#everyone has been saying we transcribed stuff very quickly.

[fuckyeahvanhalen86-95]

In a new interview with Q104.3's "Out Of The Box With Jonathan Clarke", former Van Halen bassist Wolfgang Van Halen was asked to weigh in on the upcoming summer 2024 tour featuring vocalist Sammy Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani and drummer Jason Bonham that will focus largely on the music of Van Halen. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, that's super cool, man. I'm stoked for it. I'm actually, I'm gonna be seeing Mike in Vegas, so I'm stoked to give him a hug."

Two months ago, Wolfgang, who joined Van Halen at just 15 years old, told 97.9 GRD's Tommy Carroll, about what it was like performing with the legendary rock act for the first time at such a young age: "It was really… I don't know. It was sure nerve-racking, but we had rehearsed so much, for years at that point, that it felt right; it felt like something we'd been working towards for a long time."

Asked if reproducing the backing vocals originally recorded by Anthony helped him develop his own vocal style, Wolfgang said: "Yeah, I'm sure. Doing that for a long time was certainly quite the workout. So I'm definitely sure about that."

In September, Wolfgang, who shared the stage with his father, legendary Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen, together from 2006 until 2015, five years before Eddie's death, told Australia's "Everblack" podcast that "there were a lot of positives and a lot of negatives" to him playing with Van Halen at such an early point in his life. "I think it really forced me to mature very quickly at a young age," he said. "I think at 15, I couldn't be a regular 15-year-old. So in a certain way, I couldn't be a regular teenager anymore once that happens, and I experienced a lot of stuff, I think, that most kids that age wouldn't really normally experience. But that's my story and I wouldn't take it back for anything. It's what has led me to where I've gone my entire life. It was a really important thing to be there and to support my dad, and that's all that was really on my mind. And being able to play with my family for that long is something I'll never forget."

In recent months, Wolfgang has repeatedly said that "drama" in the Van Halen camp has prevented a proposed all-star Van Halen tribute project from materializing.

Wolfgang played three Van Halen songs over the course of two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts in September 2022 alongside Foo Fighters members Dave Grohl on bass, Josh Freese on drums and The Darkness's Justin Hawkins on vocals.

Wolfgang, who played "On Fire", "Hot For Teacher" and "Panama" at the Hawkins tribute concerts, told Classic Rock magazine that he was no longer actively interested in pursuing the idea of a standalone Eddie Van Halen tribute event. "I think I already did it with the Taylor Hawkins tributes," he explained. "I feel a lot of closure because my part of the show was a tribute to my father."

"When it comes to Van Halen and entities surrounding the band it's unfortunate, certainly compared to Foo Fighters who have their shit together with interpersonal relationships," Wolfgang added.

"I don't know what it is with some bands but certain personalities just can't get over themselves to work collectively for one purpose. That's been the curse of Van Halen for its entire career. So my playing at the Taylor shows delivered that catharsis without the stresses of dealing with the Van Halen camp, and the players involved. Their camp is very dysfunctional — everyone! Hell, it was difficult to make plans even when the band was active."

Eddie died in October 2020 at the age of 65. The legendary Van Halen guitarist passed away at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

Hagar and Anthony previously worked with Satriani in the supergroup Chickenfoot. They recorded two albums between 2009 and 2011 and toured across America but never performed any Van Halen material. More recently, Hagar and Anthony have played some of the Van Halen catalog with guitarist Vic Johnson and Bonham in Sammy Hagar and The Circle.

Hagar mended his relationship with Eddie Van Halen months prior to the legendary Van Halen guitarist's passing.

Sammy, Eddie, Alex Van Halen and Michael last teamed up in 2004 for a U.S. summer tour. In exchange for taking part in the tour, Anthony reportedly had to agree to take a pay cut and sign away his rights to the band name and logo.

Produced by Live Nation, the 28-date "The Best Of All Worlds" tour will commence on July 13 in West Palm Beach, Florida and will conclude on August 31 in St. Louis, Missouri.

"We're gonna go deep into the Van Halen catalog," Hagar told "The Howard Stern Show". "If you're gonna go deep into the Van Halen catalog, you need Joe Satriani."

Although Hagar and Anthony normally play "five or six Van Halen songs" on the road with The Circle, Sammy told Stern they are planning to only play "five or six of my songs" alongside Van Halen classics and deep cuts.

"When we go out next year in July, it will be almost exactly 20 years since Mike and I did a reunion with Ed and Al in '04," Hagar said. "Mike and I just said, 'We can't wait another 20 years. How long can I even sing these songs? How long can I do this stuff? I just thought it's time to serve the fans."

"There's stuff we're going to do on this next tour that we haven't played since that tour in 2004," Anthony added.

Regarding the challenge of learning legendary VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen's parts, Satriani said: "There are things that are so iconic, you have to nail it. But if you go deep with what he did live, he never played the same thing twice. He kept evolving; he kept pushing. He'd do the recorded version a little bit, but then he moved on."

"It's a daunting task when you do the deep dive into what he did," he continued. "But it's good to start at the beginning, and then you just learn all his little improvs and you get the idea of what he was trying to do. It's thrilling; it's fun."

#van halen #post van halen #van halen tribute #wolfgang van halen #michael anthony #sammy hagar #jason bonham #joe satriani #2023 #blabbermouth #news #interview #Q104.3 #youtube #videos #Out Of The Box With Jonathan Clarke

[charleslebatman]

Can I be devil's advocate for a minute, besties? bear with me just a little bit, okay? 😈

I highly doubt that Alexandra is sending these photos to her fan pages. I'm speaking as someone who has already been part of many fandons and it's common for people to find these photos and information on friends and family pages, especially when the person they want to stalk has the private networks. They have the talent and special tools (and a lot of free time) to find these things. Do I think this is right? No, it's weird and invasive. But it's hard to talk to these people because they don't think they're wrong and they're a little scary lol. I think she's afraid of coming out as a villain and that's why she doesn't complain about them publishing these photos. At the end of the day they are public, because they were already on sm, so there is not much to do.

And it's true, she changed her bio a few times to "reply" to some of the things that were being said on the gossip sites. But we can't forget that when the rumors started people started accusing her of very bad/serious things, and they tagged all of charles' friends and family in these posts. It was really bad, and that's when she started to put her age, where she was from, where she studies, what she studies in her bio...probably to stop the lies.

As for her changing what she posts on her art account because of what people comment about it, sorry besties but I think it's a stretch. She posted stuff like that before, people were just too busy looking for hints about her being with Charles to notice.

And about her shaping her personality on social media according to what she wants people to think of her, well... everyone does that! it's very hard to find someone who is exactly what they show on social media. Even those who appear to be super genuine are only showing their best side. Nobody sane will be exposing their flaws and their darker side for everyone to see. Even more someone who is being judged all the time for every little thing they do.

Oh, and actually she liked a comment saying it wasn't her in the maranello video.

That's it, besties. I not the one to keep defending a WAG but some things need to be said. 😈😘

I agree on several points. But I think she also knows what she's doing and a few things are calculated. Not just panic about how her relationship with Charles could go off the rails.

“I think she’s afraid of coming out as a vilain” for my part, the sweet and innocent child is dead the moment I saw her tweet likes.

I have to admit I'm a bit puzzled by all this talk about bio changes. I don't get it, when you want to be discreet you let things slide. Even more so when absolutely nothing is confirmed. It's just adding fuel to the fire.

She seems to communicate by encrypted messengers, as if that were her only means of expression. I also recall the exhibition posts at the same places where Charles is. 💀

Too many open points, which for me can't just be explained by panic or fear of being perceived as a villain. But I also understand this point of view. You never know how you might react to a relationship like this. But when you know what you want and love is clear, the things you transcribe are meant to be in the same vein.

Dilara wanted to be private, but not secretive either, and it was clear that she really loved Max. So her actions flowed naturally and Max was on the same wavelength. No questions asked. Here everything is 😵‍💫.

Although I may have had my doubts about her sending photos at first. My opinion quickly changed when I saw photos of her as a teenager. I think it's more friends who send these or old acquaintances.

[nagipops]

hii I love your blogs sooo much you're really talented (I just needed to say it sorry) so straight to the point, I already made 2 requests to you and I really enjoyed your writing so I would like to make another again. As I'm clueless about what to request I'll just ask for random hcs for konoha 11, idk if it's too much but if so then you can do with Neji (I love him so much), Kakashi and Naruto. Thank you in advance and sorry anything ^^

RANDOM KONOHA 11 HEADCANONS!

FEATURING: naruto, sakura, shikamaru, ino, choji, neji, rock lee, tenten, kiba, hinata, and shino

WARNINGS: mentions alcohol, drugs, food, bugs, and the tiniest nsfw mention if you get the joke. hehe

A/N: AHHHH ANONN this seriously made my day, im so so glad you enjoy my work!! 💖

NARUTO

you know how we all have “the chair”, where we throw all of our dirty clothes onto?

yeah, imagine that, but from the seat to the fricking ceiling

its just a GINORMOUS MOUND of clothes, you wonder how he even goes through that many clothes so quickly???

definitely shoves it under his bed whenever guests come over (somehow)

holds chopsticks really weirdly. but it works.

asked tenten to put his hair into space buns to mimic his sexy jutsu and went around flirting with the village

jiraiya was so proud of him T-T

comes up with the WORST pickup lines

they’re so bad, its almost charming. almost

has gone AWOL multiple times, disappearing from everywhere, just everywhere

it scared you a little, so you searched the entire village for him

you finally found him sitting on the ledge of a cliff, gazing out at the vast sea

concerned and panicked, you cried out to ask him what was wrong

he turned to you with a crestfallen, devastated look on his face and said,

“i bought shrimp ramen instead of chicken ramen.”

you’ve never searched for him after his disappearance ever again.

SAKURA

100% makes origami shurikens and chucks them at you

they are deathly precise and deathly sharp. seriously, how are these not illegal weapons yet???

writes threatening motivational notes to herself on the mirror

“u got this!” “make sure to smack naruto today!” “ino sucks!”

her backpack would always be way too high up on her back. idk why but. it would

does her hair all nice and pretty before she goes out but once she arrives to her destination SHE KEEP. TAKING. IT OUT. and redoing it over and over and over again

like it’s impossible to make eye contact with her because she’s holding a bobby pin between her teeth while braiding her hair

her guilty pleasure would be hostess treats

ding dongs are her favorite. don’t ask me how i know, i just know.

eats the yellow starbursts just to spite naruto and all her haters

loves small lap dogs, she think’s they’re so cute and cuddly

but she especially loves chihuahuas

they’re so feisty and naruto HATES them, so of course she had to go and get one for herself

dresses the poor dog up in little bonnets and jackets and ties its tiny fuzzy hairs into pigtails

she and the chihuahua are not that much unlike <3

SHIKAMARU

this man is a god at shogi but he absolutely SUCKSSSS at cup pong.

is this an ick? idk. but he is absolute trash at this game.

it gets even worse when he’s got a couple drinks in him

tries to calculate the velocity and acceleration and angle and shit but his shot is always a good two feet off BYE 😭

just mutters an “aw, shit” before awaiting his turn again

hates checkers, loves chess

“checkers is for WUSSIES” - shikamaru nara

i said this in another post, but he is Very Good at whistling

like that’s his hidden talent

can copy any tune with the perfect pitch and rhythm

speaking of, he can do really cool tricks with his tongue

like making a four leaf clover, touching the bridge of his nose with it, flipping it upside down, you name it

he has slanted, scrawled handwriting, to the point where it’s almost illegible

wbk he cheats in school SO OFTEN. but he never gets caught. he’s not stupid, he just couldn’t care less about his classes.

thinks weed and e-cigs are stupid, cigarettes are where it’s at

you just can’t replicate the feeling of taking a drag from a cig after a long, tiring day

plus he looks hella cool while doing it B)

INO

teaches the boyz™️ how to braid their hair

like they all gather in a circle around this feisty fashionista and fail attempt to braid their hair

sakura was just fuming in the sidelines

“OI, INO-PIG, THAT’S A DUTCH BRAID, NOT A FRENCH BRAID!!”

yeah, ino 🙄

the only one that can actually do it is neji because a) this man is talented af and b) he’s got the long hairrr

ino probably envies his thick, sleek hair because hE’S a bOy

also asks everyone for their blood type and zodiac signs and tells them if they’re compatible with her or not

and definitely judges you for your sign 😣

“oh, you’re a gemini? hmm, what a shame...”

makes bouquets for her favorite people and kin assigns everyone a flower

only assigns the pretty nice ones to the people she likes (sorry sakura, you’re out of luck)

one of her favorite hobbies is crafting! she’s really good with details and small things so she loves making those miniature dollhouses and stuff

also really good at watercoloring. especially painting flowers and landscapes

also i feel like she would be really good at playing any instrument because of her skilled hands

can play a badass flute solo. period.

CHOJI

would honestly rather die than get anywhere NEAR an asparagus

he just thinks they’re so gross and bitter and NOT SALTY

he always eats his yakiniku a little bit undercooked because he’s way too impatient to wait for it to cook fully. who do you think he is??

whenever he cloud gazes with shikamaru, when asked what he thinks a cloud looks like, he just says some sort of food

“oi, choji, what does that one look like to you?”

“a... yakiniku grill... with... pineapple rings on it! ooh, and a wagyu steak right there!”

he thinks pringles are an abomination to society. where’s the crisp? where’s the grease? where’s the saltiness?!!!

asks ino to teach him how to do his hair all fancy and the two of them devote an entire day learning different hairstyles

it’s his new favorite thing to do now :D

he really likes crayons!!!!

like he’ll write with them, draw with them, color with them, do everything with them

he’s even tried to eat them. he said they tasted good.

definitely had the 128 crayon pack WITH THE BUILT-IN SHARPENER, and everyone thought he was the coolest kid in town

he ate it UP, he even scored some bbq dates with the ladies

i also feel like he loves basketball, and he has a MEAN slam dunk

like his vertical isn’t that high, but the man can REACH

he loves when people laugh at him when he challenges them to a 1v1 and then proceeds to absolutely destroy them <3

NEJI

he seems like a cucumber kind of guy.

just cucumber

like i feel like he puts it in everything; soba, salads, sandwiches, his face, yeah

it’s mellow and cool, just like him!

speaking of, i feel like he lives for spa days and facials

it just lets him be alone in his little cucumber scented world for an hour or two and he gets damn clear skin from it as well

seriously he has PERFECT skin. flawless. not a single blemish. his cheeks feel like baby butts they’re so smooth.

i feel like he’d be a god at solving rubik’s cubes, don’t ask me why

like if anyone scrambled theirs on accident they would just take it to neji and he’d solve it in the blink of an eye

CAT PERSON!!! loves the little meow meows

who are we kidding, neji basically is a cat; agile, aloof, does silly things without trying to, very cute

he just feels akin to the little fuzzballs and he thinks petting cats are extremely therapeutic. good for the soul

he is a golf man. he would take his juniors golfing and everyone thinks he’s uncool. cmon neji let them go to the skate park at least T-T

also very good at karaoke, definitely surprised everyone once he got a few drinks in him since he started serenading you

LIGHTWEIGHT!!! do not get more than one shot of alcohol in him. he will go berserk.

i also feel like he’d really love photography; not taking pictures of people, but of nature

he loves taking a quiet stroll through a pretty forest and snapping pictures of all the unique flora and fauna

it’s so serene ︶ ‿ ︶

ROCK LEE

100% milly rocks everywhere

gai got in on it too once he asked what lee was doing

“is that what all the youthful cool kids do these days!”

they also dab together. a lot

DO NOT BE SEEN WITH THESE TWO!!! you are not associated with them.

definitely is the one breakdancing in the middle of the dance circle at a high school party

he’s mad skilled at it too

headspins and windmills galore

challenged naruto to a dance-off and completely OBLITERATED him

lee then asked if naruto wanted a rematch, this time with one hand tied behind lee’s back

naruto obliged, and he STILL lost

RIP naruto and his fangirls, they all scrambled to lee afterwards T-T

i feel like his favorite subject is science

not the boring physics equations and laws and theories but the fun EXPERIMENTS

definitely has singed all of his hair off one time and he went to gai blubbering to help him grow back his precious hair

but he loves experimenting with different combinations and chemicals to get different reactions each time

created a potent love potion and carried it around with him all day one day

and it was actually working

girls were flocking to him left and right, staring at his lips and his face

he was so abashed at the sudden attention

heck, it even worked on sakura

“oi, lee-san!”

“hehe, yes, sakura-san?”

her eyes shifted downwards to his lips and his heart thumped harder

“hey... lee-san?”

“what is it?”

“you have something on your lip. we’ve been trying to tell you all day but you just winked and blew kisses at us.”

legend has it lee has still not recovered to this day.

TENTEN

has THE prettiest handwriting. and she can write SUPER fast

it’s like a superpower

like she transcribed five pages of a report in less than two minutes with perfect handwriting

naruto is so jealous.

she is also super good at origami! those diligent, accurate hands aren’t just for throwing things

taught sakura how to make shurikens but does NOT endorse any violent uses of them

she can replicate all of her weapons with paper and they can actually function, it’s so cool

made paper kunai knives one day and the wholeee village wanted to get their hands on them

i feel like she’d listen to mitski. idk i just get those vibes

LOVES BIG DOGS!! especially fluffy wuffy samoyeds

like man’s best friend?? no, GIRL’S BEST FRIEND!!

hugs and cuddles and squishes all the big dogs

she thinks small dogs are spawns of satan

sakura and her have definitely quarreled over this

but at the end of the day, all dogs are adorable fur babies, so she lets it slide :,)

KIBA

kiba always looks SO GOOD in photos you take of him, candid or not

like you could just whip out a camera and snap a photo of him at any given moment and he would look perfect

you framed a picture of him yelling at akamaru for peeing inside the house

it’s pure artwork

i feel like he tries to swagger around with his hands shoved in his pockets but it fails MISERABLY and the girls are wondering if he broke his leg or something 😭

kiba just walk normally. for the love of god please just walk normally.

he tries to slump back in his chair really low but one time he slouched way too low so he slipped off of his chair and onto the ground LMFAOOOO

he just wallowed there... in shame...

also.. he LOVES when the girls put makeup on him!!

he tries to act like he hates it. but it secretly gives him so much confidence

not to mention the girls hyping him up are a huge ego boost

okay the inside of his jacket hood is the warmest. thing. EVER!!!

seriously, no wonder this dude is so happy-go-lucky all the time, he’s living in literal heaven 24/7

it’s like you’re sleeping on a cloud inside a warm, cozy bed during a cold winter morning

10/10 would recommend letting him give you his sweatshirt when you’re chillin with a hair tie ❤️

HINATA

always smells like lavender soap. always

also has the cutest pencil pouches with little puppy faces and kawaii things

oH and she has those mini yoobi highlighters, she thinks they’re so cute (and functional!)

everyone flocks to her to try them out and marvel at the cute tiny highlighters

and they try to steal them from her but she doesn’t even stop them because she’s too timid to 😭

naruto goes BALLISTIC over them

she lets him have all of them <3

tennis girl!!! tennis girl.

all of her opponents always underestimate her because she’s so timid and shy and quiet

but she has a KILLER serve

and then she takes her opponents to the slaughterhouse with a complete shutout ;)

she’s really athletic believe it or not, she can beat most of the boys in a mile run and she has incredible endurance

i feel like she really loves velvet scrunchies

she just thinks they’re so pretty and they keep her hair soft so they’re cute and functional

also takes the PRETTIEST notes!!

color codes, dividers, headers, you name it, it’s all super readable too its insane

everyone asks her for her notes, not to study but just to appreciate the pure artwork that it is ^w^

SHINO

shino is SO easy to prank

“how do you catch an eyemaster?” *cue naruto and kiba snickering*

“eyemaster bait. that is because—”

even when everyone’s laughing their asses off, he still continues to explain his answer since he does NOT GET THE JOKE

tried his hand at writing haikus

here’s his best one so far:

“Bugs are amazing. That is because they are bugs. Bugs are very nice.” - Shino Aburame

VERY proud of it, since it took him weeks to perfect

praise it, pls

had one of those ant farms and bug-catching kits as a kid

and he would fill the kit TO THE BRIM. LIKE IT WAS HEAVY BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY BUGS.

he loves the little chitters of the different bugs

he had jars of different bugs all lined up on a wall shelf in his room

collects silkworms off of trees and sticks them into his pockets (no i definitely did not do this as a kid...)

