1180 southlake circle morrow ga
Man shot to death inside Snellville home; woman charged with murder, police say
2023.06.03 12:10 pueblo81009 Man shot to death inside Snellville home; woman charged with murder, police say
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/man-shot-death-inside-loganville-home-woman-taken-into-custody-police-say/44U7W57TJVFPFPTZZVE2PKII5I/
https://nextdoor.com/pages/chevaune-vanover-lawrenceville-ga/
https://goo.gl/maps/MLMvkcTKr3GVr7wh7
LOGANVILLE — Snellville police say a man was found dead inside a home on Friday afternoon.
Police said they were called to reports of a shooting on Summit Pond Circle around 1 p.m.
A man was found dead inside the home. His identity has not been released.
Investigators arrested Chevaune Vanover and charged her with malice murder and felony murder. She is currently being booked into the Gwinnett County Jail.
Crime scene tape was strung up outside of a large single-family home Friday afternoon.
It is unclear if Vanover and the victim knew one another.
The investigation is ongoing.
submitted by pueblo81009 to realGwinnett [link] [comments]
https://nextdoor.com/pages/chevaune-vanover-lawrenceville-ga/
https://goo.gl/maps/MLMvkcTKr3GVr7wh7
LOGANVILLE — Snellville police say a man was found dead inside a home on Friday afternoon.
Police said they were called to reports of a shooting on Summit Pond Circle around 1 p.m.
A man was found dead inside the home. His identity has not been released.
Investigators arrested Chevaune Vanover and charged her with malice murder and felony murder. She is currently being booked into the Gwinnett County Jail.
Crime scene tape was strung up outside of a large single-family home Friday afternoon.
It is unclear if Vanover and the victim knew one another.
The investigation is ongoing.
2023.06.02 17:10 Wapulatus Respect Beast I, Goetia (Fate/Grand Order)
"Then I shall show you. The end of your journey. The demise of human history that will redo this planet. The moment my great undertaking is completed!"
Goetia
♫ Shikisai ~The Time of Parting Hath Come~ ♫This thread is a collaboration with InverseFlash and rsthethird, who helped with feat-gathering, as well as Proletlariet, who helped with formatting. Thanks!
Background
The King of Mages, Solomon, gathered 72 demons in his life that he fashioned into "a system to promote reason in humans"--a sort of magical logic network. After some time, the demons gained self-awareness and merged into a collective being.
This being, the amalgamation of the 72 Demons, became known as Goetia.
When Solomon died, the demons were sealed away inside his corpse. The awakened Goetia at first assumed Solomon's identity. Through his eyes, they witnessed the extent of human suffering that Solomon, for all the king's vast power, had failed to address. They became disillusioned with their host, and hatched a plan to remake the world without its imperfections by travelling back in time.
Source Guide
Relevant Scaling:
- List of Servants
- If I name a character, it can be found here. I will not be linking a respect thread for every individual character mentioned in this thread due to the sheer number of Servants/characters Goetia and Demon Pillars interact with.
- Mash Kyrielight
- Beast II - Tiamat
- Beast VII - U-Olga Marie
- Rayshifting: Chaldea's method of time travel. It works by transforming the time traveler's body into 'Spiritrons', and then sending them backwards in time. Spiritrons being a form of energy/particle formed from a person's soul
- Sheba: An observational lens that can sense the near-future, and could give Chaldea detailed information from inside of a bubble that absorbed all forms of normal radiation
- See the Fate Franchise Hub Post for a more extensive list of Fate related terms
King of Mages - "Solomon"
"Plead for help. Raise your mewling voice. For it is the time for you to drown in the sea of anguish! Behold this festival of flame that set ablaze the altar, rendered in its resplendence!"♫ The Time of Coronation Hath Come ♫
Prior to revealing himself, Goetia posed as King Solomon while possessing his corpse..
Controlling Solomon granted Goetia a variety of abilities, namely the class container of "Grand", which allowed him to outclass any normal Servant by virtue of this.
Physical Feats/Power
- Manifested himself after his own death via his own will, and therefore doesn't need to rely on any sort of magical energy support like normal Servants
- Mordred claims his power exceeds that of a dragon, with Shakesphere going on to say he has 'infinite' magical energy, although he's likely exaggerating
- Tamamo-No-Mae claims that, even if she got all nine of her tails and became "a great demon strong enough to destroy the multiverse" that "[Solomon] is a threat threat enough to rival" her in that state
- When comparing him as Solomon to the Beast of the Seventh Singularity (later revealed to be Tiamat), the Lion King flips around the idea of who might be more of a threat to humanity
- Command spells wouldn't work on Solomon
- Engages with an extensive fight with Mash, hurting her with an attack
- Takes a blow from Mash that 'reaches the core of [his] body'
Clairvoyance
It has been said that Solomon's clairvoyance can see through the past and the future.
Because Clairvoyance is a skill furnished on the flesh, Goetia can also use it.
- Claims that he can 'see everything' and 'all possible futures', but cannot track things which exist outside of time
- [Limit] Even with his Clairvoyance, he didn't foresee the appearance of the Beast of the Seventh Singularity, Tiamat
- Goetia used Solomon's clairvoyance to perceive all human suffering in the past, present, and future
- Solomon sent one of his rings over 3,000 years into the future to act as a catalyst for his own summoning as a Heroic Spirit, putting into motion the events that would lead to Goetia's defeat
- Solomon used his Clairvoyance shortly before turning into a human with no powers to foresee the Incineration of Humanity in 2018 from 2004
- Gives him an unobstructed view of the past and future, as well as x-ray vision
Magecraft / Magic
Offensive- Solomon/Goetia can summon any of the 72 Demon God Pillars at will, described as him projecting them out from his inner world to the outside world
- Anderson is astonished at how badly he's hurt blocking just a single one of his attack spells
- A second spell rips Anderson into hundreds of pieces and then burns him into a crisp
- Goetia incinerates all living things on the planet at once just with his gaze, a feat characters in the story assumed he would need a powerful technique to accomplish
- Uses magic similar to a Rayshift to transport himself to the London Singularity
- Generates a field around himself that passively blocks Sheba's ability to observe him, as well as Romani's ability to communicate via hologram
- His field blocks Chaldeas' ability to Rayshift Fujimaru and Mash out of London
- Likely broke the seal binding Tiamat out of existence, though Ishtar notes that human mages might have done it
- Inserts images into Mash and Ritsuka's heads while they're mid-Rayshift
- Has a countermeasure that prevents using magic to predict his actions
- Has the ability to hasten his magical incantations, create magical constructs, and make magical territories via Solomon's class skills
- Goetia has nine of Solomon's 10 Rings. If all 10 were brought together, Solomon/Goetia would invalidate any magecraft used by mankind against him and put them under his control
Evil Eye
Curse- Solomon has become a walking curse, such that saying his name or looking him in the eye will remove a person's soul and imprison it
- By just looking at him, Mash begins to quake in fear for reasons she can't explain. Her soul might have been imprisoned in the false reality forever if a friend's out of character behavior hadn't tipped her off
- Tamamo with two of her tails believes she'd be vulnerable to the curse
- A person who's been afflicted with the Evil Eye has trouble remembering Solomon's appearance, and even video recordings of him are covered in static
- Even a drawn picture of Solomon can inflict the Evil Eye without special anti-curse precautions
- To escape, the soul must complete a set of trials within seven days, or death ensues
- Only the soul is imprisoned in the false reality, while the body remains behind. The soul experiences time at a much longer rate in the false world than the body does in the real one with seven days for the soul being equal to one for the body
- The prison's trials drag in fragments of the souls of the prisoner's acquaintances to serve as obstacles, it can do this even to heroic spirits, who have superhumanly powerful souls
Beast I - Goetia
"Well, I will rid myself of the title "King of Mages.”♫ Shikisai ~The Time of Parting Hath Come~ ♫
"There's no more need for deception. I had no name, but if you want to call me something, call me this:"
"I am the one who shall attain true wisdom, as was desired of me. I am the one who shall devour you to reach a new height, and create a new planet."
"I am the one who shall gather 72 curses, and set flame to all of history. I am the Ritual for the Incineration of Humanity."
"I am Goetia, the King of Demon Gods."
The form Goetia takes after he abandons Solomon's corpse partway through the final battle.
His body is a central core surrounded by the 72 "Demon Pillars" that comprise him.
Collective
General Power and Information- Hid in Solomon's body for three thousand years in Ars Paulina without any adverse effects due to the passage of time
- Is a "living summoning spell" that hid itself in Solomon's corpse and later gained a will of its own and physically incarnated as a Beast
- Describes himself as a higher-dimensional being that no longer requires flesh or blood. Due to being Solomon's familiars, he shared in Solomon's Clairvoyance
- Due to being an amalgamation of the 72 Demon Gods, which each have individual personalities, Goetia's personality will mirror that of someone who interacts with him on a surface level
- His existence is fixed, meaning he's immune to 'instant death' effects as well as temporal effects, like the paradoxes generated by incinerating human history
- A weakened Beast VII, or the Foreign God, is stated to be the most powerful thing Chaldea has faced since Goetia, with her magical energy being called a "third class planet" to Goetia's "second class planet"
- Moves so fast he appears to teleport next to Solomon, before bloodying him with a barrage of punches and bombarding him with energy projectiles from his arms
- [Weakened] Ritsuka has trouble blocking his blows with Mash's shield, but can do so long enough for Goetia to die due to Ars Nova
- [Weakened] Knocked back by a Command Spell amplified punch from Ritsuka
The entire space of Solomon's temple gives Da Vinci the same Beast Class reading she saw from Tiamat.
- Goetia's Beast Class Skill, Nega Summon, allows him to negate through "invalidation, invincible, absorption, reduction" any attacks or Noble Phantasms generated by Heroic Spirits, although this skill was nullified by King Solomon's actions at the end of the Final Singularity
- The Evils of Humanity, or Beasts, are summoned in a chain, meaning that Goetia's manifestation heralded the appearance of other Beasts
Individual Demon Pillars
Power- Demon Pillars give off more magical energy than Servants or Phantasmals
- Demon Pillars are weaker while outside of Solomon's Temple, due to their cells dying off
- Demon Pillars have a "Spirit Core" like Servants, as well as innate magical energy, which can be used to fuel other spells (such as one to create pancakes) if defeated
- Require groups of Servants to defeat under normal conditions
- They have comparable power to Kingu during the Babylonian Singularity
- A Demon Pillar is compared to the energy output of a Servant empowering themselves with a Holy Grail
- Eight Demon God Pillars wrapping around the Chaldea building deal catastrophic damage to it and nearly destroy it
- Groups of them tear through the stone and marble of Solomon's throne when called to Goetia, reducing it to ruins
- Erupts out of the floor in a metal observation room, then attacks and absorbs a number of researchers
Demon Pillars attack in a number of ways:
- Various forms of spontaneous explosions that can cover multiples of meters
- Energy blasts that erupt from the ground
- Large storms of smoke that cover the battlefield
- Lasers, presumably fired from their eyes
- An attack from four Demon Pillars oneshot Kintoki, Tamamo, and Shakesphere
- Hurts and sends Robin Hood and Helena Blatvasky flying
- Spits out flames hot enough to burn Oda NobunagaFGO
- Draws blood on Fergus Lily, hurting him, although he's defeated in the overall fight against Astolfo, D'Eon, and Fergus
- Bloodies Wu Zetian with an attack
Favorable Interactions
- One takes a bullet from Francis Drake and continues to fight Mash, Ritsuka, and allies, although it loses the overall battle
- Li Shuwen has trouble injecting them with chi attacks, mostly due to their size
- Robin Hood's 'Yew Bow' and Elizabeth Bathory's weaponized singing don't do anything to them
- Tesla's Noble Phantasm, 'System Keranos', doesn't appear to do much to them, neither does a combined attack from Tesla and Edison's Noble Phantasms
- Lancer Li Shuwen breaks his spear on one
- Cursed Arm and Serenity have no means of harming them, even with Serenity's poison
- Oda Nobunaga's special attacks and bullets have no effect on Demon God Pillars
- Takes a hit from three bullets fired from EMIYA Alter and doesn't seem bothered by it moments later
- A Demon Pillar in its humanoid form take a blast of magic from the Queen of Sheba and is fine
- Takes fire produced by Chacha's abilities and fights Ritsuka, Okita, Nobunaga, and Hijikata, although it ultimately loses the fight
- A recreation of the Demon God Pillars gets bombarded with meteors from outer space by Astrea's Noble Phantasm, and continues to fight with Grey and Astrea, with Astrea commenting it was just as strong as the originals
- A suicide Noble Phantasm release from Arjuna kills twenty-eight of them
- Altera destroys one with Teardrop Photon Ray
- Mordred destroys one with Clarent Blood Arthur
- Bedivere takes out three pillars with an activation of his Noble Phantasm
- Okita Souji slices apart several pillars
- Edmond Dantes was able to take out a pillar by himself
- Ritsuka and his allies (in this case EMIYA Alter and Artoria Alter) were able to kill a Demon God Pillar
- One is defeated by Gawain, although Ritsuka notes it seemed particularly weak
Immortality
- The 72 Demon Gods are all part of the same magecraft ritual associated with Solomon, so as long as Solomon exists, they'll continue to exist even if destroyed
- After Mash kills Flauros, he instantly re-appears, with Mash describing this as an entirely new separate entity being born, and not some form of regeneration or resurrection
- Killing all 72 at once would be required to actually kill them for good
- Creating new demon pillars to replace fallen ones does draw away power from the center of Solomon's Temple, giving Chaldea entryway to the center of Ars Paulina
- Nightingale claims that killing them for good would require destroying all of Ars Paulina
- Even after escaping the Temple of Time and losing their proper immortality, individual demon pillars live for over 3,000 years to plot against Ritsuka
- Demon Pillars can fuse with Heroic Spirits, even against their will
- When Phenex did this with Scheherazade,, the two could trade places and transform into one another
- A Heroic Spirit temporarily integrated into Goetia's hivemind via this process gained access to information he could use to calculate out events related to the Incineration of Humanity
- Merging with a Heroic Spirit gives a Demon Pillar protection from its skills, such as Scheherazade's inability to be killed by Kings
- A number of Demon God Pillars were able to escape the Temple of Time's destruction while leaving ripples in space-time, this being an extradimensional space outside of time
- A number of Demon God Pillars demonstrate the ability to possess humans
- As of the events of Lady Reines' Case Files, Ritsuka has killed so many Demon Pillars that just inserting information about him into facsimiles of them cause them to get significantly weaker
King of Humans - Goetia
"The Demon Gods have burned away. My temple is destroyed. My grand plan for the Incineration of Human Order dies with me. But, I will at least deny you this final victory. Let us begin... Master of Chaldea. I shall annihilate you, and all you've achieved, with my own hands."♫ GRAND LAST BATTLE ♫
Despite Ars Nova ending Solomon's spell that bound the 72 Demons together, Goetia manages to linger long enough for one last fight. However, in this weakened state he can be defeated by a punch from Ritsuka.
Noble Phantasms
Ars Almadel Salomonis: The Time of Birth has Come, He is the One who Masters All
"Then I shall show you. The end of your journey. The demise of human history that will redo this planet. The moment my great undertaking is completed! Third Noble Phantasm, deploy. The Time of Birth has Come, He is the One who Masters All. Now, burn up like trash!"
"Ars Almadel Salomonis!"
- Rank: EX
- Type: Anti-Unit/Anti-Human Order Noble Phantasm
- Range: ?
- Maximum target: ? person
Goetia is able to manipulate this belt of light in order to collect, accelerate and converge portions of it, travelling through the timestream or otherwise influencing it.
Singularities
For his plan to work, Goetia needed to make cause and effect stop working, so he can set fire to multiple periods of time in history at the same time.
He enables this by destabilizing human history with Singularities. These are turning points in human history that he's sent Holy Grails (powerful magic artifacts) to change important historical events.
Reference of what Holy Grails can do
Creation
- Singularities are key turning points in human history that have been interfered with, causing aberrations in the timestream. Goetia's Incineration of Humanity involved seven primary Singularities
- Resolving individual singularities will not fix the timestream. Only resolving all seven will set things right
- Solomon caused some Singularities by sending his Demon Pillars to different eras to directly alter historical events
- Solomon sent one of these grails directly backwards through time to Babylon, and and removing it is especially necessary to keep human history from burning
- Goetia's singularities had such a profound effect on human history that it rippled to other timelines, and caused singularities to still pop up after he was defeated
- Singularities are cut off from the rest of the timeline, existing apart from the past or the future
- Singularities are immune to time paradoxes, so Ritsuka and Mash fighting soldiers in the past doesn't have any adverse affects
- Singularities are bound to a specific area, which can vary between the size of a city to the entire United States
Once human history is destabilized, Goetia 'sets fire' to every moment of it and lets it burn. The energy is then collected as "Spiritrons" (magical energy) and raw heat.
