#simply by virtue of their. like. bloodline or whatever

[nearisqueer]

on one hand, emigration is a huge part of my country's history and culture and we have a massive diaspora and people descended from irish people who find some sense of meaning or belonging from that absolutely deserve the chance to learn of the culture from which they descend, and to connect with it. if you're descended from irish people but you're not from here, absolutely you should learn about our history, our culture, our traditions and sport and food and language and everything, and you should come visit and see all the sights and historical monuments and whatnot. There's nothing wrong with wanting to connect with that and claim it.

On the other hand, listening to irish Americans talk about ireland makes me wanna shit myself

[not-a-coral-snake]

for @lamenweek Day 8 prompt: “It was one kingdom once”

"Their support is . . . tennous," Berenger says. He shifts his weight. "Your majesty, if I may be so bold . . . You retain their support because they think you are young and tractable. They think they can sway you, if not into abandoning the alliance with Akielos entirely, into minimizing its priority. If you proceed as you plan, you will lose their support entirely."

It’s like this sometimes. His nobles, or Damianos’s, dangling promises of support before them, of difficulties that could be amicably smoothed over, if only the king would be reasonable. The three nobles Berenger is referring to today hold between them a significant portion of Toutaine, rich in timber and mineral resources, and in Lord Mitry’s case, along a strategically-important stretch of the border with Vask. Appease them, and Laurent will have a significant amount more funds and men for fighting the more directly-belligerent of his uncle’s remaining supporters and pursuing the various domestic projects he has planned. Refuse, and Laurent will be likely be faced with years of delayed and short tax payments, a haven for smugglers that will sharply reduce tariff revenue from Vaskian goods, perhaps even a breeding ground for more direct rebellion. 

It comes as little surprise. Laurent knows it would be difficult to find broad support for his plans with Akielos even if he had political capital to spare. Knows how little political capital surviving his uncle's court has left him. Knows whatever tolerance, whatever grudging deference, he has wrangled out of his court by virtue of their nearly executing him on false charges is fleeting.

“Invite the Toutainais nobles to court for the snowmelt festivities,” Laurent says. “We can give them an opportunity to attempt to convince me of the wisdom of their position. It will be as much a chance for me to reassure them of the logic of mine.”

Berenger nods, jots down a note. “Shall I delay the announcement of the new trade policy with Akielos until after their visit, then?” he says.

Laurent pauses, shakes his head. There is only so much to be gained by stringing the Toutainais nobles along for a few weeks longer. “We cannot allow the reservations of a handful of northern lords to dictate our policies for the nation,” he says. “Announce the trade policy as planned.”

*    *    *

It had been an impulsive proposal, uniting the kingdoms, born out of high emotion rather than logic. Laurent is reminded of this every time he is faced with its costs. He had been dehydrated, had not slept in thirty hours. Damianos had lost rather a lot of blood. It was one kingdom once.

They do not plan to unite it into one kingdom again immediately or all at once. They had announced, in those early days in Ios, simply an alliance. In the negotiations that followed, they had laid out a stronger, more intimate alliance than was usual. They plan, over the next several years, to strengthen the terms of the alliance still further, the alliance’s existing success hopefully serving as an argument in favor of further entanglement. 

In the meantime, they plan to harmonize the workings of their respective governments, to increase trade and cultural exchange. They will join the kingdoms later, when Akielons and Veretians are no longer strangers to each other, when laws and governments can be joined without friction, when trades and interdeallings have grown to a point that union seems more natural than not. 

Moving the capital of each kingdom to Marlas has been an early success. Veretians are proud to once again rule over Delfeur, and see the court at Marlas as a literal and obvious symbol of their reign. Akielons, aware that Veretians possesses the province on paper, are glad of the new capital as evidence that Akielos still, in the ways that matter, holds Delpha. 

Damen smiles fondly at the gracefully shifting narratives Laurent employs when speaking of the two countries’ decision to form a court at Marlas, the flexible, carefully-chosen explanations he uses that allow everyone, Veretian or Akielon, to view the new capital as a win for their side. Laurent, for his part, never denies outright that greater unity with Akielos was his main goal in moving the capital.

*    *    *

There are costs for Damen too, among the kyroi and the powerful noble families of the Akielon court. 

Even with the lingering doubts and resentment left in the wake of Kastor’s coup, Damen’s position in his own court upon taking the throne was stronger than Laurent’s was. The rumors meant to delegitimize Damen after his return from Vere had never really had time to take root, and few of Kastor’s supporters had been truly loyal to Kastor himself, rather than Theomedes’s bloodline. Damen is a beloved warrior, a hero, triumphantly returned from supposed death to claim his rightful throne. He has the support of his people for whatever grand and improbable project he might wish to take on. 

The first grand and improbably project Damen takes on, however, is ending slavery. He and Laurent agree: ending slavery as early in Damen’s reign as possible is a moral imperative, as well as a practical one. Whatever chance there is of winning broad acceptance in Akielos to ending slavery, it will be the greatest while the knowledge of the king of Akielo’s time as a slave is still a raw wound, while that king’s survival and seeming return from death still seems like a miracle. In the days of still-unsettled emotion at the beginning of Damen’s reign, ending slavery becomes a way of channeling the people’s fervor, allowing all the shock and outrage and gratitude and shame the people feel upon learning his story to be converted into action.

It is also probably for the best that the people of Akielos do not associate the end of slavery with growing Veretian influence in Akielon affairs.

When the project to end slavery succeeds, it is in the eyes of both kings a monumental triumph. If I do nothing else of worth during my reign, Damen thinks, I can nonetheless be proud of my achievements, having accomplished this.

As things stand, though, Damen has other plans as well. And as he begins the process of moving Akielos towards unification with Vere, he finds he has a steeper uphill battle ahead of him now than before. There is talk that the young king is trying to change too much, too fast. Overconfident, perhaps. There are enough of Kastor’s more subtle supporters left at court to become a focus point for the murmurs of discontent that arise. Damen’s throne is hardly in danger, but building support for his policies is increasingly a matter of strategic effort rather than easy assurance. 

Unfortunately, Laurent’s presence at court has a tendency to exacerbate these weaknesses. When Laurent attends meetings with the kyroi, he becomes a proxy for criticism the kyroi would not dare direct at Damen himself. In one meeting concerning defense against Vaskian raids, the pace of the meeting slows to a crawl as the kyroi present Laurent with objection after objection. They argue with Laurent, try to pick open holes in his logic, even ask for confirmation his sources of information are reliable and his calculations correct. Damen would be outraged on Laurent’s behalf, except that Laurent is clearly unbothered by their rudeness. He seems to be enjoying himself even, sidestepping their traps easily and demolishing each objection almost as quickly as it’s raised. He’s anticipated nearly every one of the arguments the kyroi fling at him, Damen notices. So instead, Damen sits back and watches appreciatively as Laurent wins endless battles of words. 

In private, after the meeting ends, Nikandros is livid. “They have no business speaking to a king like that,” he says. “Even a foreign one. To ask you if you were certain about the timing—they had no place—”

Laurent is silent for a while, reassessing, as Nikandros paces the room. “That wasn’t normal political discourse, then,” he says finally. “Akielon protocol does not allow for direct critique of a king’s line of reasoning.” 

“You let people speak to you that way in your own country?” Nikandros says, amazed. 

Laurent shrugs noncommittally, but Damen has attended enough meetings with the Veretian council and nobility to know that yes, this sort of back-and-forth is relatively common in Vere. And not merely a product of Laurent’s previously-tarnished reputation with the court, but instead a result of the different ways Veretians demonstrate power and deference. 

But later, after Nikandros has left, Laurent says, “I am a weakness to you here in more ways than I thought.” He bites his lip.

“I did not think you minded their questioning,” Damen says.

Laurent says, “I knew, being here, that more people would claim that I wield undue influence over you. That some would dismiss our ideas as too Veretian, that some would whisper that you were thinking with your cock. But most of those people would be saying as much anyway even if I were not in Ios in person.

“But by being here, in person, I have become a proxy for all the criticism they would make of you, and cannot. They can criticize me, and in criticizing me they can make you appear weak. Perhaps I should return to Marlas.”

There is a truth to Laurent’s words, for all that Damen’s mind rebels against it. Knowing now the typical deference afforded a king in policy meetings, Laurent can adjust his own behavior. Damen knows without any doubt that Laurent, if he wanted to, could make any man who questions him instantly regret being born.

But he will be a proxy for criticism not just in meetings, where he is present to defend himself, but in every conversation resentful nobles have with each other. Kastor’s former supporters will complain of Laurent, instead of Damen, and nobles who would never dare criticize Damen will feel comfortable joining in. The more Laurent is present in Ios, the more he is seen to have a direct hand in any particular issue, the more policies the court will find it safe to disparage.  

Damen could agree, could let Laurent return to Marlas and remain in Ios alone. They could correspond by letter, could still shape policy together at a distance. It could work that way. It might even work better that way. And yet—

“You should stay,” Damen says. Whatever the tradeoffs, it’s worth it to have Laurent here, to have Laurent in meetings observing the kyroi’s behavior himself, to be able to consult with him every day, to be able to spend evenings together making plans and picking their way through problems. 

Laurent raises an eyebrow, but some of the tension is already leaving his shoulders. “I work better when you’re here,” Damen says. “The kyroi will have to get used to you.”

*    *    *

There is a set of reasons Laurent uses with the Veretian court to argue in favor of alliance: easier and more lucrative trade, a relaxing of border defenses that allows greater resource use elsewhere, cultural exchange that will improve Veretian knowledge of medicine, engineering, crafts. And it is true that there are indeed advantages of unification for Vere. But Laurent sees on the faces of the Council and the more politically-inclined nobility, at times, that they know, as Laurent himself does, that these advantages are not great enough to justify gambling on such a radical change. It is the same, Damen tells him, with the kyroi. 

With the common people of the two kingdoms, the kings take a different approach. An unlikely romance between enemy princes makes for a good story, and tales spread across the countryside with little effort on Damen and Laurent’s part. Before long, seemingly every village poet and traveling minstrel has their own version of the story, all of them full of battles and adventure and heart-wrenching sentimentality. The common people of Akielos and Vere know the truth: the kings are bringing the kingdoms together out of love. It’s easy to become invested in their love story. It’s easy to hope for it to have a happy ending. In the north of Vere and the south of Akielos, where the common people can safely assume alliance will have little effect on their own lives, that’s for the most part enough to build broad support for the kings’ plans. 

For the people who live near the border, things are a lot less abstract. The border people have the strongest opinions, both in favor of the alliance and against it. Some are very glad of the chance of a lasting peace. Some are very, very nationalist. But the people of the border are also the closest to the court at Marlas, and thus have the greatest opportunity to see the alliance working, the joint court working. Laurent and Damen are optimistic that distrust and resentment are declining in Delfeur, that casual interactions between Akielons and Veretians are on the rise. 

It will be difficult to build enthusiasm among the nobility for full unification, Laurent knows. He considers, some days, whether it was a mistake to attempt to present them with compelling practical reasons. There is no logic-based way to convince them, because unification is not, at its heart, a decision rooted in logic. He imagines sometimes what it would be like, to tell the court that he is going to unite Vere and Akielos because he is madly in love. The idea is amusing, and in equal parts frightening and tempting in its vague transgressiveness. He’s not really sure he can carry off such a thing convincingly, for all that it is the truth: he has not yet lost his reputation as icy-blooded. And if he could convince them, well. He has only barely lost his reputation as petty and selfish. He would not like to give the court reason to once again heed his uncle’s words.

Still, he and Damen have undeniably learned the importance of emotion in politics. When it comes time to transition from alliance to unification, they plan to draw upon the reservoirs of nationalist and expansionist fervor that had persisted in Akielos and Vere for centuries and had been cultivated so strongly by Theomedes and Aleron. The dream of empire still sleeps in each court. Damen and Laurent plan to wake that dream, to persuade their people that in unifying with their historic enemy, they are not losing their national identity but becoming part of something greater. Returning to a former greatness that was always their destiny.

“And then some meddlesome baron will probably come up and start lecturing you that restoring the Artesian Empire for the first time in a thousand years is increasing the incidental expenses of tax collection by six and a half percent,” Damen says, trying to hide his smile. 

“And it would serve me right, too, I suppose you mean,” Laurent says, smiling too. 

*    *    *

“A trying day, love?” Damen asks when Laurent enters their chambers one night, as Laurent had somehow known he would. Laurent’s posture, he fancies, is straight-backed as ever, but Damen can always spot the tension Laurent tries not to show. 

“Lords Becquet and Merault and Lady Daumont still oppose the new legal code,” he says, hand absentmindedly beginning work loosening the laces on one sleeve. Damen has crossed the room already, is starting work undoing the laces on the back of Laurent’s jacket. “They’ve got the ear of Councillor Mahiet, and I fear they may convince her to change her mind again and withdraw her support.” As king, Laurent no longer requires the Council to approve his actions, but their support is still important to lend his policies an air of legitimacy. 

“Their objection was that there was too large a difference in penalty for violent and non-violent offenses?” Damen says, and Laurent sighs.

“So they claim. I met with Merault and Daumont today to discuss their objections, and they have little real interest in amendments or adjustments. Their real objection, I suspect, is that the proposed system is too Akielon.” It’s a setback, and against the background of the ongoing situation with the Toutainais nobles, a disappointing one.

The proposed legal code is, by design, neither excessively Akielon nor excessively Veretian. In cases where Veretian and Akielon laws had been too disparate to be blended smoothly and retain any kind of internally-consistent logic, there are sections with distinctly more influence from one country or the other. But care had been taken, both by the kings and their advisors in drafting the overall structure of the code and the bureaucrats who had written the actual language, to create a system that prioritized neither country’s existing laws. 

They had also sought to create a system that was more modern, easier to understand, and more just than the existing systems, with the unfortunate result that some new policies originating from neither Akielon nor Veretian law were occasionally mistaken for additional foreign influence. 

“Too Akielon,” Damen repeats. “If only my nobles felt the same way.” Laurent lets out a sigh that is half laugh.

“It’s a thornier problem to solve,” Laurent says. The legal code needs broad support in order to succeed, from the thousands of nobles, mayors, town headsmen, and bailiffs who will be responsible for following it as they mete out justice across two kingdoms. “For many of my nobles, any Akielon influence is too much, and no amount of reasoning will convince them that I am not being somehow taken advantage of.”

“The problem is not that the code is too Akielon-influenced, only that they perceive it to be so,” Damen says, musing. He lifts the open jacket from Laurent’s shoulders. 

“You want to make a spurious proposal so that I can publicly shoot you down?” Laurent guesses. They’ve used this maneuver and its inverse before.

“It’s worked pretty well in the past.” 

“We need Akielon nobles to support and enforce the new laws too.”

“Yes, but the code seems more popular there at the moment. The nobility appreciate the simplified approach to entail and inheritance laws. And Veretian influence in the new code has effectively lowered Akielon agricultural taxes.”

“Yes, I suppose if your spurious proposal is an attempt to keep your nobles’ taxes high, avarice will temper their resentment of me somewhat,” Laurent says. A pause. “It may still make you look weak at your own court, for a time.” It’s becoming easier for Laurent, to admit his own weaknesses, to ask for help, but it’s always hardest when that help comes at a cost for Damen.

“I’m not worried about that at the moment, not so soon after destroying that pirate haven that was menacing Isthima.”

Laurent is silent for a while, considering. “Well then, I will await your proposed changes with pleasure and profound skepticism,” Laurent says. Damen laughs, and they continue getting ready for bed.

“And Damen?” Laurent says, after they’re tucked under the blankets together. “Thank you.”

*    *    *

Laurent does lose the support of the Toutainais nobles. Damen loses the support of the kyros of Kesus and much of the nobility from Aegina. Sometimes almost as concerning as the supporters they lose is the supporters that they do have. They each have untrustworthy allies—people whose power at court they would very much rather minimize, but who throw themselves into organizing support for the alliance in order to try to make themselves essential. Chelaut, who is far less innocent of the regent’s plans than he would have the court believe, retains his council seat by making himself one of the earliest and most vocal supporters of the alliance. In the same way, Damen finds himself publicly overlooking Heston’s former support for Kastor’s faction after Heston begins work organizing support for stronger ties with Vere.

For each mote of progress they make towards unification, it sometimes seems, there is another trade-off or setback. Mostly they weather the challenges well together. Often, the challenges bring them even closer together. They learn more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses and manners of thinking, grow to appreciate each other more, learn to rely upon each other without question. But there are nonetheless times when they struggle to understand each other’s point of view, days when they bicker constantly about one policy or another, days when they fight bitterly about them. 

Worst is when distance or work has kept them from really seeing each other for days or weeks, and then a fight ruins the long-anticipated time they do have to see each other. On days like that, Laurent hates the unification project for stealing so much of the time he and Damen might have spent together, and then poisoning what time they have left. 

There are times when Laurent has been alone in Arles or Marlas for so many weeks or months he finds himself settling into routine, finds himself growing half-convinced that he could be content like this: Ruling alone. Living a quiet, useful life, returning each night to empty rooms with a book for company.

And sometimes, Laurent finds himself thinking that if this could be enough on its own, maybe unification won’t be worth it. Maybe it would be better to leave things as they are, the kingdoms apart but at peace. For him and Damen to rule their separate courts, lives simpler without the constant uphill struggles that come from strengthening the alliance. To use the leisure that uncomplicated reigns would bring to see each other a few times each year, their time together limited by distance but unmarred by stressful days and fights over policies and strategy. Perhaps that could be enough. Perhaps that would be for the best. 

And then he sees Damen again, and knows that this is worth it. A lantern may be considered bright in the darkness, Laurent thinks, but it would never compare to the sun. The contentment he might have had with an easier reign alone is nothing compared to the happiness he has ruling alongside Damen. Anyway, it’s not in his nature or in Damen’s to turn their back on a commitment once made or a challenge once taken on.

In the darkness of the Ios palace baths, sleep deprived and dehydrated and losing blood, Laurent and Damen had made a choice. Now, with ample time to consider, in the comfort of study and council chamber and throne room, they make it again and again and again. It will be one kingdom, someday.

