#blue-banded king crow

[heartnosekid]

blue-banded king crow (euploea eunice) | source

[phyto-telma]

Euploea eunice マルバネルリマダラ

2020, Japan

[universallydestinytaco]

The Little Smiling Mermaid (Chapter 1)

‘Twas a misty aftermoon when the sky was crowded with dark grey clouds and the airborne foul soared above the sparkling sapphire waves dancing with the gusty breeze guiding the sails of many a sailing ship, one particularly rowdy vessel was celebrating the successful aftermath of their latest battle with an infamous pirate crew. The leader of this unruly crew was the scrappy, rugged and sharp-witted Prince Charlie of the Dompler family. You’d be forgiven for assuming he was a mere swashbuckler than a Royal. Despite being the heir to the throne of his kingdom he was looked down upon his fellow Nobles for coming off as awkward, bumbling and unattractive. Charlie didn’t give two shits what the overglorified snobs thought about him because he’d rather prefer going on high-spirited adventures beyond the sea with his motley crew of sailors than waste his precious time on some boring luncheon just to get judged for merely being there.

“Damn son, you showed Salty who’s-who THIS time!” Chris cracked up as he raised his stubby hand to initiate a high five from Charlie, who happily accepted the offer. Tomar piped up: “Don’t forget how his little toadie Ketchup immediately ran and cried for his Captain for it once he saw you jump into the crow’s nest with the dagger in your mouth.” Lyle let out a chuckle when adding: “What a wimp.” The gang shared their own retrospective of the event with gleeful laughs. “Oh, I almost forgot-“ Charlie uttered, while revealing a bottle of high quality rum: “I swiped this before I left!” The sailors howled in delight at the treat their friend unveiled. “Charlie you sunovabitch, we love you!” cried Chris who already felt intoxicated by the strong smell reeking from the bottle. Charlie replied with a wink and a cheeky “finger gun” gesture before opening up the bottle and shouting: “Bring out yer flasks, maties!”

On the other corner steering the ship was it’s Captain whom they jokingly called “Mr. Boss”, he was also the closest thing Charlie had to a father since his own parents passed away sometime when the land critter was a merely a homunculi. Mr. Boss’ ears observed the rowdy party singing off-key in unison to a familiar sea shanty, a side effect of hitting the sauce. Mr. Boss chuckled and sang along with the crew as he navigated them back to their kingdom of Gremblonia.

“I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue And it's hey to the starboard, heave hoooooooo!!!! Look out, lad, a mermaid be waitin' for you-“

Charlie, who was a top the ship where the sails where draped, belted out with great gusto: “DOWN MYSTERIOUS FATHOMS BELOOOOOOOOW!!!”

~

Meanwhile, another kingdom below the surface, Meeplantica, the royal family was hosting a special concert in the Palace, peformed by the children of King Steven and Queen Bertha. Who was especially excited for this event was Alan Red, a lobster who was the designated royal composer and King Steven’s right hand man, who stayed up many moons writing new symphonies exclusive to the concert. “At last, I finally get to bestow my magnum opus.”

The anticipating crowd where greeted to the stage opening up revealing three large clamshells, with Alan raising his wand and the band began to play as two clamshells revealed the two eldest siblings, Damien and Amy, who harmonized: “Ah, we are the children of Bertha and Steven, great mother and father who raised us well!"

The third clamshell opened to reveal the youngest sibling…or at least it was meant to. The crowd gasped in shock as Alan has to do a double take in disbelief, Amy was holding back her urge to throw one of her classic primadonna tantrums in front of the crowd and Damien rolled his eyes knowing this concert was gonna hit a snag. Queen Bertha flipped out screeching hysterically while agonizing over where her youngest could be and King Pimling raised his fist and his trident to the sky shouting the name of his youngest in rage: “WHY THAT LITTLE-!!!!”

~

Within the outskirts of Meeplantica lay a shipwreck from long ago which would be collecting a lot of dust if it wasn’t literally underwater. Visiting this once bustling vessel was a cloaked sea critter carrying a tote weaved in kelp accompanied by a green guppy with a protruding snout, The critter wiggled his tail in excitement. “There it is, Glep! Isn’t it fantastic!?” As Glep finally caught up to his energetic and spontaneous friend, he got a good gander at the decaying exterior of the destination his friend had been hyping up all day…and he was disappointed to say the least. In a high pitched nasally gibberish he asked: “Eskewafibbyjibbywo! Jazazebayowozoio? (What a dump! Pim, you brought me all the way here for this?) Pim reassured: “It’s what’s on the inside that counts! Think of all the amazing things land critters have made that are just lying around under appreciated and unused…” he monologued whistfully while gazing through the window as some of his dark pink hair curls spilled through his hood. “I hope you’re not getting cold fins…but if you are I can stash you in my satchel for safe keeping.” Glep wasn’t scared as he was unimpressed, but he couldn’t leave Pim behind since he liked the guy. “Jazazewabozoyoboio. (Thanks, but I’ll stay here and watch out for sharks)” “Alright, this will be quick, I promise!” said Pim as he swam through the window and did a graceful twirl and a soft hum as he browsed through room-by-room. After acquiring some odds and ends like a pair of golden cuff links, opera glasses, a high heel and tons of silver wear, Pim finally came across an orient box gilded in gold. The ever curious mercritter popped the box open to reveal strands of stone beads and chains as well as a figurine of a couple holding hands almost as if they where dancing, just then Pim noticed the key on the back and wound it up, out came “twinkly” music and the couple finally started “dancing”. Pim was so mesmerized he fell into a dreamlike state with a tinge of envy over how both dancers had feet, humming to the ethereal tune. Once the tune stopped and Pim was about to wind the key up again, he heard Glep squealing in terror and immediately looked around crying out: “Glep! Where are you little buddy?!” He swam closer to where the sound was coming from and when swimming to the next sector of the shipwreck, he was greeted to Glep frantically swimming away from what wasn’t a shark but what could only be described as a “abyss demon”. Tall and spindly with what appeared to be a head with horns resembling coral branches and piercingly cold ocean-blue eyes staring into one’s soul. Pim grabbed Glep and swam for a way out of the abyss demon’s sight. Pim forgot the crucial advice from his grandfather from when he was just a little tadpole: “Don’t dive too deep into the abyss…you’ll get lost!” Oh if only he didn’t have a hard time remembering little things like that AND an addiction to thrills. He could hear the voice of his stubborn father nagging at him that he just doesn’t learn or listen. Pim slipped out another window and as the demon followed, only for Glep to slam it shut in his face and blow a raspberry at its squished face as he followed Pim away from the scene.

On an island surrounded with a collection of various discarded “human and land critter stuff”, another pink mercritter was casually chilling out while marveling at a crystal sphere slowly whispered in awe: “Nooooo waaaaaay…” He then heard two familiar voices coming closer to his ol’ swimming grounds. Looking into his scratched-up telescope, his smile turned into a grin as he jokingly shouted: “Yoooo mercritter on the looooose!” While waving his hand to signal his youngest cousin and his friend. Pim squealed back and frantically waved: “Hello Graham Nelly!!” Glep followed suit with a cheery: “Skawabezewayo (S’up bruh)?!” While the green guppy never liked how cold, conceited and haughty the rest of Pim’s family was, he did take a liking in his out-there cousin. He opined in his head: “If only the rest of the royal family where as cool as Pim and Graham”. Pim swam towards the sandy shore of the island where his cousin sat, going off: “You wouldn’t believe the adventure me and Glep had today!” as he opened his satchel and took out each item from the haul.

…

Graham laughed at Glep explaining his POV of the morning recap while he closely analyzed the treasures Pim unearthed, he observed a particularly fancy dinner fork engraved with the initials “M.P.” and declared: “Congratulations, my lucky friends, for you have found a dinglehopper! Actually there are a lot in this bag but this particular one is a certified righteous find.” The ever curious Pim of course asked: “What’s a dinglehopper?” “Dinglehoppers are what land folk use to comb their hair, I’ve seen fancy ones like this used by rich folk, but usually they’re more enlongated than this. It’s perfect to carry around and show off at events like parties and concerts!”

The last word had Pim remember something he was supposed to attend to earlier…but completely forgot which day it was. The small mercritter panicked: “Oh no the concert is supposed to be today! I think….Daddy’s gonna kill me!!” as he grabbed all his stuff and added: “I’ll see you later, thank you!!” Pim swam off in a hurry with Glep tagging along. “Catch you by the tide, kiddo!”

~ Back in the Abyss, the skeletal remains of a whale was permanently beached to the ground, inside was the dingy lair of one such infamous sea warlock who was as short-and-stout as he was also, to put it mildly, kind of a stinky little shitbag. He gazed upon his crystal ball watching Pim and Glep on their way back to the palace while grabbing a bowl of tiny crustaceans and crunching them between his teeth as he waited for the fireworks to light up. “Yeeeees…it’s all coming along nicely….one more piece to fall into place until I strike-“ his slow-witted henchman interrupted with a smartassed remark: “Say Grim, what are we gonna do tonight?” Grim gritted his teeth in frustration and replied: “The same thing we do every night, Gnarly: plot to snatch my deadbeat uncle’s trident so we can try and take over the seven seas!!!”

CHAPTER TWO DROPS NEXT WEEK

[the-ghost-bracket]

Last time! The 75 most submitted characters:

Danny Phantom - Danny Phantom (24 times)

Sissel - Ghost Trick (16 times)

Napstablook - Undertale (14 times)

Cole - Ninjago (13 times)

Papa Nihil - The Band Ghost (13 times)

Noah Czerny - The Raven Cycle (13 times)

The Captain - BBC Ghosts (10 times)

Lewis Pepper - Mystery Skulls Animated (9 times)

VikingPilot - Dominion SMP (9 times)

Spectra Vondergeist - Monster High (9 times)

Ghostbur - DSMP (9 times)

Heather Chandler - Heathers the Musical (9 times)

Morro - Ninjago (9 times)

Gerard 'Gerry' Keay - The Magnus Archives (8 times)

Perona - One Piece (8 times)

Takeru Tenkuuji - Kamen Rider Ghost (8 times)

Casper - Casper the Friendly Ghost (8 times)

Commander Wake - The Locked Tomb (7 times)

King Hamlet - Hamlet (7 times)

Joe Hills/Beetlejhost - Hermitcraft (7 times)

Hua Cheng - Heaven's Official's Blessing (6 times)

Mary - BBC Ghosts (6 times)

Mia Fey - Ace Attorney (6 times)

Polly Geist - Monster Prom (6 times)

William Wisp - Just Roll With It (6 times)

Chara Dreemur - Undertale (6 times)

Robin - BBC Ghosts (6 times)

Aradia Megido - Homestuck (5 times)

Pat Butcher - BBC Ghosts (5 times)

Scratch - The Ghost and Molly McGee (5 times)

Beetlejuice - Beetlejuice (5 times)

Ben Hargreeves - The Umbrella Academy (5 times)

Gengar - Pokemon (5 times)

The Snatcher - A Hat in Time (5 times)

Spooky - Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion (4 times)

Max Jagerman - Hatchetfield (4 times)

Del the Ghost Rapper - Gorillaz (4 times)

Mari/Something - Omori (4 times)

Mettaton - Undertale (4 times)

Zero - The Nightmare Before Christmas (4 times)

Fanny Button - BBC Ghosts (4 times)

Hanako/Yugi Amane - Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun (4 times)

Luke Patterson - Julie and the Phantoms (4 times)

Obi-Wan Kenobi - Star Wars (4 times)

Reggie Peters - Julie and the Phantoms (4 times)

Reimi Sugimoto - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (4 times)

Thomas Thorne - BBC Ghosts (4 times)

Zelda - The Legend of Zelda: Tracks (4 times)

Banquo - MacBeth (4 times)

Church - Red vs Blue (4 times)

Malachi - Minecraft Diaries (4 times)

Malcom Crowe - The Sixth Sense (4 times)

Skull in a jar/The whispering skull - Lockwood & Co (4 times)

Starscream- Transformers (3 times)

Alex Mercer - Julie and the Phantom (3 times)

PJ - Paranatural (3 times)

Tikal the Echidna - Sonic the Hedgehog (3 times)

Madhouse Mike - Cryptid Crush (3 times)

Bow - Inanimate Insanity (3 times)

Candy Diver Cookie - Cookie Run Kingdom (3 times)

Abigail - Don't Starve (3 times)

Mad Mew Mew - Undertale (3 times)

Leon Stamatis - Greater Boston (3 times)

Annie Sawyer - Being Human (3 times)

Julian Fawcett - BBC Ghosts (3 times)

Das Kleine Gespenst - Das Kleine Gespenst (3 times)

Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel (3 times)

Percy Reed - Hello from the Hallowoods (3 times)

Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde (3 times)

Carrie - The Amazing World of Gumball (3 times)

Alther Mella - Septimus Heap (3 times)

Leon Stamatis - Greater Boston (3 times)

King Boo - Super Mario (3 times)

Slimer - Ghostbusters (3 times)

Lup - The Adventure Zone: Balance (3 times)

The 19 most submitted fandoms:

BBC Ghosts (49 times)

Danny Phantom (33 times)

Undertale (26 times)

Ninjago (22 times)

Ghost Trick (19 times)

Pokemon (19 times)

Monster High (15 times)

Julia and the Phantoms (14 times)

Heaven Official's Blessing (14 times )

The Band Ghost (13 times)

The Raven Cycle (13 times)

One Piece (11 times)

The Locked Tomb (11 times)

DSMP (11 times)

Kamen Rider Ghost (10 times)

Dominion SMP (9 times)

Mystery Skulls Aninated (9 times)

Heathers (9 times)

The Magnus Archives (8 times)

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

The Bracket is Finally Here!

