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evilbihan · 8 months

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This is probably the most unpopular of all unpopular opinions out there, but hear me out for just a second:

Can we please start to acknowledge Kuai Liang's flaws? It's perfectly fine to like a character while also acknowledging their negative traits and the bad things they've done. I'm genuinely confused by the whole "aww Kuai Liang is so nice :)" thing the fandom has going on. I understand that, being a Bi-Han fan, I might sound biased, but I promise this is coming from a completely neutral standpoint.

I don't see how any of the positive traits fans associate with Kuai Liang (kindness, selflessness, a caring nature) are backed up by any canon material we know of. Those traits belong to Tomas, not Kuai Liang. The version of Kuai Liang that is a loving brother to Tomas and the prime example of a good man only exists in fanon.

Vengeful, short-tempered, regressive — those are Kuai Liang's actual traits.

May I remind you, the real Kuai Liang looks like this.

His face expresses arrogance, he's looking down on whoever is in front of him. He doesn't smile, doesn't display any expression that one could interpret for kindness. He looks cold. Does that arrogance and coldness look familiar at all?

It's the same expression as this one. Bi-Han is also shown looking down on others, with the exact same confidence stemming from the idea that he is superior to others. Kuai Liang mirrors that expression perfectly. They're brothers, they're similar in the way they act and think, in the way they were raised. Let's not forget that Kuai Liang was second in line for the grandmaster title while with the Lin Kuei. He is grandmaster of the Shirai Ryu now. They are both arrogant.

Tomas is the only one of the three who smiles and has a warm, kind aura to him. I'm not saying he's a perfect ray of sunshine, he's certainly capable of being ruthless just like his brothers, but he doesn't share their overwhelmingly negative traits.

There is no warmth to Kuai Liang at all, which is ironic given that his element is fire. Kuai Liang's fire, however, burns cold to match Bi-Han's ice. They are not opposites, they are the same.

Hanzo as Scorpion was driven by grief and ultimately love for his family, Kuai Liang's fire is only fueled by hatred for his brother.

While Bi-Han is obsessed with power, Kuai Liang's obsession with honor and tradition is crossing the line to fanaticism. Am I the only one to find it concerning how he worships his father and his father's ideals almost religiously? It's pretty much all he ever talks about at any given chance.

to Bi-Han: "His teachings did not pass with him. They should still guide us." to Bi-Han: "Father would turn in his grave if he saw this." to Smoke: "We must chart a new course. One that both honors our Father's legacy and serves Earthrealm." to Kitana: "Death before dishonor." to Smoke: "Only if we honor tradition."

Is this how a normal person talks? I don't think so. Admittedly, Bi-Han's methods are wrong, but since when is it a good thing to be completely against progress? Kuai Liang is stuck holding onto outdated traditions that don't allow for growth. It's not necessarily a bad thing that he looks up to his father, but idolizing someone to the point of never questioning anything they do or say and giving up any critical thinking is dangerous.

There's plenty more examples in the story mode and intros where Kuai Liang brings up honor and tradition, but this post is going to be long enough as it is so I only named a few.

I want to focus more on how Kuai Liang treats other characters throughout the story.

Tomas:

Why does the fandom claim he's such a good brother to Tomas when this is the only scene in the story mode where Kuai Liang expresses any sort of care towards Tomas — in a moment where he needs Tomas on his side?

Oddly enough, he's playing at Tomas' vulnerability here by bringing up family and reassuring him that they're brothers even if they don't share blood, in direct contrast to how Bi-Han said Tomas' blood was not Lin Kuei earlier. Words he chose carefully and deliberately, not out of the goodness of his heart because he wanted to comfort Tomas, but to achieve the desired effect: to sway Tomas to his side.

Similar to Bi-Han, Kuai Liang is a manipulative and calculating character. I would even dare to go as far as to say he's even more manipulative since Bi-Han lacks the charisma and patience to be a successful manipulator. Bi-Han makes no effort to convince Tomas to join him. He can't even keep up the lie he told Kuai Liang for very long. Bi-Han's actions are impulsive and poorly planned out, he's the naive one being manipulated by characters like Shang Tsung while Kuai Liang makes smart, calculated moves. He knew exactly what he was doing when speaking to Tomas.

I don't see how that was even necessary since Tomas would have picked Kuai Liang's side regardless simply because it's the one aligning with his own beliefs, but Kuai Liang's words were a subtle "Hey, remember that I'm the one who considers you part of this family and he does not. If you don't side with me, you're going to betray your own brother."

One of the key signs to recognize a manipulator by is how they try and convince a person close to them that it's "the two of them against everyone else" or in this case "them against their older brother". Manipulators know someone's weaknesses (Tomas' desire to be a part of their family) and how to exploit them to get what they want.

There was never even the slightest chance that Tomas would have sided with Bi-Han in that fight anyway, but he also appears way more passive in it as opposed to Kuai Liang. Tomas doesn't want to fight his own brother, but at the end of the day he cares more about doing the right thing and saving innocent lives than about his inner conflict. For Kuai Liang, it's a quest for vengeance and the pursue of his own goals above all else.

I also think it's interesting that Tomas looks slightly surprised/ confused at the hand being placed on his arm by Kuai Liang. It's almost like he's not used to being reassured like this which makes you wonder how often Kuai Liang really comforted Tomas or showed any support towards him. Like Liu Kang and everyone else, Kuai Liang barely acknowledged Smoke's presence before. They're only seen exchanging occasional glances.

What has me doubt the sincerety of Kuai Liang's words even more is this scene.

Personally, I don't believe that Bi-Han has ever snapped at Tomas like that before this incident here, but I know the fandom likes to think otherwise so just for this take let's go with the wrong assumption that Bi-Han used to put Tomas down like that regularly.

Why did Kuai Liang not step in to defend Tomas in this scene? If he knew where this was going why did he let Bi-Han finish his sentence? It's certainly not out of respect or because Bi-Han is their grandmaster. Kuai Liang has no issue talking back to him and contradicting him in other situations but he was surprisingly silent when this whole thing went down.

He was either just as surprised as Tomas that Bi-Han would snap at their brother like that because it hasn't happened before or because he simply didn't care to interrupt since he had nothing to gain from it, unlike later when he wanted Tomas' loyalty for himself.

Kuai Liang could have been standing up for Tomas in this situation if he was the good brother everyone sees him as, but for some reason he didn't. Make of that what you will.

As for the intros between them, there's only one where Kuai Liang asks about Tomas' family. In every other intro with Tomas he only speaks of his own goals. Honor, tradition, training the Shirai Ryu, defeating the Lin Kuei... At one point he praises Tomas for his loyalty towards him, only to question said loyalty later on.

Scorpion: Our resolve cannot waver, brother. Smoke: I'm offended that you think mine has.

If I'm not mistaken, that's a prime example of manipulation right here. Guilt tripping/shaming someone into doing something they don't even want to do.

Kuai Liang seems to always be working an angle with Tomas. Why is he suddenly doubting him? Because he knows Tomas wants peace, not war between the brothers?

Ultimately, it seems he doesn't care about what Tomas wants. We know that Tomas is torn in this conflict, he resents Bi-Han, but he also doesn't want his brothers to fight. Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked for Liu Kang to reunite them.

Tomas' intros are a whole paradox of their own.

Smoke: Are we to be enemies for life? Sub-Zero: Unless you submit, Tomas.

Smoke: I'll never forgive Bi-Han. Scorpion: His betrayal has seared both our hearts.

Scorpion: We'll soon meet the Lin Kuei in battle. Smoke: It will be our last with them. Smoke: For Earthrealm's sake, my brothers must reunite. Raiden: There's little hope for that, Tomas.

Smoke: Can I get the brothers to reconcile? Liu Kang: They must choose their own path, Tomas.

What Tomas says to other characters contradicts everything he says to Kuai Liang. But why? Why does he never tell Kuai Liang directly that he'd just wish him and Bi-Han would stop fighting? Why if not because he's afraid of Kuai Liang's reaction and that he will lose him as a brother unless he agrees with everything Kuai Liang says?

SPOILERS: It's interesting how Kuai Liang in this scene asks Tomas to help him bring Bi-Han back with them so he won't be able to aid Shang Tsung, but according to leaks he's going to leave Bi-Han behind with Havik in the dlc, not even caring about the consequences that might have for Bi-Han or for Earthrealm. Now that Tomas isn't there he no longer has to keep up the facade. Tomas' absence also makes me wonder if he maybe got tired of Kuai Liang's spitefulness and blind hatred.

To sum it up, here's what we know about how Kuai Liang treats Tomas:

Kuai Liang initialy doesn't defend Tomas against Bi-Han's harsh words

He picks an odd timing to comfort Tomas at the Ying Fortress, possibly to assure that Tomas will join his side, not Bi-Han's

He's trying to push his own agenda onto Tomas who agrees with him in their intros but doesn't seem to share Kuai Liang's goals when speaking to other characters like Liu Kang or Raiden

SPOILERS: It seems that Tomas won't be attending Kuai Liang's wedding as he's not mentioned at all in any of the dlc leaks. He might be trying to stay out of the fight between his brothers entirely.

Bi-Han:

Another detail I've noticed is how quickly Kuai Liang comes up with the idea to create the Shirai Ryu. How likely is it that he made the decision to form an entire new clan on the spot? He seems way too prepared for this scenario.

Smoke: Once he's exposed, won't you be grandmaster? Scorpion: You forget Cyrax and Sektor. Their loyalty to Bi-Han is absolute. They'll sooner abet his corruption than follow me. We must chart a new course.

Why did Tomas not know about this when they're part of the same clan but Kuai Liang knows the answer immediately? It's almost like he has thought it through before, tried to figure out exactly who would side with him and who wouldn't if it came down to important Lin Kuei members choosing between him and Bi-Han. And that's because he has. It even says so in his official bio.

Kuai Liang always intended to overthrow Bi-Han.

He admitted that he was aware of Bi-Han's frustrations all along and yet he never brought up his concerns to Liu Kang or anyone else. It seems that he intended to take advantage of how mentally unstable his brother was in order to become grandmaster himself. I'm not saying he always wanted the title to himself, Kuai Liang doesn't care about power, but his obsession with tradition equals Bi-Han's obsession with power. He wanted to rule the Lin Kuei himself to enforce his own ideals and when he realized that wouldn't work out, he settled for the next best thing: creating his own clan.

Kitana in comparison also knows that Mileena is impulsive and many people doubt that she's fit to lead but she supports her sister regardless. Her loyalty to Mileena is unwavering. Kitana loves and supports her sister unconditionally. It doesn't even once cross her mind to take Mileena's place on the throne.

Kuai Liang and Kitana share similar values, yet Kitana's loyalty to her sister outweighs all that while Kuai Liang didn't hesitate to plot against Bi-Han way before Bi-Han even sided with Shang Tsung. Just Bi-Han's frustration alone was reason enough for Kuai Liang to want to overthrow his brother.

Ashrah, a complete stranger, cares more about redeeming Bi-Han than his own brother does. And no, Kuai Liang's actions can't be justified by bringing up that Bi-Han let their father die or betrayed Earthrealm etc. because Kuai Liang gave up on him long before any of that happened. In fact, the way Kuai Liang constantly brings up their father at every chance he gets probably added to Bi-Han's frustrations and is part of the reason why he was driven to madness.

Scorpion: Glory? We fight for duty. Sub-Zero: Does our father's ghost possess you? All I hear is his voice.

Bi-Han seems haunted by their father's ghost and Kuai Liang knows, yet he doesn't shy away from bringing it up at every opportunity. Was it done on purpose? Who knows.

But it's noteworthy that it's again manipulative behavior. The way Kuai Liang constantly criticizes Bi-Han, undermines his authority, compares him to their father whenever he can although he knows about Bi-Han's frustrations, then claims a shadow has fallen on Bi-Han's soul when he at the very least partially helped cast that shadow.

I'm not sure why people claim Kuai Liang was supportive of Bi-Han before his betrayal because there's no evidence of that at all. At least, none that I could find. Kuai Liang seems reluctant to follow Bi-Han's orders and he also doesn't seem to respect him much. Again, compare that to how Kitana shows actual concern for Mileena while Kuai Liang just seems fed up with Bi-Han.

Personally, I believe Kuai Liang's goals are far bigger than we know at this point. Something about the line "The Shirai Ryu won't rest until Bi-Han is defeated and the Lin Kuei's honor is restored" suggests that, while he built his own clan, Kuai Liang still has some interest in the Lin Kuei. I doubt that he's just planning to take down Bi-Han to let someone else be grandmaster in his place. I think that Kuai Liang wants to merge both clans once Bi-Han is defeated. After all, Kuai Liang's bio mentions that he's willing to fight his brother for control of the Lin Kuei's legacy. He might think it would be in his father's interest if he became grandmaster of both clans. However, that's just an educated guess and might not be true at all.

