#goldenlake

[minuiko]

Discord requested the scene where Raoul murders Wyldon for ordering Kel to abandon her people :)

[motherofmabari]

Kel: ...and I've been getting expensive presents from this mysterious benefactor ever since my first year as a page. 🫤 It's baffling, I mean, who could it possibly be? 🤷🏼

Raoul: Right, absolutely baffling. Excuse me for a sec

*sounds of running feet and a door slamming open*

Raoul: ALANNA WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I WOULD HAVE HELPED 😭

[checkoutmybookshelf]

I remember reading Squire for the first time amd just loving the change in tone between the Page's Wing in the Palace and the King's Own, and just going "I love this for her." Raoul and Kel as teacher and student and Kel as a welcomed and valued member of the King's Own are some of my favorite dynamics.

[fytortall]

I swear on Miss Rose and the goddess that in the Alano books, Raul has blonde hair, and I am so sure of this because I remember when I was reading that he had a blonde mustache in lioness rampant, and it is freaked me out ever since dad but just now inquire he is described as having black hair and I need to know if that is a mistake

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Translation: I swear on Mithros and the Goddess that in the Alanna books, Raoul has blonde hair. And I am so sure of this because I remember I was reading that he had a blonde mustache in Lioness Rampant, and it freaked me out ever since. But just now in Squire he is described as having black hair and I need to know if that is a mistake.

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** note: Amanda confirmed that Raoul is not blonde in Lioness Rampant and that Holly was probably thinking of Gary

[elionalsie]

Counterargument: Raoul you-forgot-the-legs-didn't-you of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak

Raoul-I know you're exhausted but it's time to calculate our supply needs

My first throught was Alanna or Kel, but this is Neal, this is 100% Neal.

[onyourstageleft]

So I ended up here because of a Tamora Pierce post and you mentioned your thesis was about Tortall, and I was wondering if you were comfortable talking more about it, because I’d love to hear!!!!

(also I’m going to go through your Tamora Pierce tag later but I’ve already come across the idea of aro Raoul in one post and now I love it and need it)

I let this sit in my ask box for a few days bc I was genuinely so excited to talk about it that I wanted to dedicate some time to it okay YES I would love to tell you about my thesis!! I literally grew up reading and loving Tamora Pierce books and then I went into my English MA program and they started talking about thesis options and I was reading some criticism about colonialism in literature and it just kinda clicked, so my thesis title is "Cultures and Colonization in Tamora Pierce's Young Adult Novels" and it's pretty much what it says on the tin. I talk about indigenous populations (Bazhir and raka) and how they are treated differently both by the characters in the story and the narrative in general. I address Alanna/Jon as white saviors and then how Aly undoes some of that damage through her more respectful/less controlling relationship with the raka. I also talked about how the books work as a framework to interact respectfully with other cultures through Kel & the Yamani, and a discussion of slavery and the respect that Beka shows for enslaved people.

it's honestly been a while since I reread my whole thesis so there's probably more in there that I'm forgetting, BUT on the off chance that you wanna read the whole thing, I published it open access so you can just Google the title and it should take you to a download link for it. please ignore the typo of the repeated phrase at the end of the literal first paragraph of the whole thing it haunts me every day (I swear it wasn't there when I submitted it)

ALSO about the aro Raoul I totally think it's a good take with the exception of one of the most fantastic fanfics I've ever read - if you like fic and the idea of Raoul/Buri, please take a look at The Tourakom-Goldenlake System of Communication by Emnot on AO3. it's the first fic that led me into the AO3 waters (where the Tortall fandom is still going strong btw) and I reread it every few months

I'm publishing this ask mainly so I can find it later and remember what I said BUT if you wanna talk more about Tortall pls feel free to message me I could do this all day

[idreamtiflew]

Ya'll. My favorite fanfic ever seems to be gone. I read that Archive of Our Own was being cyber attacked or something, and that some works did not make it. Lisafer on AO3 and Fief Goldenlake wrote a phenomenal fic about a romance between Sir Myles of Olau and Wyldon Cavall whilst he is at the castle training to become a knight. It is called "Paragons of Knightley Virtue." It. Is. So. Good. And it's gooone!! I hope to someday find it again, because Great Mithros, it is so fire.

