#monarchy ent.

[emotionalflamingo]

This killed me 😭😂

i have been thinking about this nonstop since the queen’s death

(please steel wool: this has to be canon)

[duchessofostergotlands]

I got a dumb question that literally is just me thinking hypotheticals when I can’t sleep. Let’s say Harry had gone off and had a child with someone, didn’t marry her at the time, but for whatever reason years later did and they have a second child. I know legally that child one would get nothing in terms of title and line of succession, but, like, considering the PR side of things, it feels like the current societal climate would cause there to be some pushback on making it more fair for both children… at least my American brain would think that way. So basically I guess my question is how do you think that scenario would play out? I guess actually my first question really should be how would 20-something Harry having an out of wedlock baby have played out, but that’s besides the point lol

I don't generally answer hypothetical questions. I can tell you what is legally possible for any British royal, but I won't guess what the response actually would have been or make it about Harry. Because if we assume a scenario where Harry had had an out of wedlock child, we can't reasonably assume that every other variable in his life would have been exactly the same. And that scenario could play out in a million different ways. There’s a massive difference between a situation like Louis and Tessy in Luxembourg who were a couple, had a child out of wedlock, and married six months later to one like Albert in Monaco who had a 2 week fling with an American on holiday and then she had his baby, who he didn’t meet until she was 11. Too many unknowns. So:

Anyone can be made a Prince/ss by the monarch through the issuing of a Letters Patent. It only automatically goes to legitimate children but the monarch can give the title to whoever.

Scottish titles (by which I mean titles created in Scotland before the establishment of Great Britain) are the only ones in the UK which can be inherited by a child who is legitimised after birth. But even then, the child is only considered to have been legitimate from the moment of their parents' marriage (see more here). All other peerages can't be inherited by illegitimate children no matter what. The way a title is inherited is stated at the time of the title's creation and cannot be changed after the fact. So for example Lord Mountbatten only had daughters so when the Earl Mountbatten of Burma title was created it said that it would pass to his eldest daughter and then her lawful heirs. So I suppose there probably isn't anything legally to stop a title from being created and the Letters Patent saying "it goes to this legitimised child" - this is a special remainder - but it would be unprecedented to my knowledge in the modern era and highly context dependent. If the royal already had a title when the child was legitimised then there's nothing that can be done. They would have to pass an Act of Parliament which revises how titles are inherited. That is a legal possibility but also very difficult (see something I wrote about women getting titles here). It isn't exactly the same but the important bit is that a change in the law would apply to 700 different families, not just one child.

They would not be in the line of succession because only legitimate children can be in the line of succession. That would also have to be changed by the government and would also have to be agreed by all other Commonwealth realms because succession impacts them too.

The important thing to remember is most of this stuff is not within the royal family's control. Some of it isn't even entirely within the British government's control! So while it seems unfair, that's a monarchy for you! It's not a question of fairness or morality or family or any of that. It's about the efficient governance of the state. I am an illegitimate child myself - not that it matters, I wasn't in line to inherit anything! - but actually that has made me incredibly aware of how important your environment is to your development so my opinion on it would entirely change depending on the context.

[horizon-verizon]

Why is it nonsensical to just like characters you like without this stupid fandom tribalism? This fandom is exhausting with everything being about teams.

Depends on why you like the character, anon.

What about them entices or appeals and do you believe those liked traits override their integrity? Or nullify it in lieu of enjoyment? How seriously do you treat the character's faults and what you think is a flaw that condemns them to EVIL. The quality of your admiration for the character. What you ignore or think is innocuous enough to ignore, or if you ignore it to then pretend you don't care about the ideological/moral/political element when you really do and are just trying to sneak in prejudiced ideologies that you would be accused of having or convince others is "not that bad" so it can become the dominant ideology.

One Alicent stan transphopically and misogynistically writes "see the problem with the 'what if rhaenyra had been born a boy' thing in regards to rhaenicent is the unavoidable truth that it would have changed them both so intrinsically that they wouldn't make sense anymore” this POST. And they want to say that Alicent provides Rhaenyra a “helpful” perspective. Kind of like how some U.S. southern resident try to claim that them trying to preserve their racist statues, monuments, etc. is "just" them preserving their Southern/Separatist "heritage" and is “just” about celebration and honor. 

You don't just "like" a character because of nothing at all. You have specific reasons why you "like" a character or their action, why you "like" the Targs or hate them, etc. Even though you never thought about why, they are there, these reasons. It's just that if you become a real fan, there are many reasons and many of them are "deep" and you may not be the person who would happily talk for 30 minutes why you love a character.

And you can understand why and how a person "likes" something or someone when you check out what they think is valuable enough to even be praised in the first place. This is where it matters, relating to the story you are reading, the circumstances surrounding the character and giving them their identity, their role, their very existence. You cannot separate a character from their story.

The Dance is a historical event in the Westerosi timeline where a woman was attacked and usurped because a group of people wanted power and used the sociopolitical value of her gender against her and try to discredit her. In the original story, there are already two factions: the blacks vs the greens (which used to be called the queen's versus the princess' party). They also used violence against undeserving individuals based on discriminatory beliefs (like how children born out of wedlock are inherently "treacherous", therefore they must be treated as lesser...that Alicent's religion, the Faith, pushes). The characters themselves fight and have deep emotional scars from their interactions in the past, and the motivations behind those abuses have to do with what they believe they "deserve". (Talking about the greens here).

The factionalism in the original story makes the story, because the very reason for the factionalism is that one side decided to oppose the other and seize power. To further their own desire for power for power's sake -- they felt entitled to break the law (King's word is law) and custom despite their claims of following custom, tradition and being subjects due to their oldest claimant (Aegon II) being male while Rhaenyra was a woman. Despite the fact that they themselves claim to believe in King's word is law and absolute monarchy, and want that sort of power for themselves and then go around as say Rhaenyra is unfit for it.

That is prejudice and misogyny at work, inherently unjust things, and their entire philosophy is inherently heavy classism and misogyny. They were entirely out for themselves and abused their power against those under their authority. Aegon rapes, Aemond rapes and murders an entire family's male members --children, babies, and adults, roasts whole villages, Daeron burns a whole town, Alicent tries to plot and grow a following against a ten year old and tries to get her to lose her entire reputation based on an act that is not inherently kill-worthy.....

You can definitely "like" characters for how layered their evil is and how strong of a contender they are, but to totally ignore them and then favor them is to be a bigot or a possible bystander of bigotry.

The Dance also sets up the circumstances for one of our principal heroes, Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen who is another beloved or reviled character of this series. It is due to what happens in the Dance and the gradual Targ assimilation into Westerosi patriarchy that the dragons the Targs have are lost.

Since the story has sides, readers will also form their opinions, read the text, understand the context through the lore and world holding, and thus they will also pick a side. And in general, with a situation/story like this, there are going to be strong, opposing opinions and feelings. And those manifest as "teams".

To pretend as if our philosophies or ideas of identity and "who deserves respect in this situation" never has a hand in what we "like" in fiction is to both lie and can be a real way that discriminatory and even fascist ideologies can prosper. Since you're discouraged to think analytically, learn your history, not look deeper into human motivations and their multiplicity, disprove ridiculous theories that seek to create justifications for prejudice and oppression and "might=right", and otherwise question authorities of power and morality.

And then you get people like Sansa, Aemond, and Alicent stans who try to excuse classism or reduce abusive, oppressive acts to mere "flaws".

[giancarlonicoli]

28 lug 2023 11:36

LUNGA VITA ALLE SATRAPIE DELLO SPORT ITALIANO - CADE IL LIMITE DEI TRE MANDATI, I PRESIDENTI DELLE FEDERAZIONI SI ALLUNGANO VITA (E POLTRONE). SEMAFORO VERDE PER ANGELO BINAGHI (TENNIS E PADEL), PAOLO BARELLI (NUOTO), GIANNI PETRUCCI (BASKET) E FRANCO CHIMENTI (GOLF) - SULL'EMENDAMENTO, INSERITO MARTEDÌ NOTTE NEL DECRETO "PUBBLICA AMMINISTRAZIONE 2",  VERRÀ POSTA LA FIDUCIA - IL DEPUTATO DEL PD ED EX TECNICO DELL'ITALVOLLEY MAURO BERRUTO: “UNA VERGOGNA. LE FEDERAZIONI, TRAMITE IL GOVERNO, DIVENTANO DELLE MONARCHIE ASSOLUTE” -

Estratto dell'articolo di Matteo De Santis per “la Stampa”

Dalla ghigliottina di una legge apparentemente rivoluzionaria che, dopo Parigi 2024, rendeva ineleggibili e incandidabili una ventina di presidenti di federazioni sportive all'emendamento "ad hoc", inserito martedì notte nel decreto "Pubblica Amministrazione 2", del via libera per sempre. Non ci sarà più limite di mandati, nemmeno se dovessero essere consecutivi, sui troni, tutt'altro che dorati, delle Federazioni Sportive: i regni dei presidenti possono continuare alla luce del sole senza interruzioni, deroghe o sotterfugi.

Rimuovendo l'attuale limite di tre, che nell'idea iniziale (poi accantonata) dal Governo non doveva essere assoluto ma di incarichi di fila, l'unico vincolo dal quarto mandato consisterà nell'ottenere una maggioranza più che qualificata: due terzi dei voti validamente espressi in sede elettiva.

Semaforo verde per le ricandidature e le rielezioni di presidenti di lungo corso e altrettanto lunga esperienza come Sabatino Aracu (sport rotellistici), Luciano Rossi (tiro a volo), Angelo Binaghi (tennis e padel), Paolo Barelli (nuoto), Gianni Petrucci (basket) e Franco Chimenti (golf). Il provvedimento tocca anche i livelli locali delle singole federazioni e degli enti di promozione: il testo dell'emendamento, blindato nei prossimi giorni da maggioranza e Governo nel passaggio alla Camera e al Senato ricorrendo anche allo strumento della fiducia, contiene dei nuovi regolamenti per impedire l'abuso delle deleghe nelle varie assemblee elettive federali.

«Una vergogna – sostiene il deputato del Pd ed ex tecnico dell'Italvolley Mauro Berruto – le Federazioni, tramite il Governo, diventano delle monarchie assolute». Il provvedimento non riguarda il Coni, ente pubblico, per cui vale ancora il limite di tre mandati. Il tema, però, è d'attualità: il Coni, martedì a Milano, ha approvato all'unanimità le modifiche al proprio Statuto, che poi dovrà a sua volta essere approvato dal Ministero dello Sport. Tra le rettifiche passate c'è anche l'abbattimento del vincolo di mandati.«Prima si parlava di un numero definito, la nuova formula fa riferimento a più mandati. Con il cambio della normativa statale, non servirebbe intervenire. È una norma mobile che si adegua a quella statale», la spiegazione fornita da Carlo Sica, il presidente della Commissione Statuto del Coni.

