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butterflies-dragons · 4 years ago

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Sansa Stark and The Exile Prince

You're not my homeland anymore So what am I defending now? You were my town, now I'm in exile, seeing you out (...) I'm not your problem anymore So who am I offending now? You were my crown, now I'm in exile, seeing you out

—Exile ~ Taylor Swift feat. Bon Iver (*)

***

At the end of Game of Thrones, the TV Show, Jon Snow is a prince, but he is exiled from his homeland. Sansa fought for Jon's release after Daenerys’ murder, but he was sent to the Night's Watch.

Then at their farewell, Sansa regrets she was unable to gain Jon’s release, but he comforts her by saying the North will be in good hands under her guidance.

That’s why the new Taylor Swift’s Folklore song: Exile, featuring Bon Iver, is making all our wounded jonsa hearts bleed again...

[Let’s cry together while watching this beautiful Exile Jonsa fanvideo...]

Last year, Sansa’s fight for Jon to be released reminded me very much of her pleadings for Ned’s freedom:

The king! Sansa blinked back her tears. Joffrey was the king now, she thought. Her gallant prince would never hurt her father, no matter what he might have done. If she went to him and pleaded for mercy, she was certain he’d listen. He had to listen, he loved her, even the queen said so. Joff would need to punish Father, the lords would expect it, but perhaps he could send him back to Winterfell, or exile him to one of the Free Cities across the narrow sea. It would only have to be for a few years. By then she and Joffrey would be married. Once she was queen, she could persuade Joff to bring Father back and grant him a pardon.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

GRRM has said that the major players’ endings will be similar in the Books, and yes, he has also called Sansa a major player, so Sansa Stark being Queen of an independent North opens the possibility that she could grant Jon a pardon, so he could go back to Winterfell.

Asoiaf Books are full of exiled characters, especially Targaryen ones, like Maegor, Daemon, Viserys, Daenerys, all of them obsessed to claim the Iron Throne for themselves, and that’s the big difference with Jon Snow and the reason to be hopeful for some kind of pardon, reconciliation and returning home to, at last, enjoy some peaceful time at home, a true Dream of Spring.

But Sansa Stark has already crossed paths with an Exile Prince. Let’s see:

Back in AGOT Sansa introduced us to a very particular courtier of the Red Keep: Jalabhar Xho.

Jalabhar Xho is the exiled Prince of the Red Flower Vale, likely exiled for losing a highly ritualized war as per the tradition of the Summer Isles. Following his exile, Jalabhar came to King's Landing in the Seven Kingdoms to request gold and swords from King Robert I Baratheon to help him regain the Red Flower Vale. Robert always entertained the notion of conquering the Summer Isles, but continuously told Jalabhar and put it off until the next year. Although Robert always put off Jalabhar's request for help, he never firmly declined him, telling him "Next year" instead of "No".

Jalabar Xho has a strong bird imagery that connects him with Sansa, since she is mockingly called a bird of the Summer Isles:

Flowers of a thousand different sorts bloom in profusion on the Summer Isles, filling the air with their perfume. The trees are heavy with exotic fruits, and a myriad of brightly colored birds flitter through the skies. From their plumage the Summer Islanders make their fabulous feathered cloaks.

—The World of Ice & Fire

Sandor Clegane stopped suddenly in the middle of a dark and empty field. She had no choice but to stop beside him. "Some septa trained you well. You're like one of those birds from the Summer Isles, aren't you? A pretty little talking bird, repeating all the pretty little words they taught you to recite."

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa II

The denizens of Joffrey's court had striven to outdo each other today. Jalabhar Xho was all in feathers, a plumage so fantastic and extravagant that he seemed like to take flight.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa VIII

Sansa is the POV where this Prince of the Summer Isles is most mentioned. Out of the 22 mentions of Jalabar Xho in the Books, 8 of those mentions are in Sansa’s chapters, followed by the 7 mentions of the exile prince in Cercei’s chapters. But what is really curious and very interesting is the fact that most of those mentions are in a romantic context linked with love and weddings:

Jeyne Poole confessed herself frightened by the look of Jalabhar Xho, an exile prince from the Summer Isles who wore a cape of green and scarlet feathers over skin as dark as night, but when she saw young Lord Beric Dondarrion, with his hair like red gold and his black shield slashed by lightning, she pronounced herself willing to marry him on the instant.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa II

He was one of the few spectators at Joffrey’s Name Day Tourney:

Most of the spectators were guardsmen in the gold cloaks of the City Watch or the crimson of House Lannister; of lords and ladies there were but a paltry few, the handful that remained at court. Grey-faced Lord Gyles Rosby was coughing into a square of pink silk. Lady Tanda was bracketed by her daughters, placid dull Lollys and acid-tongued Falyse. Ebon-skinned Jalabhar Xho was an exile who had no other refuge, Lady Ermesande a babe seated on her wet nurse's lap. The talk was she would soon be wed to one of the queen's cousins, so the Lannisters might claim her lands.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa I

Jalabar Xho was present at Sansa’s wedding with Tyrion Lanniters, he said something to her in the Summer Tongue while they danced together:

Merry Crane took the floor with the exile prince Jalabhar Xho, gorgeous in his feathered finery.

(...)

The music spun them apart before Sansa could think of a reply. It was Mace Tyrell opposite her, red-faced and sweaty, and then Lord Merryweather, and then Prince Tommen. "I want to be married too," said the plump little princeling, who was all of nine. "I'm taller than my uncle!"

"I know you are," said Sansa, before the partners changed again. Ser Kevan told her she was beautiful, Jalabhar Xho said something she did not understand in the Summer Tongue, and Lord Redwyne wished her many fat children and long years of joy.

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa III

[Here you can find a fanart of Sansa and Jalabar Xho dancing together]

Jalabar Xho and Sansa met again during The Purple Wedding and they talked about the Wedding Customs of the Summer Isles:

Tyrion led Sansa around the yard, to perform the necessary courtesies.

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

—A Storm of Swords - Tyrion VIII

The last we know about this particular character is that he is falsely accused by the Blue Bard to be one of Queen Margaery’s lovers and Cersei would be willing to send him to the Night’s Watch if he confesses:

Behind Margaery came a long tail of courtiers, guards, and servants, many of them laden with baskets of fresh flowers. Each of her cousins had an admirer in thrall; the gangly squire Alyn Ambrose rode with Elinor, to whom he was betrothed, Ser Tallad with shy Alla, one-armed Mark Mullendore with Megga, plump and laughing. The Redwyne twins were escorting two of Margaery's other ladies, Meredyth Crane and Janna Fossoway. The women all wore flowers in their hair. Jalabhar Xho had attached himself to the party too, as had Ser Lambert Turnberry with his eye patch, and the handsome singer known as the Blue Bard.

—A Feast for Crows - Cersei VI

"I prefer this song to the other." Leave the great lords out of it, that was for the best. The others, though . . . Ser Tallad had been a hedge knight, Jalabhar Xho was an exile and a beggar, Clifton was the only one of the little queen's guardsman. And Osney is the plum that makes the pudding. "I know you feel better for having told the truth. You will want to remember that when Margaery comes to trial. If you were to start lying again . . .

(...)

Alone, the Blue Bard's confession would never suffice. Singers lied for their living, after all. Alla Tyrell would be of great help, if Taena could deliver her. "Ser Osney shall confess as well. The others must be made to understand that only through confession can they earn the king's forgiveness, and the Wall." Jalabhar Xho would find the truth attractive. About the rest she was less certain, but Qyburn was persuasive . . .

—A Feast for Crows - Cersei IX

Does the Exile Prince Jalabhar Xho reminds you of someone? Maybe of another Prince, that will probably be exiled from his homeland after some succession dispute, that is surrounded by bird imagery because he wears a black cloak, that is called ‘crow’ and knows an actual crow that repeats everything it hears, that is linked with Sansa Stark, that once imagined himself dancing with a creature that talked to him in a foreign tongue, and that once organized a foreign custom wedding of a Lady with whom he once danced? Do I need to say it?

Damn it, George! What are you doing?

(*) This post was written while listening Exile over and over and over again...

#Sansa Stark #Jon Snow #Jalabhar Xho #is this jonsa?#jonsa #gif not mine

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something-tofightfor · 6 years ago

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Restart - Prompt Request

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader, mention of Billy Russo x Dinah Madani

Word count: 5000 (whoops.)

Rating: M (Language, a little bit of zest at the end)

Author’s note: For the wonderful @drinix, who came up with four GREAT prompt choices... and an additional request that I can’t spoil just yet.

First: This is an AU. Billy’s still scarred due to the fight with Frank, but instead of Frank only coming back because Madani called him, Frank came back when he found out that Billy was still alive but didn’t remember anything… and helped him fill in the pieces, because he realized that by giving him the TBI, he got his revenge, and Billy paid for what he allowed to happen with the Castle family.

This takes place roughly two years post events of S1; Frank and Billy have been working with Curtis for roughly 8 months to re-establish Anvil based upon Curtis’ standing within the community, Frank’s expertise and will to fight… and Billy’s offshore money, which he was able to get to through a few employees that remained loyal to him… this is also how he was able to pay for a lawyer to help him avoid jail time BECAUSE….

Madani is still trying to make his life a living hell, but instead of running scared from her, Frank, Curtis, Billy and You are doing whatever is necessary to clear his name and help him reestablish himself. Frank and Billy are still very tense with each other, but the beginnings of a friendship are there - and their working relationship is great.

Author’s note II: This one might just become a short series. We’ll see.

Summary: Billy may be back in your life, but there are a lot of things standing in the way of you leading the happy, stress free life that you want to have with him.

36: “I’m so in love with you. ”

65: “Did you do something different with your hair? ”

152: “Stop texting me weird stuff so late at night. ”

182: “I’ve wanted this for so long. ”

She’s waiting outside our place for the third time this week. He isn’t even here. “For the last time, I’m not interested in talking to you. He’s paid the price for what he did as far as I’m concerned, so I have nothing to say to you about… before.” You crossed your arms over your chest, flexing the fingers of your left hand as you did so, and you knew that the engagement ring on your finger had caught the light - and her attention. “Special Agent Madani, I’m sorry that you feel as if Billy hasn’t paid for what he did, but the documentation came out, you had your day in court. Rawlins, Wolf and Bennett were the ones behind everything. Even Frank testified that they thought what they were doing overseas was legal. They used him because they knew they could, and he was doing what he thought was necessary to survive. He’s paid restitution, he spent a year under lock and key in a hospital. Billy did some bad shit, but he was just caught in the crossfire.” You raised an eyebrow, knowing that your choice of words would get to her, but you didn’t care. It had been months of the woman’s badgering and you were sick of it.

“He shot me in the head, and you have the nerve to defend what he did by saying that he’s not responsible for his own behavior?” The woman was glaring at you, one hand on her hip, the other pushing back her hair to expose the scar on her forehead. “He used me and then tried to kill me, and you’re walking around with him and with that ring on your hand like he’s a catch, like none of it -”

“You thought he was a catch too, Agent Madani, when you were fucking him at every opportunity… or, wait? Weren’t you just doing it for information?” You stepped closer to her, hands at your sides. Keep calm, she’s a Federal Agent. “You’re pretty upset for someone that didn’t really care about him, aren’t you? Those long nights and mornings waiting at his bedside just so you were the first and last things he saw each day? Where’d that get you, Agent Madani? He doesn’t remember you. No amount of badgering me - or him, or Frank is going to change that. Can’t you just let him be?”

She was pissed, you saw the coldness flash in her eyes, the set of her jaw. “He’ll turn on you, too. He’s like a cornered animal when he’s scared, and I’m going to make him more scared than you could ever imagine. He doesn’t deserve happiness after what he did to me or to those people.” You threw your head back and laughed, shaking your head. “This is funny to you?”

“Billy is so much more than he ever let you see. You saw him at his worst, Agent Madani. You saw the broken parts of him, the hopeless ones. You saw a Billy Russo that had given up on ever being truly happy, and was just trying to survive.” She smirked.

“If he doesn’t remember me, how do you know that? How do you know what he was like with me?” Without missing a beat, you threw your hands into the air, shaking your head.

“I know it because even though I wasn’t with him at the time, I was still around after he came back from Kandahar. I saw him with women - even the ones that weren’t like you, the ones that actually liked him and weren’t trying to use him. He never let them in, he never gave them anything more than his body.” Dinah was sneering, her eyes glittering.

“What makes you so special? How can you love a monster like him? At least his appearance matches his heart now, not that he has one… but he’s sure got scars.” How dare you. “He gonna pay someone to edit out the scars in your engagement photos? What about the wedding ones? Billy Russo looking anything less than perfect is a big no-no, hmm?” Fuck you, Madani.

You turned away from her, using your key to unlock the front door of the Brownstone that you’d moved into a few months prior - just before the end of the trial - before turning to look over your shoulder at her. “You assume that I - we - think that the scars make him look less than perfect, Dinah.” You licked your lips, shaking your head. “He’s a soldier. He could have gotten worse overseas.” A thought entered your head and you turned to face her, holding the door open and leaning against the frame. “That’s just it, isn’t it? His scars - like yours - are a constant reminder of what happened… but you have all of your memories, you see them every time you look in a mirror.” You shook your head. “Billy’s scars aren’t just a reminder of what happened, they remind him of what he lost and what he did, even if he didn’t remember details.” Raising an eyebrow, you cut her off before she could speak again, quiet rage in your voice. “He deals with that every day, too. Every single time he looks in the mirror, or someone recognizes him on the street. But if you think for one minute that I would ever let someone like you tell him that they make him imperfect? That he isn’t a good man? You’re dead wrong.” Stepping inside of your home, you left Dinah Madani - SAC of the New York Homeland Security field office standing on the sidewalk with her mouth hanging open.

---

Two hours later, you were fresh out of a shower, hair pulled away from your face as you sat in bed with your laptop. Billy was gone - on the other side of the country opening the second facility - Anvil II - and he and Frank had been gone for nearly two months. It was the longest he’d been away from you since he’d been sequestered for the trial, but you reminded yourself every morning that it was worth it. Billy had been through a great deal - and eight months ago you never would have even guessed that Frank would have agreed to travel with him alone, so you were more than willing to miss him if it meant that he was working closer to having his best friend back.

He’d sent you updates of the facility’s opening - pictures of the space, pictures of the two of them in training gear from head to toe, pictures of the Bay Area, somewhere he’d promised profusely to take you to after things smoothed out and you were more settled. Unlike the empty promises Billy had made to you in the months leading up to The Incident, as you both called it, you trusted him. Billy had truly changed, and it seemed that 13 months in the hospital and the following trial had given him the motivation to become a better version of himself than he had even been before anything had happened in Kandahar. Tapping through your documents, you began working on the press release for Anvil II, making final edits before you sent it over to the West Coast office.

Even before Billy had proposed, he’d brought you on board to work as his marketing specialist, much to the delight of Frank’s wife Karen. Though the blonde hadn’t wanted the job, preferring to stick with her newspaper career, Frank had hesitated, but Billy had been firm. Anvil was coming back, and since you’d been around for the inception of the company in the first place, he’d wanted you back on board for the second round. Sighing, you closed your laptop and slid it onto the nightstand, picking up your phone. There was a message from Billy, and you opened it eagerly. Wonder what he’s up to. It was a picture of a crab holding a knife captioned ‘think he’s got anything on me?’ You laughed, shaking your head and dialing the phone. I want to hear his voice.

He answered on the second ring, voice soft as he greeted you. “Stop texting me weird stuff so late at night, Russo.” He laughed and you continued. “What made you think I was even still awake? It’s after midnight?”

“You just sent that email in, and I opened it. Figured you could use the distraction.” He’s still at the office? It’s after 9. “Working late tonight, even Frankie’s gone already. Karen surprised him yesterday and showed up.” Oh. So … I didn’t know that was an option. “I miss you.” His admission caught you by surprise, and even though Billy was much more open with his feelings and emotions than he had ever been before because he understood now that every moment was important, it was still a shock when he said things like that.

“I miss you too, Billy.” Your voice was quiet. “I wish you were here.” Way to sound needy. He sighed into the phone and you knew that he was leaning back in his chair, one hand running through his close cropped hair.

