure the Hashimoto are a threat and should be dealt with but she doesn’t even know if he has other things to fight for. It’s disappointing because she could’ve been an unbiased opinion between the brothers conflict but they do nothing with her. To add on to that it genuinely feels like she adored/glorifies the shimada clan, which brings its own load of problems 😭

Sorry for the long rant LOL I didn’t want to make it too long but everything about kiriko frustrates me. There’s absolutely nothing I like about her lore even though she had so much potential to be an interesting character. And anytime they release stuff about her it just feels like I’m the only one that doesn’t like her story 😭. It’s fine if you like her personality but it seems like everyone fully enjoys her and I just don’t get why; besides the fact she brings shimada lore. ALSO sorry again if this is so random, I barely post anyway, but ow has been special to me for years and I’ve withstood a ton but Kiriko just crosses the line for me. All the characters have at least one thing you can enjoy from them but Kiriko sure as hell doesn’t for me.

[fountainpenguin]

"Fight fear for the selfish pain; it was worth it every time... Hold still right before we crash 'cuz we both know how this ends..." (x)

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New Dog's Life chapter today! ~ 3rd Life series fan-season

Chapter 17 - “Broil (Grian, BigB, Joel, Martyn)”

❤️ Read on AO3

💛 Start from Chapter 1

💚 More Pixels Imperfect fics

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While the server's filled with rain, BigB swims in lava with the striders. Meanwhile, Joel and Ren discuss phantom nesting habits and build a roost. Martyn hunkers down for the night until Grian comes calling to badger him about logic and emotions. Truce Night lurks just around the corner...

(First-ish 1,000 words under the cut)

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bigbst4tz2 - Blaze

Quarry: impulseSV

Hunter: GoodTimesWithScar

Allegiance: Unaffiliated

🖤  💛  ❤️

Do striders pee? At the moment, it's the most important survival question in the world. Well, maybe not the Overworld…

But we're not in the Overworld. Are we?

BigB dips his legs in the lava again, dragging out the transition from "warm and dry" to "hot and wet" with oozing caution. He breathes. Breathing's the easy part and he counts to five each time. Lava laps, tugging at him, and it feels illicit and thrilling to touch this without a stinging fire-res potion in his gut. Back in the testing server, Martyn's the one who was brazen enough to dip his hand in lava in the hopes the code worked out fine. BigB's grateful he watched. Grateful even more that safety net didn't go down in last week's glitch. It'll hold. He has faith in the code at Grian's fingertips.

Even with the borrowed blaze traits secure around him like a cloak, sliding into a scalding pool still feels like touching smelted iron straight out of the blast furnace. Four striders, scattered intermittently around the lava lake, watch him with twisted expressions that parallel curiosity at best and gossip at worst. He steadies himself in the shallows, one hand resting on the solid ledge he slid from. Then he starts wading towards them. The striders wander over, bristles twitching like cat whiskers the whole way.

Here's the thing: BigB knows everyone. And he's accustomed to knowing everyone- to burying himself in a mountain of books- to traveling widely and meeting a thousand people. To listening. To knowing everything.

He did not realize how little he knew about the Nether until he came down here. It's… never really come up, y'know? When he's not fixated on parkour, he spends basically all his time in Between, on his home server, or swinging by to catch up with his betrothed (Rubycat; rarely online but a pleasure when she is, and a kind and understanding woman if ever there was one). Between's a dimension of its own and you can't directly access the true Nether from here, though snippets exist between the cracks.

Even on his own world, he's mostly in the Overworld (looking after his axolotls, frog pond, and most recently his sniffers). It's never been important? (If striders pee). It's like asking if the ender dragon can sneeze.

Smallishbeans stole the traits of Spider

To understand why this is a matter of life and death (survival and dehydration; question mark), you must first acknowledge that BigB knows everybody's little habits. He's made himself their secretkeeper. Tango and Zedaph, thick as thieves, drink lava in Between instead of water. So blaze and strider hybrids both drink lava, and striders are something like fish and something like birds, and birds and fish both pee in water, and that's where we're at an impasse.

So if I'm a blaze, and it's raining in the Overworld and I want to bunk down a while… What's the smartest way to handle this?

Survival 101: clean water, shelter, food. Or clean lava, in this case.

BigB drifts towards the striders. Paddling takes effort. Viscous lava pulls at his face, peeling at his skin, only to slurp and snap away. The striders study him like long-legged birds, shaking their bristles out like damp wings. They bob on the surface like rubber ducks in a bath. One carries a cygnet on its back, which snuffles in BigB's direction with its tiny nose. The adult bristles up in warning, so BigB keeps his distance.