Of course, this has catastrophic affects on the timeline.
- Chaldeas lost its ability to sense the future, or detect the outside world - this was because there was no more outside world to detect, as Goetia's Incineration of Humanity destroyed the timeline
- Despite being able to Rayshift to different points in time, Chaldea can only travel between Singularities because the rest of the timeline has been eradicated
- The Incineration of Humanity also affected The Land of Shadows, a realm described as being sundered from the mortal world
- The Incineration of Humanity burned all biological matter on Earth across all points in time as fuel to reset the universe
- Goetia needed to create Singularities to in order to weaken "the strength of human history" enough to carry out the Incineration of Humanity. Singularities break up the timeline into fractured chunks, allowing for the paradox necessary to incinerate matter during all points in its existence
Finally, this energy is then channeled into Goetia's temple, and refined into bands of light that he can control and release at will. Either as weapons, or as fuel to for his ultimate goal: time travel to the creation of the Earth.
- Each Singularity Ritsuka and company travel to have a series of light bands encircling the sky present. These are around the size of North America
- These bands of light are the manifestation of Goetia's Noble Phantasm locking the rotation of the planet in place for the Incineration of Humanity
- Each individual band of light has comparable heat output to Artoria Alter's Holy Sword. The Noble Phantasm manifests hundreds of millions of them at once
- Ushiwakamaru Alter claims the band of light are the only thing that could destroy Tiamat's corrupted ocean
- One of the Demon Pillars claims it could be used to incinernate all the Heroic Spirits summoned to fight in the Temple of Time
- The bands of light could burn away the outer layers of the planet. Mash says nothing on Earth could match their energy output
- Manifests as a beam of light from the sky that clashes with Mash wielding Lord Camelot. While Mash is able to block the attack, it still vaporizes her through her shield
- After Goetia is defeated, the bands of light start to release their energy into the atmosphere with nobody to control them. Da Vinci says the effect of this would be like a supernova
- The magical energy circulated between the Trees of Emptiness, and channeled into the Atlantis Lostbelt to summon the Foreign God had already built up to the same level of power as the Bands of Light prior Chaldea entering it
- [Limit] Even if they were collected and used to attack Chaos, the Bands of Light wouldn't be able to destroy it
Ars Paulina: The Time of Crowning has Come, He is the One who Begins All
- Rank: A
- Type: Anti-World Noble Phantasm
- Range: 999
- Maximum target: ? person
Reality Marbles are essentially self-contained dimensions that 'paint over the world' in a given area. Here's a better schematic explaining what they do.
Physical Structure and Location
- His temple resides outside of time, and can only be found by tracking back its location from the Seventh Grail
- Chaldea pinpointing its location by analyzing Goetia's Seventh Grail also opens a back door for Goetia to locate him in turn, and it begins to pull him out of the timeline to itself
- Described as a "miniature model of the universe" containing no other celestial bodies, about the size of a cell when compared to the universe proper
- The temple lacks a concept of time. This property facilitated the Incineration of Humanity
- A recreation of the Temple is too cold for normal life to survive in it
- The route to the throne itself is blocked by a swirling tempest of "incalculable" amounts of magical energy, with Da Vinci believing Chaldea had to destroy areas around it to have a chance of getting through
- The temple has a similar composition as the Greater Grail of Fuyuki. It is made up of of Solomon's magic circuits, which form a small self-contained universe
- The throne is a giant magic summoning circle with planetary magecraft at its core
Ars Nova
- Rank: D
- Type: Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm
- Range: -
- Maximum target: 1 person
- Goetia prepared his endgoal feat from the Incineration of Humanity as a 'virtual Noble Phantasm' due to not knowing the purpose or how to activate the original
- This ultimate feat, which he would use all the energy collected by Ars Almadel Salomonis to accomplish, would have him travel 4.6 billion years into the past to the birth of the planet, where he would then change the starting conditions of the world so that death did not exist, with him supplanting the planet with his own body
- By having all his ten rings present between those worn by Goetia and himself, Solomon can recreate the legend of him giving all his rings back to God
- After using it, everything related to Solomon is wiped from existence and rendered inert. This includes Goetia himself as Solomon brought the Demon Gods together, as well as Solomon's rings, and Solmon's ability to be summoned as a Heroic Spirit
- Although this doesn't instantly kill Goetia, the Demon Pillars that make him up finally start to die for good, and start separating from the collective
Individual Demon Pillars - Unique Abilities
Flauros
- Flauros can change his shape between a human form, Lev Lainur, and his true Demon Pillar formFGO
- Lev has a spell similar to a Command Spell, controlling Caligula's actionsFGO
- Helped create SHEBA under Goetia's guidance, which is a failsafe to detect and act against Demon Pillars that go rogue from Goetia's collective, SHEBA is an observational lens that can sense the near-future, and could give Chaldea detailed information from inside of a bubble that absorbed all forms of normal radiation
Andras
After separating from Goetia, Andras gained a self-awareness and will to live, and escaped from the Temple of Time near-death, but died afterwards. Even then, its 'vindictive desires' remained as a corpse that could maintain a being by fusing to a Heroic Spirit, summoning and doing so with Chacha and Hijikata to create a singularity-like space.- The space created by Andras is completely disconnected from the past or future, and time inside of it doesn't progress, having carved the space out of time itself, or at least travelled to an existing space like this
- Nobukatsu used him in a ritual to summon a demonic castle where nothing inside can die, so that he and Nobunaga can live forever inside. It disappears when Andras is defeated
- Summons waves of corpses to fight Ritsuka and allies
Bael
- Somehow hacked into Ritsuka's Rayshift coordinates, which made all of his servants rayshifted with him go off in random directions and himself to spawn in hundreds of feet into the air
- While believing itself to be the heroic spirit Moriarty, Bael somehow fights Chaldea and disappears like a Heroic Spirit, only to re-appear as a demon pillar
- Learned how to fuse together Phantom and Heroic spirits, though Phantom Spirits cannot normally be summoned as complete entities
- Fused together being from multiple legends to create Hessian Lobo, granting it composite abilities such as the Invisible Man's invisibility
- Fused Moriarty with Der Freischütz, giving his weapon supernatural accuracy on the 7th shot, something that could even apply to objects as large as a meteor to make it strike Earth
- Moriarty uses this method to absorb the defeated Sherlock Holmes
Phenex
- As the Demon God of Death, he isn't detected by Chaldea's scans for life because he's technically dead
- Despite being killed by Ritsuka and his allies, re-appears later in the body of a nearby corpse, transforming back into its demonic form
- Constantly regenerates from being attacked by D'Eon, Fergus, and Astolfo
- Endures Caladbolg's vortex, which destroyed a floating island big enough to house an entire forest and a mountain
- [Limit] Is hit with Wu Zeitan's Noble Phantasm, and still fights while being afflicted with it
- The attack works by keeping Phenex in "state of both life and death", allowing Phenex to finally be weakenedand then killed
- Despite all of the above, it still has enough strength to try and attack Scheherazade, although it's killed with one last burst from Fergus' sword
"Huh, who would have known? ...Tragically short, and yet, strangely fascinating... So, this is what human life is..."
2023.06.02 15:29 maximusaemilius Empyrean Iris: 2-14: Sign of support (by Charlie Star)
FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Oh hello captain obvious and captain oblivious what are you two doing here?
It’s THAT time again? Oh okay, go at it!
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
LFIL protests…
They were happening again.
He had expected this sooner rather than later, and it hurt to watch.
He knew, more than anyone that it wasn't going to work.
The Galactic Assembly was full of aliens, not humans. The things that impressed humanity, the things that got humanity's attention were the same sort of things that tended to scare the GA.
But of course, the average human couldn't have known that, and with their tendency to change creatures around them to become more human, the aliens with which they worked didn't see it either.
They were doing the right thing, but going about it the wrong way.
Still, that didn't stop his feelings of sadness and empathy for their plight.
Walking with Sunny, standing on the buddy pegs attached to her back, and examining the protest encampment around him, he couldn't help but be impressed by their bravery.
He knew for a fact that if he was in their shoes, he would be way more likely to hide, lie to everyone around him, and even himself.
But here they were out in the open, a shining beacon of defiance against the GA.
It was a difficult situation, of course he supported the GA wholeheartedly, and he always would, and with that support came an understanding.
But that didn't mean that he had to agree with them.
They were scared.
And people tend to lash out at things that scare them.
As it turns out, that seemed to be a common factor across the galaxy.
He reached down, hand caressing the tear gas canisters at his belt and the accompanying gas mask. He prayed, just PRAYED that he wouldn't have to use them, but how was he to know what would happen. When people got righteously angry about something they tended to act up, and when thrown into a group of like-minded people, the pack mentality was overwhelming.
He wanted everything to go well, he wanted them to make their point, to prove that they were the moral superiors, demonstrate to the GA that they weren't militant, and all they wanted was peace.
That was the sort of thing that would get across to the GA.
But with humans involved... He didn't really have much hope.
He glanced around at the assembled tents, looking for any sign of trouble.
He didn't see much, just the limp white flags, with the LFIL logo printed proudly on their front.
Still keeping an eye on his surroundings, he leaned against one of Sunny's shoulders.
"So, what do you think about this whole thing?"
Sunny turned her head to look at him, gold eyes and blue carapace glittering with the yellow sheen of the Rundi sky.
She shrugged, setting him a little off balance. She grabbed his feet to steady him as she continued up a small incline.
"It doesn't bother me, and I suppose I understand them."
"Oh?"
"Imagine finding someone you connect with, someone who understands you more than anyone ever has. Imagine a Drev finding the greatest warrior in the galaxy, and then... Just having to suffer knowing you can never be with them. Granted none of the other species ever would have considered it an option without the humans, but now.... It makes sense. You connect with someone well enough, then beyond that there isn't much you can do. And now the GA has prohibited that."
"I agree with you completely, but let me play devil's advocate for a moment. They aren't even the same species, without the same genetics. It wouldn't be physically possible to produce a viable offspring wouldn’t it?”
She turned her head to look at him.
"And how does it work for your brother David and his husband Jordan?"
He laughed,
"Ok, ok, poor question."
"Adoption is a relevant option. Plus, this is coming from the guy who lent his DNA to some alien."
"Arguably she stole it, but I get your point."
They turned another corner scanning the crowd,
"Hear me out though. Humans are... Well, you know how humans are. They need... uhhm uhhh you know…”
Adam got a little red,
”…Affection and intimacy... How does that even... Work?"
"Oh, I am sure some human has found a way, besides, humans and Drev aren't so different in that regard..."
He tilted his head to look at her,
"How the hell do you know that?”
"Got into a discussion with Krill. He thinks it's possible, though he would never tell you humans. He already thinks you do a ton of stupid stuff anyway."
”Oh really what is he expecting? I don’t think anyone from our crew would jump at the opportunity to do it with a Drev be it man or woman… Besides with all these tall as hell Drev males, human women wouldn’t have much fun either would they?”
”Considering males who would be interested, aren’t you good friends with Ramirez? Why don’t you ask him, maybe he knows someone?”
”Okay damn fair point… but the female argument still stays.”
”Krill did some research, I swear I never saw him so… done with humans. He looked like he would drink away his sorrow to forget everything… if his body could tolerate alcohol.”
”So what did he find out about humans this time?”
”After another particularly massive aggressive rant about how and I quote “shitting freaking goddamn incredibly punk-ass weird” you humans are, he said some weird words in a context I didn’t understand. So, do you know what a dragon is and can you tell me why it is so bad?”
”Hmm what… wait a second…”
”…”
”Oh shit…”
”So?”
"So uhmmm uhhh, let’s stop with humans and talk about Drev again okay? Don't you Drev guys have something like a mating season?”
"We did, but it was actually based on the magnetic fluctuation of our planet in time with the seasons. Now that we don't have that anymore, things are out of whack."
"Huh, I didn't know that."
"You never asked."
"Because that is a totally normal thing to ask someone. Hello, my name is Adam, and I am actually very curious about how... That stuff... works on your planet."
"That stuff, huh?"
He rolled his eyes,
"I was sheltered ok, give me a break."
They came to a stop at a crossroads, and Adam stepped down from her back and onto the dirt, tilting his head to listen, trying to detect any signs of a disturbance.
As of yet there was nothing.
He turned to the left, down another line of tents, passing into a more populated area of the protest encampment.
People wearing specially made clothing, with the LFIL logo, shirts, scarves, bandannas, jackets, hats etc. etc. walked about, openly with their alien companions, a few even brave enough to show overt affection towards each other.
A human hugging a Tesraki, while another stood on a box to kiss the cheek of their Drev partner.
"Now that, is something I couldn't do."
He said to Sunny, as they walked past.
"Kiss someone?"
"No, Kiss someone three to four feet taller than me. Way too much work."
"How do you know, maybe climbing up three feet would be worth it?”
Eyes followed them nervously as they walked past, their riot gear marking them as “the enemy”.
"I would rather not be in danger of twisting my ankle every time I wanted to show someone affection, thanks."
"You twist your ankle all the time anyway."
"That's my point. If I twist my ankle now, imagine what would happen if I had to do acrobatics on a regular basis."
They came to a halt as a group of protesters paraded in front of them holding up picket signs.
One of the protesters turned to glare at him,
"We aren't doing anything illegal!”
Adam held up his hands,
"I know. I'm just security to make sure no one gets hurt.”
The other human didn't seem convinced, angrily grabbing their alien companion around the waist before marching off.
The Tesraki looked uncomfortable, looking back at them apologetically.
Though Tesraki were generally cutthroat businessmen, they tended towards extreme submissiveness in relationships with humans.
Adam stepped through the gap left by the protesters and continued walking.
As they did, they early ran into a group of kids selling little white flags and bandannas.
They pulled to a halt, eyes widening in surprise and shock.
A young Tesraki pulled to a halt with them looking as if he was about to panic and run off.
However, the kid at the front's eyes widened and a big smile crossed his face,
“Holy shit! You, I know you!"
Adam smiled,
"You do now?"
"Yeah , yeah you're in that movie. You, you command the UNSC fleet."
For some reason, that exclamation calmed the other kids, and they squealed, shouting and asking for a picture. Of course, he was happy to oblige, posing with them for their pictures. Sunny stood to the side, happy to watch though she was dragged in for the next set of pictures once they realized who she was.
"What are you doing here?"
One of them asked, glancing down at his clothing. When she saw what he was wearing her smile was falling,
"You... aren't here to stop us, are you?"
Adam shook his head,
"No, of course not, protesting isn't illegal."
He motioned to Sunny with his other hand,
"Sunny and I are just here to make sure that you guys stay safe, and that no one gets hurt.”
Sunny nodded. One of the more skeptical looking teens looked up at him,
"How do we know you aren't here to stop us. You work for the GA after all."
Adam shrugged,
"I don't have much else to prove, other than my word."
The skeptic looked at them, a wicked smile appearing on her face,
"I know."
She reached into her cart and pulled out one of the bandannas,
"Wear this!”
It was clear she expected him to balk at the idea, but to her surprise, he smiled,
"Alright, sounds reasonable."
He held out his arm, and watched, still smiling as she tied it around his upper arm still glowering at him skeptically,
"Think you can spare one for my big friend?"
He patted Sunny on the arm.
That broke her skepticism, and she smiled openly, handing a second one over to him, which he tied around one of Sunny's upper arms.
He waved a goodbye to them, and stepped back up onto Sunny's back, walking away with her.
"That was nice of you."
He shrugged,
”Not really. I honestly agree with them. The GA has no right to tell them who they can and cannot be with. I know they have some reasons, but I feel like there is a better way of dealing with it."
Sunny hummed deep in her throat,
"Uh-huh, or you really just want a really tall girlfriend."
He sighed,
"Honestly I'd settle for any size girlfriend if I could just talk to her like a normal person without sticking my foot in my mouth. No Maverick and Dr. Katie do not count…"
"Your incompetence with women is acrobatic."
"I'm glad you're impressed.”
Together, they continued their slow circle around the encampment, drawing suspicious and confused eyes as they went. Sometimes they were recognized, and occasionally people would ask to take pictures with them, other times, they just wanted to talk.
The variety of people was... astounding.
A barely five foot human with a nine foot Drev.
A group of humans and a group of Tesraki.
A lawyer and a Finnari.
Two couples both as business partners with a Tesraki half.
They were young and old male-female, in all different pairings.
Old soldiers, and young students.
It was honestly quite stunning.
At one point they stopped off for water and ran into a massive bodybuilder with his Drev girlfriend, whose carapace at any other time would have marked her as ugly for a Drev.
At first Sunny felt bad for her, with her muddy brown carapace, mat without any shine.
The man turned and handed Adam some water.
”Here better stay hydrated brother!”
Adam raised the bottle,
"Thanks."
The man looked him over, eyeing the bandanna around his arm.