How Kuai Liang treats Bi-Han:

Kuai Liang never trusted Bi-Han's leadership skills or acknowledged his authority

The conflict of interest between the brothers always existed, even before Bi-Han switched sides and Kuai Liang always planned to take the grandmaster title from Bi-Han

Kuai Liang attempted to (and would have) killed Bi-Han but was interrupted in doing so

He's eager to fight Bi-Han, while Tomas is reluctant

He seems to have always held very little love for Bi-Han, if any at all, although he claims they used to be close once

Harumi:

Does no one else think it's a little bit suspicious that the woman Kuai Liang ends up "falling in love with" is a capable fighter and head of her own clan, someone with exactly the resources, knowledge and means to provide Kuai Liang with everything he needs to build his own clan? He even names the Shirai Ryu after Harumi, a clan whose goal it is to take down Kuai Liang's hated brother, someone Harumi probably knows little about or never even met. Maybe I'm the only one to think that's kind of messed up and not a romantic gesture, but at least he's giving her some credit, right? Does Harumi lead the Shirai Ryu with Kuai Liang or did he take her own clan from her to build his own? I couldn't really find any information regarding that but it would be even more messed up if the Shirai Ryu are originally Harumi's clan that Kuai Liang simply took over.

Another weird detail is how Smoke calls Harumi Kuai Liang's "good friend" in his own ending, which makes you wonder if he left the Shirai Ryu before Kuai Liang and Harumi became a couple? Does he know Kuai Liang doesn't actually love Harumi? It's confusing because Tomas is the person closest to Kuai Liang. Shouldn't he be the first to know if his brother fell in love and is planning to get married?

Kuai Liang's reaction when Kitana congratulates him on his marriage is rather cold as well. He doesn't seem like a happy, newly married man and it makes me think their marriage wasn't necessarily out of love, at least not on Kuai Liang's side.

How Kuai Liang treats Harumi:

There's not enough known about their relationship yet to really know if Kuai Liang's love for Harumi is genuine

He benefitted a lot from his friendship with her when creating the Shirai Ryu

It's strange that Tomas only calls Harumi Kuai Liang's "good friend"

Final conclusion:

Kuai Liang seems to follow a pattern of binding people to him emotionally (Tomas, Harumi... ) to be able to use them to his own advantage. I'm not saying that he doesn't care about them at all, but first and foremost, they're assets to him and family second.

For someone who claims to care about honor, Kuai Liang sure has very little of it. SPOILERS: The fact that Kuai Liang is willing to let Bi-Han die and deny him treatment when he gets infected with chaos magic says a lot about the type of person he is. How is it honorable to kick a man when he's down? How is it honorable that he wants to kill Frost during his own wedding and Harumi has to beg him to spare her life?

To get this straight, this is not an attempt to paint Kuai Liang as the epitome of all evil or to say he doesn't care at all about the people in his life, just that he's much more cold and calculating than people give him credit for. Just because Kuai Liang has chosen the good side while Bi-Han went down the wrong path doesn't necessarily make him a nice person. He's still vindictive and selfish. He still shows toxic behavior.

I know someone will try and twist this post into something it isn't, so let me say this is NOT a personal attack on Kuai Liang fans or an attempt to spread negativity, it's just my opinion that you're free to disagree with. I blame the writers and their obvious bias for Scorpion that Kuai Liang's bad traits are so often overlooked. This post is only me sharing my thoughts. If it offends you, block me. I don't want to see this reblogged with paragraphs from people trying to defend Kuai Liang.

#kuai liang #mk scorpion #bi han #mk sub zero #tomas vrbada #mk smoke #lin kuei brothers #mortal kombat 1 #mk1 2023

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3473-warrior · 15 days

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Frozen - September 9 - Jegulus dads - @stag-microfic - word count: 626

“James! Harry! I’m home!” Regulus called entering their small home. The quiet of the house confused him. “Chéri? Petit soleil?” Regulus furrowed his eyebrows and entered the kitchen. Flipping the tea kettle on, he saw a note sitting on the island.

Went to the park, we’ll be back by 4:45

Love James + Harry

Regulus smiled at the little note and pulled out three mugs. Knowing James and Harry they would probably be back in about 5 minutes with the cold outside. Shuffling through the small pile of mail, Regulus glanced up when the sound of laughter rang through the opening front door. Heading into the living room, Regulus laughed when Harry came running around the corner bundled in snow clothes.

“Papa!” Regulus grunted when Harry jumped into his arms.

“Did you have fun at the park, beau soleil?”

“Yup! Daddy took me to the one with all the big slides, and I made a new friend!”

“Did you?”

“Yup, his name is Ron, and we played monsters!”

“Oh! That’s always a fun game. Now, why don’t you change into some warm pajamas, and then, we can sit down and watch a movie with some dinner and hot cocoa?”

“Yay! Hot cocoa!” Regulus set Harry down, and he took off towards his room. Rounding the corner into the entrance hallway, James is flushed and rubbing his hands together.

“So, did you bundle up just as much as your son, or should I expect for you to push your freezing hands up my shirt if I come to hug you?” James chuckles as he looks up.

“I definitely didn’t wear enough clothes, and I most definitely will shove my hands up your shirt if you decide to hug me.” Regulus hums but walks forward anyway.

“Merlin,” Regulus exclaims after he grabs James’ hands, “You’re practically frozen to death!”

“Yeah, I definitely didn’t wear enough clothes this time.”

“Come on, you big oaf. Let’s get you warm.”

“Yeah, okay.” James shrugged out of his shoes and jacket before following Regulus to the living room. “I’m sorry for not dressing warmer.” Regulus huffed a laugh while re-entering the room.

“I’m not mad at you, chéri.”

“But we’ve talked about this before. I said I wouldn’t do it again.”

“James, love, I know. You don’t think about this kind of thing until you’re already cold or hungry or something along those lines. I’ll still love you through it. Every time. I promise.”

“Until this kind of thing gets me hurt.”

“Then we’ll deal with it, together, like we always do.” Regulus grasps James’ hands. “What’s really bugging you about this? You know that I don’t mind the ADHD. I never have.”

“What if I hurt Harry because of it?”

“Oh, James,” Regulus breathes, “you wouldn’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because your paternal instinct is stronger than anything else in your brain. It’s normal to feel like this. You have before and you will again. That’s a part of life.”

“I just don’t want to hurt him because of it.”

“You won’t.”

“Papa, Daddy! Did you start on hot cocoa without me?” Harry’s aghast question breaks the slightly solemn atmosphere in the living room. Regulus and James chuckle before pulling Harry up onto the couch with them.

“Never, petit soleil. That would be a great dishonor.”

“Good. Now, I want to watch Zootopia. Can we watch Zootopia?”

“Of course, we can, calabaza.”

“Yay!”

“I’m going to get started on dinner.” Regulus dropped a kiss to Harry’s forehead before standing. “Are you okay with that, chéri?”

“Mmm, oh, yeah,” James hums hesitantly. Regulus gently cups his face and examines him softly. “You’re only a few feet away. I’m okay.”

“Okay,” Regulus gently kisses James’ forehead before going to start on dinner.

#james potter #regulus black #jegulus #marauders era #marauders #marauders fandom #harry potter marauders #jegulus raising harry #james potter with adhd #micro fic #september prompts

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nothanksjohnny · 3 months

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Im back on my insanity run and I said to myself

"Self?"

"Yeah what's up bbygirl"

" there should be more thoughts of bots being a bit scared of humans"

"That's a great idea"

Anyways here are my thoughts. I've read a lot of different kinds of opinions and site's and kinda just jumbled it all together. Cybertronains have their own diets and while energon is a large portion of it there is some verity. While they can eat and mildy digest human food it's not recommend due to gaining no nutrition due to it being carbon based and them not really needing it in the form earth's vegetation and species give. Of course this still means a curious bot or has tried a human meal. Although this isn't really what drives them off. No rather its how humans catch,prepare and vocally crave other living organisms. It's not a oddity to us to hear someone whine on how there "dying to eat some ribs!" Or are dying "for some grilled salmon and rice." It's something that can lead to conversion and finding common ground. This is not the same for a cybertrioan upon hearing this and learning just where these meats come from they will appear uneasy and in their own way sick. Their plating tight as their optics glance at you before recommending you to eat some fruit or any snacks they've come to have stored away for any of their earthly companions upon a ship or a base. This is just hearing this mind you. Now seeing someone eat is another. Eating something as simple as Jerky will get you stares and one of them going out to purge their tanks. This is just something that doesn't make alot of noise. As someone who eats the cartilage off of chicken bone I can imagine it causes them to rethink their options of how weak humans are. They can't help but clamp their plating and shift uncomfortably as they hear your molars grind at the cartilage and tear and snap as it's forces off the bone. Primus help them if you chew the bone slightly. It's almost as bad as when humans describe how much joy they gain from this " please stop talking how much you enjoy the ribcage from a cows carcas." " come on man I don't judge you when you drink blood." Their one "how to cook steak properly" from screaming on how you eating other living being. Vegans and vegetarians aren't safe either once they learn how plants feel pain in their own form. Did you know under black light a plants chlorophyll appear red? Yeah your getting a side eye as well its not as bad but they still don't want to see you eat around them. Now you may be asking " well if their so uncomfortable with the subject how do some of them eat our food then?" Some ways this can happen is that the bot may be unaware at first and never gave a true thought were those chicken wings come from. Another is maybe they don't care as much. Plenty of them have done dishonorable things what's wrong doing a small one.

Another factor that causes them to wonder just how "harmless" their human companions are is when we do rather primal acts. Have you ever wanted for spook someone or just not be seen? You stalk them to achieve this. Now while we don't do it like our canine or feline companions I belive we still do it in our own way. You tense and for some even hunch yourself over a bit in a attempt to make yourself smaller for a lesser chance of being seen. You take soft yet full steps as you ease your weight on each leg to not cause to much noise. Or maybe you lift your heels off the ground and step with the front of your foot taking strides as you crouch and keep your legs firm on the ground. You keep yours eyes focused and either hold or try and even out soft breaths. You hear every creak and shift until eventually you pounce a yelp cause a smile to curl on your face. Or maybe your trying to catch a fly carefully trying to almost play the insect that your just passing by before you trying to slam a object or your hand on it in hopes of killing it. It's makes any autobot or decepticon shiver as they see it happen. Or maybe they stumbled upon children playing hide and seek ( dont ask me how their big ahh selfs somehow manage to not be seen). They can't help but freeze as they see these smaller pathetic organics go still and listen shifting and holding their limbs tight yet isn't help the trembling causw by the thrill of the chase as they snap their head a certain direction and dig their feet into the ground to start running with a push. To see them giggle and smile aa they creep up on their friends and just like the fly pretend they don't know someone's there until they to pounce " got you!" Is squealed happily and yet all the poor bot can think is " I need off this fragging planet" They can't help but let their processor run wild as they one day notice you doing the same to them. Ratchet at the computer and the others are simply lounging around the base and there you are. Not even half their size but you eyes seem to snap to the poor medic and you grin. Soft steps and your eyes concentrated and they slightly dilate. A smile that shows the tips of your canines as your breath slowly shifts to larger silent intakes of air. The others take notice but they can't help but stare. You can't harm ratchet. You wield no weapon. So why?. Their optics trace you and it's so unusual. It's code for them to know how to deal with situations yet here you are. No training and yet your mind is already making all the hopefully successful changes to catch what your hunting. A primal itch that adores to take the front in now subtle ways in modern society. So they watch. Watch and slowly move their helms to following you as you making your move closer to the medic shifting through the noises of the conversations still playing out. Shifting out of view when the medic moves just slightly. And then when your just a few away from his peds you snap your teeth on the rabbits neck snapping it with the sound of " Hey ratchet whatcha doing?" As his yelp and huffs is intangled with laughter at his misfortune. Your canines presented by pulled back lips as teeth snap and cause a soft dull clank to fill a empty space as you smile at the medic that now has a scowl on his faceplate. Blue optics causing a whirrrr noise as they shift in a mimic as to how any creature on earths eyes do naturally. All as the the others shift and silently keep in mind to always glance behind them hoping they won't have misfortune to be your next rabbit.

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theoihalioistuff · 3 months

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Hi, I've finished the Illiad and Odyssey not so long ago, and I'm a little bit confused.

In those texts, characters or narrator sometimes refer to Zeus as "the oldest of gods." I've read these on my native language, so I decided there was some translation problem, but then I've came across couple of English posts also talking about Zeus as the oldest and yes, I understand that posts people write aren't the best source of information but along with what I've read in the poems it made me doubting.

So, are there some versions of the myths where Zeus is the oldest? Or is it simply a translation or interpretation problem, like "the oldest" in the meaning "the strongest/wisest/greatest/etc"?

I will be very thankful for the explanation because somehow, this made me so confused.

