#at least recent ones have had some interesting pieces of imagery on occasion

[bmpmp3]

OH ALSO a couple nights ago i had a dream and like 0% of it was messy and unclear but I DO remember this green man. he was like a lawyer or a doctor

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Towers of Midnight ch 3

I have been waiting for this reunion for literal years. It did not disappoint.

Chapter 3: The Amyrlin’s Anger

Oh, we’re doing this!?

One thing I can guarantee: I am definitely not ready. Childhood friends turned childhood sweethearts turned near-siblings turned uneasy allies turned near-enemies, perhaps turned uneasy allies once more, with prophecy and opposing institutions and the apocalypse hanging over them?

I’m just. In case you haven’t noticed, I have a lot of thoughts about this whole dynamic, and I have been waiting for this… probably since they last saw each other in Lord of Chaos. Before that, even. Since they were set on their separate paths, but with this thread, strained and near at times to breaking but a thread all the same, of some kind of love between them that might, in the end, be enough to do what their predecessors could not, and face the end together.

Also their stories have been running in this fascinating not-quite-parallel for so long but they haven’t interacted in so long that I’m just! Very excited for this reunion and the pain it will no doubt bring!

I should start reading now, shouldn’t I?

Egwene floated in blackness. She was without form, lacking shape or body. The thoughts, imaginings, worries, hopes, and ideas of all the world extended into eternity around her.

The imagery of that last bit catches my attention here because it plays very close to the position Rand holds: stood at the centre, a force, or a being more than a person, touching all the world or – in Egwene’s case – all the world’s dreams. It’s just an interesting one, in amongst all the other parallels and inversions between them.

Though her feelings for Gawyn were still strong, her opinion of him was muddled recently.

Just break up with him already. Please. You’ve already once decided that actually no, I don’t want a storybook romance with the designated hero thank you very much; you can do it again.

The dreams of all the people here – some from her world, some from shadows of it – reminded her why she fought. She must never forget that there was an entire world outside the White Tower’s walls.

This is her anchor, just as Rand has now at last found his. Or, not even an anchor so much as a reason. Something to fight for, something to remember and strive for beyond the fight itself. And again this places her very much at the centre as well, looking at all the people, all the dreams, the entire world. They just each have their own ways of going about it, and their own reasons for doing so.

Time passed as she lay bathed in the light of dreams.

Just quoting this one because it’s pretty.

It’s sad to see Egwene thinking of the Wise Ones in terms of ‘dealing with’ them, but also not really surprising; there’s been a distance between them ever since she took on this role. They hid the events of Dumai’s Wells from her and she chose the Aes Sedai over them and it is, perhaps, one of the harsher aspects of the way she absolutely embraces her role, the good and the bad.

Ugh, fine, dream of Gawyn if you must.

A more simple life. It could not be hers, but she could dream…

Everything shook.

Or not. I’m just imagining this as the Pattern itself interrupting like ‘EGWENE, PLEASE. YOU CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER THAN HIM.’

(Yes, the Pattern speaks in all caps. No I will not be accepting constructive criticism on this point).

This pleasant dream interrupted by an emergency broadcast: thirteen black towers rising and then all but six falling. In case you weren’t keeping track of how many Forsaken were still alive, I suppose.

And then a follow-up as a reminder, I assume, that Mesaana is still in the Tower.

Unless the eagles-and-snake bit is referring to the Black Tower? Still no idea what’s going on there these days; it’s been a while and I’m very, very curious after that ominous line drop in the KoD epilogue.

She saw an enormous sphere made of the finest crystal. It sparkled in the light of twenty-three enormous stars, shining down on it where it sat on a dark hilltop. There were cracks in it, and it was being held together by ropes.

There was Rand, walking up the hillside, holding a woodsman’s axe. He reached the top and hefted the axe, then swung at the ropes one at a time, chopping them free. The last one parted, and the sphere began to break apart, the beautiful white globe falling in pieces. Rand shook his head.

Innnnnnnnnteresting.

The sphere (and its breaking) sounds – first of all a lot like the Sharom because what, you thought I’d pass up a Rhuidean reference? – like the Dark One’s prison, perhaps. With Rand cutting the ropes like breaking the seals.

Or maybe the Choedan Kal, with all the brilliant light of that enormous power, that he has now broken. Or the world itself, I suppose. I’m going with the Dark One’s prison here, probably.

But what are the twenty-three stars?

Thirteens are common, you can’t swing a cat in this series without hitting a duality, threes and sevens crop up on occasion… but what the hell numbers twenty-three? Except for the graves Bashere once had to dig for oak trees on the orders of the mad general he served, but while there may be no such thing as coincidence, that’s a bridge too far even for me.

Nations? Okay now I’m just curious if I can name them all, so… in the wetlands we have: Altara, Amadicia, Andor, Arafel, Cairhien, Far Madding, Ghealdan, Illian, Kandor, Mayene, Murandy, Saldaea, Shienar, Tar Valon, Tear. Then the Aiel, or: Chareen, Codarra, Daryne, Goshien, Jenn (?), Miagoma, Nakai, Reyn, Shaarad, Shaido (?), Shiande, Taardad, Tomanelle. Then Seanchan and Shara on the edges, the Atha’an Miere and the Tuatha’an, and the dead nations of Malkier, Manetheren, and the Amayar. The Ogier. The even-more-dead nations like Almoth and Eharon and whatnot. But even playing with the obvious ones like how to count the Aiel, or the dead nations, or the city-states, there’s not an obvious 23.

The Hall of the Tower maybe? Three Sitters from each Ajah is 21, so with Amyrlin and Keeper we’re at a much cleaner 23, and there is the whole ‘Watcher of the Seals’ element of the Amyrlin’s role, so twenty-three stars watching could make sense.

Or, hell I don’t know, maybe there are 23 verses in the Karaethon Cycle. Meh.

Well, Egwene’s focused on the Mesaana implications (rather than the Messiah implications; I crack myself up sometimes), which seems fair enough.

“He’s here, Mother. At the White Tower.”

“Who?”

“The Dragon Reborn. He’s asking to see you.”

HERE! WE! GO!

Because you know what this means? It means, once again, that we’re going to get outsider POV of Rand, after a crucial turning point in his character.

Twice. Because first, we got it via Almen Bunt, effectively a random character. We got to see a ‘first glimpse’ of Rand, as it were. But now we get to see through the eyes of one who knows him – or rather, one who knew him. One like him in some ways and so very different in others. An opposing role who once was a friend. There’s just so many potential layers there, through which to observe, and I am inordinately excited for this.

*

Though okay right as I say that we shift POV to Siuan, so I may be pre-empting this.

That said, it’s either going to be some form of outsider POV or it’s going to be Rand’s POV and either way I’m going to be on the damn floor so it’s a win-win situation here.

The Dragon Reborn? Inside Tar Valon?

I mean technically that was the goal all the way back in EotW, so you could argue that he just took a really, really long detour. Across the entire continent, a past life, and near-destruction of the world, but… details.

“He was at the Sunset Gate”

How appropriate. Is there perhaps a Wind Tower for him to climb?

“What is his game, do you think?” Saerin asked.

“Burn me if I know,” Siuan replied. “He’s bound to be mostly insane by now. Maybe he’s frightened, and has come to turn himself in.”

“I doubt that.”

“As do I.”

Harsh, Siuan. But not entirely unfounded – at least on the mostly insane part. He’s not, but first of all how would she know that and second of all, if this were a few days earlier, that would be a much harder one to argue. (For the record, my own interpretation of Rand’s sanity or lack thereof before Dragonmount is a strong vote in favour if It’s Complicated).

Of, course, then there’s the whole issue of ‘how long can you stay sane when the entire world is waiting for you to go mad’ but that is, perhaps, a moot point now.

“Maybe he heard that Elaida was gone,” Siuan said, “and thought that he would be safe here, with an old friend on the Amyrlin Seat.”

Oh no this already hurts. Honestly I think any reference to Rand and Egwene as old friends is probably going to, at this point, but also the way Siuan goes to this idea of Rand needing a place of safety. A refuge. Because in so many ways, for a very long time, she wouldn’t even have been wrong. It’s just that it wasn’t an option and there was no such place and the Dragon Reborn couldn’t afford that kind of weakness, and anyway he was never looking for safety for himself; it was keeping others safe from him that he wanted, back when he was just a shepherd boy holding himself together with determination and fragments of Warder instruction against power(s) trying to claim him from within and without.

But Siuan is remembering that boy, and I’m also remembering Rand in the early days at the Stone of Tear, trying so earnestly to let Elayne and Egwene help him with saidin, and how that, from a certain perspective, is not really so different from trying to find some safety in friends.

“Reports call him mistrustful and erratic, with a demanding temper and an insistence on avoiding Aes Sedai.”

I mean, up until – what, a day ago at most? That would be not at all inaccurate. Especially from the outside.

Really I think this whole scene with Siuan and Saerin is largely to remind us of how Rand comes across to the rest of the world. Because the thing about that Dragonmount epiphany – a crucial part of it, but one that is likely going to also result in some complications – is that it was unwitnessed. Just Rand, alone, thinking. And if the cleansing of saidin was difficult to believe by those not directly involved (and even by some of those who were), how much harder will this be, in its own way?

And just to set the scene even more ominously as far as anyone but the reader is concerned, the floor tiles are now the colour (and sheen, and probably texture, and very possibly actual chemical composition) of blood.

It is interesting to contrast the feeling of approaching this meeting to how it felt in the buildup to Rand’s meeting with Tuon last book. That was just full to the brim of impending doom, of ‘there is no possible way under the sun that this will end well’, of ‘oh no, how disastrously is this going to go?’ because at that point Rand was in freefall and the only certainty was disaster. Now, there’s a sense of lightness in approaching this meeting. I mean, I’m still quite sure it’ll hurt me, but the actual tension is different. It feels like waiting for catharsis, almost, rather than waiting for catastrophe.

So hey, maybe we just look at that meeting with Tuon as a practice run for Rand in terms of how to negotiate treaties with a woman who controls a decent part of a continent. If nothing else, it set the bar about as low as it could possibly be, so this can only be an improvement!

Siuan had harboured a small hope that she herself would be chosen [as Keeper]. Now Egwene had so many demands on her time – and was becoming so capable on her own – that she was relying on Siuan less and less.

That was a good thing. But it was also infuriating.

Oh, Siuan. Siuan’s thoughts about her position in the Tower and how it has changed are always a little sad to read. She’s so strong that it’s easy, almost, to forget just how much she’s gone through – and she can’t even just put it behind her and move on because she’s surrounded, every single day, by constant reminders of all she has lost and all that has changed. And even so, we only get these occasional moments of sadness or bitterness or frustration from her. The rest of the time she just… keeps going.

She wanted to do what she’d set out to do, all those years before with Moiraine.

It really is kind of incredible dedication to a cause. Even if ‘shepherding’ the Dragon Reborn is perhaps not really what is needed, she has paved so much of the way, and even from the sidelines has been instrumental, and this has been more or less her entire adult life. A thankless and often punishing task, one that has gone and will likely continue to go largely unacknowledged, one that has brought her hatred and suspicion and pain, and yet she does not question it, does not falter.

It's… I guess in a way it comes back to the whole idea of those who choose vs those who are chosen, but I like the way we see these characters who aren’t the Chosen One but who still give everything they are, and everything they have, to this world and this cause. Some because they must and some because they choose to and some for reasons in between but it’s again this sense that while Rand stands at the centre of it, there are all these other stories and sacrifices and triumphs and tragedies spiralling out from that centre, all weaving together into this pattern. Or Pattern, as it were.

Also, I would like to strongly second the ‘with Moiraine’ part of that sentence. Can we have her back yet please? I’ve been good, I promise!

Bryne’s here too, which means I also get to reminisce about the first (and last) time he met Rand, even before Siuan did, but another scene of Rand as little more than a shepherd, uncertain and afraid and getting by on determination alone and yet, as with his meeting with Siuan, still surprising those around him by being just a little more than expected.

(As for Rand’s first meeting with Egwene, we have no textual evidence but given their ages it probably involved eating mud).

“You came faster than I’d assumed you’d be able to,” she said.

That is, quite literally, what she said. I’m sorry, I’m twelve.

“She’s what we need now,” Bryne said, “but you’re what we needed then. You did well, Siuan.”

YOU DID WELL

I’m sorry, Moiraine’s letter to Rand really just loaded all variants of that phrase quite heavily and it’s not Moiraine saying it to Siuan but it may as well be, and to have anyone looking at all she has done and all she has been through, looking at someone most Aes Sedai now dismiss as inconsequential at best and to blame for their problems at worst, and actually seeing everything she’s achieved and everything she’s sacrificed and to just acknowledge it outright is… such a small phrase but it means so much. Because how many others would say that? How many others could? So few even know what she’s done and why and for how long. Egwene, maybe, but Egwene is still in some ways her protégé and so not really in a position to give that kind of praise. Moiraine, but she’s still… on holiday. And that’s really kind of it.

There’s a reason these kinds of tasks are called thankless.

“He’s standing below, watched over by at least a hundred Warders and twenty-six sisters – two full circles. Undoubtedly he’s shielded”

My first thought was ‘good thing this is Rand after Dragonmount otherwise I don’t think there’d be a Tower right now’, but then, Rand before Dragonmount would probably quite literally not have been caught dead within balefire distance of the White Tower.

Whereas now… what a stark difference this highlights in his entire mindset and character. Once, the possibility of thirteen Aes Sedai sent him away from a city he was holding, tense and desperate and furious. Once, being shielded was – well, I believe the direct quote was ‘Lews Therin fled screaming’. Once, Aes Sedai so much as touching the One Power in his presence without his permission was like dancing on a minefield.

Now… he stands calmly, shielded and within the Tower itself, the stronghold of the Aes Sedai, of his own free will (and that’s it, isn’t it; that’s what truly makes all the difference in so many ways).

Also a bit of a random comparison but I can’t help but be reminded of Taim walking into Caemlyn to claim Rand’s amnesty, guarded and distrusted and hated by pretty much everyone around him and yet appearing, himself, all but unaffected by it.

“Well, what did he look like, then?”

“Honestly, Siuan? He looked like an Aes Sedai.”

Well. Lews Therin was. In an even older sense of the title.

And if we’re looking at the title itself, and its meaning… servant of all is sort of in the job description of a messiah figure, in a way.