Controlling the blaze rods isn't as hard as he thought. Maybe it's because he used to be an illusioner; commanding four complex duplicates felt a lot like this. He orients all twelve of his rods behind him like a tail and swishes back and forth. He stays low at the surface, swimming like an alligator.

Is this how most blazes swim? It might explain why Tango always adjusts the joints of his hips and ankles, leaping like a quadruped most the time he runs. This is probably rough on Sprinkles, who's invisible somewhere in the neighboring chunks, but she'll live. Anyway, cam accounts can dive through lava just fine. She'll figure it out.

One strider - bigger than the cygnet but not yet showing the fully fledged bristles of the adult - meanders up to BigB and bonks him with its head. He tilts up his chin, just hoping the lava drops won't leak into his eyes. Striders are bigger than people give them credit for. And they have huge mouths to bite with. This one nibbles at his curls, pulling sharply, and flaps its bristles a couple times. Then it realizes the adults are leaving and paddles after them.

Clean lava. Shelter. Food.

For now, BigB keeps his mouth above the lava as he swims after the striders. They move with quick thrusts of their legs- walking when it's shallow enough to do so, bobbing along when the lava ripples high. BigB keeps his ears pricked, riding every wave. There's no true wind down in the Nether to send him rocking to or from the shore, though Tango told him once that the currents shift with the rise and fall of heat.

Clean lava will be upstream.

Are there streams in the Nether? Whole rivers of lava? Rarely has he had reason to look, instead plodding in circles around enormous bowls of magma that bulge from the ground, or skimming across on wing. The Nether offers curious resources, but a lot of them still grow beneath the hazy Overworld sun. Great for its lava, gold, and quartz… Ancient debris if you're into that. Not much else.

Crossing the lake with the striders takes a solid five minutes. BigB waves his "tail" back and forth, keeping pace with him. Apart from the strider with the cygnet on its back, the others don't seem to mind his presence. They chirp and rustle, but continue on their way.

Do they think I'm a player? Or a blaze?

[dunkelzahn]

You mentioned couple of pages ago that "[D&D is] a dungeon crawling combat sim (that doesn’t even really do or encourage dungeon crawls that well anymore, but that’s another post) " What do you mean by 'dungeon crawl' in this context? My impression, as a non-gamer, is that it's just 'go into a dungeon, then fight monsters and get rewards'. Does D&D not do that? And what are examples of a good dungeon crawling RPG? Thank you.

So there's a few reasons for this. And understand that, while I might come off as negative about various editions of D&D in this post, I don't mean to be bashing them. This is just a thing where the culture has changed and the mechanics of the game don't act like they used to.

So. The dungeon crawl. At it's basic, it's simple. There is a dungeon (and a dungeon can be a castle, a labyrinth, a wizard's tower, a tomb, or just a hole in a ground that leads to ADVENTURE). There are obstacles in the dungeon. And there is treasure. And an adventurer wants to go to the dungeon, overcome the obstacles, and get the treasure.

It's that simple. And D&D, as it is now, no longer encourages it. Why can I say that? Well...

TL;DR, because this post got REALLY LONG: The way character progression works in modern D&D has made dungeon crawls obsolete as a method of character advancement.

In WotC's Dungeons and Dragons editions, there's two ways for characters to earn experience. The main way is combat. You kill a monster, you get a chunk of experience points for it. The other way, and it's more of a suggestion in 3.x, but I think 4E and I know 5E make it more prominent, is story milestones. You complete a story, or make it a good ways in there, and you get a good amount of XP for advancing the plot. Westley and Princess Buttercup make it out of the fire swamp only to meet Prince Humperdink and Count Rugen, the six-fingered man, on the other side. Buttercup goes with Humperdink and Rugen knocks out Westley to take him to the Pit of Despair. Break 'til next week's game, you did great, I had a blast, thanks for playing, everyone collect two thousand experience points.

But in the TSR era (because WotC bought TSR about twenty-three years ago, you see. TSR invented D&D, but due to years of terrible business decisions they were basically dying. They would not have survived.) it was a little different. It changed depending on the game/edition (There was Original Dungeons & Dragons in the little brown books, the multi-editioned and sadly often forgotten Basic/BECMI Dungeons & Dragons, the much ballyhooed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and the far-spanning 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons), some of them allowed for story progression, others rewarded players for roleplay or exceptional play (like coming up with a plan to save the party or something), others encouraged 'proper' playing of classes by giving experience points for appropriate ability use...

But the experience for all of these was pretty small. Oh, sure, you could get hundreds of experience points for killing a monster, but... Basic:

First Edition

2nd Edition

Seems a little easy, yeah? Here's a 2E wizard's experience point chart. He needs the listed amount of experience points to gain a level and get more power/ability.

