#like at a council meeting where no one else will find the comments suspicious

[worstloki]

not enough casual lady loki content so here’s some concepts 

- After being rudely questioned mid-battle on how he can feel female if he was born male Lady Loki casts a spell that switches everyone’s gender in an attempt to get the point across. 

- Loki is at least a part-time Valkyrie. However, Loki was not the only one (before Ragnarok) since Sif had been convinced to join for the shiny uniform and fancy sword (Sif may hate Loki but she’s less inclined to punch when he’s female). Odin couldn’t stop Loki from reviving the Valkyries as a group and tries to disband the team of two by sending them on increasingly ridiculous missions. Ridiculously difficult missions that they absolutely refuse to fail.

-  After getting a high up job working for Stark/Pepper Industries - not unlike Black Widow - Lady Loki wriggles her way into the Earth Forum of Tony’s Scientist Nerd Bros (Helen Cho, Bruce Banner, Jane Foster, Shuri) with Loki’s extensive nerd knowledge. Everything is fine because no one recognises or even suspects who Loki actually is... until one day Tony makes a joke about being on lookout for another smart male to join the team because not that I’m complaining about being surrounded by genius women but the unfair ratio of 2:4 cant be good for gender equality, and Loki switches to make it evenly 3:3 without thinking ahead. 

- Loki shapeshifts as a disguise. Unfortunately, Loki is seen by Odin. Fortunately, Odin thinks Loki is a younger version of Hela sent by the norns to give him a ‘chance to fix the mistakes he made in raising her the last time’ which means Odin didn't recognise and wont punish him for experimenting with magic again. He puts together the history Odin tried to hide and comes to the conclusion that Odin is generally a trash father and that the only appropriate course of action is to punish Odin for his terrible parenting through making him relive having young ‘Hela’ be the most disrespectful unroyal-like person ever and watching Odin struggle to fix her. Juggling between being both Hela and Loki is fun because when he’s Hela he can do whatever he wants but has to carefully follow rules as Loki. Thor is just happy to have a sister, even if she has the habit of impaling him with the occasional swords (notably not unlike Loki stabbing him)...

- If Loki is ever about to lose a fight against Thor he changes shape because Thor refuses to harm her or be rude. Despite being literally the same person. Loki finds it amusing and takes full advantage of it.

- Where Loki finds out he’s not just adopted and a frost giant, but also genderfluid, and decides these titles just add to the drama every time he needs to introduce himself to anyone. “I am Loki Adoptedchild, Prince of Asgard on Weekdays, Princess of Asgard on Weekends, Rightful heir of Jotunheim, Mx of Mischief, Causer of Chaos, Owner of Outcasts, Silvertongue--” “Loki I know I shouldn’t have kept your identity secret for so long but could you please stop introducing yourself and tell me your query? As Allfather I do not have an hour to wait for every title you’ve attached to yourself.” “Oh I don't have a question I was just here to remind you that you’ll only be referred to as The NotMyFather by me and that if you had more than one dull title I would ridicule them all.”

- Thor desperately wants to be a Valkyrie so Loki casts a gender change spell on both of them and they set off to complete the Valkyrie initiation trial.

- Loki realises that Mjolnir’s worthy rule only applies to him... sometimes? It’s not something he would think much of if he hadn't noted the wording of the spell long ago to only refer to people with male pronouns... 

- As a child Loki argued that since Asgardian laws treat women and men differently the only reasonable thing would be to treat Male Loki and Female Loki as two separate people. Not only does this result in political confusion but now that Loki is older it can be argued that she walk out of prison and not suffer for the crimes Male Loki committed. 

- Some great evil caused everyone in the universe to have their gender changed. Everyone is affected... except a certain genderfluid shapeshifter ... and no one believes its not his fault so its up to him (and Lady Thor?) to figure out the cause of the problem and solve it

- Amora and Lady Loki have a bet on who can get Thor to fall in love and confess his love for them first. Thor is confused as to why The Enchantress is suddenly finding excuses to spend time with him (isn't she meant to be Loki’s friend?) and why this girl that has the same mannerisms as his brother (must be a magician thing?) is shamelessly flirting with him. 

- Thor gets captured so its up to The Avengers (or the warriors 3 I guess) to rescue him. They refuse to accept Loki’s help because of what he’s done in the past so he changes gender and argues that she hasn't harmed any of them before and goes along

[vagrantblvrd]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Late-night and also half-assed AU idea times?

The one where Luke gets sent back in time (Because Reasons) to Clone Wars era shenanigans.

Also Because Reasons Obi-Wan is put in charge of keeping an eye on this kid, idk, Biggs Antilles because everyone is so hapless in the Star Wars universe when under pressure, like seriously.

Anyway.

Obi-Wan is suspicious like a suspicious person and so is Anakin and Luke is kind of losing his mind because he never knew (suspected, but never had proof) that old Ben was a goddamned menace and all his lectures to Luke about same are like, wow, dude, wow.

Oh, and also his dad.

And Ahsoka?

And all the clones and everyone else and he’s like, ;____________________; at what could have been, you know?

But also not sure if he’ll ever get back to his time - he really hopes so because there’s this Mandalorian with an adorable kid - and oh, God, he needs to check on Grogu in this time stat, but yes.

Shenanigans in which Luke desperately tries to hide his real identity because everyone’s iike “He feels like Anakin,how strange, and Luke in the corner like “Hahaha, yes, STRANGE. :DDDDDD

And then adventures in which he ends up having to save Obi-Wan more than he ever expected to when he woke up twenty-something years in the past, and oh dear God is that his mom? (Leia looks so much like her. Mostly the angry part right now, because Anakin and recklessly endangering his life and uh, oops, he didn’t mean to eavesdrop???

But like. Luke is kind of bleeding again (he,too, recklessly endangered his life alongside his father and Obi-Wan) and thought medbay was this way and -

Wait, why are you looking at him like that?

Anaking and Padme worried Luke’s going to at them out to, idk, the Jedi council or whatever about their ~forbidden love, and Luke is just.

“What.”

So then the thing about attachments and how they’re bad because emotions is explained to him and Luke looks at his father who clearly loves his mother so much. Thinks about the nonsense about attachment and how scared it would make someone like Anakin, and Obi-Wan -

Luke loves him, but the man’s made mistakes. (And, like. Luke gets it, he does. Some adventure with Obi-Wan and sharing of past loves because they weren’t sure they’d make it out alive and why not share this thing with someone kind of friend-shaped, and anyway,)

Luke is like, okay, wow.

Because one, the thing about attachments is bullshit - show him one Jedi master who isn’t attached to their padawan for starters - and anyway.

Not his business who they love, an then he scurries off to medbay before he bleeds out in hallway or wherever, which is where Obi-Wan finds him and is like  >:((((( at the bleeding thing and :| about the attachment thing but also *SIGH* because Luke reminds him of this padawan he had once, what was his name???

Anyway.

Yes

Also, though, also.

Them taking Luke to Coruscant to meet with the Jedi council because they have no idea where he came from - Luke floated the possibility of time travel being real to Obi-Wan once, but as a hypothetical and really, never mind him - and anyway.

Luke being like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as they ~question (interrogate) him because he has read up on the Jedi Order and their rules and whatnot. And where he might have been in awe of getting to meet all these Jedi masters once, now he just feels. Pity. He feels pity for them.

It shows, a little, and they call it arrogance for someone so young to think they know better than the entirety of the Jedi council and yet?

Luke doesn’t care.

Which kind of makes him a threat in their eyes, this incredibly powerful Jedi who appeared out of nowhere and shows so little - if any, really - respect for their Order.

And, they realize, who both Obi-Wan and Anakin like.

Ahsoka too, but she’s a padawan, young and such, doesn’t know better.

But also, also, after all the fun-times had with the Jedi council Luke walks out to find Palpatine talking to his father and his mother while Obi-Wan stands by and chips in with a comment or observation every so often and he is like !!! because he never expected this???

Somehow after hearing stories from people, he just. Didn’t expect the fall of the old Jedi Order to take place in a tastefully appointed waiting area, potted plants and chairs and such Maybe one of those little fountains you see in an office sometime for the soothing sound of moving water and whatnot.

Anyway.

Maybe it’s his own personal experience with the man in the throne room on the second Death Star with the dramatic lighting and so on, but it’s a wee bit jarring.

He has one of those “episodes” as the others call them, and gets hustled out of there posthaste while Palpatine is all, “Oh, dear, I do hope he feels better,” and Luke does all the meditating exercises so as not to blurt out that hey, so, that sith lord everyone’s trying to find? RIGHT THERE.

Because lack of evidence and such.

And it’s like.

After seeing what things were like, he’s just. He’s stuck here, probably, right? So. Maybe he can fix things, even a little.

(Right the wrongs that Palpatine wrought and so on.)

And while he’s doing that it occurs to him that Din, okay, Din is alive in this time. And he told Luke about the attack that killed his parents, about being rescued by Mandalorians, and is like.

Can he change that too? Should he? Searches everything he can only to realize he’s too late to do anything about it. That the attack happened before Luke arrived in this time and he has this.

This little breakdown in a library or some such somewhere, because all that fretting and whatnot he did about whether or not he should intervene was for nothing, a moot point because he was too late, and it’s like.

Existential crisis time because if he changes things more than he has, will he even exists in the future? Will Leia?

Will any of their friends exist, and on his way back to the quarters he’s been given he runs into Padme - perhaps sneaking out from visiting Anakin - and she’s surprised to see him, maybe a little worried too.

(She knows his views on the whole attachment thing, yes, but her and Anakin have kept their relationship a secret for a long time now and old habits)

Still, she notices he’s obviously not doing well and they talk for a bit, Luke asking her a hypothetical, like if she could go back in time to  change something to save someone she loved from suffering, would she?

And of course she is like. No, because doing so negates their choices and how would it affect others and so on?

Luke is just, right, of course.

But then she goes on and says, as a person, not a politician, a leader, she absolutely would.

Luke is like, oh, because of course that makes sense, doesn’t it.

Good of the many and so on and anyway.

He goes to his quarters and thinks on it for a bit and realizes, yes okay, the thing with Din was mostly selfish - he wants to say he wouldn’t have done it, but he still doesn’t know  - but Palpatine, okay, Palpatine.

How many million, billions, maybe more, lives was he responsible for? (Luke has his own count for the dead, and monstrously high it may be, but Palpatine is at the heart of all of it.)

So.

He he starts laying the groundwork to expose Palpatine, or maybe just build up, idk, say a Rebel Alliance to oppose him - and discovers that oh, would you look at that.

Because Padme and Bail and their closet conspirators who know something is coming, that Palpatine is surely part of it, but they don’t know the full scope of things.

And honestly, even Luke doesn’t, but.

They think he’s a spy or whatever, and there are all these shenanigans in the meantime, and Luke doing what he can to prove that he’s really on their side, and anyway, anyway.

He plants seeds here and there, everything Leia taight him, everything he picked up, and goes to Obi-Wan for help because his former master and watchdog, and anyway.

Before Luke gets to see if anything he’s done in the past pays off he gets booted back to his time.

Or a version of it.

Ripped back to his time and this moment where he’s sure he’s dead - in the middle of a space battle or collapsing temple somewhere and glowy doohickey, something like that, or, okay, Palpatine trying to kill hi again for the first time - and anyway.

Super disorienting.

Especially when he opens his eyes and Obi-Wan is there along with his father and is that Ahsoka?

But, like.

Older.

Also, though, Din.

And Grogu and Luke is very confused?

But there’s no time for that, as Padme and Leia run in and tell them the Imperials found them, did you get him? Yes, oh, good, and now with the running???

In which they do the running to a familiar ship Luke knows well, and also a few others he likewise knows, and anyway.

They escape just in time because an Imperial fleet was looking for them, and anyway.

Luke is super confused, but that’s okay because exposition time in which he finds out all those seeds he planted worked.

Palpatine was exposed, but didn’t matter because he had contingency plans, you know?

Order 66 never went into effect because someone - Obi-wan was prompted to go back to Kamino and ask after the clones, any...special features that may have been added and anyway.

Palpatine never got his clone army, but he made up for it with battle droids and conscripts and the Empire didn’t win? But neither did the Alliance.

Not yet, anyway, and they’ve been fighting for years at that point. No Death Star - at least not a completed one - and anyway, yes.

Alderaan’s still there, Leia doesn’t have to pretend she can see it in the night sky, and anyway.

A lot has changed but so much is still the same, and everyone, okay, everyone thinks Luke an idiot.

(They’re also not surprised by that, because Skywalker, but yes.)

This whole thing of Luke’s original memories clashing with this new timeline - he keeps his old ones, but it makes for a confusing time, you know? Some point where Luke gets this faraway look and turns to someone - maybe they were dead in that original timeline - and tells them how different everything is.

If they’re feeling brave enough, and honestly most people in Luke’s life are that brave, they ask what he was thinking about to get that look on his face and he’ll tell them about terrible future that didn’t come to pass.

One he feels a little guilty for missing sometimes because those other versions of the people he knew, loved, are gone and he’s the only one who remembers them? But then he’ll see one of them, or someone who was dead in that other timeline and realizes it’s not as simple as that.

Looks at the life he knew before and the one he’s learning now and can’t decide if what he did was the right thing?

But then he’ll catch his parents on a balcony somewhere lost in on another’s eyes and these soft smiles and the love between them that’s grown over the years. Or see Obi-Wan walking about with Cody, and soft smiles and quiet laughter and hundred dozen little moments like that and thinks, selfishly, he doesn’t truly regret it if these people he’s come to love get something like that, you know?

And, then, of course, then Din finds him, or maybe Luke goes back to their quarters on whatever ship or base they’re at then, and he’ll be waiting for him.

They were on the cusp of something when Luke got thrown back in time, but things changed once he got back.

Slow, awkward, because different timelines and experiences, but something new and good, and anyway, anyway.

Din’s there and Luke is being a little (lot) selfish in wanting to keep whatever the two of them are building between them, and Din seems to want the same, and anyway.

Yes????

[zelenacat]

When We Were Young- An Obitine Story- Chapter 5

“Satine?” Obi-Wan whispered.

“Hm?” 

“I’m going to wipe the guards’ memories.”

Opening her eyes, Satine sat up. Obi-Wan was already dressed.

“And then I’ll have to go.”

Satine drew her knees up to her chest, “I’m going to miss you, Ben.”

Obi-Wan leaned in and kissed Satine.

“We’ll see each other again, Love.” he whispered when they separated, their noses inches apart.

Satine nodded and Obi-Wan left, quickly the Duchess dressed and made her way through the servant’s passageways to her quarters.

“You need to get better at sneaking around.” Fesma observed from behind her.

Opening a painting, Satine gestured for Fesma to go first. The lady smiled and passed her, breakfast tray in hand.

“Obi-Wan will be leaving soon,” Satine said, going straight to her closet, “I want to see him off.”

“Where is your lover now?” Fesma teased.

Satine crossed her arms, “Erasing the memories of people who might’ve seen us.”

Fesma snorted.

“Well,” Khaami said, entering through the front door, “that must be very convenient.”

“It is.” Satine grinned.

Once she was dressed, Satine shoved a piece of toast in her mouth and ran down to the landing pad. Obi-Wan was waiting by the ship.

“Your Grace,” the Jedi bent down and kissed Satine’s hand, “thank you for kindly showing me your home.”

“The pleasure was all mine, Obi-Wan.”

“I’ll see you again, my love.” he whispered.

“I do hope so, Ben.” the Duchess smiled.

The Jedi had a gleam in his eye when he strode back to his ship and took off. Satine on the other hand, felt a terrible weight settle on her chest.

“Come,” Fesma wrapped a hand around Satine’s arm, “you must eat more before you attend your council meeting.”

Over breakfast, Satine recounted the tale of her first kiss with Obi-Wan.

“He had just saved my life,” the Duchess reminisced, “and we were still separated from Master Qui-Gon. It began to rain, but before we ran to the cave, I kissed him.”

“You,” Fesma questioned, “the perfect Duchess of Mandalore who’s never done wrong in her life-”

“Kissed a Jedi?” Khaami raised her eyebrows.

Satine sighed.

“When we were eight you cried when Bo-Katan killed your pet frog.” Fesma grinned.

“I know,” Satine bit her lip, “but hey, if I was going to do something bad, why not do something really bad?”

Khaami laughed, Fesma shook her head.

“Are the servants saying anything?” Satine asked, suddenly serious.

The ladies looked at each other.

“Tell me.” Satine surged. “People are still suspicious of you and the Jedi.” Fesma confessed.

Satine found out exactly how suspicious the palace was at her afternoon briefing.

“Perhaps, Your Grace,” a male minister smiled politely, “it is time you think about taking a husband.”

Satine’s mouth fell open.

“If I may, Your Grace,” a female minister interrupted, “my colleague only suggests such as it would strengthen the duchy and give the people something to celebrate.”

“Are we not doing well,” Satine asked, “are the programs we instituted to help rebuild the economy and the planet not working?”

“We are doing well, Your Grace,” said Prime Minister Djarin, sliding Satine a graph, “but a husband could be of assistance.”

“Could,” Satine emphasized, “I can’t have a power-hungry man on my hands who doesn't have the peoples’ interests at heart.”

“No,” the Prime Minister agreed, “you can’t.”

The Duchess crossed her arms, her point made.

“A husband would put the rumors to rest about you and your Jedi companion.” the male minister from before spoke up.

Satine tilted her head, “I thought you held a better opinion of me, Minister.”

“Your Grace, I meant no offense-”

“Then perhaps you should think before you speak,” Satine stood, frowning, “I shall take a husband when I choose.”

The Duchess left her advisors speechless, Her Grace had never walked out of a meeting before, she was quite agreeable and wanted what was best for her planet. Though, this was a matter of personal nature.

“I won’t marry.” Satine vowed to herself in the mirror.

“You may fall in love again.” Khaami suggested from her left.

Satine glowered at her lady and the woman shoved a fork of dinner into her mouth. They were sitting in her personal parlor eating.

“Perhaps,” Fesma began, “if we threw more social engagements, people might think you’re open to the idea.”

“Or I could give speeches.” Satine suggested.

“Both would be best,” Fesma continued, “this past week you were a little withdrawn.”

“I was busy.” 

Khaami huffed, “No kidding.”

The next day at her council meeting, Satine announced that she was going to hold a ball for her twentieth birthday.

“May I ask what caused this change of mind, Your Grace?” asked an advisor.

“I will attempt to find an ally among the noble youth,” Satine crossed her arms, “and if I discern any of them worthy I shall consider marriage.”

The Prime Minister smiled, “Yet you don’t think you shall find anyone.”

“No.”

The advisors looked at one another.

“I also would like to attend more social engagements.” Satine announced.

Half of her advisors were at a loss for words.

“Perhaps, Your Grace,” a female advisor piped up, “an afternoon with the betterment society helping plant trees or other humanitarian work would please you.”

“I would certainly make for good press.” added the Prime Minister.

“Then let’s fill my schedule,” Satine decided, “planting trees, helping with animals, cleaning public parks.”

The Duchess kept herself busy for the next month until her twentieth birthday, she took philanthropic photos, gave speeches at volunteer societies, and made a couple donations. It was a great way to keep her mind off Obi-Wan, and it made it easier to bear missing him.

“I wonder what he’s doing now?” Satine mused one day at dinner.

They were eating in the dining hall now, just Satine and her ladies.

“It’s not good to indulge those thoughts.” Fesma advised.

“Probably meditating,” Khaami answered, “or whatever else the Jedi do.”

Satine smiled at the difference in her ladies’ answers.

“We do have a big day tomorrow, though,” Fesma interjected, raising an eyebrow, “someone has a birthday.”

“Ah, yes,” Satine sighed, “small talk and socializing.”

“Do you really think you’ll find a new beau?” Khaami questioned.

“No,” Satine shook her head, “but it gives the impression that I’m thinking about it.”

The Duchess felt slightly guilty as she was readying for her birthday ball. Was she prideful, because she enjoyed being pampered. In the early morning after breakfast Satine and her ladies got their nails done with some of the other noble ladies. At first, there was an awkward silence when Satine came in.

“Don’t let me interrupt you,” the Duchess smiled, “I too enjoy good conversation.”

The women looked at each other.

“What color, Your Grace?” asked one of the attendants.

“Violet.” Satine answered.

The girls immediately started whispering to one another.

“Is that the color of your gown, Your Grace?” piped up a young noble daughter.

Satine winked, “You’ll see.”

The conversation turned to the beau’s of noble sisters and what lord was the most handsome.

“What about you, Your Grace,” prodded a mother, “any noble son you have your eye on?”

It was subtle, but Satin knew what the woman was asking.

So with a sigh, she answered, “It’s such a difficult position to be in, though I suppose I would like a husband who speaks eloquently.”

“What an interesting choice, Your Grace.”

A beat of silence.

“Satine,” Fesma began, “if your preference hasn’t changed since we were twelve I daresay you’ll fancy half of Mandalore.” 

Khaami giggled.

Satine blushed, “Oh, Fesma, it’s true I like blue eyes, but what do I know?”

“Blue eyes?” questioned a young noble daughter.

“I find them dreamy.” Satine confessed with a smile.

That immediately got the ladies whispering, and satisfied, Satine leaned back. After her nails were dry, Satine and her ladies went to inspect the jewel room.

“What colors are you wearing, Your Grace?” asked the attendant.

“Gold and violet.” Satine straightened her shoulders.

“Lovely,” the attendant paused for effect, “and your ladies?”

Khaami gasped, Fesma’s eyes looked like they were going to fall out of her head.

“Blue and silver.”

The attendant bowed, “Let us browse, Your Grace.”

“We’re going to wear jewels!” Khaami squeaked.

“You’re my ladies,” Satinie smiled, “you have to look the part.”

Khaami ran into Satine’s arms and kissed her cheek.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

The Duchess laughed.

“You’re so kind, Satine.” Fesma’s eyes watered.

“We’re friends,” Satine held out her hand, “I realized I haven’t yet thanked you for your service to me.”

Fesma took the Duchess’ hand and squeezed, “Thank you, Satine.”

Once the proper jewels were chosen, Satine bathed, and while a maid began working with her hair, Satine dismissed Fesma and Khaami to get ready themselves.

“You have glorious hair, Your Grace.” commented the maid.

“Thank you,” Satine smiled, “I’m glad I inherited my father’s color.”

“If I may say, Your Grace, I believe the Duke was as well.”

Thinking of her father made Satine remember the day he was killed. She hadn’t seen it, as she was rushed outside, but she’d heard the shot, and that was enough.

“Your Grace?”

“Oh,” Satine sighed, “I was just thinking of the difficult task ahead of me.”

“The system will adore whoever you choose to wed, Your Grace.”

Satine looked at the maid in the mirror, “Thank you for saying as much.”

Khaami and Fesma returned just as the maid, whose name was Parna, opened up the box that held the jewels Satine was going to wear.

“You look lovely, ladies.” the Duchess smiled.

“I feel like the belle of the ball already,” Khaami grinned, “and it hasn’t even started yet!”

“I’m glad you feel that way,” Satine smiled, placing a crown on her head, “you're going to help me manage my dance card.”

“Oh my,” Fesma clicked her tongue, “what a task.”

The announcer was more than thrilled to announce his Duchess and her ladies, but the ballroom was more receptive. As Satine walked by whispers reached her ears, she was gorgeous, she was young, she was looking for a husband.

Satine stood gracefully in front of her throne.

“I would like to thank you all for coming on this special day for me,” Satine began, “I am extremely grateful to the extensive work you all have done to help me rebuild are planet, and tonight, I would like to celebrate that work.”

The Duchess paused and the crowd clapped politely.

“On this occasion, my twentieth birthday, I am reminded of how fortunate I am,” Satine swallowed, grabbing a glass, “and so tonight is as much of a celebration of yourselves as it is of me. I would like to make a toast: To the good of Mandalore!”

“To the good of Mandalore!” the crowd agreed.

Satine led the way into dinner, her ladies behind her, and, beyond her ladies, found herself seated next to Count Tarrei Vizsla and Countess Ursa Wren. 

“Happy birthday, Your Grace.” the Countess smiled politely.

“Thank you, Countess Wren,” Satine smiled, “I do hope you enjoy the evening.”

“What a wonderful speech, Your Grace,” the Count commented after a beat, “it’s wonderful to see humility reflected in a government.”

“Why thank you-”

“I wonder is it a trait you learned from the Jedi?”

Satine raised an eyebrow, “I think not, my father, the late Duke, was a firm believer in a moral compass and loyalty to one’s country folk, I think such traits are honorable, don’t you, Count Vizsla?”

“I do, Your Grace,” the edge of the Count’s lips twisted, “the late Duke was a man of honor.”

Satine wondered if the Count was implying that she wasn’t honorable. Instead, she smiled and daintily spooned some soup into her mouth.

After dinner, Satine looped her arms between her ladies and let the guests lead the way into the ballroom. Characteristically, the first man to approach her waas Count Vizsla.

“Your Grace,” the man bowed, “may I present my son, Pre Vizsla, Earl of Larrayne.”

Pre Vizsla was neither handsome nor ugly, but when Satine looked into his eyes she saw ambition, and right then she knew that the count Vizsla could never be her father in law.

“Your Grace, would you like to dance?”

Politely, Satine smiled, and held out her hand, “Of course.”

The Duchess and the Earl kept up a polite conversation, but there were stagnant pauses that made both of them despise the other. After the dance, Pre Vizsla bowed and the Duchess was surrounded by a sea of men.