"Interesting accessories for a GA affiliate."
"You can work for someone and disagree with them."
The man laughed,
"I suppose that's true."
He greeted Sunny as well, who was trying not to stare at the other female Drev for too long, lest it seem like she was staring.
He motioned to the arm band,
"Supporter, or-"
His eyes flicked between Adam and Sunny.
"We're just here to make sure everyone stays safe."
Off to the side the mat Drev looked at Sunny,
"I'm sorry."
Sunny glanced over at her nervously,
"Sorry for what?"
"You must have been treated very poorly on Anum."
Sunny shuffled her feet awkwardly,
"I was alright I guess..."
"Regardless. I hope things work out for you. The Drev beauty standards are unfair, and things need to change."
Sunny wasn't entirely sure how she was supposed to feel about that.
"They aren't so bad."
She ventured defensively.
"Then I am sure you are getting combat offers left and right with your coloring.”
Sunny went quiet again. She would have said this was passive aggressive, but the Drev didn't do passive aggressive, so was this just an open statement about how ugly she was? If that was the case, it kind of hurt.
"I have, because I am an experienced warrior."
Her voice was cold.
"Oh, so where is your partner?"
"I turned them down."
That seemed to surprise the female Drev.
Sunny felt her fists clench, but Adam placed a hand on her arm. She was quiet,
The two humans exchanged a look, the way that only humans can, speaking without actually saying anything.
”C’mon babe, lets look a little bit around and let these two be… It was nice meeting you brother! Also… good luck man…”
The human bodybuilder turned around, taking the Drev by one of her hands to lead her away.
Adam took Sunny by the arm and raised his water at the man,
"Uhm what? Huh anyway, good luck to you too?"
Before turning to walk away, the other Drev cut in at the last second.
"I hope you find a worthy battle partner."
Adam Squeezed Sunny's arm tighter, but she turned her head anyway snapping,
"I already have."
Before marching off without another word.
Adam was forced to scamper after her, his legs much shorter.
"Wow, wow, hold your horses!”
She finally slowed to a stop, still fuming.
"Who the hell does she think she is!?”
"Sunny-."
"Calling me ugly to my face!"
"Sunny-"
"I should have challenged her to a duel right then and there!"
"Sunny!?”*
She turned to look at him,
"What!?"
He climbed back up on her back, patting her shoulder,
"She was obviously just insecure and jealous. I mean come on, look at you, blue is the rarest color in the galaxy and most attractive for a Drev, and we all know that height is the least important attribute of Drev beauty standards. The better you can fight, the more you make up for it, besides it's not her fault that she can't accept someone as being valid unless they are in a pair."
Sunny grunted. He frowned,
"Speaking of which, coming from her it seems like a double standard. You fight with me, and I'm fucking awesome, so by default you have to be too."
"Wow Adam, you really know how to make a person feel better."
"I know."
[…]
They were crossing back to the other side of the encampment, when they ran into some familiar faces.
Ramirez and Maverick appeared from the crowd, waving the two of them down with greeting hands.
They pulled to a stop, and the commander motioned to the white bandanna on Ramirez's arm,
"Nice accessories."
"I like yours too."
"I didn't know you were a supporter?”
Ramirez laughed,
"Man I am a supporter of whatever the hell people want to do with themselves."
Off to his side Maverick had tied one of the white bandannas to her belt.
"And you?”
"Personally, I don't give a shit. I don't even think it should be an issue, but by banning it, the GA created a problem for themselves and took away the freedom of choice for these people. Even if I did disagree with what they are doing, I would still support their ability to make that choice for themselves."
She tugged on the bandanna,
"But hey, would I be wearing this otherwise?”
The commander nodded his head, surprised and pleased at his men for being so open minded, though he supposed it should make sense. They worked with aliens every day. Where others might have fostered a sense of fear based on unfamiliarity, they had experience.
"Let’s just hope this all goes over well tomorrow. I don't want to have to use any of this."
He motioned down to his gear.
The commander sighed.
"Isn't that like the catch 22 thing?”
Loyal to one side.
Sympathetic to the other.
Empathetic to both.
He would be relieved when it was finally fixed.
Though how he could help was beyond him.
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Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.
submitted by maximusaemilius to HFY [link] [comments]
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Oh hello captain obvious and captain oblivious what are you two doing here?
It’s THAT time again? Oh okay, go at it!
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They were happening again.
He had expected this sooner rather than later, and it hurt to watch.
He knew, more than anyone that it wasn't going to work.
The Galactic Assembly was full of aliens, not humans. The things that impressed humanity, the things that got humanity's attention were the same sort of things that tended to scare the GA.
But of course, the average human couldn't have known that, and with their tendency to change creatures around them to become more human, the aliens with which they worked didn't see it either.
They were doing the right thing, but going about it the wrong way.
Still, that didn't stop his feelings of sadness and empathy for their plight.
Walking with Sunny, standing on the buddy pegs attached to her back, and examining the protest encampment around him, he couldn't help but be impressed by their bravery.
He knew for a fact that if he was in their shoes, he would be way more likely to hide, lie to everyone around him, and even himself.
But here they were out in the open, a shining beacon of defiance against the GA.
It was a difficult situation, of course he supported the GA wholeheartedly, and he always would, and with that support came an understanding.
But that didn't mean that he had to agree with them.
They were scared.
And people tend to lash out at things that scare them.
As it turns out, that seemed to be a common factor across the galaxy.
He reached down, hand caressing the tear gas canisters at his belt and the accompanying gas mask. He prayed, just PRAYED that he wouldn't have to use them, but how was he to know what would happen. When people got righteously angry about something they tended to act up, and when thrown into a group of like-minded people, the pack mentality was overwhelming.
He wanted everything to go well, he wanted them to make their point, to prove that they were the moral superiors, demonstrate to the GA that they weren't militant, and all they wanted was peace.
That was the sort of thing that would get across to the GA.
But with humans involved... He didn't really have much hope.
He glanced around at the assembled tents, looking for any sign of trouble.
He didn't see much, just the limp white flags, with the LFIL logo printed proudly on their front.
Still keeping an eye on his surroundings, he leaned against one of Sunny's shoulders.
"So, what do you think about this whole thing?"
Sunny turned her head to look at him, gold eyes and blue carapace glittering with the yellow sheen of the Rundi sky.
She shrugged, setting him a little off balance. She grabbed his feet to steady him as she continued up a small incline.
"It doesn't bother me, and I suppose I understand them."
"Oh?"
"Imagine finding someone you connect with, someone who understands you more than anyone ever has. Imagine a Drev finding the greatest warrior in the galaxy, and then... Just having to suffer knowing you can never be with them. Granted none of the other species ever would have considered it an option without the humans, but now.... It makes sense. You connect with someone well enough, then beyond that there isn't much you can do. And now the GA has prohibited that."
"I agree with you completely, but let me play devil's advocate for a moment. They aren't even the same species, without the same genetics. It wouldn't be physically possible to produce a viable offspring wouldn’t it?”
She turned her head to look at him.
"And how does it work for your brother David and his husband Jordan?"
He laughed,
"Ok, ok, poor question."
"Adoption is a relevant option. Plus, this is coming from the guy who lent his DNA to some alien."
"Arguably she stole it, but I get your point."
They turned another corner scanning the crowd,
"Hear me out though. Humans are... Well, you know how humans are. They need... uhhm uhhh you know…”
Adam got a little red,
”…Affection and intimacy... How does that even... Work?"
"Oh, I am sure some human has found a way, besides, humans and Drev aren't so different in that regard..."
He tilted his head to look at her,
"How the hell do you know that?”
"Got into a discussion with Krill. He thinks it's possible, though he would never tell you humans. He already thinks you do a ton of stupid stuff anyway."
”Oh really what is he expecting? I don’t think anyone from our crew would jump at the opportunity to do it with a Drev be it man or woman… Besides with all these tall as hell Drev males, human women wouldn’t have much fun either would they?”
”Considering males who would be interested, aren’t you good friends with Ramirez? Why don’t you ask him, maybe he knows someone?”
”Okay damn fair point… but the female argument still stays.”
”Krill did some research, I swear I never saw him so… done with humans. He looked like he would drink away his sorrow to forget everything… if his body could tolerate alcohol.”
”So what did he find out about humans this time?”
”After another particularly massive aggressive rant about how and I quote “shitting freaking goddamn incredibly punk-ass weird” you humans are, he said some weird words in a context I didn’t understand. So, do you know what a dragon is and can you tell me why it is so bad?”
”Hmm what… wait a second…”
”…”
”Oh shit…”
”So?”
"So uhmmm uhhh, let’s stop with humans and talk about Drev again okay? Don't you Drev guys have something like a mating season?”
"We did, but it was actually based on the magnetic fluctuation of our planet in time with the seasons. Now that we don't have that anymore, things are out of whack."
"Huh, I didn't know that."
"You never asked."
"Because that is a totally normal thing to ask someone. Hello, my name is Adam, and I am actually very curious about how... That stuff... works on your planet."
"That stuff, huh?"
He rolled his eyes,
"I was sheltered ok, give me a break."
They came to a stop at a crossroads, and Adam stepped down from her back and onto the dirt, tilting his head to listen, trying to detect any signs of a disturbance.
As of yet there was nothing.
He turned to the left, down another line of tents, passing into a more populated area of the protest encampment.
People wearing specially made clothing, with the LFIL logo, shirts, scarves, bandannas, jackets, hats etc. etc. walked about, openly with their alien companions, a few even brave enough to show overt affection towards each other.
A human hugging a Tesraki, while another stood on a box to kiss the cheek of their Drev partner.
"Now that, is something I couldn't do."
He said to Sunny, as they walked past.
"Kiss someone?"
"No, Kiss someone three to four feet taller than me. Way too much work."
"How do you know, maybe climbing up three feet would be worth it?”
Eyes followed them nervously as they walked past, their riot gear marking them as “the enemy”.
"I would rather not be in danger of twisting my ankle every time I wanted to show someone affection, thanks."
"You twist your ankle all the time anyway."
"That's my point. If I twist my ankle now, imagine what would happen if I had to do acrobatics on a regular basis."
They came to a halt as a group of protesters paraded in front of them holding up picket signs.
One of the protesters turned to glare at him,
"We aren't doing anything illegal!”
Adam held up his hands,
"I know. I'm just security to make sure no one gets hurt.”
The other human didn't seem convinced, angrily grabbing their alien companion around the waist before marching off.
The Tesraki looked uncomfortable, looking back at them apologetically.
Though Tesraki were generally cutthroat businessmen, they tended towards extreme submissiveness in relationships with humans.
Adam stepped through the gap left by the protesters and continued walking.
As they did, they early ran into a group of kids selling little white flags and bandannas.
They pulled to a halt, eyes widening in surprise and shock.
A young Tesraki pulled to a halt with them looking as if he was about to panic and run off.
However, the kid at the front's eyes widened and a big smile crossed his face,
“Holy shit! You, I know you!"
Adam smiled,
"You do now?"
"Yeah , yeah you're in that movie. You, you command the UNSC fleet."
For some reason, that exclamation calmed the other kids, and they squealed, shouting and asking for a picture. Of course, he was happy to oblige, posing with them for their pictures. Sunny stood to the side, happy to watch though she was dragged in for the next set of pictures once they realized who she was.
"What are you doing here?"
One of them asked, glancing down at his clothing. When she saw what he was wearing her smile was falling,
"You... aren't here to stop us, are you?"
Adam shook his head,
"No, of course not, protesting isn't illegal."
He motioned to Sunny with his other hand,
"Sunny and I are just here to make sure that you guys stay safe, and that no one gets hurt.”
Sunny nodded. One of the more skeptical looking teens looked up at him,
"How do we know you aren't here to stop us. You work for the GA after all."
Adam shrugged,
"I don't have much else to prove, other than my word."
The skeptic looked at them, a wicked smile appearing on her face,
"I know."
She reached into her cart and pulled out one of the bandannas,
"Wear this!”
It was clear she expected him to balk at the idea, but to her surprise, he smiled,
"Alright, sounds reasonable."
He held out his arm, and watched, still smiling as she tied it around his upper arm still glowering at him skeptically,
"Think you can spare one for my big friend?"
He patted Sunny on the arm.
That broke her skepticism, and she smiled openly, handing a second one over to him, which he tied around one of Sunny's upper arms.
He waved a goodbye to them, and stepped back up onto Sunny's back, walking away with her.
"That was nice of you."
He shrugged,
”Not really. I honestly agree with them. The GA has no right to tell them who they can and cannot be with. I know they have some reasons, but I feel like there is a better way of dealing with it."
Sunny hummed deep in her throat,
"Uh-huh, or you really just want a really tall girlfriend."
He sighed,
"Honestly I'd settle for any size girlfriend if I could just talk to her like a normal person without sticking my foot in my mouth. No Maverick and Dr. Katie do not count…"
"Your incompetence with women is acrobatic."
"I'm glad you're impressed.”
Together, they continued their slow circle around the encampment, drawing suspicious and confused eyes as they went. Sometimes they were recognized, and occasionally people would ask to take pictures with them, other times, they just wanted to talk.
The variety of people was... astounding.
A barely five foot human with a nine foot Drev.
A group of humans and a group of Tesraki.
A lawyer and a Finnari.
Two couples both as business partners with a Tesraki half.
They were young and old male-female, in all different pairings.
Old soldiers, and young students.
It was honestly quite stunning.
At one point they stopped off for water and ran into a massive bodybuilder with his Drev girlfriend, whose carapace at any other time would have marked her as ugly for a Drev.
At first Sunny felt bad for her, with her muddy brown carapace, mat without any shine.
The man turned and handed Adam some water.
”Here better stay hydrated brother!”
Adam raised the bottle,
"Thanks."
The man looked him over, eyeing the bandanna around his arm.
"Interesting accessories for a GA affiliate."
"You can work for someone and disagree with them."
The man laughed,
"I suppose that's true."
He greeted Sunny as well, who was trying not to stare at the other female Drev for too long, lest it seem like she was staring.
He motioned to the arm band,
"Supporter, or-"
His eyes flicked between Adam and Sunny.
"We're just here to make sure everyone stays safe."
Off to the side the mat Drev looked at Sunny,
"I'm sorry."
Sunny glanced over at her nervously,
"Sorry for what?"
"You must have been treated very poorly on Anum."
Sunny shuffled her feet awkwardly,
"I was alright I guess..."
"Regardless. I hope things work out for you. The Drev beauty standards are unfair, and things need to change."
Sunny wasn't entirely sure how she was supposed to feel about that.
"They aren't so bad."
She ventured defensively.
"Then I am sure you are getting combat offers left and right with your coloring.”
Sunny went quiet again. She would have said this was passive aggressive, but the Drev didn't do passive aggressive, so was this just an open statement about how ugly she was? If that was the case, it kind of hurt.
"I have, because I am an experienced warrior."
Her voice was cold.
"Oh, so where is your partner?"
"I turned them down."
That seemed to surprise the female Drev.
Sunny felt her fists clench, but Adam placed a hand on her arm. She was quiet,
The two humans exchanged a look, the way that only humans can, speaking without actually saying anything.
”C’mon babe, lets look a little bit around and let these two be… It was nice meeting you brother! Also… good luck man…”
The human bodybuilder turned around, taking the Drev by one of her hands to lead her away.
Adam took Sunny by the arm and raised his water at the man,
"Uhm what? Huh anyway, good luck to you too?"
Before turning to walk away, the other Drev cut in at the last second.
"I hope you find a worthy battle partner."
Adam Squeezed Sunny's arm tighter, but she turned her head anyway snapping,
"I already have."
Before marching off without another word.
Adam was forced to scamper after her, his legs much shorter.
"Wow, wow, hold your horses!”
She finally slowed to a stop, still fuming.
"Who the hell does she think she is!?”
"Sunny-."
"Calling me ugly to my face!"
"Sunny-"
"I should have challenged her to a duel right then and there!"
"Sunny!?”*
She turned to look at him,
"What!?"
He climbed back up on her back, patting her shoulder,
"She was obviously just insecure and jealous. I mean come on, look at you, blue is the rarest color in the galaxy and most attractive for a Drev, and we all know that height is the least important attribute of Drev beauty standards. The better you can fight, the more you make up for it, besides it's not her fault that she can't accept someone as being valid unless they are in a pair."
Sunny grunted. He frowned,
"Speaking of which, coming from her it seems like a double standard. You fight with me, and I'm fucking awesome, so by default you have to be too."
"Wow Adam, you really know how to make a person feel better."
"I know."
They were crossing back to the other side of the encampment, when they ran into some familiar faces.
Ramirez and Maverick appeared from the crowd, waving the two of them down with greeting hands.
They pulled to a stop, and the commander motioned to the white bandanna on Ramirez's arm,
"Nice accessories."
"I like yours too."
"I didn't know you were a supporter?”