HELP I FEEL LIKE he would record a timelapse of his ant farm growing and upload it to youtube with a movie maker title screen that says

“my ants”

if you enjoyed this post, likes and reblogs are much appreciated :) feel free to request here, and make sure to read the rules first! have a lovely day everyone <3

#naruto #naruto x reader #naruto headcanons #naruto imagines #naruto uzumaki #sakura headcanons #shikamaru headcanons #ino yamanaka #choji akimichi #kiba headcanons #kiba inuzuka #hinata hyuuga #hinata hyuga #shino aburame #neji headcanons #neji hyuuga #rock lee #kiba imagines #shikamaru imagines #hc

[fbfh]

dear baby; strawberry milkshakes - leo x reader parents au

words: 1.8k

summary: You and Leo are getting used to adulting together, when Chiron asks for your help. Next thing you know, there’s a little demigod for you two to take care of - and you’re not going to let her down.

warnings: almost boning but getting interrupted, shit is said twice, one use of fucking I think, mentions of orphanages and the foster care system, mentions of CPS, being at a CPS building, adopting a child, leo has trauma, leo and reader take in a child when you’re both 19, technically teen parents but not really, the kid has some trauma too, everyone has trauma but literally what’s new

au: sort of college + parents au

song recs: raining in new york mix - the bootleg boy (tw for some sort of sad dialogue samples), falling in love with love - bernadette peters in cinderella (1997)

a/n:  I saw a kids book called Sophia Valdez Future Prez and I know nothing about it but immediately knew I had to do a parents au where you and Leo have a daughter named sophia???????? also I accidentally gave myself baby fever whoopsie

also I was barely able to proof read this and had no brain while writing half of it so if the beginning feels rushed at all that’s why teehee

Straddling his lap, you start to take off Leo’s shirt. He tilts his head to the side as you nip at the skin gently. He moans softly, then tenses. 

"Shit!" He hisses, sitting up and pulling your shorts back up. You look at him bewildered, and he nods his head to the side, and you see a shimmery cloud that says that you have an incoming iris message from Chiron.  

"Oh shit," you echo, moving to a reasonable distance away from him, a thick throw blanket tossed gracefully across your legs and pulled up to cover your chest, and you're grateful your shirt hadn't been thrown across the room already. 

He pulls his shirt down and you toss him a throw pillow to cover his very obvious excitement. You give each other a ready as we'll ever be look and accept the call. 

"Hey Chiron… what's up?" Leo asks nonchalantly. 

"You must pardon my intrusion, dear children, I hope I'm not - er - interrupting anything.” “No, no, not at all,” you answer, hoping what you had been doing wasn’t too obvious in spite of how both of you are looking particularly flushed and deschevled, “we were just watching a movie.” 

Leo nods in agreement, and you list two different movies at the exact same time, the dark knight rises and moonstruck.

A beat passes, and you continue, “Double feature. Just finished Batman and we’re about to start Moonstruck.” 

Leo agrees. You can’t tell if Chiron is buying it, but he seems to move on relatively quickly. 

“Right. I’m afraid I must ask for your help with a rather time sensitive situation.” your brows furrow in unicen as he continues. 

He tells you about a young demigod a satyr found, not even four years old yet, but they haven’t been able to get her to camp. Apparently there were some complications, and CPS was called, now they’re looking for her parents to see if she’s going to a foster home or orphanage. If they can’t get to her before the CPS finishes processing her, she’ll be lost in the system. He’s asking older demigods and demigod families in New York, since processing time will go the fastest if the family or guardians are in-state. 

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but please consider taking her in, at least temporarily.” You and Leo share a look, hearts already hurting that life has gotten to this kid so soon. 

“I’ll give you some time to discuss this, please call me back as soon as you have an answer.” 

You agree, and the shimmery image of Chiron dissipates.

“... Oh my god,” you breathe. 

You turn to each other again, the same thing mirrored in each other's eyes. An immediate, unspoken conformation that there’s no way you can’t help this kid out passes between you. You know Leo, especially, will do whatever needs to be done to keep another orphaned demigod out of the foster system. The scope of the impact you could have on this kid’s life starts to dawn on you, and you lock eyes with Leo again, his face set in determination. 

“Estrella,” he starts, and you know what he’s going to say. 

“I know,” you confirm in agreement.

His leg is bouncing, and you lean over, grabbing a notepad and pen from the coffee table. Your mind is already racing, and you begin scribbling down a list of everything you’d need to do; get her a bed and clothes, research where she is in her developmental stages, put together a meal plan or at least some foods she’ll like - what do toddlers even eat? He starts pacing around the coffee table. 

“We gotta help this kid, we-” he cuts himself off, overwhelmed with determination. 

“We will.” you confirm, equally determined. You grab your laptop and start copying your list digitally so you can get everything organized. You stare at your reflection in the black screen while you wait for your computer to boot up. Once again, the reality of your situation hits you.

“We’re 19…” you state, in disbelief. Your mind is racing with doubts. What if you somehow make everything worse, what if you can’t handle it? He crouches next to you, placing his hand on your cheek.

“And we have a lot of love to give.” The smile in your eyes tells him that you know he’s right. You transcribe your writing, surprised that you’re okay with how fast this is all moving, and you let out another breathy laugh of disbelief. 

You go through your hastily made checklist, switching between tabs about child psychology, parenting advice, and kid’s furniture and clothes websites, strategizing with Leo on how you can pull this off, and a plan gradually comes together.

“I mean, this is a two bedroom,” he says as you look through pages of bed frames and mattresses, “we can clear out our studio and turn it into her room.” 

“And…” you add, checking yet another tab, “there’s a building nearby that rents out studio spaces and workshop areas. Ooh, and free parking.” you read on the website. It’s already late, but you send them an email anyway. Hopefully they’ll get back to you tomorrow. But for now… 

“We can get a bed tonight, but we’d have to hurry. We can probably get some pjs and maybe a stuffed animal while we’re there- toothbrush!” You exclaim, adding it to your list, “I knew I was forgetting something…”

 Leo stops pacing, and looks at you. “So… we’re doing this?” You can’t fight the smile on your face, and he already has his answer. 

“We’d better call Chiron back,” you say, excitedly bubbling out. You both enter the bathroom, and iris message chiron with mist from the shower. He answers almost immediately.

“We thought it over and…” you trail off, letting him finish.

“We want to help.” 

After changing into some presentable clothes and swinging by the store for a car seat and some other essentials (you almost forgot tooth paste this time), you’re driving with Leo to meet Chiron at the CPS office where they had Sophia - the girl Chiron told you about. You call the Ikea store not too far from your apartment, thankful you’re able to reach them before they close. You arrange to have them deliver a toddler bed to the spare bedroom in your apartment, your neighbor agreeing to let them in. Luckily, you had the presence of mind to get most of your and Leo’s stuff out of there, the corner of the living room now holding your desk and his drafting table. 

You’re still a little blurry on the details of how you’re going to get custody of this kid when you’re barely legal and have no ties to her or her family, but Chiron said he could work everything out. You assume the Mist will come in very handy. You and Leo discuss this on the way over. 

You can tell he’s worried. Knowing the horrors he went through in the foster system would be bad enough without all the demigod bullshit on top of everything. You take another deep breath. 

“This is what’s best for her,” he says matter of factly, “she needs to be with people who understand her.” You agree, and he continues, very fired up.

“She needs to be in an environment where she’s not going to be ignored and ostracized; she needs to be part of a family, not a fucking meal ticket.” 

You squeeze his leg supportively, and he takes another breath. 

“You’re right. And she’s going to get all of that.” He scoffs in agreement.

“There’s not a better place for someone like her than-”

“With someone like her.” you finish. He pulls into the parking lot and you enter, meeting Chiron in the building. Your hand holds Leo’s tightly, unsure of who’s shaking more. Chiron explains that he already had a discussion (wink wink) with the social worker, and knows that he has the perfect couple to take little Sophia in, and all you have to do is meet with her and sign some papers. 

So that brings you here, waiting outside the office door, holding each other’s trembling hands before finally entering. She doesn’t look up at you at first, until the social worker introduces you. Leo squeezes your hand, and she finally looks up, her eyes speaking a language you and Leo know. You know there is absolutely no going back from here, and you both sit down across from her. 

“Hi, you’re Sophia, right?” She looks away, clearly and understandably overwhelmed. 

“Don’t be rude, Sophia-” the social worker starts, but you cut her off. 

 “It’s okay, she didn’t do anything wrong.” you turn back to her, “You know, me and Leo have an extra bedroom at our apartment, and a kitten that I think would really like you. Do you want to come stay with us?” 

She doesn’t look back up right away, but she turns her head towards you. 

“Is it a boy or a girl?” she asks softly. How is she so precious already?

“A girl,” you reply, “named Jackhammer, because she purrs so loud.” 

She giggles, and you and Leo squeeze each other’s hands in unison.

“Really?” she asks. 

“Oh yeah,” you reply, “I’m sure she’d love to play catch the mouse with you.” She considers for a moment, then looks over at the social worker, who gives her an encouraging nod. After a moment of consideration, she replies quietly, “...Okay.” 

She hops down from her chair, and you both follow suit. The social worker hands you some papers, and you both sign. You guide her to the lobby, let Chiron know it went well and promise to update him soon, and bring her to the car. You pull out of the parking lot. 

Not long after leaving, you see a fast food place. 

“Are you guys hungry?” you ask, nudging Leo gently. 

“Yeah, I could definitely go for some fries. How bout you Sophia?” 

She nods, then asks quietly, “Can I get a milkshake?” 

Her expression is hesitant, and you get the sense she’s expecting a no. 

“Of course kiddo,” you say.

“What flavor do you want?” Leo finishes, turning to look at her. Her eyes are bright with hesitant excitement. 

“Strawberry, please.” 

After leaving the drive through, you have Leo search through your phone for any kid friendly music, and discover the only thing you have saved that’s appropriate for present company is the soundtrack to the Cinderella musical from 1997.

That’s how your little family started; driving late at night, singing along to Bernadette Peters, and drinking strawberry milkshakes.

#Leo Valdez #leo x reader #Heroes of Olympus #heroes of olympus x reader #leo valdez imagine

[toomanyrobins2]

One Year: October

Summary: Clint Barton, college football star, has a new interest: Y/N Y/L/N. But with her father gone all of the time, a younger brother, and going to college, Y/N has no time for dating. Will Clint get the yes, or will life get in the way?

Pairing: Clint Barton x Reader

Word Count: 1.9k

Content warning: nothing really yet, occasional cursing, mentions of drinking and sex later

Notes: I'm sorry to anyone who's been tagged in this before, but I've been forced to start from scratch on this account and I'm going to be reposting all the chapters

masterlist // november

Y/N Y/L/N was sitting outside in the quad with her best friend and roommate, Nat, between classes when her phone rang. She dug it out of her bag and answered. Her brother’s school was calling to tell her that Asher was sick. Y/N cursed, she knew the stomach bug was going around and it was going to be a crappy next few days. She asked Nat to send her the notes for the lectures before rushing to her car. In the parking lot, she was digging around trying to find her keys in her purse. She heard her name called and saw Clint Barton and his friends standing around by their cars. He jogged up to her and she could see over his shoulder that they were all watching them. “Where you going?”

Y/N was confused why Clint was talking to her. She rolled her eyes internally at the invasive question. The football team was notorious at their college and she didn’t have time to be one of their flavors of the month. “Places.”

He leaned against the car door, “Are purposefully secretive, or does it come naturally?”

“Oh, I’m all natural, Barton,” Y/N jerked on the door handle, knocking him off balance. “Now I have to go. My brother is sick and I have to pick him up.”

“But it’s the middle of the day. Don’t you have class?”

She took a deep breath to keep herself calm. It wasn’t Clint’s fault she felt this way, she was just stressed about Asher, “Look I’m sorry. I wish I had the time to make idle conversation while you decide whether I’m worth sleeping with. But, I don’t. I have a sick kid to get to.” Y/N threw her stuff in the car and peeled out of the school.

Clint walked back over to his friends who had watched the exchange take place. “She looks like your number one fan,” Sam said, laughing at him.

“Oh fuck off. She’s just busy.”

“Looked like she couldn’t wait to get away from you.

—————————————————————————-

In the three days since she’d got the call, Y/N’s life had been sniffles, cuddles, and soup. Just as she had predicted, a sickly five-year-old was exhausting for any parent, but for a 20-year-old it was beyond overwhelming. Y/N had just planted him in front of the TV when she heard a knock at the door. She swung it open and was greeted by a familiar face, “Mrs. Barnes! What are you doing here?”

“I’ve told you before, call me Winnie!” She held up a dish, “Anyway, I heard about Asher and thought I’d bring dinner by. This stomach bug has been going around and Rebecca had it last week.”

“Oh, that’s so nice of you. It’s been a hectic three days.”

“Have you called your father, dear?”

Y/N nodded, “I left a message with his assistant, but by the time he got back here they’d be on the mend. I’m almost certain I’ll send them back to school tomorrow.”

“Well, I have to get going anyway and pick up Becca. I’ll see you at the Halloween parade next week?” Y/N nodded and closed the door.

Winnie Barnes was her savior. A single mother who had taken pity on Y/N over a year ago. Three years ago, after another nanny had quit, Y/N had started taking care of her two younger siblings. Her father was rarely home and the women he had impregnated had no interest in raising children. This combination led to a 17-year-old raising a three-year-old all on her own. Last year, Winnie had befriended Y/N and since then she tried her best to offer support. Y/N refused to talk about her father’s absence, but they both knew her father was rarely home. Thankfully, Winnie’s magic had worked again and the next day, both kids were feeling much better and life could return to normal.

Y/N was sitting outside of a coffee shop on campus, the autumn sun warming her. She was transcribing all of the notes she had missed last week when the chair opposite her became occupied by Clint Barton. He smiled at her, “There’s a party tonight. You should come.”

Y/N barely spared him a glance, keeping her eyes on the paper, “Thanks, but I can’t. I have plans.”

“Plans? What kind of plans?”

She weighed her options and decided that there was only one way to get him to leave her alone, “A date.”

“You have a date?”

Y/N sighed and shut her notebook. “Don’t sound so surprised, Barton, or I’ll think I should be insulted.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. You just don’t seem like the type to casually date is all.” Y/N sighed and closed her notebook. She crossed her arms and just stared at him. “Is there something on my face?”

“No, I’m just trying to figure out what it is about you. You’re so annoying and yet, I don’t have the urge to throw my coffee in your lap.”

“Let’s call that my charm,” the boyish grin that he gave her made her laugh. “Now, why did you reject me last week? I’m obviously not repulsive to you.”

“Reject you? What was there to reject? I don’t remember anything being asked.”

Clint glared playfully at her, “Don’t play stupid, it doesn’t work for you. You know what I was trying to do.”

“Look, Clint, you’re right. I did know what you were trying to do. You’re cute, but I have a younger brother and I’m really the only person around.”

“You think I’m cute?”

Y/N laughed, “Of course, that’s what you get out of it.”

Clint smiled at her again, “I hear you, though. I’ll back off, but just know I’m not giving up.” He pushed his chair back and started to walk away, but turned back around, “By the way, you didn’t actually say no.”

———————————————————-

Clint was in the kitchen with Bucky talking about the party that night. Becca, Bucky’s younger sister, came running into the room, “You can’t go to a party! My Halloween Parade is tonight! You guys promised you would come!”

He crouched down, “How about we go to your show and then the party after. Deal?” He held out his pinky. Becca surveyed him for a second and then held out her finger in agreement. That night, when they got to the school, Winnie was immediately pulled in by friends. Parents chatted away, occasionally asking him and Bucky how their second year of college was going and how working at Stark Industries was. He noticed the woman next to him kept looking around and leaned over, “What are you looking for Mama Win?”

“This lovely girl, Y/N.” Clint perked up at the name, “She’s around your age and usually is at these things. I saw her younger brother, but not her. Oh wait, there she is!” Winnie waved over to the teenager.

Y/N smiled and greeted her, “Sorry, I’m late. The joys of costume emergencies and five-year-olds. It’s a lethal combination.”

Winnie waved away her apologies, “Is your father here?” Y/N was quick to make excuses for her father. She had been doing it for years. The older woman nodded sympathetically, “Oh, well that’s too bad.”

“Yes, he was very disappointed to miss this.” Clint could tell that she was hiding something, but before anything also could be said, they were interrupted by a young boy running up.

“Y/N! Y/N! Carter spilled juice on my shirt”

His classmate plastered a smile on her face, even though Winnie and Clint could that she was overwhelmed by the chaos, “It’ll be okay. I’ve got a change of clothes for you in my car.”

“Why don’t I take him to the bathroom and get him cleaned up while you run and grab the clothes,” Winnie offered.

Y/N looked relieved, “That would be great. Thank you,” she quickly started to leave the gym.

Clint jogged after her, “I thought you said you had a date tonight.”

“I do. At Pizza Charlie’s. It’s a tradition to take the kids after school events. Plus with trick-or-treating tomorrow, I just don’t have time for frat parties or hangovers.” They stopped in front of the car and Clint looked into the trunk. He saw that her car was made for kids. She had changes of clothes, toys, and snacks.

“This is your car?”

“Yeah,” Y/N was confused, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it just looks like Winnie’s. You weren’t kidding when you told me that stuff earlier.”

“My dad’s pretty busy. So I spend a lot of time with my brother. You learn to be prepared. On another note, what are you doing at a kindergarten spring concert?”

Clint rubbed his neck and blushed, “Winnie’s like a mom to me, and Becca is like a little sister. A very persuasive sister who has made it clear to Bucky and me that we are needed at every school event.”

Y/N laughed, “Oh yes, I am very familiar with the persuasiveness of five-year-olds. There is a reason we keep going to Pizza Charlie’s and it is not because I think the food is good.” The duo headed back inside and Y/N split off to the bathroom, while Clint went back to Bucky.

“Dude, I can not wait to get out of here. People are sending videos of the party set-up and it looks awesome.”

“Yeah, I’m actually thinking of bailing tonight. Practice killed me.”

Bucky stared at the blonde. His blue eyes were like lasers, searching for the truth, “You’re going to Pizza Charlie’s with that Y/N girl aren’t you.”

Clint was so confused, “What the hell, man?”

“I’m psychic,” Bucky laughed at his friend’s face, “No, I’m messing with you. Mom told me she and Becca are going with them after. Figured you had hopped on in hopes of more time with Y/N.”

“You are a truly terrifying person sometimes.”

Winnie and Y/N came back with her sister and sat down with Bucky and Clint. After the concert had ended, Asher sat down on Y/N’s lap while everyone spoke. He looked up at Clint, “Are you Y/N’s boyfriend?”

Y/N choked on the candy she was eating as Bucky roared in laughter, “Ash, what the fuck?”

The little boy pointed at his sister, “That’s a dollar in the jar. And what, he kept staring at you!”

“You can’t just ask people that without some warning.”

“Okay, how do I warn them?”

Y/N was stammering for an answer and Clint decided to help her, “I’m not your sister’s boyfriend. I go to school with her.”

“Do you want to be her boyfriend?”

“Asher Y/L/N, what has gotten into you? Enough.”