Next, Satine danced with the Viscount Saxon, the Count Awaud, and the Lord Eldar. Although, on the latter, Satine noticed how their conversation kept turning to Khaami. After the dance, Satine took the Lord’s arm and led him to where her ladies were socializing.

“Khaami,” Satine smiled, “May I present Lord Eldar.”

Their eyes met, and Khaami blushed.

“Would you like to dance, Lady Khaami.”

Khaami looked to Satine, who nodded.

“I would love to.”

Satine took Khaami’s glass and joined the conversation, looping her arm through Fesma’s.

“Have you any favorites yet, Your Grace?” winked a noble daughter her age.

Satine swirled her drink, “Unfortunately, I found I have lost some faith in the male sex this night.”

Fesma snorted.

“Don’t worry, Duchess,” a lady said earnestly, “the night is still young.”

“Your right,” Satine took a sip of her drink, “perhaps we’ll all get less intoxicated as the night goes on.”

Fesma giggled.

“I suppose then, Your Grace,” another lady ventured, “that you’ve already made up your mind?”

“Well,” Satine hesitated, “I suppose I wouldn’t mind being swept off my feet.”

“By a blue-eyed gentleman.” Fesma added.

“A romantic gentlemen.” Satine corrected.

“Oh,” agreed a young noble daughter, “wouldn’t we all.”

The ladies giggled.

The dancing went on late into the night, though Satine only danced a couple more times, she and Fesma were fed up with pleasantries. Khaami however, had a wonderful evening in the arms of Lord Eldar.

“He’s my boyfriend now.” Khaami told Satine and Fesma that evening.

“Really?” Fesma grinned.

“Yes, Warx asked me and everything.”

“Warx?” Satine raised an eyebrow.

“Lord Eldar.”

Satiine smiled, “Ah.” 

Fesma returned all the jewels while Khaami helped Satine into her nightgown.

“I’m sorry you had to put on this ruse.” said the lady.

“It’s what’s expected,” Satine replied, knowing exactly what she was talking about, “falling in love with a man I can’t have, that was unexpected.”

“Still, I’m sorry, Satine.” Khaami included.

The full weight of missing Obi-Wan fell on Satine, it had been a week since he’d left, and the Duchess was beginning to wonder what it would be like if he never came back.

“Satine, maybe you should ask about Tyra,” Khaami suggested, “I’m sure Master Qui-Gon would be kind to you.”

“He would’ve,” Satine agreed, “but Master Qui-Gon’s dead.”

The Duchess dismissed Khaami to the room she shared with Fesma and climbed under the covers. Guilt gnawed at her, Satine couldn’t give her children the lives they should’ve had, yet she wanted to keep them close. Satine cried on and off for the next few hours, but eventually fell into a restless sleep. Awaking before Fesma and Khaami would come with breakfast, Satine stared at the ceiling and thought about what Tyra’s life must be like at the temple. Then she thought about Korkie. He was beyond the point of waking up in the night to cry, but he still needed loving care and attention. Something she wasn’t really able to give him with her busy schedule.

“Satine?”

Swallowing, the Duchess sat up and turned to Fesma.

“Are you,” the lady paused, “alright?”

Satine nodded, but said nothing. Fesma stepped forward and set down Satine’s tray, Khaami soon followed with purified water. Satine grunted a thank you.

“I’ll go,” Fesma looked around, “pick out your outfit.”

Khaami sat down on the edge of the bed, “Satine, what’s wrong?”

The Duchess sighed, “I miss Obi-Wan, that’s all.”

“We could arrange time for Korkie in your schedule if you like, Satine.” Fesma added, coming out of the closet.

“I’d like that.” the Duchess admitted.

After she ate, Satine let her ladies help her dress, and escort her to the council meeting.

“You don’t need to worry,” the Duchess told her ladies, “I’ll just say I’m hungover.”

Khaami and Fesma shared a look.

“Okay, okay,” Satine sighed, “I’ll try to smile.”

Fortunately enough for the Duchess, today’s topic was very interesting to her.

“Naboo and Cerea are unhappy with the new tariffs,” the Prime Minister announced, “and both have requested audiences with the Duchess to negotiate new terms.”

“Parliament will dislike that.” observed one advisor. “Perhaps,” Satine spoke up, “I could visit Parliament and see what they feel strongly about, then I would be better prepared for the meeting.”

“Your Grace is willing?” questioned an advisor.

“Yes.” Satine nodded.

The meeting scribe jotted something down. After Satine had dismissed her advisors, the Prime Minister pulled her aside.

“Parliament is a lion’s den,” said Jaru Djarin with care, “you must be prepared to growl when you go in there.”

“I will,” Satine nodded, “is there anything you recommend?”

“Become the crown, a statue, be everything Parliament was made to serve,” at seeing Satine’s look, the Prime Minister added, “I shall be there as well for assistance.”

On the day she was going to Parliament, Satine dressed as if she were going to war. Enrobed in a white and gold dress with the Kryze colors on a royal sash across her chest, Satine looked much like she had when she was crowned.

“What crown shall I send for, Your Grace?” Parna asked, appearing in the doorway.

“The golden warrior’s eye,” Satine decided, “the one that looks like the sun.”

Parna curtsied, “Yes, Your Grace.”

When she’d left, Fesma turned to Satine, “Going to make an impression, are we?”

“My father wore that crown to his most important state affairs,” Satine stated, “I want to show Parliament that I am like my father.” 

Fesma nodded, “It does bolster male egos to see a man in charge.”

“True,” Khaami agreed, “shall we do your hair in a braided bun?”

“Yes, I think so.”

When Parna returned, she gently held out a golden box to Satine.

“The Jewel Master wanted me to tell you he thinks you’ve chosen wisely.”

Satine took the box, “Thank you, Parna, do tell him later that I appreciate his sentiment.”

Parna smiled, “I will, Your Grace.”

Satine’s ladies helped her to the carriage, but from then on she was on her own. When they arrived at the Parliament building, Satine noticed some photographers outside.

“It’s not everyday the Crown visits Parliament, Your Grace.” observed the driver when he caught Satine’s eye.

The door opened and a hand was offered to help the Duchess out of the car. When she stepped out, chatter stopped, the cameras flashed.

“Duchess Satine,” the Prime Minister appeared on the stairs above her, “may I escort you in?”

“I would be delighted.” Satine smiled, gracefully ascending the steps and holding out her hand.

The inside of the Parliament building was decorated with chiseled busts of important leaders, symbolic paintings, and marble pillars that, combined with the marble floor, caused Satine’s shoes to echo with every step.

“The Honorable Prime Minister Djarin and Her Grace, Duchess Kryze of Mandalore.”

Satine felt every pair of eyes in the room on her, she hadn’t graced Parliament with her presence since she’d opened it when she was a new Duchess. 

At the end of the room there were two chairs which Prime Minister Jaru led them towards, one a wooden throne, elegantly carved, sat on the left of the center throne, which was marble. Ascending the dias, Satine turned and sat gracefully on the center throne, once she was fully seated, everyone, including the Prime Minister, followed.

“Our monarch is here today,” began Jaru Djarin, “to hear your reasoning behind the strict tariffs on Cerea and Naboo, she would like to open the floor to discussion and hear what you feel strongly about.”

Satine studied the room, Mandalore had four political parties that each held an amount of seats in Parliament, the long hall had four seating areas against the walls, and each group sat under a flag of singular color. Red, orange, yellow, and white.

“Your Grace,” a minister from the red group stood, “we have just been through a terrible ordeal, and Naboo and Cerea, our closest trading partners, certainly wouldn’t mind helping us.”

Chatter rose up around the room.

“Unfortunately,” the Duchess began, speaking as loud as she could while remaining dignified, “they do mind, and feel they are being treated unfairly. If we wish them to help us, we must give them something in return.”

That certainly sparked whispers. 

As more and more ministers stood, Satine saw where the argument split, the red and yellow parties were on one side, while orange and white were on the other. The red and yellow parties felt that they should be aggressive with the tariff negotiations, the orange and white parties disagreed, and thought the opposite.

“Perhaps,” Satine began, trying to calm the uproar that had suddenly erupted, “we should stand firm on our implementation of the tariffs, yet be lenient and willing to negotiate on some of the principles.”

The room went silent.

“What principles do you suggest, Your Grace?” asked the Prime Minister.

Satine straightened, “We lower the percent of tax down from twenty five percent to fifteen, yet we ask for a loan to be repaid without interest.”

The ministers whispered among each other, the Prime Minister smiled. It took an hour to hammer out the rest of the details, yet all of Parliament agreed that the Duchess had divulged a good tactic.

The next morning, Satine woke to a squeal from Khaami.

“Satine!”

“Sh, Khaami-”

“Satine, you won't believe it!”

Sighing, the Duchess sat up.

“They’re calling you the She-Wolf of Mandalore!” Khaami giggled.

“Your performance yesterday was spectacular, Satine.” Fesma agreed.

Grinning and giggling like a little girl, Satine asked to see the holonews.

“She-Wolf of Mandalore,” Satine smiled, “I like that.”

[cobrakiin]

I Wouldn't Fall For Someone I Thought Couldn't Misbehave

Cojeel | Mentioned Lulev + Stingue | Rated: M (Nothing Super Explicit but ends with Very Spicy Fluff)

When Gajeel signed on for helping re-stabilize the Magic Council after the bombings, he didn't expect all the redundant paperwork, nosy coworkers, or the smokin' hot redhead that likes to play dangerous games with him.

And he should really learn to lock his front door... but why should he? He's practically rewarded for leaving it unlocked!

Aka the post-Rhodonite/Road Knight oneshot that my brain decided to inspire me to write by repeatedly chanting "COBRA SHOW HIS LEGGY" repeatedly until I finished writing it.

[AO3] [FFN]

________________________

"Everything okay?"

"Nn?"

"You've been quiet," Levy reiterated.

"'Course I am, I've got all these bullshit reports to do," Gajeel grumbled, motioning to the mess of papers on his desk. "If I'd known helping clean up after the Council was gonna involve so much goddamn paperwork, I would've told 'em I can't read and saved a hundred trees."

"That's very noble of you," Levy said, unconvincingly flat. She leaned her elbow on her desk, resting her chin in her hand. Her honey brown eyes narrowed, watching him suspiciously. "I meant that you haven't seemed to be your usual self recently. You've been way more distracted lately."

He snorted dismissively. "I ain't you. Sue me for findin' never-ending paperwork boring."

"Come to think of it," Levy ploughed on, "It started right after that mission to recapture that Oracion Seis member." She tapped her index finger against her chin, feigning thought. "And he got away…"

Gajeel sharply eyed her.

His position in the New Magic Council was… unique. Gajeel was only handed cases regular Rune Knights couldn't handle - he was a Dragonslayer whose magic made near-unbreakable iron objects and also happened to be an expert tracker, so he became the guy who could track and capture the more elusive, difficult targets.

An escaped, dark mage Dragonslayer? Right up his alley.

Officially… Gajeel had found Cobra, but the sudden issue of an active child trafficking ring took precedence and Cobra 'got away' in the mess of it all.

Unofficially… Gajeel had found Cobra and they'd exchanged blows at first. Testing each other until Cobra's real target had revealed itself. Then the two Dragonslayers tore those kidnappers to shreds. Once the kids were safe with Council forces, Gajeel had managed to track Cobra down again a few remote towns over. (Gajeel tracked him; Cobra didn't 'let' Gajeel find him again - nope! Finding him again was all Gajeel!) And that's where everything got a lot messier and a lot hotter… and a lot stickier...

Dragons were very much creatures that abided by the Universal Law of the Four F's - food, fight, flee, or fuck - sometimes there was a Fifth F in there, too… something about "Friend" or whatever.

Gajeel meeting Natsu? Fight on sight.

Meeting Laxus? Yeah, there was a Fight, but Gajeel was a little more honest with himself these days that he had actually wanted to Flee the Thunder God.

Wendy and Rogue? He guessed that's where "Friend" came in. Maybe also Food somewhere mixed up in there; they both really needed to eat more. That counted, right?

That blonde idiot mated to his brother? Well… if Sting weren't practically plastered to Rogue's side every waking minute of the day, Gajeel wouldn't mind a Fight with him. (Besides, the guy reminded him too much of Salamander.)

But meeting Cobra? That was the first time his inner dragon skipped past all the other F's - looked right at that cocky little shit-eating elf - and decided on Fuck. And it soon became apparent that Cobra's inner dragon had come to the same conclusion about Gajeel.

It was not at all what he had expected when he'd been handed that case file. He'd expected a Fight and not a Fuck. And while he got both - he was getting plenty of the second one. Even now.

He wasn't stupid: Cobra would do a lot more good out there slaughtering slavers than locked back up for, what? Crimes he committed as a teenager? (Following that mission, Gajeel had checked what was left of Cobra's file after the bombings. While he was sure the redhead had done much worse than what was in there, legally all they could hold him on now was "association with dark mages" and a couple of assassinations they "suspected" him of.) Killing traffickers the Council couldn't (or wouldn't) go after was basically community service, in Gajeel's opinion.

An added plus to all that "community service" was that Cobra sometimes showed up after Gajeel was done with a mission. Always approached him alone, always knew where they wouldn't be seen, always teasing so many somethings without saying anything directly. And sometimes whispered somethings led to somewheres - like the bed of a shitty inn for the night or a tent deep in the woods... or that alley behind that diner that one time.

"It's okay to give yourself some slack, you know," Levy's voice dragged him unwillingly out of his thoughts. "Sure, you didn't catch him. But you saved twelve kids and stopped more from being kidnapped. That's an accomplishment, too!"

Gajeel rolled his eyes. He 'hasn't been himself'... tch, yeah - 'cause he's been getting regularly fuckin' laid! He wanted to brag and practically had to bite his tongue to force himself not to.

"I don't really care that much about catching him," he half-lied. He did want to catch Cobra - to keep chasing and catching him, over and over - he just didn't want to arrest the poison dragon. "I ain't beating myself up over that. I've- Look. It's somethin' else, okay?"

The short bluenette blinked her surprise at him before her mouth widened into a smirk. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay," she said, pretending to go back to her own stack of reports. "I thought you might have been upset about the Cobra situation. But from that reaction, I'd almost guess you were seeing someone."

Gajeel forced a scowl in an attempt to squash the heat rising to his face. "So? Even if I was - and I'm not sayin' I am - it's not a fuckin' crime." Except that in his case, it most certainly was. He snorted indignantly. "I didn't bother you half this much when you an' cosplay girl went away on that gal-pal trip to that couples-only hotspring."

Levy's eyebrows immediately arched at that. "Gajeel, you sent me a text message that contained a book, a bunny, and a scissor emoji. Fourteen times." She shook her head. "Lucy saw it and almost passed out from embarrassment because she doesn't know what a kind, supportive asshole you are."

He spluttered. "Don't remember, didn't happen."

"If you ever start dating someone, just know I'm going to have my revenge. Tenfold."

TWUNNNG.

The sound of a lone, reverberating guitar string being plucked played as his lacriphone buzzed in his pocket. (With his tough skin, he couldn't always feel when his phone vibrated. When he had first started using it, he had the notification sound set to an annoyed cat's meow, but Pantherlily refused to go out on missions with him if he didn't have his phone set to silent. Reluctantly, he'd change it to a guitar twang to appease his friend.)

The lock screen showed he had two messages from a number he didn't recognize.

The first message was an image. Taken from a bathtub... his bathtub! In his house! A leg - warm chestnut skin dripping wet as soap streaked down the exposed, toned thigh - casually hung over the side of his bathtub, suds and the shimmer of the overhead light on the water obscuring anything more tantalizing lurking below.

Light, faint purpling could be seen on the inner flesh of the thigh, and Gajeel's mouth went half-dry at the memory of suckling and pinching the soft skin there between his fangs.

The second message flat-out taunted Gajeel: [You should really learn to lock your doors, Mr. Councilman... who knows what kind of criminal could break in?]

Gajeel could practically feel the blood rushing from his rapidly blanking mind to somewhere much, much lower. He managed to hold back the approving, dragonish purr that threatened to rumble from his very core.

"So you are seeing someone," Levy troublesomely commented over Gajeel's shoulder, causing Gajeel to jolt and nearly fumble his phone onto the floor. That sneaky little shrimp! When the fuck did she even get there?! "You know, you don't have to hide it, we're friends. Who is she?"

Right. The pic was only of a leg. (And it was a fuckin' nice leg, the guy had a great pair of them with a perfect, shapely ass to match.) All Levy had seen was a leg. Sent from a burner phone, not that she'd know that just from the quick peek. Nothing identifiable.

Taking a few calming breaths, Gajeel grit his fangs in a friendly yet dismissive frown. "It's a he, Shrimpy. Don't go makin' assumptions 'bout who I bed." Despite how they picked on each other, she was his friend, and he'd toss her that one bone. "And he would prefer if my work life didn't go poking into our personal life. As a matter of fact, so would I."

Levy feigned thought for a moment. But the teasing, troublesome glint in her eyes remained. "You mean to tell me that he doesn't want to be seen with a grown man that collects Hello Kitten merchandise and refuses to lock his own front door?"

________________________

It was impossible to ignore the other male's scent in his home, warmly dampened by a recent bath. Gajeel tossed his uniform coat on the hook by the door and kicked his boots off in a hurry. The scent carried into the kitchen, where it was obvious a certain home invader had definitely helped himself to the contents of Gajeel's fridge, and he followed it to the living room and to who he knew was waiting there for him.

Gajeel knew who he was dealing with by now: Cobra went where he pleased, when he pleased. Nothing could hold him in one place for long and, knowing how much Cobra valued his freedom, Gajeel didn't care to try. Besides... the redhead was just as enticing whether he was standing in front of him or walking away - neither was a bad view.

And it wasn't a bad view that waited for him at all.

Freshly bathed and stretching the length of the couch lounged a certain redheaded poison dragon. His hair was still damp and… and Gajeel had to blink a few times, because Cobra was wearing his clothes: a loose black t-shirt and pair of gray sweatpants, both a little big on his lithe frame.

"What," the lounging elf playfully sneered, "Did you stop for flowers?"

Gajeel crossed the space between them in two strides and practically dove into the arms of the smaller man. Their mouths met and the battle for dominance began. And Cobra pulled, fought back in their embrace; he didn't lay there passively. Cobra was flexible and could move with ease, but Gajeel had more mass on his side and used it to his advantage as he rolled them both off the couch and onto the carpet.

He managed to pin Cobra beneath him, settling his hips between Cobra's legs, and almost losing all rational thought as he rutted against him.

The iron dragon's lips parted as a husky growl rumbled from his throat and slipped out past his fangs: "So ya broke in, used all my hot water, stole my clothes, and cleaned out my fridge? And you expect me to let you get away with that for free?"

Gajeel was far from mad. Cobra being in his house, seeing Cobra wearing his clothes, knowing his mate was sated by food he provided - it was all pulling right at that primal, possessive side of him in all the right ways.

"Not breaking in if you don't lock your doors," Cobra replied cooly. "You were practically asking for it."

Gajeel wanted to fuck him through the goddamn floor right there and then.

"Let's play a game," Cobra said, mouth still so close that their lips brushed with each word, single violet eye glinting up at the man above him.

"Yeah? Since when do you wanna play games...?"

Smirking, Cobra pulled back, knowing just how to egg Gajeel on: "If you're afraid you'll lose, I could always-"

Gajeel silenced him with a kiss, pressing him firmly against the floor with his body. "I like winning games," he rumbled, "'Specially against you."

"If I can pin you to the couch, I get to fuck you," Cobra explained the first part of the game.

The iron dragon immediately perked to attention. He loved when Cobra spoke dirty, and loved the sound of this game - just as much as Cobra knew he would. "That sounds kinda one-sided," he said, though he shifted his weight in anticipation anyways.

"Let me finish," the redhead scolded him, enjoying the way Gajeel's breath hitched as he pressed himself flush against him. Cobra's hand slid between them, sliding down, and his palm paid special, gripping attention to a growing bulge in Gajeel's pants. "If you can get me upstairs, you can tie me to the bed and do whatever you want to me."

Gajeel clenched his eyes shut as Cobra's hand squeezed suddenly, firmly, as a faint groan escaped him. "Really, you're s-sure?"

"Yeah," Cobra confirmed. It hadn't been too long ago that the thought of being tied up and fucked would have made him recoil, but he trusted Gajeel. He knew Gajeel had a thing for bondage and trusted him to not take things too far - and Gajeel wanted to show him that trust was not misplaced.

Iron claws surfaced and flexed, hungry fangs peeked out of Gajeel's mouth in barely contained urge. "Funny, you gave yourself the closer spot."

"You've got more muscle on your side."

"You've got fancy ears, you know what I'm gonna do," Gajeel pointed out.

Cobra gingerly traced a finger down Gajeel's jaw, fangs glinting in a devilish little grin. "When's that ever stopped you...?"

________________________

"Hn?" Gajeel cocked a studded brow, noting how easily his fingers had gone in.

The tied-up redhead under him still somehow managed to scrape up enough cockiness in his voice: "I was ready for either of us to win tonight."

"Ya mean ta tell me that you were up here pleasing yerself in MY bed and you just let me sit at my desk ALL FUCKEN DAY?!"

[clockworkgraystairs]

I just went a read all your pregnant Jurdan hcs and my gosh, they were so amazing!! If you want and can, could you write one where Jude and Cardan tells the court of shadow crew personally about her being pregnant. I feel like they are her second family tbh.

Hi there!! Sorry it took me a long to write this, but it’s finally finished!!

You’re totally right, they are like a second family to her and deserve all the love and respect! 🧡

Also, thank you so so much for your lovely comment!

Scheming great schemes masterlist

Read on AO3 here!

Tags: @thesirenwashere

If I was supposed to tag somebody else PLEASE forgive me and let me know! (it’s like 2 am and I’m not thinking straight rn) 

SCHEMING GREAT SCHEMES:

The Court of Shadows finds out Jude’s pregnant

(aka Cardan is being overprotective again)

Three weeks had passed since Jude learned she was pregnant. Still, they chose not to make the official announcement until the Full Moon festivities, which lasted almost a week. 

Cardan’s wish was to shout it from their balcony the same day his wife had told him, and then throw a revel for two full weeks. But Jude had convinced him to wait, not wanting to make more fuss than the strictly necessary, which being honest, was going to be a lot. 

At the moment, only three people besides her and Cardan knew about it: Vivi, Taryn and Heather. Even if Jude was dying to see Asha’s incredulous face she’d decided to make her wait until the official announcement. Telling her before would make her feel important. Jude was decided to show her the exact opposite. 

Still, she could feel Asha’s eyes following her everywhere, always calculating. Almost suspicious. Could she know something already? And if she did, why staying silent?

Jude inhaled deeply and lifted her hand to her belly, she needed to stop being so paranoid. 

Her mind kept thinking about it while she entered the Court of Shadows hideout. Jude usually went there when she wanted to train or work without being bothered. It was calm and quiet and-

She stopped in her tracks as she realized the place was not empty. In fact, one could say it was quite crowded.

The Ghost, Roach and the Bomb stood in the middle of the room, and to Jude’s surprise, Cardan was in front of them. They were serious enough that she could almost believe there was a war approaching. She rushed to them with furrowed eyebrows.

“This is top priorit-” Cardan paused, noticing her. “Jude.”

The others turned and nodded, welcoming her. Still, something alarmed in their eyes that made Jude’s shoulders tensed immediately.  

“What’s wrong?” She asked. 

She reached Cardan, her fingers itched to take his, but this was a serious meeting. Maybe later. His expression was unreadable, one that he usually had when his mind was solely focused on a single issue.

“I meant to talk to you later but, I guess now is a good moment as any. From now on, Jude, the Court of Shadows will be your personal guard.” Her what?! She stared at her husband wide eyed. “They shall accompany you on every step and make sure nothing will-” 

“Personal guard?” What on earth was going on? She gazed back to the others, looking for a reasonable explanation. “Did I miss something?”

The Bomb stepped forward and gave a slight bow. “You have my word Your Highness, that no harm will come to the High Queen, no matter the threat.” 

She looked at Jude solemnly, frowning a bit. 

Ok she’d definitely missed something. 

“Can someone please explain why am I to be protected?” Jude crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at Cardan.

He cleared his throat, looking back to their friends. “Your safety has always been important to me, wife.” 

She didn’t buy it, he wasn’t even making eye-contact with her. Suddenly, something clicked inside her brain. 

That idiot.

“Cardan.” 

“Roach and Ghost, you will be with her at all hours. On council meetings, one of you will be inside with her and the other one outside guarding the door. When she retires to sleep, one will be outside the room and the other may go to rest. You-”

“Cardan” She repeated louder this time. He didn’t answer.

“...will report to me of every suspicious movement around her, no matter where it comes from.” He turned to Bomb. ���Lilliver, you will be in charge of the perimeter, you are the best at it. Also when Jude needs to bathe or something, l trust you to be with her and assist if she-”

“Oh my god, stop!” Her fists were now tightened at her sides. She wasn’t sure of who to punch first. 

“Jude” The Bomb started, her voice soothing. “It is ok, whatever threat is coming we will not let it reach you.”

“Is there an actual threat upon me, my King?” The way she was glaring at him could make dozens run for their lives, but he just returned her look with strange adoration. She wanted to slap him so hard. 