I like how we’re reminded that, because of her Talent for seeing ta’veren, Rand literally glows to Siuan’s eyes. Which means the Dragon Reborn, the chosen one, the saviour, having now fully embraced his role, is walking into the Tower literally haloed in light. There’s just a tiny bit of religious symbolism here, is what I’m getting at.

I also – for all that I’m still hoping for a glimpse of Rand through Egwene’s eyes – am very very happy with the choice to show this through Siuan’s POV. Because in so many ways it is a reflection of that scene in TGH where he is summoned to the Amyrlin, and she gets her first look at the boy who will be the Dragon but does not yet know it, and tells him what his role will be, and he surprises her in his stubbornness and strength but still does not truly accept what she says.

Now, we get the Dragon Reborn calling for an audience with the Amyrlin, having finally and truly embraced the full reality of that role. The first was, in a way, to set his path. This, then, feels almost like closing it. And in between those bookends was that long, fraught journey towards acceptance.

Me? Obsessed with symmetry and reflection in a narrative? Never.

She froze as he met her eyes. There was something indefinable about them, a weight, an age. As though the man behind them was seeing through the light of a thousand lives compounded into one. His face did look like that of an Aes Sedai. Those eyes, at least, had agelessness.

This is one of the things I just absolutely love about outsider POV: the way it allows you to almost re-experience the full weight of what you already know. To be able to almost… soft-reset, and then open your eyes and have the impact of it all over again. None of this is news, really, to a reader who has seen Rand atop Dragonmount, or even in the first chapter of this book. But we get it again anyway, because for one thing it’s fun and for another it just serves to highlight what he looks like to one who does not have the privilege of being in his head (not that that’s… a particularly exclusive list these days, but that’s beside the point).

And it’s also interesting how this doesn’t humanise Rand in the perception of others – he’s still very much in the position of being seen more as a force of nature than a person – but the tone and the effect are so very different to before, for instance when he was lost or in pain or just desperate (or all of the above) and yet perceived as arrogant, inhuman, even monstrous. There’s still this sense of… not being seen as just a person, being seen more in the heroic lines and angles of power and weight of legend, but the difference, I think, is that Rand himself accepts it now. It is now a part of who he is, and a part of him he accepts, and embraces, and steps willingly into.

It also gives him some rather extraordinary weight of personality so making his way through a crowd of Warders is a piece of cake. See, sometimes being the chosen one has its benefits.

“And Siuan Sanche. You’ve changed since we last met.”

Oh. Okay yeah the fact that we get him saying this to her, rather than the other way around, is a really, really excellent way of just subtly shifting the entire balance of power – not even quite power; something else I can’t think of a good word for – of the scene.

It's the way it takes the way this scene is so neatly set up to be a bookend of that first meeting between them, and just… flips the obvious line on its axis. It’s still there, we’re still on script, but it’s ever so slightly not what you expect, and that difference itself becomes the point. Because Rand is no longer the object of the scene; he is very much its subject. The assignment of agency and proactivity has shifted (he has chosen, now, rather than been chosen; a semantic shift that makes perhaps literally all the difference in the world), and this is just a really cool way to play with that.

If that made any sense.

“You once took an arrow for me. Did I thank you for that?”

This… this gentleness is absolutely killing me and we’re only a few lines into his actual appearance in this chapter. The way it’s no longer forced, or agonised, or desperate, or serving only as a sharp contrast to either anger or apathy to remind you of who he once was. Instead it’s just… there. Without brittleness or the aching sense of something lost. There’s just a weird kind of beauty in the simplicity of this, in how it’s just… him, without any of the hundred things waiting to shatter beneath that statement.

Maybe that’s it; the gentleness that doesn’t feel like the precursor to shattering glass. The way this isn’t a veiled threat, or a barb, or a forced admission, or a conversational gambit. Just thanks, remembered honestly and offered freely and that’s… it.

(Moiraine once took a Forsaken for you, Rand. Be sure to thank her for that too).

Anyway, Siuan sings Egwene’s praises as Amyrlin, of course, and apparently everything Rand says or does in this chapter is going to just get me because:

He smiled again. “I should have expected nothing less. Strange, but I feel that seeing her again will hurt, though that is one wound that has well and truly healed. I can still remember the pain of it, I suppose.”

Again it’s just the gentleness that pervades all of this, where once there was turmoil and pain and a rage in him fit to burn the world, or else terrifying coldness and absence and a distant voice screaming. It’s like everything has finally fallen silent and only then do you realise how loud everything was before, and how maddening. Just… Rand being able to smile simply, and feel and express emotions in the normal human range.

And that sense of… wonder, almost, that you get from him at that fact. It’s—there is very much a rebirth kind of feel to a lot of this, because a part of it is that Rand is very, very aware of where he has just come from and where he stands now. That’s the whole point: to get to this, he had to choose it and realise it and open his eyes, I suppose. And so now he’s seeing everything through that new filter (or perhaps without the noise of the old one) and there’s a kind of beautiful simplicity and something like but also entirely unlike innocence to it.

Tiana has a letter for him with a red seal… one of Verin’s, maybe? If so, Rand sure has a track record with Aes Sedai and letters left to him. She did have several, when we saw her with Mat… and I struggle to think of who else would have left one. Cadsuane, maybe?

“Do your best to calm Egwene when I am done,” he said to Siuan. Then he took a deep breath and strode forward

CHILDREN. ALL OF THEM. That, right there, for probably the first time this book, is absolutely 100% a glimpse of Rand al’Thor, Woolheaded Sheepherder, and you cannot convince me otherwise.

Wise, gentle, reconciled to his role, remembering his past life and accepting who he is… and still taking a deep breath and making contingency plans before going to a stubborn-off with his former childhood sweetheart. I’m laughing.

*

OH IT’S EGWENE, WE DO GET TO SEE THIS IN EGWENE’S POV, YES THIS IS EVERYTHING I WANTED.

This was not Rand al’Thor, friend of her childhood, the man she’d assumed she’d one day marry.

Oh no, just start right out with a gut-punch why don’t you. No, Egwene, he is.

Except… he also isn’t, and that’s the sad part. But if this is to work, I still think that’s going to be the key: that they know—knew—each other as people. Except now Egwene is deliberately telling herself not to do that, and while it’s understandable it’s… that way lies the end of the Second Age.

No. This man was the Dragon Reborn. The most dangerous man ever to draw breath.

This hurts me in exactly the way I was hoping it would.

Just as Rand has finally accepted himself, and in some ways come back to himself (not quite, because you can’t go back you can only go forwards as the Wheel of Time turns, but he’s no longer forcing everything about who he was away), Egwene is forcing herself to see him as anything but that. As just the Dragon Reborn, legend and monster and saviour and destroyer. It’s a perfect mis-alignment of timings.

(Egwene is steeling herself, just as Rand has finally stopped trying to become steel).

“Egwene,” Rand said

IT’S! ABOUT! THE NAMES!

She’s thinking of him, emphatically, as the Dragon Reborn… but the dialogue tag betrays her. We are in her POV and as soon as he speaks, he is Rand.

And the first word he says is her name. Not ‘Mother’ or ‘Amyrlin’, not the opening of some request or demand. Just… ‘Egwene’.

He is the Dragon Reborn, come to see the Amyrlin—he asked for the Amyrlin—and she is the Amyrlin steeling herself to face the Dragon Reborn and yet in the first moment, when that silence of waiting is broken, they are Rand and Egwene and—

I just. Maybe I’m reading too much into this but it’s perfect and it hurts and I love it.

(Names are important).

He nodded to her, as if in respect. “You have done your part, I see. The Amyrlin’s stole fits you well.”

WHY DOES THIS HURT ME? WHY AM I EXPERIENCING AN EMOTION?

They’ve both just come so far and through so much and they hardly even know one another anymore, and there’s this almost-but-not-quite uncertainty and almost-but-not-quite familiarity, and yet it feels not like the anticipation before an ‘everything goes wrong’ moment but instead the anticipation of… maybe, finally, finding their way back to something? Or forwards, I suppose. It’s like the tentative formality of meeting someone for the first time in years, unsure of them and of yourself and of everything that’s happened in the interim but there’s something weirdly hopeful about it.

Maybe I’m just so used to liveblogging pain that I don’t know what to do with myself when it’s not there, except in echoes and memories and all the space that has grown between them, but this is like… a hand offered across that intervening space.

From what she had heard of Rand recently, she had not anticipated such calm in him.

I mean. That’s… fair.

Well, or she might have been led to anticipate a very different kind of calm. The calm of ice or cuendillar that could in an instant become, you know, balefiring an entire fortress out of existence.

Maybe save your musings on whether or not he’s a criminal for whatever passes as a Geneva Convention in this world, Egwene. We don’t have time to unpack all of that right now.

“What has happened to you?” she found herself asking as she leaned forward on the Amyrlin Seat.

“I was broken,” Rand said, hands behind his back. “And then, remarkably, I was reforged. I think he almost had me, Egwene.”

HELP.

THIS IS JUST.

I… wow. What do I even do with this?

Just as the first word out of his mouth was her name, and her first thought of him was as Rand… now, despite sitting on the Amyrlin Seat—which we are quite literally reminded of here, and I don’t think that’s accidental—her first words are… call it concern, call it curiosity, call it demand, call it accusation even, but that’s not Amyrlin to Dragon Reborn there. That’s not the opening of negotiations or a summons or a meeting. That’s Egwene, looking at Rand. It’s like Nynaeve in TFoH reaching for him almost instinctively and saying ‘at least let me Heal you’.

And then Rand’s response!

‘I was broken’. Such a simple statement for so, so much more. And yet… that’s what it is. It’s the simplicity, again, that gets me. The simplicity and the self-awareness and the way he can look at it now, with that sense of removal, but this time not because he’s walled himself off from the pain; instead, he lets himself feel it but he has accepted its reason and its source and its necessity. He’s no longer fighting against himself, and that lets him bear so much more, because so much of that pain came from that battle against himself, and from the fear of what he might become.

He spent so long trying to forge himself into steel, but in the end that’s not the reforging he needed. And now he knows that, and sees it, and there’s just something about a character who can stand on the far side of their own breaking and their own agony and speak of it calmly, whole.

It's just an entire situation I’m having here.

And that last bit. ‘I think he almost had me’. The memory of ‘it is HIM’. And the fact that Rand can see that too, now; can see how close he came to the Shadow without ever turning from the Light, and understand that nuance.

But also… there is still one very glaring loose end there: Rand has used the True Power. Sure, he doesn’t seem particularly… uh… compromised by that at this point, but I still just cannot imagine that won’t be brought back in some way.

He spoke differently. There was a formality to his words that she didn’t recognise.

And then it’s lines like this that keep this scene from being… to perfect? Not in terms of execution, but in terms of ‘things going well and painlessly for characters’. Because there is still a sadness to this, to Rand and Egwene looking at one another (and naming one another!) and seeing the person behind the role, and looking for the person they knew, and yet also still seeing elements of a stranger.

Because they have changed. Neither of them is at all the child they were when they left Emond’s Field, and there is so much between them now, and that connection they have is worn and thinned and this isn’t a joyful reunion. There’s catharsis here, and a tentative possibility of peace or friendship, but there’s also this recognition, each to each, of how much of what used to be is now gone. They’ve both been hardened and shaped by their experiences and they both know it and recognise it in each other—perhaps in part because they both also very clearly by this point recognise it in themselves.

“Why have you come before the Amyrlin Seat?” she asked.

And now we get the opening of Amyrlin-to-Dragon. But that’s not where we began. We began with Rand and Egwene, and I’ll shut up about it in a minute but this whole play of naming and identity is one of those little things that gets me pretty much every time it turns up in a story.

“I’ve hated you before,” Rand said, turning back to Egwene.

I’M FINE! THIS IS FINE!

Yes I am quoting pretty much every line of dialogue in this scene but LISTEN, IT HURTS ME.

The thing is, this is a statement utterly without malice. It’s not a threat or an insult—not even the childish sort of insult they might have exchanged last time they met. It’s… really, the only word that comes to mind is a confession.

Which plays into one of the features of Rand’s character that stands out so far in the brief moments we’ve seen him in this book: genuine self-knowledge, and self-knowledge that he fully accepts. There is no longer any remnant of denial.

And that allows him to make statements like this and have them come across as, weirdly, almost benevolent. Nothing he has said is said with the intent to deceive, or to wound, or even really to manipulate. It’s just truth—and truth that he himself fully understands and accepts now.

So he’s not fighting against her out of fear of being caught up in Aes Sedai strings, just as he’s not fighting against Lews Therin’s memories out of fear of being caught up in Kinslayer’s fate. Instead of fighting against everything up to and including himself, he’s just… him.

“It occurs to me that I’ve been trying too hard.”

That’s exactly it. He’s been fighting, when in some ways what he needed was to learn how (and where, and when) to surrender. Though even ‘surrender’ connotes a struggle or a conflict, and I think a lot of this realisation is that it’s not about fighting or forcing or struggling; it’s about accepting, and guiding, and leading. And choosing, of course.

“A fear that the acts I accomplished would be yours, and not my own.” He hesitated. “I should have wished for such a convenient set of backs upon which to heap the blame for my crimes.”

Wow. Okay, that’s… a line.

Um.

Damn.

It’s almost ironic, the way he instead tried to heap all the responsibility on himself and take all that blame and pain, and let it damn him and in doing so tried to pretend it freed him to act as he needed, no longer held back by such trivial concerns as humanity and his own conscience or sense of redeemability. But ultimately it came down to the same thing, in a way: an inability to accept what he was doing, and so trying to find a place to put all that pain.

(Or, as Lews Therin once advised, ‘If it hurts too much, make it hurt someone else instead’).

But now he sees that, too, and so instead of trying to escape the pain or treat it as ‘I’m damned either way so may as well burn it all’, he understands his responsibility but in a more… balanced way, I suppose.

The Dragon Reborn had come to the White Tower to engage in idle philosophy

Moridin? That you?

I do sort of wonder, because I’m me, what impact, if any, Rand’s epiphany might (or could; I don’t really expect the story to go there, much as I might wish it to) have on Moridin, given the link they share.

“Rand,” Egwene said, softening her tone.

And now we get the reflection of the names from the opening of this conversation! It’s about the names! It’s about the dialogue tags! It’s about identity and perception and that thread of friendship that still binds them and might in the end be enough to save them from their predecessors’ fate!