The boy was pouting, “I heard Aunt Nat telling you that you needed a boyfriend and that you need to lie down or something. I don’t know what laying down has to do with the boyfriend thing, but I thought I’d ask.

The situation was like something out of Y/N’s nightmares. Bucky was in tears from laughing, Clint was trying his best not to laugh, Winnie was trying to get Bucky under control and Y/N just stared at the ceiling, willing the universe to give her strength. Finally, she turned to Asher, “I will give you $5 to end this conversation and never bring it up again.”

“Deal!” Y/N slapped the bill into her brother’s hand and rubbed her temples.

#clint barton #hawkeye #clint barton imagine #avengers imagine #hawkeye imagine #clint barton x reader #hawkeye x reader #avengers #avengers au #avengers x reader #college au #toomanyrobins

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights from David Gaider - PART 3

This information came from DG on a recent SummerfallStudios Twitch stream where he gave developer commentary while Liam Esler continued playing DAO from where they had left off in Part 1 and Part 2. I transcribed it in case there’s anyone who can’t watch the stream (for example due to connection/tech limitations, data, time constraints, personal accessibility reasons, etc). A lot of it is centered on DAO, but there’s also insights into other parts of the franchise. Some of it is info which is known having been put out there in the past, and some of it is new. There’s a bit of overlap or repetition with topics covered in Parts 1 and 2. This post leaps from topic to topic as it’s a transcript of a conversational format. It’s under a cut due to length.

The stream can currently be watched back here. Next week LE will be streaming a different DAO playthrough with commentary from another guest. Two weeks from now LE and DG will return to continue this playthrough for another stream session like this one.

(Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

[wording and opinions DG’s, occasionally LE’s; paraphrased]

The Battle of Ostagar cutscene is one of the first big cutscenes that got made during production. When it was shown to the team for the first time, it was one of those moments where DG felt like “Awesome, this is a game!” Context: During the development of a game it feels more like doing a series of disconnected tasks and assets rather than working on a game, so seeing stuff come together at times like this is rad. The first time it was shown, it had temporary placeholder voiceacting.

Pathfinding is always a nightmare to do, especially in games which involve a party of NPCs. As soon as other characters are involved alongside the PC, it’s exponentially more difficult and takes up a lot more resources. The PC is the most complex thing going on visually on-screen, with so many moving pieces, and in party-based games you have four [etc] of them. So, some critique that’s made of the DA games in regards to this subject which compares it to games like The Witcher doesn’t really make sense, as The Witcher has a solo PC.

‘Weird mage hats’ didn’t really become a trademark ‘DA thing’ akin to their place of random pieces of cheese around the world until later games. For DAO, someone probably asked the artists to create “mage helmets”. Mage hats actually looked better in the concept art than they did in-game. What happened was that they were already modelled and then they didn’t have time to re-do them.

DAO was made for PC first. The plan from the get-go though was that it would be an all-platform release (PC/360/PS3). Games like these are always made for the “lowest common denominator” from among the various platforms that they’re being planned to release for. Games have to be made for the most stringent/basic of the platforms because this makes for less conversion rate. At the time of DAO’s development, the PS3 was getting weak graphically and getting old, and this was quite a limitation: “Why do we have to limit [crowds?] because of this one platform?” “Well, we just gotta”. The original models were a bit too detailed. Later on, the artists started making models that had lower polycounts that they could put in a bit more of. DA was never really focused on making environments realistic in an ambient manner (making environments less “gamey” and more lived in, like having crowded places). They could have put more emphasis there but this would have led to a resources issue. Ambience basically wasn’t a high priority. As a writer DG isn’t keen on this decision and naturally he wanted the world to look more realistic, but he noted that it’s easy for him to say this when this would be work that he didn’t have to do personally.

During DAO development, they might have just had a dev sphere originally that was called “tech design”. DG thinks this was later broken up into systems design, combat design and maybe level design. Level designers are the people that are the implementers of the plot. Narrative design is a branch of the level design spoke. System designers respond to requests from lead designers. Narrative designers and writers don’t interact with system designers much unless they have to. As an example of interaction here, system designers might come to writers and say, “Alright, so we’re doing combat, what are the sorts of things a mage can do in this world?” The writers would be like “Ok, these are the sorts of spells we imagined.” The system designers might then come back with “Ok, that fulfills 2 of the 10 things we need mages to be able to do in combat. Is it possible that mages could do [this]?” Sometimes it is, and other times it would be like “No, that’s really outside of the lore”. Still, sometimes said original-lore-breaking things would be added to the game a week later due to necessity and DG would be like “Oh ok”. This kind of stuff is an insight into how some aspects of the lore came to be or changed over time during development.

The system designers on DAO got a better idea of what could be done and what could not be done according to the lore as things went on. At first, DG had to keep telling them things like “It’s not that big a deal, but in the lore mages can’t teleport. Instant teleportation isn’t possible in the world”. The system designers needed a spell where someone could get from spot A to spot B really fast on the battlefield. DG said that that’s fine in itself, “have them turn into a cloud of bees or have a light that moves between the two places. We can use magic as a transition or as a speed thing, but what is against the lore is instant teleportation, to traverse distance like that”. At first the system designers weren’t on board with it, but they got on board with it later. 

This sort of thing doesn’t just depend on the system designers. It also depends on what the tech artists are willing to do. Sometimes a certain request made of them was too hard and they said they weren’t able to do it. Other times it was a matter of DG not communicating the request properly, or the tech artists had already done the work and so throwing out all their work to re-do it just because he didn’t communicate clearly wouldn’t have been cool. So sometimes the originally planned lore got contravened, and sometimes things other parts of the team implemented in the game became the new lore.

LE made an insightful observation at this point: You can’t think of game development as a cohesive series of decisions that everyone on the team is involved in. This simple isn’t how it works at all, especially on large complex projects. There are processes at some studios for decision-making, but most of the time, a bunch of decisions get made by system designers. Others get made by level designers, still others by narrative designers. Situations then arise where someone notices a certain decision and that that decision and another one contradict each other. This is where conflict arises and a solution has to be negotiated. This is why often in games we get elements in the end product that are dissonant, because it was discovered too late or by the time it was realized, it was too difficult to change. It’s actually a miracle that on a game of DAO’s depth and scope that all these things largely hold together. [My note: With this insight and the context below on documentation, it makes sense how BW sometimes appear to ‘forget aspects of their own lore’ or end up contradicting parts of the lore in different parts of the franchise]

Sometimes such things would be noticed in time and DG would go and say, “Can we not do that or do something else instead?” and the relevant parties would be totally accommodating and do it (depending on how much time they had or how much time it would take to remedy). Sometimes this worked out and sometimes it didn’t. For the most part, everyone wants to work together. DG couldn’t be involved in every aspect of systems design “like some kind of All-Watchful eye of lore”, so he had to rely on the people who were there knowing enough from the documentation. Not everybody reads every document however. There was so much documentation even back during DAO. DG can only imagine the sheer amount of world/lore documentation that now exists now in the run-up to DA4; he said he thinks that nobody at this point on the current team has read it all, as editor/lore-wrangler Ben Gelinas isn’t with BW anymore. Lots of legacy documentation accumulated very quickly. Sometimes, the old document would still be there. Over time it became harder for people to discern which was the most recent version of a particular document. Sometimes people didn’t update the relevant documentation after changing things. Lore documentation was particularly bad for this issue. BG wrangled all the documentation and created an internal reference wiki (essentially acting as a lorekeeper). He was constantly coming in and picking DG’s brain to clarify conflicting aspects or obtain the correct, in-date information etc (“Good on him”).

DAO was the first time DG was involved in voice-recording. Prior to that he was only on the receiving end, in that the recordings would come in and he’d review them as they did so. DAO is when BW set up their own VO department and where Caroline Livingstone came on. CL wanted DG and Mike Laidlaw to be more involved in the casting process. As a result, the writers then were to write casting scripts: like, ‘For Morrigan, can you write a 1 page script that goes through 3 big emotions? [like regular talking for a bit, then here’s a bit of heightened emotion such as anger, then here’s a part where they’re being funny if they were a comedic character] These scripts had to be kept short so that the recording that was made from it wouldn’t be more than 30-40 seconds in length.

For the initial VA sessions, DG and CL flew down to Technicolor studioin LA and they had all the major castmembers there (later on, recording sessions were done a lot more remotely; this became easier as BW’s setup got more sophisticated). The idea was that they would both be present live in-person for the first 2 or 3 sessions to help each VA find their ‘voice’, and for DG at the first session to sit down with each VA and walk them through who their character was, what DA was about, and help them figure out how their character should talk. Claudia Black was the first of these sessions and he was “a wreck” going into that one. It got easier after that however. CL gave directions into the soundproof booth and DG was present to give notes on things like pronunciation or the intentions behind some lines. He says he learned everything he now knows about VO direction from CL. The things and tricks CL can do to get a performance out of an actor are amazing. Sometimes an actor would get a bit fixated or stuck on a particular way of delivering a line. CL had atrick to help them past this; “I want you to clear your mind, and I want you to give me a version of this line that’s more yellow”. The idea is that they just had to break out of where they had been stuck in that mindset, and the thing was that it doesn’t matter what “yellow” meant, but what was important was what “yellow” meant to the actor. They could then take that new varied delivery and progress from there.

Alistair’s dialogue when the PC talks to Flemeth outside her hut was the first complex conversation DG wrote for DAO. It was the first one that had a lot of branching and fiddling to it. The hardest conversations to write are the ones with a lot of exposition, and when they do have exposition still making this interesting and natural. At this point in the game, the player has no agency, just reactivity. The devs talked a lot about this subject when they wrote the origin stories. Some of the stories allow the player to initially say no and refuse to join the Wardens, but you always end up being railroaded (the devs here ended up doing a form of the trope ‘But Thou Must!’). Do you give the player the option to say no? Is it important to allow them that option? At some point, writers have to accept that the player has some level of buy-in and is game to play. They discussed a lot where they sat on this and what is agency. “Maybe don’t worry about offering the player every possible choice, but about having reactivity.”

Loghain wasn’t okay with letting Cailan die. He didn’t sit and angst about it openly where the player could see, and once the decision had been made, it being Loghain, it was Made and Had To Be Done (he felt that it was something that had to happen). But he didn’t kill the son of the woman he’d once loved dearly as a random off-handed thing.

The Solas twist was planned from the beginning, from the DAO dev days. Such big things/broad strokes have stayed the same. However, some of the details have changed or been added along the way. They didn’t know for instance that Solas was going to be a companion; that was something they came up with when they were planning DAI. Flemeth’s true identity has never changed.

Zevran says Rinna was an elf, but WoT says she was a bastard child of a noble in line for the Antivan throne (the Antivan royal family being human). When asked if this was an oversight, DG said yes she was a bastard, but she may have been really far down the line of succession, i.e. technically in line, but would probably never have been allowed to take the throne in practise had that scenario ever actually arisen.

DA was maybe inspired a bit/some by ASOIAF. This was way before it was on TV of course. DG at the time had read the first book or so. He liked the fact that it was a fantasy setting but low-magic, and was about the people in the world and their politics rather than magic, prophecy and other high fantasy stuff.

It was only by DAI that the system designers decided that it was okay to think of banter as an “activity that players engaged in”. In previous games, the devs had inadvertently managed to ‘train’ players to immediately stop when companion banter fires so that they could hear it all (because if you do something else, it gets cut off). When the level designers put together the spaces, they accounted for what players would be doing i.e. how much time between combat. They didn’t however account for like “You’re travelling down this hall and there’s a banter for half of that space. This is an activity, so it’s okay not to put anything in there”. This is how the inadvertent training happened, when originally banters were supposed to be a thing that ran as you move around the world (as opposed to stopping and standing still). 

When asked if the Blight resulted from the creation of the Veil or pre-dates it: “I think you’ll probably have to wait on the game[s] for that answer, if it ever explains it”. He was also asked whether Arlathan is the Golden City. He won’t answer such questions naturally because they are “DeepLooooooore™~~ ♫”.

DG isn’t sure that he will play DA4 when it comes out. It’s not that PW and the team won’t do a good job, they will, it’s just that when DG plays RPGs he has an analytical mindset going on and finds it difficult to slip into the game and just enjoy. For DA4, as he was previously so involved in DA, there’ll naturally probably be an extra level of that with feeling like “What would I have done [for particular parts of the game’s design]?”. Alternatively he might instead feel like “Wow, this is awesome, here’s a game I would have made but didn’t have to do any work on!” DG stressed that it’s important to him to be fair about the work of his former colleagues - he wouldn’t want to come out and be like “I wouldn’t have made [this or that] choice”. He also noted that just because something might be a call he personally wouldn’t have implemented in the game, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad call. There are people out there where if DG intimated at all that there was an aspect of DA4 that he wasn’t keen on, he’s worried that they would pounce on it and use it as ammunition against the current team (who are his friends that he really cares about and wants to do well). He walked away from DA voluntarily and is happy his game will continue on. PW popped by in chat at this point and agreed that it’s definitely hard to play something that you used to work on.

Other assorted tidbits:

DG really opposed the part at the Battle of Ostagar where mabari are set to charge the darkspawn horde - “That’s not how you would use dogs [in war]”

There was supposed to be a cutscene where Flemeth rescues the HoF and Alistair from the top of the Tower of Ishal in her dragon-form. This was cut. DG remembered being angry about this like “nobody is gonna buy that you fall unconscious and then wake up in the hut totally rescued. [...] I guess I’m not always right”

When DG went to Beamdog there was a period where they thought about making a Baldur’s Gate 3. They put together a pitch and had a long series of discussions contemplating things like “What do we need from BG3? What do we expect it to have in order to have the BG name? What is needed and not needed to connect to from the previous games?”

DG isn’t sure who designed the DAO inventory system

PW in chat recalled a game writer from another company who was really ragging on DAI on the Christmas Day after release

Narrative designer and system designer are very different positions/roles with very different responsibilities

Simon Templeton as Loghain did all his voicework stuff in one take, which was very impressive

It would have been the marketing department that chose 30 Seconds To Mars for music. DA was really good at choosing up-and-coming acts for this that weren’t huge when they used their songs, but became huge afterwards

During work on Baldur’s Gate 2 was the most DG has ever crunched. He slept in the office a few times

“As soon as you get both Alistair and Morrigan in the party, that’s when it’s like ahh yes, this is a BioWare game”

Were Flemeth and Morrigan’s interactions with each other and the PC when Morrigan is being told to leave the Wilds and go with the Hero an act, considering that Morrigan did know about the OGB plan? No. That was The Plan, but said plan wasn’t like “Ok, she’s going to leave Right Now”

The elves and the inversion of the traditional elven trope are DG’s favorite part of the world/world-building

One of the original intentions for DAO was to make it so that the player wouldn’t need a healer in the party, or that there would be different kinds of healing, or that healing itself wouldn’t be a thing, but this just didn’t work out

The Imperial Highway used to be a really important part of the lore but it kind of got forgotten a bit

It’s kinda funny that after release some players expressed that Corinne Kempa’s accent as Leliana was “sooo fake”. It’s not fake, she’s actually a Brit that moved to France when she was young, so she has the exact type of accent that Leliana would have (Leliana was born in Orlais and is culturally Orlesian, but her mother was Fereldan and she considers herself as such)

They talked some about the need for documentation and how doing this can feel beurocratic and uncreative and how like you’re not working on a game or writing. PW in chat expressed that there was a year where they spent a lot of it working in PowerPoint and Excel, “so I feel this”

When they switched art directors to Matt Goldman, his first big complaint was about all the brown. He came to DG like “Is there a lore reason for or are you particularly in favor of the brown for story reasons?” DG was like “Uhh no” and Matt was then like “Ok good”

Console codes/commands aren’t usually stripped out of a game before release, they are usually still in the built, just disabled. The system itself is not removed but how to access said system is

BW doesn’t crunch as bad as we hear some companies do, and kind of prided itself on “not being terrible at crunch”. But BW’s “not terrible at crunch” is still crunch. We obviously don’t commend abusive family members for only abusing people on certain days of the week or whatever

Kate Mulgrew is American but she at times did the same thing a lot of the British VAs did, which was that the devs had a lot of struggle with getting them to say “darkspawn” correctly, with the emphasis in the right places. They’d say “dark SPAWN” as if it was two words with an adjective, and the stress put in the wrong place

Lack of children in DAI was a resources thing. They only had time to make a certain number of models. There was a series of meetings where they had to decide what things to cut. In the last meeting it was like ‘Here’s a bunch of things you don’t want to cut, we need to cut 4 of them’

They decided to put horned qunari back in DA2 because then they had the resources to do so. They then ended up having to explain why there were hornless qunari at the same time, and make this an in-world explanation as opposed to just ‘We didn’t have the resources, that was totally intentional’

Lots of players missed out on recruiting Leliana and/or Sten on their first playthrough and didn’t even know they existed/could be recruited. “Apparently we weren’t that great at pointing players in the right direction”

Tevinter is inspired by the Byzantine Empire (which wasn’t called that at the time incidentally, this is a name given by historians after the fact), what used to be the Roman Empire after the western part fell. This is the era Tevinter today is meant to encapsulate: decadent but clearly in decline, far away from the heyday and the heights of the former empire [source]

[Part 1]

[Part 2]

[Part 4]

[Part 5]

[Part 6]

[‘Insights into DA dev from the Gamers For Groceries stream’ transcript]

#dragon age #bioware #video games #morrigan #queen of my heart #alistair theirin #fav warden #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #solas

[toomanyrobins]

October

Summary: Clint Barton, college football star, has a new interest: Y/N Y/L/N. But with her father gone all of the time, a younger brother, and going to college, Y/N has no time for dating. Will Clint get the yes, or will life get in the way?

Pairing: Clint Barton x Reader

Content warning: nothing really yet, occasional cursing, mentions of drinking and sex later

Word Count: 1.9k

Y/N Y/L/N was sitting outside in the quad with her best friend and roommate, Nat, between classes when her phone rang. She dug it out of her bag and answered. Her brother’s school was calling to tell her that Asher was sick. Y/N cursed, she knew the stomach bug was going around and it was going to be a crappy next few days. She asked Nat to send her the notes for the lectures before rushing to her car. In the parking lot, she was digging around trying to find her keys in her purse. She heard her name called and saw Clint Barton and his friends standing around by their cars. He jogged up to her and she could see over his shoulder that they were all watching them. “Where you going?”

Y/N was confused why Clint was talking to her. She rolled her eyes internally at the invasive question. The football team was notorious at their college and she didn’t have time to be one of their flavors of the month. “Places.”

He leaned against the car door, “Are purposefully secretive or does it come naturally?”

“Oh, I’m all natural, Barton,” Y/N jerked on the door handle, knocking him off balance. “Now I have to go. My brother is sick and I have to pick her up.”

“But it’s the middle of the day. Don’t you have class?”

She took a deep breath to keep herself calm. It wasn’t Clint’s fault she felt this way, she was just stressed about Asher, “Look I’m sorry. I wish I had the time to make idle conversation while you decide whether I'm worth sleeping with. But, I don’t. I have a sick kid to get to.” Y/N threw her stuff in the car and peeled out of the school.

Clint walked back over to his friends who had watched the exchange take place. “She looks like your number one fan,” Sam said, laughing at him.

“Oh fuck off. She’s just busy.”

“Looked like she couldn’t wait to get away from you.

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

In the three days since she’d got the call, Y/N’s life had been sniffles, cuddles, and soup. Just as she had predicted, a sickly five year old was exhausting for any parent, but for a 20-year-old it was beyond overwhelming. Y/N had just planted him in front of the TV when she heard a knock at the door. She swung it open and was greeted by a familiar face, “Mrs. Barnes! What are you doing here?”

“I’ve told you before, call me Winnie!” She held up a dish, “Anyway, I heard about Asher and thought I’d bring dinner by. This stomach bug has been going around and Rebecca had it last week.”

“Oh, that’s so nice of you. It’s been a hectic three days.”