Spotify playlist with (almost) all songs in the tournament

Remember you can leave propaganda for any of these songs in the ask box both before and during the polls

(The image kinda smushed it all together but there's a written version at the bottom)

Written matches under the cut:

(Parenthesis on the song title: Additions to the title or other titles commonly used for the song in animations and animatics) ([blank]: a placeholder for a word that might variate in the title according to the animatic, usually a character's name)

Bracket 1, Side A:

You'll be back - Hamilton Musical VS. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Set it Off

I cut myself (shaving) - Talkshow Boy VS. Curses - The Crane Wives

Kiss Me, Son of God - They Might Be Giants VS. Open Up Your Eyes - My Little Pony: friendship is magic

Your Stupid Face - Kaden MacKay VS. Ready as I'll ever be - Tangled the series

Sincerely, Me - Dear Evan Hansen Musical VS. Promiseland - MIKA

Wine Red - The Hush Sound VS. Once Upon a December - Anastasia (Movie)

Everything at Once - Lenka VS. Little Miss Perfect - Written by Joriah Kwamé

Good for you - Dear Evan Hansen Musical VS. Never love an Anchor - The Crane Wives

Cupid - Jack Stauber VS. The other side - The Greatest Showman Musical

Eight Wonder - Lemon Demon VS. How bad can I be? - The Lorax (Movie)

Just Take My Wallet - Jack Stauber VS. Blue Lips - Regina Spektor

Baby Hotline - Jack Stauber VS. Tongues and Teeth - The Crane Wives

Poison - Cavetown VS. I'm the Bad Guy - Wonder Over Yonder / Caleb Hyles cover

Partners in Crime - Set It Off VS. It's tough to be a God - The Road to El Dorado (Movie)

Are You Satisfied? - MARINA VS. Brave as a Noun - AJJ The Band

Me, you and Steve - Garfunkel and Oates VS. Oh No! - MARINA

Bracket 1, Side B:

It took me by Surprise - Maria Mena VS. Father - The Front Bottoms

Hayloft - Mother Mother VS. When You're Evil - Voltaire

I Know I'm a Wolf - Young Heretics VS. Ordinary - Written by Joriah Kwamé

Anything you can do - Annie Get Your Gun Musical VS. Left Brain, Right Brain - Bo Burnham

Christmas Kids - Roar VS. I Know Those Eyes / This Man is Dead - Thomas Borchert

The Dismemberment Song - Blue Kid VS. Allies or Enemies - The Crane Wives

Turn the Lights off - Tally Hall VS. Boys will be Bugs - Cavetown

Ghosting - Mother Mother VS. Villain - Stella Jang

Defying Gravity - Wicked Musical VS. Soldier, Poet, King - The Oh Hellos

Crossing the Line - Tangled the Series VS. Runs in the Family - Amanda Palmer

Everybody Talks - Neon Trees VS. Under My Skin - Jukebox The Ghost

Saint Bernard - Lincoln VS. Line Without a Hook - Ricky Montgomery

The History of Wrong Guys - Kinky Boots Musical VS. Order Made ([blank]'s Order Made) - RADWIMPS

Charlie's Inferno ([blank]'s Inferno) - That Handsome Devil VS. Lemon Boy - Cavetown

Ultimately - Khai Dreams VS. Who Are You, Really? - Mikky Ekko

The Zombie Song - Stephanie Mabey VS. When He Sees Me - Waitress Musical

Bracket 2, Side A:

Interlude IV - Zach Callison VS. Honey, I'm Home - GHOST

Little Lion Man (Not your fault) - Mumford & Sons VS. Confrontation - Jekyll and Hyde, the Gothic Musical Thriller

The Other Side of Paradise - Glass Animals VS. I Won't Say (I'm in Love) - Disney's Hercules

El Muchacho de los Ojos Tristes - Jeanette VS. Feelings are Fatal - Mxmtoon

The Religion of Loneliness (Lonely Religion) - Syudou VS. Ikanaide - Soraru and Mafumafu

The Killing Kind - Marianas Trench VS. Touch-Tone Telephone - Lemon Demon

A Good Song Never Dies - Saint Motel VS. Achilles Come Down - Gang Of Youths

If you were gay - Avenue Q Musical VS. My R ([Blank]'s R) - KurageP / cover by Rachie

Stray Italian Greyhound - Vienna Teng VS. No Children (I hope we both die) - The Mountain Goats

I can't decide ([Blank] can't decide) - Scissor Sisters VS. OO is a receiver ([Blank] is a receiver) - Ura Commander-P

A Sadness Runs Through Him - The Hoosiers VS. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring

Dr Sunshine is Dead - Will Wood and the Tapeworms VS. A Crow's Trial (A [blank]'s Trial) - Vane

The Riddle - Scarlett Pimpernel Musical VS. Crush - Tessa Violet

Be Nice To Me - The Front Bottoms VS. My Ordinary Life - The Living Tombstone

Sweet Talk - Saint Motel VS. I do adore - Mindy Gledhill

I wish you liked girls - Abbey Glover / I wish you liked boys - Cover by Jasper Isaac VS. Like Real People Do - Hozier

Bracket 2, Side B:

Stronger Than You - Steven Universe VS. Hurts Like Hell - Fleurie

Emperor's New Clothes - Panic! at the Disco VS. Butch 4 Butch (Sweetheart's Piano) - Rio Romero

Two Birds - Regina Spektor VS. Amnesia Was Her Name - Lemon Demon

Love Like You - Steven Universe VS. Escapism - Steven Universe

Everything Stays - Adventure Time VS. This day Aria - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

My Whole Family ([blank]'s Whole Family think they're gay) - Bo Burnham VS. Popular - Wicked Musical

The Bro Duet - Written by Alexander Sage Oyen VS. Cabinet Man - Lemon Demon

Self-inflicted Achromatic - Nekobolo VS. Welcome To The Internet - Bo Burnham

The Moon Will Sing - The Crane Wives VS. Dream Sweet in Sea Major - Miracle Musical

What is This Feeling? - Wicked Musical VS. There! Right there! (Is [blank] Gay or European?) - Legally Blonde the Musical

Goodbye (Look who's inside again) - Bo Burnham VS. This is Home - Cavetown

Pad Thai - Jack Stauber VS. How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20

The Mind Electric - Miracle Musical VS. The Nowhere King - Centaurworld

Rät - Penelope Scott VS. Therefore You and Me - TadanoCo / E ve cover

Fish in a Birdcage - Fish in a Birdcage VS. Devil's Train - The Lab Rats

The Game of Life - Yuzuhico VS. Dust and Ashes - Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 Musical

[twistmusings]

MOD AZUL LMAO HOW ARE WE FEELING ABOUT TWST GOJO?✨️✨️✨️

LMFAO Iove that you guys have just taken to asking me about every update as they come out because of my low activity due to canon events right now. I genuinely fond out when stuff drops in TWST JPN pretty much as soon as you tell me. /srs

Some card spoilers below the cut!

Honestly, I know you made the comparison to Gojo but I look at him and I see beside from a goth Beatles cover band. 💀 Definitely excited to see what the event entails though! Fun facts about Mod Azul, the first Disney movie I watched as a child WAS Nightmare before Christmas, so this actually has me very excited for obvious reasons. I do love the design, but my man looks like an absolute SHITHEAD - I fully expect this event is going to be meddling. I know people are speculating he may be twisted from the Mayor, because of his pupils, and that wouldn't surprise me at all. To be honest, I almost wonder if he is twisted from the general concept more so than any one character. I see more indicators that he was twisted from Jack than anyone else in his design because it's very skeletal - though I do wonder if Oogie Boogie will be making an appearance in some way.

The new cards look super cool - I feel like the costume and hair designs lean even further into Yana's previous work on Black Butler than pretty much everything we've seen so far! I also think it's pretty cool that the Halloween even is actually using a notably different color palette and style than past Halloween events.

TWST has always had a very saturated color palette, even in the Halloween events, so it's super cool to see them play with the actual color language itself. I've pulled Jade's halloween cards to compare them for you to illustrate the differences:

Particularly in the hair - you can see how Jade's hair has been desaturated and sort of greyed out, which I think is a super cool way of incorporating the Tim Burton style into the game. ALSO

LEONA'S REGULAR CARD IS HANDLED WELL. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high, but even with the desaturate palette so far, he is still able to maintain some depth to his skin while still looking paler to match with the style. Now I am certainly hoping I don't eat crow - I know how things went with the Kings Garb card, but I'm going to hold out hope that we will get a really cool Leona SSR. Aside from the Fairy Gala, we haven't really had a "formal wear" Leona card, and I'm really hoping that the SSR looks good!

To give some clarification what I mean - when you are desaturating a color palette, specifically for darker skin tones, you want to mute the saturation of the color without losing the depth of the color. When we are speaking about skin tones, human skin is made up of a mix of colors - primarily yellows and reds, though we also get some blue as well. When you're working with a dark skin tone. In that sense, you don't want to add grey, you want to neutralize some of the warmth with blue tones and even fully dip into blue tones in shadow, which this artist has done. I have actually color picked this palette and put it against a white background to show what I mean and wow this is a gorgeous color palette!!

It definitely depends on the monitor and the brightness settings, but on the monitor I have calibrated to do illustration on - those colors are Navy Blue, A dark lipstick Mauve, a soft violet, and then some brighter orange brown and yellow brown where the moonlight is hitting. Even in the shadows, those cooler colors (the purples) are warmer shades of those colors that make sense with his skin tone. It's a beautiful palette using a ton of gem tones and cool colors and I'm holding out hope that the groovies keep with this trend, especially considering we have both Leona and Jamil getting much needed SSRs this go around.

So far as other thoughts - in Japan the event has been called "Lost in the book with Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas", which leads me to believe this will be similar to the Stitch event where the boys end up in a book in an entirely alternate world and will likely wake up not knowing what happened. I'm also guessing given the track record with the Halloween events and the fact that Nightmare before Christmas is a musical that we're likely going to get more Twistunes with this Halloween event. I don't know if we're going Masquerade levels with it, but I certainly hope we get to hear Leona and Sebek sing, and we know that Jamil can!

Also this event includes Vil, Leona, AND Malleus, so I fully expect at some point these three are going to beef because you can't put these three drama queens in a room and have them NOT devolve into arguing. I eagerly await that.

Also I don't know if they are keeping any of the Christmas theme of nightmare before Christmas, but if they do I cannot wait for the boys to ILLEGALLY DETAIN SANTA CLAUS.

[themirokai]

Hey there Emotional Support Raven fans. It's been a while without Matthew content from me. But after a big ol' writing slump, I'm back! This started as a quickie ficlet to break my creative log jam, and while it's still pretty short (~1,400 words) and pretty silly and pretty rough around the edges (no beta!) I'm actually kind of fond of it and I hope you enjoy it.

Inspiration included a post I can no longer find about birds with leg bands being more successful at reproduction, this post about magpies, @mashumaru's love of hooded crows, and her help on this post and subsequent patience with my inane questions via DM. Thanks, friend!

Not much Dream in this one, it's more of a Matthew adventure. I hope you enjoy!

~~

The thing was, the crow looked really sad and for better or for worse, Matthew had a tender heart. 

“Matthew,” Lord Morpheus had said to him, “a pod of undinės wishes to give me a gift in celebration of the summer solstice.” 

“Do I want to know what a ‘pod of undinės’ is?” 

“A group of rusalka.” Lord Morpheus had blinked. “Mermaids. More or less.” 

Mermaids. Sure. It was far from the weirdest thing Matthew had seen since becoming the Raven of the Dreaming. 

“While I am grateful to them,” Lord Morpheus had continued, “I cannot leave the Dreaming on the night the gift must be bestowed. You will go to the waking world and convey my heartfelt thanks, as well as my apologies for not being able to attend myself, and you will receive the gift on my behalf then return with it.”  

“Convey thanks, give apologies, get gift, come back. Got it, Boss.” 

Which was how Matthew had found himself alighting on the shore of a large lake in Lithuania to the sound of ethereal singing. The undinės were jaw-droppingly beautiful, and completely naked except where they were artfully covered by their long, flowing hair. Matthew noted with a flick of interest that the sight didn’t seem to have the same effect on him as he suspected it would have, were he still human. What did get him excited was one of the undinės presenting him with a very shiny blue shell, and telling him that it was just for him to keep. Matthew gratefully clutched it in one of his claws. 

When it was his turn to talk, Matthew was quite proud of himself for listing at least five of the Boss’s titles in his introduction, and the undinės seemed perfectly satisfied with his thanks and his apology. One of them brought forward a glowing pink flower with a blossom nearly half the size of Matthew’s body. Each petal was shaped like a small fern and was an ombre of blush pink near the center to fuschia at the tips. She explained that it was a fern flower: a symbol of fertility that can only be harvested during the summer solstice. The undinės wished to present it to the Shaper of Forms in celebration of the fact that his kingdom was once again fertile ground for dreams. 

Matthew gently took the stalk in his beak, gave a low bow to the undinės, and took off.  

He had been about to fly up into the Dreaming when he saw the hooded crow hunched miserably at the base of a tree. Matthew knew this was not his problem. Knew that he had more than enough to deal with in the Dreaming without involving himself in the issues of waking world birds. But, well, there was nothing for it. He was a softy. The flower was glowing just as gamely as when it was handed to him: it seemed like it would keep. 

Matthew swooped down to land in front of the crow, and gently put the fern flower down so he could speak. 

“Hey. Are you okay?” 

The crow blinked at him. “Are you real?” 

Matthew shrugged his wings. He was used to this reaction from other birds. “I’m a dream, but I’m a real dream. I’m really here and I’m really talking to you, and I didn’t come from your imagination.” 

“Oh.” The crow blinked at the fern flower. “What’s that? It’s shiny.” 

“Magical solstice flower that some mermaids wanted to gift to my boss. King of Dreams. Don’t worry about it. Are you okay? You just looked… really not okay.” 

The crow studied the fern flower for another moment then looked back at Matthew and heaved a sigh, letting his head droop further. “I’m hideous.” 

Matthew cocked his head to the side. The crow… looked like a normal hooded crow: black head, wings, and tail, gray body. Nothing out of the ordinary. “Um.” 