[katriniac]

"My dears, there's no help for it. Let us join in the panoply." He urged Amberfire into a walk...

"Not too fast," called Raoul. "Let's not scare anyone."

"His majesty said with all deliberate speed!" chirped the courier...

"That's how we're doing it," Raoul told him. "Deliberately."

-From Squire by Tamora Pierce

[welcometololaland]

Fic Rec Friday Round Up - Part 2

Thanks to everyone who participated! I have a list below of the fics that people either tagged me in or tagged #fic rec friday. If I've missed anyone (or tagged anything incorrectly), please let me know.

This week's theme: a fic that made you cry / feel all the feelings.

Please read at your own discretion - heed tags and ratings on each individual fic (particularly this week as I see some fics have archive warnings that apply). Keep yourself safe friends!

Red White and Royal Blue

A Picture on Your Corkboard by bleedingballroomfloor

all the glitters (is not gold) by @indomitable-love

Faster, Higher, Stronger by @everwitch-magiks

God Save the Blessed American President Mom by zipadeea

Someday Soon I’ll See You (But Now You’re Out Of Sight) by MaryaDmitrievnaLikesSundays

Such a Burden, This Flame on My Chest by @three-drink-amy

The Cost of Anything by @clottedcreamfudge

Together Forever by RevJohnO

What? like it's hard? by @rmd-writes

you turned a moment (into forever) by viciouslyqueer

you’re leaving (now i’m left amongst the living) by @peppermint-patties

Schitt's Creek

amnesty by oh_la_fraise

An Early Winter by littlebebecrows

Don't Whump With My Heart by @delilah-mcmuffin

five days, one year, a lifetime (series) by FaithNoMoar

Five ways it could have ended (and one way it still could) by @yourbuttervoicedbeau

Gods of the Soil by @madlori

He Shines by @smallumbrella369

I Can't Make You Love Me by Squigmistress

I Love You, But I'm Not Somebody Who Takes Shots by ahurston

let your heart be light (series) by @blueink3 including happy golden days of yore by @blueink3 as podficced by @celeritas2997

Marcy's Innocent Questions by Characterassassination

polaris by @strangeluvz

Some things I still can't tell you by @demora00

tangle and stretch by @stereopticons

Time until the end of time by @yourbuttervoicedbeau and @ships-to-sail

What Feels Right by MirandaPanda

Where the Real Road Lies by @unfolded73

You Can Fall by @wordthieve

Stargate Atlantis

freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose by synecdochic

Stranger Things

(My) Back to the Shoreline by tsaheylu

leave the children behind by greatunironic

Teen Wolf

Play it Again by metisket

The Man From U.N.C.L.E

Forever is the sweetest con by @heytheredeann

The Be and End All by Ingu

The Old Guard

In another life maybe you and i will be walking down the aisle in white by @swifty-fox

The Witcher

And So, A Gladiolus Bloomed by Sipstheytea

Don't Tell Me You Love Me by Dandelion (HonestlyDying)

Even After All These Years by MagdelaneSingerin

it'll pass by Jaskiers

The Flower's Breath by Chandelier_s_Notebook

You Can Do better Than Me But I Can't Do Better Than You by Althe_a

Tortall - Tamora Pierce

i'll rise up in spite of the ache by @cricketnationrise

The Tourakom-Goldenlake System of Communication by Emnot

[malkaleh]

I think it was @emilykaldwen who did an OC DNA (of characters that the OC has vibes of) and I got late night thoughts for the Boleyn-Tudor-Cromwell kids and:

Tommy

Book (and book is key): Faramir, Elrond and a dash of Aragorn.

There is a little bit of Nikolai Lantsov (mostly the ‘boy with the golden spirit full of light and hope’ quote)

Idril Celebrindal + Book!Arwen

George

Kaz Brekker

Miryem from Spinning Silver

Doran Martell (my impression from reading fic with him in it but)

The rest of Nikolai Lantsov, mostly the scheming.