[thephilosophersapprentice]

Meta: Leadership and Spirituality in Hyrule

From its founding, Hyrule has been almost a theocracy in that the daughters of the royal family are thought to be (and often demonstrably are) mortal incarnations of Hylia. As such, Hyrule is matrilineal and usually ruled by the eldest daughter of the family. In the event the queen dies before the princess comes of age, the prince consort will step in as regent until the princess does come of age. The Zelda of the Era of the Wild should have been crowned on her seventeenth birthday; she would have been if the kingdom had not been in a state of emergency for at least the year leading up to that. (Seventeen is the age of majority in Hyrule because the Hero of Time was seventeen, despite that being a bare minimum for using the Master Sword.)

Religious observances in Hyrule can be either public or private. Religion and spirituality evolved over time; the further from the Skyloft era, the more likely historical events (such as Hylia reincarnating as the first Zelda, the history of the Master Sword, and the stories of the various heroes and Zeldas) are to be regarded more as a legend or a fable than historical fact. However, princesses and queens of Hyrule are still very central to religious observances. Even as they are commanders-in-chief of the military, they are the highest of high priestesses. Many holidays require the princess or queen to lead festival attendees in prayer, play master of ceremonies at services, or bless the people. For instance, in the era of Twilight before planting began in spring, an observance was held which involved fasting, prayers, and the princess or queen visiting a farming village in each province to bless the province. The present incarnation of the hero is often commonly seen as a religious figure and Hylia reborn’s first attendant as well, and may participate visibly in religious ceremonies, though rarely as the officiant.

A variety of deities are worshipped in Hyrule, most commonly the Golden Goddesses and Hylia, though there are others who were venerated throughout the ages, such as the Sand Goddess in the Gerudo region. While most self-identified religious people will worship Hylia, Nayru, Din and Farore, many choose to specially revere one of them as a personal choice of patron. This is especially expected of the current bearers of each piece of the Triforce. The holders of the Triforce are considered the champions of the goddess whose virtue they specifically embody. Thus, Zelda may be addressed as "Champion of Nayru,” though this is less common than the hero being addressed as “Champion of Farore,” due to Zelda’s royal title. Extraordinary people are also often venerated, though not in the same way as deities; for instance, the Seven Heroines of the Gerudo, or the Zora sage Ruto.

Various forms of religious leaders exist in Hyrule. In central areas, the best-known are priests and sages, while in more remote ones, spiritual needs may be attended by cantors and guides. The primary differences are the nature of the ministry and the length and intensity of training to become a leading figure.

Sages are rarely seen. They often choose to be hermits, or the nature of their service is such that it is discharged in private rooms at temples, for instance the prayers of the Sages of Earth and Wind to maintain the Master Sword’s power to repel evil. While in ordinary times sages may train to become sages, in times of danger often a sage may simply awaken to the knowledge that they are one and the nature of their duty. Occasionally this gift may be passed along a bloodline, or it may appear spontaneously. In ordinary times, sages train their wills and study religion and history, often mastering dead languages in the process, to become sages.

Priests and priestesses serve publicly, at festivals and other days of public worship, and are specially trained in theology, history, and the Old Hylian language. Due to frequently being located in large population centers, they often have a less personal relationship with the communities they serve.

Monks are not religious leaders, per se. They follow a much more personal and individual calling than any other religious group in Hyrule, though a community of monks may gather to discuss the best way to face an extraordinary threat (for instance, the Sheikah monks of the Era of the Wild.) Often monks live solitary lives, pursuing their own truth through whatever means they see fit, whether this be study or physical training.

Guides often serve smaller communities, frequently filling a second role as the local healer or doctor. While they do not officiate as many ceremonies and services as priests do, they are generally much more available to the community to offer help and good advice to individual people. Guides often undergo less formal training than priests or sages, choosing to direct their own studies rather than following a set curriculum and adding on whatever means of service (healing or otherwise) they see fit. Frequently, guides will either teach their family members to be a guide or will choose students from the community. Renado in the Twilight Era’s Kakariko is an example.

Finally, cantors are perhaps the most informal of religious leaders. A cantor’s role is primarily to educate the people of their community, especially the children, in the history and legends of Hyrule. Cantors will sing or recite specific songs or legends on holidays, lead and moderate community discussions, and occasionally lead the community in prayer, in addition to being an informal teacher and caretaker of children and holy places. In some ways, there is overlap between cantors and guides; however, most cantors are self-taught, while many guides became guides by serving an apprenticeship. The cantor’s role requires the most memorization out of all of Hyrule’s religious leaders. Cantors maintain an oral tradition that is rare in more populous areas.

(NB: It is possible that prior to leaving his hometown of Ordon, the Hero of Twilight served as a cantor in Ordon and caretaker of a sacred spring, despite his young age at the time. However, as cantors maintain an oral tradition, this supposition can never be absolutely confirmed.)

[alternativewinxcontinuity]

Planetary Spotlight: Callisto

Callisto [Cal-ih-stow] Callisto The Hunter's World. Callisto The Wild Lands.

-

The Planet of Callisto is something of an anomaly in the Magical Dimension, since it is unclear to outsiders exactly which Thematic Domain the world truly belongs to.

A world of forests and plains, mountains and valleys and oceans, the planet has vast expanses of wilderness and one of the smallest populations of any of the Keystone Worlds*.

The Thematic magics which appear on Callisto tend towards plant or stone aspects of nature, animal talents - whether specific or general - and some... slightly more unusual types which suggest Callisto either has no true Thematic Domain, or a history of immigration. 

-

Cultural Overview:

The Callistei [Cal-ih-sty] have a long history as hunter-gatherers, despite their level of technological advancement. They prefer to keep their technology compartmentalized from the majority of their lifestyle, except in cases where it truly is a lifesaver, such as certain facets of medical technology or water purification. 

(This gives them the appearance of being less technologically advanced than they actually are at first glance.)

Callisto has one of the highest concentrations of Wild Magic found anywhere in the Magical Dimension, and is thought to be the rightful 'Homeworld' of the chaotic force.

The ability of the trained Callistei hunters to track their prey across galaxies has gained the people of Callisto a fierce reputation as a warrior race**, though they themselves laugh at the notion. While their culture does contain many of the markers of a warrior race, the concept of what a warrior race is and what it is believed to be are so different that they simply do not care for the term.

Personal and societal honour and responsibility are important facets of the Callistei culture, if one of their people goes 'bad', they will take whatever measures are deem necessary to take care of the problem rather than leaving it to others, even if the problem occurs on another world.

While Callisto does prefer rehabilitation as a first resort, it is one of the few worlds which have an outright death sentence, though this is considered to be a last resort, and many forms of truth and forensic magics will be used to determine a perpetrator's guilt before such measures are reached.

-

Butterflies and Boon:

Because Wild Magic is so prevalent on Callisto, it is not uncommon for Magicals to undertake the challenge of Nature's Boon, travelling to Graynor to train under the Ancestral Spirit of Nature in order to learn to work with Wild Magic and not suffer the normal, and oft unpleasant consequences.

-

Care of the Crown:

The governance of Callisto is considered to be one of the oddest of the Magical Dimension. The ruler is granted the title of Emperor or Empress (->Their Imperial Majesty), and since the title is not passed through bloodlines or marriage, the spouse or children of the ruler are granted no special titles.

The title is passed after an event called The Corona, a 'ceremony' which can last for a decade. (The longest Corona being 11 ½ years.)

The Corona is begun when the reigning Emperor/Empress feels that they are close to the end of their reign. They select several candidates from the fairies, wizards and witches of Callisto who are in, or are working towards, positions in the Callistei government.

These candidates are granted the title of prince of princess for the duration of the Corona, and are often sent to act as representatives of Their Imperial Majesty in instances of interplanetary meetings of royals.

The rules of the Corona state that there must not be less than three candidates, though no maximum has been specified, and the largest group of candidates recorded was twelve. Candidates may 'abdicate' during the Corona, dropping themselves from the running, but in any instance where all but one candidate 'abdicate' an official inquiry must be held to ensure no foul play has taken place.

A candidates inability to Bond with an Astri Ursin does not insure their failure to ascend to the ruling title, but it is very rare for a candidate without such a bond to become ruler, having happened only three times in the recorded history of Callisto.

-

Despite – or perhaps because – of the reputation of Callisto, it has good relations to almost every world, though it shares especially good relations with Solaria, which is their closest, inhabited planetary neighbour.

(This is especially fruitful for Callisto, as Solaria lies directly in the travel path from Callisto to Magix, one of the Magical Dimension's 'hub' Worlds which are considered to be 'neutral' in the Magical Dimension's politics as they are often Colony Worlds, built by many cultures coming together to create a shared space.)

-

Varanda of Callisto – Fairy of Protection

A Corona candidate at the time of Winx Club Season 1, Varanda became friends with Princess Stella of Solaria during a political conference before Stella's first year at Alfea. Despite her candidacy Varanda was slated to attend Alfea on Magix, but decided to remain on Callisto after a 'small' series of attacks on her home world changed her mind, she felt that she would be able to do more good on Callisto than at Alfea. (She was correct, and earned her Enchantix on Callisto shortly before the siege of Magix several weeks later.)

Varanda's magical abilities lie with protection and defence, and she is one of the few magicals alive capable of constructing a Devouring Shield, a magical shield which eats the magical energy of any attack that strikes it, converting the attacking energy into extra shield power.

Though her hair is darker and her eyes greener, Varanda bears a striking similarity to Bloom of Domino. This is an ethnic similarity made more apparent by the rarity of the people of Domino. Varanda's grandmother was a refuge from Domino. (If stories are to be believed, Varanda's Grandmother was a member the Dragon's Teeth warriors of Domino when the first siege happened, and was off-World – escorting wounded to a nearby planet for medical treatment due to the loss of medical facilities on Domino – when the second siege happened.***)

-

Notable Fauna:

Callisto is home to the Astri Ursin, or Celestial Bears. One of the few creatures that can interact with Wild Magic without ill effects, it is often sought after by magic practitioners crazy enough to pursue the 'mastery' of Wild Magic.

The Astri Ursin are often the Bonded animal companions of the rulers of Callisto, and so have a sacred place in the culture of the World.

On a smaller scale, Callisto is also home to the Bardic Glider, a small creature similar to Earth's sugar gliders which live in colonies and possess a group memory they can share with other creatures they trust. Bardic Gliders are very small, the largest of the species requires one and half (average adult) hands to hold securely, while most only require one.

-

*Keystone Worlds:

Like Solaria is the planet of the Sun, Ruler of the Worlds of Celestial Bodies and Primary House of Light, as Zenith is the World of Technology, Keystone worlds have existed since almost the beginning, and represent Aspects of Reality and the Nature of the Universe. Keystone Worlds were created by the Great Dragon to bring Order to the Universe, like Fairies and Witches had a Thematic Power source, Keystone Worlds also belong to a Thematic Domain. Thematic Domains can be anything from Nature to the Aspect-of-Nature-which-is-Plants, to Technology, to a specific celestial body, to all celestial bodies, to a terrain like the sandy deserts, to an aspect such as death itself.

One of the few Aspects that is not truly represented is War, though several 'Warrior races' exist, and there are Worlds with 'proving grounds' for young warriors to test themselves, no Planet or World is Thematically Dedicated war. It was thought that War was not considered to be a natural Aspect of Reality, but debates rage on, because the existence of Zenith proves that even things which are created by beings lesser than the Great Dragon are considered to be 'natural Aspects', War should therefore be considered a 'natural Aspect'.

Magical Historians and Religious researchers also agree that one of the natural states of the universe at the time of creation is in fact Conflict, which is to say, 'War'.

Some philosophers posit that a World under the Thematical Dominion of War would not last long and would quickly self destruct, and given the history of wars through out the Magical Dimension, it is possible that to avoid such a fate, the Dominion is shared by all Worlds, just as they all share the Thematic Dominion of Order by the sheer virtue of their purpose in the Magical Dimension.

These philosophers are not well loved and are often considered mad or insane.

-

4th Wall Break:

**I honestly picture the Callistei a mix of the Xena/Hercules Amazons, and the Star Wars Mandalorian race.

***Varanda’s grandmother’s name is Europa. Yes, that Europa (I think I’m so smart😉)

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/4/2020: SOCIETY

Without having a survey to back me up, I feel comfortable asserting that as a horror fan, you go through different phases with SOCIETY. It’s a basic fact of life, and yet it morphs and mutates underneath you, shocking you anew just when you think you’ve got a grip on it. You never forget your first time, because there is simply nothing like it. Then, after you get over the initial shock of its patented brand of body horror, you start to take it for granted; it's so broad and monolithic that it becomes something like the Grand Canyon--when it’s not right there in front of you, you begin to experience it more iconically, as part of the wallpaper of existence, rather than an in-your-face confrontation with the limits of experience. Then, you revisit it every few years (or months, depending on what sort of person you are), and the prophylactic layer that your brain has wrapped around your memories of it--the one that allows you to think of SOCIETY as a fun, wacky cheap thrill--begins to crumble, and you realize all over again how iconoclastically vile it is. Wherever you happen to be at, with this inimitable genre landmark, you'd be hard pressed to deny that it earns its royal status among horror movies, just for being so uniquely fucked up.

Filmmaker Brian Yuzna is best known as the co-creator of the indispensable RE-ANIMATOR (or as the co-writer of HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS...depending on what sort of person you are, again), itself a milestone achievement in the blending of sex and gore that so characterized '80s horror production. That film clearly brought out the best in Yuzna and frequent collaborator Stuart Gordon (also of HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS fame...among other things), but it's interesting to see how they operate apart, to understand the unique ingredients that each filmmaker brought to the more perfect union of their classic Lovecraft adaptation. Gordon skewed darker and more intellectual, as evidenced by the end of his career with the shattering mob thriller KING OF THE ANTS, the disturbing true crime drama STUCK, and the Mamet-penned EDMOND. Yuzna, for his part, is almost anti-intellectual, preferring to cook up blackly comic, semi-pornographic nightmares like his two increasingly horny RE-ANIMATOR sequels, the terminal S&M fantasy RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3, and the shamelessly hokey comic book adaptation FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED. Yuzna's lack of shame is really his defining feature as an artist, and nowhere is this more obvious than in his directorial debut and signature masterpiece, SOCIETY.

Salvador Dali's "The Great Masturbator," a chief visual inspiration for SOCIETY.

Yuzna was able to leverage the success of RE-ANIMATOR to lock in two directorial opportunities, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, and a bizarre body horror exercise about a Beverly Hills orphan who discovers that not only are his adoptive family from a different bloodline, but they're not even from the same species. That both pictures employed the writing team of Woody Keith and Rick Fry gives you a little taste of what to expect from SOCIETY, but to be frank, the latter threatens to make the former look like a very special episode of ER; "overkill" barely begins to describe SOCIETY’s ambitious assault on the human body. In a recent interview, the philipino-american director giggles perversely, "I think my friends were a little embarrassed for me (when they saw SOCIETY)," and this sound bite reminded me that the last, most important ingredient that Yuzna contributes to any project is unabashed joy. It's a little hard to imagine stomaching SOCIETY without it.

In this unusual scene from the class struggle in Beverly Hills, Billy Warlock (son of HALLOWEEN 2's Michael Myers, Dick Warlock) plays Bill Whitney, a rich, handsome, athletic high school student with a heavy duty anxiety disorder. Although he appears to have it all, he is plagued by nightmares and hallucinations, reflecting suspicions that the family that spoils him is also out to get him. Perhaps this is all understandable, though. Bill is under a lot of pressure these days, with his parents devoting all of their attention to his sister's coming out party, and his narcissistic girlfriend pushing him to ingratiate himself to the assholes higher up the social ladder; it's enough to make any teenager feel alienated and insecure. But, do these garden variety anxieties account for his visions of his sister's body deforming itself unnaturally, or the dubious evidence he finds that her debutante ball involves incestuous orgies and human sacrifice? Is Bill simply crumbling under the strain of societal expectations, or is the friction with his shrink, his parents, and his peers all symptomatic of an elaborate plot against him by elites who are truly less than human?

I can’t believe they use this cheapo blanket trick MORE THAN ONCE in a movie that is famous for its unforgettable special effects, and I guess I kind of love it.

In case I haven't made the answer abundantly obvious, I'll add that while SOCIETY is the purest expression of Yuzna-ness on the market, it has an important co-author in Screaming Mad George. The eccentric japanese FX master, whose name is apparently an amalgamation of Mad Magazine, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and...George, has produced some of horror's most outrageous makeup and visual effects, mostly for Yuzna, many of them in SOCIETY. If you've seen even a trailer for Alex Winter's 1993 oddity FREAKED--which is itself a grossout criticism of American social standards--then you are already familiar with SMG's trademark style. He specializes in twisted perversions of the human form that would make a cenobite blush, driven by a penchant for puns, and influenced equally by THE THING's Rob Botin, and Big Daddy Roth’s Rat Fink style. Screaming Mad George is instrumental in articulating Yuzna's premise: that behind the shimmering veneer of success and sophistication, the upper class are just a bunch of degenerates, who literally degenerate into something unimaginable behind closed doors. It's impossible to imagine SOCIETY without his sinuous, slithering monstrosities, or his indescribable realization of their most important social event, "the shunt".

One of many great images from a zine I wish I owned, on SMG’s Facebook page.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by SOCIETY's visual impact, but its message is just as potent now as it was at the end of the Reagan era: Rich people are not only different from the rest of us, but in fact, they aren't even human. Writers Keith and Fry make an interesting choice of hero to help put this across. A lazier writer would have selected any archetype from the Freaks and Geeks set to create an easy Us vs Them tension, but SOCIETY is led by a promising young man who, for reasons he himself does not yet understand, is just not "the right kind of people". Bill appears to have every advantage in life, including a level of popularity that wins him presidency of the debate team despite his nerdier rival’s superior prowess--and yet, he suffers from a stigmatizing psychiatric disorder that is the natural result of feeling indefinably different from one's peers, and intuiting that, as a consequence, they don't even really like you. The shallow jock with deep-seated emotional problems is a much more interesting protagonist for this kind of social allegory than the charismatic outcasts that you get in movies like THE FACULTY and DISTURBING BEHAVIOR, for whom the idea that the elites could be aliens is just de rigueur.

