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derireo-galge · 1 year ago

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Queen Snake's Warrior | 4,1k | yoonmin✍🏼

The Kingdom is holding a tournament to choose the best suitor for the Queen for further procreation. Yoongi has his own favourite and it's a warrior from the north clan of their land that noone has ever heard about before - Sir Jimin.

×º°”˜`”°º×

The clacking of the swords and armor faded into the distance for him. The wind that started blowing, the strong, the northern one, carried the noises away with it, making the people on the tribune put effort to concentrate and highten their senses. Yoongi took it as a good sign. It also made the strong smell of blood vanish, making him feel less nauseous.

It's been a week since the Great Tournament started and today was finally the last day of it. The Queen sat on the pedestal, on the golden throne among the furs, surrounded by a squad of little petty vipers, always looming around, jealous of his achievements.

He could have them all executed but where was the fun in that? Better let them live their pathetic lives and let them eat their scales in envy, watching him thrive.

He could clearly hear the whispers, the comments around him. His treacherous council was favouring some warrior, their own little pawn. Pathetic.

Yet another snotty remark went past his ears and a lazy smirk appeared on his face. Their silly efforts were all futile. Because Queen Yoongi knew exactly who was going to win the tournament tonight and it was someone they didn't possibly expect.

It was not that surprising for him when the council pushed this tournament to be held in order to choose the best suitor for him. Not for mating and not to be the King consort, no. Yoongi rejected the mere idea of somebody choosing his betrothed like that and they all knew that well. Nobody wanted a sword wound for breakfast so they found another way.

Using an old law, an ancient one that of course everybody has forgotten about except those who it was comfortable for in these circumstances, they pushed the traditional breeding ceremony on him as if the Crown was in danger of being extinct. But he turned all that around for his own benefit.

The Queen knew exactly where their plans laid. It was all just an easy excuse for them to push their own person who would get close access to him, to his body and to his quarters. And with that, of course, to his secrets and the treasures of his Dynasty.

Not in this millennia, he thought within himself. He wasn't born yesterday as they say. The snobby nobles and pretentious ministers kept forgetting he was a mastodon in these kind of intrigues and royal games.

There was also another reason. Yoongi had recently found someone dear to his heart. Someone special. Without actively looking. Like a flowery breath in spring after a long winter season that person came to him. To stay.

During the latest of his travels along the borders of his Kingdom he has met that someone. He stayed in a small town, checking how the men in power treated his people, going incognito, mercilessly making the ill-willed ones disappear off the face of his Kingdom. By accident his horse went to the wrong path during the leisure walk around the local forest where he hoped to hunt for a small snack himself.

There Yoongi met a man who kindly showed him a way back to the town. He had a posture of a warrior and the face of an angel, despite being the snake hybrid like most of the people on this continent.

They talked, getting to know each other casually, and he found out with great delight, the man didn't know who he actually was. During his stay in the heart of the North lands they met up several more times, hiding under the tree crowns, enveloped by the dim sunset light. Yoongi also learnt that the man was not only strong and good-looking, he was a great companion and a gentleman.

He had good manners, never asked him any invasive questions and he learnt that Jimin - that was the name of the man - was intelligent, liked to read and write a little in his free time, using intricate wording. He understood that Yoongi was probably of the blue blood, he just didn't realize how high of a rank he had. And he took the reveal with grace and respect, willing to continue whatever they had despite the circumstances.

Ever since then they've been exchanging letters and had several secret meetings, held with utmost care and with the help of their close friends. Jimin eventually moved from his village into the capital in order to be close to the Queen.

They discussed that they might have similar plans for the future and their feelings were quite fresh yet but the council with their plans changed the course of their relationship. During their last secret meeting organised with the help of both of their friends again, he asked his beloved warrior if he would apply for the tournament. And win it, of course.

The prize was right before his eyes - the opportunity to help the Royal bloodline continue by breeding the Queen. Breeding until he carries and then have a place in a palace and the Royal Court, fathering further descendants.

After much of thorough talking they both agreed that albeit faster than they thought, it would be the best decision in their situation. They felt the pull towards each other the hybrids rarely got these days and Yoongi knew Jimin would be the best for him in that sense, among all others.

- Do you really think your little worm will win? - he heard a scratchy voice next to him.

It was one of his disgusting ministers, the one that keeps forgetting his eyes should stay on the floor while addressing the Queen, instead of his body. Sometimes he was very close to just pouncing at him and poisoning the nasty man. Yoongi was just too disgusted for that yet but he was getting there.

Meanwhile the man continued, hissing like he was about to shift. He could try and then with the help of his sacred sword he will just have two halves of the minister in front of him, big deal.

- Do you think we don't know who you're putting all your hopes on? He's a dead man walking. He just doesn't know that yet.

- Come any closer to me and I'll bite your face off - Yoongi said nonchalantly, flashing his fangs at the minister and making him move back, almost taking a step away from the mad Queen.

They all thought he was a nut case and he couldn't care less. He was kind to those who deserved it and to the people living on his lands that relied on him. He supported his friends and annihilated enemies ruthlessly. It was his right.

Yoongi closed his eyes, remembering his secret dates with Jimin. Their dynamics was special despite all the factors that needed to be taken into account, despite the power imbalance and traditional values. The Queen was a believer that happiness was something a person was making themselves and that brought confidence and the feeling of freedom.

The loud sound of the bell rang through the air. The staff dragged all the injured and deceased away and the stage was ready for the last contest - one on one battles.

Jimin was beating one opponent after another, defeating the famous warriors from notorious bloodlines and destroying their inflated reputations. He was like a dragon golem, ruthless, powerful. He knew exactly what was on the line and didn't hold back.

Yoongi noticed how damaged his armor was. He was injured and surely was getting tired but proceeded to cut through obstacles like a demigod on a mission. It was admirable. And very arousing.

That was it. It was the time for the last sparring. The Queen held his breath. His lower belly was already buzzing to get this warrior on top of him, behind him, under him. Anything that ever came into his heat ridden mind when he was dreaming of his man in that way.

Uncaring of the traditions and protocols, he raised from his seat, abandoning the warmth of the furs. He was prepared to meet the winner even though the fight was still going.

Just as it should be, Jimin won. He came to the platform in powerful strides, sheathing his sword and bowing to the Queen. Yoongi nodded back at him and offered his hand to the warrior, surrounded by the shocked gasps and murmurs.

Jimin gently took it and raised on the tribune to join his Queen. It was his rightful place now.

Half heartedly listening to congratulations and the voice of the royal announcer, everyone on the tribune stood up and started walking. Yoongi and Jimin were now being led to the Queen's private wing.

As another ancient tradition some staff and council members should stand outside the door of his chamber to make sure the ceremony is fulfilled until the end. Yoongi was feeling sick just thinking about it. His grandmother told him a story where the court tried putting her through the same thing and she just bit them all. And yes, they stayed next to her bedroom door when she eloped with the warrior that was to breed her, only not for very long. Her poison always worked wonders.

Yoongi almost giggled at the memories. He remembered her consort and he was like a grandfather for him. His values and personality majorly influenced how Yoongi pictured his perfect partner: compromising, strong willed and kind. And now it was his turn to take his perfect serpent into his lair.

They reached the doors to his quarters, embedded with golden reliefs. There he stopped everyone who was following the couple and announced he would be proceeding with just his suitor.

- But the tradition, Your Majesty. That isn't right! - the minister spoke in his disgusting voice.

Yoongi was tired of talking to him. He gave Jimin a little nudge so he speaks to him instead.

- So desperate, it's pathetic. You can't wait to listen on your Queen? And with what purpose? Go and get off somewhere else. - the warrior said with a menacing grin, putting a hand on his sword.

- Clear the space, everybody out! - Yoongi added.

The people bowed and silently walked away, leaving only the displeased minister behind. He was looking like someone stole his horse right from under him.

- Get close to him and I'll bite your face off. - Jimin added sweetly, keeping his posture straight despite Yoongi trying to pull him closer by the metal clad waist.

- You're worthy of each other. - he spat out, scurrying away.

They laughed and opened the golden doors with Yoongi's key that he kept around his neck and were met with the sight of their two friends waiting for them in front of the entrance to the royal bedroom.

- Glad to see you, Your Majesty, - they bowed and Yoongi waved at them dismissively.

- Hoba, Tae! No formalities, please, while we're inside this wing.

They patiently took their congratulating words and their friends promised to stay in this room, guarding the doors to Yoongi's bedroom just in case. They were truly happy for them, having became close themselves despite being a simple warrior and a royal advisor.

Just as Yoongi ordered, his rooms were ready for their new guest. His bed was freshly made and all the materials for his nest were neatly arranged on it. The air was rid of any smell and the Queen couldn't wait until the moment it will be smelling like them two only.

They securely locked the door behind them and faced each other. The Queen cupped the warrior's face and gave him kisses on both his cheeks.

- Congratulations on winning the Royal Tournament, Sir Jimin, - he said with a small smile.

- Thank you, Your Majesty, - he grinned charmingly.

- Let me help you get out all this armour? - he offered, quietly gliding his hands to the chest piece of his gear.

It was all new for Yoongi. His purity was his own conscious choice even though the council was offering him to organize a royal harem every once in a while. But the Queen liked the idea of keeping himself clean for his young. Whatever happens after, was not that important.

And undressing a man in his private quarters was one of his firsts he was now reaping with much enthusiasm. It took some time to unclasp all the straps that were holding the metal pieces on the warrior's beautiful body. When finally after much fumbling and metal clacking Jimin stood in front of the Queen in just his under tunic and simple pants, Yoongi noticed where his injuries were.

He had several long cuts on his arms and one on his leg. They weren't overly deep but still bleeding, leaving traces of warm liquid that seeped out of them slowly. His treacherous council must have secretly arranged for the last opponent's sword to be lathered in some kind of poison. But they didn't know and couldn't have possibly known that Sir Jimin was no simple snake man.

The nothern warrior was from a rare descend. His family wasn't a noble one but they had a trait of fighting sickness that would possess their bodies and passed it on from generation to generation.

Despite the forced ceremony, at the end the Queen was really pleased to get such suitable hybrid to continue his bloodline with. He was sure Jimin would bring in even more strength to his Dynasty and their young would be strong and resilient just like their fathers.

- Shall we go to the bathing wing? I would like to wash and treat your wounds.

Jimin nodded and followed the Queen who took him by the wrist and led him to another room. It was full of steam and had a brass tub that was full of bubbly water. Yoongi motioned for the man to sit on the bench and he undressed, leaving his ripped clothes to lay on the warm stones of the floor.

- You fought hard and with great honour. You deserved everything you will get out of this, - Yoongi whispered, putting a cotton cloth soaked with a healing salve to his leg wound, wiping the remnants of dried blood.

He carefully sat on his lap and Jimin held his dainty waist with his hands while the Queen gave the same treatment to the cuts on his arms. Once washed he will put a different kind of solution on them overnight. For now their lips found each other again and the warrior was licking into Yoongi's mouth simultaneously getting rid of his attire piece by piece.

Soon the pair of hybrids were submerged in the hot tub, with Yoongi sitting on top of Jimin. Their bodies relaxed, surrounded by the warmth of the water and oils sloshing in it.

- I have to check you for more injuries, - Yoongi murmured into the plump lips that curled at his words.

- Check away, - he agreed, knowing from the playful tone what the other had in mind.

The Queen palmed him all over, touching the muscular body. His hands went down to his hardness, hidden by water and started stroking his cock, which was still human for now.

- I like what I'm feeling so far. - he confessed, - I want you to lay with me just like this before we shift.

- Let's do whatever you wish for, - the warrior said, finding confidence in the fact that it will be the first time for both of them.

He cupped Yoongi's cock underwater and they pleasured themselves, using their hands and breathing into each other's mouths. Their wet bodies slid against one another slowly, unsure. It was a tender moment that they were both happy to share between each other for the first time. It was so much more intense than any of them read about. When their cocks were spent and their breathing pattern returned to normal, their lips were getting numb from kissing. Yoongi rose from the water and Jimin watched the clear rivulets snaking down his thighs.

- I'll be waiting for you there. Don't make me wait too long, - And picking the jar with the salve he exited the wash room, swaying his hips, stark naked.

Inside his bedroom he threw a look on the things that were prepared for making a nest. He worked methodically, preparing a safe space, big enough for two. Who would have thought this day would come so soon? He didn't complain though. He was ready.

His lover joined him, coming out of the bathroom with droplets of water still clinging onto his skin. The Queen gestured at the nest invitingly and and offered to get inside first.

- An honor for the honorable man, - he whispered, red in the face and tingly with nerves.

That was a sign of the ultimate trust, widely known between in the intended mates and very close couples only. The warrior sat on the edge of the bed with a surprise embedded in his features. His cheeks too were rose hued and he hoped he will perform well.

Yoongi moved in front of him. He had a sudden idea he wanted to fulfill before they get tangled between the sheets.

- Do you want to see your Queen on his knees for you? - he asked with a lopsided smile his mouth stretched in.

The warrior nodded in astonishment and watched intently as the Queen kneeled in front of him and fit himself between his spread knees. He took a hold his thickness, feeling how it hardened under his palm. Giving it a couple of tentative strokes, Yoongi leaned in and wrapped his mouth around the tip. He tasted the tangy precome and dug his tongue in the slit, making the warrior sigh shaikly.

He bobbed his head, swallowing the shaft deeper and deeper until it breached his throat. He moved fast and sloppy, trying to do it like in his favourite novels. There was lingering fire between his legs and he was impatient. Since the moment he was watching the warrior defeat one candidate after another, he's been wanting his lover more and more desperately and finally he decided he couldn't wait anymore.

He popped off the cock and pushed the warrior on his chest, making him land in the middle of his nest with a quiet huff. The Queen straddled his muscular thighs and grinded his own harndess onto the other's.

- I'm not sure what to do, - Jimin whispered close to his face, - Are you sure you don't want to shift first? Our instincts will guide us.

- Indulge me, my love, - he asked, soothingly running a hand on his cheek, - Let's just try?

Yoongi looked at his lover all bashful and still so eager. He leaned in right to his ear and whispered in it hotly.

- I'm already so wet for you. Feel it with your hand.

Jimin gasped and checked what Yoongi was talking about. His fingers unsurely ran between his naked asscheeks and there was the sticky substance, showing just how much the Queen was ready for him.

- Can I enter you with my fingers? - the warrior asked and received a quiet "yes" in return.

It was slow and exciting for them. He prepared the man on top of him slowly, feeling how tight he was inside, how hard he squeezed his digits with his soft walls. When the slick started running down his palm and reached his wrist he pulled out, licking at it and tasting his lover in most intimate way.

Yoongi stroked the warrior's hard cock and rubbed the tip on his loosened entrance. He carefully lowered himself on it, feeling no pain as he slid down the shaft until it was nestled deep inside.

- Ngh, hah, so good, - he blabbered, putting both his hands on the muscular chest for support, - You - you can move.

Jimin held him by his wide breedable hips and rocked the man on his length. The sensations were overwhelming, desire swirling in their tummies, clouding their minds with nothing but lust.

At another intense bounce Yoongi cried out and spurted his come everywhere in front of him. He soon felt something inside and realized his lover came too, filling his insides.

- This was...

- Amazing, - Yoongi breathed out, laying on top of the man, - My love?

- Hmm?

- Breed me. Stuff me full of our young.

The warrior circled his arms around the Queen's dainty body and turned them both around. While turning, he shifted, hissing and then licking Yoongi's mouth with his forked tongue.

The Queen responded in the same manner, shifting and getting close to the full lips again. He opened his mouth, fangs sharp and tongue slit and hissed back at the warrior. He was so handsome, strong and powerful. And he smelt so good. Smelt like the father of their future young.

Yoongi moved his body. He squirmed, performing lond graceful waves with his waist from side to side. That should let the other know he was ready to be bred, he was chosen and he was allowed to have that delicate body to fill it to the brim.

Jimin went to scent the long neck, now half covered in snake skin, beautiful and glinting gold. He scented his lover and began tangling his body with his as much as it was possible in a half transformed state. He pushed the man to the side and spooned him, clutching his thigh and raising his bent leg in the air which gave him a better access to his cum stuffed hole.

- Yoongi, - he hissed out, the slit tongue flicking out and touching the slope of the Queen's shoulder. - I'll give you our young just how you want it. Will do whatever you wish for. Fight for you, protect you. May I take you right now?

- Yesss, - Yoongi replied, trying to convey everything he had in his mind in his answer.

He felt the bumpy surface of the warrior's cockhead. Now it was even bigger than before, rubbing incessantly at the drenched entrance before breaching the ring of muscles again and inserting itself in his tight heat.

Yoongi emitted a pleased hiss. He moved his pelvis and that made the girth go all the way in, reaching his sensitive spot. The warrior started moving, setting a quick pace. Their minds were wiped empty and there was almost nothing left but the basic breeding instinct.

Yoongi's hand went to the side, between their joined bodies. He blindly found the second hemipenis that was curled outwards, away from where they were coupling. He squeezed it in his hand and jerked it as much as he could, trying to pleasure his lover the way he deserved.

Jimin nipped at Yoongi's shoulder in gratitude and thrusted harder, producing squelching sounds that rang loudly in the air. They both hissed loudly when Yoongi came again, stimulated by the constant friction and the contractions made Jimin spill his seed inside.

They stayed connected, with Jimin cupping the Queen's protruding belly and licked each other with their slit tongues, waiting for Jimin's girth to go down. Somewhere in the middle of the sensual kiss they felt the slight shift. They opened their eyes and they both lost their vertical pupils, reverting to their human form again. The breeding was complete.

The lovers thought were far from being done. Yoongi motioned for the bedside cabinet and Jimin hesitantly got up, not wanting to be away from his partner. Inside the drawer he found a wooden item, shaped like a drop.

- Put it inside me, - Yoongi asked, keeping his hand between his legs so the seed doesn't escape him.

The warrior complied, setting the item inside his lover. Yoongi spread his arms invitingly and the two of them tangled again, now sated and full of sense of completion. They studied each other's bodies with curiosity, laid in the middle of the cozy nest.

Jimin rubbed the rounded belly and was wondering how big it will get when the eggs will start growing. How many of them will there be? He thought he was hardly prepared for the sight of the Queen full of their young, will belly bursting from eggs, smelling like... smelling like mate.

- You looks so deep in thought, - Yoongi hummed, - It's the time for joy and love. Come tangle with me some more?