Ramirez laughed,
"Man I am a supporter of whatever the hell people want to do with themselves."
Off to his side Maverick had tied one of the white bandannas to her belt.
"And you?”
"Personally, I don't give a shit. I don't even think it should be an issue, but by banning it, the GA created a problem for themselves and took away the freedom of choice for these people. Even if I did disagree with what they are doing, I would still support their ability to make that choice for themselves."
She tugged on the bandanna,
"But hey, would I be wearing this otherwise?”
The commander nodded his head, surprised and pleased at his men for being so open minded, though he supposed it should make sense. They worked with aliens every day. Where others might have fostered a sense of fear based on unfamiliarity, they had experience.
"Let’s just hope this all goes over well tomorrow. I don't want to have to use any of this."
He motioned down to his gear.
The commander sighed.
"Isn't that like the catch 22 thing?”
Loyal to one side.
Sympathetic to the other.
Empathetic to both.
He would be relieved when it was finally fixed.
Though how he could help was beyond him.
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.
2023.06.02 11:42 SnooMarzipans1549 Golden circle B or Floor/GA?
Hi all, I have one GC B (not EE) and one flooGA ticket and, since my friend is no longer coming, I’m torn between which one to keep and which one to sell.
Considering that I am honestly more concerned to have a good view of the performance itself than of seeing her super up close, does it make sense to actually try to be central in the flooGA pit so that I have the view of the whole stage+circle? I am basically concerned the view from GC B would be too lateral to the stage or far behind the circle.
For context, I am 5”8 and I would be willing to queue hours before (like 5-6 hours the show start - or is it too little?)
P.s. please no spoilers!
submitted by SnooMarzipans1549 to beyonce [link] [comments]
Considering that I am honestly more concerned to have a good view of the performance itself than of seeing her super up close, does it make sense to actually try to be central in the flooGA pit so that I have the view of the whole stage+circle? I am basically concerned the view from GC B would be too lateral to the stage or far behind the circle.
For context, I am 5”8 and I would be willing to queue hours before (like 5-6 hours the show start - or is it too little?)
P.s. please no spoilers!
2023.06.02 11:10 EchoJobs Circle is hiring Senior Data Engineer USD 130k-230k Atlanta, GA Remote US [Yarn Streaming Java Python GCP Spark AWS MySQL PostgreSQL DynamoDB Azure Kafka Scala SQL Redis API Cassandra]
![Circle is hiring Senior Data Engineer USD 130k-230k Atlanta, GA Remote US [Yarn Streaming Java Python GCP Spark AWS MySQL PostgreSQL DynamoDB Azure Kafka Scala SQL Redis API Cassandra]](https://external-preview.redd.it/Yi_fbd4vZmbBXkk-aOqVHFiLnly5zyQIErPPBUJGuVA.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=f427b0cea5cce30a3cd14d42214ec954542fa9b5 "Circle is hiring Senior Data Engineer USD 130k-230k Atlanta, GA Remote US [Yarn Streaming Java Python GCP Spark AWS MySQL PostgreSQL DynamoDB Azure Kafka Scala SQL Redis API Cassandra]") | submitted by EchoJobs to pythonjob [link] [comments] |
2023.06.01 19:07 subreddit_stats Subreddit Stats: IndianHipHopHeads posts from 2023-04-21 to 2023-05-31 16:38 PDT
Period: 40.14 days
submitted by subreddit_stats to subreddit_stats [link] [comments]
| Submissions | Comments | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 962 | 16886 |
| Rate (per day) | 23.96 | 410.80 |
| Unique Redditors | 339 | 1779 |
| Combined Score | 23676 | 102890 |
Top Submitters' Top Submissions
- 1041 points, 51 submissions: InstructionHot9577
- KR$NA - NO CAP (77 points, 117 comments)
- Young Stunners ft KR$NA - QUARANTINE (65 points, 33 comments)
- Rapper who made a huge comeback and everyone heart (53 points, 40 comments)
- EMIWAY x KR$NA - MUMBAI SE DELHI TAK (50 points, 62 comments)
- Why audience sleeping on JJ47 ? (50 points, 39 comments)
- Seedhe Maut - Gandi Aulaad (45 points, 25 comments)
- Seedhe Maut - Gehraiyaan (43 points, 16 comments)
- WU Tang Clan references (38 points, 56 comments)
- KR$NA - FARAK NAHI PADTA (34 points, 21 comments)
- Which artist has best chemistry ( not duo ) (34 points, 58 comments)
- 939 points, 40 submissions: adolf-dumblewhore
- Iconic photos of Desi hip-hop. (452 points, 124 comments)
- Artist Introduction - Ahmer (85 points, 32 comments)
- Foosie Gang - Bandi Crack (55 points, 23 comments)
- Indianhiphopheads now has 90k members (51 points, 40 comments)
- Prabh Deep - Thappad (22 points, 13 comments)
- Jokhay - Iltija (21 points, 4 comments)
- Chaar Diwaari, Yashraj - MITTI (20 points, 4 comments)
- Emiway Bantai - Chusamba (16 points, 31 comments)
- Hasan Raheem, Abdullah Kasumbi - Aisay Kaisay (15 points, 3 comments)
- Mc Square, Paradox - Chhore Ncr Aale (15 points, 21 comments)
- 801 points, 57 submissions: theAppleboy
- [FRESH VIDEO] Yungsta, Sez - Hona Hi Tha (ft. Raga, Encore ABJ, Dilliboy) (104 points, 24 comments)
- Karun announces EP featuring Chaar Diwaari, Yashraj, Arpit Bala, Nanku, Natiq (80 points, 26 comments)
- Prabh Deep, Seedhe Maut, Sez on the Beat - Class-Sikh Maut Vol. II (63 points, 21 comments)
- Chaar Diwaari is Indian Hip-Hop’s Favorite Worst Nightmare Right Now (39 points, 9 comments)
- [FRESH ALBUM] Gravity & Outfly - SUPERVILLAIN (39 points, 24 comments)
- Yungsta & Sez on the Beat - Savera (ft. Yashraj) (27 points, 11 comments)
- New BAGI MUNDA EP 'BETAJ BADSHAH' releasing on 25/5 (24 points, 5 comments)
- [FRESH] The Siege, YKSDOG, Circle Tone - Rent is Due (22 points, 12 comments)
- BAGI MUNDA, JASKARAN - Skinny Model (19 points, 4 comments)
- Chaar Diwaari talks about his music-making process, 'TMKG' with Red FM India (19 points, 5 comments)
- 681 points, 31 submissions: Adventurous-Guava981
- Krsna Is Going To Drop A New Song (149 points, 30 comments)
- Brodha V - Azhage (Fallin) (49 points, 17 comments)
- DIVINE - SACH BOL PATTA (45 points, 39 comments)
- Emiway x Young Galib - Kya Bolti Public (39 points, 101 comments)
- Biggest Lie You Ever Heard in a Song? (34 points, 102 comments)
- Karma - Google Pay (34 points, 2 comments)
- Young Galib - Kulfa-Kar-Ma (33 points, 377 comments)
- KR$NA ALL SONGS FEATURES (31 points, 13 comments)
- MC STAN X MC THC - Trippin (27 points, 4 comments)
- Naezy - Aafat! (Introductory Verses) (24 points, 8 comments)
- 612 points, 11 submissions: ___sohammmm
- Haath Varti - Kshmr X Mc Stan Out this Friday (355 points, 76 comments)
- MC Stan’s IG Story !!! Hinting collab with Bpraak (74 points, 33 comments)
- Ammy Virk X Divine - 27th April (73 points, 14 comments)
- Farhan Khan ft. GRAVITY ( Prod.by Mr. Doss ) - LOOTERA Music Video (28 points, 12 comments)
- King performing at GQ 35 Most Influntial Young Indians . (22 points, 12 comments)
- THE YOUNG GALIB on Instagram: "Public Ko Malum Hai Lete Hum Break Nahi Aake Bajaenge Har Hafte 🥱" (19 points, 91 comments)
- Ammy Virk x DIVINE - Busy Getting Paid (Music Video) (15 points, 21 comments)
- DeeKing - Anjaan (12 points, 2 comments)
- Who is Shubham Jadhav, the ‘rockSun’ rapper at the centre of Pune university controversy? (12 points, 3 comments)
- Pratik LastKing - Mera Bhai Don INDIA Ka ( Music Video) (2 points, 0 comments)
- 597 points, 4 submissions: No_Raspberry_9514
- DIVINE performs at IPL Final 2023 (181 points, 87 comments)
- Ikka announces the release of “RAPMAN” in collaboration with Raj Comics. (165 points, 33 comments)
- Seedhe Maut’s Stadium Show Lineup (127 points, 42 comments)
- Emiway Bantai crosses 20M subscribers on YouTube. (124 points, 61 comments)
- 531 points, 10 submissions: MrKayPavlov
- Yungsta Has Revealed Meen's Artwork (218 points, 35 comments)
- Join Us For An AMA With Poetik Justis, a veteran of the scene on 19th May (109 points, 36 comments)
- AMA Happening Tomorrow Evening (68 points, 28 comments)
- AMA Happening Tomorrow (9th of May, 2023) (35 points, 27 comments)
- [Re-visit/Discussion] MC Stan - Tadipaar (2 Years Later) (32 points, 24 comments)
- [Meta] Whose AMA did you enjoy the most? (20 points, 57 comments)
- [Re-visit/Discussion] DIVINE - Punya Paap (2+ Years later) (20 points, 11 comments)
- [EP] Vasudev - Aqualine (14 points, 4 comments)
- Do you use Twitter for discussing DHH? If yes how often? (9 points, 13 comments)
- Mega Thread: 1 Min Rap challenge Entries (6 points, 21 comments)
- 490 points, 10 submissions: M_A_G_M_A
- KARMA - YOUNG GALEECH (301 points, 274 comments)
- Kr$na x Raftaar coming soon? (83 points, 20 comments)
- Rawal x Bharg - Baat Bangayi (29 points, 25 comments)
- KR$NA - Desi Wrap Up 2016 (22 points, 8 comments)
- Raftaar x Deep Kalsi feat. Straight Bank & Bandzo3rd - Gangnum Remix (21 points, 3 comments)
- LEGEND - PILING UP MY SINS TAKEOFF THURSDAYS S2 KALAMKAAR (11 points, 4 comments)
- GUD KID - SCHIZO TAKEOFF THURSDAYS S2 (8 points, 5 comments)
- Deep Kalsi, Sireesha Bhagavatula, Jokhay - Meri Soulmate (Drill Version) (7 points, 2 comments)
- Naezy - Haq Hai (Prod. By Sez) (5 points, 2 comments)
- Sample in Plush by Divine. (3 points, 0 comments)
- 450 points, 6 submissions: GodKodse
- 101% THE BIGGEST!! (325 points, 72 comments)
- MC STAN - Kahan Par Hai (36 points, 16 comments)
- DIVINE - Kohinoor (33 points, 15 comments)
- MC STAN - LOWKEY (31 points, 12 comments)
- Yo Yo Honey Singh’s podcast with Ranveer Allahbadia (18 points, 43 comments)
- DIVINE - Walking Miracle ft. Nas, Cocoa Sarai (7 points, 7 comments)
- 436 points, 17 submissions: PuzzleheadedCan4466
- bruh (118 points, 14 comments)
- KARMA - I DONT KNOW FREESTYLE (77 points, 54 comments)
- byg bird story : sab paisai ka chakar hai babu bhaiya (69 points, 80 comments)
- kalamkar signs augus .Thoughts? (64 points, 63 comments)
- EMIWAY - KAHA PAR HU (19 points, 6 comments)
- FLOWBO X MEMAX - Psyched Up (18 points, 15 comments)
- J Trix X SubSpace- Khayaal (13 points, 1 comment)
- EMIWAY - BHAROSA (12 points, 2 comments)
- EMIWAY-KADAK BAN (9 points, 12 comments)
- How BEEF Manipulated EMIWAY'S ALBUM (9 points, 7 comments)
- 409 points, 2 submissions: Puzzleheaded-Act-10
- Two Tone extended version coming soon ft. Talhah Yunus (292 points, 27 comments)
- Two Tone Extended Version coming tonight (117 points, 14 comments)
- 389 points, 10 submissions: GantaiREAPER
- Deep Kalsi collabing with Umer Anjum and Panther on his next track (180 points, 36 comments)
- EPR is dropping a new single called Fibonacci on 30/5/2023 (Source: His IG) (86 points, 36 comments)
- Found this cypher on ig & it sounds fire (Artist: Vamp Credits: @mewadicypher) (33 points, 11 comments)
- KR$NA - THE SHIT I'M ON ft. MANDEEP SETHI (20 points, 2 comments)
- Want to explore more of Pakistani Hip Hop and need suggestions (17 points, 39 comments)
- Taimour Baig - Dear God (15 points, 10 comments)
- MC Square - Duniya (14 points, 16 comments)
- Young Stunners - Rooh (Remix) (11 points, 6 comments)
- Gaush - I Made A Rap Song In Marathi! (8 points, 8 comments)
- Talha Anjum - Anokha Laadla ft. Kamran Gulzar (5 points, 2 comments)
- 365 points, 3 submissions: lovi_sh
- Hip-Hop scene in rajasthan!! (169 points, 23 comments)
- Gravity's Sueprvillain (Album) dropping on 25 may 2023 (102 points, 22 comments)
- Gravity revealed Supervillain (Album) tracks and features. (94 points, 35 comments)
- 348 points, 3 submissions: tangrikebab
- Prabh Deep has left Azadi Records. (204 points, 105 comments)
- Prabh Deep hinting at a possible financial feud with Azadi Records? (83 points, 26 comments)
- Subah subah Divine bhai kispe shot le rahe? (61 points, 45 comments)
- 337 points, 7 submissions: suckurmoda
- Yungsta breaks down "Meen" Album Cover! (160 points, 26 comments)
- Lafda Theory: Raftaar vs Ikka (48 points, 47 comments)
- What are some legendary/iconic/unusual/unexpected DHH Collabs and linkups? (37 points, 28 comments)
- Why does Emiway get little to no credit for his achievements? (36 points, 124 comments)
- Blues in India Sikander Kahlon (25 points, 3 comments)
- Vasudev's Discography (19 points, 9 comments)
- Is the 24 Hr deadline valid in beefs? (12 points, 33 comments)
- 283 points, 2 submissions: lolxdmekaisemaanlu
- 274 points, 12 submissions: Rg_638
- KSHMR on Haath Varthi and STAN (116 points, 24 comments)
- Deep Kalsi, Umer Anjum, Panther - Clout (47 points, 23 comments)
- Yungsta X Afaik - The All Stars 'MEEN' Podcast (20 points, 2 comments)
- Encore ABJ x Calm (Prod. Prabh Deep) - Savage (17 points, 2 comments)
- Shamoon Ismail ft Talha Anjum - 051021 (14 points, 5 comments)
- Hasan Raheem - You Don't Know (13 points, 1 comment)
- KSHMR x DIVINE x LIT killah – Lion Heart (13 points, 6 comments)
- Hardbone - Deeपक फिरीverse (11 points, 0 comments)
- Srushti Tawade - Dahi Shakkar (8 points, 10 comments)
- Bilal Saeed, Talhah Yunus, Ziggy - Deja Vu (6 points, 3 comments)
- 269 points, 3 submissions: Amriteshgautam
- Snippet of Upcoming track from Emiway`s KOTS Album !!! (115 points, 37 comments)
- Clearing the POV of Emi milking Company !!! (77 points, 22 comments)
- SEIGE giving massive Shoutout to Emiway !!! (77 points, 41 comments)
- 260 points, 12 submissions: Few_Satisfaction8170
- Young Stunners - TWO TONE (177 points, 64 comments)
- NANKU - ITTI SI (14 points, 2 comments)
- Talha Anjum - LAAM SE LOMRI (11 points, 4 comments)
- DRV, Boyblanck - Zameen Se (10 points, 1 comment)
- Shauharty, ARSLAN - 88 Farookhs in Devnagiris (10 points, 2 comments)
- Sultan, Zas, 2Ace, JANI, Shareh, Savage - Taangein chat se (7 points, 7 comments)
- Talha Anjum - Raftaar (7 points, 2 comments)
- ASHIR, Talal Qureshi - YAMA (6 points, 1 comment)
- Rap Demon,Talha Anjum - Rapper Tabaah (6 points, 3 comments)
- Seedhe Maut - That Part Remix (5 points, 0 comments)
- 250 points, 3 submissions: bucck2929
- Encore abj freestyling on his live today (01/05/2023) (232 points, 54 comments)
- MOB D - PAISA BRO (9 points, 3 comments)
- Nabeel Akbar - Sharpshooter (9 points, 0 comments)
- 240 points, 6 submissions: Agent47_hitman-43
- Emiway bantai - Chhod dala (132 points, 133 comments)
- Ikka - RAP MAN (48 points, 14 comments)
- 1 MINUTE RAP CHALLENGE SEASON 3 ANNOUNCEMENT - Rohan cariapppa (34 points, 3 comments)
- Suggest some underrated DHH projects (19 points, 90 comments)
- Faris shafi - Dou step by CAT (6 points, 1 comment)
- Ansh4sure - LEG4CY (1 point, 0 comments)
- 234 points, 1 submission: Every_Cauliflower_98
