#tumblr live serves no purpose on this app!!!

[dean-winchester-is-a-warrior]

Fucking Tumblr Live just showed up in my app, taking up the top of my feed and it's annoying af! It's also clearly all fucking porn!!

No wonder we're getting so many god damned porn bots!! Like if I wanted this, I'd join fucking Only Fans. 🙄😒

[moonchild-in-blue]

Vessel and the New Lore

So the new messages got me thinking and connecting dots. I don't know coherent this will sound, but I think there's something here? Anyways. Something about the relationship Vessel has with himself vs. The Mask.

I thought it'd be interesting to link the parallels between the Room Bellow show and the Fall For Me video messages, with the new ones and the album. Long post ahead so I'll put a cut somewhere.

(This is the second time I'll be writing this cus tumblr decided to be a hoe and deleted my entire draft so if it seems weird, you know. Pro tip: never use the app for long posts.)

Disclaimer: I'm in no way endorsing or encouraging any type of discourse about Vessel's irl identity and/or other [Redacted] and such. Unfortunately I do know things, but not everyone does. Respect the band; don't spoil it for others. If you know, keep it to yourself.

So, starting with the first message:

Mask: Why am I here? What is my purpose in all of this? Vessel: Your purpose is twofold. You protect me, from them, and you also protect them from me. Mask: How is it that I serve to protect anyone from anything, that makes no sense. Vessel: In order for all of this to work there has to be a certain boundary in place. They need to be able to project themselves onto this, without anyone else's identity getting in the way. In turn, I need to be able to show my true self to them in a way that does not compromise their ability to connect. Mask: So that's what I am? A boundary? Vessel: Yes.

We have here a confirmation of what he has told us many times before, either indirectly or not. The Mask/the Vessel persona serves as a way for him to connect and engage with us, while keeping both parties safe. We get to project onto and take from him some sort of comfort and catharsis, without any external factors to influence and skew the way we interpret his music, and He gets to expose and deal with his pain and negative thoughts in a protected environment. Who he is is irrelevant, we're merely here to share and understand each other.

Through the anonymity the mask offers, he is free to be as vulnerable and open with us as he wants, while keeping his identity safely stored away. The Mask serves as the physical reminder of how much we are allowed to know about him, and in return, how far he can (or should) expose himself without compromising his true identity. By living as Vessel and forgetting himself, he is ironically free to bare his most fragile and imperfect parts of himself on display (much like how we're all infinitely more honest about our struggles behind a fake online name than in irl.)

(curiously, this seems to be a contradiction to Higher's second verse, which feeds into the idea that Sleep is not the protector Vessel sometimes claims Them to be - "With all that you believe / You still refuse to shelter me")

From the Room Bellow:

"I experienced a great deal of pain in my life, however I do not believe I have suffered as you have suffered. Perhaps that Is another reason why we are here. At the very least, we have all suffered."

Lore wise, we are told time and time again that Vessel is a "sacred guardian", a messenger, a weapon, a tool - a physical vessel - for Sleep and Their message. He is the answer to Sleep's necessity for connection with us. And for that to work, he willingly gives up his identity for Sleep. For us.

Mask: I don't believe you. I believe there is more to it than that. I believe you are afraid of something. Vessel: We are all afraid of something, are we not? Mask: What is it you are so afraid they will see? Vessel: That I am exactly like everyone else. ... Vessel: I think I am afraid of becoming you. Mask: What does that even mean? Vessel: My life is becoming gradually consumed by you. Before long, all that I am will be contained within you. Then, one day, when I no longer wish to wear you, there will be nothing else left.

"I am afraid, are you afraid? I want to understand what it is to let go." (Fall For Me)

At the end of the day, Vessel is just some guy - he fears, and aches, and bleeds the same as us. We're equals. But as Vessel, he can't allow himself to crack, to break the illusion. As Vessel (and to connect to the lore, as the vessel of a god), he poses as someone we can look up to, someone who's there to carry our pain for us, almost like a symbiotic relationship of sorts - we feed on each other's emotions and energies.

From the Room Bellow:

"To love oneself is not the easy task we are sometimes told it is. (...) My own path towards greater self acceptance is paved with the art that I create. It is a path I continue to stumble down at the expense of everything else."

Without getting too much into it, it seems Vessel/Sleep Token were created as a sort of coping mechanism to deal with whatever it is that He went through. And he seems to have achieved that - he escaped his former self and became "Vessel", someone who's allowed to cry and rage and let his feeling loose. Someone who receives praise and comfort for it, someone who is finally understood.

Except that somehow, that same safety the Mask offered him backfired. Because how can you tell what's you and what's not? It appears that the lines between Vessel vs. Him have blurred beyond recognition. Because "Nothing lasts forever", so once ST ends, and Vessel is no longer a necessity, who does he become? Can he go back to his old self? Is there even a self to go back to?

Do you ever believe that we can turn into different people? It's getting harder to be myself. Do you wish that you loved me? Could we ever release? Is it better to just not feel?

I think it's worth mentioning DYWTYLM. Usually when I listen to it, I just interpret as being about self-love/esteem, suicidal thoughts, insecurities, yada yada yada, BUT! I think it kinda fits this right?? Like a conversation between Vessel and Him, the guy behind the mask.

And really, if you think about it, I think this dialogue is the basis of what TMBTE is. It's Vessel facing all these different facets of himself, the past versions, the ugly sides, coming to terms with them and learning to move on. And in the end, we see he finally does realize, albeit somewhat reluctantly, that there is more to it, than he can "be someone new", even if it means he needs to shed and let go of past versions of himself.

(of course, this is putting aside the whole trilogy and the story we've been told about Sleep/Vessel/Whatever romantic entanglement he was involved in. i'm merely giving this some other meaning and choosing to look through a very specific lens. call it a parallel universe if you want)

It's him accepting that although there may not be a version of himself to come back to, his Eden so to speak, there is finally something more waiting for him. But I'll get more into it later.

Also worth mentioning, this part of conversation-

Mask : Do you think they want you to cry? Do you think they like it? Vessel : Not as such, I think they just want to know that I am feeling something, feeling what they are feeling, perhaps. Mask : Do you think that this amount of crying is healthy for you? Vessel: I don't know. But at least I feel something, if I don't feel anything than why would I even do this?

-seems to be directly co-related to those lines on DYWTYLM. He wonders if maybe would be better not to feel at all, as if really asking himself, "should I continue to live as Vessel?", because that is his/The Mask's function.

(I almost forgot to mention the "Smile back at me" / "I can only ever see them smiling. That's good, I want them to smile." co-relations, but you see where I'm going right?")

Mask: It seems you have forgotten who you are. Before you had me you were nothing. All of this artifice, all this pathetic conjecture about your identity, it is nothing but a manifestation of how short-sighted and solipsistic you have become. I lifted you from misery and obscurity. You would be better to become me. You are nothing without me. You always were nothing without me.

"I am nothing without this music. I am nothing without this mask." (Room Bellow)

Sleep is a dickhead. And there it is - another confirmation of what we all assumed, of what he has also told us many times before in different words. Vessel, or better yet, Him, struggles with imposter syndrome, and a part of him seems to believe his worth is exclusively tied to his ability to create music and perform. Because who matters is Vessel, not Him. The praise and adoration, the glory, belongs to solely Vessel (in-lore, to Sleep).

He does not matter. He is insignificant. He is nothing.

So it makes sense to see how much he wishes to be someone else. How dependent he on his Mask (on Sleep). He can't shed that new identity away, because somehow, it became is ONLY identity. And yet, he knows that one day that must happen. And from a creative/artist standpoint, when you expose yourself the way he does into your art, almost bleeding into it, if that outlet is taken away, you really are left with nothing.

(yall, read the poem "about the PEN conference" by Bukowski).

"The truth is, I am ugly, I am inadequate, I am lost. I am no God." (Fall For Me)

And can I just say, how incredibly heartbreaking it is to hear him talk about himself like that? I have so, so much love and respect for Ves, it's almost ridiculous to think he is only worth the weight of his mask. I would give him a million hugs if I could. Whether or not he still believes that, I hope he one day can look at himself the way we do, and be proud and happy of the amazing human that he is.

I also think that, and this is just me rambling, their sudden explosion to fame must've taken some sort of toll of sorts. It must be SUCH an amazing feeling to see this many people connect and dedicate themselves to something you created, to be able to read between the lines of you thoughts, but it must just equally as scary. Suddenly there's SO many eyes on you, demanding and picking apart every gesture. Viciously clawing at the mask for a glimpse of the fragile soul within. It must not be easy to cope - and this goes to everyone in Sleep Token. They have to deal with so much unfairness, it's disgusting.

Vessel: You. Are. Wrong. In the end, my fractured sense of self was only another piece of fuel for the fire that burns in the eyes of these people before us. They too are pained. They too not know who they truly are. They are each stood alone on a stage of their own. And yet, they are here. United by that sense of never truly belonging. They see something beyond their own bleak horizons. And they reach for it. Together. So let us join now. To reflect their joy and to serve as a conduit for their anguish. To swallow their fear. To Worship.

"So for now let me serve as a living drama of your pain. If we are to be submerged then let us be submerged together." (Fall For Me)

And this is the part that really breaks me. He knows how much we need this, how much we rely on his music, on his words. He fights against his own claims that he has no value - he serves a purpose and that purpose is to serve the audience. Us. To take our struggles, our desires, and make it his own. To basically serve as a sacrifice for our well-being. To suffer, to feel together. To serve as a living drama of OUR pain.

"I will smile through the agony for you".

Because in the end, we're all equally broken. Because that's what the Mask is for, the anonymity, the mystery, the band - for us to "project ourselves" onto him, onto them. They are vessels, servants, worshippers of a god who shelters them; much like how we interact with their music, much like how Vessel thinks his purpose is for.

(and I could expand on this weird worshipper vs worshipee cycle, but i'm tired and i can't ramble on for too long. someone more clever than me feel free to expand)

(a post edit: peep that "fire that burns in the eyes of these people before us" vs "those eyes like fire, I'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre" parallel. Vessel sacrificing himself to us, for us. Performing and being Vessel as something he cannot but feel compelled to do.)

From the Room Bellow:

"We are here to silently collect. To project ourselves onto one-another. We are here to remember. We are here to forget."

WHICH BRINGS US TO EUCLID.

No, by now The night belongs to you This bough has broken through I must be someone new

If we are to take the messages as a complement to the album, then this definitely marks the "shift" in Vessel's perspective. He CAN be more, and he NEEDS to be more. To be new.

The night does not belong to god - it belongs to US. To Him. Not just Vessel, but Him. Obviously this is all speculation, but it really feels like he's ready to let go of so many things, and move on. To renew himself, to stand up and fight. To finally "bite back". He doesn't seem to be completely changed, as there are things he still seems to hold on to (just listen to Euclid). But it´s different now. The "vicious cycle is over."

"They see something beyond their own bleak horizons. And they reach for it. Together. So let us join now."

Vessel seems to emphasize the "collectiveness" of what Sleep Token is and represents quite often. So in a way, it´s him saying "We´ve all suffered together, we've all experienced so many things together, so let us reach for something better as one. Let us all become new. You are not alone in this, and neither am I, so hold on to us and be happy."

WHICH IS!!!!! JUST!!!!!

I think this shift represents something important. My guess, like many others have said, is that Something Big is going to happen in/after Wembley. I don't know what, I don't know if it's truly the end of the road for ST, as many speculate, but something is definitely going to happen. Whatever it is, I hope this is a positive change for them, and specially Vessel, and I am just so so grateful to be part of this amazing community of ours.

(if you read the whole thing, I love you and thank you and I'm sorry. My brain was itching real bad and this had to be let out. Don't take this a proper analysis or whatever, this is me squeezing excess water off the old rag that is my mind)

[kozakuwas]

okay, clearing eyes rant i've had in my notes app for months that i'm finally posting to tumblr

okay. snake of clearing eyes. me ga saeru hebi. this fucker. word vomiting here since i've had these thoughts for So Long and i need to put them all somewhere.

clearing is obviously the villain of the story. he is the sole cause of everything bad happening in kagepro. he also represents trauma itself to the mekakushi dan and azami. i believe he is more supposed to be perceived as not a solid character like azami for example, but rather a force.

jin intentionally doesn't really give him a defined personality, same goes with the other snakes. they act upon their namesakes and clearing is no exception. his name, "clearing eyes", is supposed to mean he has more awareness, more sentience, than others. makes sense as he serves as azami's intelligence. due to this, he believes he is "above" the other snakes despite not really being too different from the others. he acts upon his namesake like them. he still serves azami just like them. he doesn't really stand out, which may be why he tries to gain autonomy.

clearing represents everything wrong with the dan and azami, he was born from azami's trauma, he was born from a lack of love, therefore he cannot quite understand it and deems it as a useless human emotion. he doesn't feel love towards azami, it's more devotion. he was created to serve azami as with the other snakes. azami technically is a mother to him as she "gave birth" to him, but he does not view her as such. he only views her as his master. his reason for his actions throughout the story is for the sole purpose of fulfilling the wish that azami made that brought him into existence. he is devoted to this, he is devoted to azami regardless of who else he's serving (ex. kenjiro or marry) and he holds no love for anyone.

clearing really isn't supposed to be viewed as a character like azami or the dan. jin shows this with how he writes clearing, even clearing himself is aware of this. he knows his place in the narrative, he acts exactly how you'd imagine a monster to act. how he *thinks* a monster should act, like having a disregard for the lives and emotions of humans or causing tragedy wherever he goes. his true role is to basically make azami remember her roots, bring her back to her lonely and sorrowful existence as a monster because it's how *he* thinks a monster should live. applying all these human characteristics to a character that intentionally lacks these things is where things tend to go wrong. when you do this with clearing, it takes away from his character, in my opinion. it literally goes against his character.

[desib717]

Some of @staff 's recent stupid changes I can at least somewhat understand from a business/corporate perspective, but the continued insistence on Tumblr Live is genuinely baffling.

If they wanted to add the feature as an optional thing, sure, I really couldn't care less, but they seem so convinced that they can somehow win over everyone who hates it.

The whole snoozing instead of a permanent off switch was already annoying, and served no purpose but to make everyone hate the feature even more (the exact opposite of the intended result)and now the fact that snoozing it doesn't even get rid of the navigation button in the middle of the mobile app is just. Ugh (also just. The fact that their justification is literally "now even if you intentionally went out of your way to turn off this stupid feature, you can still use it anyway!!!" Like, how do you not see the flaw in that logic???)

Sorry for the rant, I just saw the latest ask on WIP and the complete refusal to even remotely acknowledge any feedback they don't want to hear is really pissing me off

[agapi-kalyptei]

Hi!! I'm the anon who sent @/jv the question about how tumblr is handling boops, thanks for answering it in detail i really appreciate it!!! I understand some of it but there's room to learn and I'll look forward to that.

can I ask a follow up question, i don't know if this makes sense but is it possible to use something like k8s containers instead of lots of servers for this purpose?

Hi! Thanks for reaching out.

Yeah my bad, I didn't know what your technical skill level is, so I wasn't writing it in a very approachable level.

The main takeaway is, high scalability has to happen on all levels - feature design, software architecture, networking, hardware, software, and software management.

K8s (an open source software project called Kubernetes, for the normal people) is on the "software management" category. It's like what MS Outlook or Google Calendar is to meetings. It doesn't do the meetings for you, it doesn't give you more time or more meeting rooms, but it gives you a way to say who goes where, and see which rooms are booked.

While I cannot say for Tumblr, I think I've heard they use Kubernetes at least in some parts of the stack, I can't speak for them. I can speak for myself tho! Been using K8s in production since 2015.

Once you want to run more than "1 redis 1 database 1 app" kind of situation, you will likely benefit from using K8s. Whether you have just a small raspberry pi somewhere, a rented consumer-grade server from Hetzner, or a few thousand machines, K8s can likely help you manage software.

So in short: yes, K8s can help with scalability, as long as the overall architecture doesn't fundamentally oppose getting scaled. Meaning, if you would have a central database for a hundred million of your users, and it becomes a bottleneck, then no amount of microservices serving boops, running with or without K8s, will not remove that bottleneck.

"Containers", often called Docker containers (although by default K8s has long stopped using Docker as a runtime, and Docker is mostly just something devs use to build containers) are basically a zip file with some info about what to run on start. K8s cannot be used without containers.

You can run containers without K8s, which might make sense if you're very hardware resource restricted (i.e. a single Raspberry Pi, developer laptop, or single-purpose home server). If you don't need to manage or monitor the cluster (i.e. the set of apps/servers that you run), then you don't benefit a lot from K8s.