The warrior wrapped his limbs around the Queen and soon they stilled, instincts tame and bodies exhausted. Yoongi could finally rest after the nerve wracking day, slowly rubbing the salve into the warrior's wounds. It was time where just the two of them existed for now, without the royal intrigues and petty vipers. His Dynasty will prosper further. And his stunning lover, his strong warrior will be there all along, tightly holding his hand.

~end

#ai-ee au #ai-ee au jimsu #bts au fic #bts fanfction #jimsu au #yoonmin

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recurring-polynya · 3 years ago

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POLYNYA please tell me about the sea/your Soul Society sea(s)!!!!! (I also wanna talk about the sizes of things but I will save that for later, haha.)

My entire writing/worldbuilding self is just an agglomerate of about 10 different books/comics I read when I was 19, and one of those is Books of Magic. The major thing I took away from Books of Magic, a thing I think about every single time I read or watch something with a magic system, is the idea that humans have their own magic which is fundamentally different and in some ways more powerful than the magic of magical beings, and that they aren’t bound to a lot of rules and restrictions that magical beings are. A lot of media that features other worlds tends to split into the human world (which has no magic) and the magic world (which has magic). Sometimes the human world has technology and the magic world doesn't, I don't care, that is boring to me and I reject the idea that magic is technology you don’t understand. The thing about Books of Magic, which featured a lot of traffic between the human and the faerie realm, was that humans can do magic that faeries can't. Faerie magic is all illusion and glamour. It cannot affect real change. It is much harder for humans to do real magic, but their magic can actually transform things.

This is foundationally the way I approach worldbuilding in Soul Society. It seems like Soul Society is more powerful and magical than the World of the Living, but that’s only true for a limited set of circumstances, and much of Bleach takes place within those circumstances. Taken in a broader sense, though, Soul Society is not a complete world, it is a projected world, constructed of memories and ideas. Hueco Mundo is the same, but it's even less complete. My husband always gets really irritated by physically impossible moons, like this one:

but I actually think that's appropriate, because it's not the moon, it's the concept of the moon and this is a very romanticized concept of the moon. You cannot build a rocket in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo and get to the moon. The earth is not round in Soul Society. Its borders are limited.

What is Soul Society even for, anyway? I have been watching Hotel del Luna, a kdrama about a hotel where ghosts can stay for a little while and rest and work out some of their issues before they go to the afterlife. I feel like Soul Society is the next step after this. It is too big a shock to go from being a human to becoming a few motes of reishi, so you get another stage of retaining your human form and living a half-life where you don't need to eat or drink and your family has the idea of being a family without all the actual past-to-future connective tissue of a family. It's my impression that when you die in Soul Society, you don't get reincarnated as yourself. You become reishi, and that reishi gets mixed up with everyone else’s and new souls are created when new human children are born. Soul Society is also a sorting mechanism for separating out powerful sources of spiritual energy (that is, shinigami) and putting them to work as balancers, while letting the less volatile soulstuff flow through the reincarnation cycle without cavitating the impellers, so to speak.

That being said, seas are important. I have lived my entire life on the east coast of North America, never more than a few hours from the Atlantic Ocean. I think about moving inland sometimes and I think I would die. My husband grew up in the mountains and he feels a similar connection to the mountains, you can feel him becoming more powerful every time we drive north. I think it is necessary that Soul Society contain the geographic features that anchor people to the physical world, because ghosts need these things to feel as though they are still people and not vague amorphous spirits.

You need a sea. Also, as noted in the post that inspired this one, people in Soul Society eat a lot of fish and it’s gotta come from somewhere. So I think there is at least one sea in Soul Society (I like to put it in East Rukongai), but this is a sea built on human memories, it is not a sea based on the power of the sea, because that is not a thing that can exist in Soul Society. You can fish in the sea and you can swim in the sea, and an ocean god visiting from another realm might be able to pull a little power from this sea, but it is not a true sea. You need a different magical realm for that, a Sea Society, if you will. The Living World, in contrast, is a true world with true oceans, which draw their power from the Sea Society, just as there is death in the Living World because of its connections to Soul Society and other assorted afterlives. (it has been 2 sentences and I am already sorry I called it Sea Society).

Earlier, I mentioned that the borders of Soul Society are limited, and I think that it is surrounded by impassable no-man’s-lands on all sides that, if you could cross them, would lead you into a different dimension. This is not my original idea, it’s something I have picked up from numerous fanfics, but I think it’s a good one and I am adopting it. I think that, as a border between Soul Society and something else, each of these borderlands represents different kinds of death. I think I’ve figured they are a jungle, a desert, a mountain and, of course, an ocean.

The power of the ocean encompasses both life and death, but this ocean or at least this part of this ocean is only death. It is cold and it is dark and it is full of things with horrible teeth. If you sail a boat into it, you will not come back. I do not think that dimensional borders are, well, two-dimensional, so to speak-- if you could somehow cross this ocean, you might end up in Sea Society, or you might end up in some other death realm, because a lot of afterlives are connected and you get to a lot of them via waterways. The Slavic afterlife, Nav, for example, is ringed with a river, and you cross the Styx to get to Hades. Come to think of it, both of these are sometimes portrayed as being full of unhappy spirits, so maybe the death ocean is an afterlife in and of itself.

This is a little off the topic of oceans, but it is on the topic of natural resources. For all we know, everything that everyone eats in the Seireitei is grown in reishi vats, like the chickienobs in Oryx and Crake. That actually makes more sense, honestly, than fishing and farming, but I have always assumed that many of the upper districts of Rukongai do, in fact, have Nice Things, which turns into jobs and commerce and an improved class of life. The quality and quantity of these resources thins out severely as you go outward. Why don't people in Inuzuri grow their own food, I asked myself? Well: poor soil. Unpredictable, violent weather, so if you can get anything to come up, it either bakes or drowns. A general miasma of low-grade toxins in the air that tend to stunt growth or prevent things from breeding true. Obviously, I think about South Rukongai more than I think of other directions, but I think it’s easy to imagine this process also working as you approached cold rocky mountains with cutting winds and rockslides, or dry, dusty desert where it never rains.

The canon concept of Soul Society is that everything in Rukongai sucks and everything in the Seireitei rules, but this honestly vexes me constantly. It must be ungodly expensive to own and maintain property in the Seireitei, which is why most of the shinigami seem to lead solidly middle class lifestyles and take advantage of on-base living arrangements even though they are allegedly the best of the best. If you're a noble, and especially not Great Family noble, I think it may make sense to maintain a large estate in a pretty part of Rukongai as opposed to a townhouse in the city-- I've mentioned the Kira family estate before, in North Rukongai, which, in my mind, is sort of overgrown and run-down, very Wuthering Heights. Alternatively, if you are super-rich, maybe you have a second property out somewhere nice, hence the Lake District. Did I just make these places up because I want to set a fanfic there someday? Probably yes.

When I was writing Between Tides, the most basic, raw part of that story was just "Rukia and Renji get sent on a lonely mission near the sea" that was the thing I wanted to write. Back when it lived in my head, it originally took place in Soul Society, but I wanted it to have a melancholy, tourist-town-in-the-off-season vibe, and that didn’t feel like a place that would exist in Soul Society, so I moved it to the World of the Living. I guess I feel like if there’s beach tourism at the Soul Society Sea (I should name it but then I would be forced to write a story about it), it would be sort of Old Timey, and I’d don’t know much about what an Old Timey Trip to the Beach would look like in Japan, if that’s even a thing.

Anyway, sorry this was so rambling, this concludes my thoughts about THE SEA in Soul Society. I am happy to hear everyone else’s headcanons, please and thank you.

#THE SEA #soul society #bleach worldbuilding #everytime i write something like this i feel like you all must think i am a person who owns a lot of crystals #i am actually very practical #also i know just enough about how geography works to know that i am shit at worldbuilding #that if i tried to construct an Actual Map some d&d-loving dudebro would slide into my mentions #and criticize my river placement #and i would turn into dust and blow away #the idea of soul society being built on a shared concept of the shape of the world and not Physics is actually very comforting to me

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ginnyzero · 4 years ago

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Completely Harmless Appendix 8

The Golden Hills Valley

Oh, the Golden Hills that aren’t really golden. Okay, so um, this is personal pet peeve and I know there are a lot of players that actually like the Golden Hills being an area of eternal autumn while the rest of the game is eternal summer except for the Valley of the Hidden Dinosaur. (Where nothing should be growing at all, so now it’s not growing anything except some super hardy magical thistles and lichen and that’s all I’m going to say about that.) And I get why they did it initially because they were using the old assets from the Seasonal games and it was a good way to recycle the Autumn Riders assets.

Completely unnecessary but I get it.

I simply don’t like that our Golden Hills are “red.”

So, I changed it. Instead of having maples, maples, everywhere. I know that birches grow fast and take over areas pretty quickly, so I decided that it didn’t make any sense for the birch forest not to continue into the part of Golden Hills that we see.

Then as you unlock more of the Golden Hills (that are only locked due to actual plot reasons) the trees change into beeches and aspens. And what birches, beeches, and aspens have in common is that they all turn yellow in the fall. I also included Golden Chain Trees. During the spring and summer they have trailing yellow flower clusters.

Apparently the Golden Chain tree turns orange and red a bit during the fall but bits of orange and red are better than all orange and red. Which is what Maple trees do. A lot of it also does have to do with soil composition, rainfall (and thus amount of sap) and light, but for the most part, maples turn red and orange. (If your maple leaves are turning yellow in the fall, there actually might be a problem with your maple tree.) While Apsens, Birches, and Beeches turn yellow.

So, thus, the Golden Hills would actually look Golden.

Then I researched for a bunch of yellow flowers and yellow-green foliage bushes to fill in the gaps during the spring and summer to make the Golden Hills yellow all year long.

The Northern Golden Hills, by the way, didn’t exist in the Star Stable Autumn and Winter games map. When you played Star Stable: Winter Rider, you could go up the mountain behind Meander Stable and look over Silverglade. It was really cool actually. However, when Star Stable Online added in the Valley of the Hidden Dinosaur, they created magic space and therefore pushed the Pine Hills area further north and created this area we now know nothing about.

So I made it up.

When I got to the point in the story where we needed to get past Castle Marchenghast, I asked my good friend, Becca, what she wanted to see in the Northern Golden Hills. And she pointed out that if we’re in a county, we don’t actually have anything that could be considered a County Seat. This was actually really helpful for me.

I grew up on the borders of what are two very rural counties with one huge town in them. So, I based the Northern Golden Hills on the one without a university and is slightly more rural.

So, I created a County Seat. The County Seat would have things like the Fair Grounds, a major station for the Jorvik Rangers, and the big courthouse, and even a jail. The Beeches Park is a green forested state park like area with playgrounds and a event pavilion and little pavilions you can rent for families to visit and throw little parties, let their kids play type of thing. There should also be a library, a school, a natural golf course, and so on. I decided that there should be a Baron for the Golden Hills District and the Count of the entire South New Jorvik County would also live in the Golden Hills at Castle Marchenghast.

Given Star Stable Online’s naming conventions it meant the Marchenghast Family was the highest ranking noble family in the area. I created another Baron, Baron Arthur Fairhaven, and he has his own castle, stable, and village. And lastly, I created Aspendell.

Yes, I know, a lot of A names to go with the A names already in the game, but I liked the name Arthur Fairhaven too much to let it go. It’s a fanfic. I can indulge in silliness.

The cool thing about Aspens is that they aren’t a bunch of individual genetically different trees. They aren’t siblings. Aspens send out roots under the soil laterally and from these roots grow more trunks. So, Aspens are actually one giant clone of each other. They are one complex organism communicating with each other via their roots. You know, like in James Cameron’s Avatar.

Due to drought and fires, there are several Aspen forests, one I know of in Britain, that are considered endangered. I thought it’d be neat to have an Aspen forest like that in Star Stable to bring attention or awareness to the area. Even if I wasn’t able to address directly in this “Chapter” of the story.

The other village in the North Golden Hills area is Eventide, a fishing village. Not a port, but a sea side fishing community that doesn’t have their own stable. I also added a privately owned vineyard to be competition or a new ally in the South New Jorvik County wine trail.

BEHOLD A HANDY LIST

Golden Hills Valley Past North Link/Castle Marchenghast

It’s the County Seat - Goldcroft

1. Court House

2. Jail

3. Ranger Station

4. Fire House

5. Count Marchenghast Manor

6. Goldcroft Stables

7. Library

8. Big Recreational Park (The Beeches)

9. Camping Area/Natural Golf Course

10. Event Concert Area/Oval Race Track/Rodeo Event Space near Fair Grounds

11. Golden Hills School

12. Goldcroft Riding Arena

13. County Fair Grounds

14. Large Town including Shopping Street Area (Goldcroft)

15. Town Square Shopping (Goldcroft)

16. Large Regional Post Office

17. Castle Marchenghast Stable

18. A Medium Sized Stable of Golden Hills Baron Fairhaven

19. A Smaller Stable (Aspendell)

20. Protected Quivering Aspen Forest (Shimmering Woods)

21. Aurora Breeze Winery (Privately owned, no stable.)

22. Farm 1 (county seat Goldcroft)

23. Farm 2 (county seat Goldcroft)

24. Farm 3 (village Fairhaven)

25. Farm 4 (village Fairhaven)

26. Farm 5 (village Fairhaven)

27. Village Fairhaven(3 of 5 farms, Medium Stable, home of Golden Hills Baron)

28. Village Aspendell (Small Stable)

29. Fairhaven Riding Arena

30. Eventide Fishing Village

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

#star stable #star stable online #sso #jorvik reimagined #golden hills reimagined #star stable salt #appendix #completely harmless #silverglade reimagined #many nods to ruth westside #thank you becca for the help

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chaoticspacefam · 4 years ago

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OC Playlist Meme - Saarai (of course)

I was tagged by @thehighground (thank you! :D) this one was super fun!! I was caught between the twins of who I should do for this one, Saarai won because she is my favourite and her 70-song playlist was basically made for memes like this (yes, you heard me, 70. No it’s not a typo. Yes I have a slight, maybe, problem with her being my favourite LOL) 👍

I’ve shared all their playlists at various points, if you search up the “swtor oc theme songs” and “oc playlist” tag on the blog you should be able to find them! Or if you want links to the full playlists drop me a line and I can link you to them no problem! :D

Just the one this time cause this one’s pretty long, if I get tagged again tho I’ll do Ni’kasi next! :D

I shall tag (if you feel like it, no pressure as always!) @abyssal-space @stratosara @anchanted-one @pauletta-00 @hypnowinnermugpeach and anybody else who wants to have a go, this one’s super fun! Long post so under a cut! <3 gonna pop the content warning up here to: TW for mention of past abuse/manipulation and parental abuse in one of the songs in case ya wanna avoid it. there’s a warning above the specific section as well if you wanna read the rest and just skip that song, up to you!

♦️ Their intro theme: Up The Wolves - The Mountain Goats

“I’m gonna get myself in fighting trim, scope out every angle of unfair advantage. I’m gonna bribe the officials, I’m gonna kill all the judges! It’s gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage!! Our mother has been absent, ever since we founded Rome. But there’s gonna be a party when the wolf comes home.”

♦️ Their own favorite song: DARKSIDE - Shinedown

(She has to set a good example with being one of the leaders of the Alliance (especially because her saying “don’t do that” is the only reason her sister and Aria don’t go for their new Jedi allies - at least to start with, before the Alliance y’know, bonds and becomes a proper coalition!). But learning to trust Jedi was still hard for her after what they did to her people, and I feel like if it existed in the verse she’d find it relatable and listen to it a lot.)

“Can you hear me, am I speaking clearly? Are you star-struck or just made of stone? Block out the actors, and all these bastards. That took all the fun out of rage and revenge.”

♦️ Their boss battle theme: Castle - Halsey

(it was difficult to pick one for this one, she has quite a few in her playlist that I consider her “boss battle” songs for various points in her life/the two different verses. But I think this one is the most universal! :D)

“I’m heading straight for the castle. They wanna make me their Queen. And there’s an old man sitting on the throne there sayin’ that I ‘probably shouldn’t be so mean.’ I’m heading straight for the castle...they got the kingdom locked up. And there’s an old man sitting on the throne there sayin’ ‘I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut!’.”

♦️ Their love song: (one for each of her main ships, but again, they have whole playlists because I use playlists to “set the mood” of the character/ship while I write. Pro writing tip, do it. It helps [nod nod] <3)

For Zephyrverse/Sash: Heaven’s Gate - Fall Out Boy

“And in the end if I don’t make it on the list, would you sneak me a wristband? Or would you give me, give me, give me a boost? Give me a boost over heaven’s gate. I’m gonna need a boost, cause everything else is a subtitute for your love. Give me a boost over heaven’s gate.”

For Subterfugeverse/Lana & Koth: The Last Of The Real Ones - Fall Out Boy

“I know this whole damn city thinks it needs you, but not as much as I do. As much as I do...Cause you’re the last of a dying breed, write our names on the wet concrete. I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me. I’m here in search of your glory, there’s been a million before me, that ultra-kind of love you never walk away from. ”

♦️ Their sad times song: Bruno Is Orange - Hop Along (tw: mention of abuse/manipulation, parental abuse)

“ ‘Bruno, what happened to your good sense?!’ I broke down ‘That man was good!!’ ‘I bet he works for the government!’ Did you hear about that mother, broke her daughter’s legs in two and said: ‘It’s too dangerous out there to walk so I have to save you!’ ”

♦️ A song that fits their aesthetic: Woman King - Iron & Wine

“Black hoof mare. Broken leg. Eye on the shotgun shell. Age old dog. Hornet’s nest. Built in the big church bell. Hundred years, hundred more. Someday we may see a woman king, sword in hand, swing at some evil and bleed.”

♦️ A song that reminds them of a better time: Downhill - Lincoln

(though most of this song has sad undertones to it, this part in particular would remind her of the short time she had with her father when he was alive, when he would take the twins outside and sit them on his lap to look at the stars <3)

“Cause you were the first one to show me the stars. And they don’t mean much to me, but I still wonder where you are. Some nights I still try to find you, relative to constellations. And all your relatives are still on vacation, or so I heard from a friend...”

♦️ A song that calms them down: 10,000 Enemies - Emeli Sandé

(headcanon that this is a song their mother D’leah used to sing to her and her twin, Ni’kasi, when they were children hiding out on Rishi and it stuck with her.)

“I hear the sweetest sound, blowing from the North. It says ‘don’t panic now, what’s mine is yours...’ I hope 10,000 times you tell me the truth. Cause now there’s much to do. I trust in you. I shall be free...I shall be free. We shall be free.”