It's worth noting that this complexity of character extends to Bill's love interest, sympathetic society girl Clarissa Carlyn (Playboy Playmate Devin DeVasquez). At first, she seems villainously eager to introduce Bill to the many splendors of "the shunting", but as the plot against him mounts to its horrifying conclusion, she defects. There appears to be a reason for this, although honestly, this is the most difficult part of SOCIETY for me to wrap my head around. Clarissa lives as an essentially independent adult, only burdened by her mother (Pamela Matheson), a possibly brain damaged hulk who lurks in and out of various scenes just to be disturbing, always announced by some toots on a tuba, before eventually siding with our heroes. I'm really not sure what's supposed to be going on in this part of the movie, except that this character contributes to a number of distasteful jokes. But, I hold on to the idea that by virtue of whatever disorder Mrs. Carlyn suffers from, she serves the purpose of priming Clarissa to rebel, since her very existence makes her daughter something of a societal outcast herself. That's the best I can do.

In any case, everyone working on SOCIETY commits completely, with Mrs. Carlyn being no exception. The movie's climactic orgy of the damned is an all hands on deck operation, just as reliant on Screaming Mad George's artistic abilities as it is on the actors' responsibility to make you believe that this fucked up shit is really happening. There's a visceral patina of sleaze spread over the entire film, dripping from the way that characters talk to and touch each other, flirting and flaunting their bodies in a distinctly unseemly fashion, even when it stays within the realm of mundane reality. This constant sinister, insinuating attitude on the part of the whole cast lays the foundation for what is to come, and while I appreciate everybody's hard work, my favorite performance is from an actor who only comes in at the very end: David Wiley as society king Judge Carter. Wiley's career consisted almost exclusively of the most ordinary sort of television work, which makes his outrageous turn in this alien porno flick all the more respectable. While other characters transition from suspicious pod people to full-on mutated perverts, Judge Carter has to show up just for the finale, establish his authority, rip off his clothes, and plunge straight into a sea of slime, happily fisting his way through the cast. Wiley meets this challenge with aplomb, making of himself a hybrid of Robert Englund and Gene Hackman, perfectly embodying the movie's joyful absurdity, and never betraying the slightest hint of embarrassment. 

SOCIETY is very much a don't-look-down type of endeavor, a fairy that could expire at the slightest lapse in faith. There's a visual pun in the last act that's so gross, so offensive, so frankly idiotic, that I don't have the courage to describe it; my whole body tenses up when I know this scene is coming, as if it were the meat hook scene in TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE or the brutal rape in the middle of SHOWGIRLS. I don't like it, but at the same time, I respect Yuzna's unhesitating commitment to show it to me, and I think that actor Charles Lucia should get some kind of award for shouldering the burden so valiantly. SOCIETY is a daring movie in the truest sense, a film with more balls than brains, and in this it exposes the limitation of intelligence and taste, and the real need for pure transgression, in producing art of any real value. You might argue with me about whether Yuzna's masturbatory magnum opus really qualifies as art, but to respond to that, I'll quote the great transgressor Alejandro Jodorowsky: "If you are great, EL TOPO is a great picture. If you are limited, EL TOPO is limited." So stick that in your shunt and smoke it.

undefined

PS Here, have this stuck in your head for the rest of your life.

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, REY! You’ve been accepted for the role of LAMPRIUS. Admin Julie: when I was writing Lucien there was a part of me desperate to see how his desire to revenge could culminate in a greater way, and Rey, you nailed it to a T. Reading this application word-for-word, piece-by-piece, really showed me just how much you understand Lucien and who he is in the ways that matter. From his profession, to his general attitude towards life, to how he uses his own name as a mask and the lengths he’ll go to ensure that mask stays in place? Ugh, just, like, kill me now. It was a wonderful read, and with the plots you’ve provided, I cannot wait for you to absolutely wreak havoc with him on the dashboard. Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER IN CHARACTER

Alias | Rey

Age | 25+

Preferred Pronouns | She/Her

Activity Level | I am able to log in at least once a day! On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say 7. 

Timezone | PST

How did you find the rp?  | Current player referral! 

Current/Past RP Accounts | https://revoluticn.tumblr.com/

IN CHARACTER

Character | Lamprius - or Lucien. 

These days, you have your husband’s last name, Ivarsson but it’s hard to remember what your family name was before that. Or more like, you have willfully forgotten it. You aren’t of a bloodline or a people, but of a city - and that is Verona. Your pain created you, the streets molded you, and the Witches defined you. This city is as much you as you are it. When you think of yourself, you first think not of the name your mother gave you (Lucien) but the name you were given and have subsequently chosen: Lamprius. Everyday when you wake up , you have the opportunity to mold yourself into whatever this city needs you to be in order to keep the balance; you have the opportunity to rename yourself and recreate yourself, and every day you wake up and you choose Lamprius. The soothsayer. There’s power in the truth and you know it’s what this city needs more than anything else. 

What drew you to this character? | 

Revenge, a dish best served cold, also happens to be my favorite meal. Time and time again I find myself drawn to characters that are driven or motivated by revenge. Over the course of his skeleton, Lamprius’s personal journey with his revenge goes through its own metamorphosis and I’ve fallen in love with that journey. 

After the unjust death of his father, it is Lamprius’ drive for revenge that causes the Witches to notice him and deem him worthy enough to recruit. But Lamprius stands out from your average vendetta-boi because he is a character that must quell the impulse to act on his personal vendettas for the sake of the greater good (which, in this case, means for the sake of the city.) Unlike other literary characters that have similar motivators, ones who will eventually transcend their need for revenge or be consumed by it, Lamprius learns to live with the dissatisfaction that he’ll never really get what he really wants… and he must learn to be okay with that. The Witches have instilled in him a greater sense of purpose, they’ve given him the resources and the tools to keep Verona in line. After the passing of his mother, the three of them even give him a family. For the longest time, Lamprius is a character who attempts to rise above their own personal need for vengeance and is instead trying to focus on giving Verona what it needs: balance. He finds acceptance in that. 

And then the Witches die. 

Suddenly, that taste for vegengence he’s held at arm's length for so long becomes the very way he is going to protect the Witches' legacy.  Suddenly, Lamprius feels justified in his want to burn the Montagues and the Capulets from the inside out. Now, in Lamprius’ eyes, purging the city of the Montagues and Capulets is the best way to bring back that balance to the city. I think of him like Adrian Veidt from Watchmen, willing to go to absurd extremes for the sake of humanity. 

Lamprius’ history with the Witches has really piqued my interest as well. His connection to them reminds me so much of Arya Stark’s “a girl has no name” arc from Game of Thrones (the tv show. I’ll admit, I could never get past GRRM’s writing to finish the books.) In many ways it doesn’t matter who Lamprius was before he was with the Witches, because a big part of his story is the erasure of his old self and the ascension into something new thanks to their tutelage. Who are the Witches then? An enigma, even in their death (perhaps more so in their death.) Lamprius’ connection to this clandestine trio feels like it is fraught with opportunity to create some really interesting lore that draws from other secret societies or underground networks of spies that have a code of morals or a higher goal. 

Even in his day to day interactions, Lamprius feels like such a fun character to write. He’s cunning and quiet and he becomes a pillar of Verona’s community maybe because of his perceived kindness - or maybe because he is a very good puppeteer. His quiet and kind persona is a wonderful mask for something far more layered underneath. As seen with his connection to Loretta, he has the ability to get people to trust him, hence his unending list of contacts. It’s too easy to call Lamprius ‘good’ because of his quiet nature, peel back his skin and you will see he is one of the rare characters that is a true neutral. He has a greater loyalty to the city as a whole than any specific group of people. Lamprius has the ability to be as dark as he is light, as viscous as he is soft. I imagine him a chameleon, not necessarily one with malicious intent, simply one who can weaponize their empathy. Over the years, the Witches have taught him plenty, including how to see through the eyes of many. Lamprius is the soothsayer who doesn’t shy away from deceit; he understands one’s lies can reveal greater truths about themselves. Rarely does one get to play characters that are truly this fluid. 

I’m really excited to explore where Lamprius goes from here and I’ve outlined some of my thoughts on it below: 

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? | 

I. “SOME RISE BY SIN, AND SOME BY VIRTUE FALL.” 

You are a Witch and, like all the Witches that came before you, Verona is your city to watch over. For years Hecate, Circe, and Medea placated your need for revenge by reaffirming a higher call. They gave you family when you needed it most. They not only gave you the tools for a better city, but they gave you purpose and hope as well. Verona is a city torn up by war, your life has been altered by it first hand, and in you they saw a chance to take that pain and shape it into a force for good. 

And then the Witches, in all their goodness, were strung up by the very city they were trying to save. 

It has set you on a single-minded path of revenge. Your teachers are dead and you are a student who, for the first time, must decide on their own. And your decision is this: the gangs of this city will rot Verona from the inside out if you don’t do something. You are a Witch and Verona is your city to watch over. For the first time, there is no one to stop you from stepping onto this single-minded path. 

[ Revenge. Lamprius is actively looking to bring about the end of the Capulets and the Montagues. He plans on doing this through  finding and aligning himself with people who have also been wronged by this war. It takes one to know one, and Lamprius can tell when someone has the same steady heart for vengeance as him. He intends to harness other’s need for revenge to fuel this movement. He’s already shown Harley a card from his hand and he thinks Loretta has what it takes to be a player. Armand, however, might be a mistake….but only time will tell. While his skeleton particularly calls out how he sees this in Harley, Loretta, and Armand, I imagine this could be a broader plot too as he interacts with as many citizens of Verona as he can. At the end of the day, anyone who thinks the way he thinks, who believes what he believes, is welcome to help… though Lamprius is not foolish enough to think that all alliances come without price. Not only would I love to see Lamprius rack up alliances, I would love to see him rack up promises and debts associated with those alliances.] 

II. “GOD HAS GIVEN YOU ONE FACE, AND YOU MAKE YOURSELF ANOTHER.” 

You were always skilled at slipping into people’s lives without putting on too much of a show. They’d blink and suddenly you’d be there, as certain and unwavering as the truth, as integral to their livelihood as the foundation of any home. You can physically only be in one place at one time, but the Witches taught you how to transcend your limitations by using the eyes and ears of others. 

Trust is earned and you earn it through careful orchestration. You play coincidence like a symphony. A broken in-apartment, and you are the one there to help the scared tenant. An ailing mother, and you are the visitor whose own mother is dying in the hospital room next door. “I know where you’re coming from, believe me,” are words that have left your mouth so many times, they may as well be the air that fills your lungs. 

You are a therapist as your day job; respected as a doctor, trusted as a friend. People burden you with their innermost truths and you play whatever part they need you to be in order to make them feel like you’ve fixed them. There’s never a dry eye on your office couch by the end of a session and all of these people, some who have only known you for a grand total of one hour, think of you as their closest confidante. As well as they know, they are the same to you. A small suggestion here, a gentle prod there, and suddenly they are set off on a new path of your own devices. You’re both a ghost and a shadow, simultaneously ever present and constantly shifting. Your empathy is fluid, just like the rest of you.

You find yourself setting up a chessboard, as you seek out allies in all these people that you meet. You know the importance of a long game -your patience is unparalleled- but you are not afraid to knock a piece off the board if you must. You are the Soothsayer who gets to the truth of things through lies. 

[ One of my favorite implications of the skeleton is that Lamprius is a puppeteer. He creates these Rube Goldbergian schemes that utilize the natural way of the city to bring about an allyship with someone. He is the butterfly that flaps its wings and creates a tornado, and nothing is ever a coincidence. I really want to lean into this with his plots. As mentioned, his friendship with Loretta Delluci shows that he’s not beneath orchestrating an introduction. But, as also seen in the case of Loretta, it’s clear that if Lamprius sees this whole thing as a game of chess, there are some people that are pieces while there are others that are players. He’s too good to let this perspective slip past his lips uncensored, but even if it did, his job as a therapist is an easy explanation for his tendency to psychoanalyze. Are there moments when he borderline feels like Hannibal Lector from the show Hannibal? Absolutely. I’d love him to actually be the therapist for some of the other characters and I would like every new person he “meets'' to never be a coincidence. Or, when a true coincidence occurs, I want it to genuinely surprise him. One of Lamprius’ traits is that he has a lot of resources and while a lot of those are inherited from the Witches, he’s obtained plenty from the connections he forms as well.

Also: Ya boi’s a therapist. Verona really needs therapy. ]

III. “BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES” 

You’ve seen what it’s like to be a God to men who don’t even believe in higher powers. There are men in Verona who refuse to pray at a pew, but still think twice before speaking ill of a Witch. This is the way things should be - but it doesn't take long for men to see themselves as God-Killers. 

How do they not see how they’ve damned their city! The Witches, in all their mystery, were not esoteric about their love for Verona. Yes, your time with them has instilled a great need to avenge them, but it has similarly inspired a need to see them reborn stronger than ever. 

Verona needs a new set of Witches. It’s a truth that you, Lamprius the Soothsayer, cannot deny. 

[ Time to form a new coven! As Lamprius goes about enacting his revenge, I also want him to seek out other truly neutral characters in the hopes of creating a new set of Witches to watch over Verona. I would love to set it up like a secret society - Verona’s very own Illuminati. A clandestine organization that has the same intentions of Watchman's Ozymandias. Lamprius would be just as vigorous as Hecate, Circe, and Medea to make sure he chose right. I am also eager to see what changes to the Witches’ creed comes with this new version.] 

IV. “VENGEANCE IS IN MY HEART, DEATH IN MY HAND, BLOOD AND REVENGE ARE HAMMERING IN MY HEAD.”

Everyday you try to become something a little more than human. There’s a merciless level of selflessness that comes with avenging the Witches and each day you work hard to climb up to that pedestal. 

But then there’s Ronan - he doesn’t know the name Lamprius. He calls you Lucien and when he does, you almost want it to be your only name. He grounds you with his gravity and makes you feel a warmth in your cheeks. You have been living with your pain for years, so long that you have stopped noticing it. In fact, you’ve stopped noticing your heart existed in your chest at all. Instead, you’ve learned how to empty yourself out. You invent emotion, you choose how to feel. Your heart has become a machine, through which you feed a very precise and particular code. But then he calls you Lucien and your heart gives a single, mighty beat, and it’s all flesh and blood again. 

[ Reestablishing the Witches? Destroying the Montagues and the Capulets? These are lofty goals that may require nothing short of a God to accomplish - and as much as he likes to pretend otherwise, Lamprius is just a man. I don’t want his path to his goals to be easy, and for a man who loves to carefully orchestrate everything, I’m always looking for wrenches to throw in his plans. Give me people like Ronan who inspire doubt in himself, or give me people who catch on to what he’s doing and are outright trying to stop him. ] 

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Yes!

IN DEPTH

What is your favorite place in Verona? | 

(An acquaintance.) 

He knows his answer, but like most things he tries to see if he can find the answer she most wants to hear. It can feel like a game at times, and for Lamprius it can be just as fun. But there’s a method to this madness. He gives her a warm look over the edge of his champagne glass and manages to elegantly swipe another for her from a passing tray. Around them, the crowd of the gala mills about like smoke. 

She’s religious if he remembers overhearing her other conversation correctly. Catholic, but lapsed. Yes, that’s it. Even at this Christmas party, she’s mentioned it two too many times to be something she isn’t agonizing over and he can see the guilt of it in her eyes. His true answer is far from the one he gives her: 

“The Cathedral. My mother and I used to walk through it together every Christmas morning. Before sunrise, before the crowds got there. We could hear our steps echo through the chamber. When the sunrise hit the paintings on the ceiling, I thought it was magic.”

There it is, he sees her eyes widen with recognition of herself in his story. 

“I used to go there every year with my mother too.” 

His warm grin widens. I know, he thinks, but he raises his glass in an informal toast. “Well how about that?” 

What does your typical day look like?  | 

(A friend.) 

Lucien is in the midst of rolling up the sleeves to his sweater, when he gets asked what his typical day looks like. He raises an eyebrow at the question posed by his friend. Maybe it’s a trick of the light, but it almost looks as if the corners of his lips are quirked up in the slightest smile. 

“Don’t tell me our conversation has gotten so boring that you’re now asking about my day to day. I know I’m quiet, but I thought I was doing better than that.”

His words tease. Besides, they don’t even know what they’re asking. His day to days are simply veneer. Wake up, go to work, show face at an event. All of it clockwork. It’s his nights that show the true him, that’s when he descends into the shadows of the city and plays its people like a harp. 

“Is this your way of avoiding my question about how your day went? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” 

What has been your biggest mistake thus far? | 

(A patient.) 

He sits in his office, full attention on the young man in the seat across from him. It’s his last appointment for the day, or rather, his last appointment was two hours ago, but Lamprius is holding himself  to the decision that this will be the last one. He’s in his element here, and the air settles calm around him. Outside evening blankets the city. “Would you like some tea?” He asks. 

To which his patient blurts out “What has been your biggest mistake thus far?” unofficially starting the session. Lamprius examines the other down the length of his nose and realizes that they’re still having the conversation they had during the last time they met. 

Lamprius doesn’t think Asher would very much understand his biggest mistake thus far. Inaction. He closes his eyes and imagines the swinging bodies of those that meant so much to him; he feels the weight of that loss for the city as a whole, it sits in his chest and in his throat and on his shoulders. His body betrays him in the slightest as he pushes his pen down into the notepad. An ink bleed spreads from where he’s stabbed it with such force. 

But Lamprius opens his eyes immediately, the pause is as quick as a blink, and the therapist knows what he has to say to his patient. 

“I didn’t say goodbye to my mother when I had the chance.” 

He didn’t, but that’s another kind of hurt entirely, from a different lifetime. Lamprius taps his pen and then leans back into his seat; allowing his eyes to wander up to the ceiling in a show of vulnerability before saying: 

“All we have to do is decide what to do with the time given to us.” 

He offers up a small smile, like a faintest ray of sunlight filtering through a window. His gaze turns back on his patient. 

“Thanks, Gandalf, “ Asher mutters, but Lamprius clocks the way he relaxes his shoulders, the way he settles into his seat and allows himself to seem small and fragile in it. He sees this and knows he’s doing his job. Lamprius gives him a moment before softly clearing his throat. 

“How about we begin with you telling me about your day, Asher. Did you visit the hospital?” 

What has been the most difficult task asked of you?  | 

(His husband.) 

