#bc he thinks king is dying like his mother

[illmoraineakoi]

So, I know I'm a little (very) late to the AvA stuff, but I was rewatching AvM Season 3 for the seven hundredth time and, well, I noticed something and I'm curious to know if it's been discussed before.

AvM Episode 29, Purple's story, specifically, Pink's death.

Her color changes as she dies, or is represented to have died.

It fades to grey.

Now, the question is, can we, or rather should we, use this to infer anything lore-related? Was this just an artistic choice to depict the act of becoming unhealthy/dying, or could this be what actually happens to stick figures that die over a period of time? Are their colors linked to their health?

Let's have a bit of fun with it, and presume that the fading of one's color can happen to a stick figure for health-related reasons, as the scene could imply.

This fading seems to involve loosing the saturation of one's color into grey. Saturation is how vibrant a color is, and the complete lack of saturation is greyscale.

The World-of-Alan reason for Pink's death is that she 'got sick', which is where the health connection of this theory comes from. If she did loose her color as she was dying as the notes depict, that loss of color was likely a result of her failing health rather than any other factors, like age or outside variables. A whole bunch of human body stuff are indicators for good vs poor health, including skin color (jaundice and cyanasis are good examples) so why not a stick's color for them?

What if, when they fully die, they lose all of their original color?

Now, let me propose this…

Who else do we know of who has had their color loose vibrancy?

What if Victim's color has lightened because he's ill?

[cdragons]

❄︎ House Stark & Spicy Food ❄︎ - w/ spicy loving reader

Cries if there's too much pepper:

All of them, Sansa and Robb - these two will actually die if they have the slightest sense of heat to any food they try. Like their hair, they get it from their mother.

Robb will try so hard to pretend that he has any spice tolerance...he doesn't...he REALLY doesn't

This boy wants to impress you so badly while also dying and you are not being very helpful bc you keep laughing at how red his face gets

You didn't even put that much in, it was barely a dash of cayenne or one jalapeno seed and he will DIE

If you ever try to put spice in his dishes, he will look at you with the biggest look of betrayal

Redding Wedding what? Nope, the real, most unforgivable act of treason against this King of the North was putting a ghost pepper in his stew after he pissed you off and drinking all his water to make sure that there wasn't any left near him.

Are the two of you married? Does not matter - off to the dungeons with you.

Okay, not really, but he will be seriously pissed and have a huge pouty face for the rest of the week.

He feels even more betrayed when he sees Grey Wind sleeping next to you after you put the pepper in his food.

"Are you on my side or hers?" - Grey Wind is on Team Cuddles and Being Spoiled.

If you end up eating something too spicy for you, he WILL be the most insufferable person about it

Sansa is literally no different, if not worse, than her brother.

Everything that was written above -> multiply that by 10000 in terms of spice intolerance, and you get Sansa.

She does NOT care about impressing you with improving her spice tolerance.

You could try to convince her that spicy food is better for her body and there are a ton of health benefits, but you will FAIL

You once gave her a Cubanelle pepper (About 1,000 SHU) bc the only less spicy option was a bell pepper and bell peppers are only peppers in name and not in spirit

She did not react well

She RAN 🏃‍♀️ to the well and drank the water out of the pail.

...Was it bad that you laughed at her reaction? Yes

Would you do it again? Also, yes

Was it totally worth being banned from nighttime cuddles and kisses for an entire month?...Okay, maybe you won't do it again

You could make fun of her unseasoned potatoes and closer-to-water soup all you want. She is not interested in damaging her stomach lining and developing stomach cancer.

She WILL make fun of you if you end up eating something too spicy for YOU, and you let her because you love seeing her more childish smile and side.

Slightly Dying, but Otherwise Okay and Kind of Digs It:

Jon can eat spicy foods...theoretically.

He's eaten Wilding food and the rotten food from Castle Black -> compared to that, he can take a little heat.

He was wrong - He was so very, VERY wrong. Your level of heat and spice was something that only a demon could take.

Jon was convinced that you were part dragon bc he can't think of any other reason as to how and WHY you put yourself through this?

Eventually, he DOES develop a bit of spice tolerance, and you take full credit for it, especially because this means his taste palette is more on your level. You aren't as afraid of accidentally killing him with your cooking preferences.

But it ends up lowkey backfiring on him bc you won't stop sneaking spicy food into his meals, and sometimes Tormund and his brothers in Black will sneak a bite off his plate (no one died...everyone lives...shhhhhhhhh)

Sam is dead - he died, you killed him. Gilly is officially out for your blood, and little Sam is raised with the single goal of piercing you with a pointy stick bc you killed his dad.

Pyp and Edd are also lowkey dying. Still, they actually enjoy the heat and are always happy to taste test for your dishes...despite their bowels hating them for it

Grenn and Tormund fucking LOVE the heat. They can easily down bowl after bowl after bowl of your cooking.

Bran SHOULD not eat spicy food...but he does because it makes you so happy, and he will literally do anything for your smile and cuddles.

Like his love of climbing and scary stories, he honestly lives for the thrill of taking the heat.

All of his siblings are terrified he's going to get a stomach ulcer one day because he keeps adding more spice to his food, and they are ALL blaming you, and you're just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

While he's traveling with Osha, Hodor, Rickon, and Reed Siblings, it's your cooking that helps keep them warm.

When he becomes the Three-Eyed Raven and King of the Seven Kingdoms, he and you will go to the kitchens to make your favorite dishes from your shared past because it brings a little of the old Bran back.

It's only around you that he can still smile and laugh, and you love him no matter what.

Love Spicy Food and Can ACTUALLY Take it

Arya LOVESSSSS the heat - All Day, Everyday Baby

While she was in Braavos and training in the House of Black and White, she sampled so many dishes and spices from the markets.

This opened a whole new world to her tastebuds, and when she returned to Winterfell - she still loved the food because it was all the food of her childhood, but it just tasted...boring.

You and her actually met while she was training in Braavos, and your family ran a spice stall in one of the markets.

You were fascinated by the girl and always offered a warm meal and housing if she ever needed it. While cooking for her, Arya would tell you stories about Ned and Jon and all her other siblings.

When she reunited with her family at Winterfell, she thought it was adorable how happy and excited you were to meet them. She also highly encouraged you to share one of your spiciest dishes with them.

Bran didn't have much of a reaction save for a small cough, but Jon immediately reached for his water while Sansa just fainted from the shock of the heat assault in her mouth.

Rickon is the only sibling who can actually eat your food and so he automatically becomes your favorite Stark after Arya.

Rickon and you met while traveling with your siblings (Meera and Jojen) to find Bran. You carried many foreign spices with you (for whatever reason).

Immediately, he was smitten with you because you were the youngest sibling around his age. Shaddydog also loved you from the beginning, which helped your case.

A lot of the spices you carried also had medicinal purposes, so you were in charge of cooking while Meera handled the weapons and Jojen helped guide Bran to the 3ER.

It was during the coldest and most freezing blizzard nights, you used one of your hottest spices to make a stew. It was a miracle by fate that Rickon LOVED it.

Since then, he's always begging you to put hotter spices in the meals, but you refuse bc your spices are expensive and because you don't want to accidentally kill the rest of the "Save The World" Gang.

Shaddydog is a huge issue when you're making food because he's very curious about all the different smells and tastes, and you have to keep booping his nose out of the way because you love adding garlic, and it's not good for canines to eat garlic and salt.

*BONUS*

Catelyn - cannot eat anything spicy for the life of her

Ned - same as his wife, tbh lol

[noroi1000]

Can I request a part 2 of the evil queen ff ( gojo x reader ) where a woman wants to take the place of queen y/n ( not obviously knowing how powerful y/n is ) possibly by trying to show she’s much better than queen y/n when she can’t even be compared to her and tries seducing gojo ( which doesn’t work ) and become a mistress/concubine of his and then become the queen lol even having the audacity to think so bcs now both y/n n gojo have twin sons ( each of them look like their parents exactly but are momma’s boys lol ). I hope u understood what i’m trying to say haha

Have a nice day 🌸

Evil Queen 2

Warnings: NSFW King Gojo x Queen reader

"My lady, do you really think this is a good idea? I heard that queen (y/n)–"

"I don't need your advice. I don't care who this (y/n) is. Don't you think I'd make a better queen?" she asked with a smile as her maid dyed her lips a juicy pink.

She was a guest there.

In your castle.

As the daughter of one of the most powerful rulers, she was their guest of honor. They could not give her any other accommodation than royal.

Only that was possible.

She and her father were on a diplomatic trip to a farther kingdom to realize her royal engagement.

But she had other motives and plans.

She didn't want to go on to marry some ordinary prince.

She wanted a king who was powerful and handsome. Rich and young.

A twenty-eight-year-old king with a wife and two children?

He's an easy bite for her.

Especially since he was into her taste.

Tall and handsome.

She was mainly concerned with his status, since she would be the mate of the king of such a powerful and wealthy kingdom.

That was all it was about.

She did not want to be a princess of the state.

She wanted to be queen.

If she became Gojo Satoru's concubine, maybe at some point she would be so appreciated that the king would divorce his wife so that she would sit on the throne with him. To dethrone his wife, any was his concubine and bore him children if they wanted.

She doesn't want a baby. She wants to rule.

And he already has an heir. That's why they don't need to have a baby.

But if he wanted to... Let him do what he wants.

According to her, men want only one thing.

All she has to do is undress in front of him and show what she wants. And he is hers.

Men only think about sex.

And when they see a naked woman ready to give herself to them, they lose their minds about it.

"My lady, you would certainly make a suitable queen, but—"

"Suitable? I'd be the perfect queen!" She snarled. "Do my lips look luscious and full enough yet? Is that enough to make him unable to look away?"

"My lady, you certainly look beautiful. But what are you planning?" asked the maid as the woman stood up.

"What am I planning? Of course I want to be married to King Satoru!"

"But his wife-"

"I can dethrone his wife." she laughed. "A king can do anything. And I'm sure he didn't have much fun with her since they have two children."

"D-Dethrone?"

"Yes. I will be his concubine. He will love my body and me. So he'll prefer someone who hasn't been pregnant. I have the body of a teenage girl, don't you think?"

"I'm not sure the King would prefer the body of a teenage girl to his wife..." whispered the maid.

"What were you saying?"

"N-Nothing." She replied quickly.

"So I will be his concubine. And in time he will marry me, throwing his wife lower because he will love me. And a woman like her can't do anything to me! A mother with two children? haha! Would I be scared?!"

She suddenly left her chamber and saw in the corridor two white-haired boys walking towards the throne room with their uncle.

If not for the king, she would surely go to his right hand and best friend.

But she wanted to rule the kingdom as queen.

"Good morning, princes." She said smiling at the children.

They looked at her with their blue eyes and kept walking, holding the hands of their black-haired uncle who completely ignored her.