♦️ A song that gets them hyped up: Young And Menace - Fall Out Boy

“We’ve gone way too fast for way too long. And we were never supposed to make it half this far. And I’ve lived so much life, lived so much life. I think that God is gonna have to kill me twice.”

I’m assuming this section is meant to mean a song the character would associate with each season? So I hope I’ve interpreted that correctly, I wasn’t really sure what else it was referring to. So that’s what I’m doing LOL

♦️ Spring: Thunder - Imagine Dragons

“Just a young gun with a quick fuse. I was uptight, wanna let loose. I was dreaming of bigger things and wanna leave my own life behind. Not a yes sir, not a follower, fit the box, fit the mold, have a seat in the foyer. Take a number, I was lightning, before the thunder.”

♦️ Summer: The Times They Are A’Changin’ - Fort Nowhere

(a.k.a the time of year where everything went to hell for her, though she uses it to remind her of how far she’s come once she’s older and more at peace with everything that happened so it’s positive in the end!)

“Come gather round people, wherever you roam. And admit that the waters around you have grown, and accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth saving, well you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone. For the times, they are a’changin’.”

♦️ Autumn: Dragon - Built By Titan feat. Skyborne

“When I was younger, I had a dragon. We would fly away to places you can’t imagine. And this is a story, of a lonely island. And a boy who found a way to become a lion.”

♦️ Winter: Youth - Glass Animals

(Winter is when Ty was born so it’s a mixed bag of trauma-induced depression (See “sad-times” song above), missing her twin and being sad about what happened but also wanting to make sure Ty never has to experience what she did and just wanting him to have a safe & happy life, so. This song kinda fits that.)

“Boy, when I left you you were young. I was gone but not my love, you were clearly meant for more than a life lost in the war. Oh, I want you to be happy, free to run get dizzy on caffeine, funny friends that make you laugh and maybe you’re just a little bit dappy.”

♦️ The song that plays while they’re lying on the ground bleeding out in a Walmart: Everything You Ever - Neil Patrick Harris (from Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)

“So your world’s benign. So you think justice has a voice? And we all have a choice? Well now, your world is mine.”

♦️ The song that would play each morning if they’re stuck in a time loop: Ends Of The Earth - Lord Huron

“ Oh, there's an island where all things are silent, I'm gonna whistle a tune. Oh, there's a desert that size can't be measured; I'm gonna count all the dunes.”

♦️ The song they’d listen to while robbing a Wendy’s: Pork Soda - Glass Animals

“Somebody said I’m a fucking slum, don’t know where I belong. Maybe you’re fucking dumb, maybe I’m just a bum. Maybe you’re fucking scum, don’t you go psycho chum.”

♦️ The song they’d accidentally introduce to people in medieval times if they were a time traveller: The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show.

(Also not accidentally, she has a silly side and she’d probably play this one for the LOL’s to see who got it or who got mad. She’d totally learn the dance moves and do those too XD)

“ The blackness would hit me And the void would be calling Let's do the Time Warp again Let's do the Time Warp again.”

♦️ The song they’d play in the middle of the night when their neighbors are being too loud: Blood // Water - grandson

("Do you think if I play a really loud, aggressively threatening song they’d shut the fuck up? I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna try it.” XD).

“You’ll never get free, lamb to the slaughter, what you gon’ do when there’s blood in the water?!”

♦️ The song that plays at their funeral: Sax Rohmer #1 - The Mountain Goats

“Ships loosed from their moorings capsize and then they're gone. Sailors with no captains watch a while and then move on. And an agent crests the shadows and I head in her direction. All roads lead toward the same blocked intersection. And I am coming home to you. With my own blood in my mouth...yes I am coming home, to you. If it’s the last thing that I do.”

♦️ The song that plays when it’s revealed that they faked their death: Joan of Arc - Arcade Fire

“You’re the one that they used to hate but they like you now. And everything that goes away will return somehow....first they love you, then they kill you, then they love you again...and then they love you, then they kill you, then they love you again.”

#swtor #star wars: the old republic #OC meme #tagged meme #swtor OC playlists #swtor oc theme songs #swtor oc: saarai ahaszaai #sith warrior #sith pureblood #[me cackling gleefully as i have yet another excuse to put my excessively-in-depth character playlists to good use]#except for the time warp obvs that's not in her playlist but c'mon what other song would you play to troll people when you time travel XD #let's face it saarai's basically taken over this blog #i should change my icon to one of my many screenshots of her really #tw: past trauma #tw: past abuse #tw: parental abuse #tw: manipulation

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bayoubluebirb · 6 years ago

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Read This Before Buying A Bird!

There are some things to be considered before going to a pet store and buying that cute little conure or cockatiel in a cage, adopting a bird from a shelter, or homing a bird from a small independent breeder. Addressed questions: How much money are you willing to spend? Are you okay with the possibility of having a furniture-destructive animal in the house? How much space do you have? What is the climate and your neighborhood like? How long are you away from home per day? How much time can you commit?

How much money are you willing to spend on your pet per month?

- I probably spend about $50-$100 on my bird a month on average. On big trips to pick up perches, trees, or cages, it’s more along $200-$800.

- Birds are not cheap. They can range in price, but typically a healthy hand-reared budgie will cost anything from $50 to $100. My Peach Faced Lovebird was $140. I have a male Solomon Eclectus that was almost $2000. African Greys, Congo and Timneh, range $2500-$3500. Macaws range $2500-$23,000, etc.

- Cages are expensive! A good quality cage that is not full of harmful metals or paints, will cost between $200 and $5000. My SL Eclectus’ cage is pure acrylic and was almost $800. He will be getting a larger cage and that is $1500.

- Birds do need annual vet check ups, and they require exotic veterinarians specialized specifically in Birds. Because they need a special doctor, it also costs more. Co-pays are usually around $150-$400, and procedures and medications can be off the roof expensive.

- If you cannot afford to feed yourself, provide yourself with necessities and a couple wants, and are living comfortably, a bird is not the pet for you.

Are you okay with them possibly destroying a few beloved things in your home?

- Birds are often described as animals that take and don’t give back. They are natural foragers, and need stimulation to keep them entertained. Your parrot may chew at your door frames, your door itself, couch cushions, Leather materials, kitchen supplies, etc.

- Birds have extremely sensitive respiratory tracts, so if you aren’t willing to give up that lovely PFAS chemical we Environmentalists like to call The Devil We Know, AKA Teflon, then a bird is not for you.

- If you aren’t willing to trade in bleach, vinegar, non-stick, cleaning sprays and window cleaners, for something organic, trusted and approved by your avian vet, then a bird is not for you. It is much more expensive, but it would not only keep your bird safe, but also you safe!

How much space do you have in your home?

-Even if your bird’s wings are clipped, you need enough space for your bird to spread its wings and maneuver about.

-Birds talk a lot, so if you appreciate your quiet time, don’t get a bird if you live in close-quarters.

-Talk to your neighbors first before you buy a parrot if you live in an apartment or townhome. Yes. The birds will scream. Yes, your neighbors will hear it.

-If you want more than one bird, even if they’re the same specie, never house them in the same cage, even if it’s giant! Birds are NON DOMESTICATED animals, and it’s important we mimic their habits in the wild as to not frustrate them. Birds are animals that while in flocks, are incredibly spread out unless they’re mates or conversing. Birds are always alert, and are watching and listening. They need their space.

What is the climate like yearly?

-Where do you live and what is the temperature in each season?

-Do you get snow in the winter? Many people up north have birds, but it’s also more pricey to own a bird up north due to the extra expenses needed to keep the bird warm.

-How warm/cold do you keep the air on in your house?

-What species of bird are you considering? They come from all different habitats. The Peach Faced Lovebird, for example, is native to sub-desert regions like Namibia and Angola. Probably not a good idea to get a Peach Faced Lovebird if you keep your home below 19°C/66°F.

-Birds NEED vitamins (D3) they get from the sun, just like people! If your weather is consistently unable to provide these vitamins to your birds, you either need to purchase a UVB/UVA lamp, or you just should not get a bird.

What is your neighborhood like?

- Down in Florida, Texas, and many other states with high-demand parrot breeding and shops, there’s a lot of thievery. Make sure you live in a safe environment.

- If you live near chemical/manufacturing plants, or has an immediate family member that does, a bird is not for you.

- Birds are very sensitive to pollution. Please make sure your neighborhood is clean, because not only is it bad for the pets, but also the people!

- How noisy is the neighborhood? Do you live in New Orleans and pop big celebrations for Mardi Gras? Do you live in areas with lots of fireworks or loud noises? This can startle your bird. It can bring them stress!

- If you plan on flight training and/or bringing them outside on a harness, is your town/city very busy? Is there a lot of traffic? Are there birds of prey that live nearby? Hawks WILL and HAVE swooped down to snatch a parrot off of someone’s shoulder for a snack, and have even snatched them out of the sky while free-flying. Please be careful!

How long per day are you away at work/school?

- If you work a full time job and are a college student, you will not have time to take care of a bird and be able to grant your bird’s needs.

- How many hours a day do you work/are away from home? Parrots on average need AT LEAST six to seven hours a day out of their cage!

- Birds need attention, but not in the sense where you need to throw them a ball or cuddle with them. Being in the room with them out of the cage is even plenty to make them happy. They want you to be with them, but not on them!

How much time can you devote to your bird? How patient are you?

- Birds are a lifetime commitment. Depending on the species, your bird can live between 15 and 100 years. Do not adopt a bird unless you have accepted that this bird will be with you through everything. If you move, if you get married or divorced, if you have children, if you get other pets, etc.

- If you don’t think you’ll want the same bird for twenty+ years, do not get a bird. There are countless in avian shelters and sanctuaries right now, and it’s heartbreaking to see. If you wouldn’t sell your child because you got bored of them or were struggling to care for them, don’t sell your parrot.

- Parrots grow extremely attached to the people they’re used to being around, and in that case have many emotions similar to humans. They put trust in you, and rely on you, and love you. Rehoming them after multiple years of building that relationship can cause self-mutilating behaviors, depression, aggression, and even death from loneliness and feeling abandoned. If you cannot handle strong emotions and a deep attachment, a bird is not for you.

- Many parrots love to learn, and many are stubborn. They are extremely smart animals and among the most intelligent in the world, so keeping them stimulated with daily training is essential.

- Birds bite, and when they bite, it hurts... A LOT. I have been bitten until bleeding by an African Grey, I have been bitten by a previously abused Yellow-headed Amazon, I am constantly bitten by my Lovebird that I am trying to train to be less aggressive. Birds bite, and no, if you don’t understand why you aren’t allowed to scream “Ow!” when it happens, a bird is not the pet for you.

- Birds are not dogs, nor cats, nor horses. Negative reinforcement will only enable Negative behavior in your parrot! You must have the patience to, even when they bite you, praise them for it. You want them to know that biting doesn’t get a reaction out of you and that it won’t make you give them more or less attention. They will eventually learn this and try to find other ways of communicating with you.

- Birds do not bite to communicate by nature. You must take time to learn your bird’s body language. They will always give you at least FOUR warnings before they bite you hard. Please, learn to speak to your bird. They cannot learn English fluently like everyone else.

Please, let me know if I should do some more of these helpful pointers! By no means am I insinuating you should not get a bird, because I love hearing about people’s emotions and excitement toward them. They’re wonderful companions. I merely aim to inform people before they make a big lifetime decision like adding a feathered friend into their family!

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worstfruit · 5 years ago

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GOBLINS

Ok-- this setting focuses on a small continet, a bit smaller in width than australia, but longer (think the stretched greenland we see on globes). To the north, past a mountain range that crosses the land, lay and endless expanse of pete bogs and moors and thick, thonry shrub forests: here live the greenskins and barbaric humans of lore: free creatures and beasts and even men, who pay no mind to the settled empire that exists just south. Focusing on one of these races, I will be talking about my favourite! The goblins (sometimes called the ‘Moors Goblin’ bc i published this on dnd beyond so i could use it as a homebrew race). I’ve borrowed a lot from Warhammer and 40k but as I work on world building I hope to separate these fuckers from both dnd and warhammer.

What differentiates your Moors Goblin from their more classic fantasy cousins is primarily their culture and disdain for sunlight (ok since writing more...unsure if i want them to be light sensitive!! will have to stew on this). Even Moors Goblins who live outside of cave networks don't see too much direct sunlight due to the cloudy and rainy climate of the northern highlands, and so they're prone to sunburn and blindness during prolonged exposure. Likewise, dryer climates greatly weaken their immune system, and so they rarely travel far enough south to mingle much with other races. The Moors Goblin is unique in that their genetic makeup is closely linked to that of fungus, making them incredibly hard to kill despite some of their more glaring weaknesses. They bleed viscous, green blood, thick with spores that, when the time is right, allow for the birth and growth of new goblins. While they do possess many organs similar to most mammals, like cold blooded reptiles, Moor Goblins can survive seemingly impossible amounts of tissue loss and internal damage, as their green bodies generate oxygen through photosynthesis and their central nervous system operates as a networked inlaid along their vascular lines. For this reason, many tribes take to the belief that it is actually impossible to kill them without the aid of fire or acid, and will chant some iteration of 'no burial mound can hold me' as a warsong. Even if a goblin is crushed beyond recognition, a new goblin may soon crawl from the dirt below the sight of his death due to the spores released upon his body's destruction.

Your typical cave Goblin may not know how to swim very well or see all too well in the sunlight, though some tribes do make a living off fishing the river ways in which they reside or travelling large, flat plain lands during daylight hours. Your average Goblin lives a simple lifestyle with a group of their own, and while some clans may be open to trading and friendly relations with other native races such as orcs or humans, Goblins are known for being isolationists and rather...tricky. They've had many altercations with more southerly dwarves and wood elves(? -- unsure if ill use elves in this manner as ive yet to expand on them). If asking any Dwarf about them, you'll likely hear that they are all cutthroats and petty thieves (largely in part due to land disputes within the mountains), whereas an Empire Elf would likely have little to no experience with them whatsoever.

In general, the world does not know too much about Moors Goblins and the inner workings of their society, as the race enjoys keeping to itself, and for the most part, other, more dominant races tend to likewise keep away from goblin controlled regions.

Older Goblins hold no higher rank in society, though they are allowed more relaxed roles due to their age and resulting feebleness. What does elevate their standing is their outward apperance: namely height and scars. A goblin tends to form welts, pockmarks, bumps, or discolorations after being wounded. Goblins who don’t see much warfare or even friendly sparring tend to be smooth, and as a result, assumed inexperienced, whereas more seasoned goblins tend to be more disfigured or even missing limbs (this implies that they have reached the age and status to breed, though sometimes old goblins may be smooth skinned, and young goblins with a rough early start may appear older than they are). Though more muscular goblins may bully their way through the nest, this doesn’t affect their social rank, though muscle build tends to correlate with height, and height a prized trait within Goblin society. The tallest Goblin is the defacto leader, but this tends to lead more diminutive individuals to ‘augment’ their height through unnatural means (stilts, hats, and even magic). The chieftain of a tribe often wears some sort of elaborate mask made of animal bone that helps to augment his height, and also represent the clan's culture through color, symbol, etc. If a tall goblin is entirely smooth, he must rely on his wits and magic knowhow to gain a reputation worthy of leading. If a very muscular but short and scarred goblin arises, he may fight for the title-- though this is rare. It seems instinctual for these creatures to flock to the tallest.

The Moors Goblin generally has very large ears, useful for detecting sonic frequencies within the earth.

They tend to have more angular facial features, larger noses and chins, hollow cheeks, and large, eyes with yellow sclera and slit pupils. Irises vary in color, from those ranging normal to humans, as well as rarer shades of red, purple, black, or even white. Goblin eyesight is exceptional in the dark, making them adept at living underground and scavenging for food at night, but making them poor day time hunters. Their sense of smell is keen like that of a dog, helping tunnelers to seek out anything from fungal food sources to rare minerals and dangerous sulfur deposits. Claws are large and thick on both hands and feet, and the front teeth are sharp, with pronounced incisors and canines and a set of flat, crushing molars at the back of the jaw.

Cutting open a goblin will reveal a startling lack of any apparent major organs! They possess spider-like booklungs, a network of bladder like muscles that have thousands of little capillary rivulets expending from within and connect the tissue to itselve. Cutting into muscle reveals a sort of crystalline pattern, made of a meat like, gooey substance similar to the consistency of what inside an aloe leaf. These fluids range from a watery, yellowish-green, to more viscous forest greens and even dark browns. Although any surgeons in this world would not be able to discern this easily, the goblin does posses a CNS, it is simply spread through the entire body. Likewise, there is no apparent heart organ, but it seems that electrical impulses force a reflective twitch from this network of innards that compels the goblin body forward. The closest thing to a brain can be found along what resembles a spinal column, where more obvious veins stem from to attach to the eyes, booklungs, and multiple small stomach like sacks. Their skeletal system is composed of a highly resilient and flexible cartilage made of keratin, similar to beetle shells. The goblin’s capacity to heal is astounding and quicker than that of your average mammal, though their springy ‘bones’ and soft flesh do make for easy wounding. Some older, stronger goblins develop a thick callous and scar tissue that makes for excellent, natural armor, and is sought after as a source of leather by some dwarvish tribes.

Eating goblin meat is ill advised, however. It appears to be toxic to pink skins, and no known predator relies on these creatures as a food source.

For this reason, as well as their reproductive nature, goblins are seen as a plague amongst some northerly dwelling empire races. Cut one down, multiple eventually appear. Many have learned to burn goblin bodies rather than cutting up their remains; the more green blood spilled, the more likely they are to return from the earth! Infant goblins can be surprisingly strong and viscous towards perceived threats, and in a great number, they can do a lot of damage.

To an outsider, it may appear that all Moors Goblins are male. In reality, there is only one sex, or rather, in goblin terms, there is no sex or /really/ gender. Moors Goblins have no native terms for 'he' or 'she', though in Common they are typically just referred to as male due to their physical features. Moors Goblins have no need for more telling indicators such as breasts, but do coexist with races that do recognize a binary sex and gender, so they are somewhat familiar with the concept and may navigate it according to their preferences, if they have any. Many are fine with just being labeled an it, a they, or a he/she, though some more involved with humans may chose a set of pronouns.