Irina from Spinning Silver

George Cooper

William (Liam)

Jesper Fahey

Margaret (Meg)

Alanna The Lionness

Arya Stark (impression from reading fic with her in it)

Sarai Balitang

Owen

Zoya

Wylan

Also Kaz Brekker

Nealan of Queenscove (HOLY SHIT THE VIBES. Except 1000% more murder)

Edmund

Thor (MCU) but very specifically Thor from a friends AU verse version of Thor.

If Mattias Helver wasn’t bought up where he was but just got to be loving and Giant and Thoughtful.

Raoul of Goldenlake

Pippa

Cinderella

Elia Martell (again fic reading impression but)

Sara Crewe

Me But Better Basically

Also a touch of Dovasari Balitang and Princess Kalasin.

[foundfamilyappreciation]

Hello and welcome to the second Found Family Face-off! This time it's siblings! As mentioned in the intro post, this is for siblings of different genders, as there will future tournaments for brothers and sisters respectively to give as many found siblings as possible to be included! Anyway, please meet your contestants and round 1 match ups below:

*Please don't clown on this post and argue against why certain characters can't be found siblings (aside from if they're in an explicitly canon romantic relationship that I missed while trying to vet them). Please respect that these are people's headcanons and they might not align with yours (heck, some of these even I don't agree with but again, that's just my opinion) and that this is just for fun etc.

Group A

Ahsoka Tano & Rex VS Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)

Garrazeb Orrelios, Sabine Wren & Ezra Bridger VS Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso & Bodhi Rook (Star Wars)

Kilindi Matako & Maul VS Cal Kestis & Merrin (Star Wars)

Michael Burnham & Saru (Star Trek: Discovery) VS Mako Mori & Raleigh Beckett (Pacific Rim)

Tegan Jovanka & Vislor Turlough VS 10th Doctor & Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Luke Smith & Sky Smith VS Luke Smith & Maria Jackson (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Aidan Waite, Josh Levison & Sally Malik (Being Human U.S.) VS Steve Jinks & Claudia Donovan (Warehouse 13)

Amanda Brotzman & Vogel (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) VS Wednesday Addams & Eugene Ottinger (Wednesday)

Group B

Parker & Eliot Spencer (Leverage) VS Inej Ghafa & Jesper Fahey (Six of Crows/Shadow and Bone)

Duke Thomas & Cassandra Cain (DC Comics) VS Will Byers & Jane "El" Hopper (Stranger Things)

Angus MacGyver, Wilt Bozer, Riley Davis & Sam Cage (MacGyver 2016) VS Josh Lyman, Toby Ziegler, CJ Cregg, Sam Seaborn & Charlie Young (The West Wing)

Malcolm Bright, J.T. Tarmell & Dani Powell (Prodigal Son) VS Kate Beckett, Javier Esposito & Kevin Ryan (Castle)

Jake Peralta + Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) VS Meredith Grey + Alex Karev (Grey's Anatomy)

Fig Faeth, Adaine Abernant, Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Gorgug Thistlespring, Riz Gukgak & Kristen Applebees (Dimension 20: Fantasy High) VS Travis Killian & The Doctor (The Game of Rassilon)

Meriadoc Brandybuck & Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings) VS Lester Papadopoulos & Meg McCaffrey (Trials of Apollo)

Alanna of Trebond, Gareth of Naxen & Raoul of Goldenlake (Song of the Lioness) VS Keladry of Mindelan, Neal of Queenscove (Protector of the Small) VS Sandry fa Toren, Tris Chandler, Daja Kisubo & Briar Moss (Circle of Magic)

Group C

Katara & Zuko VS Toph & Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Sokka & Toph VS Aang & Toph (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Korra & the Air kids (The Legend of Korra) VS April O'Neil + the Ninja Turtles (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Sprig Plantar & Anne Boonchuy (Amphibia) VS Hiccup Haddock & Heather (How to Train Your Dragon: Race to the Edge)

Luz Noceda & Hunter VS Luz Noceda & Gus Porter & Willow Park (The Owl House)

Luz Noceda & King Clawthorne (The Owl House) VS Rayla & Ezran (The Dragon Prince)

Lilo Pelekai & Stitch (Lilo and Stitch) VS Luca Paguro, Giulia Marcovaldo & Alberto Scorfano (Luca)

Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan & Claire Nuñez VS Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan & Nari (Tales of Arcadia)