He really didn't like spoiled princesses like her.

She followed them a few meters to the throne room.

Where she saw her king she wanted to get.

And also you next to him when you stood with him at the window.

The children started running towards you and you smiled.

They were four years old and similar to Satoru. In appearance, and sometimes in character. However, there was one thing about them, except that they weren't quite like their father.

As your husband got down on one knee to catch his sons in his arms, they ran past, leaving his smile frozen.

He was hurt but still happy.

His kids just missed him...

Your sons ran to you, clinging to your legs.

Your sons are mommy's boys.

This was their characteristic.

So is your husband, who is also mommy's boy. But you're like his mommy.

Even though they love you both as parents.

Your husband turned to you with a small smile.

And your children suddenly attacked him, clinging to his chest.

"Your Majesty."

Someone interrupted his moment...

Who dared?!

He turned his head, looking at the woman in the dress behind him. Cursing slightly in front of him.

"what?" he asked, standing up but keeping his hands on his sons' heads.

He didn't care what she thought of him.

"Your Majesty... May I ask you in private? I'd like to talk to you about something." She said with a pleasant smile.

Even though there were dark intentions behind that smile.

"If you have an issue, speak now. I don't have time."

"My Father told me to talk to you about this in private. No unnecessary people." She looked at you condescendingly.

You hated people like that.

They say that damn princess doesn't know anything about you.

Satoru looked at you questioningly, waiting for you to help him. You nodded, signaling him to do so.

Besides, it can't last long.

But you get the feeling you know what she's talking about.

Judging from her dress and the lack of some items that she always wore and were necessary to look presentable.

You saw your husband disappear behind the wall, and you took care of your sons.

Oh, if what you think really happens, you're going to have to do something about Satoru.

Even if it wasn't his fault, he could get a little punishment.

Or a reward if he's a good boy.

"What do you want?" he asked sharply as he stood outside her chamber door as she closed the door.

"My king, you don't have to be so cold. We both know that I always want the best for you." She giggled.

"I'm in a hurry, so hurry up." He growled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh yes. Of course, your majesty." She suddenly walked over to him and her hands shot up to his chest. Her body began to push against him until she reached up with one hand to untie the string at the back of her dress. "We two know what we need, don't we?"

His eyes looked at her with disgust.

"Need a second partner? A partner who will take care of your needs while she takes care of the children? I can become it, my king. I can be everything to you. Give you everything you ever dreamed of. I'll be better than your wife."

"Hold on." He growled, pushing her away.

She held her dress across her chest so she wouldn't stand naked in front of him.

Not yet.

She went a little too far.

Sure, she might have been trying to seduce him. Because that wouldn't work anyway.

Nice try, but he's married. He will not be so easily corruptible.

Bribes from a woman's body don't work on him.

Unless it was you.

Then if he had to choose between something and you, he chooses you.

And his mind, instead of thinking about having a woman capable of undressing for him now, was thinking about whether you'd be able to punish him if you found out.

Now if you could see this eager bitch wanting to get his cock as a bribe, you'd laugh.

This princess didn't know what you were capable of.

You were able to protect your family, especially children, from destruction.

That's why if you saw it, she'd be dead by now.

He didn't need someone important to die. That's why he wanted it to end quickly.

Because he can't promise that nothing will happen.

He did not want to wage war on their country for the fact that the princess died. Even though this war would be another win for him...

He had no desire. He preferred to take care of his beloved sons instead of playing wars.

"My king?" She groaned.

"Your tricks don't work on me." He said and walked past her. Completely ignoring the fact that she's standing there. "Give it a rest. I've seen many times where a woman wanted to seduce a rich man to win favor. This primitive method doesn't work for me."

Because he only became primitive around your body.

Only you could drive him to something that would make him lose himself in pleasure.

"If you want to live, don't do it again."

And suddenly he left her bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

"Remind you when my ribbon was tied around your dick? Do you miss it?"

"Do you have that ribbon?"

"you ruined it. I had to throw it away." You laughed, sitting on his stomach as he lay on his back on the bed.

"You want to punish me like a bad boy?" He gave you a playful smile.

"Our kids told me you were coming out of her bedroom." You gave him a winning smile.

You know nothing happened. Because your children would react differently.

"My little ones are smart~" he hummed.

"I know you remember exactly the day we fathered them." You put your finger on his lips to keep him from saying anything. "The way you moaned against me and your eyes begged for touch. Should I do the same now? To make sure you only beg for me?"

He purred as his hand rubbed your thigh.

"Do you want me to make you beg? Maybe then you can explain what happened there." You laughed.

There was excitement in him.

"I know you know exactly that she knows that she could never beat me. It doesn't matter what. In everything, I win with her, right."

"You're so much better than her." He groaned, wanting to grab your finger between his pink lips.

"I win with her even more when it comes to pleasing my husband. I wouldn't let some whore fuck my husband. You will not hurt me. And you will not hurt our children."

He smiled because he knew you weren't being completely serious.

Your voice was also playful.

"Only my wife can fully satisfy me." He hummed, encouraging you to expand on this conversation of yours.

You didn't just have to talk.

You could have shown him that you were his only woman.

His ideal.

Everything for him. Everything he has.

"The only woman I'll touch is you... Aah..." he moaned as you moved your hips in a fluid motion. So smooth. Bouncing on his cock in a pleasant rhythm.

His wrists bound as he placed the fingers of both hands on your thigh, feeling your walls tighten around him.

Only you could see him like this.

Make him a moaning mess when you kiss and touch him. And your intimate places are connected.

"Fuck... I love you so much..."

"I told you not to curse. If the kids can hear." You said with a small smile, wiping sweat from your forehead as you traced your finger across his jaw.

"There are no children here. So please, I want to say anything and do anything with my damn sexy wife..."

"Won't wrists be enough for you?" you laughed, circling his hips.

"I only touch my wife. And that's all I want. Let me fuck you..."

"You're impatient. You could always ask nicely. Come on honey. I know you can show that you only want me~"

"Please..." He groaned as he felt you tighten around him. Tight.

"Toru~ I don't know what you're asking for..."

"I want to fuck you." He said louder. His cheeks flushed pink.

"Then fuck me." You kissed his lips, feeling him smile into the kiss.

He moved his bound hands over your head, allowing you to put your arms between his hands. And then he held you as you lay on his stomach, kissing him passionately as your thrusts met.

His hands around your waist pressed you against him as his hips pushed up to seek more of your warmth, even as he entered you to the hilt, demolishing your insides.

His breath quivered, and so did yours as he dug in hard and held on, snuggling against your neck.

You stroked his hair.

Long teasing foreplay always made him come a little faster than usual. But it still allowed you to have a satisfying orgasm sooner.

His hips jumped as you leaned against him, pulling him in tight.

Your walls sucked him in, not wanting to let out a millimeter of his penis.

His mouth was open as you put your head next to his, and you whispered very softly into his ear with your warm breath.

"Cum." You said and felt his body tense as he let out a guttural groan, biting your arm to make a mark.

His warm fluids began to fill you.

And his moans filled your ears.

"Fuck, I love you so much..." He groaned.

Only you.

Always only you. No one else.

Only his beloved queen could be so close to him

[19burstraat]

queering futurity in crooked kingdom

if I had any real time for this (I do not) I'd be tempted to write a real essay about it, but I have a dissertation and two other real essays for my actual degree, so let's do a bad tunglr bullet point analysis. I'm... largely generalising and paraphrasing here, and I suspect this has a billion things to iron out or that I forgot about, but I hope this might be a bit interesting regardless of how much you may or may not know abt queer literary theory lmao.

in extreme short, there is a subset of queer theory around what is, in essence, queer time. there is a heteronormative future/'futurity', and it is marriage, children, a good job, a nice house, and dying at a good age after a fulfilling life. queer* and trans people both reject and often cannot access this: plenty couldn't/cannot get married or have children, or had to surpass lots of obstacles to do so, many queer and trans people were or are killed young, or died prematurely in the aids crisis. and so we get queer temporality; a resistance to the heteronormative future that is refused or inaccessible, and to reproductive futurism; the concept that people value the future over the present... and this manifests in kicking back against things like the symbolic 'child' as a representative of futurity. not real children, but empty platitudes like think of the children! think of the future for your children! there can also be a development of a death drive, which is sometimes literal and sometimes metaphorical, which is, again, basically a rejection of 'the future'.

while the grishaverse doesn't have homophobia as such, you can still do queer readings, bc it is ofc influenced by our world, by virtue of being Written By A Person From Our World. and especially in kerch, there's still stuff like patrilineal inheritance... buuuut reproductive futurity & friends are very deliberately destroyed by the end of crooked kingdom. mostly by the usual culprit (taps sign that says IT'S KAZ AGAIN LOL) but by the narrative and the other characters as well. walk w me! I don't think this is a real analysis more just a lot of Thoughts but... nvm

*used here as an umbrella term since the theory I'm pulling from is the field of queer theory

the two men (van eck and rollins) who are most concerned with reproductive futurism (having heirs and a legacy, 'building something that will outlast them'), are promptly buried under the rubble of their building efforts by our usual culprit. kaz uses the mentality of legacy and lineage against them both; he kidnaps van eck's pregnant wife to use as a bargaining chip, and he uses rollins's son and heir against him, because he knows what's most important to these men is their line, their work being handed down. he deduces that rollins has a son through rollins' vanity around building something to 'last', and his naming of the kaelish prince. rollins is literally themed around monarchy and descent; the king of the barrel, the kaelish prince, the emerald palace. kaz, for his part, is the bastard of the barrel. the illegitimate son, not produced by any conventional family structure, ketterdam his mother and profit his father... and therefore he is the perfect person to blow up this imagined monarchy

wylan is rejected by van eck for his disability, for being supposedly incapable of continuing his father's legacy; and so we gather that the actual child doesn't matter to van eck, it's what The Child represented to him, which was the future of the van eck company. the illegitimate kaz restores van eck's disowned son to the succession through sheer trickery, and jan van eck's trading empire is succeeded by his son he attempted to reject, and his farm-boy barrel-tough boyfriend. they bring home the first wife that van eck had committed, for failing to produce the 'perfect' heir. no perfect heteronormative future here!