“Have you called your father, dear?”

Y/N nodded, “I left a message with his assistant, but by the time he got back here they’d be on the mend. I’m almost certain I’ll send them back to school tomorrow.”

“Well, I have to get going anyway and pick up Becca. I’ll see you at the Halloween parade next week?” Y/N nodded and closed the door.

Winnie Barnes was her savior. A single mother who had taken pity on Y/N over a year ago. Three years ago, after another nanny had quit, Y/N had started taking care of her two younger siblings. Her father was rarely home and the women he had impregnated had no interest in raising children. This combination led to a 17-year-old raising a three and four year old all on her own. Last year, Winnie had befriended Y/N and since then she tried her best to offer support. Y/N refused to talk about her father’s absence, but they both knew her father was rarely home. Thankfully, Winnie’s magic had worked again and the next day, both kids were feeling much better and life could return to normal.

Y/N was sitting outside of a coffee shop on campus, the autumn sun warming her. She was transcribing all of the notes she had missed last week, when the chair opposite her became occupied by Clint Barton. He smiled at her, “There’s a party tonight. You should come.”

Y/N barely spared him a glance, keeping her eyes on the paper, “Thanks, but I can’t. I have plans.”

“Plans? What kind of plans?”

She weighed her options and decided that there was only one way to get him to leave her alone, “A date.”

“You have a date?”

Y/N sighed and shut her notebook. “Don’t sound so surprised, Barton, or I’ll think I should be insulted.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. You just don’t seem like the type to casually date is all.” Y/N sighed and closed her notebook. She crossed her arms and just stared at him. “Is there something on my face.”

“No, I’m just trying to figure out what it is about you. You’re so annoying and yet, I don’t have the urge to throw my coffee in your lap.”

“Let’s call that my charm,” the boyish grin that he gave her made her laugh. “Now, why did you reject me last week? I'm obviously not repulsive to you.”

“Reject you? What was there to reject? I don’t remember anything being asked.”

Clint glared playfully at her, “Don’t play stupid, it doesn’t work for you. You know what I was trying to do.”

“Look, Clint, you’re right. I did know what you were trying to do. You’re cute, but I have two young siblings and I’m the only parent they know of.”

“You think I’m cute?”

Y/N laughed, “Of course, that’s what you get out of it.”

Clint smiled at her again, “I hear you, though. I’ll back off, but just know I’m not giving up.” He pushed his chair back and started to walk away, but turned back around, “By the way, you didn’t actually say no.”

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

Clint was in the kitchen with Bucky talking about the party that night. Becca, Bucky’s younger sister, came running into the room, “You can’t go to a party! My Halloween Parade is tonight! You guys promised you would come!”

He crouched down, “How about we go to your show and then the party after. Deal?” He held out his pinky. Becca surveyed him for a second and then held out her finger in agreement. That night, when they got to the school, Winnie was immediately pulled in by friends. Parents chatted away, occasionally asking him and Bucky how their second year of college was going and how working at Stark Industries was. He noticed the woman next to him kept looking around and leaned over, “What are you looking for Mama Win?”

“This lovely girl, Y/N.” Clint perked up at the name, “She’s around your age and usually is at these things. I saw her younger brother, but not her. Oh wait, there she is!” Winnie waved over to the teenager.

Y/N smiled and greeted her, “Sorry, I’m late. The joys of costume emergencies and five-year-olds. It’s a lethal combination.”

Winnie waved away her apologies, “Is your father here?” Y/N was quick to make excuses for her father. She had been doing it for years. The older woman nodded sympathetically, “Oh, well that’s too bad.”

“Yes, he was very disappointed to miss this.” Clint could tell that she was hiding something, but before anything also could be said, they were interrupted by a young boy running up.

“Y/N! Y/N! Carter spilled juice on my dress!”

His classmate plastered a smile on her face, even though Winnie and Clint knew that she was overwhelmed by the chaos, “It’ll be okay. I’ve got a change of clothes for you in my car.”

“Why don’t I take him to the bathroom and get him cleaned up while you run and grab the clothes,” Winnie offered.

Y/N looked relieved, “That would be great. Thank you,” she quickly started to leave the gym.

Clint jogged after her, “I thought you said you had a date tonight.”

“I do. At Pizza Charlie’s. It’s a tradition to take the kids after school events. Plus with trick-or-treating tomorrow, I just don’t have time for frat parties or hangovers.” They stopped in front of the car and Clint looked into the trunk. He saw that her car was made for kids. She had changes of clothes, toys, and snacks.

“This is your car?”

“Yeah,” Y/N was confused, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it just looks like Winnie’s. You weren’t kidding when you told me that stuff earlier.”

“My dad’s pretty busy. So I spend a lot of time with my brother. You learn to be prepared. On another note, what are you doing at a kindergarten spring concert?”

Clint rubbed his neck and blushed, “Winnie’s like a mom to me and Becca is like a little sister. A very persuasive sister who has made it clear to Bucky and I that we are needed at every school event.”

Y/N laughed, “Oh yes, I am very familiar with the persuasiveness of five-year-olds. There is a reason we keep going to Pizza Charlie’s and it is not because I think the food is good.” The duo headed back inside and Y/N headed off to the bathroom, while Clint went back to Bucky.

“Dude, I can not wait to get out of here. People are sending videos of the party set-up and it looks awesome.”

“Yeah, I’m actually thinking of bailing tonight. Practice killed me.”

Bucky stared at the blonde. His blue eyes were like lazors, searching for the truth, “You’re going to Pizza Charlie’s with that Y/N girl aren’t you.”

Clint was so confused, “What the hell, man?”

“I’m psychic,” Bucky laughed at his friend’s face, “No, I’m messing with you. Mom told me she and Becca are going with them after. Figured you had hopped on in hopes of more time with Y/N.”

“You are a truly terrifying person sometimes.”

Winnie and Y/N came back with her sister and sat down with Bucky and Clint. After the concert had ended, Asher sat down on Y/N’s lap while everyone spoke. He looked up at Clint, “Are you Y/N’s boyfriend?”

Y/N choked on the candy she was eating as Bucky roared in laughter, “Ash, what the fuck?”

The little boy pointed at his sister, “That’s a dollar in the jar. And what, he kept staring at you!”

“You can’t just ask people that without some warning.”

“Okay, how do I warn them?”

Y/N was stammering for an answer and Clint decided to help her, “I’m not your sister’s boyfriend. I go to school with her.”

“Do you want to be her boyfriend?”

“Asher Y/L/N, what has gotten into you? Enough.”

The boy was pouting, “I heard Aunt Nat telling you that you needed a boyfriend and that you need to lie down or something. I don't know what laying down has to do with the boyfriend thing, but I thought I’d ask.

The situation was like something out of Y/N’s nightmares. Bucky was in tears from laughing, Clint was trying his best not to laugh, Winnie was trying to get Bucky under control and Y/N just stared at the ceiling, willing the universe to give her strength. Finally, she turned to Asher, “I will give you $5 to end this conversation and never bring it up again.”

“Deal!” Y/N slapped the bill into her brother’s hand and rubbed her temples.

#clint barton #hawkeye #Clint barton imagine #Hawkeye imagine #Clint Barton x reader #Hawkeye x reader #avengers #avengers au #avengers imagine #avengers x reader #college au #toomanyrobins

[crashingmeteorz]

the tea shop fight probably wouldn’t happen in my ba sing se bimbos au, but IF IT DID:

jet sees mushi heating tea, and goes through an existential crisis. what’s worse is it’s JET’S tea, so he just has to. drink the firebended tea. and try really hard. not to throw up.

on the one hand, lee is one of the best friends he’s ever had and mushi is one of about two adults jet’s ever had any respect for (the second is song’s mother).

on the other, THOSE TWO MEN...ARE FIREBENDERS!!!!!

so as you can imagine, he has something resembling a mental breakdown.

(“are you okay?” song asks him one night when he’s particularly on edge. “you’re all...sweaty.”)

(“probably because it’s extra hot in here,” jet says pointedly, staring right at zuko, who just blushes a little because he, like everyone else, assumes jet’s just flirting with him again.)

(“but we’re outside,” says song, deeply confused.)

jet finally decides he’s just going to come out and tell zuko he knows he’s a firebender, and give him about 30 seconds to explain himself Or Else.

he stalks into the tea shop with extreme purpose, and doesn’t even notice song and jin sitting at one of the tables when he walks right up to zuko and says “we need to talk.”

“unless it’s about the couple by the window and how you’re going to cram this towel down their throats, i’m a little busy,” zuko tells him as he loads up his tray and turns his back. jet leans in hovering just over zuko’s ear, and at first, all zuko can think is i’m not making out with you NOW jet!

and then jet whispers: “i know you’re a firebender,” and zuko freezes. he turns around, hoping jet will have his signature smirk on, but his mouth is a hard thin line and his brows are drawn in a sharp v.

“do you have time to talk now?” jet asks him coldly. zuko narrows his eyes and says “no.”

from their table, jin and song watch on curiously. “why don’t you think jet said hi to us?” jin asks song. “probably saw lee’s ass and didn’t even notice we were here,” answers song. they both laugh - lee doesn’t have an ass.

all of the sudden jet’s yelling and drawing his hooks. “come on!” he shouts, pointing at zuko, “show everyone what you can do!”

“you want a show?” replies zuko, snatching a nearby guard’s swords, “i’ll give you a show.”

“what in the - if they’re not careful they’ll hit mushi!” says a thoroughly pissed song at the same time jin says “song - write this down, we need to get them into Street Rumble XI!”

(street rumble is the street version of earth rumble, and also the avatar alternative to yelling WORLD STAR!)

the fight is pretty evenly matched. in this au there’s more hesitation, but it’s still intense. they knock over tables, shatter dishes, and all-around make a ruckus.

iroh meanwhile, who has come to care for jet, is calling for both of them to calm down. he doesn’t know for sure what the fights about, but he’s got a sinking feeling, based on the fury written all over jet’s face.

the fight goes outside, and obviously song, jin, and iroh follow.

“if you’re in the market for a new relative to mentor, i make a great niece! song, tell mushi what a good roommate i am,” jin says cheerily as zuko and jet almost kill each other. “don’t ask me to lie,” says song.

then the dai li show up.

“oh shit,” says jin. “we’re too poor to pay their bail!” says song.

jet and zuko pause their fight after being told to drop their weapons (they do not drop anything.) jet points at zuko and yells “tell everyone who you are!”

“he’s a young man, just like you,” says iroh. “boys, please, it’s not worth this, let’s all go back inside.”

“i’m not going anywhere with you!” roars jet.

the guards and pao tell the dai li how jet attacked without reason, how the tea boy was just defending himself. the dai li move to take jet away. song panics, and does the only thing that makes sense at the moment.

“no! don’t! it’s my fault!” she cries. she remembers what her mother taught her, about people’s assumptions and using them for survival, and she begins openly sobbing. it’s enough to get the dai li to pause.

“don’t blame yourself,” says iroh quickly, not knowing where song’s going with this but helping anyway by gently patting her shoulder. “it’s hardly your fault.”

“it is!” she cries. “it’s me - they’re fighting over me!”

“song,” jet says irritably, at the same time zuko blushes furiously and says “uhhhhhh.”

“all this...over a girl?” the guards ask. the dai li still are still hovering over jet.

“i know, it’s ridiculous!” iroh agrees. “but you know how young men can be-“

“it IS ridiculous,” jin says dramatically, stepping forward. “because i thought they were fighting over ME!”

“you?” song blubbers, doing her best impression of a person who does not think this entire skit is ridiculous. iroh thinks they’re laying it on a little thick but the crowd seems sufficiently distracted. “but-but lee said he only loved me!”

“is this true?” yells jin, rounding on the boys. jet is, if at all possible, even angrier, while zuko is rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.

“jin,” jet says. “i am not dealing with this right now-”

“you started this!” cries song hysterically. “making a scene, just because i said i won’t kiss you if you keep eating grass-”

iroh, who has made his way over to the dai li, gestures broadly and says “as you can see, it’s just some teenage drama. please, we can handle this. i’ll make sure the boys clean up their mess.”

the two dai li look at one another, and then nod at iroh. “if we hear of any other disturbances in this area, they’re both getting arrested,” they tell him before departing.

the crowd disperses, not really wanting to deal with song’s crying and jin’s yelling. pao goes back inside griping about closing up early. finally, when it’s just the five of them, song takes her hands away from her face, which is completely dry.

“and, scene,” says jin, bowing. “song, you were brilliant, iroh, my muse, lee and jet - the stunts could use a little work.”

“why did you have to say all that stuff?” zuko mumbles angrily. jet, meanwhile, begins to stomp away.

“because we didn’t want you to idiots to disappear!” yells song. “but i’m already regretting it! and you!” she says, rounding on jet. “you’re not going ANYWHERE until you two clean up this mess!”

“you don’t understand!” says jet. “those two - they’re-”

“why don’t we all clean up together, and then we can discuss this at the apartment?” offers iroh quickly. they may be alone, but they’re still very much in public.

“great idea,” says jin, “i have to finish transcribing the fight anyway.” song takes iroh’s arm and says, “mushi, you’re not allowed to help, you had nothing to do with this.” zuko looks at jet and shrugs, entering the tea shop. jet splutters, making a series of strangled noises, before finally sighing in defeat and following the group inside and begrudgingly cleaning up.

when they get to the apartment, iroh serves the four of them tea. jet refuses.

“i don’t want anything made by a firebender,” he hisses. song freezes. zuko rolls his eyes. iroh looks deeply sad.

“that’s what this is about?” jin says in a bored voice, sipping her tea. “i thought we all knew by now.”

“what?” shout jet, song, and zuko. iroh looks shocked.

“seriously?” asks jin. “lee, the first time we hung out you lit up, like a hundred candles at once. do you think i’m stupid? is that what you think? that i’m stupid?”

“n-no!” zuko stutters. “you knew,” jet growls “and didn’t say anything to us?” song is still fairly pale.

“i thought we all knew!” jin says. “i mean, he screwed up in front of me, like, immediately. i just figured the same had happened with you two.”

“i can’t believe it,” zuko says miserably.

“besides,” jin continues, “what’s the big deal? there’s plenty of war babies in ba sing se. and lee’s our friend. has he ever used firebending to hurt us?”

“that’s true,” song says thoughtfully. “and, that scar clearly didn’t come from a waterbender.” she takes in zuko’s embrassed expression and adds, “no offense, lee.”

“i don’t believe this,” says jet in shock. “how are you all just okay with this?”

“well, what’s he gonna do?” asks jin.

“i - i don’t know!” stutters jet. “he could - he could be spying for the fire nation!” song and jin laugh heartily, and after a minute so does jet.

“okay, okay,” jet concedes, “lee could never make it as a spy. but still-”

(“could too,” grumbles zuko, arms crossed. iroh shoots him a “for once in your life SHUT UP” look.)

“but nothing,” song says, standing up. “jet, i understand. i’ve been hurt by the fire nation, too, remember?” she pulls up her skirt and shows everyone her burned leg. zuko looks away.

“but lee didn’t do this,” song says firmly. “and neither did mushi. and you destroyed a town, so you don’t get to judge them.”

jet’s jaw drops, and then he pouts bitterly. “i never should have told you about that,” he mutters.

“i trust you three will keep our secret, then?” iroh asks at last. song and jin nod. jet looks between them, and then at zuko, who offers him something resembling an apologetic look.

“fine,” says jet. “but if i think for one second that you two are working with the fire nation, i’m not holding back.”

zuko and iroh nod aggressively, both thinking “if we so much breathed in the presence of the fire nation we’d be electrocuted by our insane relatives, but sure jet, we’re totally working with the fire nation.”

i know i said i’d post part 2 of the gaang and ba sing se bimbos meetup, but this was stuck in my head. since it’s an au of an au i’m just going to include it in my new masterpost rather than in any particular order. credit as always to the amazing @azenkii !

masterpost

#my stuff #jinjetsongko #jetko #the ba sing se bimbos #jin #jet #song #zuko #iroh #atla #avatar the last airbender

[tsukikoayanosuke]

If It Shines, My Seven Colors Symphony

Summary: 

The day Riddle met the boy under the cherry blossoms, his days changed forever.

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS, OUR KING OF HEARTSLABYUL! We hope you have all the strawberry tart in the world on your special day!)

(Non-Magic + Musician AU, inspired by Your Lie in April)

The sound of piano playing filled the air.

The sixty anniversary piano competition was held in a hall which was filled with people, both to support and enjoy music.

A ten-year-old boy sat in front of the piano, his fingers moving fast and like a machine. Everyone was mesmerized by his playing. It was captivating. The fact that the little boy was able to play the difficult piece by Beethoven without a score left everyone held on to their seats due to the intense play.

The boy had soulless eyes as he plays skillfully, with no emotion showing on his face. He played every note without hesitation. He played and played ...

-----//-----

A boy with red hair and a heart-shaped ahoge was alone in his class, sitting behind his desk with earphones attached. He listened to the song playing loudly in his ear as he scribbles on the sheet music in front of him.

Loud music blocked all sounds, making him oblivious to the classroom door opening and a boy with purple hair and cat ears walked in with a ball in his hand. “Riddle...”

The boy named Riddle Rosehearts didn’t respond. The purplenette threw the ball with full force at Riddle, “Leave yourself WIDE open!”

Riddle quickly dodged the ball flying toward him. “What a boring reaction,” the purplenette scowled as he revealed himself from behind the table.

Riddle turned to the purplenette as he slightly raised his hand in greeting. “Hello to you too, Che’nya.”

Alchemi Alchemivich Pinkaa or Che’nya for short, Riddle’s childhood friend, walked over to the redhead and sat in front of the serious boy. Then, suddenly, pulled out one of Riddle’s earpiece, gaining a grunt from the boy. “Sitting alone in a classroom after school… What are you listening to?” As Che’nya put on the earpiece, he exclaimed excitedly, “Hey! Is this ‘Piece of My World’? What’s playing on every radio station right now? Whoa!”

Riddle just hummed without saying anything, clearly trying to ignore the purplenette and focused on transcribing this new song as his side job.

Che’nya pressed Riddle’s forehead with his index finger, finally, the redhead came to attention. “ You're too gloomy!” he said with a smile. “There was no spark in your eye! We’re seventeen years old, you know! Live your life!”

Riddle raised an eyebrow. It was sudden for Che’nya. “It’s just a trick of the light,” he responded.

Che’nya groaned. “There you go! Conventional wisdom! You get what I mean, don’t you? They don’t! You’re a teenager, so they all have to light up!” He made an explosive motion with his hand. “Be lit!”

Riddle chuckled at Che’nya’s funny acting. The purple-haired boy sighed as he leaned back in his chair.

“You know, Rielle said something the other day,” Che’nya said. “When you are in love with someone, everything looks colorful…” He turned to Riddle. “Maybe you need to find that special someone.”

Riddle shook his head, no longer looking into his Che’nya’s shining golden eyes.

In Che’nya’s eyes, Riddle could bet everything looked colorful.

Unlike him.

Where everything looks like a monotone.

Just like musical scores, like a keyboard.

He remembered the days when his world had started to turn gray. The day he gave up in the middle of a recital.

The autumn Riddle Rosehearts was ten...

He could no longer play the piano.

-----//-----

It just so happened that Riddle was passing by the local park one spring afternoon. That was when he saw something out of place.

A pair of brown shoes.

And a black jacket.

Hanging on a growing tree branch.

He went to the branch and picked up the shoes and jacket. “Are these for marks? Or to ward off evil spirits?”

The cherry blossoms started to fall when a gentle breeze blew by. He looked up and saw a cherry blossom tree standing in an ordinary sea of ​​green.

That was when he heard it.

Music.

A melodica. Playing a nursery rhyme song. Playing pretty well too.

Riddle held onto the items he had previously found as he walked towards the area filled with cherry blossom trees, walking towards the sweet music played by the melodica.