No problem! Although Zeus is almost always presented as the youngest son from Hesiod onwards, he is in fact described as the oldest in the Iliad. For example, when he sends Iris with a message to Poseidon:

"I came here bearing a message for you, dark-haired holder of the earth, from Zeus who wields the aegis. He commands you to desist from war and battle and to go among the tribe of gods, or into the bright salt sea. And if you do not obey his words, but ignore them, he threatens that he too will come here to do battle, face-to-face; and he bids you avoid his hands, since he says he is more powerful by far than you in strength and in birth is elder." (Il. 15. 174-182)

One could suspect Zeus is bending the truth or being metaphorical in claiming primogeniture (considering the other more popular tradition) but the Iliad states it as a literal fact, as evidenced by Iris' response to Poseidon when he says that Zeus can snorkel his dongle:

"Is it in this way then, dark-haired holder of the earth, I should bear this harsh and powerful word to Zeus, or will you change your mind at all? The minds of the great are yielding. And you know the Furies always attend the elder born." (Il. 15. 201-204)

Meaning if conflict were to arise the Furies would side with Zeus because he the is older sibling. Hera is likewise here the eldest of the goddesses, and there's no reason to suppose it's not meant literally.

Curiously, quite the opposite interaction occurs in the Odyssey. If in the Iliad Poseidon has to give way to Zeus' bullying because Zeus is the eldest, in the Odyssey it is Zeus who, though still supreme king, gives way to Poseidon because here Poseidon is the eldest:

"Then in turn Zeus who gathers the clouds made answer: ‘What a thing to have said, Earthshaker of the wide strength. The gods do not hold you in dishonor. It would be a hard thing if we were to put any slight on the eldest and best among us. But if there is any man who, giving way to the violence and force in him, slights you, it will be yours to punish him. Now and always. Do as you will and as it pleases you.’" (Od. 13. 139-145)

Ancient authors were not unaware of the contradiction, and there seem to have been attempts to reconcile both traditions, like in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where it's said of Hestia:

"She was the first-born child of wily Kronos and youngest too, by the will of Zeus who holds the aegis." (Hom. Hymn. 5. 22-23)

No further explanation is given, but it's widely assumed that this is a reference to Kronos disgorging his children in the reverse order in which he swallowed them, ie. rock first and Hestia last (Hes. Th. 500 and Apollod. 1.2.1). The imagery of Kronos "rebirthing" his kids from his throat is... explicitly, used by Nonnos in the Dionysiaca when describing the scene:

"How he [Kronos] opened a gaping throat to receive a stony son, when he made a meal of the counterfeit body of a pretended Zeus; how the stone played midwife to the brood of imprisoned children, and shot out the burden of the parturient gullet" (Book 12. 43)

[Describing a shield that depicts Kronos swallowing the stone] "There he was again in heavy labour, with the stone inside him, bringing up all those children squeezed together and disgorging the burden from his pregnant throat." (Book 25. 553)

"And these dwelt in the city of Beroe, that primordial seat which Kronos himself built, at that time when, invited by clever Rhea, he set that jagged supper before his voracious throat, and having the heavy weight of that stone within him to play the deliverer's part, he shot out the whole generation of his tormented children. Gaping wide, he sucked up the storming flood of a whole river, and swallowed it in his bubbling chest to ease his pangs, then threw of the burden of his belly; so one after another his pregnant throat pushed up and disgorged his twiceborn sons through the delivering channel of his gullet." (Book 41. 65)

Hope I could be of help! And that Nonnos hasn't traumatised anyone too much.

#ask #sorry if I rambled #Kronos and Rhea is literally recreated in the 2022 film Resurrection #I love that actress and I could watch her read the phone book #Zeus #greek mythology #greek myths #greek gods #tagamemnon #hellenic deities #the iliad #the odyssey #Poseidon #Hera #Kronos #Rhea #Hestia #i was slightly disappointed by the film though

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oubliette-odette · 11 months

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The Reluctance of Love Pt. 7

Orc Male x Half-Elf Male, Fated Mates, Forbidden Love, Slow Burn Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Word Count: 1857(average 14 min read) Content Warnings: mention of mating, nothing happens....yet ;) All orcish is from orcishdictionary.com, created by Matt Vancil. Not beta-read. Criticism is welcome, but be sure to distinguish criticism from hate.

My head was pounding when I woke up from whatever Nezda did to me. I was in an empty tent that wasn’t hers, and I was buried in a pile of soft furs. I lifted my head, groaning as I felt the pounding intensify.

Nezda had poured something vile down my throat that made every part of my body spark like lightning was coursing through me. I remembered that I was screaming from the pain of it all and that it felt like it had lasted for hours. I remembered Nezda saying something over my screams about how the mating instinct must be burned out of me. Orga was there, I remembered, her face watching me with that same passive look as I screamed through the pain.

When it all stopped, I was laying in a pile of my own sweat and drool and I blinked up to see Nezda and Orga leaning over me before I passed out.

“Charul.” A gruff voice spoke. I jumped and whirled around to see the hulking mass that was my father.

I was average sized for an orc, but my father was far above average. He was a mountain in my eyes, a guardian of the clan. His skin was a deeper green than all of the rest and his fangs were large, protruding tusks that reached even above his upper lip. He was everything that orcs took pride in - strength, dominance, a protector - and I saw in him everything I lacked. My father was full of the life and vitality that we so cherished to breed into all of our children. His laugh was always the loudest, his destruction in battle the most widespread, and his love the most unending. I remembered him playing with my siblings and I when we were young, how he would wrestle with us. He was everything I needed him to be. I looked to him to be the best person I could be. He was my joy, he was my pride, he was my shame. Everything about him was large and so much to take in. His deep eyes looked down upon me. I knew he knew who I was. I remembered those same eyes looking at me when I told him I was leaving. He had said nothing then, but I could see that he was eager to speak now.

I had not spoken orcish for so long, but my brain adapted quickly to hearing my native tongue again. I did not miss the harshness of it on my tongue, nor the insults that I often heard from it, but it was familiar and a comfort as my father held his hand out to me and helped me up to my feet. I felt so small, so so small in his shadow.

“Nezda speaks to me of your mate.” He said.

I looked down at my feet.I did not want to see his face as he spoke to me of my dishonorable choice.

“Your mate was not orc. Was not able to bear you children. You denied lordhovid.” He sighed. “Why, my son, have you always been such a difficulty to this family?”

I clenched my eyes tight. I could not bear it. I heard all of the despair, disappointment in his voice. He sounded exhausted.

“I am unworthy, father.” I said. “Gruumsh has seen me unworthy of your name.”

My father sighed again, “Drunrag.”

“I will go. I will not return.” I continued, talking over him. “I will not let my brokenness hurt this family.”

“Drunrag.”

“I will not take the name you gave me. I will go far where I cannot sully you. And I will gratefully accept any punishment you give me.”

“DRUNRAG.” His voice thundered. “You will listen to me.”

I jerked up to meet his gaze, my body shaking at his booming voice.

“You…will not be banished.” He said. The news felt like it should be a relief, but I still felt the sadness and exhaustion buried beneath his words.

“You have always been my most loyal, my most faithful child.” He said. “I remember you clung to my every word as I raised you in our ways. But you were always soft. Always tender. You asked too many questions that it made your mothers scream.” He chuckled. “You were different from us, and I asked Gruumsh many times why you could not be like the rest of us.”

I waited with bated breath for the answer.

He shook his head, “Gruumsh was silent. And then you left us.”

I opened my mouth to apologize, but he shook his head. “You found your mate out there, but returned to us with a plea to remove the lust in your body. Nezda warned you that it would be seen as sacrilege.”

“Having a mate was not my choice.”

I saw my father pause, needing to take a breath at that comment. I knew it went against everything my family taught. For orcs, there wasn’t such a thing as choice. I regretted opening my mouth.

He shook his head, “I’ve made peace that you see the world differently than us, and I will not punish you for it. Yet, I fear where your choices will lead you.” He turned and reached for a small vial that was attached to his belt. “I had Nezda make this for you. It is rare, so do not be foolish.”

I took the vial from his hands, it was glass with crimson liquid inside. It looked like blood.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It will restore lordhovid to you, should you ever change your mind. There is your blood mixed with the blood of three generations before you. Drink it, and the fires of your lust will return to you to complete your mating.”

I blanched, “Why would you give this to me?”

My father shook his head. “You may never drink it, and that is fine. But you are family…and whoever your mate will be will also be family. I do not want you to be afraid of us, son, nor do I want you to be afraid of yourself. We are your family. We will keep you…even as broken as you are.”

I clung to the vial with a newfound warmth in my body. “Father. I do not deserve this.”

“There will be a feast for you tonight. You must at least stay the night before you go. Do not speak of your mating to anyone.” He said, rising to his full height and heading towards the entrance of the tent. He was about to step out when he paused and turned back in, “Orga was the one who urged for you to not be banished. Make your gratitude known before you leave.”

Somehow my father understood that even with this gracious gift I was given from him, I would not stay here. I needed to return to my new life, and to Altan. The warmth spread in me further. I had someone waiting for me when I returned that promised me a future that wasn’t as lonely as it had been before.

The feasting was loud, raucous and irreverent. No one would have guessed the solemnity and soberness my father had before the feast. His tankward sloshed uneasily as he downed one drink after another, his jokes becoming more and more crass as the evening passed on. My mothers were around him, each of them arguing over who was it that bore me. It was obvious my family wanted an excuse to drink and be merry. Most didn’t even hardly acknowledge me as being the guest of honor, which suited me fine.

I found myself sitting next to Orga, who was holding one of her children on her lap and another was playing at her feet. I regarded the young ones with a short pat on their heads before I sidled next to her.

“I must thank you for what you did for me.” I said.

“Why do you sound so formal about it?” She grunted. “We’re family, idiot, of course I’m going to make sure you don’t get left behind.”

“But…” I hesitated. ‘I thought you were always disappointed in me.”

She shrugged, “I was. But that doesn’t mean I don’t ever want to see you again.” She furrowed her brows at me. “You think too much for an orc, you know that?”

I nodded with a wry smile, “I’ve been told that a few times, yes.”

She handed the young orc to me and said plainly. “This is Dorug, you haven’t met him yet.”

The young orc looked up at me with large dark eyes. Their skin was a pale, almost sage green. I knew it would darken as they aged, but I loved the softness of a new babe’s skin and the way they always smelled so clean and warm. I smiled down at my sister’s child and the child only gaped at me back.

“Thank you, Orga.” I said. I glanced at her as I bounced the babe on my lap.

She shrugged again. “You’re welcome, stupid.”

The feasting and revelry went well into the late hours of the night, but I was no longer accustomed to such wildness and I found myself sneaking back into the tent that I had awoken in. My pack was already full and bulging with rations for the journey home. I pondered leaving right then, but some sleep would do me good.

And I hoped that maybe Altan and I would still see each other, if I were lucky.

I laid myself down on the furs to sleep, and awoke with the sun peaking over the horizon.

I felt an emptiness in my gut. There would be no more dreams with Altan.

I hoisted my pack on my shoulders and snuck out of the tent. Most of the commune was quiet and still and everyone was sleeping in from such a late night. I walked through without anyone seeing me, or so I thought.

“Boy.” Nezda’s voice rattled. She was standing outside her tent. Her white hair was piled atop her head in a nest. I turned and walked towards her.

“Revered One.” I said.

She pointed at the vial that I had strung around my neck. “Listen to me, boy, if you drink that vial, it will be stronger than it was before and there will be no reversing it this time, do you understand?”

I looked down at the vial, the crimson liquid looked so unassuming inside. I nodded. “I understand, Revered One.”

She regarded me, looking me up and down. “Eat more while you’re gone. You’re looking scrawny for your age, boy.”

I bit back the smile and bowed my head. “I will…grandma” I teased.

She kicked my shin before I danced away, “Such disrespect from you, boy!”

We both shared a knowing smile before I resumed my quiet exit from my home. I looked back once more, etching the memory of my large family all together in my brain and a promise on my lips that I would return again someday. With or without a mate.

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tarotcard0 · 4 months

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So, I have now officially beaten every NES Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) game. I'm currently playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and I'm almost at the end, but I have to wait for the switch to recharge before tackling Chapter 8.

In the meantime, I want to write down some of my thoughts on Dragon Quest here.

Dragon Warrior 1 (NES) - Dear lord, just play one of the Remakes, the original is so tedious. There's a remake for Gameboy, there's a remake for Mobile, there's a remake for SNES, there's even a fan made RPG Maker Remake. Any one of those is a better choice than the original. Only play the original if your curious, or for studying purposes. Oh, on that note, the SNES version is Japan Exclusive, so you'll have to get a patch to translate it to English.

Dragon Warrior 2 (NES) - Not only is this the best game of the NES Quadrilogy, it's just the best Dragon Quest game I've played. How did they do so well on their second try!? It's so hard to describe the feeling I got playing this and realizing "Oh! This is the game all those other RPGs are referencing!" Now, I'm biased. I liked drawing my own maps and taking my time with that, so if you don't I also recommend going to the remakes. Again, they're available for Gameboy, SNES, and Mobile. Again, the SNES version is JP exclusive and has an English translation patch.