The crow held out his leg. Secured around his ankle was a tiny box on a black band. 

“Oh!” Matthew gasped. “Did humans put that on you?” 

The crow nodded. 

“Does it hurt? Did they hurt you when they put it on?” Matthew felt anger bubbling in his chest. 

“No, it doesn’t hurt,” the crow sighed.

Oh. Matthew took a breath. “Is it uncomfortable at all?” 

The crow shook his head. “I mostly don’t feel it.” 

“Does it make it harder to fly or walk?” 

The crow gave another mournful sigh. “No.” 

Matthew blinked. “Sooo, what’s the problem?” 

“It’s ugly!” the crow cried. “Garagalar has been getting all the girls! The humans gave him a green band! Everyone just loves Garagalar’s green band! It’s so pretty! It’s so shiny! And - and this one just looks like - like a blah! Like I have an ugly, bumpy leg!”

Matthew - somehow - managed to swallow down his laughter before it emerged. “Let me guess, Garagalar is being a real dick about it too.” 

“If he strutted any harder he’d dislocate a hip,” the crow grumbled, drawing a claw through the dirt. 

Matthew did let himself chuckle at that. “Well, I’m not sure I can do anything about Garagalar and his strutting, but I can probably help you get that thing off.”

The crow perked up. “Really?” 

“Sure thing. Happy to help.” Matthew let go of the blue shell he had been grasping in his claw and stepped gingerly over the fern flower to get closer. “Let’s see it.”

The crow held out his foot and Matthew inspected the plastic band. 

“What’s your name, anyway, pal?”

“Cartagrawk. What’s yours?” 

“I’m Matthew. Nice to meet you Cartagrawk.”

“Matthew? That’s a weird name.” 

“Yeah,” Matthew agreed, “it’s a long story. Now, I think I can probably just bite this thing. My beak’s pretty strong.”

It took some maneuvering so that Matthew could bite the plastic without hurting Cartagrawk’s leg, and even then he wasn’t able to bite right through, but after a few minutes he was able to put a crack in the plastic and loosen it enough that Cartagrawk could work his foot out of the loop. 

“Caw! Thank you!” Cartagrawk gave an excited flap of his wings. 

Matthew fluffed up his neck feathers with pride. “You’re welcome.” 

Cartagrawk looked out into the forest. “Garagalar will probably still get all the girls with that stupid green band of his. But at least I’ve got more of a chance this way.” 

Matthew cocked his head. “Maybe we can give you an even better chance…” he looked down at the fern flower still glowing on the ground. “This thing has something to do with fertility…” Matthew picked up the flower in his beak and gave it a gentle shake over Cartagrawk’s head and back. 

Cartagrawk shook his feathers and drew himself up taller. Maybe it was a trick of the light but it did seem like his feathers had more of a shine to them. 

Matthew put down the flower and pushed the shiny blue shell closer to Cartagrawk. “Save that for someone special,” Matthew told him. 

Cartagrawk’s beak fell open. “Really? You’re giving that to me? It’s beautiful!” 

Matthew nodded. “Yeah, I don’t need it. And you have some serious wooing to do.” 

“Wow! Thank you! How can I ever repay you?” 

“Eh, ya know, pay it forward. Help out someone in need down the line. And don’t let Garagalar throw you off your game.” 

“I will! I mean - I won’t! I mean - I will and I won’t!” Cartagrawk was hopping with excitement. 

If he had still been human, Matthew would have grinned. “Nice to meet you, Cartagrawk. Good luck out there.”

Matthew gently picked up the fern flower and leapt into the air. 

“I hope,” Lord Morpheus said as he took the fern flower from Matthew’s beak, “that you will not make a habit of using unfamiliar magical objects for your own devices, Matthew.”

Matthew could tell he wasn’t mad, not really. He resettled his wings. “There’s no devices, Boss. Just helping out a fellow corvid. One who got screwed by some humans.”

“Be that as it may, had this been something more powerful or nefarious things could have gone badly both for you and the crow.”

“Well,” Matthew said, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “I figured you wouldn’t have sent me by myself to carry the flower home in my beak if it was dangerous.” 

“Hm.” Lord Morpheus pulled a glass bell jar out of thin air and placed the fern flower inside. “Your reasoning is not unsound. And the act was kindly done. Come.” He extended his hand and Matthew hopped on to be transferred to Lord Morpheus’s shoulder. “I believe Lucienne and Jessamy would enjoy seeing this.” 

Together, they set out for the Library. 

------

I hope any bird experts will excuse inaccuracies in hooded crow behavior and bird banding technology. Thanks for reading!

If you're new to the series (or if you're not) you can find my master post of all the Emotional Support Raven stories and fan art here.

[crows-templets]

Master list part three here we go

Percy Jackson and affiliated books themes

Pollux/castor Normal

Luke castellen medium

Cabin seven normal

Victoria (DS game) normal

Cabin 13 normal

Lavinia Asimov normal

Magnus chase normal

Nico di Angelo normal

Ethan/drew normal

Percy Jackson birthday edition Normal

Blanche normal

Will solace birthday edition normal

Trials of Apollo normal

Leo Valdez normal

Cabin 10 normal

Cabin 2 normal

Cabin 14 normal

Cabin 19 normal

Cabin 8 normal

Cabin 6 normal

Fantasy themes

Royal fantasy normal

Nature themes

Bee/crow normal

Wolf normal

Butterfly (black and pink) normal

Ocean normal

Cobweb normal

Rose/fox/star normal

Sea slug normal

Rock normal

Bee/flowers normal

Dark themes

Church grim normal

Ghost band short

Light themes

Enna alouette normal

Misc themes

Teddy bear normal

Tv normal

Sun normal

Outlaw normal

Makeup normal

Academia normal

Winter normal

Motorcycle normal

Circus normal

Prince stolas (mythology, not helluva boss) normal

Skate boarding dog normal

Lovesick normal

Ariadne (mythology) normal

King teddy? Normal

Unthemed normal

Theater normal

Divorce normal

Misc fandom themes

Jayfeather normal

Wrath full metal alchemist normal

Magnus archives normal

Astarion bladurs gate longish

Hatsune miku normal

Dabi mha normal

Amethyst Steven universe normal

Demon slayer normal

Overhaul/naturey normal

Toreil undertale normal

Dean Winchester normal

Rin Penrose Normal

Shoto aizawa normal

Colors

Black normal

Red fruit normal

White and purple normal

Red and white/blue and white Short, dou

Black and gold normal

Pink puppy normal

Red and white

Purple and gray normal

Kid like themes

Science medium

Allison normal

Star symbols

Space normal

Cat,stars and flowers short

Miss mayberrry normal

Loona (helluva boss) normal

Octavia normal

Mcyt themes

Genloss ranboo normal

Mumza longish

Niki dsmp normal

Eret longish

Charlie slime normal

Tommyinnit longish

Hazbin/helluva themes

Millie normal

Verosika mayday normal

Beezelabub normal

Vox take 2? 3? Normal

Beezelbub normal

Lute normal

Barbie wire normal

Lucifer take two Normal

Pride themes

Faunic normal

Music themes

Mcr/vampire normal

Hamilton the musical normal

Epic with a touch of tallulah normal

Yaelokre normal

Band normal

Voltaire normal

[comshipbracket]

Antis DNI

Comship Bracket 2 Round 1!

Round 1 is split up into 6 Segments, which are split into 3 smaller polls within them! These will be posted when I am able, with a 6-day voting time limit. Look out for your ships! Propaganda is both welcome AND encouraged, whether through the form of essays, art, fanfiction recommendations, or otherwise, All propaganda will be reblogged.

Round 1 Segment 1

Poll 1: Winterkov (The Winter King x Simon Petrikov), Fionna and Cake VS Beluz (Emperor Belos x Luz Noceda), The Owl House

Poll 2: ZorcRyou (Ryou Bakura x Zorc Necrophades), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters VS Jodihan (Jodio Joestar x Rohan Kishibe), Jojo's Bizzare Adventure

Poll 3: Lammis x Boxxo, Reborn as a Vending Machine I Now Wander The Dungeon VS Coffincest (Ashley Graves x Andrew Graves), The Coffin of Andy and Leyley

Round 1 Segment 2

Poll 1: Blossom Utonium x Father, Cartoon Network: Fusionfall VS Paperhat (Dr. Flug x Black Hat), Villainous

Poll 2: Reimob (Reigen Arataka x Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama), Mob Psycho 100 VS Ganonzelink (Ganondorf x Princess Zelda x Link), the Legend of Zelda

Poll 3: Eugarian (Eugene Fitzherbert x Varian), Tangled The Series VS T.K.O x K.O, O.K. K.O. Let's Be Heroes

Round 1 Segment 3

Poll 1: Yaeona (Yae Miko x Diona Kätzlein), Genshin Impact VS KuroWolf (Lord Kuro x Wolf/Sekiro), Sekiro

Poll 2: Stridercest (Dave Strider x Dirk Strider), Homestuck VS Itacest (North Italy/Veneziano x South Italy/Romano), Hetalia

Poll 3: MegaStar (Megatron x Starscream), Transformers VS Chosenshipping (Blue [F] x Silver), Pokémon SPECIAL/Pokémon Adventures

Round 1 Segment 4

Poll 1: SayoHina (Sayo Hikawa x Hina Hikawa), Bandori BanG Dream! Girls Band Party VS Soushin (Sou Hiyori x Shin Tsukimi), Your Turn To Die

Poll 2: Niffany (Tiffany Valentine x Nica Pierce), Chucky VS Seymorin (Seymour Krelborn x Orin Scrivello), Little Shop of Horrors

Poll 3: Cletus Delroy Montfort DeMontblanc Bigglesworth Spuckler x Mary Wrestlemania Spuckler, The Simpsons VS Michael Kenmore x John Sheppard, Stargate Atlantis

Round 1 Segment 5

Poll 1: Despaircest (Junko Enoshima x Mukuro Ikusaba), Danganronpa VS SasoDei (Sasori x Deidara), Naruto

Poll 2: Shroudcest (Idia Shroud x Ortho Shroud), Twisted Wonderland VS Lapptex (Lappland x Texas), Arknights

Poll 3: Velphi (Velvet Crowe and Laphicet), Tales of Berseria VS Makoyuma (Makoto Kagutsuchi x Yuma Kokohead), Master Detective Archives: Raincode

Round 1 Segment 6

Poll 1: Rickorty (Rick Sanchez x Morty Smith), Rick and Morty VS Pinecest (Dipper Pines x Mabel Pines), Gravity Falls

Poll 2: Dottoscara (Il Dottore x Scaramouche), Genshin Impact VS Batjokes (Batman/Bruce Wayne x The Joker), DC

Poll 3: Moriarthree (Louis James Moriarty x William James Moriarty x Albert James Moriarty), Moriarty the Patriot VS Snow x White, Promise of Wizard/MahoYaku

This is the line-up for round 1, let's see who you all vote for to move forward into Round 2! Remember, propaganda is encouraged! Have fun voting, everyone! Our inbox is also open for propaganda - Mod Satou (She/Her Only)

[carlsdarling]

Playlist

Ok this is probably the weirdest combination of songs you’ve ever seen… there is a reason none of my friends wants to listen to any music with me. But it’s what I listen to when I write and I get a lot of inspiration from it… (yes a lot of 80’s, I just love the spirit of 80’s music a lot, and also some German bands)

Tags: @enid-rhees @wh0reishslxtsstuff

Ease My Mind - The Faim Scorpions – Send Me An Angel Don Henley – The Boys Of Summer The Hunna – Flickin‘ your hair Nightwish – Bless the child Nightwish – End Of All Hope Sirenia – The Path to Decay Sirenia – Lost In Life Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper America – The Last Unicorn U96 – Love Sees No Colour Alter Bridge – This Is War Alter Bridge – Open Your Eyes Seether feat. Amy Lee– Broken Pharao – There Is A Star Republica – Out Of The Darkness Bryan Adams – Summer of 69 Thirty Seconds To Mars – This Is War Genesis – In Too Deep Blackmore’s Night – World Of Stone The Cranberries – Zombie Good Charlotte – Life Changes The Killers – Run For Cover The Killers – When You Were Young Biffy Clyro – Black Chandelier Low Shoulder – Through The Trees Madonna – Live To Tell Whitesnake – Is This Love Ronan Keating – Iris Papa Roach – Feel Like Home Guano Apes – Living In A Lie Johnny Cash – Hurt Def Leppard – Hysteria The Naked And Famous – Young Blood The Naked And Famous – Rolling Waves The Naked And Famous – Punching In A Dream Breaking Benjamin – Diary Of Jane Fury In The Slaughterhouse – I won’t forget these days Prime Circle – Ghosts Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill My Chemical Romance – Helena Sunrise Avenue – Little Bit Love Rea Garvey – Can’t Say No Kings Of Leon– This Sex Is On Fire Steven Tyler, Red, White And You Churches – Leave A Trace Eddie Money – Take Me Home Tonight ASP – Ungeschickte Liebesbriefe RIVO DREI – Wie Flugzeuge Max Giesinger – Legenden Silbermond - Symphonie Oomph – Augen Auf Eisblume – Eisblumen Echt – Du trägst keine Liebe in dir Unheilig – Geboren, um zu leben Avril Lavigne -Losing Grip White Lies – Bigger Than Us Mumford & Sons – Ditmas Bryan Adams – Run To You U2 – City Of Blinding Lights Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – Face Down The Fray – You Found Me Lifehouse – Hanging By A Moment Lifehouse – Everything Lifehouse - Broken Kim Petras – Can’t Do Better Placebo – Every you, every me Counting Crows – Colorblind Puddle of Mudd – Blurry HIM – Heartache Every Moment HIM – Venus Doom HIM – Behind The Crimson Door HIM – Poison Girl Creed – Higher Sum 41 – Fat Lip Lee Ann Womack – I Hope You Dance Angels And Airwaves – Surrender Staind – Outside Staind – So Far Away Whitney Houston – It’s Not Right But It’s Ok (Thunderpuss Mix) Incubus – Wish You Were Here Disturbed – Prayer Blink-182 – What’s my age again

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ADWD: Jon XI (Chapter 53)

Apologies for using Karsi as a placeholder. Val wasn't relevant enough to be on the show.