Kubernetes is handy because you can basically do this (IRL you'd use some CI/CD pipeline and not do this from console, but conceptually this happens) -

kubectl create -f /stuff/boop_service.yaml kubectl create -f /stuff/boop_ingress.yaml kubectl create -f /stuff/boop_configmap.yaml kubectl create -f /stuff/boop_deploy.yaml

(service is a http endpoint, ingress is how the service will be available from outside of the cluster, configmap is just a bunch of settings and config files, and deploy is the thing that manages the actual stuff running)

At this hypothetical point, Tumblr stuff deploys, updates and tests the boop service before 1st April, generally having some one-click deploy feature in Jenkins or Spinnaker or similar. After it's tested and it's time to bring in the feature to everyone, they'd run

kubectl scale deploy boop --replicas=999

and wait until it downloads and runs the boop server on however many servers. Then they either deploy frontend to use this, or more likely, the frontend code is already live, and just displays boop features based on server time, or some server settings endpoint which just says "ok you can show boop now".

And then when it's over and they disable it in frontend, just again kubectl scale .. --replicas=10 to mop up whichever people haven't refreshed frontend and still are trying to spam boops.

This example, of course, assumes that "boop" is a completely separate software package/server, which is about 85/15% chance that it isn't, and more likely it's just one endpoint that they added to their existing server code, and is already running on hundreds of servers. IDK how Tumblr manages the server side code at all, so it's all just guesses.

Hope this was somewhat interesting and maybe even helpful! Feel free to send more asks.

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO NEFE COSMIA, AINCHASE ISHMAEL. 🌓

ꕥ  — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: Revvington age: 23 pronouns: no ooc contact: @architectureteam, tumblr other characters in xc: Noah Ebalon (Nyx Pieta)

ꕥ  — IC INFORMATION;

name: Ainchase Ishmael (Opferung) age: ??? (adult, looks early 20s) pronouns: any series: Elsword canon point: Monaterra app triggers: religion & religious trauma? this app is surprisingly tame personality: The very first thing you may notice about Ainchase is just how cruel he is. He has next to no respect for human life - why would he, when humans have been nothing but disgusting filth? He's not the type to torment people for fun or to go out of his way just to harm others; he simply feels absolutely no desire to help anyone, any kind acts he might do being fueled by purely selfish motivation. Anything he does matters only to him. Anyone else? They can rot. He cares little. Don't trust him to watch your back - he'll abandon you, or even actively stab you in the back, if he finds he can gain from doing so.

The second thing you would notice is how lofty and superior he thinks himself compared to everyone else. As an angel, he lives on a plane of existence above all others - both figuratively and literally. He is not shy on how he considers humans and other sapient beings to be like the garbage on the streets, and how he is a divine creature worthy of respect, something everyone else has to humble themselves in front of. Yet… he also hates himself deep, deep to his core. Yes, he is an angel, yes, he is better than most, it is not a front - but he is an angel who failed his mission, the one thing he was created to do. He is an angel who became corrupted by demonic energy. That's right - him, an angel, a holy, pure being, tainted by demons, worthless, repulsive things that need to be eradicated… He is a worthless, filthy sinner whose prolonged existence is a punishment. He was created for one singular purpose, failed, and promptly felt abandoned by his Goddess, left to fumble around in the dark all on his own after his path was torn astray. That one singular purpose of his - to live and serve Her - taken away from him, it's left him feeling lost and hopeless. Nothing is left for him. His cruelty and his excessive violence is a desperate cry for help, a last-ditch attempt to reach his Goddess and be put back on the right path. He is a broken tool, desperate for guidance, acting out in fear and contempt in the hopes it'll end his suffering. It doesn't matter what happens to him after. With each passing second, every action he takes, his sins grow worse and worse, but he does not care. She is all he knows. She is all that matters to him. He'll do whatever it takes to hear from Her. Once–(if, but he refuses to accept that) She finally acknowledges him… he'll take whatever punishment he deserves.

something your muse struggles with: Ainchase is incapable of reasonably existing autonomously. He is not a person - he is nothing more than a tool to be used, and much to his dismay, he has been discarded and left behind all on his own. In his current state, he simply cannot properly function without his Goddess' guidance, as demonstrated by the absolutely broken state his rampant emotions have spiraled him into. your muse’s greatest strength: He is nothing if not determined and headstrong. He has one singular overarching goal, and he will stop at nothing to reach this. It is impossible to convince him otherwise or stop him in any way. The same applies to any smaller goals he might set his mind to - he will do anything it takes to achieve what he wants, no matter what it does to him or anyone else.

history / background: Elrios. A land kept alive by the Great El, a gift from the goddess Ishmael. A massive crystal of life-giving energy, taming the destructive, wild chaos that Elrios was born out of, making its lands finally inhabitable by the many different peoples that came to live on it. No good thing is to last, however - after disastrous wars and misuse of the energy of the El, it grew viciously unstable. It took many lives to keep it from collapsing, but even now it remains unstable and needs constant tending to stay whole. That is where Ainchase Ishmael came in. An angel created by Ishmael, his sole purpose was to feed his energy to the El, to hopefully stabilize it for good. … unfortunately, things weren't going to be so easy.

He arrived too late. He descended down from heaven and arrived in the city where the El was kept, but before he was able to approach, the El exploded in front of him. This explosion tore apart the fabric of reality, creating interdimensional rifts that lead to the endless chaos between existence. He was promptly sucked in through one of these rifts, before it closed behind him, trapping him inside.

Within, he wandered into the god Henir, the very core of the endless chaos itself. This god's very presence was enough to irreversibly taint and corrupt his being, marking the skin around his right eye. Then he was abandoned, left there to wander the void for five hundred years before finally finding a trace of El energy - a lifeline. He followed it until he stumbled onto another rift leading outside, and finally managed to escape chaos, arriving back in Elrios.

When the El exploded, it was scattered into countless tiny shards. These shards were powerful enough to make the surrounding areas inhabitable, and villages were built around them. He arrived in one of these villages, near a teen who was trying to protect the shard from a demon… which then got stolen by a bunch of bandits while he wasn't looking, of course. Ain couldn't tell if the El energy he felt came from the El shard or the teen, so instead of leaving to chase the bandits he decided to stick around for now, under the guise of being a priestess of the goddess Ishmael. This is how his little adventure as part of the El Search Party started.

During his travels, Ain learned that his contact with the goddess Ishmael had been cut off. He had called out for her many times, but she never answered. This worried him immensely. His worry, coupled with the guilt of having failed the mission he was created for, caused his hatred towards humans to start growing. Humans, despite having already caused the El to explode through their misuse, kept abusing the El's power and using it carelessly, even now that it was in tiny shards. The thought of this filled him with disgust, even though he knew there was nothing he could do. The El was the gift of the Goddess given to humans, so it was theirs to do with as they pleased.

This anxiety of his started physically wearing away at his body, likely as a result of the corruption he sustained within chaos. He knew he couldn't go on much longer like this. To combat this, he took some of the latent El energy in the environment and recycled it back within his body to sustain himself whilst he fought off the corruption. Quietly he carried on, hoping he could finally get the chance to reach out to Ishmael.

This chance never came. His anxiety started to build up as no matter what, he could just not reach her. He started fearing the worst - what if she had forgotten about him? Or worse, abandoned him? He tried to swallow it down - he can't let his anxiety get the better of him now.

His efforts didn't matter. When he arrived in Feita, he found an El shard that had been utterly corrupted with demonic energy. Absolutely panicked, he rushed over to try to purify it, but stupidly left himself open to the demonic energy… which seeped in through his corruption. Before he could tell what happened, the demonic energy started twisting his magic, corrupting it as well.

Fury overtook him. Not only did these humans shatter the El they were given, they then proceeded to further desecrate its shards with no remorse. The Goddess may have given them this blessing, but these foolish, ungrateful beings did not deserve it at all.

His unstable emotions, having started festering because of his increasing corruption, lead him to make a grave decision. If the El is left as is, it will only get worse. His mission was to return energy to the El. To do so, the destroyed El must first be restored. However, he cannot leave it to the same humans who destroyed it. It has to be protected, and he has to do it. He has to return the scattered energy to the El… so he left the El Search Party, traveling on his own in order to reclaim the El energy from those awful humans using it for their own ends.

His power and his body slowly corrupted further as he continued on, eating away at him like acid. He was unaware of the way his corruption was starting to take root deep inside and rending apart his very core.

At the end, the El was restored, even though he hadn't been the one to do it. Not that he minded - it was one step closer to his goal. Now all he needed to do was to sacrifice himself to the El, giving it his power and finally stabilizing it… but when he reached out to become one with him, an instinctive repulsion pulled him away from it, something deep within him screaming that he shouldn't merge with it. This confused him at first, but he soon realized why; he was corrupted by demonic energy and steeped within chaos. He was no longer a pure being formed entirely of the El. Something like him could never fully restore the El.

In an instant, everything he had hoped for collapsed. He had hoped if he just fulfilled his mission like he was supposed to, everything would work itself out. He wasn't meant to make decisions on his own. Confused and more desperate than ever, he called out for the Goddess to help. He would take anything. Guidance on what to do next, punishment for failing, or to be destroyed and replaced… anything.

Yet all he got was that same, horrifying silence.

He couldn't understand. Everything kept building up, things he was never meant to deal with… he started growing resentful of the Goddess. One last time, he cried out in prayer, bearing all of his emotions to Her. Humans were foolish creatures that shattered the El and spat all over Her gift - then why did She give them Her mercy, but not him, Her faithful servant, the one who has been dutifully serving Her this entire time? Why did they deserve it, but not him? How could She stay silent, watching him like this? Unless She really, truly had abandoned him…

…

He could take this no longer. Driven beyond exhaustion, Ainchase gave up trying to reach out to Her. But he had to hear from Her. He wanted an answer. Any answer. And if he couldn't reach Her, then he'll just get Her to come to him.

Even if he has to destroy the Goddess' beloved Elrios. If he can reach Her… it'll be worth any sin.

powers / abilities: Intervention. Ainchase is a divine being, whose presence was supposed to be ephemeral. This is reflected in his Intervention. Ainchase has to will himself into the physical world, using the power of his pendulum, before he can interact with the world - in order to "intervene". Whenever he is not intervening, he disappears from everyone’s memory like he never existed, resting on a different level of existence, and when he intervenes again, memories are restored once again as if he's been there the entire time. Thus he has lived a life of constantly shifting in and out of reality, intervening in order to impose his will on the world, and disappearing again to regain his power and strength. Note that his pendulum is required for this, and if he has broken it, he cannot stop or start intervening until it has recovered.

Disparate Force. A harmony of two types of magic, unique to him. Ainchase can freely switch between either to focus his attention on a very specific power and shift his style of combat accordingly.

Cycle Magic. The magic granted upon him through the power of his own name. Ainchase’s Cycle Magic lets him manipulate the El energy around him to boost his own inner potential. This magic leads to a more magically oriented fighting style where he uses the magic of the El to fight his foes at range.

Creation Magic. The magic granted upon him by the Goddess Ishmael. Ainchase’s Creation Magic lets him create projections of all sorts of objects, though he mostly uses it to create various weapons to do combat with. This magic leads to a more physically oriented fighting style where he gets down and dirty up close with his very own arsenal of weapons. Thanks to the influence of demonic energy, both styles of magic have mutated into a rawer, more forceful form of themselves. It has become wilder, more powerful and harder to control. His untamed, corrupted magics are capable of tearing apart the fabric of reality and everything caught in-between - even being on his side doesn't mean you're safe.

Spiritualism. Once his pendulum has been broken, Ainchase can drop his human appearance and channel into the full power of his angelic heritage through a process called Awakening. His appearance drastically changes as he assumes his ‘true form’, causing him to radiate light, gain flight and a powerful echo to his voice, but most importantly, vastly increase his combative potential. This is also a button that causes neon signs to float around him loudly declaring that he is non-human and of divine origin, but, hey, it's not like he was really hiding it anymore.

inherent abilities: Energy sensing. Being an angel, Ainchase's natural ability to sense all sorts of types of magical energy emanated by people is vastly superior to that of normal people in his universe. He can feel the energy in a large radius around him, allowing him to 'feel' people and magical things even when he cannot see them - like a sort of blindsense. He is mostly attuned to sensing different kinds of El energy and derivatives of it (like elemental El energy or Henir energy), and demonic energy. This means that, for example, he can tell if a person is attuned to a specific element, if they're part of the Elsword universe, and if they are a demon or not. He could learn to sort of identify people by the energy they emit, but that would take a long time - perhaps a possibility for those he spends a lot of time around.

items / weapons: Pendulum. The pendulum that Ainchase carries with him wherever he goes - the very source of his strength and something he keeps on him at all times. The radiance within the center of his pendulum glows with a harsh light, and is a reminder of his origin. Working as an anchor and a limiter, in order to access the limits of his power, he has to shatter and destroy his pendulum with his magic. This slowly repairs itself over time - he can delay this repair, but not speed it up. This unleashed power can then be further increased to its absolute limit when accessing his Spiritualism form.

starting ability: Disparate Force starting item: Pendulum

would you like this character to be housed upon arrival?: no :3

extra:

discord id: entmachtung

[tapejob]

help im from twitter and idk what im doing. how does hockey tumblr work

so you just fled hockeytwt - what now?

hey anon, welcome to hockeyblr! we're imo one of the best communities on tumblr and we're so glad to have you. hopefully you'll enjoy your stay :)

some general tumblr things to note:

as you probably know, tumblr doesn't run on an algorithm

any content depends primarily on what blogs you follow + occasionally what tags you follow (less reliable. your main source will be by blogs)

tags serve mainly as an organizational/content marker, as well as for filtering purposes. tagging #fyp to get your content out there does nothing

to send an ask, click on the button beside the follow/following button on the user's blog - some people rename the 'ask' to some other things, which may make it hard to find

we are the faceless app. pls customize your blog a little so it doesn't look like you're a bot but do not feel pressured to reveal names/face/age/pronouns whatever

once again, the only way content is found is through reblogs. reblog things that u think are neat, no additions required :)

re filtering: you can block terms/tags/content you don't want to see on your dash (e.g. 'tw sexual assault'). here's a better post to explain trigger warning/tagging etiquette

ok onto general hockeyblr:

to follow tags, go into the search bar and type out #[tag] and click the blue follow button on the right. your basic starter pack of tags to follow in hockeyblr: #hockey, #nhl, etc.

but that's lame. and you're probably not gonna get any of the juicy stuff

following your team/the teams you are tangentially interested in and their popular player tags are often a good way to start breaking into the community (e.g. #pittsburgh penguins, #sidney crosby)

follow cool hockeyblr ppl! u can find ppl in your team spheres through the tags i mentioned above. there was also a hockeyblr directory made a while back (og masterlist is down but shoot me a message and i can get you some specific team lists. don't be afraid to ask ppl for recs too)

reblog, like, etc. esp with content creators/gifsets/etc. engagement does the heart good

wtf is liveblogging:

lots of users liveblog and post commentary during games!

you can find these posts in the lb tags, which vary by team and are sort of collectively known (e.g. #pens lb for pittsburgh)

some tags are a little less intuitive: #nyr lb or #rangers lb are both used for the rangers iirc, #bolts lb or #tbl lb have both been used for tampa - feel free to shoot me an ask/msg if you have trouble lol

big events, such as the playoffs, worlds, the all star game, etc may have their own special tags (e.g. #scp lb, #worlds lb, #asg lb, #team germany lb, etc). you'll figure it out as you go! and don't be afraid to ask for clarification

tagging your liveblogs are pretty important since:

it's fun to liveblog with a bunch of people on your silly little gang of guys! helps u find friends to follow, and

people who follow the opposing team might want to filter out your commentary (more info below)

ouch, yikes. i don't want to see that (aka, filtering/blocking)

coming back to filtering, the nice thing abt tumblr is that u can filter out whatever tags/blogs/keywords you don't want to see on your dash

go to your blog settings to live peacefully and with prosperity

you can filter out team tags/liveblogs/players, anything you want. in fact, u are encouraged bc not feeling extreme rage over some picture on the dash of the team that knocked your team out of the scp does the body good

filtered posts don't disappear entirely from the dash (in case u have fomo), but when a blog u follow posts about something in that tag, you will see a blurred post with the tags you filtered, as well as an option to view the post

(looks like this)

some users also have specific tags that they may have created for organizational purposes and to help you block specific content (e.g. #nhl trade rumors are my personal tag for, you guessed it, trade rumors. some ppl don't wanna hear that, so easy tagging for filter)

on that note: filter and move on. don't go into opposing team tags/liveblogs and talk shit or stir up shit. you will be blocked by. a significant amount of people. play nice y'all, it's hockey

rpf/fic

not really my area of expertise on tumblr, but there's a pretty big rpf/fic community on hockeyblr. follow or block as you need!

player relationship tags are a good place to look for content (e.g. #sidgeno, #8771)

use the :readmore: function on tumblr liberally if you're posting fics - full player fics in the player tags can suck to scroll through for an outside user

once again, don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help. best of luck navigating hockeyblr, you're sure to have a blast!