Dragon Warrior 3 (NES) - It's hard to describe why I felt a little disappointment with this one... Dragon Warrior 2 was just... So good! Like, how do you follow that? For some reason, everything in 3 felt... slower. Despite several quality of life changes, things like re-organizing my inventories felt more tedious than it did before, and when the story reached the Second Act (I'm not sure I used that phrase right) I fell into that same emotion that I had while playing persona 5 where the game just felt like it was dragging on. And because I can probably beat Dragon Warrior 3 4 times over in the time it took me to beat Persona 5 once, I have reason to believe this has to do more with the context of the plot, than the runtime of the game itself. I guess I'll go ahead and recommend playing he GBC or SNES remakes again, they certainly sped things up.

Dragon Warrior 4 - This game SUCKS! It's easily the worst of the NES quadrilogy. It's not the worst Dragon Quest game (Dear god it's not the worst), 9 takes that dishonor (At least, of the ones I've played so far), but the baffling decision to have all party members except for the Hero controlled by AI once you gain control of said Hero, makes it a very close second. I can't even recommend the remake, because I can't get very far in it. Once we enter the Remake dimension for this game, we exit Dragon Warrior and enter Dragon Quest, where the development team thought it would be a great Idea to transcribe everyone's accent to a ludicrous (and sometimes racist) degree. And, surprising no one, RPGs are just slightly impossible when you can't read.

---

I can't do another "Keep Reading" break, so those 3 dashes will have to do.

Well, now that I've beaten all 4 of the OG Dragon Warrior games, I'm wondering what I should do next (After beating TTYD of course)

Should I keep on with the series and go to Dragon Quest 5, or should I start on the NES Final Fantasy games (Of which, I've only beaten FF2)?

I'll end this post with a Poll.

Of course, I'm biased in favor of Dragon Warrior 2, but I'd like to hear what reasons others have for liking the ones they do.

Oh, and just to make sure this gets a decent sample size; the remakes count. If you've played Dragon Warrior GB, but not Dragon Warrior NES, then you've played Dragon Warrior.

#video games #dragon quest #dragon warrior #dragon quest 2 #dragon quest 3 #dragon quest 4

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achillesuwu · 1 year

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Little snippets of my LiuJiu body swap fic because I have no self control and I want to show it to someone (PS: if I finish this and you want to know just say it in the rt and I will tag you or you can go on my ao3 (AchilleUwU) and subscribe ^^)

Title : I’m lucky, God went to bed and we have fate in our hand

Summary :

It should have ended there. Liu Qingge should have come back to his peak, sleep a bit and then go back to an other mission. Shen Qingqiu would have done whatever the fuck this spoiled brat does of his time.

Maybe in an other world it would have been like that.

Maybe in this world, God was bored and decided to change fate. Who knows.

—————-

It began like this.

It was a normal mission, not particularly difficult not easy either. Well, except for the fact that his partner was Shen Qingqiu but even then it wasn’t really different.

They argued on the way, Shen Qingqiu wanted to go on the left path because « it’s safer, shidi ! », Liu Qingge wanted to go on the right because « You are just a coward, Shen Qingqiu ! It’s faster ! ». They ended up taking different path and coming to the town at the same time. Then, they fought because Liu Qingge couldn’t stand Shen Qingqiu smug face when he saw Liu Qingge’s dirty clothes. Liu Qingge won as always.

They slept in different inn (if Shen Qingqiu slept in an inn at all and not in some woman arms), fought again because Shen Qingqiu couldn’t handle himself and flirt with every young, old, married, unwed, poor and rich ladies when they should investigate. (Truly that hat guy has no shame !)

Still, they found the demon, Liu Qingge killed it, Shen Qingqiu tried to kill him again. They fought again, Liu Qingge won yet again. They went on a different path again, Liu Qingge came back to his peak, made his report to his shifu, trained a bit and then went to slept.

That’s all.

That should have been all. It should have been an other nameless not particularly special mission.

————————————

The first thing Liu Qingge noticed when he slowly emerged from sleep (which was truly unusual for him, he always woke up rapidly and ready to go on his day) was the smell. He knew that smell, but his foggy mind and oh dear- his headache (since when does he has headache ?) prevented him from knowing exactly from where he knew it.

His head hurt so much, he couldn’t even think.

The second thing he noticed was the hand that was playing with his hair and smoothing his ache. It reminded him of his mother.

Liu Qingge slowly opened his eyes, everything was so bright and overwhelming but the chest of the person he had his head on was so comfortable.

Wait.

He distanced himself from the other person as fast as he could and fells off the bed.

He fells off of someone else’s bed. He was on someone else’s chest.

Someone had throw a bucked of cold water on him, he would have feel the same. What have I done ? He dishonored a lady, he must have been drunk, he may even have forced her. How could he —

« A-jiu ? » The woman’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts « Are you alright ? »

« A-jiu ? » He repeated confused, frowning. The world finally seemed to be less bright, his gaze focused on the woman. She was a pretty and young lady, her hair was simply styled and she was in red robe. Then he looked around the room, it was a rather large room in red tone. There was a low table opposite the bed with a Guqin on it. Another table with a tea set on it was in the corner of the room, near the door.

However, it wasn’t the tea set that caught his attention.

Green clothes had been lazily thrown on the chair.

Carelessly on the table and half hidden by a sleeve was a sword but Liu Qingge would recognize it everywhere.

Xiu Ya.

Finally, his gaze fell on his hands, on his bare forearms and then on his half-naked chest. It wasn’t his hands, forearms or chest and the robe that slipped off his shoulder wasn’t his either.

« H-how ? »

The woman quickly got out of bed, barely readjusting her clothes « Are you ok, A-Jiu ? » she said close but without touching him.

If earlier he felt that a cold water bucket had been throw on him now he felt like he was in a volcano. With a red face and pointing at her, he stupidly said « You are a prostitute » which made him earn a confused look.

« Yes ? »

He pointed at himself « This is Shen Qingqiu »

« …Yes ? »

He was nearly going to embarrass himself by asking « did we have sex yesterday » as if it wasn’t obvious by the state of their clothes but a commotion in front of the brothel stopped him. Liu Qingge stood up rapidly and walked toward the window

He heard faint mumbling but the closer he got toward the window, « … you jerk … » the clearer the voices became « … get out of … » until he slides them open and went on the balcony. A silenced talisman must have almost completely cut off the outside sound in the room because once he went outside everything was so loud, it was like being thrown into the middle of a storm.

« WHAT DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND IN ‘GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY BUSINESS’, ASSHOLE ? » The old madam screamed on top of her lung at a man.

The man didn't back down no matter what she was screaming at him, he was trying to talk to her but she didn’t seem to listen

« I SWEAR TO GODS IF YOU BOTHER MY CUSTOMER AND DESTROY ONE SINGLE VASE I’M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS— »

Not any man, it was his body

« SHEN QING QIU » Liu Qingge could feel anger rise in this body he wanted nothing but to put that lech in the dirt. Immoral and perverted to the point of sleeping in a brothel the same night he returned to the sect after a mission

Everyone became silent. The women looked between the two of them with confused look.

Shen Qingqiu sighed and looked toward him with an annoyed face « Liu Qingge » he said to confirm their predicament to everybody there. Then he redirected his attention to the brothel madam. « May I enter, Madam » He slightly bowed to her.

Some people would say that Shen Qingqiu was very respectful but Liu Qingge knew better « STOP FLIRTING IN MY BODY »

« Stop shouting half-naked in mine, you brute ! »

« I WOULDN’T BE HALF-NAKED IF— »

They continued to argue a bit more, Liu Qingge was close to jump off the balcony to fight that womanizer but Shen Qingqiu calmed down strangely quickly when the madam asked him to. They talked, Liu Qingge couldn't hear much of it. Then Shen Qingqiu walked to the front door of the brothel and there was no way Liu Qingge would let that bastard go alone into a brothel in his body.

Liu Qingge ignored the prostitute that spend the night with Shen Qingqiu and ran towards his robes and boots, he didn’t take the time to put all of the layers. He just took an outer robe and Xiu Ya and roughly put the boots while running in the corridor.

#Orignal Shen Qingqiu #liujiu #liu qingge #body swap #Unrelatable narator #that moment where you can help but being jealous of everyone because your crush is a well know ‘womanizer’#my shit #scum villian self saving system #scum villain #SVSSS

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lovebaela · 2 years

Text

Ice & Fire ༄ Pt. 2

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Bran Stark x Targaryen oc fanfic

Chapter 2 ⋇ The Tower ⋇

Tsireya’s POV

It was time to feast. Jon and I usually sat with the Starks, but not today. Lord Stark wanted me to be safe when Lady Stark thought it would be dishonorable for Jon to sit with them before a King. We sat at the side on a bench with the younger squires. Jon poured himself some summer wine and drank. “Did you want some?” He asked, noticing my curiosity.

“Sure,” I reply. He gave me his cup to take a sip. When I took a sip I stuck my tongue out in disgust. “I don’t like it!” I spat.

Jon chuckled, “Maybe you’ll like it better when you’re older.”

We all watched as the Stark family entered the the great hall one by one after the King and Queen. A few of them walked in with the King’s children. Robb with Princess Marcella, Sansa with Prince Joffrey, and Arya with Prince Tommen. The feast finally began.

Arya waves at me to watch her. What is she up to? She places a piece of her pigeon pie on her fork and flicks it at Sansa. “Arya!” Sansa cried. “She always does this!” Everyone in the hall laughed as Robb picked up Arya to take her to bed, from the order of their mother of course.

Music began to play and a few people got out of their seats to dance.

Bran’s POV

Everyone started to ask each other to dance. I glance over at Tsireya, I wish she could have sat with us, Jon too. Robb places his hand on my shoulder and whispers to me.

“Bran, you should ask her for a dance,” he said grinning. “I noticed you were staring at her.” My cheeks began to get warm.

“I-I wasn’t staring at her!” I try to argue.

“It’s okay to admit you like her brother,” He said. “Everyone knows that you do.”

“No I don’t!” I cry. I hate it when he, Theon, and Jon teased at me about Tsireya. I look down, “We are just friends. That’s all we will ever be!”

Robb noticed me looking down at feet and then chuckled, “…whatever you say Bran. You should still ask her for a dance. She would be very happy.” I look back at her as Robb leaves to ask a girl for a dance. He’s so lucky. Every girl wants him. The perfect, handsome son of Ned Stark. I take a deep breath and get up from my chair.

Tsireya’s POV

As I am petting Ghost, Jon’s direwolf pup, Bran walks up to me and reaches his hand out to me.

“gaomagon jaelā naejot lilagon?” Bran asked me quietly.

I look at Jon. He reassured me, “I’ll be fine! Ghost will keep me company.”

I look up at Bran and take his hand, “kessa.” I answer.

Bran’s hand gently caressed my hand as he held it with his as we walked to the dance floor. “Gaoman daor gīmigon skorkydoso naejot lilagon (I don’t know how to dance),” I confess. At least not the Northern Westeroi way. “It’s okay,” Bran replied. “I still don’t completely know how either.” We look at how everyone else danced and followed their lead.

Before going to bed, Bran, Arya, and I wanted to hear a story from Old Nan. We liked hearing one before sleeping. She still needed to finish the dance of dragons. I liked learning about my family history.

“Where did I leave off?” Old Nan asked.

“The part where Jacaerys Valeryon went to Winterfell!” Arya answered.

“Ah yes,” she remembered. “Queen Rhaenyra needed more allies on her side so her son Jacaerys volunteered to go to Winterfell, where he met Lord Cregan Stark. He gave him a warm welcome and they quickly grew to be like brothers swearing an oath by blood-.”

“The pact of Ice & Fire.” A voice said. We all look at the door to see Lord Stark. “A pact through marriage, Jacaerys’ first-born daughter was to be sent to Winterfell to be fostered and marry the heir of Cregan Stark.”

“But then he died during the war,” Bran stated.

“That he did,” Lord Stark said. “Since then, we still never fulfilled that pact.”

“Do you think that would ever happen?” I asked him.

“I do not know,” he answered. “Now, you all should go to bed.”

We all go back to our bedchambers saying goodnight.

Before reaching my room, Maester Luwin gave me a letter. It must be from Daenerys! I thanked him and went in my room to read it. Maester Luwin and Lord Stark were the only people who knew about the letters.

Dear Tsireya, I hope you are doing well my cousin. I’m afraid I have some news. I am getting married off in trade for a Dothraki army. I’m about to meet my future husband in a bit. I don’t want to marry him, or anyone. I just want to go home. To finally see you! Sometimes when I get scared…I say that I am the blood of the dragon. Dragon’s are fearless and brave which is what I should be. You are the only person in this world that brings me happiness. Love, Daenerys.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

In the morning, it was time for stitching. I was getting better at it, but Arya’s was still crooked. Princess Mrycella also joined us. The whole time Sansa was whispering with her friends, Jeyne and Beth.

“What are you all whispering about?” Arya asked suddenly. They all continue to giggle and Sansa whispers, “the Prince.”

“He told her she was beautiful.” The two girls said. “They are going to get married you’ll see!”

“Oh him,” Arya says. “Jon said he looks like a girl.”