(also by virtue of wylan and jesper being a mlm couple, there is now way less emphasis that can be put on the idea of biological children 'continuing' the line, and it somewhat stops the expectation that ruined wylan's life from being passed down)

the two m/f couples are also very distant from this idealised reproductive futurity. matthias dies, ruining any idea of a 'conventional' future he could have had with nina, and while his death is generally more about the extremist brainwashing stuff explored w the drüskelle, it does blow to shreds that futurity even more, and nina's power is also a very literal HEY GUYS. LET'S THINK ABOUT DEATH... plus she leaves ketterdam to take matthias to be buried at the end of the book.

kaz and inej both do very dangerous jobs and separate for long periods of time. they may marry or they may not, they may have children or they may not, they may be physical with one another or they may not. it doesn't really matter; they'll try, but we don't get to find out how far they may or may not get, which honestly I kinda like. their future is open, the river running carrying inej to the sea. also, inej makes an explicit rejection of this kind of 'normal' future:

So he wasn’t fit for a normal life. Was she meant to find a kindhearted husband, have his children, then sharpen her knives after they’d gone to sleep? How would she explain the nightmares she still had from the Menagerie? Or the blood on her hands?

we don't really know whether or not kaz as a character is queer (I do not think kaz knows either lol) but it doesn't really matter, you can still read him as a queer figure both a) just if you want to! and b) in this sense of queer temporality, bc he's the crux of a lot of it. we already covered the bastard thing and his happy habit of kicking reproductive futurism when it's down, and as Edelman says: 'If the fate of the queer is to figure the fate that cuts the thread of futurity...' well, kaz 'build something new. watch it burn' 'he knew exactly what he was going to leave behind: damage' brekker is our man!

he does not give a single flying fuck about the future. he destroyed van eck and rollins' legacies, and he'll do that shit again. he doesn't have enough of an ego to consider a 'legacy' for himself besides destruction, which is a rejection of a legacy in itself. his plans for the future amount to fucking shit up and making a bunch of money to use to do more damage, until he gets shot/stabbed/hanged/drowned/whatever, which he constantly anticipates.

kaz also has a massive distrust and disdain for traditional family structures, because he's seen them crumble twice; his actual family are all dead, and the hertzoon con was built on creating a convincing family mode to lure them in. "my mother is ketterdam, she birthed me in the harbour; my father is profit, I honour him daily" is a sneer at paterfamilias type families where the mother is there to just give birth and the father is the head of the family, to be honoured and served, rather than loved. he also has zero sympathy for the 'think of the children!' thing, bc he knows it's disingenuous; who thought of him? no one. rollins was happy to con kids with the false promise of family and safety, and all the people he paid off were happy to turn the other way. was there no one to look after you? no, there wasn't. his mother is ketterdam: filthy, feral ketterdam. no nurturing mother has he!

So he threatens Alby and Hanna with no qualms, because while he doesn't actually ever intend to hurt children (...not physically anyway, apparently upsetting them is fair game FJJFJD), he knows the power of the threat— the idea of the child— is often more impactful than the actual act itself. ("Inej, I could only kill Pekka’s son once. He can imagine his death a thousand times.") it certainly works on rollins and van eck! he'll make you think of the damn children alright!

inej takes direct action to defend actual children, not just the idea of them, and then we hear in rule of wolves she's hated by the kerch government for it because she's fucking with their profits. (look also to how they flapped about searching for wylan, one rich man's kid, and are completely useless about hundreds of forced indentures. what a surprise...)

she reunites with her parents, but she worries persistently about whether or not they will accept her for who she has become, and we are never quite told whether or not they do. we like to think so, but we don't actually know. and although she gets to see her parents again, her future is on the wraith, not with them.

most people have dead or splintered families, actually. only inej has both parents, and for three - four years, they didn't have a daughter.

The general proximity to death in general is very potent; nina's power, kaz's whole backstory, the camping out in a graveyard. jesper's recklessness and love for fights, inej being ready to die rather than be a captiver again and kaz's response to that being 'not just yet', rather than not at all...

all following into the whole no mourners, no funerals thing!!! the fact that they know they won't be remembered or cared about if they die!!!

Edelman: 'Choosing to stand, as many of us do, outside the cycles of reproduction, choosing to stand, as we also do, by the side of those living and dying each day with the complications of AIDS, we know the deception of the societal lie that endlessly looks toward a future whose promise is always a day away.'

SOC:

Inej's mother and father might still shed tears for the daughter they'd lost, but if Inej died tonight, there would be no one to grieve for the girl she was now. 

“No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to the fact that there would be no expensive burials for people like them, no marble markers to remember their names, no wreaths of myrtle and rose.”

pick up what I'm putting down guys please please I don't have time to tease this out properly but like. I think kaz and wylan are the linchpins here. (again)

[bookwormbynight]

please tell about your lawlight hades and persephone au 👀

Oh boy here we go lol.

Alright so its title was "Seasons Don't Fear the Reaper". The cast went like this:

Persephone (goddess of spring) - Light. He doesn't know his actual parents, probably gods, but honestly he could have also just been another instance of castrated-testicles-fall-into-the-sea-and-make-a-hot-person, fuck knows. Aphrodite found a very pretty baby and adopted him. He cultivates gardens because he connects better with plants than people, likes to experiment with it, and he's not really ever let out of the house, so he doesn't have anything better to do.

Hades (king of the underworld) - L. He's the king of the underworld by technicality, but he actually devotes himself to and is seen as the god of posthumous justice, because he likes to spend his time unwinding murders back to the living for fun. I'll talk more about underworld worldbuilding in a hot second. Also, L grabs Light because the Oracle said that Light was the one, and L was like “fuck it, he’s hot”. There’s really no feelings on either side at first.

Aphrodite (goddess of beauty, love, sex) - Misa. If you know Aphrodite myths, enough said.

Charon (guide into the underworld across the river Styx) - Watari. I haven't thought about him too much, I just want him there.

Thanatos (personification of death, god of the dying) - Ryuk. He's going to be Light's first friend in the underworld, because Light isn't gonna like L very much at first lmao. He's also the one who tells Light about The Rule.

I don't have a solid plot but here are some bullet points I got going for me:

Light hangs out with mother-approved naiad friends at the base of a waterfall for a bit, until he manages to slip away thanks to an intense storm. Unfortunately for his bid for independence, he gets entranced by a red tulip (plucked) in his path, and stops to examine it. From where the flower left the ground, a hole opens up, until it’s wide enough for L to fly out, scoop Light up, and drag him down to the Underworld.

Misa comes back to collect Light, and discovers that he’s disappeared. She flies into a horrible rage and turns all the naiads into sirens as punishment. You bet your ass she throws a tantrum and murders some nymphs and shit. Also she makes the entire animal kingdom infertile out of spite (she calls it mourning).

Light gets to hold Ryuk’s death scythe bc That Image (he has a fleeting thought to just fuckin take it and run)

A scene where Ryuk is eating apples in the garden, (talks about human world apples being better but), Light reaches for one, and then the exposition about the rule with underworld garden fruit (i.e. it binds you to the place) bc Ryuk is an asshole but a good frien :)

A scene where we acknowledge the fact that humans are using the nickname "L" to avoid calling the death god’s attention by using his true name… L (“what is L short for, anyway?” and L just gets the most shit-eating fucking grin because humans really fucked that one up and he thinks it's HILARIOUS). This is rooted in superstition that actually surrounded Hades and Persephone at the time the myths were formed.

Anyway Earth's going to shit because Duh, and Zeus (just called the King, only ever going to be mentioned and the reader will never see him) finally relents to what he views as Misa's temper tantrum, because sacrifices have stopped, and humans are panicking because no babies are being born and neither are any of the animals they work with. I'm thinking maybe after 7 months, because that's approximately how long Light and L interacted face-to-face total in canon. The King tells L to give Light the fuck back. L does not tell Light anything about any of this.

L discusses a plan with Watari after a week or so of keeping it from Light (Zeus is coming to get Light that day) - Light was eavesdropping. Obviously, this is an asshole move so Light fuckin socks L across the face, especially since they had been kind of falling in love yotsuba--arc stockholm-syndrome style, so it feels like betrayal even though it's not at all surprising.

MY FUCKING NOTES-- ONE LITERALLY SAYS "Rain scene(?) Can it rain in the Underworld??". I've decided yes it can because I need that. Another one says "When Light first got brought there his whole scheme was just to escap but oh nos! It backfired!" 😭 help

Light weighs his options while in a garden, realizes he doesn’t want to leave anyway, and remembers the foreshadowed thing Ryuk said about food grown in the underworld (L didn’t know about this rule - it’s Ryuk that’s the crazy fuck bringing non-dead souls into the underworld and vice versa, just because L doesn't leave the house enough to think of that). He plucks a pomegranate, eats some, and goes to L and demands that they bring him to Zeus when Zeus comes.

The Underworld:

Souls don’t go on living after death - that defeats the purpose of death. The underworld, or the land of the dead, just stores the souls, which would be everything that made up an individual, but the souls can’t be conscious or anything without a body because that’s the other half of what makes a person. Maybe the souls should be like dim little stars? According to this one website I found, souls supposedly went down there to slowly fade into nothingness. I guess they would disappear when there is nothing tethering them to the Earth any longer. Coco-style.

The underworld is also supposed to be UNDER the earth, but it also seems to be imagined in the modern day as vast, with high high high ceilings and lots of mist at the top ig, although it’s dark and shadowy.

THE FUCKING FLOWERS hoo boy are you ready for this shit I spent fucking ages researching flowers I could draw upon within the story because Light is a flower boy and then used NONE OF THEM because THIS is what made me lose passion about this thing but here you are:

Anemone (red) - tragic love (sprung from Aphrodite’s tears mixed with Adonis’s blood as she tried and failed to save his life)

Baby’s Breath - everlasting love, or new beginnings (really good for weddings and births)

Basil - murderous intentions, or romantic intentions (apparently it started as a symbol of hate in Greece because the name recalled a literal monster, implicitly cursing the Basilisk upon the person you sent it to, and then morphed into a declaration of an intent to marry in Victorian England - an enemies to lovers arc if I’ve ever seen one)

Belladonna - silence, death, poison

Blackthorn Blossom - this plant made up Jesus’s thorn crown, but the flowers are gorgeous

Camellia (red) - honorable death, or eternal love

Carnation (pink) - heartfelt gratitude and motherly love (given on Mother’s Day in the West)

Carnation (red) - love (common Mother’s Day gift in Japan but romantic in the West)

Cherry Blossom - rebirth, renewal, spring

Chrysanthemum (white) - death, mourning, grief, devotion, loyalty (funeral flower, especially for those who died young)

Daffodil - prosperity, or rebirth and spring, or regard and esteem (also called the narcissus)

Daisy - childhood, innocence

Hibiscus (red) - love, delicate beauty, brief existence (withers within a day of blooming)

Orchid - fertility, elegance, charm, beauty

Poppy - consolation, eternal sleep, peace in death

Rampion - the German word for the plant is ‘rapunzel’

Rose (red) - romantic love, desire

Rose (white) - innocence, virtue, purity

Spider Lily - final goodbye, death, funerals

Do you have any idea how much fucking time it took me to research these goddamn flowers fuck you Persephone and fuck you Light

Tulip (red) - a love confession, passionate love (apparently created from the blood of a Romeo-esq dude in Persia who committed suicide when he falsely believed his beloved had died)

Violet - watchfulness, modesty (created by Artemis to protect her nymph from Apollo’s advances)

[isa-ghost]

amfmn missa.. p please.. please mother … feed us

I'M BEING ENABLED PPOVERHEAT

He's an actual grim reaper. That's where he's disappeared to so often in canon, reaper duties. It's a very demanding job, you know.