- Chaar Diwari Moshpit at Pune (234 points, 30 comments)
- 228 points, 4 submissions: opisunlovable
- MC STAN, KSHMR, Phenom - Haath Varthi (166 points, 113 comments)
- [EP] MC Kode - Zeher (33 points, 17 comments)
- Armaan Malik, Yashraj, Lost Stories, Kimera - HIIR (16 points, 8 comments)
- Dakait, Aniket Raturi, Sez on the Beat - Ghor Illegal (13 points, 8 comments)
- 228 points, 1 submission: Tusharr7
- 215 points, 1 submission: Salt_Instruction_555
- Karma - How To Tame Your Beast (215 points, 176 comments)
Top Commenters
- adolf-dumblewhore (2966 points, 209 comments)
- GantaiREAPER (2411 points, 204 comments)
- theAppleboy (2000 points, 304 comments)
- M_A_G_M_A (1597 points, 198 comments)
- Noeljino (1339 points, 156 comments)
- GaneshRasal (1331 points, 480 comments)
- TheKingAlchemist (1301 points, 172 comments)
- Adventurous-Guava981 (1226 points, 174 comments)
- px1618 (1216 points, 133 comments)
- Loan-Fast (1180 points, 225 comments)
- NH_hostel (1123 points, 142 comments)
- Electrical-Spare-973 (1120 points, 92 comments)
- InstructionHot9577 (1056 points, 173 comments)
- stg_676 (1045 points, 132 comments)
- Gandi_Aulaad (970 points, 232 comments)
- Yungstahiphop (940 points, 76 comments)
- Even_Positive_756 (913 points, 79 comments)
- Final-Sample- (884 points, 70 comments)
- anujmaral12 (867 points, 59 comments)
- SAYmyNAME041 (851 points, 56 comments)
- DankKid2410 (809 points, 54 comments)
- moit12345 (792 points, 94 comments)
- MrKayPavlov (790 points, 142 comments)
- noob_coder696969 (765 points, 138 comments)
- Interesting-Force347 (721 points, 43 comments)
- TawaChicken (718 points, 109 comments)
- Darknight_hell (698 points, 131 comments)
- Ok_Editor4792 (684 points, 73 comments)
- Bhel- (683 points, 42 comments)
- bucck2929 (682 points, 113 comments)
- Famous_Amphibian2385 (605 points, 97 comments)
- Big_a_zoid11 (579 points, 67 comments)
- insignificantt (559 points, 84 comments)
- theRealMadridGuy (552 points, 48 comments)
- GodKodse (550 points, 46 comments)
- Gaurang1976 (530 points, 90 comments)
- Anxious-Progress3480 (517 points, 48 comments)
- JODDUNMOIST (495 points, 73 comments)
- No_Leopard_7000 (494 points, 96 comments)
- Weeblyweird (492 points, 97 comments)
- DocDiffer (489 points, 90 comments)
- poetikjustis23 (484 points, 51 comments)
- Accomplished-Ad-6007 (479 points, 61 comments)
- realviivek (464 points, 80 comments)
- WADE_- (450 points, 48 comments)
- yourdaddyaditya (443 points, 101 comments)
- MasalaBoi (437 points, 81 comments)
- pundisher2711 (430 points, 65 comments)
- ahmerkmr (430 points, 39 comments)
- AgsyWorld (420 points, 20 comments)
- lovi_sh (416 points, 52 comments)
- ankubhagat (414 points, 11 comments)
- anotherKM7124 (408 points, 51 comments)
- MilkImpossible7022 (405 points, 15 comments)
- garvit786 (402 points, 72 comments)
- abhaykhetan07 (401 points, 27 comments)
- Agent47_hitman-43 (400 points, 69 comments)
- PARTH-BHARDWAJ (396 points, 57 comments)
- Adorable_Set7546 (392 points, 31 comments)
- Exotic_Phone2651 (385 points, 13 comments)
- jim-jam-biscuit (378 points, 29 comments)
- Ok_Rice4694 (377 points, 125 comments)
- PrettyIntrovertMe (376 points, 44 comments)
- coconutanna (375 points, 48 comments)
- PuzzleheadedCan4466 (372 points, 26 comments)
- ADITYA290804 (365 points, 62 comments)
- Avinash_Paryani (362 points, 34 comments)
- ken_kaneki07 (357 points, 42 comments)
- sezonthebeat (342 points, 7 comments)
- Ok_Proposal_9149 (325 points, 12 comments)
- Tanish1308 (323 points, 18 comments)
- No_Raspberry_9514 (319 points, 15 comments)
- kshmrmusic (315 points, 3 comments)
- Archiet_Tanwar (313 points, 60 comments)
- itzSKIT (313 points, 43 comments)
- aryaannnn (312 points, 34 comments)
- lujolka (311 points, 59 comments)
- Usual_Release_6134 (310 points, 19 comments)
- Puneet_7164 (302 points, 18 comments)
- Grizzlyrang (300 points, 77 comments)
- Weak_Comfortable1844 (288 points, 14 comments)
- Parkour_daredevil (282 points, 28 comments)
- Lit_Extreme05 (280 points, 27 comments)
- rewanshh (278 points, 35 comments)
- suckurmoda (277 points, 68 comments)
- Zealousideal-Ask-538 (274 points, 16 comments)
- Harsha_Bhosde (273 points, 11 comments)
- Fuzzy-Woodpecker-673 (271 points, 15 comments)
- Y0han_liebert (269 points, 30 comments)
- en1_gma (268 points, 62 comments)
- CoolnamePanda (265 points, 45 comments)
- No_Boat_3622 (248 points, 48 comments)
- slashinghunter45 (245 points, 15 comments)
- Andhainsaan (242 points, 33 comments)
- Actual-Honeydew-4109 (238 points, 32 comments)
- ___sohammmm (237 points, 17 comments)
- pratap_10 (230 points, 28 comments)
- Accomplished_Path233 (227 points, 16 comments)
- Sure_Good_3807 (224 points, 18 comments)
- Impressive_Camera173 (224 points, 8 comments)
- v1ntag33 (221 points, 10 comments)
- dexter2503 (220 points, 30 comments)
- XXTALKSICK (218 points, 88 comments)
- venix124 (217 points, 55 comments)
- 9ighteye (217 points, 26 comments)
- vp1593 (216 points, 42 comments)
- Lamb_Shiftquantum (206 points, 32 comments)
- YakLost2632 (203 points, 14 comments)
- N-o-va (200 points, 42 comments)
- okk_123 (197 points, 17 comments)
- Affectionate-Bad3670 (196 points, 31 comments)
- Cyranizzyyy (195 points, 43 comments)
- Careless_Landscape45 (194 points, 54 comments)
- Iyushy00 (194 points, 41 comments)
- shoot-a-lot (194 points, 11 comments)
- oichu (192 points, 13 comments)
- Known_Assumption_383 (190 points, 28 comments)
- Otherwise_Pace_1133 (188 points, 32 comments)
- Industry-Beautiful (188 points, 30 comments)
- killerscradle (187 points, 44 comments)
- youngboypain (187 points, 9 comments)
- dam2o (186 points, 21 comments)
- Solid_Phase9878 (186 points, 6 comments)
- pawan270319999 (181 points, 14 comments)
- Bhutiya_Memer (180 points, 27 comments)
- Hungry-Grocery-2646 (179 points, 11 comments)
- BIG_P0PPA_ (178 points, 57 comments)
- obscure-reality (178 points, 39 comments)
- Ill_BLOGGER_633 (178 points, 29 comments)
- Big-Thanks7910 (175 points, 44 comments)
- Fit_Neighborhood6332 (174 points, 15 comments)
- whatever_his_name_is (172 points, 21 comments)
- Affectionate_Tune203 (170 points, 19 comments)
- Additional-Peak-1755 (167 points, 60 comments)
- shutupmatsuda (166 points, 30 comments)
- Xomet (165 points, 8 comments)
- belikepac (163 points, 11 comments)
- Glum-Highway-7403 (162 points, 45 comments)
- I_Am_Useless_1 (161 points, 40 comments)
- BhargavK_18 (159 points, 21 comments)
- Guilty_Surprise5534 (157 points, 29 comments)
- MysteriousCup1836 (157 points, 14 comments)
- Every_Cauliflower_98 (156 points, 31 comments)
- rittesh1234 (155 points, 16 comments)
- Scary_Career_6081 (154 points, 31 comments)
- spacemonkey___ (152 points, 12 comments)
- ChutiyaChutney420 (151 points, 19 comments)
- ZealousidealChange11 (150 points, 24 comments)
- EveryNameIsTaken142 (150 points, 16 comments)
- MysteriousBicycle577 (149 points, 26 comments)
- tatakaealways (147 points, 37 comments)
- 2ded4u (147 points, 12 comments)
- organic_mineral (147 points, 10 comments)
- Low_Apartment_3911 (146 points, 40 comments)
- Few_Satisfaction8170 (146 points, 15 comments)
- Appropriate-Bird6642 (146 points, 12 comments)
- enough_cheesE (145 points, 16 comments)
- BluEsCREwer (143 points, 31 comments)
- tangrikebab (141 points, 5 comments)
- io866 (140 points, 21 comments)
- nuanshed (139 points, 10 comments)
- JaiJai011 (139 points, 8 comments)
- Vast-Professional-82 (138 points, 8 comments)
- lying_hips (138 points, 8 comments)
- r0cks33n9915 (135 points, 36 comments)
- AN-Rexxx (135 points, 20 comments)
- TraditionalArticle88 (133 points, 18 comments)
- EconomyAd4071 (132 points, 7 comments)
- an0nym0us_buddy (132 points, 3 comments)
- Shivy0999 (131 points, 42 comments)
- Beginning-Kick1946 (131 points, 17 comments)
- fuddhu (131 points, 9 comments)
- LordJ92 (129 points, 17 comments)
- Ok-Tonight-8723 (128 points, 18 comments)
- imdumb_sike (128 points, 18 comments)
- rnt7520 (127 points, 29 comments)
- WarmRelationship8483 (127 points, 16 comments)
- lysosome_destroyer (125 points, 69 comments)
- GreenCucumber1677 (125 points, 24 comments)
- paranoidnotandroid14 (125 points, 12 comments)
- Easy-Repair-3614 (124 points, 18 comments)
- Actual_Employment_89 (124 points, 12 comments)
- The-Volumee (123 points, 23 comments)
- REALISMONPEAK (122 points, 34 comments)
- Amriteshgautam (121 points, 5 comments)
- Substantial_Spare345 (121 points, 4 comments)
- NightAxeblad3 (120 points, 25 comments)
- dedlife18 (118 points, 45 comments)
- frikuser (117 points, 22 comments)
- MIHIR1112 (117 points, 9 comments)
- fatherless_milf (116 points, 20 comments)
- sirtansejuda (116 points, 14 comments)
- Agitated-Detail1466 (116 points, 5 comments)
- Ancient_Scientist_04 (115 points, 7 comments)
- Mammoth_Attention_73 (114 points, 14 comments)
- relevant_juniper (113 points, 22 comments)
- padh_le_beta (113 points, 18 comments)
- Gusion- (113 points, 15 comments)
- abhinavred123 (113 points, 11 comments)
- frizzled_sm (112 points, 18 comments)
- dark_king_2002 (110 points, 23 comments)
- ek_aur_insaan (110 points, 15 comments)
- AILAAV (110 points, 8 comments)
- aryan_gami (108 points, 43 comments)
- slimhaishady (108 points, 17 comments)
- CheckQuick (106 points, 32 comments)
- TEMPEST_NUB (105 points, 21 comments)
- Agitated_Shadow (105 points, 8 comments)
- puwali_of_dp (104 points, 9 comments)
- Blaze-2005 (103 points, 16 comments)
- somelittleindiankid (103 points, 11 comments)
- rajiv_03 (103 points, 5 comments)
- nano_catalyst (102 points, 9 comments)
- lettucefries (101 points, 19 comments)
- Arnav2610 (101 points, 3 comments)
- qualified_baby (100 points, 22 comments)
- duckinandseal (100 points, 10 comments)
- p0pwrld (100 points, 8 comments)
- illmatic_mmlp (99 points, 40 comments)
- Aarav_Parmar (99 points, 30 comments)
- shades09 (97 points, 23 comments)
- PapiChain (97 points, 10 comments)
- Aayosh (97 points, 8 comments)
- AlwynKalicharan2007 (96 points, 9 comments)
- eyepatch_29 (95 points, 11 comments)
- Quirky_Specialist168 (95 points, 3 comments)
- Ukzuck1 (94 points, 29 comments)
- Savings_Award6005 (94 points, 20 comments)
- Certain-Confidence20 (94 points, 17 comments)
- kshitizsinh (94 points, 15 comments)
- deba2607 (94 points, 10 comments)
- ResolveSalt7971 (93 points, 19 comments)
- Improctor (93 points, 17 comments)
- Tusharr7 (93 points, 15 comments)
- gaalikaghalib (93 points, 11 comments)
- Major_Wolverine_3834 (91 points, 23 comments)
- Due-Pianist-8135 (91 points, 11 comments)
- Equivalent-Brain3441 (91 points, 8 comments)
- MitramandalAZT (90 points, 21 comments)
- kohkan- (89 points, 24 comments)
- birenkumarofficial (89 points, 11 comments)
- Metal-Banana-72 (88 points, 18 comments)
- Apprehensive-Tip4504 (88 points, 8 comments)
- tsumyoki (87 points, 3 comments)
- lolxdmekaisemaanlu (86 points, 10 comments)
- SnooWoofers455 (86 points, 9 comments)
- defenderwarrior (85 points, 27 comments)
- Appropriate_Simple98 (85 points, 21 comments)
- Nishant_Dave (85 points, 21 comments)
- DEMON_LYNX7 (85 points, 18 comments)
- s0md3v (85 points, 6 comments)
- weeedboi (85 points, 1 comment)
- Kakarot_Goku13 (84 points, 22 comments)
- Basic-Biscotti-3915 (84 points, 4 comments)
- GardenPlenty3627 (83 points, 23 comments)
- flawedhuman12 (83 points, 10 comments)
- WITTY-WIZARD- (83 points, 9 comments)
- funny_acolyte (82 points, 17 comments)
- 0starhunter (82 points, 16 comments)
- BackgroundVast9077 (82 points, 9 comments)
- shaansmwl77 (81 points, 19 comments)
- BusBusiness5874 (81 points, 16 comments)
- RichieSmellsNice (81 points, 12 comments)
- Affectionate-Bug875 (81 points, 10 comments)
- Hot-Wafer2649 (80 points, 10 comments)
- kalashpatel13 (80 points, 4 comments)
- Terrible_mushroom808 (80 points, 3 comments)
- THEBOYINDOUBT (78 points, 20 comments)
- MAXFUNPRO (78 points, 9 comments)
- thebrowndude09 (77 points, 27 comments)
- ReeTesHp (77 points, 7 comments)
- gulabichut (77 points, 3 comments)
- CatesAreCute (77 points, 2 comments)
- Lexyeusdenini (76 points, 19 comments)
- couchfrenchfry (76 points, 13 comments)
- Kay_Be_04 (76 points, 8 comments)
- Rg_638 (75 points, 22 comments)
- surnaldo (74 points, 15 comments)
- uknowtfiam (73 points, 24 comments)
- KaranKanchan_music (73 points, 2 comments)
- nibtaungabsdk (72 points, 14 comments)
- t177a (72 points, 10 comments)
- Objective_Wrangler63 (72 points, 6 comments)
- brown_and_messed_up (71 points, 23 comments)
- wrishabh (71 points, 21 comments)
- imooneye (71 points, 16 comments)
- MaizeEnough8989 (71 points, 15 comments)
- Ambitious_Tough_4219 (71 points, 12 comments)
- Embarrassed_Inside_7 (70 points, 27 comments)
- Tasty_Surround_9200 (70 points, 12 comments)
- Deathlok72711 (70 points, 10 comments)
- Fresh_Ordinary4997 (70 points, 9 comments)
- lethal_7 (70 points, 9 comments)
- PersonalitySmooth886 (70 points, 3 comments)
- everestxoxo (70 points, 3 comments)
- DaKeiser (69 points, 11 comments)
- vauarmy (69 points, 10 comments)
- International_Emu947 (69 points, 7 comments)
- 6ANJAblowin (68 points, 11 comments)
- Dry_Tutor2027 (68 points, 10 comments)
Top Submissions
- Iconic photos of Desi hip-hop. by adolf-dumblewhore (452 points, 124 comments)
- Haath Varti - Kshmr X Mc Stan Out this Friday by ___sohammmm (355 points, 76 comments)
- 101% THE BIGGEST!! by GodKodse (325 points, 72 comments)
- KARMA - YOUNG GALEECH by M_A_G_M_A (301 points, 274 comments)
- Two Tone extended version coming soon ft. Talhah Yunus by Puzzleheaded-Act-10 (292 points, 27 comments)
- youngest Indian to feature on Billboard by lolxdmekaisemaanlu (254 points, 47 comments)
- Chaar Diwari Moshpit at Pune by Every_Cauliflower_98 (234 points, 30 comments)
- Encore abj freestyling on his live today (01/05/2023) by bucck2929 (232 points, 54 comments)
- Using AI to make Eminem sing KR$NA's verse in Overdrive by Tusharr7 (228 points, 41 comments)
- Yungsta Has Revealed Meen's Artwork by MrKayPavlov (218 points, 35 comments)
Top Comments
- 249 points: Harsha_Bhosde's comment in I'm convinced
- 234 points: ankubhagat's comment in KARMA - YOUNG GALEECH
- 206 points: kshmrmusic's comment in MC STAN, KSHMR, Phenom - Haath Varthi
- 184 points: Exotic_Phone2651's comment in Karma - How To Tame Your Beast
- 178 points: GantaiREAPER's comment in KARMA - YOUNG GALEECH
- 169 points: anujmaral12's comment in Young Stunners - TWO TONE
- 168 points: Anxious-Progress3480's comment in Young Galib - Kulfa-Kar-Ma
- 160 points: PuzzleheadedCan4466's comment in Why is no one talking about this?