Moors Goblin society is collectivist at its core; this may be confusing to outsiders however as Goblins are extremely easily distracted by anything they might consider valuable–– be it shiny, aromatic, tasty, dangerous, or just large and heavy. While this kleptomaniacal behavior may seem individualistic on the surface, Goblins operate similar to a termite or ant mound, or even beehives in that they collect food and goods to add to a collective hoard. It’s an animalistic sort of instinctual partnership a Goblin has with their clan, wherein they gather and fight as a collective, for the collective good, in exchange for food and protection. It could be looked at as a primitive form of taxation, but don’t let their demeanor fool you. Many aspects of Goblin society differ so greatly from human culture that it would be easy to mistake the creatures as mere beasts.

Their written language only exists in pictographs and simplistic glyphs, though someone unlearned in their ways may not be able to decode their cave scrawlings. If something must be written for delivery, Goblins utilize clay tablets (much like ancient Sumerians) and rarely take part in record keeping or history. Only the immediate now, and the looming future, really concern the Goblin folk. Oral tradition is common though mostly for religious purposes, and the orator role seems to be taken by older Goblins who have survived wars and skirmishes to tell the tale. In spite of this, Goblins are highly intelligent; though they lack long attention spans and tend towards the hyperactive and impulsive (and greedy) nature, they are adept magic users as well as rogues, druids, rangers, barbarians, and fighters, even bards, and a few exceptional individuals often leave their home to pursue training with other races. Goblin clerics, wizards, monks, and paladins are almost nonexistent, though it is certainly possible for exceptional individuals to arise and take on these roles...just, unheard of. Medicine men are often looked at as Shamans and revered as mystics. If a Moors Goblin has the capacity to learn, or the natural ability to use magic, he will often become a Shaman; as such many 'Shaman' are either sorcerers or clerics, though goblins do not differentiate between the two much, aside from designating some shaman as healers and others as battlemages. Healer shaman are typically alchemists and herbalists.

Religion is not at the center of Goblin culture, though it does play a significant enough role that it merits mentioning. A Goblin may worship any number of deities from a polytheistic pantheon of old, elemental gods; they take their beliefs from oral traditions passed on from generation to generation. Mining and tunneling act as the fulcrum for many folk lore and urban legends, using cautionary tales of careless tunneling practices and unearthing unspeakable evils of the deep. Mentors will often tell these tales to their charges to keep them in line, mostly. As creatures composed of plantlike matter, Moors Goblins tend to feel a kinship with the earth, moss, lichen, and the sort. Shaman, like clerics, draw their powers from the elements and deities who represent them, and on occasion may use their abilities to aid in battles, though primarily reserve them for healing and supplementing their oral tradition.

Goblins will pair bond with one or multiple partners throughout their lifespan, though a coupling for the sake of childbearing is useless in their society. A single goblin may have multiple litters of children in a lifetime, depending on anything from the availability of food to a need for more goblins in a clan. The collective cares for newborns, with a little focus on the biological parent as authoritative figures, though many young goblins may bond with a particular elder and chose to spend more time around them. Many older goblins may mentor or teach younger ones in their trade if they take an interest, though rarely is a goblin forced into a role. It varies among tribes, but is generally a very organic process where any given goblin simply does whatever he is good at. This is how names are given: first names are mostly what matter and are derived from telling characteristics that arise as the goblin child ages. Surnames exist as well, however, and are assigned later once a trade is selected or perhaps a deed done that awards merit. This helps differentiate goblins with more common names, from seperate tribes, or from a proud lineage: fore example, let’s say two Dweezles exist in the same clan for whatever reason. One may become a hunter, the other may become a bard of some sort. The hunter may be named Dweezle Lantz whereas the bard may be called Dweezle the Yox, or in common, Dweezle the Merry. (I am using a very bastardized patois as a basis for a lot of goblin names simply bc i like the idea of Goblle being derived from Orc lowspeak, which I base off a very bastardized French! For no reason other than shits and giggles).

Goblins are often 'born' as twins or triplets, though the mortality rate is somewhat high due to disease and accidents. Goblins share a distant ancestry with that of fungus, and as such their reproduction involves a gestation stage wherein the parent blood lets beneath mushroom caps in a central breeding chamber within the cave networks he may inhabit. From here the spore-filled fluid takes to the dirt and develops into fetuses, which gather further nutrients from the rich soils and the other fungal and plant life found in the cave floor. It continues to grow until a full formed Goblin baby is ready to crawl free from the earth. Infants will possess exemplary motor skills once unearthed and instinctively know to crawl towards older goblins and the scent of food.

Your typical Moors Goblin dwelling is found around the base of a mountain, rolling hills, or within the nooks and crags of a cliff. The tunnels are narrow and warren like but lead to a number of different caverns, both natural and goblin-made, that are much more open. The central chamber has many interconnecting tunnels and can range from large to massive in size. The larger the tribe, the larger the atrium. Often, tribes will seek out pre-existing caverns to make as their atrium, which is similar to a plaza or the town centre of a human village. Here, cave paintings and banners decorate the walls, Shamans will set up shop to offer medical aid or entertainment and education in story telling, the chieftain will make his rounds or sit atop a central throne and hear reports from foot soldiers or settle disputes amongst tribe members, and children will run about and practice battle or play. Beneath the atrium lies the food storage, and below there lies the brood. If a cave network has lava, blacksmiths and cooks may conduct their business around these pockets of magma, but will otherwise carry on outside the tunnels. Individual goblins may seek out and dig their own rooms for sleep, though many will seek others to sleep in piles. Goblins live both within these tunnels and on the surface around the outside of the area. They guard the territory around the mine for miles, sending out patrols of hunters equipped with war horns and using wolves as watchdogs to alert them to intruders.

The Moors Goblin spoken language is quick and sharp on the tongue, spoken in fast fragments meant to quickly convey information. Moors Goblins of old were purported to operate as a literal hivemind, not needing verbal language to communicate with one another, though the modern Moors Goblin has lost this telekinetic ability. The influence of such can be seen in how they work in groups. Pheremone signals and bodily gestures (such as ear twitches or stance) carry nonverbal information throughout the entire brood; attacking one goblin in or near their mound can result in a full fledged, hive-wide retaliation. For this reason it is highly advised to isolate enemy Goblins, or to use crowd control measures when dealing with multiples.

Goblins will align themselves with orcs and humans in times of war, making them an intimidating force to be reckoned with. Even a single tribe can be difficult to battle, though, as they attack in droves and rely on their sheer numbers to viciously bring down any enemy. Shamans and bards will aid a fight using berserker elixirs and spells, AOE heals and buffs/debuffs, and providing chants that both invigorate their soldiers and deter the enemy. Bards typically play animal bladders fixed with a series of tubes, much like the real world bagpipes, war drums, or brass oboe-like instruments that sound off a deep resonance (similar to a didgeridoo). Hunters and rangers will lead a charge on wolves or other tamed beasts, while the chieftain leads the foot soldiers. Tribes at war have a high turnover rate for their leaders.

When teamed with orcs, it is common for goblins to serve as a replacement for pack animals, even during hunts, however it should be noted that goblin slavery is not a common practice among the northern orc tribes and seems to be a willing symbiotic relationship between both races.

The Goblin diet consists of local fauna and flora that is relatively easy to hunt or gather. Goblins don’t participate in much agriculture aside from a few species of mushroom and various moss or lichen, and do not partake in domestication or cattle rearing of any sort, though a variety of rats, bats, small reptiles, amphibians, and insects coexist alongside the Goblin people in a similar manner to humans and domestic dog and cats. Granted, these creatures are also often on the menu. Many rangers will capture wolves and ride them to hunt, as well, though this is less common for goblin groups that live deep within cave systems.

Due to the lack of sunlight, Goblins get their vitamin D through both photosynthesis of available, diffused light and a hearty diet of fatty meats and protein based foods, supplementing it with small rocks and precious gems, nuts, berries, roots, grasses, and leafy greens. Some minerals may actually imbue a Goblin spell caster with certain heightened abilities for a short while, ranging from increased sensory capabilities to hallucinogenic effects. Contrary to popular beliefs, Goblins do eat a number of root vegetables and fruits, gathered and bartered from surrounding forests and towns. Shamans enjoy brewing powerful elixirs and even moonshine that aid in battle or serve as poison to coat their weapons in.

Relationships with other races are mostly dependent on trade, though due to border conflicts, Goblins have an adversarial relationship towards Dwarves. The Goblin’s inclination towards stealing and eating gemstone and ore, as well as collapsed tunnels and collisions have put the two races at odds with each other.

Many tribes align themselves with Barbaric human clans or nomadic tribes of neighboring orcs, and will fight or even live alongside these different races in relative harmony.

i think that’s it for now!!!!

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cannoli-reader · 5 years ago

Text

A Thought or two on the race of the Wheel of Time casting.

So “The Wheel of Time” has cast a group of people to play the characters born to Two Rivers families, Nynaeve, Perrin, Egwene & Mat. And there have been concerns. And there have been people making knee-jerk assumptions that these concerns are entirely founded in racism. And hey, maybe there are some. But I don’t think all of them necessarily are.

First of all, some personal context. I am not really a SJW or much concerned about race issues in general. I am white, of entirely European ancestry, but I haven’t the slightest bit of “white guilt”. “Get Out” did not make me the least bit uncomfortable because I had absolutely no comprehension of the white characters. I understand that “representation matters” in media, but it matters to white people as well, which is why ‘Hollywood’ which is not a monlithic entity, mostly casts white people. I don’t care if there are not enough black people or too many white people in any given movie. We can have Scotsmen playing Lithuanian-Russians or try to pass off their burr as a brogue. We can have Terry Molloy, Stanley Kowalski and Vito Corleone, members of immigrant communities from very different parts of Europe, played by the same man.

That said, while I think adaptations have a degree of responsibility to be faithful to the original work or to the historical time period, I don’t care that Michael Jordan and Reg E Cathay and Jessica Alba were cast as members of a family that is white in the picture books in which the Fantastic Four originated or that black paratroopers were in “Overlord”. I would not approve of T’Challa being played by a white person, because that IS important to his character. And insisting on casting a woman of color as Cleopatra in the name of historical accuracy instantly destroys my respect for you.

What we know about the appearance of the Two Rivers people is that they seem to be about average height for their part of the world. Nynaeve & Egwene are short by modern standards (for a white or black North American), while Perrin is tall and Mat above average. They have somewhat darker complexions than the very Nordic-looking Aiel and possibly Andorans, but on the other hand, no character ever uses Two Rivers folk as a touchstone for dark skins, the way they do the Sea Folk or Tairens. Even Domani are often mentioned as having coppery colored skins, with Two Rivers people using the terminology the same as lighter-skinned people, suggesting that they too, are lighter-skinned than the Domani. When Elaida points out that Rand’s natural skin tone is unusually light for a Two Rivers native, she pushes up his sleeve to show the untanned skin, which to me suggests that Two Rivers people are not much, if at all, darker than a very pale person tans. So people do have a point that the actors for Perrin and Nynaeve, at least, if not also Egwene, are darker than they are portrayed in the books.

To which I say, “So what?” The important thing is that Rand is clearly different from the others. That is probably even easier to convey visually if they use actors from different races, so Rand clearly stands out. It might have been more interesting to make Rand the person of color, but then you’ll turn all the stuff into racial issues, and we don’t need that in discussions of the show. Seriously, that was one of the more tedious parts of reveling in all the on-line criticism of Season 8 of Game of Thrones, which I prefer to think of as HBO’s six-part documentary, alternatively titled “Cannoli Was Right All Along.” They didn’t kill off the Dothraki because they are racists, they killed off the Dothraki, to the extent that they did, because they long ago jettisoned everything else in service to spectacle. Which brings me to the point that TV writers can’t be trusted and there are lots of other concerns in what they are going to do, beyond letting some black folks get full of themselves because Nynaeve would make Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and Rey hide under the bed when she’s annoyed at them.

One of the problems in “Game of Thrones” was that a lot of adaptational choices were not thought through, long term, nor were the implications. Like how Daenerys crowd-surfing on her freed slaves would look, compared to her riding her horse through a cheering crowd. Or how abandoning a lot of the world building meant some things made very little sense. If you read the books, between the lines, you know that the Dance of the Dragons (a war in-universe, not the book title) pretty much put paid to the idea of a woman inheriting the Iron Throne. But on the show, all we heard about that is that Stannis thinks the name is stupid. In the books, he has definite opinions, including that the losing female contender was a traitor for attempting to claim the crown over her younger half-brother. But this sort of world-building would justify the characters’ stated preference for Jon’s gender over Daenerys in Season 8. Going by the show alone, that makes no sense, because most of the nobles left at this point are women, and very few of the male lords would have reason to favor Jon over Dany, or else they were opponents of Dany for other reasons, like their die-hard support of Sansa, who was pro-Jon. The show’s worldbuilding undercut their own point of conflict, but they tried to fall back on book worldbuilding they had never serviced and made deliberate choices to omit characters or storypoints that would have supported that detail.

At this point I can’t see how the particulars of the Two Rivers’ ethnicity would affect the story, but I also thought cutting fAegon from “Game of Thrones” was a good idea when Season 5 rolled around. To the extent that it is an issue in the story, the Two Rivers district of western Andor was once the heartland of a legendary nation called Manetheren. When the nation was betrayed by their allies, the army fought alone to hold the ford of one of those eponymous rivers for far longer than anyone had thought possible, with civilians taking up arms to join them in hopes of preserving some fraction of the population. In the end they all died fighting, but the enemy force was wiped out as a result of their defense, and so the few survivors who had got out came back, rebuilt their homes and said “We’re only leaving this country feet first.” But they lacked the human capital or resources to rebuild the nation and have been reduced to a rural farming community centered around a trio of villages. There is a fourth village, called Taren Ferry, at the river crossing that is the only known way in or out of the Two Rivers, but they don’t have much to do with the rest of the area, and are looked at askance by the proper Two Rivers folk.

It is also established in the text that the Taren Ferry people are the only ones to interbreed with outsiders or to have much intercourse with them at all. The people living deeper in the Two Rivers are an isolated culture and breeding population. Itinerant enterainers, merchants buying their crops and peddlers selling goods they cannot make themselves are their only contact with the outside world, and at one point a character actually scoffs at the idea of marrying one of them. Rand is physically unique because his father, nearly equally uniquely, left the Two Rivers as a young man and came home with a wife from somewhere else and their baby.

Because the Two Rivers people have only been reproducing among themselves for two thousand years, certain characteristics are reinforced in their genetics. This is revealed when one of them, in a moment of stress, facing the same enemy that destroyed Manetheren, starts shouting in the language Manetheren spoke, using phrases specific to Manetheren. This is later diagnosed as a kind of racial memory emerging, and strongly suggests that the character is a descendant of strong geneological connections to the last king of Manetheren. A second character feels a sort of recognition, suggesting a lesser degree of this Old Blood as it is called in the books. The other two native Two Rivers people don’t feel it.

Now here’s the two fold problem with the casting. The problem is not Marcus Rutherford and Zoe Robins, it is Barney Harris. They should ALL be the same race. They’re isolated and have had very very few reproductive encounters with outsiders. Mat Cauthon should not be played by a clearly white actor if the rest of the Two Rivers is something else.

But the really funny bit comes with the implications of the casting with regard to the Old Blood.

Because these are the two people who are not the purest royal-blooded Two Rivers folk:

and

while this is the one with maybe a hint of the blood of the legendary hero-king:

and THIS is the pure-blooded descendant of ancient royalty:

Ooops. Gonna be fun when the people whose major problem with Missandei’s death is that a black woman didn’t have get to be in the last two episodes, watch the scene where Rosamund Pike tells THAT GUY, up there, how special his bloodline is.

But maybe they just rolled with the casting choices because they are going to skip the Old Blood issue. Okay. But like I said above, you never know what’s going to bite you in the butt seven or eight seasons down the road. But the cynical part of me is greatly amused at the implications of the apparent mixed race heritage of the Two River people, and what it suggests about who the nobles and who the commoners were in the glory days of Manetheren. On the other hand, you get the suggestion that the barriers between lords and commoners came down as they fought side by side to save their land and then worked side by side to make their community survive and we got people intermarrying without regard to the old social divisions.

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joannalannister · 6 years ago

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I'm not sure if I'm wording this appropriately, but has there ever been a suggestion that Tywin suffers from an emotional disorder? The apathy, suppresion of emotions and the inability to form meaningful relationships makes me think there might have been some sort of underlying issue.

I don’t think Tywin suffers from any disorder, I think it’s more about Tywin trying to conform to the 20th century American Westerosi masculine ideal. Like, even Arya remembers Cat telling Ned “to put on his lord’s face”. Tywin just takes this concept to extremes.

Think of the myth of the Hollywood Cowboy that GRRM grew up with, which is a good approximation for the ~~~”””ideal”””~~~ American male. According to this myth, men are not supposed to be emotional or overly sentimental. They are supposed to be men of steel: hard, remote, resolute. In this myth, the ideal man is supposed to be ~~”””racially pure”””~~ / white. (Many, many, many cowboys on the American frontier were not white in real life.) The Mythical Cowboy is supposed to be The Man Alone. Women are supposed to be something distant in this myth; women are extremely important to the Pop-Culture Cowboy but they are to be kept apart, in the past, or dead, or w/e, as if femininity is contagious. (Think of Randyll Tarly in the books.) The relationships men are ~allowed~ to form with other men have a strict and severely limiting code of conduct.

I think Tywin fits – or at least he would like us to believe that he fits – a lot of this myth. Like, there’s even this idea that the Cowboy is supposed to be virile - think of how Tywin impregnated Joanna with twins at a time when Aerys’s children were miscarried / not surviving infancy etc.

There are mythical elements to Tywin that – well, they’re not things you go out in search of a real world explanation for, imo, the same way that GRRM says there is no real world explanation for the seasons. That’s just the way it is. The point is the myth, the wonder, the magic – not the explanation behind it. (“With Morning Comes Mistfall”)

(I have. A lot of thoughts. About the westerlands. And. The name. Is. Not least among them. While “The North” as a name is suggestive of something constant / true (TrueTM) / dependable, the westerlands is … well, I would argue it bears similarities to the American West, and especially the myth of the American West as portrayed by popular culture. Consider:

a remoteness from the traditional centers of political, economic and cultural power (Think of how there is no Starry Sept in Lannisport, no Citadel. Think of how we’ve never been there in the books.)

a feeling that the […] riches of the West are being exploited to serve the needs of people in the East (Think of how Tywin had to bail Aerys out sometimes vs how Tywin utterly refuses to bail out the Iron Throne now.)

feelings of superiority / a collective sense of inferiority regarding the East (Lannisters view everyone else as inferior.)