“We open in a few days, and then I’ll be home. No more than 10 days left out here. And after this, it’s just back to normal, you know? I think Frankie might be thinking about getting out of New York. Karen too… he could work out of this office, and that way I wouldn’t be a constant reminder.” Billy sounded sad. “It’s gotten better, but it’s still not going to be the same, it never will be. I fucked up with him, I know it, and I can’t make it better.” Oh, Billy. Your heart ached, knowing that despite his best efforts and Frank’s willingness to work with him - to help him - that he was right and things wouldn’t ever go back to being completely normal. “He says it’s fine, and that we’re going to move past it, but I feel like he’s always going to hold it against me, and I get it, but…”

“Hey. This is going to take time, Billy. It’s not going to be easy, but you’re both committed to this. Anvil’s going to be… it’s therapy for you guys. And it’s necessary. He stuck up for you when he didn’t have any reason to, Billy. He came back here for you. I think you’re overthinking it. Talk to him.” He agreed with you, and you spoke for a few more minutes before you yawned. “I should get to sleep, Billy. It’s almost 1, and I’m exhausted, Madani was here again tonight when I got home, and -”

“What did she want?” His voice was hard and it woke you up. “How many times am I going to have to tell her to leave you alone? You have nothing to do with her, with the two of us.” You paused, eyes widening. “You can’t answer her questions, so why is she so …”

“You remember.” It wasn’t a question and you heard him sigh before he agreed.

“I do. Some of it - a lot of it. It… I remember knowing she was using me. I remember not caring because I was using her, too. I remember not wanting to hurt her. I remember… how it felt to be with her.” I knew he would someday, but… “She was a means to an end, but I didn’t hate her.” There was a long silence and you weren’t quite sure how to respond when Billy continued, his voice strong and authoritative. “I’m so in love with you, it scares me. I probably shouldn’t be saying that right after I talk about Dinah, but it’s the truth. I never felt that way about her, not even close, and I wanted… no, need you to know that.” He paused, and you pictured him licking his lips, nose wrinkling. “It doesn’t matter what I remember about her, or what I don’t. I remember you, and I love you, and that’s all that I need to know.” It’s like he knows what I’m thinking. You’d never admit it to Billy, but your biggest fear was that he’d regain all of his memories and decide that you didn’t fit in with his idea of who he was or what he wanted. No matter how many times he told you that he knew enough to know he wanted to marry you, that he remembered why he’d left you in the first place, that he understood even while it was happening that he’d made a mistake, you still worried, still didn’t want to think about losing him for the second time. “I can’t wait to see you.”

“Yeah, Billy, me too. Eight weeks is -”

“Entirely too long?” You laughed, agreeing with him. “That’s OK, I’ll make it up to you.” He lowered his voice, rasping into the phone. “Soon as I get home, I’m gonna take care of you - and that’s a promise.” You hung up, biting your lip. I think I knew he remembered more than he said he did. Sitting on the bed, legs drawn up to your chest, you put your forehead down onto your knees, sighing. He doesn’t want her, I know that, but… he did at one point, even a little.

It wasn’t that Billy had slept with someone else - you knew that there had been many in the time between you breaking up and the night on the carousel - but it was the fact that Madani was still around, still a reminder of what he’d done that was getting to you. No, it’s not even that. You got up, moving into the bathroom to brush your teeth before changing into one of Billy’s shirts and climbing into bed. Seeing her is a reminder that you lost him once, and she’s not going to let you forget it. Despite your thoughts, you fell asleep quickly and your dreams were of Billy - just Billy.

---

Anvil II opened with fanfare two days later, the local news picking up the story and running it, complete with video of Billy and Frank leading training exercises - but it was Frank that spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony, Billy standing behind him with an Anvil ball cap pulled down low over his eyes, the shadows partially hiding some of the scars. His beard’s back, too. It looks like it did before… You couldn’t help but smile as you watched the clip, Frank turning back to smile at Billy, the look on his face genuine. See? It’s gonna be fine, Billy. You’d watched from your office in the New York training facility, Curtis by your side and had immediately begun fielding calls from other cities, emails from people that wanted training or to discuss contracts.

Gotta leave that for now, that’s all Billy. You printed out multiple proposals, helped Billy’s secretary organize potential client lists, and come up with a new marketing campaign over the course of the remainder of the week and were exhausted by the time you headed home that Friday, already contemplating going to sleep as you sat in the backseat of your Uber. It pulled up to the sidewalk and you got out, instinctively turning your head and looking for Madani, who had showed up again on Wednesday, but she wasn’t there and you sighed in relief. Will it ever stop?

Unlocking the door, you were met with the sound of music and the smell of garlic. You immediately dropped your purse and keys on the floor, sprinting for the kitchen. He’s back? Indeed he was, and your jaw dropped as you saw Billy standing in front of the stove, stirring a pot with a wooden spoon and humming under his breath. “Hey you.” He spoke without turning around, and you stopped moving, gripping the edge of the kitchen island, staring at him.

He was dressed casually - a dark gray thermal and dark jeans, and you couldn’t help it as your eyes moved up his body. “Hey yourself, Billy.” You managed to get a few words out as your eyes made it to his shoulders, but then you gasped as you saw the back of his head. Holy shit. Billy finally turned to you, setting his spoon down on the counter top and crossing his arms as he leaned back against the edge of the granite. He cocked his head to the side, tongue poking out and into the corner of his mouth as he held back a smile.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow. “What are you lookin’ at?” You finally regained control over your body and released your grip on the island, moving around it and toward him. I’m not going to say anything, I’m not going to act like it’s…

“I’m just happy you’re back.” You sighed as his arms uncrossed and he stood straight up, reaching out to you and wrapping his long arms around you. “So happy.” One of his arms pulled away and you looked up, wondering what was going on.

“I’m gonna turn the stove off, since I plan on kissin’ you for the next few minutes.” His voice was low and sure, and you felt his muscles moving beneath his shirt as he reached over. Fuck, I missed him. And then he was back and focused on you, his hand settling on your waist. “Goddamn, I missed you.” You were lifted without warning, and he set you down on his side of the island, your legs parting instinctively to let him step forward. I may not say anything, but I’m sure as hell not going to ignore this. You brought your hands up to his face, fingertips tracing over his stubbled cheeks and jawline - not because you were calling attention to the jagged lines in his skin, but because you simply wanted to touch him.

“I like the beard, Russo.” He grinned, his face lighting up. “You should keep it like this for a while, it reminds me of when we met.” He nodded, and your hands moved upward as he leaned in, finally kissing you on the mouth. It started out gentle, but you hooked your legs around his thighs and pulled him closer, and that was all the motivation Billy needed.

He bit at your lower lip, tilting his head to the side and you felt his tongue moving along the small space between his teeth before he released you, taking a deep breath and then leaning in again, mouth hot on yours. Billy kissed you exactly like he’d been gone for two months, and there was both desperation and reverence in his kiss. He often kissed you like that - like he couldn’t believe that you were still there in front of him, that you were in his life, that you’d accepted him even after what he’d done… but it had never been a choice for you, not really. You sighed into his mouth, legs tightening around him as you finally did what you’d wanted to do since you’d seen him in the kitchen - you moved your hands up to his hair… and tugged on the length of it.

Although you’d wanted to cheer when you’d seen it, you hadn’t wanted to make him feel like his look for the past two years had been less than desirable… but the truth was, you were thrilled. No, it wasn’t as long as it had been, and yeah you’d miss being able to scratch your fingers against his scalp all over his head… but Billy’s hair was back. Upon visiting him in the hospital for the first time, you’d cried more tears at the sight of his shaved head than you had at the bandages covering his face. It was stupid, you knew, and he’d told you as much, his voice emotionless as he told you to leave, to let him die, that he didn’t want to remember.

Even as he’d healed, you thought as his lips moved from your mouth to your jawline and then to your neck, you hadn’t understood why he had kept his hair so short. Sure, it was easier for him to take care of, didn’t require any attention… but you - and his medical team - had discussed how maybe letting it grow out would bring memories back if he could see himself as he’d been. His face might have looked much different, but giving him back a part of himself had to help, right? But he’d been adamant that it stay short, and so you’d gone along with it. It wasn’t until the trial was over and Frank had started working with him again that he’d let it get a little longer, but this was a different story. “Somethin’ there you like?” He spoke into your neck, breath hot and damp against your skin, and you felt his teeth on you, causing you to gasp. You know exactly what you’re doing, you little shit.

You tugged harder, and he groaned, followed by a hiss that you recognized immediately. Got you. It was shorter, sure, but it was still Billy, the undercut, the slicked back locks on top…it was another sign that he was one (or maybe a few) steps closer to being fully back. His hair had been longer than you’d seen it since before The Incident when he and Frank had departed for San Francisco, but you’d figured that he’d get it cut before the opening of Anvil II. “What are you lookin’ at?” He’d pulled away, eyes bright and you dropped your hands, noticing that there was a lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead.

Your heart slammed in your chest as you realized just how much you loved Billy, not because of what he appeared to be - but because of what he was, and you decided that you didn’t care about keeping quiet. “Did you do something different with your hair?” He grinned. “Like, use a new shampoo or something?” He playfully pushed you and you leaned in, kissing his scarred cheek, shaking your head as you pulled back, eyes moving across his face. “It looks great, Billy.” He exhaled, shaking his head.

“I’ve wanted this for so long, but…” Your hands went back up, pulling his head closer to you as you stared into his eyes. “I wanted to keep it longer, especially in the hospital, but I wasn’t there yet, not mentally.” He licked his lips. “I was a different person, and I didn’t want … I don’t want to be that person, not anymore.” You nodded, fingers combing through the strands as you pushed them away from his face and back into place, something that you’d done countless times before. “This is familiar, though.” He lowered his mouth to yours, kissing you hard. “I can’t do anything about these scars, and at this point, I don’t want to.” Your eyes widened. “They’re a part of me now, and a constant reminder of my mistakes, which I don’t want to hide from. Hiding from shit is what got me here. But I can control other things.” He smiled. “You were right about Frankie, by the way. He’s not leaving New York, he just needs a break. We talked for a long time.”

“Billy, that’s great, I told you!” You shook your head, laughing. “You two need each other.”

“Yeah, I guess we do. You’re right.” He paused. “But... Even if I’m not that guy anymore, I feel more confident like this, especially with you next to me.” He stood up straight, bringing both hands up to his head and running his fingers through his hair again, jaw set. That fucking look on his face, I can’t get enough of it, I can’t believe… “Frankie and I are the faces of this company, and this is what I want people to see.” You stared at him, heat coursing throughout your body as he effortlessly switched from your Billy to Lieutenant William Russo, Anvil CEO. “I made my choices. I made my bed, and now I gotta lay in it - this is who I am and who I’m gonna be, and I’m not gonna hide.”

You’d had long talks with him both in the hospital and at home about how he wasn’t able to remember everything, but that he remembered always feeling like he was waiting for things to go bad. Rawlins was unpredictable, and even though Billy had been confident in his actions, he was never confident in the other man or his expectations - or in his ability to deliver on the promises of protection that were made. Billy’s time with Anvil at first had been a facade; though he’d been invested in training people to do good when necessary, to provide help and assistance, to lead others toward success, it was, in reality, him hiding behind the company - and the relative safety it had brought him. The goal had been to eventually get out from under Rawlins and what had happened as a result of Cerberus, but everything had literally gone to shit before that could happen, and you’d watched from afar, from the safety of the sidelines - right where Billy had put you.

You nodded, your eyes roaming over his entire body as you thought. “And that’s only possible because of you. Because of you and Frankie and Curt… and even because of those goddamn lawyers and Karen, too.” Ha! I can’t wait to tell them he said that. “This is my second chance, and I’m not wastin’ it.” He took your hand in his, his fingers playing with your ring before he laced his fingers with yours, squeezing tightly. “We got a long way to go, but this is a good start… and I’m not lettin’ anyone… or anything get in my way. Not again.”

Billy kissed you again, his free hand cupping your cheek. “Not going anywhere, Russo.” You shook your head once, your own free hand moving across his face, fingertips touching the crater on his cheek, just visible above his beard before moving up to trace along the curved scar next to his eye. “I hate that all of this happened to you,” you whispered, feeling your voice catch. “But I’m not going anywhere. Your fight is my fight now.” His expression was serious but the look in his eyes said everything, and in that moment, you knew your fears were unfounded - Billy wasn’t going anywhere, and you had nothing to worry about. “Now,” you cleared your throat, allowing yourself to smile again. “Now, take me to bed so I can pull on that hair some more.”

And just like that, his mood shifted again and Billy’s eyes darkened as he removed his hand from yours, scooping you up. Wrapping your arms around him and burying your face in his neck as you inhaled his scent, you let Billy carry you up the stairs to your bedroom, thinking of nothing except the way his hands and mouth were going to feel on you.

---

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loretranscripts · 6 years ago

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Lore Episode 18: Hunger Pains (Transcript) - 12th October 2015

tw: cannibalism, gore

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

Today’s episode is the second of four that will be released during the month of October. It’s a month known for its focus on folklore, legend and superstition. We’ll be back to a biweekly schedule in November, but October calls for something special. No tricks, but I do hope that you’ll enjoy the extra treats. And now, on with the show.

One of the most chilling historical events of the last 200 years, one that has fascinated me for most of my life, is the 1846 pioneer journey of the families and employees of James Reed and George Donner. I can’t think of a last name that evokes as much emotion, as much fear, and as much instant visual imagery, as the Donner name. In the years since that fateful winter, the name has become synonymous with mountain passes, frozen bodies huddled around dead campfires, and of course, cannibalism. The Donner party has a way of stopping us in our tracks. We are morbidly fascinated with their tragic journey, but even more so, we’re amazed at how far they went to stay alive. Their story forces us to look straight into the face of a fear that most people bury deep beneath the surface: people eating other people. We can look for justification. We can research the reasons behind their situation and write sterile and safe papers about the horrible plight they found themselves in. But at the end of the day, we are simply and powerfully horrified. From the story of Hansel and Gretel to the modern TV show Hannibal, we have always maintained a repulsive fascination with those who cross the line. We can’t stand to think about it, and yet we can’t look away, either. Maybe it has to do with the morbid symbolism of one body within another. Perhaps it’s the realization that, like cattle or wild game, humans can sometimes become food for something, or someone, else. Or perhaps, deep down, we’re fascinated with cannibalism because we believe that maybe, just maybe, it could turn us into monsters. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

Humans have been confronted with cannibalism for a very long time. Archaeologists have discovered signs of the act that date back tens of thousands of years. In some instances, the reasons have clearly been ritualistic, while others have been driven by food shortages. There’s a lot we still don’t know, but what we do understand has highlighted the fact that, long ago, it was far more common than it is today. In the realm of ancient history, Greek and Roman historians recorded instances related to war and conquering. The Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70AD, for example, resulted in scattered reports of cannibalism. Decades later, when the Romans attacked Numantia, historians in Alexandria recorded similar stories. One interesting observation is that, over the centuries, the accusation of cannibalism has been a political and colonial tool. The ancient Greeks assumed that all non-Hellenistic peoples were simply barbarians and cannibals and used it to justify their hostility toward them. For many empires, even up through the British Empire of the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a way to demonise a people group, and to give themselves permission to come in and take over – to bring civilization, so to speak, which led to deep prejudice against these people groups. One example from 1820 stands out: that was the year a whaling ship called the Essex was rammed and sunk by one of the whales it was pursuing. If that plot sounds familiar at all, it’s because that story went on to inspire the novel Moby Dick. After the accident, the captain and crew of 21 boarded three of their whale boats. They had two choices for a route to safety: they could sail 3000 miles against the wind to Chile, or half the distance with the wind to the Marquesas Islands. But the Marquesans were rumoured to be cannibals, so they took the longer route. As a result, the crew spent months at sea, and eventually resorted to cannibalism themselves to survive. Reality can be cruel – and ironic, apparently. But something darker sits at the centre of many cannibalism stories.

At the core of almost all Native American cultures, across Canada and the northern part of what is now the United States, there are stories of the supernatural effects that eating other humans can have on a person. Each tribe seems to refer to the stories with different terms, but they’re all eerily similar. Wabanaki legend speaks of the man-eating snow giant, Giwakwa. The Cree tell tales of the Witiko, also a giant and also a man-eater. The Micmac tribes of northern Maine up through Nova Scotia tell stories of the Chenoo, creatures that were once human but had been transformed through some horrible crime that was usually cannibalism. The most common name for these creatures among Native Americans, however, is one we already know from popular culture. They are the Wendigo, a creature that was once human, but had been transformed by their hunger for human flesh into a monster that can’t ever be satisfied. One Native American description of the creature claims that a Wendigo is taller than a grown man, with a gaunt body and dead skin that seems to be pulled too tightly over its bones. Tales speak of the tangle of antlers upon its head, and the deep eye sockets that seem to be dead inside, and it smelled of death and decay. In Cree mythology, though, the Wendigo was simply a human who had become possessed by an evil spirit. It would take over, and then turn its hunger and hatred toward the people around it. To the Cree, the Wendigo was most often just another person: a neighbour, a friend, a sister, a son. There was no hope for those who were transformed into man-eating creatures. There was only one solution available: these creatures must be hunted and killed. It’s fantasy; it’s a cultural meta-narrative about something else, something deeper – at least, that’s what the anthropologists tell us. But some have taken those legends at face value.