Group D

Roronoa Zoro & Nami VS Roronoa Zoro & Perona (One Piece)

Kyōka Izumi & Atsushi Nakajima (Bungo Stray Dogs) VS Phoenix Wright & Maya Fey (Ace Attorney)

Miles Edgeworth & Franziska Von Karma VS Miles Edgeworth & Kay Faraday (Ace Attorney)

Sento Kiryu & Misora Isurugi (Kamen Rider Build) VS Mikasa Ackermann and Armin Arlett (Attack on Titan)

Shadow the Hedgehog & Maria Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog) VS Lucas, Kumatora & Duster (MOTHER 3)

Junpei Iori & Female protagonist/Kotone Shiomi (Persona 3) VS Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu & Futaba Sakura (Persona 5)

Sombra & Cassidy VS Baptist & Sombra (Overwatch)

Beauregard Lionett & Fjord VS Beauregard Lionett & Caleb Widogast (Critical Role)

Also! To help me out and get the brackets done and published sooner, here's a list of contestants that I haven't found picture for and would super appreciate help in tracking them down. Massive shout out to those who sent in pics with their submissions, yall are MVPs.

(Need the ones that aren't highlighted)

Feel free to submit them via ask, submission or by reblogging and adding them to this post. Thanks in advance!

[checkoutmybookshelf]

My Introduction to Tamora Pierce

When I was in seventh grade, a friend and classmate asked if I wanted to read one of her favorite authors. I said sure, and she presented me with a choice of Daine, Kel, or Alanna. I chose Kel, and I have a vivid memory of standing next to our ugly green lockers between classes in middle school and being handed a loaner copy of The First Test. This simple act of generosity and friendship set my little 12-year-old feet on the path to Tortall and later to Emelan. Thanks to that friend, Tamora Pierce quickly became one of my foundational, formative, ride-or-die authors (in excellent company with the likes of Gail Carson Levine, who we are absolutely going to talk about at some point). People leave handprints on our hearts, and sometimes those handprints are book shaped. Let's talk The Protector of the Small Quartet.

Keladry's quartet covers nine years of her life, from becoming the first openly female page in a century to her years as a squire to her first year as a knight. The First Test and Lady Knight cover about a year each, while Page and Squire cover three and four years of training, respectively, at the titular levels.

Keladry of Mindelan, Lady Knight and Protector of the Small, is all about making sure that animals, women, children, and powerless individuals and populations are protected and treated well. When we meet her, she is fishing a bag of kittens out of a river and protecting them from a Spidren looking for a snack, and this culminates in Lady Knight Keladry going on a one-woman crusade behind enemy lines during a war to protect the people she was charged with protecting.

These books are perfect; I wouldn't change a thing.

Tamora's Pierce's worldbuilding and character work are unmatched. I said what I said, and no, I am not taking criticim (constructive or otherwise) at this time. Tortall is a full, lush world populated with diverse, dynamic, and complex characters. However, I think my favorite thing about Tamora Pierce is that her books are positive and hopeful without shying away from the realities of how harsh the world can be. Her protagonists face bullying, they face death, they face gendered violence, and they face all the petty and systemic malice that humanity is capable of. And yet, there is hope. The balance of acknowledging the real world and still finding what is good, what can be changed for the better, and where your strength and skills can make a difference is never not a comfort to me as a reader, and that's been true for [REDACTED, I know I'm an old] years.

Another favorite overarching theme in Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe that I love and will never get tired of is student-teacher relationships. And like everything with Pierce's writing, these relationships are not simple. There are good teachers, there are effective teachers who are utter dickheads (although some of them actually go through character growth and see and ACKNOWLEDGE their mistakes and APOLOGIZE and CHANGE!!!), and bad teachers. The students are equally diverse and dynamic. Kel's dynamics with her main teachers--Lord Wyldon and Raoul of Goldenlake--are some of my favorite parts of the books. And Kel finds herself a teacher throughout; first to her peers, then to her colleagues, and finally to people under her care and command. I know most people fall in love with Kel because of her protection of animals, but it was her journey to teaching and command that made me fall in love with her.