[martelldoran]

WHAT'S THE CAUSALITY LOOP THEORY

Why Emma, thank you so much for asking. I’m not going to waste time before jumping into this because this is gonna get long so without further ado...

Steve Rogers’ Ending and How Endgame Doesn’t Support a Causality Loop and other such rambles

Last month, I came across a TikTok that proposed that Steve’s ending made sense because it existed within a causality loop. I would link the TikTok but I didn’t save it at the time and trying to find videos on that app is impossible. You think Tumblr’s search function is bad? 🙄 But I digress. The TL;DR of the video is that due to time travel and Steve choosing to go back in time to be Peggy’s husband, it created a causality loop where he was always meant to be her husband because he went back in time and stayed there. The TikToker supported his argument by using Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA), another film that uses time travel and has a clearly defined example of a causality loop. However, his argument is fundamentally flawed so I’m going to combine my knowledge of my two biggest fandoms to tell you why.

Continued under the cut because I have no chill. Beware, it's long.

To first tell you how Endgame (EG) doesn’t support a causality loop, we must establish how PoA does establish one and does it successfully. The TikToker specifically mentions the scenes that take place at Hagrid’s Hut surrounding Buckbeak the hippogriff’s execution, so we’ll look at those first. What the film does really well is establish early on that there is something weird going on well before anyone actually goes back in time. There are three things that happen in quick succession during this scene which sets up the causality loop we see later in the film. First, a rock flies through the window and breaks a jar. Second, another rock hits Harry in the back of the head. Third, once outside, Hermione hears a branch snap and thinks she sees ‘something’. There are also two additional moments later on in the film once the Harry, Ron, and Hermione have come out of the Shrieking Shack which should also be noted: a wolf howl that distracts Remus Lupin in werewolf form from attacking the group and somebody casting a full-bodied stag patronus at the edge of the lake to save Harry and Sirius from the Dementors.

Of these occurrences, the first is arguably the most important because it does the most to establish that there is something going on outside of the Trio’s current understanding of their situation. The film makes a point to frame the jar breaking as Important Information the Audience Must Remember because it shows a visibly confused Hermione reacting to it as she picks up the rock for closer inspection and we the audience are given close up of it in her hand. Not only is it framed front and centre in the shot but the rock itself is very distinctive. It’s almost wholly smooth but for a swirl of fossil, thus marking it as not just any rock but An Important Rock To Be Remembered. This was an intentional choice by director Alfonso Curon because he uses this rock to connect this moment to its mirrored scene later on once Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.

The audience and the characters find out about the causality loop at the same time. There are clearly stated rules of time travel that say that they aren’t to meddle with time but when Harry and Hermione see that Dumbledore, the Minister for Magic, and the executioner are on their way to Hagrid’s hut they panic because their counterparts aren’t leaving. Then, we see Hermione notice something in the pumpkin patch: a distinctive rock, smooth with a swirl of fossil. Again, we see have a close up shot with the rock centred to show its importance. Stylistically, it’s very similar to the shot we saw earlier in the film which gives the audience an emotional pay off for noticing the connection. When Hermione throws the rock and breaks the jar, it sets the causality loop in motion. The jar was always going to break because they went back in time to throw the rock that breaks it.

And it’s the same with all the other instances. Hermione throws the second rock that hits Harry in the back of the head to alert him to the fact they need to get out of the hut. Hermione snaps the branch and is almost seen by her counterpart in the past. Hermione makes the wolf call to distract Lupin from attacking. Harry, and not his father as he had assumed, casts the patronus to save himself and Sirius from the Dementors. But each of these moments are set up clearly in the ‘first run through’ to set up their payoff when the characters realise, ‘Oh, I did these things. They were always meant to happen.’ From a narrative standpoint, these are planned out moments to clue the audience into the fact that there’s something bigger at play. It keeps them ‘in the loop’ as it were.

This doesn’t happen in EG.

To successfully have set up a causality loop that made sense and had the same kind of set up and pay off as we see in PoA, it would have had to have been established as early as 2014 in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CA:TWS). This does not happen. One of the main themes of CA:TWS is moving on from the past. Peggy Carter herself even says, “I’ve lived my life, my only regret is that you didn’t get to live yours.” Then saying soon after, “Sometimes the best thing we can do is to start over.” Peggy’s character in Captain America: The First Avenger is set up as someone who acts as the backup/back bone of Steve’s own moral compass. When Steve falters at Azzano about what to about the captured 107th, Peggy is there to remind him of what is right. She serves a similar narrative function in CA:TWS. Steve is struggling with life in the present. He’s just seen the helecarriers and argued with Nick Fury about protection vs fear after the botched Lumerian Star mission. Morally, he’s in turmoil and has turned to Peggy for council because he’s trying to find purpose in world where his rigid morality seems to have no place.

From the point of view of creating a causality loop, one would think that this scene in the hospital would be the place where an initial set-up could be made and alert the audience to the long term plan for Steve’s character. Instead, we have Peggy mourning the fact that Steve didn’t get to live his life the way it should have played out, and why would a woman who has supposedly been married to another version of Steve tell him to move on? In addition, when Steve visits the Smithsonian, he watches a video where he sees Peggy talking about how he influenced her life and how during one of his missions, he saved the man that would go on to become her husband. This is the only mention of Peggy’s husband in the entire franchise until Steve reappears as an old man at the end of EG.

Captain America: Civil War (CA:CW) also offers an opportunity to set up the causality loop at Peggy’s funeral but again, this does not happen. The only family we are introduced to is Sharon Carter, Peggy’s grand-niece. When it comes to filmmaking, every choice made is intentional. From the hair and makeup to the clothes, to the music used, everything in a film means something whether it is to further character development, world-building, or the plot. Filmmakers have a limited amount of time to convey a story and anything that doesn’t matter isn’t shown. Therefore, we can conclude from the text of the film that Peggy’s husband doesn’t matter to the narrative. The person in Peggy’s family who matters to the narrative is Sharon Carter which is why she is given prominence during CA:CW’s funeral scene. Had the causality loop been set up here, there would have been a defining moment like in PoA where the audience is clued into the larger story arc. Maybe someone says something, or he meets his older self, but that doesn’t happen. It should also be noted that apart from a small scene in Ant Man, Peggy isn’t mentioned again until EG.

In Endgame itself, the film still fails to set up a causality loop. It could be argued that this is the most important film for the set-up because this is when the audience gets the payoff. The first thing we see after the 5-yer time jump is Steve in a group therapy session for those that survived Thanos’ snap. Survivors share their stories and Steve talks about Peggy, a woman who has been dead in canon for 7-years and who died of old age. It’s incongruous and sticks out because narratively it doesn’t make sense for him to talk about her and not someone he watched disintegrate in front of his eyes. Steve watches his best friend and hundreds of others turn to ash around him and that film ends on his horrified face as he sits by his best friend’s ashes. Narratively, this is the thread that should carry through to EG but instead, he talks about missing his chance with Peggy. However, unlike PoA, there is no indication whether through dialogue or framing that clues the audience into Steve’s eventual ending at the end of the film.

Even when he goes back to the 70s, we see him looking mournfully at Peggy through the blinds in her office and a picture of him, pre-serum, on her desk. Steve and Peggy’s relationship prior to Endgame is supposed to represent the bittersweet loss of the life he could have had had he not sacrificed himself to the cause in CA:TFA. Then, since the audience knows from Steve and Peggy’s conversation in the hospital in CA:TWS that she moved on from Steve to live a happy life, we can assume that this picture is meant as nothing more than a fond memento of someone that meant a lot to her. Once more, there is no indication that Steve is ever meant to be her husband.

It’s impossible to infer a causality loop here in the same way as we saw in PoA. In PoA, there is a payoff for every single unusual or weird moment the story presents the audience before and after the use of time travel but this is something that’s completely absent from Endgame’s narrative. Steve himself doesn’t even vocalise a desire to go back in time at any point in EG nor at any point during the other films he appears in. In fact, when questioned by Tony Stark about the possibility of ‘going home’ in Avengers: Age of Ulton, he says, “The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.” While it is indicative of his unhappiness in the modern-day, it does indicate a level of acceptance of the fact that this is his life and he has to make his peace with it. He’s taken what Peggy said in CA:TWS on board. He’s starting over and moving on.

With time travel, and Steve choosing to stay in the past came the fan theory that one of the pallbearers carrying Peggy’s casket in CA:CW is Old Man Steve, her husband. When presented with this fan theory, writer Christopher Markus said during an interview with the LA Times at SDCC 2019,

“I would very much like that. There is no set explanation for Cap’s time travel . . .I mean, we’ve had public disagreements with [directors Anthony and Joe Russo] about what it [time travel] necessarily means, but I love the idea of there being two Steve Rogers in the timeline. One who lived a long life with Peggy and is in the background of that funeral scene watching his young self carry his wife’s coffin up. Not just for the time travel mumbo jumbo of it, but for the just weird, personal pain and satisfaction that would be happening between two Steve Rogers there. I kind of love it.” [emphasis mine]

This shows that unlike in PoA there was no intention of creating a causality loop prior to Markus writing EG with his writing partner Stephen McFeely. In fact, it makes clear that the actual rules of time travel were in contention and that even those making the film didn’t have a unified idea of what they wanted to create in the first place. The fact that there is confusion surrounding EG's time travel is due to the fact that the people behind it, didn't seem to know what they were writing or consider the consequences of it.

What all of this shows is that an argument of a PoA style causality loop doesn’t hold water. The film doesn’t support it, nor do any of the previous films, because there aren’t any indicators for the audience to latch onto. There is no moment of the rock breaking the jar, or the patronus chasing away the dementors, no moment where that the audience is told to hold into this information for later because there’s some timey wimey stuff going on. Ultimately, when examined, there is no set-up for a causality loop that supports the theory he was always supposed to go back and be Peggy’s husband, particularly when examined against a film that successfully lays it out from the start.

Right, the more academic (lol) part of this post is done. I just want to address one more TikTok that bothered me because I have opinions and MCU Captain America is my Mastermind specialist subject.

The TL;DR of this one was that Steve’s ending made sense because he got out of the fight and was at peace and that that has been the ultimate goal of his character arc. This person argued that Steve used the Avengers to distract himself from the fact that he’s this man out of time and he can’t find peace without a fight which to some extent, I agree with. I don’t deny that that is a major driving force to his story. We see that in Age of Ultron with his WandaNightmare. I don’t deny that that is key to his character. However, this creator then made a comment at the end of this video to the tune of, ‘bUt BuCkY iS hIs StOrY aRc’ and tried to play it off like this wasn’t true or that people were wrong to think that this is the case.

These two things aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re both true. They’re intertwined. But you cannot say that Bucky Barnes isn’t at the heart of Steve Rogers’ story. Bucky was the catalyst for every single one of Steve’s movies. He becomes CA because of Bucky. He goes against SHIELD because of Bucky. He defies 107 countries and the Sokovia Accords because of Bucky. You take Bucky out of the equation and what do you have? What happens in those films if you take Bucky Barnes out of the equation? Viewing it objectively, and even without shipper goggles on, you simply cannot sit there and claim that Bucky Barnes isn't a defining component to Steve’s story. Steve Rogers is motivated by Bucky Barnes. Steve Rogers is motivated by the depth of their relationship and the fact that Bucky Barnes is one of the few things connecting his new present to his old life.

You can definitely see the fact that Steve is uncomfortable in the modern world. He doesn’t address any of his trauma but he still attempts to move on. However, if they wanted him getting out of the fight and finding life as a civilian to be the natural end to his story arc then there was a way to do it which didn’t require him going back to Peggy. It would have been a better and more satisfying ending if he’d actively chosen to retire because I often see the argument that him going back to Peggy is him finally allowing him to be selfish after shouldering so much over the past decade or more. If Steve chose to retire and put himself first, then that sends a better message. He’s still getting the chance to ‘be selfish’ but he’s not throwing the life he’s built away. At this point in EG, he’s spent a huge portion of his adult life in the modern-day. This isn’t the future for him anymore, it’s the present and he’s lived a life and made real connections with people. The MCU does a piss poor job of showing the interpersonal relationships between the Avengers but he is at least shown to be friends with Sam, Nat, and Bucky.

But he goes back to a delusion. Or an idea of something that was never his in the first place.

When I see people make these videos and share their opinions, I can see their points but it’s like they’re taking EG on its own when that's impossible. Endgame only ‘works’ if you have the context of 10 years’ worth of films. You have to at least be somewhat familiar with the characters, who they are and what they’ve done up until now to be able to make sense of it.

However, in saying that, they wrote and filmed the movie in a way to make you think you didn’t have to take into account anything you’ve seen in the past ten years. If you only watch Endgame, you only see a grieving man mourning the love he never had. You see a man, regretful that he didn’t get to be with woman he loved. So at the end, of course it would make sense that he goes back to her. But you can only do that if you completely divorce Endgame from its ten-year canon and in a franchise like this where they make a big deal about everything being interconnected, it simply doesn’t work. Steve’s story arc in Endgame is incongruous to the narrative arc we’ve been presented in previous films.

Ultimately, Endgame is a movie you’re supposed to watch once and then not think about again. It’s made for that first viewing when everything is shocking and exciting because if you stop to think about it even a little bit, it falls apart under scrutiny.

Finally, I think that the downfall of a lot of these ‘Steve’s ending makes sense’ posts is that made by people who are most certainly MCU fans but not Steve Rogers fans and it shows.

[bigfrozenfan-fanfics]

Chapter 53 - Promising results

Links: Chapter overview, Character list, Map, Glossar Rating: M over all Publishing cycle: each Friday at 6:00 pm CEST dst/UTC +2:00 on (link)

Remarks: all my chapters contain carefully selected music tracks (try to use headphones). It’s your own decision if you want to use them or not while reading. The purpose is to musically support the respective mood of the plot. If you can please use a browser for reading (not the Tumblr app) due to the text formatting and music.

After Olaf had shown Halima and Elin their room, he went with the girl to the library and picked out a few books that he had taken from Elsa's and Anna's old schoolroom a long time ago. They had been the first books for him, too, when he himself was still learning to read with the help of the two royal sisters. Now they would serve as learning reading for Elin, helping her to take her first steps into a fascinating new world, a place full of exciting stories and endless knowledge.

They sat down at the table that Sorenson had by now cleared. The scientist had gone into town this morning because he hadn't been here in Arendelle for so long, and so he wanted to look around, as Olaf happened to overhear. Olaf now began to show Elin letter by letter and explain how they formed whole words. As a first example, he had her spell her own name, then his one. He was pleased to find that she enjoyed learning and comprehended very quickly.

Since there were no council meetings or other essential matters requiring Mattias' presence at the moment, he and Halima walked through the castle in the meantime so that he could show her around and introduce her to the castle staff. He told her about the daily customs in this large building and what she should watch out for, especially concerning Elin. The girl would certainly not be constantly in the company of Olaf and therefore will be very curious about just everything here.

~~~

Anna had retired to her study after the conversation with Yelana and now devoted herself to her daily royal duties. Elsa helped her work on the documents that needed to be checked and signed, just as they had both recently agreed. Unfortunately, mathematical calculations still represented Anna's greatest weakness and she was very glad to have her sister by her side for these trade contracts.

However, these were limited today and local issues were more in focus at the moment. Approvals of funds for buildings in the city and an expansion of the docks with a newly extended pier, an inventory of farm yields for the upcoming fall festival, and all sorts of citizen inquiries awaited the queen's perusal. Anna sighed at one point as she held the treasurer's report in her hands.

“I've got some builders to send up to the farmland, too, I almost forgot.”

“Why is that?” asked Elsa in surprise, raising an eyebrow.

“Mattias recently told me about the desolate conditions there in the southeast. The farmers in that farthest corner live in terribly poor conditions. Little Elin is from there, too,” Anna replied, finally telling the whole story about her.

Elsa was as shocked as her sister when she had heard about it recently and could hardly believe that such poverty had been overlooked until now.

“We must do something about it, Anna, and as soon as possible. What do you have in mind and will the funds be enough?” then asked Elsa.

“Yes, financially it's not a problem and in the end, after all, everyone benefits, not just the farmers. By opening up new cultivation areas and land for livestock, the yield for all of us increases as well. And new houses provide well-being and happiness, so that something like what happened to Elin will not happen again.

Elsa nodded in agreement. Then her eyes fell on the clock on Anna's desk and she suddenly had an idea.

“Let's plan it together soon, and who knows, maybe we'll find the time to take a look there ourselves. But the way I see it, we're through with most of the papers for today and the time is getting on too. What do you say we visit Master Fabian at his new fencing school later and maybe practice a little together?”

"Hey, that's a great idea, Elsa. After all, that's what we promised him, and I'm already very curious about the new space and how he designed it."

"Well then, let's go. Oh and by the way ... thank you so much for the new dress you had made for me. I like it very much and I'll take this opportunity to put it on right away."

Anna smiled at her, "I'm glad I met your taste, sis. I can't wait to see you in it."

As they left the study something else occurred to Anna and she wondered whether or not she should call her sister on it. She remembered the scene from today in the small hall when Mattias had presented Elsa with something very small. It looked like a piece of jewelry from the distance and somehow she had a feeling it was related to Honeymaren and also the strained relationship between her and Elsa lately. Anna was curious, but hesitant at the same time. Elsa had been through way too much in the last week.

She therefore put the thought aside for now and hooked up with Elsa, smiling. For the moment, everything was fine and she enjoyed being with her sister. Something they had both had to do without for a long time.