“He’s just jealous because he’s a bastard.” Sansa said. Arya and I gasp.

“He’s our brother!” Arya said standing up.

“Half-brother,” Sansa corrected her.

“Ugh I hate you,” Arya hissed, she took my hand. “Let’s go see what Bran is doing.”

We go outside and see the boys drilling. Bran was heavily padded with a wooden sword, Prince Tommen as well. There were tons of specters watching. We walk up to Bran.

“Hey Bran!” We tell him. “Did we miss the fight?”

“No, it’s about to start!” He responds.

We wish him good luck and go back in the crowd standing next to Robb. The boys are watched closely by Ser Rodrick in case something bad would happen. The boys start to circle each other and then began to swing. Everyone encourages them, Robb was definitely the loudest. Bran was winning by a long shot.

“Do you think I could by as good as Bran?” Arya asks me.

“Totally! Takes a lot of practice, but it’s all worth it in the end.”

We both jump at the loud cheering of the crowd. We look and see Tommen roll on the ground, struggling to get up. Bran stood over him with his sword in the air. The fight is over! Arya and I run up to Bran.

“You did so good!” I said hugging him.

“Thank you.” Bran replied, looking flustered.

I look over at Tommen and say, “And you my Prince did well.” I help him up.

“T-Thank you.” Tommen replied, his face was completely red.

I notice the King giving us the side eye and quickly let go of his hand. Now, it was time for Joffrey and Robb to fight.

After the fight, the King wanted to go on a hunt with Lord Stark. They mount their horses and head out. Bran and I wave them goodbye.

“One day, that’s going to be me,” Bran said. “A brave, strong knight!”

“I’m sure you will be,” I respond.

“Father is hand of the king now,” he told me. “We will live in the red castle in King’s Landing.”

“I’m kind of scared,” I confess. “I don’t know if it’s safe for me.”

“Rytsa, kesi mīsagon ao (hey, we will protect you),” Bran tells me. “I promise.”

I smile at him, “Kirimvose (thank you).”

Summer sneaks up from behind us and bites at Bran’s shoes. He looks at me and smirks, “do you wanna go climbing?”

“Bran, we shouldn’t your mother-.”

“She isn’t around come on let’s go!”

“Well, okay.”

Bran looks down at Summer, “come on you!”

We both run off.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

We find an abandoned tower. “Hey let’s climb this!” Bran says.

“I don’t know Bran…I think I’ll just watch from down here with Summer.”

“Okay, I’ll go all the way to the top!”

Summer and I watch as Bran climbs higher and higher up. I start to get nervous, “Be careful!”

Just before Bran gets to a window, he pauses making a confused face. Then I see him look through the window and tilt his head like a curious pup.

“Bran what do you see-.”

Bran gets yanked by a hand.

“Bran!”

I can’t hear anything they are saying! Just in case, I get ready to catch him. I began to calm down once I see the hand let go of him. But to my horror, Bran gets pushed. I freak out, “No!” Not knowing what else to do I open my arms to catch him. I catch him but it was a rough fall. We both black out.

#bran stark #bran stark imagine #brandon stark x reader #bran stark x reader #fanfic #game of thrones #game of thrones imagine #game of thrones x reader #house of the dragon

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esther-dot · 1 year

Note

Fans are stating that Jaime killed the Mad King. So how he could go back to another Mad Queen. Like as if Cersei wasn't his twin sister, lover and mother of his children for years. Also Jaime killing Night King was way different than what he is in books now. Plus he killed Aerys to protect his father Tywin who sacked KL and killed Elia and her children. Also why was there rage when he going to kill another Mad Queen. Do they forget that Dany wanted to kill Jaime for killing her father?

Men killing their lovers is gross and I keep saying no one wants to read /watch that, but it isn't true for this fandom, is it? They were very enthusiastic about it and wanted it, just for some women, not others. They wanted Jaime to strangle his sister/lover/mother of his children, declared it character assassination when he didn’t, but then said it was sexist that Jon killed Dany to stop her from carrying out her stated intention of attacking other cities/castles. 🤦🏻‍♀️

As for Jaime's morality regarding "mad kings" and "mad queens," I do think the books and show made it pretty clear that Jaime wasn’t exactly a picture of virtue. I mean, he was fucking his sister, he was down for a little kid killing (sorry, Bran), even though his big dishonorable act is revealed to have actually been a good thing, it doesn't change his characterization over-all. I don't remember anything specific that made me believe it, other than a general, "born together, die together" idea, but I always thought he would die with Cersei. When that happened on the show and fans had a major meltdown, I argued he was a better man for trying to save his lover than if he hadn’t. And, I appreciated it too, because, as riddled with nonsense as s8 was, what made the show (more so, ASOIAF), compelling was that the characters weren't standins for us. They surprised me because what they did wasn't what I wanted, but what they wanted. Jaime's feelings for Cersei were real, the lust, betrayal, anger, obsession...it made for an immersive experience because I couldn't project or predict. I treasure that. I admire that aspect of Martin's writing so much.

Let's think of it this way, what is the point of a POV story unless we accept that every character has a personal history and limited perspective which will impact the choices they make? It made total sense to me that people in Westeros would reject Dany, she's invading! So, Jaime deciding to try to take her out makes sense not only because he must keep up his tradition of Targ killing, but also, who would welcome someone who shows up with monsters who can just...burn an army alive? Destroy a city in a few minutes? Why would you think that person has good intentions? Why would anyone think, "I don't know, maybe they'll be nice." Add on the fact that her dad was intending to burn women and children, it isn't plausible that Jaime would think well of Dany, not when he just witnessed her burning countless men alive. Attempting to kill her makes an awful lot of sense for him.

And, I should add, I don't take issue with Dany wanting to have him executed either! The fascinating part of having a huge cast, having people with histories that have them on opposing sides is to allow them to interact in that context, not to dismiss it as soon as it will make things interesting. I can't defend how D&D wrote any of this, we've all criticized it endlessly, but tbh, a good portion of the fandom had worse ideas. Worse interpretations of the characters, far more cliché ideas of everyone getting along, far, far more insulting dream endings.

But, I suppose that was largely a result of how D&D were playing games. They didn't understand that emotionally manipulating your audience into siding with (or against) characters by undercutting or rewriting characters at whim would result in absolute confusion about the moral framework of the story. You can't have a satisfying ending if that ending supports ideals you've deleted from the story and condemns the ones you've been celebrating all along.

#dot chat #< for filtering

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istumpysk · 2 years

Text

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ADWD: The Kingbreaker (Barristan III) [Chapter 67]

Welcome to this week's episode of How to Not Catch a Killer.

A pale shadow and a dark, the two conspirators came together in the quiet of the armory on the Great Pyramid's second level, amongst racks of spears, sheaves of quarrels, and walls hung with trophies from forgotten battles.

"Tonight," said Skahaz mo Kandaq. The brass face of a blood bat peered out from beneath the hood of his patchwork cloak. "All my men will be in place. The word is Groleo."

Goodness, this guy totally passes the vibe check. Not a radar ping in sight.

A blood bat now. What does that mean?

+.+.+

"Groleo." That is fitting, I suppose. "Yes. What was done to him … you were at court?"

"One guardsman amongst forty. All waiting for the empty tabard on the throne to speak the command so we might cut down Bloodbeard and the rest. Do you think the Yunkai'i would ever have dared present Daenerys with the head of her hostage?"

Is that the 18th time we've been reminded that masked Shavepate could have been present when the attempted poisoning happened?

+.+.+

No, thought Selmy. "Hizdahr seemed distraught."

"Sham. His own kin of Loraq were returned unharmed. You saw. The Yunkai'i played us a mummer's farce, with noble Hizdahr as chief mummer. The issue was never Yurkhaz zo Yunzak. The other slavers would gladly have trampled that old fool themselves. This was to give Hizdahr a pretext to kill the dragons."

Ser Barristan chewed on that. "Would he dare?"

"He dared to kill his queen. Why not her pets? If we do not act, Hizdahr will hesitate for a time, to give proof of his reluctance and allow the Wise Masters the chance to rid him of the Stormcrow and the bloodrider. Then he will act. They want the dragons dead before the Volantene fleet arrives."

Chief mummer according to the guy who wears theatre masks.

Wait for it.

+.+.+

His queen was the Mother of Dragons; he would not allow her children to come to harm.

Can you please read these words and acknowledge how silly they are.

+.+.+

"No." The two of them had argued this before. "There is a peace, signed and sealed by Her Grace the queen. We will not be the first to break it. Once we have taken Hizdahr, we will form a council to rule in his place and demand that the Yunkai'i return our hostages and withdraw their armies. Should they refuse, then and only then will we inform them that the peace is broken, and go forth to give them battle. Your way is dishonorable."

You know what is honourable? Staging a coup because an untrustworthy masked weasel told you to.

Arresting Hizdahr is breaking the peace deal, genius.

+.+.+

"We discussed this. You agreed it would be my way."

"I agreed," the Shavepate grumbled, "but that was before Groleo. The head. The slavers have no honor."

"We do," said Ser Barristan.

The Shavepate muttered something in Ghiscari, then said, "As you wish. Though we will rue your old man's honor before this game is done, I think. What of Hizdahr's guards?"

"Your way is stupid," the Shavepate said. "The hour is ripe. Our freedmen are ready. Hungry."

The Shavepate is going to suggest some pretty outrageous ideas throughout this chapter, and grumble every time he's forced to concede.

<- Tyrion XII

Tyrion plucked at his scar and wondered if he ought to make a show of indignation. When you bugger a man you expect a squeal or two. He could curse and swear and rant of robbery, refuse to sign for a time, then give in reluctantly, protesting all the while. But he was sick of mummery, so instead he grimaced, signed, and handed the scroll back to Brown Ben.

Except he's not actually conceding anything. The Shavepate is getting everything he wants: Hizdahr removed from power, and war with Yunkai / the Sons of the Harpy.

+.+.+

Selmy did not fear Khrazz, much less Steelskin. They were only pit fighters. Hizdahr's fearsome collection of former fighting slaves made indifferent guards at best. Speed and strength and ferocity they had, and some skill at arms as well, but blood games were poor training for protecting kings. In the pits their foes were announced with horns and drums, and after the battle was done and won the victors could have their wounds bound up and quaff some milk of the poppy for the pain, knowing that the threat was past and they were free to drink and feast and whore until the next fight. But the battle was never truly done for a knight of the Kingsguard. Threats came from everywhere and nowhere, at any time of day or night. No trumpets announced the foe: vassals, servants, friends, brothers, sons, even wives, any of them might have knives concealed beneath their cloaks and murder hidden in their hearts. For every hour of fighting, a Kingsguard knight spent ten thousand hours watching, waiting, standing silent in the shadows. King Hizdahr's pit fighters were already growing bored and restive with their new duties, and bored men were lax, slow to react.

I'm sorry, how many kings and princes have died on your watch?

All I want in life is for Arya Stark to humble this man.

+.+.+

"Have no fear. We will have Marghaz in chains before he can make mischief. I told you, the Brazen Beasts are mine."

Hear that reader? We have to keep repeating it.

The Brazen Beasts are his.

At the base of the Great Pyramid, Ser Barristan awaited them beside an ornate open palanquin, surrounded by Brazen Beasts. Ser Grandfather, Dany thought. Despite his age, he looked tall and handsome in the armor that she'd given him. "I would be happier if you had Unsullied guards about you today, Your Grace," the old knight said, as Hizdahr went to greet his cousin. - Daenerys IX, ADWD

+.+.+

"You say you have men amongst the Yunkishmen?"

"Sneaks and spies. Reznak has more."

Reznak cannot be trusted. He smells too sweet and feels too foul. "Someone needs to free our hostages. Unless we get our people back, the Yunkai'i will use them against us."

Really? He smells too sweet?

#JusticeForReznak

+.+.+

"Would you miss them so much, old man? A eunuch, a savage, and a sell sword?"

Hero, Jhogo, and Daario. "Jhogo is the queen's bloodrider, blood of her blood. They came out of the Red Waste together. Hero is Grey Worm's second-in-command. And Daario …" She loves Daario. He had seen it in her eyes when she looked at him, heard it in her voice when she spoke of him. "… Daario is vain and rash, but he is dear to Her Grace. He must be rescued, before his Stormcrows decide to take matters into their own hands. It can be done. I once brought the queen's father safely out of Duskendale, where he was being held captive by a rebel lord, but …"

"… you could never hope to pass unnoticed amongst the Yunkai'i. Every man of them knows your face by now."

I could hide my face, like you, thought Selmy, but he knew the Shavepate was right. Duskendale had been a lifetime ago. He was too old for such heroics.

Now feels like a good time to remind you of all the evidence pointing to Arya freeing Jon in King's Landing.

etc. etc.

Sorry, I'll accumulate it all some other time.

+.+.+

"Would you miss them so much, old man? A eunuch, a savage, and a sell sword?"

[...]

"Daario might piss on us if we were burning. Elsewise do not look to him for help. Let the Stormcrows choose another captain, one who knows his place. If the queen does not return, the world will be one sellsword short. Who will grieve?"