“Come on Queeny, you can let us protect you for once.” Roach teased, standing next to the Bomb. “It will not make you look less terrifying than usual, no offense.” 

“No one will dare to question that.” Cardan concealed, with that irritating and charming smile of his.

“I am not saying…” She sighed. “I do not need any protection. Whatever nonsense Cardan told you please just forget it.”

“They shall not.” 

Cardan’s voice was back to that autoritary tone. When she get to be alone with him…

At some point the Bomb had approached her and took her hand. “If something is frightening you Jude, we can start investigating it immediately.” 

“I am not scared!” Jude jerked back her hand. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she groaned deeply. “I’m… gods… I’m pregnant ok?”

Raising her gaze again she found the three of the Court frozen in their places. Roach and the Bomb mouth-opened. The Ghost with an eyebrow raised. All of them wide eyed. All of them turning to Cardan in a single motion. Jude found herself biting down a laugh from their incredulous faces. 

Cardan shrugged as if it didn’t change anything. Still, the intensity of his eyes sent a shiver down her spine. 

After a couple of seconds in complete silence, something finally exploded. The Bomb let out a sharp squeal that startled even Roach before throwing herself at Jude in a tight hug, which she answered a little clumsy at the beginning, unused to such displays of affection from her. 

Roach laughed, throwing his head back. “Oh I see now. I knew there was something odd about all of this but…” He swore, still cackling. “Congratulations you both!”

On the other hand, the Ghost looked as if he’d just solved a big mystery. “Ah, I noticed Taryn was keeping some sort of secret from me, got me worried for a while.” He sighed and smiled at the couple, congratulating them as well. 

In all of that time, the Bomb hadn’t let go of Jude, murmuring surprise words and happy nonsense about teaching their baby how to hide and be a spy. Jude didn’t know if being delighted or terrified, but couldn’t contain her smile at her friend’s joy. 

At some point, the Ghost, who Jude never noticed leaving, came back to the room with food, wine and juice. That last one probably for her. They sat on the cushions and carpets and talked, teased and laughed, Jude telling them the story of how she’d found out she was pregnant.

Cardan, who had already came down from his ‘King mode’, joined their happiness and jokes, thanking them for their words. He reach for Jude, caressing her cheek with the back of his fingers. Watching her with something between love and wariness. “I hope you all have a better understanding now of why her security is priority from now on.”

Jude rolled her eyes, and took his hand. “I get your motives, but you’re really exaggerating, I do not need… well, all of that!”

“Oh no no, stop right there Jude.” Roach said. “Not even a cold breeze is going to touch that belly of yours, I am telling you.”

The other two nodded in agreement. The Bomb suggesting something about not letting anyone even approach Jude without proper previous inspection. 

She stared at them wide eyed. Those traitors. Cardan flashed her a triumphant grin.

Roach noticed Jude’s betrayed glare and shrugged. “Sorry lass, but even if we were not given royal commands to protect you, we would anyway. It may seem like you do not need it now but… it is not of public knowledge yet.” 

“Once it is,” The Bomb continued. “It will be impossible to guess the reactions among the folk. Better to be prepared for anything.”

“Thank you both, my wife is a little stubborn. But I will not take any risks.” Cardan’s grip on her hand tighten a bit. His voice so soft and full of gratitude it made Jude’s chest shrink. 

She sighed, knowing any further excuse would lead nowhere. She really understood, still, being guarded the whole time felt strange. Could she deal with it?

Unless...

“Don’t you think that making Lil stay with me while I bathe is a little too much?” She asked, taking a casual sip from her cup.   

Cardan pulled her closer and laid his chin on her head. “When it comes to you, my love, there is no such thing as ‘too much.’” 

Jude nodded. Raising her hand she started caressing his jaw, trailing her movements down to his neck, slower every inch. She muttered “I just thought you would be a better companion for me on that moment, that’s all. You could keep me close and... well observed the whole time.”

She practically heard his heart skip a beat. He swallowed, and made a low growling sound intended only for her. 

Someone cleared his throat, making them look back at their companions. 

The Roach was trying so hard not to laugh while watching the Bomb. She’d stopped chewing her food and stared at nothing, dramatically uncomfortable. The Ghost kept eating as if he didn’t hear anything, a mocking little smirk on his lips.

Heat climbed up Jude’s cheeks, she hadn’t realized they were being that obvious. Then again, it wasn’t like Cardan didn’t enjoy the attention. 

He chuckled, probably knowing what she was thinking, and raised his cup. “To you, my friends. For everything you have done for us, and what you are still willing to do. I will never find a way to show you how thankful I am.”

Jude mimicked him, her cup filled with grape juice. “You are family to us too, please never forget that.”

Glasses were raised, a couple of tears spilled and more hugs were given. This was one of those moments when Jude didn’t feel like the world was folding over her. She could breathe easily, and laugh in that little bubble of trust and love. Worries like ruling a kingdom, the former Court of Teeth, Lady Asha, nothing mattered now. Just this, just them.

Soft lips pressed to the base of her neck, startling her. She turned to Cardan as his arms surrounded her. “You look happy.” He mumbled. It was not a question. 

Jude cupped his cheek and grazed his mouth. Behind her, the Bomb said something like: “They just keep doing that in front of me, gods why?” 

They ignored her. Cardan chuckled, his chest shaking against hers. 

“I am.” She answered, finally pressing their lips together.

[daggerandrose]

Happy 28th everyone! I hope everything is doing well during this crazy time! Remember to take care of yourself and be kind to everyone.

Please leave a comment/kudos on these fics! (All of these fics are under 10k as of today)

And I’d Marry You Harry (Because You Forced Me), 24k, by @2tiedships2​

Louis had blindly followed Harry back to his office, closing the door behind him.

“I’m slightly confused,” Louis said. “Actually I’m very confused.”

“About what?”

“What just happened upstairs? Did you forget that you told your boss that we were engaged? Because the last time I checked we are very much not engaged. At all. No offense, but we never will be.”

“It’s really not that complicated,” Harry explained. “We get married and in a year or so we can file for divorce. No big deal. It’s not like you can’t wait a little while to find someone else anyway.”

Louis was going to pay a bus driver to accidentally run into Harry. A concussion would be fine. Obviously a couple broken limbs. That’s something that’s not complicated.

Or The Proposal AU featuring Harry as Sandra Bullock, Louis as Ryan Reynolds, and all the fun a fake relationship and forced engagement can bring.

But When We Kiss..., 8k, by @indiaalphawhiskey​

Louis only nodded, still smiling. “Right, okay. As much fun as this has been, I really doubt the lovely heated seating of my car will dull our banter. Or...” he dragged out the ‘r’, eyes mischievous. “Are you really going to let a…” he assessed Harry. “Twenty? Twenty year gap,” he confirmed. “Be the reason you get hypothermia? Is that really the hill you want to freeze on, Mr. Principled?”

–– Or, while Harry and Louis adore the chase, they find they adore each other much, much more.

don’t know if i could ever go without, 14k, by @lovehl​

“We’ve come up with a solid solution. You’re not going to like it.”

“What is it?” Louis narrows his eyes suspiciously, glancing at a visibly enthusiastic Liam.

“What if you pretended to be an Alpha?” Zayn suggests.

just a little dance, 1k, by @suspendrs​

“Keep your head up, love,” he says, pulling away and grabbing Harry’s hands. “Dance with me.”

“I don’t want to dance,” Harry pouts, but he lets Louis pull him into the center of the dark kitchen, anyway.

“Just a little dance,” Louis says, tugging Harry’s hands until he’s flush against his front.

Or, a tiny drabble based on the cutest lyric from perfect now

Adore You, 23k, by @2ofusmp4​ 

When they’d first come into this lifestyle, the being in their roles in their day to day lives, Louis had struggled with it. He’d found it hard to distinguish between what Harry was doing because he thought he had to, with Louis as his dominant, and what he wanted to do just because of them being partners.

Being ‘twenty-four-seven’ in the traditional sense wasn’t exactly realistic in their life, no matter how much they tried to make it work. They could do small things within their power dynamic, they could try their best to keep it going, but more or less, it wasn’t a constant thing. Harry called it submission with weekends and bank holidays, and it worked for them.

As different as it was from what he expected, no matter what, in the end, it worked for them – and that was all that mattered.

“Can I… take care of you?” Harry had asked, his eyes looking everywhere but at Louis. Louis had just turned twenty-three, they’d been exploring things, doing new things for years, and Harry still managed to surprise him. “Like… Just do things for you like you take such good care of me.”

OR: A canon-compliant fic where Harry wants nothing more than to take care of Louis.

I Love You (From My Head To-ma-toes), 26k, by @yousopugly​

When Louis is dared to ask out the attractive Man in the Sweater Vest at the pub, he certainly doesn't expect their relationship to bloom the way it does. Featuring a dare that isn't really a dare, too many vegetable references, and two silly boys falling in love.

Does it Look Devious or Something?, 4k, by @haztobegood​

When someone complains about Louis’ new business, he must defend his sex toy shop to the city council.

Written for Prompt #231: The amazement at how much hot air people manage to produce.

Omega Show Repair, 6k, by @musketrois

“Can I help you with anything?” The worker asked.

Heat spread across Harry’s cheeks as he realized he had been silently staring.

“Yes!” Harry scrambled to find the words he needed when all he wanted to do was continue admiring his surroundings, the man included.

The man’s smile didn’t falter as Harry gathered himself, continuing, “I had some questions.”

Harry walked closer and placed his warm hands on the edge of the counter. “My favorite pair of boots need resoled but I wanted to check if you’d be willing to do that for me.”

or

Harry needs to get his favorite pair of boots fixed.

I Don't Love You I Want in Your House, 6k, by @londonfoginacup​

Harry comes into the bakery almost every day trying to woo Louis.

Zayn works out at the gym maybe a little more than necessary so that he can get the chance to watch Liam train.

Niall is the only one who ever checks the mail.

Your secret's safe with me, 7k, by @cameupshort

He knew almost everything about Haz, considered him his best friend. He knew his favourite movies and books, how he liked his coffee, knew how many pets he had and what he was most afraid of. Louis knew how to calm him down when he was panicking, and that he’d lost his virginity to his ex-boyfriend when he was 17. He knew that Haz had curly hair, green eyes, that he was tall and considered himself slightly awkward. He knew his Instagram account that only had aesthetic pictures or ridiculous jokes, but in the all the time that Louis had known him, he’d never learnt, or been allowed to know, Haz’s full name, what he sounded like, or what he looked like.

Louis didn't care.

Or, when Louis' favourite singer comes back and announces he's performing again, him and the rest of his group chat decide to go. When Haz, the man Louis' fallen in love with without meeting him, says that he can't, Louis tries his best to convince him with a drunken phone call, hearing his voice for the first time. It's not until he's at Royal Variety that he swears he can hear it again.

The Finding Sea, 17k, by @angelichl

They met at the ocean, in a way. It makes sense for them to fall in love at the ocean too.

Harry is in love with his best friend. They go on vacation together.

- Fort Myers, Florida. -

Missed Connection, 39k, by @littlelouishiccups

Soulmate AU where your soulmate’s first words to you are tattooed on your skin.

With a boring and generic soul mark like Hi, Harry is pessimistic he’ll ever find his soulmate or that he’ll realize it when he meets them. But he could always have it worse, like his new friend Louis who had a drunken one night stand with his soulmate a few years ago and woke up the next morning alone.

Also, I’ve been reading a lot of sterek fics recently and I found a gold mine in @isthatbloodonhisshirt‘s fics! Holy wow! So many amazing fics!

[kya-chan14]

Garrus x Reader Pt. 1

 Note: In this story you are Fem!shepard’s little sister. In the first ME I imagine Shepard being around her early thirties, so i put the reader in her early twenties - so you’re fairly new in the alliance. Plus, your have like a goth/emo look. Idk what’s it called. (You watch NCIS? You know Abby? The forensics scientist. Yeah, you’re like her and Mordin combined. I wanted to make it fun.) 

  Summary:  Unlike your sister, you prefer to stay out of the line of fire. You were training to be an engineer/scientist. You know, calibrating heavy weaponry or repairing vehicles, stuff like that. But when your sister requests to have you on the Normandy with her when she goes to fight Saren, your in for the roller coaster of your life. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Both of your parents were in the alliance military. You and your sister’s childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from posting to posting, never staying in the same location for more than a few years. Following in your parents�� footsteps, your sister enlisted at the age of eighteen. Ten years later, now your able to enlist as well. You wanted to be in a totally different department though. You wanted to be a scientist and engineer. 

   Your sister proved herself at Akuze, showing that she is a sole survivor. Jane Shepard, the best hope humanity has for finding their place in the council. You’re proud of her, you’re happy to say, ‘That’s my big sis!’ All the stories she has to share and her captain is amazing. Part of you wishes you could go with her on all of these adventures, but on the other hand you’re not a soldier. You’re just someone you studies forensics and mechanics.

     You don’t plan on staying in the shadows for long though. One day you’re going to prove to your sister that you are just as great in the lab as she is on the battlefield. You do have a goal to accomplish after all, to cure the genophage. You’ve wanted to ever since you learned about the history of the Krogan. 

     Anyways, right now you’re still in alliance training back on Earth. The last time you heard from Jane, she said she was on a shake down run on a prototype war ship on her way to Eden Prime. She didn’t tell you anything else, she couldn’t. On a need-to-know basis. And I didn’t need to know. This happened about two days ago. Now you didn’t even know if she was alive.

    While you were finishing your report on a deceased rabbit, which died from a new species of a poisonous snake, one of your team mates sent you a message on your omni-tool and requested you to meet in the mess hall.

        “Shepard, this is Wilson. We’re all in the mess listening to the news, there’s something that I believe you’d be interested in. Put down the scalpel for once and come see this.” 

   You were hesitant about leaving your work, but you left the lab and headed for the mess regardless. 

  When you arrived you found that a crowd was already there. You made your way through and found Wilson. 

        “I’m here, now what is it you wanted me to hear?”

   He then walked away and helped Adams turned on the radio. When it comes on, you couldn’t believe what you were hearing.

       “In the light of the recent attack on Eden Prime, many colonial investors are pulling there support for future projects. Proponents of expanded human colonization insist that Eden Prime was a isolated case. Nevertheless, colonist enrollment has dropped sharply. Many colonial proposals are on hold until backers have some reassurance that human colonies will be adequately protected.”

     You turned to Wilson confused. 

     “What hit them?” 

      “Geth. Word is that there was an army of the swarming Eden Prime.” 

      “Bullcrap. The Geth haven’t left the veil in about 200 years.” 

      “You’re not the only one to say that, but it’s true.” Wilson set a hand on your shoulder. “I know your sister was there when the attack hit and I already talked to the Instructor. A ship is waiting at the docks to take you to the Citadel.” 

     You looked at him dumbfounded. So many questions going through your head, but right now you didn’t care. You were just thankful to have such a good friend. 

      “Thank you Wilson. You’re a damn good friend.” After you said your piece, you were gone. You had to see Jane. Make sure she was alive. 

--- 

After the long flight you had finally arrived at the Citadel.You raced for C-sec knowing that they should hold some record for your sisters whereabouts. You did your best to not bump into anyone on your way there. 

     Once you’ve finally made it, you raced in and asked the first officer you saw. A human. 

       “Excuse me sir, I’m looking for my sister! She’s known as Commander Shepa-” 

        “I’m going to stop you right there girl.” 

      The officer held up his hand in a moment of silence. He looked annoyed. 

    “Number one, you don’t just run in here like a maniac. Two, there’s no need to yell. And three, you expect me to believe you are related to Commander Shepard?” 

     “Why not?” 

     “Look at you!” 

   He gestured to your being as a whole. 

    “You look as far from a military family than a whale compared to a fish.” 

    “So just because I dress differently, you’re not going to help me?” 

    “Get out of her kid.” 

   You shake your head in annoyance and walk away. If someone was going to judge your relations through your attire, than you were going to have a harder time finding information than originally planned. 

   You started thinking of all the ways you could find her. Hell, you even thought of going to the shadow broker just to find out if Jane was alive or not. You didn’t know what else to do. You were scared, you weren’t sure if you wanted to know what happened to her. But you had to find her regardless. 

   You started wonder the back alleys for anything or anyone to help you get in touch with your sister. Instead you came across a group of people who you got a bad vibe from. A quarian standing in the middle of it all, you had a feeling she was in trouble. 

   “Where’s the shadow broker? Where’s Fist?” She seemed suspicious, looks like she got the same vibes. 

   “They’ll be here. Where’s the evidence?” A turian ran his hand on her sensually. The quarian pushed it away. 

   “No way. The deal’s off.” 

   She started walking away until the turian pulled out a gun and aimed it right for her. On instinct you pulled out your own firearm and shot the turian. The Quarian whipped around in surprise to hear a gunshot. Then it turned into an all out fire fight. The quarian on one end, and you at the other. 

  You were only trained with a pistol, so you couldn’t do much damage. On the other hand, the quarian had a damn shotgun! In the end, together you neutralized the threat. She approached you in a calm manner. 

    “Thank you for your help. If you hadn’t shown up, I’d be dead. But, how do you know they were the bad guys?” 

   “ At the mention of evidence and a deal, that was proof enough they weren’t C-sec. And it’s not cool to shoot someone in the back.”  

  “Well thanks. Not many people would stick up for a quarian, let alone save their life.” 

   “Meh. Let those people burn in hell. They’re assholes.” 

   She laughed at the remark.

   “What is your name?” 

    “(Y/N) Shepard. I’m a trainee of the alliance.” 

   “A soldier?” 

   “No no, just an engineer and Forensics scientist. Nothing to flashy.” 

   “Ah.”

   “She’s a lot more than what she let’s on.” 

  A new voice has joined the conversation. One you recognized well. 

   You turned around to find your sister accompanied by a krogan and a turian. 

   “Jane!” 

  You didn’t care how childish it looked to charged at her with your biggest hug. 

   “I was so scared! I thought...... I actually thought you were..” 

   “Hey, calm down. I’m alright.” 

  She gave a hug in return. You stayed there while she started talking to the quarian. 

   “You must be the quarian, Fist was after.” 

   “That’s right. He set me up! I knew I couldn’t trust him.” 

   “Were you hurt?”

   “I know how to look out for myself. Not that I don’t appreciate the help. Who are you?” 

   “I’m Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy. I’m looking for evidence to prove Saren’s a traitor.” 

   “Then I have a chance to repay (Y/N) for saving my life. But not here. We need to go somewhere safe.” 

   “We could take her to the human embassy. Your ambassador will want to see this anyway.” 

  That was a different voice, a deep one, belonged to a man. Right now though, you didn’t care. You were too busy crying silently into your sister’s chest. She even picked you up and started walking. Man do you have an awesome sister. 

------ 

   “You’re not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora’s Den? Do you know how many- Who’s this? A quarian? A little girl? What are you up to Shepard?” 

  THIS, is the human ambassador? What an impression he puts off. You already hated him. 

    “This quarian and ‘little girl’ can help us bring down Saren. I would’ve told you that if you hadn’t jumped down my throat.”

  You smirked when Jane put out that last comment. You were happy to have a sister that didn’t take shit from anyone. But, what was that part about taking down Saren. Who even was Saren!?

   “I apologize, Commander. This whole thing with Saren has me a bit on edge.” 

  Bullshit. 

  “Maybe we should start at the beginning, Miss...?” 

  “My name is Tali. Tali’ Zorah nar Rayya.” 

  “We don’t see many quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?” 

  “I was on my pilgrimage. My rite of passage to adulthood.” 

  Jane jumped in. 

  “Tell us what you found.” 

  Tali nodded. 

   “During my travels I began hearing reports of geth. Since they drove my people into exile the geth never ventured beyond the veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become seperated from it’s unit. Then I disabled and removed it’s memory core.” 

   “I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense mechanism.” 

   You didn’t know this one, but his presence alone told you he was to be respected. Though he didn’t seem like the others who always demanded it. Maybe it was Captain Anderson? Jane told you a little about him in her messages. 

   This time, You butted into the conversation.

  “Is that true. How did you get anything?” As a fellow engineer, you were curious how she managed something like that. 

  “My people created the geth, if your quick, careful, and lucky small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged something from it’s audio banks.”  

   Tali then went onto her omi-tool and started playing us something. It was a man’s voice. Deep but hollow. 

  “Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit” 

  “That’s Saren’s voice! This proves he was involved in the attack.”  Anderson exclaims. The way he reacted to that recording though, kinda made you think there was more to this than just a normal geth attack. You knew people were throwing a fit because it was a human colony but, humans have killed humans for years. What’s so different about a turian doing the work instead?

  “He said Eden Prime has brought him one step closer to finding the conduit. Any idea on what that means?” Jane seemed to be more into this than you were. Then again, you had no idea what was going on. You only came here to make sure she was alive, not to join some man hunt. 

  “The conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it’s some kind of Prothean technology. Like a weapon.” Anderson and Jane were thinking of all sorts of possibilities of what could happen.

  “Wait, there’s more. Saren wasn’t working alone.” 

  Tali wasn’t done with her presentation yet and played the recording again.

    “Eden Prime was a major victory. The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit” 

    “And one step closer to the return of the reapers.” 

    That was a woman’s voice, it was deep, sinister almost. But somehow wise.

    “I don’t recognize that other voice, the one talking about reapers.” 

 The ambassador stated as if he was trying to end it there. Though, Jane was pondering over the name. 

   “I feel like I’ve heard that name before.” 

 Tali saw the confusion in everyone and shared what she knew about the reapers. 

  “According to the memory core, reapers were a advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The rapers hunted to protheans to total extinction and than they vanished! At least, that’s what the geth believe.” 

  “Sounds a little far fetched.” 

    What a shocker, a politician shoving away a possible threat just because it’s ‘far fetched’. 

  “The vision on Eden Prime, I understand it now.” 

  You looked at your sister like she was crazy. 

  “Vision?” 

  “I saw the protheans being wiped out by the reapers.” 

  “The geth revere the reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring the reapers back.”  Tali explained. 

  “The council is just going to love this.” The ambassador grumbled at this so called fairy tale. 

   Jane seemed to truly be expecting the reapers, so you believed what she said before about her vision. You would stand by her in any situation if you could. She’s always been there for you, it was time to repay her. 

  “This is a lot to handle. They might just ignore everything we tell them.” 

  “No matter what they think of the rest of this, those audio files proves Saren’s a traitor.” Anderson sounded excited over the whole idea of bringing this Saren down. 

  “The captain’s right. We need to present this to the council right away.” 

 “What about the Quarian?” The krogan that was following Jane finally speaks! 

   “Umm, her name is Tali.” You said politely but quietly. 

    “Thank you, (Y/N).” She slightly bowed her head at you in appreciation, then faced your sister. “You saw me in the alley way commander, you know what I can do. Let me come with you.” 

   You could tell that Tali was hoping to tag along instead of being stuck somewhere she isn’t treated with respect. You didn’t blame her, you would do anything just to get away from such a life. 

   “I thought you were on your pilgrimage?” 

   “The pilgrimage proves we are willing to give up ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on something like this. Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy. My pilgrimage can wait.” 

   “In that case, I’ll take all the help I can get.” 

  “Thanks. You won’t regret this.” 

  “What do you plan on doing with the girl commander? She seems confused over everything we have talked about.” After the ambassador’s question, everyone’s eyes were now on you. You shifted uncomfortably. 

  “This girl, is my little sister. She’s ten years younger than me.” Jane set a hand on your shoulder while she faced the captain and the ambassador. 

 “You’re right, she has no idea what’s going on. Knowing her, she more than likely only came here to see if I was alright after hearing about the attack on Eden Prime.” She then looked at her smugly. “Am I right?” 

    You just glared at her. “Fine next time I won’t care if you’re dead or alive.” 

 “Well then it’s probably best she stays out of it. Meet us at the Presidium commander. I’ll give you time to send your sister on the first flight home.”

 The ambassador didn’t like the idea of some child joining a fight. Even if she was a Shepard.

  He left the room and Anderson left behind him. It was then just you, your sister, and her new friends. You spoke up first.

   “You’re not really going to send me home are you?”

  “Depends. There’ll probably be danger on every corner here, (Y/N).”

 You looked at her with a smile. “I eat danger for breakfast.”

 “Well then. Are you hungry?”

 “Starving.”

[calliecat93]

It’s the final RWBY Chapter of the year folks! Heck, last of the decade infact! And wouldn’t you know it? We’re gonna spend some time with the Schnee’s! Just in time for the holidays! With the growing Mantle problems, Ironwood losing it even more, and the fact that Weiss and Winter have to go back to their abusive home, it’s… gonna be one heck of a drama-filled night. So… what kind of party are we in for? Will they finally show us mercy and let things end on a mostly nice note? Or should we expect the RWBY equivalent of the Red Wedding? Well, lets get on our fancy duds and find out.

Overview

RWBY and Oscar are talking about the upcoming party. It seems via reports that all Jaques wants to do is talk/moderate, which should be good since they need Ironwood to talk to these people. But Oscar points out that he’s making this all be under his terms which isn’t good for anyone. Weiss is also still suspicious about her father, with Yang even asking if she thinks that he’s aligned with Salem. Weiss isn’t sure, but she knows that Jaques would do anything to win. Ruby though decides that if that’s the case, they should do the same. As such, they form a plan for Weiss to sneak through the Schnee Manor to see if she can find any kind of dirt on her father and his involvement.