- 144 points: Final-Sample-'s comment in Pehle mc stan ab emiway
- 143 points: slashinghunter45's comment in Ikka announces the release of “RAPMAN” in collaboration with Raj Comics.
Generated with BBoe's Subreddit Stats
2023.06.01 17:41 EchoJobs Circle is hiring Senior Software Engineer USD 150k-270k Atlanta, GA Remote US [SQL Kubernetes Azure Machine Learning API Microservices Java AWS GCP]
![Circle is hiring Senior Software Engineer USD 150k-270k Atlanta, GA Remote US [SQL Kubernetes Azure Machine Learning API Microservices Java AWS GCP]](https://external-preview.redd.it/AXa0QUJbFTmQF_N6VoLA5vqpQtDms5--PpPo2HyyuLs.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=3bc138bfc19b9fe0368a1e3eb1809900b1fe7630 "Circle is hiring Senior Software Engineer USD 150k-270k Atlanta, GA Remote US [SQL Kubernetes Azure Machine Learning API Microservices Java AWS GCP]") | submitted by EchoJobs to rustjob [link] [comments] |
2023.06.01 15:41 EchoJobs Circle is hiring Senior Software Engineer USD 150k-270k Atlanta, GA Remote US [SQL Kubernetes Azure Machine Learning API Microservices Java AWS GCP]
| | submitted by EchoJobs to DevOpsJob [link] [comments] |
2023.06.01 13:30 EchoJobs Circle is hiring Senior Data Engineer USD 130k-230k [Atlanta, GA] [Scala Python Redis Azure Kafka Yarn AWS Cassandra GCP API Streaming SQL PostgreSQL Spark MySQL DynamoDB Java]
| | submitted by EchoJobs to ATLTechJobs [link] [comments] |
2023.06.01 11:27 freightwave the best shape by -isosceles
submitted by freightwave to Triangles [link] [comments]
2023.06.01 00:38 maynevent Month 2: May Progress Report
Last month's progress report: https://www.reddit.com/juststart/comments/1335hr1/month_1_ish_progress_report/
Last month's goals for this month:
Backstory and Learnings:
Following from last month, I was in the middle of removing Ezoic from my site. I fully finished that up a day or two after I posted my first month's progress report. That was my main priority and then I started using my SemRUSH trial to its full advantage. I began collecting keywords to start writing articles and also started researching keywords for my previous articles that I just wrote on a whim, trying to make them more viable. As of the middle of May, most of views were coming from 2 articles, with a view here and there for other miscellaneous articles as well.
I really liked SemRUSH, but for right now, and with my site's infancy, I can't justify continuing with the service. It is for sure something I will circle back to in the future, though. Getting back to the articles, I began writing. I've noticed a pattern with myself, I'll go 5-6 days without writing and then all of a sudden, crank out handful in succession. 3 of the articles from the first batch I wrote near the beginning of May are starting to show promise. I have 1 article with 5 clicks, another with 24 clicks and the last one with 38 clicks. The rest of the articles are duds or are still cooking, I suppose.
I have also noticed some of my articles from the initial 10 I launched my site with are starting to get a bit of attention as well. The 2 articles I mentioned in the first paragraph that account for my most views are part of this initial 10 group. And to be fair, that does make sense, since they have been live the longest and have had (albeit minimal) time to age. I have a mixed feeling of joy and worry. I know that SEO and all of that is a waiting game, but I can't help but wonder and worry about my non-successful posts.
In terms of hitting my goals defined last month for this month, I can say I was able to accomplish them, for the most part. I wanted to make reasonable goals for myself that could actually be attained. I aimed for upping my post count from 18 at the end of April to having 28 at the end of May. In total, I finished May with 32 total published posts. I feel good about the upward trends I am seeing in GA, GSC and even Bing (screenshots below). I did acquire a few new backlinks as well, but nothing too special. Mainly just forum/community posts. I need to do some outreach and plan to start at least trying in the near future. In total, according to GSC, I have 56 external links from 5 different domains. Bing shows 9 total backlinks from 4 referring domains. Interestingly, Bing has a few domains Google does not have. Dunno what's up with that.
On to monetization. As mentioned in last month's progress report, I was a bit too hasty with ad placement. I was kinda feeling a bit bummed out by signing up for Amazon Associates so soon, but I think that was the right call. I have made, what looks like, 9 total sales, including the 1st one mentioned last month in April. I believe I did get a bit lucky, though. I had one sale where someone purchased a $600 item that gave me nearly $13 USD in commission. As exciting as that is, that was not one of the items I have on my site. But hey, it still counts, so yeah. Taking that one away, I still did pretty good IMO with $8+ USD in May. And I officially got the approval email from Amazon as well, which was really neat to see.
I am having some struggles with Social Media and have all but given up (for now) with the exception being Pinterest. I have been creating unique images and creating pins for every new article I write and posting them to Pinterest. Not seeing much from it though. According to GA, I have gotten 3 users and 4 sessions from Pinterest since going live on March 26th. I have been trying to research a bit and it seems like Pinterest is like Google in that the pins need time age as well. Hopefully, with enough determination and consistent posting, I will see some more traffic come from Pinterest.
Numbers:
I am a bit confused why so much of my traffic is coming from direct. I noticed I am starting to get impression on GSC under the 'Discover' button, but only 2 clicks so far from it. So that can't be it. Aside from the huge spike at the end of April (which was all direct and I still haven't figured out why), I am still getting anywhere from 3-7 sources as direct per day. I whitelisted my IP address in GA, but my traffic is still coming through. But to combat that, I am using private mode in FF since GA is blocked.
Things I am Investigating:
Keyword: borderlands rare loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-rare-loot Does not rank (I cannot find this page unless I type the URL into Google), Legendary page ranks # 15 for Rare keyword
Keyword: borderlands uncommon loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-uncommon-loot Just created, nothing is ranking for this keyword yet
submitted by maynevent to Blogging [link] [comments]
Last month's goals for this month:
- Have a total of 28 posts published (using proper keyword phrase research for any and all new ones)
- Continue to see upward trend with impression in GSC
- Acquire at least 1 new backlink for 3 different pages
Backstory and Learnings:
Following from last month, I was in the middle of removing Ezoic from my site. I fully finished that up a day or two after I posted my first month's progress report. That was my main priority and then I started using my SemRUSH trial to its full advantage. I began collecting keywords to start writing articles and also started researching keywords for my previous articles that I just wrote on a whim, trying to make them more viable. As of the middle of May, most of views were coming from 2 articles, with a view here and there for other miscellaneous articles as well.
I really liked SemRUSH, but for right now, and with my site's infancy, I can't justify continuing with the service. It is for sure something I will circle back to in the future, though. Getting back to the articles, I began writing. I've noticed a pattern with myself, I'll go 5-6 days without writing and then all of a sudden, crank out handful in succession. 3 of the articles from the first batch I wrote near the beginning of May are starting to show promise. I have 1 article with 5 clicks, another with 24 clicks and the last one with 38 clicks. The rest of the articles are duds or are still cooking, I suppose.
I have also noticed some of my articles from the initial 10 I launched my site with are starting to get a bit of attention as well. The 2 articles I mentioned in the first paragraph that account for my most views are part of this initial 10 group. And to be fair, that does make sense, since they have been live the longest and have had (albeit minimal) time to age. I have a mixed feeling of joy and worry. I know that SEO and all of that is a waiting game, but I can't help but wonder and worry about my non-successful posts.
In terms of hitting my goals defined last month for this month, I can say I was able to accomplish them, for the most part. I wanted to make reasonable goals for myself that could actually be attained. I aimed for upping my post count from 18 at the end of April to having 28 at the end of May. In total, I finished May with 32 total published posts. I feel good about the upward trends I am seeing in GA, GSC and even Bing (screenshots below). I did acquire a few new backlinks as well, but nothing too special. Mainly just forum/community posts. I need to do some outreach and plan to start at least trying in the near future. In total, according to GSC, I have 56 external links from 5 different domains. Bing shows 9 total backlinks from 4 referring domains. Interestingly, Bing has a few domains Google does not have. Dunno what's up with that.
On to monetization. As mentioned in last month's progress report, I was a bit too hasty with ad placement. I was kinda feeling a bit bummed out by signing up for Amazon Associates so soon, but I think that was the right call. I have made, what looks like, 9 total sales, including the 1st one mentioned last month in April. I believe I did get a bit lucky, though. I had one sale where someone purchased a $600 item that gave me nearly $13 USD in commission. As exciting as that is, that was not one of the items I have on my site. But hey, it still counts, so yeah. Taking that one away, I still did pretty good IMO with $8+ USD in May. And I officially got the approval email from Amazon as well, which was really neat to see.
I am having some struggles with Social Media and have all but given up (for now) with the exception being Pinterest. I have been creating unique images and creating pins for every new article I write and posting them to Pinterest. Not seeing much from it though. According to GA, I have gotten 3 users and 4 sessions from Pinterest since going live on March 26th. I have been trying to research a bit and it seems like Pinterest is like Google in that the pins need time age as well. Hopefully, with enough determination and consistent posting, I will see some more traffic come from Pinterest.
Numbers:
I am a bit confused why so much of my traffic is coming from direct. I noticed I am starting to get impression on GSC under the 'Discover' button, but only 2 clicks so far from it. So that can't be it. Aside from the huge spike at the end of April (which was all direct and I still haven't figured out why), I am still getting anywhere from 3-7 sources as direct per day. I whitelisted my IP address in GA, but my traffic is still coming through. But to combat that, I am using private mode in FF since GA is blocked.
Things I am Investigating:
- Before, whenever I posted a new article, I could find my article eventually on Google 24-48 hours later using the keyword I am targeting. Sometimes it would be on like page 20, but I could at least find it. Lately though, any new article I post does not come up at all on Google. They are indexed, but nothing from my site is showing for the keyword.
- I am also having trouble with articles that are in the same genre, but not showing up for the correct keywords in Google. For example:
Keyword: borderlands rare loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-rare-loot Does not rank (I cannot find this page unless I type the URL into Google), Legendary page ranks # 15 for Rare keyword
Keyword: borderlands uncommon loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-uncommon-loot Just created, nothing is ranking for this keyword yet
- I am looking into using CloudFlare as a CDN for my site. I have a caching plugin, and that is working fine, but I am on a shared hosting account. A few times this past month my site has gone done because of another user's actions, which is obviously not good
- I want to focus on fixing/bettering my previously posted articles, so I am only shooting for a total of 38 published posts by the end of June
- Start doing 'cold-call' backlink outreach - offer to create posts for other folk's blogs in exchange for a backlink
- Got my first legit comment on an article
- Achieved over 300 clicks from Google in May
- Starting to see some positive movement on Bing
2023.06.01 00:36 maynevent Month 2: Progress Report
Last month's progress report: https://www.reddit.com/juststart/comments/1335hr1/month_1_ish_progress_report/
Last month's goals for this month:
Backstory and Learnings:
Following from last month, I was in the middle of removing Ezoic from my site. I fully finished that up a day or two after I posted my first month's progress report. That was my main priority and then I started using my SemRUSH trial to its full advantage. I began collecting keywords to start writing articles and also started researching keywords for my previous articles that I just wrote on a whim, trying to make them more viable. As of the middle of May, most of views were coming from 2 articles, with a view here and there for other miscellaneous articles as well.
I really liked SemRUSH, but for right now, and with my site's infancy, I can't justify continuing with the service. It is for sure something I will circle back to in the future, though. Getting back to the articles, I began writing. I've noticed a pattern with myself, I'll go 5-6 days without writing and then all of a sudden, crank out handful in succession. 3 of the articles from the first batch I wrote near the beginning of May are starting to show promise. I have 1 article with 5 clicks, another with 24 clicks and the last one with 38 clicks. The rest of the articles are duds or are still cooking, I suppose.
I have also noticed some of my articles from the initial 10 I launched my site with are starting to get a bit of attention as well. The 2 articles I mentioned in the first paragraph that account for my most views are part of this initial 10 group. And to be fair, that does make sense, since they have been live the longest and have had (albeit minimal) time to age. I have a mixed feeling of joy and worry. I know that SEO and all of that is a waiting game, but I can't help but wonder and worry about my non-successful posts.
In terms of hitting my goals defined last month for this month, I can say I was able to accomplish them, for the most part. I wanted to make reasonable goals for myself that could actually be attained. I aimed for upping my post count from 18 at the end of April to having 28 at the end of May. In total, I finished May with 32 total published posts. I feel good about the upward trends I am seeing in GA, GSC and even Bing (screenshots below). I did acquire a few new backlinks as well, but nothing too special. Mainly just forum/community posts. I need to do some outreach and plan to start at least trying in the near future. In total, according to GSC, I have 56 external links from 5 different domains. Bing shows 9 total backlinks from 4 referring domains. Interestingly, Bing has a few domains Google does not have. Dunno what's up with that.
On to monetization. As mentioned in last month's progress report, I was a bit too hasty with ad placement. I was kinda feeling a bit bummed out by signing up for Amazon Associates so soon, but I think that was the right call. I have made, what looks like, 9 total sales, including the 1st one mentioned last month in April. I believe I did get a bit lucky, though. I had one sale where someone purchased a $600 item that gave me nearly $13 USD in commission. As exciting as that is, that was not one of the items I have on my site. But hey, it still counts, so yeah. Taking that one away, I still did pretty good IMO with $8+ USD in May. And I officially got the approval email from Amazon as well, which was really neat to see.
I am having some struggles with Social Media and have all but given up (for now) with the exception being Pinterest. I have been creating unique images and creating pins for every new article I write and posting them to Pinterest. Not seeing much from it though. According to GA, I have gotten 3 users and 4 sessions from Pinterest since going live on March 26th. I have been trying to research a bit and it seems like Pinterest is like Google in that the pins need time age as well. Hopefully, with enough determination and consistent posting, I will see some more traffic come from Pinterest.
Numbers:
I am a bit confused why so much of my traffic is coming from direct. I noticed I am starting to get impression on GSC under the 'Discover' button, but only 2 clicks so far from it. So that can't be it. Aside from the huge spike at the end of April (which was all direct and I still haven't figured out why), I am still getting anywhere from 3-7 sources as direct per day. I whitelisted my IP address in GA, but my traffic is still coming through. But to combat that, I am using private mode in FF since GA is blocked.
Things I am Investigating:
Keyword: borderlands rare loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-rare-loot Does not rank (I cannot find this page unless I type the URL into Google), Legendary page ranks # 15 for Rare keyword
Keyword: borderlands uncommon loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-uncommon-loot Just created, nothing is ranking for this keyword yet
submitted by maynevent to juststart [link] [comments]
Last month's goals for this month:
- Have a total of 28 posts published (using proper keyword phrase research for any and all new ones)
- Continue to see upward trend with impression in GSC
- Acquire at least 1 new backlink for 3 different pages
Backstory and Learnings:
Following from last month, I was in the middle of removing Ezoic from my site. I fully finished that up a day or two after I posted my first month's progress report. That was my main priority and then I started using my SemRUSH trial to its full advantage. I began collecting keywords to start writing articles and also started researching keywords for my previous articles that I just wrote on a whim, trying to make them more viable. As of the middle of May, most of views were coming from 2 articles, with a view here and there for other miscellaneous articles as well.