"And when she does return?"

"She will weep and tear her hair and curse the Yunkai'i. Not us. No blood on our hands. You can comfort her. Tell her some tale of the old days, she likes those. Poor Daario, her brave captain … she will never forget him, no … but better for all of us if he is dead, yes? Better for Daenerys too."

How strange, it seems like the Shavepate is eager to get rid of the Dothraki savage, and sellsword lover.

If we do not act, Hizdahr will hesitate for a time, to give proof of his reluctance and allow the Wise Masters the chance to rid him of the Stormcrow and the bloodrider.

Is Barristan picking up on this? Of course not.

+.+.+

Better for Daenerys, and for Westeros. Daenerys Targaryen loved her captain, but that was the girl in her, not the queen. Prince Rhaegar loved his Lady Lyanna, and thousands died for it. Daemon Blackfyre loved the first Daenerys, and rose in rebellion when denied her. Bittersteel and Bloodraven both loved Shiera Seastar, and the Seven Kingdoms bled. The Prince of Dragonflies loved Jenny of Oldstones so much he cast aside a crown, and Westeros paid the bride price in corpses. All three of the sons of the fifth Aegon had wed for love, in defiance of their father's wishes. And because that unlikely monarch had himself followed his heart when he chose his queen, he allowed his sons to have their way, making bitter enemies where he might have had fast friends. Treason and turmoil followed, as night follows day, ending at Summerhall in sorcery, fire, and grief.

Her love for Daario is poison. A slower poison than the locusts, but in the end as deadly.

Blah blah blah biased Targaryen history.

+.+.+

"We have hostages as well," Skahaz Shavepate reminded him. "If the slavers kill one of ours, we kill one of theirs."

"Hostages," insisted Skahaz mo Kandaq. "Grazdar and Qezza are the blood of the Green Grace. Mezzara is of Merreq, Kezmya is Pahl, Azzak Ghazeen. Bhakaz is Loraq, Hizdahr's own kin. All are sons and daughters of the pyramids. Zhak, Quazzar, Uhlez, Hazkar, Dhazak, Yherizan, all children of Great Masters."

"Innocent girls and sweet-faced boys." Ser Barristan had come to know them all during the time they served the queen, Grazhar with his dreams of glory, shy Mezzara, lazy Miklaz, vain, pretty Kezmya, Qezza with her big soft eyes and angel's voice, Dhazzar the dancer, and the rest. "Children."

"Children of the Harpy. Only blood can pay for blood."

"So said the Yunkishman who brought us Groleo's head."

"He was not wrong."

"I will not permit it."

"What use are hostages if they may not be touched?"

Wow, now we're contemplating killing children. Any red flags, Barry? No? No one home?

I will not be giving Barristan Selmy an ounce of credit for not killing child hostages. Please.

+.+.+

"Prince Rhaegar had two children," Ser Barristan told him. "Rhaenys was a little girl, Aegon a babe in arms. When Tywin Lannister took King's Landing, his men killed both of them. He served the bloody bodies up in crimson cloaks, a gift for the new king." And what did Robert say when he saw them? Did he smile? Barristan Selmy had been badly wounded on the Trident, so he had been spared the sight of Lord Tywin's gift, but oft he wondered. If I had seen him smile over the red ruins of Rhaegar's children, no army on this earth could have stopped me from killing him. "I will not suffer the murder of children. Accept that, or I'll have no part of this."

Hey, remember the time Barristan Selmy mildly disagreed with Robert Baratheon killing 14-year-old Daenerys and her unborn child, then sat quietly like an obedient dog while Ned Stark abandoned his position as Hand of the King?

+.+.+

The Shavepate took an axe down off the wall, inspected it, and grunted. "So be it. No harm to Hizdahr or our hostages. Will that content you, Ser Grandfather?"

Poor thing has to settle for only a coup. Life's unfair.

+.+.+

Though the bat's brass mouth did not move, Ser Barristan could sense the grin beneath the mask. "Long has Kandaq waited for this night."

That is what I fear. If King Hizdahr was innocent, what they did this day would be treason. But how could he be innocent? Selmy had heard him urging Daenerys to taste the poisoned locusts, shouting at his men to slay the dragon. If we do not act, Hizdahr will kill the dragons and open the gates to the queen's enemies. We have no choice in this. Yet no matter how he turned and twisted this, the old knight could find no honor in it.

I am begging you to use your brain instead of a sword one time.

+.+.+

Elsewhere, he knew, King Hizdahr was consulting with Reznak mo Reznak, Marghaz zo Loraq, Galazza Galare, and his other Meereenese advisors, deciding how best to respond to Yunkai's demands … but Barristan Selmy was no longer a part of such councils.

Here's an idea, why don't you wait and see what their plan is?

+.+.+

As the afternoon melted into evening, he bid his charges to lay down their swords and shields and gather round. He spoke to them about what it meant to be a knight. "It is chivalry that makes a true knight, not a sword," he said. "Without honor, a knight is no more than a common killer. It is better to die with honor than to live without it." The boys looked at him strangely, he thought, but one day they would understand.

"As for Lord Rickard, the steel of his breastplate turned cherry-red before the end, and his gold melted off his spurs and dripped down into the fire. I stood at the foot of the Iron Throne in my white armor and white cloak, filling my head with thoughts of Cersei. After, Gerold Hightower himself took me aside and said to me, 'You swore a vow to guard the king, not to judge him.' That was the White Bull, loyal to the end and a better man than me, all agree." - Catelyn VII, ACOK

+.+.+

Afterward, back at the apex of the pyramid, Ser Barristan found Missandei amongst piles of scrolls and books, reading.

Whatcha reading there, sweet Missandei?

+.+.+

The memory was still bitter. Old Lord Whent had announced the tourney shortly after a visit from his brother, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. With Varys whispering in his ear, King Aerys became convinced that his son was conspiring to depose him, that Whent's tourney was but a ploy to give Rhaegar a pretext for meeting with as many great lords as could be brought together.

There could be plenty of reasons why Varys was sowing fear. Your guess is as good as mine.

+.+.+

Rhaegar had chosen Lyanna Stark of Winterfell. Barristan Selmy would have made a different choice. Not the queen, who was not present. Nor Elia of Dorne, though she was good and gentle; had she been chosen, much war and woe might have been avoided. His choice would have been a young maiden not long at court, one of Elia's companions … though compared to Ashara Dayne, the Dornish princess was a kitchen drab.

Shut the fuck up.

A young maiden. Barristan would have been roughly 45 at the time. Gross.

+.+.+

Even after all these years, Ser Barristan could still recall Ashara's smile, the sound of her laughter. He had only to close his eyes to see her, with her long dark hair tumbling about her shoulders and those haunting purple eyes. Daenerys has the same eyes. Sometimes when the queen looked at him, he felt as if he were looking at Ashara's daughter …

I'll admit this is curious.

Barristan has no romantic feelings for Daenerys, yet still projects his long-lost love for Ashara onto Daenerys. He claims they have similar eyes, and that he often feels as if he's looking at Ashara's daughter. Daenerys is not Ashara Dayne's daughter.

Impossible to not be thinking about Rhaegar, Jon Connington, and Aegon here.

+.+.+

But Ashara's daughter had been stillborn, and his fair lady had thrown herself from a tower soon after, mad with grief for the child she had lost, and perhaps for the man who had dishonored her at Harrenhal as well. She died never knowing that Ser Barristan had loved her. How could she? He was a knight of the Kingsguard, sworn to celibacy. No good could have come from telling her his feelings. No good came from silence either. If I had unhorsed Rhaegar and crowned Ashara queen of love and beauty, might she have looked to me instead of Stark?

The vagueness of 'Stark' is hard to ignore.

The crannogman saw a maid with laughing purple eyes dance with a white sword, a red snake, and the lord of griffins, and lastly with the quiet wolf . . . but only after the wild wolf spoke to her on behalf of a brother too shy to leave his bench. - Bran II, ASOS

Who is more likely to grab a young maiden's attention: Brandon Stark or Ned Stark?

+.+.+

Rain, he thought. A storm is coming. If not tonight, upon the morrow.

Buddy, you have no idea.

+.+.+

The faces of all the kings that he had served and failed floated before him in the darkness, and the faces of the brothers who had served beside him in the Kingsguard as well. He wondered how many of them would have done what he was about to do. Some, surely. But not all. Some would not have hesitated to strike down the Shavepate as a traitor.

Thanks, but I already knew there were better Kingsguard.

+.+.+

Twelve levels down he found the Shavepate waiting, his coarse features still hidden by the mask he had worn that morning, the blood bat. Six Brazen Beasts were with him. All were masked as insects, identical to one another.

Locusts, Selmy realized. "Groleo," he said.

"Groleo," one of the locusts replied.

"I have more locusts if you need them," said Skahaz.

This is the biggest fucking idiot in the entire story. Don't even try to tell me Victarion is dumber than this. You're wrong.

+.+.+

When Selmy reached those floors, he found the doors to the interior of the pyramid chained shut, with a pair of Brazen Beasts posted as guards. Beneath the hoods of their patchwork cloaks, one was a rat, the other a bull.

"Groleo," Ser Barristan said.

"Groleo," the bull returned.

Gosh, Hot Pie in King's Landing, and now Arya and Gendry in Meereen? They sure get around.

+.+.+

The archway leading to the royal bedchamber was guarded by a pair of sandalwood lovers, shaped and smoothed and oiled. Ser Barristan found them distasteful, though no doubt they were meant to be arousing. The sooner we are gone from this place, the better.

Is he talking about Meereen?

The man can sit through any atrocity being committed by a Targaryen, but finds art distasteful. He really is a boomer.

+.+.+

The robe was green satin, richly worked with pearls and silver thread. Under it the king was quite naked. That was good. Naked men felt vulnerable and were less inclined to acts of suicidal heroism.

The woman Ser Barristan glimpsed peering through the archway from behind a gauzy curtain was naked as well, her breasts and hips only partially concealed by the blowing silk.

I will condemn him for the bed slave, but I will not vilify the man for having sex with another woman. Not when Daario Naharis exists.

+.+.+

"Ser Barristan." Hizdahr yawned again. "What hour is it? Is there news of my sweet queen?"

"None, Your Grace."

Hizdahr sighed. "'Your Magnificence,' please. Though at his hour, 'Your Sleepiness' would be more apt."

[...]

"I dreamed you found Daenerys."

"Dreams can lie, Your Grace."

"'Your Radiance' would serve. What brings you to me at this hour, ser? Some trouble in the city?"

+.+.+

"To ask a question. Magnificence, are you the Harpy?"

Hizdahr's wine cup slipped through his fingers, bounced off the carpet, rolled. "You come to my bedchamber in the black of night and ask me that? Are you mad?" It was only then that the king seemed to notice that Ser Barristan was wearing his plate and mail. "What … why … how dare you …"

"Was the poison your work, Magnificence?"

King Hizdahr backed away a step. "The locusts? That … that was the Dornishman. Quentyn, the so-called prince. Ask Reznak if you doubt me."

Watch as Barristan Selmy conveniently forgets he mistakenly reached the same conclusion.

The thought hit him like a slap across the face. Quentyn had grown up amongst the courts of Dorne. Plots and poisons were no strangers to him. Nor was Prince Lewyn his only uncle. He is kin to the Red Viper. Daenerys had taken another for her consort, but if Hizdahr died, she would be free to wed again. Could the Shavepate have been wrong? Who can say that the locusts were meant for Daenerys? It was the king's own box. What if he was meant to be the victim all along? Hizdahr's death would have smashed the fragile peace. The Sons of the Harpy would have resumed their murders, the Yunkishmen their war. Daenerys might have had no better choice than Quentyn and his marriage pact. - The Discarded Knight, ADWD

+.+.+

"Have you proof of that? Has Reznak?"

DO YOU HAVE PROOF IT WAS HIZDAHR?

+.+.+

They're all poisoners, these Dornish. Reznak says they worship snakes."

"They eat snakes," said Ser Barristan.

So does Myrcella!

+.+.+

"I … hot spices do not agree with me. She was my wife. My queen. Why would I want to poison her?"

Was, he says. He believes her dead. "Only you can answer that, Magnificence. It might be that you wished to put another woman in her place."

You know what I do when I want to replace my dragon queen? Have two elaborate dragon thrones made.

King Hizdahr had replaced the bench with two imposing thrones of gilded wood, their tall backs carved into the shape of dragons. - The Discadrd Knight, ADWD

If crowning a bed slave is the best reasoning he can come up with, maybe it's time to take a step back.

This chapter alone should be evidence enough of how vulnerable Hizdahr is without Daenerys.

+.+.+

Ser Barristan nodded at the girl peering timidly from the bedchamber. "That one, perhaps?"

The king looked around wildly. "Her? She's nothing. A bedslave." He raised his hands. "I misspoke. Not a slave. A free woman. Trained in pleasure. Even a king has needs, she … she is none of your concern, ser. I would never harm Daenerys. Never."