Party Night arrives with RWBY, JNR, Qrow, Oscar, Ace-Ops, and of course Ironwood and his soldiers there. Winter is less than thrilled to be there, with Weiss feeling the same way. They are greeted at the door… by Whitley. Weiss is confused and asks about Klein, but we learn that as we feared, Klein was let go due to his part in letting Weiss escape. Something that Weiss is visibly gutted by. Nevertheless, everyone is let in and Whitley takes Ironwood, Winter, Penny, and Clover to the Dining Room to meet with the Council. Qrow goes to snoop around the grounds to avoid being tempted by alcohol, with Marrow leaving since… well, he’s a Faunus in the house of a well-known bigoted, descrimanitng jerk. Do I need to explain why? Harriet instructs the kids to behave… and of course, they have no intention to do so XD

Weiss starts to head for the stairs… only to be cut off by Whitley, who claims to want to catch up. Back in the Dining Room, Ironwood is greeted by Jaques, Councilman Sleet, Councilwoman Camilla, and to his surprise, Robyn. Yep, Jaques invited her as well. Why? We’ll talk about that in the review. For now, Jaques is skeptical of Penny being there due to the recent incident, but Ironwood says that she’s under his control. Make note of that specific phrasing people, it’ll be important later. But yeah, the topic of control. The reason that the meeting was called to begin with. Back with the others, JNR tries to cause some chaos to get Whitley messed up so that he’ll get out of Weiss’ way… but they hit another woman instead. Good thing that she spills her wine over him, haha!

The Council is unhappy with Ironwood’s recent string of decisions and lack of transparency. The closed borders have worsened relations with the other kingdoms. Resources are being used for projects that none of them know about, a fact that surprises Robyn. They still haven’t found the ones framing Ironwood, even with Clover pointing out that it’s still an open investigation. The people of Atlas are suffering due to all of this, and they should know why. So far, any efforts to downplay the situation fall on deaf ears. Jaques even outright asks how they can trust him. Throughout all of this, Winter has clearly been growing agitated, and this topic makes her snap, saying that Jaques can’t just buy trust like everything else. He has to earn it. Unfortunately, this was /exactly/ what Jaques wanted to hear, as he twists the knife deeper by pointing out all of the failures under Ironwood’s belt (Vale, the recent murders, etc) and asks how they can continue to trust him. Winter tries to take it back, but Ironwood stops her, which provokes her to leave the room.

Weiss continues to make her way through the Manor, with only one of the workers so far seeing her. She plays it off though and soon makes it to her father’s office with no problems. But… someone else is already there. Weiss is greeted by Willow Schnee, her mother. Yes folks, after over three volumes, Mama Schnee has arrived. Before we see more of that though, we cut back to Winter with Penny going to see if she’s okay. Winter tries to play it off, saying that Penny wouldn’t understand. This noticeably hurts Penny, but WInter seems to realize her wording and explains how despite trying to keep herself in line, she let her emotions get the better of her. Penny is confused about why this is a bad thing since Winter was just speaking from the heart, but Winter only says that she should be able to keep herself in check. Penny leaves her, agreeing that she indeed doesn’t understand. Ouch.

Back in the study, Willow apologizes for not being at the party due to not feeling well. She is clearly drinking vodka, with Weiss playing it off and saying that she came to get something that he left. Willow sinks back into a stupor at this as Weiss says that she needs to use her father’s computer due to him doing something bad. WIllow comments that this isn’t new, only for Weiss to reply that someone is actually doing something about it. Willow sips straight out of the bottle, which makes Weiss noticeably uncomfortable, before revealing that the computer is locked… but she has a Chevok’s Gun. As it turns out, Willow set up cameras everywhere just in case she needed to act and recounting this makes her go quiet. She asks if Weiss is there to stay, and of course, Weiss says no. WIllow… is relieved to hear this, giving Weiss her Scroll and telling her of the meeting with Watts. As she leaves, she asks Weiss to not forget about Whitley. Weiss points out that Whitley hates her… but Willow says “Of course he does, you left him here alone… with us.”. Willow leaves and Weiss seems to be processing the words before turning to the Scroll…

Meanwhile, down in Mantle, it’s another rainy night. Watts is standing along the rooftops, and he sets off the next phase of his plan. Now that he has access to Atlas’ networks, he uses it to hack into Mantle’s heating lines and shuts them off. The rain stops and he drops his umbrella… as snow begins to slowly fall. A young kid sees from the window and is excited because… well, snow! Good, right? Haha… nope! The snow continues to fall harder and if you recall Weiss’ words about how the tundra can kill regular people in a matter of hours… it paints a very bleak picture. And thus, the decade’s final RWBY episode closes as the snow continues to fall. A chilling ending, indeed.

Review

This was a shorter episode than the past few, but it was just as jam-packed as ever. 

We were expecting Schnee Family Drama all volume… and ho boy did we get it. We all know how horrible Jaques is. We’ve seen for ourselves how he treated Weiss and how his abuse directly affected her. But now? We really get to see how it affected everyone in the family. We were told things before, like WIllow being a drunk and we saw that Whitley feared Jaques both in V4 and this volume. But now we’ve seen all four in person, and it creates a very depressing image.

First, we have Whitley. He is still a smug little brat, but it’s much more clear now why that is. Whitley fears his father. He’s seen what happens when you disobey. He’s been groomed all his life by him and raised to either obey or else. I did a whole Whitley Analysis a while ago, but his attitude is clearly a facade. And it’s not even one that he can use as often because Weiss left him. Weiss was pretty much all that he had, despite his poor attitude towards her. It’s half because it’s all that he knows, and maybe because he resents Weiss. Resents her for escaping. Reents her for leaving him. Now we all know why Weiss left, and she was 100% justified especially since Whitley only made her feel worse. But to him, it felt like Weiss abandoned him. Twice.

I don’t 100% like the implication that Weiss should feel bad for leaving Whitley behind. He gave her no reason to think that he wanted help, let alone from her. From his attitude, he made it sound like he got everything he wanted. Do I think that he hates Weiss? No. I think that on some level, he cares for her, but he feels abandoned by her and left with an asshole dad and an absentee mom. He’s focusing his resentment onto her, hence why he has no qualms in bragging about his position to her in V4 and here. Will Willow’s words to Weiss be the push needed to get her to reconcile with Whitley? It’s hard to say. It ultimately depends on how much Whitley wants help, and while I could see him losing his composure if Weiss pushes anything, I don’t know if he’s ready to turn against his father.

Then we have Willow. Oh God, Willow. We’ve been told for a while about her drunken state, but now that we see it? Man, it’s just… it’s just painful. Willow is a broken woman. You only have to take one look at her, and you can see how depressed and tired she is from her facial expression alone. Her demeanor is quiet and uncertain, not knowing how to talk to Weiss. Willow clearly knows how bad of a parent that she’s been. How she became so detached. How her kids suffered due to it. It’s so clear when she brings up the cameras, where she goes quiet when explaining the original intention, and when Weiss says that she is trying to do something. That line gets her to drink straight from the bottle. Willow knows how badly she’s done… but is so broken and likely guilt-stricken that she won’t try to better herself. This is what Jaques has done to her. He has broken her so badly that she feels undeserving of getting help or even helping herself. It is just… depressing to watch.

Still, we do have Willow give Weiss her Scroll and therefore the camera footage. I feel that this is her way of trying to make things up to Weiss. It doesn't fix it whatsoever, but this is her one act in showing her daughter support and digging her husband into a hole. Maybe Weiss getting out and confirming her defiance helped inspire just one little spark in her. It’s hard to say, but it does show that Willow does love her daughter. Very least, I feel much more sympathetic and understanding of her actions compared to say… Raven. As for her push regarding Whitley, I don’t think that she was trying to guilt Weiss. It was heavy-handed, but Willow clearly wants all of her kids to get out. As I said, Whitley is unlikely to do so on his own accord. Winter is unavailable, so Weiss is the only one in any position to give him a push. Willow can’t, and she knows it. But Weiss can. No, it isn’t Weiss’ responsibility. No, Weiss shouldn’t feel guilty about leaving Whitley especially with how he treated her. But he too is a victim who is in a similar place that she was before Beacon. Whitley has hope still, and I think that Willow wants her to see it and give him the push that he needs. Will it work? Only time will tell.

Finally, we have Winter. This is the first time that she’s been home in so long, and in her father’s presence. She had long since cut her ties, even saying that doing so was the best thing that she ever did. We saw her hide in the military van in V4 just to avoid facing Jaques. She signed up for the military just to get away and embraced the strict lifestyle full-heartedly. The Atlas Military was home for her. A safe haven. So much that even with the revelation that Ironwood groomed her whole career, she’s accepting of it and hopes to make the Maiden legacy her own. It’s admirable, but it’s so clear that she’s in a similar place that she would have been if she stayed with Jaques, and that makes it so bittersweet.

Here, we see Winter try to conceal her emotions. To be quiet and show as little expression as possible. But she can’t. Just by watching her in the Dining Room scene, tapping at the table faster and faster until she finally explodes tells us everything. This place has very bad memories for her. Her way of coping with it… well… how did Frozen put it? “Conceal. Don’t feel. Don’t let it show.” Winter feels that he has to keep a collected demeanor where she doesn't show any emotion. She has had this demeanor since we met her, only dropping it when either provoked as Qrow did in V3, and showing a warmer side to Weiss. But even with Weiss, she was introduced with this cold, stern persona and it’s still very much present even with her warmer moments. That is what she has embraced because it is what the military taught her. Because it’s what Jaques’s abuse forced her into.

This… is a dangerous mindset. It’s funny though. Winter is a young woman who is shutting off all of her emotions. In this volume alone we’ve seen her stick by Ironwood’s decisions, despite clearly knowing that it’s wrong, and feels that she must be in control of herself at every moment. Like Ironwood himself, she is shoving aside her humanity. Meanwhile, you have Penny. An actual robot. But she is arguably the most expressive of the current cast. She’s bright and joyful, and in cases like now sad and anxious. You can feel the feelings radiating off of her, especially with moments like Ironwood’s ‘under my control’ line and Winter initially rejecting her under the guise of her not understanding. To Penny, emotion is a beautiful thing and she can't understand why Winter would want to conceal it. On the one hand, Winter not wanting to have an outburst like she did especially with how her father twisted the words is understandable. But it’s just as bad to just shove it aside and she did just speak from the heart. There is no shame in that. It really highlights the difference between these two girls, and just how much everything is wearing them both down.

But speaking of Penny… Ironwood… it is getting so, so much harder for me to keep giving you the benefit of the doubt. I still think that Ironwood is a good man who keeps making all the wrong decisions, but Dear God that keeps dying with each new chapter. His comments regarding Penny were bad enough, but then there’s the Council talk. As much as I hate, hate to say it and I mean REALLY hate to say it… Jaques isn’t wrong. Ironwood is failing. He is worsening things for the Kingdom. He is giving the Council zero reason to trust him. He won’t be transparent about Amity. We all know why this is, but there is no denying that it is causing issues and it’s at a boiling point. Mind you, Jaques only cares about getting profit again so he still sucks, but Robyn is correct about the people suffering. It’s why she’s there, just so they can have someone to further twist the knife into Ironwood’s back but since she has no actual power, she can’t actually do anything hence why Jaques is fine with her being there. Still, it is suffering that Ironwood continues to cause, but do little to nothing about. I mean last episode we saw him not only ban public gatherings but consider martial law and I fear that if his seats are this much in jeopardy, he’s going to go through with it. That’ll shove away the last bit of humanity he has, and he may just be a lost cause. Which is going to make everything for everyone so much worse.

And of course on the topic of things getting worse, that ending. That was… well, cold. Very cold. Now it may not seem like a big deal, it’s just snow, right? Well… think about it. Watts shut off the heating grid. IDK if this is due to having access to Atlas’ network or not, but that isn’t important right now. He shut off the heating. He’s made Mantle vulnerable to the cold. Remember, Solitas is pretty much the Remnant equivalent of Antarctica. Weiss outright said in Chapter 3 that if you cannot protect an Aura, you will die within hours if you’re out in the tundra. Hours. Right now, everyone is at the dinner party, including Hometown Hero Robyn Hill. No one is there to defend Mantle. No one is there to correct the shutdown. While people indoors might be safe if they can make a fire or something, the people who are homeless like those kids we frequently see? They are going to freeze to death. Watts is about to kill dozens of people by this simple act, and that is terrifying. What a way to end before the Holiday Break.

This chapter, while not as strong as the past two, was excellently done. It has a very good showcase of all the Schnee’s and you feel bad for four of them and want to kick Jaques off a cliff. Which that may be too good for him at this point. It has an excellent balance of political drama with Ironwood’s decisions really coming back to bite him, and emotional drama with the Schnee women. Even just small things like Qrow turning away wine or Marrow’s apparent disgust of being in the Manor are such great things that add so much character. The ending isn’t the cruelest cliffhanger we’ve ever gotten… but it was still harsh. But fortunately, with Weiss having Willow’s Scroll, they’re going to discover Watts very soon. Hopefully, they can stop him now, but that all depends on how much worse Ironwood gets. Regardless, another very well-done episode that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Chapter Nine Predictions

This is gonna go one of two ways. Either we’re going to resume at the Dinner Party with Weiss informing the others of the new discovery and shenanigans happen. After all, the Council hasn't reached a decision yet and any of the others could still be called in as witnesses. But IDK how much more they need of the Dinner Party unless something big happens. So the other possibility is we begin sometime later with everyone back at Atlas discussing this and hopefully everything else like Robyn and the Relic. Because we really, REALLY  need to see everyone just talk about everything, especially with the end so close.

Regardless though, we’ll likely see the damage that Watt called. Will it be in time to do anything? Or will it be too late? Maybe our heroes go down to try and help, and of course face multiple problems doing so. Maybe this will be the breaking point for people like Nora who can’t stand seeing the suffering/Ironwood’s inactivity anymore. Maybe this will be Robyn’s breaking point since she wasn’t there to do anything, though she is clearly now aware that there’s more going on. There is so much in the air about all of this, but if there’s anything guaranteed, it’s gonna be rough. For everyone.

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Weiss and WIllow Schnee Favorite Scene: Weiss and Willow talk in the study Least Favorite Scene: JNR Chaos, I honestly did not find it funny at all even if I liked them causing chaos. Favorite Voice Actor: Caitlin Glass (Willow Schnee) Favorite Animation: Watts dropping his umbrella s the rain becomes snow Rating: 8.5/10

Final Thoughts

We were expecting a lot, and I’d say that they delivered. Lots of good Schnee drama. We finally meet Willow. We see everything for Ironwood falling apart. We have a chilling ending scene. This volume gets better and better with each chapter, and I am loving every second of it. This gave me everything that I was hoping for, and as such, I enjoyed it~ I’m grateful for the Holiday Break though cause BOY do I need a breather. Only five chapters left people. Get ready, it’s gonna be on Hell of a ride.

[carrera-ffxiv]

Welcome to Sanctum, Pt. 3 of 3

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed since his fateful encounter with his newfound friends. The friendship was short-lived. He finished washing the blood and dirt from his hands in the restroom and went back to relax on one of his couches after all the digging and dragging he had to manage by his lonesome till the sun came up. A few puffs of a pipe and a small break was what he needed before he continued on his list of chores. Hadriel went about cleaning the broken decor and tossing the table out, sweeping and mopping the floor. He had his share of drinks in between tasks, it was one of the perks to owning a bar or two.

The lock unbolted and the partition was pushed aside as N’syri and Kaede walked into the establishment. “Good morning!” Hadriel greeted, uncharacteristically motivated.

Syri couldn’t help but narrow her eyes.

“You’re here early. I brought Kaede here to… help clean up, teach her a few things, and prep for opening later today. You moved some things around…” N’syri spoke.

“Yep. Felt like it needed a slight face-lift. Too cluttered. Took some things out. I think it looks better.”

“It looks beautiful, sir!” Kaede responded cheerfully, matching his energy.

“Just Hadriel is fine.” he responded.

Syri seemed suspicious of the whole situation and looked about the place, nit-picking everything with a careful and discerning eye. “You have some dirt on your face.”

“Stuffed three barrels with cabbage and red pepper paste real early this morning. Buried them out back to let them ferment. Goes well with a variety of dishes.”

“Oh, you make food here too?” Kaede asked.

“N-” Syri began before Hadriel cut her off. “I’m thinking about it. Nothing too complicated. Just some small dishes we can have ready on-hand to serve customers. Little delicacies.”

Syri knew very well that something was off. She rightfully assumed that he was out burying something else instead but didn’t press any further in the presence of their new employee.

“You look beautiful in that yukata. You look like the very reason men fall in love.” he said with a smirk.

Kaede blushed and smiled. To her, Hadriel was a friendly sort and seemed to make the comment lightheartedly as if to keep her in a cheery mood. “Thank you.”

The late morning seemed to go by quickly for him as he was still exhausted from being up a good portion of the night and toiling into the morning. His attention span was cutting in and out but he tried his best to make his new employee feel welcome, talking to her, and sharing a laugh or two with Syri glaring off from the side wondering what he was up to.

Eventually a couple customers wander in the early afternoon and they decide to let Kaede take the reigns after they had gone over etiquette and the drink menu with her. Finally, Syri had a chance to speak with him alone at the opposite end of the establishment.

“So. What really happened?” she asked in a hushed and solemn voice.

He laughed lightly, “I was really burying some barrels.”

She didn’t skip a beat and followed up, “What was in the barrels? And stop being so cheery, it’s creepy.”

Hadriel was out of energy and decided to drop the facade. “Some old friends came by. Now they’re taking dirt-naps. In barrels.”

“Hadriel… this is serious…”

“So am I. It was a matter of time.”

“I told you we should use pseudonyms. I shouldn’t have left you alone last night after I saw the feather.”

“I’m not hiding. I’m in plain sight and don’t plan on changing that. Besides, part of me thought they assumed I changed names and went off grid. Anyway, it’s all part of the plan, don’t worry.”

“Plan? What plan?” her voice raised a moment causing the guests to look over a moment.

“They’re fools if they come after me with everything I know about them.” he responded in a hushed tone.

“But they just did. Isn’t that exactly why they came here, to silence you?” she mirrored him and lowered her voice again to barely above a whisper.

“Not exactly.” he lit a pipe. “I’ll be back tonight. I’m gonna go take a nap. Don’t be so on edge. Everything’s fine.”

“Fine? Do you think this girl is going to be safe working here now? What about S’mira? Didn’t you ask her to help out? Are you fine with putting them in harm’s way like this?” Syri chastised.

“They wanted me back. Either that or to leave with my eye. They’re not after her. This isn’t one of those fantasy books where the bad guys take hostages to try to get the good guy to give up. There’s no moral high ground between me and the Black Blades. We’re all bad guys. And as far as hostages go, what would stop me from killing them after they kill the hostage? And why would anyone ever give up just because someone is captured? It’s not a good tactic all around. Besides, it’s not how they work.”

“I thought that the eye was just an inherited aspect of your half-Eorzean lineage… why would they want it? You fed me some garbage about hiding it because you were made fun of as a kid.” 

"It’s a mark for those who run the organization… it’s uh… treatment of sorts. An experiment, rather.” he revealed. 

She simply nodded lightly with an irate look in her stare as if to tell him to carry on with the explanation.

“It’s research stolen from Garlemald. An invasive surgical procedure that involves more than I care to explain and a lot of pain to go along with it. Thanks to that, we can see the flow of aether in someone’s body.”

“... doesn’t sound useful against imperial troops… they can’t manipulate aether… isn’t that why your organization was founded? For clandestine missions or fights against Garleans?”

“They can’t manipulate aether, like you said. Doesn’t mean they don’t have aether. They’re living beings and whether they can control it or not it’s intrinsic to life. But the point was- seeing the flow of aether gave us a better edge in a great many aspects. Some have even said that they can tell if a person is lying by reading them. Anyway, there’s only a handful of us with this and it’s kept from even others in the organization, for those few who know what it is, it’s a telltale sign. That’s why I keep it behind this.” he tapped alongside his eyepatch. “Better safe than sorry.”

“Hmn…” Syri paused a moment to take it all in. She glanced over to Kaede who was entertaining their guests, smiling and laughing. Seemingly lost in thought for a while something broke her out of her contemplation. There was something earnest about the girl’s efforts and intentions, yet there was something Syri couldn’t quite put her finger on that bothered her. Something off.

“Well, as for why the Black Blades were founded… they’ve fallen far from their days as avengers and patriots of Doma. Now they’re murderers and criminals running in the shadow as an organized crime family. Getting ‘protection’ fees from the merchants, moving contraband, bribing the authorities, silencing people for money… all the good stuff.”

“Is that part of the reason why you left?” she whispered.

“No. You know the reason. I had people to look for. An untrackable quarry to find. For both our sakes. That man has wronged us both, betrayed our hometown as well as all of Doma. That was the only reason. The council I was on didn’t want to condone or support my personal vendetta. Not good for business. So I left. We were after the same person, it was like the kami were lighting the path forward. Like I said, I don’t pretend to stand on some morality or principle. Those are empty pretences that I can hardly afford.”  

“The girl.” she said, looking at Kaede and spoke hurriedly. “She came here the same day this happened.”

“It wasn’t her. She wasn’t the one who drew them here. And her mother really is sick.”

A cynical look wore about her visage, “And how would you know? You never even made it very far from the bar since you met her.”

He subtly winked at her with his only visible eye. Or was it simply a blink when there was one eye? She could never tell.

“Anyway. Like I told you. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. I’ll ship the pieces of their friends back and then I’ll meet with a few of my old friends to settle this. For now, I’m going to get some sleep.”

“Mn.” Syri sounded. “Well, I’ll keep an eye here for a while. If I’m not around I’m probably reaching out to some contacts this evening.”

“I told you everything’s fine.”

“You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t categorize you burying three people out back as ‘fine’. I’ll be doing my due diligence regardless. Thank-you-very-much.”

“It’s your choice. You’re just wasting your time.” he said as he got up and casually wave two fingers, “I’ll be back later.”

Hadriel didn’t remember his trip home and practically collapsed in his residence. When his consciousness finally stirred, the moon’s light peeked through the windows in his home. Again, he would slip into a lucid sleep and dream the same dream that always came. 

“I missed you…” His dry voice sounded. 

She laughed lightly, the warmth of her smile filling the air around him as if the sun itself dared to give him a moment of reprieve from the loneliness clutching at his heart. A smile cracked from his lips.

“You missed me? How could you miss me when I’ve been here this whole time?” she responded with the sweetest voice, a soft tone dripping with honey in a sweet and rhythmic manner. She spoke lightheartedly, gazing at him with a beaming smile.

The kind beauty continued, “I didn’t miss you, because you’re always here…” she softly rested a hand on her chest- motioning to her heart, “…but!” she excitedly stated, “You know who did miss you?” she asked excitedly.

“Papa~!” the girl ran to give him a hug. He would reciprocate the tight embrace. The warmth filled his heart for a moment even as dread crept up close behind knowing the dream would be over soon again, “Papa. Don’t do it… please. Don’t go where we can’t follow.” she whispered.

He jolted awake and shot up on his couch. It was later than expected. He shook his head to regain some semblance of his bearings. She was warning him. She knew what he was about to do. But how was this worse than any of the other things he’s done?

Hadriel heaved a sigh as he reached for a kodachi sitting in its stand. He slowly sheaths one after the other and placed them both on his hip. He stepped out into the brisk air as light rain trickled down his hair. He took a moment to listen to the sound of raindrops fill the air all around him. A frosty breath escaped his lips as he took some measure of relief from the rain.

He walked in and noticed everyone had cleared out for the night, save Kaede and one older man sitting by the bar. 

“Welcome to Sanctum.” Kaede sounded in a sing-songy tone. “Oh it’s you Mr. Hadriel. Come have a seat!”

“I told you, just Hadriel is fine.” he said with a smile as he sat at the counter. “I’ll have a-”

“Whiskey, neat.” she said while placing a glass in front of him.

“Noticed that, huh?” he gave a light chuckle.

“It’s late. Let’s close down soon, have one with me.” Hadriel said in a tired voice.

“I haven’t drank whiskey before… but I’m willing to give it a try.” she said in a cheery attitude.

“I’ll pour one for you, lock the door so we don’t have early morning stragglers trying to come in.”

She bowed with a measure of grace and elegance undoubtedly learned from N’syri, a slight bend of the knees as her hand folded across her waist, her head dipping respectfully. She meandered along the bar and furniture over to the door and did as was asked.

“You don’t mind if I stay just a little while longer, do you young man?” a gruff voice sounded. The lighting was dim, just the way Hadriel liked it so it was a tad hard to make out features. He seemed dressed in plain Doman attire, not exactly the typical clientele for the new establishment.

“Of course not. Do me a favor though, look to the corner there just behind the counter, there’s a box of cigars. If you wouldn’t mind grabbing a couple out of there for me?”

“Oh, of course, son.” the man had to reach over a bit and look for the box but succeeded in the task, moving beside Hadriel and holding one out for him. He took both in hand and drew a cutter out of his pocket to snip the ends.

“Other one’s yours of course.” he said, motioning for the man still standing there to take a seat next to him.

“Thank you, thank you. Forgive my forwardness, you seem a bit young to own such a nice place. And a nice place it is!”

“I guess I’m a bit older than I look.” he said with a smirk.

The man takes a look at Hadriel’s drink, paused and then turned his visage back to him. “Drink and a cigar. End of a good day? Celebrating something?”