(…)

[sea-salted-wolverine]

We've got the full spectrum here

The ents are trees. They don't even have textiles, they don't wear clothes, maybe we could consider their nomenclature and agricultural efforts to be technological advances but thats a reach. Absolute bottom of the heap.

Trolls, which are by Tolkiens narrative the shadow version of Ents, wear clothes and cook their food. They have tools and maybe the ability to refine metals into blades, but that could easily be from other races.

Orc make metal tools and organize into a military hierarchy but as far as we know its only ever under someone else's impetus which is really just sad. Something something old men start wars young men die in them.

Golbins can do the same wrt tools and armies but they can also build their own structures and have an independent monarchy. As opposed to orc who occupy the ruins of other peoples and follow outside influences.

Now come the men, and no one is gonna get wierd or racist about the variable literacy. If the Easterlings have anything similar to a Khanate they're probably doing the best since Gondor seems to be solidly set in European late medieval technology with Rohan doing their horse lord thing.

Honestly, it's really hard to place the elves, mostly because one they're immortal and two their whole arc as a species is defined by degrowth and stagnation. I'm inclined to believe they figured out carbon steel and the Bessemer process because blasting out impurities and creating a higher grade of raw material seems incredibly on brand. But at the same time, there is no evidence of indoor plumbing or any kind of sanitation. Do elves poop? Do they bathe? Sillmarion fans feel free to pitch in here.

Hobbits and Dwarves are neck and neck for most technically advanced species and the Hobbits have the advantage simply by staying out of the way. There's no mass exodus in their histories, or dragons or diaspora or any of the other roadblocks the Dwarves have run into. They stayed put and invented pocketwatches. I'm fairly certain they have modern glass canning, which doesn't seem like a huge deal but is in fact a huge deal.

Point is, if you're not a Dwarf or a Hobbit in middle earth, you wish you were a Dwarf or a Hobbit. Quality of life is VASTLY better than everyone else.

I was just thinking about various technology advances in middle earth and things are getting strange.

Because you would think it would be the elves or Tolkiens author insert people the Hobbits, but the Dwarves have indoor plumbing and are burning natural gas.

[allsimspop]

Byun Kaden is getting Married!

Byun Kaden of Next Gen has been with his girlfriend, Kim Jeon-hee, for about 12 years now. The couple went public about it in 2015, though now that the idol life for Kaden has slowed down he announced that he's finally ready to settle down with his girlfriend.

An hour ago today, Monarchy released a statement by Kaden himself, as followed:

“aGENts! It’s been a while— well, 3 months exactly. Your favorite Leader’s got a big announcement for you all; I’m going to get married! I’m sure most people know about Jeon-hee by now, and I know I don’t talk about her often, but, she makes me extremely happy. The happiest in the world. I’m glad that the aGENts’ relationship with Next Gen is so close that I can be open and honest about this; all I ask is that when I do have the wedding, you’ll help me keep it as private as possible. If you can do that for oppa, I’ll be even happier! I hope you’ll support us both. Eat well and stay healthy!" — Leader Kaden

We at ASP are very excited for this wonderful future event. What do you think about Kaden's marriage?

                                        「NETISIMS COMMENTS」

[+5692, -2828] I am so happy for oppa! Managing a solid relationship like this for 12 years? So cool! I hope you a jeonhee have a beautiful life together!

[+4087, -1028] AGENts let's keep kaden oppa's wishes! He has brought us so much joy and has single handedly led a group well for all these years, if we truly love him we will honor his wishes or just continue to support Next Gen's music.

[+3679, -2469] Does he know marrige is forever? I don't know if he expects to comeback to his group married but he will be shuned ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[+1895, -977] Junmoney oppa is now the only leader of Next Gen... and he's gay lol

▸Response(s)

[+738, -128] What's wrong with being gay?

[+150, -828] So many things

[+936, -298] No, it just means that her oppa will never take an interest in her ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[+836, -247] I've been waiting for this moment since I took a liking to Kaden in this group... though kinda thought I'd be Jeon-hee ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Oppa even though I'm not Jeon-hee unnie i still fully support you and this marriage to your friend! Hwaiting!

[+798, -439] When did he ever announce having a girlfriend? I feel lied to...

[+536, -365] JeonHee noona is very attractive... lucky kaden ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[+290, -573] I hope monarchy drops him, if Next Gen doesn't seem available no one's gonna support them. Junmoney too, tired of his lifestyle bringing negative energy to Next Gen.

[+198, -854] Still better than him being a fag, this marriage won't last anyway, she probably demanded a marrige so that he would belong to her for a while ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[siimpi]

See Also: [Monarchy Dating Scandal] [Junseo Cheated on]. [Redstrike & Sukis Sister] [Neverland’s HanBi Mistreated?] 

@monarchy-entertainment-sims

[moemonah]

Monarchy Entertainment’s Official 2019 Schedule

This is Monarchy’s official schedule for everything we have planned this year. This list will be updated regularly as or if anything changes, gets done, or gets pushed back.

January

- CHORD, “Darling” Teasers [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

February

- CHORD, “Darling” Debut

March

- Jiaho, “GOLDEN” Teasers [1] [2] [3]

- Channie, “Angel” Solo Teasers [1] [2]

April

- Jiaho, “GOLDEN” Release

May

- phancychild, Debut Teasers [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

June

 - phancychild, Paradise Release [1] [2] [3]

- Channie, “Angel” Solo Release

- Next Gen, "WANT” Teasers [1] [2]

July

- Next Gen, "WANT” Teasers, cont. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

- Next Gen, “WANT” Release

August

- BiLinGual, Japan Comeback Teasers 

- BiLinGual, Japan Comeback Release

- The Release of Monarchy’s Digital Music Station

September

- Potential Next Gen World Tour

October

- CHORD, New Single Teasers

- CHORD, New Single Release

November

- Next Gen, Christmas Album Teasers

- BiLinGual, Christmas Album Teasers

- Midnight Teasers

December

- Next Gen, Christmas Album Release

- New Boy Group Debut

- BiLinGual, Christmas Album Release

- Midnight, Monarchy Ent Debut

[holylottie]

aquarium dome.

cursed!Cove Holden x reader

warnings: father-son miscommunication, cove got the curse but cliff got the sadness, kyra and cliff together for lore needs, monarchy, reader is the heir of rapunzel's tale, cross-posted on ao3.

summary: Cove Holden is the heir to the tale of Beauty and the Beast, a prince who is known to hate any royal event. You can share the feeling, but not directly with him, Cove is almost unreachable! 

But no worries, you are not alone, you can share your thoughts with C, your mysterious friend who sits on the highest shelf in the library every evening.

p.s. hiding from oneself is not a very e-fish-ent move.

Cove hopped down the stairs, his ocean green locks flowing freely. Reaching the end, he came across a room full of furniture-like employees passing by from all sides, the sight made his stomach turn. But it wasn’t long till his worries eased, in the middle of that coordinate dance of organization was his mother, and her presence was more than enough.

“Baby!” her smile was so big that Cove couldn’t contain his own “I’m sorry about the fuzz, gotta get everything ready for the big night!”

The previous smile got a little smaller, royalty balls weren’t his favorites. No event with royalty was if he was being truly honest, but he did his best for the sake of his parents.

“I promise you don’t need to be socializing for too long, okay?” She hugged him by the side, checking the clipboard on her hands “go get yourself some food! An empty bag cannot stand upright!” 

The boy chuckled, walking straight to the kitchen. He wasn’t a fan of eating at the table in the morning, it was all too lonely. In fact, that big place looked lonely all the time ever since…

Well, ever since his father decided to take refuge in his office.

The new chef made some pretzels for him, eagerly trying new things everyday to win Cove’s paladar, but the young boy remained faithful to Mrs. Potts, his favorite cook. Most of the time, he didn't know if she really cooked better or if he was unintentionally sabotaging himself to his preferences.

It didn't matter now, she could cook either way.

“The king is eating in the dining room, would you like to make him some company, your highness?” 

Cove's head moved so fast in the direction of the servant that the world seemed to twirl for a couple of seconds. He didn't even remember to nod and thank the man, his legs taking him fast, afraid his father could vanish. 

“Dad!” 

He cheers, but his voice gets progressively lower seeing that his father was already up, cleaning his hands.

“Oh, hello, darling” Clifford gives him a side smile, pressing his lips. And cove has to contain himself to not take the butter knife and cut the tension out.

Two beasts staring at each other, the unspoken words deciding who was going to be the prey.

“Are you gonna come back to your studies?” uncertainty in every letter.

“Yes, the clock is running against me.” Cliff makes a sad chuckle and if the son wasn't so busy in his own insecurities, would have noticed the kind essence behind the king's eyes. “gotta go, darling, have a nice meal. Excuse me.”

“There will be no glory for this family, you should let that animal go.” 

Both men stopped on their tracks for a second, but the king paid no mind to his child's words, leaving the room. When did you stop sharing bonbons? 

The young prince sat in the luxury chair, his hunger long gone.

He was the prey today.

You were on the other side of the city, sitting at goldilocks restaurant. It was even more beautiful at night, the large chandeliers and the many flowers distributed throughout the place made it an unique environment.

The food menu made Leandra jump for joy, she had finally taken some time off from the sea and prayed to Poseidon that this time no one served sushi as Lizzie had at their last gathering.

She could only complain about the smell still making her nauseous, and how the poor little fish got through so much pain to not even be cooked.

“My feets are simply killing me!” Lee said while sitting by your side. She put her and your drinks on the table. 

“I told you to choose the other one…” Elizabeth singing-said, joining you two at the table “But let's go to the subject directly: ball attire!” 

The lady opened a huge smile, without being able to contain her hands.

“I am torn apart between blue and pink, to be honest…” 

You and Lee shared a look, you two could give your opinions but everybody in that table knew that Lizzie would wear the one she liked in the end.

“I'm really excited, so much time since the Holden's had a ball!” Lee shared, quickly changing her expression “do you think Cove's gonna show up?” 

Elizabeth and you took a moment to think.

In your humble opinion, you disagree with every single colocation that anyone on the royalty circle had. But when it comes to the beauty royalty, you were even more the black sheep. 

Cove Holden seemed to live in his own world while the others wandered the earth waiting for his next move, authenticity flowed through the few poppy branches in his green hair. It was his personal garden.

You thought everything around him, about him, was so amusing. Definitely a mystery, but intriguing just the same.

“Hopefully he will feel comfortable enough to.” you answered, without giving time to them to add anything “what about your friend, Liz?”

“What friend? Miranda?” 

”No, silly, Baxter!” Lee was the one who answered. 

Lizzie huffed, not minding the jokes, but done with only talking about the new student.

“He is my friend, why is everyone so pressed about it?” her eyes rolled “I get it, I get it, he is the prince charming heir, I got the princess role, but basically everyone in Epilogue is royalty!” 