Doesn't stop him from feeling terrible about being gone so often though. He misses his husband and kids and hates how often he's out of the loop :(

Fr though Phil and the kids make him so so happy after spending countless hours working such a sad job. It's also partially why he sings and makes art. That brand of fun is catharsis for the soul.

He has all his canon weapons but I ALSO gave him a reaper deathscythe. And boy is he gonna use it. Fucking AWOOGA MissaSinfonia when he's angry.

Btw as a reaper he can FEEL souls. He can see their power, their condition, feel the surface level emotions and personality of its owner. This will come in handy later in the fic. ;)

As per the post I made asking for Missa appreciation so I can characterize him properly: He's undyingly loyal, he fights hard and loves even harder, he's protective, silly, and goddamn can he flirt.

All his wet cat behavior is a result of getting too overwhelmed by The Horrors. He's seen A Lot as a reaper. But somehow Quesadilla Island and all its... Everything. Always manage to show him a new brand of What The Fuck he's never even imagined before. Hence all his screaming and weeping when he's caught up on what he's missed. Like how tf else is he supposed to react??

Somewhat attached to that, he and Phil rlly were a match made in Federation Heaven bc they both have issues with self-doubt despite being insanely skilled and sharp-witted. Missa is better abt it than Phil though. His only acts up when he messes up a lot or just. Doesn't have a clue how to handle a situation where it's dire that he does. It's more of an insecurity about being unprepared and failing his loved ones than it is a doubt he has skill. He KNOWS he does, he hates when it's not enough. That's how he differs from Phil, who thinks he has none at all.

Btw when you fuck with the people he's protective over, he gets PISSED. We're getting a LOT of pissed off Missa in AMFMN <3 Ofc there'll be a lot of reaper tears too, his husband is suffering and there's little he can do about it. :( But ohohoho when the sad turns into rage. BARK WOOF. Eventually he decides EK is catching these hands and scythe.

He also shakes hands with his husband on being a self-sacrificing little shit. And. Yeah this is gonna happen later in the fic. (He's not dying dw dw)

You have no idea how excited I am that I basically get to build his dynamics with Fit, Etoiles, and Bagi from scratch. I'm so hyped. People are welcome to reply with this with any crumbs we have of their dynamics in canon but afaik they've rarely interacted outside of very minor moments, so AMFMN will largely be a sandbox for me to establish what I THINK they'd be like. Which in my fic plan so far, is largely taking each character's personality and applying how I think they'd react to a situation, and how that would look when two of them are interacting in that situation. Ex: at one point Etoiles has to comfort Missa bc he's just having a ROUGH time with this saving Phil stuff. But Etoiles is NOT a comfort guy. So he does his Etoiles thing: hearing Missa out while also cracking his usual brand of jokes in an attempt to lighten the mood.

I also have a plot point planned with him and Bagi when shit is hitting the fan the hardest and OUUGHHH. That self-sacrificing shit am I right.

God I'm being so mean to him specifically in AMFMN though. Ender King is a sack of shit, he knows exactly who to harass most using Phil's body >:/

See in my AMFMN Fitza headcanons, I said they're each other's confidants. Which IS true. However, no one in the fic gets the honor of Phil FINALLY communicating with someone about his issues other than his husband. Missa is the person he caves and confesses things to. Missa gets the HC Deity lore and what's been happening to him lately. This is actually what Chapter 3 is :D

Also I am so sorry but I'm sliding a Missa Romantic Love Confession attempt into the fic and it gets interrupted by The Horrors. But yeah Missa is romantically in love with Phil, he just respects that Phil sees things platonically. He still wants to communicate his feelings though.

[horizon-verizon]

What do you think of George referring to Aegon and Helaena as "King Aegon" and "Queen Helaena" and Rhaenyra by her name in the new (now deleted) blog?

(Webpage Link)

And I said this in the comments of this post, but repeating myself: he's writing in the mood and "perspective" of the KLers who resented Rhaenyra and loved Helaena for the "sweetness" they felt Rhaenyra no longer had. I also wrote another independent post abt what sort of love the smallfolk had for Helaena HERE, which is very important for anyone to read BEFORE reading this post bc I'm not going to repeat myself. You also should probably read THIS POST that goes into how the Shepherd characterizes Helaena vs Rhaenyra.

A) The Actual Comments I Wrote:

[*EDIT: 9/8/24*] Adding/correcting, I was describing the free indirect style:

This is a literary style that allows the narrator’s voice to share with us the words, thoughts or feelings of the characters, without telling us that this is what they are doing. This means that the character’s thoughts or words slip into the third-person narrative, subtly shifting the perspective from that of the narrator to that of the character. It’s almost as though the narrator is the character for a moment, but they’re not – they’re still the narrator. Importantly, the speech or thought is not attributed to the character (for example with a ‘she thought’ or ‘he imagined’), so the reader must pick up on clues in the text to understand that these are the thoughts of the character, not the narrator.

[*END OF EDIT*]

And in response to what GRRM said that started this whole debate after someone else asked:

B) Jaehaerys, Rego Draz, and the Taxes/Executions (for context and comparison b/t smallfolk's reactions to taxes and executions):

I don't deny that the smallfolk loved her and GRRM was being sympathetic for Helaena when he wrote that post.

I am saying that:

He was writing, in that post, sympathetically bc Helaena was so from the smallfolk and Rhaenyra was reviled both here and at large by the narrative bc she was simply the more active party while being female; Helaena never actually ruled, she was always a consort and her person was more the accessory of Aegon or as a representation of "goodness", esp when the Shepherd contrasts Helaena's "purity" to Rhaenyra's "whorish" "evil", which further encourages the peasants to riot as they are already rioting

the smallfolk's sort of love for Helanea was not the sort that comes from just appreciating the person as is but as a contrast to the person they came to despise. And from that phenomenon, the smallfolk revealed another interesting phenomenon of how the actual people, the subjects themselves, can switch between diff "definitions" of queenship. Not kingship, QUEENSHIP, precisely bc gender, ethnicity, etc. did/does affect how the public will see a ruler's actions' effects on them.

The Shepherd and Helaena v Rhaenyra ("Rhaenyra Overthrown"):

When Jaehaerys strung up Rego Draz's murderers (Rhaenyra strung up those she had executed), it was during a time of "peacetime"/no war even as it was also a time of widespread fatal illness; he had no outside enemies who could invade at the same time, bc his mother and stepfather took care of that in a sorta-similar situation when he himself was still underage ("The Long Reign-Jaehaerys and Alysanne-Policy, Progeny, and Pain"):

Rego Draz, like Celtigar but much smarter about it, still also put taxes on common KLers after he and Jaehaerys did on luxury items (nobles) out of necessity. But the smallfolk of KL still took issue with Rego and not Jaehaerys both bc of said taxes AND bc Rego was a Essosi foreigner.

So yes, Jaehaerys did have to deal with a dying and ill populace and used an actually consummate master of coin...but those taxes still angered smallfolk enough towards violence & rape & looting ("The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne - Policy, Progeny, and Pain"):

bc they were being taxed already through a gate tax BEFORE the Shivers came ("Birth, Death, and Betrayal Under Jaehaerys I"):

Were Rhaenyra's taxes very heavy, yes. Did she have much other option during a war where food was scarce and an invasion could happen at any moment AND the greens depleted the treasury she sought to quickly fill, no. Were there rumors PLUS the Shepherd's anti dragon, anti "bad" woman preachings incentivizing already resentful and starving people to riot against the woman ruling over them who they previously loved [evidence in the next section], yes. Did Jaehaerys really go through a similar situation, even with the Shivers being so terrible, no, bc he had more than Rego Draz, he had his own mother and stepfather basically pave the rulership-way for him before he came of age to become king for him and Rego to be able to implement the taxes as well as they did. The same Alyssa and Rogar who the KLers also took issue with for the taxes they made on them when they were trying to rebuild the Dragonpit ("A Surfeit of Rulers"):

Yes, Jaehaerys-Rego fixed this situation & learned from it--once again, neither ALyssa-Rogar-Edwell nor Jaehaerys-Rego had to contend with an ACTIVE war and a TOTALLY DEPLETED treasury nor the PREJUDICE AND HIGHER EXPECTATIONS against a female ruler. So....

C) Use of the Book to Show What I Mean abt GRRM's Use of the Smallfolk's Perspective and the Timeline/Transition of such b/t Before The Fall of King's Landing and After It

Before the Fall of King's Landing, & the taxes the KLers loved Rhaenyra as the "Realm's Delight" and such a moniker in the book connoted an image of pleasantness:

("Rhaenyra Triumphant")

("A Question of Succession")

("A Question of Succession")

("A Son for a Son")

("A Son for a Son")

Refer back to the very first pic/quote I give in this section. The moment Rhaenyra showed herself to be...not so "sweet" by the taxes during a time of fear of invasions/retaliations from the greens and their dragons, starvation, etc. bc...war (which she did bc the greens looted the royal treasury BEFORE she even landed & took KL but the smallfolk didn't know about that nor would they ever come to), and the previous image of her being charming, lovely, and innocently beautiful, innocently childlike transformed into her innate cruelty.

So yes, they resented Rhaenyra and many would not have wanted her as their Queen not just bc of taxes but bc the taxes were compounded by the...disillusionment(?) of that image/character of her through said taxation. thus the lack of "Queen" for Rhaenyra and "Queen" for Helaena and "Prince" for Maelor, both people who have no power, were very vulnerable to the actions of those around them, and nearly childlike or was an actual child whether in reality or in their imagination. At least under the greens--who Helaena is inevitably connected to--they weren't being taxed and Helaena has no real power herself to ever had affected the smallfolk's life so strongly.

This is what I think is being expressed through GRRM's writing in that particular blog post.