Swift Runner was a Native American from the Cree tribe that lived in the western portion of Canada. He was born in the early 1800s and worked as a hunter and trapper in the north country, near Fort Edmonton, as well as a guide for the north-west mounted police. He was a big man, standing over 6ft tall, and according to the reports, he was well-liked and respected among his people. He and his wife had six children; it was said that he was a loving father who cared deeply for his family, which is why the winter of 1878 will be remembered as a tragedy. According to the reports, Swift Runner stumbled into a Catholic mission in St. Albert, sometime in the spring of 1879. He was distraught and unfocused; he told the priest that the winter had been harsh, and that his entire family had starved to death. He was, in fact, the only one to make it out alive. But something didn’t sit right with the priest. For one thing, Swift Runner didn’t look like a man who had endured starvation throughout the winter months – he was a solid 200lb and seemed healthy and strong. Another hint that all was not well were his nightmares, which often ended with him screaming in the night. In the end, the priests reached out to the mounted police. A group of investigators were dispatched to look into the matter, and they took Swift Runner back to his winter camp. To his credit, Swift Runner was helpful – he immediately showed the men a small grave near the campsite, and explained that it was the grave of one of his boys. They even went as far as to open the grave, and everything lined up with his story. They were the bones of a child, and it was safe to assume the child was Swift Runner’s. But then the police found other clues that began to paint a darker picture. Around the camp in scattered locations, they began to uncover more bones and a skull. Not just a few, either. There were bones everywhere. Some of the larger bones were hollow and snapped in half, clearly the result of someone sucking the marrow out. They also found bits of flesh and hair. The evidence began to pile up, and they looked to Swift Runner for an explanation, and that’s when he told them the truth. According to him, a Wendigo spirit came into their camp during the winter. It spoke to him and told him to eat his family. At first, he resisted, ignoring the voice. But slowly, over time, the Wendigo took control, and then it took action. Swift Runner’s wife was the first to die, then one of the younger boys, and one by one his family was killed and eaten. Then the creature moved on to his mother-in-law, and his own brother. To Swift Runner, it was cold fact – a monster had eaten his family, and the police agreed. They simply disagreed on the identity of that monster. The mutilated human remains were collected and transported to Fort Saskatchewan, along with Swift Runner himself. His trial began on August 8th of 1879, and it was about as cut and dried as it could be. Both the judge and jury refused to accept the story of the Wendigo. They saw the man as a murderer and sentenced him to be hanged. Over 60 people gathered at the fort on December 20th to watch the hanging. One witness to the execution, a man who had reportedly seen several hangings in his life, was said to have slapped his thigh and declared “Boys, that was the prettiest hanging I’ve ever seen”.

The Severn river in Ontario winds through the homeland of the Sandy Lake first nation. This area of Canada is so isolated that it wasn’t until the early decades of the 20th century that the western world really made an effort and reach out and connect with the people who lived there. It’s way up in the far western corner of Ontario, in the kind of territory where lakes have islands that have their own lakes. By the late 1800s, the Hudson Bay Company had closed down enough of its trading posts that the closest one to Sandy Lake was over 140 miles away. That was a 50 hour walk across rough terrain. I’m not really sure that “isolated” is a strong enough word to use here, the place was practically alien. Jack Fiddler was born in the 1830s - or maybe it was the 1840s, most people aren’t sure, but we know that he was a Cree Indian, and he worked as a trader. He made the trek between the villages and the trading post for a living, and in the process, he met lots of people. He was also the son of the Sandy Lake people’s shaman, and over his lifetime he had five wives and many, many children. When Jack’s father died in 1891, he took over as the leader of the Sandy Lake people. Now, that sounds fancy, but in reality, there were only roughly 120 people living in this community. He had influence over the wider geographical area as well, but his real power came from his role as the tribal shaman. A shaman’s powers were a vital part of his leadership – when Jack became the spiritual leader of his people, he became the keeper of their ancient traditions and their guardian against the approaching darkness that was western civilization. There are even legends that tell of Jack Fiddler curing illnesses. But most importantly, Jack became their first and only defence against the Wendigo, often called upon to hunt down and kill them. I know, this sounds like the stuff of comic books or Hollywood movies, but Jack Fiddler lives up to the hype. In fact, over his lifetime, he claimed to have defeated 14 of the monsters. But Jack didn’t go looking for tall, monstrous creatures with antlers and bony bodies. No, he understood the Wendigo to be more subtle. Some Wendigos, Jack said, had been sent to attack his people by other shamans. Others had been members of his own tribe, who seemed to have been overtaken with an unstoppable urge to eat human flesh. When it was his own people, Jack said that he and his brother, Joseph, were the ones called upon to do the hard thing and kill the individuals. And not just kill them, no, that wasn’t enough to stop the possession. You see, it was believed that the Wendigo’s spirit could actually hop from one body to the next, so those who died as a result of their possession were often burned to stop the infection from spreading. For the Sandy Lake people, and many of the other Native American tribes that cover much of the northern half of North America, the Wendigo stories were more than just here say. It was an idea that was rooted in ancient tradition. Ceremonies were built around the legend. People were warned and educated constantly about the danger this creature posed to the community, and then suddenly, all of that tradition and history ran headlong into the modern world, and the results were disastrous.

Some time in 1905, Joseph Fiddler’s daughter-in-law was brought to Jack’s village. She was very sick, according to multiple first-hand accounts. She was in deep pain that often drove her to cry out and moan and constantly make noise. Some of the women tending to her would even have to hold her down to keep her under control. Jack and his brother, Joseph, were brought in. They were old men by then, both in their 80s and very frail, but they knew what was causing her illness, and they knew how to stop it. They had done it many times before, and so they did what they did best: they took a thin rope and looped it over her head, and then, slowly, they tightened it. It wasn’t done in cold blood - it was a calculated decision that these men came to only after deep discussion, but it was driven by fear. If the Wendigo spirit inside her had been allowed to take control, there was no telling how destructive it might have become. To them, this was preventative, it was mercy, a form of euthanasia that protected the entire community. The Fiddlers were mere instruments in the hands of a culture driven by superstition. Witnesses testify to their quiet, dignified nature, but it didn’t help; the men were brought before a six-man jury later that year. The Toronto newspapers printed sensational headlines about the trial, crying out against devil worship and murder, and in response, people around the country cried out for a conviction. And they were guilty, without question. These men had killed a member of their family – it might not have been a crime of passion, but they were still murderers, so when they final verdict came down, it was far from a surprise: guilty. The Cree people of Sandy Lake lost their leader, they lost two of the most respected elders of their tiny community, and most frightening to them, they lost their last remaining Wendigo hunters. Real or not, these men had been a wall that kept the darkness and fear at bay, and now that wall was gone.

Superstition has often served to answer our questions and calm our fears. From the Changelings of Ireland to the vampires of New England, the stories we tell have helped us explain the mysteries we don’t understand. That’s not all superstition does, I know, but it makes up a lot of the examples we find. We fear the unknown and we come up with anything to explain it away. Cannibalism is something that humans have feared for a very, very long time, not because we’re actually convinced it could change us into supernatural monsters. No, at the root of it all, cannibalism is just a line that we don’t think we should cross, and rightly so. History is littered with examples of people who have crossed the line, not because their life was at risk or because they had no choice, but because of something darker. Deep belief in the folklore of their upbringing, mental instability, premeditated violence… whatever the reason, every example reveals humans to be the true monsters, capable of anything, even the things we fear the most. Maybe Jack Fiddler understood this; perhaps he knew that he represented the final entry in a vital, ancient lineage. He saw a world ill-equipped to defend itself against the evils he had fought all his life. I have to imagine that the idea of it simply exhausted him. On September 30th, 1907, while on a walk outside with a police constable, Jack escaped into the woods, where he strangled himself with the sash he wore. His brother would later die in prison from tuberculosis. On July 30th, 2008, a man named Tim Mclean was riding a greyhound bus along the trans-Canadian highway in Manitoba, when one of the other passengers attacked and killed him. The man, Vince Weiguang, did more than just kill Mclean, though. He stabbed him, beheaded him, and then proceeded to cannibalise the body. Was the killer just insane, or did he perhaps meet an evil spirit there, on his trip through Wendigo territory? That’s a question that would be impossible to answer for certain, but the courts ruled in favour of insanity. In the end, he was held in a high security mental institute in Manitoba, but he stayed there for less than a decade. Earlier this year, in May of 2015, he was released back into society.

This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke. Learn more about me and this show over at lorepodcast.com, and be sure to follow along on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, @lorepodcast. You can back the show over at Patreon.com/lorepodcast, and get some sweet rewards in return, like extra episodes, premium transcripts, and so much more. This episode of Lore was made possible by you, listeners who are always hungry for more. [Insert ad break]. And one final note: the recent live show in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was an insanely good time. The theatre sold out, and I got to meet so, so many of you – it was awesome. If you missed it and you wish you’d been there, I’ve added an audio bootleg to the shop on the website. $5 will get you all three live episodes, plus a healthy dose of my witty banter, so be sure to check that out. And as always, thanks for listening.

#lore podcast #podcasts #aaron mahnke #wendigo #cannibalism #swift runner #jack fiddler #canada #folklore #transcripts #18

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whiskeyworen · 6 years ago

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Miriya - The Rite "Welcome to your final trial as students of the illustrious Division of Necromantic Studies. I trust you have all prepared yourselves for the coming trial, in accordance to the rules given to you last week?" The instructor, a squinty, elderly-looking Asura by the name of Brokk intoned, looking around at his gathered class with what could only be described as a disdainful glare. There were only a dozen of them now. There were those who didn't pass the prior exams, tests, magical and knowledge-related, who would be held back for another semester until they were 'ready'. The ones in the chamber before him were the creme-de-la-creme of his class. Which made him frown even deeper as he watched them jockey for position before him in a semi-circle, elbowing and nudging and cracking jokes. With a deep breath, he announced loudly "SETTLE DOWN, you cog-grinding miscreants!" That got their attention. All twelve quickly aborted their rough-housing and sat lotus before him, each at their assigned positions. He sighed, and ran a hand through his spiky hair, muttering about the younger generation.

"...Now that I have your undivided attention..." He emphasized, leaning forward to glare into the face of one student who was still messing around with a datapad. With a sheepish grin, the student made the pad disappear and sat up attentively. Brokk sighed heavily, shaking his head, and proceeded to walk around the semi-circle. "You twelve represent the top of the class, the ones who are ready to learn the final tricks, trades, skills, and techniques of our much-maligned magical class." They all frowned at that, knowing full-well that necromancers weren't thought of fondly, and with good reason. Being in the course itself meant learning the control neccessary to NOT become one of the psychotic necros you heard being arrested or 'dealt with' in the news streams. Like Necromancer Rissa, having been not only corrupted by Dragon magic, but trying to spread it to the human and charr homelands. Brokk continued. "Now, today you will learn two of the most important skills a necromancer can know; How to take venoms and poisons of all sorts, and convert them into something you can use for yourself to no ill-effect....and how to achieve the Death Shroud, the protective envelope of Necromantic Energy that shields a Necromancer and averts Death itself." There was an gasp of excitement from the group, and a few began whispering between each other. Brokk quickly put an end to the whispers by continuing with a sharp edge to his voice. "This...is not a thing to be treated lightly, progeny. It is one thing to draw life and death magic from the world around you, cobble together monstrosities as minions, or manipulate the gases in the air to create fetid stench and poison gas." He paced slowly, hands behind his back, shoulders thrown back. His time in the Peacemakers still showed sometimes, in his bearing. All the better to get the troublemakers in front of him to listen to his words, if it meant they still viewed him as an officer of the law. Which he was, in a sense. Except this law was Life and Death. "This skill requires you to take injury, poisons, venoms, all manner of toxic substances, and using your body's own magical flow, invert their potential into something that will AID you. Imagine highly toxic spider venom suddenly flipping its molecular bonds and becoming an analgesic, a painkiller. Skale venom, which normally paralyzes its victims, instead filling you with vigor and speed." He watched the light of imagination grow in their eyes, the potentials he was talking about. They didn't understand yet, but they would. "It comes at a cost, of course. Nothing about Life and Death is free of charge. You wouldn't have made it this far if you didn't understand the Balance." "The cost, progeny, is that once learned, to convert all those toxins, no matter what it might be, will leave you feeling exhausted and weak for a short time. It varies from individual to individual, but one thing never changes; you are expending great energy for the conversion, physical metabolic energy. When you recover from a poison, you will be tired, weak, and disoriented. In time some of you may unfortunately get used to the sensation, and work with it. The rest... I suggest taking time off after an encounter." Weak chuckles circled the group. He indicated the multiple graduates surrounding the dozen progeny, each one with a serious expression. "These, students, are those who graduated from this final test. They know what you will go through. And they are here to help in case something goes wrong." "Wrong?" One student asked, ears back in nervousness. Brokk nodded slowly, face stony. "Wrong. In the past, before standardized testing and trials, it was required for a would-be-Necromancer to test themselves in the jungle. Find a venomous creature, and be poisoned by it, and then attempt to recover. We...lost a great many genius minds to things like that. So we devised a new way." He beckoned the graduates closer; each one carried in their hands a bowl filled with a foul, steaming liquid. The very steam coming off it seemed tinged with malice. "Under controlled conditions, we affect the soon-to-graduate with a variety of low grade poisons, and monitor them in case they cannot recover on their own. Every former student around you has some degree of knowledge in blood magic, just in case." The bowls were handed out to each of the twelve, some gagging at the smell, others wrinkling their noses. Brokk noted two of the females were betting each other on who would throw up first. Troublemakers, the lot of them. Of those particular two, he'd had repeated encounters with in the registrar's office for infractions. The one with the snowy hair was Nyk, a firebrand who loved to rush ahead, hardly thinking of the consequences. Brokk already had her marked down in his head for chugging the entire concoction without thinking. The other was one of the Danae sisters. The fact there were three of them, each one in a separate college, made news among the various faculties. Brokk had read about the force-field generators the eldest had improved and modified in her time with the Statics college, until she had left to join the Vigil. The one before him, though, Miriya, was quite unlike her sibling. Where the elder had been focused and serious, this Miriya was quick to joke, quicker to anger, and generally got caught up in Nyk's machinations just because it was fun for her. "The drink before you is a blend of spider, skale, basilisk, frog, and a certain breed of jellyfish venom. It has been diluted enough to not be instantly fatal...but it still carries with it the potential for death." He gestured around them. "Your attendants will be there to make sure you do not truly fall to death, though we want you to get CLOSE." "Truth be told, the skill, which we have called 'Devour Conditions' for lack of a better term, is only learned at death's door. You will drink, you will be sick, you will fall, and we will wait and watch..and make sure you do not fully die on us. A Dead necromancer is never a good thing." There was a long moment of heavy silence, as they all contemplated the fateful drink in their hands. Brokk let it hang as long until it looked like a few were getting antsy, before whispering in a low voice.

"Drink." Every one of the twelve took a deep draught of the noxious brew. Not one chickened out. Immediately half of them pitched over, spilling their drink as they fell into a twitching rigor, their eyes going blank as they struggled to breath. A few more fell after a few seconds of struggling visibly to focus on trying to convert the poisons; it wouldn't work though. That's not how it worked at all. They too collapsed, though their drink cups were empty when they hit the floor. Not one remained upright. As it should be. The attending students stepped close, but did not touch any of the test students. In sullen silence, they waited, eyes on their own charges, for any sign of True Death. They could feel the focusing of necromantic energies on each of them, and were monitoring them as close as they dared without directly interfering. Brokk sat down heavily on the dais steps behind him, bridging his arms on his knees and interlacing his fingers with worry. "....And come back to us safely, children."

**** Where was she? This didn't feel right. Something was...wrong? She looked down at herself, at the translucent figure she was. She was small, compared to the other translucent figures she could see in the distance, wandering the broken fields. It took her a moment to realize she was looking at the fields from a strange angle, and that her vision was heavily distorted. With great effort, she pulled her vision back from the distance, until she could see straight; She was so, so very far away from those other figures! And the angle...it was like she was on a wall or something. But she wasn't falling, so it had to be a floor, or ground right? Looking around, she could see the same theme everywhere; broken stone, overgrown ruin, and huge, gnarled, thorny growth. It was....cold... here. So very cold. Why couldn't she remember her name?