Your other friend pressed her lips together seeing the outburst “I'm sorry, Lizzie, I didn't mean to upset you.”

The oldest shook her head, taking a deep breath and pressing her long nail in one of her fingers.

“No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't want to sound so mad. It's just...If I'm gonna sleep for a hell of eternity the least that people could give me is some liberty to make my own choices while I can, don't you think?”

Your hands were quickly to find hers, receiving an appreciative smile. You knew about complicated destinies.

“Well, I never saw anyone manage time better than you, but if I can say something, eating ice scream is the best deal to make!” 

Laughs were shared between the trio, and the rest of the afternoon was light-hearted conversations and clothes search.

Shortly after, you all went to Epilogue. The school had its baobab doors open and the talking cricket welcomed everyone.

You said goodbye to your friends, having the first period free to collect your books and decide which extracurricular activities you would engage in this year.

The library was your first step of the morning, but without a specific book in mind, you started wandering through new categories that would satisfy your curious brain.

"How the lines of fate works", "Destiny: cause and correlations”, "Horses".

Horses?

You couldn't think that much about the topic, a pile of books crashed onto the floor a few meters away, you started following the direction but stopped when an alarming voice asked you.

“I've got this, please, don't worry” they said. 

They were on the other side of the shelf, the last one of the right side. 

“Is everything alright there?” you asked, waiting for they to get out, but that didn't happen “do you need any help there?”

“No, thank you, I'm gonna stay here for a while.” it was your answer “But I would appreciate it if you stay in your side.” 

“Oh, okay” it was confusing, maybe they had a embarrassing situation going on “Well, so I will stick around and make you some company”

“No, don't worry, you don't need to do it” 

Your face broke into a smile, they apologized a lot. 

“You will be making me company in the same amount. And even more, making new friends on the first day sounds awesome.” you sat on the floor.

“We should begin by the beginning, it is always the same anyway” your voice got a little louder, afraid it wouldn't reach their ears “I'm y/n, how about your name?”

A few mutters escaped their mouth “Hm, would it be okay for you if you just call me him? Or he?” he shrugged, insecure in his ask 

“That is more than alright, don't worry, I won't meddle in” you answered “Maybe we could decide a letter for you?”

“I can work with C!” his voice got less worried and if you pay enough attention, you could find a happy tone

“We should start with simple questions then, C.” you tried to keep the conversation going “do you like flowers?” 

“Yes, I do!” his voice got excited “I have my own garden! My favorite is the poppy, but I like the yellow ones only”

You scrunch your nose, confused

“How can it be your favorite if you only like one color?” 

Your parents and you lived in the center of the town, but on a no-way-out street. They were requested to stay close, even though they were almost always away in the lake house. 

“Eugene! How can that be a cat?” you heard your mother's voice complain playfully.

“You gave me creative liberty!” 

When you entered the living room, your father had puppy-eyes to you and your mom was seated haphazardly on the couch.

“Do you wanna see my mimic, sweetie?” 

“From my mother's experience, I think I do not.”

“Meow-ch” he answered, tossing himself by your mom's side. 

You walked in the kitchen's direction, but stopped once you saw pre-packed lunches on the table.

“no.” 

“y/n, you have to try it again…” your mother pleaded.

“I can not! Is it that hard to understand, I just freeze!” your voice became hoarse easily.

Thinking about your biggest fear was enough to upset you.

“It's okay, we can go on little steps” they both went to the kitchen, taking you in their arms “slow and steady, hm?" 

“Like a chameleon!" Eugene's added.

Things weren't solved with a simple hug, but you're glad to have people around you to make it a little easier.

A failed try was still a try. 

All of your attempts to hide your new mysterious friend from your not mysterious best friend had the same result: failure. 

Derek is, without a doubt, a terrible liar. For a time, you were almost sure that he could be Pinocchio's heir, until you witnessed his green magic. 

But here's the thing about terrible liars: they are great at figuring them out.

“Okay, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but you can't believe that I will believe this hard-to-believe excuse.”

You smiled, he certainly spoke more than his tongue.

“So I don't have to tell you?” you arched one eyebrow, thinking the whole conversation was very amusing.

“Well, no, I mean, I'd be happy for you to tell me, completely happy, but I'm certainly not going to be mad if you don't.” He smiled at you “Even if I think the wise thing to do would be to tell me, if it is bothering you, it's definitely too much of a burden to carry alone.”

You laughed, nodding your head in denial, could ever be a conversation where Derek didn’t worry?

You two headed to Cinderella’s class, a non-regular dance lesson, but that was held every week before a ball. Author forbids anyone to ever miss a step in these routines.

Derek and you were a little bit late, too busy in your own conversation to carry about the ticking clock, and once you two entered the room, the boy by your side was scooped by the teacher. She knew Derek was the only one polite enough to not decline dance in front of the whole class, even if he hated all the attention on himself.

However, you didn’t stay alone for too long, another person was late. One point for destiny, zero to your indecision!

Immediately, the music started playing, and you looked to your partner.

Well, destiny must be really up for the competition, cause offering you a hand was the Holden Prince. A very uncomfortable prince, but looking incredibly charming nevertheless.

Two points for destiny, zero to your insecurities. You felt like a fish out of water so close to a big member of the royal council.

His face was flushed, more red than the roses you saw in the path to your house, and the previous duo-dance transformed into a trio. Him, you and the deadly awkward silence between. 

He didn't mutter a single word to you and once the teacher dismissed the class, Cove was the first one to take his bag and leave.

You made a mental note to complain about it to your library friend. 

The last lesson of the day was Introduction in Princesology and you couldn't think about a more boring class. 

Sitting on your usual spot, you waited for your desk-partner. Placing your books and pencil case on the table, you notice a little note glued to the support part of the table. 

“Delight me in your presence? — C” 

It was a simple yellow paper, adorned with a beautiful sketch of a poppy and a happy fish. 

A wave of happiness went through you, and you suddenly got up from your seat. 

Which could be normal unless you are in the middle of a class, with the teacher making a practical example on how to spot the difference between a regular frog and an enchanted one.

She looked at you with a big question mark on her face. The same expression as everyone in the room.

“gotta go. Headaches.” you said, leaving the class, not giving enough time to your body swallow itself in embarrassment.

A few steps were all you needed to head where you were needed. 

You entered the library already complaining, and sat on the floor, not failing to notice that this time a new rug adorned the floor.

“I just, I can't do it!” you said, frustrated, adjusting to the rug “I literally ran away and I mean, going in the wrong direction would have me dead! How can I be a suitable heir in these conditions?” 

Your friend gives a loud laugh, but quickly hides it with a fake cough.

“Are you seriously laughing at me? I thought this was a safe place to vent!” you said, not really upset.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it! It was stronger than me!” he apologizes 

“It's okay, don't worry…” your hands started making patterns in the soft fabric. “I'm glad I could make your day a little better, but my problems aren't really that bad, I'm improving my singing skills, it's all I truly needed.”

“You need to be a singer?”

“No, no, no” a little chuckle escaped your lips “I just need to be able to sing one healing song, nothing much…” 

He didn't say anything for some time, and if you didn't know he was up in the shelves, you would have thought he was gone. 

“You mean your song can make things come back the way it was before?”

“Well, kind of, I guess.” you shrugged, you never really had to explain it before, and finding words to it was harder than you thought. “It’s more like healing what once was damaged”

It was quiet for a while again, but it didn’t bother you this time. You started to learn that his silence sometimes said even more than his words.

“Do you think you could help me with something?”

This time, you were the quiet one. Getting up from your previous position, you tried to get closer to the voice, worried about him.

“Are you hurt, C?”

“NO! No…” he quickly added “I-I’m, it’s just… it’s very complicated.”

“I like complicated stories, you shouldn't spare me the details!” you sing-said, already finding a more comfortable position to listen.

“Well, I guess I already revealed a lot about myself anyway…” 

C was thinking on the best way to start, at least that was how you take his silence.

“It all began not so long ago, in a not so far away land. The king had a nice marriage and a happy kingdom, not much more could be asked for in a simple man’s eyes, but he had a secret wish in his heart, that claimed his whole body and soul: to have a golden heron that wandered around his realm.

He went on long journeys away from his wife, trying to capture the golden animal. Until the ball in celebration of the queen's birthday came, and as her gift, she pleaded to her husband to forget about his wish, and he promised to, even if he didn’t understand her pleas, it was just a gilt bird, for who could ever learn to love such a beast?

But the golden heron was his deepest dream, he wanted it more than anything. He said it to his wife before they even married. More than anything. 

After a few days of discussion, he thought that the best was to just leave it aside, to hide his ambition.

Until, he spotted the animal close to the sea. The royal ruler's land was full of living mazes, plants and trees everywhere, which confused the poor heron. The king shoots a straight arrow, craving it in the animal's heart.

It didn't last long, in his sight the heron was long gone, switched into a naked woman. His wife. The sky closed with dark clouds, a rainstorm starting.

He asked for her forgiveness while she asked the moon god for mercy. Yet it was all for nothing, the moon god condemned the man to be seen as he was. 

A beast in the body of a man locked in the form of a beast. 

The god made his daughter a statue. A material memorie of the beast's choices, holding a red poppy until the beast was able to find someone to truly love him. Until he was able to love himself the way he was deep down…”  

You thought there was more, the history made you want to understand every single detail, did the king loved the queen? How about all the rest of the kingdom? Did it end up happily? C didn't give you anything more.

“I think I like your version better. If I am condemned to be the way I am, I would rather do it all by myself in a tall tower” he said, from the top of the library shelf.

You took a moment to fully comprehend his words, still processing the tale. Who was the beast? How did it affect C? How could he wish to do all of this on his own?

“What about your parents? You can't talk to them about it?” 

He said something that you couldn’t catch, not hearing an answer back, he repeated it, louder “They never saw it. I never showed it to any of them.”

Even without wanting, your face contorted into a deep frown. It must be hard doing it all alone. You still couldn't imagine him a beast, everything about C was gentle.

“Not that I don’t have their support, but mom is most of the time some miles away for her queen duties. And my dad…” he stopped for a moment, in the silence, the only thing you could think of were the sound of bubbles “my dad tries his best but he’s just not the same anymore.”

His voice had a feeling that you couldn’t catch. Maybe it was the kind of mix of understanding and grief that only parents could give.

“Isn't it ironic that both our lives were doomed by flowers?”

For a few moments, you both were lost in your own musings, without knowing that we're sharing the same thoughts.

“Perhaps we could find our own seed. Make sure it grows happily.”

You smiled. C's own personal garden was now yours too. 

“I have nightmares about it. I think I'm afraid of becoming something worse.” 

He confessed and your father's wise words echoed in your mind. You took a little longer than him to gather the words, but you hopped to help that same way.