The song drew closer as he picked up speed and took a shortcut to the playground, a pathway in the shade of trees. He closed his eyes, focused on the sound of the instruments and paused when he found the source.

He was not surprised to see children playing in the playground. But what caught his eye ...

Was that boy, standing in the middle of a circle of children dancing, playing a melodica.

Everything I see, everything I hear, everything I feel ...

The boy playing the melodica couldn’t be any older than Riddle, and perhaps younger - no more than sixteen, for sure. His reddish-brown hair, tied in a ponytail bounced with his ahoge as the boy kept bouncing on his toes as he played the instrument, his fingers gracefully pressing every note.

And Riddle found himself staring at the boy.

All the scenery around me began to change color.

The boy continued to play his score while dancing along with the little audience who were still giggling at him happily and Riddle continued to stare with his mouth slightly open, he thought he looked like a creep but he didn’t care.

Riddle hadn’t heard the happy instrument in a long time. He chuckled, thinking about how he looked like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. He took out his cell phone to record this beautiful sight.

The boy spun around, finishing the rest of the song and he waved in a dramatic motion as soon as he was done. He bowed to his audience and the children laughed and applauded.

As the boy straightened up, his eyes met Riddle’s.

Tears...

Tears started to trickle down the boy’s cheeks as he looked at Riddle with his one black, teary, eye. The falling cherry blossoms only made him even more mesmerizing as a gentle breeze blew his hair.

Why is he crying?

The boy coughed slightly as he wiped his tears. “I blew too hard…”

“Big Bro, again!” One of the children said and the boy laughed.

“Again? You kids will love your singing game.”

“Sounds very good, Big Bro!”

“Big Brother, one more time!”

The boy laughed again. “I will, I will, in a moment! We have to choose another song, right? What’s so good? I know this other song-” the boy cut off abruptly and Riddle noticed he was staring at him.

“You!”

Riddle suddenly realized that the boy was pointing at him.

“What are you doing with my stuff?!” The boy had already raised his suspicious shiny melodica, ready to strike him down.

Riddle took a look at the shoes and jacket before looking at the boy in panic. “It’s just a coincidence!”

The boy tilted his head to the side. “Oh.” He lowered the melodic and Riddle let out the breath he was unconsciously holding. But then the boy picked up the melodica again. “Then why take pictures of little kids like pedophile?!”

“Please don’t use your instrument as a weapon,” said Riddle, raising his hands and surrendering. ��Well, I ... I enjoyed your performance.”

“Hah?” Cleary, that boy didn’t expect that answer. Though he recovered quickly and sent Riddle a grin. He ran over to Riddle and leaned slightly towards him. “Really? Well, thank you.”

The boy raised his hand towards Riddle. “I’m Jonah,” he said. “What is your name?”

Riddle lowered his head. “I’m ... Riddle.”

Jonah smiled broadly at him, and Riddle thought he could almost see the sparks in his eyes. “Cool! We know each other’s names now. That means we are friends!”

Riddle looked up, blinking. Jonah is still smiling. You can’t just make friends that fast, right?

“Oh!” Jonah looked at his watch. “I’m going to be up soon! I’ve to head right now!”

“Head over? Where?” Riddle asked as Jonah ran to get his things in the sandbox. The brunette smiled as he pointed to the building overlooking the garden, “Over there.”

Riddle’s silver-gray eyes widened at the name of the building.

Night Raven Hall.

“Isn’t that…” Riddle muttered.

“Night Raven Hall.” Jonah answered while carrying a red instrument case covered with various pirate stickers. “I will be performing there today.”

Jonah turned to look at them and smiled brightly.

“I’m a violinist.”

Riddle didn’t know what to do with the feeling building up in his chest, constricting his lungs. He wondered if he should check it out.

“Very well ...” Riddle swallowed hard. “Good luck.”

Grinning, Jonah raised two fingers to his head and tipped them towards him as if giving a brief salute.

Then, he just ran away.

----- // -----

“Wait, wait,” interrupted Che’nya, as Riddle was telling the story in a monotone during his lunch break, after much insinuating how much he had been distracted all day. “Does this Jonah boy have an eye-patch?”

Riddle blinked. “Yes. He’s the cheerful, fun-loving type of guy, and ...” Riddle paused. “Has the biggest smile you have ever seen.”

Che’nya laughed with amusement. “I know this guy.”

“You do?”

Che’nya took a bite from his tuna sandwich. “Yeah. His name is Jonah Argentum. He’s actually a classmate of mine.”

Riddle paused from sipping his tea. “Really? I never heard of him from you.”

Che’nya shrugged. “Yes. He’s a cool guy even though we rarely spend time together.”

“How come?”

“Around this time, Jonah used to stay to practice his violin. You might catch him in the music room if you want to hear him again.”

Riddle only nodded.

----- // -----

Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9. The Kreutzer.

Riddle knows this song.

He could hear the sound of the violin, even through the closed door. It was a harmonious tune.

Riddle thought that if he hadn’t resolutely avoided the music room during his high school career, he might have met Jonah earlier. There was no way he could stay away from a sound as pure as this. He opened the door carefully, peeking inside.

Jonah didn’t notice him at first, immersed in his playing. He was standing in front of the dark brown piano, outlined by the window, back facing the door, so he never noticed Riddle slowly entering and closing the door behind him.

Outside, other students filled the courtyard with screams and laughter. But Riddle heard none of them – saw none of those - his world at that moment was tied to one thing only.

Jonah’s bow was gentle and flowing, the tone entirely present but more calm and controlled, until there was a sudden, staccato sound, with the bow spring the song danced and all eyes were on Jonah’s agile movements.

Riddle’s fists trembled. In his mind, pink roses were growing wild with Jonah’s every drags filled with emotions, though Riddle could see the small smile on the brunette’s face as he plunged in and continued to break every rule they made for him.

Smashing right onto them.

This… this is still Kreutzer, right?

Wait. This is. It has to be. Riddle was sure. But its wild dynamic, the tempo all over the place made it seem completely different.

And finally, with Jonah’s final note, the sonata ended.

He gasped for breath, bow still raised. Even from behind, Riddle could imagine him grinning widely, an expression of no remorse.

Riddle could help but applaud him. Only then did Jonah turn around, finally realizing that he wasn’t alone in the music room.

Jonah lowered his violin and saluted Riddle with his bow. “Hey there.”

Riddle gave him an awkward wave, realizing he was sort-of intruding. “Hey.”

“Have you been watching me?”

Riddle felt a strange heat on his cheeks when he saw Jonah’s bright and hopeful smile.

“What do you think?” the brown hair asked again.

Riddle was taken back by Jonah’s eagerness. He swallowed hard, forgetting how to string words at all. “That was ...” he began and he didn’t know how to proceed. Jonah’s performance was different; unlike anything he had seen before. Riddle’s own experience with music was rigorous, always following a code, every perfect dictation of the invisible composer. With Jonah, he broke everything he knew. His spontaneity, the sudden burst of life reminded him of his personality. He was talented and Riddle didn’t know enough other adjectives to convey it.

“You did well.” And that was an understatement. Jonah looked like he was waiting for more, so Riddle sat down on the piano bench.

Jonah chuckled, “Thanks. Though, I was all over the place.”

“You were.” Riddle smiled. “It was an organized chaos.”

It made Jonah laugh even louder. “I know, right?” And Riddle laughed with him.

“So how was the performance yesterday?”

“It was fun!” Jonah exclaimed. “I played this song yesterday!”

Really? Honestly, if Jonah had actually played exactly like that yesterday, Riddle was a little worried about him. If it was any other competition or some other show, Jonah would’ve win. But, Riddle looked up yesterday, Jonah’s competition was a formal competition. Jonah barely followed how the score is to be played – He was too spontaneous, his dynamics were on haywire. Did he get judged? Is he even got a place for the next round?

“So ...” Riddle swallowed, worried that he would hurt the brunette’s feelings. “How was it?”

But Jonah only smiled brightly, without the slightest bit of sadness or disappointment. “I won an audience award!” Jonah laughed. “So, I passed to the second round!”

Riddle sighed unconsciously. He was happy. Jonah really was talented, and Riddle was sure the violinist had left a mark on his audience.

Like how he gave color to his life.

He didn’t realize he leaned his elbow on the piano, resting his hand on his cheek until his elbow slips off when the music faded to nothing. It hit a key in a staccato of dissonant notes, and it echoed so wrongly in his head - like a warning bell ringing - that he jerked his arm back with a sharp glare at the offending appendage.

“Do you play?” Jonah asked, after pausing for a moment.

Riddle looked up, alarmed. “What?”

Jonah’s expression shifted into something unreadable. Almost calm. “The piano. You play?”

“No. I don’t,” whispered Riddle. Not anymore. Never again.

“That’s weird,” Jonah casually commented. “Because you keep looking at it, ever since you walked in. And just now, your fingers twitched.” Jonah took a deep breath. “Do you... Want to play? Because you look like you want to.”

Riddle got up to his feet. “I don’t play,” he said, a little harsher than he meant. “Leave it, Jonah.”

Jonah raised his hand, still holding his violin and bow. He visibly took a step back. “Okay, okay.”

The bell rang. Jonah sighed loudly and packed his violin. He slung his bag on his shoulder. Jonah walked away from Riddle, before stopping in the doorway. Without turning back, he said, “See you later.”

Then he was gone, closing the door softly. Riddle looked at the piano, unassuming - accusingly.

Haunting.

What Riddle said was true. But it’s not that simple - not for him.

Riddle can’t play. He’d made a promise.

Although, at this time, he couldn’t remember who it was for.

The thought is hollowing.

----- // ----

“Jonah Argentum! What is the meaning of this?! “Riddle shouted, entering the music room.

At the interruption, Jonah lowered his violin, grinning innocently at Riddle. “Oh, Senior Rosehearts. You came earlier than I expected. How may I serve you?”

“This!” Riddle held up the music sheet in his hand. “Explain yourself! Why did I find this in my locker?”

“That’s the Violin Sonata number ni-”

“I can read, Argentum. You know I can’t play.”

Jonah shrugged. “Oh, I sure know you. Riddle Rosehearts, the greatest pianist of our generation. The Golden Boy, or Queen of Heart for your merciless ways in following the score.” The corners of his lips tugged up. “Right now, I need piano accompaniment, and lo and behold, I found you.”

Riddle vehemently resisted the urge to punch something. Even now, deeply ingrained in him was the pianist’s instinct to keep his hands in good condition. “I. Don’t. Play.”

“Don’t or can’t?” Jonah scoffed. “Looks like you have a hard time deciding it.”

Anger swelled up in Riddle’s chest, and the words that came out weren’t completely him. “This is all a joke to you, right? Because it is so easy for you to play that you expect the same for other people. Just because you can do what you like-”

Jonah laughed. “Easy there, Your Majesty. You also don’t know anything about me, so don’t just talk.” He raised his hands.

Riddle slammed his mouth shut as Jonah turned around, facing the window, leaving Riddle to stare at his back. “It’s really a choice. You can come and play, or you can forget about it. I seem to have written your name on. “

Riddle looked down at his shoes. “You could’ve asked me first.”

“What difference will it make?”

The redhead gripped the sheet music tightly, creating wrinkles on the paper.

----- // -----

The bag felt heavier because of the extra weight of the music sheet.

----- // -----

Riddle sat in front of his dusty black piano.

The keys always had their a protective cover on them, so they weren’t dusty, but everything else - the seat, the back, even the music stand - was covered in a thick layer of dust. This was his mother’s piano, the piano Riddle himself slaved over when he was growing up, slaved over and despised. The piano on which he wiped his tears, the keys he pressed with trembling fingers.

Placing the music sheets into its place, Riddle took a deep breath, then raised his hand and carefully placed his fingers on the keys. They were cold and solid under his skin, but all he had to do was press against them to bring them back to life. All he had to do was move. He memorized the songs, he can play them in the dark with his eyes closed. He knows them. They are a part of him. If he only—

“I didn’t say you could rest! You won’t sleep until you are perfect, so do it!”

Riddle shot up from his chair, knocking the chair down as he pulled his hand away from the keys as if it burned. He cradled his hand tightly to his chest, realized that they were shaking, and the air suddenly felt heavy, suffocating him. It took him a long time to calm down, curling into a little ball in front of the piano. He felt weak and his whole body was trembling.

There was a time when he liked this instrument.

And he wants it back.

----- // -----

It took Riddle three days to finally have the courage back into the music room to see Jonah again. For once in his life, he was willing to admit defeat.

“I ... really, really don’t know about being your accompanist, Jonah.”

He just couldn’t do it, no matter how much he tried, no matter how much he wanted to. He was terrified, of the numbness crawling through his hand, until the sounds of bass lag behind the melody, and Riddle was forced to remember the murmurs of the audience when he’d stumbled for the first time in all his years of performing.

He didn’t want to tell Jonah no - not anymore when every fiber of him craved the opposite.

Jonah sighed. “Okay.”

Riddle blinked. “Okay?”

The brunette shrugged. “I sort of just thrust those sheets onto you. You can throw it away if you don’t want to.” He closed his violin case and slung the bag over his shoulder. “If I have to, I can just pull out of the competition. Or go without an accompanist if they allow it.”

Riddle nodded stiffly. “... I don’t want to say no,” he said, “but I’m leaning more in that direction. I’m sorry.”

“I told you, it’s okay,” he grinned weakly. “Don’t stress over that or anything.” He walked past Riddle, before giving him a light pat on the shoulder. “I’m off.”

Riddle turned around. “Where are you going?”

Jonah looked over his shoulder. “The courtyard. Senior Asim invited me to play with the Light Music Club. You can watch us if you want.”

----- // -----

Soon, Riddle found himself in the middle crowd with Che’nya. The Music Club equipment was prepared, and nothing too complicated, but still everyone was restless with excitement. He couldn’t even imagine what the violin and electronic music would have been. But seeing Jonah was enough to build anticipation in his heart.

“For the next song, we’re gonna be featuring Jonah, on the violin!” Cater announced over the microphone. “Ready, man?”

Jonah brought the violin to his chin, grinning at the murmurs that surfaced in the crowd. “Bring it.”

The first chord starts off slow. Soft, as he knew only Jonah with the instrument. Until the bass joined - then the electronic chords, layered under the sound of the strings, built up momentum.

And like a tidal wave, it grew even stronger, a beating heartthrob in Riddle’s veins as he stared transfixed, at the unshakable and beautiful power, that of Jonah Argentum. He pushed the song faster, the grin on his face turning wild until the band was forced to follow him, struggling to keep up with Jonah’s brutal rhythm. His whole body moved to the beat, agile and powerful, and so bright it almost hurt to look too long.

It ended with Jonah banging his bow to the final note, then swinging the bow up, arms outstretched, the tip of the bow pointed toward the sky. The sunlight made the sweat on his face glow, and he was like the way he was breathing heavily, shoulders and chest heaving, but…

He was smiling.

The people clapped, cheering. Riddle could barely clap his hands, mesmerized. Dumbfounded. After that intense performance, Riddle wondered if it could be that he once a day - playing with Jonah, on stage, together - struggling to wow the crowd.

Can be. He wanted it to come true.

The itching sensation had returned, down his fingertips, to his forearm, until it felt very heavy. He wants to play.

He wants to play with Jonah.

----- // -----

“Riddle.” Riddle took of his headphone when Trey placed a plate of strawberry tart in front of him. It was the weekend and Riddle decided he needed a mood booster. Another childhood friend, Trey, opened the family bakery and Riddle always visited him for tea and cake.

"You look happy. Did something good happen?" Trey asked.

Riddle shrugged. “I have met a violinist. He's pretty cool. "

“Oh.” There was a small smile on Trey's face. "You should introduce me to him. I want to see a man who makes you smile again."

Oh.

He hadn’t known he was doing that.

----- // -----

“Jonah, can I ask you something?” That was Riddle’s first question as he entered the music room. Jonah stopped playing and Riddle regretted not having waited a few seconds for another amazing performance.

“Senior Rosehearts” Jonah blinked. But then he nodded. “Of course.”

“Jonah, why are you playing the violin?”

Jonah lowered his violin and bow, humming thoughtfully. “Well ... I always thought musicians were really cool, so I asked my dad for a violin, and they signed me up with music lessons,”

“So you chose to play it?”

“Yes,” said Jonah. “But, I think since then, my reasons have changed a little. I started playing it because I thought people who could play an instrument were cool, but I kept playing because I fell in love with him. I keep playing because I can make my parents smile. I keep playing because, well, I guess ... music is my friend, you know? When I’m pissed off, when I’m angry, when something’s wrong ... I’ll take my violin outside and just play it. Music is one of the few things in the world that won’t judge you and only accepts you for who you are. And, you know, I need it sometimes. “

Riddle accepted this, and he thought, for a moment, that he and Jonah came from completely different backgrounds, not only as humans, but as musicians as well.

“… I want what you have,” said Riddle, and the words shocked him as much as they surprised Jonah, the look on his face. “Your passion, your love ... the way you play the violin with so many ... so many feelings, like there’s nowhere in the world you want more ... I ... I want that.”

It seems foolish to say it, but Jonah didn’t think of it that way. He put down his violin and walked towards Riddle. Slowly he raised his hand, resting it on the redhead’s shoulder.

“I’ll help you,” said Jonah, and the words buried him somewhere deep in Riddle’s heart. “I mean, I’m not the most skilled and we don’t really know each other well. But we musicians have to stick together, right? “He smiled softly. “If you want to play with me, if you will let me… I think I can help you. I will give it my best shot. “

It wasn’t much, and it wasn’t a solution, but Riddle felt a spark within him, something he hadn’t felt in a very, very long time.

Maybe it was excitement. Anticipation. For the first time in his life, he wanted to know what the future would be like. He wants to move forward.

----- // -----

Riddle managed to finish the piece the next day. It was a battle, and it was a tough fight, and there were several times when he wanted to give up, when he wanted to slam the case over the locks again and call Jonah to tell him he couldn’t do it ...

But he wants to play with Jonah. He wanted to play the piano and like it as much as Jonah liked his violin. He wanted that, he wanted it so badly.

So, he finished with that thought. He got through it, and it was difficult, it was very difficult, but Jonah chose the good part, this, that Riddle didn’t have much baggage.

If it had been another part, it might have been different, but this ... this was a good choice, even if just a coincidence.

Riddle passed by once one day, gave himself a day off, then tried again. He also tried again after that. And again. And again.

Again.

And this time, he wasn’t forced to try again. He did it because he wanted to, because he wanted what Jonah had, because he wanted to stand on that stage, and he wanted to press his fingers into the keys, because— He wanted to be a musician.

----- // -----

“Are you ready?”

Riddle took a breath through his nose, then nodded and let it out. “I think so,” he said, and the two of them headed backstage with the other competitors.

Jonah looked nervous, or, at least fidgety, and frankly, Riddle felt the same way. Every instinct he had was saying no, screaming that it was a bad idea and that he shouldn’t step on that stage, but… He wanted to…

... He longed to...

It was their turn before he was ready, and Riddle followed Jonah onto the stage. They bowed, the crowd cheered, and when the applause died down and the silence returned, Riddle sat at the piano, and Jonah raised his violin.

It is okay. Riddle took a deep breath. It is okay. This is good. Just go straight through this song, and ...

“Are you ready?” Jonah asked calmly, and Riddle stared at him.

Riddle wasn’t ready, not really, and he wasn’t sure he would, or even be.

But, after a moment, he nodded and raised his finger over the lock. Jonah readied his bow, hovered over the ropes, and with a sure nod to Riddle they shot straight for it.

It was fine at first, but Jonah was reckless, just as Riddle thought. The dynamics were odd, the way he played was strange, but they were perfect at the same time, even as Riddle struggled to adjust the tempo and his fingers flew across the keys. It started well, it started well, in fact, it was better than Riddle expected.