He’s by the kitchen table that Saturday morning when the question is asked of him. His neck is crooked at a certain angle, as his left hand props open the pages to the Epic of Gilgamesh. His right hand is equally occupied preparing a piece of toast - though right now he’s paused mid-motion, butter knife hovering over the butter. Lamprius unintentionally does this a few times - gets close enough to butter his toast, and then stops to flip the page. His husband’s question cracks the stillness of the air; the suddenness of it spilling like yolk. It almost makes Lamprius grip the butter knife like a proper knife. He is oh so rarely met with genuine surprise but his husband’s question holds a level of intimacy the two haven’t shared in years. For a second Lamprius’ mask almost slips and it’s good he has the words of Gilgamesh to hide behind. 

 He feels a tug that he was almost certain was forgotten. For a moment he is truly Lucien.

Finally, like an alligator emerging from the water, he peeks up over the top of his book so only his eyes show. He contemplates his words. Measures and cuts them so that they are a perfect fit. He doesn’t ask why Ronan is asking him such things on this halcyon Saturday morning, he simply answers. 

“Knowing there wasn’t anything I could do for my mother, “ His biological one, but also the three that came to raise him, “but watch the clock run out of time.” 

What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?  | 

(A stranger.) 

They must be the only two people in the city that still read a physical print newspaper. Lamprius likes the feel of the pages; likes how easily it can become a barrier between him and the rest of the world. He visits this stand often, it’s the perfect distance between where he parks his car and the front door of his office. 

The man next to him, the one in the long dark coat, is a familiar face. It’s a judge, from the local courthouse. This makes sense seeing as they’re only a few blocks away from the building. Lamprius wouldn’t call him a regular of this newspaper stand. On this morning, the stranger points to the latest headline. Another fight has broken out in the city and Lamprius feels immediate abhorrence - but what he despises even more is how this judge has the audacity to ask ‘What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?’ The question sets off a blizzard in Lamprius, though he doesn’t show it. His lips threaten to curl back into a snarl. ‘How do you, a man of the law, know their names and still not know where you stand on the matter?’ Lamprius thinks coldly. 

He looks at this man and decides he doesn’t deserve the conversation. Some will always be willfully blind. If he’s a judge in this city and he still doesn’t know how he feels about this war, it isn’t Lamprius’ job to impart that caring onto him. He folds his newly purchased newspaper into a neat rectangle and tucks it under his arm before looking at the man, nothing but the perfect imitation of curiosity and confusion shining in his eye:

“What war?”

Extras: 

“In nature’s infinite book of secrecy, a little I can read.” - Lamprius, the Soothsayer 

Pinterest board: https://pin.it/7BdECcs

[bookcub]

My Decade in Books

@aliteraryprincess @the-forest-library @lizziethereader all tagged me!!! 

2010- So this was when I was sixth to seventh grade for me. I was a small child, I tracked my books on a Word Doc, where I used weird fonts and colors. I did one of my favorite plays in sixth grade (Lady Pirates of the Caribbean), which we performed the day after The Last Olympian came out, which I read the day after, and then proceeded to lend it to three other people. I actually forgot that I read The Name of the Wind this year (gasp!!), but my school librarian handed it to me, and I slowly fell in love. I think this is the year I read Cassandra Clare’s books, which was big for me because I was able to talk about it with friends. (I think it was The Mortal Instruments I binged at one). I must have read Mockingjay. . . 

2011- I got my Goodreads account in April!!! So I have access to me tracking my books. I don’t think I got really vigilant with it until later, but I put the important ones down!!! This was the year I got into ereaders!!! I borrowed one from the library (same librarian who got me to use ereaders got me to read kkc, so she’s the best as you can see). I read Warped on it, which made me love Nooks, and inspired my parents to get me one. This was also the year I started WAITING. I read The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss and Pegasus by Robin McKinley. I have not gotten a sequel for either. I am being very, very patient, and I feel like waiting is a very important part of my development as human being. And a reader. And also, a good lesson because closure is not something you always obtain quickly, and sometimes never at all.  

2012- I read Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers this year and couldn’t stop crying. One of the most emotional books I’ve read. I also was in the middle of the Elemental series by Brigid Kemmerer, which I read a new one of every year. I think I discovered Sarah Rees Brennan the year before, but didn’t record her books until this year. She is one of my favorite authors, so it’s very notable. This was the year of huge cliffhangers (at least, I’m pretty sure) as I read The Mark of Athena and Beautiful Chaos this year (seriously people were falling off of things and their fate was left uncertain and it sucked). (oh God, this was the year I read 8 House of Night books) (on the bright side, I read Soulless by Gail Carriger) (and Howls’ Moving Castle!!!!)

2013- Looks like I actually tracked all my books this year!! 103 books, so it was a good year for books. I read the Worst Book Ever (tm) this year (ie Taking Chances by Molly McAdams) and will forever be haunted, but at least now I know whatever I write in the future will be better than this. I also read the entirety of Vampire Academy and the first half of Bloodlines by Richelle Mead in like 3 weeks. I read Hushed by Kelley York, which was super dark and honestly simply amazing and possibly the beginning of my obsession with fictional serial killers. I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor as well as The Duff by Kody Keplinger, which were influential books for me as well. Anyways, it was a good year for books.

2014- The year I made by book blog!!! I was only doing reviews every now and then and really didn’t get the community yet (it was also in like, October). I read 99 books this years (apparently my goal was 100, I’m a little confused at me). I read a lot of Shakespeare this year, including The Tempest, which I got to star in years later, and The Taming of the Shrew, which I later directed. I think I started a book club this year as well at my high school. I read a bunch of parts of series I love (including Rebel Belle, The Lynburn Legacy, The Lunar Chronicles, Bloodlines, The Mortal Instruments). I finished Heroes of Olympus and it sucked. Pride and Prejudice was amazing because, Jane Austen!!!  The Slow Regard of Silent Things came out and it was the most lovely thing ever. 

2015- I graduated high school and I started college this year!!! I also realized I was ace this year. Idk some notable things that happened. I read my favorite Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. I read The Turn of the Story by Sarah Rees Brennan, which is like, the first draft of In Other Lands. It was amazing even then. I read my first and only book in another language, Le Petit Prince. I took a children’s lit class, and it was awesome, but I didn’t like most of the books. I read the Seven Realms in like, a month, which was cool. But it wasn’t a great year for books. That being said, August is when I made my first Denna essay on my blog. Which was the very small start to my book blog becoming something I actually put time into. It was still a while, but it was very important to me. 

2016- The first book I read this year was the most memorable. The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis. It rips your heart out and just stays with you. One of the best books, hands down. I took a fantasy class, and that was tons of fun, and read alot of classic fantasy and new fantasy. I read The Martian, which actually lived up to the hype for once. I read two of the most popular tumblr books, Six of Crows and The Raven Cycle. I did a lot of rereading. I read Quicksilver by RJ Anderson and Every Heart a  Doorway by Seannan McGuire, my first ace books!! This is also the year my book blog started to pick up. I started writing more meta and some fanfic for Kingkiller and the occasional meta and meme for other fandoms. I also started @incorrectkingkillerquotes. 

2017- One of the first books I read this year was The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, which continues to be a book that I just have . . .very complicated feelings about, even to this day. I read it for a class, which was decent enough. I found one of my new favorite fantasy novels, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, which I adore and covered so many amazing themes as well. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman is one of the few true adult fantasy novels I love, where there aren’t young protagonists. I read Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee this year and it just was the most me book I have ever found. I read Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce, which had been on my tbr since 2011, so that was a big win for me. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francis Zappia and Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Macekzie Lee came out this year and I devoured them both almost consecutively??? They both resonated with me and were completely consuming. I read the PUBLISHED version of In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan and then proceeded to obsess about it. I think I started making even more Book Discussions this year and making more posts about being ace on here. 

2018- I reread sooooo much. And I reread a lot. But I was in another country, and I needed them for comfort. I’m a little talked out by now but here are some notable titles fromt hat year:  Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann, The Poppy War by RF Kuang, Anne of Avonlea by LM Montgomery, Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes 

2019- I mean, I just lived that,,, y’all were here. I am Tired(tm), and I’m also sorry.

Red White and Royal Blue, Ari and Dante, HRH, Starflight, The Gilded Wolves, A Very Large Expanse of Sea, started listening to audiobooks more, stared more romance novels, graduated college this year, good year. 

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  The Dark One

Chapter 54:  The Sea Witch

Patience was a virtue, and it was his special talent...but that didn't mean he never swayed from it. Yes, he knew, as the Seer told him constantly, that Regina was his way to The World Without Magic. But still, when the nights were long and the days stretched into weeks and months, when patience was hard to find, he couldn't help but seek out alternatives. With Zelena back in Oz, and Regina practicing but only making slow progress with her magic, he used his free time to continue his research, seeking out other answers that might land him in The World Without Magic sooner rather than later. He told himself he was just being cautious, after all, if the shoes existed there might be something else out there in the world that he couldn't overlook. He trusted the Seer, but on the day he finally stood before his son he wanted to be honest with him. He wanted to be able to tell Baelfire that he'd gotten to him as soon as he possibly could, and in his mind, that meant exhausting any and all options he could find until the Seer's distant future came to pass. And besides, a little extra knowledge never hurt.

One night, his research turned up something new: Mermaids.

In reading a book, he was shocked to find that mermaids could travel between realms. Supposedly even to non-magical ones though it was supposedly frowned upon. He didn't particularly care what was appropriate or not in mermaid culture so long as it got him to his son. There was one little hiccup he'd read with that statement though. Apparently, it was difficult, if not impossible, to summon the magic required to take people along with the maids on their voyage. And even if they could summon the magic, there was some question as to whether or not the subject could survive.

That was a small hiccup. But since becoming the Dark One, he'd learned that everything had its loophole. The second issue was easy enough to get around. It threatened that people would not survive the journey. He was immortal. He was certain that if he could find a mermaid to do such a thing, he would be the best candidate to survive. So the problem then was simply finding a mermaid powerful enough to summon enough magic for two.

That had taken some thinking. It had taken some poking and prodding among some merfolk as well before he'd come up with a very unexpected answer.

He felt excitement. But no matter what happened, he was determined not to let anything more than the intelligent dealmaker show on his face tonight. He found her lounging about the rocks in a place called Demon's Bluff. In the distance, he could see a storm churning the waves so that they foamed and sprayed wildly at the rocks he moved about safely, even at this distance. She was staring out at that same storm when he found her, half her body sunk into the water, a small smile on her face as if she were relaxing. When the lightning lit up the distant water, he could see the outline of a vessel being tossed and turned in the chaos. It was doubtful that the sailors would survive. After what he'd heard of her, he was confident the storm was her work.

"Well now…I hear you've been causing trouble all over the realms," he squealed in delight.

She didn't jump, didn't even fidget at the sound of his voice, which let him know that she'd known he was there all along.

"Not causing it…I am trouble. Much like yourself…Rumpelstiltskin."

Finally, she turned, shifting her body so that he could see a large metal object in her hand-the Trident. It was what he'd heard so much about from the other mermen and women he'd talked to. It was a joy to actually see it for himself. But she wasn't looking for him to be impressed by that. It was his name, the way that she'd said it told him she'd wanted him to be surprised that she knew him and wanted him to feel as though she had the upper hand. He could play that role.

"Oh! My reputation precedes me yet again!" he rejoiced clapping his hands together. "Since we're making introductions, allow me to make yours…Queen Ursula!" he stated standing up straight and tall as if he were an announcer at a royal ball. "Formerly Princess, of course, but I understand you fell into your new title not by inheritance but rather by siege. Fear not! I am a man who respects that."

"Respect it all you like," she explained, rolling her eyes and handing the Trident off to a tentacle that had just appeared next to her so she could put her hands on her hips. "I'm not like the other fish in the sea so easily impressed by a little knowledge or even power like your own. I have spies all over these waters, and they say that you've spent quite some time attempting to find me. What is it that you want, exactly?"

"Right to the chase! That's a business plan I can appreciate," he smiled. "As I understand it, you were once far more fishy than…squidy."

"The tentacles are my own choice!"

"No doubt to reflect the character within far more than the goddess you were named for."

"Something like that…" she dismissed, lifting a shoulder. "Mermaids are too…nice. Cecaelia are so much more feared than mermaids."

"A keen observation," he agreed. "Though I imagine you can't quite shed all of what you are despite your transformation. I have a hunch that you've maintained some of your former self in the powers that you hide, powers that are only enhanced by that fork in your little tentacles there. The ability to travel between realms, for example…"

The truth was, the more he had questioned the mermaids of the sea, the more he had found that there would be no convincing even those who he suspected had power enough to take him between worlds. Magical creatures were different than human beings, and he wasn't a threat to them like he was to mortals of his own race. But if he found the right mermaid who had the right weakness, he just might have. The mermaids he'd spoken to had told the tale of Ursula, one right after the other. They all told the tale of the mermaid who had been turned cruel by her father Triton, the rightful ruler of the sea until Ursula had snatched the Trident away from him. According to them, she'd grown tentacles shortly after, but it was only upon seeing her that he realized the magic flowing through them was her own. Her own words a few moments ago had confirmed that. But those mermaids didn't have the ability to understand who or what she really was. The Sea Witch they'd dubbed her. And she acted her part quite well. Nearly as well as he acted his various roles.

"You want a ride?" the Witch asked with dubious disbelief. "The Great and Powerful Dark One…needs the Sea Witch to take him for a ride?"

"I would have worded it differently myself but…more or less…"

She let out a single nasally snort of laughter as she looked him over. "That wording might have been worth it to hear, but the answer will be the same. I can't do it-"

"Because you are unable."

"I didn't say I was unable to do it. I said I can't do it. It's the principle of the thing!"

"The Principle."

"I'm the Sea Witch! The you of the water world! Would you lower yourself to such an indignity?! If I say yes to you, then I have to say 'yes' to everybody, and I don't have the time for that. I have bigger fish to fry."

"Well then…it's fortunate that I came with a back-up plan," he smiled. Before she could furrow her brow or dive back into the ocean, he called the Trident in her tentacle into his hand, and she stared back and forth between him and the place it had once been. "I'll make you a deal…I'll return this to you in exchange for passage…"

She opened her mouth as if to argue with him, but then looked at the Trident in his hand, put her hands back on her hips and smiled. "No, I think you'll return it to me soon."

"And I think that if you truly cared you would keep better hold on your possessions. Last chance…the Trident…for a 'ride'."

No sooner had he finished the words than he felt something spark. Something ran up the metal into his hand, it buzzed and hummed then sparked again as the buzzing and humming intensified, and in no time at all the entire rod was covered in what looked like lightning. He glanced up at Ursula, expecting her to look fearful, but instead, she held her knowing smile.

"No," she stated again.

Suddenly, whatever had been building over the surface of the Trident jumped into his own body with a jolt forcing him to release the item and knocking him back through the air against the rock of the bluff. It had been a long time since someone injured him enough to rattle him, but this had. He hit his head. It was bleeding and he felt disoriented as he was he tried to force the magic he had to the area to correct it. The world was blurry and hazy and spinning and he was seeing in double as a tall woman walked up the beach toward him. Dark skin, walking on two legs, his vision corrected just enough for him to watch as Ursula knelt down to collect her oversized fork before stepping up close to him and kneeling down once more.

"You don't know all Dark One," she whispered. Your magic is strong, but the Trident was handed down by the gods to be passed from generation to generation. It can only be with one of the royal bloodline unless surrendered willingly to another. It'll never be yours. But this was fun, a bit of entertainment to break up the monotony of my day. If you ever want to try again…look me up!"

He would have loved to stop her with his magic, reach out, and crush her neck in his hand just to show her. But apparently, he'd broken more bones than he'd realized when he was thrown against the rocks and as he used his magic to heal himself he watched as tentacles rose out from underneath her skirt again, one taking the Trident once more, before she stepped back into the ocean and disappeared.

Odd. Angry as he was, the moment she left he had a feeling, a whisper from the Seer.

This wasn't the last time they'd meet.

[smolbeandrabbles]

7 Deadly Sins / 7 Heavenly Virtues: REQUESTS OPEN!

I know. It’s been at least 3 weeks since I first suggested I might be opening requests. Well, friends. We are finally at that point!

7 Deadly Sins: Lust / Gluttony / Greed / Sloth / Wrath / Envy / Pride

7 Heavenly Virtues: Chastity / Temperance / Charity / Diligence / Patience / Gratitude / Humility

As this is my first ever request opening I’m only going to do one fic for each. Please read the rules, if I get a request that does not follow the rules I’m simply going to send you back here...!!

Rules:

1. Sins/Virtues are done on a first come first served basis. However, as I anticipate some to be asked for more than once I will keep ideas to fic at another point in time.  2. If you want Smut...  Tell me what you want, I’ll do what I do... If I just can’t do it, please understand...

3. x Reader requests only. Sorry..! 4.  Because I'm going to do this first come first serve you're probably gonna need to give me at least 2 sins/virtues... (you don’t have to!) As long as you got an idea you go for it! Give them to me in preference order... 5. I’m flexible. It is your choice how you decide to send me sins/virtues. You can send me the plot / a line / a lyric...

Be as (un) specific as you like but I can’t promise my own ideas aren’t going to be poured in there. Request how you want - Message Me / Ask Me... Whatever! 6. 1 request per Sin/Virtue, making 14 total. I will write for any of the listed Mendo characters more than once. It’s all up to you guys to be creative!!!

7. Just cuz its a sin doesn’t mean it needs to be a sin... just because its a virtue doesn’t mean it has to be... virtuous... 😏 

Up to you guys. I like the prospect of writing you 7 Sinful Mendos vs 7 Soft Mendos

Acceptable Mendo’s:

Talos (Captain Marvel) / Director Keller (Captain Marvel) Sheriff of Nottingham (Robin Hood) Nolan Sorrento (Ready Player One) Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody (Animal Kingdom) Robin Van Der Hook (The Place Beyond The Pines) Kyle Sullivan (Guns For Hire) Martin (Untogether) John Daggett (The Dark Knight Rises) Gerry (Mississippi Grind) Dave (Lost River) Phil Beckman (Knowing) Kev Madden (Idiot Box) Anders Harris (The Land of Steady Habits) Emmett Dutton (Australia) Malcolm Bench (Vertical Limit) Fraser (Black Sea) Ned (Beautiful Kate) Daniel “Danny” Clark (The Big Steal) Orson Krennic (Rogue One)  Danny Rayburn (Bloodline)

@3134045126 @stcphstrange @beany-ben @mfolcore @sufferthesea @alotofrandomfangirling @p-and-pen @shantellorraine @waytoplantann @happyskywhale

[confrontingbabble-on]

“...when I think about mindfucks I think—as a former Evangelical—about Evangelical Christianity, which traffics, wholesale, in mindfuckery...