**** "Instructor Brokk...I think we might have an issue forming." One of the attendants called out. Brokk looked up and realized it was the one standing over the Danae girl. He had a puzzled expression on his face. "I'm having trouble...uh... I can't really sense her lifeforce anymore, but...she's still breathing." That was wrong. That had to be wrong. Brokk got up and hurried over. Sure enough, the Danae girl was sprawled on her back, face in a taught grimace, her breathing extremely shallow, but there. A touch to her neck gave him a thready pulse, but one he could see was filled with the venom's touch; a blue-black corruption in the veins inching across her neck and face. The student was right; he couldn't sense her life essence at all. Normally living things had a spark, a glow that could be sensed. But this girl... hers was out entirely. Wait... no, not quite. There was still a spark, but it was so very, very.... distant? How could that be? It felt like he was trying to spot a match flame from across the bay. Or so miniscule it could share space with an electron and have room left over.

"She... she's still alive." He finally said, tenatively. "But just barely so. Her lifeforce has so far gone even I can barely feel it. But she breathes." Brokk turned a serious gaze to the attendant. "Continue monitoring. Since her vitals are so low right now, keep an eye on her breathing. If it stops, I want you to immediately pour Blood Magic healing into her." The attendant nodded, his hands clasping a ritual dagger tightly. When he needed to, he would slice open his own skin to activate his blood magic. A skilled Blood mage would never have resulting scars, as they would use the magic to knit themselves up perfectly. "Strip out her tainted blood and replace it with your own, but don't put the tainted blood back into yourself. Yet." To a second attendant, Brokk added "When he starts trading blood, I want you to purify the tainted blood he pulls out, before he can reabsorb it. Otherwise we're just trading one poisoned person for another. Understand?" The attendants nodded, the first one, replying. "I'll pull slowly, and keep her blood outside until it's cleaned. I can manage that." "Good. Now get ready." Brokk stared down at the suffering student. "...we might need it." ****

"What are you doing here, child?" A cold, harsh voice asked behind her. Some how the very vibration of the voice caused every molecule in her body to shudder. "You should not be here." She turned around, eyes wide, to see a huge, yet cadaverously thin form hovering before her within a pillar of green flame. Decaying funeral bindings wrapped its limbs and torso, a grave shroud forming a cape and hood over its hidden features. Thin shoulders were covered by mouldered bone pauldrons, formed from skulls. Not just human skulls; she could see Asura, Charr, and a few others she'd never seen before. As she watched, the skulls would melt back into the pauldrons as more emerged from beneath them, an ever-shifting, phantasmagoric display of death imagery. Though the face was shrouded, the fringes of a mask of bone in the shape of a calf's skull pointed through the unnatural darkness of the hood. Two eyes of jade fire stared out at her, inscrutable but somehow curious. "I...I don't know. I can't remember, but I'm trying to..." She touched her temples, trying to focus. "I was doing something important and..." She coughed a bit. Her throat was really itchy all of a sudden. The ghastly figure tilted its head, before kneeling down to cast her in its emerald gaze. It stared at her, hard, before making an amused sound. "Oh. I see you clearly now. Miriya Danae. You still retain your name and purpose, because you are not fully dead." Its words lit a chain of neurons in her mind, lost memories flooding in. Yes, her name was Miriya. She wasn't dead; she was in the midst of her Necromancer graduation test. "Yes... I'm not dead. I can still feel my heart beat...but, why am I HERE?" The figure stood up, chuckling darkly, and pointed outward, to oddly angled fields of translucent people in the distance. "I know of your Rite. How could I not? You 'modern' Necromancers and your final test. Push yourself to Death's Door, and come back from it with the blessing of Grenth. Or...in the case of you Asura, a touch of the Entropic Cog, I believe you call it. To learn the secrets of the necrotic shroud." "The difference is, you should never have ended up HERE, where I am. At the most, you should have appeared temporarily in the Domain of the Lost. There, those that have passed but have memory would have given you your last test." It tilted its head again, clearly amused. "But you, you ended up falling much farther in than the others. So much so, I very nearly mistook you for one of the truly Dead, and was about to pronounce Judgement on you, little Miriya." "Judgement?...you mean like, 'final rewards' kind of Judgement?" She cringed, as the figure chuckled, its flames billowing as it did so. Now that she could see it up close, she could see those same flames licking in and out of a ribcage that clearly had nothing else within it. "What...what are you? What's going to happen to me?" The dreadful being nodded slowly and drifted towards her. "Because you are not Dead, I have no hold over you, child. You will not receive Judgement from me this day. As we speak, your colleagues are attempting to heal you. If they do, you will not pass your test. Given that you have fallen this far into Grenth's realm, into Death itself, I view that as an affront. No being still breathing should fall this far." It kneeled before her again, and gently gripped her head, bringing its visage closer. "Thus, not only do I send you back to them, not only will I give you the blessing of Death you require, I will give you a singular honor. There are not many humans, let alone asura or charr who have come this far and still live. Perhaps a dozen in a generation. So I give you this gift, Miriya Danae, asura of the Dynamics college, Necromancer." Before she could speak, emerald flame poured forth from under the mask and from its eyes. She might have screamed, but her breath was taken as the flame poured onto her face, into her eyes, and down her throat in a raging, silent torrent. She only withstood a few seconds before passing out. ****

"Instructor Brokk! She's waking up!" The attendant called excitedly. Brokk's head snapped up from where he'd been resting it on his desk. It had been literal hours since the Rite had begun. Since young Miriya had fallen into the gears of the Entropic Cog, and into a coma. If she didn't awake soon, they'd have to risk moving her to a medical facility. It would be humiliating for a necromancer to wake up there after their final exam. Almost a guarantee that they had failed. But that didn't matter now. Brokk bounded over his desk and dashed over to where the attendants and a few remaining students gathered around their fallen companion. Sure enough, Miriya was stirring. A swirling shroud of necromantic energy coated her body, lashing silently at the world around it. Through it he could see the black tendrils of poison corruption were visibly fading as she drew closer to consciousness, devoured and converted by the second skill she'd had to learn. He smiled at that; she'd learned the skills she needed to from the dead, and officially achieved the Death Shroud, as well as Devour Conditions. He could finally stamp her file as 'passed with flying colors' and move on to the next generation. As she sat up and rubbed her head, though, Brokk noticed something was...odd. As the Shroud dispersed, fading back into the ether, her face seemed more decorated than before. Had she always been wearing makeup? It wasn't attractive either; it vaguely looked like blood red, stylished batwings superimposed over her face, around her eyes. He blinked as he realized the wings were actually growing and thickening, becoming more prominent as she woke up. What?... "...I feel like I got hit by a runaway transport golem." Miriya finally rasped out, rubbing her throat tenderly. The last of the poison's corruption faded there, as it was the original starting point for it. She opened her eyes and looked around. "Can I get some water?" A collective gasp echoed around her, even as a shakey hand passed her a mug of ice water. Miriya blinked in confusion, looking around at everyone. A few students had taken a step or two back, and Brokk himself was stunned. Miriya looked at him, unsure what to say. Then she noticed that she could kind of see...something. It was like a thin blurry layer over everything. Everything alive, anyway. "I think I must have sand in my eyes. You guys all look a little funny to me." "Oh, I'm sure you're fine." Brokk said lightly, weakly. He chuckled anxiously. "I imagine you'll get used to whatever you're seeing. I mean, looking like that, it must do something to your vision." He turned to an attendant and snapped a finger, indicating something across the room he needed retrieved. "You, uh... you must have had an interesting experience." Miriya nodded slowly, raising an eyebrow as she sipped the water. "Uh.. yeah. I don't remember much but... there was, I guess you could say, this guy. Big. Bony yet muscular, if that makes sense. Wore a mask and a hood, and there was all this green fire. He spoke to me, but the more I try to focus on what he said... it keeps fading away. But I remember the last thing he said was something about a gift? That I went too far 'in' or something, and was still alive." Sweet Alchemy, she went that far in. Brokk thought faintly. He'd read the reports from previous instructors, of the entities on the other side, and of those who had succeeded in contacting them while still alive. Her bare description of that Someone matched very well with human myths, and what he'd gleaned from their own necromantic worship. She didn't speak with just any passed soul... she talked to Him. If not him then one of his direct servants!! The attendant returned with the mirror Brokk had indicated. Very gently, he handed it to her. "Well... I believe he kept his promise, Ms. Danae." She accepted the mirror, very confused now, and glanced into it. She very nearly dropped the mirror. In addition to the red, wing-like makeup surrounding her eyes, her eyes had changed. The normally soft green was entirely replaced by a ghostly green-white iris, vertically slit like a cat's pupil. Looking carefully, she could even see a hint of orange buried under the green-white, especially along the edges. "Whaa-- what's happened to me?!" She asked, hands shaking. "What did he do to me?!" "Demon Gaze." A random student whispered. Everyone turned to look at them. "It's...uh... it's a thing I read in a human history book. Some of their best necromancers receive a similar mask, and the, uh, thing with the eyes. They get it from one of their higher tier god-servants or something. Something about having been 'acquainted with Death'?" Brokk knelt beside Miriya putting his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Miriya. I've read of it too. It's not permanent. Not as you know it." "What do you mean?" Her voice was shakey as she stared at her changed countenance. "I might be able to wash the makeup off or something, but the eyes?..." "Miriya, it's all magical. You can't wash it off...but it's not permanent. It's something that will fade and reappear as you require it. As you use your powers." He pointed at her reflection. "See? the wings are already receding. And your eyes are returning to normal." "....what do I do?" She asked in a small voice, touching her cheek, where the edge of a wing retracted into the corner of her eye. The mask itself seemed to suck itself back under her skin, or within it, until she couldn't see it anymore. "Learn to summon it at will. Learn not to summon it randomly. You don't want to be at a dinner, get insulted by someone, and have the Gaze flare up." He quirked a smile. "Unless of course you WANT to. I bet it'd shut some of those Statics fops up." Miriya giggled a bit, shaking her head. "So his gift was to mark me with a mask, and make my eyes change. What good does that do me other than single me out?" "Because he knew that there's a title that goes with those who have that particular mark, Miriya." Brokk told her solemnly. "It'll mark you to the end of your days, but it's one a Necromancer should wear with pride and distinction. At your young age, it'll make you a bit of a legend, I'm afraid." Then he told her, and watched eyes widen.

**** "It will be some time before we meet face to face again, child." The Judge said to no one, gazing up at the swirling mass of undefinable fog that separated the Domain of the Lost from everything else. It chuckled quietly, the sound a low, echoing rumble through the almost silent valley. Icicles shook from thorn vines, and stones dislodged at the vibration of it across the entire realm. "I look forward to meeting you and passing Judgement on you when you are fully Dead... Miriya the Twice-Dead. For that is what you will be when you finally come to me. One who has been dead once already, only to die once again at life's end. To be Twice-Dead is a blessing for necromancers... and it provides me with some entertainment during my service." It turned its baleful gaze away from the unshaped void, and returned to its task. With a claw-tipped glove, it beckoned to the nearest, shivering soul. "Come, my child. Let me gaze upon you, and Know you. Let me perceive your Eternal Rest..." ------ Author’s note: Ever since I started playing Guild Wars 2, I wondered about the mechanics of how Devour Conditions worked. It took status ailments and turned them into health, in exchange for 5 stacks of Vulnerability. I thought about that for ages, as well as ‘how do necromancers get taught how to do Death Shroud?’. Eventually I started getting the basic ideas for this story. Thankfully, Path of Fire gave me some MORE details, like the Domain of the Lost, and the Judge (who’s appearance I gave a more dramatic look for an entity that exists on the far side of Death. I took artistic license because... I thought it would look cool.) I’d also wanted to explain where Miriya got her Demon Gaze mask, being an Asura and generally not one to put symbolic makeup or paint on. I mean, it changes the eyes! So I ran with it. Theoretically the other necromancer Masks would be obtained in similar near-death ways, at least in MY head. Nyk is the name of my friend’s character who tended to.... cause a bit of havoc while we played. LoL. There’s a longer name, but I don’t wanna point her out too much.

#gw2 fanfiction #gw2 #Guild wars 2 #Asura #Asura Necromancer #Miriya Danae #The Judge #Grenth #Domain of the Lost #My Characters #My Stories

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pokemonruby · 6 years ago

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1, 2-18 even only for ravi and oswald!!

MY BOYS!!

1. their voice

well, ravi’s tone is usually very… upbeat? it has an airy sort of feel to it, the kind of voice that could immediately raise your spirits.. but at the same time, if you listen close enough, it can sound quite… strained? as if he’s faking this whole “cheerful” act. hmm

now, as for oswald? well, he doesn’t really speak often; he much prefers sign language of course, but whenever he explodes it’s uh… let’s just say oswald doesn’t care about the volume of his voice. he’s essentially a cantankerous old man in the body of a young adult.

2. their smile

again, if you inspect ravi’s smile closely… you’ll find that it’s just as feigned as his merry tone. an unfading, almost creepy smile to those aware of its truth; moreover, it can serve as comforting to those ignorant. the entirety of ravi’s demeanor is nothing but a facade built to hide the insecurities of a broken and daresay, maddened man.

as for oswald, it’s rare that he smiles due to his aforementioned foul attitude. but whenever that opportunity arises and he does show a smile, let’s just say… the whole world would stop and stare at it, it’s so adorable and pure.

4. their insecurities

as i mentioned before, ravi has many insecurities that he’d rather keep tucked away beneath a cheerful mask. he’s suffered quite a bit in his past, and therefore isn’t true to himself any longer - fearing that he’ll be taken advantage of, due to how unstable he is. so, ravi puts on an elaborate act to trick himself into thinking he’s sane, that nothing’s wrong, even as the pain gnaws away at his very soul.

not to mention… ravi cursed with immortality, which is yet another burden to carry on his brittle shoulders. the fact he’s unable to die to be with the loved ones he’s lost… is truly the worst form of punishment in the universe.

now, with oswald’s insecurities… he’s rather upfront about it, incomparable to ravi’s mindset of ignoring everything until it blows out of porportion. oswald doesn’t necessarily attempt to fix his insecurities, rather… he acknowledges them. he knows he isn’t particularly the best person to be around, due to his waspish personality… and he doesn’t consider himself to be very talented, despite being a high-ranking member of the country’s largest bureau. but he refuses to make a big deal out of something he can’t change. oswald just isn’t the kind of person to accept positivity, since he honestly cares less.

he just wants to do his job and get paid for it. that’s really it.

6. how they deal with grief

well, uh.. if you’ve been following along with ravi’s internal conflict, you’d understand that he doesn’t handle grief properly in the slightest. i mean, after he lost his former spouse and child, ravi decided to avenge them by… y’know, massacring the village responsible for their deaths. he’s definitely the type of person to choose revenge over forgiveness - i mean, he wasn’t exactly stable to begin with. ravi’s faced tragedy again and again, and when he finally found happiness - it was taken away from him in a heartbeat.

also there’s the whole plot in which ravi attempts to become god to bring back his deceased family but let’s…. discuss that later.

oswald, on the other hand, hasn’t faced much tragedy during his life. he never had a family who cared for him, so… upon their deaths, he felt nothing. in a way, oswald was relieved to finally be free of their abuse… but they’ve taught him to keep his distance from people henceforth. such has caused oswald to avoid relationships and isolate himself in his own, little world. it isn’t until he met ravi that oswald knew compassion from another person…

good thing his only friend is an immortal, right? maybe he’ll never face grief because of that.

8. what they like to eat

finally, i don’t have to hurt my boys anymore. so, ravi is an impressive chef - i mean, he’s downright masterful in the kitchen. he prefers traditional food from his homeland overall, but is very much open to trying new things. believe it or not, ravi has quite the sweet tooth! his favorite would have to be eclairs, with macarons as a close second.

oswald doesn’t particularly have a favorite meal? i mean, he’ll really eat anything that you’d present to him… but he does have a soft spot for seafood. which is something his dear friend happens to excel at making. but if i’m being honest, oswald could survive on nothing but coffee and be fine.

10. their fashion sense

i’m not necessarily sure how to describe ravi’s fashion sense, as he’s usually dressed in robes and sleeveless tops. i’d say traditional, but not really at the same time? to be honest, he believes in looking formal, yet being comfortable first and foremost.

moreover, oswald wears his uniform 99% of the time but that in itself is fancy and suits his character quite well. while he doesn’t “dress to impress”, oswald does make an effort to make himself look presentable for the sake of his workplace; however, i’d be lying if i said he’s never smiled at his own reflection before. to be fair, he does look rather elegant in his uniform.