“You know, when someone passes for such a hard thing like you do, they have a lot of fear, and this fear doesn't come out all at once. They get out little by little, with every little laugh and hug you receive.” you said, mentally praying it would fit in C's context, your hands move freely while explaining, even if he couldn't see it “so these nightmares are the little amount of fear that your body is still holding. But you don't have to worry, one day it will all go away.” 

“I guess I got to laugh a lot then!” the secret friend answered, holding to the little by little part.

“Well this is your lucky day! You have me to do it!” 

He playfully laughed, charmed by your cheers. 

The silence grew comfortable once again.

“Yeah, I think I got my own golden heron.” he whispered, smiling gratefully. 

The reunion of Parents and Tales was a gathering between guardians and professors that happened every two months. The objective was to make everyone aware of the semester routine, events and the student's grades. 

You find it boring but always come to spend time with Derek or Lizzie, except for today, cause the second your feets passed through the door, you excused yourself to the library. 

And we're there for at least one hour, without having any need for it to end.

“I will give you twenty crowns for you to tell me which you prefer.” 

“You can't buy my sincerity! That is a hideous move!” his words were interspersed with laughter

“Okay, I will just choose it then.” 

His silence was short, followed by a sequence of “What is it? What is it? What is it?” 

“Getting a handful of these brings a joy you've never felt, but don't leave me in your pockets because I may melt! What am I?” 

You said the riddle, waiting for his answer.

“You brought me chocolate?” 

His voice didn't carry the joy you mentioned. Actually, suddenly C sounded down. 

“You don't like chocolate? I bought you the cherry one, but I can give you another flavor or…” 

"I can't do this. I can't, I can't, I can't…” 

C's voice suddenly stopped with a loud thud in the background, making your whole body shiver. Your brain was so filled with uneasiness that you didn't realize where your legs were taking you. You broke the promise.

You had got up, running to his side of the shelf.

And once you were there, in your sight was the prince.

Well, he did have a crown. 

But he also had fins, gills and scales. 

An ocean green fish, a moorish idol looking like in a round aquarium ornate with gold. In tiny steps, you get closer and closer, seeing that his little left flipper had an even smaller pink scar. 

“No! No, no, no, you gotta leave!” he said. The fish. C. Cove? You didn't even know how to refer to him. 

“Do you…can I…do you want to be held?” you kept going forward and back, afraid of passing any limits.

Cove could only mutter, and once you saw a puddle on the floor you started to freak out, losing any common sense.

“It's okay! It's okay! I'm going to help you, cove” you got close enough to have his little bowl in your hands, trying to equilibrate him for no water leaking. “You gonna be okay, I promise”

And this promise, you intended to never break.

The night of Holden's ball came. 

The last time the palace looked that illuminated and perfectly decorated was when the heir was born. 

Walls with expensive fabrics, floral arrangements in every corner and crystal chandeliers adorned the entrance hall. 

The principal saloon had a huge dance circle, a big table that went from end to end with an enormous variety of food, but what made it perfect for a party was the impeccable vitrales that the room had. No other place in Grimmwood could ever compare to the beauty of the Holden's windows.

In the left corner of the room, a white staircase resided, shaped like a C, and you need to be honest, a curved ladder gave a nice touch to the architecture. 

Not that you could focus that much on the building. Going down the stars was the Prince, his ocean green hair was looked by a fish golden clip, his attire was on the finest finary: a white ruffle shirt decorated with a golden and red brooch, matching with dark pink trousers. 

The Holden family got together for the pics, at Merlin's request. 

The camera facing Cove, his father's arms around his shoulders and every single person's eyes on that room were on him, and he couldn't breathe. He suddenly couldn't breathe. 

The young boy's smile faltered, and as soon as the flash went out, he left the room, going to the stairs to find refugees in his mother's personal library. 

He missed the sound of steps behind him, Clifford was in his tail, following him with a worried look. 

The boy reached the second floor, entering the first door he could find: his father's office.

“you know what? I can't do this anymore!” Cove cried out.

Cliff closed the door behind him, watching his son pace around the room.

“You are still the king you were before! Still an egotistical man!” Cove's hands move exasperatedly, all his body attempting to emphasize his despair “you still only seek glory!” 

“You changed ever since the cursing! You are not the same with me.” Cove’s words got through his dad's skin, piercing his heart more deeply than any dagger could, making it seem easy to kill a beast. “You never looked at me again. Not truly.” 

The ambient got quiet for a while, until faint sobs were heard.

The king was…crying?

“It was my fault. Your curse was mine to take upon.” Clifford couldn’t hide the aching in his voice “I left you for a couple of minutes, I told you to not touch the fallen rose, but you’re such a young and curious kid, and now you’re doomed to this suffering like once I was. I had my time to accept that my claws were claws, but how can I forgive that your little fingers would soon fade into such tight grips? That I couldn’t protect you like I was supposed to? Oh, Cove… I would rather have this kingdom succumb to ashes than see you face the mirror with fear. I had to do something, That’s what I’m researching. No magic is powerful enough to be unbreakable. Definitely not with the strength of my love.”

Cove’s mouth got dry, he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t feel anything beside his burning eyes.

“Even for the pain that comes with being different, sometimes, I miss my ugliness, and I think that some people may miss it too.” The older Holden took a deep breath, looking through the stained-glass window. “It's easier to be hated and love for afar than let yourself experience any good thing that you sort yourself undeserving. I didn’t want you to ever feel what I did during those years.” 

Clifford shocked his head, trying to focus on the topic and gather his thoughts.

“But none of this is ever an excuse for what I did to you. My fears and regrets are many but not one of them regards you… I mean, except for the absence ever since it happened. I’m sorry, Cove. I truly am.”

And that was the first time in a few pages that father and son looked at each other in the eyes, the first time they were in the same paragraph, paying attention and trying to understand the other's notes.

“I really apologize about that, my darling. The last thing that my monstrous heart wanted was to put you in any kind of pain.” Cliff gave a sad smile “I love you endless, from the tips of my claws to the end of my nose.”

“You don’t love me till the end of your forehead?”

“Well, considering that my thought was that the best for you was to not have me around to focus only on the cure, I suppose that my head isn’t the best place to receive love right now.”

Cove shrugged “I think that's what makes it the most needed place.”

The dad’s eyes watered once again “There is no creature that your heart couldn’t ever bend.” 

You went outside, your legs and mind aching for a rest that only a comfortable bench in a silence garden could provide. You kept walking, looking at the ground once you saw the crying statue that the Holden palace had. You were afraid that looking at it for too long would make you cry too.

You wandered aimlessly, your feet passing through to the living gates without a care in the book, that was until your attention was caught. In front of you was a red poppy field, an impeccable courtyard that you couldn't take your eyes away from, lured to the shining petals. 

“Don't touch them!” 

You jumped, having his hands on your shoulders quickly, but the panic was soon gone, you recognized Cove's voice, only this time, you could also see him. 

“Sorry, they are incredibly pretty” you apologize, even if his voice is nothing but worry for you.

“Yeah, the moon god has some mercy after all…” He said, not looking directly at you, but not able to face the flowers too.  

“Thought that some fresh air would do some good.”

“Already cut your hair?” he moved his gaze to your head.

“Couldn't handle the sweat.” you laughed a little, smiling wider to him. “How long have you been here?” 

“A little bit. Couldn't stay that long…” 

“Well, you did try your beast.” you smiled, trying to catch his eyes.

He stopped for a minute, confused if you meant if or got a wrong letter. The prince gave the first true laugh of the night.

“The stars in the palace seem brighter than the ones in the city.” you commented, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Oh, these are not stars” the young boy smiled, and you realized that there was something even brighter than the constellations lighting up the place “they are firefly's in lanterns” 

A garden seemed like a suitable place for both of you to talk, little by little Cove's roots and yours were intertwining and the silence that grew between you two served only to water the comfortable relationship. 

Cove got up and stopped a few feets away from you —and the field—, swinging his body softly by hearing the melody from the party inside. He was looking you directly in the eyes for the first time. It was a night for a lot of first time's for him.

“Care to dance with me?” he gave you a shy smile. 

“I can't hear anything, we can't dance without a song!” you said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The young Holden stared at you in a funny way, you could almost see his brain searching for solutions. Until his lips started moving, he was singing?

He comes close to you, giving his hand in offer while making his own melody. 

You chuckled, bowing slightly and accepting it, and found yourself in the same entranced feeling from before, but your sight was even more amusing and bright.  

It started as a classic ballroom routine, but soon you entered the song making an energetic duet, twisting and turning around the garden, resulting in an exciting dance, as if the steps were engraved in both your minds. 

The song got progressively lower, and once you and Cove came face-to-face, he approached your ear, in an barely audible voice, whispering

“more than anything."

[warrioreowynofrohan]

On Decision-Making in The Lord of the Rings

This just occurred to me whhen I was thinking about another post I’m putting together.

While critiques of fantasy fiction, or of ‘high fantasy’ in particular, make a lot out of the way monarchy is valorized in LOTR, particularly in the form of Aragorn, when you look at all the decisions being made by characters the role of consensus-based decision-making, not top-down decisions, is very striking. The best decisions are made as a group, not as an individual, and through discussion and dialogue.

This stands out particularly because, in much of the fantasy, science fiction, and action genres, councils and committees (and even democracy) are often portrayed as useless, hidebound, indecisive, petty, distracted, and self-interested, whereas determined individuals making split-second decisions are the key to resolving the plot.

Frodo’s decision to leave the Shire with just Sam is thwarted by Merry, Pippin, and Fredegar Bolger’s determination to support him, and Merry and Pippin play crucial roles in the later story. Frodo has to adapt his plans to incorporate other people’s ideas.

More crucially and centrally, there’s the Council of Elrond - a lengthy exercise of information-sharing and discission where numerous different courses of action are raised (throw the Ring in the Sea, send the Ring to Bombadil, use the Ring) before a consensus is reached that the Ring needs to be destroyed. Even the Company is chosen in part by group decision-making and discussion (Legolas and Gimli are chosen after the Council is over, and Elrond and Gandalf have a discussion over whether Merry and Pippin should be included, though it’s really Pippin’s stubbornness that wins the day.) This contrasts with the movies, where the Council devolves into a big argument and things are only resolved by the intervention/decisions of a few key individuals - the more usual and ‘dramatic’ action trope.

At Amon Hen, Frodo’s decision to leave the Company and make his decision by himself is very nearly disastrous when orcs attack, and is only salvaged because Sam has the perceptiveness to interpret Frodo’s mindset to the rest of the Company.

The Entmoot is another example - a multiday committee meeting that leads to the Ents deciding to attack Isengard. The role of Merry and Pippin is only as catalysts at the very start, to get Treebeard thinking and spur him to consult with the other Ents. And, with last of the Ents going into a battle that could, as Treebeard says, potentially result in all their deaths, that’s the only appropriate way for the decision to be made. The movies, again, depart from this by showing the Entmoot as a drawn-out waste of time, the Ents as comically/frustratingly slow to act, and the decision to attack Isengard only coming from some clever manipulation of Treebeard by Merry and Pippin. This is one of my big pet peeves about the movies - the books are clearly showing that the different thought processes and methods of a group like the Ents (long-lived and cautious) are just as able to reach good decisions, whereas the movies devolve to the shallow idea that only our protagonists’ perspectives and means of actions are valid and they’re the only ones who can get anything done.