“I’m going to have some sisters talk to you to decide if there is anything… wrong with you. Please try to understand.”

I mean you could not have phrased that less tactfully if you tried, Egwene, but it is kind of understandable. We may know full well that there’s less wrong with Rand now than there has been at pretty much any point since the start of the series, but how in the Light would anyone else be able to be sure of that? He’s certainly not acting like the Rand Egwene once knew, or even the Rand she last saw. Nor is he behaving like the Rand from whatever reports she’s received.

And yes, while I think the world waiting and watching for him to go mad hurt far more than it helped, there’s also the fact that that is what everyone and their mother expects—because up until what, a few months ago, that was inevitable.

So then in walks the Dragon Reborn, acting like… well, this, and what else are you going to do? A bit like the cleansing of saidin, as a reader you want all the other characters to just take it on faith, but the rather sad irony of Rand’s position is that his own word is the one no one is entirely sure they can trust. And the only one here who can vouch for him is himself. Elayne or Aviendha or Min might be able to, but none of them is nearby, and also that bond’s been kept pretty quiet.

So anyway. Yeah, I can see where she’s coming from on that.

To his credit, so can Rand.

“Oh, I do understand, Egwene. And I am sorry to deny you, but I have too much to do.”

There’s the woolheaded sheepherder again. He’s smiling here, and I am quite sure this is a bit of the old Rand dropping by to say hello and needle Egwene just a bit, because that’s what they do.

“A friend rides to his death without allies.”

HE NAMED YOU FRIEND. AND NOW YOU REMEMBER HIM. THIS IS FINE I’M FINE EVERYTHING’S FINE.

“This is the part I regret. I did not wish to come into your centre of power, which you have achieved so well, and defy you. But it cannot be helped. You must know what my plans are so that you can prepare.”

To be able to say that without so much as the hit of a threat in it is… quite a power move, I have to say. Because even here, I think he’s still just being absolutely and even benevolently honest. He doesn’t want to undermine her. He doesn’t even really want to challenge her. He understands where she’s coming from – which itself puts us so, so far from where he was just days ago, that he can meet her uncertainty and suspicion and say ‘okay yeah, that’s fair’.

And if he had time, I wonder if he might actually agree to that particular request.

But he doesn’t have time. Which brings us to the other extraordinary part of this statement: willingly offering up communication. Just. Straight up saying ‘you need to know my plans’. Mark this date in your calendars, friends: a Wheel of Time character just offered, unprompted, voluntarily, to share their plans with another character, so that they can prepare.

I am astonished.

“The last time I tried to seal the Bore”

You know, just the other day.

“I believe that saidin and saidar must both be used.”

I think he’s absolutely right there—it’s a part of what I love about Rand and Egwene, childhood friends for all that they’ve grown apart, holding the roles that they do; the idea that this bond between them, strained as it is, could allow them to do what Lews Therin and Latra Posae could not—but I also… he shall hold a blade of light in his hands, and the three shall be one. I just… wonder.

Egwene leaned forward, studying him. There didn’t seem to be madness in his eyes. She knew those eyes. She knew Rand.

YES!

THIS IS EVERYTHING I WANTED! That she sees him. Looks past the Dragon Reborn, past her role as Amyrlin, and for a moment she is just Egwene looking at Rand and it is by nature such a simple thing—stripping away everything but that simple identity—but it’s also the thing that can give them a chance to do it differently this time. This chance of understanding, this one small thing that could tip them towards cooperation and trust rather than letting them turn away from each other or fall apart.

Light, she thought, I’m wrong. I can’t think of him only as the Dragon Reborn. I’m here for a reason. He’s here for a reason. To me, he must be Rand. Because Rand can be trusted, while the Dragon Reborn must be feared.

Maybe it’s very Sanderson to have this stated outright, but I’m not even going to complain, because it’s… perfect. To allow, in the end, trust and friendship and who they are rather than purely what they are come into it as well, even just in some small way, to bridge that gap. It’s what Lews Therin and Latra Posae couldn’t do, but Rand and Egwene have a chance to try again.

I just… have been spinning around on this EXACT CONCEPT for, I don’t know, several books now, and to see it playing out so plainly here is everything I want and I am never going to be okay again in my life.

“Which are you?” she whispered unconsciously.

He heard. “I am both, Egwene. I remember him. Lews Therin. I can see his entire life, every desperate moment. I see it like a dream, but a clear dream. My own dream. It’s part of me.”

It’s a nice touch, that he speaks of it as a dream, to the one who understands dreams so well.

It’s also just a lot, to have gone from ‘so many parts of him, mind splintered in glittering shards, all of them screaming’ to ‘sorrows and his own suicide’ to a clear dream he accepts as a part of himself. The pain and desperation of it are still there, but he’s no longer fighting them, because he no longer sees it as something he’s bound to. It’s just a part of who he is, but it doesn’t have to define what he will be.

I also like this because Egwene was one of the first to notice him speaking to a voice in his mind. And now she gets this, just an honest and accepting response. It seems fitting, somehow.

The words were those of a madman, but they were spoken evenly. She looked at him, and remembered the youth that he had been. The earnest young man. Not solemn like Perrin, but not wild like Mat. Solid, straightforward. The type of man you could trust with anything.

Even the fate of the world.

THAT’S IT THAT’S IT RIGHT THERE. If they did not know each other, this could be an impasse. Not as disastrous as Rand’s meeting with Tuon, perhaps, because he’s a little… uh… less omnicidal at this particular moment, but likely just as unsuccessful. An Amyrlin who could not trust the Dragon, and a Dragon who could not afford to give her the assurances she needed, and so two powers working in parallel but separately, almost in opposition.

But she knows him. And it’s the youth he had been—it is LITERALLY THE MEMORY OF A SHEPHERD NAMED RAND AL’THOR, the echo of one of my favourite quotes—that tips the balance the other way this time.

It’s Rand. The boy he tried for so long to destroy, because to be him hurt too much.

And I also really love how it isn’t about some Grand True Love between them that does it. They were childhood sweethearts, sure, but the love between them is that of friends, of a shared childhood, of something very much like family. And I like that there’s this implicit importance and weight placed on that; that in its way it’s as crucial to this moment as the ‘veins of gold’ were on Dragonmount

This is what Latra Posae and Lews Therin had. And so instead it falls to Egwene and Rand, to learn from their mistakes, and do what they could not. It is what Rand realised on Dragonmount, and what he is playing out now. A chance to try again.

And it’s because he’s Rand that that’s possible. It’s not Lews Therin, or the Dragon Reborn (but it is also both of those, because he is both of those).

“In one month’s time,” Rand said, “I’m going to travel to Shayol Ghul and break the last remaining seals on the Dark One’s prison. I want your help.”

Well. I mean. Okay. Points for honest and straightforward communication, I suppose. I love that he just walks into the Tower and drops this on her like a grenade, though. It amuses me.

Ah, so she thinks the crystal sphere in her dream represents the seals or the prison as well.

“Rand, no”

Rand: Rand yes!

Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

“I’m going to need you, all of you”

Rand openly admitting to needing anyone or anything, and again just as a statement rather than a threat or an angry demand, is another thing that’s new and kind of refreshing.

“I hope to the Light that this time, you will give me your support.”

Rand to Egwene, remembering Lews Therin to Latra Posae. And if everyone is someone reborn, who’s to say she isn’t? (I’m not… really sure whether I’d want that to be true or not, so I suppose it’s nice that it’s not stated one way or the other, at least up to this point. But it could be a fun one to play with). Either way, those very much are the roles they’re echoing, and I swear I’ll shut up about this but I still just love how, so closely following Rand’s realisation on Dragonmount, we get to actually watch that kind of chance-to-try-again play out. A chance to work together, rather than apart.

“And then… well, then we will discuss my terms.”

Ah well, I suppose it was too much to hope for him to communicate the whole plan right now. Baby steps and all that.

Also, you know, narrative choices and the need to keep at least something back.

“Your terms?” Egwene demanded. “You will see,” he said, turning as if to leave.

So… the way it’s framed puts us into very slightly antagonistic (and much more familiar) territory of lack of communication and demands and terms.

But I wonder what terms he’s referring to, because there is a nonzero probability that he’s talking about Callandor here. In which case, it’s not entirely impossible that the terms he’s referring to are, in effect, those of his own surrender.

I could be wrong. I very probably am. But it’s… an interesting possibility to consider. And it would be kind of fitting, in a way, for that to be the uncommunicated and therefore misunderstood thing here.

Turns out ‘the Amyrlin’s Anger’ is Egwene just shouting at her childhood friend ‘don’t you turn your back on me when I’m talking to you, Rand al’Thor’ and Rand turning back like a boy who tracked mud into the house. I love them, I really do.

“We must talk about this,” she said. “Plan.”

“That is why I came to you. To let you plan.”

He seemed amused.

Oh, he’s absolutely amused. Part of him still is the boy you knew, and this is honestly just classic Rand-and-Egwene, for all that it’s also on an entirely different level. They antagonise one another: it’s what they do. But I don’t think there’s true anger here, on either side. And again, that is what could save them. That ‘anger’ between them is… this, rather than that snapping of tension and dropping of any possibility of a truce and turning immediately to planning their next moves, all thought of alliance or restraint over, between Rand and Tuon.

Anyway. The other thing here is that… it’s easy to be exasperated with Egwene, because just listen to Rand, he’s sane now damn it, and he’s almost certainly right about the seals.

But honestly? In her position? Knowing what she knows—and not knowing all the things she doesn’t know, like the actual state of Rand’s mind—it’s hard to fault her for pushing back on this. He walks in, says he’s fine and that he remembers a dead man’s entire life and also that they need to break the prison of the embodiment of entropy and chaos and evil, okay bye!

Like. As Amyrlin, it’s her job to say ‘okay, right, I’m with you, but also what the fuck’. It would be irresponsible not to.

Of course… I get the impression Rand knows that, too. And is, perhaps, counting on it. He came to her to let her plan, and he doesn’t seem surprised or upset by the fact that she doesn’t just immediately say ‘okay cool when do we start’, and he has a certain respect for the position she holds.

I think it’s entirely possible this is what he wants from her. For her to plan. Because he doesn’t have time to. And because, just as she looks at him and sees someone she can trust with the fate of the world, he looks at her and sees someone he can trust with planning and logistics and getting the Aes Sedai to get themselves where he needs them. A kind of ‘this is what I’m going to do, now do whatever it is you need to do because I don’t need to micromanage and I also don’t have time to, okay see you at Tarmon Gai’don’.

“And so here we come to it,” Rand said.

Yeah, he saw this coming.

“Egwene al’Vere, Watcher of the Seals, Flame of Tar Valon, may I have your permission to withdraw?”

He asked it so politely. She couldn’t tell if he was mocking her or not.

The thing is, I really don’t think he is. It’s like how earlier he said he didn’t want to come into her place of power and undermine her. He’s giving her, I think, an honest gesture with genuine respect. Because now, at peace with himself as he is, it costs him nothing to do so. She is not his enemy, and I do think his respect for her is honest, and I think he still cares about her as a friend, and what does he lose by giving her a small bow and her titles and the opportunity to grant him permission to leave?

And of course Egwene is conflicted, because on the one hand she can’t keep him here like Elaida tried to, but on the other hand…

“I will not let you break the seals,” she said. “That is madness.”

“Then meet me at the place known as the Field of Merrilor, just to the north. We will talk before I go to Shayol Ghul. For now, I do not want to defy you, Egwene. But I must go.’

Ah. And so we have a battleground.

As for the rest… well. It’s not quite accord, but nor is it disaster. It’s not even quite a true impasse. There’s tension now, sure, but it’s a) not even in the same hemisphere as as bad as it would have been if Rand hadn’t had some alone time on a mountain to think, literally, about his life choices and b) not insurmountable.

And c) I still think there’s a very real chance this is all Rand actually needed or wanted out of this. Egwene now knows his plan and his timing and the battleground, and she can take care of the rest.

It’s almost—gasp—as if Rand al’Thor, Dragon Reborn, has truly learned to delegate.

The chamber was still enough for Egwene to hear the faint breeze making the rose window groan it its lead.

The wind, for Rand, against the rose, for the Aes Sedai. (Also, listen, I have not forgotten that Eldrene was the Rose of the Sun).

“Very well,” Egwene said. “But this is not ended, Rand.”

“There are no endings, Egwene.”

IT’S! ABOUT! THE NAMES!

They talk a big game about each other’s titles, and wonder if they’re really the person they each once knew, but they both open and closes with nothing but each other’s names, and it means absolutely everything.

Also, that’s… really not a bad outcome. Honestly, this could have been so much worse. Anger? Try ‘okay um that’s unexpected and I’m still not sure you’re not insane but…sure. Okay’.

Which really is all you need, right? It’s agreement with a bit of hesitation, and at this stage in the game that’s a damn victory.

Again, I can’t help but contrast it with that absolute catastrophe at Falme, and compared to that? This is just friends sticking their tongues out at each other on the way out. Rand knows he can count on Egwene to be there, at least. Will she agree with him when she arrives? Who knows. But that’s a problem for another time. For now, he at least knows she’ll go, and that’s all he can ask. And he can leave the rest of the planning in her hands.

And she knows what he’s planning, and knows he wants her as an ally, and can therefore make said plans.

I don’t think this is ended either, and I’m sure there’s plenty of potential conflict to come, but this was, all things considered, really kind of impressive in its lack of explosions.

(Also, ‘there are no endings’. Now who’s giving Aes Sedai answers, Rand? As well as probably spoilers for the last line of the series. Rude.)

Oh, interesting. So Rand’s ta’veren hyperdrive powers pretty much literally froze all the other Aes Sedai in place. Because this needed to be a meeting between Rand and Egwene. Because of their roles, yes, but also because of that thread of connection they still share. And so it had to be the two of them, because that was the only chance of this working at all.

Egwene frowned. She hadn’t felt it that way. Perhaps because she thought of him as Rand.

I… yeah. Because that’s what he needed: to have this conversation with someone who could see him. Even then, it barely came out to something almost resembling accord. They needed that small weight on the scales, to have that chance. And so she was free, because it was the Dragon Reborn, and not Rand, who was holding the others silent, in a way.

Or at least that’s how I’m reading this because it plays into my entire thing for names and identity and perception, and the importance thereof.

“We need to discuss his words. The Hall of the Tower will reconvene in one hour’s time for discussion.”

