#but moots told me to finish it and who am i to say no

[mushyooms]

buying him time

[screampied]

HIIIIIIIIIII, omg so cute that u missed me cause i missed you too ☹️☹️

OMG TOJI IS THE BIGGEST CONDOM HATER AND HE HATES TO PULL OUT, MF IS MAKING KIDS LEFT AND RIGHT (the money i would pay to be one of his baby mommas is as large as his cock).

nanami starts so sweet, he is the type to say some stuff that makes your dizzy mind go “he didn’t”. i can see him always being respectful saying “you feel so good, baby” and then he finds out that whenever he swears his partner likes it, so he starts taking his chance, and a few weeks later he sweetly calls her his pretty slut. ITS ME, IM HER!!!!

i— vegas i am the biggest suguru simp ever, i would be a member of his cult, i swear to you i could worship him better than others, my mouth would make him forget i am just a dumb human. HE ALSO HAS THE VIBE OF MOCKING YOU WHILE SMILING WITH HIS EYES CLOSED LIKE OMG

so, uh, i have a humiliation kink or something…

i don’t think peach ice tea tastes like peach, but it’s sweet and good, and it makes me very happy to drink it. however, i have no control over it, so others need to pour for me and tell me to stop, because i will keep going until it all comes back up (it happened)

toe rings are perfect for me, who is always wearing sandals, so it gives that lil fancy look instead of just casual. OMG BRACELETS ARE EVERYTHING, i used to keep eyeing them on pinterest all the time and i got a silver one for my 20 birthday, i love to talk and hit it on the table, is so soothing.

btw, there’s a famous character from a tv show from my country that she is know for her many bracelets, and she was very feisty and expressive so they crinkled a lot, is really nice to be wearing it and people go “are you [character]?” DAMN RIGHT I AM.

WAIT HOLLUP YOU SHIFTED?? THATS LIKE SO COOL, me and my anxious mind could never

answering your question, on october first i’ll show myself after i finish my halloween theme and we still will interact because i love to send ask, except they won’t be anon but it will be our secret that i was nut anon. and yes, let’s be moots!!! this whole thing started because high me told ya i would bust a nut if we became moots.

i also said if you followed me before halloween i would show myself, which reminds me, you followed me on your second account, does that count? its been like two or three weeks and i kept quiet 🙂 cause i got scared 🙂

anyways question for today is house or apartment? barbie or bratz?

nut anon.

NUUUUTTYYYY 🧘‍♀️

YEAAAJHH ☝🏽☝🏽. he’s so annoying, he’s literally the guy who’s like “no condoms fit me,” and just loves going in raw. ur reaaaal i'd love to be his baby mama, that's my man. to me toji isn’t a deadbeat he’s a living / caring father & husband !

nanami 😕😕😕. i want him so bad he’s so husband. i rmbr having such a huge nanami brain rot out of nowhereeee and i would write ab him nonstop. i always think ab virgin!nanami n how he can never last once he goes inside pussy for the first time ARUGHHHH. nanami and degradation yummmmm …. twin with the humiliation kink 🧘‍♀️ that'll be in my cult leader geto fic

YESSSSSS i shift sometimes 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️. it's funnn but a lot of ppl think it's fake, i think it all dependssss. you should try it it’s so cool, especially if you’re a deep sleeper bc it kills time me thinkssss

ooooh okay !!! YAAAAAY NEW MOOTS. ofc it’ll be our secret 🫂🫂. help i followed u on my second account rly ….. bye i still have no clue who you could be tho omg. IM CURIOUUSSSS. have i sent you an ask before eerrrm. DONT BE SCAREDDD.

hmmmm house and bratz !!!! 🧘‍♀️

[shsl-heck]

So because I've seen it compared to Worm, I started reading The Boys by Garth Ennis. It's bad! Like really bad! It feels like what would happen if you let an edgy anti-feminist atheist youtuber from 2015 write a comic book. I finished the first volume of the omnibus in large part because it was a train wreck I couldn't look away from, and am debating starting the second since I hate myself. The most interesting parts are actually the little forewords. Through them I learned both that it was supposed to be a comedy, and also a critique of the military industrial complex/police (or at least that people read it as one). This was surprising to me since it is neither funny nor incisive. Anyway, now I want to ramble incoherently about my problems with it because this goddamn comic broke my brain.

Okay, so one of the most common ways it shows you which characters you aren't supposed to like is by having them do comically "gross" sex stuff. Notable examples include cocaine fueled orgies, mentions of shitting during sex, bestiality, masturbating in public to the sight of disabled people, and a little person using sex toys. One that shows up repeatedly in this context is characters being bisexual or gay. Now, I don't wanna get controversial, but I think any claims that your work is a critique of capitalism, police, the military, or whatever are rendered moot when your villains are a group of secret hedonistic sex-freaks. Like we can't pretend that doesn't sound a lot like regressives and their obsession with "degeneracy". Sexual assaults, misogyny, and slurs also appear pretty often, mostly as the punch line for jokes. Victims are rendered down into objects and denied any sense of interiority so we can instead focus on what really matters (gore porn, and middle school 4chan posters' sense of humor). Never once does Ennis deign to explore the actual impact and trauma of these things, or ask why he views these things as material for jokes.

That incuriosity is I think the real problem with The Boys. There is no actual coherent thought about why things are bad. Superheroes hurt people and are wrong because of their personal moral failings as selfish perverts, not because their whole job is to violently enforce the will of the state. It's like if someone agreed that all cops are bastards, but only because all cops just so happened to be "bad apples". The main characters literally work for the fucking CIA, and yes, I know the titular Boys are at best meant to be anti-heroes a la the Punisher. My issue here isn't that they're hypocrites who are frequently also horrible. It's that this premise for is absolute nonsense if you think for half a second. Superheroes do not function without the legitimacy granted to them by the state and it's monopoly on violence, so why would the CIA need these 5 randos with zero oversight working to take out the supers? Is the force Homelander and the others can bring to bear so great that even the apparatus of that state can't deal with them? If so, why does this group of assholes change that? Normally I'd be willing to give the story a lot more of a pass when it comes to questions like this, except I'm being told that this story has things to say about systemic problems involving the government and corporations! So I have to ask, where? Where is the commentary? What does it actually have to say about the state of the world circa 2006-2012? The only answer I can come up with is "not a whole lot". It's a story which dares to ask the tough questions like "what if the world was made of pudding" and then ignore answering those questions so it can instead recite Ellis' favorite slurs in alphabetical order while showing you a woman's tits.

On a lighter note, it's also just not very good. The plot (as mentioned) falls apart under any amount of scrutiny, pacing is bizarre in a bad way, the characters aren't compelling, themes remains stubbornly unexplored, and Ellis is allergic to doing anything interesting or creative with the premise he's decided to base a whole comic around. I genuinely do not know what people enjoy(ed) about this comic.

[ambelle]

I'm not sure if you know, but Hen Mazzig is hired by the Israeli government as a propagandist. You shared a post that platforms him. He's a zionist, very racist, and supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. His posts can't be trusted and I don't think he and his propaganda should be given attention. I wanted you to know this in case you didn't know. However, if you already know this and support this, I guess this is a moot point. I'd also be careful trusting content he shares.

I don't know that man, trust him, nor care about his agenda. I don't follow him and have no interest in anything he says or does. I used him because that's who had the video. I shared that post for the video end of.

Here's my problem...

The video Hen Mazzig shared was not A.I or fake it was the start of a anti-black campaign from very popular TikTok creators Mya, Rosol, and pistachiochiaa to name a few. Mya's followers are still camped in Tori's comments harassing her for not wanting to let Trump win.

I watched black ppl be harassed and told they support genocide if they vote for Kamala all summer. I was in over 100 lives where protesters called black people, including me, slurs all summer. To come to my inbox and tell me it didn't happen and is propaganda is in itself anti-black. I am not a mule for other races. I am not "al abeed" or a monkey as I was called over and over in those lives. I am an American making the only moral choice there is to make in this election. Also the only choice that will protect me and my family.

Mike Flynn started the Abandon Biden/Harris group - think about why Trump's advisor would start a protest group for Palestine. Think about why that group exclusively attacks Democrats. Think about why Jill the Russian/GOP-paid chaos agent is using that group to exclusively attack Democrats. Think about why Trump the white supremacist actively trying to become a Dictator gets no smoke for saying Bibi should finish the job. They are clearly using the protestors to hurt Palestine AND non white Americans.

THINK about any of this as you attempt to sabotage the only candidate who actually wants a ceasefire.

Stay out of my inbox with BS. I am voting for Kamala Harris.

XOXO

[angieloveshua]

“188男团 novels.” | Angie reviews novels that she read in Spanish because she was too lazy to translate her reactions to English, pt. 1.

🫧 —Alpha Predator. | 5/5 ☆.

No carrd, unfortunately.

Alpha Predator is the latest 188男团 novel of the series, and by so far, my absolute favourite. The story follows Shen Dai, an B rate omega, who agrees to marry off on behalf of his half-brother to pay off his father's debts. Little did he know that his meant-to-be husband was Qu Moyu, the heir of the Xingzhou Group, his boss, and the man who saved him from an embarrassing situation years ago. Shen Dai knows that the best option for him is to see this marriage as a financial exchange, but he can't help falling in love with the handsome yet ruthless Qu Moyu.

This novel is an ABO classic, but who doesn't love classics? I do. I love Alpha Predator, and I read the whole book in four days. I must mention that Suida knows how to draft addictive novels. I devour this one, and I miss the feeling I got while reading it.

Before reading the novel, I saw someone ranking Qu Moyu as the scummiest gong of all the series, even worse than Shao Qun, and I was scared. What could have this man do to be worse than Shao Qun? When I finished the novel, I couldn't disagree more.

Although I am well aware that what Qu Moyu did was atrocious, to say the least, I understand why he did all of that. He was raised to always value rationality and benefits above everything, even his own feelings. And guess what? I'm weak. I never hated him. I adore how he addressed all what he did, he reflects about it (and I put this in italics because I feel like most of the love interests don't regret their mistakes and just try not to do that badly again), and he works hard to be a better husband, father, and man. In conclusion: I'm biased. Qu Moyu best 188男团 gong. 💜

Before going to the next novel, let me at these two bullet points:

The ABO. It was extremely interesting to see how alphas and omegas were divided into classes according to their pheromone level and how it played a key role in the protagonists' lives. The scenes where pheromones came into place were /screams.

The romance. QuShen is the best 188 couple, beat it.

🫧 —Winner Takes All. | 4/5 ☆.

carrd.