And then there’s The Last Debate in The Return of the King, where the decision to attack Mordor as a feint is made not by Gandalf or Aragorn dictating it, but by a discussion between all the captains. Yes, some of them regard the material as a little over their head (Éomer basically says so outright and goes with ‘I’m doing what Aragorn’s doing’, and Imrahil has already decided Aragorn has legitimate authority as the rightful King of Gondor), but it’s a discussion, not an order, and Imrahil makes some valuable practical contributions to it.

And finally, there’s the way Aragorn becomes king of Gondor. He throws away every opportunity that would seem to be a really good opening to claim the kingship. He doesn’t claim it after he’s just saved the city, when the old steward is dead, the new steward is near death, and there’s a clear power vacuum and an imminent crisis. He only even enters the city briefly and incognito, as a medic. Instead, he stays outside the walls and Imrahil remains in temporary command of Minas Tirith. Then, after he’s played a crucial role in the victory over Sauron, he does not rapidly return to the city and claim the kingship as a hero of the greatest battle of the Age. Instead, he stays in the Fields or Cormallen for over a month while the fully-recovered and universally-beloved Steward Faramir runs the city. If every there was an opportunity for the city to decide that, actually, they don’t really need a king and are happy being ruled by Faramir, it’s now! And Aragorn is practically going out of his way to give them the chance to make that call. And only then, when everything is peaceful and everyone’s had a chance to think things over, does he come to the city and undergo the ceremony of asking the people whether they accept him as king. Even his coronation is partially about honouring other people (Frodo and Gandalf)! So this is something very, very far from your traditional fantasy absolute monarchy.

In short, despite being set in a monarchical context, the portrayal of good decision-making in The Lord of the Rings is far more dialogue- and consensus-oriented, and thus far more democracy-friendly, than in many other works (like, for example, Star Wars) where democracy is promoted in words but is in practice always depicted as ineffective.

[Contrast this portrayal of dialogue-based politics with Fëanor’s very powerful and disastrous deployment of demagogic politics in the Return of the Noldor. On one level it’s a unilateral decision by the King of the Noldor; on another level it’s a group decision - the Noldor choose it not because Fëanor orders them but because he inspires/incites them - but by the group-as-mob rather than the group-as-conversation.]

[facts-i-just-made-up]

Do I even want to know what sporks are?

The most grievous and recurrent misconception about the spork is that its name is a portmanteau of “spoon” and “fork.” Being part spoon and part fork this seems like the most obvious origin, but in fact the spork was invented by Edwin C. Sporke in New Orleans. Sporke invented the Spork in 1776, and the year is no coincidence. The story of the Spork is in fact, the story of the United States of America.

The year was 1773 and the industrial revolution was in its first decades. The colonists that would form the government of the United States were just arriving in the 13 colonies. At the age of 21, Thomas Jefferson had just been fired from his job in tech support at the University of Oxford. The only record of his duties there suggests that he mostly cleaned the old valuable globes, clocks, compasses, and the Ancient Abacus of Ankh-Ent-Ah-Baccus, where he is noted as having done a substandard job at removing abacus lint from the device. With no job and no prospects in England, Jefferson moved on up to the colonies in America, where he could begin a new life.

Jefferson came to America with only $7 to his name, and those dollars were worthless as the U.S. Treasury would not be formed for another 25 years. He arrived at the port of New Orleans, which was at the time called “Orleans-To-Be.” He had at the time no interest in politics, and applied to work at the only English-speaking establishment in the town. His days at McDonalds were unproductive. He slaughtered the cattle for beef, he peeled the potatoes for french fries, and he ground the bones for bread, which was made from bone powder before the evolution of wheat. But one important thing happened in his years at the restaurant: He met Edwin C. Sporke.

Sporke had arrived from Norway the year prior, and changed his name from Edvald Cornelius Sporkbeklagerdetfalskenorskenavnet to Edwin C. Sporke. Jefferson first saw him when he picked up his order for a Mutton McGruelbowl. Sporke sat down and, to Jefferson’s dismay, began trying to eat the liquid gruel with a fork. Curious, he brought the man a spoon and asked why he wasn’t using it instead. Sporke explained that spoons had been banned in Norway for hundreds of years owing to the infamous “Blood Spooning” of Vikings, from whom the Christian monarchy wanted to distance themselves. Jefferson encouraged Sporke to try, but he was hesitant. Finally, he agreed to eat the gruel with both at the same time, overlapping. The spork was born.

Because it could eat gruel more efficiently than a spoon or fork on their own, Raymond McDonald immediately began producing the utensil. This was done at first by having Jefferson weld spoons to forks, a job he so detested that he left for the east coast, taking the idea with him and keeping (most of) Sporke’s name attached, promising him royalties. Upon his arrival, Jefferson saw the next thing that would revolutionize the way we eat: The assembly line.

Famous entrepeneur- entrepeneuer– entreprenur—- famous businessman Henry Ford was living in New York, growing very rich with his mass constructed horse drawn carriages. Jefferson was impressed with the method, and immediately endeavored to accomplish a mass produced spork by means of his diligence, hard work, and persistence in buying slaves to do his real work for him. Among his early customers was Benjamin Franklin, who would go on to play so an integral role in the founding of the United States that well over 0.04% of Americans can tell you his role even today. Franklin loved the idea of the spork and showed it to George Washington, who could only eat gruel owing to the loss of his teeth in a bad poker game in 1771. The men got along splendidly, and the rest, as they say, is history.

For Jefferson and the country at least. Records of Edwin Sporke are fewer and less revolutionary. Sporke never got any royalties. Whether Jefferson never sent them or whether they were stolen by railroad bandits en route will never be known, but as railroads only began delivering mail after 1804, most historians suspect Jefferson cheated Sporke out of his share of the profits. The only thing we now know for certain about Sporke is that he died in 1779, stabbed to death with his own invention during an argument over whether zebras were striped or spotted. Sporke not only died in the encounter, but made a fool of himself by claiming that the animals were spotted, having been tricked at a local zoo that displayed a dalmatian claimed to be the elusive African zebra.

But thankfully we now know his name, and his fate, and his integral role in the building of both the U.S.A. and the spork that bears his name. In this respect he remains far more fortunate than Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Nafzawi, who invented the spork in 1211 in Tunisia and is not remembered in any European history books at all for obvious reasons.

[potteresque-ire]

Hello! Thank you for your blog. There was recently news about one 52 y.o man (who I personally can’t stand) who was involved in some conflicts before and he just stated about his homosexual relationships with soon turning 19 boy. I personally see here the problem as we can get from the song of this boy that they started dating when he was underage. Do u think it will bring some negativity and bad points to the perception of lgbtq in China? I saw many good comments on Weibo, most were surprised with the age but did not say anything bad about the orientation, that actually makes me feel good. But (IMHO)the whole situation is gross as the age gap is too big and I don’t think it’s good for the reputation of the lgbtq movement. Anyway he came out in 2005 and still has a career?

I shall keep this short, Anon, because I don’t have a way to reach you via DM. Aside from his career, this person has also been famous for 1) being out; 2) providing a descriptive list of closeted LGBT+ c-ent personalities, inviting curious netizens to guess who they are; 3) his relentless critiques of Gg’s acting and singing, and his complaints of being cyber-bullied by Gg’s fans. 

3) isn’t an issue for me, and I truly wish for fans to re-consider before pestering people who dislike their idol ~ people are free to have their opinions, and are unlikely to change their minds because some anons yell at them. 2), however, is a big no-no for me. A far bigger no-no than cross-generational romances. 

(That’s all I would say about this person.)

Being gay is legal in China, and so one can be out and keep their careers — and many do. The difficulty for celebrities is that because they’re famous, they draw attention ~ and that attention is what may become an issue. It becomes an issue if the focus, timing, and/or length of that attention is disruptive for the administration in some way, or worse, is embarrassing for it. The actress from the surrogacy scandal wasn’t punished because she committed a crime; she would’ve been trialled first if that was the case. She was punished because she, as a well-known idol/public figure, had failed to live up to the image demanded of her by the government ~ the image of having the proper “three views”, of adhering to the “socialist values” that c-ent was supposed to promote. Her fame became her liability ~ sadly, her punishment would likely have been far less severe (if she got punished at all) if she hadn’t been popular. 

[I’m thinking about writing something dedicated to the question of safety of Gg and Dd, but I don’t have my thoughts quite gathered yet. In short: they’re okay. They don’t get to where they are without being brilliant at what they do. Also, being in the country and in the industry, they know better than all of us the best course to take for their careers and lives. The best way we can protect them, as fans, is to ... not protect them, but support their work and trust their judgment.  I set out writing these posts in hopes of offering a glimpse of the different “environmental constraints” they have, for those who may wish to know; these constraints that may offer some hints on what Gg and Dd may do in the months and years ahead, and why they may not do what we, as international fans, imagine, or wish they’ll do. Many of these constraints aren’t actually new -- China spent thousands of years under authoritarian rule as a monarchy, and many of the practices of the current regime have built on the long-standing norms and traditions of dictatorship in the region. And when similar constraints have been around for thousands of years, there are ways around them ...]

[sunsetcurbed]

you showed me faith is not blind (miracles happen)

Pairing: Alex/Willie  Words: 4,279  Rating: T Chapter Warnings: none  Chapter: 9/11 read on AO3 

Chapter Summary: Alex has the personality of a shut-in, but the mind for bettering the lives of the common people. That's what his country needs.

But… can he?

Princes, kings, rulers… they're born. They're not made. And that's what his grandmother is trying to do. She's trying to make him one. And it's not like she's doing poorly, per se, but… he's Alex. He wasn't born to rule a country.

(*) 

Weeks pass. Time blurs by Alex and he just barely keeps up with it. Julie and the Phantoms plays a large company's winter holiday party, Willie attends more lessons with Alex (this, Alex particularly enjoys as Willie is tied to his chair at dinner for posture like Alex had been at the start of lessons), his dad stops talking to him again once he finds out Alex is dating Willie, and at school they've just finished finals and started on their break today. In the past two weeks Caleb has approached Willie twice more when he's out around Hollywood. They've been brief. Just exchanges of Caleb asking how Willie is, and then asking how Alex is, but Alex knows Willie is put off about it. Alex is too, and becomes even more so when Wednesday the 15th, six days before the Ball, Willie texts him again.

(17:59) Covington just legit sat and had tea with me and started talking with me and flat out asked if you were gonna accept the crown or not

(17:59) "It's killing us all, is he gonna accept or not? Do you know?"