As for reactions to Aegon's coronation, we have Munkun saying the smallfolk were "most[ly] confused" by the announcement of Aegon's coronation and saying (some) Rhaenyra's name instead VS Munkun saying that there were many cheers when the actual coronation happened ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

[olympiansowl]

I need people to stop this obsession with the fucking forced marriage plot between Miriel and Pharazon. Idk guys but it doesn’t really seem okay to me that they gave women power and all, and people are there like “but the forced marriage…” as if Miriel hasn’t been through enough shit already. Technically, they cannot adapt it since it’s a Silmarillion storyline and it isn’t on the books they have the rights to. Some people are looking more haters of Miriel than fans bc what do you mean you won’t complain about the treatment her character is getting? What do you mean that you will want a forced marriage plot but refuse to say to Amazon a simple “change her fate” ? And believe me, they can change her fate. They just did it with Galadriel, Durin III, Durin IV, Sauron and Elendil…

I don’t know if it’s a Brazilian thing, but when we don’t like things on shows, soap operas or whatever, we are vocal about it. And when we like a character, we make sure the people behind it knows about it. And it usually works for us. People used to care for what the audience thinks about something, there are shows out there that have the whole right to the books and yet change every single thing. Also, I’m pretty sure they care about what the audience thinks since this season was a mix between three plots from other characters in one of the show. They changed Durin’s death, which may cause the other Durin to also die next season. Durin III was supposed to die on third age and the balrog should be in Moria, as everyone pretty much knows by now. Galadriel was supposed to be a mother and Celeborn was supposed to be at Eregion. They changed fates. They placed a character that wasn’t on middle earth at second age to be there and have a whole different plot. Believe me, they can change Miriel’s fate. But for this to happen, her fans should at least be more vocal about the treatment she’s getting. Her scenes are being cut, she is always suffering, they don’t show her making the plans or the decisions…we have to guess everything. Like I’m sorry but we have characters that literally helped bring back the devil and even they had moments of happiness this season. And yes, I see it as a disrespect towards the character because I’ve seen this film before and I’m sure you guys have too. The female characters who’s always collecting trauma but they forget those traumas as if it never impacted her or as if she’s never been through it. And the character doesn’t stop suffering and doesn’t have a single happy moment in her life. We don’t see her saying anything more about her father and guys…she’s living on his tower. Pharazon made her live on the tower that her father died days before! The tower he spent the rest of his days (years actually since he lived 220 years) in grief over the city. How did it affect her? We don’t see why she decided to say behind, Cynthia had to clarify it. She had to clarify that the civil war isn’t over, that Miriel is going to fight back and that she algo gave the Narsil to Elendil to start a sort of revolution.

That being said, I am dying to know why the fans aren’t making much noise? Sorry, but you don’t change things like that by being quiet. “Oh I want her to kiss Elendil” yeah so either she survives and/or doesn’t marry Pharazon or they’re going to kiss on her last breath.

The series has little to do with the Silmarillion and even when we consider the books they have the right to, not even the timeline is being followed when we think about Numenor or the dwarves…and, as I said before, it’s all in the appendix. It’s no big deal to let her live.

“Oh but what about Elendil? How will he become King?”

Numenor will be swallowed by the sea. Miriel was the rightful heir to the throne of Numenor, not Arnor since Arnor is something that will be built after the fall of Numenor. If they keep her alive, it wouldn’t change the narrative because they would probably get married and rule together. His heir would still be Isildur because at the time pace the series is setting, it’s possible that we won’t even see the kingdoms in exile at their prime.

“Oh but what about children if they get married?”

We’re talking about a show that forgot the existence of Celebrian, who is the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn, future wife of Elrond and mother of his children, to fit the narrative they constructed to Galadriel. It won’t be a big deal for Miriel to not have children since she never got one in the books that talk about her marriage (mostly forced, with one version that was willingly) to Pharazon. Also, they used the “well, it wasn’t stated that Gandalf wasn’t on middle earth during this time…” excuse so they can pretty much use the “it wasn’t stated that she died” considering that:

1 - It’s not on the appendix, not in lotr or hobbit.

2 - No body, no crime.

3 - They created a whole sea creature trial for that woman. They made an eagle appear on her coronation. Those eagles are known for saving people, as we can recall. And the sea creature pretty much saved her. So all of this and that girl can’t get out of this city alive? BE SO FR

And now, to finish this, I want y’all to reflect a little bit on which characters do you really like and if you really like the shipp? I mean, I’ve been a shipper since forever and when we like a couple, we usually want them to end up together and well. Do not use the “but it’s already on the books” because, guys…they literally killed off a character that was supposed to die in third age, made a very delightful dynamic between Galadriel/Halbrand (Sauron), erased her daughter, made some characters have the plot destined to their parents (Pharazon, Miriel, Elendil…) and they also created children for characters like Pharazon, who never had children, and Elendil got a daughter that he also never had. They made the gods answer Tar Palantir, made Galadriel help Sauron and be deceived by him, made Galadriel connected to the plot of Numenor and now you guys want to tell me that they cannot change her death? Like, if you guys like her character and this couple, y’all need to really show it to them. To go on the posts and say things about how amazing she is, how you wanted them to change her fate, how it would be amazing to see them (Miriel and Elendil) rule together in Arnor since they’re fighting to change Numenor’s fate and to save the people…it’s not a very difficult task. And I’m gonna say it as someone that has been a part of a lot of fandoms: they won’t change it if they don’t see a commotion. They changed this season to more “book accurate but not really” thing because of the haters. I’m pretty sure there’s this show that they changed the main couple to another because the fans wanted them to be together. And in the books, they didn’t end up together.

So yeah, fight and say something.

[harpers-tartarus]

I am deep in my d20: fantasy high obsession and now I'm thinking up aus:

Where Adaine makes a friend in a race that her parents detest. Riz is never allowed over by the nature of him being a goblin, but Adaine is a staple in the Gukgak home growing up and learns to cook bc they are a single parent household and still they split what they have with her ("You, goblin, unhand her!" Sklonda looking at Adaine who is red in the face and mouthing apologies: "Sir, we met literally years ago. I'm the mother of your youngest daughter's best friend.")

All the parents find out that Fabian's been essentially abandoned by his absentee mother and gets strong armed into so many sleepovers between Mordred Manor, his place, and Riz's apartment. Riz and Sklonda investigate where the food actually is in his house bc Fabian cannot survive on milk alone. Fig comes over with so many casseroles and bags of tea from Jawbone. Fabian cries.

Future au from the perspective of students at AAA who have come to know Gorgug as the great barbificer instructor, Kristen as the cleric teacher (with the infamy of being the blessed saint to lesbian gods that she played a hand in resurrecting both) and Fabian as the fighter bard teacher who is married to the amazing choreographer Mazey Phaedra who he raves about every lesson. PI Riz Gukgak stops by to speak with Fabian and his class thinks he's getting arrested. The Elven Oracle is still in Kristen's room up until the bell and her students think a terrible fate is about to befall her. The Archdevil of Rebellion and the bassist and singer of Fig and the Cig Figs shows up in Gorgug's class and that's how his students find out the reason they only tour during summer break is bc it's drummer is their teacher. The students are mystified.

The parents staying up waiting for their kids to come home after the Last Stand and the profound relief when they get home bc it's been a whole fucking DAY. Sklonda is in a state and Sandra-lynn has to talk her off a ledge.

Fic about the difficulties all the Bad Kids: Riz with being a goblin, Fabian only having one eye, Adaine with her anxiety particularly after the Court of Stars kidnapped her, Fig about her insecurities, Gorgug feeling like he is the cause of his parents losing their family, and Kristen struggling with her parents casting her out without a second thought.

Someone wrote this idea on tumblr but it's gold: by some random chance (I know it's governed by seven immortal dancers but what kind of government is that??) The king of Fallinel has died and with so many descendants dead to disease or violence, the crown passes all the way to Solace, oddly enough to a young goblin. Riz is going to kill his distant ancestor for dying.

[analogwriting]

Childhood Crush

Chapter 15: Bronze

Killer x gn!reader word count: 3.5k a/n: this part ended up being almost 7k words so i split it into two, so y'all getting a twofer (two for one - 241 - all that jazz) also relentlessly puts asking alexandria lyrics in it bc im still in mourning next

There wasn’t exactly a plan on dealing with Kese perse, but everyone agreed to let you take care of it for the most part. Everyone was going to act normal until you made your move. Follow your plays and whatnot. Though, Eustass just wanted to kill the fucker. He was beyond pissed - which was understandable. You’d also be so astronomically livid if someone lied to you about your brother dying only to find out he was alive the whole time. Even Killer seemed to be on the bandwagon for kill first, ask questions later for a little while. 

But, you wanted to get answers first. Maybe it was just morbid curiosity. Maybe it was because you wanted to take his life with your own hands. Or maybe it was just you wanted to put absolute fear into his being. You wanted to see him beg for his life. 

Shit, you didn’t know what you wanted. And there was no telling how you’d really react when you saw him either. You couldn’t help but feel a growing anxiety. Everything he said back then was hitting you right now. While you didn’t exactly believe them anymore, you remembered the pure devastation you had felt when he had said them. You couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory. 

“What’s so funny?” You were pulled out of your thoughts as Eustass spoke. You were still stitching him up as his injuries were a bit more on the serious side. It was just the two of you as the others gathered and prepared themselves for heading back to the ship. “Just thinking about what Kese said before I left.”

He stopped, looking at you. “Wait, he said something to you? What?”

Right. You never told him all that. You sighed, running a hand through your hair. “I feel dumb for falling for it now, but yeah. He said some shit that fucked up my psyche there for a while.”

“Is that why you had started to pull away from us? And you left?”

You were quiet, but your silence spoke volumes. You felt anger radiate from Eustass even more. “That mother fu-”

“Tungsten. I’m going to take care of it. Like I said, I need information and also this is the best way for me to get closure.” He looked at you for a long moment before groaning. “Ugh. Fine.”

“Thank you.” 

“What did he even say?” You were quiet for a moment, not wanting to admit it. It felt silly now. You know that your brother and crewmates would’ve never said the awful things he had referenced, but you were at such a low point that you would’ve believed anything.

“Bigs?” You looked up at him and sighed. Just as he couldn’t say no to you - you couldn’t say no to him. As you dabbed one of the cuts on his arm - his only arm, which you still couldn’t believe - you explained what happened that night. He was quiet, but you could feel him seething.

“You know none of it is true, right?” He waited until you were done before he had spoken, which wow. That’s growth. Him waiting to speak? Who taught him that? He was the king of interrupting people. You felt a moment of pride, but the somber mood was too heavy for you to really revel in it.

With a long sigh, you nodded. “I do now. It was stupid of me to believe him, I know. But…” Your face fell and he shook his head. “You were in a dark place, I know.”

“Let us not forget that I’m the one that forced you to go along with me,” he said with a smug smile. You mirrored his expression and laughed. “Not completely. I did end up deciding myself. You made yourself quite the compelling case.” 

“Only because Killer put the cherry on top.” He paused. “And because he was the cherry on top,” he mumbled, but you didn’t quite make it out. “Huh?”

“Nothing.”

“You-”

The both of you laughed before falling into a somber silence. “You did more than anyone on the ship when it boiled down to it,” he said. You looked at him for a moment. “Tungsten, you don’t have to lie to make me fee-”

“It’s not a lie though. You did so fucking much for us. You made all of us stronger and our lives easier. You strengthened Dive’s teeth, gave Heat the ability to fucking breathe fire, taught both Heat and Wire how to smith, made various different kinds of machines n’ shit to help make ship life even easier, not to me-”

“Okay, okay. I get it.”