“Yeah… it’s a bit of a celebration…” he struck a match and the audible sizzle of the burning calmed and its intensity died down. He held it for the old man who appreciated the gesture and lit the expensive-tasting cigar. 

“Thank you.” the man replied.

“You’re welcome. Maybe I look a bit younger than I am. Saved up a lot of money doing a lot of different jobs. Easy to do when you don’t have family to worry about.” he looked over to the man.

“Oh. To each their own, son. It’s clearly worked well for you. What are you celebrating then? Newly opened establishment?”

“No. It’s been a long journey. I finally found what I’m looking for.” he said, lighting his own cigar and sighing. The man paused again.

Kaede smiled and held her drink up. “Making fast friends I see! Cheers, Mr. Hadriel, to friends!”

A solemn look overcame him, almost saddened, and Kaede paused. It seemed like the other two were holding their breath a moment. Both seemed to be waiting for the other to drink before he finally relented, took a few gulps and set the glass down, her mirroring his actions.

 “To family...” he mentioned in a somber tone, his expression was filled with a quiet reflection. “How is your mother, Kaede?”

She was taken aback by the unexpected question.

“Not well…” she replied in a low tone. She fidgeted with her hair and took another sip of her drink.

“Well. She’ll be fine soon enough, I’m sure.” the old man injected himself into the conversation. “She’s just as strong as her daughter after all.”

“Thank you, papa.” Kaede responded.

Hadriel continued to smoke and leaned on the counter.

“I guess I’m sorry I had to ruin your celebration, young man. But… I couldn’t let you kill me.” he placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “Now that you drank that poison, you don’t have much time so I wanted to tell you why.”

“You don’t have to tell me why Futoshi. I know why.” Hadriel responded.

“Well, indulge an old man, would you? I know I deserve what you want to do to me, and there’s been so… so many times I would have welcomed it. But… I have my daughter to look after. I want to give her away one day to a home of her own. My wife is frail and needs me. I can’t abandon them.”

“Selfish desires from a selfish man who betrayed his countrymen for gold.”

“You might not understand, Hadriel, but I did it for my family. I’ve regretted it every day of my life. But I’ve found the resolve to live. Which is why I sent Kaede here to get us to this point. I was hoping tipping off the Black Blades would’ve been the end of it but… I always have a plan B.”

Kaede seemed to turn pale, a level of remorse wore on her expression, “I’m sorry, sir…”

“Yeah. Me too…” he uttered softly before putting the cigar out. He poured another glass for himself and took another sip.

“We’ll see that you a proper burial back home in Yangxia-”

Kaede collapsed on the ground as her mouth foamed. Not long after, convulsions began to take place. Wide-eyed, Futoshi stood with his hands on the counter to look down in horror at what was happening to his daughter. He was in shock and couldn’t feel his hand pinned down to the bar, only noticing it when he couldn’t move to his child. A kodachi had made itself a new home through his palm and the bar counter.

“I had a daughter once. And a wife too. I understand why you did what you did. But you chose this path. How many mothers and daughters lost their lives? And again, during the uprising? Then again, over the years. You took my family. Countless families. Then you ran. Across Doma, across the seas, across Eorzea and back again. An untrackable quarry. You took everything I had.”

“H-how…!?” the man held onto his wrist, fumbling through words as tears streamed down his face, almost whimpering at the fact that he was too helpless to save his daughter. “M-my wife, if we die, she has no one to take care of her!”

Hadriel almost looked saddened by the course of events. “Well. I guess I’m sorry I had to ruin your celebration, old man. But… I couldn’t let you kill me.” he placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “Now that you don’t have much time to live, I wanted to tell you why: As you took my wife and daughter, so... in turn... I take yours.” he spoke grimly, not a hint of solace could be found in his expression.

Hadriel continued in a low tone, speaking almost to himself, “I was afraid of myself. What I would do to you, but you made it so easy to want to kill you. Everyone that was in your regiment, your comrades, your friends... you had none left. I saw to that personally, so... you could only trust your family to something this important. So you sent her to me. The Blades were always keeping an eye out for me. I figured I’d use you to bait them in. Now I get to send them a message.”

Futoshi winced in pain but after hearing Hadriel speak he seemed to have resigned himself, and continued listening. His head dipped as he let regret take a hold of him. Slowly, he let the calm of surrender engulf him. There was no more need to run anymore. He could find solace in that.

“With no one else to rely on you sent the only person you could trust into the maws of the wolf. Your own kin. How selfish of you... of course she would want to help save her father, her family. You were too busy grabbing this…” he motioned to the ashtray, “... to notice I swapped the drinks. She had prepared the drink for me before I even walked in here... you told me you were sorry. I’m not. Not really. I just wish the story had a slightly different ending, is all.”

“Yeah… me too. For what it’s worth, I never meant for your family… for any of this to happen…” he shook his head with a grimace, “Do you… do you think the kami will forgive us for what we’ve done?”

“No.” Hadriel answered, sliding the rest of Kaede’s drink to the man. “Not men like us.” He raised his glass to the man.

He simply smiled and nodded, “No… I suppose not. Not men like us.” A clink echoed in the quiet, cold bar. “Thanks for the drink.”

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 152

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 04 - “The Tranquil Cure Mint!” Date watched: 4 October 2019 Original air date: 25 February 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/r27tc5L Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Okay I’ve gone this long without talking about it, so before we continue, it’s time for THE ROAST OF KOMACHI’S HAIR

Her hair is evenly kept chin length all around her head except for a chunk in the back that reaches to her mid-back. It’s not a ponytail, it’s a thin section of her hair that is wildly longer than the rest. Now of course, anime hair is known to be absurd, but in Precure this is usually kept to their transformed states. Everybody else on the team (or eventual team) has pretty standard hairstyles: Nozomi has two small pigtails, traditional bangs, and wears the rest of her hair at shoulder length, Rin’s hair is short and curls out from the sides of her head, Urara wears long twintails, and Karen has long loose hair with neatly trimmed ends. Komachi is the standout with her absurd style. When she transforms it gets even weirder: the body of her hair poofs up and resembles Cure Bloom’s hair, while the bit in the back splits into two extremely long strands that reach her knees. This is still pretty wild but she’s on a team with a girl with hair loops and another with hair cones so she shares the weirdness among the team. I will never understand what the character designer was thinking when they came up with Komachi’s hair. Maybe there’s an interview out there where they explain it, I’d really like to know, because it is ridiculous.

Okay now that that’s out of the way, let’s actually talk about the episode....

The Plot

Rumors are starting to spread around the school about the strange phenomena that keep occurring. Karen discusses it with Komachi one morning and they find it odd that Urara has begun hanging out with Nozomi and Rin. At lunch, Coco reminds the three of them they still need to find the Precures of Tranquility and Intelligence, but they’re interrupted by Karen and Komachi confronting them about their perceived connection to all the suspicious activity. Nozomi sees an opportunity and decides to come out and explain that they’re Precures fighting Nightmare to protect the Dream Collet, and would these two like to help them? Nozomi explains how she thinks these two fit the qualifications Coco described, but they don’t really believe or understand what she’s saying, and Karen leaves in frustration. Komachi lags behind to say it was a lovely story, and she’d love to hear more sometime.

Meanwhile at Nightmare, we find out Gamao has gone MIA after failing his mission, and of course Girinma is still in isolation, so a third agent is called in to collect the Dream Collet: Arachnea. (You get one guess what kind of animal she is). She boasts about how much more capable she is than the other two, and Bunbee basically responds “I hope so.”

Back at school, Rin has soccer practice, Urara tries to find Karen at a student council meeting, and Nozomi approaches Komachi in the library and discovers her writing. Komachi admits that she has wanted to be a novelist since she was very young, but all she gets is dismissal and mockery when she tells people that. Nozomi, however, encourages her and says she’ll support her dream! After all, that’s what she does best. They go for a walk outside and Komachi inquires further about the “story” Nozomi was telling earlier about Precure. Nozomi clarifies that it wasn’t a dream and explains the whole situation, and Komachi finally believes her but admits Karen is more stubborn. Before they can continue, spider webs suddenly come out of a nearby manhole and pull them down into the sewer, where they’re confronted by Arachnea herself, demanding the Dream Collet. She creates a Kowaina out of sewer water and chases the girls, who end up at a dead end. With no other options, Nozomi transforms in front of Komachi, kicks the monster, and they run off together.

she just keeps kicking and kicking and kicking and kicking and....

At the same time, Coco has detected the presence of Nightmare and tags Rin and Urara to try to find Nozomi. They manage to follow her down the sewer and meet up with the missing girls. Rin and Urara transform in front of Komachi, and begin to fight the Kowaina. Arachnea wraps Dream and Komachi in webs and screams that they had no right to dream, that dreams are just illusions. Komachi takes this personally, and retorts that dreams are important and Nozomi is the first person to believe in and support her dream, and in turn she wants to support Nozomi’s dream as well. Her strong emotions summon a green butterfly, which disintegrates the webs binding Komachi before landing on her wrist and becoming a Pinky Catch. Not missing a beat, Komachi transforms into the Precure of Tranquility, Cure Mint! The Kowaina tries to attack them, but Mint uses her special attack, Precure Mint Protection, which is a butterfly that takes the form of a rapidly expanding shield. The monster is knocked back and Dream takes this chance to finish it off with Dream Attack, and Arachnea retreats, muttering about how she’s going to explain this to Bunbee.

The commotion in the sewer has attracted a crowd, and as Nozomi, Rin, and Urara climb out, Karen comments that she knew they were the ones stirring up trouble. Then Komachi climbs out and Karen is confused as the four girls laugh awkwardly.

The Analysis

I know I keep coming back to this but I really enjoy how the various girls are active in investigating the mysterious occurrences resulting from the clash between the Precures and Nightmare. Even if nobody else has seen the actual fights, and the battlefields magically restore themselves, the noise and commotion of the fights attracts attention, and that’s how Komachi and Karen get roped into this mess. I also like how Nozomi is like “You know what? These two might be the ones” and just spills their secret. She recognizes that they have the qualities Coco is looking for: tranquility and knowledge, and Urara and Rin actually agree with her, though Rin is also self-aware enough to realize how absurd this all sounds to an outsider, and tells the seniors “I can see why you wouldn’t believe all of this, but it’s true.” It’s funny to me how Nozomi took a meeting where the two older girls were questioning their connection to the mysterious phenomena and turned it around on them into trying to make friends with them and have them join the Precures. She flipped the school hierarchy and power dynamic on its head, because she’s the pink. Also she’s that perfect combination of confident and airheaded that she can just go for it. I don’t mean this to sound bad, I honestly love Nozomi’s brand of earnestness and her sincere interest in helping other people achieve their dreams. Without getting too ahead of myself, she’s a lot more balanced than some other pink cures down the road.

Speaking of dreams, this is where we really get a look at what Komachi likes to do in her spare time. We might have seen her writing in the first episode but this is the first one to focus on it, and show how she’s a little embarrassed to show people her work because she’s had too many bad experiences with people mocking her. Nozomi’s earnest support of her dream to become a writer is encouraging, and we’ll definitely see her grow and develop her writing skills throughout the show. It’s one of the more memorable character arcs in the show.

An interesting facet of Cure Mint is that she is primarily defense-based rather than being offensive like the other cures so far. Her special attack is a shield, and we’ll see several cures in the franchise who mirror this ability, but while it can be a useful skill and is demonstrably strong in the right circumstances, it feels a little too drawn out most of the time. I guess I’m okay with the whole stock footage chant to perform an attack, but doing the same to summon a shield when the danger is IMMINENT seems wasteful when we know they can jump out of the way. If she had a quick shield she could pull out with less fanfare and used the special attack shield to defend from wide-range attacks or to buy time while her teammates set up their attacks, I’d like it more. Mint Protection does get some time to shine down the road, but far too often it feels superfluous. Maybe that’s heathenous for me to say in a show about teamwork and everybody having a role to play.

I’ll use this opportunity to briefly discuss the Kowaina since i haven’t properly done so before. Unlike Zakenna and Uzainaa before them, Kowaina are a bit more supernatural. The enemy of the week pulls out a full-face mask with a pointy nose and a creepy blank smile, then they throw it on an object, bringing it to life in a mutated form with the mask serving as the face. Also, they speak with a female voice rather than the brutish male voice of the previous shows’ monsters, and they always sound more creepy and spooky. It really adds to the mood and sets this series apart from its predecessors. The next episode will show us that the masks work on sentient creatures, not just inanimate objects, and that will bring some interesting implications.

On the topic of the villains, Arachnea is probably my favorite general from this series. She has the best design as a monster, she’s very serious and largely effective. Sure, she has to lose because plot, but her abilities give the team a run for their money. I’m not sure what she thought she’d gain by luring the girls into the sewer that she couldn’t do above ground, perhaps she thought she could limit their movement? It’s not that well-explained. However, that hiccup aside, I really enjoy her as a villain. Girinma is a close second but he often winds up as the butt monkey of Bunbee’s schemes, which is unfortunate.

Now, this episode has several instances of animation that is best described as..... questionable. Actually, it’s not just this episode, it’s been prevalent all along, but I haven’t had time to bring it up before, and it’s prevalent enough here that I needed to discuss it. The models used for the characters for mid-range and far range shots are not awful, but their features and proportions are a bit distorted. Their faces in particular have eyes that are the wrong shape, which really stands out, and these shots are long enough that even if you’re not the most observant, you’ll realize they look off.

For further out shots, we get the added bonus of noodle limbs.

It’s not a great look, but at this point, we’re used to so-so animation in Precure.

I’ll try to talk about the music in the next one, because the audio design of YPC5 is fun and well enough removed from its predecessors. Look forward to that and more. Next time, on Precure Daily, a false start!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 2 Kettei!

[glatisants]

Albion: The Legend of Arthur (Part X of XIII)

Part X: The Nothing

Everyone tries to recover their strength, but things are happening quickly.

***

Tulloch gathers several Pictish tribes to make truce and support Morgan/Anna’s cause. He tells his cousin how she has given his band victory at every battle and raid, and confirms that she is of the old power. Morgan/Anna speaks to the assembled men—Lewdwn does not see them as the free men they are, but Pictish dogs, “united only by his scorn” for them. The location they have assembled in is known to be a haunted place, where an army once marched under a black banner against a tyrant of Gododdin, and fell. Many people, including Lewdwn, fear that the Black Army “will rise again and come for its reckoning.”

Morgan/Anna leads her men into Gododdin under a black banner. All who encounter the Pictish bands believe them to be the resurrected Black Army, and the warriors breach the stronghold and take Lewdwn prisoner. Upon seeing his daughter, he is is in disbelief. The Picts bring out a cart, and Tulloch announces that Lewdwn will taste the punishment he has meted out to so many others. Lewdwn calls out to Anna and begs her to spare him, but she says that she is no longer Anna, that Anna died when he pushed her from the clifftops. As Morgan of Ynys, she has no mercy, for he shamed her mother’s line when he broke his family from their faith. He asks what he can do, and she replies that he can die. At her order, Tulloch pushes the cart off the cliff, and Lewdwn perishes in the sea.

***

Down south, Arthur’s people are celebrating the victory over the Saxons, and delighted to have their savior home. Arthur just wishes they would stop. Owain comments that it’s good to be home, but Arthur retorts that this isn’t Owain��s home, and Ambrosius wasn’t his uncle. As Arthur spurs ahead, Owain quietly asks Aergol if he said something wrong, and Aergol reassures him that it’s just that the loss of his uncle has hit all of them hard. Aergol tells him that Cynon is still alive, and of how he promised Ambrosius to look after his son as best as he can.

Gwen comes to Owain, and tells him to keep an eye on Arthur, as he’s in danger of forgetting himself. The people will need him in the days to come, as Cynon may die and the battle has been hard on Aergol. She believes that trouble may be stirring, and there is too much at stake for Arthur to keep clinging to his wounded pride.

Morgan/Anna announces to the people of Gododdin that Lewdwn is dead, and encourages them to be true to their country rather than make false peace and stay silent under tyrants. Tulloch admires how powerful she is, but Morgan/Anna just says that the power was already with the people, and they just needed someone to wake it.

Aergol stays by Cynon’s sickbed and pleads with him to live. Blodwyn has been caring for him, and he is still feverish and dreams of Ambrosius. He finally wakes, and Aergol tells him how Arthur won the day. Remembering his father, Cynon cries; Blodwyn and Aergol obviously don’t know what really happened with Ambrosius, and before he leaves, Aergol tries to reassure him by telling him that while he never had sons, he’ll look after Cynon as if he were one of his own.

Rhun enters, and makes Blodwyn leave, wanting to speak with Cynon alone. He belittles Cynon for slipping up when they were so close to having the kingdom, and demands that Cynon live, or he will follow him to Hell.

Meanwhile, Aergol meets with Gwenhwyvar, and confesses that he’s worried about Cynon and Arthur. They watch other kings and leaders as they come to pay their respects to Ambrosius, and Aergol compares them to crows flocking to carrion. They both worry that without Ambrosius as the keystone holding them all together, everything they built may fall apart. Aergol implies that the succession will indicate who takes which sides, and that bloodshed may very well follow. Gwen thinks there is still time to change things, that they will all need to meet after the funeral to discuss what comes next. She says that everyone will need to be seen as an equal and have their voice heard, and suggests a round council, as their pagan forebearers have done. She encourages Aergol to lead well, and says they still have cause for hope.

Faramir’s surviving men return to report on their loss to the Britons at the hands of Arthur. Faramir brings the news to Medraut, who is furious, and yells that he should have led the invasion himself, but Faramir says he was too valuable to risk, for he would have been needed to take power after the Britons were defeated, as the new Vortigern. Faramir decides that Medraut is no longer safe with them, and arranges for his passage to the mainland.

Meanwhile, Arthur addresses his men, telling them it had been a difficult battle, as they had lost roughly a third of their army as well as Ambrosius, and finds that he is still beloved. He is disgusted and ashamed by their attention, and has to retreat.

Owain summons Griff, and tells him to bring the man he trusts best to Arthur’s quarters to speak with them, but tell no one else. Griff brings Cled, naturally, and Arthur praises them both for their bravery. Owain explains Cynon’s treachery to Cled, and appoints him and Griff as Arthur’s bodyguards and trusted agents.

Alone, Owain and Arthur talk. Owain tells him that he’ll be representing Rheged at the funeral, as his father is too infirm to make the journey. Meanwhile, Arthur is moody—everywhere he goes, people celebrate him as a hero, for something he didn’t do. Owain tells him again that he had no choice, but Arthur doesn’t want his apologies, he just says that it’s hard to bear the lie. He’d thought he could have led the men to victory, but now he’s haunted by the doubt that he couldn’t have, that only Owain was capable of winning and he would have only failed in Owain’s place. Arthur doesn’t know how to feel about any of it, but Owain insists that Arthur is their champion and he’s the one the men love. He tells him how the Britons could be fractured if one of the other tries to make a power grab, and that anything could happen; for the sake of all of Albion, Arthur must be the one that led them to victory. Arthur dismisses his words, and at that moment Aergol shows up, and tells them that the lords have all gathered, and the funeral must begin.

Rhun wakes Cynon up as his father’s funeral procession passes by. As he watches the procession Rhun disparages Ambrosius and taunts him about his death, and Cynon, still ailing and inert, is weakly in denial.

After the funeral, the other lords attend a feast, hosted by Ambrosius’ house. Arthur is suspicious of their intentions, but Aergol warns him to stay steady and to make peace as best as he can. Owain joins them, and reports on the general mood: the lords are concerned about Cynon, and wondering why Lewdwn is absent, but he believes they will still be willing to cooperate with Arthur. Arthur is frustrated and leaves, and Aergol tells Owain he must keep an eye on him.

Blodwyn comes to fetch Aergol to see Cynon—his fever has finally broken, and it seems that he will live yet. Cynon tells Aergol that he had strange dreams and thought he saw his father, and he regrets missing the funeral. Aergol advises him to rest so he may regain his strength.

Faramir finds Medraut, tells him his passage has been arranged to leave the next day, and gives him enough gold to live on. Medraut tells him that he has decided not to leave his country, and that he wishes to make it his again. Faramir tells him not to be a fool—they failed, his best warriors are dead, and he should go with the others who will be leaving this place in the coming winter. He observes that while Medraut hates his own people, he loves his, and he looks forward to the spring, when they shall return. He says the Saxons are fighting a slow war, and the Britons have never understood that time is on their side. Medraut points out that he doesn’t have that kind of time, and since the Saxons failed him, he doesn’t have many options; he’s decided he will turn to the Picts. Faramir is disgusted that Medraut would ally with anyone for the sake of power alone, points out that he has been ungrateful for their aid, and spits at him; he says that Medraut is “a nothing,” with no family, faith or honor, and that the stories of Arthur’s victory will outlive him. Medraut pulls a blade and stabs Faramir, who simply retorts that his people will never lose, and dies laughing. Medraut leaves the fort and flees on horseback.

***

Gwen greets Aergol the next morning, and he tells her he was thinking about the old days.

“When things were simpler?” Gwen asks.

“No,” he replies, “I was just reminding myself that things were always like this. The good old days never existed, except in stories, but stories come after the fact.”

He then tells her that Cynon will live, and she questions if Cynon is truly at peace with his father’s choice for succession, for he did not seem so at Badon. Aergol is confident that Cynon will uphold tradition, and Gwen says they’ll just have to wait for the council; if they can get through it without any upsets, a peaceful transfer of rule may be possible after all. Just then, a soldier from Gododdin arrives with the news of Lewdwn’s death.

***

Morgan/Anna talks about how the plans of old men are always weak and easily toppled. She compares the land to a hollow tree, and predicts that soon it will be struck by lightning. “The wheel turns once more, and a spider knows when a fly has entered her web,” she says.

Medraut is accosted by Picts, and after being roughed up he tells them who he is and what he plans to do. Amidst his protests, they decide to take him to Morgan/Anna, who is preparing to mobilize her Black Army. She tells Tulloch that he and his people will have whatever plunder they desire; he says that their plunder belongs to their queen, but she says she has no need for it. All she wants is “the heart of Arthur Pendraig, beating its last in [her] hand.”

[crqstalite]

❝ if you wanna talk, i’m here. ❞ or ❝ you’re my favorite person in the world. ❞

so! this was actually supposed to be written for someone else (who i have no idea) but i remember thinking that it was supposed to be for someone else not participating in shadow of the sith. it wasn’t supposed to be any of the outlanders, but it ended up being my mom!quizzy mierrio. because of the ending part, it’s considered part of shadow of the sith, but i don’t know where yet :/

either way! enjoy. a for angst.

written : 12.14.19. words: 3,004.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

mierrio likes to be alone. she enjoys it much more than having to spend time with someone, talking about obscure topics or worse, in pure, uncomfortable silence. something that often can be avoided by seeming as threatening as possible, or shocking someone into oblivion.

both of which, are her strong suits.

but sometimes, simply ignoring the problem or throwing lightning at it doesn't always work. sometimes her body is so exhausted she doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning, or the power that always flows through her bloodstream has suddenly cut off, and she's a shell of the sith she used to be. that scares her more than she even knew.

she's worn out. hair plastered to her face as she wakes up and tries to push herself out of bed, sadly finding the other side empty. it's cold.

nikky hasn't been here for a while.

mierrio can remember the first time they met. when she was still a budding acolyte doing at-the-time obscure tasks for her absolute insane master. a grin crosses her face, when she kept her hair boyishly short and actually wore sith robes. her still uncorrupted features, save for her golden eyes that had quickly replaced her green ones.

how the first time she'd seen him, she hadn't been intimidated. mierrio had barely been more than a child at the time, a measly twenty years old when her eyes first landed on the man. khem had been more than skeptical to leave her with him, even if he didn't directly show it. maybe it was because of her jaded personality or lack of baby face, andronikos didn't ever once comment on her age. in fact, even possessed an attraction to her that she'd quickly returned.

they didn't ever talk about her age. not until they'd been lazing around in the cockpit after her ascension to the dark council. admitting she didn't meet most legal drinking age policies until three days earlier (that being her birthday).

"wait," he sat up straighter, jostling her from her position stretched across his lap, "you're only twenty one?"

"yes?" she raises an eyebrow, as if it were common knowledge, "andronikos, how old did you think i was?"

"at least in your late twenties..." he admits quietly. maybe she hadn't been so evident in just how old she was. it wasn't like she went around telling that many people the year she had been born into the galaxy (or a hellhole depending on how she looked at it), "you never did tell me your birthday until the day of, sith."

"mmhmm. is there a problem?" she asks, dangling her legs over the edge of the captain's chair. he's uneasy. if andronikos is one thing, he's an open book through the force. he hides his true emotions behind a mask, but something always seeps through up top, and right now he's...

nervous. frightened. confused. usually he was a lot more happy to be with her, but nothing says he's excited to have his sith over his lap right at that moment, "how old are you?" she asks jokingly.

he's quiet for a moment, maybe formulating his next response. his hold on her isn't as tight anymore, so she has to actually lean against him instead of being able to look up at him without the arm rest stabbing her in the back. his heart is faster than usual, something she'd picked up on when she invited him to stay a night in her quarters instead of the crew cabin.

she liked just listening to him breathe in the ungodly hours of the night. it was nearly comforting when nightmares kept her up, and when andronikos did realize, he tried to stay up with her but she often fibbed and told him they'd gone away and to get some rest. they never really did.