He was not a tall man, Tormund Giantsbane, but the gods had given him a broad chest and massive belly. Mance Rayder had named him Tormund Horn-Blower for the power of his lungs, and was wont to say that Tormund could laugh the snow off mountaintops. In his wroth, his bellows reminded Jon of a mammoth trumpeting.

[...]

Finally, as the shadows of the afternoon grew long outside the tent, Tormund Giantsbane—Tall-Talker, Horn-Blower, and Breaker of Ice, Tormund Thunderfist, Husband to Bears, Mead-King of Ruddy Hall, Speaker to Gods and Father of Hosts—thrust out his hand. "Done then, and may the gods forgive me. There's a hundred mothers never will, I know."

Are we being baited? We're being baited, aren't we?

"If you refuse," Mance Rayder said, "Tormund Giantsbane will sound the Horn of Winter three days hence, at dawn." - Jon X, ASOS

+.+.+

Jon clasped the offered hand. The words of his oath rang through his head. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. And for him a new refrain: I am the guard who opened the gates and let the foe march through. He would have given much and more to know that he was doing the right thing. But he had gone too far to turn back.

This is the price of peace, I pay it willingly. If I look back, I am lost. - Daenerys VIII, ADWD

+.+.+

"Gold for gruel, and boys … a cruel price. Whatever happened to that sweet lad I knew?"

They made him lord commander. "A fair bargain leaves both sides unhappy, I've heard it said. Three days?"

"If I live that long. Some o' my own will spit on me when they hear these terms." Tormund released Jon's hand. "Your crows will grumble too, if I know them. And I ought to. I have killed more o' you black buggers than I can count."

This week on Foils,

Jon negotiates an uneasy peace with those uncivilized, barbaric wildlings.

I hope he doesn't start sulking, and decide to burn everyone alive.

+.+.+

The wildling pulled off the band from his left arm and tossed it at Jon, then did the same with its twin upon his right. "Your first payment. Had those from my father and him from his. Now they're yours, you thieving black bastard."

The armbands were old gold, solid and heavy, engraved with the ancient runes of the First Men. Tormund Giantsbane had worn them as long as Jon had known him; they had seemed as much a part of him as his beard. "The Braavosi will melt these down for the gold. That seems a shame. Perhaps you ought to keep them."

"No. I'll not have it said that Tormund Thunderfist made the free folk give up their treasures whilst he kept his own."

Speaking of being baited, I continue to be distracted by the ancient runes.

+.+.+

Grief twisted Tormund's face. "Dormund was cut down in the battle for the Wall, and him still half a boy. One o' your king's knights did for him, some bastard all in grey steel with moths upon his shield. I saw the cut, but my boy was dead before I reached him. And Torwynd … it was the cold claimed him. Always sickly, that one. He just up and died one night. The worst o' it, before we ever knew he'd died he rose pale with them blue eyes. Had to see to him m'self. That was hard, Jon." Tears shone in his eyes. 

Richard Horpe is with Stannis, I don't think anything is brewing.

+.+.+

"Dawn, then. Three days from now. The boys first."

"I heard you the first ten times, crow. A man'd think there was no trust between us." He spat. "Boys first, aye. Mammoths go the long way round. You make sure Eastwatch expects them. I'll make sure there's no fighting, nor rushing at your bloody gate. Nice and orderly we'll be, ducklings in a row. And me the mother duck. Har!" Tormund led Jon from his tent.

The mammoths are all at Eastwatch. Pray for Eastwatch.

If the Others do attack Eastwatch, you have a nice little parallel with Daenerys, who's about to go to war with the elephants.

+.+.+

He [Hareth] and Leathers were the only men Jon had brought with him to the parley; any more might have been seen as a sign of fear, and twenty men would have been of no more use than two if Tormund had been intent on blood.

Bruh, you have to create the illusion you're including others in your decision-making process. Even Tywin Lannister did that.

+.+.+

Ghost was the only protection Jon needed; the direwolf could sniff out foes, even those who hid their enmity behind smiles.

Ghost would have followed as well, but as the wolf came padding after them, Jon grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and wrestled him back inside. Borroq might be amongst those gathering at the Shieldhall. The last thing he needed just now was his wolf savaging the skinchanger's boar. - Jon XIII, ADWD

+.+.+

From above came the sudden sound of wings. Mormont's raven flapped from a limb of an old oak to perch upon Jon's saddle. "Corn," it cried. "Corn, corn, corn."

"Did you follow me as well?" Jon reached to shoo the bird away but ended up stroking its feathers. The raven cocked its eye at him. "Snow," it muttered, bobbing its head knowingly. 

Eye, singular.

That ain't no blood raven, that's a Bran raven.

+.+.+

Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.

They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

"Have you been trying to steal my wolf?" he asked her.

"Why not? If every woman had a direwolf, men would be much sweeter. Even crows."

Wait a second.

WAIT A SECOND.

What happened ... to Cool Girl's ... grey eyes?

Why ... at this moment ... have they turned ... blue?

Val looked at him with pale grey eyes. - Jon X, ASOS

x

They had crowned her with a simple circlet of dark bronze, yet she looked more regal in bronze than Stannis did in gold. Her eyes were grey and fearless, unflinching. - Jon III, ADWD

See? Grey. She's shapeshifting again.

Something tells me that's not a continuity error.

She was as fair as he'd remembered, slender, full-breasted, graceful even at rest, with high sharp cheekbones and a thick braid of honey-colored hair that fell to her waist. - Jon X, ASOS

x

Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue - Jon XI, ADWD

Something weird is going on here, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Worse, she was beautiful. - Arya I, AGOT

x

"Your bosom will be as lovely as the queen's," the old woman said as she looped her string around Sansa's chest. "You should not hide it so." - Sansa II, ASOS

x

"I had heard that Lord Littlefinger's daughter was fair of face and full of grace, but no one ever told me that she was a thief." - Alayne I, TWOW

x

Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones - Arya I, AGOT

x

"OH, SWEET SHE WAS, AND PURE, AND FAIR! THE MAID WITH HONEY IN HER HAIR!" - Sansa I, ASOS

x

✨✨✨ Petyr studied her eyes, as if seeing them for the first time. "You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes." - Sansa I, AFFC ✨✨✨

+.+.+

Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.

They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

"Have you been trying to steal my wolf?" he asked her.

"Why not? If every woman had a direwolf, men would be much sweeter. Even crows."

It's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Two pairs of hose for her legs, boots that laced up to her knees, heavy leather gloves, and finally a hooded cloak of soft white fox fur.

[...]

He smiled. "I wish you could see yourself, my lady. You are so beautiful. You're crusted over with snow like some little bear cub, but your face is flushed and you can scarcely breathe. How long have you been out here? You must be very cold. Let me warm you, Sansa. - Sansa VII, ASOS

+.+.+

Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.

They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

"Have you been trying to steal my wolf?" he asked her.

"Why not? If every woman had a direwolf, men would be much sweeter. Even crows."

It's always there, the truth. We just need to look for it.

"I had heard that Lord Littlefinger's daughter was fair of face and full of grace, but no one ever told me that she was a thief."

"You wrong me, ser. I am no thief!"

Ser Roland placed his hand over his heart. "Then how do you explain this hole in my chest, from where you stole my heart?" - Alayne I, TWOW

+.+.+

Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.

They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

"Have you been trying to steal my wolf?" he asked her.

"Why not? If every woman had a direwolf, men would be much sweeter. Even crows."

Why, it's almost as if this "character" (I use that term loosely) is a plot device, who only exists to remind us of other people.

The light of the half-moon turned Val's honey-blond hair a pale silver and left her cheeks as white as snow. She took a deep breath. "The air tastes sweet."

"My tongue is too numb to tell. All I can taste is cold." - Jon VIII, ADWD

Pale silver? Bad. ❌

Dark honey, blue-eyed? Good. ✅

Okay, I'm done.

+.+.+

What had that oaf Axell Florent said of Val? "A nubile girl, not hard to look upon. Good hips, good breasts, well made for whelping children."

+.+.+

All true enough, but the wildling woman was so much more. 

If you have any critical thinking skills whatsoever, this should have prompted nothing more than a laugh.

The joke is he doesn't know anything about Val. The reader doesn't know anything about Val. Val is a blank page dressed in white.

+.+.+

She had proved that by finding Tormund where seasoned rangers of the Watch had failed. She may not be a princess, but she would make a worthy wife for any lord.

Again, the appropriate response is to laugh.

Val would make a dreadful wife for any noble, and the author's going to demonstrate why.

I weep for people who can't see what's going on here.

Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please. - Catelyn VII, ACOK

x

She is good at this, he thought, as he watched her tell Lord Gyles that his cough was sounding better, compliment Elinor Tyrell on her gown, and question Jalabhar Xho about wedding customs in the Summer Isles. His cousin Ser Lancel had been brought down by Ser Kevan, the first time he'd left his sickbed since the battle. He looks ghastly. Lancel's hair had turned white and brittle, and he was thin as a stick. Without his father beside him holding him up, he would surely have collapsed. Yet when Sansa praised his valor and said how good it was to see him getting strong again, both Lancel and Ser Kevan beamed. She would have made Joffrey a good queen and a better wife if he'd had the sense to love her. He wondered if his nephew was capable of loving anyone. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS

A poor substitute for the real thing.

King Stannis had plans for Val, he knew; she was the mortar with which he meant to seal the peace between the northmen and the free folk. - Samwell I, AFFC

x

Our alliances in the south may be as solid as Casterly Rock, but there remains the north to win, and the key to the north is Sansa Stark. - Tyrion III, ASOS

Always has been, always will be.

She may not be a princess

Wait for it.

WAIT FOR IT.

+.+.+

But that bridge had been burned a long time ago, and Jon himself had thrown the torch. "Toregg is welcome to her," he announced. "I took a vow."

That's kind of a dick thing to say right in front of her, lol.

+.+.+

"She won't mind. Will you, girl?"

Val patted the long bone knife on her hip. "Lord Crow is welcome to steal into my bed any night he dares. Once he's been gelded, keeping those vows will come much easier for him."

HA HA she's so cool.

+.+.+

As Jon scratched Ghost behind the ear, Toregg brought up Val's horse for her. She still rode the grey garron that Mully had given her the day she left the Wall, a shaggy, stunted thing blind in one eye. As she turned it toward the Wall, she asked, "How fares the little monster?"

+.+.+

"Freedom of the castle you shall have, but I regret to say you must remain a captive. I can promise that you will not be troubled by unwanted visitors, however. My own men guard Hardin's Tower, not the queen's. And Wun Wun sleeps in the entry hall."

Sansa hovered by the door, for once unguarded. The queen had given her freedom of the castle as a reward for being good, yet even so, she was escorted everywhere she went. - Sansa V, AGOT

Shoutout to @please-dot!

+.+.+

Jon saw signs of sickness too. That disquieted him more than he could say. If Tormund's band were starved and sick, what of the thousands who had followed Mother Mole to Hardhome? Cotter Pyke should reach them soon. If the winds were kind, his fleet might well be on its way back to Eastwatch even now, with as many of the free folk as he could cram aboard.

Jon lets the sick pass the Wall.

Now I'm wondering what the author's personal stance was on Daenerys keeping the sick out of Meereen. I didn't think she had much of a choice, but perhaps George disagrees.

+.+.+

"How did you fare with Tormund?" asked Val.

"Ask me a year from now. The hard part still awaits me. The part where I convince mine own to eat this meal I've cooked for them. None of them are going to like the taste, I fear."

"Let me help."

"You have. You brought me Tormund."

"I can do more."

Why not? thought Jon. They are all convinced she is a princess. Val looked the part and rode as if she had been born on horseback. A warrior princess, he decided, not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for some knight to rescue her.

There it is, in all its glory.

A real authentic warrior princess.

Controversial, but I agree with him.

Val is nothing like that other princess in the story.

+.+.+

Why not? thought Jon. They are all convinced she is a princess. Val looked the part and rode as if she had been born on horseback. A warrior princess, he decided, not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for some knight to rescue her.

I'm not finished.

In case Jon's own thoughts weren't enough,

Val is no princess, though. I told him that half a hundred times. - Jon VIII, ADWD

George has basically confirmed Jon is projecting all over this girl.

However, in my own defense, I should note that Dalla was not a "warrior woman" per se. She was from a warrior culture, yes; one that gave women the right, but not the obligation, to be fighters. Ygritte was a warrior woman, as was (most conspicuously) the fearsome Harma Dogshead. Dalla and Val were not. - George R. R. Martin

She is no warrior, she is no princess, and she damn well sure isn't the mortar to the north.

As for Jon's thoughts on willowy creatures in towers,

He knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful, and highborn, and her eyes were kind. - Jon III, AGOT

x

The mare whickered softly as Jon Snow tightened the cinch. "Easy, sweet lady," he said in a soft voice, quieting her with a touch. - Jon IX, AGOT

x

He was not a man you'd expect to speak of maids and wedding nights. So far as Jon knew, Qhorin had spent his whole life in the Watch. Did he ever love a maid or have a wedding? He could not ask. Instead he fanned the fire. When the blaze was all acrackle, he peeled off his stiff gloves to warm his hands, and sighed, wondering if ever a kiss had felt as good. - Jon VIII, ACOK

x

Sometimes she sang in a low husky voice that stirred him. And sometimes by the cookfire when she sat hugging her knees with the flames waking echoes in her red hair, and looked at him, just smiling . . . well, that stirred some things as well. - Jon II, ASOS

x

If I could show her Winterfell . . . give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us. - Jon V, ASOS

x

"Then I'd push him in a stream or throw a bucket o' water on him. Anyhow, men shouldn't smell sweet like flowers."