1. It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship (with your imagination...!). ...it’s one of Evangelicalism’s favorite ways of saying, We’re not like all those other (obviously false) faith-based belief systems. We just love Jesus and Jesus loves us, and he loves you, too. From the inside, this relationship thing feels really real and really good. But from the outside it’s a bunch of transparent hooey. Your born-again Christianity is a love relationship—with a character whose name and history you got from a set of ancient texts that were compiled and handed down by a vast hierarchical organization that once torched dissenting texts (and people). And this not-religion has sacred writings and rituals and leaders and schools of systematic theology, and it dictates what people are supposed to believe and how they’re supposed to behave. And it provides all the same social functions and structures as religions.

2. That’s the OLD Testament. In my childhood Bible, the Old Testament is bound together with the New Testament in a gold-stamped blue leather cover with these words on the title page, “The words of Scripture as originally penned in the Hebrew and Greek . . . are the eternal Word of God.” This statement is followed by a verse from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever (Is 40:8).To Evangelicals, the Old Testament is the timeless Word of God, except when the vile atrocities described there become inconvenient or when people quote horrible verses—say those that demean women, endorse slavery, condemn homosexuality and shellfish eating, promote the idea of Chosen bloodlines, or make statements that are scientific nonsense. Then it’s just the Old Testament, and Evangelicals pull out all kinds of fancy “supersessionist” language to explain that those verses don’t really count because of the “new covenant” or the “Dispensation of Grace.” But just try suggesting that a Bible believer take the Old Testament out of the Holy Bible.

3. Yes, no, maybe. God answers prayer. Except when he doesn’t. The New Testament says, And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive  (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24). But everybody knows that in the real world that doesn’t happen. Christians face bankruptcies and bad test scores and death at the same rate as other people. God answers prayer at the margins of statistical significance, if at all—even when parents are asking for their kids to get healed from cancer, or kids are pleading that parents stop hitting them.How does one explain that? The age-old Christian answer has been that when your prayers aren’t answered you should doubt yourself rather than God, assuming that your faith was too weak or you wanted something you shouldn’t. But Evangelicals have come up with something even more clever: God does always answer! It’s just that he sometimes says no, or maybe, instead of yes. That ask anything and it shall be done Bible verse really meant, ask selectively and he might say yes.

4. Be selfless for your own sake. If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, learn to be the servant of all, say the lyrics to one Christian song. Got that? “If you want to be great,” not “if you want to do the most good in the world.” Granted, learn to be the servant of all beats some other paths people take when they seek status, but it is a path to status nonetheless, which is why the church is full of self-proclaimed servant leaders who actually aspire to great man or woman status.

5. Christianity is humble. According to Catholic theology, pride is one of the seven deadly sins. Evangelical preachers tell us it was Satan’s original sin. Pride cometh before the fall, so humble yourself before God. Couple this claim about humility with the idea that you should preach [your version of] the gospel to every creature—and things get turned inside out and upside down.Famed Puritan hellfire-and-brimstone minister Jonathan Edwards said, “We must view humility as one of the most essential things that characterizes true Christianity.” Edwards also expounded with righteous certitude about the torments of the wicked in hell—wicked meaning anyone who didn’t share his Puritan beliefs.Anyone who has spent much time in an Evangelical church community knows that superior humility can be a powerful form of one-upmanship. But competitive humility aside, what could possibly be more arrogant than thinking the universe was made for mankind, that only we bipedal primates are made in the image of God, that all other sentient beings are here for us to use, that you happened to be born into the one true faith among the tens of thousands of false ones, and that the force that created the laws of physics wants a personal relationship with you.

6. Christianity isn’t sexist; God just has different intentions and rules for men and women. Just because in the Old Testament God (identified by the male pronoun) makes man first, puts men in charge (male headship), gives men the right to barter women and take them as war booty doesn’t mean they’re unequal. Just because the New Testament forbids women to speak in church, tells them to cover their heads and submit to men, and excludes them from leadership positions doesn’t mean that women are inferior to men!

The Bible may be rife with stories with predominantly male protagonists. It may show women competing to have sons. Genealogies may be determined by paternity. God may convey his word exclusively through male writers and may take the form of a male human. But that doesn’t mean men and women are unequal! They’re just “different.” All of those generations of Patriarchs and Church Fathers and Reformers and Preachers who said vile things about women—they just misunderstood the Bible’s message on this point.

7. Believe and be saved. Right belief, according to Evangelicalism, is the toggle that sends people to heaven or hell—as if we could simply make ourselves believe whatever we want, regardless of the evidence, and as if the ability to do so were a virtue. Right belief makes you one of the Righteous. Wrong belief makes you one of the Wicked. God may have given you the ability to think, but you follow logic and evidence where they lead only at your own eternal peril. If you don’t believe, it’s because you secretly just don’t want to.Granted we all are prone to a greater or lesser degree, to what psychologists call “motivated belief,” meaning we have a tendency to selectively seek evidence for things we either want to be true or, more rarely, fear to be true. But this is hardly a sign of robust character or moral virtue. Quite the opposite.

8. God loves you and he’ll send you to hell. And once you die, it’s all irreversible. George Carlin put it best: Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man … living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money.

OK, Carlin didn’t have his theology right, at least not from an Evangelical standpoint. You don’t go to hell for violating the Ten Commandments. You go to hell for not accepting Jesus as your savior. But yeah, he loves you, loves you, loves you, and if you don’t love him back and worship him and accept his gift of forgiveness for your imperfection, he’s going to torture you forever. Wrap your brain around that definition of love.

9. Free choice under duress. Why is the world full of sin and suffering if God is all powerful and all good? Because he wanted us to worship him of our own free will. He loves us too much to force us, so we had to be able to choose—so the story goes.But, if what he wanted was love and adoration, freely given, then why did he entice us with promises of heaven and threaten us with eternal torture? Can someone really love you if you demand their love at gunpoint?

10. Lean not unto your own understanding. Faith is just believing. Trust and obey. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13). The fool has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1).

The idea that your own mind, logic, and the evidence in the world around you is not to be trusted may be Evangelicalism’s biggest mindfuck, because it is subtext in all the others. Any doubts are just evidence that your mind (and basic human decency) are shaky. Since doubt is a sign of weak faith—and sometimes even direct from the devil—you should never ever trust what you think, feel, see or experience over what the Bible says and the Church teaches. Walk by faith, not by sight. Stop asking questions! “

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington.

https://valerietarico.com/2019/02/08/evangelical-christianitys-ten-biggest-mindfucks/

[sssrha]

winter sun || [Naruto Fanfiction]

Summary: In the end, Sasuke lost. [one-shot, mostly canon-compliant, Sasuke-centric]

[You can also read it on AO3, FFN, and Wattpad]

Begin:

Sasuke Uchiha was eight and he was alone. He didn’t have a family member to take care of him, nor a family that would take him in. He had an inkling as to why—they were all scared that he was another Itachi. They feared that he would wake up one day and kill them all simply because he used to call them family. He despaired at the thought. If he had a family, even one that wasn’t his flesh and blood, he would cherish them. He would honor them. He would love them.

But no one wanted Sasuke Uchiha. They wanted him, expected him, to become great, but no one was willing to help him get there. So, Sasuke stewed in agony and sorrow until, eventually, it turned to rage. Sasuke had a family, only one, and that family was dead thanks to a certain someone. Sasuke swore vengeance against his brother, for Itachi had taken the only family that would ever love him.

---

Sasuke Uchiha was eleven, and he was loved. The villagers adored him, praised him. They wrote him formal letters, invited him to fancy dinners, and—as disturbing as it was—pushed their daughters towards him. Sasuke looked upon it all with utter disdain. He never went to a single dinner or answered a single letter, and all the daughters received nothing but his glares. People looked at him and whispered, “Look at that brat. Look at how he takes advantage of everyone. Look at how wonderful his life is, how everyone worships the very ground he walks on, and yet he’s so ungrateful.”

Sasuke scowled at the thought. They wanted him to be grateful? For what? They say that they would stand by him, but where were they when he needed them? He was perfectly capable of standing on his own now. Sasuke Uchiha did not need anyone to protect him. He used to, once upon a time, but no one was there.

Sasuke Uchiha learned to take care of himself.

---

Sasuke Uchiha was thirteen, and he was assigned to a team. It was the team of his nightmares. There was a girl—a pretty girl, sure, but pretty didn’t mean anything in their world—who looked at him with such admiration that it hurt. Sakura Haruno was going to die, he was sure of it. She was going to die an agonizing death and he wouldn’t be able to stop it. Such pure feelings get you killed—Sasuke was one of the lucky ones. He had only been scarred.

There was also a boy. He was stupid, moronic, idiotic, and various other synonyms that implied he, too, would have a short shinobi career. Sasuke, however, knew that Naruto Uzumaki would die differently than their female teammate—he would die in an explosion. In agony, sure, but he would be smiling the whole time. He was just that stupid, and he was the kind of shinobi that Konoha loved. Sasuke could not, for the life of him, understand why everyone hated Naruto as much as they did. But he knows that Konoha was hypocritical in many ways, so he didn’t think too much about it.

Finally, there was their leader. He was young and lazy and a bit too forced. He would look at Sakura with a look of amazement when she proved—and continued to prove—that she knew so much that it was frightening, he looked at Naruto with amusement when he came up with his utterly stupid and somehow foolproof plans, and Sasuke…

Well, he looked at Sasuke like he was a disaster waiting to happen. The first time it had happened, Sasuke was genuinely taken aback. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at him that way, and it was just as infuriating as always. Still, Kakashi Hatake was Sasuke’s ticket to killing Itachi, so he stuck with him. He held in his anger at Kakashi’s blatant distrust and, horrifyingly, pity.

Sasuke Uchiha lived on, a single goal in his mind.

---

Sasuke Uchiha was still thirteen, but he had left. He abandoned the place that he called home. He’d return a hero after killing the man who had ruined his life. He would make the world a better place. Itachi Uchiha was a man who deserved to die, and Sasuke could not understand why everyone was against this. This was his task in life, was it not? He had declared that he would kill his brother many a time, and not a single person had tried to convince him otherwise, so why the hell were they mad at him now?

No, Sasuke knew. Naruto Uzumaki was why. Sasuke did not know what the blond was thinking—he had thought that Naruto supported him. Instead, he came chasing after him, trying to drag him back. Sasuke would come home, just not yet. If he had to put a strike through his forehead protector, so be it. Sasuke Uchiha had a mission, and some boy who considered himself Sasuke’s family would not stop him—even if it was Naruto.

Sasuke knew what family was. The entire world had screamed it out to him when his family had died, and when no one tried to care for him. His family was gone, cut down by the sword of a mad man. His family was his flesh and blood and the only left was a parricidal maniac. Naruto Uzumaki was not his family. Try as he might, though, Sasuke just could not explain it. Naruto kept persisting and Sasuke couldn’t believe how pigheaded he was.

Naruto Uzumaki was not his family. Naruto had no family, just like Sasuke. They were both alone in this world. Sasuke had once had a family, though, and Naruto never had one. They walked different paths so far, and the paths had only briefly crossed. Sasuke tried to tell Naruto to move on, but the words never came out right. Naruto was too thick-headed to understand, anyway.

So, Sasuke Uchiha fought.

As he left the battlefield, his forehead bare, he couldn’t help but remember a girl with pink hair and green eyes, begging him to stay. He promised that he would come back. Not out loud, but to himself. Sakura did not need to worry.

That was what he told himself.

---

Sasuke Uchiha was sixteen, and he was disgusted. It had been three years, and he expected something better. He expected Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who stood up against all odds. He expected Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who would fight tooth and nail for what he thought was right—misguided or not. He expected Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who, against all odds, never truly lost.

Instead, Sasuke got Naruto Uzumaki, begging. He got Naruto Uzumaki, nearly on his knees. He got Naruto Uzumaki, essentially surrendering.

Sasuke did not intend to return to Konoha yet, and as the weeks go by, the possibility of Konoha accepting him back got slimmer and slimmer. He had to fulfill his duty, though. The one he was given by virtue of having the name Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha had to kill his brother, and a whining boy would not stop him.

And Sasuke found that the thought of returning to Naruto Uzumaki, a shell of his former self, was sickening.

---

Sasuke Uchiha was seventeen and he sat in silence. How much, he wondered, would the world take from him? To think, he had finally gotten the revenge that he wanted, finally killed the man who ended his family’s days, only to learn that Itachi Uchiha wasn’t a murderer. No, no, Itachi was a murderer, but so was Konoha. There was a greater evil, and evil that controlled the lesser one.

For the first time in nine years, Sasuke remembered. He remembered a brother he had forgotten he had. He remembered love and happiness and acceptance. He remembered smiles. He remembered Itachi Uchiha, his brother, not Itachi Uchiha, his enemy. But what did it matter now? Itachi Uchiha was dead.

Sasuke’s thoughts turned. Why was Itachi dead? A coup. A coup that the Uchiha were going to do. And whose fault was that? The Uchiha’s, or the government which drove them to it? After all, wasn’t it the right of the people to speak up against tyranny? Sasuke remembered his family. Not just his mother and father and brother, he remembered cousins, aunts, uncles. There were many that wouldn’t hurt a fly. They wouldn’t want to rise up. They weren’t even shinobi.

It dawned on Sasuke that whatever Konoha had done to get the Uchiha to rise up, it must have been bad. Terrible. And yet, Sasuke had trouble believing it. Konoha was his home. His end goal was always to return, having made the world a better place. Konoha was a wonderful place, he knew it. He lived it. But Konoha killed his family.

It seemed that even Konoha, the village of dreams, had its demons. It killed his family. For the life of him, Sasuke could not understand why Itachi would work for Konoha. What had it done for them? It had ordered the Uchiha’s execution. It had ruined their lives. Why would Itachi serve Konoha so faithfully?

The truth was that Sasuke did not know. He could not comprehend Itachi’s thought process. The fact remained that Konoha had destroyed him and his family. Sasuke was not naive enough to believe that it had changed, that anything had changed. Konoha wasn’t the only problem, either. Kiri was famous for the bloodline purges it endured. Iwa was infamous for its harsh laws and ruthless battle tactics. Kumo was led by a man who would lose his head in a second, and Suna was constantly in one crisis or another. The entirety of the Shinobi Nations was falling apart.

How long until one of them snapped again? Until another family was murdered by the government that was supposed to protect it? How many more children would no longer have a family? How many more children would have to go through the sorrow he did?

Sasuke Uchiha knew that the violence would not stop, so he decided to put an end to it himself.

---

Sasuke Uchiha was seventeen, and he was dying. He had fought tooth and nail for what he believed in, for what was right, and he was still dying. There was no justice in this universe, was there? Konoha would kill him, just like it killed his family. Sasuke was defiant, but he knew his time was waning.

Through the darkness of the night, no longer illuminated by a Chidori or Rasengan, Naruto whispered, “Why, Sasuke?”

Sasuke contemplated not responding but decided against it. “Why what?”

“Why won’t you come home?”

“I have no home.”

“Yes,” Naruto said, his voice suddenly getting a note of irritation, “you do. And it’s Konoha.”

“You know what Konoha did to me and my family. Why would I call it home?”

“Because that’s not Konoha!” Naruto snapped, only to descend into a wheezing fit. Sasuke closed his eyes, trying to lock out how much it hurt him to hear Naruto’s struggle. Finally, Naruto repeated, “That’s not Konoha.”

“Are you telling me that my clan isn’t dead because of Konoha?”

“Your clan was planning an uprising, Sasuke.”

“I know my clan,” Sasuke hissed. “Most of its members wouldn’t hurt a fly. I can’t even imagine what Konoha could have done to make them plan a coup.”

“Neither can I. I guess we both learned something about our families that we didn’t know.”

Bitterly, Sasuke said, “You don’t have a family, Naruto.”

“I do. I have Sakura and Kakashi-sensei. I have Shikamaru and Ino and Chouji. I have Hinata and Kiba and Shino. I have Iruka-sensei and Granny Tsunade. Hell, I even have Tonton. I also have you, Sasuke.”

“We’re not family. That’s not how it works. Your family is your blood.”

Through the darkness, Sasuke could vaguely make out Naruto giving him a hurt look. “You’ve told me a million times that you weren’t my family, and it stung. But now you're telling me that I don’t have any family? I don’t think you understand what family is, Sasuke.”

“Oh yeah? Then what is a family?”

“A family is a group of people who care about you. They would follow you to the ends of the Earth, and you would do the same for them. That is family, Sasuke. Blood has nothing to do with it.”

Scowling, Sasuke said, “Well then, I lost my family the day Konoha ordered its execution.”

“And I’m not saying that that was okay. I’ve met Itachi, Sasuke. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve what he got. But he wanted you to have a family, Sasuke.”

“And his dream was never realized, was it?”

“No, Sasuke. I am your family. I would follow you to the ends of the Earth— Hell, I just did! I would defend your name until the day you die, and for the rest of my life!”

“But you’re trying to drag me back to the place that ruined my life.”

“Konoha didn’t ruin your life, Sasuke. That was power-hungry men and women who are out of power. That was done by people who saw the Uchiha as a threat.”

“And you think that they won’t see me as a threat now?”

“I think that you deserve a chance, and there are people in Konoha who know it. Trust me, Sasuke.”

Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut. “How can I trust you when you’ve stood against me at every turn?”

“You abandoned your village, Sasuke. You went out trying to murder someone—someone powerful. You got yourself tangled in criminal organizations and people who’ve done horrible things. Sasuke, have you ever thought about how it looked to me?” Naruto only heard silence, so he continued. “It looked like you were going insane. There you were, in a good place. You had people who genuinely cared about you and, all of a sudden, you run away. You do stupidly self-destructive things and then you wonder why your best friend is trying to stop you.”

“I didn’t do anything self-destructive.”