But when success can be achieved quickly, it can seem tenuous. And the fear of losing ground can breed a determination to maintain the status quo (The Lannisters are very afraid of losing their status.)

The American west was largely seen as a place of upward mobility (The Reyne-Tarbeck Rebellion was arguably fought over social mobility.)

“law was dispensed out of a holster instead of a law book.” (via) (Think of how Tywin rules through fear and violence.)

I don’t think it’s an accident that I’m comparing Tywin to cowboy movies. I think that it all ties into the concept of fascist masculinity that GRRM is critiquing. Like, if you’ve read The M@n in the H*gh C@stle, the point of the book is that mid-20th century American society was “only a few shades removed from the European fascism we were so proud of smashing in World War II.” Fascist aesthetics were present in these cowboy movies, and Tywin is a major embodiment of the fascist aesthetic in ASOIAF.)

So anyways. To fully answer your question, let’s look at the myth of this man who allegedly comes “along once in a thousand years.”

You mention Tywin being apathetic, but is he, really? Really? The man who is so obsessed with his reputation that he built a secret tunnel into a brothel to hide his sex life for decades? That man?

Tywin cares Quite A Lot about certain things. It’s just that 99% of those things are Lannisters. Like, I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: the majority of the world’s population are not people to Tywin Lannister. They’re not real people to him; therefore they don’t matter to him. Why should they matter to him, if they’re not real human beings?

What makes someone care about one group of people, but not another?

What you’re calling apathy is what I would call a politician in DC.

In terms of suppressing emotions … well, Tywin’s not very good at it. There’s a barely concealed rage constantly lurking under the surface with Tywin.

And as for meaningful relationships … could you form a meaningful relationship with a cockroach? Most people are not real to Tywin. They’re not people. They’re furniture, or insects, or computers, or robots (if Westeros had robots). You can’t form a meaningful relationship with someone who isn’t real to you. And the list of people who are real to Tywin is … tragically short.

Consider: Lannister females in Tywin’s age cohort, listed by rank: 1) Genna 2) Joanna 3) & 4) Jason’s unnamed younger daughers … etc

Genna was out, because brother-sister incest is taboo in Westeros, and Tywin may be evil, but he is lawful evil. Joanna was the highest ranking bachelorette who Tywin considered to be a real person.

And … I mean … Tywin was friends with Aerys … He was arguably friends with Steffon … able-bodied males of similar political station, and therefore “real” and worthy of friendship.

So I don’t think the lack of relationships has anything to do with a disorder. It’s Tywin’s own bigotry. If you’re misogynistic and racist and classist and xenophobic and ableist … well, you’re probably not going to have many friends.

#fascist masculinity in asoiaf #perpetuallysleepy2 #replies #asoiaf and the american mythos #tywin lannister #tywin meta #lannister thoughts #the westerlands

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bdo-pilarrp · 6 years ago

Text

The Arrival, Pt.1

Snow had come with the chill of winter, the land once a lush green forest now blanketed with a pristine blanket of pure, glimmering white. Crystalline snowflakes drifted lazily down from the heavens shrouded in thick clouds which dimmed the warm glow of the sun, the land still and peaceful, almost picturesque in its dream-like state. The only disturbance was the soft crunch of snow under light feet as a figure clad in a charcoal grey cloak trudged forward down the path that lay hidden beneath the snow, the hood pulled up to keep the falling flakes from their visage.

Wispy puffs of steam drifted upon the cold air from the figure's breaths, the dark fur lining the hood frosted from snowfall concealing the figure's features from view, the only other detail a large sword of elegant elvish design strapped to their back. The lone figure seemed to be on a mission, their destination a mystery to any onlooker but the strides made were surly with purpose as they made their way through the still surroundings, seeming frozen in time with the fall of the season's first heavy flurry.

Another figure, a lone elven male stood in the same path rummaging through one of his smaller bags taking out a few pieces of meat. The tall figure kneeled down draped in his white wolf- fur cloak. "Come here you two.", he called to his two wolves who eagerly rushed over for their snack. He gave each a playful rub before looking up at his surroundings. His ice blue eyes noticing his partner approaching on the path in the distance. "Are you ready to get out of this place?", he questioned as the figure got closer. "We have a lead in Calpheon."

Hands clad in silver gauntlets that gleamed in the radiance of the pristine white that surrounded them rose to draw back the hood, seafoam green eyes meeting frosty blue, cascading layers of hair, dark at the roots fading to silvery white at the tips, free to settle about her shoulders. She cocked a small grin at her companion, watching the wolves as they eagerly set to their treats. "More than ready. My legs need a good stretch and it's gotten rather boring around here as of late."

"Good to hear. Let's get moving then. Hopefully, we'll be able to escape some of this cold while we're at it.", the elf said with confidence; pushing some of his blonde locks aside as they blew in his face from the frosty winds. He stood up readjusting his large bow strapped across his body. Before grabbing his nearby bag and turning to continue down the path with his new companion. "We'll be traveling to the land of humans some Im sure you'll get more than your share of fun. They can't keep peace for two seconds.", he commented as they moved on.

Pilar chuckled, a gleam in her green eyes hinting that she was perhaps more than hoping for such a prospect. She adjusted her pack beneath her cloak, more than ready to set off on their way, a determined grin on her lips. "Oh, I'm certain of it. Humans are petty things, always squabbling and complaining. They do make a tasty Shepard's Pie, though." she mused. A gust of brisk air whipped past them and Pilar drew her hood up once again, the fur lining kissed with small flakes of freshly fallen snow. "It will be nice to be out on the open road again. I've missed this. My sword has been idle for too long." She joined Alboin and offered the pair of wolves a fond scritch behind the ears.

Alboin laughs a bit, "Why is it that I can sense you ready to make trouble? Well, I'm sure we'll encounter some bandits along the way.", he asked as he takes a look at his map and compass. "A lovely elven female out on the open roads is like nineshark bait to them.", he stated in amusement. "Alright, we head north from here. ", he mentioned putting the items away, his two wolves quickly following along as they see him move on.

Pilar easily keeps pace alongside her companion, her grin innocent. Ish. "I have no idea what you mean." she lied playfully. "But any chance I get to put some filth into their rightful place sounds like a good time to me." She huffed lightly, a puff of steam from her breath on the cold air escaping as she did so, "Humans. Always picking on those who they are incapable of understanding." The gentle rain of snowflakes soon ceased, the snowfall easing away for the time being as they trudged onwards, their light-footedness keeping them from sinking into the packed snow that coated the land. All was quiet, not even bird song greeted their ears, not a soul of a creature stirred the underbrush. It was almost like walking through a dream state but the two elves knew better. The land was simply at rest, soaking in the calm of the moment.

"That lack of understanding anything is what keeps their race from achieving more and being a pain in the butt for the rest of us." "Though in this case, I don't think it's a lack of understanding as much as it's a bunch of humans looking to defile our kind. Having laid with one of us is like an accomplishment or experience of some kind. Can't say I feel that way about the roles being reversed.",Alboin sighed. "No matter. Once all this business with the Kamasylvia tree and our traveling princess is solved we can all go back to our seperate domains.", the male elf dreamed. "The border to Trent shouldn't be too far from here. Then we'll figure out how to further proceed to Calpheon."

Pilar hummed in amusement, nodding as she crinkled her faintly freckled nose. "I honestly do not see the appeal of bedding a human. They smell, they are filthy, they are ignorant, and they have no stamina what so ever." she cringed slightly, "The thought of one sweating all over me while being rut upon is rather foul indeed." She offered a small shrug, " I do not see what the Princess finds so fetching about them. You would think someone of her impeccable breeding would prefer more intellectual and pleasant company."

"It's not them; just him.... She was most likely tricked by that beast of a man. Or some other underhanded methods no doubt; possibly tainted human booze!", he contemplated aloud to her as they walked. "300 years and not one of the more noble elves could have her virginity, and this human comes along and steals her most sacred treasure. I'll have none of this insult from a human any further.",Alboin breathed in an icy cold breathe calming himself. "We will find her and once she sees me she'll happily return home with us; her sister as well.

Pilar kept her bemused laugh well to herself, letting slip a hum of agreement instead. She knew how easily her companion could get so riled up at such a topic and although it was almost always entertaining, she felt it was best if he saved it for later. "The Princess will come along one way or another, Alboin, do not concern yourself about that. Her home beckons and she has responsibilities to see to as is her given right by birth. She has been away from home for too long."

"Yes and hopefully by then will have come to her senses and she will be over this getting along with the other races nonsense." Alboin huffed. "We have our own issues to deal with." , he commented as the pair crunched their way through the snow covered lands. The wolves eagerly keeping pace beside him; their snow white coats blinding them into the surroundings. "What do you plan to do once we head back home? It doesn't seem you'd be too pleased to be stuck there again.", the elven male asked Pilar.

Green eyes cast skyward in thought. She honestly hadn't thought that far ahead. "You know... I haven't even considered that yet," she replied honestly. "We both know my mother is insistent on me marrying- which isn't going to happen. I'm in my prime! Why should I get bogged down with marriage? And children would be a certain death sentence to my freedom." she frowned, brows knitting together in a pointed scowl. "All because I'm her only daughter and she wants grandchildren. Disgusting little noisemakers. If she wants more little ones running around why not pay a Piku or something to do it. Well... I mean I tried it already but for some reason, she was less than amused at the idea of me paying the creature to follow her around and annoy her. A child would do the same thing!" She threw her hands up in the air, frustrated. "I will never understand that woman's demands for the life of me. As a Royal Guard herself, you would think she would be happy I followed in her footsteps! Just because I wasn't born a son she changed her mind. Her problem, not mine by the way." she huffed, glowering at the snow that coated the path they walked.

"This isn't meant as an insult, but I can't quite picture you being a housewife. ", he commented to her. "Some people are just made for certain things. Some belong on a battlefield, some in books and scrolls, some in gardens and others at home.", Alboin further remarked. "Perhaps she wants to make up for you being the only child by having another child through you.", the elf commented with a shrug. "Meh, it's hard to tell what some people think sometimes.". Alboin's ice blue eyes scanned the distance. "I can see the border gates up head from here."

Pilar huffed once again, sending another puff of steam drifting through parted lips. A wind had picked up and the snow was beginning to grow harder on the land, packed from layers of snowfall freezing over and the path now churned up with slush and mud from the passing of horse drawn wagons as the gates came into view. "Being a housewife would be the death of me." she grumped. As they moved closer along the path, avoiding the muck and icy patches, Pilar's seafoam gaze roved their surroundings, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious or potentially threatening. The closer they drew, the more they could hear the folk of Trent going about their business, even in the frigid weather, the sound of saws and hammers at work as loggers brought in their loads from the surrounding woodland.

"We should probably get some horses . It's quite the distance from Trent to Calpheon when considering the snow.",Alboin suggested. "Not to mention that human is possibly partaking of our princess as we speak. We can't waste too much time getting there.", he added as they walked through the gates of the small labor town.

Pilar nodded as they passed through the gates, making a bee-line for the stables, her gauntlet clad hand resting casually upon the hilt of the sword she had at her hip, her stride confident and imposing as she marched up to the Stable Master first. She halted just in front of the Demi Beast, teal eyes piercing as she bluntly addressed him, "We require two of the finest horses you have for sale." She placed a hand upon her hip, adding, "I have coin."

Alboin soon followed, "My friend here may have been a bit forward with you, but she is correct.", Alboin gave a charming smile and whispered to Pilar. "Sometimes you have to use finesse with these locals or they'll make things harder for you.", he then turned back to the Stable Master with his smile. " We need them as soon as possible. We have important business in Calpheon and can't afford to waste a moment. You will be paid well for them and us elves will remember your aid in our task.". he then showed the demi beast a nice pouch of silver.

Pilar humphed, crossing her armored arms as she stared levelly at the Stable Master, long elven ears perked up expectantly, the left one flicking out of annoyance. She could never understand her charge's need for charm and diplomacy in regards to those of unimportance but she humored him all the same, even if she did feel it was a waste of time. She was always more action than words. Her seafoam gaze shifted to the row of stalls, regarding the mounts available and took a keen interest in a jet black stallion that pawed angrily at the ground, snorting. He was a magnificent creature, spirited and full of fire. A kindred spirit.

"Hmmm...", Alboin noticed his companions gaze. "You know what my friend here will take that black one there. There's no need to look further in her case.", the elven male called out to the stable master while pointing at the aggressive black horse. " I on the other require something with a bit of flair; something that demands the attention of a nobleman such as myself.", his eyes scanned the horses in the stalls and those grazing in the pin. That's where he saw her; the most elegant horse he's laid eyes upon with it's long flowing white mane and long silky tail. "Yes, that one. A creature that spectacular deserves to be with someone as equally magnificent as myself.", Alboin smiled as he pictured himself riding upon the horse in the most heroic pose one could imagine.

Pilar rolled her eyes at the rather sissy choice in steed her companion picked but realized it was to be expected. Keeping all that sparkling white, mane and tail clean was going to be a chore for sure. She tossed Alboin a playful smirk, lofting a brow, "Quite the pretty pony, my Lord. Good luck keeping her spotless in the muck." she snickered. She moved to the stall that held captive her new steed, the large stallion tossing his head as she neared, flaring his nostrils. His coat was like polished onyx, mane cropped short like a mohawk to keep it out of the way, tail equally docked, his form muscular and his legs strong. He was a war horse, she knew it instantly. He would serve her well. "Keelios." she nodded as the name came to her and found it suited him fine. She spoke to him in elvish under her breath and found her voice soothed the beast for the moment. "I'll take him." she agreed at length.

"My tall elegant beast will be just fine. Besides, that's what the stable keeps are for.", he smirked in thought. "The horse's job and mine are to look good riding into battle and put down the enemy in style while we do it.", he stated with a hint for arrogance when it came to his skills. "Just worry more about keeping your monster under control. I think it might kidnap you given the chance.", Alboin mentions as he looks at the horse with suspicion.

Pilar merely grinned, daring to open the stall door to take Keelios by the bridle and guide him out. He resisted at first but his eagerness to be out of the cramped confines of the stall, far too small for a horse of his size, soon overcame his initial distrust and he stepped out onto the road with Pilar leading him, heavy hooves leaving deep impressions in the frosted over mud of the street. "He's magnificent." she breathed in awe, studying him in the sunlight. Keelios seemed overly anxious to stretch his legs, shifting from side to side impatiently as a Shai approached, lugging a saddle far bigger than he for her new mount. At the sight of it, the horse tossed his head, pawing the mud once again to caution the little creature from coming closer, which worked as he halted, unsure. Pilar held firm her grip on the stallion's bridal, not letting him have an inch. She was equally stubborn with just as much fire in her spirit. They were well matched. "Leave the saddle, small one. I'll handle it."

Opposite of Pilar was Alboin all too eager to get his new steed saddled, "Yes get that saddle on my horse! ", he commented as they allowed it out of the pin area. It was well behaved trotting its way out and not going much further as it stopped; next to the stable handlers clearly used to this routine. Alboin watched the horses stride. "Hmm, she seems to possibly be of one of the speedier breeds.", he commented, half in thought. "The stable master nodded to Alboin in that his assumption was correct. "You have a good eye." the demi beast responded to Alboin. A chilly winter breeze then came through blowing the horses long mane. Alboin looked on in awe, "Yes I shall name her Sylvia after our awe inspiring tree and goddess.", he declared and nodded in self-approval.

Meanwhile, the armored she-elf wrangled her enthusiastic, if not bull-headed, mount into submission and saddled him before swinging herself up into the leather seat with protests from the other stable hands and the caution that the stallion disliked riders. The moment her weight fell onto his back, Keelios instantly tried to throw her but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of dismounting her. With a grin, she let him work it all out of his system, his large hooves stirring up mud as he bucked and spun in a sudden, wild frenzy, trying to dislodge her. But this wasn't her first rodeo sort to speak and she knew just what to do to show him she was boss, not the other way around. She held fast, reins tight as she forced him forward into open space and away from possible casualties, seizing control as he tried to bolt, unsuccessfully, and when that failed, he attempted to roll on her. Experience was in her favor as she moved with him, gripping tight with her legs and flattening her body against his, coming up uninjured if a little dirty back in the saddle at a full sit once he was up, seemingly spent, at last, his new rider victorious, leaving onlookers slack jawed in awe and respect. She hmphed triumphantly and stroked Keelios' neck, muscles quivering with a low whinny. "Well fought, Keel. Never let the fire die in you."

Alboin was finally upon his mount. His two massive white wolves following close by their elven pack leader. Someone shorter than him could possibly use one as a mount. Their bushy snow covered tails wagged eagerly as they looked up at the elf on his new horse. Alboin took off his bow a moment to readjust its position to ensure that the edges wouldn't poke his horse by accident. He watched on as Pilar fought with her horse until it finally came to its conclusion. She was still the same wild girl that he always remembered. The elf tossed his wolves a snack making sure they had fuel for the run they would make soon once Pilar finally seemed to be settled with the stallion. "At least he didn't kidnap you!", the man called over to Pilar with a grin.

A chortle was her response, offering the black stallion another fond pat to the neck which was rewarded with a harsh snort and a hoof stomp. She turned her attention to the dumbstruck stablemaster and tossed him a coin purse for his troubles. "Lead the way." she beckoned for Alboin to lead on, the pair of them now fully set for the road ahead of them. Pilar slipped her pack onto Keelios' back like a saddle bag and let her cloak cover it, replacing her fur trimmed hood back up to shield her skin from the biting cold, her breath still visible on the air. The further into Calpheon territory they go the warmer it would get.

"We appreciate your timely assistance," Alboin spoke to the Stable Master handing him his own pouch of silver as well. Before setting his horse into motion toward the town gate that would lead them to Calpheon. The wolves followed close by one at each side of Alboin as the horse picked up pace. The snow was still a bit heavy outside the town gate since it wasn't cleared from the path as it was in the town. Regardless it was still faster than either of them would be moving on foot. "Finally, we can make some decent progress. Once we hit warmer territory we should be able to run at full speed."

Pilar nodded, nudging Keelios forward which wasn't without his stubborn hesitation. "Lets be off then, I'm tired of the cold." Together, they set off down the road leading from Trent, hooves churning up mud and slush from snow in their wake as they settled into a gallop along the road that took them through the woodlands of towering pines and firs. The smell of evergreens were on the air, as invigorating as the nip of the chilled air against their faces as they made for Calpheon. "So what's the plan, Alboin?" she called to her companion, curious as to what his chosen plan of action would be, if he even had one.