I recommend Tamora Pierce's books to literally everyone. Teenage girl? Yes. Octogenarian looking for a fun read? Yes. Sixth grade class needing a book read to them at lunch? Hell Yes. Everyone should read Tamora Pierce.

[fytortall]

If Raul hasn't taken his wire since he joined or took command of the king zone because he doesn't need one, since there are servants and all that crap but he has a Schoolwires room connected to his room what do you think has been using the squires room for for the past 20 well not 20 years but like 17 years?

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Translation: If Raoul hasn't a Squire since he joined or took command of the King's Own because he doesn't need one since there are servants and all that crap, but he has a Squire's room connected to his room, what do you think he has been using the Squire's room for for the past 20, well not 20 but like 17 years?

[cricketnationrise]

fic rec friday

pls pretend its friday

This week's theme is: a fic that made you cry / feel all the feelings

The rules are simple: tag the fic that made you cry / feel all the feelings and describe why it's so good. Then, tag some fellow associates to see what everyone else is reading. Make sure to tag #fic rec friday or @welcometololaland so that she can compile the masterlist and spread the love!

thanks for the tag @cha-melodius 💜

Check, Please! - To Every Single Kid I Used To Be by @the-lincyclopedia; hands down one of the best explorations of Jack's character I've ever read, in a fascinating format. my tag on the bookmark literally just says "bring tissues"

RWRB - all that glitters (is not gold) by @indomitable-love; a fandom staple, a truly brilliant take on the year after the events of the book, and in parts, utterly heartwrenching. in the best way

Tortall - The Tourakam-Goldenlake System of Communication by Emnot; a deep dive into Raoul and Buri's relationship. even if it isn't canon it feels like canon and i just have a lot of feelings about them

tagging @the-lincyclopedia @weneedtotalkaboutfic @doggernaut @thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl @missanniewhimsy @wrathofthestag @montrealmadison @tangredont @the-knights-who-say-book

(even if you don't want to do this week's prompt, i'm super interested in your recs!)

[essektheylyss]

Wait, Shatterglass? You weren’t a member of the Dancing Dove or Goldenlake forums back in the day were you?

I wasn't; I was never really in any Tamora Pierce fandom spaces actively. Just a mega Circle of Magic nerd as a kid!

[dragonsatmidnight]

Okay, I want to share some of my favorite parts.

The first is my favorite piece of character development of Lord Wyldon, the raging sexist:

Kel watched him pack for a while, unable to think of a reply. He had confirmed what she had wondered about for years. Still, she didn’t think he should go. “Sir, I learned so much from you,” she said at last. “You’re the kind of knight I want to be.”

He regarded her with the strangest expression in his eyes. “I am not,” he said. “But that you believe it is the greatest compliment I will ever receive. Go back to your master, Kel. If they can’t decide, tell them I said Padraig haMinch. He’s old blood, conservative, and a Minchi.”

The second is this passage at the end of Squire, when Kel is meditating on the night before she enters the chamber of the ordeal. It defines me in a way I don't know how to describe.

Behind her she could hear Lord Turomot settling himself in the chair that had been set at the back of the chapel for him. She wished he hadn’t done this. Of course he’d done it before - he was a knight, after all - but he was far too old to spend hours in an unheated room in the dead of winter. Still, his resolve to do his duty, to make sure that no one interfered with her vigil as Joren had interfered with her big examinations, awed her. If she could do as well at eighteen as he did tonight at almost eighty, she could take pride in herself.

Kel settled on the bench and placed her hands face-up in her lap, pressing thumbs to forefingers to show wholeness and emptiness, as the emperor’s armsmistress had taught her. Yamani warriors meditated with broken limbs, in sleet and snow, even as their wounds got stitched up. I can do this, she thought. She let her thoughts and fears stream away from the still pond that was her image of herself as she wanted to be.

That pond showed her a man, stubborn, harsh, old, who spent the night in discomfort. He did not do it for the squire who kept vigil there, but for the sake of duty, and for the web of custom and law that was the realm.