"What's wrong with flowers?" - Jon V, ASOS

x

For a time he dreamed that Ygritte was with him, tending him with gentle hands. - Jon VI, ASOS

x

He watched the child nurse at Gilly's breast, and then he watched Jon watch. Jon is smiling. A sad smile, still, but definitely a smile of sorts. Sam was glad to see it. It is the first time I've seen him smile since I got back. - Samwell IV, ASOS

x

A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon. - Jon XII, ADWD

I might take it more seriously if he wasn't such a willowy boy.

+.+.+

"I must inform the queen of this agreement," he said. "You are welcome to come meet her, if you can find it in yourself to bend a knee." It would never do to offend Her Grace before he even opened his mouth.

"May I laugh when I kneel?"

"You may not. This is no game. A river of blood runs between our peoples, old and deep and red. Stannis Baratheon is one of the few who favors admitting wildlings to the realm. I need his queen's support for what I've done."

Val's playful smile died. "You have my word, Lord Snow. I will be a proper wildling princess for your queen."

Oh boy, I can't wait to see how well princess emissary does.

Teach him, author. Show him what happens to 11-year-old girls boys who romanticize pretty princes princesses they don't know.

+.+.+

She is not my queen, he might have said. If truth be told, the day of her departure cannot come too fast for me. And if the gods are good, she will take Melisandre with her.

I know this is about Selyse, but.

+.+.+

"If it please m'lord, the lads were wondering. Will it be peace, m'lord? Or blood and iron?"

"Peace," Jon Snow replied. "Three days hence, Tormund Giantsbane will lead his people through the Wall. As friends, not foes. Some may even swell our ranks, as brothers. It will be for us to make them welcome. Now back to your duties." 

This, plus the conflict between Daenerys and Yunkai being (temporarily) resolved by a peace deal, is another strong indicator the Others will not be stopped with swords or magic.

+.+.+

Bring parchment, quills, and a pot of maester's black to my chambers. Then summon Marsh, Yarwyck, Septon Cellador, Clydas." Cellador would be half-drunk, and Clydas was a poor substitute for a real maester, but they were what he had. Till Sam returns. 

Poor substitutes everywhere you look! What happened to getting more maesters?

"If you ask the Citadel for more maesters . . ."

"I mean to. We'll have need of every one. Aemon Targaryen is not so easily replaced, however." - Jon II, ADWD

Looks like the author is going to pretend it doesn't take years to become a maester. Who needs a 5 year gap?

+.+.+

He turned to Val. "My lady. With me, if you please."

"The crow commands, the captive must obey." Her tone was playful. 

x

They made their way toward the King's Tower, along fresh-shoveled pathways between mounds of dirty snow. "I have heard it said that your queen has a great dark beard."

Jon knew he should not smile, but he did.

x

Commanding them was Ser Patrek of King's Mountain, clad in his knightly raiment of white and blue and silver, his cloak a spatter of five-pointed stars. When presented to Val, the knight sank to one knee to kiss her glove. "You are even lovelier than I was told, princess," he declared. "The queen has told me much and more of your beauty."

"How odd, when she has never seen me." Val patted Ser Patrek on the head. "Up with you now, ser kneeler. Up, up." She sounded as if she were talking to a dog.

It was all that Jon could do not to laugh. 

+.+.+

When presented to Val, the knight sank to one knee to kiss her glove. "You are even lovelier than I was told, princess," he declared. "The queen has told me much and more of your beauty."

"How odd, when she has never seen me."

Not to be outdone, the pimply knight hopped up and said, "Ser Ossifer speaks truly, you are the most beautiful maid in all the Seven Kingdoms." It might have been a sweeter courtesy had he not addressed it to her chest.

"And have you seen all those maids yourself, ser?" Alayne asked him. "You are young to be so widely travelled." - Alayne I, TWOW

Shoutout to @please-dot!

+.+.+

They found Her Grace sewing by the fire, whilst her fool danced about to music only he could hear, the cowbells on his antlers clanging. "The crow, the crow," Patchface cried when he saw Jon. "Under the sea the crows are white as snow, I know, I know, oh, oh, oh."

If under the sea is still code for death, then I believe that's more evidence of Jon warging inside Ghost.

+.+.+

There was no sign of Lady Melisandre. For that much Jon was grateful. 

Lol.

+.+.+

"Your Grace." He took a knee. Val did likewise.

Wow, impressive. Let's see your curtsy, princess blue-blood.

+.+.+

"Are you the wildling princess?" Shireen asked Val.

"Some call me that," said Val. "My sister was wife to Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall. She died giving him a son."

I'm sorry, don't the kneelers call you that?

+.+.+

"I'm a princess too," Shireen announced, "but I never had a sister. I used to have a cousin once, before he sailed away. He was just a bastard, but I liked him."

"Honestly, Shireen," her mother said. "I am sure the lord commander did not come to hear about Robert's by-blows. Patchface, be a good fool and take the princess to her room."

The bells on his hat rang. "Away, away," the fool sang. "Come with me beneath the sea, away, away, away." He took the little princess by one hand and drew her from the room, skipping.

Hey, princess Sansa has a bastard cousin she's fond of too.

Please don't take Shireen beneath the sea. Please?

+.+.+

Jon said, "Your Grace, the leader of the free folk has agreed to my terms."

Queen Selyse gave the tiniest of nods. "It was ever my lord husband's wish to grant sanctuary to these savage peoples. So long as they keep the king's peace and the king's laws, they are welcome in our realm." She pursed her lips. "I am told they have more giants with them."

Yes, that was definitely something Stannis genuinely cared about.

Melisandre nodded solemnly, as if she had taken his words to heart, but this Weeper did not matter. None of his free folk mattered. They were a lost people, a doomed people, destined to vanish from the earth, as the children of the forest had vanished. - Melisandre I, ADWD

+.+.+

She pursed her lips. "I am told they have more giants with them." Val answered. "Almost two hundred of them, Your Grace. And more than eighty mammoths."

The queen shuddered. "Dreadful creatures." Jon could not tell if she was speaking of the mammoths or the giants. "Though such beasts might be useful to my lord husband in his battles."

There's two hundred giants, and eighty mammoths?

Probably not for long.

"Though such beasts might be useful to my lord husband in his battles."

I hate these people.

+.+.+

Selyse sniffed. "If you say so. No doubt you know about such things. Where do you mean to settle these wildlings? Surely Mole's Town is not large enough to contain … how many are they?" "Four thousand, Your Grace. They will help us garrison our abandoned castles, the better to defend the Wall."

Numbers update! Four thousand wildlings are passing the Wall.

Most of them are not fighting men, and won't factor into the battle for Winterfell.

+.+.+

"I see you have considered all this carefully, Lord Snow. I am sure King Stannis will be pleased when he returns triumphant from his battle."

Lol, k.

You know what I would do if I triumphantly won back Winterfell, and secured a kingdom to my cause?

Burn my daughter alive to celebrate.

+.+.+

"Of course," the queen went on, "the wildlings must first acknowledge Stannis as their king and R'hllor as their god."

And here we are, face-to-face in the narrow passage. "Your Grace, forgive me. Those were not the terms that we agreed to."

The queen's face hardened. "A grievous oversight." What faint traces of warmth her voice had held vanished all at once.

Don't worry, Jon's a seasoned veteran when it comes to tense matters like this. He's got this under contr-

+.+.+

"Free folk do not kneel," Val told her.

"Then they must be knelt," the queen declared.

"Do that, Your Grace, and we will rise again at the first chance," Val promised. "Rise with blades in hand."

The queen's lips tightened, and her chin gave a small quiver. "You are insolent. I suppose that is only to be expected of a wildling. We must find you a husband who can teach you courtesy." 

Damn, you fucking suck at this, princess diplomacy.

+.+.+

"Your Grace." Jon knelt again. This time Val did not join him. "I am sorry my actions have displeased you. I did as I thought best. Do I have your leave to go?"

I would have liked to see him reflect on what a dumbass princess fumble is, but I understand I can't have everything.

Or maybe I can ...

+.+.+

Once outside and well away from the queen's men, Val gave vent to her wroth. "You lied about her beard. That one has more hair on her chin than I have between my legs. And the daughter … her face …"

"Greyscale."

"The grey death is what we call it."

"It is not always mortal in children."

"North of the Wall it is. Hemlock is a sure cure, but a pillow or a blade will work as well. If I had given birth to that poor child, I would have given her the gift of mercy long ago."

Oh no, what's happening? Say it ain't so, princess filicide.

Surely you wouldn't kill your own child if it was unnecessary.

The curse was oft seen in children, especially in damp, cold climes. The afflicted flesh stiffened, calcified, and cracked, though the dwarf had read that greyscale's progress could be stayed by limes, mustard poultices, and scalding-hot baths (the maesters said) or by prayer, sacrifice, and fasting (the septons insisted). Then the disease passed, leaving its young victims disfigured but alive. Maesters and septons alike agreed that children marked by greyscale could never be touched by the rarer mortal form of the affliction, nor by its terrible swift cousin, the grey plague. - Tyrion V, ADWD

You should keep going, princess merciful. Nothing turns Jon on more than talk of killing kids.

+.+.+

This was a Val that Jon had never seen before. "Princess Shireen is the queen's only child."

A little too much wildling in that wildling, huh?

You've never seen any part of Val before, you banana.

+.+.+

"I pity both of them. The child is not clean."

DON'T STOP GEORGE. LEARN HIM.

+.+.+

"If Stannis wins his war, Shireen will stand as heir to the Iron Throne."

"Then I pity your Seven Kingdoms."

+.+.+

"The maesters say greyscale is not—"

"The maesters may believe what they wish. Ask a woods witch if you would know the truth. The grey death sleeps, only to wake again. The child is not clean!"

"She seems a sweet girl. You cannot know—"

"I can. You know nothing, Jon Snow." Val seized his arm. "I want the monster out of there. Him and his wet nurses. You cannot leave them in that same tower as the dead girl."

Jon shook her hand away. "She is not dead."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

+.+.+

"She is. Her mother cannot see it. Nor you, it seems. Yet death is there." She walked away from him, stopped, turned back. "I brought you Tormund Giantsbane. Bring me my monster."

Bring princess maternal the monster. She's great with children.

Death is certainly there for Shireen, but not for the reasons Val believes.

While we're on the topic of mercy killing kids, would you like to know who you're supposed to be thinking about while this conversation is taking place? ("Then I pity your Seven Kingdoms.")

"He could end his torment," Jaime said. "I would, if it were my son. It would be a mercy." - Tyrion I, AGOT

x

"Oh, don't be absurd." Cersei closed the window. "Yes, I hoped the boy would die. So did you. Even Robert thought that would have been for the best. 'We kill our horses when they break a leg, and our dogs when they go blind, but we are too weak to give the same mercy to crippled children,' he told me. He was blind himself at the time, from drink." - Jaime IX, ASOS

Yeah, this girl is totally Jon's happy ending.

+.+.+

"If I can, I will."

"Do. You owe me a debt, Jon Snow."

Jon watched her stride away. She is wrong. She must be wrong. Greyscale is not so deadly as she claims, not in children.

Shireen is fine, she's had greyscale for 11 years now.

Let's wait and see if that not deadly disease is used to justify a horrific act.

Ask a woods witch if you would know the truth. The grey death sleeps, only to wake again.

+.+.+

At four hundred feet the wind had teeth, and tore at his black cloak so it slapped noisily at the iron bars. At seven hundred it cut right through him. The Wall is mine, Jon reminded himself as the winchmen were swinging in the cage, for two more days, at least.

Close. It's yours for about another week, then you can say goodbye.

+.+.+

Both wore woolen hoods pulled down over their heads, so nothing could be seen of their faces but their eyes, but he knew Ty by the tangled rope of greasy black hair falling down his back and Owen by the sausage stuffed into the scabbard at his hip. He might have known them anyway, just by the way they stood. A good lord must know his men, his father had once told him and Robb, back at Winterfell.

I wish you'd do a better job at knowing Bowen Marsh.

+.+.+

Jon walked to the edge of the Wall and gazed down upon the killing ground where Mance Rayder's host had died. He wondered where Mance was now. Did he ever find you, little sister? Or were you just a ploy he used so I would set him free?

We're still trying to figure that one out, Jon.

+.+.+

It had been so long since he had last seen Arya. What would she look like now? Would he even know her? Arya Underfoot. Her face was always dirty. Would she still have that little sword he'd had Mikken forge for her? Stick them with the pointy end, he'd told her. Wisdom for her wedding night if half of what he heard of Ramsay Snow was true. Bring her home, Mance. I saved your son from Melisandre, and now I am about to save four thousand of your free folk. You owe me this one little girl.

Arya Stark, still very much a child in the eyes of Jon Snow.

Unrelated, but did you know Shireen and Arya are the exact same age? I bet Jon knows.

+.+.+

Jon Snow flexed the fingers of his sword hand, remembering all he'd lost. Sam, you sweet fat fool, you played me a cruel jape when you made me lord commander. A lord commander has no friends.

+.+.+

Jon pointed at the lights of their campfires. "There they are. Four thousand, Tormund claims."

"Three thousand, I make them, by the fires." Bowen Marsh lived for counts and measures. "More than twice that number at Hardhome with the woods witch, we are told. And Ser Denys writes of great camps in the mountains beyond the Shadow Tower …"

Scratch that, three thousand wildings are passing the Wall. More than six thousand are at Hardhome.

Many more are in the mountains beyond the Shadow Tower. Do we know what's happening at the Shadow Tower?

+.+.+

Jon did not deny it. "Tormund says the Weeper means to try the Bridge of Skulls again."

The Old Pomegranate touched his scar. He had gotten it defending the Bridge of Skulls the last time the Weeping Man had tried to cut his way across the Gorge. "Surely the lord commander cannot mean to allow that … that demon through as well?"

"Not gladly." Jon had not forgotten the heads the Weeping Man had left him, with bloody holes where their eyes had been. Black Jack Bulwer, Hairy Hal, Garth Greyfeather. I cannot avenge them, but I will not forget their names. "But yes, my lord, him as well. We cannot pick and choose amongst the free folk, saying this one may pass, this one may not. Peace means peace for all."