12. their romantic life

after a lot of trial and error, ravi eventually accepts he’ll never reunite with his family… and begins a stable, happy relationship with my boyfriend’s oc, luther! they’ve been married since the moment their eyes first met, honestly. very lovey-dovey and ravi will cook his favorite meals and they’ll go on extravagant dates and… sigh. i love these husbands. let’s hope nothing happens to luther

meanwhile, oswald love life is… empty. while he developed feelings for ravi long before he met luther, oswald never had the courage to confess. therefore, he can only watch as the man he loved flies away in the wind… while oswald begrudgingly carries himself to his job each day and is smothered to death by a mountain of paperwork. rip oswald

14. how they react to burning their tongue on food

well, ravi has an incredibly sweet husband who will kiss away the pain… while oswald overreacts and acts as if he’s dying. listen… as a gay he’s legally obligated to be dramatic about every minor inconvenience.

16. their dreams

currently, ravi’s dream is to marry luther and live happily ever after with him… while completely ignoring the fact he’s immortal and there’s a cult after his head for that very purpose. but hey! as of right now, they’re perfectly fine! :)

sadly, oswald doesn’t have any dreams… because he’s accepted his lonely existence as unchanging, and will continue to drag himself to the office each day without a real purpose. hopefully a certain grayson will come along and convince him otherwise… but oswald’s already decided he’ll just spend the rest of his life working, as if it’s the only thing he’s capable of.

18. how they sleep

sometimes, it’s difficult for ravi to sleep due to the nightmares that plague his mind… but nowadays, he’ll often find peace within luther’s arms. as if he’s keeping the ghosts of ravi’s failure away, which is yet another reason ravi is so indebted (and in love) with him. i know i’ve gone on about them enough, but ravi and luther’s relationship is so beautiful to be honest. two, broken men who’ve lost everything find solace at last with each other.

…. as for oswald, he collapses immediately the moment he’s home from the office. exhausted doesn’t even begin to describe his condition; oswald hardly cares about eating dinner, he just wants to SLEEP

and when he does sleep, it’s rather soundly. the only time oswald isn’t troubled by anything.

#TY I LOVE MY BOYS #oc tag

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spideyxchelle · 7 years ago

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Princess Michelle’s land has been invaded. And to save her country she knows what is expected of her, she knows she is set to marry a man she does not know, hardly respects and hates for forcing her homeland to its knees. Affection cannot grow in the face of war. Not even when the face of that war has the most gorgeous eyes she has ever seen.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6]

Michelle loved the routine of tournaments. She was often kept from the unpleasant matters of fighting and war but the grand tradition of a tourney was considered more of a celebration than a violent affair. And she loved them. They always began with less challenging trials, mostly magic demonstrations—hitting a target with a lightening bolt, coercing animals to jump through hoops, magic battles. Then moved into Michelle’s favorite events of physical competition where speed, strength and wit were all tested.

In the foolish naivety of childhood, Michelle used to imagine herself as one of the epic magic knights from history. She would picture herself sporting the royal standard and fighting with duty and honor in the grand contests. When she turned twelve, the princess’ dreams were dashed. Her father, the King, sweetly kissed her brow and said, “Knighthood is for men, my sweetling. Not women. And especially not princesses.”

And that had been the end of Michelle the Knight.

She was forced into etiquette lessons and taught how to dance and curtsy and giggle thoughtlessly behind her fan. She was fashioned to be a paper doll, something so two-dimensional and flimsy that the wind could have blown her away. But behind her fashioning was the heart of that imaginary Knight. Those dreams had been dashed but sometimes, when she was alone, she picked up those broken pieces of wishing and imagined she was made of iron. Not paper.

When she was sixteen her world was shaken at the foundations when foreign invaders plundered her homeland. Her father fought valiantly. And her father lost.

The King of that foreign land, the Stark Lands, was an inventive madman or so the stories said. Michelle had heard that he pushed the limits of magic with some rudimentary madness called machinery. And his son, the prince, Peter, rode a red and blue dragon into battle with him. They were fierce, they were unstoppable, and they had brought her homeland to its knees.

When her father, the King, returned their court with his tail between his legs, Michelle had known then that the war had been lost. She had read enough history books to know that conquerors did not make slaves of competing monarchs. They killed them.

She sat on a nearby chair as she braced herself for the news.

It was far worse than she could have ever designed. “Married?” she balked.

“Married,” her father nodded, “To the Prince. We will join houses or we will die.”

Her chest rose and fell unevenly, nearly gasping for air, “I can’t.”

The words tasted hollow. She was a princess of a great house. She was always going to be bought and sold like cattle. Alliances were how monarchies survived. And if her house was to survive this invasion, she would need to do her duty.

And so, a tournament would be thrown. She had always liked the routine, the mastery, displayed at such games. This tournament, however, was going to be the fashioning of a new Michelle. She would no longer be a paper doll, or the iron maiden she dreamed once; no, she would be a stolen pride, a prize for a barbarian prince.

The Starks wanted to celebrate the impending nuptuals of their dear prince with all the bells and whistles of a joyful union. It was not to look like what it truly was: the exchanging of goods to maintain the peace between two hostile countries, an arranged marriage.

Michelle woke in the early hours of the tournament and stared at her ceiling in deep thought. If today was going to be the beginning of the end of her life, she wanted to feel the way she had before she was stuffed in a corset and told princesses were not allowed to dream. She turned her head to stare at the flickering candle lighting her bed chamber. The flame danced and burned and billowed. Michelle blew it out.

She went rifling through her drawers and found an old pair of dirty trousers from her horse-riding days. Michelle slipped them on and found they were snug and the ugliest shade of brown. They were incredible. She tugged on a white, linen shirt that often doubled for a nightshirt and stole one of the beated, dusty vests from the stables. She wound her hair up in a knot on the top of her head and a few lose curls tickled her ears.

It was barely dawn when she began to wander aimlessly around the empty tournament. In that pale, morning light, she began to pantomime the tasks, as if she were a great Knight herself. The way she had once recklessly dreamed.

Her magic was unpracticed and unfocused—women were not allowed to use magic outside of cooking and cleaning—when she tossed a flash of green lightening toward one of the targets. It missed the middle by several feet and buried itself in the grass. She cursed unprettily.

“You have to follow through when you throw it.”

Michelle jumped at the offending voice and spun around to face her potential attacker. A few feet away stood a boy, no older than nineteen, dressed in unkept trousers and a well-worn vest. His hair was almost auburn and his smile was unusually kind. She had not spent much time with boys her age outside of dull courtiers in years. Michelle had once been friends with the stable boy, but that friendship had suddenly ended when she was considered a woman. Thirteen had been a rough year all around.

She forced herself to stand tall, “I can handle myself, thank you.”

He smiled sloppily on one end of his mouth, “I’m sure you can. The suggestion still stands, miss.”

Michelle huffed but curiosity won out, “How would you throw your bolt, Mister-“

“Parker,” he supplied, “You can call me Parker, miss.”

“Well, Mister Parker,” Michelle crossed her arms over her chest, “If you are so clever, give it a go.”

He laughed and took the short walk to her side. Mister Parker squared his hips, lifted his hand and began to conjure a strikingly red bolt in his fist. It crackled wildly in his hand before he exhaled and threw the bolt all in one go. It found the center of the target.

Her mouth opened in surprise and when she turned to look at him he was already watching her. “That was-“ she tried to find the words to describe him.

“-well aimed,” he finished, cheekily.

She rolled her eyes and smiled at his candor, “You are rather forward, Mister Parker. To finish a lady’s sentence.”

“Well,” he smiled that maddeningly bright smile again, “I would never presume to call you a lady, miss.”

In any other place, in any other time, such words would have cost the man his head. But in the safety of the dawn, with no one to hear him being so disrespectful to his princess, Michelle laughed. She laughed because she was free to laugh and because he did not know who she was dressed so plainly. She had anonymity as this messy version of herself.

Her laughter only made him smile wider, “What is your name, miss?”

“Em,” she said. “My name is Em.”

He inclined his head in a show of respect, “Well, Miss Em. Would you like me to show you how to throw your bolt?”

They spent the next hour or so, as the sun began to creep up the sky, working on a few of the magical tasks set for the tournament. Mister Parker was competing. She had gathered that from the moment she watched him throw his first red bolt. But Michelle was too afraid to ask for which side he was competing. He was nice, he was gentlemanly even, and if he was one of the Stark bannerman it would gut her insides.

The castle began to wake and Michelle knew her taste of short-lived freedom was coming to an end. “Mister Parker,” she whispered, as he flitted around the battle ground to show her the best way to aim a flaming arrow through a hoop, “I need to leave.”

His eyes clouded with confusion and he dropped the bow to his side, “Why? The tournament doesn’t start for hours yet.”

“I’m one of the princess’ ladies,” she lied easily. “I will be expected to help her rise and prepare for the day.”

A shadow of some deep thought flickered across his face and it made his joyful features momentarily severe. He took a deep breath and whatever thought ailed him washed away in a wave of good cheer, “She can wait.”

“No,” Michelle said firmly, “She can’t.”

“Miss Em,” Parker licked his lips, “What…what is she like? Your princess?”

Michelle tried not to smile, she bit down the urge to regale this competitor with ludicrous tales of her kindness and beauty and intelligence. It would be so easy to feed the mythos of herself. But she had already lied so much to this gentleman and she wanted to keep a drop of honesty between them, a kernel of genuine respect. She liked this man. He was kind and funny and respectful. He did not try and press his advantage of having a woman in his clutches in the early hours of the morning. He treated her with respect and listened to her stories with eager ears. She liked him a great deal. “She is loyal. Loyal to her people and her kingdom.”

“No,” Parker ran a ragged hand through his messy hair, “But what is she like?” Michelle gawked at him, so he explained, “My prince is going to wed her. I would like to know who would one day be my Queen.”

Michelle tried not to let her heart fall at the knowledge that this boy was the enemy. He had been so kind and giving and genuine the entire morning. It should not matter to her that he was a bannerman for the Stark Lands. It should not. But it did. She knew that he could see the apprehension now whirling in her eyes. He hastened to comfort her, “I know you think my people are foreign aggressors. I know you think that we are evil. And I know you hate us for invading. But we are not an evil people. We are usually peace but-“ He trailed off.

Michelle pressed, “But-?”

He shook his head, “I should not be discussing such unpleasant things with such a lovely lady.”

Michelle sucked in a breath, “And you were doing so well.”

Parker raised an eyebrow, “Meaning what?”

“I am more than a lovely lady, sir.”

“Of course-“

“And,” she said loud enough to silence him, her commanding tone acting as the briefest flicker of her royal lineage, “to diminish my worth to something as trivial as lovely is beneath me.”

His eyes heated and she felt her stomach lurch in an almost pleasant manner, “I was not diminishing you. I think you are smart and capable but you are also lovely. Does it repulse you so to hear it?”

“Yes,” she spat. “Then,” he sighed, “We are at an impasse. Give my regards to your lady.”

There was a part of her that wanted to chase down the bannerman as he began to exit the field but her eyes were now blinded by morning light. If her real ladies had not already gone to collect her from bed, they would do so soon and she needed to be back in the safety of the castle before anyone learned she had left. She turned back to the castle and, then, recklessly ran after the bannerman. “Mister Parker,” she called.

He stopped and turned around to watch her as she ran toward him. She ripped the tie that was holding her hair securely on the top of her head down. It was a silk, blue ribbon. Michelle pressed the fabric into his hand. He stared at her, his mouth agape, and she whispered, “A token. May it keep you safe in today’s contest.”

Parker’s mouth twisted upward and he bowed his head to kiss her hand, “It would be my honor.”

When they parted, Michelle ran to the castle. She entered through the back of the kitchen and bounded up the stairs to her chambers. Her ladies were all waiting anxiously in her room when she arrived. She stared at a sea of watery eyes and lied, “I was out for a walk. I could not sleep.”

The tournament field was sticky and hot from the summer sun. Michelle wanted to tear the black veil off of her face to gulp in fresh air but her lady’s maid clutched her free hand in a silent plea to keep her clothing unruffled. The princess rolled her eyes under the safety of the veil.

When the young competitors began to flood the field, as the tournament began, Michelle kept her eyes pealed for Mister Parker. It was hard to tell any of the gentleman apart dressed head-to-toe in their armor.

But then, she spotted her ribbon tied to the breastplate of one of the Knights. Michelle leaned over to her lady’s maid and whispered, “Who is that man? The one with the ribbon?”

The lady’s eyes flitted across the field looking for the offending gentleman. Michelle clutched the fabric of her dress in her hands. She began to imagine a horrible reality where Mister Parker was one of her future husband’s guards and she would be forced to be near him but eternally apart for the rest of her days. And then, she imagined a worse reality where Mister Parker was some lowly Lord from a far-away house and she would never see him again. He would go back to the country to man his estate and pick a simple wife and laugh at her jokes the way he had done to her that morning.

Her lady’s eyes found Mister Parker.

“That, your highness,” her lady whispered, “is your betrothed.”

The world went woozy and Michelle heard the cries of concern before she fell unconscious from shock.

#headcanon ask #arranged marriage au

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homesteadchronicles · 7 years ago

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Meet the Kingdom Come Cast: Solomon

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

“Hail, friend! Well met. My people call me ‘Solomon’, although it is, in truth, not my true name. Those of us who come from beyond the Desert of Death hold names few tongues in Sindios could pronounce. Thus, my fellow refugees took it upon themselves to grant me a...nickname, so to speak. Solomon - prince of peace! Befitting of a man seeking unity across the known world. But I have gotten off-track, haven’t I? My mind tends to wander endlessly these days. You see, I hold the Chancellor’s chair in Haven. A...king? No, friend, I wear no crown. Haven has no kings nor queens. There was only one king in Haven - and it is not I. All men serve, no one higher than another. We came as equals, as refugees escaping the horrors of a fallen world. We stand equals still, separate only in occupation. A different world than you are used to, I’m sure.”

How would you describe your family dynamic?

“My family - may they have fallen in life, but risen in death - has, at this point, all passed on. No, no, please. Spare your apologies, friend. You did not know. It is a common question, one that does not pain me to answer. In truth, it brings me great pleasure to speak of them, for they were great people. Or, at least, I believe them to be so. Everything seems better through the eyes of a child. Although the memories seem to slip away from me more and more each day, I can still remember my father’s face. Chiseled, like a statue. Worn, like a rag. Kind and concerned and frightened, all at once, as a father should be when he sends away his wife and son. To spare us, he said, from those seeking after us. Good men make sacrifices. He made the ultimate one - his own life. My mother led me through the endless sandstorms here, to Haven. Though she lasted not long after, she risked everything to save the only son she had left. My other brothers had passed already, either back in our homeland, or during our escape. I am the last of my family line.”

Where did you grow up?

“My homeland lies beyond the Desert of Death to the west, out past the furthest reaches of Al-Hasan’s territory. A wondrous place, with pyramids that brushed against the heavens. Or, at least, it was once. Now...I do not know what has become of it. The last I knew, the land had fallen, though to what, I cannot say. I spent most of my childhood here, in Haven, rebuilding a lost kingdom. We owned nothing, giving even the clothes on our backs to others in greater need than ourselves. Day and night, we toiled for a dream we believed in but could not see. Yet, here we stand today, on soil wrought by the hands of refugees and former slaves and heretics. What a world we have made.”

What do most people say or think about you?

“As I adore my people, so too do they adore me. My people, anyways. I know not what the other lords and ladies speak of me, though I assume they cannot quite understand my way. Few do when they seek war instead of oneness. But I digress. Holding court with my people, while...tedious at times, brings me the utmost joy. I understand my kingdom, know it needs, its desires and its difficulties. But I understand even more so how to help them, even if it is not in the way that they assume. My people reach out to me, only to find I have already extended my hand, my favor, my blessing towards them. That is how to run a kingdom - and that is why my people revere me. Because their Chancellor loves them all unconditionally, no matter the size of their wallets, the state of their appearance, or the extent of their pain.”

Do you have any significant aspirations?

“What more could I hope for than to spread the utopian vision of Haven throughout the entirety of Sindios? And beyond, assuming anything is left standing across the Sea of Fallen Saints. The world as we know it stands divided by greed and grief. Violence threatens its citizens, tyranny reigns supreme, selfishness a standard amongst peasants and royals alike. What has this world come to? I once dreamt of a world where all lived in harmony with one another, despite our differences. Is no such aspiration truly possible? Whether it is or is not, I cannot say. What I can say is that I will continue working as though this is not the crazed ramblings of a foolish man. Allow me my delusions of grandeur.”

Name one event that changed your life forever.