“I’m not stupid. That curse mark did more harm than good, Sasuke. It was the same with Kurama’s chakra before we worked everything out. You joined an organization that went after jinchuriki, then tried to capture one of the most experienced ones. Sasuke, you’re such a moron.”

“Shut up. What about my perspective, huh? What about how I felt?”

“That’s the thing—you only care about how you feel! You didn’t hear a thing I said, did you?”

“I heard you,” Sasuke said. “So what? My feelings aren’t as important as everyone else’s?”

“I never said that, but have some empathy! Do you realize how much you’ve hurt Sakura?”

“What does she have to do with—”

“She loved you, Sasuke. She still does, too. She admired you so much! And then you tried to kill her, and me, and Kakashi. You tried to kill her family. Do you have any idea how that made her feel?”

Sasuke scowled. “I don’t know what you—” But then Sasuke stopped, and he understood what Naruto was saying. His face shuttered and he nearly threw up. “Itachi,” he said, “I was almost her Itachi.”

“Yeah, but now look at her. She’s only tried to kill you once, and that was after an emotional moment. Sasuke, Sakura is emotionally stable and happy. You know why? She hasn’t pushed anyone away.”

Sasuke stared, then started trembling. “But she had a family. I didn’t. Mine was gone.”

“So many people were supporting you—”

“No one wanted me, Naruto.” Sasuke’s voice broke. “Do you know how it feels? I just lost my family and no one, not the normal citizens or the power-hungry politicians, even pretended to help me. What did they do? They threw me into some house and expected me to be great.”

“Sasuke—”

“I was seven, Naruto.” Sasuke knew that he was crying, but he couldn’t stop.

“...I know, Sasuke,” Naruto whispered. “I know.”

That night, Sasuke lost his dignity. His worldview was shattered once again and he knew that, when it was all over, he would suffer. But he had gained something precious, something he had always wanted—a family. So, Sasuke lost, but Sasuke was happy—happier than he had been in a decade. Sasuke wasn’t a sore loser.

fin

[crazy4tank]

2021 Subaru Outback: Costs, Facts, And Figures | HotCars

New Post has been published on https://coolcarsnews.com/2021-subaru-outback-costs-facts-and-figures-hotcars/

2021 Subaru Outback: Costs, Facts, And Figures | HotCars

One of Subaru's bread and butter nameplates, the Outback was the brand's response to rugged yet rather uncovered off-road SUVs. First released as an options package for your humble Legacy wagon, the real Outback came into being in 1996 offering lifted AWD rough-road capabilities on top of a civil, practical, and comfortable generating experience - and perhaps was one of the first crossover Sports utility vehicles in existence.

Rapidly becoming a smash hit for Subaru, the Outback is still heading strong today, filling exactly the same purpose as a practical plus comfortable everyday wagon, along with enough off-road capabilities in order to tackle whatever weekend journey awaits. Thanks to its strong AWD system, civilized inside and handling, and now the competitive amount of tech, the particular 2021 Outback is as great as ever both on the road and off. Make simply no mistake though, if you're searching for a hardcore body-on-frame beast of an off-roader then the Outback defintely won't be up your alley, but , with regards to both sides of the sidewalk, it offers just enough from every world to stand out, during a growing sea of like-minded competitors.

Like every prior Outback that will came before it, the particular 2021 model is a renewed rugged wagon version associated with Subaru's more everyday focused models. Previously riding to the Legacy platform, Subaru's launch of their Worldwide Platform within 2016 marked the end of the bloodline, and the Outback started to make use of it in 2020. This is by no means a bad factor though, and with their selection from the little sedan/hatchback Impreza to the full-size SUV Excursion using it, the Global Platform offers proven its worth when considering adapting to many use situations - the Outback is not any exception.

As the platform has been switched upward, the power and drivetrain from the 2021 model remains much like what previous generations from the Outback have been offering for many years now. Offered are an acquainted choice of 2 engines, each of which are 4-cylinder Boxers. The first is the standard option of the naturally aspirated 2 . 5L FB25D Boxer-4, making a fairly underwhelming, but good-enough 182 hp - almost similar to Outbacks of the previous 2 decades. The second, plus hottest option is a turbo charge 2 . 4L FA24F Boxer-4 making 260 hp. Whilst power isn't exactly anemic, the Outback certainly is not a car you'd buy pertaining to speed, rather, with Subaru's long evolving symmetrical full-time AWD, this power is definitely optimized for all-weather, all-terrain conquering abilities that won't allow you to down, or get you trapped. The one let down though, is the fact that a CVT transmission will be the only choice here, and has already been reported to have some rather sloppy plus un-exciting characteristics to it .

As has always been the case with the Umland, this wagon isn't a quick performance car, or a devoted obstacle-crushing off-roader, but rather the practical combination of on-road ease and comfort and off-road capabilities combined into a package that weekend break adventurers or commuters in rougher regions will love. As mentioned, the particular Outback is not a car designed for serious technical trails, using front MacPherson, and back double-wishbone suspension this truck gives a smooth on-road trip, and confident handling once the pavement ends and the heading gets rough - specifically with AWD and eight. 7" of ground clearance arriving standard. One thing to note for all those used to older Outback versions in terms of off-roading though, the particular 2021 model only posseses an open rear differential, whilst in the past a viscous limited-slip was included.

Mechanical virtues aren't the only real strong point of the Outback's performance either, as with Subaru's X-MODE included standard as properly, that AWD system plus brakes are optimized in conjunction with advanced traction manage, controlling the engine, brake systems, and torque split since needed for situations like slope climbs and descents, too as low-grip surfaces like snowfall and mud. While these types of aspects let the Outback deal with trails with confidence, those utilized to the tighter and nimble steering of old-school Outbacks, or even sportier Subaru models, will discover the 2021 Outback instead soft and not all that souple - fortunately, it is accurate though.

Irrespective of performance, what the Outback really excels at is protection, providing confidence not only in the capabilities while driving, but additionally in the worst-case scenario. Gaining a 5-star NHTSA ranking, and an IIHS Best Safety Pick, the Outback's continuing longtime excellence in complete safety provides peace of mind.

While on and rough-road confidence is certainly a main feature in this market segment, functionality tends to be an even greater one, as well as the 2021 Outback certainly would not disappoint in that regard. Packaging 105 cu-ft of traveler space, the 2021 Umland is a small step over its competitors like the 2021 Toyota Rav4 which usually tops out at info cu-ft, and the 2021 Jeep Cherokee which packs a similar 101 cu-ft.

Not just spacious for travellers, the Outback's wagon type proves its worth with regards to of cargo space too, using a 32. 5 cu-ft trunk area that grows to an abundant 75. 7 cu-ft due to folding rear seats. Regular on many trims as well, the Outback also offers the hands-free automatic power starting rear gate, allowing smooth access to that cargo region. As well, a roof stand and 2, 700 pounds tow rating on the bottom engine (3, 500 pounds for the turbo engine) enables you to bring along just about anything you may need.

While not as excellent as its cargo-carrying abilities, the particular Outback's fuel economy excellent. With the standard engine, you may expect 26 mpg city, thirty-three mpg highway, and the turbocharged gets 23 mpg town and 30 mpg road.

Not only virtuous in its driving abilities, the 2021 Outback stands out bright in terms of comfort, style, and features on the inside too. Coming as the standard choice is some nice high quality cloth upholstery, but springtime for the optional Nappa leather-based and the Outback's interior will become surprisingly luxurious. An even more suitable upholstery option is Subaru's proprietary StarTex faux leather - a water repellant material that is perfect for adventures. Regardless of furniture choice, one great stage of the 2021 Outback will be how far the interior has come from the early generations, catching plan the competition over the past several years to provide a style with great contemporary touches.

Better still in terms of modern touches, every single trim of the Outback aside from the base model gets the hi-res 11. 6" touch screen (base gets dual 7" screens) with Subaru's STARLINK services, Apple Car Enjoy or Android Auto features, along with Bluetooth phone connection. Pairing with that, Limited plus Premier trims of the 2021 Outback include a Harman Kardon 12 speaker system with a 576-watt amp to give an excellent audio experience. Further features consist of optional 4G LTE Wi-fi hotspot capabilities, dual back USB ports, wireless telephone charging, optional heated plus ventilated seats, a warmed steering wheel, a rearview digital camera, as well as standard EyeSight operater assist with lane-keep, blind-spot overseeing, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, automated crisis braking, and forward-collision caution.

As stated, the 2021 Outback will get two powertrain choices -- the standard naturally aspirated, or even optional turbocharged (XT). Having a total of 7 cut, choices include:

Outback -- $26, 795 USD.

The most basic version, the base trim still has an excellent assortment of features like a double 7" touchscreen infotainment program that has STARLINK multimedia, Apple company Car Play, and Google android Auto functionality, a 4-speaker sound system, premium cloth furniture, EyeSight driver assists, guiding responsive LED headlights (standard on all trims), plus 17" aluminum-alloy wheels.

Premium - $29, 045 UNITED STATES DOLLAR.

A step upward, the Premium Outback contains features like an 11. 6" touchscreen with STARLINK, Apple company Car Play, and Google android Auto functionality, a 6-speaker sound system, 4G LTE Wi-fi hotspot capabilities (standard upon all except base trim), dual-zone climate control, optionally available heated seats with the All season Package, dual front plus rear USB ports, high quality cloth upholstery, power-adjustable driver's seat, EyeSight driver helps, and small exterior variations like body-color mirrors as opposed to the base level's black coated ones.

Limited - $33, 595 USD.

Carrying over most of the Superior trim's features like the eleven. 6" touchscreen, with a number of more added in, the particular Limited Outback offers a lot more luxurious upgrades like leather-based upholstery, hands-free power starting trunk as standard (rather than as an option over the Premium), 18" aluminum-alloy tires, power-adjustable seats for each driver and passenger, warmed rear seats, keyless entry, plus push-button start, an auto-dimming mirror with built-in compass and HomeLink functionality, the particular Harmon Kardon sound system, and many small touches like auto-up/down windows all around.

Touring -- $37, 495 USD.

The most upscale edition of the Outback, the Traveling trim carries over the Limited's standard features (like the particular Harmon Kardon sound system) with additions like supple Nappa leather upholstery, a warmed steering wheel, heated and aired front seats, DriverFocus thoughts mitigation system, 180-degree front-view monitor, and a power moonroof among other changes.

Onyx Version XT : $35, 145 USD.

This is essentially the Superior trim level, but with turbo charged engine instead. You do acquire some unique standard features more than Premium though, including the water-repellant StarTex faux leather furniture, power-adjustable seats for each driver and passenger, the particular hands-free power opening back trunk, auto-dimming rearview reflection with compass and HomeLink, 180-degree front-view monitor, too as keyless entry and push-button start.

Limited XT : $37, 995 USD.

Keeping with the same system, the Limited XT plus standard Limited trims are mainly the same except for the turbo motor and some small differences. Integrated as standard with the Restricted XT but not on the regular Limited are a power moonroof, heated steering wheel, 11. 6" touchscreen with GPS navigation along with the other multimedia features, as well as the DriverFocus distraction mitigation system.

Touring XT - $39, 945 USD.

The best of the 2021 Outback selection, the Touring XT, such as the Limited XT, carries over-all the standard features found in the particular Touring Outback but provides the turbo engine.

Regardless of which Outback want, you'll also get Subaru's three years or 36, 000-mile restricted warranty, and 5 many years or 60, 000-mile powertrains warranty.

Resources: Subaru. com, Car Plus Driver

NEXT: 2021 Subaru Forester: Costs, Information, And Figures

[wolfie-rood]

The Fight's End - Chapter 2

All I could see was pools of blood; my blood. It covered the pristine marble floors as he continued to stab any part of me he could touch. Without much effort, I collapsed and died of blood loss.

I was drowning; He made an effort to hold my head underwater. I kicked and punched while trying to scream for air; only swallowing more water in the process. Before I knew it, I had grown tired and fell unconscious. I never woke up after that.

He stared at me with a smile that made my blood run cold; his eyes glimmered with insanity as he held the bloodied knife to my neck. He chuckled darkly and a crimson liquid suddenly covered him. He had slit my-

I jolted up in my seat and glanced around the dull, science classroom; trying to catch my breath. No one seemed to notice my sudden outburst, and I sighed in relief.

Damn those… those visions I cursed to myself. This happens quite often; though, I haven’t gotten such gruesome visions in a few years. But, they’ve been happening more and more recent since last week. I want to pretend it’s nothing, yet I can’t help but get a bad feeling…

I get so many of these visions, and I know so much about my past lives. I created the Divine Beasts and was a good friends with a boy whose soul mission is to kill me as many times as he pleases. I was the adopted sister of a Zora king, and I’d carve memories out of wood for my Zora nephew. But even when I know so much, there’s still so many questions unknown to me, which scares me.

Who is this boy out to kill me, and why does he feel that killing me is a good idea? Why do I keep getting revived when I no longer have a useful purpose?

I stopped thinking and took in a deep breath. No, Kari. It doesn’t matter. Just live your life one day at a time; take care of any problems that happen to show up.

My breathing finally calmed down, and the bell rang; signaling my study hall. The day was certainly moving slowly, but I’d be out of here soon enough. With a smile, I grabbed my things and made my way to the rooftop stairs. I pushed past some random students while I dashed upwards without getting tired. I excitedly opened the door, expecting Faith to be up here… She wasn’t.

“Huh…” I dropped my bag by the door and looked around before making my way to the safety railing. Slowly, I slid my shoes off and hopped up onto the railing like it was a tightrope. “Strange. She’s usually here before me.” I murmured to myself. My hand found its way to my scarf as I grew nervous.

“How unfortunate.” A voice chimed. I looked up to see a boy leaning against the doorway, who was smirking. I froze; knowing this was the boy who has recently been haunting me every time I close my eyes. “At least she won’t be here to witness the things I’m going to do to you.”

I quickly got down from the railing; paranoid that he’d push me off. The boy laughed quietly, and I vaguely wondered what he thought was so funny.

He had purple hair tinted with black, and green eyes that practically gleamed crazily in the sunlight. His clothes were casual, and the colors were dark which only seemed fitting for someone with a dark personality.

He casually began strolling around the roof, and I followed the opposite of his actions to keep an equal distance from him. Soon, he was standing by the railing while I was at the door. “Alright, cut the chit-chat. Who are you?”

“16 years of regaining memories without my help, and you don’t even know my name?” He questioned dramatically. Then, the green-eyed boy put his hand over his heart. “I’m truly hurt, Kari!”

I scoffed and kept my hand close to the door in case I need to make an escape. “Well, you obviously know me.”

“Oh, yes. I know all about you, my pint-sized friend.”

My jaw dropped at the insult. The only one who’s allowed to make fun of my height is Faith, and even then I have my limits. “Oh, what-?”

“In fact, I know you so well that I can tell you how you got every scar on your body. For example, that strange blotch of skin above your left, big toe? You burned yourself by dropping a torch near your feet after I snuck up on you in our first lives.” Huh, so that’s where that came from… His chilling smirk then grew wider. “Unfortunately, I can’t possibly explain your… petite problem.” I growled furiously, but he simply shook his head and began walking toward me. My anger faltered as fear began to take over.

I swallowed hard as he continued to slowly stalk forward. “T-That’s great and all, but you never answered my question.” I muttered defensively; trying to hide my minor stutter. At this point, my heart was pounding, and my breathing was audible; My hand gripped the white scarf tightly, as well.

“Are you scared, Runt?” He wondered curiously, but his words were more threatening than anything else. The boy then glared at me. “Because you should be. I may have been born in a similar way as you, but I have powers I haven’t even tried. My strength easily surpasses the strongest Goron champions, while my magic can rival the Goddesses themselves. I’m not one to be taken lightly, Kari.” I was close enough to feel his breath, and I had to tilt my head up to meet his murderous gaze.

His anger broke for a moment as his Emerald eyes wandered to the stairwell behind me. “Seems as though your late friend has decided to finally show up.” He commented. The purple-haired boy took a few steps back and turned his attention to me. “I suppose I’ll have to cut our little chat short for now, but not because it matches your height.” He saluted me in a mocking way, and my hands curled into tight fists. “Until next time, my vertically challenged comrade!”

“Kari!” Faith yelled happily which made me turn around. She came into view with a big smile on her face. “Hey, Shorty!”

“Runt”

“pint-sized friend”

“Vertically challenged comrade”

My blood began boiling as I remembered all the awful nicknames that jerk gave me. “- so yeah. Dumb teachers, am I right?” Faith finished, and I realized I wasn’t even listening.

“Um, yeh.” I replied uncertainly. We walked over to the safety railing and sat on it with our legs dangling above the street below. Meanwhile, I searched the roof for that boy. He seemed to disappear, and I didn’t know if I should be worried or relieved.

Faith looked at me with concerned eyes. “Hey, Kari… You alright? You look like you just saw a ghost, or something.” She laughed nervously.

“Yeh. The ‘or something’ part sounds about right.” I muttered.

“Huh?”

“Nothing, I just haven’t been feeling well.”

She nodded. “I’ve noticed. You haven’t been getting much sleep lately. Everything okay at home?”

I stared at her in shock before smiling softly. I’ve done everything in my power to keep my sleep issues to myself, but Faith is my best friend. Why am I surprised that she could see right through me? “Yeh, I think I just need a new mattress, maybe.”

“Oh what? You should’ve told me! I would have gotten you one for your birthday!” Faith cried.

My laughs echoed through the air. It was nice to laugh… “C'mon, we’ve got about an hour to hang out before our last classes of the day.”

We sat on the railing together and just talked about our day. Of course, I left out the whole ‘psycho out to get me’ bit as to not worry my friend.

“So, gym was fun.” Faith started sarcastically. I said nothing, but continued to listen. “Just- ugh! That damned Aros! I hate that stupid fish! He thinks he’s all that just because he’s some high class Zora, or whatever!”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, yeh. He’s one of the few Zora who are able to use the sacred healing ability; you know just as well as I do that magic like that is passed down through the royal bloodline.” It’s true, I’ve practiced healing incantations before, but it was extremely difficult. And I was created by the gods themselves!

“Yeah I know. Stupid snarky brat pushed me during PE. Here, can you look at this scab I got because of him-?”

I quickly covered my eyes. “Ew, no! I don’t want to see it!”