Except-

“What are you doing!? That’s not what it was meant to be played! Start at the top again!”

And Riddle began to drown. He fought it, he struggled to keep his fingers moving, struggled to keep his mind in the here and now and nothing else, but his thoughts were swirling as his eyesight spun, and his ears were ringing until he couldn’t hear the piano, until he couldn’t hear the violin, until the only thing he heard was his memories and haunting thoughts and—

He stopped.

The ringing was cut, and he could hear Jonah’s violin, shrill and steady and there, but not the piano.

Riddle rested his hands on his feet, teeth clenched behind his lips, eyes burning. He heard whispers rising from the audience behind Jonah’s playing, and although it was muffled and Riddle couldn’t make out the words, he could guess what they were saying.

He felt guilty. If he keeps playing he will spoil it for Jonah. The boy should have chosen someone else. He knew he couldn’t—

The violin stopped.

Riddle’s head snapped up, his eyes were wide open, and he saw Jonah lower his bow arm, violin strings sparkling in the overhead lamp. The audience muttered and whispered louder now, and Riddle could pick up on some common keywords like stop and why and competition, but he ignored them.

Jonah... Stopped.

In a competition like this, it was an automatic disqualification, for Jonah stop like that in the middle of his piece. Riddle could see the judges scribbling something on their clipboard and he knew right away that Jonah wasn’t going to advance now, that he won’t move on, but— Jonah didn’t have to stop. He didn’t do it.

So what-

“... Senior Rosehearts.”

Jonah’s voice was low, and his head was raised towards the audience, though his words were directed at Riddle.

“... Your passion,” said Jonah. “Your love, your ambition ... Your goal ... Even now, today, this second ... It is yours and no one else’s.” Riddle could only stare. “They are yours, and no one can take it from you. No one.“

Riddle gasped, trying to think of something to say, but at this moment, words failed, and all he heard was Jonah’s voice. All he saw was Jonah’s smile, as he finally turned to face him.

“Do you ... Want to try again?”

Riddle had never been asked before.

He never wanted to try again before.

But he found himself moving his hands, found himself nodding, and Jonah raising the arm of his bow, and they were gone again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

This time it was different. Riddle was playing, but he felt ... Different. Something changed, something drastic, and the fingers moved smoothly. He didn’t push himself, didn’t force the melody out, didn’t force his hands to move.

Jonah played with him. The audience got excited and listened attentively, but Riddle didn’t even think about them anymore. His fingers moved as Jonah’s arm dragged the bow along the strings, and Riddle didn’t know why or how but he felt like a kid again, playing a rookie tune to make his father smile, playing without a care, without his mother looming. behind him, without ...

...Without fear.

And he knew it won’t last long. He knew this moment of passion, this moment of love, this moment where he felt like he was playing this piano and not his mother, he knew it wouldn’t last.

But it was happening now, and he seized it. As his fingers danced over the keys, never missing a beat, and Jonah stroking the violin with a combination of grace and intensity, Riddle seized it.

It ended in a hurry.

Riddle’s hand left the key and Jonah swung his bow arm in the air, as he had done so many times. They were both panting heavily, both gasping for breath, both sweating, both-

Smiling.

When Riddle met Jonah’s eyes, sparkling and alive despite the sweat running down his face, he smiled.

Both of them were.

His ears were ringing. His throat felt like cotton. Stiffly, he rose and moved to stand beside Jonah to bow; Jonah had already lowered his violin and bow, and together, the two were facing the audience.

The ringing in Riddle’s ears was cut off, and all he heard was the thundering applause.

It startled him, the transition between ringing to roaring, and he almost stepped back, but held back. He looked at Jonah from the corner of his eye, and Jonah did the same, so that their gazes accidentally met.

Jonah held back his gaze and smile, and with a small jolt of his head toward the audience, they both bowed low.

It was a great show.

And Riddle wants to do it again with Jonah one day.

#twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland fanfiction #twisted wonderland fanfic #twst fanfic #twisted wonderland fic #twst fic #riddle rosehearts #jonah argentum (my oc) #serving raspberry #tw:opt gaiden #cross-posted on ao3 #happy birthday riddle! #this is for ROnah shipper

[visarcana]

What do we know about... Egzardia

Okay, let’s finally do this. Egzardia is another of Asturia’s neighbors and allies and the home to a certain snake of a prince in my fic; not a popular character I guess, but also real fun to write!

So what do we know about this country from the series, artbooks and other official material? So, similar to Basram (the previous in the WDWK series), this fictional country seemed to have an obvious source of inspiration, which was the Earth’s France. Or was it?

Canon information

1. Egzardia is a country famed for its fashions

And that is what first pointed into the direction of France. The pants that Millerna wears are somewhat outrageous in Asturia but in Egzardia, where she got them from, they are the height of fashion. Here’s Millerna, her pants, and a bonus “come at me bro” Allen.

So, the new trends for the daring come from Egzardia, as the Filmbooks confirm also near the picture of the soldiers (”when it’s not uniforms, Egzardia seems to set the trends in fashion”).

This sort of goes together also with the fact that “they try to make even their guymelefs beautiful” (Roman artbook). The same book also says their guymelefs have elegant, round shapes (the Mazdas of guymelef world haha).

2. Egzardia is a neighboring country to Asturia

Because Asturia formed an alliance with its neighboring countries (episode 23).  The map of Gaea (from the Vision of Escaflowne Fanbook) puts it north of Basram and South of Zaibach. Makes you wonder where the border with Asturia was supposed to lie? But yeah, as we know now, this whole map is fanon.  

3. The design of the soldiers/guymelefs

Regarding the soldier designs, it is, again, obvious that somebody did their homework and looked up the 17th-18th century military uniforms as an inspiration.

Here is the Egzardian general named Jardi (Jarudi) and his regular soldier underling. There are no official transcriptions of these names so we can only guess how it was supposed to be transcribed (Giardi? Jardie?).

Anyway, what I was able to figure out was that the inspiration for the general was the European uniform of a grenadier (the soldier who throws grenades) that became distinguished from other troops in 17th century. Mostly because of the mitre cap (like the Pope wears) which is a trademark of this troop.

Upon closer look, the closest examples look to be the British grenadiers! The bottom part of the mitre above the forehead in particular looks very British (compare).

So was I off with France after all? When you google French grenadier, you see that mostly their mitre caps are all fur and they look a bit further away from our guy Jardi... but he does have a French-looking pom-pom on the top of his hat... and the gillet, the gaiters... guess the uniforms of the era had these elements often in common.

Here’s image for ants of Jardi from the back (Settei Artbook). I want to use the ponytail and bow on Gilles’ design as well.

4. The flag/coat of arms

It looks like this (this is my work using the sketch in the artbooks and coloring it according to the scheme shown in the anime).

So, what do you think it represents? I think the other crests are more obvious in that than this one. The only thing that comes to my mind is a variation of Fleur de Lys, but I guess it’s because I’m partial to France with this. Or maybe a fancy-looking spear? They definitely use spears on the battlefield.

(don’t ask me why Basram flag is involved in a shot of mostly Egzardian soldiers lol)

5. The Egzardian warship is called Triville. 

For this, we have a transcription from the official subs. Tréville is a commune/family name in France (okay, not to be too partial to France, you can find another little town called Treville in Italy). And also a character (based on a real historical figure) called Monsieur de Tréville in Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. The name seems related the region of Trois-Villes, so basically, tréville is a fancier way of spelling “Three Towns” to my understanding. But there was also a French admiral de Latouche-Tréville who had three French ships named Latouche-Tréville after him, so this seems the most likely inspiration, if there was any.

So what did I do with this information so far?

Not too much to be honest. Obviously, I named the prince Gilles and I made up the name of the capital of Egzardia as Marsial, just a play on Marseille. I made Gilles dress flashily, but he would not pause at it as an Egzardian. Since Basram is said to be the only republic among the known countries, I made Egzardia a kingdom as well, but put Gilles himself further down the succession line.

This was necessary because this engagement with Millerna is a “plan B” not only for King Aston (who had her engaged to Dryden before that), but also for Egzardians. Gilles’ older brother, who is the current king in Egzardia, is already married with a son. If Millerna (or any of the Asturian princesses) had been considered for the marriage, they would have arranged it much sooner, while Gilles’ father had still been alive. Instead, this deal is closed in wartime with the younger brother being sent. Who’s all women, hunts, games... that sort of stuff. And not too eager to marry. But he quickly takes liking to Millerna hahaha!

I would also like to point out that the order of succession is male primogeniture, so the sons of the older brother pass over Gilles as they are born (and he already has one), so poor guy really can’t think of getting the throne in Marsial anytime soon. Which is another reason for Gilles to be married off to Palas, where he can think of being a king regent through Millerna.

This isn’t an ideal situation for Aston either, because it becomes possible that the two countries will be joined after his death, and not necessarily with Asturia coming out on top, if the older brother has much power over Gilles. So yeah, it is a plan B for a reason, even though it may seem a better match at the first sight. It’s not necessarily an upgrade for Millerna to marry an actual prince instead of the wealthy local merchant prince, who brings the money and at least keeps the power securely in Asturia.

But the war goes on, Grava needs allies, he is sick, and he has to make sure Millerna has a suitable husband after he’s gone. Coughwhoisnotallencough. Because once he’s dead, Millerna can do whatever she wants, she’s a queen. And Eries won’t have the “older sister” privileges much longer either... since she didn’t want to be the queen, at some point she would have to bow down and respect Millerna’s will, not the other way around. I wrote a bit of this change of dynamic in Chapter 9 already .

So yeah, Aston really has a grudge against Allen in my head, so he could even play dangerously to prevent him from marrying Millerna. But then, Asturia and Egzardia could be joined also with Palas as the capital. Asturia is the strongest after Zaibach, so currently stronger than Egzardia. So if Gilles held some grudges or an ambition to take over his brother once he’s married to Millerna (and she lets him rule her country and do as he pleases), there is an option of that. So yeah, a risky game, but the possible gains (and losses) for everyone involved are great with this marriage.

By the way, Gilles and his as of yet unnamed older brother also have two unnamed sisters. I’ll probably name them only if they appear in the story. Gilles is the youngest one, that is why he’s had all the time and resources in the world to play around until now. He has a guymelef as a member of the royal family (guymelefs are rare and expensive goods) and is a skilled swordsman. He’s quite charismatic and quickly became popular with the Asturian courtiers.

I made his character a bit of a play on the trope of the rakish handsome brute who after his youth spent womanizing falls for the innocent heroine (possibly with an arranged marriage involved)... aand then does a magical 180 by the power of love, becomes a great man and off they ride into the sunset. But that’s another story which is no longer worldbuilding, so I’ll just stop here. Sorry for the long post again.

#escaflowne #visarcana #egzardia #asturia

[jess-do-it]

(Transcribed w/ Permission from @jessfromonline) Thread: Many people are now out on the streets for the first time. as such, let's talk very basic, everyone should know this, 'this should be general and not sensitive knowledge' protest, action, and street tactics. let's get organized and be effective!

Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/jessfromonline/status/1268620358950649858

(Note: I am not this person, this is a transcript of their twitter thread I made with their permission)

Have a protest buddy. do not go to a protest without a buddy. preferably have a crew. 

if you have a crew, it should still be split into buddies. crews should choose a spoke (spokesperson) who calls movements and communicates with people.

if you have a large crew, you should have a spoke + lieutenants/LTs/whatever you wanna call them. their job is disseminating calls but more importantly, to track the people grouped under them. when shit pops off, it's easy to lose people. LTs watch to see if anyone in their subgroup is missing, and spoke checks for the LTs. a system of accountability. STILL buddy up in subgroups. 

If you've got a good bloc on the ground, you can call 'spokes' to get a spokes council together and make larger decisions about what to do.

Your crew should have a basic, 1-syllable, generic word, that changes at every action, which you can call and each crew member replies with the word. feels dorky but worth it. arrange all this ahead of time. this allows you to quickly count your crew & check no one dropped.

You should have an offsite person, preferably two. Here is a guide for doing offsite.

designate 1-2 comms people. they have phones and retrieve info on cop movements from offsite via signal. on a vpn, burner phone if you can.

ideally no one besides comms should have a phone on them. easier to track. tradeoff: if you lose someone makes it harder to figure out what happened. consider battery-out phones for non-comms people. 

write a number for legal support hotline in your area on body in sharpie

Before a protest, work out with your crew what your risk levels are. you can have different levels but try to avoid buddying across levels. will you brawl with fash? cops? risk arrest? loot? burn? graffiti? dont make those decisions in the moment.

I have no easy advice for what happens if you lose someone. have comms immediately report to off-site who can try to track them down. if you're large you can send an lt+subgroup to look, but they may have just gotten out and left. they could be arrested or with medics. off-site can start checking jails and hospitals for them. see off-site guide for what info you need for this and how to collect. if you have better advice for when people drop unexpectedly, put it in the replies.

Never talk to cops never talk to cops never talk to cops never talk to cops. if you're arrested dont talk. if they approach you during dont talk. you can yell harassment but dont do it once you're arrested. you can sing if you want. group singing in jails keeps spirits up. (Singing is a super spreading activity for covid, pointed out at end of this thread).

If you can, know your local PD. some departments publish whitepapers on their tactics. talk to local protest veterans in your area to learn about what your city's cops do. every area is difference and this can make the different between success or failure.

Use all the gear you got. helmet, goggles, gloves, umbrella, etc. carry water if you can (ONLY ONLY WATER TO FLUSH EYES. ONLY.) you gotta stay hydrated too. generic clothes, packs, etc. if possible. more common the better. Don't carry too heavy but it's really worth it. helmets feel ridiculous? you'll regret not taking it when you take a round to the head.

Consider having handles for your crew. it's a lot better to yell someone's handle than their name when you need their attention. Handles should be short (1-2 syllables) and minimally linked to the person. practice using only a person's handle. let's move on to broader thinking (might jump back if i think of stuff)

Situational awareness. you can practice this all the time but it's v important during an action. What are your exits? have they changed? what are your numbers vs. their's? what's their posture? what's behind, in front, sides? what gear to they have? re-evaluate constantly. i'm going to say it again. exits exits exits. where can your crew go if it gets too hot. if you dont have a clear exit try to move as soon as possible.

Extending on that: police will often try to kettle, aka surround you and trap you in. keep the bloc moving to the cops' weakest side to avoid a kettle. don't be afraid to tell people what to do. they'll thank you if you avoid a kettle. move without em if you have to but dont isolate your crew too much or you're easy to pick off and arrest. Also, be careful: cops may take advantage of this to get you to slowly push farther and farther from your objectives. sometimes you gotta stand your ground. know your numbers and know your strategy. sometimes it's time to stay. a spokes-council might be able to decide. talk about this ahead of time.

Don't yell where the exit is with cops around, but do disseminate it in a crowd. your crew, minimum, must always know.

Keep your crew looking in all directions and regularly switching. dont get snuck up on.

Don't get picked off. cops will arrest 1 person quicker than 10, 50. non-covid times, the advice is to "tighten up!" the bloc, so they cant snatch and grab. YMMV during these times. evaluated based on the situation.

Banners rule for this. theyre not just propaganda. if you have a heavy banner (tarp, etc.) in the front, they can't as easily grab through and arrest. stay behind it if you can. 

Learn to communicate clearly and tersely under pressure. people underestimate this skill. you dont need 'please' or extra words.  Don't chatter. learn to give a 'sitrep' (situational report) in which you report all the info from 16. spokes, ask you LTs for sitreps. give them when new folks arrive.

Back to the individual: if you can't keep up, DON'T GO. hard lesson to learn. as a person with chronic digestive issues, i've fucked this up. if you're incapacitated you're a liability. consider learning to run offsite, or going to less intense actions. know what to expect based on recent police activity, level of risk planned for the action, the capabilities of your crew, etc. i know you might feel obligated to be in the streets but if your crew has to care or slow down for you instead of acting, that's hurting not helping. but try not to let this discourage you from trying if you can. unless you're sure with your health and/or fitness you can't, it is good to try. we need numbers. but dont push yourself when you cant. there's more to the work than the streets.

Dont share unconfirmed info. dont repeat info from people you dont trust. ive seen so many actions where someone thinks they see a cop and then everyone is yelling "cop" and freaked out and scattering and theres no cop. be careful. misinfo is worse than no info.

Some of this is gonna feel ridiculous and tryhard. being good at this takes trying hard. be vulnerable and push your crew to do this. you'll be safer and more effective because you do.

Eat well, plenty of protein rich food the day before. hydrate well day of. physical condition matters for this.

Sometimes you gotta pee. you can pee in an empty bottle, or you can pee on the ground. MANY people wear diapers. this isnt the time for shame. do what you need.

When you gotta do something like pee, change, sometimes even drink, if you're in bloc, you gotta hide. get to the center of the bloc if you can. call 'cover me' or 'flag' (if the crowd has flags) and they'll wrap you. kneel and do what you gotta do.

Some of this advice is for when you have a coherent bloc, but there's been less of those in this round of protests. still, keep it in mind.

If you're in bloc, consider bringing generic clothes to change into in a bag. gym clothes and local team sportwear are great. either do 28 and slip out somewhere under cover, or scatter and hide, and change in your hiding place. bring a bag to put your bag in.

How are you getting in and out? can you pay for public transit in cash (this still means being on cameras, keep your hat down)? can someone drive you in (drop off far, so they cant see plates)? lock up your bike somewhere?

This is counter-intuitive, but unless it's a covert action, where your goal is to get in and out without ever being noticed, keep your ID and a bit of cash in your pocket. ID will get you in and out of jail faster. again: NOT FOR COVERT ACTIONS. and dont drop it.

Try to know your success and failure conditions before your crew goes out. when is it no longer worth it and time to bail? what are you trying to accomplish and how do you know you're doing so? try to create criteria if you can

in large, multi-site protests like we're seeing rn, if all you're doing is occupying cops, you're helping a lot. standoffs mean they arent somewhere else. looting they HAVE to respond to because property > people for cops. small groups can make big differences here.

Share your sitreps with other spokes if you can. if you notice a kettle, tell everybody and try to move everyone. have some chutzpah: you can do it.

DON'T LEAD PEOPLE INTO FENCED IN PARKS OR ENCLOSED ALLEYS PLEASE JUST DON'T PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU. HAVE MANY EXITS.

Consider carrying print maps of the area. dont mark them with objectives in case they get taken. review maps of the area ahead of time.

We already talked offsite and comms, i won't cover offsite much here, read the guide

Scouts! a good scout team is invaluable. especially bike scouts. get a signal chat and people on bikes in strategic locations reporting movements.

Don’t put everybody in the scouts chat. keep a few offsite people reading the scout chat and relaying in to comms people.

If somebody gets arrested that you're in a chat with, put 'dead the chat' and everybody should immediately leaved. someone should contact the person that killed the chat to find out who got picked up and exclude them from the new chat.

If y'all are super coordinated and have a ton of planning (not happening much right now) consider having a marshal in charge of calling moves for the whole bloc. spokes-council should still be convened and can challenge, but even the spanish anarchists elected military officials. in the field, you need a chain of command to operate quickly and effectively and outcompete cops.

Read this thread. remember, you dont have to be able to go toe-to-toe with cops. you just have to make your group not worth the consequences of dealing with.

Where are you going when the protest/action is done? are you all rallying at one point? have a plan.

Everyone check in with offsite when you get back. you all need to know everyone got home safe, or start checking jails/hospitals.

Offsite should know who is organizing jail support so they can pass that off when needed.

This is all easier if you know folks ahead of time.  show up to your local left orgs. even if it doesn't feel like you're doing a lot yet, those relationships matter.

WHITE PEOPLE: put yourself between police and people of color. they are much less likely to be as brutal with you. this should be established policy in your crew, esp if your crew is (as it ideally should be, if not ask why) multiracial.