(18:00) So not only does he lack manners and discretion, but also patience lmao

Alex tenses his jaw and clutches his phone tight in his hand. He raises his arm as if he's going to throw it, but then lowers it back down, slowly. He lets out a long breath and texts Willie back quick, telling him to get home safely, and apologizes for Caleb. Then he tosses his phone to the side and looks back to where his band is sitting. He was just about to get up to join them so they could work on some harmonies, but he wanted to check his phone first. Now they are all staring at him and he is frozen to the spot.

"Sorry," he murmurs.

"What's up, buddy?" Reggie asks cautiously.

"You, uh, remember that Covington guy we showed you and warned you to stay away from?"

"Yeah?" Julie asks.

"He's been going after Willie the last few weeks. He had tea with him today."

"What?" Reggie frowns. "Why?"

Alex sighs, not really wanting to get into it but also knowing his friends deserve the explanation. "Caleb is next in line for the throne if I choose to decline. And… he wants it. He's trying to get information out of Willie. About my decision."

There's a minute long pause in the room. No one has anything to say to that. He didn't really expect them to. It's a shitty thing, and it's a shitty thing that can't be changed or stopped. Willie's already being tailed by two security every time he goes out in public for safety, but he's told them not to interfere unless he motions to them. He's yet to feel threatened enough that he's had to. He's been handling it incredibly according to his grandmother and security though—giving enough information to keep Caleb from getting angry, but not enough to give anything away. Still, it makes Alex's blood boil. That Willie is in the situation in the first place to 'handle it incredibly.' God, he fucking hates Caleb Covington.

"You remember what I said last month?" Reggie's voice cuts through Alex's thoughts. Alex looks up. He frowns, shakes his head. Reggie smiles. "Even if you move, become prince of some country, we'll still find a way to make this work. We're a band."

The way Reggie says 'band' doesn't sound like he's saying 'band.' Not even close. No, because the weight behind the way Reggie says 'band' is the weight behind the way many people say 'family.' Alex can hear clear as day in Reggie's tone that Reggie is calling Alex and Luke his brothers and Julie his sister. That Reggie is calling this band his family.

Luke stands up from the couch and swings his guitar onto his back. "Yeah man, look," he says, "I'm sorry for how I reacted that day, but even if you—even if you choose to be prince you're still our drummer, y'know? It might complicate things, but Reg said it. We'll make it work."

Alex blinks the welling tears out of his eyes and clears his throat. "Well—I'm not. I-I can't, you know? That's not… I'm not. It's just not who I am."

"But it kind of is, now," Reggie argues. "I mean aside from the argument that you could redefine their monarchy to fit who you are, you… you've been in those prince lessons for over a month now and you've made serious progress with your social anxiety. You… you don't just have a prince's title anymore. You are a prince."

"He's right," Julie agrees. "You've made so much progress in just over a month, and you'll have so much more time to grow into this role. I think this is your thing, you just haven't accepted it yet. Don't write it off yet. I don't want you to regret it down the line."

"Where is this coming from?" he demands. "I thought you guys knew I wasn't going to accept."

"We knew for like, the first few days," Reggie says, "because you told us. But after that you never mentioned it again, but you talked about Beasiga a lot. So we like, kinda started to doubt it a little."

"I think I know more about Beasiga than the US at this point," Luke grumbles, grabbing at the guitar strap across his chest. "But yeah, dude. You literally just said 'if' not 'when' a minute ago. And if you were serious about giving it up, you could've just told Willie to tell that Caleb guy that you were stepping down and then Caleb would leave him alone."

Oh.

That is a thing Alex could have done.

But Alex really, really isn't sure if he wants to renounce his claim, and now he's even less so.

Alex swallows around the lump in his throat and looks away from his friends. His eyes fall on his hi-hat, and he thinks: they're willing to make it work if he accepts his role as prince. His shoulders feel looser, his head feels clearer, his heart feels lighter. He's not sure how they'll make it work, but he's positive that they can find a way. Which makes his decision a whole lot harder now. In the start, there had been a lot of reasons that he had been ready to reject his role as prince, but over time, more and more of those reasons had fallen away until only a few remained. Today there had been two main reasons remaining: the band and his anxiety. After this talk they're having now, only one of those remains. And even that one has been slowly falling away the better he became at coping.

The further Alex delved into the Beasigan world over the past month and a half, no matter how reluctant he had been at first, the more he loved it. He was fascinated with his country's history, he was eager to theoretically be a part of solutions to problems the country faced, he was in love with their culture. And the more he envisioned being a prince, the closer he stepped towards the role. His etiquette lessons had changed him in small but meaningful ways, he was more confident in himself due to the therapy and coaching both, and, watching his grandmother, he was struck that he could do much, much worse than to aspire to be like her. He is confident that he could be a better ruler than Caleb—policy wise, anyways. Caleb has the personality of a public figure, but the mind of a conqueror. Alex has the personality of a shut-in, but the mind for bettering the lives of the common people. That's what his country needs.

But… can he?

Princes, kings, rulers… they're born. They're not made. And that's what his grandmother is trying to do. She's trying to make him one. And it's not like she's doing poorly, per se, but… he's Alex. He wasn't born to rule a country.

"Do you think I can?" he asks

"Buddy, you definitely can," Reggie says. "You've got this."

"Apart from being cheesy and saying that I think you can do anything," Julie smiles, "I really think you can do this, Alex. I think you think you can do this too; you just don't want to admit it because you're scared."

Alex doesn't know if it's that he's scared, exactly, but he's just… he really doesn't know if he can do this. There's so much to it and Alex wouldn't even know where to begin. No, he wouldn't be all-powerful, so he would be helped along, would be more of a voice than the voice. But even that was daunting. What if he wasn't up to snuff? What if he made a fool of himself? What if he did something that hurt the country? Is he willing to take those risks? Again, he asks himself: can he do this?

"In third grade you were the last of us to make it all the way across the monkey bars," Luke says. He's staring at the notebook that's in front of him but then his eyes flick up to meet Alex's. They're intense and Alex feels himself sitting up straighter under his friend's gaze. "But once you made it across, you could do it faster than me or Reg. And then in fifth grade when we started school band, you got a satisfactory on your report card for drums for the entire first year. Fucking look at you now. When you asked me to teach you guitar, you couldn't get the strumming patterns right for forever. Now there isn't a song you can't play. You got a thirty on the ACT, which was great. And you did it as a sophomore. But you wanted to do better. So you studied, went back, and took it as a junior and got a thirty-four to get your pick of colleges. … And then your grandma shows up. And calls you a prince. And that's the thing you decide you can't do?" he asks. He scoffs and shakes his head. "No. You can. You have been. Dude, you are."

Alex stares at Luke, completely stunned. If he's being completely honest, he didn't expect Luke to support Alex in this—didn't expect Luke to be pushing Alex towards being a prince. Sure, Luke had already agreed with Reggie, had already said that they'd find a way to make Alex being a prince work with him in the band, but Alex wasn't entirely sure if he was serious or not. Apparently he was. Very.

He carries Luke's words home with him that night and thinks on them as his family eats dinner, and as he plays MarioKart with Ava and Austin, and as he gathers up his dirty clothes for his mom to do laundry. As he brings them to her, he draws in a deep breath. When he reaches her, he lets it out.

"Mom?"

"Oh!" She spins around, dropping the laundry basket in the process. "Oh, sweetie, you scared me."

"Sorry," he says.

"It's fine," she shakes her head and leans down to grab the basket. She starts loading the washer back up and twists to look at him. "What's up?"

"I—Beasiga."

She hesitates with her next handful, and then stops loading the washer entirely. "Yeah?"

Alex draws in a deep breath and starts. "I've been—thinking a lot lately. You told me to keep my mind open at the start of this and while I didn't originally, it… I opened it up after a while. And now I've been thinking about… about accepting my role as prince." One of his mom's hands drifts up to her chest and she sucks in a breath. "I haven't made up my mind. I… I really haven't made up my mind. I have no idea how the hell I'm going to make up my mind, and how I'm going to do it in six days. But… but I wanted to ask you. If I do… do you think I can?"

His mom looks off to the side and the hand on her chest presses down and rubs over her heart. She blows out a breath. "Well… that's a heavy question." She looks at him and tilts her head. "I think… I think probably. I… I don't think you could have done it before those lessons your grandma gave you—"

"Oh, not a chance," Alex snorts.

His mom smiles. "Right. But I think now you probably could. I mean, no one really knows if they can until they try. I think you could try."

Alex smiles and thanks her, and turns to go back to his room.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't feel like you… have to do this, do you?" she asks.

"No, Mom. I don't. If I felt like I had to there wouldn't be a chance in hell I would be considering it."

He retreats to his room and opens his laptop to put on Netflix. He barely pays attention to what he puts on, and pays even less attention to the screen while it plays.

Prince lessons the next day start in the morning since there's no school. Alex makes it until lunch before he breaks.

"You… you know I've been considering accepting my role as prince," Alex states. His grandmother nods. "I've not come to a decision. But I wanted to talk to you about it anyways."

"All right," she says, putting her fork down. "We can absolutely do that."

"There are a lot of reasons I am considering taking my place as prince. I'm sure you know most of them. But there are a lot of reasons I'm wary of it as well. My band—they say we'll make it work, but we haven't actually figured out how we'll make it work, and I don't want to give that up. And, well. My anxiety. It's gotten better, I've developed coping mechanisms and I'm sure over time I'll develop more, but as of right now it's… I'm really, well, anxious about it. And… well. The main one, and the thing that has been pestering me all f—freaking night. I-I—" he looks down at his plate, nerves getting the best of him. "I don't know if I can. The band told me I could, and my mom told me I probably could, but… I don't know how I'm supposed to know if I can."

"Alexander," his grandmother says immediately. He looks up at her and finds her smiling at him. "I have… watched you study century old texts, memorize policy after policy, research Beasigan law. I have seen you change the way you hold yourself, develop coping strategies for anxiety, step into who you are in ways that you never thought you could before this last month and a half. And I have seen your ideas for the future of your people, seen your care for your people, seen your heart for your people. I don't think there is anyone who can do this better than you can."

"My people?"

"They've just been waiting for you to arrive," she tells him, and Alex knows that she's speaking of the people of Beasiga.

He bites down on his lip and looks down at his chicken.

His people.

He… really likes the sound of that, actually.

The next few days fly by quickly, too quickly for Alex to really process. It's mainly because he's stressed, like, majorly so. He still hasn't come to a decision by Monday. He's at Willie's at his grandmother's suggestion, trying to decompress and relax, but it's not… it's not really working.

They're lying in Willie's bed watching a movie, but Alex isn't even sure what movie it is. Willie's head is pillowed on Alex's chest and Alex is running his fingers through Willie's hair. Willie's got one hand tucked underneath Alex's shirt, rubbing his side with his thumb, twitching his other fingers every once in a while, brushing against the side of Alex's back. It's nice and quiet and Alex wants to stay here forever but.