“Oh c'mon! I’ve been picking at it for like two hours now, and it’s starting to hurt!” Faith rolled up her sleeve and shoved her scraped up elbow into my face.

“Faith, no!” I laughed slightly uncomfortably. “Come on, that’s gross!”

“Kiss it better?”

I shoved her playfully. “Absolutely not!”

~~

The rest of the day played out how it usually would. I went to history (and fell asleep because duh) before ducking behind the school and warping home. By the time I finished up my schoolwork, my mom had already gotten home and started dinner. We talked about our days as she cooked, and we both went to our rooms after eating.

I changed into some baggy clothes and flopped onto my bed; staring at the boring ceiling. I briefly mused about putting some stickers up there, but I quickly put the thought away for later. Of course I couldn’t fall asleep for the fourth night in a row, but it wasn’t too surprising considering the day I had.

That boy…

“I’m not one to be taken lightly, Kari.”

The mysterious boy’s words echoed in my head, and I shuddered involuntarily. Of course he’s not; he’s killed me countless times before. What makes this time any different? I sat up and reached for my scarf; hugging it close to my chest. For a moment I thought I’d have a panic attack, but I was able to calm myself down. I know I’ve been through this before in my past lifetimes, but I can’t remember if I was ever as scared and vulnerable like this…

For the first time in years, I don’t know what I should do to fix this…

And that terrifies me.

~~

Destroy her.