So if he's fighting a bunch of level 1 monsters at the start of his career, he'd have to kill 166 of them to get to level 2. This isn't likely to happen. And, normally, a wizard wouldn't be doing this alone, so he'd have to split all of that XP into equal portions with each member of his party.

(For reference, in Fifth Edition, an orc, a 1 hit die monster worth 10~15 XP in earlier editions, is worth 100 XP if you kill one. You need 300 XP to reach level 2, 900 to reach level 3, and 2,700 to reach level 4. Though, of course, the party XP split still applies.)

So, how did the main XP gain happen?

GATHERING TREASURE!

Every gold piece of treasure you gathered equaled one experience point. So, five silver pieces? One XP. A ring worth 50 gp? 50 xp. A gem-encrusted set of enchanted plate mail possessing orichalcum inlays worth 100,000 gold pieces? 100,000 experience points (assuming you up and sold it).

All of the TSR editions did this. This was the main way your characters got stronger. Risky fights were stupid, you could get killed that way. It was often better to find ways to avoid them, whether through stealth, diplomacy, trickery, or fear tactics. Story was fine, but that could be wonky at times. (Dare you enter my magical realm?) But gold? Gold was as good as experience.

And under TSR, a lot of people had this concept of, like. A mega-dungeon. Massive, sprawling adventure areas, ten, fifteen, twenty layers deep, each level having possibly dozens of rooms, growing more mysterious and deadly the deeper you go, but with greater rewards as well. You'd have adventurers go down for a week or two, then come back half-dead, but carting enough gold to build a castle from. Then, three months later, when they'd rested and recovered, they'd go right back down, seeking out new caverns and probing deeper depths.

(This is, btw, why silver and copper pieces exist. It's not to simulate an economy. They're traps. Coins have weight, in OD&D and 1E, 10 coins were a pound of weight. In Basic and 2E, 50 coins were a pound. Either way, if you filled your pockets with copper and silver, you might leave the dungeon before you got any gold because you suddenly had too much to carry.)

...So, backtracking a bit:

WotC editions don't do this. They instead increase the XP value of monsters so that combat is the main way to gain experience points, and they also go "But story also matters. Progress the plot of your campaign and you'll get stronger." Which, y'know, valid.

But if your XP is based on story milestones or overcoming enemies, then diving into a deep dungeon that you've got to regularly leave just feels... counterintuitive. In a newer edition, if you leave, the monsters might repopulate, set more traps, risk killing you. It's better to kill them all while you're fresh, refusing to leave until every last monster has been purged. Having to worry about finding a place to long rest mid-dungeon, keeping track of resources like torches, rations, etc., that's not fun for some people. They tend towards single visits.

But big dungeons weren't made for that style of play in mind. If you want that style of play, dungeons need to be short, to the point. A few rooms, maybe three levels, and then you're up and out with a level up jingle playing. Sometimes you might even get campaigns without any dungeons, because why need them if you're just going to use milestones? What's the point of going into the Danger Hole if you're focusing on Political Intrigue? Yeah, the mines might be really interesting to explore if you can dodge the boss fight, and there's tons of loot, but you've really got to make it to Lothlorien.

The biggest dungeons evolve. They might change layout while the party is gone. They'll repopulate, sometimes with different kinds of monsters. The rewards will refresh themselves, but why bother with chicken feed when there's a king's feast five levels down and you've found a short cut?

They're made for repeat visits.

But that's not the modern play style. It's not rewarded by the system. Players would rather not deal with it, because it feels riskier and more dangerous.

And that's what it boils down to.

If you're interested in dungeon crawling games... Well, there's a lot of options. Older editions of D&D still exist. Various OSR (Old School Renaissance, essentially retroclones of early D&D with attempts at better editing and polish) games, like Old School Essentials, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and OSRIC are options. If you want alternatives that aren't quite so D&D, Sword World (Record of Lodoss War's RPG. Originally they tried to sell the setting of Lodoss to TSR, but TSR wasn't interested, so they made their own tabletop game.) has a lot of passionate fans that are doing translations of it. I've heard good things about GURPS' Dungeon Fantasy. And where there's a mention of GURPS, the HERO System is soon to follow with Fantasy HERO deserving a mention.

For science fiction takes, Shadowrun can often take this form (I'd suggest third or fourth edition), Traveller often takes teams in to exploring abandoned moon bases or derelict space ships, and Space Hulk is Warhammer 40k's take on this with a hefty dose of Alien to inform things. Finally, there's a ton of superhero games out there, and what superhero game is complete without a raid on a dungeonmad scientist's lair?

(Note: I haven't played all of those games, but I know all of them by reputation at the very least, and I've spoken to folks who've played each one.)