~~~

Kristoff wanted to comfort Ryder a little after the incident in the small hall and the other Northuldra, except Linnea and Yelana, who had something else in mind, accompanied both of them to town. Ryder was still visibly uncomfortable and resented the fact that he had not once in his life stood up to his older sister to dissuade her from her risky plan. Despite all this, everyone tried to cheer him up and distract him from his gloomy thoughts, and sometimes, for a short time, his old grin actually returned.

Yelana, in the meantime, wanted to talk to Ryder's mother and took her to the castle garden when everyone else left.

“I am as upset as you are, Linnea, that Honeymaren acted so recklessly and put herself in such great danger. She left the two of you alone when she should have known that family is simply everything to you right now and very important to your cohesion. I am very disappointed in her,” Yelana began as they both sat under the big willow.

Yelana inevitably had to think of her future plans for Honeymaren in this context. What if something happened to her? Who would then take over the tribal leadership from her?

“I just don't understand it, Yelana. After all she's been through and what happened to Halvard. Is it because of that? Revenge on Kolgrimr because of all those events? She doesn't even have any weapons to defend herself. I mean, she's an outstanding Skalastet fighter, but she doesn't even have a birch fighting staff with her.”

“Except for the knife she took from the spy,” Yelana corrected her, “but you're right, Linnea, she's unlikely to have found a fighting stick here in Arendelle,” she said, looking at her thick birch staff on which she had crossed her hands while it stood in front of her. “Here in Arendelle, they know only other weapons ... sword, spear and crossbow. I wonder if she has something else, perhaps something new with her that is more suited to her fighting style.”

“But what could that possibly be? When I think that she has only this little knife, it makes me afraid, Yelana.” Tears rolled down Linnea's cheek again.

“I don't know. But you'd better not overthink about it, Linnea. Despite everything, Honeymaren is very cunning and intelligent. She won't just throw herself into danger, she'll take care of herself, believe me. By the way, Queen Anna asked me today if I could talk to this spy. Maybe I'll learn something important from him. What do you think about the idea of accompanying me?”

Linnea looked at Yelana doubtfully, but then nodded slowly. “If you say so? As long as it's not dangerous ...”

Yelana shook her head reassuringly, “Well, let's go there and try.”

~~~

A short time later, Yelana had sent word to the guardroom and Captain Einar personally escorted them down to the dungeon. He had a guard unlock the door and held the two visitors back until the prisoner was handcuffed and the guard came out again. He nodded briefly to the captain and Einar cleared the way for them.

They entered the gloomy cell, whose furnishings consisted only of a cot, a small table and a bucket in one corner.

The spy looked at them from top to bottom, a bit surprised, and then he twisted the corner of his mouth contemptuously. He demonstratively looked away and out to the barred window on the fjord.

“My name is Yelana, and until recently I was the elder and leader of the Northuldra. This here beside me is Linnea Nattura, mother of Honeymaren, who captured you. What is your name?”

He glanced briefly at Linnea, raised an eyebrow but then looked away again, disinterested. He made a disdainful noise as he did so.

Yelana motioned Linnea, who was visibly uncomfortable and keeping her distance, to stay where she was and took a few steps toward the window to face him. Now he couldn't look anywhere without having either of them in his field of vision. He looked up at Yelana and tried to cross his arms, but the handcuffs on the clanking chain wouldn't allow it. He sighed.

“What do you want? I have nothing to say to traitors.”

“Is that what you think about us? Are you really that gullible? Boy, I was leading my people before you were even born. You don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. Let alone have the right to say something so stupid. You're a stranger to our territory, and you've been used to spy on those who freed us after over thirty-four years of captivity under a magical mist.”

She paused, watching the reaction on his face. He leaned against the wall and looked back and forth between them in turn.

“What good does it do you to know my name. You don't know us, and it's none of your business.”

Yelana sighed. “I just don't understand where this enmity comes from then, if, as you've already correctly pointed out, we don't know each other at all. So what do you get out of it? Who put you up to this?”

He pondered for a while, then opened up a bit. “We come from the far north and we know such people as here in Arendelle, all oppressors and exploiters. When we met one of you in a camp in the mountains, he told us such things as the rightful elder is his mother, not you, and Arendelle threatens and exploits everyone in his camp.”

“And the name of this man is Kolgrimr, we already know that. Only there's something you don't seem to know about him yet, which is that he has the ability to read emotions and minds, and because of that it's easy for him to manipulate people for his own purposes.”

Then Yelana went one step further and sat down right next to him. He looked at her startled and attentively followed her story about all the backgrounds, Kolgrimr’r true intentions, and what he had done in their camp before traveling North.

“Once he realized you were the kind of men he was looking for, he used lies and deception to lure you all under his grasp,” Yelena spoke off.

He looked to the ground in shame as soon as she finished and shook his head in disbelief, “If what you say is all true, then I am indeed naïve. But how can I know which of you is right? He has not disappointed us so far, and there have been incidents that have proved him right. I need to think about this thoroughly before I tell you more. Otherwise, I would be betraying my people, my family, and all my friends back home in the north.” He looked deeply into her eyes for seconds to see if she was sincere, but could detect no hostility in her gaze. “I'll let the guard know when I want to speak with you,” he finally relented, making no promises.

Yelana nodded and put her hand on his, surprising him even more. “I hope you will realize the truth and also that your people will run into their misfortune if they follow him blindly. Kolgrimr is a dangerous man.”

Then she stood up and led Linnea out of the cell. The guard went back inside and allowed his prisoner his freedom of movement again. Yelana and Linnea did not look back as they climbed the stairs, but they still heard the door slam into the lock and lock noisily. Linnea breathed a sigh of relief as they stepped into the brightness. At the top, Captain Einar stood leaning against the doorway with his arms folded, facing them expectantly.

“So how did it go? Did he spill anything?”

Yelana smirked. “Not yet, Captain Einar, but I think he will ... soon.”

~~~

Wael rode with Thord and ten of his men already for a few hours through the mountain landscape, always heading north. They did not hurry very much, but by now Wael's butt was aching because he was not used to riding for long periods. The rest of the men he had seen in the morning had either stayed behind or ridden ahead. He didn't want to seem too curious to Thord, so he kept his thoughts to himself for now. However, one thing he realized shortly after they left, and answered Thord's question, that Kolgrimr was most likely out for weapons.

Thord had grinned at him in response and nodded in confirmation. Afterwards, they talked about what in Arendelle might be best suited as an arsenal and whether anything had struck Wael while he was still a reporter.

Wael had thought hard after that and went through his memories, including a map of the city that he saw hanging on the wall in the editorial office and to which he had actually rarely paid attention. Nevertheless, the image was clearly before his eyes and he mentally followed street by street, matching them with his experiences during his interviews, but came to no clear conclusion. Thord's looks told him that the latter was becoming increasingly impatient.

Weapons ... many of them ... did Arendelle produce them itself or was it one of the trade goods with other allied kingdoms? Wael had never seriously thought about it until now, but the fact was that the soldiers and new recruits for the castle guard had to be provided with them somehow ... and also the civilian militia, in case of an emergency.

Metal were undoubtedly something that Arendelle had to import, at least when it came to larger quantities. The amount of these materials for the creation of swords, shields, spearheads, or the mechanics for crossbows and breastplates must be really large. The only place that came to Wael's mind was the forge of the Diaz couple, but he had never seen guards or soldiers there, although he knew that the two women were skilled in making knives and swords. Even for armor pieces, but that smithy was more known for the quality of the horseshoes that came from there.

Wood for crossbows, spears and arrows was not a problem, as the kingdom had plenty of it and even exported it. The sawmill was located outside the city, in the northern forests near the fjord. Years ago, he wanted to write a report about these exports for his newspaper and went there with a photographer to do some research. But at the road junction, surprisingly, there was a barrier and a guard in forestry worker's clothing did not let them through at that time, supposedly because entering the area was too dangerous for civilians.

Wael recalled the moment at that time. Why had this man used the word 'civilians' at that time? He was one himself. Except ...

And then the scales fell from Wael's eyes. He had heard not only the screeching of the saw blade in the distance, but also the typical sound of hammering on several anvils. So why would anyone need one or more forges in a sawmill?

He shared his thoughts with Thord, and the latter beckoned one of his men to join him shortly after that. Wael could not hear it acoustically as he spoke quietly to him for a few minutes, but shortly afterwards the man rode off in a northwesterly direction. Wael was not familiar with the area, but he estimated that they must now be at about the height of the southern farmlands, with the Odinsfjord in between. Had Thord perhaps just given the man instructions to scout the sawmill?

Thord gave him the answer himself a moment later.

“I have just sent a scout to confirm your information, Mr. Wael. We are already very close to Gøntropp. It is one of the smallest villages in all of Arendelle, but as luck would have it, there is even a tavern there where you can eat and drink very well. You should definitely try the roast venison there, Mr. Wael. You will soon have the opportunity to do so, because we will stop there in the early afternoon and wait for my man's return. I guess you' ll be glad to get a break in your backside, too.” Thord grinned at him and then told his other men about the little detour.

About two hours later, they rode into a dinky little town. Everything here seemed very friendly and well-kept, but also a bit sleepy. Some of the residents were tending to their small fenced-in front yards, and a few others had apparently just returned from the woods, because they had baskets full of mushrooms with them. They gave friendly greetings as they rode past and shortly afterwards dismounted in front of a building with an inn sign on it.

They tied the horses in front of it and all entered the inn together. There were only a few guests present and, to all appearances, travelers. They spread out at three empty tables, when a bearded, well-built innkeeper approached and took their orders. Shortly after, he and a red-faced, stocky, middle-aged woman joined them with trays and placed wooden beer steins with white froth on them in front of the men. Thord and Wael struck up a brief conversation with them, and it turned out that it was a fifth-generation family business and widely known in the surrounding countryside, especially for dishes from the hunt.

Thord and Wael ordered the roast venison, while the other men also ordered delicious venison dishes, from wild boar, partridge or hare. Three quarters of an hour later, the innkeepers returned with son and daughter in tow and dished up. It smelled tempting and Wael liked to bet that Thord came here often because of it and perhaps even participated in the hunt himself from time to time. On the walls hung various hunting trophies and even the stuffed head of an old brown bear. Wael's mouth watered as he cut the meat on his plate.

Thord had not lied, the dish tasted excellent. Later, when the tables were cleared and everyone had ordered and finished a second tankard of ale, the scout entered the inn and headed straight for Thord. He seemed a bit rushed and had also returned really quickly. Wael knew this because he had been familiar with the area since they arrived in Gøntropp and could easily calculate the distance to the sawmill. Thord got a report and then the man sat down with the others and ordered something to eat and drink as well.

“Congratulations, you were right with your guess, Mr. Wael. My scout has seen some soldiers there in the short time and several other buildings besides the sawmill. Among them, undoubtedly, a large weapons forge. The area also has direct access to the Arenfjord via a small branch. So it's no problem to land boats there and ship the weapons unseen to Arendelle or other destinations,” Thord said, his hand resting on Wael's shoulder.

“It certainly looks like there is an entire weapons manufactory located there and it is well guarded. My scout was almost discovered, but was able to take cover in time,” Thord continued. “So far you have not disappointed me, Mr. Wael, and the reason you were looking for me was to find out more about me and my past, wasn't it? Perhaps now is the time to shed some light on it.”

He called for the innkeeper and ordered them two more beers. Wael got the impression that he was about to hear a longer story, and indeed Thord began to tell about his origins after they took the first sip of beer.

“The roots of my family are as old as this land itself. The first Kaskaders made their way here in ships and set foot at the fjord centuries ago, along with a band of pioneers, led by Aren 'The Great'. Back in those days, we had neither power nor wealth, only our dreams and our determination to grow and be respected. After hard work and great efforts, my ancestors founded a first settlement, which no one was to dispute with them so soon.” Thord interrupted himself briefly, then continued.

“The Settlement did not have a very promising future in the beginning. My forefathers experienced many setbacks; there was barely enough food for everyone, and they suffered many losses in the very harsh winter months during this early period. Rival clans of other settlements often made fun of all the expenses and always used to say that such a pitiful village would never gain importance. For a very long period of time, this remote settlement hardly grew, but one day and many generations later, all this joking stopped for a good reason.” Thord took another sip of beer, and then continued.

“In the summer of 1771, Halfdan Kaskader, my grandfather, became the leader of this small town. During one of his exploratory rides deep in the mountains, he happened to find a cave riddled with a rich vein of gold. A few days after this find, he returned to the site and staked a claim for a future mine to secure the rights to the find. With the large amounts of gold and further ores extracted in the following months after the mine opened, Halfdan was able to make many improvements to the settlement and thus, grew faster. Shortly after, the other lord's eyes were upon us, including those of the new ruler, King Runeard.”

“After his coronation, King Runeard had a vision for this land; he wanted to become his city into a vast, prosperous and mighty kingdom. The only way to accomplish such a great undertaking was through an alliance with the great houses of the other provinces. The lords would retain their power over their regional dominions. Still, in return these lands would become a single commonwealth under the name of Arendelle.” Thord placed his hand meaningfully on Wael’s forearm.

“It is important to explain all this, Wael, because only then can you better understand what happened afterward,” Thord said with a serious expression. “The day Halfdan met King Runeard in his castle became a significant event for both parts for many reasons. It was not only the day when the clan of Kaskader was legally recognized as rulers of the province. In return, we also swore our full allegiance to Runeard and placed a large part of our resources at his disposal, especially a large amount of gold. Have you ever wondered, Mr. Wael, how King Runeard was able to assemble such a large amount of manpower and horses during his expansion plans in the wild areas of the north? All the costs he was going to waste on the future northern dam were financed by our gold.” Thord nodded meaningful to Wael.

“However, being part of this new kingdom had other benefits, such as having a seat on the Royal Council and an extra bonus. Halfdan secured something priceless for our family's future ... he convinced Runeard to marry his niece Ingrid of Arendelle to Halfdan’s only descendant, his son, Harold Kaskader.”

“I am Harold’s son, Wael. My father loved my mother idolatrously, as I learned from him much later, for I was never able to see her with my own eyes. The epidemic of 1817 affected all the provinces of the kingdom, including our family; it took my mother and many other members of the clan. My father never got over that blow, nor did he get over the fact that it was not we who ruled, as it always should be, but an incompetent pair of young women.” Thord took another deep sip of beer before continuing. Wael’s eyes widened, but he didn’t dare say a word.

“As you can see now, my house was strong and powerful, but unfortunately life had other plans ... King Agnarr married a wild woman who hid her shameful origins and pretended to be an Arendellian commoner. But as if these facts were not enough to tarnish the ruling house a few years after the shameful union, Agnarr’s descendants were born and suspended our rights. At that time, House Kaskader has begged his Majesty to reconsider his thoughts about marrying this woman. But we were ignored. Then we tried to fight for our rights and lost everything, even our seat in the Royal Council. I will never forget that insult.” Thord’s expression darkened.

“There is more to tell ... the mansion where you were, Mr. Wael, was once full of life and housed three generations of my family. On my father’s deathbed, in that very house, I promised him that one day I would restore the glory of our clan and fight for it. That I would claim our ancestral right from generations, so that none of these women now in power would yet lead Arendelle to ruin if they continued as they were.”

When Thord ended Wael was impressed with surprise but at the same time somewhat shocked, even at himself and what he had thought and acted toward this man since he met Thord. Of course, he had no way of knowing, but he had been dealing with a real prince all along, a descendant of one of Arendelle's oldest clans.

“Prince Thord, Your Highness, I didn't know ...,” Wael began apologetically, but Thord slapped him amicably on the shoulder.

“There is nothing to apologize for, my friend. It is a well-kept secret to this day, and too valuable to be jeopardized by rumors and antipathies or prejudices of the ignorant. Let us now ride on and bring us closer to my goal of claiming my ancient family right. If all goes as planned, I will have other tasks for you in the future and help you fully regain your prestige in the capital,” Thord said with a smile and stood up.