Winner Takes All is the first 188男团 novel I read, and I would also recommend it to be your first one if you want to get into the 188男团 world. The pace is easy to follow, and Zhao Jinxin is one of the least scummy gongs of the series.

The book's MC is Li Shuo, who is dearly loved within the fandom and had played the second love interest in other novels (Sissy, for example), and we see how he falls in love with 🥁 his enemy's cousin, Zhao Jinxin. Really, one of the greatest sins Zhao Jinxin has committed is to be Shao Qun's cousin (and this isn't even his fault, you see).

Li Shuo and Zhao Jinxin have good chemistry. They have a lot of interests in common and their families are friends. One could say it's a match made in heaven and that nothing could go wrong... right?

Well, well, well, let me tell you that I was so heartbroken that I had to listen to Bad Bunny songs to not cry. But don't worry! It's a HE.

🫧 —Additional Inheritance. | 3/5 ☆.

No carrd, unfortunately.

Additional Inheritance («Maldita herencia», Damned Inheritance in Spanish) is Luo Yi's and Wen Xiaohui's story. Everything starts when Wen Xiaohui receives her adoptive jiejie's suicide notice —but not only that, her jiejie left him a considerable amount of inheritance along with her only child, a fifteen-year-old boy named Luo Yi, who has a high IQ and is considered matured for his age.

For this novel, I remembered I posted a tweet with a theory of what could ruined Luo Yi's and Wen Xiaohui's happiness. My moots called me ‘witch,’ and for one moment in my life, I hated being right.

To say I was shocked was the least. I texted, let's say, six of my friends and told them what was going because I couldn't believe my eyes. How could he...?!

And so, yes, I can't say that I hate Luo Yi, but I also can't say that I love him. I don't want to post a spoiler here, but, hey, I was reading a little in my graduation party and I didn't know what to do with my feelings.

As for the plot, I enjoyed how Wen Xiaohui escalated in the fashion world (I like to call it that way) and I felt proud of myself for understanding the finance part (my financial market course is so useful, hehehe).

So, these were the 188男团 I've read so far and a little of what I think. I plan to read Yet You're In Love With an Idiot and Professional Body Double, so the next post of 188男团 will be of them. I hope you enjoy the reviews and give a try to any of these novels if they attracted your attention (READ ALPHA PREDATOR). Angie's off.

[leoramage]

Tagged by @charlosgoggles, I was pretty busy and kind of late when I saw the post! I immediately sat down once I had my free time to do this. Thank you for the tag my co-F1 astrology bestie in this app!

name: Leora Mage is actually an anagram of my real name! i am currently using it as a penname and stage name!

sign: my big three is leo-gemini-pisces!

time: its apparently 6:47 p.m. when i started writing this down. 9 p.m. when i finished (i had duties to attend to.)

favourite band/artist: i am the music bestie that listens to anything. you can't pin me down and tell me to list my favorite artists/band! ಠಿ⁠_⁠ಠ anyways here's the following:

solo artists: taylor swift, lana del rey, rihanna, doja cat, britney spears, ariana grande, olivia rodrigo, beyoncé, jennifer lopez, madonna, lady gaga, ava max, camila cabello, qveen herby

bands/groups: in this moment, ghost, the great discord, the neighborhood, the chainsmokers, little mix, blackpink, 2ne1, exo, bigbang, coldplay

bonus: i listen to classical music too (tchaikovsky, mozart, beethoven, etc.)

last movie: burlesque (as in christina aguilera) and house of gucci! i watched it for like a whole bus trip.

last show: house of the dragon! i love rewatching because of sir harwin strong & aemond targaryen!

also drive to survive as well, i was finding the episode fernando was in because i told my mom a local artist here in my country has physical similarities to fernando hahahaha

when I created this blog: i created this blog last year's ummer - solely for my practice, learn knowledge from other practitioners about my craft. i happen to love astrology too so it kind of stuck with me and my theme! i am continuously learning and mastering my craft but at the same time explore more.

other blogs: i have another tumblr blog but i forgotten what was the username but i do believe that i made that blog for roleplaying and posting my photo manipulation for a fandom i used to be in.

do I get asks: not until belle and becca sent me a game! i passed them on to my favorite writers and some to my moot blogs. i was supposed to send one to @charlosgoggles but they do not have their ask on lmfao

followers: 20 blogs are following me. most of them are my moots for sure or bots. idk, i did not check who is following me. i do not check who is following me to be fair (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)

average hours of sleep: 5-6 hours but sometimes longer. i work harder than i sleep.

instruments: guitar, ukelele, piano keyboard, violin. i only have a guitar and keyboard with me and i haven't touched them for ages. i learned how to play the other instruments because of my acquaintances who are passionate about music or simply band members.

what I am wearing: black maxi dress that i made myself!

dream job: i do believe i can be who i wanted to be if i put effort in it. so basically i do not have a dream job.

dream trip: world tour (my work requires a lot of that and isolation from the world. so it's quite a tough journey considering the rough waves of the ocean but anything for the bag of moneh)

favorite song atm: uh i do not have a favorite song at the moment. but i listen to subliminals a lot because they just calm my mind (my brain is so active that i need to decelerate it from thinking about the most obnoxious things) but let me check my most played in spotify... okay it says:

dance the night - dua lipa

tagging: @folkloresthings , @lorarri , @love-belle / @love-bellee , @goldsainz and @opheliaas-stuff because you guys are the sweet ones i had been interacting with for the past few days. i love them sm ฅ[⁠ᓀ⁠˵⁠▾⁠˵⁠ᓂ⁠]ฅ

(p.s. feel free to do in your own comfort 𔘓 much love guys 🤍🩷💕)

[elysia-nsimp]

Hi moots and whoever else sees this post

I’m flying out to see my buddy and I’m currently on layover. I just wanted to share what happened on my last plane because I am SO squishy and happy over it

So I draw when I’m on planes. I can’t ever sleep on them and there’s no internet (I’m not paying) so I just listen to downloaded playlists I have and I draw. Today was no different, I was drawing my persona in a new outfit.

I went up to go to the bathroom and when I came back, the people in the seats behind me were like “YOU! YOURE AMAZING” and the guy in the aisle seat offered me a fist bump. At first I did not get it but I picked up that they’ve been watching me draw for the entire flight and they’re absolutely floored by my art /pos

It made me SUPER happy. I showed them the lineart I finished and they were all commenting on how gorgeous the character is (made me feel nice because she looks a lot like me). So when I went to colour the piece I made sure my phone was angled so the people behind me could continue to watch. I don’t mind being watched while I draw and it made me happy that they were enjoying it.

I make it through most of my colouring before I feel a tap on my shoulder. Turn around and the guy in the aisle seat holds out a tiny origami crane made out of a dollar bill, he says it’s a thank you for letting them all watch me draw.

Im already giddy and happy as is but. This is literally the first time ive ever gotten MONEY from my art? I didn’t even give it away or anything, and it was only a dollar, but just the single dollar crane meant so much more to me than I think the guy who gifted it knows.

Anyway I finished colouring and I offered my phone to the three behind me and the girl in the middle seat borrowed it to go show the people sitting across from them what I was drawing, explaining I’ve been doing this the whole flight and they’ve been watching. She gave it back once like everyone in that row had witnessed my drawing and it absolutely made my day

As I got off the plane, one of the guys in the seats across from those people walked alongside me and he told me that my art is beautiful and that my style could make really beautiful tattoos. I stopped at the gate after he walked away to check where I was going next and the guy from the aisle seat walked up behind me and gave me a fist bump as the two girls waved before wandering off. He told me that with my artistic ability I should look into getting an ipad for drawing. Told me again that my art’s great before he walked off

I have NOT been able to wipe the smile off my face since all that happened, Its been like 20 minutes

Anyway here’s the crane I dunno if I even have it in me to spend it, I tucked it into my backpack. Maybe I’ll just display it as a tribute to this great memory

[squirrelpudding]

January 3rd,2024

I hesitated making a blog post today because all I did was go to work and finish my media edit. But here I am. Making a post. I didn't take a single picture today because, as I said, I was at work all day. Multiple coworkers have told me if I were 18 they would recommend me to become a shift lead (which is a compliment). I like work because I am good at what I do, and I get praised for my hard work. In a lot of my hobbies and things I enjoy, I like doing it but I am either mediocre or very bad at it (like drawing, crocheting, etc). And usually when you are mediocre at something people don't compliment you on it. They don't necessarily say anything bad, they most often just don't really say anything about it at all. A lot of the art I post on twitter only gets likes because it relates to a fandom my moots like, and not the actual effort or technical skill put into it. But I like work because I am good at it and therefore I get complimented by coworkers a lot. I like it. And maybe I seem like a bad person or self centered or whatever because I like compliments, but it feels nice! I can't help liking the feeling of finally liking myself!

I keep calling my media edit a "media edit", because I was inspired by the people who posted media edits/"me core" edits last year, but really it is more of a letteboxd recap. I'm quite proud of it! My computer hates me for making it, because I downloaded a million 2 minute clips just to use like one second from each. I think it turned out pretty good. I am going to make a separate tumblr post for it I think, and I am going to post it on twitter tomorrow. Please ignore the glitches and how low quality a lot of the clips are. Its not my fault that I am not technologically savvy enough to figure out how to get high quality clips or to stop my computer from overheating. Also it gets offbeat for a while, but at that point I had spent so long on it that I decided I wouldn't fix it. The movies are in order of when I watched them (beginning=January, end=December), and I love that you tell when I did marathons. Like all the Shrek movies at the beginning, and the scream movies towards the middle. Fun fact: my friends and I did the Scream marathon right before the newest one came out, with the hopes that we could watch it in theaters together, but two of us were not let in because we were 16. We later watched it at Oomf's house, but only after months of forgetting about it and putting it off. Also something I love about the edit is how you can see that I clearly went through a Jesse Eisenberg phase and a Adam Driver phase (I say that like I am not currently still obsessed with Jesse Eisenberg. He is pookie).

[i-luvsang]

hihi :D. i'm back to do some crazy rants ig since i can't sleep :,). ig i'll just pick up where we left last time?

which is the hair colours! so i saw they dyed yunhos hair blue... AND THEY DID A MESSY JOB AT IT TOO? like in the idol radio pic you could still see a line of like blond hair?? i just know his hair is fried.. they should've kept it blonde urgh. also my neobong... apparently he told at a fansign his hair isn't finished yet? now, i have my theories! like 2 years ago yeo said he wanted to split dye his hair mint and pink. so that's what a lot of people are thinking, and that could be possible ig? but yk what i would love to see? GREEN AND BLACK!! like yk the billie eilish hairstyle with the green roots? OORRRR like the 'hidden' hairstyle where the top is like black and the 'hidden' part of his hair is green and he has like green bangs/fore pieces. i think they're gonna let the green fade tho. TALKING ABOUT NEO...