"I think a wise choice would be to find a place to stay once we get there. " Alboin shouted back to Pilar. "I do not plan on sleeping in the cold wilds tonight. We may know the town she's in but we have no idea where exactly, or if the person mistook her for another elf. I doubt she'd be wearing her royal clothing if she's staying undercover.", said the elf as he explained his reasoning around the choice. His cloak, hair and the horse's mane all flowing majestically in the wind as they rode. The two wolves easily keeping pacing thanks to wolves being great endurance runners capable of running miles before needing a rest.

A firm nod signaled her affirmation of his plan, "Agreed! We will need to approach the Princess cautiously less we spook her away. It would be wise indeed to gather more intel whilst we recoup and a bed would be a welcome reprieve after our long journey." Keelios easily kept pace with Sylvia, his powerful strides keeping him alongside the more lithe of the two steeds. Ivory and ebony streaked down the road leading north to Calpheon with a rhythmic thunder of hooves.

"Exactly, it's as you say. This is the closest info we've had on her location in a while.", Alboin said over the sound of hooves meeting forest ground. "If she flees we have to start all over again.", as they traveled he noticed the snow getting thinner; noting them passing into warmer territory. "And it seems we've finally gotten closer to some better weather as well!", Alboin remarked pleased at the prospect of not freezing endless day and night.

Pilar grinned, raising a hand to draw her hood back from her face, long wavy lengths of her ombre grey hair now bellowing out behind her along with her cloak, finally free from the confines of her hood. The crisp bitter cold had faded and the sun seemed brighter, warmer as the clouds became thinner. Although still chill from winter's embrace, it was not as cold in the region of Calpheon, the snow mostly melted save for the denser patches that could be seen scattered about the forest floor, the path now damp from the melt but no where near as muddy as the roads of Trent were. "We're making good time!"

"Yes, we should make it there before the sun goes down." , the elf stated as they raced down the path ever closer to there destination. But just as everything seemed to be going smoothly Alboin noticed some figures in the distance beginning to block the path. "Looks like you get your wish Pilar.", Alboin called out to her when he realized the figures blocking the road was a group bandits and thieves. He slowed his horse down preparing to stop it a safe distance out of harms way.

A devilish grin lights up her face as she sees the group foolishly attempting to bar their path. She allowed Keelios to continue several paces past Sylvia to stop just short of the bandits, the intimidating stallion rearing up and lashing out with hooves with a whinny before coming down hard, large hooves leaving imprints in the dirt of the road. Pilar regarded the group cooly, "Step aside."

"Uuuh sure miss...just as soon as ya hand over all your silver, dos nice horses...", one of the bandits gestured. "...and possibly yourself as well.", one of the other ones suggested in a creepy manner; his comrades cheering in agreeing and amusement . "Now how about you hop off that horse like two good little elves so we don't have to get too rough with ya?"

Pilar flashed her most innocent of smiles, casually inching Keelios closer to the ring leader, inch bye inconspicuous inch. "Oh, but rough is so much more fun." Before the man could bat an eye, Pilar moved like lightning, rearing back and striking out with a powerful kick, her boot heel connecting ruthlessly with the man's jaw, an audible crunch of teeth and bone heard before vaulting off the saddle backwards and falling into a battlestance, ready for the next attacker with a wild grin on her face.

Alboin dismounted his horse but saw no need to get directly in the fight knowing Pilar could handle herself and wanted to have some fun. Instead, he drew his great bow and covered her from a distance watching her back. "Storm, Frost go play!", his two wolves went from passive to lethal in an instant; covering ground faster than the men could react before being pounced upon and attacked viciously by the large animals.

Keelios had reared up and struck out with a foreleg, catching another bandit in the chest and sending him reeling as the wolves leapt into the fray, Pilar streaking in like lightning aiming a strike to another bandit's throat, dropping him and whirling around to trip up the second with a leg sweep. She didn't draw her weapon just yet, after all, they were only humans standing in the way and there would be no sport in simply cutting them down for their stupidity. Unless one drew on her first, her sword would remain sheathed. A palm strike to another bandit's nose sent him staggering and Pilar leapfrogged over him to catch another by the wrist, spinning to throw him over a shoulder with a splintering snap of his wrist bone, sending him to the dirt with a heavy thud as he landed unpleasantly on his back squealing in pain.

"Satisfied now?", Alboin asked Pilar in amusement. He whistled for Frost and Storm to return, and the two wolves came jogging back over to him; bushy tails happily wagging as they came over to give Alboin licks. He gave them both treats and scratched their fluffy white necks as he watched Pilar making sure no one snuck up on her.

Pilar huffed, standing with her hands akimbo, surveying her handiwork with a disappointed scowl, "Too easy. They always make it too easy!" she complained, stepping over a prone figure groaning miserably in the mud. She collected Keelios' reins and returned to Alboin's side, looking bored all over again. "Well, at the very least I got a little bit of exercise in, I guess." She shrugged but he couldn't miss the pout on her face. She was hoping for a challenge and as usual, she was disappointed. "Waste of time. We should have just plowed through them." She swung back up in her saddle and turned Keelios about, "That was...what- two? Three?- minutes of daylight we won't get back."

"I almost doubt any battle would satisfy your thirst.", Alboin laughed as he was about to saddle up onto Sylvia again. He stopped a moment in thought and instead walked over to the bandits. He stepped over the leader and took the pouch of silver he had stolen from others that rode along this path earlier that day. Alboin then tossed the pouch to Pilar. "That is payment for wasting the ladies time.", he commented before heading back to his horse to actually saddle up this time. "Also let that be a reminder of how it feels to be beaten and have your money taken from you the next time you try a stunt like this, filth." , Alboin added as his horse and wolves walked by the group of laid out thieves."Someone move this trash out of the road!", Alboin called out to no one in particular. "How are decent folk expected to ride and travel in such conditions."

Pilar grinned at her companion, pocketing the coin pouch after deftly snatching it out of the air as it was tossed her way. "Hey, a girl can hope!" she chirruped jokingly. She brought Keelios up alongside Sylvia and nodded to the Archer with a dip of her chin, "Let's get going, no point wasting any more time on these morons." With a click of her tongue and a flick of the reins, she urged the massive stallion forward into another trot, soon accelerating into a gallop as they resumed their journey towards Calpheon city.

"Yes, thankfully they didn't waste too much of our time. After being out in this cold weather nothing would be more welcome than a nice warm bath.", he replied to Pilar as the rode off; leaving the injured criminals behind scattered on the road in varying degrees of pain. "At least they were kind enough to give us some money back for the horses we bought", Alboin smirked in delight. The elf noticed them quickly approaching a river up head and bridge that would allow them safe crossing. "We must be getting closer now. This area is very familiar.", he stated, eager to end his journey for the time being.

As they rode on towards their destination, Keelios and Sylvia kept up their pace with ease, hardly breathing hard, proof of the quality of their breeding in their endurance. The sound of their hooves hitting dirt with a muted thunk soon shifted into a rhythmic clack as the metal shoes struck stone of the bridge, drawing them closer towards their destination, evident by the increase in the presence of civilians of the city appearing on or along the road, some farming, some driving wagons, some simply strolling. "We should hit the gates any moment now!"

After a few more minutes they saw it, the southern entrance to Calpheon near the noble district and large cathedral. As they arrived in front of the stable Alboin got off his horse. "Take good care of her and make sure she's nice and clean.", the elven man addressed the stable workers. "She's worth the silver spent on her and I'd like to keep it that way." Alboin looked over awaiting Pilar who sat upon her massive black horse.

The Dark Knight blew a sigh of relief as they came up to the stables in a casual trot, able to feel the subtle shift in climate temperature with her acute elvish senses. It was a much-needed reprieve from the cold they just came from, the chill here in Calpheon far more bearable by far. She dismounted, landing lightly on her feet as another stable hand came out to collect her steed. Keelios reared up, whinnying in protest at strangers handling his reins, his sheer bulk and aggressive power forcing the stable hands to retreat, surprised and afraid. Pilar reined him in, calming him with some softly spoken words in elvish, her hands smoothing down his muzzle and once he appeared soothed, she beckoned the timid stable workers over, "Do not be afraid, horses can sense fear." She scolded, handing the reins over to a man that dared to come closer than the others, his expression wary, "Take good care of him. If you do not, I will know." She leveled a pointed look at all of them, one that showed she was deadly serious to which the stable hand nodded feverishly, "Y-yes'm!"

"Alright, lets go find our selves a good place to stay. It seems we are in the better part of town so this is a good place to start.", Alboin mentioned to his friend. "If we don't find a nice Inn we may as well just rent a place and make it worthy of us.", he then suggested upon further thought as the headed through the gates and into town.

Pilar nodded and followed Alboin, trusting him to lead the way. They passed numerous folk that crowded the streets of Calpheon, various races of all shapes, sizes, and genders going about their lives pedaling their wares or running errands. The diversity was surprising as they wove their way through the crowds, avoiding merchants attempting to get their attention and shady folk who would more than likely attempt to pick their pockets. "Have a place in mind?" she implored, looking to Alboin as they walked side by side, garnering many stares both curious and appreciative in their direction as they went.

"Unfortunately, no. But we are in the better part of town so the inn on this side is our only option unless we get a place of our own. " the elven man explained his reasoning to Pilar. "We will take a look at it and see if it meets your standards. If you can tolerate staying in it for a night we'll use it and find a better place for us early tomorrow.", he spoke as they walked. Alboin's eyes scanning the buildings looking for the sign above one of them that shows that it's an Inn.

Pilar shrugged absently as they walked, spotting the Inn looming ahead as they rounded a corner, "If it is suitable for you than it is for me." she reassured. As they neared, the sound of the tavern life began to increase, obnoxious laughter, drunken shouts, and off key singing mixed with the clank of mugs and other dishes and from what she could see through the fogged up windows, it was pretty crowded. Dutifully, Pilar moved ahead of Alboin protectively, opening the door first once close enough, her free hand on the hilt of her dagger, leading the way inside. The place reeked of booze, sweat, cheap perfume, cigarettes, and food. A cook prepared meals at a small kitchenette behind the bar where the barkeep hustled out drinks along the counter, the barmaids working double time with their trays overfilled and overflowing with orders they hurried out to crowded tables. Some folk were playing darts, some cards, others partaking in some form of merriment and even one or two were out cold in their seats. The upper floor, Pilar could spot a player or two, tempting the unsuspecting from their coin in exchange for carnal pleasures, a signaler helping a companion cheat at cards at a table below, and a few just observing the crowd from a higher and less crowded vantage point. At the moment, there seemed no immediate danger but even so, Pilar stuck close to Alboin's side like a protective watchdog as he sought out the innkeeper.

Alboin sighed, "I have a feeling this is already going to be a big fat NO. But I'll humor it anyway, maybe Ill get the rarest of surprises." His blue eyes moved to Pilar who was protectively walking ahead of him. She had always been that way and even if it was her duty he never fully understood it, but given some thought, he'd do the same for her. This is his oldest and possibly only real friend after all. "Pilar I think that may be him over there.", the elf pointed toward the man spoke some words to the bartender that they couldn't hear over the crowd but he then exited from behind the bar to continue on to whatever his next ask was. Not just anyone is allowed behind a bar of an establishment, so Alboin had a good hunch about this.

"I honestly would not be surprised if this was the best they had to offer," she commented dryly. It was certainly a far shot from the beautiful inns of Grana with their refined chefs, polished floors, glimmering walls, and soothing harp music. It was almost laughable how drastically different the two cultures were. Sad, but laughable. She just hoped the beds were at least clean otherwise they would be better off sleeping outside. As Alboin pointed out the man that exited from behind the bar, Pilar nodded, catching sight of the man. She waited for Alboin to take lead, once more knowing her weakness in diplomacy, following her companion through the crowded room. She noted they got more than a few curious stares, some lewder than others, but she was hardly bothered by them. She could take on every single person in the bar and hardly break a sweat with their poor state. Still, she hovered close, a hand on her dagger just in case as Alboin caught up with the Innkeeper.

"Excuse me.", Alboin put on his best face as he approached the man. "Is this your inn and tavern?", he then asked. The man turned to see who was asking."Yeah, this is my place...what can I do for you? If its a drink the barkeep over there can help you.", the innkeeper gestured. "No, no me and my friend here were looking to get a room for the night. The names Alboin by the way sorry for the late introduction.", Alboin explained after properly greeting the man. "The names Darren. And yeah...I think we can get a room for you, follow me.", the innkeeper waved an arm for them to follow as he leads them out of the bar area and through the door into the inn portion of the building. The man walked them upstairs and grabbed the ring of keys from his hip as they reached an empty room; unlocking it for the pair. As the door squeaked open it revealed a rather average room. Not the cleanest but not utterly filthy either. Alboin tried to contain his disgust and tried another approach.

"Hmmm, surely you have another room?", Alboin pulled the man aside a little. "I don't want to disappoint my date tonight Darren. Look at her. Is that the kind of elven beauty you'd want to disappoint on a special night?" , gave the man a charming smirk. Darren looked past Alboin's shoulder at Pilar; checking her from head to toe. He gave a nod of approval and suck of his teeth in thought as if trying to remove a piece of food from between them. "Look I'll tell you what. If you've got the silver I've got a room I usually only reserve for special VIP diplomats that show up here in town.", he stated as he looked back to Alboin who gave him a nod. "Come on.", the innkeeper leads them to the top floor. "On this floor, there are only 2 rooms. Mine and the special one I told you of." The man then went to one of the two special keys on his rings and opened the door once they walked over to it. Upon opening the door one could tell exactly what he meant. The room was decked out in fancy furniture, a hot tub, the finest of flooring, sheets, drapes. "Yes, this one will definitely do.", Alboin spoke up deeming the room fit enough for Pilar and himself. The elven male paid the man well for his trouble and was given the key. "Alright, you two uhhh...enjoy your special night.", the innkeeper said with a smile and a wink before heading back downstairs.

#ic happenings #short story #Alboin Trislee

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petnews2day · 2 years ago

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Bird flu confirmed in East Lothian as hundreds of gannets perish

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/?p=51463

Bird flu confirmed in East Lothian as hundreds of gannets perish

Bird flu has been officially confirmed in the county following tests on dead gannets washed up on East Lothian beaches.

The impact of the virus is already being felt, with “significant areas on the Bass Rock which would have been brimming with gannets now largely bare”, according to the chief executive of the Scottish Seabird Centre

Reports had suggested that more than 700 seabirds had been washed up on county beaches as a result of the suspected avian flu outbreak in the seabird population.

East Lothian Council announced that this number was inflated by duplicate reporting but confirmed that at least 287 birds had died locally of the disease.

The reports indicated that the majority of the seabird carcasses were gannets from the Bass Rock, but confirmed that some gulls and two puffins had also perished.

It was also confirmed that the variant of the virus is H5N1, a strain known to affect humans in extremely rare cases.

The Bass Rock, near North Berwick, hosts the largest northern gannet colony in the world, with many of the animals having been uplifted for testing to confirm if an outbreak had occurred.

Last week, East Lothian Council confirmed that its countryside rangers had been tasked in uplifting many of the disease-stricken birds, while specialist contractors were hired to dispose of them.

Numerous animals have already been collected for testing by the Government’s Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA), with positive cases having previously been confirmed in seabirds across Scotland, most notably in Shetland and Orkney, where other gannet populations are present.

An East Lothian Council spokesperson said yesterday (Wednesday): “The council received confirmation that tests carried out on a number of seabirds found in East Lothian and Portobello are positive for the H5N1 strain of avian flu.

“Countryside rangers are continuing regular patrols of the coastline of the county.

“The patrols are concentrating mainly on the stretch from North Berwick to Yellowcraig and unfortunately this area is where the majority of dead seabirds have washed up.

“All the carcasses are being removed daily and patrols will continue over the weekend.

“The forecast is suggesting good weather for the weekend, and we would like to reassure both residents and visitors that it’s perfectly safe to enjoy the beaches but please follow common sense advice and don’t lift or touch dead or ailing seabirds.

“There is no need to report any discoveries, as patrols are happening through the day.”

Susan Davies, CEO of the Seabird Centre, said: “The confirmation of avian flu along the East Lothian coastline from Dunbar to Portobello is not surprising; it is, however, distressing to see the scale of the impact on the Bass Rock – the world’s largest gannet colony – unfold further on a day-to-day basis.

“We are seeing significant areas on the Bass Rock which would have been brimming with gannets now largely bare, and chicks and eggs being deserted at the start of the breeding season.

“Sadly, we just have to watch and monitor the passage of the disease through the colony.

“We will be undertaking further survey work – some by drone – in the coming weeks to get a better handle on the scale of impact and will wish to continue work in future years to see how the colony recovers.

“This story is far from over.

“It is only with time that we will know the total extent of the impact of avian flu on these spectacular birds and other seabirds, many of which are already struggling with the impacts of climate change.

“This is not just about avian flu on the Bass Rock, it is about the health of seabird colonies across Scotland.

“The need for a seabird conservation strategy for Scotland has never been more needed and we urge the Scottish Government to make progress with this.”

Signs have now been erected across East Lothian beaches advising people to keep themselves and their pets away from the dead birds.

Dogs cannot contract the virus but can carry it, so it is important that they are kept away from the bird carcasses.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is poised to release the test results in its latest weekly report, which is expected to detail the scale of which the disease has taken hold in the county.

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#Birds News

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shoelacecollection · 6 years ago

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Worm

Worm is... microscopic. While she is growing, she's still small enough that anyone who sees her usually starts laughing. She's about one pencil in size -- and she has finally become wider than one, too, we're all very proud. In spite of her diminutive size, Worm is the most specially adapted freak of nature out there, and I love her with my whole heart. Pull up a chair and get comfy, friend, while I tell you all about the harsh world of the Rubber Boa.

Facts About Worm (charina bottae)

Worm is a Rubber Boa, one of two species of Boidae (boa) native to North America (the other being the Rosy Boa.) They are docile snakes even in the wild, with a reputation for being unwilling to bite. I only know of one person who has actually taken a bite from a Rubber Boa, and it's solely because the snake missed their mouse -- they are truly one of the most docile species you can meet.

Because they are a native species, there are special laws pertaining to their keeping. Check your local laws if you are interested in keeping one for yourself -- depending on the state where you live, you may either be barred from owning this species, or barred from breeding and selling them, in addition to a limit to how many you may possess at one time. As I live outside of the native range of this species, it is permissable to keep the Worm! For... the rest of the world, I truly wish you luck in even finding one -- this species is frustratingly difficult to track down even domestically.