His men now all rose at the same time as well, and Wael suddenly realized how much loyalty they had for the prince and seemed to stand behind him without compromise. It was a not entirely harmless situation for Wael, because he would not get out of this story unscathed now. He simply knew too much right now. Wael realized that, for better or worse, he was at the mercy of others and that it would undoubtedly be better to side with the winner in time. The only question was who that would be in the end.

“It will be late at night by the time we reach the Northuldra area, so we will spend the night halfway in one of the ice harvester settlements. So let us be on our way, men,” Thord said quietly enough that the other guests did not hear.

Wael was the first to go outside at Thord's side, and when everyone was mounted, they rode off in the late afternoon. Off into the unknown, Wael thought, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the thought.

~~~

The fencing school was located across from the harbor, high up on the hill, and was a simple little wooden house. A well-worn path led through a small fenced front garden, which had not received any care for some time and therefore looked rather ratty. Anna knew that the previous owner had passed away some time ago and had no other descendants to take care of the property. However, the view down to the fjord and the castle was picturesque and it was very quiet up here.

Except for three horses in front of the house, there was no one to be seen as Anna and Elsa dismounted from their own horses and leashed them to a stake beside it. Anna had let Kai know at the castle that they were out for a few hours and where they were going.

“He seems to have students here right now,” Elsa commented as they strode to the front door. “Judging by the saddles, though, no one from the castle guard.”

“True. Well, we'll see if we know them in a minute,” Anna said with a grin.

“You of all people have to say that, Anna. You really do know everyone here in Arendelle.”

They both had to giggle when Anna finally knocked and not a minute later Master Fabian opened. He was happily surprised by the unexpected visit.

“Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, what an honor to have you both visit me. Please, do enter.”

The sisters entered an unadorned, short hallway, with a window on the left that offered a view down to the town, and a narrow staircase on the right that led upstairs. Below were a few boxes with what appeared to be personal items in them. Fabian noticed their glances at it as he closed the door again and walked past them.

“The house offers enough space and so I thought I would move in right away. I would then like to rent out the townhouse soon. I hope I have not misunderstood your offer in this regard, Your Majesty. So far I have not brought up very many private things ... mainly all my weapons and practice clothes for the students,” he explained.

“No, not at all, Master Fabian. I'm glad you like it so much. It would just be a waste of space otherwise, and additional free living space in the town does have its good points. I hope you will find a new tenant soon,” Anna answered with a smile.

“Well then I am very happy about it, thanks again for everything. Only yesterday I finished all the preparations and have also already distributed the first flyers in the town. I also have two registrations already and since noon today two old acquaintances as visitors who want to refresh their knowledge a bit. Come, I'll introduce them to you.”

He went ahead and opened the door to the fencing room for them. Elsa and Anna were astonished to see who his guests were. Trygve and Kristina were sitting next to a table, caring for their swords. When they noticed the new visitors, they immediately put everything aside, approached them smiling and bowed to the distinguished guests. They all greeted each other warmly and Fabian was surprised that they all already knew each other well. The sisters explained shortly and he nodded in understanding. After that, Anna and Elsa were able to look around the bright room in silence as they strolled through it.

Interrupted by a few windows, brackets were mounted on the walls at head height all around, from which hung a wide variety of swords, protective clothing, and armor pieces. Opposite were a few chairs against the wall, for visitors or for the students to rest. From the ceiling hung two chandeliers, each with a dozen candles on it, to be able to teach with sufficient light even after dark. Master Fabian followed their gaze and made his explanatory comments.

“Depending on how many students I'll be taking on, I'll obviously have to get a couple more of those hazmat helmets with the face grille in front of them,” Fabian explained, “and some padded vests to go with them. The blunt practice blades and rapiers with the thickened tip are from earlier times. I kept them all.”

Anna and Elsa were impressed.

“Turned out really well, Fabian. By the way, we are not here just to visit, because we thought maybe we could continue the lessons today. Of course, only if there is time and we don't disturb,” Elsa said.

“Not at all, I have enough time for some training lessons. In fact, I'm looking forward to it,” Fabian replied. “Shall we start right away, or may I perhaps offer something for refreshment first?”

“Yes, I'd love to,” Anna said and she sat down at the table with her sister while he disappeared into the small kitchen. “So what have you two been up to lately? How are you guys doing?” she asked the other two.

“We are doing quite well so far and are together very often. Trygve often invites me to his family's house for dinner, or we go out riding, out on the boat ... just everything you can do in Arendelle in your retirement,” Kristina said with a smile.

“We've become kind of inseparable,” Trygve added with a grin. “You're all well again, too, I see,” he noted, turning to Elsa.

“Yes, that's right. I'm almost back to my old self,” she confirmed.

Trygve was about to ask what she meant by 'almost', but by then Fabian returned and served them fresh lemonade.

“I'll go get everything together for the training,” he said and went across the room to get weapons and everything else they needed from their holders.

The sisters took a few sips and then got up to stand in the center of the room in the chalk circle Fabian had painted on here as well.

He handed them the protective vests and supple leather gloves, and after they had put everything on, the two exercise rapiers as well. As promised, this time he dispensed with the wooden Dussacks in favor of real weapons.

Elsa and Anna held it respectfully in their hands and looked closely at the gleaming sword. It was slightly heavier than a Dussack and had a blunt point, otherwise identical to real rapiers. The basket on the hilt was artfully crafted and offered the hand sufficient protection against blows. This was followed by a wide parry bar and the double-edged lenticular blade was respectfully about a meter long.

“All right, line up and we'll go over all the guards and cuts again as a refresher, like I taught you,” he said, also holding one of these weapons.

They went through each stance together and Fabian only intervened a few times to correct, mostly for incorrect leg position. Trygve and Kristina watched them with interest.

After about an hour, the master was satisfied and had them both line up at the edge of the circle facing each other.

“You will now alternate between the roles of being attackers and defenders. I'll give you the respective guard and you'll have to respond with the appropriate cut. But we'll take it slow, all right?” Both nodded. “First, you show each other the fencer's salute.”

Elsa and Anna both pointed the blade’s tip at their opponent and then raised it in front of their faces in salute. At the end, they lowered it sideways to the ground with momentum.

“Your Majesty, it's your turn first, with an Ox.”

“Perhaps we can dispense with formalities for once today, Master Fabian. We all know each other and are among ourselves,” Anna offered.

“As you wish ... Anna,” he replied, bowing briefly.

Anna raised the rapier to her head and let the blade point to Elsa's face with its edges to the side. Then she tried to stab, but Elsa saw it ahead and countered with a Crooked Strike to the left, knocking Anna's blade aside. She then immediately turned her hips, arms and shoulders into a Plow and thrust from the hip at Anna's lower nakedness. Anna, surprised, felt the blunt rapier point clearly on her vest and tightened the corners of her mouth.

“Very good, Elsa. And now you, with an Alber ... Begin!”

Elsa put her left leg forward and held the rapier frontally in front of her with her arms outstretched, pointing to the ground. She paused for a moment. Anna moved into the From-Roof guard and held the sword over her shoulder with the blade up. Then Elsa abruptly took a half step forward and thrust upward. Anna was a bit surprised, took a step backward just in time, and in the process knocked Elsa's blade aside with force with a Squinting Strike. She in turn now thrust at Elsa's abdominal area with an Undercut, hitting her in the vest. Elsa nodded in admiration.

“Very good Anna!” exclaimed Fabian and their two spectators also nodded impressed.

In the next following match, both of them parried their blows without hitting each other and went into the bind with their rapiers in such a way that their faces ended up just a hand's width apart. They pushed each other off and immediately resumed their guards. It was great fun for both of them, especially Anna, who became more and more confident and later modified some of the cuts in such a way that both Elsa and her spectators reacted with surprise.

At some point they took a break and outside it slowly began to get darker. Fabian lowered the two chandeliers on the chain and lit the candles on them. Then he pulled them up again and the training could continue. The two now fenced almost independently and chose their own fencing stances. In the process, they became increasingly faster and the exchange of blows took place more and more confidently. Anna even managed to push Elsa out of the circle at one point.

Trygve and Kristina said goodbye after a while, because they were getting hungry and when they mounted their horses outside and rode off, they grinned at each other.

“Really didn't think the highnesses were that good at fencing. Which one do you think is the better?” asked Kristina.

“Good question and hard to say. I think they are almost equal,” he replied. But let's face it ... should they both have to fight and defend themselves seriously one day, things will be quite different.”

Kristina nodded and after a few moments said, “I hope it never comes to that.”

~~~

A few hours earlier, in the wilderness far north of Arendelle, Honeymaren eventually got very hungry and realized that her supplies were utterly exhausted. It was still a good distance to the next river or larger stream from the mountains, so she left the main path on which she had followed the tracks and gathered all kinds of berries and leaves that were suitable for a tea in a small forest a bit away from it.

She estimated that the sun would be set in about two hours, and she had to find a good spot to put a camp for spending the night. Then, short time later she saw a mountain foothill ahead and the glitter of water in front of it. When she reached the spot, she knelt down in front of the wide stream and looked to see if there were fish in it. She was lucky and spotted some smaller trout hiding among the stones at the bottom.

She looked around and cut herself a suitable branch. Then she took the fishing gear out of her backpack and turned over a few boulders to look for worms in the earth underneath. And indeed, she found them very quickly.

An hour later, she pulled a rainbow trout from the stream and built a small fire nearby. After gutting the fish, she speared it and grilled it over the flames. The place wasn't so bad for a night's camp; she thought as she looked around a bit while eating.