The realm. In her time as a squire she had seen more of it than most people knew existed, from the damp and mossy streets of Pearlmouth to Northwatch Fortress. She had hunted pirates in the west, built up dams against floods in the east. Mountains, green valleys, desert - she had ridden or walked in them all, measuring them with blisters and grit. Was this what was meant by “the realm”? Or was it other things: a little girl with a muddy doll, Burchard of Stone Mountain livid with grief and rage, a king who admitted a law was wrong, Lalasa in her bustling shop with pins in her mouth. If they were the realm, then so were griffins, sparrows, dogs ugly and beautiful, Stormwings, foul-and sweet-tempered horses, spidrens.

If she owed duty to the realm, then it was not the dry, withered thing it sounded in peoples mouths. Duty was what was owed, good parts and bad, to keep the realm growing, to keep it as fair as life could be kept. Duty was an old man, snug in his furlined robe, snoring lightly somewhere behind her.

The third is this bit between Raoul and Lord Wyldon towards the end of Lady Knight:

The office door slammed open, admitting the guest who had come while he had been at Haven. “Please say what the Haven men just told me isn’t true.” Lord Raoul’s voice was a rumble in his chest. “Please tell me Kel did not go haring off on her own.”

“I can’t tell you that, Goldenlake, because she cursed well did,” snapped Wyldon, upset enough to break the leash on his own contained temper. “Eighteen combat veterans can’t keep their eye on one green knight!”

“She ordered us on, milord,” protested Hevlor. “We can’t disobey an order from a noble, and she didn’t look at all odd…”

Wyldon’s cold stare silenced him.

Raoul crossed his arms over his chest. “Would you men excuse us.” Despite the phrasing, it was not a request. The sergeants fled, pulling the door shut after them. Once they were gone Raoul spoke again, his voice ominously soft. “I thought you knew her. Did you believe she would let them take her people? And yet you left her, just told her to bury the dead and report here… I’d’ve wrapped her in chains and brought her back over her horse. This is the girl who risked having to repeat all four years as a page to find her maid.”

“Gods all bless, Goldenlake, you think I don’t know I made a mistake?” Wyldon asked. He sat back with a sigh. “I wasn’t thinking. I had a dozen things on my mind. You would have too, in that spot. Mithros! All those killing devices just thrown away for a refugee camp? I was sure it had to be a diversion.”

“If it was, then our information about next week’s attack here is wrong,” Raoul informed Wyldon. “No, Haven was another matter entirely. Five hundred odd slaves will fuel a lot of iron monsters, don’t you think?”

“I know I erred,” Wyldon said through numb lips. “You’re not saying anything I don’t know.”

Raoul shook his head. “If she dies, Mithros forgive you. I never will,” he informed the other man.

The book goes on to fulfill my favorite trope of all time, which is all of the allies and friends Kel had made coming together, rallying to her cause, and trusting

Seeing Protector of the Small fanart reminded of something I wanted to say

Obe of the things I love about the series is that Kel’s life gets better over the course of it. Oh, the enemies she’s facing get tougher - in the first book of the quartet she’s an 11-year-old fighting bullies at school, by the fourth one she’s an adult fighting in a war - but the number of people she’s got on her side and at her back expands immensely.

In the first book, she’s virtually on her own at the start and she has almost no control over her fate - whether she will be able to pursue her dream of being a knight depends solely on the arbitrary judgement of a raging sexist. By the second one, she still has enemies, but also a sizeable group of friends, and is a mentor to younger students. By the third, she has some of the most powerful people in the kingdom on her side, and is virtually never without either emotional support or people willing to go to bat for her. In the fourth, she has dozens of people – including the aforementioned raging sexist, who has some of the best character development in any Tamora Pierce novel – supporting her when she does something that is technically illegal.

She’s never more alone or less in control of her fate than the moment, as an eleven-year-old girl, when she says (paraphrased): “If I want to be a knight in order to help people, then I’m going to help people now even though it will probably ruin my chances of ever becoming a knight; because otherwise what was the point?” And the fact that she sticks to her principles doggedly and refuses to turn aside from anyone who needs help is why she has so much support by the end. With a lot of that support coming from people whom she helped and supported because they needed it, people whom the rest of society ignored and discarded and regarded as useless, and who turned out to be tough and talented and invaluble friends. It’s not an authorial gift, it’s the cumulative effect of the mountains of hard work she’s put in over the previous books, usually with no expectation of any return.