WHITE PEOPLE: while Black opinion isnt a monolith & you dont have to regard the scolding of every Black liberal (see thread): if there are Black people/other people of color around and they're not escalating tactics, you shouldnt be unless its agreed. See this thread.

What does your crew and your bloc do if someone is injured? for some blocs, if medics have them, you leave them behind with medics and keep moving. it can be bad to jeopardize and trap the whole bloc for one person who is with medics who they are gonna be with anyway. on the OTHER hand, some blocs reasonably dont want to leave anyone behind and want to stay to cover people with medics (police sometimes respect medic neutrality, sometimes don't.) most important is: KNOW WHICH Y'ALL ARE DOING. DONT WAFFLE BACK & FORTH, DONT SPLIT THE BLOC.

Quick addition cuz it shouldn't be missing: if you're carrying a phone dont have touch ID on your phone, police can legally compel you to activate touch ID but they can't compel a password. also turn off location services and wifi unless you absolutely need them.

diff cops have diff legal options as well! in the middle of old city in philly, there's a federal park with park rangers. if they nab you, it's probably a federal charge, way worse. we're more scared of the rangers lol. know local uniforms if you can.

While we're here, some other extremely useful threads:

buying shit and not getting caught

riot control projectiles

take shifts! i didn't think to include it because it's longer term, but it's vital. we've certainly been dealing with it in philly.

this is a good COVID-19 specific tip. need to be a lot more careful about singing in custody during the pandemic.

having regular check-in times with offsite are a good idea

there's 50 tips for being effective in the street. might come back and add more later. i'm not the 'expert' and YMMV and you can disagree and your city might operate differently. that said:

i can tell you these are learned lessons from years out there & if you use them you'll do a lot, lot better than if you dont. you and your crew will be safer, and youll achieve your objectives more often. ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure. put in the work, and let's win.

---

End transcript. People should take a look at that thread because it is being constantly updated with a lot of good information. Stay safe out there and fight this shit.

Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/jessfromonline/status/1268620358950649858

[hobby-board-gaming-101]

Introduction to Board Games

alIf you’ve just learned that a friend is into “board games” and you’re trying to figure out if that means they play Monopoly every day, this is the post to start at.

There’s really no better introduction that this video, by Shut Up and Sit Down, a group that reviews board games. The auto-generated captions are all right, but I’ve also transcribed the video below the cut.

Now that you’ve watched that video, you should understand why some people play board games. Do you want to maybe be one of them? If so, keep reading this post.

Here’s another way to explain what hobby board gaming is like (credit to Reddit user Russell_Ruffino): an analogy to beer. The board games everyone’s heard of, like Monopoly, Clue (a.k.a. Cluedo), Sorry!, and Uno, are like those mass-produced lagers you can buy in the supermarket. But “if someone … had only ever tried mass produced lagers bought from supermarkets,” they’d be “missing out on a whole world … [of] craft beers that you sometimes have to buy straight from the brewery.” Like craft beer fanatics, board gamers have lots of games we love that you’ve probably never heard of.

I love this analogy even though I know nothing about beer because it can be extended to lots of subtleties. Those supermarket lager games are called “mass-market games,” because they’re advertised to a wide audience and lots of people know about them. The craft beer games, meanwhile, are called “hobby,” “designer” (because the designer is listed on the box, like a book author or movie director), or “modern” (because most though not all were designed after The Settlers of Catan in 1996) board games. These designer games “can be an acquired taste, [and] there’s nothing wrong with someone just drinking the supermarket lagers, but once you've started getting into the limited run stuff it’s hard to go back to only drinking the lager.” (Here’s an article that goes in-depth on the differences between these two categories of games.)

Now, I don’t know if you’re interested in maybe becoming a real serious hobby board gamer, or if you just want to play good games more casually. If you think the latter is the case, check out Casual Game Revolution. This article gives a very good overview of what they think casual gaming is, or if you want a shorter read, try their about page. Their website will be a wonderful resource for you if you want to be a casual gamer, and my blog might be a bit unnecessarily esoteric. But if you don’t want all your games to be “relatively quick games that are easy to learn and teach” and want more than “light strategy,” Casual Game Revolution might be a little limiting for you. You are my target audience for this blog.

(I tried to write that a couple different ways and I feel like it still might sound a little condescending towards casual gamers. I promise that was not my intention, and casual gaming is amazing.)

I think that’s just about all I need by way of introduction to this blog. I would strongly suggest using the table of contents linked at the top of the site (next to my About page) to get around. Welcome!

Transcript of Shut Up and Sit Down’s video below the cut:

Oh, hi there. So, you’re here because a friend or significant other or colleague, a member of your family, church, or dogging community has told you they’re into board games: they’re a board gamer. And that’s got to make you nervous because surely anybody will be done with Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders after being a kid.

What if I were to tell you a secret: that these days, board games and card games are actually amazing. And you're going to find that hard to believe because you’ve got three preconceptions starting with this one: aren’t there like, six board games? There’s Risk, there’s Monopoly, there’s KerPlunk, Connect Four, and the one where the mustard man kills people with a fire poker. No! Actually, new board games come out every single week from countries as far-flung as Germany Japan, and yeah, America and the UK, and some of these board games are for families, some are rubbish, but lots aren’t. In fact, lots are absolutely fantastic!

Let’s look a preconception number two which is the board games are BORING! And actually, they’re just not. Let’s look at a game that came out just a few months ago, alright, this is Ladies and Gentlemen: a French game; a team game where half the players play baffled Victorian gentleman trying to make money at a pretend kiddie stock market, in real time, and the other half of the table play their wives, trying to use that money to assemble the best outfit. It even has additional rules for “maid’s gossip,” and a player who is a single lady! Now, see, this this game might sound mad to you. It might sound like a cross between bridge and OK Magazine, but it probably doesn’t sound boring. And that’s the truth of it, alright, the fact is that the table, as a medium, can be used for anything. You just pick the board games out there that entertain you! Let’s not forget that poker is a board/card/table game type thing, and no one would say that’s boring!

Which brings us on to point number three: board games are for kids. And they’re just not! Labyrinth: The War on Terror is a simulation where one person runs the American War on Terror as of 2001, and another plays militant Islamic fundamentalist movements. Probably not for kids… unless you’re actually Dick Cheney. K2 is a very simple, incredibly competitive game about racing to the top of K2, a.k.a. Savage Mountain, a.k.a. the mountain with the highest fatality to summit rate in the world. A game where, when I lost a mountaineer who froze to death in his tent in a blizzard, I felt like crying. And I'm 26! Probably not for kids (unless your kids are tougher than me, which wouldn’t be hard, to be honest). Archipelago is a game where players are European colonists trying to scratch out a profit from a South Pacific island chain; simultaneously working alone to develop the island, and working together to make sure they’re not killed in a violent uprising. Probably not for kids… unless you’re actually Queen Victoria (which I really hope you’re not… ‘cause that would be… weird).

Very quickly, board games start to look like a much more reasonable thing to do with your time. Whether you’re invested in heavy, chess-like strategy that’ll let you best your friends; whether you want to have fun without drinking; or whether you want to have much more fun while drinking, there is a game out there for everybody, and that includes you. Here are a couple of pretty much perfect games that you could probably have an incredible time with no matter who you are:

The Resistance is a game that pitches you and your friends as an underground resistance cell, with no taking turns, no dice, not even a board. You and your friends just have to decide which of you will go on missions, with the twist that secretly around the table is a team of spies. The spies know who one another are, but the good guys don’t know who anybody is. And as teams start coming back with the news that someone anonymously sabotaged the plan, you’ll start distrusting your closest friends. It’s just 45 minutes of your friends accusing, lying, theorizing, I trust him I don’t trust her, sometimes getting little powers like one player must show one other player what side they’re on, until the end one team wins or loses, and all hell breaks loose as you find out your girlfriend was lying to your face the whole time. Or did I get you wrong? Maybe your idea of a good time isn’t lying to your friends faces; maybe you're not the confrontational type. In which case, say hello to Tales of the Arabian Nights. [Middle Eastern musical chord.] Tales of the Arabian Nights is a storytelling game, where you and your… this is probably racist, isn’t it? Where you and your friends will just be telling stories together. Do remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books you had as a kid? This is like the mother of all of those. Using an incredibly clever system of cards, and this ludicrous book, and matrixes, you will have… [Reference Pear falls off table and thuds]. You will have stories which are different every single time, from rescuing princess, to being lost and befuddled by genies in the European seas, to fighting to- getting your way out of problems with luck and guile. You have no idea what’s going to happen when you start Arabian Nights, but you and your friends will have an unbelievable time, just, telling stories together. And yeah, while it’s possible to win… that doesn’t matter, like so many board games these days.

[Quinns] Ahhhh… [to wife] I don’t think it’s coming out! [Wife] A little dab of olive oil on a cotton ball will help. [Quinns] Ol- Olive oil? What is wrong with women! [this is actually funny and not just weird in the video, trust me]

As a kicker, in an age where books, movies, video games — where ownership is becoming digital — board games give us something real to play with: something you can just hold, and collect. Because to be honest, holding a hand of cards feels, just, really good.

This is the scene your friend is part of. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s growing! Sales have been going up for the last ten years. Now, because board gamers are generally a pretty awesome lot, if you’re at all interested in this stuff, you should definitely talk to your friend about getting involved in a game. Alternatively you could visit our site, Shut Up and Sit Down, for news, videos, reviews, and plenty of footage of grown men dressed as wizards… for some reason. What’s wrong with us? Uh… BYEEEEE!!! [outro music]

[sunshinesunsethappiness]

Not transcribing everything and not even the full answers per question, just things that catch my attention.

Eric Wallace:

On if there is something they wanted to do in Crisis but had to drop:

We are trying to pack in every single thing from Crisis that we love into the crossover, because all of the folks writing it, we love comic books so much. Now, here is the twist: We may get a moment that we all love from the actual comic books but it might be turned upside down and not in the way that you might have expected it in those pages, but honoring the exact moment.

(interviewer) so we’re gonna have Supergirl holding Superman then. Is that what you’re saying?

I’m not saying that, but that’s a good example. That’s a perfect example. Sometimes in the society that we’re in now, Crisis was written 30 years ago, you have to update a few things to kind of bring it into the 21st century and hopefully we can do that in an honorable way that I think the fans, hopefully will appreciate.

On whether we’ll see Barry say ‘we’re gonna need more diapers’

No, we won’t. But you might get something in the back half of season six that is far crazier, far crazier than the wonderful thing you’re referring to in episode 4x01, which is one of my first episodes on the show actually, thank you very much (for saying that???)

(Interviewer) So does that mean, we’ve already seen one of Barry’s children, could we be seeing more of Barry’s children that we know of from the comics possibly?

Not this season, but we do discuss that on a pretty regular basis. I hope in seasons to come that we will be able to do that. It’s something that I would really like to do

(Interviewer) If he survives Crisis

[they talk briefly about that, Eric mentions the show is called the Flash etc, the interviewer says that there’s Wally that could take over or Bart and then asks if we could get Bart Allen at some point)

I think eventually we can. I think there’s so much left to explore post-crisis with all of team Flash…(continues about the feeling of the show post-crisis)

On what’s next for Barry and Iris (the interviewer mentions they’ve put them through so much already):

Eric Wallace: Well, sadly for Barry and Iris it’s not going to get better. We’re going to put them through an even bigger wringer this season. That you’ll see very quickly in the first couple of episodes because Crisis is coming. And all that’s going to do though, and this is a great thing, is bring them closer together than ever before.

And I think that that’s what, really, this whole season is about. When I mentioned deepening character emotions and (it?) also means coming closer together as a family. Everyone in team flash, even the ones that don’t find new relationships, or new loves or are already married, everyone will become closer together than ever before as a result of whether or not they survive Crisis.

On Wally coming back (this was before the panel):

You know, I think there’s a strong chance. Stuff has to be worked out. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes, machinations, we have to find the right story for him, but it’s something that I am extremely open to because I love, I love the character of Kid Flash. Love him

On if there was any difficulty in crafting the season villain arc with COIE:

No, there hasn’t been a problem in creating and crafting a season villain arc with the Crisis crossover, because we found that they go hand in hand. When we looked back and said ok, who’s the villain that we need to have this season it has to be somebody who understands what crisis really means, which is a crisis of faith, A Crisis of life (and death?). So this year’s villain very much has those exact same things on his mind. And what you’ll see is a very close relationship, and a weird one, quite frankly, between Barry Allen and our new big bad (?) I think has really charged the story this year.

#the flash #westallen #barry allen #iris westallen #iris west #eric wallace #crisis on infinite earths #crisis on infinite earths spoilers #the flash spoilers

[tsukiprotranslations]

[Translation] Machine Elements - Cast Presentation: QUELL

Here’s QUELL finally~! After this is the making for SolidS and QUELL and then finally VAZZROCK~! I’m not too sure I want to do Swiiiiiits so that’s still up to be decided for now XD  As I said, Tsukiuta is probably going to be done by another person so I’ll hold off on my translations for them even though they’re finished ^^

Thank you again to Deea for helping with the editing~! 

※ Please don’t re-post and re-translate this interview under any circumstances. If you want to translate it to your native language, I can provide the kanji I transcribed from the scans ^^

Under the cut, enjoy~!

IZUMI SHU

“Welcome home, Eichi. … It looks like you’ve been on a fruitful journey.”

PROFILE:

NAME: Izumi Shu

GUILD: QUELL (※Guildmaster)

BASE: Machine City [Suzaku]

☐ He’s a young man who got the title of [Meister] around the same age as Shiki. His relationship with Shiki is akin to that of a brother since they trained under the same master.

☐ His left arm has been left disabled due to an incurable disease he had when he was younger. In order to make up for it, a metal prosthetic made of gold is attached to his left arm. The Meister who made it for him was none other than the master he and Shiki trained under (their late master).

☐ Procellarum’s Shun who sports the same prosthetics as he does adores and treats Shu like he would a grandchild, to which Shu retorts, “We’re the same age, aren’t we?”

☐ He is the only craftsman in QUELL, the guild that he works so diligently for. Eichi, the one who helps manage QUELL is not a craftsman but rather, the son of a merchant that brought the supplies for his (late) master. Eichi helped out a lot so he is a talented businessman as well.

COMMENT:

I’m QUELL’s Izumi Shu. Thank you truly to everyone who attended. 

It has already been three years since TsukiPro first delivered this joint stage. This time, it features a fantasy world that’s full of machinery, steam, and workplants. I play the role of a very skilled craftsman in this world but, I do have a handicap with my left arm. Since this is my first time playing a role with such a handicap, I tried to recreate the feeling by tying my left arm and limiting my use of it in real life. In order for me to be able to bring that character trait to life on stage. I will give it my all so please, do look forward to it.

HORIMIYA EICHI

“Shu, I’m home! This might be sudden but, I brought back some interesting souvenirs.”

PROFILE:

NAME: Horimiya Eichi

GUILD: QUELL

BASE: Machine City [Suzaku]

☐ A young but capable businessman who helps manage QUELL together with the Guildmaster Shu. His exceptional negotiation skills were something that he learned from accompanying his merchant parents at a young age. In addition, he sometimes works as an interpreter as he is well-versed and knowledgeable in the region’s culture, customs, and languages.

☐ While he is a very talented merchant, it is because he has a very kind heart that he sometimes takes on requests without asking for payment. Because of that, he has a soft spot for the QUELL members.

☐ Since his parents were acquainted with Mamoru (from Greenery Valley)’s parents, the both of them are friends. Since he is aware of the Greenery Valley’s dire situation, he has started doing something about it on his own.

COMMENT:

Hello! Welcome to the world of [KisoSekai]!

I’m QUELL’s Horimiya Eichi.

This might be sudden but, are you doing well~? (laughs). I’m doing well and I did my best during rehearsals today, too! Generally, I’m inexperienced with large-scale stage works like this and this is actually my first time participating in one but, I think that it’s very, very fun making a world like this connect together with everyone and I’m currently hooked to it. 

In the first place, back during my university days, I loved participating in the school cultural and athletic festivals. That’s also why I started doing AD work, I think. I’m a festival boy who loves anything with a festive atmosphere~! Horimiya Eichi will do his best every day in rehearsals to leave my mark along with these great senpais (laughs)! Please watch over the results during the actual performance. We’ll be waiting for you at the theater~!

KUGA ISSEI

“Jajajajajajan, like that?”

PROFILE:

NAME: Kuga Issei

GUILD: QUELL

BASE: Machine City [Suzaku]

☐ He’s the older twin brother of Ichiru. They were taken in by their relative, the Guildmaster Shu, after they lost their parents. Currently, he does work and requests as a clerk but, he’s also studying to become a Craftsman.

☐ He is extremely skilled with using the water element that even Shu recognizes his abilities. After reading books while studying, he dreamt of being able to study in the Art City of Rikugo. But, after watching Shu work closely, he decided to become a Craftsman instead.

☐ His hobby is collecting minerals. He admires the Industrial City of Touda for their abundance of ores and minerals.

COMMENT:

Thank you very much for attending.

I’m QUELL’s Kuga Issei.

Thanks to everyone, we managed to be able to stand on stage time and time again. And with this being a joint stage, I felt it different from other stages… Like, it makes me feel peace of mind. There were people that I haven’t seen for a long time during our first meeting but, I managed to be able to talk to them quickly and it made me happy. We discussed our performance without hesitation and even gave each other advice and support. I believe that we made something good but, I think that there’s still a lot to look forward to. I pray to be able to show you a wonderful time!

KUGA ICHIRU

“We were called and so we’ve arrived~”

PROFILE:

NAME: Kuga Ichiru

GUILD: QUELL

BASE: Machine City [Suzaku]

☐ He’s Ichiru’s younger brother but they’re completely different. Unlike his brother who prefers thinking, Ichiru’s the type who likes to move his body more. Still, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a good head on his shoulders. In fact, his great situational judgment skills are so incredible that even SolidS’ Shiki acknowledges him.

☐ Ever since he heard that floating Ruins made their appearance, he looks up at the sky every day in hopes of catching a glimpse of it. That’s how strongly he feels about the sky as well. When asked why, the simple reason he gave was, “Won’t it feel great if we could just freely fly in the sky?”

☐ He admires the machinery that SolidS’ Tsubasa developed to be able to use explosions as a means to fly but, he and Tsubasa have contrasting personalities so he hasn’t had a chance to ride the machine yet. His hobby is collecting things that are related to the sky. It seems like he’s interested in seeing SOARA’s [Kazatori] as well.

COMMENT:

Hello~! I’m QUELL’s Kuga Ichiru!

Our costumes this time around are steampunk! It’s easy to move around in so I like it! I also think that the things dangling and jingling are super cool! Like the clock on my chest, the magnifying glass on my hips and stuff. I might break them during the rehearsals so I don’t wear them until the actual show though (laughs). I also have a scene with Tsubasa and everyone in SOARA in the play! I say things like “Woah, awesome!” to Tsubasa and to SOARA’s [Kazatori] so I’ve been told that it’s not that different from the real me!

I’ll change their opinions about it during the actual play (laughs). I’ll do my best!

※ Please don’t re-post any of these translations without permission. Please just like/reblog them instead.

If you like this, please consider buying me a ko-fi here to support my work. (o^▽^o)Thank you!!

#tsukipro #tsukipro agf #agf 2018 #kisosekai #machine elements #quell #quell translations #my translations #ichiru's info is just too cuteeeeeeee #and also talented children ahhhhhh #eichi and shu must feel so proud XD

[rosalind-of-arden]

Smoke and Iron Reread chapter 32-34

We are back to Morgan, Annis, and Eskander. And a tiny bit of Jess. Looking for the usual juicy character bits and worldbuilding.

I love you, Annis. Morgan is surprised that they guy who locked himself in his room for 40 years is incredible stubborn. Annis: “That’s simply a failure of your imagination.”