I'M PICKING UP WHERE I LEFT TALKING ABT GETTING INTO NCT. i am in love with taeyong!! LIKE OBSESSED!! DELUSIONAL OVER THIS MAN!! he's so so so fine!!! like tyong pls come home the kids miss you :(!!! my faves have not changed from last time ig, but i'll say my biases from each unit just bcs i can ig? nct 127 is obv taeyong!!! my nct dream bias is haechan and for wayv it's xiaojun. i'm not rlly counting in nct u bcs the line up is different each cb yk. and if u wanna count in djj it jaehyun, that man is so fine AHDHS. that's all i had to say abt kpop. i haven't rlly been keeping up with a lot of kpop content these days tbh, i've been watching criminal minds :)!

and since ik you have a blog for criminal minds etc i'll rant a bit abt cm here too? i'm at ssn 13 right now so i'm almost done :,). i just finished the eps where that annoying ass lady split up the bau and tried making changes and they secretly team up to catch this serial killer that kills these women and sells like the pics of it and they end up saving the daughter of this dude with a lot of power and he ends up funding the bau etc. i'm so excited to finish cm soon but also not? but i feel like it's kinda time too since i've been watching it for so long. i had to take breaks watching it bcs school and struggles with paranoia so it took me a long time to get back into it again. but now that i'm watching it again i'm so happy bcs i missed the show so much. i think that was my rant since i have nothing else going on rn, i'm a homebody who does nothing more than to sit in their room and watch kpop content, tv shows and read 😭 thank you for listening <3 — 🎧

hello !! you know i love the rants babe !!

i completely agree that they should have kept the blonde. i was excited when i thought they could have a new color but after concert pics with the blonde and the not so great dye job for the blue i'm wishing we could have kept the blonde too :,) but no for sure, he said something like being on the third bleach round or something like i'm crying for him rn akfhakjf

and YEAH NO BECAUSE I WAS TALKING ABT THIS WITH OTHER MOOTS AND- i really really like the idea of the mint green and pink bc like thats so fairy coded and hes so fairy coded and like i also def prefer a mint green to whats going on right now (tho its growing on me mostly bc yeosang just always looks so freaking good). and like i dont think i'd like the idea of the green and pink if it were the split dye like one side pink one side green but i feel like it was supposed to be the top of his hair being pink and the bottom green which could look so freaking good and adorable. BUT UHHH NOW THAT YOU MENTION THE GREEN AND BLACK, BABES THAT IS TOO GOOD you're a literal genius. they probably will just have it fade but i'm praying they do something like that with it sorry to your hair yeo LOL

I SEE I SEE taeyong is definitely a very easy man to simp over. yeah i never count nct u LOL fahfkjsdf but i see you ! i'm understanding, my sister is a haechan stan HAH i just love making fun of him its in my nature as a renjun lover. honestly i'm barely an nctzen anymore BUT i still enjoy dabbling in their content and convos about them like this from time to time it feels nostalgic and nice. i've always been more of a dreamie so i've been passing through neotown more lately with their comeback approaching.

oH MY GOD CRIMINAL MINDSSS my comfort show fr AHAHAH i'm a little crazy. fun fact emily prentiss is my gay awakening !! i'm actually rewatching it rn i'm still on ssn 10 tho lol. ngl i only vaguely remember that ep rn i will be reminded when i get to it LOL. i get you tho omg like it's so long and it's exciting to get through esp if you've had to take breaks like that so valid !! but also i never want my favorite things to end LOL but i mean here i am rewatching it so it's not a huge deal anymore khfkajsd i'm glad you've felt happy watching it tho !! that's awesome.

but babe you are literally me that is legit also the only thing i do, we are twinsies fr. you're welcome for listening and ty for sending it in !! you know i love to hear from you <333

[ebitenpura]

15 questions, 15 mutuals

Thank you for the tag @cinlat, I completely forgot about this until I saw another moot do it! OTL

1. Are you named after anyone?

Nope! My names were unique to me as far as I know, though the closest I can say is that my mom saw the English name on a clothing brand and thought it sounded nice.

2. When was the last time you cried?

A few days ago after finishing the Agent story because of the emotional ending which is embarrassing to admit but I already wailed for 3 days straight on here so it's no news to anyone ahahaha.

3. Do you have kids?

I am the kid.

Just kidding. No, I only have my dog which my mom frequently calls my baby.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

I think so? Like the "road work? I sure HOPE it does" kind, and mostly to myself or to bully one of my best friends instead. Sarcasm is fun to use in good spirit.

5. Favorite time of day?

It's a tie between morning and night excluding 12 am - 7 pm because those are my free hours, and I always look forward to my coffee and wind-down routine.

6. Eye color?

Brown! But I've been told they can change even darker in certain circumstances. I love dark eyes.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Hoo. Depends on the mood: I'm a huge horror buff as a goth, but there's so many bad horror movies that I end up laughing at instead and life is so full of sorrows that sometimes I want to feel good, you know? Scary with a happy ending though...now that's a rare treat.

8. Any special talents?

Is sleeping a lot a talent- *shot* I don't uh. I don't know. What counts as a special talent?

9. Where were you born?

This one's a little personal so let's just say south-central of US of A. Unfortunately.

10. What are your hobbies?

Writing, gaming, watching anime and other interesting shows, reading, yadda yadda, a lot of sedentary stuff. There's probably more I can say to this but I can't think of them off the top of my head. I like visiting new food places and reviewing them as well.

11. Do you have any pets?

A shih-tzu and a terrapin turtle, my beloved creachers. My dog is my best friend, and he has a such a unique personality that he makes every day with him a joy; my friends joke he's like an alien or a cartoon creature/nintendog come to life. My turtle is honestly just as strange, given she's the most active turtle I've ever seen.

12. What sports do you/have you played?

I've dabbled in a lot in the past, but never stuck to many due to my condition. I can say the ones I keep now are surfing, though! It's my favorite sport/hobby even if I can't do it regularly. Others include fencing, archery, Tae Kwon Do, swimming, hip hop on occasion, and basketball. Wow, that's a lot of combat.

13. How tall are you?

5'8.5", I've recently caught up to/surpassed my dad but he's in denial. Being tall is nice because I always make fun of my shorter friends who all proceed to stack on each other like gnomes and then hit me (figuratively).

14. Favorite subject in school?

English and History, though my experiences with them were always a mixed bag depending on the teacher. Sometimes I liked them the least just because of how they were taught.

15. Dream job?

Yeesh. I've struggled with that question all my life; I'm still looking for the answer, and it'd really be anything that offers me security while not killing me out of stress. I think coding or writing full-time would be a dream for me, however unlikely.

Tagging: Whoever looks at this ;) *smacks you* you're it.

[alexanderalbons]

It started on Friday with FP1 and then a dominant qualifying, always being the fastest in every session without giving any chance to his opponents. He drove with a knife in his teeth every time he went on track, tested several racing lines, did the straights many times in practice without using DRS and tested lines and braking for the two most important corners of the track - the S of Senna and Junction - in every way. He saw very quickly that he couldn't enter these two key corners of the circuit 'sold', because he would lose on the next straight.

He also saw that in those curves he couldn't brake as he likes, inside, because he also lost in the two straights doing that. He found a way to help not to overheat the tyres by doing Pinheirinho on the outside in a way I've never seen anyone do.

But he was disqualified. 0.2 millimeters on one side of his DRS were beyond the allowed, while the other side was right. His DRS was "crooked", which definitely didn't help him at all, but it did break the regulations.

Mercedes knew about the disqualification on Friday night itself, although it was not announced until Saturday. The suspense is part of F1's marketing. Almost everything is decided long before it is made public, but I am lucky enough to have a friend inside the Mercedes team, Dude, who told me the following:

"Adawtow, we knew the man would be disqualified early on Friday night. Of course it was a DRS fitting error, a legitimate 0.2 millimetre error that didn't help but hindered the man, because the wing when it opened was crooked by 0.2 millimetres."

"The FIA knows that, the opponents know that, but the regulations are clear, even though they are badly written. The possibility was mooted that we could appeal and run on Saturday starting from pole under protest. We all wanted to do that, but two people didn't; Wolff and the man himself."

"The man interrupted the discussion by asking, 'Can I use full power in the sprint race all the time?'

"Then Shovlin said: 'You can, but the rear tyres won't cope with that, you're already running less downforce at the rear' So Bono suggested that if we weren't going to run under protest, that would be our best chance."

"From there the man, looking at Wolff, said that's what we should do, he would make sure the tyres would hold up by driving round mainly from 5 (Orange) to 12 (Junction). Then Wolff asked us all, 'Why not'?"

"At that point I would say the man decided he would run 24 qualifying laps in the short race on Saturday. But for Sunday, Wolff called the factory and asked for new simulations for PU considering that strategy. Less than 1 hour later the simulations arrived and we started studying the three most risky and the three least."

Then, on Saturday, the fans at Interlagos and the millions watching on TV witnessed the mind-boggling 24 laps of qualifying without a single mistake from Hamilton, who pulled off an impressive 15 overtakes and still had the tyre for half a dozen more laps.

But the next day we would have the race, so the work wasn't finished, but Lewis Hamilton wanted more.

"We honestly didn't think he would win the race. A podium yes, but not the win. But I don't think anyone told him that, because he went in to win. We only really believed it when he was in P2 closing in on Verstappen. We thought Max was saving his tyres for when that happened, but the truth is he wasn't. The man was getting closer with every lap and then the near certainty of victory took over the pits. The mood changed inside, the grandstand roared every time he passed in front of us and we started clenching our fists, just as he certainly was inside the car."

"That manoeuvre on lap 48 from Max didn't scare us, the man knew that was going to happen, so much so that he sidestepped Max very easily. Then he knew he needed to lead Max into the error to get by before the braking at either turn 1 (Senna's S) or turn 4 (Lake turn). So he threatened at 1, Max went inside and then it was over, we knew he would pass on the opposite straight next."

"I didn't ask anyone, not even him, but for me it was the best performance I've seen a driver put in since I've been working in Formula 1 for almost 20 years."

"I don't know what will happen next, but that weekend was Lewis Hamilton's masterpiece. I don't know if or when we will see that again."

- from “The Dude, and the masterpiece of Lewis Hamilton” as told by an anonymous source from Mercedes

[maximons]

All Is Lost

Summary: Zombies have taken over the world, humanity on the edge of extinction. All hope was lost. Despite that, Wanda couldn’t seem to let go of Y/n, who had fallen victim to the plague herself.