[...]

"How many rangers has the Weeper killed?" asked Othell Yarwyck. "How many women has he raped or killed or stolen?"

"Three of mine own ilk," said Old Flint. "And he blinds the girls he does not take."

Similar to Daenerys and her peace deal, Jon's forced to swallow an especially difficult pill.

I'm not smart enough to tell you what should have happened.

+.+.+

"You need not trust a man to use him." Else how could I make use of all of you? "We need the Weeper, and others like him. Who knows the wild better than a wildling? Who knows our foes better than a man who has fought them?"

That's kind of unfair. They haven't done anything. Yet.

+.+.+

"Brothers should not squabble," Septon Cellador said. "Let us kneel and pray to the Crone to light our way to wisdom."

George mocking "thoughts and prayers" before it became a thing.

+.+.+

"Lord Snow," said The Norrey, "where do you mean to put these wildlings o' yours? Not on my lands, I hope."

"Aye," declared Old Flint. "You want them in the Gift, that's your folly, but see they don't wander off or I'll send you back their heads. Winter is nigh, I want no more mouths to feed."

I think it was paramount he involve these two in the negotiations.

The Night's Watch relies on the support of noble houses, especially northern houses.

+.+.+

"The wildlings will remain upon the Wall," Jon assured them. "Most will be housed in one of our abandoned castles." The Watch now had garrisons at Icemark, Long Barrow, Sable Hall, Greyguard, and Deep Lake, all badly undermanned, but ten castles still stood empty and abandoned. "Men with wives and children, all orphan girls and any orphan boys below the age of ten, old women, widowed mothers, any woman who does not care to fight. The spearwives we'll send to Long Barrow to join their sisters, single men to the other forts we've reopened. Those who take the black will remain here, or be posted to Eastwatch or the Shadow Tower. Tormund will take Oakenshield as his seat, to keep him close at hand."

Tormund Oakenshield. Can someone tell me if Thorin Oakenshield ever blows a horn?

I'm not sure these castles survive the Wall falling. They have to go somewhere else.

You want them in the Gift, that's your folly

+.+.+

Bowen Marsh sighed. "If they do not slay us with their swords, they will do so with their mouths. Pray, how does the lord commander propose to feed Tormund and his thousands?"

Jon had anticipated that question. "Through Eastwatch. We will bring in food by ship, as much as might be required. From the riverlands and the stormlands and the Vale of Arryn, from Dorne and the Reach, across the narrow sea from the Free Cities."

"And this food will be paid for … how, if I may ask?"

With gold, from the Iron Bank of Braavos, Jon might have replied. Instead he said, "I have agreed that the free folk may keep their furs and pelts. They will need those for warmth when winter comes. All other wealth they must surrender. Gold and silver, amber, gemstones, carvings, anything of value. We will ship it all across the narrow sea to be sold in the Free Cities."

"All the wealth o' the wildlings," said The Norrey. "That should buy you a bushel o' barleycorn. Two bushels, might be."

SAY THAT. TELL THEM.

Like, almost every insurrection happens because of food scarcity in this series. Please tell them you have money to buy food.

+.+.+

"Lord Commander, why not demand that the wildlings give up their arms as well?" asked Clydas.

Leathers laughed at that. "You want the free folk to fight beside you against the common foe. How are we to do that without arms? Would you have us throw snowballs at the wights? Or will you give us sticks to hit them with?"

The arms most wildlings carry are little more than sticks, thought Jon. 

SAY THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD.

+.+.+

"Tormund has given me his oath. He will serve with us until the spring. The Weeper and their other captains will swear the same or we will not let them pass."

Old Flint shook his head. "They will betray us."

"The Weeper's word is worthless," said Othell Yarwyck.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we get another update on the Weeper in this book. I don't think he's passed the Wall.

+.+.+

"The gods of the North, since before this Wall was raised," said Jon. "Those are the gods that Tormund swore by. He will keep his word. I know him, as I knew Mance Rayder. I marched with them for a time, you may recall."

"I had not forgotten," said the Lord Steward.

No, thought Jon, I did not think you had.

What possessed him to bring that up?

+.+.+

"It is not their children who concern us. We fear the fathers, not the sons."

"As do I. So I insisted upon hostages." I am not the trusting fool you take me for … nor am I half wildling, no matter what you believe. "One hundred boys between the ages of eight and sixteen. A son from each of their chiefs and captains, the rest chosen by lot. The boys will serve as pages and squires, freeing our own men for other duties. Some may choose to take the black one day. Queerer things have happened. The rest will stand hostage for the loyalty of their sires."

The northmen glanced at one another. "Hostages," mused The Norrey. "Tormund has agreed to this?"

It was that, or watch his people die. "My blood price, he called it," said Jon Snow, "but he will pay."

Maybe lead with this next time.

Can't say I'm a big fan of child hostages.

We're going to hope this doesn't go to hell once Jon's killed. If I had to guess, I'd say the Meereen hostages both sides hold are in a lot greater danger.

+.+.+

"None but them whose sires displeased the Kings o' Winter," said The Norrey. "Those came home shorter by a head. So you tell me, boy … if these wildling friends o' yours prove false, do you have the belly to do what needs be done?"

Ask Janos Slynt. "Tormund Giantsbane knows better than to try me. I may seem a green boy in your eyes, Lord Norrey, but I am still a son of Eddard Stark."

Janos Slynt wasn't an innocent child, tough guy.

+.+.+

Marsh flushed a deeper shade of red. "The lord commander must pardon my bluntness, but I have no softer way to say this. What you propose is nothing less than treason. For eight thousand years the men of the Night's Watch have stood upon the Wall and fought these wildlings. Now you mean to let them pass, to shelter them in our castles, to feed them and clothe them and teach them how to fight. Lord Snow, must I remind you? You swore an oath."

"I know what I swore." Jon said the words. "I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. Were those the same words you said when you took your vows?"

"They were. As the lord commander knows."

"Are you certain that I have not forgotten some? The ones about the king and his laws, and how we must defend every foot of his land and cling to each ruined castle? How does that part go?" Jon waited for an answer. None came. "I am the shield that guards the realms of men. Those are the words. So tell me, my lord—what are these wildlings, if not men?"

Bowen Marsh opened his mouth. No words came out. A flush crept up his neck.

That's a great point, but I wouldn't have been so sassy about it.

To be fair, I know what happens.

+.+.+

Outside the day was bright and cloudless. The sun had returned to the sky after a fortnight's absence, and to the south the Wall rose blue-white and glittering. There was a saying Jon had heard from the older men at Castle Black: the Wall has more moods than Mad King Aerys, they'd say, or sometimes, the Wall has more moods than a woman. On cloudy days it looked to be white rock. On moonless nights it was as black as coal. In snowstorms it seemed carved of snow. But on days like this, there was no mistaking it for anything but ice. On days like this the Wall shimmered bright as a septon's crystal, every crack and crevasse limned by sunlight, as frozen rainbows danced and died behind translucent ripples. On days like this the Wall was beautiful.

x

Jon Snow turned away. The last light of the sun had begun to fade. He watched the cracks along the Wall go from red to grey to black, from streaks of fire to rivers of black ice. Down below, Lady Melisandre would be lighting her nightfire and chanting, Lord of Light, defend us, for the night is dark and full of terrors.

The beginning and end of the chapter. The Wall is doing symbolism again.

+.+.+

"Winter is coming," Jon said at last, breaking the awkward silence, "and with it the white walkers. The Wall is where we stop them. The Wall was made to stop them … but the Wall must be manned. This discussion is at an end. We have much to do before the gate is opened. Tormund and his people will need to be fed and clothed and housed. Some are sick and will need nursing. Those will fall to you, Clydas. Save as many as you can."

[...]

"Lord Bowen, you shall collect the tolls. The gold and silver, the amber, the torques and armbands and necklaces. Sort it all, count it, see that it reaches Eastwatch safely."

"Yes, Lord Snow," said Bowen Marsh.

And Jon thought, "Ice," she said, "and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel." His sword hand flexed. The wind was rising.

What's the point of remembering those words if you're not going to do anything about it?

Final thoughts:

Often imitated, never duplicated.

That's what happens when you expect a cheap knockoff to do the job of a real princess.

-> return to menu <-

[himebushou]

Buddy Daddies AU – Delinquents in High School!

(Inspired by Crows Zero ❤) 

Kurusu Kazuki, a senior, is considered the king of Blue Sky High.  He might not be the toughest but he’s definitely the smartest and he uses that to his advantage.  Everyone fears Akasagi, his band of loyal followers

One day, an upstart freshman named Suwa Rei turns up at Blue Sky and starts taking everyone out.  For his own reasons, Rei wants to be the king of the school!

However, he’s unable to pick fights with Kazuki effectively because Kazuki always knows what Rei’s planning.  This is because Rei has literally no ability to strategise (“Attacking from the front again, rookie?  Try something else!”)

Rei’s Backstory

In this AU, Rei’s relationship with Suwa Shigeki is pretty different.  Rei still shows a lot of deference to his father/boss (he’s only allowed to call Shigeki ‘Father’ outside of work environments), but uh… he’s not descended from a line of hitmen, lol

Shigeki probably runs some fancy company?  I’m tempted to go with a very old, very grandiose publishing house because of the sheer number of books we saw in his study

In this AU, Shigeki takes a fair amount of advice from his right-hand man, Kaji Satoru, who is Rei’s mentor.  When Rei’s in his early teens, Satoru points out that Rei’s a shut-in and doesn’t have much experience of the world, which is going to make it tough for him to thrive in business environments where he’ll have to read people constantly

Shigeki asks what Satoru suggests and Satoru says that they should throw Rei in at the deep end and enrol him in a crummy all-boys’ high school called Blue Sky High.  Shigeki basically retorts that Rei will attend a dump over his dead body, but Satoru shoots back that, well, if Rei can survive even a year in an environment like that, he can survive anywhere

Shigeki agrees at last… and then lets Rei know that he’s being chucked out for a while

So Rei starts living with Kaji Satoru, because, of course, he needs back up.  He’s a bit suspicious because Satoru seems to disappear in the evenings… but on the whole, Satoru is a good adult in Rei’s life, mentoring him and training him to be physically strong

(Rei was trained to be physically strong because Shigeki’s of the mentality that a man can only thrive in business if he’s strong in every way – physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.)

Satoru’s the one who encourages Rei to become the king of Blue Sky High as this will prove to Shigeki that Rei will be able to take over the Suwa publishing house when the time comes

Poor Rei, however, has a deep, dark secret… he doesn’t know how to tell his dad that he’d rather read a manga than a novel…

 The Present Day

The troubles at school are escalating and one of the fights between Rei and Kazuki ends with a lot of blood being spilt (Rei was finally able to come up with a plan!).  The issue, however, is that Akasagi and Rei’s faction (which he didn’t even put together, by the way; it’s just a bunch of guys who thought that Rei was cool and started following him around – they call themselves Aoko) are now taking their fights beyond the school gates and causing mischief across the city.  This is a very bad look

As such, Kugi Kyuutarou, who attended and ruled over Blue Sky just prior to Kazuki’s enrolment, calls the pair out for a meeting.  Rei looks at the megane man and thinks, “Whomst??” but Kazuki is pretty terrified because he knows of Kyuu-chan’s reputation (also, Kyuu-chan encourages people to call him that so that he’s underestimated by outsiders)

Kyuu-chan tells the pair to KNOCK IT OFF, OR ELSE. Kazuki raises his hands, acquiescing – Rei, however, is about to give Kyuu-chan a bit of his mind when Kazuki drags him away, warning, “He’s the last person you want to irritate.  NINE are pretty legendary, you know.”

“NINE?”

“You out-of-towners don’t know anything! Listen.  You and I have pretty big groups, right?  But, back in the day, Kyuu-chan ruled Blue Sky with only nine people.  And they’re still loyal to him.”

Rei is confused as to why Kazuki’s suddenly doling out advice; Kazuki chirps, “Just looking out for my underclassman!” and swans away

A few weeks pass.  Akasagi and Aoko are finding the ceasefire tense, but they’re getting on with it.  Rei thinks idly of how empty the school day can feel without fighting and Kazuki contemplates ways to make a quick buck – he’s got rent to pay and his cleaning jobs aren’t quite meeting the mark

One day, Kazuki hauls Rei aside (Rei is pretty indignant about this) and comments how it’s obvious that Rei is pining to get his hands dirty.  Rei asks whether the truce is dead and Kazuki laughs.  “Not a chance, but I might have something even better.”

He leads Rei to an underground fighting ring. Kazuki comments that he knows Rei’s goal is to get stronger, but he can’t do that without fighting… so here’s a solution.  Rei thinks about the fact that he lost a spar against his mentor just the previous night, so he agrees to be one of Blue Sky’s fighters

This arrangement goes on for a little while. Each time Rei gets badly injured, Kazuki patches him up and encourages him to get back in the ring.  Rei queries why Kazuki’s being so helpful and Kazuki insists that Rei should stop asking questions and just respect his elders

“Sure… Kazuki-sempai.”

“Don’t take it too far!”