“Why, I will never forget laying the final brick back on the ruins of our stronghold. The last step in our impossible restoration project complete at last. The thought of celebration came second only to sleep. The feast we threw was negligible compared to other kingdoms, compared even to what we are capable of now, but we did not care. We danced around the streets with wine and cheer, gorged ourselves on honeyed bread and seasoned meat, spoke of the trials and successes that led us here today. And then, that night, they named me king...and I refused a crown I could not wear. For there would be no kings in Haven. That was my first decree. We had worked together thus far, and we would for all our days. There and then, I created the Council of the Round - twelve representatives, one for each province to be created in the kingdom, contributing their ideas and ideals to the betterment of the kingdom. And I, the thirteenth, would unify them, rally the people, and provide for a kingdom I created with my own two hands. That, friend, is one night I will never forget.”

State one interesting or unexpected fact about yourself!

“One might assume I spend all of my free time out and about in my kingdom. Ah, if only I had the energy. No, no, I am afraid I am much too tired to live a free-spirited life. Truth be told, time spent with my people brings joy to my heart but weakness to my bones. It is a drain on my already-waning constitution. Oftentimes, I retire to my study late at night, with only a candle to keep me company. My books bring me the greatest comfort. That, and the tea Lazarus brings me when he knows I am up too late - as is he, though the hypocrisy is often lost on him. I have spent my life studying. Or at least, the times in life when I did not work. Taught myself seven languages, two of them dead now. Even still, the archives underneath of Haven never seem to end. Once I finish one shelf of scrolls, ten more show themselves. It is an endless labor of love.”

Why do you want to open the Seven-Sealed Vault?

“To unite humanity and restore the world to the way it was before men fell to vice. Is there a nobler hope than that? I know there are those who seek the vault for selfish means, but...then again, I do suppose this is my own dream, too. Is it wrong to want what’s best for others and yourself? I wonder, I do, I do.”

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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Re: Zero – 46 – What a Half-Elf Girl Wants, What a Half-Elf Girl Needs

Whereas last week felt at times dilatory and even inessential, it finished the careful cleaning and polishing of the table, allowing this episode to set that table with all the sundry flatware, silverware, and stemware. Subaru and Garfiel (who all along had beast blood thin enough to pass through the barrier) head to the mansion to stop Elsa. Before that, Subaru tosses the jewel containing Puck to Ram, saying she can “do as she likes” from here on.

Upon her emergence from the Graveyard, Ram is at the entrance to greet her and bends the knee and apologizes for not believing she’d get back on her feet. All Ram needs to see is Emilia’s straight posture, forward gaze, and steady hands to see she’s already become so much stronger. Emilia thanks her for supporting Subaru, but Ram sees it as having helped Emilia, since she was the one who convinced her that helping would be worthwhile.

Ram also has a request—the first she’s ever made of Emilia: to save her master, Roswaal-sama, who has been possessed by delusions and strayed from the proper path. To save him, Ram asks Emilia to win and assume the royal throne of Lugunica, thus fulfilling his wish. Emilia, wanting to pay Ram back for her help agrees to her request.

But who should suddenly emerge from the shadows but the very subject of their discussion: Roswaal! He’s arrived to offer his congratulations to Emilia for passing the first trial, but also to express his pity and sympathy for what he deems to be Emilia’s own curse: that of only knowing how to be loved by doing and saying what others expect of her.

When Emilia counters, Roswaal accuses her of using borrowed words and occupying places prepared for her by the will of others, forcing her to fit an ideal by being convinced she could do it. Roswaal says this is what Subaru did to get her to pass the trial, because he and Subaru are “two of a kind”, forcing their ideals on the women they love, and loving an ideal of her that doesn’t exist.

The old Emilia might have withered before such harsh words, but not the present one. Steadying Ram’s quivering hand with her own and taking a deep breath, Emilia responds with an excellent comeback: “Are you done?” She tells Roswaal how Subie said she was a pain in the ass, causing trouble for him when he’s done so much for her, and making it clear she was “weak, all talk, and insufficient in every way”.

But then Subie took her hand and helped her. If Roswaal calls what he said and did to be nothing but lies and deceptions, then she’ll turn them into truths, into wishes. That’s what she needs to do, and that’s what she wants to do.

Roswaal is impressed with Emilia’s growth, but still pities her, because he deems both the Sanctuary and the Royal Selection to be piddling concerns compared to the much larger matter: that the world is proceeding toward the “wrong destination”, and towards its end.

Emilia ignores this threat and proceeds into the Graveyard to face the second trial, but Roswaal maintains his pity and pessimism are justified; after all, he and Echidna “began” this; it stands to reason he’d be able to reckon when its end is near.

Roswaal then speaks to Ram, who be believes to still be fully “on his side”, having only been “putting on an act” with Emilia earlier about her request to her. He doesn’t mind that she assisted Subaru and Otto with Garfiel, as he’s glad she did what she felt was right. For now, he orders her to remain at the entrance for Emilia’s return.

This leads us to the one and only look backwards in time in this episode, when we’re shown the particulars of the bet Ram made with Otto, and why: because it was the best chance of getting her wish. She asks that Garfiel be taken down a peg, for Barusu do something about Emilia, and for Otto not to tell Barusu about their bet.

As a result of winning that bet—which she felt she would win due to Subie’s notoriously excellent timing—she finds herself where she wants to be: not at the Graveyard entrance as her master instructed, but in Ryuzu Meyer’s crystal chamber, confronting Roswaal with her wand in hand while he holds the Tome of Wisdom. She’s come to free him of the witch’s delusions.

Combined with Emilia eventual winning of the Selection, he shouldn’t have any complaints, and indeed he adopts an “I should have known” attitude towards Ram’s actions. After all, he assumes the long years in which she’s had to yield to him must have been “humiliating”, especially when her master was one of the men who destroyed her homeland.

Roswaal is in the chamber to use Meyer’s Crystal to focus and amplify his mana so he can make it snow in the Sanctuary. But because he once taught a younger Ram that “whatever on relies upon should be the thing that brings about their death”, whether it’s the sword, magic, or a demon.

But Roswaal asserts that Ram showed her hand a little too early, as she would have had a much easier time dealing with him once he’d already started setting up his snow day in accordance with his precious tome. But Ram didn’t want to face him as an empty husk, or in any kind of weakened state. That would have interfered with her wish for him to live for the future.

When Roswaal asks if Ram thinks she can win against him, she tells him she know she can’t, as her knowledge of his power is second only to Echidna’s. The thing is…she doesn’t have to face off against him alone, nor did she ever intend to. She produces the blue crystal and out pops Puck, a stray spirit who “happened to be passing by” and is all too willing to help Ram release the man she loves from his delusions.

Having seen what Puck is capable of, I like Ram’s chances, and I salute the expert maneuvering she did in order to end up in this position. But we’ll have to learn the result of their faceoff another time, as the episode’s final act shift’s to Roswaal’s mansion, where Petra is running and afraid. She wants to retrieve Ram and get her to safety, but she is cornered by Elsa.

There’s a heightened sense of danger and finality to this entire last act because if Subie is to believed there will be no more resets until this is all resolved. Whatever happens in these halls is going to stick. So yeah, I was relieved when lil’ Petra is rescued by Frederica, and warns her that she’ll be punished for disobeying her order to run away by herself.

This time, Petra does run away, and we only hear loud bangs from the battle between Petra and Frederica. Then Petra tries to locate Beatrice, hoping she’ll be able to help, but cannot locate her library among all the doors. That’s when Petra tears up and prays for Subaru come save them…and Subaru, who had just arrived, obliges, cheering a flabberghasted Petra up with his bright smile.

Elsa’s charge towards Frederica is suddenly arrested—by Frederica’s little brother Garfiel, parrying Elsa’s blade with the stout arm guards they used to play with. They have a frankly adorable little reunion where they express their wonder that they’re both so big now. Elsa lets them have some time together without attacking, probably because a.) she’s confident in her ability to beat them both, and b.) she’s got an ally in Meili running around somewhere nearby.

I hope Subie doesn’t forget about her, especially as he seems to be focused on the assassin duo’s third target: Beatrice. He’s there to “drag her out into the sunlight”, whether her precious tome told her he would or not. Things on any of the various fronts could go sideways in the blink of an eye, but it’s so far, so good with Subaru (and Ram)’s grand schemes.

By: magicalchurlsukui

#Anime #News #RABUJOI – An Anime Blog

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ultrabosh64-blog · 8 years ago

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A Comprehensive Review of... The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

A Game Beyond Your WILDest Imagination

After watching the initial trailers back when Breath of the Wild was announced, I remember feeling much hope for something to rival my love for the classic Super Nintendo A Link to the Past, and the pair of Oracle games for Gameboy Color. A Zelda title with charm, freedom to explore, a plethora of activities, increased focus on story, and a shopping cart full of puzzles to solve. Folks, I think I have found that Zelda title within Breath of the Wild.

Now we all know the basic premise of almost every Zelda game: Save Zelda! Breath of the Wild does its best to break the mold with a story that is a bit more complex than just the typical damsel in distress stereotype. Link is awoken inside a location known as the “Shrine of Resurrection” after a destructive incident that occurred 100 years prior which he has no recollection of whatsoever. Once back on his feet, our hero is greeted with a luscious landscape of a world you are going to spend immense amounts of time exploring. From these first two details we can already see a mixture of both dreadful and delightful ideologies for a bizarre yet sensible opening sequence. This balance of light and dark tones continues to hold throughout the course of the game via memory flashback sequences obtained both through the main story quest-line and optional memory quest-line.

Discussing these events would be spoiler territory, so I’ll simply state that they do flesh out the backstory very well in accordance to character relationships and the reason the world is in the state it is. You’ll have to experience the details for yourself. As an overall package however, the story is strong throughout the majority of the game, only faltering through a select few flashback sequences and [in my personal opinion] a small portion of the game’s ending [which will hopefully be addressed with upcoming DLC].

The Silent Boy’s Living World

Once Link has awoken, and has completed his initial trials to obtain passage to the open world, the world becomes a sandbox for you to explore. Unarguably the strongest point of Breath of the Wild is the exploration. In-fact, Breath of the Wild’s open-world will likely set the bar for future open-world titles much higher than anyone could have ever anticipated with its execution of a living, breathing, truly free-roam open-world. Everything from the subtle wind blowing blades of grass, to the sounds of crickets chirping in the fields during dusk, and even wild deer actively looking for grass to graze make everything about the open world so absolutely satisfying to be a part of.

All of the typical biomes for open world games are present here: desert, snow, forest, jungle, beach, swamp, and volcano. Each type of area has it’s own isolated slice of the world map pie, but also shares pieces of other areas (for example Mount Lanayru is a snowy mountain amidst an otherwise forest-y area). This, alongside various levels of elevation, keeps even the most typical style of area fresh with varying features injected strategically within each piece of the map. Transitions between biomes feel very natural, and non-abrupt, reinforcing the immersion the game does an excellent job of maintaining. The immersion is handled so well in fact, that often times I found myself taking screenshots of foliage, lakes, and wildlife just because I felt it would be a shame to not capture every gorgeous moment the game had to offer (I’m going to need a much larger micro-SD card now). The only downside to such an elegant world is the occasional frame-rate drop that comes along with it. Particularly noticeable while playing in the docked mode during the first few hours of the game, there are noticeable drops in the frame-rate when there are lots of foliage, coupled with enemies and other environmental factors. These moments can potentially take away from the immersion, but are also easily overlooked. Once you leave the Great Plateau these problems seem to become much less frequent while playing docked, and even less frequent while playing portable.

Traversing these wondrous areas isn’t going to be a cakewalk, but luckily you will have several options on how to tackle the Hyrule homeland. The addition of the stamina meter has given inspiration to these options. The stamina meter is used for basically every physical action with the exception of walking and quick-attack. A frequent contender for my stamina usage was the paraglider. This item resembles its real-life counterpart, providing the same functionality. The act of paragliding from a mountain seemed like a desert after devouring a nice dinner of climbing said mountain. It allowed ease of access to far away areas, especially islands, as well as an upper-hand in combat encounters where enemies were at a lower elevation than you. Another of the most important uses of this wheel is the ability to climb. Link can climb anything in the world, even being completely upside-down sometimes (which I’ve coined in my playthrough as “Spidermanning”). See something just above but no road to get there? Climb your to the top, friend! Got a set of enemies in your way that you just can’t seem to defeat? Try climbing around them! Slowly you begin climbing up everything just because it becomes fun and rewarding to see what is atop the cliff you are exploring. Rain will however impede your climbing fun, as it will make any effected surface slippery, causing you to slide downward every so often. Your encounters with the natural force of rain are often going to be your hardest fights. I could not begin to even count the amount of times I had been halfway up a huge mountain hunting for collectibles, only to be interrupted by a monsoon which lead to me slipping down the mountain to my inevitable demise [or at least a decent amount of damage and time-loss]. Thankfully, there is a forecast chart incorporated into the UI for the game which shows you if a stormy front is on its way to ruin your exploratory plans. So unless you’ve consulted Mother Nature’s handbook of forecasting, it’s a super short climb, or you have tons of stamina from upgrades it is best to avoid these situations all-together.

Occasionally, to make matters worse, as if the rain wasn’t enough of a pain, lightning will also show up to the party to ruin your day. The moment your body and/or equipment begins sparking, you’d better open your menu to unequip your hazardous equipment, or be prepared to become a human lightning rod. Albeit an interesting feature, and certainly a very realistic one at that, lightning began to become more of an annoyance than a threat. It is plausible to get caught up in a lightning storm while fighting a Guardian, which may leave the equipment you are carrying useless, ultimately leaving you with a survivability rating of about 1% no matter if you choose to fight, take flight, or initiate a handshake with lightning. This is however a worst case scenario, and will not happen to everyone. The rest of the weather conditions seem to be not as dynamic however in comparison to the to aforementioned. Snow and extreme humidity both are mostly exclusive to specific slices of the map, making their role a bit more static. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this however, as it allows players to really prepare themselves before entering these areas which can slowly drain you of your hearts if you are not properly equipped. Proper equipment for these areas come in limited forms.

There is basically one set of armor for extreme cold weather, one for extreme humidity, one for avoiding being burnt to a crisp, and everything else can be worn at any time. Most of the game does occur in areas which temperature is neutral mind you, but it would’ve been nice to have just a few more stylized options for extreme conditions. Also the option to quick change armor/clothing similar to the weapon quick select or even armor/clothing presets would’ve been intuitive. So when visiting these areas you will have to open and close your menu more often than you would want to.

Combat, Cooking, & Collectibles

When visiting each area within Breath of the Wild’s landmass, you’ll encounter a wide variety of enemies to cross spears, swords, and tree branches with. Every single encounter is a new experience. This is thanks to the inclusion of relic powers, a plethora of weapons, and tons of enemy types feature in-game. Breath of the Wild offers roughly 200 unique weapons, and nearly 100 varied enemy types. Combining the previous numbers with Link’s four newly introduced relic powers, will give thousands of combat situations. The enemy AI is some of the best in any video game to date. Each type of enemy has their own type of behaviors whether they are fighting alone, with a mob, and even idle! This is one of the precedences that makes the game truly feel alive. Whether you are watching Bokoblins from afar standing around a campfire gazing at a scrumptious roasting meat skewer, squaring off against a Lizalfos’ fast solo movements, or watching a Moblin pick up and throw his cohort Bokoblin at you, there are so many different types of behaviors, that you are likely to walk into each encounter and witness your foe doing something you’ve never seen them do before. This plays hand-in-hand with the difficulty aspect of the game, as there are not any AI which one could call “stupid”. Each enemy is completely capable of killing Link. You will often find that enemies will even use the surrounding environment to their advantage. Environmental variables such as loose boulders can quickly become Link’s worst enemy.

During these skirmishes, you will witness the heartbreak of a precious weapon/shield/bow breaking right before your very eyes. Fear not, and wipe away your tears! You will find another similar weapon, or one even better soon enough. Often spoken of as a negative in most games, the weapon degradation in Breath of the Wild makes perfect sense. Very early on in your journey you will likely be relying on very fragile weapons [ex. tree branches, rusty weapons] which you will end up breaking faster than most teenagers today break the screens on their cell-phones. After several hours you finally begin finding much better weapons, which shows that the designers honestly took their time planning out what type of weapons you would find within each area. The natural progression of obtaining these weapons/armors feels just right for a typical player’s main story route progression.