Word Count: 2,263

Genre: Angst

Requested?: No

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, death, cannibalism, suicide, mentions of blood. Spoilers for Ep. 5 of What If...?

A/N: I know, I know, I’m gonna get into the stuff I promised soon. But for now, the Zombies episode inspired me and this came out. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, go watch it. Its amazing and depressing. Also this is DARK guys, probably the darkest thing I’ve ever written, so...Happy Reading!

The Zombie apocalypse was always something everyone joked about, but never something that anyone could actually predict.

Everything happened so quickly, Wanda could barely keep up. It’s hard to believe that everything was so normal only two weeks ago. Now, she was locked away with Vision in an abandoned military base in New Jersey. Desperate to survive for as long as possible while Vision worked on a cure.

Some of his experiments had been a success, most notably Scott Lang who he was able to revert back from his zombified state. However, the man was now only a severed head.

Despite the success, Vision was less than optimistic. For one, Scott was one of the first infected. While the cure worked on him, the android theorized that the disease has mutated greatly since then, and it was likely impossible to cure everyone. And even if he could, the technology to do so is beyond human comprehension and therefore doesn’t exist.

Vision might have all but given up hope, but Wanda didn’t. She couldn’t. She refused to give up on you.

Wanda and you have been best friends for as long as Wanda had been an Avenger. You were already a member of the team and greeted her with an open mind and open arms, despite all she had done. You had fire powers, and while your powers weren’t identical to Wanda’s, you still offered some basic tips and tricks to keep such explosive powers at bay.

It wasn’t a surprise that she fell in love with you.

But her stupid fear had to get in the way, and when you came to confess your own feelings for her, she panicked and rejected you. You were so heartbroken, Wanda didn’t need to read your mind to know that.

And it kills her everyday knowing that that was the last interaction she had with you. The last one with you as yourself anyway.

All that remained now was the flesh hungry, blood thirsty monster that wore your, now rotting, skin.

This wasn’t you, she knows that. She looked into your mind and saw no trace of the woman you once were, the one she loved with all her heart. She couldn’t feel you, you were gone.

Despite this, Wanda couldn’t let you go. She couldn’t handle losing you entirely. She already lost almost everyone.

She managed to convince Vision to keep you in the base for testing. You were locked behind a large steel door, with only a window to see you through. But you were here, and that’s all Wanda cared about.

The cure wasn’t working for you. Your powers caused it to incinerate when it entered your system, proving it to be ineffective. Still, she refused to give up.

Vision thought it best to terminate you after the failed tests, but Wanda begged him not to. Knowing he couldn’t overpower her, and sensing his friend’s distress with anything that comes to you, he agreed. As long as Wanda had it under control.

She doubted he knew that she was luring innocent survivors into the base so you could feed on them, but she did what she had to do.

Wanda spent most of her days sitting outside of your cell. The first few days, you were ravenous. Banging on the walls and trying to burn them down, growling and screeching with the inhuman noise that took over your vocal chords, but you didn’t manage to break free. After a while, it seemed you have given up, and just sat in place. Only moving when Wanda opened the cell and let some of your ‘food’ in.

There were times where Wanda thought that maybe, just maybe, the cure was working more than they thought. You seemed to have recognized her, your facial expressions formed into ones that she had recognized and missed dearly. But that hope quickly died when she would peek into your head and still sense nothing.

“Hey, Y/n.” Wanda walked up to outside your cell and sat cross-legged like she did everyday. Your head rose, staring at her with your now glowing yellow eyes. “Still no progress on the cure, but don’t worry, I’m not giving up yet.” You offered no response, not that she expected one. “It’s hard. It’s only getting worse out there...” She sighed as she trailed off. She raised her hand to the glass, like she always did. “I’m going to figure it out...we’re gonna get you back to normal, and I’m going to tell you every day how much I love you. I miss you so much, but...we’re almost there. I can feel it...” Wanda’s voice started choking up, as tears ran down her face. “We deserve our happy ending.”

Her hand was still pressed against the glass as she finished her speech. She was about to lower it, but then something unexpected happened. You stared at her hand curiously, beginning to raise your own. Wanda watched, smile forming on her face as your arm made it’s way to the glass. 

“Wanda! Please come here, we have a situation.” You had almost pressed your hand against Wanda’s, when Vision’s voice interrupted. Your attention turned to the direction it came from and you let out a growl, clearly angry at the interruption. Wanda sighed in disappointment, but she tried not to let it take over. You still showed massive improvement, something worth reporting back to Vision. “It’s okay.” She soothed you. “I’m going to go see what he wants then I’ll be right back, okay? I know you’re hungry, I’ll get you some food too.” You didn’t offer a response as she walked off.

“Vis! I have to tell you-” Wanda began as she walked into the main room, but cut herself off at the new faces. She didn’t recognize the bald woman with the spear or the wimpy looking man in a workers uniform, but she was familiar with Peter. What surprised her most though, was Bruce Banner. A man she hasn’t seen in over three years. “What is going on?”

“I ran into them outside the premises. Apparently word has gotten out about the cure.” Vision answered before turning his attention back to the guests. “As I told you, I am afraid we cannot help you. The cure seems to be a moot point.”

“Well, what about-” Peter began, but he was interrupted by a new voice.

“For something you have no hope for, you sure don’t have a problem bringing in new test subjects.” Wanda recognized Bucky Barnes’ voice. She turned around, and her eyes widened as she saw King T’challa on his arm, struggling to stand on his one remaining leg.

Shit.

“My king! We thought you dead.” The bald woman exclaimed in relief and surprise.

“Your highness. I was not aware you were in the base.” Vision said, confused on how that got by him. It didn’t take him long to figure out why. “Wanda...”

“I’m sorry.” Wanda whispered, knowing she was caught. “The cure wasn’t working on Y/n, and in order to keep her at bay, I had to feed her.”

“So you fed her our King?” A spear was raised to her throat, threateningly.

“It was nothing personal, I promise. I have her under control and the cure is starting to work, I know it. We just need a little more time!”

“Why not just kill her? You lured innocent people to their deaths just for her when there a couple million more Zombies out there that you could use for testing. Ones that have a chance of being cured.” The whole room went quiet after Bucky said that.

“Uh oh. Shouldn’t have said that.” Wanda heard Scott say, but she was too busy glaring at Bucky. Her eyes started to go red, but before she could do anything, she noticed the spear held to her throat begin to glow red and melt. The woman dropped the spear as it began to burn her hands.

“Did it just suddenly get like, super hot?” Peter asked as he began to fan himself.

“Oh no...” Wanda trailed off. She looked up to notice the steal walls that led to your cell begin to melt. “You’ve done it now...she hasn’t eaten in days.” Before anyone could respond, the steel doors melted completely. The man in the uniform was unfortunate enough to be standing in front of it, as a strong burst of flame shot out and incinerated him on the spot. Only a second later, you flew out the door, covered in flames as you hovered above everyone.

Wanda watched in horror as you began to fight everyone. They weren’t holding up very well, and that’s when Wanda finally realized what she had done. This wasn’t you, and if you were still here, you would hate to see your body be used to attack and kill others.

“Vision! Get us out of here!” She heard Bruce yell, and Vision shot a blast towards the wall, blowing it up and letting everyone out. Wanda turned her focus back to you, you watched them starting to escape and you began to fly after them, but a red mist surrounded you before you could. You turned your head, starting to growl, but stopped when you saw it was Wanda.

“Y/n. Stop...” You tilted your head, still struggling to move as Wanda came closer. She took a chance and reached up, gently placing a hand on your face. “I am so sorry...you never deserved this...” Your face softened at the touch, beginning to show the signs of emotion that Wanda desperately held onto. However, it was clear now that it was too late.

You snapped out of it, as you managed to break free from Wanda’s hold. You opened your mouth wide, intent on biting and feeding on her, but something stopped you. You hesitated, and Wanda noticed. You settled for pushing her aside to the ground as you reignited yourself and flew out of the base.

Wanda picked herself up after a moment, intent on stopping you. She ran past Okoye’s body, charred and eaten, but she was sure there was little time until she turned. She ran faster to where you were, now facing off against Bucky. She sprinted further, about to take off and fly when she paused.

Vision was face down on the ground. She kneeled next to him, glowing red hand turning over his body, afraid of what she’ll see. Once he was turned, Wanda gasped at the sight. The mind stone was torn out of his head.

“Oh no...no, no, no...” She held his body, tears slowly building as she mourned the loss of her best friend. She had officially lost everything. “I am so sorry Vis...I’m going to make this right, I promise.”

She heard Bucky scream. She looked over to see you start to feed on him. She saw Bruce, Peter, Scott and T’challa in the distance, making their way to the jet. They were your next target.

No. Wanda wasn’t going to let that happen. It ends now.

She used her powers to propel herself forward, landing directly in your path. You growled at her yet again as she used her powers to hold you. “Y/n...please, stop.” You struggled to get out of the hold, but Wanda held on. “This isn’t you...you wouldn’t want this...I love you more than anything, and I’m so sorry...I hope one day, you’ll forgive me.” 

Wanda used her powers to grab the gun laying by Bucky’s side. She held in to your head, ready to pull the trigger...but she couldn’t. She let out a scream of frustration and dropped her hold on both you and the gun. The gun fell to the ground, but you haven’t moved.

“I can’t do it...I...I’m not strong enough...” Wanda began crying, shutting her eyes and waited for you to finish her off. She failed everyone, no one deserved death more than her. She opened her eyes when nothing came. You stood, staring at her with a tilt of your head. The yellow of your eyes dimming as you stared.

“W....Wan...” You struggled to let out, but it was enough for Wanda to hear. She cried even harder. She was right, you were almost there...but it was too late now.

You took in your surroundings as best you could, you didn’t have a lot of awareness, but you knew enough to piece everything together. You saw the influx of zombies starting to enter to base.  Everyone needed to get away. You turned back to Wanda, and you knew what you had to do. You felt the little control you had start to slip away.

You bent down and picked up the discarded gun. You shakily pointed it to your temple, the control slipping away faster and faster. “Love....you....I...sorry...” You managed to croak out. Before you could lose control completely, you pulled the trigger.

Wanda watched in horror as you shot yourself in the head. Pieces of your brain landing on her, your blood drenching her. She looked down to see your body, half your face still together, but you were gone. Truly gone.

She knelt down sobbing, as she held your body. After a moment she looked up to see the Hulk appear as the zombies began to overwhelm the base. She saw the jet take off, and she gave a weak smile. They got away. Wanda’s job was done. This is where her story ends. All was lost for her.

So when the zombies finally reached her, she didn’t fight back. Accepting her death with open arms.