Since I know the question is coming, she's from a clutch Ken Foose (of Las Vegas Exotic Pets) produced in late 2016-early 2017, and to my knowledge he does not have any this year (2018.) Check with Cold-Blooded Industries if you're set on this, but be warned that their waiting list is 2 years deep -- it took me three years to find the Worm. Keep your pulse on the community classifieds (kingsnake.com, faunaclassifieds, morphmarket) -- I see a few posted every year. Hang in there!

Rubber Boas, because of the climate in which they live, are specially adapted, and thrive in significantly cooler temperatures than most any other snake -- and on top of this, they all but require a period of cooling in the winter months during which they brumate (like hibernation, their metabolism slows.) While it's not strictly necessary, in my experience they would much prefer to brumate, and the Worm goes off food until it warms back up outside of her own accord. Follow your snake's cues as to their needs! It is because of these differences that I personally feel that Rubber Boas are not a beginner species in any sense despite their docility, as their quirks will give a novice a heart attack.

Case and point, the Worm didn't eat for the first six months of her time with me. That's normal for this species. They hatch with a great deal of yolk late in the year, and tend to go right to brumation, overwintering only on the stores they hatch with. They are specialized feeders, even then, raiding nests of rats and mice and eating their young, often many at once, and then digesting for a long time before they hunt their next meal, and while they will eat other things if they find them, they have slower metabolisms than something like a Corn Snake. And what's more, wild males take this extreme even further, as they don't eat during the breeding season either -- which means that they generally eat their fill during a span of three months, from June to August. Though they are small, sweet snakes, Rubber Boas are incredible survivors.

Worm is a pencil. Look at an unsharpened pencil, and there you have the length and width of the Worm. We're hoping she makes it to Sharpie by year's end. Like Dumeril's Boas, these sweet snakes grow slowly. One day, even the tiny Worm will become a real snake...

The worm loves to burrow. She spends much of her day tunneling through her substrate, and there are innumerable burrows and caverns under the furniture of her enclosure that she painstakingly eked out in-between cleanings.

Worm also loves to climb, and tends to spend summer nights off the ground and up in her fake plant or perched on a stick.

The Worm doesn't like to swim much, but she's certainly capable of it if the mood took her. She does, however, enjoy hiding in long hair, especially if it is brown like her.

You can see the worm's organs a little through her stomach. It's only a little terrible. Her color lightens and darkens through her shed cycle, growing very dark right before a shed.

During the brumation season, the worm vanishes into her substrate, only emerging for a drink of water now and then. In the warm months, she's active as can be, and surprisingly quick!

The Worm was named by good ol @agendersplendor, and I am very grateful!

Ask me a question about Worm here, and I can add it to this list! Feel free to query me about Rubber Boa specific questions, too... I know that resources for these fellows are a little difficult to find.

#worm #charina bottae #rubber boa #snake

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lovemychinchilla · 4 years ago

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When Is Chinchilla Mating Season?

Chinchillas are mammals, and mammals reproduce by mating. So do chinchillas have mating seasons like other animals do? And if so, when are they?

When is chinchilla mating season? Chinchillas mate in the late winter and early spring months. In the southern hemisphere, winter begins in June and ends in September. Spring runs afterwards. When chinchillas live in the northern hemisphere, they instead mate in the winter and early spring months there, so from December onwards to Easter time. Pet chinchillas, though, can mate at any time when kept in temperature- and light-controlled conditions. As such, the idea of a 'mating season' isn't strictly relevant for breeders.

The guide below first looks at when chinchilla mating season is, and why it's different in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere. We'll also look at how chinchillas get pregnant, and whether they can reproduce any time they like, and how this affects breeding guidelines.

Do Chinchillas Have a Mating Season?

Most mammals have a kind of mating season, chinchillas included. That's because it's a good idea to have young at certain times, but not at others.

We're used to living lives of luxury; we're completely divorced from the realities of living in the wild. In the wild, most animals can only successfully have offspring in the early spring and summer. That's because during the late spring and early summer, there's lots of food to go around, which means the mother can stay healthy while it's pregnant and as she rears her young. It also means there will be lots of food around when the offspring are finally born, which will increase their chance of survival.

When Is Chinchilla Mating Season?

Wild chinchilla mating season is during the winter months through to late spring. This is different to many other animals which only start breeding when spring arrives, and through into the summer. Because the seasons are different in the southern hemisphere, the winter months run from June to September and spring comes after.

Chinchillas breed early because they have a long gestation period. The gestation period is when the offspring are in the womb. While other rodents gestate for as little as a couple of weeks, chinchillas take 110-111 days on average to produce a litter. That means that if the chinchilla mates during the winter months, it will have its offspring just as spring arrives and there is plenty of food to go around.

For some animals, mating season isn't so strictly defined. That's because many habitats, like the rainforest, offer food and suitable temperatures year round. But chinchillas live in the dry and desolate Andes Mountains, where food can run scarce and the temperatures can dip very low. It's therefore especially important for them to have a defined breeding season.

All that being said, the idea of a mating season isn't relevant if you're planning on breeding your own chinchillas for reasons we'll explore in a moment.

Why Is Chinchilla Mating Season Different in the Northern Hemisphere?

The chinchilla's mating season is different in the U.S. or Europe to when wild chinchillas mate in Chile. That's because of how the seasons work.

Seasons are different in the north and south because the earth's axis tilts towards and away from the sun. In January, the north pole points away from the sun. That's why it's colder and darker in the north, while it's summer in the southern hemisphere. In July, the height of the northern hemisphere's summer, the north pole points towards the sun. This makes the days longer, the sun higher in the sky, and the temperature hotter.

This means that chins mate December through spring in the northern hemisphere, and June through September in the southern hemisphere. The chinchillas don't care what month it is—they care how warm it is, and how warm it will be when their kits are born.

Is There a Chinchilla Mating Call?

Chins don't have a loud and obvious mating call like some other animals do. But they do have noises they make that specifically relate to being in heat/interested in reproducing, and certain behaviors you'll notice when they are.

When a male or female is interested in mating, it will make a series of squeaks. These don't sound too dissimilar to the squeaks that chinchillas normally make, so they're not immediately recognizable unless you're familiar with them. Your chins will accompany them with something owners call the swishy tail dance, which is exactly what it sounds like. The male will swish its tail to try and get the female's attention. If she's interested, she will show him her backside and he will mount her.

Can Chinchillas Get Pregnant Any Time?

Wild chinchillas can't get pregnant any time they like. There are two main reasons why:

Female chinchillas that aren't in heat will reject males instantly.

If the female had offspring out of season, the offspring would die, and caring for them could even kill her. Any chinchillas that did this didn't successfully have more offspring, while in-season breeders did. Natural selection therefore means females refuse to have offspring out of season.

But what applies to wild chinchillas doesn't always apply to pet chinchillas. Pet chinchillas live in completely different conditions so can mate at any time of year.

Do Female Chinchillas Go Into Heat?

Chinchillas go into a kind of heat called 'estrous'. This is a period of a few days in which the female is sexually receptive, i.e. it wants to breed. If she is approached when she's not in estrous, she will repel the male by standing up and spraying urine at him. That's a pretty clear 'no' in anybody's books!

The female's reproductive system works differently to that of a person. Women have eggs in their ovaries that only become available for reproduction during the menstrual cycle. The egg makes its way up the fallopian tube towards the uterus at a set pace. But in chinchillas, the act of mating will cause the ovaries to release an egg or eggs. This means chinchillas are highly likely to reproduce each time they mate.

How Long Are Chinchillas In Heat?

Estrous begins and ends during mating season. The female will get 'in heat' for a few days, before going out of heat for a few days. This cycle continues until the end of the mating season. Chinchillas will go through these cycles every year until they pass away there's no such thing as menopause in chinchillas.

Do Male Chinchillas Go Into Heat?

Male chinchillas don't go through estrous like females do. They can breed at any time of year. This helps them raise as much young as possible, which males are free to do, but females aren't.

However, male chinchillas are most interested in mating when females are in heat. So, in a way, when the female is in heat it makes the male 'in heat' too—not in an anatomical sense, as in females, but in a practical sense.

How Come Pet Chinchillas Don't Have a Mating Season?

Even many experienced owners don't realize that chinchillas have a mating season. That's because pet chinchillas don't bother sticking to it. They will mate and can successfully raise young at any time of year. There are many reasons why.

The first is that wild chinchillas, and in fact all animals, tell when mating season begins by looking for environmental clues. For example:

When the days start getting longer

When the weather starts getting warmer, or it stops/starts raining, or stops snowing

When there are certain plants and other animals around that weren't before

...It indicates that spring is arriving. The animal subconsciously recognizes these signs and its body responds by getting ready to breed. But pet chinchillas cannot notice these signs, or at least not so easily, because they live in cages indoors. You keep your chinchilla's room at a constant temperature all year long; you keep lights on in your home. Your chin's mating season biological changes therefore aren't triggered.

And even if your chinchilla were in tune with the seasons, it may not respond to them in the same way. That's because it's not in its natural habitat, and the seasons are different in the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, it's winter when it's summer in the northern hemisphere. So, while January is the depth of winter in New York, it's the height of summer in southern hemisphere cities. This means that the chinchilla's mating season wouldn't be in the same months.

When to Breed Chinchillas

If you want to breed chinchillas, you can try doing so at any time of year. You have to do so in a specific way, though, to ensure that the pair don't fight:

Introduce them using the split cage method. This is where each chinchilla is in its own cage, but the cages are put very close together. This means the chins can smell and see each other, but not fight.

Monitor the reaction of both chinchillas when in separate cages. Gauge their response to each other. Does the female not want to be around the male, made obvious when it stands up and even sprays at it? Or do the pair seem to want to be closer?

Monitor the chinchillas when you put them in the same cage. Once breeding is over, you can separate them.

If the pair don't seem interested in mating, then it may be best to wait until breeding season. Despite being capable of reproducing year round, your chinchillas may still prefer doing so during their typical breeding season; it's possible that they can still tell what season it is from the light outside. So, wait until it's late winter/early spring and try again.

All that being said, we don't recommend breeding chinchillas unless you really know what you're doing. Chinchilla kits can be difficult to take care of, and if you make mistakes, they can pass away. This is sad both for you as the owner and the chinchillas as parents. And if you plan on breeding chinchillas for profit, you must know that it's far more difficult than people make it out to be. As such, talk with experienced breeders in your area before purposefully breeding chinchillas for any reason.

Below, you can find our chinchilla quiz, new posts for further reading, and a signup for our Chinchilla Newsletter!

#chinchillas #chinchillafaqs

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pixiedurango · 7 years ago

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Like real people do - a Lucas North love story - part 1

OK, I’ve gone entirely overboard with a cute little request from @deepestfirefun: He’s supposed to meet and fall in love with a woman who works in an animal shelter and has nothing to do with the world he lives and works in. Setting: We decided to completely ignore the main plot of spooks’ season 9 but stick to several events in the timeline as this whole thing is set after Sarah’s death and I let Beth and Dimitri work at section D and Lucas is chief in command after Ros died. Our sandbox, our rules! words: 840 Note: Please bear with me! I have no knowledge of how British MI5 works other than what I know from spooks and of course I know nothing of bombs and how terrorist organisations work. Also I know almost nothing about dogs and how dog shelters/dog rescuers work other than what I watched on TV and youtube. Means: I made a shitton of stuff up to get the story running. I tried to make at least a little sense In case you wonder, here is the song that inspired the title: Hozier - Like real people do Enjoy! @whohobbs @xxbyimm @fizzy-custard @patanghill17@tinkertailor1212 @wardenparker @sherala007 @fullvoidmoon@hannibatchsmuse @lady-jessica-9 @thorincuddlez @hariclea@fandomgalcentral @inkededucatednnerdy @mynameisnoneya1991 @maybetomorrowgirl @vaneaustation @tendersquishyjamie

part 1

“This is ridiculous.” Beth states with her 'don't feed me bullshit' face. “We'll just take them out and no one will ever know. I'm positive we have more urgent matters to deal with.” Lucas tends to agree but they would not sit here together with the police and this bloke from Russian Intelligence if the information would not seem to be legit enough to cause this kind of agitation. The notes they got beforehand are concerning to say the least. Lucas feels incredibly uncomfortable in the Russian's presence but he's not able to put a finger on the reason why. He has to actively push this itch from his consciousness but there are no intentions of digging deeper, afraid what he'd find if he would. His head aches but it aches constantly so he can neither think nor care for it. Instead Lucas North impatiently waves a hand at the Russian once more and the man eventually looks around with a smug smile before he hits the button on the remote control to start the briefing with no further delay. “Chechen terrorists, claiming to be a legit arm of Al-Qaida but never got any confirmation. Still claiming 'Jihad' but in fact just blackmailing governments. They tried with Russia, now they're here.” “What did the Russians do? Pay?” Lucas asks and is not surprised when the man just shakes his head with a little smile. “Njet” “Then what?” Lucas already knows but he needs to hear. “Collateral damage.” The Russian shrugs. “A few explosions. Proved helpful to keep the Russian people loyal to our claim that our fight against the Chechen terrorism is legit.” “This is not going to happen here.” Lucas claims and he leaves no doubt that there is no other option to be considered in this office. “We'll take the bombs out. Give us the details.”

After a collection of explosion venues in all it's gory reality and a few pictures of the bomb kits presumably being used for causing this kind of horror, pictures of different breeds of dogs appear on screen. Finally an odd kind of harness, complete with a bunch of wires. “This is the suicide bombers.” The Russian smiles dryly. “Using miss-trained and therefor aggressive dogs as carrier. They stir them up with torture or drugs and then set them lose.” He slid to the next picture, showing an electronic device in a close up. “Now I come to the reason you just can't take them out with a sniper. There's a sensor on the harness, they attach the bombs to the heartbeat of the animals. The moment the dog dies, or you take the harness away, the bomb goes off.” Beth rolls her eyes. “We take them to a non critical area then, where the detonation will not harm anyone.” The Russian shrugs again, he does not care at all. “Once the animals are on the loose you'll have less than 2 hours to find and disarm. The bombs have timers of course. Good look, finding them and driving them into safe space in time.” “There is no way anyone driving around the city with an armed bomb while I'm chief in command of this station.” Lucas' sharp voice leaves no space for arguing and when he looks up he realizes none of the people, neither in this room or at the office has been there the last time it happened. No one but him and Harry. “So what do we do?” The policeman asks. “Killing the dogs is no option. Neither is just walking over and put them on a leash and walk them off. How do we find the dogs and is there a way to know when and where this will happen?” “Consider yourself a lucky city that nothing has happened yet. They usually let explode a smaller bomb with minor damage and then seek contact to tell their... terms.” The Russian only seems to have two facial expressions: Sarcastic grinning asshole and motionless indifferent asshole. Lucas wants to punch both of them. Instead he takes a deep breath and looks down on his notes with a steady face. “I want the media to spread asap that people shall stay away from stray dogs under all circumstances. PR shall come up with something reasonable that fears them off enough but will not cause a mass panic. No word of bombs. Obviously.” He shoves a sheet of paper over to Beth. “You're in charge of this. Tell Tariq to check the cams for stray dogs with harnesses. Any finding immediately to my attention. Dimitri calls here...” Another sheet of paper. “We'll need someone who can handle dangerous dogs and also is able to shoot a tranquilizer gun if necessary. A vet probably. Make sure they know it's a matter of national security. Bring them here. Also asap.” Beth already stands while the others get up, too. “Understood. What about the bomb?” “I'll disarm it.” He simply replies before he leaves the room heading directly to his desk.

#Lucas North #Richard Armitage #spooks

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getyourblisson · 4 years ago

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Full Moon in Aries - October 1st, 2020

Moon dates are based on UTC, so there may be some fluctuation on the dates based on where in the world you are located.

Keep in mind that signs listed with the Full and New Moons may or may not coordinate with traditional insights. Since I use a different perspective to consider the sign that the moon is in; that does not always coordinate with traditional astrology guidelines for what sign it is in.

October 1st Full Moon in Aries

This Full Moon may find people feeling more emotional than normal. There are aspects or a sense of loss whether there is any reason for it or not. A Full Moon in Aries normally has some incredibly intense and impatient energy. Aggression can run quite high if we were to look at things from a normal astrology perspective. However, the codes show a little deeper layer than just what is on this surface.

The codes show that in this current that power becomes a main focus; and that many people are seeking ways to find or feel in control. Their reactive energy comes from feeling the stress and tension of turbulence that is naturally in the air as everything is shifting, changing, and adjusting. This Full Moon is about major shifts and changes in our life; and how we use our power or authority at this time greatly influences whether we receive an abundance of blessings, or get knocked on our butt by own impatience or desire to break out and break free from where we feel restricted.

In this particular Full Moon the shifts and changes are very personal and internal. They are part of our spiritual path. We may find it hard to be around others; or may be outcast by those that are not open to shifts and changes, or may be struggling with making them. This is a time where we may question what life is really all about and connect with realizing that real life is not about all of commercialism and material things that we have been programmed it to be. It is about experiences, sharing, exchanges, and connections. All of the rest is simply extra pieces in what we are experiencing.

One thing for us to keep in mind is that there is always stress and anxiety where we are undergoing major change; even when we are happy about the changes that are happening. This year the change is magnified and is not only happening internally in our own processes; but also externally on Earth. When drastic changes happen on Earth, it can leave many feeling quite unsettled, especially if they are empathic or intuitive at all. Sometimes this is where an unknown fear comes from. It happens when someone is tuned in with the Global forces and elements. They sense the unsettled aspects of Earth, and then become unsettled feeling themselves.

The codes show this particular Full Moon comes with extra caution and warning. It is not the time to be in high activity, around people, or taking chances of any kind. Like one of our other Full Moons earlier in the year, this Full Moon has death and transformation energy patterns on it rather strongly.

With this influence we are likely to see more “deadly” storms hit around the Earth. Those areas where people are operating in greed, excess, and disrespect for the environment are likely to be hit particularly hard. Larger metropolis areas with massive amounts of electronics and any running the 5G frequencies are likely to be impacted the most. Often times we are presented with all of the misfortune and sorrow; and this is designed to pull us into anger, frustration, and pain. So we need to remember to consider how to transform those emotions; and to look deeper at what really exists in those areas.