Now you do have the choice to break this natural progression by skipping early areas and testing your might against much more difficult enemies in areas farther from where you probably should be in accordance to the main quest-line. Noting this, it is very easy to get distracted and end up in the “wrong neighborhood” so to speak. For casual players, if you suddenly find yourself within the first few hours of gameplay surrounded by several silver colored enemies, you may want to tuck tail and run before all of your precious hearts are drained from you with one foul swoop of a club. For some of the more hardcore players [like myself] the thrill of the game comes from fighting enemies that they know they shouldn’t stand a chance against with current stats. In many players’ instances, the Lynel enemy atop a mountain in the Zora’s Domain will likely be their first “Nope, coming back to do that later” moment of the game. Some players however will see this as a rigorous challenge that puts every ounce of their skill to the test, with the possibility of unlocking some incredibly high stat items early on in the story. Breath of the Wild does a fantastic job of mixing the moments in both regular exploration and main story quest-line to keep both casual and hardcore audiences entertained.

When combat has proven that it can be difficult, there is one way to counteract the pain. Supplement this difficulty with the addition of cooking! This is the feature of the game that I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did. Cooking will mostly occur in areas that contain a campfire with a cooking pot above it (although you can cook single items in a campfire without the pot and even cook items contained within crates if you set the crates on fire). There are incredible amounts of entertainment to be had combining different materials in the cooking pot, as discovering what kind of meal each combination will grant you takes a lot of trial-and-error (or a guide, because people do still buy those believe it or not). Sometimes food is required to traverse landscapes with extreme temperatures, other times offers a quick way to a full recovery [with the possibility of extra temporary hearts also], and sometimes even allows a way to increase the speed at which you climb. The amount of possibilities for different recipes, meals, elixirs, and strengths of those products is staggering. The only gripe with this feature of the game is that there is no way to record in game what you have cooked to produce a specific meal. This results in either a mass amount of memorization to ensure you are getting quality foods best suited for your situation, or a lot of blind hope which will often lead into grueling Dubious Foods.

Returning to maintaining your dubious weapons, managing your inventory said weapons does become a task rather quickly. Early on this will likely be a big problem for most players, as they will want to horde every little weapon they can get their hands on. This can be easily remedied via the Korok seed collectible items, which will be addressed shortly. The ability to switch which weapon you are using at any given time is slick as time pauses as long as your menu is up, allowing you to scout out the best weapon for every situation. The only downside to this however is when you are out of inventory space, there is not a quick way to drop weapons. Each time you wish to toss a weapon to the wayside you must open the main menu, select your item, and drop from there. A minor gripe, but for as many times as you will end up doing this, you will realize quickly an increasing amount of time spent doing this process even late into the game when you [hopefully] have acquired more inventory space.

I hear you asking yourself, “Where can I obtain these seeds? I want to be the weapon pack mule!”. Well let me preface this by saying that there seems to be a resurgence lately for collect-a-thon games. Breath of the Wild is no exception to this. The Korok seed hunt is possibly one of the largest, and most time-consuming collectible hunts ever placed inside a video game. Without prior knowledge, how many of the little leaf children would you imagine would be hidden inside this massive open world? 200? 400? Those my friend are rookie numbers. For this collect-a-thon you will have to search every corner, rock, flower, pond, and coast for 900 of these twiggy friendlies. Yes, this is not a typo, 900 Koroks are scattered across the world, with only you serving as their savior. This is one of the only tasks I personally did not finish within my playthrough of the game. At my journey’s end I amassed a pitiful 242 Korok seeds. Only the most dedicated gamers will ever see the near four digit number grace their screen during the game’s loading screen. Previously discussing the purpose of these seeds though, you will burn with passion to collect at least several hundred of these seeds. The seeds are given to a specific NPC in exchange for the additional inventory slots you desire, chosen between weapons, bows, and shields. Get your Korok wallet ready though, because each time you make an inventory slot purchase, the next time you select that type of inventory slot you will see an additional surcharge on what you will owe for the next slot. It gets really expensive, really quickly. [A quick aside regarding the seeds; Hetsu is the most adorable NPC of all time. I will say no more. You must experience this for yourselves. If a smile is not immediately filling your face when you meet Hetsu, then nothing can possibly make you happy.]

Another of these collectibles you will likely be working toward completing is the Hyrule Compendium, which tasks you with taking photographs of every enemy, boss, material, style of treasure chest, animal, and weapon in the game. This alone is a daunting task, as many times you’ll find yourself forgetting to pull out the Sheikah Slate to snap a quick picture of a wandering butterfly, new fruit, or boss encounter. The saving grace of this particular collect-a-thon is that you can purchase pictures for the compendium via an NPC for a seemingly reasonable amount of your hard earned rupees. Therefore nothing is missable in your journey to be the best photogrpaher in Hyrule. Now if only you could add some of those wonderful filters commonly used in today’s social media apps to make that picture of a Smoldering Butterfly like it came from an old Polaroid. DLC perhaps? I certainly hope so!

Spirit Orbs are the third [and final] type of collectible in Breath of the Wild. Spirit Orbs, which are obtained via completing Shrines, allow the player a choice of an extra Heart Container or an extra 1/5 of a Stamina Wheel upgrade. These are technically a collectible only because the player can choose not to complete any Shrines after the first four shrines of the game (which are required). Each of the games’ 120 shrines offers a distinct challenge either inside of the shrine itself or on the overworld to unlock the shrine. Shrine challenges generally fall under two categories: combat tests and puzzles. With this being a new addition to the Zelda franchise the initial reaction from fans and critics alike were mixed when these shrines were announced. A Zelda game dropping main dungeons [sort of] in favor of smaller split-up dungeons that are easier for pick-up and play situations? For a completely new idea in the Zelda series, these shrines convey exactly how they should into Breath of the Wild’s open world. These shrines add an additional purpose to exploring the entire map, as they could be nearly anywhere. Some of the shrines are in plain sight, while others require quests to be completed before you can gain access to them. These quests could range from finding fragments of ancient relics in order to reveal the answer the a puzzle which will reveal a shrine, to riddles given by NPC Kass which require the player to do some problem solving strictly from two or four lines of poetic verse. Overall the puzzle shrines themselves feel very unique, with none of them replicating each other in a way that makes you think that you’ve already completed a puzzle that was very similar ten minutes prior. Combat oriented shrines are strikingly similar for obvious reasons. These have very little variation from each other, simply pitting you against a guardian enemy of predetermined combat capability depending on the name of the shrine test (minor, modest, or major test of strength). These shrines typically take no more than fifteen minutes to complete, which seems appropriate for the games’ overall pacing. The only problem that can be seen with these shrines are that some of them are incredibly easy. There will be times where you will find the solution to the puzzle within mere moments of examining the shrine puzzle. For the average problem solver most of these shrines will seem more like tech demos for Link’s relic powers than puzzles themselves. Take for example Mirro Shaz, the shrine which seems to be coined by everyone as the “golfing” test. The entire purpose is to take an iron hammer which is provided by the merciful shrine gods, stasis lock a shrine ball, and proceed to hit it into a hole several hundred meters away which is not accessible by foot. While not particularly challenging on the problem solving front except for making sure you are lined up properly and are hitting the ball with an appropriate level of force, the execution of the “puzzle” seems to be nothing more than a showcase for whether you can comprehend the basic use of the relic powers. This is not to say that these type of puzzles are not enjoyable, because they absolutely are! There just seems to be something missing from several of the shrines in the game as they seem too short sometimes, leaving the player asking why the puzzle does not have more depth. Thankfully though this does remove a problem that most games with puzzles have: padding. The shrines in Breath of the Wild contain absolutely zero padding. Yes, some of the shrines may feel entirely too short, but it is honestly better to have shorter puzzles than to have puzzles that overstay their welcome. As an overall package, shrines seem to be well integrated into the world of Breath of the Wild, minor complaints/suggestions aside.

The Difficulty Curve: Main & Side Events

The difficulty of Breath of the Wild is varied depending on the kind of route you take in the game. If you follow the main story quest-line, you’ll find the difficulty of the game rather tame and controlled. Enemies will never truly seem unfair, and your weapons/armor will scale fairly well with the area you are in. If you choose to have a more open approach to Breath of the Wild’s world, wandering off wherever your eyes see fit, then you may run into some issues with difficulty. It is very easy even from the very beginning of the game to choose a path which will likely lead you to your demise. From a personal account, I decided to [attempt to] explore Hyrule Bridge directly after finishing the Great Plateau tutorial area. Well, let’s just say I quickly learned how absolutely brutal Breath of the Wild could be. With one swipe of a Lizalfos’ spear I was faced with a disheartening “Game Over” screen. Being the stubborn gamer I am, I attempted this personal route several more times, only to face the same bitter end each time. This is not to say that the game limits you to where you can/can’t go. It is very possible with lots of time, skill, and patience to cross Hyrule Bridge straight out of the gate. Most players however will not accomplish such a feat until later in the game when their armor/weapons/hearts reflect a more reasonable chance of survival. The simple fact that you are able to choose how difficult you wish to make the game is something that not many games do, let alone the ones that do and actually get it right. Breath of the Wild allows you to take complete control of how difficult you want your experience with it to be. Want to charge headlong into Hyrule Castle once you leave the Plateau? You may do so. Would you like to explore the snowy areas of the game without any armor to resist cold weather? That is absolutely allowed. Care for a more casual approach in which you simply follow the main story-line? Go for it! There are hundreds of possibilities for how to begin the game, as even more possibilities for how to continue the game at any given point. This is one of the best points to talk about regarding the game; The ability to craft your own adventure, with your own path, goals, feats, and level of desired completion.

On the lighter side of the difficulty topic, the main quest-line route seems to have been made easier than previous Zelda titles, likely to attract a wider audience for the game. The Divine Beast dungeons themselves are the mainline dungeons for this Zelda title. Each of the four total dungeons resembles an animal, which servers as the dungeon itself. Once you make your way inside one of these dungeons you will be faced with a set of tasks: obtain the map of the beast, activate a few terminals, activate the main control unit, and fight a boss. This formula does not vary between the Divine Beast dungeons. To keep things interesting however, each beast does contain a gimmick which allows the map function the alter the layout of the dungeon. This feature makes puzzles in these dungeons much more fun than your standard Zelda dungeon. You no longer have to worry about obtaining a new item within a dungeon to clear it, as you already have everything you need to conquer every dungeon. You can complete these dungeons in any order you so desire. You can also skip these dungeons completely if you desire. There is an incentive for completing them however which appears late in the game. Revealing that would however be a rather large spoiler, so you will have to find out for yourselves.

One of the most important factors for these dungeons for most players is the boss fight at the end of each one. Zelda games have never really been known for the difficulty of their boss battles (look how many times the Dodongo fight has been re-skinned); If you were expecting this Zelda title to change this stereotype, then you will be sorely disappointed. At the end of each of the four main story “dungeons” you’ll be faced with an intimidating-looking [and well designed] boss creature. Unfortunately each one of them falls to nearly the same basic tactic: arrows to the face. Each boss does have their own “gimmick” which will cause some slight variation between each boss fight, but ultimately it boils down to your ability to be accurate with a bow and the ability to block/dodge. Each fight seems to be over before it really even starts. Touching briefly [without spoilers] on the final boss fight, the same mechanics from the other four previous boss fights do not apply [as much]. There is still a brief period where arrows are very reliable, yet the rest of the fight does require a bit more skill. Again, boss design here is astounding, and probably the best boss design across any Zelda game to date. The only flaw here is that just like the other four main boss battles, it seems much too short. Once you’ve taken the time to learn the patterns, you will be sailing through this fight in no time. Oh, and yes there is a cinematic fight bit in the final fight as well, but let’s just leave it at that; It’s nothing particularly special, and will only leave you wishing for more.

Amidst the obvious issues I personally had with the easier difficulty for the boss fights I simply cannot make this point as a strike against the creators. I completely understand why they made these fights the way they did. The main reason [in my opinion] for this choice of lack of difficulty is to make the main questline accessible to all types of players. Casual players who are mainly playing the game for the main storyline and/or are having a difficult time out in the games world with regular enemy types, will be able to still finish the game with minimal item grinding. Then you have the more hardcore crowd, which will find more enjoyment fighting the tougher enemies out in the wild [pun intended]. Either way all audiences should find some sort of challenge within the game at some point.

Extra Flavor: Lasts 100% Longer

These next few sections are strictly for the extra tidbits of the game that I personally did not use much or could not find a proper spot in the structure of the review’s main course. These topics could be more important to other players’ however, so I thought a few words on them could be beneficial. Keep in mind for these however that your mileage may vary for usefulness/enjoyment of these features.

Something nearly every Zelda fan has had the desire for since Ocarina of Time is to once again have their own horse to ride around the world set before them. Breath of the Wild makes that a reality with its abundance of horses that you can capture, tame, and name for your own personal use. The process is simple: Find a horse you wish to tame, sneak up behind it, mount the horse, if necessary soothe it before you get bucked off. Obtaining your horse is only half the battle however, as you may find that the horse you selected does not obey your every command. This is because every horse has a temperament, which effects its behavior as well as its initial bonding stat. If the bonding stat is low, then likely the horse will occasionally wander off in whichever direction it desires to go. You can counteract this by riding the horse for an extended period of time, soothing it while riding the horse, and feeding the horse food. The higher the bond stat is, the less likely your horse is to disobey you. Each horse also has a speed, stamina, and strength stat. Speed is self-explanatory, stamina dictates how many speed boost spurs (reminiscent of the ones in Ocarina of Time) the horse has, and strength judges how strong of a hit your horse has if you where to attempt to trample an enemy. It should be noted that there are no perfect stat horses in the game (not even Epona). Each horse will ultimately have a stat that is lacking in comparison to other horses. You have to decide which stats are most important to you, and choose your horse based on that. In order to keep a specific horse, you must register it with a stable, which will allow the use of said horse via pulling it from the stable, or whistling near a stable for your horse. These horses do have limitations however. You can only store five horses at a time. There is also the possibility of a horse dying any time you are in combat, or if you accidentally run your horse off a ledge. Should this happen no need to cry, there is a way to get your trusty steed back. That however is something you should find on your own. Overall effectiveness of the horses is lukewarm despite all of the desire for the feature. Most of the game will likely be spent on foot traversing areas methodically, or climbing mountains, both of which are not suitable situations for horses. Unless you really have the itch to ride a horse, or want to try horse combat, then horses likely will not be a routine part of your playthrough.

Despite having over 100 tracks, music does not play incredibly often in Breath of the Wild. This is absolutely done on purpose. There are so many sounds incorporated into the overworld, that an extra layer of music masking this would have ruined the atmosphere. Often-times you will be wandering about the world, and will catch an ocassional bird chirping, whistle of the wind as it blows the grass surrounding your feet, and the beautiful sound of water constantly pouring down a waterfall. These sounds and many many more make up a much more perfect soundtrack than some orchestrated nonsense constantly blaring over-top of every action that is taking place in a living breathing world. On the other hand, I do really enjoy the actual soundtrack itself. Every piece of music seems to fit the situation it is mapped to just perfectly. Combat and village music especially are extremely methodical when capturing the mood of the situation is truly important. I will patiently await the day a full physical soundtrack is available for sale, because the music is just that good [and the selection CD that came with the Master Edition does not cover everything I want to hear].

NPC’s all have varied personalities, which is quite unusual for games of comparable size. Each slice of dialogue feels as if it were written by a completely different person, as no two NPCs speak in similar manners. This gives Breath of the Wild’s world a breath [haha] of liveliness that is unrivaled by other open world titles. While each character may not be completely memorable, there are more memorable ones than not, even if their roles were not important. The NPC which allows you to dye your clothing I will never forget. That fellow is what nightmares are truly made of.

Judgment

As an overall package, this is my favorite Zelda title now. While there are some flaws with the game, I can honestly say that Breath of the Wild is one of the only games to ever come closer to perfect in my eyes. The issues I had with the game can easily be overlooked, and ultimately don’t truly effect the score I desire to give the game from a non-subjective perspective. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an ambitious and completely creative game that is going to capture [and already has captured] many gamers’ hearts. This game is an absolute masterpiece! The following screenshot describes exactly what I felt like after every session of Breath of the Wild.

10/10

Essential Masterwork

#Zelda #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #nintendo #nintendo switch #game journalism #game review #video games #the legend of Zelda breath of the wild

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itsfinancethings · 5 years ago

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(BERLIN) — Europe is taking a big step toward a new normality as many countries open borders to fellow Europeans after three months of coronavirus lockdowns — but even though Europeans love their summer vacations, it’s not clear how many are ready to travel again.

Tourists from the U.S., Asia, Latin America and the Middle East will just have to wait for now. Europe is expected to start opening up to some visitors from elsewhere next month, but details remain unclear.

The European Union home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, told member nations last week that they “should open up as soon as possible” and suggested Monday was a good date.