A bed slave! Inexcusable.

Dany stepped away from her. "No. Irri, you do not need to do that. What happened that night, when you woke . . . you're no bed slave, I freed you, remember? You . . ." - Daenerys II, ASOS

+.+.+

"Hot and sweet and poisoned. With mine own ears I heard you commanding the men in the pit to kill Drogon. Shouting at them."

Hizdahr licked his lips. "The beast devoured Barsena's flesh. Dragons prey on men. It was killing, burning …"

"… burning men who meant harm to your queen. Harpy's Sons, as like as not. Your friends."

Burning men who meant to harm the queen? What is he talking about? Drogon killed men working in the fighting pits, and spectators.

The licking lips thing continues to be bizarre.

"Oh, gods," moaned Reznak, "he's eating her!" The seneschal covered his mouth. Strong Belwas was retching noisily. A queer look passed across Hizdahr zo Loraq's long, pale face—part fear, part lust, part rapture. He licked his lips. - Daenerys IX, ADWD

+.+.+

"Not my friends."

"You say that, yet when you told them to stop killing they obeyed. Why would they do that if you were not one of them?"

Could just as easily be their puppet.

+.+.+

"Tell me true," Ser Barristan said, "did you ever love her, even a little? Or was it just the crown you lusted for?"

Excuse you? Does she love him?

She loves Daario. He had seen it in her eyes when she looked at him, heard it in her voice when she spoke of him.

This is ridiculous. It's a marriage of convenience, what are we doing here?

+.+.+

"Lust? You dare speak to me of lust?" The king's mouth twisted in anger. "I lusted for the crown, aye … but not half so much as she lusted for her sellsword. Perhaps it was her precious captain who tried to poison her, for putting him aside. And if I had eaten of his locusts too, well, so much the better."

Second time the possibility Hizdahr was the target is brought up.

+.+.+

"If you are not the Harpy, give me his name." Ser Barristan pulled his sword from the scabbard. Its sharp edge caught the light from the brazier, became a line of orange fire.

Azor Adumbass.

+.+.+

Ser Barristan heard a door open, somewhere to his left. He turned in time to see Khrazz emerge from behind a tapestry. He moved slowly, still groggy from sleep, but his weapon of choice was in his hand: a Dothraki arakh, long and curved. A slasher's sword, made to deliver deep, slicing cuts from horseback. A murderous blade against half-naked foes, in the pit or on the battlefield. But here at close quarters, the arakh's length would tell against it, and Barristan Selmy was clad in plate and mail.

[...]

The man was no knight, but his courage had earned him that much courtesy. Khrazz did not know how to fight a man in armor. Ser Barristan could see it in his eyes: doubt, confusion, the beginnings of fear. The pit fighter came on again, screaming this time, as if sound could slay his foe where steel could not. The arakh slashed low, high, low again.

Selmy blocked the cuts at his head and let his armor stop the rest, whilst his own blade opened the pit fighter's cheek from ear to mouth, then traced a raw red gash across his chest.

I've learned three things about the Dothraki.

The Dothraki struggle with men in armor.

Qotho danced backward, arakh whirling around his head in a shining blur, flickering out like lightning as the knight came on in a rush. Ser Jorah parried as best he could, but the slashes came so fast that it seemed to Dany that Qotho had four arakhs and as many arms. She heard the crunch of sword on mail, saw sparks fly as the long curved blade glanced off a gauntlet.

[...]

It was enough. Ser Jorah brought his longsword down with all the strength left him, through flesh and muscle and bone, and Qotho's forearm dangled loose, flopping on a thin cord of skin and sinew. The knight's next cut was at the Dothraki's ear, so savage that Qotho's face seemed almost to explode. - Daenerys VIII, AGOT

The Dothraki require a fool to meet them in an open field.

He nodded. "Mind you, Princess, if the lords of the Seven Kingdoms have the wit the gods gave a goose, it will never come to that. The riders have no taste for siegecraft. I doubt they could take even the weakest castle in the Seven Kingdoms, but if Robert Baratheon were fool enough to give them battle …" - Daenerys IV, AGOT

The Dothraki and all their horses would instantly die in the north (see every Stannis Baratheon chapter).

+.+.+

"Spare me," he begged. "I do not want to die."

"Few do. Yet all men die, regardless." Ser Barristan sheathed his sword and pulled Hizdahr to his feet. "Come. I will escort you to a cell." By now, the Brazen Beasts should have disarmed Steelskin. "You will be kept a prisoner until the queen returns. If nothing can be proved against you, you will not come to harm. You have my word as a knight." He took the king's arm and led him from the bedchamber, feeling strangely light-headed, almost drunk. I was a Kingsguard. What am I now?

A donkey.

I'm sure the Wise Masters and Sons of the Harpy will sit tight while he overthrows their king, and waits for Daenerys to return.

+.+.+

The boy addressed the king as if Ser Barristan were not there, as if there were no dead man sprawled upon the carpet, his life's blood slowly staining the silk red. Skahaz was supposed to take Reznak into custody until we could be certain of his loyalty. Had something gone awry? "Come where?" Ser Barristan asked the boy. "Where does the seneschal want His Grace to go?"

"Outside." Miklaz seemed to see him for the first time. "Outside, ser. To the t-terrace. To see."

"To see what?"

"D-d-dragons. The dragons have been loosed, ser."

Seven save us all, the old knight thought.

What do you mean? They're her children!

Way to go, Quentyn. The dragons escaping while her peace deal goes up in flames feels a little symbolic.

Skahaz was supposed to take Reznak into custody until we could be certain of his loyalty.

Unbelievable.

Final thoughts:

I've decided the best way for him to die is to fall down a flight of stairs immediately after Daenerys is murdered by a child right in front of him.

-> return to menu <-

#operation stumpy re-read #adwd #the kingbreaker #barristan iii

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icedjuiceboxes · 3 months

Note

For the ask game *hands you a Emily*

You know you think this would be easy considering she lives rent free in my mind but man what new is there to say when I said it all already.

How I feel about this character

Emily had a very big role to fill as the playable protagonist of dishonored 2.

From my perspective Female protagonists in sequels tend to be mocked and ridiculed, especially if they replacing the original male protagonist from the first game. Some examples include Athena from Ace attorney 5, and Abby from TLOU2 (though Abby is a special case separate from the argument). Female protagonists tend to get shit unless they fall under two categories. A) They're the protag of a new game (Aloy from Horizon) or B) The female protagonist started as an NPC before being Playable (Ellie from TLOU).

Emily falls under the second category, so the community was already familiar with her. Still didn't completely block her from criticism from all the gamer bros™️ who cannot stand playing as anything but as a cis white male bc God forbid they do otherwise.

I will literally defend any female protagonists with my life. Which is why she became my favourite character. Sure. I like mainstream shit. But I like the underrated shit even better.

I also think Optimistic protagonists tend to be less favored compared to their emo-ass counterparts and I don't know who hurt yall but can we please let a little hope into our lives-

In conclusion: I will defend Emily til I die and even once I get over my brainrot I promise you she is only reincarnated in a form of an oc. Hell I'll probably will name an oc directly after her. I did it once before and I'll do it again

All the people I ship romantically with character

Emily X Billie

TOXIC YURI / ENEMIES TO LOVERS LETS GO !!!

Emily X Alexi

Very nice. Very plausible. I think alexi should been Emily’s Canon romantic partner in game especially with how fast alexi was introduced and killed and there was have been more emotional connection to her. Wyman didn't need to exist and the brownie points of making them non-binary is pointless (and I'm saying that as non binary myself.)

Emily X Hypatia

I see the potential and I personally like to think that Emilt and Hypatia got along a little too well on the Wale and Billie was jealous the entire time and completely misresd the room between them. Because tell me why when Billie says "let's hope your friend (hypatia] doesn't burn the ship down" HAD SO MUCH JEALOUS UNDERTONE ??? toxic Yuri for the win

Alexi X Emily X Billie

Hear me out,,,, herding dog, sheep, and wolf situation. And no not a love triangle. Emily has two hands okay.

Emily x Mindy

They fucked once. Thats it.

Emily X Outsider

Once again there's potential here and i can see it. Idm seeing stuff but it doesn't excite me to personally create for it (though if I made it Yuri...)

My non romantic otp for this character

Outsider X emily

You can't tell me the outsider didn't have favorites (and that favourite was Emily.) The two are besties.

Emily X Alexi

Doomed one-sided crush and the oblivious best friend okay. (Alexi should have lived change my mind)

Emily X Hypatia

They're both nerds

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in Canon

Nothing because I respect the narrative as it present but also I am a comic creator with free will, delusion and pure spite and delusion and anything I want to see happen I've already thought about it. There's already an outline. it's in my wips folder. I am the change I want to see in my world

Just kidding I wanted a fucking voice line to discovering corvo's childhood home and daud confession. Where is it akrane. WHERE IS IT.

#ask ice #my rambles #if i had any skill to writing essays and deep dives id do one on emily but instead im forced to say “THATS MY BLORBO”#tragic.

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mybeautifulchristianjourney · 10 months

Text

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by J.R. Miller

The Death of John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29)

We have here at the very beginning a serious case of conscience. One would say that Herod was past having such fits of remorse, as his life was so wholly bad. But in even the worst men, conscience is not apt to be entirely dead. At least Herod’s conscience was only asleep, and when He heard of Jesus gong about the country, working miracles, it seemed to him that it must be John the Baptist, whom he had so tragically beheaded, and who had been raised from the dead. Herod’s friends tried to quiet him, assuring him that it was not John returned but a new prophet, who was doing these wonderful things. However, Herod’s fear could not be quieted, his remorse was so great. “No, it is John, whom I beheaded; he has risen!”

Conscience is our best friend so long as we live right. But if we sin, it becomes a torturing fire. We may think we can easily forget our sin but conscience refuses to forget. Lady Macbeth, in Shakespeare’s play, said that all the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten her murderous little hand. Visitors traveling in Scotland are shown a stone with a spot of blood on it which, it is said, will not wash off. If we would be surely saved from the terrors of the accusing conscience, we must live so as to have the approval of conscience in all our acts.

John the Baptist was a wonderful man. The story of his death is most tragic. It seems utterly inappropriate that a man so noble, so worthy, who had done such a good work should be brutally killed to gratify the resentment of a wicked woman. For it was Herodias who really caused the death of the Baptist. As wicked as Herod was, he would not have killed John if it had not been for the evil woman who never could forgive the preacher for reproving her sin. The part that Herodias played in this crime shows her in a most pitiful light. She was a disgrace to her gender. From the time John spoke so plainly against her sin she was determined that he should die for it! Herod protected him from her plots, but she bided her time.

A “convenient day” came, by and by, and Herodias set herself to accomplish her purpose. It was Herod’s birthday. A great banquet was in progress Herod and the principal men of his kingdom were feasting together. Wine flowed freely, and when the king and his guests were well under its influence, Herodias sent her daughter into the banqueting party of drunken men. A true mother shields her child away from all that would dishonor her. Now, in order to bring about John’s death, this mother was ready to degrade her own daughter.

The record says that Herod was pleased by what he saw. He called the girl to him, and in his drunken mood gave her a promise. “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” She was shrewd enough to demand an oath of him, lest when he was out of his wine he might refuse to do what he had promised. “And he promised her with an oath: Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” A man under the influence of strong drink will pledge anything. Many men in such moments have made promises which it has cost them dearly to keep.

The child did not know how to answer Herod, what request to make of him; so she ran to her mother in a dutiful fashion and asked her, “What shall I ask for?” Perhaps the child was thinking of a palace that the king might give her, or of some wonderful gems that she would like to wear. But she could not herself decide what to ask. The words in which the mother answered her child’s question showed the terrible wickedness of the heart of Herodias. “The head of John the Baptist!” she said. At last the moment had come for the full revenge of Herodias. But think of a mother asking her own child to do such a terrible thing!

The story moves on swiftly, and at length the closing in the tragedy is enacted. The girl herself must have had a cruel heart to go so gleefully to Herod with the request which Herodias had put into her mouth. “What have you decided to ask of me?” inquired Herod. “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter!” was the girl’s answer. The king was shocked and grieved at receiving such a request. How could he grant the girl’s request? He shrank from the crime but in his cowardice he dared not show his hesitation. His courtiers would laugh at him if he did. He must be brave, whatever the cost might be. Anything that belonged to him he was under obligation to give to the child he had said he would; he had sworn it. But John’s head was certainly not Herod’s to give to anybody.

The king trembled at the request. He was about to say to the girl that he could not give her what she asked; but here was his oath he could not break that, so he said to himself. His princes and courtiers would laugh at him if he showed tenderness of heart in such a matter of sentiment as this. So he sent for an executioner and had the great preacher killed in his dungeon, and his head brought on a platter and given to the girl. Herod had kept his promise; but there was murder on his soul.