“I’m so serious, Bigs. And that’s not just the ship. The four of us definitely wouldn’t have lived without you growing up. I’m serious.” You looked at him, your eyes slightly widening as the playful mood was turning more sincere by the second and you felt your cheeks heat up. You didn’t know where all this sentiment was coming from and you didn’t know how to handle it.

“You’re a ray of fucking sunshine on our goddamn ship and I’ll be damned if I let someone take that away again,” he grumbled, looking away from you. “Everyone was super upset when you left - so don’t do that shit again.” You felt so many different waves of emotion right now. Eustass was never one to convey his actual feelings. You weren’t either. The both of you had your own way of expressing your love for each other, just as all siblings did.

But, hearing it was a lot different and you didn’t know how to react. You felt your brain doing a hard reboot.

“I didn’t…” No words were coming from you. 

“Don’t get sappy, you know I hate that shit.” He didn’t look at you, keeping his head turned from you, clearly embarrassed from his own outburst. You couldn’t help but let out a small smile, moving on and finishing up dressing his wounds.

“Didn’t stop you though, huh?”

“What did you say?” He turned his eyes towards you, narrowing his eyes.

“You heard me, Tungsten. I think you’re the sappy one of the two of us.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you.” The two of you glared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. You really missed Eustass. Well, of course you did - he was your brother.

You finished up, standing and dusting yourself off, Eustass following suit. “Alright, everyone! Let’s head out!”

--

Once more, you felt anxiety creeping back in. You weren’t sure how you wanted to handle the situation. You weren’t good with emotions. You weren’t good at verbally conveying them. Hell, at this point, your own anger probably would take over and you’d kill Kese for all you knew. But, you knew you needed answers first. You’d just have to remember that.

You were somewhat falling behind the group, thinking. A million scenarios ran through your head, but none of them seemed to be the way you wanted to go. The way you needed it to go. Though, what way did it even need to go? You weren’t sure. Ugh, thinking about it was hurting your head.

Finally, the ship came into view and honestly you couldn’t have been happier. This place had become your home. It felt more like home than your dingy home back on the island ever did. And now you were back, just as you needed to be. Everything felt right again.

“Ready?” You looked over, seeing that Killer had joined you. You sighed, shaking your head. “No, but I don’t have a choice, do I?” That laugh rang through, making you jump slightly. It was mostly just startling at this point because it was so loud and sudden. You smiled at him, trying not to show that it had startled you. You already knew he was sensitive about it, you didn’t want to add to it.

“I just don’t even know what I want to do. Or how I’ll react.”

“I mean, the captain and I can just take him out.”

“Okay, but that wouldn’t solve anything.”

“One less bastard to hurt you in the world - I’d say it’s worth it.” You paused for a moment. Did he just say to hurt ‘you’. Surely it was just a slip of the tongue, right? Yeah. He probably just meant in general. Just as there was a royal ‘we’, perhaps it was a royal ‘you.’

Before you could say anything, however, a voice rang through the night.

“You guys are back! How did it - oh shit.” You looked up, seeing the very bastard that brought so much pain and misery to your life without even trying. Fuck, you felt so stupid for letting him get to you in the way that he did. He was staring at you with wide eyes, obviously surprised to see you. You saw the fear plastered all over his face.

Something in the back of your brain snapped. “‘Oh shit’ is right motherfucker.” In moments you were on the ship and he was running, obviously trying to escape your wrath. You threw your dagger, catching him in the shoulder and sending him to the ground. 

You were standing over him, seething. “What the fuck is your issue with me? What the fuck did I do to you?” 

He was groaning and rolling around, clutching his shoulder. “Oh shove a pipe in it and answer me.” All it took was a dagger to the shoulder to take him down? You expected more from someone in your brother’s crew. Especially with the way he had been acting before - all high and mighty.

“Y/n, you’re not dead!” He looked at you, feigning surprise. “This is wonderful, but can I ask why you’re coming straight after me? What did I do?” He looked over as your brother was boarding the ship. “Captain! I think they’ve lost it!”

Eustass was on the ship now, folding his arms as he watched the scene before him. “You brought this upon yourself. And if I were you, I’d answer their fucking questions.” He shrugged, an amused, shiteating grin on his face. “It’s in your best interest.” He sat on a crate, giving himself a front row seat to whatever the fuck was about to unfold.

“You’re only still alive right now because of their mercy,” Killer chimed in, standing next to your brother.

You looked from them back down to Kese, who was looking up at you with wide eyes. “I-I swear I didn’t know you were alive!” 

You knelt down, ripping your dagger out of his shoulder and he cried out. “You and I both know that’s a load of horseshit.” You slammed the dagger into the wood next to his head. “Now fucking answer me,” you spat. 

“Please! I just wanted to be a part of the Kid Pirates and Myra-”

Your heart almost stopped. Why the hell was he mentioning her? Did he do something to her? Was she okay? Was Lily okay? “What?” You ripped the dagger out of the deck and pressed it to his throat. “What the fuck does Myra have to do with this? What did you do to her?” You were drawing blood at this point and he was terrified. His voice was shaking and he was blubbering like a baby. Man, you felt like a fucking fool for ever having feared him.

“I-I didn’t do anything! I was just doing what she told me to do! I wanted to be a pirate on this ship and she wanted you!” 

You stopped. What? What the hell was he talking about? Wanted you? What the hell did he mean by that? Every answer he gave was raising another in its place. You looked at your brother who shook his head. “Do you have that letter?” you asked. He nodded, pulling it out of his person. “You fucking keep it on you?” He didn’t answer you, just handed it to you. “Shut it,” he grumbled.

You couldn’t even begin to imagine how Eustass had really been fairing this whole time, but it wasn’t well. You could tell that much. You could only imagine how you would react if someone told you your little brother died. Shit, he was the only reason you kept going when the both of you were younger. Just as he said he and his friends wouldn’t have been here without you, you wouldn’t have been here without him.

You opened it up, reading it over. You blinked as the words sank in. You looked at the picture that accompanied it. You knew this picture. You had been on a ladder to get some paints and on your way climbing down, you spilled all the paints and fell in the process. The photo was black and white, so you wouldn’t even be able to tell the colors of the paint. And you had been dazed at the time of the picture.

You remember moments after this picture, you sat up laughing. The whole lab was. But, with the way she had taken the picture along with the lack of color, it really did look like some kind of lab accident. You really did look dead. It was real uncanny valley.

Was Myra behind all of this? 

“Bigs?”

You looked at your brother. “I know this picture. I had a stumble with some paints. That’s all it is. Paint.” You looked back down at it, paling. Was it all just a cover up? Why did she want your brother to think you were dead? Did it have to do with Kese saying she wanted you?

You knelt back down, glaring at Kese who yelped and backed away from you as he still clutched his shoulder. “Fucking spill, you incompetent son of a bitch.” You pointed the knife at his throat.

He stared at you with wide eyes. “She’ll kill me!”

“Keeping your tongue tight? I’ll kill you first if you don’t.” You pressed the knife into his throat, once again drawing blood. He yelped, sobbing. Fuck, he was pathetic. “O-Okay! Okay…” 

“I-I’m from the island. The one where Myra’s from. I was one of her students and I always dreamt of bein-”

“Fucking-” You slammed the knife, the one Myra had specifically given to you, into his leg. He screamed, clutching it and sobbing. “You fucking stabbed me!” You glared at him.

 “Cut your losses, you’re on thin ice, tread light,” you ground out. “I don’t fucking care about all that, get to the fucking important parts - you’re testing my fucking patience,” you spat, glaring at him, making him squeak. Fuck. Was he always like this? Why did Eustass keep him around?

Kese, despite his current wound that you’d given him, took a deep breath and started once more. “The c-captain was gaining notoriety and honestly, so were you. But, in the scientific community. Since you always visited the labs and tended to help out there, talk of you spread.” You blinked. You didn’t realize that you had your own reputation. Eustass and Killer were the ones with the large bounty - you didn’t even have one. At least, not at that time. You weren’t doing any fighting. You were just…researching and building. Doing what you did best. 

“Myra wanted you to join her research team. Said she could use a sharp mind like yours. She also knew how I wanted to join the captain’s crew. So, she sent me to drive a wedge between you and the captain.” You felt like you were going to be sick. Your body went rigid with the pure, unbridled rage you were feeling. Myra seemed like she genuinely cared about you the entire time you were on the island. You couldn’t imagine her going through such lengths.

Fuck, you felt like a fool.

“I don’t fucking understand…then why would she send me here?”

Kese shook his head. “I-I don’t know.” You shot him a glare and he started crying all over again. “I swear, I don’t! She was supposed to just keep you at the island! I had no idea she was sending you here!” 

This must’ve been what she meant by she had people here. Kese had been a mole this entire time and you were none the wiser. You played right into her hands. She had gotten exactly what she wanted. You stood up, swaying a bit from the headache you were developing. You didn’t know what to think about everything.

The woman you had just spent two years with…essentially playing house with as well. It was all a lie. Was Lily in on it too? No, that was impossible. She was too young to understand things like this, right? 

You felt a hand to your back and you stiffened for a moment before you calmed. “Are you okay?” you heard Killer’s voice, but it sounded…so far away, despite him standing so close.

You looked at him for a moment before looking back down at Kese. You didn’t know. You didn’t know how you felt about any of this. Why the sudden change of heart in sending you straight to your brother? Did she feel guilty? You stared at the dagger next to Kese’s head, staring at the logo of the lab etched into it.

Numbness washed over you and you didn’t feel like you were in your body anymore. You couldn’t stand this, it was never meant to end up being this hard to process. “Do whatever the fuck you want to him. I’m over it.” Your voice was hollow, strained. You just wanted to go to bed at this point. You were…so tired. Nothing was processing. Your brain was trying to wrap around it all, but it was too much.

“W-What? N-No! Please!”

“Killer, you pick ‘em up with-” As your brother and his vice captain planned on whatever fate they had for Kese, you sauntered off. It wasn’t long before the traitor’s screams tore through the night.

“Y/n?” You looked up, seeing Dive prancing over to you. “Are you going to bed already?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. “We still need to celebrate the victory!” She huffed, shaking her head. 

“Besides, we haven’t had your cooking in forever! Would you make something for us? Pleeeease?” 

“Now, now, Dive. You should let them rest. They’ve been through a lot. We’re not celebrating until tomorrow anyway.” You looked up, seeing Wire standing there. You nodded in agreement with him, a tired smile spreading across your features. “I’ll make sure to cook everyone’s favorites tomorrow, okay?” You ruffled her hair.

“I want to sleep too!” You blinked, looking at her. “You wanna have a sleepover?” You grinned at her. You did this a few times before. Sometimes, when she first joined, she had nightmares of some kind and would be up a lot. So, she’d come hang out with you in the lab, sometimes you both would end up falling asleep curled up on the futon in the lab. Most of the time you didn’t remember falling asleep with a blanket on, but there always ended up being one. Even when Dive wouldn’t sleep with you now that you thought about it.