“Patience is virtue.” The violet haired boy chuckled to himself while staring out the window. He sat on the sill with one leg propped up and the other dangle out towards the street. “This one; she’s different from the others. I can practically taste the fear on her.” He subtly licked his lips and smirked. “To think she’d believe I’d be so merciful as to push her off the roof.” He laughed. “No, I think I’d rather take my time with you, my little runt.”

~~~~~

Hey yeah! I did a thing! I’m actually extremely proud of this, and I think I actually have a solid story arch for this! By that, I mean I have a decent ending, and then stuff for something of a sequel(?), but not much planned for the story in-between But it’s okay, I have a funny way of making this stuff work out for me somehow. And I’d never post something I didn’t love, so this story is in good hands. I know I won’t update this story every week, but you can bet almost each week, I’ll have a sweet oneshot out for you guys.

Speaking of which, Wednesday. Keep an eye out for the super long one I have planned for you. Honestly, it also has the potential for a second or even third part. So that’ll be fun.

… I’ll just leave this here in case people want to give me any issues. Disclaimer: I do not own Kari, Core, or anything Legend of Zelda related. I own Faith, Aros, and a few faces that’ll be showing up soon. Otherwise, I don’t own stuff.

Also, just gonna tag the owner and creator of Kari and Core, @karikitdemon​

Requests always OPEN.

[wingletblackbird]

A “Brief” Overview of Nabooan Colonization and the Development of Nabooan Culture

A year after the Old Sith Wars ended, the Grizmalltian Queen Elsinore den Tasia ascended to the Grizmalltian throne. Due to the pressures of the centuries long war that the Republic had just endured, the Queen felt lead to do whatever was necessary to improve her planets financial situation as they were deeply in debt. As such, she commissioned Kwilaan to scout out new worlds for her people to colonize and accumulate necessary resources. This was not an exceptional idea in the time period that it occurred. During the Republic’s Restoration Period, between the Old and New Sith wars, as a means of improving infrastructure, the Republic offered corporations safe passage through hyperspace lanes in exchange for commercial investments. Queen Elsinore was merely one of many who followed what had proven to be a successful endeavor. Thus, it was that Naboo, named for the God of wisdom Nabu,was first discovered between 3,916:3–3,915:2 B.R.S.

Regrettably, the Queen’s plan was not successful. While Naboo became a popular place for big-game hunters, and the newly discovered hyperspace lanes generated new revenue, it proved to be ineffective. The money was poorly distributed through the aristocracy, and heavy taxes burdened the lower classes. This created significant resentment against the noble and royal classes who were able to avoid paying the taxes as they headed the feudal system. Moreover, they were the ones who reaped the benefits of the exploration programs that simply would be of no use to peasants (who certainly weren’t about to spend loads of credits they didn’t have to go hunting on a foreign planet). Resentment further increased as those who returned from the New Sith Wars found that their place on the farms had been taken over, that they no longer had work, or were unable to take care of themselves and their families due to debilitating injuries. When famine inevitably came, the anger that was directed at the monarchy and the nobility came to a head resulting in a violent revolution that mirrors the French Revolution that occurred in our galaxy.

Naboo was, hence, colonized by the Grizmalltians who, out of loyalty, fear, or personal moral beliefs, refused to participate in the revolution, as well as the nobles who could afford to provide the ships to escape (and had no other option). It was lead by the Queen’s granddaughter, also called Elsinore, who, with the help of Kwilaan, organized the people allowing several thousand Grizmalltians to flee to Naboo. Her courage is still considered inspiring on Naboo and is simultaneously the reason for the popularity of Queens and (one of the reasons) the Nabooan tendency to elect young Queens who, unlike Elsinore den Taria I, who was in her seventies when the revolution occurred, were not yet corrupted, senile, uncreative, or set in their ways. Youth is vibrant.

The journey took many, many months, and was exceedingly difficult, and dangerous. The Grizmalltians had been forced to flee quickly and supplies were inadequate and difficult to obtain with little to trade. Moreover, with the hyperspace routes still so newly being charted (aside from the Corellian Run which they initially followed), emerging from hyperspace safely was far from guaranteed. Pirates also frequently looted these areas. Along their expedition, the colonists encountered explorers and traders from the planet Thule. Like the Grizmalltians, the Thulians had suffered due to the Sith wars. The Thulians had left their planet which had, only fifty standard years previously, been under Sith reign and was still recovering from the devastation. In return for helping the Grizmalltians survive, the Thulians, who did not desire to return to war-torn Thule, requested that they accompany the Grizmalltians to Naboo. It was agreed. The present Nabooan culture and language is a fusion of these two cultures who sought a better life in a galaxy recovering from war. The epic of the colonists journey is one of the oldest and most valued pieces of literature on Naboo. 

When the colonists finally arrived on Naboo, they landed on Dee’Ja Peak and began to settle the land. The current royal houses of Naboo are the descendants of the Grizmalltian nobility that fled as well as the prominent Thulian leaders. The Nabooan people take great pride in their lineage and try to trace back their family trees as far as possible, but few, by the time of the Rise of the Empire era, can succeed. The Naberrie family, Padme’s family, is the house currently ruling over the Dee’Ja Peak area. While one of the oldest royal houses they are now, somewhat, removed from the very centre of politics due to their mountainous lifestyle. This is one reason Padme was looked down upon by other houses in her early career. She was the second daughter of a low-ranking Naberrie born in an obscure mountain village dedicated to farming. She may be royal, but she wasn’t, initially, “significant.” Her maternal family, Thule, which is also a royal house, is a descendant of one of the Thulian leaders. Their culture used patronymics as names, but decided to choose last names as they began to settle Naboo. Padme’s ancestor chose to use the name of his first homeworld as his surname. Family is quite important on Naboo and there is a certain sense of classism. This isn’t necessarily condescending; it stems from the belief that certain families, and individuals, carry certain talents or abilities better down a bloodline, and cooperation and respect for all classes is important for society to function. As always though, there will be those people who look down on others for being “common,” and intermarriage certainly wasn’t encouraged. (You can bet that people would have been scandalized if they had known that Padme had married Anakin, especially if he were obliged to leave the Order: Royalty, prominent royalty at that, marrying some low-class commoner of unknown heritage and paternity?! Gasp!)

The Nabooan culture, surprisingly, didn’t take long to establish, although the creole language came later. Due to the wars that had devastated their planet, as well as some brutal clashes with the Gungans, the Naboo came to desire pacifism and rationality. Nevertheless, the nobility, did not forget that they had almost been slaughtered on Grizmallt and, thus, encouraged the study of self-defense amongst their ranks. Meanwhile, the Thulians, who had grown up in a militaristic environment, and who also had cause to fight pirates, sympathized with this. Thus, a curious paradox erupted, the male nobility learned to fight, (often with vibroblades), and it was said that this was done so that they could protect the lower classes and maintain the law (this was before a proper law enforcement after all). Additionally, they could contain violence between houses, if necessary, by challenging individual champions to duels. However, no standing army was ever maintained and the ability to fight was not taught to the average individual. The royal houses were not about to risk open revolt like had happened on Grizmallt. There did, nevertheless, develop several family lines who became responsible for security of the royal family, much as there were families in our galaxy who prided themselves in serving the monarchy. Captain Typho and Panaka came from one of these families, both were very traditional. Hence, Panaka’s horror at discovering Padme’s secret marriage, and Typho’s decision not to tell Padme how he felt about her, as he knew his place. He had been born to serve her, not to be her partner in love. He knew his place and his family’s position.

On the more clandestine end, the noble women would come to form the “Order of the Sacred Circle,” which was exclusive to their gender, where they learned both unarmed and armed combat. The armed combat involved a dagger that was passed down mother to daughter for generations, and was even worn surreptitiously in their wedding dresses  to symbolize their ability to protect their family. As indicated above, the common people were kept ignorant of this to preserve the element of surprise should they ever face a violent revolution again. As such the Order remained a “legend” to the rest of the Nabooan people. True to the pacifist mindset though, the connections made between women during their training were said to be able to prevent a war, as when the men decided to fight, their wives, sisters, mothers, etc. would have friends on the “enemy” side and would work to prevent it. Hence, it was also a place where you trained in espionage-diplomacy...if that even makes sense, but when you consider that Padme and all of her handmaidens were trained in the Sacred Circle, it should. ;)  Also, the reason Padme had blasters hidden in her throne stems from the need to protect the royal family from attacks like what happened during the revolution that pushed the colonization of Naboo.

Other changes that were implemented as a result of the revolution was the nature of feudalism. The Thulians did not have a “serf” class and the Grizmalltians adopted this remembering the peasants rage that had propelled them to revolt back home. Additionally, it was established that the ruling families were not above the law. The Thulians who had suffered a totalitarian dictatorship were entirely behind this decision, and they came together to establish certain laws that would apply to all people noble or common. It is also from the harsh lessons learned on Grizmallt that the Naboo came to prioritize duty as a highly prized virtue and the sense of noblesse oblige was significantly heightened. We can definitely see echoes of this upbringing in Padme’s behaviour. To further appease the lower classes, although the initial motivation behind it became lost to some degree over the centuries, it came to be that the royals would encourage volunteerism at a young age to show that they would not be abusing their roles. Thus, a delicate balance came to be established on the new planet.

A regrettable side effect of this would be that on Naboo, particularly amongst the higher classes, an importance came to be placed upon image and public perception. You had to be seen to be “doing good.” Weddings were massive events to prove wealth. Volunteer work was done to prove that you were “selfless.” Anything that was necessary to be kept secret was considered to be shameful. (As a side note, the means of communicating through clothing, and flower language, also developed from this need to be seen. All secrets were kept in the open.) Conversely, though, due to the difficulty of living in such a manner, privacy was valued on Naboo. Essentially, a “don’t tell and don’t ask” policy. This would serve Padme well in hiding her marriage and preventing an investigation into her death and her pregnancy. It also explains her reticence on keeping a marriage a secret. Aside from all of the other concerns, a small and secret wedding was culturally a huge no-no. In fact, her whole relationship with Anakin was pretty counter-cultural for Padme, and really indicative of just how much she loved him.

Weddings were often arranged between the higher classes and were seen as a means to foster economic and social ties between various clans. Fostering children between different families was also quite common, whether it was an allied house or another part of the clan. This was said to foster ties between various Houses to prevent wars and encourage good faith; it was also seen as a means to ensure children were not spoiled. Ties between foster parents were just as important as other ties. Padme, when she became interested in politics, was sent to live with her grandmother in Theed, as a result of this mindset. In many ways, she felt closer to her grandmother than her parents, and was devastated when Winama Naberrie died. Unsurprisingly, with family ties being so significant, after fulfilling their mandatory service noble women were expected to marry in their early twenties or so. Second daughters might be able to get away with waiting longer but there would be pressure. You can observe this in how Jobal treats Padme. (Realistically, while it was not talked about, extra-marital affairs were not necessarily uncommon either. They were even tolerated if “discreet.” Most people who suspected that Anakin and Padme were involved likely figured it was just a fling on Padme’s part, before she was, finally, obliged to settle down.) Children were expected as well, but great respect was placed upon motherhood as a role that nurtured the next generation. 

Each clan had a different royal in charge meant to protect the people and enforce the law within their region of land. Those who lived within those regions were a part of the “clan” but were not royal. This concept of nomadic and pastoral living was a Thulian concept that the Grizmalltians found necessary to adopt as a rigid lifestyle is not so easily established when you are just settling in and could get attacked at any time. Internal politics dictates that the clan head would have sons, brothers, or cousins etc. who looked over individual regions that the clan was responsible for creating a hierarchy, and small gatherings amongst just one royal house happened with reasonable frequency to maintain order. As the population grew, these small area would even grow to become city-states and the clans would continue to expand territory, and to be the head of a clan became quite prestigious. These heads would meet with other heads at specific intervals to have assemblies to discuss laws or issues etc. in a democratic matter. In time an elective monarchy would develop and amongst themselves, or candidates they produced from amongst their extended family, a monarch would be chosen. Unsurprisingly, the first elected was a young girl.

Note: The idea of flower language for Naboo I got from @fialleril  and her delightful blog. The above details I have extrapolated from Legends and Canon material. I will explain how and why I believe that the Nabooans were descendent from two cultures in future posts.

[ruffoverthinksthings]

What would Mal and bens kids be like

Warning: Heavy Bias towardsBal, skewing EXTREMELY towards negative realism.

Two general trends:

Emotional, unstable individuals with heaps of problems inherited from their parents and their inherent genetic/magical weaknesses to mental illness and emotional issues; or

Completely normal, healthy, pleasant people who just happen to be EXTREMELY out of the norm and challenge Auradon’s established norms and beliefs by the simple virtue of existing.

You have to understand: Mal and Ben are an incredibly volatilecouple just waiting to have all manner of issues come boiling up tothe surface. They’re also an AK Royal and VK couple, the veryfirst, actually, and any children they have will be subject to allthe criticism, the scrutiny, and the intentional and unintentionalscrutiny that comes with being a VK in Auradon and being a Royal inAuradon.

Think of it as the worst of both worlds.

On your VK side, your peers consider you “diluted” in that youare an Auradon Villain Kid (AVK), not nearly as “evil,” “rotten,”or “cunning” as any of them simply by virtue of your bloodlineand where you were born--they needn’t even be Evil Evil,just otherwise Good kids that get into mischief most days of theweek. You don’t just become an Isle Kid without growing upin the Isle and even if one of your parents were from there, becauseYOU didn’t live with the discrimination, the desperation, and therampant psychological and physical abuse.

Think of African Americans from “The Hood” and the sense ofshared anger and outrage at “Gangsta” being co-opted by peoplewho never experienced their hardships, oftentimes as a gimmick formoney and attention.

(I actually have a headcanon that Robin Hood’s kid and the restof his Merry Men and Maidens consider themselves AVK already, whichbrings a lot of hatred and conflict between them and the authenticVK’s, but that’s a different topic altogether.)

On your AK Royal side, you are on an even tighter rope than theoriginal Royals, as now you don’t have immediate support and loveof the heroes and beloved monarchs that the original AK Royalshave--in fact, there will be a LOT of (mostly unjustified) racism anddiscrimination simply by virtue of you having “Villain” in yourblood, and most of Auradon being heavily racist and bigoted.

You’renot invited to all the fun parties, but you’re expected to show upfor all the major, boring events.

People do not give you the benefit of the doubt, will rail againstyou on the slightest of mistakes, and will treat your doing thingsright as “exactly what is expected of you, nothing that would earnpraise” or since they can’t say it out loud, “I’m stunnedthat you managed to do this right because I expected you to failcatastrophically, and I don’t want to say anything else for fear oflooking even more racist and bigoted than I already am.”

You seeyour pure AK and VK peers belonging with their respectivegroups,  while you stand outside their groups by virtue of yourbirth, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

And these kids are the KING AND QUEEN’S CHILDREN, so you know,they’re also inherently considered a class all their own, separatedfrom their own AVK peers, and constantly watched by the media andsociety because BOY HOWDY does Auradon love itself some eagerlywatching the 1%’s lives.

There’s two ways that their kids would develop in a society thatoffers them no stability, no community, and all the discriminationand the hatred because they’re an entirely new class of demographicaltogether and that is instinctively terrifying to everyoneelse:

One, you learn to carve out your own niche, take pride in yourdifferences and rally with your other exiled peers, and join or make your owncommunity where you let your Freak Flag fly proud, such asthe slurs being used against your community and turning them into anaffectionate nickname for your group.

Or Two, you forever remain an outsider, and come to terms with thefact that you’re always going to be an outsider, no matter howloved, popular, or invaluable you make yourself to the people thatshun you, and that’s just your lot in life.

Example OC’s of both groups are the following:

“The Knight in Sour Armour” Jacques “Jack” Maurice

Usually, Fairies come to bless newborns, granting them wisdom,strength, and cunning that will serve them well all throughout theirlives. As Jack will tell you, being the biological son of a fairydoes not make you blessed right from the starting gate, it saddlesyou with an awful, terrible curse.

1/4th Fae, 3/4th human; incapable of magic of any sort; naturallyresistant to most poisons, pharmaceuticals, and drugs both good andbad; cursed with both the supercharged empathy of his mother and hisfather and grandfather’s capacity for volatile, explosive rage.

Jack was always capable of experiencing exactly what otherpeople were feeling--their joy, their sadness, their anger, theircuriosity, their disgust, their fear--everything. It was a delight inthat he would happily lose himself in celebrations, literally lettingthe other’s enjoyment flow into him and lift his mood along with itlike a tide, but it was a nightmare when he could also be easilyknocked over and drowned in a sea of gloom, anxiety, and anger.

His parents were blissfully unaware of his distress, Ben thinkinghe was just a particularly emotional child, and Mal evenaffectionately referring to him as a “Cry Baby” because theoverflow of any sort of emotion oftentimes made Jack cry.

Then the panic attacks started.

Mental health STILL being terrible in Auradon, Jack being amagical-hybrid, and the public’s perception that he’s just beinga “yellow-belly who needs to toughen up and grow a thicker skin”whilst they laugh at his latest public emotional breakdown, he’sunable to develop properly or regulate his emotions in healthy ways,and in desperation, turns to Stoicism, using the anger and the ragehe feels at himself to tamp down on ANY emotion he feels or picks upin others.

By his teenage years, he’s an extremely logical and reservedman, eyes decades older than his actual age, a wizard in mathematics,programming, and behavioural economics, one of the foremost expertsand poster boys of rational thought and the study of emotional andpsychological biases, and frequently involved in numerous HIGHLYunpleasant tasks such as reforming the mental health system, fixingthe numerous systemic racism and biases that still exist in his time,along with not only opening the closets that contains theirskeletons, he breaks the doors down so they may never be able torecede where they won’t be noticed and will go unfixed.

When he ascends to the throne, he gains a reputation for being ahighly unpleasant and overtly practical king who has “no respectfor tradition,” just the rule of reason and hard statistics.

He will happily be called callous, cruel, and cold.

But don’t EVER imply that he is unfeeling, that he doesn’tlove his country and its people, or that all of his decisions aren’tmade with the needs of his people above that of his own interests.

Because the one thing that keeps him getting up every morning,that keeps him soldiering through the constant deluge of emotionsthat threaten to sweep him away and overwhelm him once more, is thepain he feels everyday, his rage that they aresuffering, too, and his determination to make it better, comehell or high water.

In his words, "Being a fairy's child is a three part curse:one, you feel exactly what everyone else is feeling; two, you feeltheir suffering extra hard; and three, you literally cannotstop yourself from trying to make them feel better."

His most iconic feature is his left hand: permanently curled into a claw, because of his childhood habit of constantly gripping things so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Rosa “Mel” Melantha

Mel is the spitting image of her grandmother, Belle: intelligent,compassionate, and brave. She even has her exact shade of lovelybrown hair, if her mother’s striking green eyes.

She’s funny. She’s an absolute darling in words and deed,whoever you are. She reads horrific, gory, personal accounts of thepolitical prisoners the likes of Grimhilde kept in dank, inhumanedungeons before bedtime.

For you see, Mel is obsessed with “Evil.” She wants to knowwhy people are so distrustful of her mother for being a “Villain”Kid even if she long stopped being a villain, and in some generousinterpretations, never really was. She wants to know why Auradon heldthe values of being a perfect society with all “Good” people, buther father Ben decided to bring back the “Bad” people to actuallymake it a better society. She wants to know exactly what makessomeone evil, with the ultimate goal of making an objective“Evil-O-Meter” scale, of which the official unit of measurement will be “Mal,” after her mother and grandmother.

In short, she wants to know, “Why?”

As Queen or one of the crown princesses, she becomes a prominentphilosopher, moralist, and attorney of law (and later, judge) whocompletely changes all of Auradon's standards on crime, “Goodness,”and “Evilness” along with earning the ire of most every religiousleader out there when she never stops questioning “What exactly ISGod's Will?” among other probing questions made in good faith andwithout the hint of malevolence, just childlike curiosity that stayswith her her whole life.

And no, she doesn't mind being completely ostractized by hercommunity for being so smart, intellectual, and asking no shortage ofuncomfortable questions, either--”I'd rather be the minority thatis right than the majority that just assumes they are right.”

Belladona AKA “Bella”

From the very beginning, Bella was an artistic soul, drawing andpainting with whatever she could get her hands on. Malenthusiastically bought her a giant collection of finger paints, anextra big canvas for her to unleash her creativity, and left her toher own devices, wanting to be surprised by whatever it was herdaughter was going to create with proper tools.

What she got was a mural of the Circle of Life, with all the gruesome, violent, bloody detail that a two-year old is capable of.

Throughout her life, Bella has always been accused of beingshocking, gruesome, and offensive for the sake of it. And while shewill never deny it, she prefers seeing it as her “portraying lifeas it really is—confusing, messy, and oftentimes horrifying, butbeautiful—always, always beautiful.”

She has donepolitical pieces of the kind of racism and discrimination that AVK'slike her can experience, complete with all the unhealthy copingtactics and the sheer depth of despair they can reach. She has doneinnumerable album covers for heavy metal, punk, and rock bands,hoping to do the artists before her justice as she crafts thecontroversial, graphic, and oftentimes littered with more femalenudity than is strictly necessary faces of the new generation. Shehas made tattoos and art for friends, and especially people who wanttheir very first tattoo done right—her favourite is that of awriter literally bleeding their lifeblood onto their magnum opus.

She curses in sixdifferent languages without a second thought. She will not hesitateto tell you that you suck to your face, that what you said was stupid,or that you look terrible in her iconic getup of ballet skirtsand combat boots. She walks through life ignoring the whispers andadmonishments of the royals and aristocrats of which she willeventually have to rub elbows with full time when she becomes Queen;she also isn't bothered in the slightest about the criticisms of herpeers about her not being “punk” enough or just being a really good “Posey.” (An Auradon Kid or Auradon Villain Kid trying to be more Rotten than they actually are.)

She does what shewants, and what she wants is to live a life where she and everyoneelse is free to do whatever they please, so long as they do not “stepon someone else steel-toed boots.”

She's a Goodperson, who loves hanging out with the Evil crowd, challenging bothof their ideas of if you really are just one or the other.

[ivoryandbonerpg-blog]

                               ♔ ADRIENNE MORALEZ ♔

( the basics. )

AGE: 24 (appears) / 223 LINEAGE: Half-blood / Vampire SCHOOL / ALUMNI: Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry HOUSE: Thunderbird ALLIANCE: Death Eaters (Inner Circle)

( personality. )

✓ / ✗ : ferocious, blunt, intuitive, resilient, hardheaded, proud

( biography. )

• Since the eighteenth century, Adrienne Moralez has been a force to be reckoned with. An unpredictable, ruthless witch, Adrienne spent the first quarter of her life fighting tooth and nail to prove to the rest of the oppressive, bigoted members of the Magical Congress and educational committee that she deserved the spot she’d been given at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An ambitious, driven woman with a long, bloody history smeared across her past, Adrienne Moralez’s background was nothing if not colorful. Born in the heart of Mexico City to a young, dying begger of a Pureblood witch who had hopes and dreams of creating a new life in the United States before she fell ill, Adrienne was quickly discarded between orphanages and the street like vermin, using the magical abilities she obtained from the father she’d never met in order to simply get by. She held nothing but her name, a swaddle of clothing to protect her fresh, vulnerable body from the horrors out of the world, and a letter written in magical pen that detailed to Adrienne her innate magical abilities as the daughter of a Pureblood witch and No-Maj man. If it hadn’t been for the school that led to her magical enlightenment and awakening, Adrienne very likely might have ended up dead on the streets by the time she was twelve years old. But while Ilvermorny might have saved her from the homelessness and crime she’d grown up around, the school was anything but welcoming to her. She was an outcast, among those from North America who were entitled; who had homes and families and places to return to. America was a new country, brand new and fledgling in the wake of the recent American Revolution from Great Britain, and its inhabitants might have been healing in their own way, but they were also proud in a way Adrienne despised. She, who never felt as though she’d belonged anywhere she had been, could not understand their blind patriotism in the slightest. She clung to the other Mexicans who attended the school, but even they held no particular companionship or friendship for her.

• She was sorted into Thunderbird, for her tenacity and ferocity of spirit, but felt no more attached to her schoolmates as she spent year after year at Ilvermorny than she did the beggars she shared streets with back in Mexico. All she knew was that if he despised the magical folk she met within Ilvermorny’s halls, she hated the No-Majs even more. She continued to spend her summer vacations bouncing from one ramshackle orphanage to another, until she was old enough to be of no one’s concern any longer. There were those within Ilvermorny who whispered that people who came purely from Muggle family lines shouldn’t be admitted into magical schools, as they weren’t truly magical people, and although Adrienne didn’t know the particulars of her own lineage outside of the letter her mother had written to her, she found herself agreeing with them. Why should those of strictly No-Maj bloodlines be allowed into a school for those who were truly magical members of society? It was a question that haunted Adrienne throughout the rest of her time at Ilvermorny, up until she was sixteen years old. Then, the summer before her sixth year at school, when she was living back in Mexico and struggling to find a household that would take her on as a servant, everything changed.

• While interviewing with families outside of Mexico City’s limits, desperate to earn her keep and find a situation for after she eventually graduated from Ilvermorny, Adrienne caught the eye of a woman with fat jewels on her fingers and a greedy twinkle in her eyes. An attractive, blossoming young woman, Adrienne was the object of pleasure and desire for many of Mexico’s seedy underbelly. One day, while Adrienne was out searching for work in the community, she was caught, bound and gagged, and forcibly carted off to one of Mexico’s most infamous pleasure houses. Known as La Rosa Roja to its greasy, debauched customers, Adrienne Moralez was everything the brothel’s notorious patron, Amalia Hernandez, looked for in her working girls. A strict, lethal woman, Amalia Hernandez was a predator dressed in silks and masks, who taught her girls the values and virtues of being a young, unmarried woman in the eighteenth century Americas. Amalia was a Spanish-born woman, who had witnessed the corruption in Europe and decided to bring it to Mexico when she and her parents set sail for their home country. Despite her training at Ilvermorny, Adrienne found that it was impossible to escape the grasps of this devil woman and her sultry band of sex slaves. She was a bruja, for Pukwudgie’s sake, but there was something darker and more sinister that protecting La Rosa Roja from her half-baked knowledge of magic and self-defense. Adrienne did not return to Ilvermorny that fall--or ever again, for that matter--and was instead raised with the specific intent to serve as Amalia’s protege; the one red rose to lead them all. She taught Adrienne to be seen and observed, not heard; she taught the Moralez heiress that her body was her strongest weapon of defense; that she could bring men crumbling to their knees with just a tilt of her head. What remained of Adrienne’s youth was spent crafting her into a goddess–Amalia was convinced her leading escort would bring revenue and clientele to La Rosa Roja unlike anything the brothel had ever seen. 

• Adrienne grew to resent No-Majs worse than ever before; Amalia and the goons who had captured her were proof of their treachery. But Adrienne was quickly learning that Amalia wasn’t like any human she’d ever known--that La Rosa Roja held a dark and terrible secret. Amalia Hernandez’s girls possessed a timeless beauty and grace unlike anything else central America had ever seen. She was an indestructible force in the business world, continuously bringing in gold and luxuries that only the most wealthy of business owners could afford. Her wealth was her protection and her girls were her security. In order to keep her employees young, fit, and sultrier than ever, Señora Hernandez possessed the one thing that no other brothel could compete with: immortality. When one of her girls reached the brink of becoming too old or unnervingly human for a client’s taste, Señora Hernandez (or one of her many henchmen) turned them. One by one, the women working under Amalia fell prey to a cursed life of immortality, and when Adrienne had barely reached twenty-four, Amalia thought it fitting to pass her vampiric abilities down to her most prized escort. After all, what was the point in giving up her most precious, most valuable weapon in her arsenal to fleeting mortality and age? Adrienne was a present she had collected, and Amalia would be damned if she left her treasure slip through her fingers. Adrienne was forcibly transformed into a member of the Undead, and while her immortal beauty was meant to be utilized by  Señora Hernandez, Amalia had no idea that she’d created a powerful monster.

• What Amalia hadn’t counted on was Adrienne’s education at Ilvermorny, however cut short it might have been, and craft becoming a weapon, intent on honing her into an otherworldly being of pleasure and destruction. While Adrienne seemed compliant with her twisted, perverse upbringing, her resentment for the woman who forced her to sell her body for coin and turned her into a bloodthirsty monster mounted with each day that passed. Disgusted with the life she’d led since birth, Adrienne was desperate to hatch a plan to escape from Señora Hernandez and her horror show that was La Rosa Roja. Adrienne began to request only the highest paying, most influential clients Amalia had to offer, knowing that the greedy woman would be all too willing to whore out her most prized bitch to whatever royalty or nobility sauntered into her Hell house. Once she had the men in her grasp, isolated in private chambers and away from Amalia’s prying eyes, she talked them into a state of inebriation so far out of control that they couldn’t have kept up with her even if they’d tried. She then questioned the men at length about Amalia Hernandez; her secrets, her business transactions, any weaknesses in her defense. When that was done, she gathered any useful information about methods of blackmail and protecting herself she could find. Adrienne, wanting to see her plan through to the end, used compulsion on the men she stole information from, painting explicit pictures in their heads about the passionate bout of sex they’d shared together. She planted lies in their minds like seeds and watched as they grew into infatuation and a desperate desire to please the fox wearing a swan mask. Amalia Hernandez, expecting nothing, continued to collect profit for a job Adrienne was not–and had no intentions of–following through with. 

• Adrienne gained a certain level of respect and admiration among Señora Hernandez’s ranks, and was therefore most trusted than any other member of Amalia’s swan crew. She trained and built her strength in secret, learning trades of swordplay and defense from the methods she’d picked up on from the men who came calling at her doorstep. She also practiced magic in her spare time, with what she could remember from her days at Ilvermorny. Adrienne was manipulative and powerful; she was indestructible, and when the time came, she was ready to show Señora Hernandez just how much she’d learned from her mistress. An elaborate show had been designed for some of the visiting royalty and debauched politicians who wished to relax from a hard day of work in nearby cities; one featuring Adrienne donning a mask of red roses and skimpy clothing to match. The other  girls wore shades of pearly white, their masks glittering under the candlelight as the women danced to and fro, in erotic synchronization with one another, on the stage. They commanded the attention of every creature in that room…including Señora Hernandez, who sat decidedly next to a foreign diplomat, a smug grin painted across her face. When the final act came in the form of Adrienne wielding daggers in each hand–all for show, or so Amalia thought–Adrienne twirled the metal in her hands, flying across the stage with unnerving grace and ease. At the last minute, and with a loud, triumphant hiss as she bore her fangs, Adrienne leaped from the stage and used her daggers to detach Amalia’s head from her body. The vampire mistress’ head collided to the ground with a sickening thud, and as her blood sprayed across Adrienne’s face and torso, the remaining girls and clients all frantically scattered. Adrienne took out anyone she presumed would be a threat, and when she was finished, La Rosa Roja was a bloody, gory mess of triumph and revenge.

• Adrienne spent the next few decades tracking down the men connected directly to Amalia’s club; the men who had been responsible for helping the upkeep of the place and had turned their fair share of innocent, mortal women. One by one, she slaughtered them and left nothing but streaks of blood in her wake. Her resentment of No-Majs and those who weren’t of pure blood and purpose increased with each decade. She resented those who had stolen her education from her; who had stolen her life from her. Adrienne was a strong, hardheaded woman, but with a complete lack of faith and trust in others. Eventually, when she had made a horror of herself in Mexico and had tracked down and slaughtered every single man who had taken advantage of her youth and restrictive freedom, Adrienne left her home country behind to head back to the United States. She slunk through the borders carefully, avoiding contact with anyone who would question what she was doing in The United States. Slowly but surely, Adrienne made her way back to Ilvermorny’s School of Magic, nearly fifty years after she’d last walked through their doors. She considered demanding a finish to her prematurely ended education, but knew that she would only have torches and pitchforks raised at her instead. At a loss for what to do, she created a home for herself in Massachusetts, stole a wand from a local wizarding supplies shop, and practiced her magic in hiding. She read from books and studied the art of Dark Magic, hoping to use it in her own reign of terror. It was during this time in hiding that Adrienne learned of the Confederation Wizards: a group of Pureblood witches and wizards with a passion for eliminating No-Maj-borns, Squibs, and the general non-magical population from their society. They believed that wizarding society was a superior form of being, and the more Adrienne learned about them, the more she found herself in agreement. After all, wasn’t it what she had been telling herself for years now?

• Adrienne forced her way into the Confederation Wizards--they were skeptical of her at first, as a Mexican-American woman with a secretive past and no proper education, but Adrienne’s fangs and her tenacity soon swayed them into realizing the usefulness of having a vampire among them. Adrienne was never much of a team player, but she became a fierce warrior for the Confederation Wizards over the next century or so, responsible for the slaughter of countless No-Majs and those born of filthy bloodlines. She rose to power within their organization and became one of the leading, domineering forces of the American Confederation. But however powerful and cruel she became, Adrienne desired for more to fill the hateful void that nearly swallowed her whole. She heard of Lord Voldemort as he was rising to power, an eager young man with everything to prove and a cold cruelty to his features, but he fell in what Adrienne considered a blink of the eye. She became fascinated by his attempts, and spent the next decade researching what he called the Death Eaters and how his reign of terror had affected the European continent. When rumors of Lord Voldemort’s resurgence began to trickle through the mouths of Death Eaters and Confederation Wizards alike, Adrienne packed up her belongings and convinced the other members of the Confederation that she would infiltrate the Death Eaters to join forces and help the cause spread to the Americas, as well. Once she had traveled to England, the homestead of Lord Voldemort himself, Adrienne spent the next few years working her way up the ranks of the Dark Lord’s existing Death Eaters--she wanted to be more than a devout follower of Lord Voldemort. She wanted to become his equal. Now, Adrienne is a member of the Dark Lord’s Inner Circle; she bears the Dark Mark and serves him as devoutly as Bellatrix Lestrange does. She maintains a steady connection between the Confederation Wizards and the Death Eaters, promising the Dark Lord the two organizations can work together closely to eliminate filthy blood from the purity of wizarding society. With her wisdom in age, her cleverness, and her vampiric abilities, Adrienne Moralez is the Death Eaters’ secret weapon--and the Order’s worst nightmare.

( sexuality. )

up to player

( connections. )

⚔ Guinevere Delacroix: Guinevere Delacroix is among the youngest within the Dark Lord’s Inner Circle, and something about the French witch has always grated on Adrienne. Though both women are ruthless, haughty, and bloodthirsty, Adrienne and Guinevere have clashed on matters of opinion and war tactics on more than one occasion. Adrienne likes to think that she has the upper hand, being both a vampire and several centuries older than Guinevere, but she knows the Delacroix heiress can hold herself exceedingly well in a match of wits and magic. It’s only a matter of time before the collision between the two is catastrophic, and Adrienne is just waiting for an excuse to use her fangs and strength against Guinevere in a match.

the role of ADRIENNE MORALEZ is currently OPEN.