Which, really, is exactly what they need to be doing. Now they have the information, and they can figure out… a battle plan, I suppose. Okay. We’re there now. We have a place and a time (this place, this day, which of course is followed by the lesser sadness, yes I remember sequences of chapter titles why are you looking at me like that) and the beginnings of a plan. I’m… it’s been five years and I’m not entirely ready for this.

“And someone follow to make sure he really leaves.”

You’re just afraid he’ll find some way to prank you on his way out, don’t lie.

“Then how? How do we stop him?”

That, Silviana, is not the question you need to be asking. I mean, I get it. I really do. And I’m not sure how they could not think that, at least initially. But… the time for working against each other’s aims, when you are all on the same side, is over.

“We need allies,” Egwene said.

Which, again, I think is precisely the point. That is something it makes absolute sense for Rand to delegate to the Amyrlin Seat, who has the power and the standing to gather allies and play the games of politics, and bring her portion of the Forces of the Light to… the Field of Merrilor, I suppose.

She took a deep breath. “He might be persuaded by people that he trusts.” Or he might be forced to change his mind if confronted by a large enough group united to stop him.

Oh, Egwene, no. You can’t be another Latra Posae.

But perhaps it would be too easy for this to actually just be their only not-quite-conflict. I still think it was more a success than a failure, all told, and I stand by everything I said about the importance of their friendship in letting them see each other, but I think we’re looking at one final testing of that, before the end.

Next (ToM ch 4) Previous (ToM ch 2)

[mysticsparklewings]

Daises on Strawberry Hill‪

Well, this looks a bit different from my usual content, doesn't it? Full disclosure that this art was made primarily as art inspired by one of my favorite books of all time (seriously, I have three different editions of this thing)--Looking for Alaska by John Green--as an excuse to talk about the new Hulu series of the same name that's based on the book. Because if you know me at all, you know I am notoriously hard on book-to-screen adaptions, particularly those based on books I love as if they were family members. And originally, this description was going to include a pretty blow-by-blow, lengthy review of my thoughts on the series. However, it's been quite a while since I first started trying to type out said review, and frankly, I've decided instead to, after I talk about the art, to just give some general, spoiler-free thoughts; the most important opinions I have on the series and leave it at that. I am still planning on completing and putting my full-length, in-depth thoughts out, but that'll be at some other time. Perhaps I'll put them in a journal/blog post instead of adding to the description here. Whatever happens, I'll update this description so that those who are interested in my deep-dive can find it when the time comes. That said, let's talk about the artwork now :) LfA isn't a fantasy or sci-fi book, so it doesn't have any cool dramatic scenes or neato devices/objects that have a lot of significance to the plot that would be fun to draw, which is why I never made any fan art or inspired-by-art for it before. But I really wanted an excuse to talk about the series, and so I pondered what symbols or imagery the series might have that I could make into art, even if none of it was terribly relevant to the plot or exciting on its own. This led me to the cheap wine that's mentioned a few times throughout the book: Strawberry Hill. Drawing just a bottle of wine seemed kind of boring and not very specific to the book/series, so I ended up adding in some white daisies since white flowers and daises specifically do have some significance to the plot. (In a way, they're a bit of a crux to it, at least for a key epiphany moment.) Originally, I was going to make this piece traditionally, and I did start with a traditional sketch of the wine bottle and one daisy to use as a template for more to follow. However, I pretty quickly got the idea for doing something more line-art heavy on a black background, as the cover for the book is black and the sort of chalkboard/blacklight look I was picturing in my head seemed fitting for the tone of the story, and despite my best efforts I couldn't think of a way/combination of media to accomplish what I wanted traditionally without also giving myself a major headache and making the project take infinitely longer than I wanted it to. So while I stalled in production, I ended up on my tablet for something else and figure I'd scan in my sketches and maybe make a line art to print off and manipulate into what I wanted traditionally later. But then, just as I started working on that, I figured, "You know what, if I'm going to go through all of the trouble to ink/line this digitally and I wanted it to be more line-focused anyway, I might as well take a crack at just doing the full artwork digitally. I'll get the lines done either way, and if it doesn't work out then at least I can say I tried, I know some of what not to do, and I end up with a digital mock-up for the final version." Fortunately, things ended up working out much better than I expected. I purposefully wasn't too fussy about the lines, partly because I just didn't have the patience at the time to be super precise about it, and also because for this specific project I kind of liked the idea of a more doodle-ish look (even though it's not super doodle-y in the final product). This also made things move a lot faster, which was nice and pretty satisfying. I started with the wine bottle from my sketch, including trying a new liquid drawing technique I half picked up from an art Youtuber I just recently started following that makes drawing liquid in a style similar to this look like a lot of fun. I knew I wanted the bottle to be mostly transparent/just lines, so the goal here was more about getting the wine bottle shape/structure familiar enough than it was about anything else. The label took a bit more though since in my mind, ever since I read the book, I had a pretty specific image of a pinkish bottle with a yellowish liquid and this cream-colored label with dark brown/sepia text, and I had not previously considered the label into that whole primarily line-focused image in my mind.  So in the end, I decided the label would be solid so I could get the proper imagery across and the text and stuff could still be seen properly. Additionally, you'll notice I couldn't help myself being a little on-the-nose and sticking a tiny strawberry and mountain/hill on the label for good measure and to fill some space without having to look up wine bottle references just to stare at the labels for a ridiculous amount of time.   The daises were also infinitely easier to do digitally since I could just copy, paste, and rotate first the petals to make one flower, and then copy, paste, rotate that one flower a few more times, instead of having to draw individual petals and flowers every time. This also gave me a little more freedom in that I could re-size the flowers pretty easily to make it more visually interesting than just a bunch of flowers that were all the same size. All that ended up being less line-focused than I originally intended, but I acknowledged that happening as I worked, and I'm not upset about the shift in focus. I think what I ended up with still has about the same visual impact I was hoping for, and that's all I really wanted anyway. And as sort of the icing on the cake, I ended up adding in that wisp/smoke trail in the background because of 1. It seemed kind of empty and unfinished with just the flowers and wine bottle and 2. When I tried adding a green vine to fix that issue, it just wasn't working for me. That's when I realized I could have a stronger reference to the book by putting something similar to smoke in the background since the original cover of the book has a smoke plume front-and-center. It took a few tries and some tweaking to get something I was happy with on that front, but I am so glad I stuck with the idea. It just adds something I can't quite place that the piece really needed before. The content is pretty different for me--I don't drink and I don't really endorse the idea--and the style is a little beyond my usual realms, but I do really like how it turned out. I feel like it's done well enough that you can appreciate the symbols and references if you know the book, but it also works as just a kitsch art piece if you're completely unfamiliar with the source material too. I don't think it's super accurate to when a bottle of the stuff shows up in the Hulu series, but it was on screen so briefly and my mind was focusing on other aspects while I was watching, so I didn't get a super good look at it.  But I still think it'll suffice well enough despite that. I'm happy with how it turned out, and that's all that really matters, right? Now, then, as for the thoughts I have on the Hulu series that I think need to be shared sooner rather than later. I'll start by going on record to say, as someone that is notoriously hard on book-to-screen adaptions, that I did actually like the LfA series pretty good. I'd say it's about a 7 out of 10, which an exceptionally good score coming from me. It's not my most favorite show of all time, but it's notably better than "just okay," which is historically the highest praise I've ever been able to give a book-to-screen adaption. It had its faults and things I would've done differently if it were up to me, but fortunately, it did an infinitely better job than I was expecting. My main issues, as with all book-to-screen adaptions, come in the form of some of the changes that were made between the book and the screen. Fortunately, this time around the problems I do have are not egregious offenders. Most changes that were made still make sense within the story and while the overall message isn't quite the same as the book, it didn't totally squander what the book was trying to say. All of which are problems that most book-to-screen adaptions suffer from horribly. And while I won't talk too much at length about this (that's for the long-form review later ) I think this has a lot to do with the series being roughly 7-8 hours of content, as opposed to the either extremely rushed 2-hours-or-less a movie would've been, or the more-time-than-we-know-what-to-do-with 13+ hours of...certain book-to-screen adaptions that failed miserably at their job. (*cough* 13 Reasons Why *cough*) As I said, it's not perfect, but I do think as far as allotted time and time-management that they hit something of a sweet spot so that they'd have enough time to give the plot the room it needs to breathe without having so much time that they have to start making stuff up to fill it all. The other thing I'd like to point out is that, honestly, they did what 13 Reasons Why wanted to do way better than that series could ever hope to. They told the story of teenagers experiencing darker themes and elements of life so much more tactfully, and, in my opinion, more realistically. And they didn't wait for a controversy to spike and then do something about it--they didn't bank on the publicity of a controversy. Right from episode one, every episode starts with a warning that this series is meant for an adult audience (because of its themes) and viewer discretion is advised. And at the end of every episode, as the series does featuring smoking and drinking on more than one occasion, they provide resources to visit if you or someone you know has a problem with either of those things. I don't know if the people at Hulu saw what happened to Netflix with 13 RW and learned from their mistakes or if they just knew better, but either way, I'm so glad it was handled so much better, regardless of why or how it happened. As far as recommendations, if you're a John Green and/or Looking for Alaska book fan, I'd say it's definitely worth the watch. For outside viewers...I think you have to really be into the YA drama scene to appreciate it. Just be prepared for some more adult content than you might typically find in a YA movie. It's all done pretty tastefully and the majority isn't there senselessly; most of it serves some kind of purpose to the story, which is why it doesn't bother me (a very prude-ish person) all that much. I think that's everything I feel like needs to be said right now about the series until I can get the long-form review finished. (It's maybe 1/3 of the way done currently...and already getting on the long side )   I have to admit, this does make me more hopeful for the future of book-to-screen adaptions, at least those that end up being handled the way this one was. In fact, I'm actually really hoping that if Turtles All the Way Down, John Green's newest book, ever sees a screen adaption that it's handled in a series form and is done at least as well as LfA was. Time will tell, I suppose. In fact, I believe any day now, Let it Snow, a book that John Green wrote 1/3 of is supposed to have its movie adaption dropped on Netflix. I'm not super confident in Netflix's handling of adaptions for reasons mentioned earlier, but maybe just maybe it'll be okay? ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings I do not own Looking for Alaska and/or associated content ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 42 : Hello, Darkness, my Old and Also Relatively New Teenage Shadow Magic Friend

Recently, on Yugioh, we asked ourselves, (well, I asked myself since I assume most of you have seen this show before) how does it matter at all if you lose your memories of someone for like, ten minutes, when you will obviously have to run into them again once the duel is over? And if you have lost the memories that they ever existed then what would it matter since you would not know that you had known them?

This is how - They become shadow people and you literally can’t see them anymore for what I assume is the rest of your life. I don’t know how that works since they can still like write things down on pieces of paper or I dunno, communicate entirely through texting like most kids do who haven’t been cursed with eternal invisibility.

But don’t think too much about the logic, because people can now be erased from your life via cards, AKA Yugioh is gonna throw us another heavy handed take on depression, get ready. And honestly, it’s not a bad take. Good on Yugioh for this fairly accurate metaphor of what sadness can feel like. Like, sometimes people feel like their friends don't like them anymore, although they may be surrounded by people the entire time who are rooting for them and want to help them, but they just can’t see them. I think every person in the world has been through that at some point. You don’t often see it addressed in a kid’s show, although it really should be, because it happens so often.

Probably shouldn’t have started out with Tea for this example though. Like for reals, when have Mai and Tea ever hung out? That one time Mai told Tea to take a shower because she smelled like a boy? Or...

...That’s it. That’s the last conversation I remember these two having one-on-one. Most of the time Mai has been on screen is with Yugi and Joey instead. Mai and Tea shared a tent once. That’s it.

Lolmao I can’t believe Mime came back.

So now, canonically, BDSM Mime got stranded somewhere in Japan and now Marik doesn’t have any memories to even go and pick him up. He’s just forever trapped in this country now like Shenmue.

(read more)

Mai seems to remember that she used to know someone, so it’s more of like you get the feeling of losing a friend. Like basically every time you lose a monster you feel like you broke up with someone, but you can’t remember who. I can’t really relate to that feeling, but I’m sure this has happened to Mai at least once or twice for reals before this tournament. This is the girl who forgot she set herself up to get engaged.

Again, if you just thought it through for like 3 seconds, you’d have enough evidence to say “Yeah but this is all in my mind, I am standing in weird ass purple fog” but that’s the Shadow Realm.

After Tea’s memory is dissolved, next comes the threat of losing the memories of Joey Wheeler, AKA the vague love interest that she was very mad at up until about 5 seconds ago.

Also please admire how far the storyboarder went out of their way to avoid looking up Mai’s skirt. Straight up, they did not even bother to try and cover up those panty upskirts in Sailor Moon, but the storyboarder for Yugioh was so extra that they said “Hell with it, I’m gonna try” and so Mai’s legs are like double jointed and sprawled in the weirdest ways sometimes to cover that crack.

I mean, it’s still a pinup--there’s no way around this character design--but I really think they were trying to not go too far, but then ended up making it kind of worse sometimes. It’s just what happens when you have a love affair a lot of extreme low angle shots but none of your girls wear pants because it’s 2001 and everyone’s wearing tube tops and minis.

Which was a thing. I’ll admit it, I lived through it, 2001 was kind of a slutty time, it was the era of the glittery backless diamond shaped halter top. Which, while time has tried to forget, I will never forget the 20 minutes I spent in a dressing room trying to figure out how to put on a backless diamond shaped halter top only to realize that I was putting it on sideways.

Now, stepping away from confusing 00′s fashion and back to the show. Mai losing these pile of kids might mean more to me if Mai had been hanging out with them this whole time, but it really does feel like they’re closer to Duke Devlin than they are to Mai Valentine, because Duke at least shared a school with them so I can assume that in the past they’ve passed each other in the hallway or talked on occasion. But, Mai is an adult who never comes in contact outside of cards, and when she does, she only ever pushes them away.

It’s especially that-Yugioh-brand-of-tragic because in the mind of all of the characters on this show, we’ve just kind of assumed Mai has had a life and friendships outside of these couple of kids. But this episode we realize there’s just...no one else but the people she sees at these rare tourneys. As we see here in this flashback to her childhood, in the most anime PJ’s ever drawn.