I really liked SemRUSH, but for right now, and with my site's infancy, I can't justify continuing with the service. It is for sure something I will circle back to in the future, though. Getting back to the articles, I began writing. I've noticed a pattern with myself, I'll go 5-6 days without writing and then all of a sudden, crank out handful in succession. 3 of the articles from the first batch I wrote near the beginning of May are starting to show promise. I have 1 article with 5 clicks, another with 24 clicks and the last one with 38 clicks. The rest of the articles are duds or are still cooking, I suppose.
I have also noticed some of my articles from the initial 10 I launched my site with are starting to get a bit of attention as well. The 2 articles I mentioned in the first paragraph that account for my most views are part of this initial 10 group. And to be fair, that does make sense, since they have been live the longest and have had (albeit minimal) time to age. I have a mixed feeling of joy and worry. I know that SEO and all of that is a waiting game, but I can't help but wonder and worry about my non-successful posts.
In terms of hitting my goals defined last month for this month, I can say I was able to accomplish them, for the most part. I wanted to make reasonable goals for myself that could actually be attained. I aimed for upping my post count from 18 at the end of April to having 28 at the end of May. In total, I finished May with 32 total published posts. I feel good about the upward trends I am seeing in GA, GSC and even Bing (screenshots below). I did acquire a few new backlinks as well, but nothing too special. Mainly just forum/community posts. I need to do some outreach and plan to start at least trying in the near future. In total, according to GSC, I have 56 external links from 5 different domains. Bing shows 9 total backlinks from 4 referring domains. Interestingly, Bing has a few domains Google does not have. Dunno what's up with that.
On to monetization. As mentioned in last month's progress report, I was a bit too hasty with ad placement. I was kinda feeling a bit bummed out by signing up for Amazon Associates so soon, but I think that was the right call. I have made, what looks like, 9 total sales, including the 1st one mentioned last month in April. I believe I did get a bit lucky, though. I had one sale where someone purchased a $600 item that gave me nearly $13 USD in commission. As exciting as that is, that was not one of the items I have on my site. But hey, it still counts, so yeah. Taking that one away, I still did pretty good IMO with $8+ USD in May. And I officially got the approval email from Amazon as well, which was really neat to see.
I am having some struggles with Social Media and have all but given up (for now) with the exception being Pinterest. I have been creating unique images and creating pins for every new article I write and posting them to Pinterest. Not seeing much from it though. According to GA, I have gotten 3 users and 4 sessions from Pinterest since going live on March 26th. I have been trying to research a bit and it seems like Pinterest is like Google in that the pins need time age as well. Hopefully, with enough determination and consistent posting, I will see some more traffic come from Pinterest.
Numbers:
I am a bit confused why so much of my traffic is coming from direct. I noticed I am starting to get impression on GSC under the 'Discover' button, but only 2 clicks so far from it. So that can't be it. Aside from the huge spike at the end of April (which was all direct and I still haven't figured out why), I am still getting anywhere from 3-7 sources as direct per day. I whitelisted my IP address in GA, but my traffic is still coming through. But to combat that, I am using private mode in FF since GA is blocked.
Things I am Investigating:
- Before, whenever I posted a new article, I could find my article eventually on Google 24-48 hours later using the keyword I am targeting. Sometimes it would be on like page 20, but I could at least find it. Lately though, any new article I post does not come up at all on Google. They are indexed, but nothing from my site is showing for the keyword.
- I am also having trouble with articles that are in the same genre, but not showing up for the correct keywords in Google. For example:
Keyword: borderlands rare loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-rare-loot Does not rank (I cannot find this page unless I type the URL into Google), Legendary page ranks # 15 for Rare keyword
Keyword: borderlands uncommon loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-uncommon-loot Just created, nothing is ranking for this keyword yet
- I am looking into using CloudFlare as a CDN for my site. I have a caching plugin, and that is working fine, but I am on a shared hosting account. A few times this past month my site has gone done because of another user's actions, which is obviously not good
- I want to focus on fixing/bettering my previously posted articles, so I am only shooting for a total of 38 published posts by the end of June
- Start doing 'cold-call' backlink outreach - offer to create posts for other folk's blogs in exchange for a backlink
- Got my first legit comment on an article
- Achieved over 300 clicks from Google in May
- Starting to see some positive movement on Bing
2023.05.31 22:02 Sanofi2016NFLPOOL Discussion Place for Shooting Stars (Kick A Goal) EP95
Discussion Place for Shooting Stars (Kick A Goal) EP95 - GT (group B #2) v AC (group A #1)
Knock-out Playoffs: Game 01 - Giants vs. Actionista
Players, their teams, managers and their IG's PART 1
Players, their teams, managers and their IG's PART 2
Thanks to u/M3rc_Nate
please use >!text to hide/spoilers!< to hide any spoilers for at least the first couple of days. However, expect not everyone will follow; so SPOILERS will be discussed.
Press Conference: with Lee YoungJin, Baek JiHoon (Coach), Oh BeomSeok (Coach), and Lee HyunYi
ChallengeLeague 3.0 - GROUP C
BD = BallaDream
NF = NatFam
SF = StreamingFighter
WW = WonderWoman
a = automatic promotion to SuperLeague
b = possible promotion to SuperLeague, knock-out game vs. the winner of 5th/6th seed in SL (GV or TG)
y = suspended from all League play
SuperLeague 4.0 - GROUP A
x = eliminated from knock-out playoffs, will play one game vs. bottom rank of Group B to find out 5th and 6th seeding
AC = Actionista
FM = FireMoths
TG = TopGirl
SuperLeague 4.0 - GROUP B
x = eliminated from knock-out playoffs, will play one game vs. bottom rank of Group A to find out 5th and 6th seeding
GT = Giants
GV = Gaevengers
WC = World Class
Total Goals Leader (from both Challenge and Super Leagues)
GAME STARTING ROSTERS
GT with coach Oh BeomSeok
2-2 formation
AC with coach Baek JiHoon
2-1-1 formation
DO NOT READ THE BELOW SPOILERS unless you really want to be spoiled of the game highlights.
Highlights:~1' AC Miss: (AC 11) and (AC 8) strip the ball from (GT 100), (AC 11) kicks a short pass to the middle for (AC 33) who one-time short back passes to (AC 02), she surveys the field and dribbles down the right wing beating (GT 27), (AC 02) kicks a forward pass down the right wing for (AC 33) who traps the ball and back passes to (AC 8) around the centre circle, (AC 8) takes a deep one-time bouncy rolling shot on target that (GT 21- GK) smothers, i nice set of passes and a shot on target by AC
Highlights:~2' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in deep in AC territory with a shot on target that is bouncy, (GT 21- GK) gets in front of the ball attempting to catch it, but hits her knee and goes out for a corner kick
Highlights:~2' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a low lobbing shot on target deep in her defensive territory that (GT 21- GK) tracks down and follows and pushes the ball out of bounds for a corner kick
Highlights:~3' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power low roller shot on target that goes in the net, however, there is no other incidental contact or touch from any field player that the goal is no good
Highlights:~3' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power low roller shot on near the goal mouth that (AC 33) botches the first touch but manages to get a back heel kick shot on target, that (GT 1) manages to block, the ball goes out of bounds for a corner kick
Highlights:~4' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a delicious perfect cross pass to the top of the 16 yard box that (GT 100) one-time shoots on target that is placed low and in the middle, (AC 250- GK) gets her left foot on the ball to re-direct it out of bounds for a corner kick, what a great pass, shot, and save
Highlights:~4' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to the goal mouth area that (AC 33) manages to cut off and trap, she is being rushed by everyone collapsing on her position that she poke kicks the ball forward, (GT 1) gets to the ball first and takes a one-time shot on net that is way off target
Highlights:~5' GT Miss: (AC 250- GK) tosses the ball deep to (AC 11) but she botches the first touch and (GT 1) takes the ball, with a great cut move she dekes out (AC 8) and dribbles down the right wing, she kicks a great cross pass that goes through (AC 33) but holy smokes NO ONE from GT was expecting the cross pass both (GT 27) and (GT 100) were a step behind and flat footed on a great cross
Highlights:~6' AC Foul: (AC 02) and (GT 27) go for a 50/50 air ball, (AC 02) pushes (GT 27) out of the way and is whistled for a foul, a direct free-kick is awarded on the left wing side at the centre line
Highlights:~6' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes direct free kick with a shot on target that is blocked by (AC 8) the ball goes to the wing and (GT 100) and (AC 8) battle for the ball, (GT 100) manages to control the ball and kick an outlet pass to the opposite wing to (GT 7) who traps the ball and takes a shot on target that is aimed for the near side bottom right corner, (AC 250- GK) is well positioned and manages to smother the ball
Highlights:~7' GT Skills: (GT 1) gets a side jumping header to keep the ball on the offensive zone, the ball dropped to (AC 02) who kicks it out and goes out of bounds to the sidelines
Highlights:~7' AC Miss: (AC 02) kicks the ball forward and it manages to reach a deep positioned (AC 11), (GT 21- GK) comes off her goal line to contest the ball and kicks it out of bounds towards the sidelines before (AC 11) can take a shot or control the ball
Highlights:~7' GT unexpected Skills: (GT 7) totally misses a bouncy ball and it rolls towards GT defensive end into the corner, (GT 21- GK) kicks the most unexpected and technically beautiful forward rolling pass down the wing for (GT 100) to receive, the play ends with no shot on net for GT
Highlights:~8' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot that is blocked by the GT wall of (GT 27), the ball bounces back to (AC 8) who takes the ball and dribbles down the right wing side and manages to take a shot on net that misses the near side post by a few feet, (GT 21- GK) was well positioned to cut the angles
Highlights:~8' GT Foul: (AC 33) and (GT 27) battle for a loose ball, looks like (GT 27) grabs the hand of (AC 33) who falls down to draw the foul, whistle blows in her favour, a direct free-kick is awarded in AC territory on the left wing side
Highlights:~8' AC GOAL: (AC 8) takes the direct free kick with a cross pass to the opposite wing side for (AC 02), she beats (GT 100) with a self pass forward down the right wing and chases it down with a shot on target that is aimed for the far side bottom left corner that stuns everyone, (GT 21- GK) should have had this shot blocked, nothing special other than its spontaneous nature, the shot went through TWO GT defenders, so it was a very well placed shot on target that missed defenders, (AC 11) was well positioned to get any big rebounds, great AC goal
Highlights:~9' AC Miss: (GT 1) heads the ball forward with a light tap that (AC 02) kicks forward back into GT territory, (AC 11) is wide open but the ball is too deep, (GT 21- GK) comes off her line and gets to the ball and bodies it, wisely not using her hands as she is positioned outside of the 16yard box, the ball still loose but is eventually out of bounds on the sidelines by AC, (AC 11) subs off for **(AC 1)
Highlights:~9' GT Miss: (AC 1) tries to clear the ball forward but (GT 7) steps in front of the ball and re-directs it deep into AC right wing corner that (GT 100) tracks down, she slows the pace down and controls the ball a bit with (AC 8) on her back, she kicks a back pass to (GT 7) who one-time kicks the ball that goes to the left wing side where (GT 27) is all alone. (GT 27) gets a one-time volley shot on target but HOLY SHIT (AC 250- GK) had her left hand stuck out and it hits her hand and drops in the front of both (AC 250- GK) and (GT 27), (AC 250- GK) instantly drops down and smothers the ball. WHAT A SAVE!!! i thought this shot from last week's previews was 100% a goal lolol, it was a huge save, ULTRA INSTINCT save!!!!!
HALFTIME SCORE LINE: ------- GT 0 - 1 AC------------, both teams are playing hard, with both getting offensive chances, it's just a matter of finishing their chances with a goal
Highlights:~10' GT Miss: (GT 1) takes the centreline kick-in with a shot on net that misses the target to the right by a few feet, GT needs to build up plays in AC territory and not lose the ball with a deep shot...
Highlights:~10' GT Miss: (GT 1) steals the ball from (AC 33) and dribbles down the left wing side being pursued by (AC 02 she kicks a beautiful rolling cross to a wide open (GT 100) who traps the ball (WHY NOT ONE-TIME IT!!) and slows down the play with AC defenders frantically chasing the ball, she kicks a rolling pass to the opposite wing for (GT 1) to take a shot on target that is aimed for the near side bottom left corner that (AC 250- GK) manages to get her right hand on and the ball goes out of bounds for a corner kick, HYUNYI YAH! you just wasted a glorious one-time shot on target, and I know you can blast those with some accuracy and a whole lot of power, upon the many replays, it looks like HyunYi decided correctly as the ball was too close to her feet to manage a good shot on target
Highlights:~11' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to the goal mouth area that (AC 11) re-directs on her own net, (AC 250- GK) has her eyes on the ball throughout and manages to smother the re-direction, AC was man-marking both (GT 7) and (GT 100) heavily that none of them could get free to be a pass option, GT need to start thinking of scoring the tying goal
Highlights:~11' GT GOAL: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to top of the 16yard box area, (GT 100) and (GT 7) stayed put near the left wing side at the behest of Coach BeomSeok's yelling to stay still, Coach BeomSeok calls go as the pass is kicked and (GT 7) breaks free from the suffocating man-marking of (AC 02) and (AC 33) by using (GT 100) as a pick and cuts towards the middle, (GT 7) takes a power one-time shot on target aimed centre and high and beats (AC 250- GK) by going between her arms trying to block it, what a beauty set piece, great pass, great shot, and great movement
Highlights:~12' AC Miss: (AC 250- GK) drops the ball for (AC 02) who kicks the ball forward to the left wing for (AC 11) who loses the ball to (GT 7) who kicks the ball forward that (AC 8) traps and kicks back to the left wing side for (AC 11), this time she keeps ball control but is marked tight by (GT 7) so she back passes to (AC 02), who kicks a deep pass down the right wing for (AC 33) who traps it on the sideline and kicks a cross pass for (AC 8) who one-time power shoots the ball on target to the wide side mid right area that (GT 21- GK) punches out towards the opposite wing where (AC 11) is all alone, she manages to botch the first touch insofar that the ball went right back to (GT 21- GK) who smothered the ball, great ball movement and passing
Highlights:~13' AC Miss: (GT 7) takes a sideline kick in with a pass towards the middle that goes weakly to no one, (AC 33) cuts the ball off and dribbles to the center circle, leaving the ball for (AC 8) to continue the offensive push, (AC 8) slows down and gathers the ball, with no GT defender near her, she sets up for a deep power shot aimed for the bottom left corner that is on target but (GT 21- GK) lunges over and blocks the ball with her right thigh, a huge rebound goes up in the air and (AC 11) gets her head on the ball but the re-direction is way off the mark and goes out of bounds for a goal kick
Highlights:~14' GT Miss: (GT 21- GK) kicks the ball deep into AC territory that (GT 100) tracks down near the right wing corner, dribbling back to her end to evade (AC 02) she kicks a short pass to the middle for (GT 1) who traps the ball and then taps the ball forward to evade both (AC 02) and (AC 8) and she runs between them to chase the ball down, she gets to the ball and takes a shot on net that is aimed for the near side bottom right corner and misses by a few feet, (AC 250- GK) was in position to save the ball
Highlights:~15' AC GOAL: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a low cross near the goal mouth area that (AC 11) beats her defensive mark and manages to get a one-time right footed re-direction that goes to the bottom left corner for a goal, (AC 11)'s first league goal and a great re-direction with pace and accuracy at that
Highlights:~15' GT Miss: (GT 21- GK) throws a deep ball that bounces and (GT 100) chases down the right wing side, she takes a shot on net that misses the near side post by a few feet, looks like (AC 02) is getting a bit tired and limpy
Highlights:~16' AC GOAL: (GT 27) saves a ball from going out of bounds on the sidelines, she kicks a hard pass to the middle that (GT 100) botches the first touch and (AC 8) steals the ball and runs between (GT 7) and (GT 100) now dribbling towards the left wing and now changing direction moving forward she is a step ahead of (GT 100) who is trying to catch up, (AC 8) lays the perfectly placed soft shot to the wide side bottom right corner for a goal, GT down 2 goals with 4 minutes left, can they do it?, (AC 1) subs on for (AC 02) who needs to rest her strained calf muscles on the sidelines
Highlights:~17' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a sideline kick-in near the centreline with a lobbing shot on target that bounces in front of (AC 250- GK) who misses it and the ball hits the right post!!!, the rebound bounces towards the goal mouth area where (GT 100) sticks out her leg to get a re-direction on net but (AC 11) is there to block the ball with her stomach and kicks the ball out of bounds towards the sidelines
Highlights:~17' GT Miss: (GT 1) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot on target that is fully blocked by AC wall (AC 11) the ball goes back to (GT 1) who corrals the ball and kicks a fast and low cross to the top of the 16yard box, (GT 100) is there but doesn't manage a shot or a trap, the ball continues out of bounds to the opposite wing, a wasted chance, and time is ticking
Highlights:~18' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot on target that is near the centerline moreso in GT territory, the ball is high and was a set up for a heading attempt for (GT 1) but the ball goes into the net with no other contact and is ruled no goal, a great shot, but not the timed to shoot like that on target
Highlights:~18' AC GOAL: (AC 33) stops (GT 27) from dribbling down the left wing with a strong ball stop that rebounds into GT territory (GT 7) is there to gather the ball but she mis-steps and falls straight down to the ground (AC 33) takes advantage of the mistake and charges to the ball and dribbles forward with (GT 7) and (GT 1) converging onto (AC 33), (GT 21- GK) also moves off her goal line to cover the angles, (AC 33) takes a shot on target that squirts by all the GT players and rolls to the goal mouth area where (AC 1) is all alone and she takes a shot on the wide open net, (AC 1) gets her first league goal in a good display of running to the open lane rather than chasing after a ball that her teammate is in control of. Looks like GT will have a very difficult time for a tie score. Cannot blame (GT 21- GK), she played it well, AC just played it better, (AC 33) subs off and (AC 02) enters the game
Highlights:~18' GT & AC Sub: (GT 7) subs off, (GT 66) enters the game, first sub for GT in the game, (AC 02) subs off for (AC 33) to enter the game
FINAL SCORE LINE: ------- GT 1 - 4 AC------------------------, ChaeYoung comes up big for AC in net, JeeIn gets her first goal, HaNa gets her first goal, great showing from AC, GT lost their focus, again HaeNa is the enigma, she gets goals but her first touch is terrible and she managed to messed up her footwork to cede that 4th goal. JeongSun was strong in net just the scoreline makes her look worse, her decision making from leaving her goal line is good, HyunYi was off her game.