It is important to keep in mind that what appears to be spiritual may not be, and vice versa. At this time it is likely that we will see areas such as the middle United States hit hard. While we may feel for the farmers, and be concerned with the increase of the price of food; the reality is that they use a ton of chemicals, antibiotics, put animals into rough conditions, and even breed for profit with animals often times suffering a great deal in the process. Not all do this but many do, even in those “simpler” communities that we think would be purer.

We can expect on a global level to see the following countries being strongly impacted: United States, Afghanistan, Argentina, Aruba, Finland, Hong Kong, North and South Korea, Maldives, the United Kingdom, and Yemen. Likewise there are a few countries that are likely to rise to a stronger position of power at this time which is Japan, Russia, Algeria, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Congo, Costa Rica, Niger, and Samoa. Keep in mind that due to the time of year we are in, that those in the Southern Hemisphere will be the stronger influencers and power sources than those in the Northern Hemisphere.

As a continent both North and South America are likely to see the greatest amount of devastation, with the United States becoming the primary focus for that. Continents that will have a strong influence of power at this time will be Africa and Antarctica. These are areas that we really want to watch as leaders towards our future. Africa has been working on options for land restoration and agriculture. Antarctica has a strong influence in the areas of Global Warming and polar or axis shifts in the Earth. So we will have much to learn and plenty of information given to us based on what is happening in these areas. There are plenty of other places that will experience losses and good fortune; but not as the primary players for this Full Moon. Several countries will be seeking greater independence or self-sufficiency.

With this Full Moon change, transformation, and the cycle of life is quite evident. There will be strange accidents and happenings, which may leave many scientists puzzled. Mother Nature does not discriminate; but only looks at where she needs to balance the energy forces that exist. Being that she is a planet founded in unconditional love, and there being an excess of those disconnected from that love; she will naturally respond to the code vibrations which tell her which areas need a cleansing, and which ones are working with her.

All of nature functions in this way. Where there is an excess of a pest, then nature migrates species that control that pest into that area. Where an area is in or out of resonance shows us when and where it will be full of challenges or blessings; and this can and does change with seasons, moon cycles, and all of the influences here on Earth.

A big key with this Full Moon will be whether you flow with or against the change and transformation that is happening. You cannot stop it, so it is important to work with it. It is important to not resist this process; but to move through it. This Full Moon carries the energy of a Shamanic Initiation; and is looking to transform us to our very core. How hard or beautiful that process is, becomes up to us. The more resistance we have with the inevitable, the harder it will be on us. The key is to find your flow; and embrace what the new beginnings will be bringing. For most it will be a whole new life, or way of living life; and for many that will be a wonderful thing.

I welcome you to be very conscious of how you are using your power. Are you helping or hurting people? Are you being compassionate or judgmental?

I welcome you to be aware of what you are transforming from deep within yourself.

I welcome you to lay low and focus on your own spiritual processes; staying out of large crowds and heavily congested cities where possible.

I welcome you to look beneath what the news presents to see what is really happening in an area.

I welcome you to consider how change and transformation help us to create balance and harmony.

I welcome you to flow with the shifts and changes that are happening at this time.

I welcome you to move through this energy and complete the processes and initiations at hand.

The Code Journey ~ Jesse An Nichols George

#The Code Journey #Jesse An Nichols George #enlightenment #consciousness #full moon #October 2020 #compassion #practical spirituality #personal development #conscious living

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twdmusicboxmystery · 7 years ago

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Sirius the Dog Star and How it ALWAYS Returns

Okay, let’s talk dog symbolism. We all know how much we’ve seen dogs around Beth. I’ve done posts focusing on how they tend to be around kidnapping victims in the show (X) but the kidnap victims always make it back to TF alive. There have also been rumors of Daryl getting a dog this season, and Emily having filmed scenes with a Rottweiler that we haven’t seen yet. So obviously the dog symbolism is a big deal.

I never really thought the dog represented Beth herself. It definitely represents parts of her arc, such as the abduction, but not Beth herself. Well, I’m officially changing that opinion.

(Picture Source)

Let’s talk about Sirius, the Dog Star.

Sirius is the brightest star in our sky. (Interesting.) It’s even brighter than the sun. (Obviously it doesn’t appear that way to us because of it’s distance, but if put side-by-side, it’s larger and brighter than our sun.) It’s part of the constellation, Canis Major.

This is another thing (like the Bennu/Heron) that was big in Egyptian mythology. Many ancient civilizations (Rome, Greece, Ptolemy of Alexandria, the ancient Polynesians) charted Sirius, but it was most especially important in Ancient Egypt because of the Nile .The star always appeared in the sky each year before the Nile flooded, which the Egyptians needed for their crops to survive, so they watched the sky religiously for Sirius to appear.

Think about that trait: The star Sirius disappeared in the heat of summer before returning later. The scientific reason for that is that the sun’s light eclipsed the stat during this time. They two stars were rising and setting almost synonymously, so Sirius couldn’t be seen.

In fact, the term “dog days of summer” comes from this. During the period Sirius was missing was the hottest part of the year, when things died from lack of water. This was seen by the Egyptians as a period of death and rebirth. Then, after exactly 70 days, Sirius would rise in the east in the morning, just before the sun. The flood waters would come, and life would be given.

And when it reappeared, it gave (in the Egyptian’s minds) life, via water. Oceanside? Beth = Water?

We could go into more detail, such as it being part of a binary system (Canis Major and Minor; just reminds me of the retellings), and a debate over whether it is or used to be RED, but those become their own rabbit holes. Tumble down at your own risk.

Now let’s look at TWD.

There’s obviously the dog that appeared briefly before Beth was taken by the Grady cops. I’ll talk more about that furry dude in a minute. First, lets look at something else. I said in THIS POST that dogs are often seen around characters who are kidnapped or imprisoned. That makes a lot of sense with the Sirius symbol, because the character is separated from TF for a time, but then returns. We saw this as early as S1 with Glenn and the Vatos gang.

And we’ve seen it as recently as this season. In 8x05, when FG had been imprisoned at the Sanctuary, Eugene made a dog reference (”We’ve eaten dog together, so I imagine that joins us in some manner for life.”).

And then there’s Jadis imprisoning Rick. While the wire thing she was making looked like a pouncing tiger to me, there was some implication that it might have been a dog. If that’s true, we have a dog right before Rick is imprisoned and separated from TF for a time.

Everyone remember those pictures Michonne and Carl looked at in that house in 4b? Every single one of them had thematic significance. We saw rabbits and carrots, the scary one of a blond covered in blood that might have been Mary, Beth, or Lizzie. And then there’s this one:

I’d noticed it before, but never totally understood the significance. Obviously I connected the dog in the painting to the dog in Alone. That dog had only 3 legs and 1 eye, so it was mangier, but it was still white and looked a lot like the one in the painting. I’ve always wondered if the fact that it was looking up at the moon was a wolf reference.

I don’t think that anymore. Because Sirius is the BRIGHTEST star, the dog may not be looking at the moon at all. This was the most obvious way for tptb to point to Sirius as the reason for the dogs. Dog. Staring up at the stars. Dog…stars. Dog…star. Put them together people!

And Sirius ALWAYS reappears. In the East. With the sunrise.

The only worrisome thing about this is that it appears after 70 days. Let’s hope they don’t make us wait 7 seasons to see Beth. (Grrh!) Now, I really don’t think that’s the case. I feel like she’s REALLY close. But. Who DID reappear after 7 seasons?

Morales.

I’m wondering now if they brought him back exactly 7 seasons later in order to fulfill the Sirius 70 days thing. They aren’t going to wait 7 seasons for Beth, so they brought someone else back after 7 seasons to fulfill that. Thoughts?

At the very least, both of them were on the cover of that magazine. Morales has appeared. Just a matter of time before our Sirius returns.

Now let’s talk about the dog in Alone.

He had one messed up eye, right? And since then, we’ve seen a lot (I’d even say most) of the blond, Beth-ish walkers, have one missing or seriously messed up eye. Most of us have assumed that means that when Beth returns, she’ll have a messed up eye from the bullet. I’m not so sure anymore. It’s still a possibility, of course, but it also may be more of the Sirius symbolism, rather than a literal thing.

See, I’m not sure why, as I don’t see it anywhere in the ancient mythology, but somewhere along the way, Sirius started to be represented by a dog with one star in his eye. You can even see it in a modern, North American XM radio station. Their logo has a dog with a star in it’s eye.

More than that, Robert Frost (yes, the famous poet) wrote two poems about Sirius the Dog Star, and refers to him as the dog with the star in his eye. More on those poems in a minute.

So I’m wondering if the messed up eyes are just to show Sirius symbolism (again, rebirth or reappearance) but it won’t necessarily be an injury she’ll have. Or it still might be. We’ll just have to wait and see.

So the gist of this is to show that all the dog symbolism around Beth is, by definition, resurrection or reappearance symbolism.

And, as @frangipanilove said, the “serious piggyback” line might have come from an excuse to squeeze the name Sirius into the dialogue, even if the spelling is different. Daryl gave Beth a “Sirius” piggyback through the grave yard and to the other side. She made it.

Now for the poems.

Remember in the funeral home (right after the serious/Sirius piggyback) they drank something called Frosty Cola? That brand doesn’t actually exist. A made up brand for the show.

@frangipanilove’s theory is that it was put there as a reference to Robert Frost and his Sirius poems. Let’s check them out.

This one is called Canis Major. (Source)

The great Overdog That heavenly beast With a star in one eye Gives a leap in the east. He dances upright All the way to the west And never once drops On his forefeet to rest. I'm a poor underdog, But to-night I will bark With the great Overdog That romps through the dark. – Robert Frost

Short and sweet, and it basically gives us the attributes of Sirius. This next one is much longer, but there are some suspicious things in it. It’s about a dog the narrator takes in for the night, who then disappears. I mean, even though the dog didn’t stay overnight with Beth and Daryl, there are a lot of similarities here to what happened with the dog in Alone.

It’s called One More Brevity. We’ll take it paragraph by paragraph:

I opened the door so my last look Should be taken outside a house and book. Before I gave up seeing and slept, I said I would see how Sirius kept His watchdog eye on what remained To be gone into, if not explained. (emphasis mine)

That last line. “She’s just gone.” And think how much about Beth and S4 in general has not been explained.

But scarcely was my door ajar, When, past the leg I thrust for bar, Slipped in to be my problem guest, Not a heavenly dog made manifest, But an earthly dog of the carriage breed, Who, having failed of the modern speed, Now asked asylum, and I was stirred To be the one so dog-preferred.

A carriage breed, by the way, isn’t a specific breed of dog. It’s a dog that’s “bred” to run along beside a carriage and protect the people inside from possible dangers. Only the rich had carriage dogs. Not only are these protector dogs *coughs Beth as protector of children* (X) but it’s yet another link between Frost’s poem and Sirius and the dog they actually used for Alone. That dog was a rescue dog who lost it’s fourth leg and eye rescuing it’s owners.

He dumped himself like a bag of bones. He sighed himself a couple of groans, And, head to tail, then firmly curled, Like swearing off on the traffic world. I set him water. I set him food. He rolled an eye with gratitude, Or merely manners, it may have been, But never so much as lifted chin. His hard tail loudly smacked the floor, As if beseeching me, “Please, no more; I can’t explain, tonight at least.” His brow was perceptibly trouble-creased.

Pretty self-explanatory. This dog has been through a lot. (Foreshadow of both Beth and Daryl.) Also remember Daryl wanted to bring the dog food to try and lure him in, but walkers were at the door. And an emphasis on only one eye.

So I spoke in terms of adoption, thus: “Gusty, old boy, Dalmatian Gus, You’re right, there’s nothing to discuss. Don’t try to tell me what’s on your mind, The sorrow of having been left behind Or the sorrow of having run away. All that can wait for the light of day. Meanwhile feel obligation-free; Nobody has to confide in me.” (Emphasis mine)

Beth and Daryl definitely tried to adopt the dog. And that left behind line. The narrator doesn’t know if the dog was abandoned or ran away, but holy crap! And then there’s the “confide in me” bit. Beth and Daryl definitely became confidants.

‘Twas too one-sided a dialogue, And I wasn’t sure I was talking Dog. I broke off, baffled, but all the same, In fancy, I ratified his name; Gusty, Dalmatian Gus, that is, And started shaping my life to his, Finding him in his right supplies And sharing his miles of exercise. (emphasis mine)

Shaping my life to his. Reminds me of Daryl wanting to stay at the funeral home and build a life.

Next morning the minute I was about, He was at the door to be let out. As much as to say, “I have paid my call. You mustn’t feel hurt if now I’m all For getting back somewhere, or further on.” I opened the door, and he was gone. I was to taste in little the grief That comes of dogs’ lives being so brief. Only fraction of ours, at most, He might have been the dream of a ghost, In spite of the way his tail had smacked My floor, so hard and matter-of-fact.

Like in Alone, the dog runs away, rather than staying long-term.

And things have been going so strangely since, I wouldn’t be too hard to convince, I might even claim he was Sirius. Think of presuming to call him Gus! The star itself, heaven’s greatest star, Not a meteorite but an avatar, Who had made this overnight descent To show by deeds he didn’t resent My having depended on him so long, And yet done nothing about it in song.

All the dog symbolism in TWD = Sirius.

A symbol was all he could hope to convey, An intimation, a shot of ray, A meaning I was supposed to seek, And finding, not necessary speak.

The signs are all there. You just gotta know how to read them.

Okay, all that said, you want to REALLY go down the rabbit hole? Yeah, it’s about to get worse. ;D

Let’s venture back to season 3.

(Once again, let’s remember that we can’t be sure what was and wasn’t planned before Gimple tool the reigns, but we have ample evidence that he went back and built on previous symbols in order to build story lines.)

So in S3, Maggie and Glenn are kidnapped and imprisoned by the Governor. Uh, Merle, actually. So this happened right after the dude who’d been gone several seasons and was presumed dead reappeared. And we’ve seen many parallels between Maggie/Glenn’s imprisonment and Beth’s, and even some between theirs and Daryl’s time at the Sanctuary.

So Rick, Michonne (who is new to TF at the time), Daryl, and Oscar (one of the inmates who survived) head out to go to Woodbury and rescue Glenn and Maggie. On the way, they hit a few obstacles. One of them is an EXTREMELY random character in a cabin in the woods. This dude.

Our heroes run into the cabin to escape a walker hoard and immediately becomes obvious that something in there smells REALLY bad. (Video below.)

youtube

We’re then shown a quick shot of a dead dog. Obviously that’s where the smell is coming from. So we don’t know who this dude is or why there’s a dead dog in his cabin. Maybe he was eating it, but it’s obviously decomposing. The dude is obviously a little strange. They end up having to kill him to save themselves and feed him to walkers as a diversion so they can run out the back door.

Daryl’s flippant comment about the dog is, “I guess Lassie came home.”

Now, we don’t want to necessarily say that they’re following a huge Lassie template here, because the haters will have a heyday with that. But…yeah I think they’re following a huge Lassie template here. Don’t tell the haters.

Lassie is one of the most well-known dog stories in our culture. And arguable the most famous installment was the film, Lassie Come Home. In the film, Lassie is taken from her destitute family, including a little boy she loves, and sold to the rich Duke of Rudling. Lassie hates her new owner though and wants to be with her “real” family, so she escapes and goes on a long journey/grand adventure, eventually returning and reuniting with them.

So what evidence is there, other than the obvious parallels to Beth’s journey?

Well, for one, let’s return to 5x10. The dogs TF killed and ate in that episode are the ones Eugene was referring to in 8x05. So they just became relevant again. One of the dogs in 5x10 is a border collie. Lassie was a collie, which is a different breed, but the name is similar. @frangipanilove believes they used a border collie rather than a regular collie because border collies are black and white, which reinforces the black/white/shoelace symbolism.

One of the Doberman in that group of dogs was named Duke. How do we know? Well, the name was visible on the blue dog collar. (Blue = imprisonment.) But more than that, Duke has his own page in the Walking Dead Wiki (source).

This dog was not exactly a huge character, right? ;D But tptb really wanted us to know his name. And combined with the blue collar, we have Duke + imprisonment, right? Lassie was taken and imprisoned by a Duke.

And other than the actual colors, the dog collars from the dog in S3 and 5x10 are strikingly similar.

In this group of dogs we also have a German Shepherd (think Officer Shepherd). So we have the black and white border collie, Duke, and a German Shepherd. Coincidence?

But it gets crazier. Check out this pic. Notice the caption.

The First Escape? Um…remember that Skybound posted this pic

after Slabtown with the caption, “First Escape Attempt.” Then there’s the fact that Lassie is escaping for the first time through chain link.

In 5x09, we have this cabin picture.

Check out the cabin featured in Lassie Come Home:

Like, I can’t believe how similar they are. Right down to the chimney stack being on the outside of the house. Now, I do believe this cabin in Ty’s death episode is part of a larger cabin symbolism that will have to do with the white cabin she filmed at. But Beth is also in this episode. So this may also point to her eventually returning home.

@frangipanilove also sent me one more thing while I was writing this up yesterday. In this latest episode, the painting behind Maggie that has the white horse in it, also features a black and white dog. Much like the border collie. And remember that black and white represent Bethyl. Black = Daryl, White = Beth.

As for the future, there have been spoilers before about Daryl getting a little white dog this season, though we’ve seen no sign of it yet. And I know there were filming spoilers back in S5 (same time as white cabin stuff) about Emily filming scenes with a Rottweiler. So if they both end up with dogs, it’s interesting that Daryl will get the Beth dog and Beth will get the Daryl-dog. Like their perfect companions.

No idea how any of that will play out, but we’re definitely on the watch for it.

Also remember that Beth sang a song to Judith about not growing up. Here’s a mainstream article about it: X. At one point, the lyrics say, “I wish that I could be a dog.” So Beth is wishing to be Sirius the dog star? I don’t think it gets more on-the-nose than that. ;D The article also points out that they changed the lyrics, which actually kind of makes it LESS of a death foreshadow. Just saying.

Okay, I’m really gonna shut up. Let me just end on one more note about the scene in S3. Once again, Gimple may have gone back and used this scene as inspiration for Beth’s arc. Who knows? Maybe he figured out the Lassie thing first and then decided to go deeper with dog symbolism and stumbled upon Sirius. No way to know for sure. But I want to point out one more thing that fits about that S3 scene:

The dog, which Daryl named Lassie, was dead. That much was obvious. TF was sure of it.

They didn’t try to revive it. They didn’t try to check it’s vitals. They left it behind. Because it was dead. And they needed to prioritize the living.

Thoughts on the Dog Star?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here

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