Why does every flashback look like everyone's straight out the American Girl Doll collection? Like Pegasus and Cecilia were in turn of the century clothes. the Kaibas were dressed like little newsies when they were orphans, little Mai looks like she owns a horse in matching ribbons.

And as it turns out, do you know the reason why Mai hates friendship? You’ll never guess--her Parents. Ah, Neglectful Parents, strikes again, that old Yugioh chestnut. It’s like I’m watching Once Upon a Time again. At least these neglectful parents didn’t lock her up underground and tattoo her eyes. Instead, these ones just worked a lot and she got kinda lonely.

Are there any good parents on this show? I assume if anyone’s parents are good we just never see them, right? Is that why we never see Mr Muto?

Anyway, Mai moved around a lot, her parents were always busy, and it rained like constantly--so Mai decided to get a job on a cruise line, where she became a card shark. And also where she randomly got engaged and then forgot.

I don't remember her tent looking like that but I’ll allow it.

You could have chosen any friends out there Mai, traveling the world on a cruise line, doing cards all over the planet, and you chose these guys? The ones with multiple curses? Like you nabbed both Yugi and Bakura in one go? Congrats!

Anyway she very quickly forgets Joey so Rip MaixJoey that was a good one and half episodes, surely the longest relationship on Yugioh!

So, Yugi decides to activate the millennium item chatroom, where apparently he could just butt into whoever is getting cursed at the moment. And mind you, he could just solve the duel but like, there is a card game going on, and although it’s super duper cursed, we gotta make it fair. Yugi’s just here to give some good advice and then bounce.

No laser fights today. He still isn’t aware he can do that.

freakin love this blue yellow color combo PS.

So something that I do like about this, is that the real threat here in these Shadow Duels is not the duel really--it’s to Mai’s relationships more than injury Mai herself. Yes, she does die if she loses, but the more she loses, the more she loses people in her life, even if she wins. The loss of the people is more scary to her more than the fear of dying.

And this hearkens back to the first time we dealt with the Shadow Realm with Yugi and his Grandfather. Yugi was over that duel in about 15 minutes or whatever the time limit was, and after the initial shock he brushed himself off and may have appeared fully recovered, but it took him almost an entire season to get his Grandpa back in his life.

So if you look at these curses as akin to getting an illness, when you lose a relationship because of illness, that can be a pretty terrible symptom that you don’t really see coming. Happens a whole lot though. In Mai’s case, if she does lose, she also loses the opportunity to repair what she’s lost, which is probably the greatest fear of someone who may be going through A Time.

Like honestly, the Mai duel is *kind of a downer* and I was just talking to my Bro about how of all the shadow duels so far, this is the one that is most clearly “I’m just going to fight you with straight up depression” and how apparently Marik is just so far into his own downward spiral that he no longer cares about who he drags down with him. He’s just given up trying to be better at this point. Like his only ‘friend’ left is BDSM Mime clown. That’s a pretty intense rock bottom, honestly.

But on a positive note, what Yugi points out to Mai is “You’re in this now, but we will get you out of it, no matter what he curses you to believe.” and of anyone here, Yugi’s the only one that can actually reach out and speak to her because he’s the only one who has been through it before and thus knows how it works.

Being cursed with heavy handed illness imagery AKA Shadow Magic does have that perk. You can help out the similarly cursed. Even though he could have probably launched at least a couple fireballs at the problem to help her out also.

Holy hell they actually edited out all the little details on this duel disk here. Good on you, animators. Good on you. I’m glad someone did it. Hope that saved at least one of you from carpal tunnel, you poor overworked animators that had to draw every line on these crazy complicated character designs.

So Mai, spurned onward by the ghostly voices of her forgotten friends figures out how to steal Marik’s God Card.

Again, everyone on this show is obsessed with these awful cards and they feel like they must play them to win when honestly--look how much this card sucks.

If this God Card ends up killing her it’ll only prove my point that all these cards are just fundamentally hella bad.

Same with Odion, he could’ve won just fine without playing a God Card but leave it to these dummies to just go crazy with the one of three cards that has been prophecies to kill them. Like, when Odysseus gives you a bag of wind, just don’t open the bag. That easy.

Anyway, tune in next week to see if Mai ends up blown overboard like the servants of Odysseus, or if she ends up devoured by a giant creature also like the servants of Odysseus. Or if she ends up dating Joey Wheeler. That part didn’t happen in the Odyssey, but I’ve read enough people comparing fanfic to Homer that I guess you could make it happen if you really wanted to.

Link to read these recaps from S1 Ep1

[craftycatshrooms]

Northern Blossom Flower Farm through Storms and Pandemics

Northern Blossom Flower Farm is a tourist attraction in Benguet since 2018. It showcases numerous varieties of flowers imported from Japan. The farm is one of the best sites for Eco-tourism in Benguet. The eco-tour last approximately 2 hours where in the guests tour the 3 hectare farm filled with flowers whilst looking at the beautiful mountains including Mt. Pulag. Most of the flowers are plants that are suited for cold weather and the most popular flower in farm are the cabbage roses. Cabbage roses are unique variety of cabbage that exhibit color when the environment reaches very cold temperatures. Many people come to see these color changing cabbages and on a good day the farm can receive 200 to 300 groups of guests. Northern Blossom flower farm is a breath of fresh air that allowed its guests to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. The gorgeous mountainous views, the beautiful exotic flowers coupled with the crisp cold northern air offers the experience so far removed from the usual Tropical weather, flat lands and white sand beaches. The farm presents an unprecedented experience as no one expects to see imported flowers in this small distant village in a place called Atok. This makes people wonder as to how exactly did this tourist spot came to be.

The tourist spot may have started recently in 2018 but most people do not know that the farm has been around for a very long time. The flower farm first operated solely as a supplier for its flower shop with the same name, Northern Blossom Flower Shop. The shop was founded in 2002 located in Maria Clara Street, Sampaloc, Manila which is very near the infamous hub of flower shops Dangwa. The shop sold wholesale flowers to successful florists like Allen Uy, Hizon, Tecson, Cyrus and events like SM Baguio’s impressive floats during Panagbenga. The flowers from Northern Blossom Flower Farm are seen in the covers of magazines, the hallways of five star hotels and the weddings of famous celebrities. They are also a staple purchase during notable events like Valentines day, Mother’s Day, all Souls and Saint’s Day.

 This lucrative business is the brain child of the business owner Mellany C. Ganayan. The farm is managed by the Mrs. Ganayan along with her husband Mr. Leonardo Ganayan. Like all farmers in Benguet, the business started as a vegetable farm. They planted different vegetables like radishes, cabbages, carrots and many more. While the couple worked on the farm, the husband Mr. Leonardo took a second job as a driver. He is tasked to deliver vegetables from Benguet to Manila. As he delivers these vegetables, some relatives asked him to sell their cacti and calla lilies in Dangwa while he stays in Manila. At this point, Mr. Ganayan is juggling the responsibilities of farming, selling cacti and delivering vegetables. One day Mrs. Ganayan asked to come with him to Manila in order to sell some of her cacti collection. Once in Manila, she noticed that there is a profitable market for flowers and cacti plants sold faster than expected. This experience gave her the idea of selling flowers.

(Mrs. Mellany on the right with the white Jacket)

The idea first started small. They started selling local flowers like calla lilies, hydrangeas or million flowers, different varieties of cacti and succulents and siastas. Then they started looking into other varieties of flowers that can grow in the cold weathers of Atok, Benguet. Mrs. Ganayan first inquired in Sunrise, the surplus store for seeds and farm supply. The store had limited varieties to choose from but they were kind enough to give the contact number of a company that sells imported varieties of flowers. Mrs. Ganayan met with the company located in Cubao and was offered a brochure of flowers she has not seen before. The name of the company and their supplier will not be disclosed as per request of the business owners. Mrs. Ganayan bought the seeds and started on the process of cultivating them. What followed was a series of trial and errors. There were series experiments as to how to cultivate and propagate these flowers. As well as investments in buying imported seeds and bulbs that may not return profit or worse they may not grow at all. Greenhouses were built in order to accommodate the growth requirements of different flowers and fifteen years later there now stands eleven greenhouses.

“We had no choice but to become a tourist destination” 

Through the years, family, friends and acquaintances have come to visit this quaint farm in Atok but there was one guest that brought impact that changed the course of the business. Enters Ms. Ollen Co. Ms. Ollen Co is a friend of a mutual friend and had been visiting the farm for a while. She has a talent and an interest in photography. She posts her beautiful photographs in Facebook. She featured the farm in numerous occasions, capturing the serene imagery of the farm during sunrise and the milky way at night. A lot of people are in awe of her photographs and are curious as to where these sceneries are. Captions and tags are present with the photos. it came as surprise when people started to inquire about garden tours and accomodations. After a while. people come out of nowhere asking at the doorstep about this flower farm seen in Facebook. Mrs. Ganayan welcomed these surprise visits and allowed allowed the visitors to tour the farm and take pictures for free. The images made their way into Facebook further solidifying the Farm as a go to destination for the perfect Instagram picture. This free publicity gathered the attention of the Department of tourism of Benguet. They asked for a tour which was immediately welcomed. Afterwards, they presented a request to advertise the farm as one of the Eco-tourist spot in the province. Mrs. Ganayan was adamant at first. She was concerned with the requirements in order to qualify as tourist spot like cemented trails, hand rails in the farm, reception area and clean functioning toilets. All of which would cost money in order to construct. In the middle of considering this life changing decision, visitors and tourists would still come and request to see the flowers. Mrs. Ganayan would allow these tourists to enter and often times there are those that walk on flower beds, some who pick and snap flowers and others that leave rubbish all over the place. This is not to say that all of them do it but there is always that one person. With people coming every now and then, Mrs. Ganayan said that “we had no choice but to become a tourist destination.” She does not have the heart to turn these people away and with the expenses and damages incurred from these untimely visits she thought that it would not be a bad idea to at least profit from it. Renovations was in the works and by 2018 Northern Blossom Flower Farm was open for business.

Northern Blossom Flower farm operated as both a supplier and a tourist destination. They have set an appropriate entrance fee of 250 pesos per head with discounts for senior citizens and children. Some complained about the expensive fee for just viewing flowers but as the owner has stated “the fee covers the loses from stopping harvests and allowing the flowers to just bloom in the farm.” Instead of harvesting some of the flowers, they are left in the farm for the tourists to see and the fee covers for the profits lost from not selling them. All was well and good until the unexpected year of 2020.

“The virus has affected the business in more ways than one”

 When the virus hit the Philippines, it affected people across the country. A lot of businesses went bankrupt, schools were canceled and a lot of people feared the spreading pandemic. After the long community quarantine, people tried pick up the pieces of what’s left from the wreckage caused by the pandemic and others tried to adapt to this “new normal.” Even with all this problems people still strive to make the best out of the situation, with new business flourishing online, jobs allowing people to work from home and people starting to take part in online classes. According to Mrs. Ganayan “ the virus has affected the business in more ways than one.” The current situation has affected both businesses. Due to the quarantine many flowers and vegetables have not been harvested and most was reduced to waste. All tourist attractions have been closed and the flower shop has also been rendered almost obsolete. The new normal further affects the state of consuming cut flowers. The prohibition of large gatherings like weddings, funerals, birthday parties and other functions have eliminated the need for flower décor and arrangements. With this problem, the owner Mrs. Ganayan sees no other choice than to get with the times. Instead of planting flowers, the farm has reverted back into planting edible produce like vegetables. For the past months from July to September, the farm has been planting cabbages, Chinese cabbages/wombok, carrots, broccoli and green ice lettuce.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CbGN_M6ZX3KUVaX1B5dPxhGp4qcmrm6L/view?usp=sharing

“ It is not the first typhoon to destroy my greenhouses and it won’t be the last. In cases like this we do what we have always done, we replant and rebuild”.

Disaster strikes in one way or another and at times there is just no other way to avoid them especially if the disaster comes in the form of a typhoon by mother nature. With the series of typhoons passing through the Philippines, Mrs. Ganayan has taken an extra precaution of tying the greenhouses down especially with the news of the super typhoon Rolly. What happened next came as a surprise when the most damaged incurred was caused not by Rolly but by the typhoon that preceded it, typhoon Ulyses. Only two out of the previous eleven greenhouses survived the raging strong winds and one of them actually got uprooted and moved. With the decline of the business caused by the pandemic coupled with the damages from a slew of typhoons, one would feel that the situation has proved hopeless. Regardless of the situation, the owners of the Norther Blossom Flower Farm decided to stay positive and to keep on trying. Mrs. Ganayan continues to plant seeds for next year and has decided to plant flowers again in the hopes of producing enough supply for the coming 2021 Valentines Day. In her own words “ It is not the first typhoon to destroy my greenhouses and it won’t be the last. In cases like this we do what we have always done, we replant and rebuild”.

Irsle Fernel Ganayan - CAS 101

[texanredrose]

All the Steps

Yang couldn't help but smile, watching her girlfriend fidget out of the corner of her eye. Seeing the typically calm and poised Specialist Winter Schnee genuinely nervous already made for a peculiar sight but add to that the way she kept smoothing her hands down her pant legs and picking nonexistent lint from the fabric pushed the situation from concerning to amusing for the blonde.

"You're freaking yourself out, you know," she said, failing to keep the smile from her voice as the woman jolted in the passenger seat of her sporty little coupe. Yang hadn't put up much fuss when Winter insisted they leave Bumblebee behind but being asked to do the driving raised a red flag or two. She didn't mind, of course, seeing as she got a kick out of driving itself- two wheels or four, didn't matter. However, her girlfriend preferred being in control when it came to the car and only ever abstained when she wanted to make especially clear that she trusted the blonde fully or when her thoughts tended towards the heavy side. Given the quiet ride, she had the distinct impression it was a bit of both this time. "It's going to be fine, Winter. We've made it through much worse than this."

"I know that but I've never done this, Yang." The woman sighed, catching herself combating imaginary wrinkles and instead curling her hands into fists atop her thighs to stop the anxious gesture. "It's a big step. Comparatively speaking."

"Really?" She glanced over, cracking a smile before returning her gaze to the road. "First date, first kiss, first time sleeping together- and not in that exact order- those were the small steps?"

"You know what I mean." Despite the lack of laughter, the woman seemed to relax a little. "Before, the only opinions that mattered were our own. This invites others to give theirs, and that's not something to be taken lightly."