You shook your thoughts away as Dive spoke with excitement. “Yeah! Sleepover!” You smiled, turning to head towards your lab. “Keep an eye on them, yeah?” You heard Wire say to Dive. Ah, she wanted to make sure you were okay. You appreciated it, honestly. None of anything felt real right now. You were on the verge of a mental break, you could feel it. Someone to ground you would be good right now.

Part of you felt like if you woke up tomorrow, you’d end up back at the lab and this was all a dream.

You opened the door to your lab, blinking. Everything was exactly how you had left it. “The captain didn’t let anyone touch it after you left. Especially after…” Dive joined you once more and you looked over at her. You nodded, looking back. Everything had a fine layer of dust on it. You were going to need to do some serious cleaning, but you were too tired to do that right now.

“We can sleep in my bed,” Dive offered. Exhaustion was eating away at you and you nodded. You didn’t have any energy to argue or clean your own area. That was tomorrow’s problem. “That sounds lovely,” you mumbled with a yawn as he followed her to her room. She shared a room with Quincy, but you knew that the woman wouldn’t mind in the slightest if you stayed there for the night.

You crawled into bed, the smaller woman jumping into the bed with you with a laugh. She started prattling on about something or another, probably knowing that you just needed to not be alone with your own thoughts.

Which didn’t even end up mattering as you were asleep within moments.

[carogudino-blog]

I have a REAL issue bc I’m really hating Alicent this season. Not TG, but Alicent. It seems like she doesn’t have any agency other that the dying words of her late husband who she keeps refering as an amazing king. She keeps acting like she doesn’t love her kids, like if war could be avoided (she can’t be this stupid, I’m sorry), like if Aegon had chose to be King and she had prepared him his entire life for this, like if everything is other people fault. Episode 4…. She is only looking to prove her point instead of actually helping her sons, or attending to her daughter, or showing up at the council. When Aegon asks for advice (lit he asked) she just insults him. Why are they writing her like this? Why isn’t she having some real opinions and position in this war? Why isn’t she supporting her children? Trying to protect them?

I can get she is not a perfect mother like Rhaneyra BUT show some concern, some love. It feels like she could actually betray her family and go off with Rhaenyra (i don’t think they’re gonna go there, but it feels like it)

The reason why I still like Criston despite everything is bc he is committed to a cause, he worries for the greens, he has his own strenghts, he was horrifies at the end when aegon fell. If Criston Cole can care like this, why Alicent can’t? Even Larys seems more preocupied with the kids and the situation than her.

[atopvisenyashill]

To not clogging the thread: Vaemond Velayron deserved to be feed to a dragon and his Slient Five got off lightly just losing their tongues.

1) Apparently they only 'notice' the bastardy of the three boys after Laenor died.

2) After Harwin died.

3)And Laena died, but apparently her twins are unworthy of Driftmark do to lack of the dick but not of birth.

4)This feeds directly into treason against the king and into the political schemes of the Greens.

5)The toddler betrothals basically made the issue mute because /Laenor and Laena/ made them.

6) Also book!Rhaenys was a brunette and show!Rhaenys white, unless someone wants to colorcode every other family by paternity and paint color I will die on this hill.

I mean look at Jennifer Beals (Flashdance) and Mel B (Spicegirls) who are both biracial.

Also the entire mystery of the main series was a brunette man can't have light hair colored children. Ever. No one looks like grandma.

*Pulls out four of the five Stark kids have red hair and blue eyes. Rhaenys the Queen that Never Was had a Baratheon mother. Jon and Rhaenys both look like their mothers. Woah.)

i didn’t wanna be like “AND MAYBE IF THE SILENT FIVE WERENT DUMB BITCHES THEY WOULDNT HAVE DIED” bc yeah it was getting long but lmaooooo EXACTLY.

like, beyond the fact that i just have a very hard time taking any sort of "but they're bastards" argument seriously (that goes for ned too, and i've whacked him for it but WHY exactly does joffrey's behavior become worse knowing he's a bastard? hmmmmmm???) but it's like. so you've had an issue with this for years, and either brought it up to corlys/laenor who told you to suck shit, or never brought it up to the head of your house OR his heir and decided to kick it STRAIGHT up to the king. the king whose daughter you are accusing of treason. why do you think this is gonna end well? the fact that viserys didn't straight up execute them is crazy.

"oh well she's stealing-" no, she's actually not because as you say, laenor & laena engage their kids and baela and rhaena come before vaemond's line. if they had like an actual problem they would have gone to corlys before he was dying not after. they would have said something right after laenor dies. they wait years. yeah yeah torture is bad and murder is bad but they're no different than renly, vainly grasping at power when they think they see an opening. and just like renly, they play the game of thrones, and they lose. if you don't want to lose, maybe be smarter about it!

and yeah these are my go to "mixed but they look white as hell"

First is Cameron Boyce, he had a black dad and a jewish mom, those are his parents and sister. People love to pretend like they don't know he's black and "oh well he looks white so" he did an entire bit on disney channel explaining who the clinton 12 were because his grandma is jo ann boyce. if you're trying to make the argument that the beloved grandson of one of the first schools to desegregate aftr brown v board isn't black just bc he's pasty, like, what are you even fucking doing lol. the other two are kj apa. he's another actor people love to pretend is white but like. first of all look at his sister - they clearly look alike while she also "looks samoan" and his dad is the same as his sister. his dad is a tribal chief. the tattoos he has are sacred. just because people are insane about blood quantum in the usa doesn't mean that race and ethnicity isn't more complicated than that and calling the son of a matai a white boy simply because they made him dye his hair red and covered up his tattoos for a few roles doesn't actually make him suddenly non samoan.

people kinda do this with the dragon twins too like "oh well they shouldn't look so visibly black they only have one one black grandparent" BEHOLD ANOTHER ACTRESS WITH ONLY ONE BLACK GRANDPARENT

like can we be serious lol. can we please be serious.

[furorsopher]

things i think we forget when talking about hamilton as a person (and that’s not necessarily a bad thing bc that guy lived 200 years ago, it’s good to keep distance sometimes)

hamilton was a real human being who had a personality, in jokes with friends and family, and varying emotions. and as a kid, multiple things occurred that would permanently affect and change a child.

he grew up in an town where abuse of other humans - specifically slaves - was a day to day occurrence, and since he lived close to the port and worked in trading, he had to have witnessed a lot of gruesome mistreatment of fellow humans. not to mention the tragedy of his mothers life, and the end she met.

he had to grow up and work to keep himself alive at 14, think about a cousin, or sibling, or somebody you know that’s 14, do you think they’re adult enough to sustain themselves? hamilton wasn’t some other species that matures sooner, he was still a child. but nevertheless he became fairly successful and then a natural disaster came and he had to endure suffering again, saw others die, families being separated never to be reunited.

all of that takes a toll on somebody. even one of those events would traumatise some people - especially children and teens - so bad they wouldn’t be able to live normally ever again. it’s pretty safe to say that hamilton was no exception to that.

his college mates described him as deeply depressed, he was so religious it stuck out at fucking king’s college, a very christian institution that required attending mass daily - even if it was simply routine to him and he wasn’t actually as religious it’s still quite the feat. his fleeing into his studies and prayer was his form of escapism. when he found his coping mechanisms in work, he was gonna work until he dropped.

that’s a pretty tell-tale sign of somebody with substantial issues. not to mention the shit that happened later in his life, his life in the army, the annual reoccurrence of the illness that killed his mother, the death of his closest friend, the death of his only even remotely positive father figure.

just because tragedy in childhood was something most people had - and have - to deal with, doesn’t make it any less traumatic. those were still people.

hamilton wasn’t of an overtly weak psyche, but not because “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, but because he literally didn’t know anything else. and we can see that in how he reacted to other traumatic stuff that happened to him - or rather how he didn’t react. how he shut down, basically nobody heard from him after phillip died, he shut up and closed off after laurens died. his immune system was shit, he was susceptible to fainting spells. physical weakness is also a symptom of something wrong. he forced his oldest son into a strict schedule to get all his studies and life done in college. that’s a shit thing to do, but we can see how scared he was that phillip won’t be able to achieve something of his own.

and also we see how self destructive hamilton got, constantly overworking, throwing himself at the nearest parent-aged adult around, the symptoms of hyper sexuality often seen in trauma victims are also apparent in his time working under washington. that twink knew to get what he could by batting his eyelashes and he did exactly that.

and later, when he went to duel burr, he fully prepared to die then and there, spending time with his family the days before, being as affectionate as he could to his kid - specifically the one in a prime age to be permanently traumatised by a parent dying. the others were either older and more independent or too young to really understand what was going on. he was planning to die and had a hunch even before burr knew he was gonna kill him. he had been in like a dozen other duels and all of them settled without shooting. why would that time be different?

- though i don’t think that was his goal when provoking burr, that was just his actual opinion and maybe some repressed bitterness shining though, it was probably just an added bonus -

also: he was mostly atheist during his adult life, but turned back to religion and clung to it after phillip’s death - suicide was a sin (though not a mortal one like in catholicism which AHam actively hated on btw) in the anglican belief at that time i believe (correct me if im wrong) so maybe the duel could count as self murder over a corner or two.

hamilton was a person. an actual man who lived 49 very productive years and died after he had had enough. a person who was deeply effected by his experiences.

please don’t take any of this too seriously and everything with a huge grain of salt, i’m a 17 year old who likes history and trauma psychology, im not gonna get everything right - this is all highly speculative and probably not even relevant to most conversations abt the guy i just wanted to put my thoughts somewhere, no this isn’t proofread pls correct me on any mistakes ive made <3 have a lovely dayyyy :3

main source is Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and various documents found in the founders archive

[jotadoul]

okay. okay. rewatched GOAT Of All Time episode Operation Golden Rule of Love. first of all,

folken introduces the episode with a bit. a BIT! "to give it a name..." [TITLE CARD]

but it made me think about the preceding episodes. some notes

we don't see it unfortunately, but since hitomi/van/allen's moments in 17-18 put together a complete message to the viewer, we can sort of assume varie probably had a similar convo with Van as she did Hitomi (bc of his comment in ep 19 abt “bad things will happen if you look that upset” and trying to confess his feelings all of a sudden, in the same episode where hitomi doesn't want to do a reading and doesn't want to use her powers.)

"the dragon" is when van and hitomi are working together (when both parts of the atlantis machine are working together— escaflowne and the pendant) but specifically when escaflowne is In dragon form, because van only uses dragonform escaflowne to save other people, vs normalform escaflowne. that's the dragon dornkirk sees. (so dornkirk's big weird nightmare about a bajillion escaflownes taking over the world is a crazy guy's idea, no? and folken has to be like ".... uh huh........ No yeah totally my liege. anyway...")

reminding me of episode 7 where folken's cool link to van/interest in protecting him is referenced

Dilandau: Folken! I hate waiting.