Shortly after the last rays of the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the fire had burned down as well. Honeymaren knew that the glow of light would be visible over a great distance at night, so she did not add any more twigs. Instead, she stretched a low line between two trees, cut some branches from the conifers and rolled up moss mats on the ground. She attached everything to it in such a way that a small, largely rain-protected tent was created at the end, under which she placed more branches and moss as a soft sleeping surface. She crawled under it and was asleep within minutes.

~~~

---

Remark: I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment if you liked the story, I would be pleased to read your opinions, even criticisms. If you want to be tagged as soon I publish the next chapter please let me know, except you are already tagged :-)

Tagging: @karma26 @true--north @annaofthenorthernlights @the-fifth-spirit-elsa

[jezmmart]

Chamomile Comic Trivia #19

#95 Woods

Just a simple little joke here, but one of my favourite little opportunities I got to be creative with the comic medium, which I always relish! If Cammie’s voice “sounded” muffled in the last panel, mission success.

#96 Photos

I nearly made it to 100 comics without acknowledging that Cammie has big boobs, but you know, it was nearly 100 comics, so it was a special occasion.  A few people read into this that Brianna might be attracted to Cammie and she was awkward in the last panel because she had intentionally framed the shots this way, but that wasn’t my intent, lol.  Of course, the real fun here was drawing all the different food!

#97 Hello

Brianna being a good(?) friend, fighting for Cammie’s honour!  It’s funny that I censored “bitch” here for comedic effect but later on down the line decided a rare b-word was fine as long as it’s intended to have an impact in its use, lol. 

#98 Confidence

Of course, the purpose of all this was to throwback to the first arc of the comic to celebrate the 100-milestone, and to remind everyone that this was still a part of Cammie’s character... but I guess she’s been as unfocused on her goal as I have with writing towards it, sorry! The honest truth is that it’s an artifact of her origins/justification of being a pin-up character and I would change it if I could start over, but I have no intention to just quietly drop it all from the narrative even though I have no grand plans for it currently. On the subject of quietly dropping things and pin-ups though...

I did actually start a pin-up version of one of the photos taken in this comic, the idea being to highlight the kind of content Cammie is capable of producing, even if we’ve already seen the goofiness of how it was made behind-the-scenes!  (Not that goofiness behind the scenes is anything unusual at all, judging by the handful of posed human photographers I follow on instagram).  This art is now 2 years old though and is already showing it’s age, I doubt I’ll ever finish it without starting over completely.

#99 Thanks

I drew a car! I have drawn the “over the dashboard” view from scratch exactly once, for the second panel of this comic - every shot in the entire run of the comic after this point that shows Brianna’s car from this view was traced from the one in this comic because drawing cars sucks (I usually copy/paste it between panels in each comic but I THINK I’ve always drawn it fresh for each comic even if it is via tracing).

Again being honest, while I did try to write this moment so it’d serve as potential dramatic fodder to revisit the modelling plotline, I also did my best to make it also possibly just be setup for the joke of Bri’s anxious response to Cammie.  ...Because that’s all it is so far at the time of writing this trivia over 100 comics later!

#100 Unbelievable

And of course, couldn’t hit a milestone without the seagull showing up again, the REAL important throughline of the entire series!  I also definitely wanted comic #100 to be pretty and unique, so I was sure to establish some nice unusual late winter afternoon lighting in the previous one. This also kind of establishes the setting of Chamomile, the fictional “Bay Valley” which is basically a combination of my two favourite aesthetics from places I’ve lived in the UK - the hilly towns and countrysides of Bath and Somerset, and the coasts of Thanet (well, specifically my hometown of Broadstairs).

Naturally Cammie’s “for the hundreth time...” was a specific nod to the milestone, and Brianna’s number plate is “GC64 SEA” which probably doesn’t mean anything in UK numberplate systems.  GC64 is simply a Nintendo reference because I like Nintendo (GameCube and Nintendo 64) and SEA because I like the sea and a possible title I concieved for the comic idea I had for Brianna before Cammie came along and demoted her to best-friend-of-the-main-character was “Brianna by the Sea” (but it never sat well after I pinpointed that it was blatantly inspired by Ghibli’s “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea”).

Also, I usually try to use the first unique word in a comic’s dialogue as the title to avoid any spoilers about the gag etc, but I did specifically go with “Unbelievable” and may have even tailored Brianna’s first line to make sure there was a compatible word in there to reflect the milestone...  If I was being pure to my usual methods, comic #100 would’ve been called “Sticking” instead, lol.

[More Chamomile Comic Trivia] (Above link may not work correctly on tumblr app)

[adhd-wifi]

MDZS Modern AU Fic Tips (Living in China)

So I asked a while back if anyone was interested in some fic tips for writing Chinese modern AUs, and y’all seemed enthusiastic. But…when I tried putting it all in a single post it got…really…really long…

So I split them into a bunch of posts (Yes I copy-pasted this intro on all of them because I’m lazy)! Here are the links:

Names & Stuff

Modern Chinese Cultural Stuff

Superstitions & Beliefs

Festivals 

Living in China (You are here)

Anyways, these are based off my experiences living in Singapore and China, and I hope these posts are helpful. On to it.

Living in China

Disclaimer: I mostly lived in Singapore during my existence, and thus I can’t give you extremely detailed info of what it’s like exactly, but I do visit my Chinese relatives fairly frequently, so these are general tips. Also, please keep in mind that the info here is biased towards life in Dalian & Harbin. I’ve been to Beijing but only twice so I don’t remember a lot. 

The currency in China is RMB, or “yuan”. 100 RMB is about $14 USD, and not considered a lot of money

Side Note: The above tip is also another reason why you shouldn’t ever write A-Yuan’s name as just “Yuan”. It makes him look like the local currency djsasldkj

Coin values are (with comparison to US currency): 

1 yuan (like a dollar) 

5 jiao (Half-yuan - 50 cents)

1 jiao (1/10 yuan - 10 cents)

5 fen (0.05 yuan - 5 cents)

1 fen (0.01 -  basically a penny)

Also related to money, in more urban areas, people don’t really carry cash or even cards around anymore. Practically everything is paid electronically, through WeChat Pay and other cash/bank apps, typically using QR codes on phones. You’ll have a hard time as a foreigner if you don’t have any of those apps in these areas (AKA me when I forget to re-download them before heading to China)

The exceptions to this would be places where tourists and foreigners are very frequent, such as hotels, airports, tourist buildings, universities (though my cousin’s old uni recently went full electronic payment I think???) etc, and more rural areas

Some Chinese social media and stuff:

BaiDu 百度 - Basically Chinese Google. We also use it the way we use “google” as a verb, saying 百度一下 (bǎi dù yī xià) - “Let me BaiDu it”

WeChat - Very similar to Whatsapp in general, also used for money purposes with WeChat Pay

QQ Mail - The most frequently used email platform in China. QQ Mail also has an Instant Messenger last time I checked. Also, I think QQ still uses number-based IDs, so the address would look something like: (12345678@qq.com). Hotmail is fairly common in China too, particularly with those who need have to send international emails

YouKu 优酷 - The most popular video hosting site (most similar to YouTube out of the many video sites)

bilibili 哔哩哔哩 (yes, small caps) - Another video site well-known for animations, games, and comics especially

TaoBao 淘宝 - Cosplayers would probably know this. Something like a Chinese Amazon or Lazada.

WeiBo 微博 - Main Chinese social media platform. Feels like a FaceBook + Twitter fusion

LOFTER - Feels like a Chinese Tumblr

Even in urban areas, it’s easy to find entire streets of literally nothing but restaurants by the main roads (+ maybe a stationary shop, salon, or something in a corner, and you can often drive right up to the front door and park right there (in more populated areas and/or near malls/attractions, there will likely be extra open parking space nearby such restaurant streets)

Some larger restaurants, especially those with seafood specialties, don’t have actual booklet menus. Instead they have a wide selection of fresh ingredients (wrapped up safely in layers saran wrap) such as vegetables, cuts of meat, and tanks of living fish/shellfish/crustaceans near the entrance. They tend to have a list of dishes you can order by the corresponding ingredients, or a server nearby to tell you and take your orders. Apparently this is more common in the North.

You don’t tip in restaurants in China. You COULD slip a particular server or two some cash if you wanted to, but as an overall system tipping does not exist and also it’s not “one server one table”. It’s “whoever’s available to serve you IN THAT MOMENT will serve you” so you’ll likely see at least three different servers throughout your meal. Please. Stop with the “Hi I’ll be your server today” in China-set fics. It’s SOOOOO WEIRD.

I’ve never studied in China, but I checked this guide with my Chinese cousin and it’s pretty accurate about the educational system there

Speaking of schools, you wear uniforms up to Upper Secondary (some to Post-Secondary). As typical gender-conformity strikes again, girls will wear skirts and boys will wear pants. The exception is during the colder months, in which everyone will basically just wear full body tracksuits (school-issued) to school and it’s their uniform for the whole day. This is particularly common in schools with low or no heating systems, especially in more rural areas

Drivers sit on the left side of their vehicle in China. Typically, any foreign cars (such as from Hong Kong - which would have the driver on the right) will need a mainland license plate. (This might be changing in recent times though.) 

I don’t know much about the healthcare systems in China anymore, I was hospitalized once at 3 or 4 and don’t remember much, but in general basic healthcare from public hospitals is low-cost to free (depending on the region) for Chinese citizens with their basic insurance plans (individual and employee provided). You get charged (more) for hospitalization and more serious treatments like surgeries, physical/mental therapy, vaccinations (this is a pro-vax blog btw, just saying), and maybe dental. Most of these can be covered by insurance too though. If you go to a private hospital, it’s considerably more expensive of course. 

Okay that’s all the info I can think of to be potentially useful in fics lol. 

[maiacroft]

Hello everyone, we wanted to take a moment to update the members on a few things and keep you all in the light.

A MESSAGE FROM THE ADMINS

We wanted to address some points with nothing but honesty.

Point #1: Inclusiveness

The first thing we would like to address is the issue with admins and their inclusiveness. In the months leading up to the holidays, the admins have not interacted with as many people as they should have been. When we acknowledge that we haven’t had threads with as many people as we should, it isn’t for a lack of trying. Every one of the admins wants to participate like any other member and we do try to have threads with as many people as we can but with balancing our personal schedules, maintaining the main (which we are still never perfect with), answering questions, organizing the grand plot, and managing the rest of the behind the scenes for the RP, sometimes we do struggle to have as many threads as we would like and as many threads as we expect our members to have with one another.

When we started this RP, each one of the admins had more free time to spare on RP in general. Obviously, a lot occurs and changes in your personal lives over the course of a year and a half, and despite the fact that we do have more things to balance on top of running the RP, we still want to see the grand plot through, we still want to run this group for the members that have been developing their characters here for so long and while the number of threads we are able to maintain is affected, many of the other responsibilities we have are also affected. This includes being able to come online regularly. If we come online with the intention of doing replies, if there are questions or concerns that have been brought to our attention, if they are matters we can handle alone, we are usually prioritizing those over doing our replies. Although it may not always show on the dash, we do want to have threads with everyone, and every time we plot with people OOC, we have every intention of seeing that plot through on the dash.

We don’t want to use our busyness as an excuse to not engage with everyone, but we do want to be transparent in saying that sometimes, us trying our best to maintain everything: not neglect our personal lives and have threads with everyone, is a lot, and it doesn’t always allow us to have threads with everyone that we would like to. We claim full responsibility for not reaching out to our members and plotting with them as much as we should have, and we take responsibility for not having threads with as many people as we should, and if the admins have made you feel excluded IC or OOC, we are truly sorry for that and it is never our intention. With that being said, we will be making a conscious effort to reach out more to our members for plotting purposes and threading purposes as well. Please understand that if we can’t be on to reply regularly or if we can’t get our plots on the dash quickly, etc. that we are trying our best.

Point #2: Our Top Priority

We have put so much work into the RP and we want to keep running it for as long as we can. A great deal of time, thought and effort goes into the overall plot of the RP. We sit down as a group and plan out the progression of the story months before you guys see any of it, to make sure it all makes sense and goes smoothly. Everything that happens during a plot drop — be it big or small — is deliberate and serves a purpose that a lot of thought goes into. This includes the secret reveals along with everything else. There’s a lot of care behind the scenes to make the plot as interesting and interactive as we can make it. For a year and a half, the admins have scheduled time to be online all together to work on these things. We put so much care into it, and because of the effort and time that we actively put into it, because it is challenging and even stressful at times, even just to keep it up and running on a base level, we would never intentionally exclude anyone from this group, whether IC or OOC. We care so much about the health of this RP because we want it to last.

We would never intentionally upset any of our members. When resolving OOC matters, our number one concern is resolving whatever has arisen for the betterment of the RP. The admins are a team of three separate people. That allows us to communicate from three different perspectives and consider multiple angles before making a decision. When dealing with members or situations where someone has broken the rules, our number one priority is to resolve whatever has occurred. As we have mentioned in a previous post, of course, we are people with feelings and sometimes we are frustrated and stressed as we are sure many of you have been frustrated and stressed with RP matters before. But we want to make it clear that any negative feelings we may have never take priority over the health of the RP. We set those feelings aside when speaking with you and when resolving issues. Simply put, we care more about the wellbeing of this RP than whatever negative feelings arise in the process of running it because we put so much work into it. We want it to last, and above just generally sticking around the main to answer questions, accept apps and update the pages, we have to approach everything in a solution oriented way.

Point #3: Warnings and Strikes

The third thing we would like to address is our method of issuing warnings or strikes. When it is clear to us that one of our members has blatantly broken a rule, we issue a warning or strike right away, depending on how serious the rule break is. Otherwise, we usually open a door for discussions when we happen to give out warnings or strikes to hear out the other side. If there doesn’t seem to be a reason why the other side acted the way they did, then we issue the warning or strike as we see fit. We have reached out to multiple members in the same manner when an OOC problem occurs and we always have discussions with them about the event that occurred. It is always our mission to handle things delicately with care to ensure that things don’t blow out of proportion when issues arise.

It is always very discouraging to see the very thing you have put your heart in receiving such a treatment. We do firmly believe, as stated multiple times by the admins, that if someone is unhappy with how we handle things to the point of sending us rude anons, being unhappy in the group, or starting OOC drama as a result, then we prefer for these members to leave our group. We believe that this is beneficial for both the member as well as the RP as a whole. RPing is meant to be a fun activity, if it becomes something that has a negative effect on an individual, then the best course of action is to leave the group instead of remaining unhappy. We try our best to make sure that our members are heard, but if the issue is with the plot or with how the admins choose to run the RP, then maybe it’s not a good match.

OUR NEXT STEPS

After days of contemplating what our next step should be with the RP, the admins believe that moving the RP to Discord and having it be a closed RP is the best choice for us. If you are interested in remaining in the RP, please send us a message BY MONDAY to let us know so we can include you in our future plans. We will be explaining the process of how Discord RP works to our members to help with the smooth transition. If there are any concerns regarding this, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the admins.

We will be following up again after the weekend once we have a clear timeline of when things get back into motion again. We thank our members who have stuck around and we hope things can get back to normal soon. We also want to thank all of you for your patience. We greatly appreciate it.

NOTE: We are aware that some of our members don’t like the way live events are conducted, but we wanted to say that Discord RPing is not the same format as live events. In Discord RPing, each member will have their own category where they can have regular threads, much like how it’s done on a tumblr dash. The format of this can be seen below:

[inspeeration]

tag directory

mostly doing this for myself lol, constant WIP

tier 1 - clothing

accessories

clothing - the more technical side of things. types of clothing, practicality, how they are designed and put on, inspiration for such ideas, etc

fashion - insp for clothing and outfits, usually extravagant and out there

outfits - same as above but oftentimes more casual and day-to-day. also not directly from actual fashion houses/shows, usually from musicians lol

furniture

items - inspiration for belongings and simple objects, maybe quest items or macguffins, sentimental things

shoes

1 - anything that’s dark, could be considered goth or emo etc

2 - anything that’s bright, cutesy, “girly” and lovey-dovey

3 - a mix of 1 and 2

tier 2 - character/creature design

character design other ppl’s character designs

character insp - real life things to be inspired by

creature design

creature insp

coats - ideas for animal hair/fur/scale/feather patterns

animals further categorized into:

birds

canines

felines

horses

reptiles

humanoids - insp for humanoid/human-esque designs

hybrids - insp for human-people hybrids specifically ;) my favorite!!

tier 3 - misc

aes - anything that just gives me insp for....A Feel, a Vibe, that je ne sais quoi.....can be art or photography

art - this tag doesnt serve much of a purpose other than to categorize aesthetic posts to make them easier to find

environment - inspiration for environments like buildings or indoor spaces

landscapes - inspiration for outdoors. a forest, the steppe, a desert...

architecture - any man-made structure for living/habitation. plaza of an ancient city, a skyscraper, a hut, a shack. people live here

misc - anything that doesnt fit in any of the other tags lol

tier 4 - references

aref - catch-all tag for art references

poses - inspiration or direct references for poses

full body - anything that shows a full body

anatomy

hair

hands

heads

legs

musculature

torsos

skeletal

animal anatomy

bird anatomy

canine anatomy

dinosaur anatomy

equine anatomy

misc anatomy

poc - anything to do with writing or drawing poc, avoiding racist caricatures, etc

fantasy - anything to do with writing or drawing fantasy

tips - usually techniques and methods, little tips & tricks

resources - anything that directs to resources outside of tumblr (websites or apps or etc) (btw check out my personal resources masterpost!!

bodies - relating to different body types and their variations like birthmarks freckles scars or what have you

fat - how to draw fat, skin folds, etc

wref - catch-all tag for writing ref

winsp - short for writing inspiration

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO MARE COSMIA, HYTHLODAEUS. 🌗

ꕥ  — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: skadi age: 27 pronouns: any pronouns ooc contact: @illromances (tumblr) other characters in xc: none!

ꕥ  — IC INFORMATION;

name: Hythlodaeus age: Looks to be in his late twenties to early thirties; don’t be deceived, he’s more than 13000+ pronouns: He / Him series: Final Fantasy XIV canon point: Patch 6.4 app triggers:  Endwalker spoilers, death, and apocalyptic scenarios personality: Those who’d a chance to make his acquaintance often describe Hythlodaeus as a friendly figure—his cheery demeanor and the easiness of falling into a natural interaction with him just fuels their impression of him as an approachable individual. If not a bit coy and mischievous at times when the mood strikes him, or well, when opportunity does. It wasn’t just his soul sight that was keen, but so was his perceptiveness; it served its purpose well when he had the fancy to tease and as well in times where it truly mattered. He was also a touch odd in a subtle way and a little reckless at times, prominent in the last second choices he always made which were also just a tad bit impulsive on his part.