Epilogue

[claitea]

finished pokemon violet. i am in Shambles in best way possible

major spoilers below! also its super long i have a lot to say

if its not obvious gen 5 is my favorite gen, for all the reasons most people hype it as the best gen. and i agree it totally is the best gen!

i gotta say sv is my second favorite now. it was just. Hough. aside from the obvious ways this game actually sucks, all the glitches and lagging and all that. what the game does well, it does REALLY well.

getting some gripes out of the way first. as good as the story was, nemona really got the short end of the stick here?? this didnt make me like her any less, i love her just as much as penny and arven, but just. unlike penny and arven she doesnt have as much story. she finds a good rival in you the protag and thats kind of it??

i do like sv's art style its nice the game was very pretty but. i do prefer the swsh art style HWJBDHF. i played sword for a bit two days ago to battle a friend and i just missed it. wouldnt mind if this was the style going forward but also want the old one back yknow

taking away the shiny sound is Stupid. i encountered a shiny voltorb and almost went past it because i was jumping and was going so fast i barely saw it in the bottom of the screen. i also tried the mass outbreak strategy today on a mimikyu outbreak, thought i found a shiny because a mimikyu looked grey, but it was just sitting in some shadows.

WHERE ARE THE CLOTHING OPTIONS...... was the school uniform only rule just an excuse to make less clothing options. i'm in hell man. thank god i picked violet i didnt like the orange on the outfits in scarlet.

the whole choose your own path thing they pushed as a selling point is kinda moot if the levels dont scale. also put me in a STUPID situation: for the water gym, you travel across the desert to another town, and that desert has a titan in it. so i thought hey, if these paths converge, surely its because its the next intended stop, right? iron treads wiping almost my whole team in its first phase probably isnt a sign that i'm not supposed to be here, right?? arven sent out a level 44 scovillain while i could only contribute Intimidate from my lv 22 staravia. i ended up using a guide to show me the "correct" path near the end, which was good bc i asked the pokemon center lady for my next destination and she told me to go fight Grusha and his lv 45 or so pokemon while my team was still in the 30s. thanks nurse joy for trying to get my ass kicked

onto everything i Did like though

i really loved this cast of characters!! all of them felt very unique i got attached to a lot almost instantly. i didnt think i'd like clavell all that much but oh my god he's so brilliant actually. arven stole the show though houghguhguhgu i cried THREE times because of this dude. will also say i ADORE grusha, rika and iono, and extra shoutout to that one greavard in the ryme fight. he was GROOVIN

i think the open world was handled Very well. traversal is a little awkward at times, miraidon sometimes doesnt cling to cliffs i jump on and said jumping can be clunky, but other than that, i thought the environments were very pretty (especially liked the gen 1 icon mosaics in that one town thats so cute). as someone who gets overwhelmed by open world games it also wasnt as overwhelming as others have been? i think i saw some people saying it wasnt enough, and i can see why they'd think so but if the map was any bigger i think i personally would have enjoyed it less haha.

noticed some altered pokemon animations which is small but very nice! i remember seeing it on lucario, gardevoir and the eeveelutions where they stand in more of a battle ready pose rather than. Just Standing There.

the pokemon designs were pretty hit or miss for me this gen but maybe i just need some time to warm up to them. but i do ADORE the future forms. hydreigon and volcarona look SO sick, i love how iron valiant mixes both gallade and gardevoir, and i just think its funny that they also included. Delibird. inbetween all these other powerful pokemon. havent seen any of the scarlet versions though i'll look them up later

i dont know if its true but it feels like theres a lot more Unique things about pokemon in this gen, like forms, moves and abilities? like maushold's and tatsugiri's forms, lots of evos got given to older pokemon. when eri sent out an annihilape i was STUNNED. i also appreciate the fact that all forms of a pokemon get a different dex entry. i want to try collecting all colors of flabebe and its evos for example, i somehow feel more rewarded when i get a new dex entry every time, even if it is kinda the same thing but rephrased.

ok now just. the STORY. i'm still an absolute mess over the ending i just. AUGH. i havent played a pokemon game spoiler free for so long, i did accidentally find out cassiopeia was penny a bit too early but it was late enough that i was connecting the dots already. but the ACTUAL ending with turo holy shit???? turo's message glitching at the fourth lock was creepy as hell. finding him slumped in that chair, him telling you the real turo is DEAD and what you've been talking to this whole time, what ARVEN resented for all this time, was an ai that just couldn't physically leave area zero? then the whole FIGHT with him, the way that textbox glitched out when the paradise protection protocol took over, him actually starting to terastallize himself was so??? being forced to leave as well even though he'd just reunited with arven, since he was tied to the time machine and part of why it would reboot every time it was disabled, but also because he still had the original turo's desire to study the future but had been trapped in area zero for so long. checking turo's lab before heading to the time machine shows theres a picture of arven and maschiff on the desk.... :(

(wondering how scarlet handled it actually. is sada also an ai? just assuming its different because the ai thing fits turo's futuristic stuff. i'll look it up sometime, i really wanna see how these cutscenes differ between versions)

ARVEN my god i. many thoughts head full. thought he was just gonna be the asshole rival but ohhh i was wrong. he's the guy ever. mabosstiff's recovery scene made me CRY, and then i just cried AGAIN at his meeting with ai turo. how old even is arven, how long has he just been. Alone. with no one but the miraidon he percieved as the one who destroyed his childhood, and the mabosstiff that was once his only true companion but couldn't even open its eyes anymore. crying over arven's story isnt enough i need to explode

arven's story was my favorite but i have to mention starfall street of course. i love all of team star so much it was so good going through and unravelling why team star does what they do. also team star boss battles were actually kinda difficult?? i was pretty underleveled through most of the game bc i was rushing a bit but WOW. i only won against eri because she Happened to use shift gears again despite near maxed stats already instead of just going for the kill.

anyway tldr. yes i understand this game is kinda garbage in that it was super rushed and glitchy and clearly unfinished on release but its just? the most fun i've had with a pokemon game in a while?? easily a top favorite of mine

i stopped playing right after the credits rolled, so if there's postgame, i dont know about it. i'll get around to it tomorrow

one extra thing i almost forgot actually! when explaining the time machine turo tells you a human could travel one way but is unable to return to the present. this is SO goddamn cruel of game freak to put in the game RIGHT AFTER POKEMON LEGENDS ARCEUS. maybe its different for people sent over by Gods, maybe arceus can circumvent this or smth, but since its the only time travel related crumb we have right now this is super distressing!!! are you telling me pla protag and ingo were on a one way trip this whole time!!!!!! fuck you put them back!!!!!!!!! finding out this lore tidbit on the same day some new pla art that includes ingo came out is so, so, SO mean

[swanimagines]

I know you have a lot on your writing plate, but I am curious of when you'll be back to finish your Freddy Event Asks. Please take care of yourself and I am so sorry for all the crappy stuff happening with people being rude. :)

Heyy, no problem c: You can always ask about these things as long as you're polite (which you were).

I'm so so so sorry for the wait, I know I said I'm putting them on the top of my priority list and I've been quiet with them since *checks* June...

The next thing from the event is something bigger so that has taken some a long time which includes all five of his characters (a preference-y thing but longer, in a form of drabbles) and I don't exactly know how I'll write it yet, might chop it in pieces maybe, each character getting his own post? Also the fact that most of my Freddy event requests are for Kaz (of course) and I have to take some time off from those as people have been really rude about how I write Kaz (= how I'm trying to keep him in character as much as I can and don't write him as cuddly) 😕 I mean it shines through that they say that stuff because they just feel like they want to be mean but it still doesn't feel very nice. Also the fact that most of those ex-moots I have been stressing about have been Grishaverse moots which leads me to think those two things are connected = I feel anxious to write for Grishaverse 😬

And it doesn't help how I haven't been happy with any of my writing for months, and that's why every time I get an ask saying my writing sucks in some way kinda "confirms" my own thoughts about it, you know? And yeah people praise me about how I write Kaz too, saying they usually find writers who write him completely OOC and they're excited about how I manage to make them blush and squeal even when he's in character and how my writing proves that he can be "cute" without touch/cuddles and those make me smile because I feel like I can do something for once. But whenever a piece doesn't do very well, receives mainly/only likes, no feedback in any form etc while seeing everyone else getting tons of feedback, makes me think that I'm a shit writer and then I have a mini crisis about it, every single time.

That's probably the main reason why I've liked writing for Morpheus/Dream lately, it's been addicting to see how people ACTUALLY engage in my stuff beyond likes. But even with them, I've already felt super stressed because after my mini "series", I have gotten a lot of people asking me to tag them into the next part, saying they can't wait to see more of it etc and then I'm just kinda afraid I disappointed them when I told them that part 3 was the last part. Which is probably why I've been quiet with all my writing for 4 days and don't have any desire to write anything right now.

But I'm glad you've been patient and are willing to be patient 💕 It's your kind of people why I haven't left even after all this shit.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Spilled Pearls

- Chapter 20 - ao3 -

“Your brother has been acting strange,” Lan Yueheng said, his voice drifting in through the open door. 

He was crouched down in the dirt, happily gathering a small harvest from the plants he’d grown outside Lan Qiren’s window. Most of the materials he used for his alchemy experiments he obtained from the specialized fields in the Cloud Recesses, but there were some variants that the sect members in charge of those fields disfavored on account of certain pharmacological side effects associated with them. Lan Yueheng had prevailed on his friendship with Lan Qiren to beg, at some considerable length, that he be allowed to grow those variants in the area near Lan Qiren’s rooms – he’d argued that no one would ever think to check there on account of Lan Qiren’s rule-abiding reputation.

Lan Qiren had pointed out that there were no actual rules against growing those plants - they were only disfavored, not disallowed - thereby rendering the entire issue with people checking for it moot, but Lan Yueheng had insisted and eventually he’d yielded.

Let Lan Yueheng grow his nightmare plants wherever he liked. What did he care? He wasn’t using that patch of land for anything in particular, and it was nice to have a reason to see Lan Yueheng on a regular basis.

“Strange how?” Lan Qiren asked, finishing off the final stroke of a painting. He didn’t like it, but then again, he never liked any of the paintings he did for himself – they were too stiff and unfeeling, in his view, lacking spirit and movement no matter what he tried. His favorite painting was still the antique Wen Ruohan had left on his wall all that time ago, a lively little landscape with burnt edges suggesting that it had been hastily recovered from a fire at some point; he’d never replaced any of the things his sworn brother had gotten for him.

“I’m not sure how to describe it. Just strange,” Lan Yueheng said. “I don’t know how many people have noticed yet, him being pretty standoffish and above-it-all at the best of times, but it’s not the usual sort of thing for him.”