(Before this point, Rei just called him, “Kurusu!” with a lot of animosity)

Then… the next time Rei’s in the ring, he notices something in his peripheral vision.  Kazuki’s placing bets!  And he hasn’t shared the profits!  Rei is so mad that he deliberately loses the fight, making Kazuki lose a bundle

Afterwards, Kazuki is steaming.  He demands to know why Rei would do such a thing and Rei gets a bit lofty, saying that Kazuki shouldn’t be benefitting from Rei’s work without splitting the profits.  Kazuki snaps that the truce is off, regardless of what may or may not happen with NINE.  Rei grabs Kazuki and demands to know where his money is – sempai retaliates by headbutting Rei hard

Fighting breaks out across Blue Sky High again (some of the students are a bit relieved; all this truce stuff was dull!).  Now that Akasagi and Aoko are fighting again, the other factions also get antsy.  Kazuki’s irritated because spending all this time coming up with elaborate plans to deal with Rei is cutting into time where he could be making money. However, Kazuki is far too proud to consider giving up his crown

Then, things suddenly get hard for Rei – Satoru announces that he has to leave for a couple of weeks and suggests that Rei go back to the main house.  Rei says that he can’t possibly do that: he’s anticipating a final showdown between himself and Kazuki in the next few days and, besides, he wants to see what it’s like to live alone.  Satoru asks ARE YOU SURE? and Rei’s all YES I’M SURE and Satoru leaves Rei with some emergency numbers before scooting off

Within three days, Rei’s house is a tip.  He’s hungry!  He’s sad!  He desperately calls one of the numbers Satoru left for a cleaner…

And who should show up but Kurusu Kazuki?

Rei: (⊙_⊙)

Kazuki: (⊙_⊙)

Rei tries to close the door in Kazuki’s face; Kazuki sticks his foot in the way and barges in regardless, saying A JOB’S A JOB and that Rei’d better pay him fairly.  Rei demands to know what Kazuki’s doing there but Kazuki is just looking around the apartment, assessing the damage.  Then, he gets Rei to stand in one spot while he starts cleaning

“How have you survived while living like this, Suwa?  I thought you came from money!”

“It’s not always like this.  Usually, Satoru-san’s here and he takes care of this kind of thing…”

“So how long has this guy been away?”

“Three days.”

“THREE DAYS?!?”

Then, just when Kazuki’s nearly finished cleaning, he sees Rei boiling some water for instant noodles.  He flips out and ends up cooking for Rei instead (Rei’s fridge is full of some nice ingredients; Rei watches Kazuki cook very carefully to make sure there’s no poison involved – Kazuki takes it as an opportunity to give Rei a cooking lesson since Blue Sky is too rundown to have any facilities for Home Economics).  Of course, Kazuki ends up eating, too

Rei points out that it’s super weird that they’re hanging out like this when they’re supposed to be thinking of ways to kill each other.  Kazuki rubs the back of his head and says yeah, maybe, but work is work and, when Rei grows up a bit, he’ll be able to tell the difference.  Rei gets annoyed at being patronised – Kazuki realises that he actually feels a bit bad about looking down on Rei and comes to the conclusion that Rei might be a bit cool.  This is a bizarre epiphany for Kazuki so he changes the subject and asks what’s the deal with Rei and who’s this guy who normally cleans the house?

For reasons that Rei can’t quite pinpoint later, he ends up telling Kazuki about his dad and how he needs to rule over Blue Sky. Kazuki sparkles and says, “Wow, I’m a real thorn in your side, huh?”  Rei scowls. Then Kazuki says, well, let’s find out where your mentor is.  It’s pretty weird that he left without a word

Kazuki gets a laptop and starts tapping away; Rei is pretty fascinated and just like, “Huh… so you can do stuff like this too?” Kazuki gloats, “Yeah, your sempai’s an amazing guy~!” and Rei quips, “And a modest one.”

Soon, Kazuki’s able to pinpoint Satoru’s location and he laughs, telling Rei where Satoru is.  Rei’s like??  Where’s that??  Kazuki says that Satoru’s at some famously romantic location, which means he’s there with a significant other.  Then Kazuki sighs, saying that Rei’s mentor is lucky to have someone in his life

“What’s your story?  Why are you good at all of this stuff?”

Kazuki says wryly that he had to learn to fend for himself from a pretty young age.  He mentions blithely that his parents abandoned him when he was a child. Outwardly, Rei doesn’t express much – but he thinks that what Kazuki has just revealed is pretty shocking.  He wonders if Kazuki says important things casually as a defence mechanism – and then Rei realises with a start that he’s changing as he can now recognise things like when someone’s using a defence mechanism

Kazuki finally gets up to leave; Rei sticks his hands in his pockets and asks Kazuki if they’re back to normal tomorrow.  “Of course,” says Kazuki.  “In fact, let’s decide things once and for all.”  Kazuki names a time and Rei agrees, thinking that it’d be better to deal with Akasagi sooner rather than later.  The more time he spends with Kazuki, the more Rei finds his will to fight the third year diminishing

There’s an eerie stillness over the school… then, a few days later, the entirety of Akasagi and Aoko, who’ve made alliances with other factions in the school, show up in the schoolyard.  The fight is RIDICULOUS.  It is BRUTAL.  But then –

Who should appear but rivals from other schools?!?

It turns out that quite a few folk developed beef towards Blue Sky High students through the underground fighting ring – and a lot of them want to destroy Rei!  It turns into Blue Sky vs. The World!

Kazuki saves Rei and yells, “You owe me!”

Rei saves Kazuki about thirty seconds later and shouts, “My debt’s repaid!”

The two team up and try to go for the head honcho – but this kid plays dirty and is hard to get to.  It looks like it’s all over when –

ENTER!  NINE!

Kyuu-chan tells Kazuki and Rei that this has got messy; NINE wouldn’t get involved in some schoolyard brawl but people’s brothers, dads and uncles are showing up.  NINE will clear a path and suppress the damage; Rei and Kazuki just have to go for the big guy!

There’s a massive showdown with the head honcho. Rei and Kazuki are a beautiful team.  There is blood.  There is fire.  The word “Partner!” is said in earnest.  Ultimately, Rei and Kazuki win

Post-battle, everyone is on the ground, dead (or thereabouts).  They hear police sirens.  Kyuu-chan rocks up and says that Rei and Kazuki, as two ringleaders, have to get out of there. Rei and Kazuki look at each other, share a cool-guy-nod, and vamoose

The police make many, many arrests

Post the big battle, there are some huge changes at Blue Sky High.  Students clean up the school and there’s an attempt at actually bringing in a syllabus. Students are disciplined appropriately. This is all spearheaded by the new headteacher, Principal Hanyu, who is extremely kind but who has ‘accidentally’ let the students know that she’s super strong

Kazuki and Rei actually get an education, lol.  They also bond with the people of Akasagi and Aoko who were loyal to them

All of a sudden, it’s graduation day.  Rei goes to find Kazuki and Kazuki’s like, “Hey, look what the cat dragged in!  You must be sad that your favourite sempai is graduating, huh?” and Rei says yeah, it stinks that Kazuki’s leaving as things won’t be as interesting anymore.  Kazuki’s a bit ! but returns Rei’s sentiments; he’s definitely never met anyone as wild or interesting as Rei

Then, Kazuki asks whether Rei’s done at Blue Sky and will be going back home.  Rei says yes – and lets Kazuki know that his mentor’s getting married.  “Some men have all the luck,” Kazuki grumbles

Kazuki says that he has a feeling that he and Rei will run into each other again, someday.  Rei looks sceptical and Kazuki’s like, “What?  Are you worried that you won’t recognise me?  Okay, let’s get a memento.”  He grabs Rei’s phone, yanks Rei into the frame and takes a selfie of the two of them together.  Checking the screen, Kazuki grimaces and says, “Well, I guess that’ll do.”  Rei asks doesn’t Kazuki need a memento, too? Kazuki answers that Rei shouldn’t worry; Kazuki’s texting the photo to himself

“So I have your number?”

“Pfft!  Only for emergencies.  Got it?”

Kazuki starts to swan away, calling, “Till next time, Suwa Rei!”

Rei calls, “Thanks for your hard work, Kazuki.”

Kazuki stops dead and turns around.  “WHERE’S MY RESPECT?”

Rei shrugs.  “You’ve graduated now.  As far as I’m concerned, I don’t need to call you ‘sempai’ anymore.”  Kazuki rolls his eyes, but, as he walks off, he feels pretty excited about the next time he’ll cross paths with Suwa Rei.

 Epilogue

Several years pass…

Kugi Kyuutarou finally achieves his dream of opening his own café – Mistletoe Café.  He invites a particular pair of idiots along to the opening and so, Kauzki and Rei finally meet again (neither changed their number in all that time, but they didn’t find occasion to call each other, either)

Kazuki and Rei end up bumbling around together for a couple of years, for whatever reason.  I think Rei might have found the wherewithal to tell Shigeki that he wants to start his own publishing house and focus on working with mangaka instead. Rei’s contemplating opening a bookshop – but wait, wouldn’t it be more successful if it had a coffee shop attached? Kazuki is pretty good as a front-of-house guy.  Business partners?

Suddenly, the delinquents!AU turns into a book/coffeeshop!AU

And then, Miri falls from the sky…

 Notes

Throughout this story, there are side scenes of Rei feeding and talking to stray cats.  Older Rei definitely has a cat or two

So, Ogino!  He is an extremely creepy English teacher at Blue Sky High.  He’s a big fan of the Suwa publishing house and is hard on Rei since he wants Rei’s words to be more satisfactory.  Also, no one has the temerity to start fighting in any of Ogino’s classes.  He’s a bit of a side character and is just there to add even more conflict to Rei’s life

I guess Kazuki would need a bit more character growth?  But the main change for him is probably how he grows to admire Rei and see him as an equal. Maybe, after Principal Hanyu revolutionises Blue Sky, Kazuki hangs out at Rei’s house from time to time?  That could be pretty fun!

In canon, Kazuki and Rei are juuust too far apart, age-wise, to have been able to attend the same high school.  However, this is an AU, so we can fudge the ages!

Akasagi comes from a dodgy portmanteau of ‘red’ and ‘rabbit’.  Lily draws Kazuki in a lot of bunny-themed stuff, so I guess that’s the animal I’d most likely associate with our beloved man.  Besides, LU BU’S horse was literally called Red Hare, so why not!

Aoko is a dodgy portmanteau of ‘blue’ and ‘cat’ (for obvious reasons).  Kazuki was VERY ANNOYED when Rei’s followers called themselves this because hello? The school is called Blue Sky? And then the rookies have the GALL to add ‘blue’ to their name?  It makes them sound too official!

In this AU, Kazuki and Rei both run around in ponytails while they’re teenagers (PLEASE SEE LILY’S ART FOR REFERENCE)

Rei spends a fair chunk of this AU like this :<

Kazuki spends some of the AU like this ¬¬

The fic would be called either Blue Sky Blues / Aozora Blues

[glycerineclown]

my college roommate was like would you be willing to do the playlist for my wedding and make decor decisions on the day of and i was like i have never been given a greater compliment in my life

costumes were encouraged so i wore a marching band jacket that i found in a consignment shop years ago. the flower crowns were all made by hand by a bunch of us in the weeks previous, and the groom and i put up the flag pennants and string lights together. i don't think i'll ever go to a funner wedding.

my cocktail hour playlist beneath the cut. the second-to-last pic was during the proclaimers' (i'm gonna be) 500 miles singalong.

L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole

Do You Believe In Magic by The Lovin' Spoonful

Elenore by the Turtles

Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited

Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells

Make Your Own Kind of Music by The Mamas and the Papas

Tangerine by Led Zeppelin

Your Song by Elton John

Where You Lead I Will Follow by Carole King

Cosmic Dancer by T. Rex

The Wind by Cat Stevens

Pink Moon by Nick Drake

Sweetness by Yes

Brandy (She's a Fine Girl) by Looking Glass

In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel

500 Miles by the Proclaimers

Have a Little Faith In Me by John Hiatt

Blue Moon Revisited by the Cowboy Junkies

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? by the Chieftains with Van Morrison

Butterfly by Lenny Kravitz

Good Things by Bo Deans

Fade Into You by Mazzy Star

Please Send Me Someone to Love by Sade

Have You Ever Seen the Rain by the Spin Doctors

All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow

You Gotta Be by Des'ree

Learn to Be Still (Live) by the Eagles

Kissing You by Des'ree

Say Yes by Elliott Smith

Desperado by Linda Ronstadt

Beloved One by Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

By Your Side by Sade

Yellow by Coldplay

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Jeffrey Gaines

Complainte de la Butte by Rufus Wainwright

Hero by Enrique Iglesias

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

Are there any more songs submitted so far that look like they're gonna be a guaranteed inclusion?

Here's the full list as of right now

Multiple submissions:

"There! Right there!" (Gay or European) - The legally blonde musical

"Therefore you and me" - Hatsune Miku (Or the E ve version)

"Soldier, poet, king" - The Oh Hellos

"How far we've come" - Matchbox twenty

"The other side" - The greatest showman

"Rät" - Penelope Scott

"Little Miss Perfect" - Written by Joriah Kwamé

"My whole family..." - Bo Burnham

"The Mind Electric" - Miracle Musical

"Ready as I'll ever be" - Tangled the series

Could use more propaganda (one or two submissions, or submissions with close to no propaganda):

If an animatic song you really like is in this category there is no need for you to submit it again if you have no propaganda, it will most likely be in. You can use the form to submit propaganda for them or you can wait until the bracket is revealed to submit propaganda for the specific poll it's in on the ask box (preferable for me ahah).

If the bracket isn't symmetrical on all sides there's a small possibility some of the lesser-known songs of this category could get chopped lol.