Folken: I know roughly where the dragon is. You don't have to rush.

Dilandau: Why don't you capture the dragon now? Lord Dornkirk will appreciate that.

Van in ep 18 after they escape their cages in Zaibach seems to only kill the mechs— and only the mechs— by stabbing their energists, aka he’s not being super violent— seemingly going against what balgus told him, and possibly doing so because hitomi believes in him?

is the concept of having faith in others an Off-World idea that came from Hitomi’s grandma

Allen’s dad only figured it out as he was dying and realized he loved his wife enough to send his journal to her

so Varie and Balgus are so shitty to Van because THEY ARE!!! Hitomi is the ONLY person to offer a break in this cycle to him and vice versa. It comes from her because it’s off-world

but for Allen it comes from his dad lol… loser…

ok so i accept varie is a Bad Weird Mom. i am at peace with this, and the concept that the show is critiquing the pressure that parents/the past put on their children, passing the buck. i wish the brothers were able to acknowledge this in any way ): moving on tho

where did varie get the energist? this energist looks nothing like the others, so it must be atlantis-specific.

did she get it in the woods from a dragon

did she, after she thought folken was dead and needing a new plan, have to go to OR die in order to go to the mystic valley to retrieve the energist

wrt the above, did she have to be dead first in order to impart a truth too dangerous to utter in life?

wrt above: is it relevant that while balgus and van talk in the flashbacks in Memories of a Feather, she never talks to folken or van in the scenes where she is crying over their dad and folken? aside from her being a pretty lacklustre mother, can she not or is she not interested in imparting information to them in the fear it would send things off course? she saw at least up to her own marriage, but what else?

IS VARIE EVEN DEAD: the director said varie can be anywhere or anything at any time! is she dead as of van and hitomi seeing her in the mystic valley

partner pointed out that in east asian indigenous folklore (as well as some irish folklore) a celestial wife is an otherworldly being and always a curse

DID varie (and/or folken) see far enough into the future to know that van Needed to interact with hitomi on earth in order To get escaflowne? because

we know without hitomi's interference, van would've died

the ability to pilot escaflowne is part of being king of fanelia, but, during the bit with the Ispano, we're told technically anyone can pilot escaflowne, anyone can form a blood pact with it.

(we see goau with escaflowne before he meets varie. who put escaflowne into the rock?)

although van retrieved the energist, if fanelia had never been attacked, escaflowne could've hung out in the rock for however long, right? that was the thing that made him go get escaflowne?

which would mean the burning of fanelia was a "requirement" to produce escaflowne. we know that folken thinks dilandau is constantly being too excessive/senseless in his carnage, so he probably thought just showing up at the door would've been enough.

[ghostlycircaea]

Where would Alexios have place in the succession line to the Agiad throne?

So I originally posted this to the ac Odyssey subreddit, but it was fun to talk about so I'm posting it here too.

This is mostly just self-indulgent fun to work out some logistics while I'm working on an AU, and I’m relying more heavily on the historical side rather than the game but I'd love to hear what you all think and if my logic actually tracks for this.

(Most of the historical stuff is coming from Wikipedia, so do with that what you will. There are also spoilers in regards to the Kings of Sparta.)

Most of this doesn’t really apply to canon because Kassandra is the canon protagonist and this doesn’t work if we use her—as a woman, she wouldn’t have been eligible for the throne in the first place. There was a 'queen' title during the Classical period, but it looks like it only refers to wife of one of the kings and not an inheritable position. I’ll be using Alexios as the elder sibling here.

To get it out of the way, there are technically two different birth years for both Alexios and Kassandra, based on the novel and game respectively: Alexios - 458 BCE or 453 BC   |   Kassandra - 451 BCE or 446 BCE. Based on when Leonidas died, 458 and 451 makes the most sense and I think is the generally accepted opinion. It also just fits my timeline better.

The most glaring issue here is that I’m not sure if the kingship could have been passed through Myrrine unless there were no other potential heirs or with the interference of the Ephors.

Myrrine’s brother, King Pleistarchus, died with no heirs around 458 BCE. I’m going with him dying a few months after Alexios is born. Pausanias (II) wouldn’t be born for several more years, historically speaking. Even if we use the younger ages for Alexios and Kassandra, they would still BOTH be older than him. Which. The Pausanias we got in game? WAY older than the real Pausanias. He would have been like 14-16?? when the war started??

Side Note: I have a suspicion that the Pausanias we get in Odyssey may be a bit of a blend of Pausanias II,  his father, Pleistoanax, and his grandfather, Pausanias I. All three of which were considered traitors and exiled or killed for one reason or another.  

Pausanias I, served as regent for Pleistarchus, until he was caught allying himself with Persia and found himself murdered by the Ephors a lá the cask of Amontillado (i.e. bricked up into a temple and left to starve to death. Seemingly started by his own mother no less!).

Pleistoanax was exiled for making peace settlements with Athens. He returns to the throne in 427 BCE after the death of Archidamos II.

Pausanias II was put on trial twice, once for betrayal and the other for “poor leadership” after which he was sentenced to death (he escaped and lived the rest of his live in exile)

There seem to be a few options for next in line to the throne after Pleistarchus all but Alexios would have been descendants of Kleombrotus, Leonidas’ younger brother. The other two brothers had no known sons.

Pleistoanax is who, historically, inherited the throne from Pleistachus.

Cleomenes II and Nasteria, the younger brothers of Pleistoanax. Neither brother has much information available, so it’s possible that one or both.

Nikomedes, brother of Pausanias I, died sometime after 457 BCE. He was passed over historically as well but served as Pleistoanax’s regent.

However! In this version of events, I think, if given the choice, the decision could have been made by the Ephors to pass over Pausanias I’s descendants, if another possible heir was born. To me, it would seem that the grandson of Leonidas (and great-grandson of Cleomenes I) would be a far more favorable choice than the son of a known traitor (who would also go on to betray Sparta) even if they had to go down through Myrrine. But I also know that both Pleistoanax and Pausanias II betray Sparta as well and Sparta wouldn't have know that, so I’m a bit biased.

With all of that though comes the implication that Alexios could have… technically been king since he was an infant? In this case he would have inherited it directly from Pleistarchus in 458 BCE. It would have really just been the title, and he would have a regent, likely Nikomedes, as he was regent for Pleistoanax.

Obviously, this doesn’t line up with the game much at all, but I think it’s entertaining to think about. For it to work, I think the regent would need to be a part of the cult and actively want Alexios to either join them or be out of the picture entirely and replaced by someone already under their control. In this case, the opportunity to get rid of him showed up first at Taygetos and they jumped on it.

(Fun fact: The direct heir/king of either throne generally did NOT participate in the agoge. All more distant heirs, would have. The heir would have specialized training and was also protected from the high mortality rate that came with the agoge.)

Personally, I just think that it’s funny that none of this ever really comes up? I get why it didn’t—they would need to change the story depending on who you chose to play which would likely be a decent bit of extra work. Although, I do wish that playing as Kassandra or Alexios had more consequence to the story—I would be far more inclined to go back and play as both if they weren’t the same story.

tl;dr: I think that Alexios could have possibly been the Agiad king/heir if the Ephors decided that Pausanias I’s descendants were too much of a risk to put into power.  

[scalproie]

Im in writing mood but i dont think i could work that into a story so.

In the tekken hades au, Hell Embodied IS Kazumi but not really or more accurately, not anymore:

Quick lore/mechanic recap: during a run, Jin has a chance to go meet Azazel via ominous purple crystals randomly spawning and get the optional boss fight Devil Jin, which during the first encounter unlock the devil fighting style, and the next encounters allow Jin to get or level up devil style moves. Other than that, Azazel has a story sidequest involving "Kazumi" (basically the Chaos and Nyx equivalent).

Basically during that story sidequest, we get Hell Embodied/"Kazumi" backstory and lore. It was originally a place that came to be because of Azazel's influence but it was slightly closer to the surface than where Azazel, a primordial entity older than most gods, resides (Alex is also from where Azazel is from and that's why theyre both reptilian looking but that's another story).

Eventually it developped a curiosity for what was above and assumed a corporeal form to wander up there (and that's when it added she/her to its pronouns)

She attracted the attention of the new God King Heihachi that just finished usurping his father's throne and he eventually asked to wed her. Initially she intended to use him to gain power and control over this surface world but down the line she developped real feelings for him. And they had a son :)

Eventually Heihachi found out the truth about her nature and, feeling betrayed and wholly believing she did not in fact, love him, he stripped her of her corporeal form and status of goddess and drove her back to her "real" place, aka the middle ground between the primordial dark and the surface world, aka Hell, where she would be utterly incapable of leaving, not even getting the chance to stay a few moments up there like its son and grandson (And Heihachi could do that since his status of God King gave him the authority to do so.)

So that was one way to permanently "kill" a god: by forcefully making everyone forget about them, they are no longer a person. So as far as Heihachi and everyone else was concerned, Kazumi was officially dead.

(Another way is to keep a god in a constant state of dying, so to speak, because leaving a god for dead will only insure they return eventually. Not having the authority of the God King, thats what Lars, Lee and Kazuya did to Heihachi: after Kaz defeated him, they put him at the center of the earth, letting the deadly magma of the place do the job, and bind him there so he could not escape. Lars feels bad about it but it needed to be done for the good of everyone, Lee was like "Oh No! Anyway..." at that, and Kazuya would've thrown a party if it was smth he did. And was all too happy to let the memory of his father be buried forever and to never talk about him again.)

(Young gods can die permanently bc they didnt get enough time to cement themselves into the world. Smth smth if a chick cannot break its egg's shell it will die without being born. Wink wink)

Heihachi kept their child around initially for the same reason Kazuya will keep Jin eons later: he reminded him of his mother. And for the same reason Kazuya will treat Jin, Heihachi came to resent Kazuya: he installed a legacy of parricide by "killing" Jinpachi the Sky God, reducing him to a concept, so to secure his throne (but lying to himself as him making sure his son is a worthy heir), Heihachi did the whole heaven cliff tossing to Kazuya.

"Kazumi" found the body of its/her son and yknow the rest.

As for the reason Kazuya doesnt recognize her, well, for starters, the corporeal form of Kazumi was her human design, but Hell Embodied (who it/she just is now) looks more like a ethereal ghostly version of devil Kazumi. Another reason is that Kaz is a stubborn man who adamently refuses to aknowledge his past pain, be it losing his mother or his father in general.

If Jin confront "Kazumi" after Azazel spilled the beans, it will make Jin promise to not reveal anything to Kazuya, for a multitudes of reasons.

Jin relunctantly agrees but he does call Hell Embodied "grandma" when he's on his own, and he does feel closer to her now.