"nikky?" she asks. it's been an uncomfortable amount of time without him answering such a simple question, "did my pirate forget his own age?"

"doesn't matter." he says eventually, his arm snaking around her waist to pull her closer again. peace has momentarily been restored, but she is curious, if not also suspicious. what does this mean, avoiding the topic entirely?

if mierrio vhella kallig was one thing, it was always some form of suspicious. and observant, if she were being generous. she had to be, being a slave and then an acolyte with an overseer who intended to kill her indirectly. and now that the topic has been brought up, she's not sure she just wants it to die. the few things she does know about andronikos are far and few in between, other than that he's been around the galaxy a few times.

he goes in to kiss her, but at the last second, she decides she wants answers, "how old are you, nikky?"

"still on that, sith?" he asks. she nods, a childish pout on her face. he sighs, already giving up to her. "i'm thirty-seven." he says defeatedly.

she pauses, frozen in between saying something else and registering his answer. on one hand, he has admitted to his age, which is finally something else she knows. but the disappointed look on his face also says exactly what she's thinking on the inside as well.

he's sixteen years older than she is.

does he think this changes things? that she'll leave just because a measly decade and a half seperates them in age?

"i get it. you tied yourself down to someone much older than you. heh, little disappointed huh?" he asks dejectedly, as she shifts herself to look at him directly, "there are plenty more fish in the sea."

she kisses him hard, both palms on either side of her face. he looks a little more satisfied, his lips painted with the red of her lipstick, "yes, but i happen to like the fish i caught. maybe he's a little older, but maybe fish age like fine wine."

he chuckles at her good-natured attempt to make him feel better, "you're my favorite person in the entire galaxy, andronikos revel. don't you ever forget that."

"whatever you say, miss mierrio kallig."

later she realizes just how stupid that sounded. wine aged for years. fish had a lifespan of two decades, if that.

she would love him forever.

mierrio also isn't a child anymore, as the pain in her back reminds her. she's not twenty one, she's twenty five. she figures she's a little undeserving of the pain though, she's technically still in the prime of her life.

well, putting it through hell and back didn't really help either, she thinks as she frowns.

though it seems so little changed, the scars that marr her pale skin are nearly a map to everything she's been through. almost having her body taken by a wayward master, nearly losing her body to force ghosts, her final fight with thanaton. among other things, fighting animals in the jungles of dromound kaas, the occasional duel with her acolytes.

the way her body filled out after her first pregnancy.

she'd always been skinny, to the point she thought she'd look like a grade schooler until the day she died. but maybe her body had finally kicked into high gear after it realized it was creating life instead of taking it. her breasts were the first, then it slowly spread over her body until she was self-conscious of putting on so much weight.

it's hard to get used to. the way most clothes and more importantly, armor don't fit the same way anymore is frustrating. her favorite armor has since gone unused because she's too wide in some places now. and even worse, she had been confined to their apartment for the last five months of being pregnant.

the rumors had only been blown out of proportion when she got back. the gossip was just childish at that point, but one that always struck hard was always the talk of ronin. someone had seen her out with him and andronikos, they must have, and jumped to conclusions. before the baby could even form his own words, people already had an opinion of him he had no control over.

she stayed in the apartment for months afterwards just because she was so embarassed. he was her baby, wasn't he? no matter how he came to her care, he was ronin revel, just as she was mierrio revel. the three of them weren't related by blood, but she felt closer to them than anyone she'd ever met before. looking at the baby twi'lek taking his first steps across the fury made her proud. that was her son, their son. screw what the others said.

she fell pregnant just after he turned three.

it wasn't as if she and andronikos had actively been trying for a baby, after so many years of being married and even before she hadn't been able to carry. to say the least, it was a joyous moment for those who'd previously inhabited the titan. corsha had been a turning point for everyone, she and andronikos had gained a family. he had his sky princess.

but something was just...off. nothing felt right anymore. maybe she was able to keep up with those on the council, but that didn't mean she still didn't feel so absolutely out of place. those on the council were decades upon decades older than her, and most didn't have successors or children. she was twenty-five, with two young children with targets on their back before they were even ten.

andronikos could lie, but not for forever. he was a pirate before, and though he'd given himself to her, that was always him. he didn't leave without her and their kids now, but there was always that wistful look in his eyes as he was in the captain's chair of the titan. she'd made him a father at thirty nine, and he was forty one now. if he hadn't had any when he was younger, why would he stick around now?

standing in front of the mirror, she can remember when getting up late meant finding one of andronikos' oversized shirts and trying to surprise him wherever he'd gotten off to, back when they lived on the titan it meant round two in the cockpit. but these days it meant trying to pull her hair back (she should really cut it again) and hoping to find one of her own shirts and checking on her kids. there wasn't time to laze around and get nothing done for days at a time anymore.

she looks tired. there are bags under eyes and some dark strands hang in front of her face. she's sore in a lot of places, and mierrio wishes it were for a different reason than exhaustion. eventually deciding on a loose shirt and leggings, she leaves the master bedroom to wander into the living room. it's still dark, so either it's been raining all morning or it's simply early. passing by a chrono, she finds it's a mixture of both. it's earlier than she usually wakes up (makes sense why she's still unexplainably exhausted), but it's also dark. the rain is pattering at the window, and it's soothing to be back on dromound kaas. she would've raised ronin here, had she had the funds for a home at that point in time.

"nikky?" she whispers, afraid he's hiding from her and planning to scare her. it wouldn't be the first time. without an answer, she steps closer to the couch.

a warm smile etches itself across her face. ronin is lying against his father, drool rolling down his face. corsha is all bundled up in a pink blanket in andronikos' arms, cheeks a rosy color she'd never been able to attain herself. a smattering of fluffy brown hair covers her skull, and she sleeps on peacefully.

she's perfectly a mix of her and andronikos. darker skin than hers, but tan enough to be a few shades lighter than her father. she doesn't have the same color hair than either of them, which was a surprise, but she's beautiful. her deep brown-green eyes are truly mesmirizing.

but his brown eyes have found her, and without even saying a word he's able to slip ronin off his shoulder and laying against the armrest of the sofa. in less than a second, corsha is recradled in his arms and he's up, leading her towards the kitchen, "good morning." he says.

"good morning to you too." she whispers, careful not to wake her daughter. though, the last year had proven the girl could sleep through a storm and not even stir, "why are you up so early?"

"princess was fussing earlier, so i took her out of our room before you woke up. ronin must've heard, so he got up too. we all fell asleep." he admits, putting his free arm around her, "heard you when he came by. figured the kid would feel better if he weren't lying upright when he woke up."

"oh." is all she can say, snuggling into her husband as he leans against the counter. he's so considerate, even if the rugged pirate look is what comes off first. his being a father has changed him, but maybe it's for the better. he's gotten extremely protective when he's out in the field with her now too.

"somethin' on your mind, sith?" he asks, and she's surprised he's caught on so fast. maybe he can hear her heartbeat as much as she can hear his, "you've been a little off lately."

"it's nothing. really." she says, just a tad too quiet for him not to suspect. if andronikos revel was good at one thing, it was gauging her reaction to just about anything, and she'd made it too obvious that everything was bothering her.

"sure."

a pause.

"just know you can always talk to me, mier." he says, "nothin's changed about that."

"i know." she whispers, "i've always known."

the silence isn't comfortable anymore. in fact, it's suffocating. the few people that even know about some of her true struggles don't even spend all that much time with her. ezridivia was halfway across the galaxy now, and tri'ama (mellena, apparently) didn't bother ever spending time with her these days (she didn't before, but after the debacle of the revanites on rakata prime, she thought the woman would at least visit). she offered good advice, but didn't relate with her as much. she wasn't married anymore, and spent most of her time gallavanting across the galaxy with the barsen'thor the jedi order (what had happened to that woman?).

why is it so hard to tell him about what's hurting her? because so much of her insecurities surround his hypothetical thoughts about their situation? how he really feels about everything?

how she's afraid one day he's going to fly off and leave her with corsha and ronin?

she grew up without a family. to make her own children do the same?

it would destroy her.

"i'm afraid one day i'm going to wake up without you. i'm afraid you're going to run again and i'm going to be alone again." she thinks, unable to even look at him before he picks up her chin, tilting it upwards to face him. he has a look of concern painted across his features.

"you're what?" he says incredulously, as if it's the biggest announcement of the millenia.

had she said that out loud? "it's not a big deal, andronikos. i'm just being childish."

"i'm not leavin' you. or the kids." he says firmly, "i'm not going anywhere, mier. i'd rather die first."

she's quiet for a moment. he's serious, something he typically was whenever it came to her or their small family. it isn't enough to get her to speak up, to say anything about how she feels. but maybe he understands that, because he doesn't press for information. he kisses her instead, "i wouldn't leave the one person that's the most important to me, sith."

-

"darth nox?" someone asks, as she adjusts where her saber hangs on her hip. ronin is prim and proper today, looking rather handsome in his youth corps uniform. even at twelve he's tall and lanky, at 5"6. she quickly puts the native flower in corsha's hair, her nine year old taking after her father and being rather fussy about being all dressed up for an outing, "the commander is landing. empress acina requests your presence at once."

"thank you." she thanks the nameless soldier as both children are herded off. she's promised them she'd take them out after meeting with the commander, so she's gone and hired someone to look after them for the time being. hopefully corsha doesn't become frustrated and begin practicing on the soldier. primping herself as she hurries along the black and red corridors, she tucks a stray hair behind her ear. it's lighter than usual, after she'd hacked off twelve inches or so. she'd gone for a less special hairstyle, planning a speeder ride in the jungle afterwards. one long braid down her back and a high collared robe, she could play responsible and imposing darth for a few hours and then get back to being what she did best - being a mom.

"empress." she nods, taking her place next to the woman. she acknowledges her as well, and she tries not to look around the throne room too much. it's been a long while since she was in the citadel, so much has changed.

she still wonders if this is where andronikos came first after zakuul took over.

"commander." acina's voice snaps her out of her thoughts, and her eyes widen once she realizes just who the commander is. other than the occasional news report, she's never taken the alliance very seriously. but flanked by two others she doesn't know, tri'ama amarillis-quinn has arrived, "welcome back to dromound kaas."

"acina," she nods in greeting, before turning to mierrio in well masked shock, "nox. it's been a while."

[originaldanganronpascenarios]

(Indirect Murder Anon) No problem! IE: A spills something on B and B has to leave to clean it, leaving them a sitting duck for C to kill them when alone. Or, perhaps A asks B to meet them somewhere to hang out, not knowing B would run into C in that very spot first and promptly gets done in. A small instance harmless on any other day that on a bad one winds up leading another to their demise. Does that make sense?

Thanks for both wonderful examples you gave I also have something like "saw something but stayed silent wich didn't stop the killer" I hope it also is something we can count I guess?

V3 boys and their S/O indirectly helping someone with murder

Heavy spoiler alert!

Ryoma Hoshi

You were quite surprised but Rantaro asked for your assistance (let's say that the motive lasted a bit longer so you knew Ryoma better and shitz) and he was very bothered by something he said it was about the killing game.

He didn't said what it was exactly but you told him if it bothered him so much he should go and investigate it as soon as possible. You didn't follow him since even though it was suspicious you decided to believe in Rantaro.

So when he left to check whatever it was you went towards the dining hall. Everything was finie and there was nothing suspicious. Except for Tsumigi but you didn't suspect anything when she said she was going to bathroom.

Next thing you knew was Rantaro's body on the ground. Completely lifeless. Ryoma was surprised by your reaction becouse in your eyes he saw guilt. And that's how you felt if you didn't said anything about him about checking it...

When the investigation began you ran away wich made many people already suspicions of you. Ryoma being extremely worried dashed after you. Asking you what's wrong he tried to comfort you.

After you were keep repeating "Its my fault if I just told him to leave it he whouldn't get killed" he knew what was going on. He let out a sigh and said "You shouldn't blame yourself for this one kid... There was no way you could know about someone setting up a murder there" he pat your back and added "How about we try our best for everyones sake and find the culprit?" this kinda gave you smaller hope but you knew you had to explain your escape during the trial.

Gonta Gokuhara

You were part of Angie's council and she asked you if you could get her a candle before she started the ritual. But you had no time to get it since you were late alredy so Angie had to get it herself but she told you not to worry and go do your thing.

What you had to do? You promised to meet up with Gonta before nighttime. You wanted to check on Angie and get her a candle but you thought she had already done it by now so you whould probably disturb her ritual.

Little you knew Angie took her time before taking what she wanted and it was late enough to encounter Korekiyo.

When body discovery announcement played you were very scared. And so you saw Angie... Dead...

But she was in her lab right? It's not your fault right? Maybe if you stepped in that time...

Gonta saw your unusual behavior during investigation but you insisted that everything was alright.

As trial moved on and Shuichi explained that she died becouse she went to get a candle late at night you started to tear up. So it was your fault after all...

Everyone was caught off guard by your behavior and so you told them the truth. Gonta immediately said "S/O enough" everyone fell silent at his sudden voice "Agh! Sorry everyone it was not good of Gonta to raise his voice" you looked at him and waited for him to finish "Gonta thinks that S/O didn't do anything wrong. If it's someone's fault it's Gonta's... If Gonta didn't ask you to meet up you could help Angie" then he started to tear up but you stopped after Kaito shouted "It's none of yours fault its culprit here to blame dammit!" and then the trial moved on.

K1B0

You and Keebo were quite excited and looked forward to Himiko's magic show! So you were helping in preparations even though Kirumi did most of the work as she insisted to do it alone.

The maid asked you to bring her a rope from from the storage room. You didn't knew what was that for but you helped her out since she had some cleaning to do.

She told you the reason why she needed rope it was quite logical but what you didn't knew was the real purpose of that rope.

Next thing you knew was Keebo being thrown right on the fish tank where all was left from Ryoma were his bones...

You helped him get up and checked twice if he was alright since you whouldn't forgive Tenko and Gonta if anything happend to your lovely Keebo.

During investigation you didn't suspect anything. I mean there was no way Kirumi whould kill anyone and if so why whould she need that rope to do so?

So the investigation went the same like the last one. You mostly spent time with Keebo and tried to find useful clues.

However during trial it was stated that the rope way was used... And this threw you off guard.

Keebo was worried becouse of this very thing... He couldn't help but ask you about it and this made everyone suspicious of you.

You now knew that it was probably Kirumi but you couldn't get those words out of your mouth. Still Keebo believes in you and he tired to get you out of this situation "Now hold on a second just becouse S/O was triggered by the word 'rope' it doesn't make her/him culprit! There could be many reasons to this and more importantly we can be talking about 2 different ropes right now!" you knew it was the one but you didn't do it!

You tried to explain it to your classmates and told them that you brought that rope since Kirumi asked for it and the purpose was to stabilize the tank (the one with piranhas) since she thought it was slightly swinging so she wanted to add extra rope just to be safe.

Kirumi quickly secured that statement but her lies were seen through fast thanks to everyone.

Kaito Momota

Before Angies murder you heard Korekiyo talk about ritual that let you talk to ghosts. And so you asked about this (Wich now whould make you a suspect but Kiyo was going to bring it up anyways) that's not the end of your influence on Tenko's murder.

You noticed something odd about the cloth when you went to help out with the statue but you didn't report it since you thought it was just placed this way.

Now you regret staying quiet... Since you were sure it had to do something with that cloth and so you were sure it was Korekiyo who did it. You decided to stay silent though since looking at the fact that your only evidence was something you couldn't actually prove.

Kaito noticed the way you looked at Kiyo and was very concerned. You managed to convince him that everything was fine and there was nothing for him to worry about.

Once the trial started you felt guilty... If you said anything there whouldn't be another victim. Kaito saw how much you were struggling and so he spoke up "S/O is everything alright? You seem like something is bothering you" he didn't suspect you at that moment but someone else did try to make trial more interesting "Oh it all makes sense now! S/O must be the culprit since it seems like she/he isn't telling us something!" Kokichi said wich made Kaito quite mad.

Before Kaito could say anything you told them about the cloth you swore there was something odd about it and it also helped Shuichi since now he knew where the sickle was hidden. Of course it's just one of the many possibilities but it's more likely to be the case.

After everything was over you didn't stop blaming yourself for this... Kaito tried his best cheering you up. He couldn't stand the fact that you thought it was all your fault...

Shuichi Saihara

Once Kokichi was out of control you were lost and that's when you decided to sneak inside the place and Kaito spotted you. He asked you to bring him crossbow from Maki's lab.

You weren't sure about whole thing but you decided to help Kaito stop Kokichi. He whouldn't kill him right?

Still you wanted to hide this fact but it seemed like Keebo noticed you too... That's why during investigation Shuichi asked you about whole thing.

You told him everything you knew and he didn't even question it he trusted you and saw no reason for you to lie.

Still no matter who died you felt like the crossbow you brought had something to do with this...

After you told him everything you looked down and he flet like he had to say something... "S/O... Even if the crossbow had to do anything its not your fault. I know you just tried to help Kaito" he placed his hand on your shoulder "Now let's try our best to solve this crime okay?" it was tough but you didn't let all those stupid things get to you and you tried your best with investigating.

Kokichi Ouma

As the two of you entered program made by Miu he told you about his plan. So Miu was planning to kill him? You asked him if it was necessary to kill Miu... And use Gonta like this...

He told you that he will do it since it is very necessary for his plan to end this game for good. Even though the whole plan seemed wrong and it was total madness you agreed to help out.

Before he got Gonta on his side he told you one thing "S/O don't you dare to blame yourself for this. I am and will be the only one responsible for this" you didn't comment this but felt a tiny bit better about whole situation.

But you feeling good with it is far from truth. All you wanted to do is to finish it once and for all.

What you did? Distracted Miu for a bit so she whould be late for her meeting with Kokichi. Since Gonta isn't the smartest Kokichi thought he whould need extra time explaining everything. Still he all made it pretty clear.

After everything was over Kokichi knew you didn't felt anyhow good about it and he didn't blame you. It was all his fault you felt that way but sometimes you have to act distant to be close...

Korekiyo Shinguji

It was quite late but most of the students were awake. Luckily no one did anything suspicious.

Untill you met up with Kirumi who was holding quite huge stick asking for its purpose she told you that she wanted to get something from high place she couldn't reach. Seemed logical enough? Still why whould Kirumi kill anyone?

You met up with Korekiyo and started just hanging out when Gonta got you and dragged to his lab it was all so sudden but Gonta made sure nothing happened to any of you.

Korekiyo tried to protect you from the bugs even though they weren't much hostile still you can't be too safe Korekiyo also had to be extra careful not to kill any of the bugs becouse then it whould be an end for both of you.

After this nightmare you went to see Himikos show and you couldn't be more surprised to see a dead body. Yet you haven't realized that you know who is the culprit.

During the trial you learned that you were able to stop that crime... If you didn't believe her so easily...

How dumb you had to be... To get tricked by such an excuse she didn't even said anything about either object or 'high place'...

When the trial was over Korekiyo immediately hugged you and said "Don't worry S/O I think that everyone whould believe her it's we are talking about Kirumi after all and in any case you shouldn't be the one to be blamed here"...

Yes there is no Rantaro for a reason.

~Mod Chiaki

[fakexface]

Season 8

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   𝓢𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼 𝓘 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓯 𝓖𝓸𝓭 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓹𝓻𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓮. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  

•Upon arrival in the North, Rhaegar, Daenerys, Jon, and their combined forces march through Winter Town on their way to Winterfell. The townspeople cast the Targaryens many suspicious looks, and Jon reminds them that Northerners have a long-established distrust of outsiders. Rhaegar gives a tight smile and replies that he deserves these looks- the blame they give him. He was the one who took Lady Lyanna from them, after all. Immediately following this exchange, Vhagon, Meraxal and Rhaenyx fly overhead, startling the townspeople and causing Daenerys to smile proudly. Rhaegar lets out a soft laugh as he watches the trio fly overhead.

•In Winterfell's courtyard, Jon introduces Daenerys and Rhaegar to Sansa; the two women exchange a civil but tense greeting while Rhaegar drops into a low bow, surprising everyone present, and states that Lady Sansa favors her mother, Catelyn.

•Later, Rhaegar is seated at the high table in the castle's great hall along with Jon, Daenerys, and Sansa. Tyrion attempts to calm the slightly hostile Northern lords by telling them that the largest army ever seen has been assembled, but Sansa asks how she is supposed to feed such a force along with three dragons. When she asks what dragons even eat, Daenerys replies, "Whatever they want." Rhaegar cuts in, giving his sister a harsh look, before replying that the dragons will hunt outside of Winterfell; they are capable of feeding themselves. One of the Northern lords makes a passing comment of how Targaryens know treason better than anyone else; Rhaegar does not reply.

•While inspecting the preparations for the coming battle, Daenerys remarks to Jon upon Sansa's apparent dislike for her. While Jon assures her that Sansa wasn't overly fond of him when they were growing up, Daenerys rebuffs him by saying that they don't need to like each other, but she will be respected as hand to the King. Several Dothraki approach the pair and mention that the dragons haven't been eating as much as they normally do.

•Rhaegar can be seen standing before Rhaenyx, worry evident. He asks for Daenerys and Jon to take them out, away from Winterfell- the dragons don’t like the cold, and flying would help warm them up. When Daenerys asks if Rhaegar will join them, he shakes his head and states that there are matters that he needs to attend to.

•Daenerys mounts Vhagon, planning to take him for a ride, and suggests that Jon mount Meraxal. After much trepidation, Jon does so, and the dragons take the pair on a wild ride over the snow-covered landscape, Daenerys being somewhat pleased at Jon's almost instant connection with the dragon. Eventually, they land near a waterfall in an area where Jon used to hunt as a youth. Away from all concerns about the coming battle, Daenerys and Jon share a brief moment of intimacy. Rhaenyx can be seen continuing to fly farther south before circling around, almost as if he were playing the role of scout.

•Rhaegar finds his way into the catacombs of Winterfell, and he takes his time, walking past the tombs slowly. He stops before Lyanna’s, and tears can be seen falling from his eyes. He finally breaks down after a moment, all but collapsing to his knees, sobbing softly and apologizing over and over again for leaving her alone, for dragging her into everything, for not making it back to the Tower of Joy in time. Tyrion, having followed Rhaegar, does not approach and instead, stays hidden behind a corner, listening to Rhaegar cry.

•Daenerys and Jorah later encounter Samwell Tarly in Winterfell's library. After praising him for realizing the secret behind dragonglass and curing Jorah of his greyscale, she asks if there is anything she can do to repay him. Sam jokingly asks for a pardon for stealing books from the Citadel and for taking his family's ancestral sword without permission. Upon hearing his surname is "Tarly", Daenerys realizes that he is in fact Randyll's son, and proceeds to tell him the difficult truth that his father and brother are being held on Dragonstone for rebelling against Rhaegar, and will have a trial for this crime after Rhaegar takes his throne. Sam is speechless for a few moments before asking to leave the library.

•Rhaegar is on the battlements, studying their composition and how many men could fit without it becoming too cramped when a commotion erupts in the courtyard. He quickly leaves, making his way down, only to pause when he sees who was causing the commotion: Jaime Lannister. He moves quickly, with purpose, striding across the courtyard. He calls out to Jaime by using his title of Kingslayer, and as the Lannister turns, Rhaegar snaps out, striking his jaw with a harsh uppercut that caused a split lip to form. Jon Snow sees what happens and runs forward, separating the two as Rhaegar snarls out how he had trusted Jaime, how he had put him on duty to watch his father because he trusted him, before yelling out why he didn’t try to stop the murder and rape of his wife, Elia Martell, or their children.

•Later, Rhaegar and Daenerys are once again seated at the high table with Jon and Sansa. The two women harshly berate the Kingslayer for his past actions and question whether his loyalty to their cause is genuine. Rhaegar makes idle comments on how Jaime stood by while his family was slaughtered “like cattle”. Only when Brienne of Tarth vouches for Jaime does Sansa trust him, and Daenerys allows his sword to be returned to him. Rhaegar, after a moment, relents- there are bigger monsters to deal with currently.

•Rhaegar finds himself alone in the mess hall, a much needed moment of peace and quiet. He stands, staring at the flames, when Bran wheels himself in. Rhaegar turns, and before he can say anything, Bran says two words that have Rhaegar stilling: he knows. Rhaegar does not attempt to dance around the subject, simply stating that it was not Bran’s place to tell Jon, that he had plans. Bran does not reply. Rhaegar, on his way out, pauses, and states that he had a relative, Bryndyn Rivers, who was rumored to have been the last Three-Eyed Raven. Bran agrees, stating that he is the one who taught Bran and passed the mantel onto him. Rhaegar places a hand on Bran’s shoulder, but he does not speak. He leaves a moment later.

•Jon finds Rhaegar in the chambers Sansa appointed for the Targaryen, and approaches him, distraught over what Samwell has told him. Rhaegar does not speak at first, prompting Jon to grow distraught and ask if it was all true, what Sam had said. Rhaegar replies that yes, it is- that Jon is, indeed, his son. His given name was not Jon, but rather, Jaehaerys, named after Rhaegar’s grandfather, the last sane Targaryen to sit on the Iron Throne. Jon grows angry, asking why he left, why he never tried to reach out, to which Rhaegar, just as distraught, tries to explain what had happened- how he had been nearly killed, and by the time he reached Dragonstone, it was too late and he had to run. That he had correspondence with Ned and Maester Aemon over the years, keeping track of Jon.•He wanted to see him, to visit and be a part of his life- but it would be far too dangerous. Jon then asks if he was ever going to tell him, to which Rhaegar replies yes, he was- after the war was over. Jon then asks if Daenerys knows, and Rhaegar, after a moment, states that she doesn’t; she believes that Rhaegar’s children are dead. Jon doesn’t stay, leaving Rhaegar alone in his chambers. Rhaegar, in a rare fit of rage, tosses a chair across the room, causing it to shatter against the stone wall.