Closer friends would collectively agree on this, on how Hythlodaeus is. Yet there’s a side of him that they’re the only ones witness to. They also describe him as a pillar in their lives; always serving as a source of strength and support to them in ways that were unique to Hythlodaeus. While their people saw service and creativity as a measure of their great contribution to the world, it was only secondary to him. For Hythlodaeus, he finds purpose in aiding his friends, supporting them in their dreams. To see them realize and fulfill their aspirations is a source of accomplishment to him something your muse struggles with: An individual who often thinks and prioritizes those he cares for; an admirable trait in a person and yet, his devotion to their well being often makes him forget about his own. your muse’s greatest strength: A loyal friend one could always call on—a person that would go to great lengths to help those he cares for to flourish and succeed in their endeavors.

history / background: An Ancient from the time when the world was unsundered. In the beginning, Hythlodaeus was not unlike any other Amaurotine—a man with humble origins and, in his opinion, a frankly uninteresting life bar, of course, meeting select individuals that made some of his days more interesting and eventful. A pivotal moment in his life eventually fell onto his lap in the form of an invitation from their time’s governing council—the Convocation of Fourteen—to take up the seat of Emet-Selch. One reason he was extended the offer was due to the strength of his Soul Sight. Hythlodaeus understood as much and yet he was also aware of his own limitations—that he lacked the capacity to lend himself into the role fully. As such he turned down their offer but in his place suggested his good friend Hades, a man who not only possessed the same degree in keenness of their soul sight but is also recognized by all as a powerful and talented mage. In this, the Convocation and many more agreed with.  Later on, Hythlodaeus accepts a post in the Bureau of the Architect—the organization responsible for approving new concepts for creatures and other magical constructs to be released into the world.  He eventually earned himself a leading position in the organization. While not tied to the Convocation, he does have some involvement in some of their activities. Namely through the antics of Azem—another friend of his—whom he has secretly aided in some of their exploits. Sometime in the future, Hythlodaeus accompanied his friend Hades to Elpis  for an official Convocation matter, and acted as a guide to him and a newly arrived “familiar” of Azem in navigating the research facility in search of its Chief Overseer, Hermes. In the following days to come unravels a plot that centers around the arrival of Azem’s familiar—this Warrior of Light and Venat’s Champion—their purpose and the undoing of their world in an apocalyptic calamity called the Final Days.

history / background: An Ancient from the time when the world was unsundered. In the beginning, Hythlodaeus was not unlike any other Amaurotine—a man with humble origins and, in his opinion, a frankly uninteresting life bar, of course, meeting select individuals that made some of his days more interesting and eventful. A pivotal moment in his life eventually fell onto his lap in the form of an invitation from their time’s governing council—the Convocation of Fourteen—to take up the seat of Emet-Selch. One reason he was extended the offer was due to the strength of his Soul Sight. Hythlodaeus understood as much and yet he was also aware of his own limitations—that he lacked the capacity to lend himself into the role fully. As such he turned down their offer but in his place suggested his good friend Hades, a man who not only possessed the same degree in keenness of their soul sight but is also recognized by all as a powerful and talented mage. In this, the Convocation and many more agreed with.  Later on, Hythlodaeus accepts a post in the Bureau of the Architect—the organization responsible for approving new concepts for creatures and other magical constructs to be released into the world.  He eventually earned himself a leading position in the organization. While not tied to the Convocation, he does have some involvement in some of their activities. Namely through the antics of Azem—another friend of his—whom he has secretly aided in some of their exploits. Sometime in the future, Hythlodaeus accompanied his friend Hades to Elpis  for an official Convocation matter, and acted as a guide to him and a newly arrived “familiar” of Azem in navigating the research facility in search of its Chief Overseer, Hermes. In the following days to come unravels a plot that centers around the arrival of Azem’s familiar—this Warrior of Light and Venat’s Champion—their purpose and the undoing of their world in an apocalyptic calamity called the Final Days. Which was all well forgotten due to the activation of KAIROS following a confrontation with Hermes, immediately plucking days worth of memories from their mind since their initial arrival in Elpis. The Final Days arrived thereafter, manifesting itself first as aetherial decline before progressing to catastrophic events that tampered with their people’s creation magic. In the height of this devastation, the Convocation of Thirteen has devised a momentary yet swift solution to their dilemma—a summoning of what is known as a Primal to forestall the Final Days. A ritual that took too many to save what remained. The seat of Elidibus offered himself to serve as its core and to give life and power to an entity that could rewrite the destiny of their star required lives sacrificed in the name of this duty. Half of the world’s existing population sacrificed to summon this god, Zodiark, and one of these people included Hythlodaeus, who considered this act his greatest contribution. Muffled is one way to describe his existence, along with his brethren that shared the same fate as him. Residing within Zodiark, he had an inkling of what has been happening, from the attempted restoration of their world to Venat—Hydaelyn sundering their god and all of creation into ten and three—the source and its thirteen reflections. More, so much more has happened—and yet clarity only came when Zodiark’s prison was cracked. His brethren slipped through, wandering the moon, impeding the effort of this new old friend who held eight parts of Azem’s soul. Of course, how could Hythlodaeus deny them his aid? He had always been and always will be their supporter.

Even when Zodiark was felled and he returned to the star with all his missing memories returned. It only served for him to reach out and answer the call of the Warrior of Light one last time. Along with Hades, Hythlodaeus came to them, with Hope in their hands as proof against despair.

With his duty done, Hythlodaeus departs with his friend, expressing a wish to the Warrior that all three of them would be reunited in another life.

powers / abilities:

✧ Creation Magic. The people before Etheirys was sundered were possessed of vast aetheric pools. And the masterful use and manipulation of this is what brought life to the art of creation magic. Creation magics allow them to conjure and manifest thoughts, ideas. And concepts into the physical realm. And like all ancients, Hythlodaeus has the ability to wield such magics.

✧The Echo. In present day Etheirys, this was a rare skill to be had and noted to be a ‘fraction’ or a residue of an ancient’s power. Before the sundering, however, this assortment of abilities was common amongst the ancients. It allowed them to understand all languages and communicate with the same words, more resistant to tempering influences, and, with focus, view past memories of others. These were the most common abilities but there are more variations of this ability.

✧ Teleportation. Hythlodaeus can teleport from one point to another; a telltale sign of his departure and arrival via teleportation are the appearance of smoky tendrils of black and blue hues.

✧ Transformation. The unsundered were capable of many feats, one such ability they have is shaping their bodies to their will, even fuse with other tangible concepts. All this ranges from small changes to their features to a more massive form, twisting their very physical being into something else different and often grandiose, another kind of reflection of them.

✧ Soulseer. Hythlodaeus possess the skills and talents of a soulseer which is an equivalent to the modern day bard of hydaelyn; they are those who wield bows and use the songs sang by the bowmen of eld, swaying the hearts of men, giving them inspiration in the heat of battle or granting them a peaceful final hymn of peace in their last moments. The biggest difference of a soulseer to that of a bard are the skills and spells used by the ancient which are of a higher tier than the latter. Weaponskill. This section refers to a soulseer’s physical ranged attacks. These skills allow them to take aim and target a single enemy as well as  multiple ones instantaneously, with a few of these weaponskills dealing more damage thanks to their additional effects and damage over time.

Luminous Bolt: Delivers an attack with a potency of 280.

Meggido Flame: It delivers an attack to all enemies in a single line.

Limit Break: Desperado. Delivers a high damage attack to all enemies in a line.

Support Abilities.  Soulseers, or bards as they are known in modern-day Etheirys, offer a range of abilities that bolsters their own combat performance as well as their peers.

Mage’s Ballad - Allows him to deal damage to a single target and grant himself as his allies with “Mage’s Ballad, increasing the damage they are dealing for a time.

The Warden’s Paean - This skill allows him to remove a single detrimental effect from himself or his intended target when they’re afflicted by one and should they be unaffected, it creates a barrier instead to protect them from these detrimental effects for a short period.

Army’s Paeon - Allows him to deal damage to a single target and grants him and his as well as his allies with “Army’s Paeon”, which increases one’s direct hit rate for a time.

Battle Voice - This skill grants him and his nearby allies a boost  in their  direct hit rate by a certain percent.

The Wanderer’s Minuet  - Allows him to deal damage to a single target and grants him and his as well as his allies with “Wanderer’s Minuet”, which increases one’s critical  hit rate for a time.

Troubadour - When used, this skill helps reduce damage taken by himself and as well as nearby allies by a certain percent for a brief period.

Nature’s Minne - During Nature’s Minne, recovery through healing actions will be increased.

Radiant Finale - This skill grants him and his nearby allies a boost in the damage they deal by a certain percent.

Auxiliary Skills. These are basic extra skills that individuals belonging to this job class can carry out and aid them in their exploits.

Leg Graze - Afflicts target with ‘heavy’ for a short period.

Foot Graze - Allows him to bind targets for a brief moment.

Head Graze - Interrupts a target’s action.

Second Wind - Instantly restores a portion of his health.

Pelotone - Allows him to increase his and his peers speed for a set time; this, however, doesn’t work in battle.

Arms Length - This creates a barrier that nullifies most knockback and draw-in effects for a short time and when the barrier is struck, it afflicts the target with ‘slow’.

Specific Abilities. These are higher tiered spells performed by the ancients.

Annihilation. It combines the power of fire with the power of ice, causing high damage to the target and all enemies nearby it.

True Benediction. The ability allows him to restore the target to full health.    

True Raise. It allows him to resurrect a target instantaneously.

⤷ More information about the bard class can be found here.

inherent abilities:

✧ Soul Sight. Eyes that possess this kind of ability can perceive the essence and appearance of an individual's aether as well as the underworld; an uncommon ability among his kind but Hythlodaeus was born with one that had great strength amongst others, enough to spark interest from authoritative parties.

✧ Sharp-Eyed. Literally. Thanks to his soul sight, he could perceive an individual's soul. Nevertheless, he possesses the same such keenness when it comes to details. Being the chief of the bureau of the architect required him to oversee and evaluate each concept entrusted to their office and it required him to be both observant and critical. literally. Thanks to his soul sight, he could perceive an individual's soul.

✧ Ancient Physiology. The inhabitants of Etheirys prior to its sundering. They’re figures are no different from the regular hyur, though compared to them and other inhabitants of the new world, they were quite large and towering. Their aether was  quite abundant as well. In addition, they’re implied to be much more long lived. Barring fatal accidents and other life depriving misfortune, they are immortal. When their duty to the star is fulfilled, it’s only then that they return to the star.

items / weapons:

✧ White Mask. A mask often worn as part of their societal practices.

starting ability: Creation Magic

starting item: White Mask

extra:

Fruity.

Can play a musical instrument or two and belt out songs.

Stares into your soul.

He’s watching everything from the aetherial sea.

discord id: soulseer.

passcode: chocolate orange

[sharinluna]

Chapter 15 Gavin Analysis - The Name of Faith

NOTE: Please read this in PC because in mobile tumblr app the chapter quotes are not shown properly.

1. In Need of Something to Hold.

I put down the phone and stared blankly at the ceiling and my unchanged room, trance-like. It felt like if I closed my eyes, I’d still be able to feel that weightlessness of falling. I felt the ginkgo leaf on my wrist and tried to drive this surreal feeling out of my head. Then I just kept telling myself, that’s all in the past. That my life had returned to normal, that I could go back to the same, peaceful life.

Gavin: Did you have another nightmare?

Maybe because of all I’d been through, I found myself less and less able to control my emotions.

At the beginning of chapter 15 Yōurán is showing signs of depression, revisiting her trauma and having doubts of reality due to repeated nightmares. It doesn’t occur to the readers right away since we’re viewing the story from a distance. But having prophetic dreams and visions constantly is bound to shake your sense of what’s real and not. It must be really stressful.

To deal with this she is using Gavin’s ginkgo bracelet as an anchor to hold her steady.

The gingko leaf on my wrist glittered in the moonlight, like it was sighing in relief too. My heart slowly settled back down.

Yōurán: It’s because of you that Gavin is always able to sense me, isn’t it…?

Gavin: That’s not it. I can find you whether you have that or not.

The truth was in the game profile all along.

NOW I can finally say this without spoiler tags. For those of you who thought Gavin’s tracker was creepy: There is no tracker! He just made that up because he was too shy to give you the bracelet and say “I made this because I love you.” He is nothing but a sweet, sweet boy.

Anyway, remember the significance of the ginkgo bracelet to Yōurán. Because I will bring that up at the end of the analysis.

2. You saved me and I saved you.

Gavin: Without you, this Ferris wheel would’ve stopped construction long ago, and those people wouldn’t be back to living their lives. You saved them. And you saved me. Don’t let yourself feel that you’re useless. I was falling, and you caught me again.

If I had to coin a phrase that explains Gavin and Yōurán’s relationship it would be “mutual salvation.” This is a relationship where the two people save each other. And in here “saving” doesn’t just mean saving your life from physical danger. It means enabling you to go on with your life, to giving you a purpose to keep going.

When Yōurán thinks back about their fall from the TV tower, I couldn’t help but notice some interesting parallels from Gavin’s Campus Date.

Feeling that he was falling rapidly, Gavin reached out his arms trying to grab something. Suddenly a heavy, rapid, surging melody sounded. It’s like the world has no use for me. If I die, they’ll be happy, right? The piano melody suddenly rang out in several harsh, heavy notes. No, it’s not true. His life didn’t need validation from his so-called father, his so-called friends. - Campus Date

I couldn’t help but think of that moment in despair. But it wasn’t until that moment when Gavin caught me that I realized, I was scared to death. I didn’t want to give up this place, all these people, and the bonds I’ve formed. So I grabbed on for dear life. - Yōurán reminiscing Ch 14

Campus Date is when Yōurán saved Gavin and caught him from falling. The same thing happened to Yōurán at the end of chapter 14.

They were both falling with nothing to hold on to. They both felt they were going to die and had no hope left of living. But something caught them in their fall. Yōurán’s piano for Gavin, and Gavin’s wind for her. After that they both realized that they wanted to live. Their reason to not give up on life is each other.

But it’s interesting that Gavin’s and Yōurán’s reasons for not wanting to die are quite different. Gavin said that his life doesn’t need validation from other people (mostly his father.) This led him to be pretty much detached from others and living like a lone wolf. He found his reason for life by breaking free from other people. Even when others mistake him as violent and scary, he doesn’t care. His own faith and principle that came from Yōurán is what matters

On the other hand, Yōurán said she didn’t want to give up the bonds she’d formed in her life. To her, attachments to other people are important. Not just the LIs. Her work colleagues like Kiki and Willow. Family and friends, her viewers, even the people she just passes on streets. The bonds she formed with people she’s met, places she’s seen, tether her to the living world.

The importance of “bonds” is a key element to explaining Yōurán’s nature and her actions throughout the whole story. Why she constantly throws herself to danger for other people. She is “bonded” to them. Connected to them in a way that reaches down to the core of her existence.

3. STF’s Dark Side

I already said this in chapter 14 analysis. The Special Task Force is not what it appears to be. It is supposedly an organization that upholds justice and protect the citizens. But, in chapter 14 Leto asked Yōurán - who is despite her Evol a plain citizen who hasn’t received any sort of training - to go to the source of danger without offering any back up or protection. Any military or semi-military group that’s asking unarmed citizens to do such kinds of things are using them as tools to maintain order.

And when Gavin gets in contact with his friend Litton it’s confirmed that the STF has done more dirty work.

Litton: No matter how big or small their crime, they all died. Cause of death undetermined, while at STF, and their cases were changed to someone else. Sounds impossible, but with enough patience, cunning, and authority… like the Commander perhaps.

Every Evol offenders Gavin arrested were killed, regardless of the weight of their crimes. Without going through a trial and without receiving a proper sentence. Their death is kept secret from the world as if they were assassinated.

Extrajudicial killing is when a person or group of authority kill a person without following due legal process like respecting the person’s rights to a trial. What they did is not execution, it’s murder.

Leto to Yōurán: STF has been monitoring the boy you encountered today. We guess that it’s an attempt from Black Swan to get close to you. We need you to gain this boy’s trust and possibly protect him to a certain extent.

Now, Leto is trying to get to Litton through Perry, using Yōurán. Baiting her that Perry is related to her father’s death.

Gavin: I don’t know why the Commander said this is related to your father’s death, but this mission isn’t simple at all. You’d best stay away from the boy.

Yōurán: I won’t accept. But I think this boy really does have something to do with the truth I’m after. So, I want to go see him, on my own terms.

She decides to approach Perry for the truth, but rejects Leto’s offer. She is unaware of STF’s dirty secret, but her “strong intuition” is telling her not to trust Leto’s words completely.

Since Lucien who is the smartest person in this story advised her to “trust her instincts.” When she has a gut feeling about these things, it’s usually right.

4. The Loss of Faith

  Litton: Gavin, what if one day everything you believed in turned out to be a lie. What would you do?

Gavin is a man who believes in the most ideal concept of justice. He chose his job in order to protect Yōurán and to ensure that the world is a good place. Because Yōurán is part of the world and the world is part of her. But he is not keeping justice just for her. Rather, the reason started from her and spread to the others.

Gavin’s Summer Loving call demonstrates this perfectly.

Gavin: (When asked why he saved a strange girl on the streets) I just acted on instinct. … In that moment, I suddenly thought of you. I thought, could there ever be a situation like this, you in danger, and me unable to be there? So no matter who the girl is, I would hope someone would stand up and help her.

Yōurán inspired Gavin to become who he is, but that doesn’t mean that his identity is borrowed or not his own. He said he acted on instinct without thinking. It was in his nature to choose to live like this, and Yōurán’s presence helped him discover that.

Litton: I thought I was serving the faith, but now I know my faith was stained with blood. Later I understood. Faith is what you have when you don’t want to know the truth. We were just executioners, that’s all we were.

Slow-gathering doubt, sudden truth. It hit him like a tsunami, assaulting his once unshakable faith. His right hand started tremoring suddenly. A black wind surged up, slight and sharp, slicing through the rain and scarring his hands. Beads of blood rose from the wound and were washed to the ground by the rain. Gavin clenched his fists again, and the blood oozed out, but no wisps of wind surged.

However, in chapter 15, Gavin’s belief of justice and right and wrong is shaken. Enough for his Evol to be unstable again and fail him.

He lost his faith of justice. He lost his faith in his Evol. He even lost his faith that he could protect Yōurán.

5. How to Overcome the Wall Between Us

Yōurán: What happened?

Gavin: It’s nothing major. You don’t need to worry. I’ll take care of it.

Yōurán: Maybe I can’t help you, but I at least want to share the burden with you.

A stinging feeling welled up. I thought after last time, Gavin wouldn’t hide things from me again. I thought he trusted that we could face the truth and take on everything together.

I understand why Gavin is like this, but I also feel the hurt of Yōurán. After what they faced together in chapter 12, this feels like a step back in their relationship.

Gavin: You don’t need to see Perry anymore. I’ll send someone to look after him.