Lan Yueheng was like Lan Qiren; they were good at noticing patterns, however bad they were at figuring out the meanings behind it. If Lan Yueheng said it wasn’t normal, it probably wasn’t.

Lan Qiren rubbed at his forehead, suppressing the desire to go figure out the problem right away. “I don’t think I can help,” he said instead. “He doesn’t like to see me, remember?”

“He’s important to the sect,” Lan Yueheng said peaceably, and Lan Qiren loved him all over again for not saying he’s still your brother. “You might not like him, but you like the sect. So you have to help figure it out.”

Lan Qiren did not like it when Lan Yueheng was right about things. It gave him a strange itchy feeling of dissatisfaction.  

“Someone else could figure it out,” he argued. “He’s sect leader now, remember? His well-being is everyone’s responsibility.”

“But you’re the one who’s good at figuring out weird stuff.”

“Do not tell lies,” Lan Qiren grumbled, but he still put away his things and went to see his brother – who wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Any of the places he was supposed to be.

That was strange.

Lan Qiren’s brother was talented and powerful, skilled and meticulous; he was too proud of his status and accomplishments to shirk work. Whatever had drawn him away must have been very compelling indeed – or so Lan Qiren thought.

He wasn’t expecting, when he finally tracked down his brother through a tracker spell utilized on an old comb, to find him walking through the forest alongside a young woman, sword at his side as if he were night-hunting.

“I am night-hunting,” he said when Lan Qiren asked him. “I’m escorting Mistress He.”

Lan Qiren turned to look at the girl.

She smiled at him in a perfunctory sort of fashion. She was beautiful in a way that reminded Lan Qiren a little of Cangse Sanren, though her looks were very different – more refined and elegant, more delicate and less down-to-earth, thoroughly lacking the vaguely unsettling undertones so characteristic of Baoshan Sanren’s disciple, but no less lovely in her own way. 

“Qingheng-jun was just showing me the lay of the land,” she said coolly. “If you need him to return, of course, I won’t keep him.”

“There’s nothing else I need to do,” he said at once, which was such a blatant lie that Lan Qiren’s jaw dropped.

The girl glanced over at him and looked amused, saluting briefly: “He Kexin, a rogue cultivator,” she introduced herself. She shouldn’t have needed to; per etiquette, Lan Qiren’s brother should have introduced them, but he was clearly too far into his own world to care for such niceties. “And you are…?”

“Gusu Lan sect’s Lan Qiren,” Lan Qiren said on automatic, returning the salute. “I’m – his brother.”

“Oh?” she said. “In that case, you must have plenty to talk about. Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be much night-hunting here, so I’ll be leaving.”

Lan Qiren’s brother saluted deeply. “I hope to see you again soon, Mistress He.” His voice was gentler than Lan Qiren had ever heard it.

She waved a careless hand in half-hearted agreement as she went, but Lan Qiren’s brother stared after her departing figure until she was out of sight. Only when she was fully gone did he turn away, and when he did, he turned only in order to glare at Lan Qiren.

“Why did you interrupt us?” he asked, and his voice had gone back to its usual cold remove. “We were finally spending some time together alone, without those friends of hers crowding in and bothering us.”

Lan Qiren glanced in the direction that He Kexin had gone. “I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference,” he said hesitantly. “If you’re alone or with her friends, I mean. I don’t think – I don’t think that she likes you all that much.”

Lan Qiren had no natural social skills, not like his brother, who was charming enough to draw most people in despite or perhaps because of his cool and distant demeanor, but in sheer self-defense he had worked very hard to categorize and identify a variety of unspoken signals utilized by people in order to try to figure out logically what he couldn’t do intuitively. While he was still terrible at identifying indications of positive interest of any sort, as Cangse Sanren was always teasing him, he had gotten much better at detecting negative signs that indicated disinterest, indifference, or boredom.

“She likes me well enough,” his brother said, his tone oddly defensive. “She’s reserved, that’s all – you really can’t tell who she secretly likes or doesn’t. She’s a brilliant cultivator, sharp as a blade and clever as anything; it’s no wonder that she’s kind to others in equal measure as well…”

“But -”

“She makes me feel free,” his brother said, cutting him off. “She’s just - she’s smart and she’s talented and she’s fearless, unrestrained and untamed. There’s nothing weighing her down or holding her back. She bears no expectations and no pressure, and nothing has ever forced her, molded her development in this way or that; she lives her life just drifting on the breeze, complete untethered, and when I’m with her I feel the same, and I’ve never felt that way…”

He trailed off, eyes oddly dreamy, and then suddenly he seemed to come back to himself and remember to whom he was speaking. “Anyway, what do you know about women, Qiren? You’re as frigid as an icicle hanging in the window or a mountain lake in midwinter.”

Lan Qiren acknowledged the point, but he didn’t see its relevance. “If she doesn’t like you, she doesn’t like you,” he pointed out. “There’s nothing you can do about it –”

“Are you saying there’s nothing you actually wanted from me?” his brother interrupted, voice sharp now, almost angry. “Your presence is neither wanted nor needed here. Leave at once.”

“No, it’s just – you weren’t at the hanshi, and there’s work to be done.”

“So what? I’ll do it later.”

“You’re sect leader now. You have duties,” Lan Qiren said. “You can’t just go out night-hunting whenever you wish –”

“You said it yourself, I’m sect leader - me, and me alone!” his brother snapped. “From what I recall, that makes me the one who gives the orders, not you. Now get lost!”

Lan Qiren blinked, shocked at the fierceness of the rebuke, and watched as his brother strode away – in the direction He Kexin had gone, rather than back towards the Cloud Recesses.

This, he thought to himself, is a problem.

It was, too. His brother abandoned his duties more and more often, avid in his pursuit of He Kexin, who he had invited to stay for a while at the Cloud Recesses with the friends she was travelling with. She did, as he’d said, seem to like him well enough, but it seemed clear that her regard was far more cursory than his own - and not just to Lan Qiren, either.

Lan Qiren was roped in by the elders to help do some of the work his brother was neglecting, at first a little and then more. It got in the way of his own preparations, and started getting on his nerves, too.

“You don’t understand,” one of his teachers told him when he tried to resist the notion of spending a large chunk of his time on sect paperwork instead of practicing music. “Love, for our sect, is a powerful thing. When it comes unexpectedly, it is wild and irresistible, like a river bursting through a dam and overflowing its banks. It’s no surprise that your brother is so focused on winning his bride – and all for the best, too. He has to have heirs to inherit one day.”

Lan Qiren didn’t disagree with that, naturally. He certainly didn’t want to be stuck being his brother’s heir any longer than he had to. It was only…

“Just because he’s in love with her doesn’t mean she’s going to be his bride,” he said, and wondered a little spitefully why it was just assumed that he didn’t understand what it meant to love someone. Just because he didn’t feel it the same way as they did didn’t make his heart any less a Lan. “I don’t know why you’re all being so stubborn about this. A woman knows her own mind - just because he offers himself doesn’t mean she has to accept.”

“Stop saying such inauspicious things,” his teacher scolded. “You should be wishing your brother luck, instead.”

“He doesn’t need luck,” another teacher, the one for swordsmanship, put in. “He needs more of a backbone. Doesn’t she have a father he can talk to?”

That started up another debate on the relevance of the opinion of the young in setting their own marriages, an old classic, and Lan Qiren sighed and took his leave. He winced when he realized that his brother was not far away, standing with He Kexin in one of the nearby gardens – at his brother’s cultivation level, there was little chance he hadn’t heard the subject of their conversation, and indeed his glare indicated that he had. He Kexin wasn’t looking his way, but Lan Qiren suspected she might’ve heard some as well.

His suspicions were borne out the next day, much to his misfortune.

“Mistress He!” he exclaimed, groping around wildly for his clothing. He’d been humming his way through a new stanza while taking a bath, having taken a day off to wash his hair, only to turn around and see her standing there in the middle of his quarters. “What are you – I’m not dressed – these are my rooms!”

“I know,” she said, not moving.

Lan Qiren decided his dignity was more important than his health and reached out to yank his clothing into the bath with him, ignoring how they got heavy and soaked with water; he pulled on his inner robes and, once attired, he clambered out, rather annoyed. Just because He Kexin was a rogue cultivator didn’t excuse her from knowing manners, and just because she was his brother’s favorite, granted the freedom to wander wherever she would within the Cloud Recesses, didn’t give her the right to violate his privacy. “Mistress He –”

“You’re cute,” she said, and he stared at her, aghast. “Not quite as handsome as your brother, nowhere near as charming, and the way you drone on is rather annoying, but at least you have some respect for a woman’s wishes, and that face of yours isn’t bad. You’re not courting anyone at present, is that right?”

“I’m not,” he said, taken aback. “But what –”

“Good,” she said, and the next thing he knew she was in his arms, trying to kiss him. It was only through his quick reaction that he was able to turn his face away and avoid it.

“Mistress – Mistress He!”

“Keep your voice down,” she said, sounding amused even as she groped him in an intimate place. “It’s part of the plan, eventually, but it’d still be a pity for us to get caught before we get to the fun part.”

“I don’t – I’m not – I don’t want – let go of me!”

“Are you a virgin?” she laughed. “For shame, a man of your age. Just relax, you’ll like it soon enough –”

Lan Qiren’s brother had described He Kexin as a brilliant cultivator, and he’d been right; for all that she was a rogue cultivator, lacking the resources of a Great Sect, she was talented and promising, a powerful sword cultivator in her own right, and her grip on Lan Qiren’s body was relentless.

Lan Qiren tried first to get away from her without harming her, but she wouldn’t let go of him, pulling open his robes and even burying her teeth into his throat – that was the straw too far for him; he whistled a series of notes, short and sharp, the burst of qi shocking her grip loose, and then he threw her as far away from him as he could, knocking her into the opposite wall.

“Kexin!”

Lan Qiren turned: it was his brother rushing in through his door, falling down to his knees in front of her to examine her to make sure she wasn’t injured, and then turning to look at Lan Qiren, his eyes aflame with rage.

Lan Qiren glanced down at himself: robes askew and sopping wet, scratches on his chest and a bite on his neck.

“No,” he said, abruptly realizing how he must look, how they must look. Part of the plan, He Kexin had said; she must have known that her brother wouldn’t leave her alone for very long, and she’d clearly intended on using Lan Qiren as a means to get his brother to give up on his pursuit. Very few men would continue to chase a woman that spurned them for their own younger brother, especially one they didn’t much like. “It’s not – I didn’t –” Denial wasn’t going to help. “Do not succumb to rage!”