•Later, Daenerys speaks privately with Sansa, addressing some of the thorny political issues involved in their alliance. She also openly confesses her love for Jon, explaining she has had only one goal - retaking the Iron Throne - until she met Jon and now she's in the North helping him fight the Night King and the army of the dead. Although a greater understanding appears to develop between the two women, Sansa remains firm in her conviction that the Northerners will never truly accept an outsider as their ruler again, and bluntly asks Daenerys what Rhaegar’s plans for the North are once the dead have been defeated. The awkward moment is interrupted by Maester Wolkan announcing the arrival of Theon Greyjoy and his men.

•Rhaegar is already within the room when Sansa arrives to greet Theon, and he watches with curiosity, having met the boy back on Dragonstone. After they have their moment, he clears his throat and asks where Yara was, and if he knows what has happened with Ellaria Sand. Theon replies that Yara was the only one on the ship when he arrived, and that he doesn’t know what became of Ellaria. Rhaegar, crestfallen, thanks him before leaving.•Surprisingly, Sansa comes after him, finding him standing upon a battlement overlooking the front gates to Winterfell. She asks him how he finds Winterfell, and he replies simply that it is much colder than he expected. She then asks what his plans are, after he gains the throne- to this, he turns to her and studies her for a long moment before stating that while she favored Catelyn in looks, her strength and biting resolve were that of Lyanna’s. He then explains that after the Throne is taken back, he will call a council of those who are the new heads of the houses of Westeros, and from there, decide on where to go. A change needs to happen, he states with a shake of his head; the time for total control is over, that much he learned in Essos. His ancestors- Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya ruled together. He wants something akin to that- multiple rulers, not just one person, or one council.

•When the survivors from Eastwatch bring the news that the army of the dead will be at Winterfell's gates within a day, preparations inside the castle begin to move forward at a feverish pace. Rhaegar meets with all the prominent commanders and heads of houses to discuss battle strategy. Daenerys finds herself in the crypts with Jon. While standing in front of Lyanna Stark's statue, Daenerys recounts the story of how her brother Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and drove Robert Baratheon to rebel against the Iron Throne.

•On a prior urging from Samwell, Jon finally reveals the truth about his parentage to Daenerys. She is utterly stunned, and immediately questions the validity of the story. When Jon assures her that it's true, she realizes that Jon actually has a better claim to the throne than she does. Daenerys leaves in a hurry, leaving Jon behind in the crypts. She finds Rhaegar in his rooms, polishing his blades, which is where she demands to know the truth. Rhaegar tells her quickly- yes, Jon in his son, yes, he knew it was him from the moment he saw him, yes, he planned on telling her, and no, he did not kidnap Lyanna. This brings out frustration and anger, and he begins to tell her the full story of how he and Lyanna fell in love; however, before either can discuss the matter further, a horn sounds three times to signal the arrival of the army of the dead. They exchange a look before leaving quickly to find their dragons.

•Rhaegar, Daenerys, and Jon watch with Vhagon, and Rhaenyx, and Meraxal from a distance as the Dothraki charge the army of the dead, but when the Dothraki are slaughtered, Daenerys breaks away from Jon's plan to wait for the Night King and attacks the army of the dead with dragonfire. Rhaegar curses and quickly follows after his younger sister, with Jon trailing behind. Rhaegar keeps lower than Daenerys or Jon, watching the battle unfold. Rhaenyx leaves the dragonfire to Vhagon and Meraxal. Daenerys and Jon's visibility is cut off when the White Walkers summon a blizzard, however. The pair take to the skies above the blizzard while Rhaegar keeps low, circling Winterfell the best he can. Daenerys suddenly plunges on Vhagon, drawing Rhaegar’s attention. When he realizes who she is aiming for, he screams for her to pull up, but his voice is lost in the sound of battle. He watches from the back of Rhaenyx in horror as Vhagon blasts the Night King with fire- but to no avail.

•They escape as the Night King hurls an ice spear at Vhagon. When Jon is surrounded by newly risen wights, Daenerys and Rhaegar save him with Vhagon and Rhaenyx, burning through wights and creating a path for Jon to rush into Winterfell to help Bran and stop the Night King. Rhaegar leaves shortly after, trying to find where Meraxal had flown off to, and is horrified to see the dragon being covered by wights. He and Rhaenyx dive down, freeing Meraxal. However, Rhaegar is thrown from Rhaenyx’s back as Rhaenyx attempts to keep the wights away from Meraxal, leaving Rhaegar to be surrounded with two angry dragons.

•He manages to climb atop Rhaenyx and take to the skies with Meraxal, injured but able to fly, following after. He panics when he realizes that Dany is nowhere to be found. He takes Rhaenyx over Winterfell and blasts what dead he can while Meraxal flies further south, to safety. As Daenerys watches over Jon, wights climb onto Drogon, and Daenerys falls off while Drogon flies away.  She is protected by Jorah, who dies defending her, leaving Daenerys crying hysterically while Vhagon wraps around them after the Army of the Dead falls. Rhaegar, having dropped from Rhaenyx’s back, is fighting alongside those in the courtyard of Winterfell and growing overwhelmed by the minute, until the Army of the Dead suddenly falls.

•After the battle, which saw a living victory, Rhaegar and Daenerys mourn the dead outside Winterfell, lighting a pyre. He steps forward with Daenerys to light their funeral pyre; she kisses the dead Jorah's forehead and whispers something to him before Rhaegar lights the pyre. Later, the siblings celebrate at the feast inside Winterfell. Tormund makes a toast to Daenerys, "To the Ruby King!"- a new title for Rhaegar, and Daenerys stands up herself, toasting Arya Stark as the "Hero of Winterfell." However, despite her initially celebratory mood and the smiles she exchanges with Jon, Daenerys's mood grows downcast when she finds herself worried over Jon's popularity among the Northmen, Valemen, and wildlings compared to Rhaegar’s popularity. Rhaegar, on the other hand, is celebrating just as much- congratulating Jon and toasting. Daenerys rises to leave, but Rhaegar stops her with a hand on her arm, shaking his head. It is then that Tyrion speaks up, requesting a song from Rhaegar. The hall falls silent, as many who are there have heard of the Targaryen’s voice moving people to tears. Rhaegar, flustered but still reeling from their victory, agrees and begins to sing The Night That Ended; no one joins in, and the hall is surprisingly silent as he sings. Daenerys sits beside him with a fond smile.

•Daenerys finds Jon in his chambers that night and they kiss, beginning to undress, before Jon stops himself due to learning of their relation. Daenerys laments that she wishes Jon never told her about his true identity because otherwise, she'd be happy- they’d both be happy. Daenerys tells Jon it doesn't matter what he wants or how many times he swears fealty to Rhaegar - he didn't want to be King in the North either. Jon gets on one knee before her and says that Rhaegar is his king. Daenerys begs Jon not to tell anyone else about his parentage, fearing that it will destroy them. Jon insists he must tell his sisters because he owes them the truth about who he is, certain it will work out and they can all live together. However, Dany believes the only way they can live together is if Jon keeps his identity secret.

•Rhaegar spends the night alone, walking the halls of Winterfell until he finally grows too restless and goes to leave, only to be stopped by Sandor Clegane, who asks him what he was planning on doing. Rhaegar confesses he needed to get out of Winterfell for a bit; The Hound decides that he’s going to join him. The pair walk out of Winterfell’s gates in relative silence. Sandor breaks the silence by asking if Rhaegar plans on killing Cersei or Jaime or his brother. Rhaegar hesitates before answering that Cersei will have a trial once King’s Landing is taken; while he would love to kill the man who took his children and beloved away from him, he believes that the honor should belong to Sandor. The Hound doesn’t reply, and leaves Rhaegar to be alone afterwards. Rhaegar, instead of returning to Winterfell, continues his walk, eventually finding the dragons, each asleep. Rhaenyx awakens first and watches as he approaches, but does not stop him. Rhaegar settles down on the ground beside the dragon, who lowers his head and covers Rhaegar, all but hiding him from view. In the silence of the night, Rhaegar allows himself to grieve for those he had lost.

•Come morning, no one can find Rhaegar. A panic sweeps through Winterfell before Arya arrives with Rhaegar trailing behind, the pair both looking amused at the situation. Arya explains that she had watched him leave Winterfell the night before, and curiosity drew her to look for him- and get a closer look at the dragons. Rhaegar then leads a war council for the resumed campaign against Cersei Lannister for the Iron Throne. They will not sail immediately to King’s Landing, despite Daenerys’ argument that they should march now. Rhaegar counters, agreeing with the Lady Sansa that their men are exhausted and injured; marching to King’s Landing right now would be marching them all to their deaths- again. They would wait five days, giving the men time to rest. He ends the meeting, though requests to speak with Daenerys and Jon alone. However, Jon has already disappeared, leaving the siblings to have a tense stand off before Daenerys leaves without a word.

•Later, Rhaegar is in the crypts beneath Winterfell once more, standing before Ned’s statue. Sansa finds him here; she makes to leave at first before he speaks up, stating that while she may favor the Tully side in looks, her personality was purely Stark. She takes this as a cue to approach him, and she admits that she did not know Lady Lyanna, but had heard plenty of tales. Rhaegar smiles and tells her the story of how Lyanna poured wine over her brother’s head. A moment of silence passes before he turns and studies her, before sighing and asking if Jon has spoken with her and Arya. She says that he has- that she had, admittedly, been looking for Rhaegar to ask if it truly was so- that he was his son. Rhaegar nods slowly, and Sansa gets a pensive look about her before asking why he didn’t come after Jon. It is then that he begins to recount to her the tale of Elia, Lyanna, and himself as they make their way back to the surface: the murder of his father, his mother’s death giving birth to Daenerys, how they had to flee Westeros completely and seek shelter in Essos. How he sent ravens to Ned and Aemon, asking after Jon. How assassins had been sent after himself and his siblings, and how dangerous it would be if the world knew that he had a living heir in Westeros.

•They depart from one another afterwards, where Sansa runs into Tyrion and tells him of what she had learned. Rhaegar, meanwhile, went to find Daenerys and Jon; they would be leaving at dawn. He gave Jon the choice: travel by dragon, or ride by horse. Jon, after a moment, admits that he isn’t used to riding on the back of a dragon yet, and relents to lead their forces by horseback. Rhaegar agrees.

•As his fleet is sailing back to Dragonstone, Rhaeagar rides Rhaenyx next to Daenerys on Vhagon, with Meraxal trailing behind, when suddenly three bolts are fired, narrowly missing the dragons. Rhaegar yells for Daenerys to fly higher while Meraxal soars ahead quickly, weaving towards their fleet. Euron's Iron Fleet reveals itself from behind Dragonstone's rocks and tries to take down Daenerys and Vhagon as they escape, but are unable to do as they pull back. Rhaenyx turns and takes them around the back of Euron’s fleet, allowing Rhaegar to get a look at just what he was dealing with. To his dismay, the part of the Iron Company he had left behind had joined with Euron. Euron instead targets Rhaegar’s fleet, destroying it and capturing Missandei in the process.

•Rhaegar, furious with this outcome, returns to Dragonstone. There, both siblings become tempted to storm King's Landing. However, Rhaegar is brought back down by Varys, who reminds him that while it may be a tempting idea- there were far too many innocent lives at stake. Daenerys, Tyrion, Varys, and Grey Worm parley with Cersei outside the gates of King's Landing, where Cersei threatens to execute Missandei in front of them. She taunts them, asking if Rhaegar had decided to give up, to turn tail and flee like he once did, when the roar of a dragon is heard. Rhaegar soars overhead upon Rhaenyx, landing upon a spire beside Cersei. Rhaenyx takes out two scorpions with his tail, and another with dragonfire before Rhaegar dismounts. He asks Cersei if she knew of the casks of wildfire beneath the streets. On cue, a burst of green flame shoots into the air, startling Cersei and giving Rhaegar the chance to grab Missandei and pull her behind himself.  In the midst of the chaos and confusion, a Scorpion looses a bolt- only for it to fly wide and crash into the road below.

•Rhaegar gives Cersei an ultimatum: give up now, and King’s Landing will not suffer. Refuse, and come dawn, King’s Landing will no longer belong to the Lannisters. Cersei commands for the Mountain to kill Rhaegar. Before he can move, Rhaenyx releases a blast of dragonfire close enough that it scorches Cersei’s dress, allowing Rhaegar and Missandei to climb atop Rhaenyx, who takes to the skies quickly and retreats to safety behind their lines. Missandei and Daenerys have a tearful reunion before Grey Worm takes her into his arms.

•Rhaegar states simply that Cersei would not compromise. Come morning, King’s Landing would no longer belong to the Lannisters. He leaves them, then, despite Tyrion calling after him, and makes his way towards the camp that had been set up. There, he meets with his guards, who had caught Jaime attempting to sneak into the city. Rhaegar sits down with the man, removing his chains and offering him a cup of wine. Rhaegar does not speak, allowing the silence to grow until Jaime finally breaks and asks if Rhaegar intends to kill him and Cersei. He replies that no- Cersei will not die. She will have a trial- but she needs to abdicate the throne, lest Rhaegar be forced to take it by force. Before Jaime can begin to defend her, he adds that her sentence would be less severe, should Jaime bend the knee. He knows that Cersei is pregnant, and guesses correctly that the child is Jaime’s.

•Jaime, after a moment, settles down onto one knee, and bends the knee to Rhaegar. Rhaegar takes this time to ask Jaime why he did it- why he killed Aerys. Jaime replies that Aerys would kill Rhaegar if he knew about Lyanna, and that Aerys would had been killed anyway because Tywinn would not have let him live. When asked about Elia, Jaime falls silent and admits the fault was purely on his part, that he should have gone to them, and he regrets it every single day. Rhaegar agrees- that he, too, regrets not being here. He admits that he can still hear Elia’s voice singing Dornish lullabies to Rhaenys and Aegon.

•It is in the early morning hours that news breaks; Varys had spread word of Jon being Rhaegar’s son. Daenerys becomes enraged, saying that it should have been kept a secret, that Jon should never had told Sansa the truth. Rhaegar counters that Jon was not raised to be a Targaryen, that he was a Stark, and those were his sisters- his family. The ones he had grown up with, lived with, eaten with. However, it was not Varys’ place to spread word. Rhaegar brings Varys to Dragonstone, where they hold a mock trial; Rhaegar explains that, by all means, he should kill Lord Varys. He should allow Rhaenyx to snap his spine and burn him alive. Rhaenyx even begins to creep forward, but Rhaegar stops the dragon. Instead, he states that he will allow Varys to live. This was the first time he had crossed Rhaegar- and the last. Should it happen again, he would not live to see the dawn. He leaves Varys on the rock outcropping as the sun begins to rise over the horizon, painting the ocean vivid hues of orange, yellow, red- like dragonfire.

•Later, Rhaegar calls Daenerys and Jon into a private bedchamber to talk. He begins by saying that the room they were in had once been his; it was now striped of everything that had belonged him. He turns to them, and asks Jon if he was okay with word now spreading that he is Rhaegar’s child. Jon hesitates, conflicted; he states that he hadn’t meant for word to spread. Rhaegar replies that it is too late now- the Lords and Ladies of Westeros would soon know the truth, and that Jon should prepare himself for that. Rhaegar hesitates for a moment before stating that he has not chosen an heir- that, technically, Jon should be his heir, but Daenerys had a viable claim since she is his sister. He leaves them afterwards to talk amongst themselves.  

•Rhaegar consults with Tyrion on how best to go about this; Euron’s fleet would need to be destroyed, as would the Scorpions atop the battlements. However, he does not wish to end innocent lives if at all possible, which Tyrion agrees with. Daenerys asks why they wouldn’t simply storm King’s Landing and destroy it. Rhaegar replies that while it had never been Dany’s home, it had once been his, and the people within King’s Landing were innocents, held hostage by a tyrant- ever since Robert Baratheon had died. Tyrion responds that the smallfolk are afraid of Cersei because Cersei will punish any rebellious acts. Daenerys counters that Cersei is using mercy as a weakness against them but Cersei is wrong, mercy is their strength - her mercy for the future generations of Westeros, not those in the present. Rhaegar shuts her down quickly, reminding her that they are not Aerys- that, as much as he would enjoy seeing the Red Keep fall- they would not burn the city. They would give them mercy.•Before Tyrion leaves, Rhaegar informs them both that Jaime was caught by his men trying to get past their lines. Rhaegar informs Tyrion that Jaime is not a prisoner- that he has bent the knee and swore to serve Rhaegar once more. Daenerys asks Rhaegar if they can trust Jaime, to which Rhaegar and Tyrion reply simultaneously with a simple “yes”. Come morning two days later, Rhaegar flies over King’s Landing- high above, hidden by clouds, though the sound of wings beating could be heard. It is as if the city stands still as they listen; Cersei can be seen peering into the clouds, looking, listening, straining to catch a glimpse of Rhaegar.

•Daenerys attacks Euron's Iron Fleet atop Vhagon as the Battle of King's Landing begins, sinking the fleet and destroying the scorpions. Rhaegar suddenly appears, looking as if Rhaenyx were falling, when suddenly the pair sweep low along the walls of King’s Landing, destroying scorpion after scorpion while Daenerys lands Vhagon atop a tower. Meraxal appears, and upon his back sits Jon Snow, who lands outside of the gates. Terrified screams can be heard from the people below.

•Rhaegar has Rhaenyx fly up once more, taking to the clouds over King’s Landing, where the silhouette of Rhaenyx can be seen through the clouds, casting a shadow over the city. Daenerys destroys the gate and its walls that the Golden Company guards, killing many of the sellswords from the debris that falls upon them. This allows the Dothraki, Unsullied, the Northern and the Vale armies to destroy the remaining sellsword contingent and charge into the city. Overwhelmed, the Lannister soldiers surrender despite Cersei not ordering it, ringing the city's bells. A piercing cry from Rhaenyx has Vhagon and Meraxal taking to the skies as the bells ring out. While the two dragons circle King’s Landing like dogs herding cattle, Rhaenyx suddenly plummets once more, settling atop the Red Keep. Rhaenyx cranes his neck down, allowing Rhaegar to see Cersei, in which he informs her that her soldiers have surrendered their arms, that her people are being evacuated, and that as they speak, Unsullied are making their way through the Red Keep, slaughtering her soldiers. She barks back that Euron’s fleet was still there, to which Rhaegar shakes his head slowly. She asks about the Golden Company- and he shakes his head once more.

•He asks her if she will abdicate the throne peacefully, or if he needed to take it by force. The sound of battle can be heard growing closer; she can be seen casting a wary glance to the doors, to the Mountain, before looking back towards Rhaegar. Just before the door breaks down, she relents.

•Rhaeagar gives her a small, sad smile. Rhaenyx releases another cry, which Vhagon and Meraxal echo. He informs her that, should she attempt to escape, he would kill Jaime (a bluff, though she is not aware of it); that he has him outside of the city, surrounded by Dothraki screamers who are dying to bloody their blades. She relents, and the Mountain leads her and Maester Qyburn down from the tower; the steps are cleared of her soldiers, and Rhaegar’s Unsullied remain. At the bottom of the steps stand Daenerys and Grey Worm. On Daenerys’ order, Grey Worm shackles both Cersei and Qyburn.

•The Hound appears, then, and the battle between brothers commences. Daenerys orders no one to intervene, despite her growing horror. Finally, Sandor has Gregor on his knees, and decapitates him, ending the Mountain once and for all. The Hound falls to his knees, grievously injured, though he does not succumb to his wounds.

•Thousands of the surrendered soldiers and innocent civilians are gathered outside of the Red Keep and in the streets with Northmen and the armies of the Vale. In front stand the Unsullied; at the very back, the Dothraki sit on their horses, screaming and cheering. Rhaegar stands above them with Daenerys to his right and Jon to his left. Jaime stands off to the side beside Tyrion. Here, Rhaegar gives his speech to the people, proclaiming that the Lannisters are no longer the rulers of Westeros. Cersei has abdicated the throne, the very same throne that his ancestor, Aegon Targaryen, forged. He explains that he will take the throne as the Rightful Heir, and they will begin to rebuild the damages caused to King’s Landing, as well as holding a trial for the crimes that Cersei Lannister has committed, as well as one for Euron Greyjoy, who had been captured by Theon and Yara Greyjoy. Maester Qyburn would be stripped of his chains, and held accountable for the crimes he’s committed.

•He adds that a Great Council will be formed in the coming months of the Lords and Ladies of Westeros. Things would be changing; no longer would a tyrant rule. He leaves it at that as the crowd cheers.

[serenlyss]

For the Sake of a Smile Chapter 4

Rating: G Relationships: terumob, teru&reigen, teru&ritsu, shigeo&ritsu, teru&tome Chapter Summary: Teru interviews for a part-time job. Crossposted to AO3: Chapter 4

Chapter 3 // Chapter 5

"Invest in what’s real. Clean as you go. Drink while you cook. Make it fun. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It will be what it will be." — Gwyneth Paltrow

---

Teru stares up at the cafeteria menu and feels his stomach drop.

In retrospect, he should have known that such a posh school would have equally nice and expensive food, but staring at the prices on the board above his school’s lunch line, he realizes just how ridiculous they really are.

How does anyone afford this? he wonders to himself bitterly, counting bills in his head. He hasn’t exactly brought a ton of spending money with him from home, just whatever he’d had saved up at the time, and it’s clear that it won’t last long if he plans on eating at the cafeteria every day. He’d been anticipating having to pick up some sort of part-time job to cover his extra expenses, even with his tuition covered, and now he knows for sure that he’ll have to find something as quickly as possible.

He settles for a cheap ham sandwich and a miniature water bottle for his lunch; it won’t last him all that long, but it’s better than nothing. Then he retreats to an empty table, awkwardly taking a seat and leaning his head on his hand. He pulls his phone out of his pocket, scrolling through his messages with nothing better to do during his break. There’s a text from Tome at the very top of his notifications from that morning, and he cracks a smile at the sight of it.

“How’s rich person life suiting you? Have you let the fame and fortune go to your head yet?” it reads, with Tome’s signature unabashed snark woven into every word. He can practically hear her voice through his screen.

“About as well as you’d expect,” he replies honestly. “My class is full of rich snobs.” His text is only slightly sarcastic; while there is undoubtedly an air of snobbery amongst some of his more well-off classmates, the majority of them are friendly enough.

It’s the middle of the day, so he doesn’t expect Tome to get back to him for a little while. He tucks his phone back into his pocket and moves to unwrap his sandwich.

He’s interrupted before he can take a bite by Shigeo and Ritsu, the former of which waves a hand at him with a small, shy smile. Ritsu, predictably, hardly acknowledges his presence beyond a cursory glance as Shigeo pulls up a chair to sit across from Teru. “Mind if we join you?” he asks, as though he’s expecting Teru to refuse.

“Not at all,” he replies with a gracious wave of his hand, ripping a piece off the meager sandwich to nibble on. “I’m surprised you both have the same lunch period.”

“Oh, everyone in our homeroom has this lunch period, that’s how they divide it up,” Shigeo explains. “Ritsu does too, but the student council also meets during the lunch break, so he doesn’t usually hang around the cafeteria for very long.” As he speaks, he reaches into his bag to pull out his own lunch, homemade by the looks of it. It makes Teru ache a little for the food from his hometown, but he pushes that thought to the back of his mind before it makes him homesick.

Ritsu, on the other hand, is staring at Teru’s sandwich thoughtfully. “That’s all you’re eating?” he comments, and as he does, Shigeo seems to pick up on Teru’s meager lunch as well.

Teru reaches up to tuck a strand of hair behind his ear self-consciously. “Ah, well, the cafeteria food was… a bit pricier than I was anticipating,” he replies, attempting to sound as breezy as possible. “I haven’t managed to find myself a job yet, so I have to be careful about how much money I spend.”

Ritsu’s brow furrows, and Teru tries not to squirm under the younger boy’s intense gaze. He wonders why Ritsu keeps staring at him like that, like he’s some kind of puzzle that needs to be solved. 

“I see,” Ritsu says after a moment. He glances down at a watch around his wrist, then adds, “I need to get going, Shige, or I’ll be late for the meeting. I’ll see you at home.”

Shigeo shares a smile with his brother as Ritsu leaves for his meeting, then turns to face Teru again. “You say you’re looking for a job?” he says, bringing the conversation back to places Teru doesn’t really want to talk about. He supposes it isn’t worth trying to hide, though, it’s not as though it would be hard to tell that he comes from less-than-privileged means.

“Yes, eventually. The academy is paying for my tuition and board, which is very generous of them, but I’ll need to have a little money coming in for food and things like that, the necessities,” he explains, looking down into his water bottle with a tinge of embarrassment. He knows that many of the students here come from rich families who have absolutely no trouble sending money to pay for all their childrens’ expenses and more, but he’s not about to go searching for his own parents now. Just the thought of it steeps his dormant rage, and he quickly tamps it down before it can manifest in a scowl on his face.