Eskander “had forty years of strict silence and self-control.” So it is apparently possible that he wasn’t talking, or was only talking in limited circumstances, if/when Wolfe visited him as a child.

Morgan is so affectionate with everyone. Here she is hugging and kissing Annis for coming up with a good idea.

Scribe automata have to read and transcribe books for them to become available on the Codex. So this is one place some differences between originals and Blanks could come in: do the automata copy perfectly? Do they get illustrations and such? Can the Library tamper with what’s being copied?

Morgan “knew that when the sun reached its hottest, highest point for the day, people would die.” Is this paranoia or does she actually know that this is the date the executions are scheduled for?

It seems like Morgan is still learning to work with her new limitations. This time, as she begins to use her power, she is aware of how much she will drain herself.

People with power look like “glowing, strong lights” to Morgan. The more powerful they are, the more tempting it is to drain them. Eskander is irresistible.

It’s difficult, but Morgan can fight the urge to drain energy. If she’s used all her power and can’t drain anyone, she can’t use any more until she can find something to drain for more power.

Eskander can break out of Morgan’s draining. He seems like the only one who can.

According to Eskander, the more Morgan drains, the worse she gets. The thing that keeps her alive is also killing her.

Morgan, Keria, and Eskander are the only ones who had enough power to damage themselves within the Iron Tower.

“We’re so tied to the Tower now.” “She could also hear the whisper of the Tower itself, containing and muting all their talents, their powers.” More indication that the Tower is doing something to the Obscurists that limits their power.

Eskander corrupted himself trying to escape with Keria while she was pregnant. He originally secluded himself because of his corruption. It became a political protest after that.

He calls Wolfe “the child”, not by his name. He’s still trying to distance himself from the child he had to give up.

Grandpa Eskander? Here he is wiping away Morgan’s tears and putting his hands on her face.

Keria figured out the cure for Obscurist corruption. There’s a slow and more pleasant option and a fast and painful option. Both Morgan and Eskander favor the fast one. It’s risky, and could result in either making Morgan more powerful or decreasing her power. It involves destroying and rebuilding the “nerves and pathways that your own life force depends upon.” Obscurist power is tied to the body. She ends up with increased power and upgraded Obscuristvision.

Eskander has another warning for Morgan that even with this change, she has to be careful with how she uses her power. But it gets tied up in his own conviction that he can’t do anything to help change the Library, so of course Morgan argues. Probably unintentionally, the message Eskander has given Morgan is that she has to risk herself even more to save her friends and the Library.

Obscurists are forbidden from becoming Archivists.

Eskander says he will block the Translation Chambers “once the moment is right.” So this conversation must be happening before the one between Wolfe, Santi, and Zara, in which they say that the Translation Chambers are already not working.

Eskander will lock down the Translation Chambers, free the Obscurists, and kick Gregory out of the Iron Tower. That’s quite a lot. It isn’t enough for Morgan. She was hoping to have the Obscurists united to fight for her side. But here’s a sign that while Morgan has started to recognize the value of having allies, she still isn’t great at dealing with people. She doesn’t understand that after 40 years of isolation, of course Eskander isn’t going to think himself capable of leading the Obscurists. He hasn’t built relationships with any of them. He hasn’t gained trust. All he has is his fame. Morgan thinks that will be enough, and Eskander doesn’t. He’s also spent a very long time being convinced that he can’t do anything at all, so doing as much as he’s already agreed to do is still a big step for him. And he is much more experienced in dealing with his power, so he knows his own limitations in that area, too, much better than Morgan does. It’s a bit of an optimist/pessimist debate, and we know how it turns out in the end, but as of this point, they’re both being stubborn idiots, really, refusing to see each other’s sides.

Morgan, have we not already established that Eskander will not be moved by “but what about your kid” pleas? He has spent a minimum of 30 years, possibly longer if he had no contact with young Christopher, being convinced that he cannot do anything for his son. That’s a lot to overcome.

“Except that in one important sense, he wasn’t like Wolfe at all. Wolfe was a hero. Wolfe stepped forward.” Morgan, please go and tell Wolfe this. He needs to hear this kind of affirmation. But also, how much of that is because Wolfe hasn’t spent 40 years being told he can’t do anything? He’s had a lot more control over most of his life, and only very recently has the Library tried to crush him. Not so for Eskander.

Annis: “You remind me of Keria.” Morgan: “I don’t look anything like her.” Way to miss the point, Morgan.

Is Morgan aromantic? She seems to be considering the possibility here. She loves Jess but isn’t sure she’s “in love.” She doesn’t seem to connect with the “grand sweeps of emotion she’d seen others take.” She’s definitely sexually attracted to him, though: “her heart fluttered and skin warmed when their eyes met.” This is a nice little bit of teenage questioning of feelings and identity, and it’s a bit sad that it’s wrapped up so quickly.

Morgan, wearing Obscurist robes: “I’m tired of hiding what I am.” Parallels with Wolfe signing the letters.

Obscurist Magnus robes are “bright red silk covered with gold and jeweled alchemical symbols”. There is also an eye of Horus staff.

Gregory shows up all threatening. Annis snarks at him. She and Wolfe would get along so well.

Violence on top of threats. Gregory already has Morgan’s compliance after threatening Annis. He could have just asked her to drink the drug. He still has a soldier restrain her, has another one shove a metal brace into her mouth to force it open, and pours the drug into her mouth. And he hits Annis. Fuck you, Gregory.

A bit of dissociation for Morgan: “she felt numb, barely anchored to her body now.”

Red Ibrahim got his hands on electric lights somehow. Either information from the Black Archives has already gotten out or he’s been sneaking stuff from inside the Iron Tower.

#The Great Library #smoke and iron reread #smoke and iron spoilers

[longsightmyth]

Myth Reads the Naming, Chapter 21

PELLINOR

The chapter is called Council of Friends and I for one could use some more friendship is magic stuff in my life, bring it on.

Maerad has a nightmare and a voice speaks in something that is almost the Speech but fucked up. It says, “I am again, but none shall find my dwelling, for I live in every human heart.”

I just wanted friendship, book. You promised me friendship.

She wakes up and reassures herself, and then Hem knocks on her door having also had nightmares. They huddle together and fall back to sleep.

Maerad wakes up to a beautiful morning and Hem, eating bread in a corner. He’s been waiting for her to wake up. She asks how Cadvan is and Hem doesn’t seem to care much (which, fair) but says he’s probably still sleeping and Maerad should hurry up because there is food (I appreciate a lot about this interaction. If I forget to mention it in the comparison please bug me so I can talk about it in a reblog or something). Maerad kicks him out to get dressed and then they walk down to get lunch together.

When they get to the sitting room, Cadvan is awake and chatting with Saliman. Cadvan is the worse for wear still but he’s talking and awake and teasing Maerad a little bit, and Maerad almost cries with how happy she is that he’s alive, black eye and stitched up face cuts and all. He assures her when she asks that he feels great and sends her off to the food.

Appetite sated (Hem comes with her for seconds) the siblings return to Cadvan and Saliman, who are discussing Saliman’s journey. Turns out Saliman was attacked by three hulls and killed them, but not before they killed his horse. He’s pretty sad about it and so am I:  horse death is sad. The horses are just doing their best okay.

Anyway, Nelac comes in while Maerad is looking out at the gardens and says that most of his flowers survived the storm. Maerad immediately likes him, not least because he fixed up Cadvan and reminds her of Cadvan.

Hem continues to eat as the adult bards convene and catch each other up on everything, and when they get to the part about the Kulag Cadvan admits he was in a hurry and not as careful as he should have been with magic or travel. He credits Maerad with getting them all out alive.

“I wondered…,” said Maerad, and then stopped.

“What, O my Deliverer?” said Cadvan.

Maerad blushed again at his teasing. “I wondered if the Landrost had hurt you, and that was why…” she faltered and stopped again.

“The Landrost did indeed hurt me,” said Cadvan. “And I was less in my power than I could be. But that is no excuse for rushed decisions and the mistakes that come with them. I judge myself at fault, and so I am; and it is a severe judgment, Maerad, because things very nearly were otherwise, and the result would have been terrible for many more than us.”

Maerad saw for an instant an implacable harshness in Cadvan’s face, and she shivered; she thought she would not like to be judged by Cadvan, had she done any real wrong.

They continue to catch up, and Nelac remembers hearing about the Treesong somewhere but he’ll have to look for it again, but Saliman Knows What’s Up and sings a verse from the poem at the beginning of chapter 17, which I will transcribe here so nobody has to search the hellscape that is my tumblr tags:

Grows a Lily on the Briar

Grows a Briar on the Wave

Triple-tongued its voice of Fire

Edil-Amarandh with save

True and false the cunning Flame

Burning in the darkest Night

False and true the secret Name

Quickened in the womb of Light

Where the Briar on the Foam?

Doth the Lily stemless stand?

Who will bring the Singing home?

Where the Harp? And whose the Hand?

Nelac is like ‘lol it almost sounds like you’re saying Maerad, who can speak common, Elidhu, and the Speech, is the Foretold’

Cadvan’s ACTUAL (specified as distracted and absent) RESPONSE: “Yes, yes, of course I am.”

Maybe warn a guy before you drop prophetic bombs in his lap, Cadvan.

Nelac thinks about it a minute and sorta soul searches Maerad with eye contact is like ‘okay fine you may have a point’. Also the Treesong is a super ancient song, he remembers.

Nelac ALSO wants to scry Hem. Hem is not having it rn and runs into the garde. Maerad chastises Nelac with all the vehemence of a sibling vs outsiders and heads after her brother. After assuring Hem that SHE believes him, obviously, and that Cadvan does, he agrees to come back inside, where Nelac straight up bribes him with food to be scried later. Hem is like ‘well if there’s FOOD’ and agrees, which, fair.

Further, Nelac says they have to figure out where Hem can go to bard school because Norloch is being Particularly Racist at the moment and Hem, unlike Maerad, looks very Pilanel. Cadvan says irritably that Hem would like other schools better anyway, fuck Norloch (okay not in quite those words but it’s close).

Saliman: hey no worries I’ll take the kid home with me where racist dickheads aren’t in charge. Sound good, Hem?

Hem: Boy does it!

Section paraphrased for clarity.

Also, Nelac adds, y’all haven’t been here in a while so let me tell you what else Enkir has fucked up: no more lady bards can train at Norloch.

The fuck, everyone in the room basically mouths in unison.

Nelac: so the flaw in our system is, if all of our elected officials are old white rich white dudes with The Right Families then it turns out they elect an old rich white dude with The Right Family as leader, which means even the relatively benevolent old rich white dudes get outvoted when it comes to civil rights and not destroying the world because these guys have no concept of doing anything for other people even in the name of self interest.

Not that we know anything about that in the States or anything.

Everybody agrees that a council must be called regarding world saving because they still labor under the delusion that old rich white dudes with The Right Families in power give a shit what happens to the world if it doesn’t affect them in the next five minutes. The poor saps.

Cadvan shows Maerad around Norloch and assures her once again that even if she isn’t the foretold it’s no biggie, he’ll take her to a good bard school.

“Would you stay there?” she asked, knowing the answer already.

He glanced at her quickly, his face unreadable. “For a time, until you were settled in,” he said.

When they get back, Hem wants Maerad there while he’s scried. Nelac says it’s unusual, but so is scrying a child so why not. There isn’t much to see since we aren’t in Hem’s PoV, but Nelac confirms that Hem is Maerad’s brother and everybody rejoices. Maerad offers to get them something to drink, does so, and leaves, feeling like she intruded.

At dinner, which Hem actually skips, they make a game plan for presenting Maerad-as-The-Foretold to the council. Nelac is going to do it alone for political reasons. That’s the end of the chapter.

THRONE OF GLASS

Three chapters of ToG is a fitting punishment for taking so long I guess. 46,47,48.

Dorian is hunting through the woods to ‘let the freezing air rush through him’  and burn off steam regarding Celaena, who apparently watches him like a cat watching a mouse, which is different from every single other woman ever, who otherwise look at him adoringly.

Dorian, I would think Kaltain fits that description. I’m just saying.

Apparently Celaena makes him want to be a better king or whatever by watching him and he’ll never be happy with any other woman now that he’s kissed her and he’s worried about her in the duel. Sure.

CELAENA’S POV.

She’s thinking about the duel, worries that Cain might be better because he has stamina (I mean this is a valid concern: Celaena can’t seem to do any sort of strenuous physical activity without throwing up, her stamina IS crap) and then that she might have to obey the King of Adarlan if she’s his Champion.

I’m not sure what you thought you were signing up for, Celaena?

Then she decides she wants to stay in the castle because Hot Dudes, I guess.

NEXT CHAPTER.

Kaltain drugs Celaena’s goblet(?) in the outside duel.

Swap to Celaena’s PoV, where she complains about the cold and thinks that she doesn’t know why they have to have the duels outside. Me neither, Celaena. Me neither.

She recognizes a couple of council members who hired her in the past, and then Nehemia shows up. For reasons?

Anyway, the king makes a speech, the duels start, Cain wins his. Celaena thinks that the other guys hadn’t even lasted three minutes, which, I mean. People generally greatly overestimate how long fights take, especially fights that aren’t specifically hemmed in for competition. Three minutes is a long time to fight one on one for your life?

Oh wait they aren’t fighting to the death. That would be too men for the demon infested king? I don’t know.

Chaol offers Celaena his sword to fight with, and Nehemia offers her Nehemia’s staff instead.

“If I may,” Nehemia said in Eyllwe, “I’d like to offer this to you instead.” The princess held out her beautifully carved iron-tipped staff. Celaena glanced between Chaol’s sword and her friend’s weapon. The sword, obviously, was the wiser choice—and for Chaol to offer his own weapon made her feel strangely lightheaded—but the staff…

Nehemia leaned in to whisper in Celaena’s ear. “Let it be with an Eyllwe weapon that you take them down.” Her voice hitched. “Let wood from the forests of Eyllwe defeat steel from Adarlan. Let the King’s Champion be someone who understands how the innocents suffer.”

So Celaena chooses the staff, which is actually a GREAT weapon vs a sword assuming you know how to use it for a myriad of reasons? Why would a sword be a wiser choice? Why is that obvious? Especially if it’s ‘iron-tipped’ by which I think she means capped, but whatever. We already knew very little research went into this, I’m lucky Celaena isn’t using that soap and hairpin thing.

She’s going to fight Grave. Don’t worry about it, we’ll get an explanation about him in the second book when he suddenly becomes relevant again.

Chaol squeezed her hand, his skin warm in the frigid air. “Give him hell,” he said. Grave entered the ring and drew his sword.

Pulling her hand from Chaol’s, Celaena straightened her spine as she stepped into the ring. She quickly bowed to the king, then to her opponent.

She met Grave’s stare and smiled as she bent her knees, holding the staff in two hands.

You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, little man.

NEXT CHAPTER.

Grave’s first move is to try to break her staff. I. I’m just. Whatever at this point.

His sword gets stuck in her staff when he hits, and she punches him in the nose. He gets angry and charges, “aiming a direct blow to her heart.” She knocks his legs out from underneath him and puts the staff to his throat, which ends the fight I guess, though he doesn’t yield and isn’t injured aside from a broken nose.

She brought her mouth close to his ear. “My name is Celaena Sardothien,” she whispered. “But it makes no difference if my name’s Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I’d still beat you, no matter what you call me.” She smiled at him as she stood. He just stared up at her, his bloody nose leaking down the side of his cheek. She took the handkerchief from her pocket and dropped it on his chest. “You can keep that,” she said before she walked off the veranda.

She intercepted Chaol as soon as she crossed the line of chalk. “How long did that take?” she asked. She found Nehemia beaming at her, and Celaena lifted her staff a little in salute.

“Two minutes.”

She grinned at the captain. She was hardly winded. “Better than Cain’s time.”

How slowly are these people moving? Why are we counting time? What is HAPPENING.

Anyway they have a toast.

“Out of good faith, and honor to the Great Goddess,” Kaltain said in a dramatic voice. Celaena wanted to punch her. “May it be your offering to the Mother who bore us all. Drink, and let Her bless you, and replenish your strength.”

I want that all noted for the record on the religion front.

Celaena is thrown directly into fighting Cain without any more of a rest and does not realize she’s been drugged.

The conqueror of Erilea raised his hands.

“Begin!” he roared, and Celaena shook her head, trying to clear her blurry vision. She steadied herself, wielding the staff like a sword as Cain began circling. Nausea flashed through her as his muscles flexed. For some reason, the world was still hazy. She clenched her teeth, blinking. She’d use his strength against him.

Cain charged faster than she anticipated. She caught his sword on the broad side with the staff, avoiding the sharp edges, and leapt back as she heard the wood groan.

He struck so quickly that she had to concede to the edge of his blade. It sank deep into the staff. Her arms ached from the impact. Before she could recover, Cain yanked his sword from her weapon and surged toward her. She could only bound back, deflecting the blow with the iron tip of the staff.

Given that Celaena is a, an assassin, b, just had a refresher course on poisons, and c, has been poisoned like this at least once before in the prequel novellas, I don’t know what to tell anybody here. Finally she gets it when she hears Kaltain laugh.

She had difficulty holding the staff. Cain came at her, and she had no choice but to meet his blows, barely having the strength to raise the weapon each time. How much bloodbane had they given her? The staff cracked, splintered, and groaned.

Did Nehemia give her a wimpy-ass staff or does Celaena just not know how to use it to deflect rather than just take the full force of a blade? His sword sinks into it, it splinters and cracks? Y’all. No.

She had to end this now, before the hallucinations started. She knew they’d be powerful: seers had once used bloodbane as a drug to view spirits from other worlds. Celaena shot forward with a sweep of the staff. Wood slammed into steel.

The staff snapped in two.

The iron-tipped head soared to the other side of the veranda, leaving Celaena with a piece of useless wood.

Y’all. Y’ALL. You don’t even know how much I’m despairing right now.

Anyway, we go through Dorian and Chaol’s PoVs in quick succession to show that they’re worried about her and are probably in love, because sure, that’s what’s important right now, why not.

Celaena starts seeing creatures from another world as Cain keeps beating her up and Chaol keeps telling her to get up. Apparently the eye of Elena actually was protecting her, because…

Cain reached for her throat, and she flung herself backward. All that he managed to grab was her amulet. With a resounding snap, the Eye of Elena ripped from her neck.

The sunlight disappeared, the bloodbane seizing control of her mind again, and Celaena found herself before an army of the dead. The shadowy figure that was Cain raised his arm, dropping the amulet upon the ground.

They came for her.

That’s the end of the chapter. Thank goodness.

COMPARISON

Say it with me: I despair.

These chapters are pretty different from each other, but I said I wanted to talk about Hem and food and I do.

Both Hem and Maerad have been deprived all their lives, and while Maerad is slightly less preoccupied with filling her stomach than Hem, she also does not in my memory refuse food when it is offered, and only ever delights in the fact that she has it. Hem, obviously, is a little more fixated, but Maerad usually got ENOUGH to eat by virtue of her musical talent and value and the whole superstition thing. Hem rarely did.

Celaena turns her nose up at salmon and complains when chicken is a little bit dry. It’s just not behavior I would expect from someone starved in a salt mine for a year.

Pellinor’s mythology and religion and society remains consistent. ToG’s still rolling with the one goddess lots of little gods thing for now.

I’m just glad that Celaena used an actual weapon (poorly) and didn’t try to get creative. God knows what she would have done with a blade of grass or something. Why are we timing our fights. How was Chaol watching the clock closely enough to know that AND watching the fight. This could all have been solved with some research.

STATS

Pages: 23

Fragments: 36

Em-Dashes: 50

Ellipses: 14

Pages: 22

Fragments: 6

Em-Dashes: 2

Ellipses: 13

#myth reads the books of Pellinor #myth reads the naming #myth rags on throne of glass #myth talks