But the ball is tomorrow.

The ball is tomorrow and he still hasn't made up his mind.

For days now he's been asking people if they think he can do this. Obviously the band, his grandmother, his mom… but also his limo driver, also Tasha, also Alden and John and the security guards managing the consulate doors and a few of the other staff he'd gotten to know. He'd even emailed Mrs. Harrison and Principal Lessa. He'd texted a few of his friends from school that he mainly talked to in class. The overwhelming majority have been yeses. Alex doesn't know how many of those are genuine yeses, and how many just don't want to hurt his feelings. Not that his feelings would be hurt, because he's the one constantly telling himself that he can't do this. A few people, like his mom, have said 'probably.' They've backed up their reasoning, though. They've said that no one really knows until they do something. They've said that Alex-before-prince lessons wouldn't have been able to but Alex-now probably could. They've said that as long as he keeps his head on straight. There haven't been any nos, but again, people might just not want to hurt his feelings.

He hasn't asked everyone though.

"Willie?" Alex whispers.

"Hm?"

Alex waits for a long moment. He's scared to ask, because he doesn't know what he wants Willie's answer to be. He wants Willie to be honest, but he desperately doesn't want to hear Willie say that Alex can't do this. Also more importantly, he doesn't know what he'll do with Willie's answer. What if Willie thinks he can? Will that influence his choice?

Willie shifts his head on Alex's chest to look up at Alex, and he realizes he's taking too long. He draws in a deep breath, making Willie's head fall with his chest, and asks, "do you think I can do this?"

"The speech at the ball? Yeah, Alex, you'll be fine. You've been doing really great with your anxiety," Willie assures him, squeezing his side.

Alex sighs. "No. I mean, thanks but, I—being a prince. A king. Ruling a country. Do you think I can?"

Willie flips so he's on his stomach, his arm curled around Alex's waist. He shimmies up the bed until he's face to face with Alex and looks him in the eye. "Man, I don't know," he says, and Alex's heart starts to drop. "All I care about is whether or not you're willing. That's the important part. That's the part that's gonna make a difference."

Alex blinks.

So, he has to be willing.

… Well, is he?

The short answer is he doesn't know.

The long answer is that, first, Caleb Covington is next in line for the throne and Alex (and countless others) doesn't want him to take the throne. Alex is the only one who has the opportunity to stop him. By taking his rightful place as prince and eventually king, and then by eventually having a child, Caleb would no longer have his claim. Second, Beasiga is a country with strong ties to many countries around the world. It didn't survive for over three hundred years, over one hundred of those without an army, by being anti-social. Alex would have an opportunity to impact not only Beasiga, but also the world. It wouldn't be anything revolutionary or that would create world peace, but if he can take even a single step towards making even one country a better place for even one group of people… he thinks the entire thing would be worth it. Finally, Beasiga is full of people he cares about, even if he's never met them, and he wants to make their lives better. The people in the country are passionate and full of life and Alex can tell that just from hearing and reading about them, just from news stories, just from social media. He wants to make a difference, wants to leave a mark.

After that though, he has to think of the life he'd be giving up. Even if they managed to make things work, what are the chances he'd ever get to go on tour with the band? Slim to none. Security wouldn't hear of it, and he wouldn't have the time to leave for six months. Willie said he would stick with Alex, but what if things got too hard? What if the pressures of royalty were too much for Willie and he didn't want that anymore? And his future kid—kids? His mom and biological dad had hidden him from the royal world because they wanted him to live a "normal" childhood. What would a royal childhood mean for any children he'd have? One of them would grow up to be ruler of Beasiga one day and would be feeling the same pressure he is right now. They'd also be wondering if they could do it. Or—or maybe not. Maybe he was right when he said that rulers were born. Maybe the fact that he was thrown into this at such a late age is the reason he doubts himself so much.

And then—then he thinks… he can recite many Beasigan policies and when and why they were developed, he can quote multiple Beasigan laws and tell you when and where they were passed, and he can discuss Beasigan history back to before the start of the country. And he's proud that he can do that and he likes that he can do that and he wants to learn even more about Beasiga. Over the last month and a half he's prepared for this. And it's not like he's going to become king next week, just prince. He's still got plenty of time before he becomes king. He'd have time to graduate college before he becomes king, and in that time, he could learn plenty more about Beasiga's policies and laws and history, and even its people and culture and architecture and so much more.

But… he's scared.

There it is, he admits it now. Julie was right again, no one is surprised.

He's absolutely terrified.

Stepping into his role as prince means giving up the life he's known for sixteen years and accepting the life he's known for one month. It means giving up the life he expected and taking on the life he… well, that he couldn't have even dreamt up. And it means accepting something about himself that he really, really didn't want to accept.

That he is, in fact, a prince.

Being a prince, later king, makes him separate from everyone else. It makes him somehow more untouchable to a certain group of people—actually, to most people. It takes away his normalcy. Beyond that, it puts him on a pedestal and in a spotlight and illuminates all of his flaws, all of his mistakes, all of his missteps and setbacks and failures.

A prince. Could he be that?

He technically is, whether he likes it or not, but… if he accepts it, well… There'd be no going back. Is he willing to give up this life for that?

In economics, they learned about opportunity cost. It's the concept of what you miss gaining by opting for a different choice. For example, by going to school, a person is gaining knowledge, but the opportunity cost is that they're giving up a few extra hours of sleep. If they choose to go out with friends rather than study, they gain time with friends, but the opportunity cost is the hours they could have spent studying and the potential grade they could have gotten had they spent those hours studying instead. As Alex thinks on it, he wants to laugh. Those examples are accurate but they seem so insignificant compared to his situation. What's the opportunity cost if he decides to become a prince? What is it if he doesn't? All he knows is that there are two things that Alex can't sacrifice in his choice. There are two things that he will not allow to be his opportunity cost. His band and…

Alex blinks up at Willie, who's suddenly even closer than before, and it doesn't take much at all for Alex to lean up and close the gap between them. Willie kisses him back, opening his mouth under Alex's lips and sighing. Alex presses back into the kiss, and slips a hand into Willie's hair and guides him deeper until they're both lost in each other. Alex feels his heart fluttering, hears their shaky breaths between kisses, and tastes traces of Willie's toothpaste on his breath. Willie has been with him through this all, and has pushed him not to do what he thinks he should do, but what he wants to do. Alex wants Willie, yes, but what he really wants… he wants Willie to be beside him in Beasiga.

He pulls back.

"I'm going to be Prince," he whispers.

Willie smiles. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

There's a long pause in the room, the only noise being the sound of whatever movie is playing in the background. Willie is staring at Alex, flicking his eyes over parts of Alex's face, searching for any sign of hesitation. He settles on Alex's eyes and gives Alex a weighted look.

"Love you, Prince Alex," Willie says, and then they're back to kissing, and Alex feels like these are the two best decisions he's ever made.

[jerseydeanne]

Come Home Harry! CDAN blind item

Come Home Harry! CDAN blind item

Blind Item #7 The official outlet for royal leaks who prints only what they are told to by the monarchy says that the expatriate wants to come home and get back to work for the people of his country. Is it homesickness or a major crack in the foundation?

POSTED BY ENT LAWYER AT 8:30 AM 102 COMMENTS  

[midautumnnightdream]

Please ramble more about your les Mis/LOTR crossover concept! Where does each ami find themselves when they wake up, how/where/in what order do they find each other, what do they do upon finding themselves in Arda? I want to know all about this.

Friend! I'm being Very Enabled :D

(uh sorry it took me so long to answer; the last couple of weeks turned out to be A Lot, but the EXTREME WALL OF TEXT of this ramble might at least justify the delay. Consider yourself warned!)

Anyway!

Okay, as I said before, the basis of this concept is Pure Aesthetics, so any "logic" is derived from moving backwards from the result that I wanted. But! There is a sort of method to the madness, which is that the Amis are distributed to Middle-Earth in the same order as they die, spiraling outwards from the central point of somewhere-in-Rohan on the same date they die –so Prouvaire and Bahorel appear closest to each other on the 5th of June 3018 and Feuilly, Joly, Bossuet, Courfeyrac and Combeferre land in a loose circle around them a day later, increasingly further away from each other, but not super far. Grantaire and Enjolras, For Reasons, get propelled a lot further away in separate directions. But more of that later.

So! Bahorel and Prouvaire find each other pretty quickly and establish that something Extremely Weird has happened. Being themselves, they are more excited than confused or upset about the situation and immediately set about exploring this new world. In a way, out of all the Amis they are perhaps the most suited for it: Rohan with vast countryside and mountains and mysterious forests, with the oral culture that honours the poet and glorifies the warrior; the horses, the tapestries, even the shadow of some great evil they do not yet understand but can feel in every unspoken concern – it's something of a Romantic medievalist's dream, isn't it? Sure, they also hear Some Bullshit about the way this country is run and have every intention of doing something about that in the future, but for the time being they are satisfied wandering about the countryside, exchanging songs and stories and exploring that forest they have been warned away from by everyone they meet. (Yes, they totally make friends with the ents, is what I'm saying.) They don't search for the other Amis because they have no reason to assume anyone else died –as far as they know, they're busy living happily in a new Republic. They learn otherwise soon enough, however.

What exactly happens with the next four Amis at first is the part that i'm least clear about – they'd have the same kind of initial confusion about the situation and P&B, but they each know for sure that all their friends should also be dead, and would try to look for them. Probably causing some Unsettling Rumours to spread a bit further than is strictly speaking ideal, but i also want most of them to find each other reasonably quickly, because the group dynamic is more of what i'm into here (esp because Bossuet probably landed somewhere terribly unlucky, poor dude.) Other than that I'm not sure, except that I want Feuilly somewhere with Dunlendings for a little while, because I can just *see* him having Unpopular Dunlending Opinions and getting glowered at by every Rohirrim he stubbornly voices them to.

Anyway, eventually I want that group to come together and... not quite settle, but to have something like a temporary home they can share and come back to, as they figure out what to do next. A place just outside of Edoras, perhaps? The kind of community that is getting increasingly twitchy about the state of affairs in Meduseld, enough to shelter this incredibly weird but friendly and helpful bunch of strangers whom Wormtongue is oh-so-curious about and to help dispel wilder rumours about them ("look they are just foreigners okay? From, um, Lake town. Yeah, Lake town"). Of course, healers are appreciated wherever they go, and so are bards, especially when they have a whole repertoire of songs and stories no one has heard before. Bahorel and Courfeyrac probably know their way around horses, for different reasons, Feuilly also has the kind of skills that would be appreciated and Bossuet, for all his bad luck has the resiliency of a cat who always lands on his feet. And if the lot of them get a bit Sarcastic about monarchy and tend to express the kind of ideas that might get everyone involved into a lot of trouble, well. People are Not happy and they'd welcome anything that goes counter to Orthanc influence in Edoras. Bahorel and Prouvaire still go wandering sometimes, leaving with the herders taking horses to pastures, in effort to find out more about what's going on and how they can help to influence events. But mostly, the Amis stick together.