Yōurán is looking after Perry for mainly three reasons. 1) She believes that Perry is related to the truth that she’s looking for. 2) She is naturally a caring person and took compassion on him. 3) She related to him because she has experience of missing her dad too. Looking after Perry came to have a personal meaning to her.

Gavin: My agreement before (about Perry) was on the precondition that you’d be safe. But now, the situation’s changed.

Most of the time, Yōurán respects Gavin’s wishes when he insists that she step back to be safe. But, she’s not going to back away when she suspects that he is not being completely honest with her.

Yōurán: Gavin… you’re hiding something again, aren’t you?

In that instant, a swirl of complicated emotions flickered in Gavin’s eyes. I felt as if I’d been punched in the chest. My heart ached. I almost couldn’t take it.

Gavin: There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. But this thing… I can’t let you.

An unspoken barrier of silence and stubbornness had been erected between us.

Gavin and Yōurán usually agree with each other about everything. But this is a topic that they cannot agree nor compromise. So they avoid each other instead of talking things out. Maybe they’re afraid that having an argument about Perry will lead to a fight.

As someone who comes from an abusive family Gavin is extremely careful to avoid any situation where he might be violent to her. Like yelling at her or getting angry at her during a fight. Yōurán firmly believes that Gavin will never hurt her. But right now, Gavin cannot believe himself.

Almost in all cases fights are detrimental in relationships. But you can never not go on without a fight in your life. And among couple fights the silent non-fighting war is the worst one.

I thought Gavin and Yōurán would have to lash out and yell at each other to solve this, even if they have to upset each other. But I was wrong. There was a way to overcome this without resorting to verbal abuse.

Gavin: The moment I saw you fall from the tower was the first time I wasn’t sure if I could protect you. But then I was unable to control my Evol, unable to take you somewhere safe…

And herein lies the root of the problem. With his unstable Evol he lost his confidence, his faith that he could protect her. It wasn’t that he couldn’t trust her,

Gavin: Even without Evol, I can still protect you. Trust me, okay?

He couldn’t trust himself. Losing his faith, he is desperately clinging on to  Yōurán for her faith.

 Gavin: I trust your precognitions. Put your trust in me too.

This was his absolute faith in me, and his absolute reassurance for me.

Gavin and Yōurán saved each other. They try to protect each other. They inspire each other to become good and brave. They also put their faith in each other.

6. Her Growing Powers and Precognitions of Impending Tragedy.

When Perry ran into me, I was holding his shoulders. Last time beside the hospital bed I held Gavin’s hand. And those sudden flashes of visions all happened afterwards, one after the other. Could it be that… because I touched them, I can see what’s going to happen to them in the future?

Yōurán’s power is known to be precognition at this stage in the story. But her visions foretelling the future comes to her involuntarily. She had no control of her powers and she couldn’t start seeing visions whenever she wanted to.

Now, her powers have awakened enough for her to practice some level of control and agency. Physical contact enables her to see other people’s future. Before this, she could see other people’s future only if she was directly in the picture.

Also, she can see not only the future but also the past from her visions. In chapter 12 she already saw young Gavin in her visions being terrified in front of a fire that killed his mother. In chapter 15 she actively used her powers to figure out where Perry was taken. In small steps her powers are growing.

No matter how uneasy I felt or how sure I was of my new ability, I chose to believe Gavin anyway.

Maybe she should have believed in her growing powers more. The LIs keep telling her that everything will be fine but her foreboding sense of calamity has never been wrong before.

I can see people’s futures, but since it hasn’t happened yet, maybe I can change it?

Well… this game seems to have a depressing tendency to lean towards fatalism… as she would soon find out in the future to her dismay.

7. Doing the Right Thing.

Countless gun barrels were trained on us. A team of armed units surrounded the entire warehouse. On their chests, STF special ops badges glinted in my eyes. For a split-second, I felt that all of these men before us were like devils. I wanted to ask them why. Why would harm a little kid. How could sworn protectors turn into ruthless executioners?

Gavin: I will not let another child die in front of me.

The concept of right and wrong is subjective, but harming innocent children is a big NO that cannot be compromised. At least to me. Child protection is one of the most important things in humanity. If a society needs to neglect, exploit, or abuse children to keep going perhaps that society shouldn’t exist.

Leto: It was my order.

Gavin: You don’t have the authority to do that!

Leto: The special ops team has its reasons. I don’t have the obligation nor the time to explain it to you.

Gavin: But you have the obligation to explain the first rule of STF code. Every single bullet is fired for justice!

Gavin: I’ve put 76 Evol offenders behind bars. And all 76 have either died or disappeared. If anyone believes in that justice, then those people will answer to me.

Gavin: From now on, there is no more Agent B-7.

Mostly, the government is the one who decides what is right and wrong by law. But what if the government is wrong? Do you bend? Or do you defy? I love that Gavin chose the latter as his answer. He is standing up to the corrupt, authoritative, dictatorship government to pursue what is truly just. A path that is not by any means easy to walk on. Gavin is the Captain America of MLQC.

Yōurán: Gavin, don’t use your Evol again! You’ll be injured!

Uh…. but you should probably keep in mind the current state of your Evol, Gavin…

8. The Name of Faith

“The Name of Faith” is also the title of Chapter 15.

Gavin: The dangers aren’t just coming from the dark, but from the world we thought we once knew as well.

That the danger is from STF. For Gavin that would mean… the faith he once kept, the justice he once upheld, it all crumbled in this instant.

Gavin: I’ll take you to a safe place and then go back and take care of all this.

If we were to put a name on Gavin’s faith. It would be Yōurán. The Name of Gavin’s Faith = Her.

9. Against the Light

(Against the Light is the name of Gavin’s chapter 15 karma)

In the next instant, I saw Gavin’s solitary figure standing all on his own on the horizon. Half a second later, he disappeared out of my sight, like I would never see him again.

Yōurán: Are you going to leave without saying goodbye?

Gavin: Not at all. I made a promise to you.

I saw a cold, gleaming object taken out, pointed straight at Gavin. My body moved faster than I could think, and I shielded Gavin. Something sharp pierced my skin. The intense pain almost forced me to cry out. The next second my ginkgo bracelet split and slipped off my wrist. I snagged it in my hand.

After she foresaw Gavin disappearing, she shields him and gets shot instead of him. But it wasn’t enough to change the future she saw.

Gavin: Don’t let go!

All I could do was hold on to Gavin with all my might and let him focus. I was getting hotter and felt like my blood was rising to my throat. … I couldn’t breathe. I had no strength…

Yōurán: Gavin… Don’t… leave…

I used what strength I had to clutch Gavin’s clothes. The ginkgo leaf bit into my palm.

Gavin: I’ll be back soon.

In that moment, the image of Gavin receding away from me appeared once again.

Yōurán: No… don’t…

An indescribable fear gripped my heart. With my last ounce of strength, I grabbed Gavin’s hand. Don’t leave. Don’t go over there. Don’t walk off like in my vision alone and suffering. Don’t let it be like that again, walking off without even looking back.

Gavin: I won’t leave. I promise you.

With my last scrap of will, I clung to the bracelet that connected us.

Even when she got shot and is feverish, she tries to hold on to the bracelet and Gavin. Words like “don’t let go”, “clutch”, “cling to” is used to describe her desperate will to grab onto this object that means so much to her life. Remember what I said about the bracelet at the beginning? The meaning of the bracelet is revisited again, full-force.

Gavin’s Father: Gavin, weakness is the original sin. You go back with me and accept the NW Plan. This is the order you were born to accept. You and your brother are both no exceptions. Gavin, you have no choice.

Gavin’s father is using Yōurán’s life to threaten Gavin into accepting the NW plan. This is something that is so against Gavin’s idea of justice and morality.

Gavin: …You’ll keep her safe?

I never thought that seeing someone stripped of their will and pride could be such a painful sight.

But he accepts it. Everything was taken away from him. He cannot lose the only thing that’s left to him. Yōurán means that fateful autumn day at the campus with winds and piano music. Yōurán is the source of all his faith and purpose in life.

In the name of faith, Gavin is walking down the path against the light.

Yōurán tries to clutch on to Gavin like she clutches on to the bracelet, but she can only watch helplessly as her vision comes true before her eyes.

10. The Only Thing Left to Hold

I lowered my head and saw the bracelet on my hand shining exquisitely, but I couldn’t find the crack from before. It was like I had made up the whole thing.

Gavin left, leaving the bracelet behind. Her mental state is back to the beginning of the chapter 15. Empty, alone and doubting whether anything is real.

The gingko bracelet was her connection to Gavin. It gave her reassurance and courage to carry on despite the hardships. It was what anchored her down to be stable.

Now, the bracelet is only a faint reminder of Gavin’s absence and his echo of promises.

[mimi-cee-hq]

Yahaba’s Type - Yahaba x Reader (Part 2 of 2)

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[Part 1] [Part 2]

Summary:

Although Y/n was known as the clown friend, she wasn’t very comfortable around Yahaba. But that started to change when she saw him awkwardly practising his tosses by himself.

Match-up Request:

Hi I’m here for a match up request~ I’m tall (about 1.80) with blonde middle length hair & light brown eyes I’m a bit plump (usually thin but lately I’ve put on some weight) & sometimes I get self conscious about it 😬 been playing volleyball for 10 years as a middle blocker & my team’s ace ☺️ I also enjoy drawing a lot whenever I have free time Im THAT clown friend who gets really happy whenever people laugh with my jokes & I try to cheer people up that way whenever I see someone being down -🦋

So I found out that actually can save my answers as drafts (but only in the app??). *shrugs* Still learning how to use Tumblr.

Yahaba’s Type - Yahaba x Reader

Words: 2,066

Yahaba took a glance at the second floor before their practice match had started. As they warmed up for the match, he felt like his serves and sets were on point today. He was glad that his setting practice with Y/n had paid off. Chiaki and Y/n decided to watch their game today when Chiaki heard about it. She wanted to know what kind of teammates Kyotani had and wondered how they treated him. Y/n came along as well, which was probably the first time she had ever watched their games. But there were times when he wondered if she should have come.

The match started off with Yahaba’s serve. After bouncing the ball a couple of times, he threw the ball in front of him and ran up to it for his jump serve. But as it hit the top of the net, he held his breath until the volleyball had fallen onto the opponent’s side of the court. He let out a sigh of relief. But that didn’t last long because he heard Y/n shouting at the top of her lungs. “Kya~~! You’re so cool, Yahaba!”

Yahaba quickly turned his head up to her direction to see her laughing her head off. He got a bit annoyed at her since he knew she was just messing around. She wouldn’t have been impressed by his jump serve because she knew how to do one as well. Also, getting a point from a net serve already wasn’t very cool in itself. She was probably just mimicking Oikawa’s fan girls that he had told her about. Now he regretted ever telling her about them.

He gave her a smirk just before his next serve. He made sure she was still watching him. His next serve was a powerful one that he aimed at the other team’s spike-haired libero. When the libero missed his serve, he gave Y/n a smug grin. In response, she gave him a thumbs up and smiled.

“Well someone is showing off again,” said Kindaichi. Yahaba straightened up, remembering that he was in the middle of a match.

“What did you expect?” commented Kunimi. “He’s always been like that.”

As Yahaba got the ball back and walked back to the serving line, Y/n yelled out, “You’d better not miss your next serve!” She then said with a laugh, “Otherwise I’ll expose all of your secrets!”

Yahaba flinched at the thought. He didn’t want his team to know how much he had been practising outside of their usual practices.

“Since when have they been close?” Watari asked Kyotani. He just shrugged in response.

Yahaba didn’t expect them to notice that they were more comfortable with each other now. But with how Y/n was treating him, he shouldn’t have been surprised. The two of them had unintentionally continued to practise with each other for the past few months. He wasn’t planning on continuing their practices together, but he saw how much he had improved because of them.

When their opponents were able to get their first point, Seijoh got ready to receive their serve and attack. But when Yahaba set the ball to Kyotani, it was too high for him to reach. Luckily, Kunimi was somehow able to cover for him, even though it gave the other team a chance ball.

The next few times Yahaba tried to set, he kept on messing up. His fingers felt stiff. He didn’t know what was wrong because he had felt great during the warm up. Yahaba started to feel frustrated because he knew he was failing his team and they needed him. He was now their starting setter and captain. How were they supposed to beat Karasuno the next time around if he was already screwing up this match? He started to wonder if all of the extra practice with Y/n was useless.

Suddenly, he heard Y/n yell out a cheer. “Go, go, let’s go, let’s go, Dateko!”

The court was silent as they stared at the second floor to where Y/n stood. The Seijoh players were the first to break the silence with their laughter.

“What the heck is wrong with her?” said Kindaichi while he laughed hard enough for tears to come out of his eyes.

“Not only is she not cheering for us, but we’re not even playing against Dateko!” added Watari as he held his stomach while laughing.

Yahaba covered his laughter with his mouth. He also found it hilarious but he was equally embarrassed by her. She must have noticed that he was starting to panic. The rest of the team was doing well except for him

As the rest of the court continued to laugh, Y/n justified her actions by saying that their cheer was catchy. She even sang along when her own team played a match against them. She thought it was a lot better than their school’s cheer.

Yahaba then saw the referee remove the whistle from her mouth and turned to Y/n. “Y/n! If you disrupt this match again, you’ll be kicked out and you’ll have to run a hundred laps around the school during next practice!”

Y/n stood up straight and replied, “Yes, ma'am!” She pretended to zip her mouth to show that she had understood.

“I forgot that we got the girls’ team’s coach as the ref,” Kindaichi mentioned to Kunimi.

“If she’s the team’s captain, it must be pretty chaotic with her there,” added Kunimi.

Yahaba felt a bit of second-hand embarrassment from what Y/n just did. But because of her joke, he was able to calm down.

He realized how cold his fingers were. As he breathed on his hands, he remembered when he had jammed his fingers at the community center. Y/n had taken his hands and worried over them. He remembered how soft and warm her hands had been. So even though Yahaba had been trying to warm up his hands, he felt his cheeks heat up instead.

After the practice match had ended, Yahaba walked off the court and grabbed his water bottle for a drink. Y/n walked down from the second floor and the tall middle blocker from the other team approached her.

“We should go to the udon place that’s nearby,” stated the intimidating guy with a large build.

“Oh,” said Y/n with a nervous smile. “I’m not really interested.”

“But it’s really good!” he continued to insist.

Yahaba walked up to the guy who was pestering Y/n and tried to stare him down even though he was more than two meters tall. “She said she’s not interested,” Yahaba sternly told him. It’s not like he hadn’t dealt with troublesome people before. He didn’t want Y/n to deal with him by herself.

“What are you doing?” asked Y/n as she raised an eyebrow. “He’s a friend from junior high.” She continued to explain that a group of them were planning a reunion. She had said she wasn’t interested because she didn’t really like udon. She was more of a rice person.

“Ugh, this is so embarrassing,” Yahaba thought to himself.

“Sorry Hyakuzawa,” Y/n apologized with a smile. Kindaichi and Kunimi snickered at Yahaba for trying to be cool. He just told them to shut up.

As Yahaba walked away from the scene, Kyotani leaned on the wall with his arms crossed. “So what happened to having a type?” he asked with a smirk. He still held a grudge against him after all these months.

“Ugh, I don’t have one, okay?” Yahaba responded in frustration.

*****

After another night at the community center, Y/n plopped on her bed out of exhaustion. Her mom scolded her to at least take a shower. She did what she was told and got ready for bed. She checked her phone and saw a couple of texts from Yahaba.

Yahaba: Did you get home okay?

Yahaba: Since you’re not replying, I’ll just go sleep now. Night.

There was also another text that had appeared about an hour later.

Yahaba: I hope you dream of me

Y/n especially blushed at the last one. She didn’t remember him being a flirt. She knew there was no way he meant that. But a silly grin still formed on her mouth as she tried to lay on her bed to sleep. Unfortunately, it turned out that she was right. The next morning she saw one more text from him.

Yababa: I’m sorry! My sister texted that! Ignore that last one!

She knew that she should have known better. She sighed. It was harder to get over her growing crush on him.

She took a second look at the texts. She realized that he must have been exhausted for his sister to have the opportunity to use his phone. She wondered if they should cut down on their practices together.

Later at school, Y/n asked Chiaki if she was still free to come over for some home karaoke. She replied that she was.

“Can I come?” asked Kyotani.

Y/n had to blink a few times before she excitedly asked, “You want to sing?! Are you serious?!”

“No, I want to watch Chiaki sing.” Kyotani replied.

“Well that makes a lot more sense,” she laughed.

“Did you want to come?” Kyotani asked Yahaba.

“Why would I want to come?” asked Yahaba.

“You should come too! It’ll be fun!” said Y/n.

Kyotani didn’t really care was his response would be so he started to walk away with Chiaki. But Yahaba decided to tag along anyway.

When they arrived at Y/n’s house, her dad greeted Yabaha. But he flinched when Kyotani realized that he had been going to the community center.

“I guess your secret is out,” laughed Y/n. Since Kyotani knew her dad as well, he nodded to greet him.

The four of them sat in the living room. Kyotani and Chiaki sat on the large couch and Yahaba took the other end. Y/n set up the karaoke machine.

Chiaki sang a ballad beautifully. Y/n belted out a different song and sung badly on purpose. “Yay! I got a 68!” cheered Y/n. Her best friend found the whole thing hilarious like usual. Yahaba wondered why he came in the first place.

When Chiaki started to whistle to one of the songs, Y/n tried to whistle too. She couldn’t whistle at all. But she was being stubborn and kept trying anyway.

“You look stupid,” said Yahaba. “You’re getting your spit everywhere.” In response, she purposely got closer to him to tease him some more. “Ugh! Stop doing that!”

But Y/n still didn’t stop. It was kind of fun annoying him and the other two found it hilarious. Yahaba didn’t know how to make her stop. So he kissed her.

Y/n froze. She didn’t understand what had just happened. Yahaba smirked at her. But then his attempt to look cool failed him and his face became just as red as hers.

“W- What was that?!” Y/n freaked out. “Why would you do that?!” She tried to cover her blush with her hands. “You should only do that to someone you like!”

Yahaba looked away as he replied, “So it’s fine then.” He hid his face with his hands when Y/n realized that he admitted to liking her.

“B- But,” she continued to panic, “I’m not even your type.”

“I don’t have a type anymore,” he replied. “It’s just you.”

For once, Y/n was silent. She was trying to process the whole thing. She never expected Yahaba to like her back. She then smiled at the thought that he liked her enough for his type to be irrelevant over these past few months.

She took the seat beside him and inched a bit closer. The two still couldn’t make eye contact with each other. They both tried to steal a glance from each other, but when their eyes met, they quickly turned away again. Kyotani and Chiaki just stared at their awkwardness.

“Yahaba,” Y/n’s dad said in a deep voice. Y/n and Yahaba both flinched, not realizing that her dad was there. “I was wondering when you’d finally say something,” he said with a smirk.

*****

Extras that didn’t fit in the story:

Since Yahaba likes ikura don and Y/n likes rice dishes, they eat it all the time on dates.

Kyotani is actually pretty observant since he was conscious of his old teammates talking behind his back. But because he’s stubborn, reckless and just does his own thing anyway, it doesn’t really show through.

Chiaki is the cunning, protective type that looks innocent, but only Kyotani and Y/n know that.

I wanted Y/n to be the daughter of the guy from the community center who watched the Seijoh vs Karasuno match. But if she was, Y/n would have a (last) name. lol.

I hope you liked it! I actually had a hard time getting “clown funny” down. Other types of funny come more naturally to me (like sarcastic, teasing, and punny.) So I got some ideas from the webtoon Odd Girl Out with Mirae as a character model.

I also had a working name for Y/n because I write better that way. I might also post on fanfiction.net with the working name because they technically don’t allow reader-inserts. But I might not do it because it’s more work. lol. I actually initially started posting stories on FFN.

Check out my other stories too. :) I’m hoping to build a collection of them with all of the requests.

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