Shigeo considers this for a moment, poking at his lunch with his fork, then says, “Maybe you could try the place I work.”

Teru looks up in surprise, both at the fact that Shigeo himself has some sort of side job he works and that Shigeo would be willing to recommend him. “Really? Where do you work?” he asks, his interest piqued.

Shigeo smiles, apparently pleased at Teru’s enthusiastic response. “It’s actually a diner on campus. I’ve been working there for a while now, ever since middle school. It’s kind of old and a lot quieter than it used to be, but I make a little money from the customers that do come in and Master Reigen teaches me a little about cooking, when he has the time,” Shigeo says. “You already know how to cook, though, so I bet he’d be really happy to have you working there, too! Want me to introduce you?”

Some of Teru’s enthusiasm wanes at hearing that the diner isn’t quite as successful as it had once been, but he can’t deny the allure of a job like this. He really can’t think of anything more perfect than working in a diner, but the academy’s cafeteria has a strict rule against hiring students, so he figures this may be his best shot. Besides, he reasons, it can’t hurt to just check it out, even if I decide it’s better to find somewhere else to work. With that in mind, he nods his head with a bright smile. “I’d love to! When can I come by?”

---

Teru finds it very, very hard to stay optimistic about this potential job opportunity when the path that leads to it is so overgrown. He can’t even tell if this is a legitimate path anymore or if he’s decided to take a spontaneous detour through the backwoods behind the tennis courts. The grass reaches up past his knees and the sprawling ferns block his path with every step. “This is so stupid!” he curses to himself, stumbling over a well-hidden rock and nearly eating dirt as he does. “No wonder no one goes anymore, who wants to go traipsing through the jungle just for some lunch?”

Still, the walk itself is only a few minutes, even if he does feel abnormally winded by the time he finally stumbles upon some sort of building. At first, all he can do is stare and wonder if he’s taken a wrong turn somewhere, somehow; the diner isn’t very appealing to the eyes, and it looks old, with ivy climbing insistently up its walls and its outdated, chipped sign hanging at a slight diagonal angle that he can’t possibly believe is intentional. Still, the name on the sign is the same one Shigeo had given to him, and the sign in the front window says “Open”.

Sweets and Such… what kind of name is that? Teruki thinks to himself as he clambers out of the woods and onto better-tamed grass, already feeling the suspicious scowl on his face starting to make itself known. He crosses his arms as he warily approaches the front door, hiking his bag higher up on his shoulder. He’d baked cookies earlier to bring to this meeting in hopes of making an impression and showing what he could do, but now he’s starting to wonder if it’s even worth trying if the place feels this much like he’s walking into a ghost town. Still, he’d agreed to this meeting at Shigeo’s behest and it would be terribly impolite to turn away this opportunity without at least putting in his fair share of effort, so he pushes the door open and pokes his head inside.

It’s empty, predictably, and the inside of the building doesn’t look much better than the outside. It’s after school hours, which would normally mean a place like this would be bustling with students fresh out of club activities and looking for a bite to eat, but instead the place looks like the owner is fit to move out. Tables and chairs are scattered around the parlor with no discernable order, and there are boxes of miscellaneous supplies and posters up against one of the walls. It’s, quite frankly, a total mess, and one look at it solidifies the fact that Teru would never choose to sit and eat here, not even if the prices were dirt-cheap.

“Hello?” he calls into the empty room, taking a wary step inside and letting the door close behind him. “I’m looking for a mister Reigen Arataka? Um, Shigeo told me he’d let you know I was stopping by.”

There’s a clatter from the kitchen at the back of the store, and Teru swears he hears someone yell “Shit!” before he calls out more clearly, “Oh, of course, one second please!”

There’s more noise from the kitchen, the sounds of metal objects being knocked against each other and the occasional boom of a particularly heavy footstep, before Reigen makes himself known. He strides out with a confidence that’s easily dispelled by his disheveled appearance; he looks to be somewhere in his mid to late twenties, but he’s rather scrawny, like a sapling that has to have supports tied to it so the storms don’t knock it over. His light brown hair is partly covered by a wrinkled bandana, which is a surprising shade of pale pink and matches the button-up shirt he wears under his black apron. In short, he looks more like a waiter than a chef, especially with the way he hastily puts a cigarette out into an overflowing ashtray as though to hide the fact that he’d been smoking in his own kitchen.

“You must be the one Mob was talking about.” The man greets him with a broad smile, one hand buried in the pocket of his blue jeans while he holds the other out for Teru to shake. “Uh, Hanazawa, right? Mob says you’re on the hunt for a job, and that you’re kind of a whiz in the kitchen. I’m Reigen Arataka, I own the place.” He releases Teru’s hand after his brief introduction, then gestures toward a nearby table. “Let’s sit, yeah?”

Teru starts a little at the invitation. “Oh, sure,” he acquiesces, sliding into a chair opposite Reigen. He casts a quick glance around the diner, then asks, “Are you renovating?” It’s the only suitable explanation he can find for why the place would be in such disarray, aside from laziness.

Reigen reaches up a hand to rub the back of his neck with an apologetic smile. “You could say that. I mean, I was going to, but that kinda fell through. I, uh, haven’t had a chance to clean the place up much,” he explains breezily, but the words feel like only half the truth. The tables aren’t dusty, so someone must be at least keeping them clean enough to eat on, but the whole place has an air of disrepair. “Anyway,” Reigen continues, hastily changing the subject, “I don’t hire many temps here, since the place is pretty small and I don’t exactly have a lot of extra money to spend on help, but it’s pretty rare for Mob to bring up anyone from school, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see what the fuss was about.”

Teru decides to drop the subject of the diner’s shoddy state of being for now, but he definitely adds that to a mental list he’s making of the pros and cons. It looks like this: Pros, he’ll be able to make a bit of money on the side at a place that’s already approved by the school’s director. He’ll have a friend working here, too, and despite the place’s obvious flaws, Teru can tell that at one point it was probably pretty charming. Not to mention, he’ll be able to cook here, potentially whenever he likes. Cons, the diner is as dead as they come, and it practically reeks of laziness and loss of hope. No self-respecting restaurant owner would let their business fall so steeply into the garbage like Reigen obviously has. It’s clean, at least, but the atmosphere is terrible, and it’s hard to ignore the stench of cigarette smoke that permeates the parlor. The building is so hard to find that he wonders if Reigen gets any customers at all, and what he could possibly be doing to keep his doors open when things are this bad.

“Mob… is that a nickname?” Teru asks, instead of asking all the other questions that permeate his mind. He’s never heard anyone else call Shigeo by that name, and it feels almost mean on the tip of his tongue, like an insult.

“Ah, maybe he doesn’t go by that anymore?” Reigen muses, leaning back in his chair. “When he started working for me in middle school, he said it’s what his friends used to call him. He’s probably grown out of it by now.” He waves his hand as if to banish the thought, something Teru is quickly discovering is somewhat of a habit for him. His hands are almost never still, constantly gesturing or fiddling or doing something equally distracting to occupy himself.

Teru falls quiet for a moment, then remembers the cookies he’d brought with him. “Ah, before I forget,” he says quickly, reaching into his bag and producing a tupperware container he’d borrowed from the school’s kitchen. “I figured I’d bring something to share. Like a portfolio, I guess, if you want to try one.” He cracks open the container, revealing a dozen soft pumpkin cookies dotted with chocolate chips. “This is an old family recipe, something I used to make all the time for my siblings growing up.” The word ‘siblings’ slips off his tongue naturally in reference to the other kids at the orphanage, and despite the mundanity of it, it still seems to pique Reigen’s interest.

He flashes Teru a thoughtful look for just a second before shrugging his shoulders and reaching for the tupperware. “Sure, why not?” he relents, plucking a cookie from the top of the pile. He doesn’t hesitate to take a bite of it, brow furrowed thoughtfully. He falls quiet for a few seconds, even after he’s swallowed, and then he meets Teru’s gaze across the table, wagging a finger at him. “I knew there was something special about you, kid,” he says around a mouthful of pumpkin cookie. “I can tell you’ve been doing this for a long time. You’re lacking in formal training, but that’s to be expected. Were you self-taught?”

“Mostly,” Teru replies, which is mostly the truth. He remembers very little from the cooking lessons his mother would sometimes give him growing up, before she became distant. Most of what he knows is a combination of his own experimentation and his lessons with the sisters who had looked after him growing up.

Reigen nods, considering this, then uncrosses his legs and leans forward on the table, face a mask of sudden seriousness. He clasps his hands together in front of him. “Listen, I’m gonna be honest with you, kid, because I think you have real talent,” he starts. “I’m sure you can tell, ‘cause you strike me as the perceptive type, but this place isn’t exactly what it used to be. I’ve been wanting to close up for a while now, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Frankly, I think the only reason it’s still open at all is because Mob likes it here. He’s my only employee, and only a handful of students even bother to come by anymore. I’m kinda surprised ol’ Suzuki hasn’t shut me down already, considering.”

Teru blinks at the name, recognizing it from his acceptance letter. Suzuki, the President of the academy and the one who had placed him in the special class with his recommendation. “I see,” he murmurs, “that’s a shame. This place seems like it was pretty nice, at one point.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” Reigen accuses, raising a brow at Teru, but there’s amusement in his gaze. “Mob wants to fix the place up, make it more like what it was like when he started working here, maybe even better. I won’t pretend that hiring one new temp employee is going to suddenly fix everything, but… I’m curious about you, kid, and what kind of ideas you might have. Call it a hunch.”

Teru frowns, attempting to connect the dots in his head, but there’s something missing from the bigger picture that makes Reigen’s logic really fall to pieces. He seems to have an inordinate amount of confidence in Teru’s abilities and judgement, confidence based on a five-minute conversation and a single pumpkin cookie. Something about it makes his skin crawl uncomfortably. “What do you mean?” he asks cautiously, putting the lid on his tupperware and stowing the cookies in his backpack. “You want me to… help you remodel?” Who enlists a fifteen-year-old’s help with something like that? Not to mention, Shigeo seems to have been roped in as well. “I don’t think I’m qualified for that kind of job.”

Reigen shrugs. “Not necessarily the remodeling parts themselves, but, y’know, put in your input about what you think would look nice, give Mob a hand with the cooking and cleaning, that kind of stuff,” he amends, tapping a finger on the table in front of him. “It would take a bit of stress off my shoulders, at least, and I think Shigeo would be happy to have a friend around instead of hanging out with me all day. What do you say?”

Teru hesitates, mulling over the possibilities in his head. His first thought is that adjusting to a new job while they’re in the middle of remodeling--and not very successful, for that matter--is a terrible job choice, but the more he thinks about it, the more he sees this as a unique opportunity. It’s a resume builder, for one, even if it’s a little early to be worrying about that, and the job Reigen is offering him would allow him a lot of creative freedom, too. Not to mention, access to a kitchen without having to worry about scheduling time or competing with other students for space and supplies. How bad could it be? “How about a test run?” he compromises. “I can come in sometime this week for an afternoon, see what kind of shift you run, and then decide based on that.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Reigen agrees with a grin. “Come in on Friday, and I’ll have a list of things for you to work on.” He holds out his hand to Teru again, this time in farewell.

“Alright, then I’ll see you on Friday,” Teru replies, and gives Reigen’s hand a firm shake. Despite the oddity of the situation, he can’t help but feel a thrum of excitement at this new opportunity.

He only hopes it won’t come back to bite him in the butt later.

[dachi-chan25]

GoT S8 Episode 4 "I don't even care about the title of this" Recap

So here I am once again (I didn't do a Recap of the battle episode cuz frankly I'm not a huge fan of battle stuff, and it was very messy the way D&D executed it, there was not much stuff to analyze so yeah) and well the way some people talked about Jon yesterday really had me worried (and hey if you hate him now or don't believe in him it's fine, not your fault but the writers') but when I watched the episode I got a completely different impression (which is fine I mean sharing a ship doesn't mean we have to agree on every single thing) and I will talk about it.

Oh yeah I am not a fan of D, nor of aegony and I still believe in Pol! Jon and jonsa so if you are not intrested in reading about any of that this is not the Recap for ya.

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Funeral & Feast

From the very beginning of the episode I was like 👀👀. We get a shot of Ser Jorah's corpse and D mourning him and then we get the exact same thing with Theon and Sansa (drawing this parallels between them is truly intresting) but we only get Jon's sad expression after we get Sansa sobbing which makes me think he was watching her (this is also supported by the fact that D was not in his direct line of vision and the fact he is not standing anywhere near her in that moment or afterwards).

Jon gives a pretty emotional speech about the fallen and the future generations, and the director made sure we get a shot of Sansa behind Jon as he talks about the future generations (aka children) when a more open shot would have made it more vague and meaning about everyone's children and not just Jon & Sansa's, I mean for me the foreshadowing was strong.

The pyres are lit, and I guess this is where the rumours about WF burning started (gosh I am so glad they didn't had D burn it) .

Everyone is celebrating the victory in the Great Hall, everything starts on a serious note, until Gendry gets up the benches to go looking for Arya, and D calls on him. Ok serious talk, did any of y'all notice that look of worry that passes between Jon and Dadvos??? Like they were waiting for the worst, why in the Seven Hells would Jon expect the worst out of someone he supposedly loves and believes in? Cuz he does not. And yeah he is relieved but not relaxed when she names him Lord of Storms End (k seriously i thought d&d had completely forgot about the riverlands,stormlands, westerlands,the Reach, dorne, and everywhere else that was not "plot relevant" ) and the fact that no one even knew who was ruling there like? ??? Didn't Jon sent letters to every lord in season 4 or 5??? Like how do they not know this???

Back to Jon, he looks puzzled like he doesn't know what game she is playing. While she is patting herself in the back for getting rid of a man that had a better claim to the throne than her. Tyrion is a dumbass, cuz D can't name Gendry shit until she actually has the alliance of the stormlands but whatevs, she is not a politiciiian she is a kweeeen.

So yeah the mead and wine get passed around and everyone seems to be having a good time except for 1 person: D

Why is this? Well because she is not their hero, not really, and she knows, I mean she watched the NK walking through her flames, if not for ser Jorah she would be dead and that can't be cuz she is special she has to be cuz she is the last Targy except now she knows that is also not true, and we get her looking at Jon.

And Jon??? Well he doesn't give her the time of the day (again if he loved her so much he would be spending time with her, trying to include her in the conversation with him and his friends) cuz he is lauguing and drinking with Tormund and Sansa (honestly Sansa was so flirty with that "c'mon, do it in believe in you" like i have used that same line girl what), he turns around for a second and smiles at d (he is having a good time and why wouldn't he smile, she is not the one that made him smile he is smiling cuz he is happy and on his way to getting drunk) thing is Sansa catches him sharing a smile with D and her reaction is so out of proportion for a "sister" when she was all smiles and heart eyes not 2 seconds ago, her smile disappears and she leaves, what is Jon's reaction? He turns around and watches her leave super confused, D is smug until she realizes Jon didn't really pick her, she didn't won cuz he still is looking at Sansa and not back at her.

Things get crazy with Tormund and he shouts for anyone to hear that Jon is a "King" and then only then Jon turns to see D's reaction, and she gives him a forced smile that he returns because he doesn't want to antagonize her. By this point Jon is making 0 effort to resume their "relationship" but also doesn't want to be percived as her enemy.

And we get a terrifying look on D's face as she sees everyone around her celebrating without a care for her, their kween, cuz they would rather have Jon or Sansa, and she can't take it, so much she has to go.

Now we get a drinking game between Tyrion, Brienne, Jaime and Pod, is all cool until Tyrion mentions the fact Brienne is a virgin, she gets upset and leaves, Jaime goes for her and Tormund has the realization that he has no chance with Brienne. Now he goes to complain to the Hound who gives 0 fucks about his lonely soul, and suddenly everyone gets a sexual partner (everything is very heterosexual of course, we know the only gays in westeros are dead or in the Iron Islands) and we see Sansa watching (this is what she wants that she doesn't have, she doesn't want sex she wants romance but she can't have it with the one she wants) and she has a 1 on 1 with the Hound that I have already talked about.

Gendry finally finds Arya shooting arrows on her own, and tells her the good news, not only that but he proposes. And oh, I knew Arya wouldn't want to get married but this was hard to see, we still get a kiss so she loves him but that is not the life she wants for herself.

Aegonyyyy & "The Truth"

Jon is looking miserable in his room. I mean if anything has been consistent with Jon is the fact that he wants to deal with everything on his own, but the fact that he has to deal with this whole existential crisis and the up coming war must be exhausting. D enters his room unannounced (fooking rude, but I don't expect any better cuz she has never shown him respect at all, even Jon knocks when entering the office he shares with Sansa) he stumbles up (he is drunk totally unprepared for any conversation she wants to have) and gives her his condolences about Jorah (meaning this is the 1st conversation since the parentage reveal they have, and D is the one to iniciate it not Jon, again nothing about this makes me think he loves her) he doesn't hug her or approach her any further, as always D is the one forcing intimacy between them, honestly we get no real reaction from Jon when she tells him Jorah loved her but she couldn't love him cuz she loves Jon.

One of the cornerstone's of a romantic relationship is the frist time someone declares their love, and usually when one half of the pairing doesn't say it back it screams trouble. A kiss does not equal love, and it's not a good thing to do when someone is pouring their feelings for you. Now Jon does seem more into the kiss but as the director's commented he remembers what she is (not who but what) and pulls back. Jon's expression is not good if they selling me a romance, he doesn't look tortured by his desire and love for his aunt, but disgusted and defeated like he thought this was over but apparently nope he still has to be like this.

D has never respected Jon or his feelings (like when s7 was airing I remember I said she reminded me of Tw1l1ght when she watched Jon sleep, and how little she respects his privacy) and this imbalance in their relationship is again present when she starts complaining about how people love him and not her (gee I wonder if that has anything to do with setting your dragons on them when you arrived) like really, not once she worried about his feelings about not being who he thought he was, the only thing she cares about is the IT and if he will get in the way. Jon is visibly annoyed while giving his back to her so she doesn't seem but the audience does. What's more she expects Jon to lie to his family isolating himself from them to make her happy (that's fucked up) I do believe Jon intended to tell them everything (he just doesn't know how, and is understandably afraid cuz he never felt truly a part of the pack, and now he thinks he really is not) now he sees D is not going to let go of him, of the North, he can't say anything (i mean he totally should tho, I know d&d are just doing this to hold onto pol!Jon and dark!dany for as long as they can before being all smug like bet you didn't see it coming, except i do, I see u villians. Jk maybe I am wrong xd) he still wants to say it, and D goes absolutely crazy saying the truth is gonna destroy them (why dear isn't that the name of your epic couple song?) And that she wants to live in her selfish ass fantasy while stating how threatened she feels by Sansa (by this point Jon knows she burned the Tarlys for not bending and Sansa is not bending, if she bent know d would surely find it suspicious) the ONLY way he can protect Sansa as long as D is still at WF (and maybe forever) is if he is in the middle, her feelings for him have to be enough to stop her from hurting Sansa, or at least that is how I see his PoV right now, better for Sansa to be alive and hate him than having D kill her.

********The Braime is scene was so good tho 😢😢😢😍😍😍

War Council & Stark Meeting

Or the moment most people wanted to throw Jon in the trash...

So they making stupid ass, basic plans to defeat chess master Cersei.

And there, told ya D wanted to burn shit down before Missandei. Jon gets her to listen (Tyrion is grateful af)and instead of burning shit down like idiots they will lay a siege. But then Sansa raises an important issue everyone should care about: The physical and mental recovery of their armies. But D is like crazy tbh, there is no better word and she still treats the Long night as Jon's war and the northern as Sansa's people, and my girl rightfully calls her out. Jon puts a stop to that and he was heavily critiziced for it, but like he did the right thing?? I mean i hated how hurt Sansa looked, but Jon is trying (still) real hard to protect her, but there is nothing he can do if Sansa keeps antagonizing D (did y'all see how out of proportion was her reaction to a valid question??) also I think Jon wants to get D as far away from his family (specially Sansa) as possible.

Onto the reunión it was pretty telling how Sansa and Jon were already fighting it out like they do, both lost in their little world til Arya is like guys pls stop. Arya served as an excellent contrast between what sisterly concern looks like and what Sansa is showing. Jon is desperate, he has to go with D, not only because his family will not be safe if Cersei is alive, but because D feels they owe her that, and D wants him by her side and that is the only way she won't accuse him or his family of plotting against her, by this point i don't think jon has any plan to separate himself from her, he will do what she wants for as long as she wants because she has the power to hurt the people he loves and he rather be unhappy than losing his family forever. So he makes Bran tell them and makes them swear they won't tell anyone (he is explicitly defying D's wishes here) why?? Well there could be many reasons, his last act of free will, or maybe he wants the Starks to hate him and get him out of the pack (he doesn't even consider himself a part of the pack, and from his PoV Sansa doesn't either, cuz he is an idiot just not in the way people think he is) for choosing his Targ family over them, I lean toward the later but who knows?? I just know something bad had to happen for Arya to leave like that with no intention of returning and Sansa not saying goodbye to Jon and just wistfully watch from the battlements.

Farewell Jon

Again people hated Jon for this. But imho Jon is clearly not well in that moment, he looks tired, depressed. And i doubt very much this is the last scene with Ghost he will have.

Also Jon says he wishes he could go North is pretty sad?? If Jon loved d that much he would be sad about being at odds with his family but determined he is doing the right thing, he would be at least a little eager or something, not saying he wishes he could go up north and hide himself from everything. Also Tormund saying a part of the north will always be in Jon is foreshadowing that he will definitely come back.

Jon self deprecating "I hope it's a girl" when gilly tells him they want to name the baby after him. Jon is not alright.

He can't say goodbye to Ghost because this is not goodbye, this is not the last time they will see each other, and Jon can't bring himself to say goodbye (tbh he looked like the saddest boy ever, he didn't look like an uncaring ass to me) because ghost is his tie to his stark side, and he just can't part from that (also I am good with Jon not taking him to the South, like we don't wanna see my pure boy die)

Tyrion, she is in love with Jon u idiot.

So yeah D is with the dragons, and i don't know about y'all but Rhaegal is flying just fine (I think D didn't want Jon riding Rhaegal anymore to avoid more talk about how kingly he is).

So yeah Sansa is seeing this lizards fly, and Tyrion approaches her, she is not even trying to disguise how much she loathes the idea of D being kween, Tyrion is trying to work out why, it would certainly make things easier if the Lady of WF and the crown had a civil relationship. Sansa acts very snappy and brings up the good relationship the Warden of the North has with their kween (I want to slap Tyrion everytime he says "she is your kween too" to any other character) Tyrion very unsubtly says Jon is not coming back, and Sansa gets so emotional, she tells him she doesn't want Jon to go South.

Tyrion is baffled (cuz he is boo boo the fool) as to why Sansa is so against D, and even tells her how much more power she'll have if Jon is out of the picture. She doesn't want power tho she wants Jon. Sansa cleverly points out Tyrion is scared of D, and asks him why he thinks she would be a good kween (lmaooo this is what it looks like when u a brainwashed fool, Tyrion straight up says he believes in D as opposed to Jon saying they needed her armies) Tyrion says bs and Sansa says what if there was a better option. (This might save Jon's ass later tbh)

Welp that escalated fast

So now, we have the stupidest team ever traveling by boat to KL or dragonstone??? Somewhere in between maybe.

Varys and Tyrion are having a chat about Jon's parentage. Welp. Varys is Team Snow now I guess and Tyrion is still a fool. Honestly none of this bodes well for the D.

Now she is flying magestically with her 2 dragons when bam! Euron sinks her battleship and her battle dragon and her everything.

D, like the impulsive fool she is, charges against the Greyjoy fleet only to discover that they all have Scorpions, and she is risking it too much.

Everyone swims to the shore (honestly how Lucky they are that everyone knows how to swim) but Missandei is missing.

Cersei is the supreme bitch drinking wine and relishing in how unprepared D team is. Missandei is chained (😢) and very scared.

In WF, Sansa gets the news (who sent her this raven?? Varys is my bet) and Jaime overhears. Sansa says she wishes she could watch Cersei's execution (and this was pretty harsh but Cersei deserves Sansa's hate so..) Jaime gets unsettled and that paired up with that scene of the previously on where Cersei reveals she is pregnant plus all that stuff on 8x02 about him doing things for his family, I guess it's pretty clear he will try to save Cersei for the baby's sake not out of love but because the baby is innocent and is his, he already has fought D and knows his chances to survive again are scarce so he has to hurt Brienne now if he doesn't want her to follow him.

This shit is racist as hell but the writing is poor and everyone hated it so I guess it's something.

Now we get to the parley. And idk why Tyrion keeps trying (I mean i guess it's for the baby as well) is clear Cersei would rather die than leave the throne to d (which is just as well cuz d thinks the same).

They try to negotiate but both kweens are too selfish and entitled for it to really work. Missandei gets beheaded, but before she says Dracarys (how sad they don't let her say I love you to Greyworm one last time and instead is used as a permission for d to go bersek on innocent people that are not responsible for Cersei's actions) honestly is disappointing we don't get to see if D would have allowed her and GW to leave, it's sad she doesn't get her own story apart from D's handmaiden and that her own death is not about herself but to cause pain to a white woman (that already has a super racist storyline) and turn her full dark (I mean she has been making the descent on her own just fine whyyy u do this d&d).

That’s it, that’s my take. I am looking forward to next week.