Many countries are doing just that, allowing travel from the EU, Britain and the rest of Europe’s usually passport-free Schengen travel area, which includes non-EU countries like Switzerland.

Europe’s reopening won’t be a repeat of the chaotic free-for-all in March when panicked, uncoordinated border closures caused traffic jams that stretched for miles. Still, it’s a complicated, shifting patchwork of different rules. And although tourist regions are desperately counting on them, a lot of Europeans may decide to stay close to home this summer.

That’s something tourism-dependent Mediterranean countries such as Greece are keen to avoid. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged Saturday that “a lot will depend on whether people feel comfortable to travel and whether we can project Greece as a safe destination.”

Greece has emphasized its handling of its outbreak, which saw only 183 deaths. Overall, Europe has seen more than 182,000 virus-linked deaths this year, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that also shows Europe has had 2.04 million of the world’s 7.8 million infections.

Hard-hit Spain, which on Sunday moved forward its opening to European travelers by 10 days to June 21, is allowing thousands of Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands for a trial run starting Monday — waiving its 14-day quarantine for the group.

“This pilot program will help us learn a lot for what lies ahead in the coming months,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. “We want our country, which is already known as a world-class tourist destination, to be recognized as also a secure destination.”

Border checks in some places have already wound down. Italy opened its borders on June 3 and towns on the German-Polish border celebrated early Saturday as Poland opened the gates. At midnight, the mayors of Goerlitz, Germany and Zgorzelec, Poland cut through chains on a makeshift fence that had divided the towns.

Germany, like France and others, is lifting remaining border checks on Monday and scrapping a requirement that arrivals must prove they have a good reason to enter. It also is easing a worldwide warning against nonessential travel to exempt European countries – except, probably, Finland, Norway and Spain, where travel restrictions remain, and Sweden, where the level of new coronavirus infections is deemed too high.

Many German regions have reimposed a quarantine requirement for arrivals from Sweden, whose virus strategy avoided a lockdown but produced a relatively high death rate.

Czech authorities will require arrivals from Sweden to show a negative COVID-19 test or to self-quarantine – along with travelers from Portugal and Poland’s Silesia region.

Austria is opening up Tuesday to European neighbors except Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Britain — and keeping a travel warning for Italy’s worst-hit region of Lombardy. France is asking people from Britain to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Britain recently introduced a 14-day quarantine requirement for most arrivals, to the horror of its tourism and aviation industries, which say the move will hit visits to Britain hard this summer.

Denmark is opening up only for tourists from Germany, Norway and Iceland — and only if they can prove that they’re staying for at least six nights. Norway also is keeping shut its long border with Sweden.

“I realize this is a big disappointment. But the restrictions are based on objective criteria that are the same for everyone,” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said. “If we open too quickly, the infection can get out of control.”

With flights only gradually picking up, nervousness about new outbreaks abroad, uncertainty about social distancing at tourist venues and many people facing unemployment or pay cuts, this may be a good summer for domestic tourism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz are both planning to vacation in their homelands this year.

“The recommendation is still, if you want to be really safe, a vacation in Austria,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told ORF television, recalling the scramble in March to bring home thousands of tourists as borders slammed shut. “In Austria, you know that you don’t have to cross a border if you want to get home, and you know the infrastructure and the health system well.”

The German government, which helped fly 240,000 people home as the pandemic grew exponentially, also has no desire to repeat that experience.

“My appeal to all those who travel: Enjoy your summer vacation — but enjoy it with caution and responsibility,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “In the summer holidays, we want to make it as difficult as possible for the virus to spread again in Europe.”

#IFTTT #Blogger

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noisyunknownturtle · 5 years ago

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Peter Vessenes in the Focus of Cointelegraph China

Welcome back to Cointelegraph China’s Focus talk show. This time around, Peter Vessenes is under the spotlight. He is the founder of CoinLab, the first venture-backed Bitcoin company. He also co-founded the Bitcoin Foundation, serving as its first executive director and chairman.

Vessenes has provided digital-currency consulting services for entities including the United States Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. He serves as the chief cryptographer for the Deluge Network and Metronome, a project that aims to create a “politics-free digital currency.”

Cointelegraph: You were the first one to have talked with the U.S. Treasury Department about Bitcoin. What is the story behind it, and what exactly did they discuss with you that first time?

Peter Vessenes: In the early days, governments were trying to get their heads around Bitcoin, and things were so decentralized it wasn’t really clear who even to talk to. The Bitcoin Foundation filled that role for a while in a critical time in the industry’s development. We were invited out originally to meet with FinCEN, which is the Anti-Money Laundering enforcement section of the Treasury Department, headed by Jennifer Shasky Calvery at that time.

They were most worried about and interested in the enforcement side of Bitcoin: knowing what was happening, who was doing what and so on. Ms. Calvery said something I’ll never forget: “We think the toothpaste is out of the tube.” She proceeded to explain her rough idea was to acknowledge they couldn’t stop Bitcoin from being a thing, and they would try and work with already regulated entities at the on- and off-ramps for enforcement.

This, it turned out, was a really good strategy. It let some early Bitcoin businesses and funds get a commanding lead: Coinbase, Kraken and Pantera all had the regulatory space to work on business models without major fear.

I would say the SEC has done much worse by American business in the most recent round of innovation, regulating with a much heavier hand, and we see the results with exchanges like Binance worth billions of dollars, but staying out of the U.S.

CT: Many traditional companies are now working on cryptocurrency, but on the other hand, the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to place obstacles before the Libra stablecoin, and it hasn’t warmly welcomed crypto exchange-traded fund applicants, either. What is the exact problem you think the crypto companies need to solve? And what is the SEC or the government looking for?

PV: Government agencies that I’ve worked with are mostly concerned with serious enforcement worries, really objectionable activities, by which I mean things I wish I had never heard were happening and certainly will not repeat. I found this comforting. In 2012, it wasn’t clear if there would be sort of “petty” enforcement in the U.S. outside of the SEC. In the U.S., we haven’t seen much of that, although perhaps IRS subpoenas of Coinbase records come close.

In general, most agencies I’ve worked with were filled with good people working on good things, and they almost all — big secret — own crypto themselves.

As far as companies solving problems: financial inclusion, open access, destruction of rent-seeking behavior by long-standing financial industry participants — those are all pretty good goals. I’ll give you a hint, though, and say that JPMorgan won’t be destroying rent-seeking behavior, no matter how innovative its crypto group is.

SEC behavior is complex, and it’s good to remember that the U.S. has multiple regulatory agencies overseeing complex financial products; the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is another. So, you have a mix of internal regulator incentives, including expanding their own remit vis-a-vis other agencies, American imperialism, etc., and then you also have some what I’d call “good” motivations, like protecting citizens from scams, Ponzi schemes and so on.

I think we’ll continue to see real innovation happening in fits and starts in areas that are as lightly regulated as possible. It’s just so very expensive, risky and time-consuming to try to innovate in America on the financial side. I really can’t emphasize enough the benefits of a lighter regulatory regime for innovation. It’s very important.

CT: The Bitcoin Foundation was one of the most prominent organizations in the ecosystem.

So, how do you see its failings with respect to its governance, transparency and finances?

PV: Leaving the Bitcoin Foundation was bittersweet. In the beginning, I wanted it to be a place that built the good brand reputation for Bitcoin globally and provided a venue for both industry and individuals to do some collective work together.

It was sweet because it was clear that my idea had been right: There was real demand to organize and work together. Bitter because I failed to bring the best quality leadership to the top of the organization. Two board members went to prison. A third had been accused of crimes, but not tried. I worked hard to try to clear out influencers that I thought shouldn’t be there. But in the end, I couldn’t keep the leadership at a level I felt good about and decided to leave.

There won’t be another thing like the foundation in our industry, but I’m still glad I launched it with Gavin Andresen and would do it again, although I would change how we chose board leadership and make it more international from the very beginning.

CT: Regarding Mt. Gox, as previously reported, roughly 24,000 creditors are thought to have been affected by the 2011 hack and subsequent collapse in early 2014. It was said you own a stake of Mt Gox and you have submitted a $16 billion claim in the Mt. Gox civil rehabilitation, which is considered an obstacle for other creditors. Can you explain the issue here?

PV: Unfortunately, since we are still in litigation seven years later, I can’t talk a lot. I will say that we have been diligently and aggressively pushing for a real trial this whole time so that we can get a fair ruling. It looks like we will be getting that trial in Tokyo this year, pending coronavirus slowdowns. So, that’s great.

“Right now, all creditors — including us — are waiting on the trustee to make a payment plan that can be reviewed. Believe me, we would love to see one as much as any other creditor.”

We have had a fair amount of interest from investors and other creditors trying to buy into the lawsuit as a way to hedge out their own risks in the bankruptcy and ideally achieve good returns. So, we may look into providing access to the suit to a broader group of investors in the future, all still TBD.

CT: As a cryptographic expert, how do you summarize the technology development of blockchain in these 10 years? After proof-of-work, different consensus mechanisms have appeared, like proof-of-stake, delegated proof-of-stake, practical Byzantine fault tolerance,, etc. What do you think of them? And are there any projects that excite you with their technology?

PV: The last project that really got me excited technically was Ethereum. Not to say we haven’t seen interesting innovation since then, but it was a massive leap over Bitcoin. We just closed a blockchain fund — Capital 6 Eagle — with my partner in China, and I can tell you what I’m investing in:

Fundamental infrastructure that makes decentralized ledger technology faster and cheaper. We need two or three orders of magnitude faster tech. So, this will change things as it shows up.

Stablecoin projects and asset tokenization technologies.

Identity projects.

Secure data on chains

Wallet and other access infrastructure.

Decentralized exchange technology.

A crazy paper last year that really got me thinking was the MAST paper out of Blockstream. They provided a way to have provable computation using only software. It’s very, very slow, but the idea is profound and interesting for verifiability.

CT: You started to pay attention to smart contracts in 2014, and you set up New Alchemy in 2016. What is the main plan for you this year?

PV: I’m launching a new project that has been a secret so far, but this can be the announcement: It’s a Bitcoin paper-currency project. Unlike some of the other hardware-wallet projects, we are working on having a chip embedded directly into a paper bill. We will have a series of announcements, but we are working with a major global currency producer and have an agreement with one of the best currency designers in the world to make these bills. It’s just so very hard to deal with crypto, and I want to give access to regular people to have, hold and trade it.

Finally, we’re working on launching a Shenzhen incubator, probably in the third quarter. So, that should be really exciting. I love the energy and pace of business in China and want to provide mentorship, capital and advice to another generation of Chinese entrepreneurs. So, that’s really exciting.

CT: You are also interested in security token offerings. You said in 2018 that there would be a large circulation of STOs in the future, but they haven’t made much progress. What do you think about it now?

PV: On STOs: I was obviously wrong about timing, which is the same thing as being wrong. The difficulties in the last few years have been the intersection of the technology, the regulatory pace and the crash all together. Plus, early STOs offered in the U.S. were just bad offerings, poorly priced and definitely worse for the buyer than comparable publicly traded products or crypto products — or both.

But I do sort of stand by my prediction, too. Over the years, I believe more and more in the idea of permissionless innovation. STOs necessarily bridge regulated and unregulated worlds, and this is a really hard space because of that interaction. But, I still do believe that we will see tokenized offerings with regulatory oversight.

CT: One time you mentioned that you feel a “nostalgia” about the early times when Bitcoin was purely decentralized and only was mined by personal computers. Do you think that the modern ecosystem is the right way for the industry to develop?

PV: If I could wave a wand, I would definitely do away with industrial mining. It’s a very hard problem to do away with, though. I think mining is not in a stable position right now, though. There will be more innovation on business models. For instance, during the BCH–BTC war, I thought it very interesting that companies like Coinbase used their user platforms to advocate for what they wanted. Why hadn’t they invested in mining so that they could actually control voting on the outcome?

The answer to that question is at least partly regulatory, by the way, both for Coinbase and their investors, but it’s also social; a matter of how different people think of mining. Miners have generally historically not used their influence for more than making money, or at least usually in very soft ways, and this is probably not quite what Satoshi wanted.

CT: In early 2018, you said that innovations in the industry should be measured by the question: “What percent of the total innovation that’s going to be done has been done?” And your answer was less than 5%. Do you think we are at the same stage now?

PV: I still think we have a lot of innovation left to do, and in fact, I wouldn’t say anything super material has shown up in the last two years. We’re seeing infrastructure build out right now, which is good. But we need another Vitalik and Gav, or we need one of them to pull a Linus Torvalds and do Git on top of Linux.

CT: What would you say to Satoshi Nakamoto if you were to meet?

PV: What makes you think I haven’t?

To Satoshi, I’d say thank you, we got the leader we needed, luckily not the leader we deserved.

The post Peter Vessenes in the Focus of Cointelegraph China appeared first on For Crypto.

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cryptowavesxyz · 5 years ago

Text

Peter Vessenes in the Focus of Cointelegraph China

Cointelegraph: You were the first one to have talked with the U.S. Treasury Department about Bitcoin. What is the story behind it, and what exactly did they discuss with you that first time?

In general, most agencies I’ve worked with were filled with good people working on good things, and they almost all — big secret — own crypto themselves.

CT: The Bitcoin Foundation was one of the most prominent organizations in the ecosystem.

So, how do you see its failings with respect to its governance, transparency and finances?

“Right now, all creditors — including us — are waiting on the trustee to make a payment plan that can be reviewed. Believe me, we would love to see one as much as any other creditor.”

Fundamental infrastructure that makes decentralized ledger technology faster and cheaper. We need two or three orders of magnitude faster tech. So, this will change things as it shows up.

Stablecoin projects and asset tokenization technologies.

Identity projects.

Secure data on chains

Wallet and other access infrastructure.

Decentralized exchange technology.

CT: You started to pay attention to smart contracts in 2014, and you set up New Alchemy in 2016. What is the main plan for you this year?

CT: What would you say to Satoshi Nakamoto if you were to meet?

PV: What makes you think I haven’t?

To Satoshi, I’d say thank you, we got the leader we needed, luckily not the leader we deserved.

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angryconnoisseurface · 5 years ago

Text

Peter Vessenes in the Focus of Cointelegraph China

Cointelegraph: You were the first one to have talked with the U.S. Treasury Department about Bitcoin. What is the story behind it, and what exactly did they discuss with you that first time?

In general, most agencies I’ve worked with were filled with good people working on good things, and they almost all — big secret — own crypto themselves.

CT: The Bitcoin Foundation was one of the most prominent organizations in the ecosystem.

So, how do you see its failings with respect to its governance, transparency and finances?

“Right now, all creditors — including us — are waiting on the trustee to make a payment plan that can be reviewed. Believe me, we would love to see one as much as any other creditor.”

Fundamental infrastructure that makes decentralized ledger technology faster and cheaper. We need two or three orders of magnitude faster tech. So, this will change things as it shows up.

Stablecoin projects and asset tokenization technologies.

Identity projects.

Secure data on chains

Wallet and other access infrastructure.

Decentralized exchange technology.

CT: You started to pay attention to smart contracts in 2014, and you set up New Alchemy in 2016. What is the main plan for you this year?

CT: What would you say to Satoshi Nakamoto if you were to meet?

PV: What makes you think I haven’t?

To Satoshi, I’d say thank you, we got the leader we needed, luckily not the leader we deserved.

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coinretreat · 5 years ago

Text

Peter Vessenes in the Focus of Cointelegraph China

Cointelegraph: You were the first one to have talked with the U.S. Treasury Department about Bitcoin. What is the story behind it, and what exactly did they discuss with you that first time?

In general, most agencies I’ve worked with were filled with good people working on good things, and they almost all — big secret — own crypto themselves.

CT: The Bitcoin Foundation was one of the most prominent organizations in the ecosystem.

So, how do you see its failings with respect to its governance, transparency and finances?

“Right now, all creditors — including us — are waiting on the trustee to make a payment plan that can be reviewed. Believe me, we would love to see one as much as any other creditor.”

Fundamental infrastructure that makes decentralized ledger technology faster and cheaper. We need two or three orders of magnitude faster tech. So, this will change things as it shows up.

Stablecoin projects and asset tokenization technologies.

Identity projects.

Secure data on chains

Wallet and other access infrastructure.

Decentralized exchange technology.

CT: You started to pay attention to smart contracts in 2014, and you set up New Alchemy in 2016. What is the main plan for you this year?

CT: What would you say to Satoshi Nakamoto if you were to meet?

PV: What makes you think I haven’t?

To Satoshi, I’d say thank you, we got the leader we needed, luckily not the leader we deserved.

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