The blonde hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the point. Three years ago, she might've laughed at the thought of someone's opinion having any real bearing on her, but then Beacon fell and she lost her arm trying to protect her best friend from a madman. After wading through a pit of despair and pulling herself together enough to get back into the fight, Yang had a much firmer grasp on the detrimental impact a few choice words could have on a person. The past year of their relationship, free of the struggle to keep that demon witch from plunging the world into darkness and shadow, had strengthened her faith in the Atlesian, so she didn't fear that today might bring an end to their relationship; at the same time, no reason to burn those bridges if they didn't have to, though keeping their relationship low key had become a burden in recent months.

"You think they won't like me?" Yang kept her tone light despite the small tendril of concern worming its way into her heart. Weiss hadn't spoken of her family- save Winter- with much fondness over the years, so she had some idea of the lions' den they would be entering. She'd come to terms with the idea that following through on the assurances she'd given to her teammate years ago would never come to pass, or at least not in the same manner; while she doubted the sisters would hold it against her, punching their father straight in his face didn't seem like the best way to make a first- or subsequent- impression.

A hand appeared on her wrist, gently pulling her hand from the steering wheel so their fingers could interlace. "It doesn't matter if they do or do not, Sundrop. We make each other happy and that's what should matter." The woman sighed, giving her metallic hand a reassuring squeeze. "I just... would greatly prefer if they see you the way I do."

"As a drop dead sexy, hilarious bombshell, you mean?" The blonde flashed a smile while slowing down for a red light.

"As a caring, compassionate, strong and vibrant companion who makes me very happy," Winter replied, raising their joined hands to brush a kiss against the prosthetic, somehow making her blush slightly as the car came to a complete stop. The sensors weren't quite that sensitive- she certainly couldn't feel the light pressure or the texture of her girlfriend's lips- but it never failed to make her heart skip a beat when the woman treated her artificial limb as though it was real. Not to say that she ignored the prosthetic's presence, of course, but she didn't show favoritism to either hand the way others tended to, either falling on the side that found artificial limbs disturbing or those who found them a bit too... interesting. "Plus all those other things."

"Aw, you think I'm hilarious?" Now in no danger of causing a wreck, Yang leaned over and drew her girlfriend into a proper kiss, their lips sliding together with practiced ease. Even after the kiss broke, they stayed close, foreheads touching as they looked into each other's eyes. "See, this is why I Schneed to keep you around. You're great for my ego."

Xiao Long are you going to keep this up?" The woman raised a brow, a smile curling her lips. "You keep me around for more than just your ego's sake, and we both know it."

"Well, you're quite the Specialist when it comes to making me happy." She managed to sneak another kiss before the light changed and her attention returned to the road, though their hands remained clasped on the arm rest between them. "You're strong, stubborn, perceptive- I could keep going, but you're especially confident in your decisions, and you decided to stick with me. Anyone who truly cares about you will respect that." She paused. "Unless I screw this up somehow. Then, they'll help you with an air tight alibi and a six foot ditch."

"Morbid, but not untrue," Winter said, a sigh slipping past her lips. "You're right. I'm worrying over nothing. This meeting changes nothing no matter how it goes; it's just a polite formality and everything will be fine."

"That's the spirit," she said as they pulled up to a fancy restaurant in downtown Vale, the sleek coupe left running as valets came to open both doors. The duo split their time between a small, cramped officer's quarters on Winter's assigned base in Mistral and an apartment near the newly reconstructed Beacon grounds. On occasion, Winter went back to the Schnee estate in Atlas on her own while the blonde went to Patch to see her Dad, and they hadn't quite decided on where to dettle down when the time came. They agreed moving between two or three kingdoms wouldn't be good in the long term, especially for little ones, but Winter's position in the military only offered so many opportunities for stabilization, and there weren't any open in Atlas or Vale. For the moment, they'd agreed to table the discussion until they tired of the traveling or their feelings on the matter dramatically changed, but Yang found herself itching to bring the topic up again soon. She might still be five years shy of the big three-oh, but with that milestone coming up next year for her girlfriend, the idea of starting their own family seemed... well, appropriate. She thought, anyway. Tearing her thoughts away from that tangent, lilac eyes traced over the marble facade of the building, letting out a low whistle. "Man, this place is classy, huh?"

"It's the best restaurant in Vale that serves traditional favorites, even those little desert cakes you love. I thought it appropriate." The woman stepped up beside her, offering an arm. "You deserve the best."

"Guess that's why I have you," she replied, linking their arms together with a bright smile. "I love you, Snowdrift."

"And I, you, Sundrop."

After exchanging a quick kiss, they proceeded up the steps with Yang's off hand lifting the hem of her dress just a little. Although she didn't share her sister's disdain for 'lady stilts', the blonde still didn't wear dresses or heels often enough and enjoyed the excuse to trade her typical Huntress attire- perfect for just about any occasion, as it greatly mimicked Winter's military uniform nowadays, with white lining the edges of her coat- for a simple yellow sundress and a bit of jewelry. Nothing fancy, just a chain around her neck and some nice earrings, but she'd put in effort to at least look not entirely out of place among plush carpet and marble columns, soft strings and hushed chatter.

However, with the blink of an eye, her mind suddenly shoved a memory forward- from when they'd returned to Beacon's ruins, had trekked down the very road outside the restaurant and seen with their own eyes the damage wrought during the Fall, and suddenly that imagery became her reality. When she opened her eyes, she tensed, unsure how the broken walls had suddenly rebuilt themselves, the restaurant's trademark no longer in smashed pieces across the foyer but hanging above the host's stand on display, and the pristine white carpet beneath her had lost its blood stains. A lance of hot pain shot through her right arm, making her fingertips tingle- except, she hadn't had proper fingertips in years, but that didn't stop her wince.

"Yang? Are you alright?" Concern colored her girlfriend's voice, white brows pinching together while she soothingly rubbed at the skin just above her anchor with her right hand, the woman's left arm seeming ready to quickly wrap around her if need be.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She covered gentle fingers with her own, a tight smile on her lips. "Just some phantom pain, that's all."

"Did you bring your medicine?" They stopped short of the podium and Yang wouldn't put it past her love to turn them around and head back to the apartment to retrieve the pills in a heartbeat.

"Left it in my jacket," she replied, anticipating the lecture she was sure to receive for that oversight. In her defense, she'd never liked carrying purses and her scroll had been built into her arm since the third iteration, so she didn't exactly think to carry anything with her usually. Had she worn her usual outfit, this might've been avoided, but catching their reflections in a mirror set in the entryway- Winter in a crisp pantsuit, tailored jacket accenting her figure while the white and gold made blue eyes pop, beside her, a soft dress coupled with hard won muscles and the gleaming metal of her prosthetic- reminded her that a little inconvenience was worth it. Besides, the episodes passed quickly enough, and already the images had faded from the front of her mind. "It's nothing, I promise."

Her girlfriend frowned, concerned blue eyes flicking over the blonde's form before she sighed. "I should've reminded you. I usually do, but I've been so distracted recently." She leaned over and pressed a kiss against Yang's temple. "We can always reschedule this. We can leave right now-"

"Snowdrift," she said, a chuckle escaping as she leaned into the woman's side, forehead brushing against Winter's cheek. "I'm fine. It's just a bit of bad memories touched with phantom pain, nothing worth stressing over. And this is just lunch; if it gets worse, I'll let you know, okay?"

Although reluctant to do so, her girlfriend ultimately relented with a soft smile and drew her into a gentle embrace. "Promise me you'll say something before it gets too bad. I know you like to tough it out, but you really don't have to today, okay?"

"Okay." Yang smiled as lips pressed against the top of her head. Sometimes, she really couldn't believe how, after all the pain, she'd done enough things right to warrant this happy outcome. "On the plus side, if things get awkward, we have an excuse to leave."

She both felt and heard the woman's chuckle. "Indeed we do."

The soft clearing of a gruff throat, however, reminded both of them that they weren't alone, though neither seemed in a hurry to break the embrace. Still, Yang did her best to marshal her thoughts now that they'd arrived at the moment of truth, her posture stiffening every so slightly. Thankfully, it seemed like her girlfriend didn't mind the interruption, no little bit of anxiety shooting through her as she remained relaxed and content, even while moving to acknowledge the newcomer. Gathering her courage, Yang turned and did her best to hide her surprise.

She expected Jacques, the forceful, controlling, downright lovely bastard who considered himself head of the Schnee family- or at least, he did up until a few years ago. Weiss had managed to back the man into a corner after Salem's defeat and reclaimed the family business, estate, and name, much to his bitter disappointment. Between sisters, she'd yet to hear a kind word said about the man; out of all the things that could happen today, the blonde had promised herself that causing her girlfriend's father bodily harm wouldn't be one of them. At least, she would try.

So, to say Yang was surprised when she turned and found, rather than the bitter old man she'd yet to meet, a distantly familiar face proved to be a massive understatement.

"Thank you for coming, Sir," Winter said as she stepped away and offered her hand.

"I wouldn't miss this for anything." General Ironwood, the block jawed military man who'd detained Yang during the Vytal Festival what felt like another lifetime ago, took the woman's hand and gave a gentle tug, his other arm wrapping around the woman's shoulder. "And we're both on leave and out of uniform. Until we're back on duty, James will suffice. It's good to see you, Winter."

Before the woman could reply- though she didn't miss the little smile on her lips at the familiar address- another man approached. He was a bit on the short side and balding on top with gray eyes, wearing a smart suit that spoke of class rather than power, so definitely not Jacques either. "Speaking of leave, the time off is doing wonders for you, my dear." James released her and stepped back, allowing the man to wrap Winter up in a hug without hesitation. "This is the happiest I've seen you in years!"

"There's good reason for that." Blue eyes fell on the blonde, her smile beaming and proud. "Allow me to introduce my girlfriend, Yang Xiao Long. Yang, this is General James Ironwood, my superior officer, and Klein Haskoff, who raised Weiss and I."

Snapping out of her confusino, she smiled at the men and shook their hands- initially reaching forward with her left before switching to the right when the General seemed to wordlessly insist. Klein didn't seem the least bit concerned about which hand she used. "Pleasure to meet both of you. Properly, anyway."

"Indeed, and I'm glad this time is under better circumstances." James offered a smile.

"Absolutely charmed, my dear." Klein nodded towards the host. "But a strapping young woman like yourself is probably hungry, no?"

Winter chuckled fondly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're on vacation. Let someone else worry about everyone's well being for a change."

"She's right," the General said, waving a hand. "But I think we're all ready for a good meal and the majority of us are supposed to be relaxing. Let's all go sit down." As James led the older man towards the awaiting host, he bent down, though he did a poor job of lowering his voice. "If we're lucky, we might hear her laugh again before the meal is through."

"Ah, it's a good sound to hear!" The shorter man sighed. "Between her and her sister, I'd begun to worry they'd forget to laugh at some point. It's good to see them both so happy now."

As everyone began following the host, Yang looked around, slightly confused.

"Is something the matter, Sundrop?" Winter made her inquiry with a soft voice as they both dropped back a bit, allowing the two men to talk between themselves.

"Well, not really, it's just..." The blonde sighed, opting to bite the bullet. "Where's your dad?"

"Still in prison, thankfully," her girlfriend replied, a slight furrow to her brows. "His appeal failed."

Made sense; Jacques had racked up quite a few charges by the time Salem fell and Weiss' evidence against him proved too damn good. However, she hadn't expected the Atlesian judicial system to take such rigorous measures as sticking to the initial sentencing- by this point, she would've expected house arrest or something of the like. "And your mom?"

"If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say drunk in a garden at Schnee Manor." She frowned. "Thank you for bringing that up. Although harmless, I've been meaning to talk to Weiss about that. It's far past time for her to quit drinking. Perhaps I could enlist Qrow's assistance; he just reached his one year mark, did he not?"

"Yeah, he made it, got the pin and everything. Still sober, too." She blinked, more confused with each answer. "What about your brother?"

Winter came to a dead stop and looked at her then, absolutely baffled. "Who?"

"Whitley? Your brother?" The blonde raised a hand to just below her collarbone. "This tall, kinda a huge douche, I called him 'Shitley' to his face for the whole celebration after we beat Salem?"

"You said you were drunk."

"No, I said I had a few drinks; I knew damn well what I was doing." Yang sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I thought that's what had you so stressed out when you brought up introducing me to your family. Figured it'd be kinda hard to win them over but I was going to give it a shot."

"I neither want nor need their approval; as I said, my... hesitations-" the woman rolled her eyes at the pointed look shot her way "-my anxieties, stemmed purely from the idea that my personal and public life will now be intertwined. I've been very good about keeping them separate since I left Schnee Manor to attend Atlas Academy. This is an adjustment but one I'm more than willing to make."

"Still, what about your blood relatives?" Yang bit her lip and offered a small shrug. "We're going to have to cross that bridge eventually, too. Right?"

Winter remained silent for a moment before speaking, her voice soft. "I've found that blood can mean many things. It can give life, bind people together, and even signal death. What it is not, however, is an excuse. My father and brother turned their backs on Weiss when she needed them most and mother was never there for her to begin with." Her lips drew into a tight line, the only sign of her anger she would allow. "Just because they share a blond bond with me doesn't mean I must forgive them their transgressions or include them in my life." Blue eyes darted towards the reserved table the host had brought James and Klein to, menus being placed on the settings as a waiter brought over a pitcher of water. The man continued talking to each other, obviously aware of their absence but making no move to acknowledge the hushed conversation. "These men have been better parents to me than Jacques and Willow." She sighed, a slight groan slipping past her lips. "And don't tell him I said this, but Qrow's been a better brother than Shitley ever was." Yang did her best to stifle her giggle, causing her girlfriend's expression to break into a soft smile. "Weiss and I made our decisions shortly after Salem's defeat. All of Remnant is rebuilding- replacing the old and destroyed with new and better. We did, too." She reached out then, guiding the blonde's arms to wrap around her waist, one hand lifting up to cup Yang's cheek while the other rest on her anchor, two fingers on flesh and two on metal. "We will fill our lives with those who care for us and for whom we will go to the ends of this world and the next to protect. Our family are those who supported us in our darkest times, our friends are those who fought beside us against unimaginable odds, and our loves are those who holds our hearts so dear. You are my love and my friend, Sundrop. So, come, meet the rest of my family."

Yang smiled, tears stinging at her eyes. "Yeah. Okay." She leaned forward for a kiss, squeezing the woman's waist a little. "I love you, Winter."