“How could Herod have refused,” asks one, “when he had taken such an oath?” It was a sin to make such a rash promise, and still a greater sin to seal it by an oath. We should never pledge ourselves to do anything which another may ask of us until we know what it is. To keep a promise made thus may require us to sin even more grievously. But if in a moment of foolish rashness we pledge ourselves to do something sinful, we are still not required to do it. We should break our promise rather than do a wicked thing. In this case Herod ought to have broken his oath. He knew this but he was afraid of the laughter of his guests, and committed a horrible crime rather than be a man and refuse to do the thing which he knew to be wrong.

Amid all the dark crime and shame of this story one figure stands out noble and heroic, splendid in character, unspotted in whiteness, strong in faithfulness. We are inclined to pity John, as the victim of such a crime. But our pity should be rather for those who robbed John of his life, while for him we have only admiration. John seemed to die prematurely. He was only about thirty-three years of age. He had preached but a year or so, and was then cast into prison, where he lay a long time. It seemed that he was but only beginning his life work. We can think of his disciples and friends lamenting over his early death, and saying, “If only he had lived to a ripe old age, preaching his wonderful sermons, touching people’s lives, advancing the kingdom of God, giving blessing and comfort to people what a blessing he would have been to this world!” But here we see his splendid life quenched probably before he turned thirty-three.

Was it not a mistake? No! God makes no mistakes. “Every man is immortal until his work is done!” One thing we know at least John’s mission was accomplished. He was sent from God to introduce the Messiah to the people. He did this, and did it grandly. The best life need not be the longest it must be one that fulfills God’s purpose for it. If we do God’s will for us we have lived well, whether it be for eighty years or for only a few years.

John died in a very sad and tragic way, died in a prison, at the hands of a common executioner; yet there was no stain upon his name. He had kept his manhood unspotted through all the years. Men would call his work a failure; it certainly was not a worldly success. Yet it was a fine spiritual success. Jesus said that among all men born of woman, none was greater than John. Earth’s failures, may be heaven’s truest successes.

The life of John the Baptist is rich in its lessons. For example, he hid himself away and pointed the people always to Christ. He was willing to decrease that Christ might increase. When his popularity waned and he was left almost alone, with scarcely any friends or followers, he kept as sweet and worked as faithfully as when he was everybody’s favorite. He was heroic in reproving sin, even in a king. His whole life was noble. Forgetting himself, he lived for God in the truest and most complete way, unto the end.

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m0r1bund · 2 years

Photo

This thing’s a mile long, so the rest of the image captions are enclosed under the cut. Continue reading below or at m0r1bund.com ▶︎

◆◆◆

[Image: A big ‘ol sketchpage of funny little centaur-spider-beetle guys. From the waist down, they are mostly hexapedal, with thick carapaces and stocky limbs that are equal parts ungulate- and insect-like. Their upper bodies are more humanoid, with two arms and an upright posture. Their chests and shoulders are enclosed in large, collar-like shells, and their heads are covered by a carapace forming a hood. They have a vaguely avian profile, with large, blunted beaks and oversized mandibles inset into their jaws.

One of them, Rho, hangs out with area human and research assistant Reyes. Rho is bipedal instead of hexapedal, with segmented satyr-like legs and a short, stubby carapace ‘tail.’ Her left arm and leg are mechanical prosthetics, as well. She watches Reyes shred on a makeshift hoverboard that they probably ripped off of a hunk of Imperial junk. In another doodle, Rho rides an old Imperial motorbike through the wastes.

Her cohort Oeste is a battle-scarred old woman with kind of a puckish, sanguine energy. He is missing his left arm. He’s variously drawn hoisting a basket of fish over his shoulder and getting up on his back legs to reach some fruit at the top of a saguaro arm. One drawing shows him carrying a scrongled-looking Reyes on his back, while he comments ‘This seems demeaning, somehow.’

There are some drawings from his not-so-distant past, too. He is shown contending with a space marine-lookin’ soldier on the fields of war. One drawing depicts the fateful loss of his left arm to a brutal cleave of the soldier’s longsword. In another drawing, he returns the favor by firing a mortar point blank at the soldier’s shoulder.

Only later does he learn the soldier’s identity. The Chief immediately identifies Oeste by his arm, and vice versa. It plays out like a reenactment of the ‘same hat’ meme, with the two of them pointing at each other and saying ‘The same arm!’

When the impulse to run away and self-isolate gets the better of Chief, Reyes insists ‘You should at least apologize.’ The Chief looks like she would rather die.

When she does finally sit down on neutral ground with Oeste, getting the apology out is like pulling teeth. She digs her sweaty palms into her knees and says ‘There is no way to rectify this but. I’m sorry. forcuttingoffyourarm’

To his credit, Oeste is very forgiving, if blasé. He says, ‘Oh, it’s no trouble! I think we both learned our lesson. It is very bad to flock like that! What a terrible delusion we have all suffered!’

The Chief strains. She says ‘There isn’t… Some kind of human hivemind… I did that.’

Oeste looks at her blankly and says ‘I fail to understand how that correlates with anything I have said.’

All at once, it finally clicks for the Chief. Geometry and trigonometry overlays converge with sentence fragments about imperialism and settler-colonialism to arrive at the final conclusion, captioned ‘Military industrial complexes is the same’]

◆◆◆

Thinking about my old buddies Oeste and Metahei Rho and [these] [guys] again. There was a time when they were called the Suhti, but ‘Suhti’ feels exactly like something I would conlang in 2013, so I’m also thinking of renaming them. Nixthi? Nixtli? Nithi? Who knows. Anyway, it was only a matter of time before they found a home bullying the Empire.

Noodling on this sketch page made me realize I was sitting on more ideas than I thought I was. These guys have been living in the back of my brain for all of 9 years, so I guess that’s typical. There’s like 9342345245 separate threads that are coming together in a way that’s hard to untangle, so I’m just going to start writing and hope for the best.

Oeste is the chipper-looking hexapod who’s missing an arm. He’s a former agent of the ‘old guard,’ who gave up the gun and dishonorably discharged himself. He’s considered a kooky old lady with an air of death around him, but is ultimately well-meaning and tolerated. Put a pin in that thought.

Rho is the biped and Oeste’s understudy / one of few people who really trusts him. She and Reyes have some history, where the ashrunners in Reyes’ family regularly met with the wasteland scavengers in Rho and Oeste and co. They’re like family friends. Put a pin in that thought, too.

Trying to describe the, I guess, thesis of the Nithi is hard. I am very leery of the way fantasy+sci fi interacts with the concept of race and especially nonhuman race. If it lingers on biology for too long then I get kind of freaked out, so it’s hard to imagine in that space, even though I love to think about nonhuman cognition + the interior worlds of plants, animals, fungi, etc. But I’m trying! God Do I Try.

Lately I’m drawn to solitary animals who seem to get a genuine kick out of the company of other animals, e.g. octopus interactions with humans. I think that’s so fun to extrapolate on. Allergic to the company of your own species, but hanging out with the funnie primate? Oh Yeah. That’s Good. Put a pin in that thought x3.

One of my bigger bones to pick with 40k is that you really don’t need to narratively justify the dumb shit the Imperium does with some kind of outside existential threat, whether that be Bugs of Unusual Size, or aliens, or Actual Demons. Giving the Imperium a “reason” to exist just feels dishonest about how empires come to be and how they perpetuate themselves. On the flip side, this is a great lesson in how empires construct narratives about themselves. Reading 80% of the 40k lore as wartime propaganda about the ‘other,’ intended to justify this atrocity or that, is what keeps me sane in the trenches of the wiki.

I also just think it’s more fun if the ‘existential threat’ is a fabrication of the unceasing machine of Propaganda ™ in the face of an empire’s own terminal* existence. Legitimate only in that, strictly speaking, it could pose an existential threat to the empire, but an existential threat to an empire =/= an existential threat to its citizens or even humanity, even though a very concerted effort has been made to conflate those. Put a pin in that thought x4.

*Did yuo know? the average empire lasts about ~250 years, which raises some funny historical revisionist headcanons for 40k, but we can’t get into it. gotta sell figs war somehow.

ANYWAY. Speaking of the unceasing machine of Imperial Propaganda, I am always looking to bully the Empire in fun new ways. I think it would be very funny for the Empire to encounter a people who are, like, categorically asocial around their conspecifics and only societal with other sentient species, because Bad Things Have Happened whenever they organize among themselves at scale. And the Empire misunderstands this to mean that they assimilate into some kind of violent hivemind when they gather en masse, but the actual reason they refuse to associate societally is because they’re living out the dying throes of their own collapsed empire. When the Archive describes the Nithi as a monolith ‘so monstrous, a force so bloody and singular of purpose that humanity shivers at the touch,’ that’s just them taking a look in the mirror and not liking what they see. The shots are coming from inside the house.

Of course, it’s great to have some kind of alien ‘other’ for the Empire to justify its existence and lionize its endeavors abroad. Every effort has been made to drive a wedge between the citizens of the Empire and Nithi at large. Probably because if they realized they had more in common with each other than the Powers That Be, as two peoples carrying the baggage of two shitty empires, they would unionize. And That Would Be Baaaaad.

… Which brings me back to Oeste. He is an ex-soldier who fled to wasteland Earth to dodge the high price of desertion, i.e. execution. He had great timing, given that the collapse of whatever dominion was lording itself over the Nithi came right on his heels.

He carries the ‘old troubles’, or wartime knowledge, that most people, Nithi or no, are wary of. But as the Empire trains its eye on Earth, this raises some very real and difficult questions about the right of sovereign Earth to defend itself, and how. Among Earth’s Nithi in particular, this is an existential question of coming together and doing a rare and terrible thing for some sort of greater good. There is enough continuity between ‘old guard’ veterans like Oeste and armed guerilla resistance in the Empire’s frontier that the Empire perceives no meaningful difference; opposition is the same, whether it comes from another empire or a scrappy resistance force. The Archive is still operating on the hivemind hypothesis, so… not likely that they’re going to grasp the intense political landscape of Nithi mutual-defense accords any time soon.

It sucks. But the silver lining is that they get to heckle Imperials with ooky-spooky hivemind jokes. And fool them into thinking they’re acting of much greater numbers and coordination when they are… absolutely not!

Anyway, Oeste came to Earth to ‘get away from all that’ and keep an eye on the youth, e.g. Rho. He hasn’t been asked about his war wounds, and he’s perfectly content not offering his opinion about them unsolicited. (At least, not when it isn’t funny.) Probably there will come a day when that will change, but he hopes not.

Of course, these things have a way of coming back to haunt a guy. Oeste doesn’t talk about his arm for the same reason that the Chief doesn’t talk about hers, or most of her past deployments. Military trauma that you can’t even pretend to be proud of. They met once on the fields of war and left a, errr, marked impression on each other. Who struck first? … That’s between the Chief and Oeste.

Seeing each other in ~peacetime causes a little bit of a situation, but they’re kindred spirits. Oeste has a lot to impart to the Chief as someone who is much further along the whole ‘deprogramming and reintegrating into normal society’ process, and who is perhaps more familiar with what Imperial programming looks like than others. Besides, someone really has to tell the Chief that the Archive might have been wrong about a few things. A lot of things.

Reyes and Rho are just happy to see the old geezer (and Irene, lbr) make a friend.

Other napkin scraps:

Dunno if the hexapod / biped variants are morphs, or lifecycle phases, or if Rho is just a special case.

Hexapod Nithi have two major gaits—they can walk in an ‘alternating tripod’ gait like an ant or a bee, or in an ungulate-like fashion with an extra set of forelimbs taped on (with all relevant gaits like walking, trotting, cantering, galloping, etc.) The joints connecting to the femur and tibia of the hindmost legs are very flexible, and can shift to accommodate the tripod gait (by facing backwards) or ungulate gait (by facing forwards.)

It is extremely bad taste to get on someone’s back like a horse why would you do that. (Oeste has no shame though.)

Probably both an exoskeleton and endoskeleton going on in here, so full-body armor is redundant except where soft tissue is exposed (upper arms, joints, etc.) Clothing and other adornments happen at leisure. Carapace carving, painting, and piercing is especially popular. Rho gets to wear pants because she physically can and because she thinks they’re fun.

Don’t ask me if they still have stingers or can spin silk or not. I don’t know. I don’t know. it would be very funny to hock a sillystring loogie, though.

After years of research, the Archive has documented many aspects of Nithi biology that make them such confounding and lethal enemies, including:

Their bulletproof carapaces (true.)

Their venomous bite (false.)

Their ability to regrow limbs (false.)

The fact that they pop out of the propagule fully formed and able to defend themselves (false.)

Their ability to communicate in subaural vibrations (true, but this is only a small component of several larger somatic language families.)

Their keen thermoreceptors (sort of true, they are coarser and more imprecise than the Archive thinks.)

Their ability to smell fear (false.)

Their inability to feel pain, remorse, or any emotion at all in a way that matters (buddy what do you think.)

The Archive is very good at science and would never lie to you.

#tfw you the social animal can't recognize another social animal #chief and the r.a. tag #metahei rho tag #oeste tag #maila reyes tag #chief tag #content warning: blood #content warning: gore #content warning: injury #content warning: war #content warning: xenophobia

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