“Do not engage in debauchery,” his brother snapped back, rising to his feet. “Do not break faith!”

Lan Qiren took a step back, and then another. “Do not make assumptions about others.”

His brother wasn’t listening, though, and Lan Qiren found himself slammed against his own wall, held up and strangled by his own collar, his favorite painting falling to the ground from the force of it.

“How dare you,” his brother hissed, his eyes red. “How dare you touch her –”

“I didn’t! She was the one who –”

The next slam of Lan Qiren’s body against the wall jarred his teeth so hard that he bit his tongue to bleeding, and knocked his brain all around his skull. His brother was still talking, he thought, but he couldn’t hear him over the ringing in his ears. It belatedly occurred to him that using the same excuse as every rapist in history – she was asking for it, she was the one who initiated, it was all her – was probably not a good idea, even if in his case it was actually true.

He opened his mouth to try to defend himself, but his brother’s fist hit his stomach before he could speak, all the air knocking out of him.

“And then you – you hurt her –”

“Qingheng-jun, leave him be! It wasn’t him at all, you’re misunderstanding. I only wanted – ”

His brother threw him away, all his attention drawn away by his love, and Lan Qiren stumbled inelegantly on his way down, his feet slipping on the wet floor and tripping him up, and his head slammed hard against the corner of his bathtub as he fell down. As he sank to the floor, his vision going black, he thought blearily that the concussion he was undoubtedly going to have might even be worth it if only it meant that his brother would finally give up on his mad and hopeless pursuit of He Kexin already.

He did not.

[jedimaesteryoda]

The Kingsmoot: An Allegory for the War of Five Kings

The kingsmoot in Aeron’s POV in A Feast for Crows shows the Ironborn lords and captains selecting the next king to wear the Driftwood Crown after Balon’s death. Each candidate gives a speech for their pitch and disburses treasure as a way of buying support. There are six candidates total from Greyjoys to more obscure lords. However, look more closely and you can find an allegory for the political situation of Westeros as a whole. 

Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. "Make me your king, and I shall lead you there," he cried. "We will build ten thousand ships as Nymeria once did and take sail with all our people to the land beyond the sunset. There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen." 

His eyes, Aeron saw, were now grey, now blue, as changeable as the seas. Mad eyes, he thought, fool's eyes. The vision he spoke of was doubtless a snare set by the Storm God to lure the ironborn to destruction. The offerings that his men spilled out before the kingsmoot included sealskins and walrus tusks, arm rings made of whalebone, warhorns banded in bronze. The captains looked and turned away, leaving lesser men to help themselves to the gifts. When the fool was done talking and his champions began to shout his name, only the Farwynds took up the cry, and not even all of them. Soon enough the cries of "Gylbert! Gylbert King!" faded away to silence. The gull screamed loudly above them, and landed atop one of Nagga's ribs as the Lord of the Lonely Light made his way back down the hill. 

Gylbert Fawynd is clearly mad, as even Aeron notes. His eyes were described “as changeable as the seas.” Gilbert is Mad King Aerys, a madman whose house’s bid by the end is left only supported by itself. 

The speaker was borne up the hill in a carved driftwood chair carried on the shoulders of his grandsons. A great ruin of a man, twenty stones heavy and ninety years old, he was cloaked in a white bearskin. His own hair was snow white as well, and his huge beard covered him like a blanket from cheeks to thighs, so it was hard to tell where the beard ended and the pelt began. Though his grandsons were great strapping men, they struggled with his weight on the steep stone steps. Before the Grey King's Hall they set him down, and three remained below him as his champions.

Sixty years ago, this one might well have won the favor of the moot, Aeron thought, but his hour is long past.          

"Aye, me!" the man roared from where he sat, in a voice as huge as he was. "Why not? Who better? I am Erik Ironmaker, for them who's blind. Erik the Just. Erik Anvil-Breaker. Show them my hammer, Thormor." One of his champions lifted it up for all to see; a monstrous thing it was, its haft wrapped in old leather, its head a brick of steel as large as a loaf of bread. "I can't count how many hands I've smashed to pulp with that hammer," Erik said, "but might be some thief could tell you. I can't say how many heads I've crushed against my anvil neither, but there's some widows could. I could tell you all the deeds I've done in battle, but I'm eight-and-eighty and won't live long enough to finish. If old is wise, no one is wiser than me. If big is strong, no one's stronger. You want a king with heirs? I've more'n I can count. King Erik, aye, I like the sound o' that. Come, say it with me. ERIK! ERIK ANVIL-BREAKER! ERIK KING!"                  

As his grandsons took up the cry, their own sons came forward with chests upon their shoulders. When they upended them at the base of the stone steps, a torrent of silver, bronze, and steel spilled forth; arm rings, collars, daggers, dirks, and throwing axes. A few captains snatched up the choicest items and added their voices to the swelling chant. But no sooner had the cry begun to build than a woman's voice cut through it. "Erik!" Men moved aside to let her through. With one foot on the lowest step, she said, "Erik, stand up."

A hush fell. The wind blew, waves broke against the shore, men murmured in each other's ears. Erik Ironmaker stared down at Asha Greyjoy. "Girl. Thrice-damned girl. What did you say?"     

"Stand up, Erik," she called. "Stand up and I'll shout your name with all the rest. Stand up and I'll be the first to follow you. You want a crown, aye. Stand up and take it." Elsewhere in the press, the Crow's Eye laughed. Erik glared at him. The big man's hands closed tight around the arms of his driftwood throne. His face went red, then purple. His arms trembled with effort. Aeron could see a thick blue vein pulsing in his neck as he struggled to rise. For a moment it seemed as though he might do it, but the breath went out of him all at once, and he groaned and sank back onto his cushion. Euron laughed all the louder. The big man hung his head and grew old, all in the blink of an eye. His grandsons carried him back down the hill.             

Erik Ironmaker is up next, a warrior of great repute on the Iron Isles known for strength and ferocity, his warhammer, and virility, but he clearly is not the man he once was in his youth. Erik Ironmaker is Robert Baratheon, a once powerful warrior and embodiment of society’s ideals of masculinity gone to seed with his glory days far behind him. In the end, House Baratheon couldn’t stand on its own two feet with Renly and Stannis’s attempts to retake the Iron Throne ending in failure. 

The Drumm came next, another old man, though not so old as Erik. He climbed the hill on his own two legs, and on his hip rode Red Rain, his famous sword, forged of Valyrian steel in the days before the Doom. His champions were men of note: his sons Denys and Donnel, both stout fighters, and between them Andrik the Unsmiling, a giant of a man with arms as thick as trees. It spoke well of the Drumm that such a man would stand for him.                 

"Where is it written that our king must be a kraken?" Drumm began. "What right has Pyke to rule us? Great Wyk is the largest isle, Harlaw the richest, Old Wyk the most holy. When the black line was consumed by dragonfire, the ironborn gave the primacy to Vickon Greyjoy, aye . . . but as lord, not king."

It was a good beginning. Aeron heard shouts of approval, but they dwindled as the old man began to tell of the glory of the Drumms. He spoke of Dale the Dread, Roryn the Reaver, the hundred sons of Gormond Drumm the Oldfather. He drew Red Rain and told them how Hilmar Drumm the Cunning had taken the blade from an armored knight with wits and a wooden cudgel. He spoke of ships long lost and battles eight hundred years forgotten, and the crowd grew restive. He spoke and spoke, and then he spoke still more.    

And when Drumm's chests were thrown open, the captains saw the niggard's gifts he'd brought them. No throne was ever bought with bronze, the Damphair thought. The truth of that was plain to hear, as the cries of "Drumm! Drumm! Dunstan King!" died away.

Lord Dunstan Drumm is up next. He is noted to be younger than the previous candidate, and he has a Valyrian steel sword named Red Rain, which likely came from a Reyne. He starts off well, pointing out that there is no historical precedent that says only Greyjoys could only be kings over the Iron Isles. However, he just goes on and on about his ancestors’ accomplishments to bolster his credentials, boring everyone and his gifts are pretty cheap. His candidacy ultimately crashes and burns in the end. 

Drumm is Tywin Lannister. His champion Andrik’s description as a large man with “arms as thick as trees” matches Ned’s description of the Lannister’s champion, Gregor Clegane, and his champion being his stout warrior sons which brings to mind Tywin’s son, Jaime, himself a stout warrior of note. Lannister royal candidates, Cersei’s children, are the youngest candidates for Iron Throne. Tywin prides in his crushing of the Reynes in their rebellion (taking their lands after he exterminated them), with a song made about it that he plays at events, showing his obsession with the glory of his house. His house has a good start holding the Iron Throne after Robert’s death and the Battle of the Blackwater with the backing of Highgarden, only for them to likely lose it all in the end. The Lannisters never really had any bold ideas other than holding onto power, and as Aeron put it “no throne was ever bought with bronze,” or no house can hold onto the throne with the poor offerings they have, and nothing in the way of vision. 

Who shall be king over us?" the priest cried once more, but this time his fierce black eyes found his brother in the crowd. "Nine sons were born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy. One was mightier than all the rest, and knew no fear."          

Victarion met his eyes, and nodded. The captains parted before him as he climbed the steps. "Brother, give me blessing," he said when he reached the top. He knelt and bowed his head. Aeron uncorked his waterskin and poured a stream of seawater down upon his brow. "What is dead can never die," the priest said, and Victarion replied, "but rises again, harder and stronger."      

When Victarion rose, his champions arrayed themselves beneath him; Ralf the Limper, Red Ralf Stonehouse, and Nute the Barber, noted warriors all. Stonehouse bore the Greyjoy banner; the golden kraken on a field as black as the midnight sea. As soon as it unfurled, the captains and the kings began to shout out the Lord Captain's name. Victarion waited till they quieted, then said, "You all know me. If you want sweet words, look elsewhere. I have no singer's tongue. I have an axe, and I have these." He raised his huge mailed hands up to show them, and Nute the Barber displayed his axe, a fearsome piece of steel. "I was a loyal brother," Victarion went on. "When Balon was wed, it was me he sent to Harlaw to bring him back his bride. I led his longships into many a battle, and never lost but one. The first time Balon took a crown, it was me sailed into Lannisport to singe the lion's tail. The second time, it was me he sent to skin the Young Wolf should he come howling home. All you'll get from me is more of what you got from Balon. That's all I have to say."

With that his champions began to chant: "VICTARION! VICTARION! VICTARION KING!" Below, his men were spilling out his chests, a cascade of silver, gold, and gems, a wealth of plunder. Captains scrambled to seize the richest pieces, shouting as they did so. "VICTARION! VICTARION! VICTARION KING!" Aeron watched the Crow's Eye. Will he speak now, or let the kingsmoot run its course? Orkwood of Orkmont was whispering in Euron's ear.