Things are a bit... tense, once the inital shock passes. There is a lot of unspoken grief between them, for the home and people that are lost to them, for the revolution that could have been, for the future they cannot quite see themselves having in this world, and in a strange way, for each other. The whole situation is just so weird they have no idea how to process it and nothing to measure it against. On top of that, there are people missing in their group: by the time all seven of them come together, it's pretty clear it's just Amis showing up in this world, not everyone who dies, and knowing that the barricade was on a brink of a collapse, it'd make sense for Grantaire and Enjolras to be there too. Still, there is a possibility that they survived, by being taken prisoner or in R's case for being missed because he was asleep – and at this point, no one can quite figure out which option they should be hoping for. Not to mention, Enjolras absence shifts the group dynamic around quite a bit and each of them finds themselves having to pick up some emotional slack – which they do, quite well, but in addition to obvious obligations of coordination and decision-making, there is stuff like Bahorel having to pick fights with Combeferre when he's stressed, so he could argue his heart out without having to hold back, or Courfeyrac and Lesgle taking extra time to attentively listen to Feuilly when he's having Dunlending Opinions. On top of that, they are still trying to find a place in this new world and there is this sense of tense expectation, of coming storm.

Grantaire though. He takes Enjolras's hand, he smiles and when he wakes up, he's in Gondor of all places, all alone and very far from everyone he ever knew. "Now why would you do this, you monster??" you might think. And the answer is, well, symmetry. Aesthetic. Enjolras finds himself alone. So Grantaire must be alone too. On top of that, there is the appeal of our guy Grantaire, just after his big moment of revelation, being put into a situation where he has to live with the full implications of it, without being able to revert back to the expectations as he might if he was surrounded by his friends. Gondor is complicated sort of place. Denethor... is not going to miss a universe-traveler landing in his backyard. Nor would he neither dismiss him out of hand or trust him fully. He knows there is a reason for this, but there is no way to figure out what it could be, no more than he can figure out Grantaire; still reeling with the exhilaration of taking a leap of faith, in some ways a transfigured man, but still with all his foibles. Including talking too much, in references that no one in this world could possibly decipher.

So what happens is, once Faramir catches on to what's happening (because no way is Faramir either going to miss an universe-traveler in his backyard) Denethor pretty much hands R over to him, like "Yeah keep an eye on him and figure out what he's on about, or at least get him to shut up." and whooo boy do i have Thoughts about this character combination. Because Grantaire would be like. Reminded of half of his friends within minutes of meeting this guy (which, ouch) but also.. those sure are some Politics he's got there. Would there be A Debate? Sooner or later, probably! Probably despite Grantaire's better judgement! When on one hand you've got someone who is very convinced of the moral righteousness of his opinions, but is also very open to discussion and very very curious and discerning about what people are not saying, and on the other hand a person who is riddled with guilt over convictions unspoken, who perhaps feels like he owes the arguments to those who are not present to speak them, who's just... not good and not being contrary and shutting up ever. It could get really interesting – not in the sense of anyone getting Converted here, but I feel like both of them would end up with lot to think about (and Grantaire would end up as part of the team going to Ithilien at Important Moment)

And that's the other point – what would Grantaire do here, other than cautiously trying to express A Conviction? Well, mostly he'd try to keep himself afloat. In a moment of irony, in this situation he'd be the only Ami to never doubt that he's not alone in this world: partly it's the context of people around him immediately deciding his presence must serve some kind of Divine Purpose – and well, surely no Divinity would pick him to fulfill some destiny and not the other Amis right? But more than that, it's the fact that he Believes, so utterly, not only in Enjolras but in all of them, to the point of just Knowing they'd never abandon him in such a place. So he waits. And hangs on. And tries his best to fight the darkness on the horizon that seems to physically fog his mind and spirit, because he told Enjolras he's one of them, he's got to at least Try, right?

Onwards to Enjolras then! Okay this is the part that I've thought through the most and (**looks back over the length of the post so far**) Cripes. Umh, I’ll try to keep it concise?

Enjolras ends up at, or very close to Rivendell: this is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it's as good a place as you're ever going to find if you get dropped into a different universe with no idea what happened or how anything works, and also a very good (and very Aesthetic!) place to heal both physically or mentally but on the other hand, it's very far from where everyone else ended up and no rumour reaches him. So he has no idea what to think: he certainly hopes the others are also around somewhere, but for all his soaring faith, this is not something he can control, so he tries his best to find a way forward regardless of what happens.

So he keeps trying to learn everything he can about the world he is in, mostly with the help of a chatty old hobbit who tells him all the histories and helps him figure out the writing systems (look, everyone can just magically speak Westron okay?) And as fantastical as everything seems, and sundry dark lords notwithstanding, there is a lot that is broken about this world which is perhaps not so different from the one he left behind. All the same, it's clear that fighting Sauron must take the first priority.

(This is what he keeps telling himself when he finds out about the Heir of Isildur thing. Please just take a moment to imagine his expression.)

Anyway! The actual plot of the book would catch up soon enough, the Council of Elrond happens and as the Fellowship is being composed, it would become pretty damn clear for anyone with eyes what the Divine Forces were expecting Enjolras to do here. However, that brings me to the other point of curiousity which prompted this AU, and that is Enjolras and the Ring. Because I do feel like in his own painfully pragmatic, bright-burning idealistic way he would be pretty vulnerable to the Ring's influence. Not for a lack of self-awareness, or overconfidence, or for thinking that such means could ever be justified, but from the same impulse that had him shoot Le Cabuc: he's the sin-eater, he'd take that fall to spare the others in full expectation that they'd have to overcome him and render him harmless. And the Ring being what it is, it could use any opportunity to force such a decision, making it seem like the only option available whether that is the case or not. Even so, I'd think Enjolras would be quite self-aware – and also pretty upfront – about his own vulnerabilities and oh, it'd be such an interesting conversation to have between him and Frodo and Gandalf before a decision is made. Also, bonding with the hobbits! and the rest of the fellowship! Gimli would immediately adopt him, idk it's just the Truth. Having people ask him “are you an elf?” multiple times, which he’s so confused about! Hella awkward bonding time with Aragorn! xD

Oh and then The Plot would happen but Geez, this is already horrifyingly long. If you are still reading this and haven’t been bored to tears yet I might tell you about it another time!

[nickcircelli]

Political Landscape Brief

Overview of Countries Political History and Current Populist Movements

   As of this July Greece’s prime minister is a center-right populist by the name of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Greece’s political system was not always a parliamentary republic. The birth of Greece came with the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. This victory saw Prince Otto of Bavaria as the first king of independent Greece as a monarchy. After about 90 years, in 1924 Greeks voted to abolish the monarchy system and become a republic, but the monarchy was restored in 1935. A few years later marked the beginning of World War 2 which was a turbulent time for Greece. From 1941 to 1944 Greece was under the rule of Nazi Germany. That was until a British and Greek rebellion forced the Nazis out, ultimately leading to a new constitution declaring Greece a Kingdom ruled by parliamentary democracy and the integration of NATO.

  After a back and forth from a parliamentary republic to a monarchy, then back again, the year 1975 marked Greece and a true parliamentary republic with some executive powers vested in a president. 1981 marked an extremely important year for Greece’s political future as Greece joins the EU and Andreas Papandreou’s of the Socialist Party (Pasok) wins the elections for prime minister. He would stay in power until he resigned in 1996 due to health issues and shortly died after. Even though one of the most well-liked politicians in Greece died his Pasok party did not, staying in power until March 2004 when the Conservative New Democracy party led by Costas Karamanlis won the general election.

  The years 2004 to 2009 brought over a shadow of mass speculation and protest throughout the country. The beginning of what will turn out to become a long economic dark period of Greece happened on December 2004 when the European Commission issued a formal warning to Greece after finding they falsified the budget deficit in the run-up to joining the eurozone. From this time until 2009 the Conservative New Democracy party led Costas Karamanlis was in power which was a center-right government. Once the son of the loved socialist party (Pasok) leader George Papandreou came into power as prime minister it seemed like the country took a turn for the worst. One of the world’s largest debt crisis swept the nation leading to Lucas Papademos, a former head of Bank of Greece, becoming the interim prime minister of Greece. They finally reached a new bailout plan a package of tough austerity measure agreed with the EU for a 130bn euro bailout.

   In 2014, Greece starts to experience a radical left-populist, Anti-austerity movement known as the Syriza coalition, winning 26.6% of the vote. Lead by Alexis Tsipras his left-wing populist party fought to bring Greece back to economic stability with the ECB ending emergency funding and a third bailout for 86bn euros. Fast forward to 2019, in July a Center-Right New Democracy party came into power in a landslide election placing Kyriakos Mitsotakis as the new prime minister of Greece.

 Main Populist Leaders, Movements, and Parties

 In the early 21st century Greece was on the brink one of the biggest financial crisis the world had ever seen. The people wanted answers and a man named Alexis Tsipras was about to give it to them. “In Greece, the economic devastation convinced a plethora of radical left groups to come together in the new left-wing populist Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza)” (Mudde and Kaltwasser, 2017, P.37).  As the years went one Syriza gained rapidly gained seats in the Greek parliament going from just 6 seats in 2004 to becoming the second largest political party in June 2012 with 71 seats.

When the election in 2015 finally came Syriza finally came into power thus making Alexis Tsipras the new prime minister of Greece. This radical leftist populist party fought for the common people, in this case, the upper-middle, middle, and lower middle class of Greece against the “corrupt” old regime of the center-right New Democracy. Tsipras pinned the economic crisis on the old regime and gave the people a new bright outlook on the future. Before Syriza was in power the unemployment was at 25% and youth unemployment was at 50%.  Syriza proposed economic reforms totaling up to 4bn in public program investment.

Syriza’s Alexis Tsipras (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

https://www.thenation.com/article/syriza-rising/

    Syriza stayed in power from 2015 to 2019 when the right-center New democracy won the election in a landslide victory, but none the less populism remains very prevalent in Greece today.

Challenges to rights-based democracy

  In the past couple of years, Greece has been dealing with several issues on the humanitarian front, none has been bigger than the topic of asylum seekers coming to from other countries. A huge controversy facing the nation is the fact that Greece is failing to protect the rights of these asylum seekers. Reports of severe overcrowding, unsanitary, unhygienic conditions, and lack of sufficient specialized care, including medical care, trauma consoling, and psychological support.

           An issue like this point directly at human rights-based issues. Greece’s EU backed the policy of confining asylum seekers who arrived by sea to the Aegean islands trapped thousands in these conditions. Stories like these are growing each day as the government in Greece in a center-right New Democracy attempting to stop immigration as a whole.