"And I love you, Yang."

They stayed like that for a moment more, locked in a gentle embrace, before the blonde reluctantly pulled away, taking her girlfriend's hand and threading their fingers together. "Let's go."

They joined the two men at the table, all of them smiling as they struck up a conversation that veered between pleasant remarks about Remnant's rebuilding efforts and shop talk regarding either the military or the Academies, and she didn't miss the few, vague inquiries into whether or not Winter would be renewing her commitment to the Atlesian military and the equally vague assurances that she hadn't decided yet. All the food was delicious- though Yang was willing to bet she could cook a better steak- but the company even better, and they stayed for a good two hours before opting to head out. Apparently, Klein had a little sight seeing he wanted to do before heading to Menagerie to having dinner with Weiss; apparently, both sisters had decided for a 'meet the family' meal that week, though Klein had spoken with Blake many times over the past few years.

Yang couldn't help but laugh at that, finally aware of why her partner seemed so on edge recently, likely thinking along the same lines she had. However, rather than give away the surprise, the blonde promised not to mention it, and gladly joined her girlfriend on giving the man a tour of Vale from one who'd spearheaded the recovery efforts, right alongside her sister. After a quick scroll message, she even managed to get a private tour of Beacon courtesy of Ruby, who seemed absolutely ecstatic to meet Klein in person.

All in all, when they settled down for bed that night- her prosthetic laying on the bedside table and Winter's arm wrapped around her waist, Yang had to smile to herself.

Maybe it was time to invite Winter back to Patch, introduce her to Taiyang properly- they'd talked via scroll a few times, but one of the three of them always seemed to be needed elsewhere any time they tried meeting before.

And, maybe... it was time to go a little further than that.

The following night, Yang sat at her makeshift workbench in the little study- tinkering with Ember Celica's attachment to her prosthetic and trying hard not to curse as her left hand wasn't very good at doing such fine, detailed work- when her scroll began to ring. Reaching over, she tapped at the answer icon without looking at the ID. "Yello?"

"Yang." Blake's voice sounded... well,a mixture of things, like she was confused, overwhelmed, lovestruck and, ultimately, completely in awe, all at once. While the Faunus herself was enough to pull her attention away from her work for the moment, Yang found herself more interested in what, exactly, would prompt that before she remembered lunch from the day before.

"So, how'd meeting Weiss' family go?" She smiled wide, looking at the screen to see that her partner looked exactly like she sounded, expression frozen in something akin to shock but with that little tilt to her ears that only seemed to occur around Weiss. "He didn't give you a hard time now, did he?"

"You knew?" Blake blinked. "Of course you did; he came from visiting you, didn't he?"

"Yup." Yang laughed, shaking her head as the gears continued to spin without catching in her friend's head. "You're really that surprised? Klein's a nice guy, Blakey. And, ya know, James wasn't so bad either. He's actually a lot more chill than I would've thought when the world isn't being threatened by a being of nigh pure evil."

Her friend looked confused at first and then even moreso. "James?"

"Oh, right- I mean General Ironwood."

"The Faunus' ears perked up. "You two are on a first name basis now?"

"When he's off duty." She glanced at the clock, noting the late hour. Her girlfriend had to run to the outpost to file some report or other- a minor emergency she'd not been happy about before she left-and should be returning soon. "I got to spend a little time with him. He treats Winter like a daughter, and I think she looks up to him as a dad, just like Klein. The four of us had lunch together yesterday and talked. It was nice."

"Just the four of you?"

"Yeah, why?" Her gaze came back to the scroll, brows furrowing. "Who all did Weiss introduce you to?"

"Well, Klein for one." The confusion and lovestruck came back in full force. "Then she introduced me to my parents." Yang snorted; in hindsight, they both probably should've expected that. Team RWBY had enough reunions in every kingdom due to their differing paths after Salem's defeat that Yang had become just as familiar with Mama and Papa Belladonna as the others, the Faunus always welcoming to their daughter's friends and thankful to them for bringing the whole team back intact. "And then she introduced me to Taiyang."

She couldn't help but blink. "... uh, what?"

"I'm not even kidding, Yang." Blake's expression morphed back as a little bit of fear crept into her voice, clearly overwhelmed by what she was about to say. "Your dad showed up and it really got me thinking."

Snapping out of the momentary breakdown of synapses in her brain, the blonde shook her head and refocused on the screen. "About what, partner?"

"I really don't think I can go back at this point. Weiss is... she's part of me now."

"Yeah..." Lilac eyes scanned the room, military order somehow juxtaposed with her own messy tendencies rather well- a half empty bottle of wine from the night before still sitting on the table while the glasses were drying on the rack in the kitchen, Winter's desk kept nice and clean while Yang's workbench had smudges from oil worked into the wood, a single bookcase with technical manuals, military training aides, and a few books of fiction that one, the other, or both enjoyed. Imagining her girlfriend's part of the room taken away, erased... she honestly had a hard time picturing it. "I know what you mean."

"Mom and Dad already call her their 'other daughter' and I think... it's time to make that official." Amber eyes turned hard, just like whenever the Faunus made a decision that she would see through to the end come hell or high water. "Seeing everyone together tonight- it really drove home how we've banded together and made this... little communal family of our own between everyone. And I know everyone can take one look at our kids and know that Weiss and I are their parents but... I want more, and seeing everyone together- thinking of how all our individual bloodlines come together, it just drove the point home. I love Weiss like no one else. It's time everyone knew that." She nodded, more for her own benefit- or perhaps to be appropriately dramatic, tough to say- before continuing. "I'm going to propose. At this point, the White Fang can survive without my direct supervision and I can turn my focus to personal matters. I don't want to keep going through life, saying I'm going to eventually do it; that time's come. I'm going to ask Weiss to marry me." Her ears and shoulders fell slightly. "Which, actually, brings me to why I was really calling, aside from thinking you had something to do with this- are you free any time next week? I need to go ring shopping."

At that, the blonde couldn't help but bark out a laugh. "You need to go shopping?"

"Look, I might've known I was going to eventually marry her for a while but-"

"But, you and her are workaholics who only pry yourselves away from your jobs when Ruby and I break out the crowbars, like the excellent friends we are," she said, getting up from the workbench. "Hold on one sec."

Yang shouldered her way through the study's door, heading for the living room. The apartment wasn't much- two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen/dining room- but it had only just started to feel too cramped. Of course, any talk of moving would bring up the whole 'where do we actually want to settle down' thing, which she still hadn't touched yet, wanting to savor the majority of Winter's leave for the moment. Plus, she knew the woman would prefer a little time alone to really think things through and process, especially something as huge as deciding where to stake their claim. Atlas and Vale were strong contenders, but Winter had grown fond of Mistral during her time stationed there, and even then the specific location would vary, like Patch or Vale proper.

Kneeling down by the couch, she lifted it up and set the edge on her shoulder, not even bothered by the timing of it all and more than practiced at doing so for a variety of reasons, the main one ensuring that her little hiding spot wasn't uncovered. After recovering the little box from a carefully made rip in the bottom of the couch, the blonde set down the furniture with a dull thump and went back to the study. Using her mouth, she pried open the box and sat back down, turning it so the contents were on display for her scroll.

Blake's eyes went wide. "You... how long?"

"I picked it up last year," she said softly, turning the box back around to admire the ring inside. Inlaid with diamonds so it could be worn under the woman's gloves but also with a thin chain, to be worn around the neck. It also had precise carvings in the band- a dragon and a wolf, hearkening back to a joke she'd made when they first met- a glittering sapphire in the wolf's eye and an amethyst in the dragon's as they touched noses to the big diamond in the center of the ring. "The guy who made it does good work. Took a bit to save up the money but... it's worth it."

"And you haven't asked yet?" The Faunus looked concerned, lips turned down in the corners.

Yang laughed. "Look who's talking!" She set the box down on the table and waved off the reply she could see her partner preparing, a teasing smile on her lips. "You honestly think Weiss would've let you live it down if I proposed first?" Her expression softened. "We've had a lot going on the past few years. Even if I'm sure, it wasn't the right time. Too much going on, not enough space to think- I went with my gut." She glanced down at the ring box. "But now? I've had time to think it through, and I'm definitely sure. This is what I want. She's... everything to me." Shaking her head, the blonde looked at her friend with a wide smile. "Anyway, I didn't drag this out for bragging; I still have the guy's number. Think you can whip up a design?"

"Yeah, I can do that." Blake chuckled, reaching up to tuck a lock behind her lower ear. "We're... really going to do this, huh?"

"Hey, Ruby doesn't have a monopoly on chasing down fairytale endings." She closed the box, smiling at the screen. "Drop by anytime next week. Winter leaves to go back to Atlas on Saturday and classes don't start for another month, so I'll be free."

"Deal." The Faunus smiled just as wide, her feline ears twitching erratically. "I'll make the arrangements tomorrow."

"Sounds good, partner." She waved. "I'll catch you later."

Yang got up, heading back to the couch to replace the ring when she heard the telltale sounds of a key being slid into the lock on the front door. She immediately shoved the ring box into the pocket of her pants and prayed the baggy, around-the-house wear would keep it from being obvious as Winter pushed through the door.

"Oh, good, you're still awake," the woman said, quickly shedding her jacket and tossing it towards the coat rack- an abnormal action, to accompany her odd statement.

"Yeah, it's hardly- mmph!" The blonde found her reply cut short by lips pressed against hers, eyes falling shut as she fell into the embrace like a comfortable bed, relishing the restrained embrace that accompanied it, like it took conscious effort to keep her girlfriend from squeezing too hard. When they parted, she felt a bit lightheaded and couldn't help but laugh. "Well, someone's in a good mood. I guess everything went well with the report?"

Winter opened her mouth but stopped, eyes flicking about as she seemed to grasp for an answer. Finally, her gaze fell on the anchor. "You're likely in the middle of your routine but... do you think it can wait a while? The explanation is a bit... long and involved." She paused. "Perhaps it would be better to wait-"

"Nuh uh, it's not often you're this excited." Yang laughed, grabbing her girlfriend by the hand and pulling her down onto the couch, absolutely unsurprised when she found herself pulled into the other woman's lap and lips pressing against her neck and collarbone. Reaching up, she lightly pulled at the pins keeping Winter's hair in its strict bun, the whole thing becoming looser until she could unwind it entirely, depositing each bobby pin on the coffee table behind her while hands roamed over her back, tracing along the tense muscles that had started to knot from an hour spent working on her prosthetic. Once freed, she ran her hand through silky white strands, smoothing out the waves and kinks that developed from being tied up in a severe bun all day. "So how long you gonna keep me in suspense, hmmm? Or do I get to guess?"

"I don't think you could." Her head tilted up, trailing kisses along the blonde's jaw for a moment before pulling back enough to look in each other's eyes. "Mainly because I wasn't entirely truthful about the cause for my absence."

She raised a brow. "So, there wasn't a report that needed to be filed?"

"Not exactly. Headquarters finally made their decision on my options." Winter's hands settled on her hips, smiles coming to both of them easily. "My window just opened up, so I can put in for a new contract with the Atlesian military. They sent me the options I have available and it's... better than I could've hoped for."

"Did you get that promotion?" Yang did her best to keep her excitement in check, not wanting to guess incorrectly and sour the woman's mood.

"No, but I'm glad for it." She leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the blonde's cheek to soothe her. "There's six positions to consider and I'd like your input on which I should take." Before she could object, a finger pressed against her lips. "All of them are roughly the same- I'd be doing essentially what I do now- but some have some... special assignments I wouldn't be opposed to undertaking."

She mulled the thought over. "So, what's the difference, then? How long they last?"

"No, they're all the same commitment length." Winter paused, some of her excitement sliding away as she turned serious. "I know we've opted to avoid discussing long term living arrangements for a while now but... that's where the difference lies. Each position is largely the same, but differing locations. Well, except one, which is considerably different, but something I specifically requested."

Although she couldn't truly know what reaction her girlfriend expected, the wide smile that spread across the blonde's face probably wasn't it. However, she also couldn't hide her excitement at being confronted with the very topic she wanted to address; seems like an all too perfect coincidence. "Well, we're not going to get much farther talking about anything until it's all laid out. Hit me with what you've got." Before the explanation started, her girlfriend captured her lips in another kiss, reaching up to gently cup Yang's cheek. When they parted, she let out a breathless laugh. "You're really trying to butter me up, huh?"

"I'd like to think I'm setting a suitable baseline." Slowly and carefully, fingers carded through golden strands. "Some of these suggestions you might not like, so think of how happy you are right now. Whichever options gets closest to this or surpasses it, that's the one I should take, correct?"

"Oh? So this is just based on me?" She leaned their foreheads together. "What about you?"

Winter inhaled deeply, letting her breath out slowly. "I've opted to take a break from focusing on my career for the time being. At this stage, I can linger in my current rate without suffering ill effects, I make more than enough lien to cover my expenses, and I enjoy the work I do. It means no more promotions in the near future and I'm perfectly fine with that." Her voice lowered slightly. "So, realistically, any option I take will suit my needs. What matters is how they affect you and us, and your assistance is instrumental in determining that."

"Alright," she replied, sneaking a little kiss of her own. "Lay it on me."

"There's a position at Atlas military headquarters, in the heart of the capital city. There's one at an outpost in western Vale, near the Vacuon border, and another on the coast just outside the city. There's also one at a small island off the coast of Menagerie." The woman paused. "Those, obviously, are mostly instructor positions, where I would be overseeing integrated training between Atlesian and local forces. Except the first- there, I'd be coordinating those training posts."

"Well, that's four." Yang wanted to jump ahead and cast her vote for the coastal Vale position but refrained by the barest margins. Either her girlfriend had saved the best for last or the worst. "What about the other two."

"Well, one would be taking an instructor position at Atlas Academy. It's a nine-to-five position, for the most part, with rotating duty on the nights and weekends." Winter licked her lips. "The other is the same schedule... but at Beacon Academy."

Her eyes widened, mouth popping open in surprise. She probably looked like a fish out of water but the blonde managed to snap out of it quickly. "Wait, really? That last one? You- you can-"

"James finalized the possibility of a transfer yesterday after we had lunch." A hint of smugness infected her expression, one brow raising. "And did you honestly think my airship got delayed four hours? I interviewed with the Beacon Headmaster the first day of my leave."