Victarion Greyjoy is next, the youngest of Balon Greyjoy’s brothers of House Greyjoy that rules over the isles. He has the backing as well as blessing of the priest presiding over the kingsmoot, Aeron. He promotes himself as a traditionalist, offering just a continuation of the old policies and plays up the image of a warrior king. For the moment he stands out from the other candidates with plunder he gives out. 

Victarion is Aegon, the (supposed) scion of the old dynasty that sat the Iron Throne, and youngest known child of Rhaegar who promises just a continuation of the ancien regime of House Targaryen, and will likely be receiving the backing and blessing of the High Septon. He isn’t offering anything new. 

However, he isn’t the only from his house pressing a claim as someone crashes his party. 

But it was not Euron who put an end to the shouting, it was the woman. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled, a sharp shrill sound that cut through the tumult like a knife through curds. "Nuncle! Nuncle!" Bending, she snatched up a twisted golden collar and bounded up the steps. Nute seized her by the arm, and for half a heartbeat Aeron was hopeful that his brother's champions would keep her silent, but Asha wrenched free of the Barber's hand and said something to Red Ralf that made him step aside. As she pushed past, the cheering died away. She was Balon Greyjoy's daughter, and the crowd was curious to hear her speak.

"It was good of you to bring such gifts to my queensmoot, Nuncle," she told Victarion, "but you need not have worn so much armor. I promise not to hurt you." Asha turned to face the captains. "There's no one braver than my nuncle, no one stronger, no one fiercer in a fight. And he counts to ten as quick as any man, I have seen him do it . . . though when he needs to go to twenty he does take off his boots." That made them laugh. "He has no sons, though. His wives keep dying. The Crow's Eye is his elder and has a better claim . . ."    

"He does!" the Red Oarsman shouted from below.

“Ah, but my claim is better still." Asha set the collar on her head at a jaunty angle, so the gold gleamed against her dark hair. "Balon's brother cannot come before Balon's son!"                 

"Balon's sons are dead," cried Ralf the Limper. "All I see is Balon's little daughter!"

. . .

"Go home and know your wife," Asha shot back. "Nuncle says he'll give you more of what my father gave you. Well, what was that? Gold and glory, some will say. Freedom, ever sweet. Aye, it's so, he gave us that . . . and widows too, as Lord Blacktyde will tell you. How many of you had your homes put to the torch when Robert came? How many had daughters raped and despoiled? Burnt towns and broken castles, my father gave you that. Defeat was what he gave you. Nuncle here will give you more. Not me." 

. . . 

"And what have we grasped, Nuncle? The north? What is that, but leagues and leagues of leagues and leagues, far from the sound of the sea? We have taken Moat Cailin, Deepwood Motte, Torrhen's Square, even Winterfell. What do we have to show for it?" She beckoned, and her Black Wind men pushed forward, chests of oak and iron on their shoulders. "I give you the wealth of the Stony Shore," Asha said as the first was upended. An avalanche of pebbles clattered forth, cascading down the steps; pebbles grey and black and white, worn smooth by the sea. "I give you the riches of Deepwood," she said, as the second chest was opened. Pinecones came pouring out, to roll and bounce down into the crowd. "And last, the gold of Winterfell." From the third chest came yellow turnips, round and hard and big as a man's head. They landed amidst the pebbles and the pinecones. Asha stabbed one with her dirk. "Harmund Sharp," she shouted, "your son Harrag died at Winterfell, for this." She pulled the turnip off her blade and tossed it to him. "You have other sons, I think. If you'd trade their lives for turnips, shout my nuncle's name!"                  

"And if I shout your name?" Harmund demanded. "What then?"

"Peace," said Asha. "Land. Victory. I'll give you Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore, black earth and tall trees and stones enough for every younger son to build a hall. We'll have the northmen too . . . as friends, to stand with us against the Iron Throne. Your choice is simple. Crown me, for peace and victory. Or crown my nuncle, for more war and more defeat." She sheathed her dirk again. "What will you have, ironmen?"         

"VICTORY!" shouted Rodrik the Reader, his hands cupped about his mouth. "Victory, and Asha!"                 

"ASHA!" Lord Baelor Blacktyde echoed. "ASHA QUEEN!"

Asha's own crew took up the cry. "ASHA! ASHA! ASHA QUEEN!" They stamped their feet and shook their fists and yelled, as the Damphair listened in disbelief. She would leave her father's work undone! Yet Tristifer Botley was shouting for her, with many Harlaws, some Goodbrothers, red-faced Lord Merlyn, more men than the priest would ever have believed . . . for a woman!

Victarion is challenged by his niece, Asha. Asha is the daughter of the old king described as mad, and though younger, is smarter than her uncle (although to be fair Victarion doesn’t set the bar too high). Asha has the backing of the Reader, lord of the wealthiest house on the Iron Isles. She points out that what Victarion is offering is a continuation of a failed policy that brought only defeat and disgrace, and promises peace and victory instead. She offers land and allying with the North, of course, missing that their invasion and supposed killing of Ned’s sons by Theon made that impossible. 

Asha is Daenerys who is the daughter of Mad King Aerys, the only female claimant and is backed by a bibliophile who is lord (though not officially) over the wealthiest seat in the land, Tyrion. She will likely be offering a new policy that is in some way a break, but still falls short. 

But others were holding their tongues, or muttering asides to their neighbors. "No craven's peace!" Ralf the Limper roared. Red Ralf Stonehouse swirled the Greyjoy banner and bellowed, "Victarion! VICTARION! VICTARION!" Men began to shove at one another. Someone flung a pinecone at Asha's head. When she ducked, her makeshift crown fell off. For a moment it seemed to the priest as if he stood atop a giant anthill, with a thousand ants in a boil at his feet. Shouts of "Asha!" and "Victarion!" surged back and forth, and it seemed as though some savage storm was about to engulf them all. The Storm God is amongst us, the priest thought, sowing fury and discord.

There seems to be a split among the Ironborn between the two major candidates from House Greyjoy: Asha and Victarion. This likely foreshadows the conflict between Targaryen supporters with Aegon and Dany in the second Dance of Dragons. Of course, just as Asha’s makeshift crown falls from her head, Daenerys likely won’t get to keep her crown in the end as another claimant comes forward. 

Note: it was after a pinecone is thrown at her, which came from the North. 

Sharp as a swordthrust, the sound of a horn split the air.

The squabbling is interrupted by a sorcerous horn. I think the hellhorn as Aeron called it is the Horn of Joramun (or hellhorn as Melisandre described it) that brings down the Wall, and exposes Westeros to the threat of the Long Night. 

Euron Greyjoy climbed the hill slowly, with every eye upon him. Above the gull screamed and screamed again. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair, Aeron thought, but he knew that he must let his brother speak. His lips moved silently in prayer.                  

Asha's champions stepped aside, and Victarion's as well. The priest took a step backward and put one hand upon the cold rough stone of Nagga's ribs. The Crow's Eye stopped atop the steps, at the doors of the Grey King's Hall, and turned his smiling eye upon the captains and the kings, but Aeron could feel his other eye as well, the one that he kept hidden.

"IRONMEN," said Euron Greyjoy, "you have heard my horn. Now hear my words. I am Balon's brother, Quellon's eldest living son. Lord Vickon's blood is in my veins, and the blood of the Old Kraken. Yet I have sailed farther than any of them. Only one living kraken has never known defeat. Only one has never bent his knee. Only one has sailed to Asshai by the Shadow, and seen wonders and terrors beyond imagining . . ."                  

"If you liked the Shadow so well, go back there," called out pink-cheeked Qarl the Maid, one of Asha's champions.

The Crow's Eye ignored him. "My little brother would finish Balon's war, and claim the north. My sweet niece would give us peace and pinecones." His blue lips twisted in a smile. "Asha prefers victory to defeat. Victarion wants a kingdom, not a few scant yards of earth. From me, you shall have both.  

"Crow's Eye, you call me. Well, who has a keener eye than the crow? After every battle the crows come in their hundreds and their thousands to feast upon the fallen. A crow can espy death from afar. And I say that all of Westeros is dying. Those who follow me will feast until the end of their days.

"We are the ironborn, and once we were conquerors. Our writ ran everywhere the sound of the waves was heard. My brother would have you be content with the cold and dismal north, my niece with even less . . . but I shall give you Lannisport. Highgarden. The Arbor. Oldtown. The riverlands and the Reach, the kingswood and the rainwood, Dorne and the marches, the Mountains of the Moon and the Vale of Arryn, Tarth and the Stepstones. I say we take it all! I say, we take Westeros." He glanced at the priest. "All for the greater glory of our Drowned God, to be sure."                  

For half a heartbeat even Aeron was swept away by the boldness of his words. The priest had dreamed the same dream, when first he'd seen the red comet in the sky. We shall sweep over the green lands with fire and sword, root out the seven gods of the septons and the white trees of the northmen . . .

"EURON!" shouted Left-Hand Lucas Codd.          

"EURON! CROW'S EYE! EURON!" cried the Red Oarsman.                  

The mutes and mongrels from the Silence threw open Euron's chests and spilled out his gifts before the captains and the kings. Then it was Hotho Harlaw the priest heard, as he filled his hands with gold. Gorold Goodbrother shouted out as well, and Erik Anvil-Breaker. "EURON! EURON! EURON!" The cry swelled, became a roar. "EURON! EURON! CROW'S EYE! EURON KING!" It rolled up Nagga's hill, like the Storm God rattling the clouds. "EURON! EURON! EURON! EURON! EURON! EURON!"

The final claimant comes forward, Euron “Crow’s Eye” Greyjoy. As he boasts, he has gone further than Greyjoy before, going as far as Asshai by the Shadow and Valyria (which is a lie), and he had been a longtime away from home due to being exiled by Balon for having slept with or rather raped, Victarion’s salt wife. He is the black sheep of the family, captain of the Silence rowed by a crew of mutes. He offers the greatest plunder of all the candidates combined with offering the grandest vision, promising the Ironborn all of Westeros. 

Euron is, I think, Jon Snow, who like Euron is associated with a crow (synonym for member of the Night’s Watch), ventured further than any Targaryen before him going beyond the Wall, will likely be the last person to put their claim forward and will likely offer the grandest vision. Just as Euron has mute supporters, Jon has the mute direwolf, Ghost, as well as people who remained mute about his royal heritage. He was in hiding for a while given he is the son of the man who had taken the arranged wife of Robert and impregnated her. He will likely appear after the Horn of Joramun is likely blown, bringing the Wall down.