"Blue lips" - Regina Spektor

"Honey, I'm home" - Ghost and pals

"Brave as a Noun" - AJJ the band

"This is Home" - Cavetown

"No children" - The mountain goats (This one has multiple submissions but all the propaganda is a variation of 'I'ts no children, come on' or 'you'll probably have too much propaganda by now so I'm not writing any' and I find that extremely funny)

"My ordinary life" - The Living Tombstone

"Ordinary" - Written by Joriah Kwamé

"Villain" - Stella Jang

"I wish you liked girls" - Abbey Glover / "I wish you liked boys" - Cover by Jasper Isaac

"A Crow's Trial" (A [blank]'s trial) - Vane

"Hey brother" - Avicii

"OrderMade" - RADWIMPS

"Rewrite the Stars" - The greatest showman

"Allies or Enemies" - The Crane Wives

"Stronger than you" - Steven Universe

"Anything you can do" - Annie get your Gun

"Love like you" - Steven Universe

"Fish in a birdcage (Rule #4)" - Fish in a birdcage

"Tongues & Teeth" - The Crane Wives

"Open up your eyes" - My little Pony

"Everything stays" - Adventure time

"Curses" - The Crane Wives

"Escapism" - Steven Universe

"Devil's Train" - The Lab Rats

"Lemon Boy" - Cavetown

"How bad can I be?" - The lorax

"Oh No!" - Marina & The Diamonds

"My R" - KurageP / cover by Rachie

"Emperor's New Clothes" - Panic! at the disco

"Father" - The front bottoms

"Little lion man" (Not your fault) - Mumford & Sons

"Under my Skin" - Jukebox the Ghost

"Saint Bernard" - Lincoln

"Evelyn Evelyn" - Evelyn Evelyn

"No matter what" - Steven Universe

"W.I.T.C.H." - Devon Cole

"Cabinet man" - Lemon Demon

"When you're evil" - Voltaire

"Touch Tone Telephone" - Lemon Demon

"Left Brain, Right Brain" - Bo Burnham

"I won't say (I'm in love)" - Hercules

"You're gonna go far, kid" - The Offspring

"Ikanaide" - Mafumafu

"Turn the lights off" - Tally Hall

"Crush" - Tessa Violet

"oo is a receiver" ([blank] is a receiver) - Hatsune Miku

"I do adore" - Mindy Gledhill

"Self-inflicted Achromantic" - Hatsune Miku / Cover by JubyPhonic

"I'm the bad guy" - Wonder Over Yonder / Caleb Hyles cover

"Line without a hook" - Ricky Montgomery

"You'll be back" - Hamilton

"Promiseland" - MIKA

"Runs in the family" - Amanda Palmer

"Boys will be bugs" - Cavetown

"Who are you, really?" - Mikky Ekko

"Feelings are fatal" - mxmtoon

"I Know Those Eyes / This Man is Dead" - Thomas Borchert

"Once Upon a December" - Anastasia

"Achilles Come Down" ([blank] Come Down) - Gang of Youths

"Charlie's Inferno" ([Blank]'s Inferno) - That Handsome Devil

"I cut myself" (Shaving) - Talkshow Boy

"Goodbye" (Look who's inside again) - Bo Burnham

"Kiss me, Son of God" - They Might Be Giants

"Your stupid face" - Kayden Makay

"Nowhere King" - Centaurworld

"Sincerely, Me" - Dear Evan Hansen

"Wine Red" - The Hush Sound

"Everything At Once" - Lenka

"Good for you" - Dear Evan Hansen

"The Bro Duet" - Moment by moment musical (by Alexander Sage Oyen)

"Cupid" - Jack Stauber

"Eight Wonder" - Lemon demon

"It's tough to be a god" - Road to El Dorado

"Are You Satisfied?" - Marina and the Diamonds

"My time" - Bo en

"Pad Thai" - Jack Stauber

"Poison" - Cavetown

"Butch 4 Butch" (My sweetheart's piano) - Rio Romeo

"It Took Me By Surprise" (The anger in his eyes) - Maria Mena

"You, Me and Steve" (You, Me and [Blank] / Your best friend Steve / Your best friend [Blank]) - Garfunkel And Oates

"This guy is in love with you, pare" - Chito Miranda (and my friend is incredibly offended nobody submitted this one)

"Hayloft II" - Mother mother

"I know I'm a Wolf" - Young Heretics

"Hurts Like Hell" - Fleurie

"Poor unfortunate souls" - The little Mermaid

"When He Sees Me" - Waitress the Musical

"Christmas Kids" - Roar

"The dismemberment song" - Blue Kid

"The Moon Will Sing" - The Crane Wives

"Never love an anchor" - The Crane Wives

"Ghosting" - Mother Mother

"Two Birds" - Regina Spektor

"Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" - Set It Off

"A Sadness Runs Through Him" - The Hoosiers

I can't decide" ([Blank] can't decide) - Scissor Sisters

Limbo

I'll hold preliminary polls for them to see if they get in if I need spaces to make the bracket have the same amount of matches on every side. The amount of how many will get in will be decided by how many songs are needed once the submissions close. If too many songs are needed I'll chop some of the least popular songs from the "could use more propaganda" category instead.

You can submit propaganda for why they should get in if you want, but have in mind there's a small possibility it might not be used at all

"Don't you dare forget the sun" - Get Scared

"Lover boy" (Good old fashioned lover boy) - Queen

"Blonde Boyz" - Cyndago

"Seventeen" - Heathers the Musical

"Drop pop Candy" - REOL / English cover by Kuraiinu and JubyPhonic

"Rolling girl" - Hatsune Miku

"The Ballad of Sara Berry" - 35mm: A Musical Exhibition

"Painted smile" - Madame Macabre

"Willow Tree March" - The Paper Kites

"This is war" - Thirty seconds to Mars

"Say my name" - The Beetlejuice musical

"Sugar Song to Bitter Step" - UNISON SQUARE GARDEN (Blood Blockade Battlefront ending)

"Nobody" - Mitski

"Beautiful" - Heathers the Musical

"Again" - Araki

"Baby Hotline" - Jack Stauber

"REVIVED" - Derivakat

"Jubilee Line" - Wilbur Soot

"Pork Soda" - Glass Animals

"Mr. Blue Sky" - ELO

"A thousand years" - Christina Perri

"Mamma Mia" - ABBA

"Best Worst Mistake" - If/then: A New Musical

"Sk8er Boi" - Avril Lavigne

"The Phoenix" - Fall Out Boy

"Why is my song not anywhere?"

Either it was an animation meme/AMV Edit/MAP instead of an actual animatic thing, most animatics are vents / not fandom or OC-related, the song is literally 20 seconds long, or it didn't have enough animatics for me to count it. With this in mind, if you think there's been a mistake or that I accidentally skipped it (or that a song is in the wrong category) feel free to tell me so in the ask box.

The songs in limbo are exceptions because of any of these reasons:

there's a specific animatic/animation with the song that is so iconic for a fandom that it could get in even if it doesn't have the animatic amount required

The song reaches the amount required, and it has never been properly referred to as an animation meme, but a lot of the animatics are the exact same format (like an animation meme)

The song has a lot of animatics, but I could barely find any that were not animatics of the source material

The song is more popular as an animation meme, but also has some animatics

The propaganda provided was just good enough for me to give it a chance, even if they don't have the animatic amount required

I'm including all songs that check the criteria I have not had time to check the lyrics of all the songs I don't know, I've only checked that they have enough animatics; so just in case: I'll check everything when submissions close, don't worry. Feel free to tell me in the ask box, but have in mind that I'm only taking the song itself into account, not the artist, so please don't flood my inbox with the artist's entire crime list.

[cookiecrumbles52]

Welcome to Palace

About the Artist . . .

Name: Madison Riley (aka CookieCrumbles52 or Fale “Fae”)

Current Age: 23

Fav Color: Blue

Fav Food: Pasta 🍝

Current Fav Animal: Siberian Sable

Years of Experience (Art/Writing): 12yrs

Status: "The Grandma Friend" & "Just an Anxious Little Bean"

Main Fandoms:

TMNT, Pokémon, DC Comics, Minecraft, FNaF's, Undertale, Wakfu, Voltron, The Arcana, Zelda BotW/TotK, The Octonauts, Poppy Playtime, Moomin

Current Fav Illustration(s): “ Cult of the Lost ” ( 9hrs 8m ) and “ Fale_Tsuyoshi has joined the game. ” (Over 12hrs, half of the project was lost) “ Assessing the Damage ” ( 8hrs 37min )

Tools of the Trade:

Pencil, Paper, Tablet — Procreate, my brains

Other Interests:

Writing, Video Games, Lore Theories, Cosplay

(Aka a massive nerd)

Want to see more of my works? Here are my socials (I don’t post art on my main account just reblogs)

ASKS ARE OPEN . . .

[ No DM's unless you're a Mutual, please. I've had way too many people follow me just to DM requests for art. I'm not doing any requests or trades (unless stated otherwise), my comms are closed, please don't DM just so I draw something for you. I'm an adult with a very busy life/work schedule, I'll only warn you once. If it keeps up I'll have to block you. ]

—

More interests if you care for my ramblings . . .

(This is the point of no return so if you actually want to get to know me then you gotta commit!!)

Favorite Visual Artists:

flowerygarrland, fdevitart, Lackadaisy, Froustious, Jerome-K-Moore, Don Bluth, Earthsong9405, Neytirix, Sadist Animations. Suzukiwee1357, Richard Chen (Insta), Burrotello, Van Gogh, Hayao Miyazaki, Cartoon Saloon

Favorite Movies:

(All) DragonHeart Movies, (All) TMNT Movies, First Knight, King Arthur, Narnia, (All) Jurassic Movies, Quest for Camelot, Stardust, Ophelia, Oliver & Company, FNaF's, Sahara, The Christmas Dragon, Justin and the Knights of Valour, Monster in Paris, Song of the Sea, (All) Studio Ghibli (Except Grave of the Fireflies . . .😭)

Favorite TV Shows:

TMNT, The Octonauts/Above and Beyond, Moomin, BBC Merlin/Sherlock, HeMan, SheRa, ThunderCats, Rainbow Brite, Voltron, The Gummi Bears, Jane and the Dragon

Anime:

Fairy Tail, BlackButler, Inuyasha, OHSHC, Free: Iwatobi Swim Club, Life of a Househusband, BNHA

Favourite Bands / Musical Artists:

The Oh Hellos, Kalandra, Rag'n'Bone Man, Jason Graves, Cody Fry, Cosmo Sheldrake, CG5, Dzivia, Sail North, Natewantsbattle, PEGGY, Billy Joel, Yaelokre, ABBA, Michael Jackson

Fav Genre of Music:

Singer Songwriter, Musicals, Whimsical Fae Vibes, Folk, Cultural Folk

Favorite Songs: (Changes may very)

"Mother to a Savior and King" - Journey to Bethlehem, "Still" by Hunter Hayes, "Top of the World" by Shawn Mendes, TWRP - "Starlight Brigade", "Harpy Hare" by Yaelokre, "Euclid" by Sleep Spoken, "What Makes Me Tick" by JT Music, “Ruined Lullaby” - CG5, "False Idol" by Ivycomb, Octonauts Theme Song & Creature Report

Fav Musicals:

Anastasia, Wicked, Dear Evan Hansen, School of Rock, Shrek, Alice in Wonderland, Newsies, Phantom of the Opera, The Prince of Egypt, In Strange Woods, EPIC, Jane Eyre, The Lion King

Favorite Books:

The Secret Garden, Treasure Island, Six of Crows, Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, Beauty & the Beast, Sherlock Holmes, Rise of the Guardians (GoC), Outsiders, Number the Stars, The Hobbit, Narnia

Favorite Writers:

C.S.Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Frances Hodgson Burnett

Favorite Games:

Jinx & Minx’s Tower, Minecraft, Undertale, FNaF's, Zelda: BotW/ToTK, Prop Hunt, Sims 4, Lay, Mario: Galaxy/Kart/Super Mario Bros, Untitled Goose Game, Animal Crossing, Cult of the Lamb, Harold Halibut

Favorite Gaming Platform:

Nintendo, Steam Powered

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk :)

[ Updated: Sept. 2024 ]

[shiveringfrogspawn]

What's up sluts (affectionate)

I’m Bee, a Pākehā living in Aotearoa that uses she/they pronouns. Anyone being creepy or discriminatory will be blocked without hesitation (no racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogynists, ableists, paedophilia, TERFs, etc. etc.) but minors are absolutely ok so long as you don't mind a bit of swearing :)

CONTENT WARNINGS This blog contains quite a bit of swearing and is not spoiler free for any of the fandoms listed below. There isn't any NSFW content and I can't think of anything else that warrants a TW, but if you see something, please let me know and I'll add it - that's valid!

TAGS save that for later: for things I want to refer back to bee buzzes: me generally going on rants or infodumping but I always forget to use the tag so there's not much under it

If you're interested in any of the many, many fandoms I'm part of, I love to chat (as you can tell by this disgustingly long intro post) so hit me up! I'll add a list under the cut and leave it open-ended so I can add more, because I am ravenously consuming more media - books, movies, TV shows, bands - and becoming more powerful.

MOVIES

Labyrinth; The Princess Bride; Indiana Jones; Back to the Future; Pride and Prejudice; Dead Poets Society; The Truman Show; Knives Out; Stardust; Night at the Museum; The Terminator & Terminator 2: Judgement Day; Jurassic Park; Labyrinth; Hunt for the Wilderpeople; The Rocky Horror Picture Show...

TV SHOWS

Doctor Who; Good Omens; Sherlock; Our Flag Means Death; Shadow and Bone; Taskmaster; 8 Out of 10 Cats; Countdown; The Mighty Boosh; QI; The Big Fat Quiz; The Big Flower Fight; What We Do in the Shadows; Would I Lie To You; Drunk History…

BOOKS

Shadow and Bone trilogy; Six of Crows duology; King of Scars duology; Good Omens: the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch; Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe; The Secret History; Murder Most Unladylike; Harry Potter (side note: this blog is a safe space for LGBTQ+ people! I do not agree with JKR’s transphobic views at all and 99% of my fandom activity is centred on the marauders era); The Hunger Games; Percy Jackson/the Riordanverse (not really anymore though); Heartstopper; The Picture of Dorian Gray; We Hunt the Flame duology; One Last Stop; Red, White, and Royal Blue; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo; Howl’s Moving Castle; The Traitor and the Thief duology; Kaitangata Twitch; the Heidi series; Little Women series; most things by Roald Dahl; the Robert Langdon books; All the Light We Cannot See...

MUSIC

Queen; the Beatles; David Bowie; Aerosmith; The Beautiful South; AC/DC; Florence + the Machine; Bon Jovi; ABBA; the Bee Gees; Elton John; Billy Joel; Creedence Clearwater Revival; Elvis Presley; Joan Jett + the Blackhearts; Chappell Roan; Heart…