"Beacon Hea- you mean Ruby knew and she didn't tell me?" Yang feigned offense, leaning back and putting a hand to her chest. "My own sister and employer would keep such secrets?" A small pause. "Actually, I'm genuinely surprised she managed that."

Her girlfriend's laugh was bright and clear. "It wasn't a for sure thing until yesterday, when everyone agreed to the terms. But, I still haven't accepted-"

"Well, why not?" Her lips stretched into a wide smile. "We'd have the same schedule, mostly, and we could be together more outside of work." Lilac eyes darted around the room. "Plus, this place has started feeling a little... small, recently." She looked at Winter. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that. Seems like good timing, huh?"

In blue eyes, she could see a little glint of something- humor, maybe- as the woman nodded. "Serendipitous, even. We could start looking for houses tomorrow, Sundrop." Her expression turned serious again. "However, if this position is the one we agree I take, we will conduct ourselves as professionals in front of students. I want to make that clear now."

Yang made a show of pouting. "So, that means no quickies in the faculty lounge?"

"I didn't say that." A wicked little smirk came to the woman's lips, voice hitting that special timbre that never failed to get her heart beating a little faster. "There's no students in the faculty lounge, are there?"

"Maidens, I love the way you think," she said, catching another kiss from her girlfriend's lips. It continued on for a good, long while before they broke apart. "So. Let me get this straight. You have the option to come here to Vale and become a Professor at Beacon, just like me. And we can get a little house of our own, maybe on the outside of town?"

"No more long stretches away from each other. Dinner together almost every night." Winter traced a hand up her side. "No packet deadlines or field reports. Just you, me, and a few hundred students. An improvement, I think."

"How long until the transfer goes into effect?"

"I have the message ready to send on my scroll. After I accept, I have two more months before the paperwork gets finalized and half a year after that before it goes into effect. I would start at Beacon next year, just before initiation."

"What are the downsides? I mean besides the ones you already mentioned." Her lips pulled into a small frown, trying to see past her own excitement at how everything seemed to be working out. "There's gotta be a reason this hasn't come up before."

"Typically, Atlas is quite insistent on maintaining their numbers. James agreed that it's time to move away from that mentality and be more cooperative with the other kingdoms, so this is the test of a much larger program." The woman tilted her head, a twinkle coming to her eyes. "Really, the only downside that exists is that you won't have any more long stretches of alone time while I'm off in Mistral or elsewhere." A flicker of nostalgia crossed her expression. "I will miss it, of course, but I think it's time for a change of scenery anyway."

"When it comes to alone time, you usually like that more than I do." Yang pointed out.

"True." She nodded, pulling the blonde closer and speaking softly. "But my feelings on solidarity have changed recently. The more time I spend alone, the more time I spend missing you." A soft kiss. "I've changed my mind about the whole 'lone wolf' routine. Grown out of it, one might say." A smile. "And I can always run off to the Emerald Forest if I need a reminder of why I did that."

They both laughed. "What about teaching at Atlas? Would that keep you in the system?"

"Yes, but, that would make seeing you almost impossible during the school year." She winced. "Personally, it's my lowest ranked option, but it would leave us relatively free during the summer months."

"The Vale posts would keep you in the system too, right?" Yang probed a little deeper. "They're also closer."

"That's true, but the training schedules can be erratic. It wouldn't be a sure thing like a teaching position."

"You're trying to talk me out of these other options, Snowdrift." The blonde narrowed her eyes, a smirk coming to her lips. "You already made your decision, didn't you?"

"I have my hopes but I do want to make this decision together." Her girlfriend sighed, dropping all pretense. "I pushed for the Beacon position because I thought that would be the best option for us. I still enjoy my work and this is a compromise; I've no doubt I'll be called upon for something or other by the military, but the majority of my time will be given to Beacon. That means a steady schedule and proximity to you- two things I want very much." She leaned forward, placing a kiss just above the hollow of the blonde's throat. "I've done enough for Atlas and Remnant right now. I want to be selfish. I want to be here, with you, but I understand if you'd rather us not share a place of employment."

Lilac eyes flicked over to where she'd hurriedly stashed the engagement ring. Apparently, they both had reached that stage of wanting more but tried to approach it as if they didn't throw themselves headfirst into every decision they made. Feigning caution when it seemed so unnatural for them; sometimes, they were so alike, it was funny. If Blake got her act together, she'd probably be proposing by the middle of the school year, and Yang wouldn't be far behind. Maybe wait until they'd moved in together officially, or after Weiss and Blake married. Then again, there wasn't a time limit on engagements; they could stay engaged throughout the younger Schnee's wedding process and set the actual date for themselves much later.

And that reminded her. "Have you talked to Weiss about it?"

"I did- when we were discussing Klein meeting our respective girlfriends, we talked about our near term plans." She paused for a moment, briefly debating with herself before continuing. "Act surprised when you find out but I'm quite certain she plans on proposing soon."

"Really?" Yang chuckled. "She already has a ring?"

"Not yet, as far as I'm aware."

"Well, just between us, Blakey's on the same wavelength." She shrugged. "We're going ring shopping next week. Promised I'd help her out." Her expression lit up as a beautiful idea crossed her mind. "Hey, what if we played both side of it and made sure they propose to each other the same night? How romantic would that be?"

A brow raised. "You think that sounds romantic?"

"Yeah!" The blonde chuckled, brushing their noses together. "I mean, think about it. Them both being nervous because of what they're about to ask, and then one starts, fumbling over the words, and the other clues in and gets ready. Then, one gets down on a knee and asks, and the other just blubbers and asks too- doesn't that sound like an adorable mess?" In her mind's eye, she could see Weiss being the first to actually getting the words out and Blake being overcome with emotions- relief and love and so much else- and the two of them turning into happy, teary eyed saps on the floor beside a candle lit table at some fancy restaurant while the wait staff pretends it's just another night. "Mutual proposals are those things that only seem to ever happen in the books Blake reads but, with our help, they could have that, ya know?"

"I suppose that sounds rather nice." Winter furrowed her brows for a moment, nodded, and then smiled. "Alright, then, Sundrop. They might be a little upset with us initially, but I can see how neither beating the other to the punch could work out rather well. I'll do my part and motivate Weiss to start looking for a ring."

"And I'll let you know of any engaging news to come from Blakey." Her girlfriend laughed and Yang beamed. It just seemed like everything would fall into place. Maybe it wasn't picture perfect but, damnit, it still seemed like paradise after the hell they'd walked through.

"Well, I propose that we make our decision and celebrate." The woman cast a glance over the back of the couch. "We still have some wine left, yes? We could order in from that Vacuon place you like, watch a movie, and cuddle up on the couch."

"Well, I've got no problem with you working at Beacon, and the whole 'living together in a bigger place' thing sounds right up my alley." Her eyes flicked back over to the ring box. "I mean, if you're good with it, I'm good with it... seems like that's already decided, right?" She smirked. "And I'm not hungry yet. Maybe we should... work up an appetite first?"

Winter chuckled, low in her throat as she leaned forward, lightly nipping at the blonde's earlobe. "What, my dear, do you mean by that?"

"You're smart, Snowdrift," she said, easing herself off her girlfriend's lap and heading towards the bedroom with an extra little sway to her hips. "You'll figure it out." Yang made it three steps before the woman swept up behind her, arms around her waist and lips against her bare shoulder. She couldn't stop the giggle that burst forth, her feet leaving the ground as Winter picked her up and spun her once before setting her back down. "Wow, you're really excited about this, huh?"

"Admittedly, moreso than I can articulate," her girlfriend replied, holding her and smiling against the side of her neck. "It just... seems like something a long time coming. A step we've taken in half measure before now but finally embracing fully. It's liberating, in a way." Yang reached up, threading her fingers through the woman's hair and smiling until it hurt, because Winter habitually moved her head to whichever side would be easiest for the blonde to reach and that never failed to warm her heart. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow. And every day after."

Now that the woman couldn't see where her gaze landed, lilac eyes fell on her temporary hiding spot as she spoke. "Yeah. Me too."

[lucindarobinsonvevo]

heres an au i just spent the last 3 hours discussing with Wart: A Cool World au.

Cool World for the uninformed, is like a darker and edgier Roger Rabbit that was a massive flop of the 90s but had a pretty cool premise. It involves Holli Would, and theres lots of sex and animation. Like waterworld, if waterworld was about cartoon sex and had brad pitt in it.

Matthew Lawson, a forcibly retired cop, takes up drawing to ease some of his anger, and creates a comic series 'Cool World' which tells the tales of a cynical young-ish constable named Charlie Davis. Over time, he creates a wider word of more bizzare characters. He also falls more then a little in love with his dashing young protagonist. He tries a few times to give Charlie a love interest, but every time he cannot because Charlie is only ever really Charlie if he's going in a tale spin, smoking and solving cases.  He often sees Charlie in his dreams, like an apparition, who he speaks with and dances with on occasion.

 Cool World is a part of a separate dimension, where all the characters created by man live. Cool World characters like Charlie, but also Mattie and Jean, live in this strange, hell ish dimension where everything is anarchy, drugs and in bad taste, all the time. There are also lands for childrens cartoons/disney-ish cartoons and other various forms of animation, including 'unfinishds' It’s populus is known as ‘doodles’ 2 dimensional beings who starred in those projects. Noids,  who create them, live in another dimension.

Lucien Blake was accidentally transported to this dimension from just after world war two, and after losing his wife and daughter. the anarchy and all around weirdness of this world had him enthralled, especially because everything is 'unpermenant' so if you die, you dont really die.

Except Lucien

he can still, very much, die

 Lucien was brought to this dimension by our big bads, Alderton and Munro, who want to mix their hell-ish landscape with the real world and consequently, rule it

 Lucien also brought into the 'ink' dimension a pen, which is now the most dangerous weapon in the

world, as it is the only thing that can kill a 'doodle' permanently, which makes him a feared man. Enough so that Munro and Alderton leave him alone

 Jean Beazley was created as a world war one propaganda poster about farmers wives picking up the burden or something like that. She is basically the person who runs the local club the only place where doodles with an inch of sanity hang. She's motherly, and quick to adopt doodles in need of a good influence. She is sweet on Lucien Blake, and Lucien is sweet on her. Like in the movie, they can't do the do because that's how a doodle becomes a noid and its against the rules

 Lucien runs the local PD, who are made of doodles from detective comics, to maintain some level of peace between the different groups. Charlie moonlights there on occasion, but as a well known hot mess he mostly spends time at the bar pining over Lawson, his creator.

And that is how he ends up hanging around with Munro and Alderton. He really, really just wants to meet Lawson. That's his initial motivation

 The spike, which was created by Alderton is the only way to get from one dimension to another. Charlie sneaks to the lab at night in an effort to use it to appear in Matthew's dreams to get to know him

Because Munro is a dick, he realizes that Matthew is the way to bridge the gap, he brings Matthew to their world, much to Charlie's delight. He even smiles a lil bit. Of course, shortly after, Munro kidnaps Charlie, and then uses Lucien's pen to essentially swap his body with someone else more willing to do their bidding

 Charlie, now disfigured and separated from Matthew, is trapped in a cellar under the town alone and slowly fading from existence because he was made unstable by the transfer

the only way to fix it is to use the pen to put all his lines back the way they were

 Matthew of course notices something is wrong right away, because New Charlie is too different from the one he fell in love with. He created Charlie and knows his mind better then he himself, but is convinced enough to make hot steamy love to him, causing fake Charlie to turn into a real man.

 Lucien, who was not convinced either, sets out on a mission to find Real Charlie, and he does eventually. Reaching for his pen, he is unable to find it, and he realizes that Munro must have stolen it. He carries Charlie back to his home, and sets off in search of the Pen

 Fake Charlie, as was part of the plan, has turned Munro and Alderton into real people. Using the spike, they rip open the dimensions and force the real world and Cool World to mix, with horrific monstrosities filling the streets

 Lucien sets off to find the pen while Matthew is left stunned by the betrayal of his best creation, until Lucien clues him in. Matthew is sent to go sit with Charlie, and figure out what needs to be redrawn.

 Of course Matthew and Charlie have a heart to heart about free choice and the nature of men and their creations. Charlie says that he is glad he got to meet Matthew at least once, and apologizes for what happened, because this was meant to be fun.

Jean and Lucien go to the real world, and can't get the pen back, but they can get a ball point from a local news stand, which they hope that Matthew can use

 Matthew does his best to re draw Charlie, and while he looks a bit worse for wear, Charlie is successfully re stabilized and they set off to save the day

After arriving at the building that Munro and Alderton are using to control the spike, they realize that they must destroy the spike, and that all the doodles will be sucked back to Cool World. This means Charlie, Lucien and Jean will only have a few minutes to make it back.

 During the fight that ensues, Lucien is electrocuted by the tower holding the spike and transformed into a doodle, while attempting to save the spike, fake Charlie stabs himself with it, and tries to crush real Charlie, who is transformed into a noid. While fighting, Matthew draw himself into a doodle in order to avoid death. The spike is ruined by Lucien crashing into it,and the dimension begins to close off.

Realizing that he has to go back to cool world, and Charlie will be forced to stay in the real world by Lucien, who thinks that their worlds need to be apart Matthew despairs.

 Charlie, feeling the same way tells Matthew "Noids and Doodles don't usually work out, anyhow" before stabbing himself in the leg with the last piece of the spike, and kissing him passionately.

This turns Matthew noid again, and Charlie back into a doodle. For one brief moment, they're both noids, and then both doodles, and then back how they started

 "You dont have to be so sad, Matthew. It's not like I'm goin' anywhere. As long as you keep drawing me, I'll keep being with you."

 He then takes a hold of Munro and Alderton to take back to Cool World to be punished. Matthew swears he'll find a way for them to see each other again, but Charlie just smiles sadly as the portal closes for good, waving goodbye.

 Once back in Cool World we see Munro and Alderton are now forced to live in the disney-eque town and must live by their rules, and the fake Charlie seems to have no face.

Jean and Lucien are married now and seemingly more in love then ever

Matthew has won a string of awards for his newest comics which are inspired by his most recent adventure.

We also see him drawing a picture of himself and Charlie lying on a bed together (maybe)

we end off on the imagery of Charlie and Matthew mimicking that pose, both of them noids. They're bathed in a blue light, hinting that Charlie may have kept a piece of the spike for himself

to keep appearing in Matthew's dreams