PREVIEWS: FM v WC, WC looks strong, Naori combo having some chemistry, SoYeon outmuscling WC defense and that last shot in the previews looks like a goal, so most likely isn't hahaha
submitted by Sanofi2016NFLPOOL to koreanvariety [link] [comments]
Knock-out Playoffs: Game 01 - Giants vs. Actionista
Players, their teams, managers and their IG's PART 2
Thanks to u/M3rc_Nate
please use >!text to hide/spoilers!< to hide any spoilers for at least the first couple of days. However, expect not everyone will follow; so SPOILERS will be discussed.
| TEAM | Played | WINS | LOSSES | Goal Diff. | Scored | Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NFa | 3 | 2 | 1 | +0 | 4 | 4 |
| SFb | 3 | 2 | 1 | +0 | 2 | 2 |
| WW | 3 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 2 | 1 |
| BDy | 3 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 2 | 3 |
NF = NatFam
SF = StreamingFighter
WW = WonderWoman
a = automatic promotion to SuperLeague
b = possible promotion to SuperLeague, knock-out game vs. the winner of 5th/6th seed in SL (GV or TG)
y = suspended from all League play
| TEAM | Played | WINS | LOSSES | Goal Diff. | Scored | Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC | 2 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 6 | 5 |
| FM | 2 | 1 | 1 | +0 | 3 | 3 |
| TGx | 2 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 3 | 4 |
AC = Actionista
FM = FireMoths
TG = TopGirl
| TEAM | Played | WINS | LOSSES | Goal Diff. | Scored | Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WC | 2 | 1 | 1 | +2 | 6 | 4 |
| GT | 2 | 1 | 1 | +0 | 3 | 3 |
| GVx | 2 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 5 | 7 |
GT = Giants
GV = Gaevengers
WC = World Class
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals (versus) | Games Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hwang HeeJung | NF | 3(SF 1, BD 2) | 3 |
| T2 | Lee YoungJin | AC | 2(TG 2) | 2 |
| T2 | Kim BoKyung | TG | 2(AC 2) | 2 |
| T2 | Lee HyeJeong | AC | 2(FM 2) | 2 |
| T2 | Lee HyunYi | GT | 2(GV 2) | 2 |
| T2 | SaoRi | WC | 2(GT 1-pk, GV 1) | 2 |
| T3 | SeoMoon Tak | BD | 1(NF 1) | 3 |
| T3 | YuBin | TG | 1(AC 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Jeong HeIn | AC | 1(TG 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Song HaeNa | GT | 1(GV 1) | 2 |
| T3 | SeoGi | BD | 1(WW 1) | 3 |
| T3 | EuDDeum | SF | 1(NF 1) | 3 |
| T3 | Kim MinJi | NF | 1(SF 1) | 3 |
| T3 | Naty | WC | 1(GV 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Lee EunHyung | GV | 1(WC 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Kim SeungHye | GV | 1(WC 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Kim MinKyung | GV | 1(WC 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Hong SooAh | FM | 1(AC 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Eva | WC | 1(GT 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Kim GaYoung | WW | 1(NF 1) | 3 |
| T3 | Kim SeolHee | WW | 1(NF 1) | 3 |
| T3 | Park SunYoung | FM | 1(TG 1) | 2 |
| T3 | Ahn YeWon | SF | 1(BD 1) | 3 |
GT with coach Oh BeomSeok
| no. | Player | TEAM |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | Lee HyunYi (C) | F |
| 7 | Song HaeNa | D |
| 21 | Jin JeongSun | GK |
| 18 | Kim JinKyung | F |
| 66 | Cha SeoRin | (SUB) |
| 1 | Heo KyungHee | D |
| no. | Player | TEAM |
|---|---|---|
| 02 | Lee YoungJin (C) | D |
| 33 | Lee HyeJeong | F |
| 11 | Moon JiIn | F |
| 8 | Jeong HeIn | M |
| 250 | Lee ChaeYoung | GK |
| 1 | Park HaNa | (SUB) |
Highlights:~2' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in deep in AC territory with a shot on target that is bouncy, (GT 21- GK) gets in front of the ball attempting to catch it, but hits her knee and goes out for a corner kick
Highlights:~2' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a low lobbing shot on target deep in her defensive territory that (GT 21- GK) tracks down and follows and pushes the ball out of bounds for a corner kick
Highlights:~3' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power low roller shot on target that goes in the net, however, there is no other incidental contact or touch from any field player that the goal is no good
Highlights:~3' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power low roller shot on near the goal mouth that (AC 33) botches the first touch but manages to get a back heel kick shot on target, that (GT 1) manages to block, the ball goes out of bounds for a corner kick
Highlights:~4' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a delicious perfect cross pass to the top of the 16 yard box that (GT 100) one-time shoots on target that is placed low and in the middle, (AC 250- GK) gets her left foot on the ball to re-direct it out of bounds for a corner kick, what a great pass, shot, and save
Highlights:~4' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to the goal mouth area that (AC 33) manages to cut off and trap, she is being rushed by everyone collapsing on her position that she poke kicks the ball forward, (GT 1) gets to the ball first and takes a one-time shot on net that is way off target
Highlights:~5' GT Miss: (AC 250- GK) tosses the ball deep to (AC 11) but she botches the first touch and (GT 1) takes the ball, with a great cut move she dekes out (AC 8) and dribbles down the right wing, she kicks a great cross pass that goes through (AC 33) but holy smokes NO ONE from GT was expecting the cross pass both (GT 27) and (GT 100) were a step behind and flat footed on a great cross
Highlights:~6' AC Foul: (AC 02) and (GT 27) go for a 50/50 air ball, (AC 02) pushes (GT 27) out of the way and is whistled for a foul, a direct free-kick is awarded on the left wing side at the centre line
Highlights:~6' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes direct free kick with a shot on target that is blocked by (AC 8) the ball goes to the wing and (GT 100) and (AC 8) battle for the ball, (GT 100) manages to control the ball and kick an outlet pass to the opposite wing to (GT 7) who traps the ball and takes a shot on target that is aimed for the near side bottom right corner, (AC 250- GK) is well positioned and manages to smother the ball
Highlights:~7' GT Skills: (GT 1) gets a side jumping header to keep the ball on the offensive zone, the ball dropped to (AC 02) who kicks it out and goes out of bounds to the sidelines
Highlights:~7' AC Miss: (AC 02) kicks the ball forward and it manages to reach a deep positioned (AC 11), (GT 21- GK) comes off her goal line to contest the ball and kicks it out of bounds towards the sidelines before (AC 11) can take a shot or control the ball
Highlights:~7' GT unexpected Skills: (GT 7) totally misses a bouncy ball and it rolls towards GT defensive end into the corner, (GT 21- GK) kicks the most unexpected and technically beautiful forward rolling pass down the wing for (GT 100) to receive, the play ends with no shot on net for GT
Highlights:~8' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot that is blocked by the GT wall of (GT 27), the ball bounces back to (AC 8) who takes the ball and dribbles down the right wing side and manages to take a shot on net that misses the near side post by a few feet, (GT 21- GK) was well positioned to cut the angles
Highlights:~8' GT Foul: (AC 33) and (GT 27) battle for a loose ball, looks like (GT 27) grabs the hand of (AC 33) who falls down to draw the foul, whistle blows in her favour, a direct free-kick is awarded in AC territory on the left wing side
Highlights:~8' AC GOAL: (AC 8) takes the direct free kick with a cross pass to the opposite wing side for (AC 02), she beats (GT 100) with a self pass forward down the right wing and chases it down with a shot on target that is aimed for the far side bottom left corner that stuns everyone, (GT 21- GK) should have had this shot blocked, nothing special other than its spontaneous nature, the shot went through TWO GT defenders, so it was a very well placed shot on target that missed defenders, (AC 11) was well positioned to get any big rebounds, great AC goal
Highlights:~9' AC Miss: (GT 1) heads the ball forward with a light tap that (AC 02) kicks forward back into GT territory, (AC 11) is wide open but the ball is too deep, (GT 21- GK) comes off her line and gets to the ball and bodies it, wisely not using her hands as she is positioned outside of the 16yard box, the ball still loose but is eventually out of bounds on the sidelines by AC, (AC 11) subs off for **(AC 1)
Highlights:~9' GT Miss: (AC 1) tries to clear the ball forward but (GT 7) steps in front of the ball and re-directs it deep into AC right wing corner that (GT 100) tracks down, she slows the pace down and controls the ball a bit with (AC 8) on her back, she kicks a back pass to (GT 7) who one-time kicks the ball that goes to the left wing side where (GT 27) is all alone. (GT 27) gets a one-time volley shot on target but HOLY SHIT (AC 250- GK) had her left hand stuck out and it hits her hand and drops in the front of both (AC 250- GK) and (GT 27), (AC 250- GK) instantly drops down and smothers the ball. WHAT A SAVE!!! i thought this shot from last week's previews was 100% a goal lolol, it was a huge save, ULTRA INSTINCT save!!!!!
HALFTIME SCORE LINE: ------- GT 0 - 1 AC------------, both teams are playing hard, with both getting offensive chances, it's just a matter of finishing their chances with a goal
Highlights:~10' GT Miss: (GT 1) takes the centreline kick-in with a shot on net that misses the target to the right by a few feet, GT needs to build up plays in AC territory and not lose the ball with a deep shot...
Highlights:~10' GT Miss: (GT 1) steals the ball from (AC 33) and dribbles down the left wing side being pursued by (AC 02 she kicks a beautiful rolling cross to a wide open (GT 100) who traps the ball (WHY NOT ONE-TIME IT!!) and slows down the play with AC defenders frantically chasing the ball, she kicks a rolling pass to the opposite wing for (GT 1) to take a shot on target that is aimed for the near side bottom left corner that (AC 250- GK) manages to get her right hand on and the ball goes out of bounds for a corner kick, HYUNYI YAH! you just wasted a glorious one-time shot on target, and I know you can blast those with some accuracy and a whole lot of power, upon the many replays, it looks like HyunYi decided correctly as the ball was too close to her feet to manage a good shot on target
Highlights:~11' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to the goal mouth area that (AC 11) re-directs on her own net, (AC 250- GK) has her eyes on the ball throughout and manages to smother the re-direction, AC was man-marking both (GT 7) and (GT 100) heavily that none of them could get free to be a pass option, GT need to start thinking of scoring the tying goal
Highlights:~11' GT GOAL: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to top of the 16yard box area, (GT 100) and (GT 7) stayed put near the left wing side at the behest of Coach BeomSeok's yelling to stay still, Coach BeomSeok calls go as the pass is kicked and (GT 7) breaks free from the suffocating man-marking of (AC 02) and (AC 33) by using (GT 100) as a pick and cuts towards the middle, (GT 7) takes a power one-time shot on target aimed centre and high and beats (AC 250- GK) by going between her arms trying to block it, what a beauty set piece, great pass, great shot, and great movement
Highlights:~12' AC Miss: (AC 250- GK) drops the ball for (AC 02) who kicks the ball forward to the left wing for (AC 11) who loses the ball to (GT 7) who kicks the ball forward that (AC 8) traps and kicks back to the left wing side for (AC 11), this time she keeps ball control but is marked tight by (GT 7) so she back passes to (AC 02), who kicks a deep pass down the right wing for (AC 33) who traps it on the sideline and kicks a cross pass for (AC 8) who one-time power shoots the ball on target to the wide side mid right area that (GT 21- GK) punches out towards the opposite wing where (AC 11) is all alone, she manages to botch the first touch insofar that the ball went right back to (GT 21- GK) who smothered the ball, great ball movement and passing
Highlights:~13' AC Miss: (GT 7) takes a sideline kick in with a pass towards the middle that goes weakly to no one, (AC 33) cuts the ball off and dribbles to the center circle, leaving the ball for (AC 8) to continue the offensive push, (AC 8) slows down and gathers the ball, with no GT defender near her, she sets up for a deep power shot aimed for the bottom left corner that is on target but (GT 21- GK) lunges over and blocks the ball with her right thigh, a huge rebound goes up in the air and (AC 11) gets her head on the ball but the re-direction is way off the mark and goes out of bounds for a goal kick
Highlights:~14' GT Miss: (GT 21- GK) kicks the ball deep into AC territory that (GT 100) tracks down near the right wing corner, dribbling back to her end to evade (AC 02) she kicks a short pass to the middle for (GT 1) who traps the ball and then taps the ball forward to evade both (AC 02) and (AC 8) and she runs between them to chase the ball down, she gets to the ball and takes a shot on net that is aimed for the near side bottom right corner and misses by a few feet, (AC 250- GK) was in position to save the ball
Highlights:~15' AC GOAL: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a low cross near the goal mouth area that (AC 11) beats her defensive mark and manages to get a one-time right footed re-direction that goes to the bottom left corner for a goal, (AC 11)'s first league goal and a great re-direction with pace and accuracy at that
Highlights:~15' GT Miss: (GT 21- GK) throws a deep ball that bounces and (GT 100) chases down the right wing side, she takes a shot on net that misses the near side post by a few feet, looks like (AC 02) is getting a bit tired and limpy
Highlights:~16' AC GOAL: (GT 27) saves a ball from going out of bounds on the sidelines, she kicks a hard pass to the middle that (GT 100) botches the first touch and (AC 8) steals the ball and runs between (GT 7) and (GT 100) now dribbling towards the left wing and now changing direction moving forward she is a step ahead of (GT 100) who is trying to catch up, (AC 8) lays the perfectly placed soft shot to the wide side bottom right corner for a goal, GT down 2 goals with 4 minutes left, can they do it?, (AC 1) subs on for (AC 02) who needs to rest her strained calf muscles on the sidelines
Highlights:~17' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a sideline kick-in near the centreline with a lobbing shot on target that bounces in front of (AC 250- GK) who misses it and the ball hits the right post!!!, the rebound bounces towards the goal mouth area where (GT 100) sticks out her leg to get a re-direction on net but (AC 11) is there to block the ball with her stomach and kicks the ball out of bounds towards the sidelines
Highlights:~17' GT Miss: (GT 1) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot on target that is fully blocked by AC wall (AC 11) the ball goes back to (GT 1) who corrals the ball and kicks a fast and low cross to the top of the 16yard box, (GT 100) is there but doesn't manage a shot or a trap, the ball continues out of bounds to the opposite wing, a wasted chance, and time is ticking
Highlights:~18' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot on target that is near the centerline moreso in GT territory, the ball is high and was a set up for a heading attempt for (GT 1) but the ball goes into the net with no other contact and is ruled no goal, a great shot, but not the timed to shoot like that on target
Highlights:~18' AC GOAL: (AC 33) stops (GT 27) from dribbling down the left wing with a strong ball stop that rebounds into GT territory (GT 7) is there to gather the ball but she mis-steps and falls straight down to the ground (AC 33) takes advantage of the mistake and charges to the ball and dribbles forward with (GT 7) and (GT 1) converging onto (AC 33), (GT 21- GK) also moves off her goal line to cover the angles, (AC 33) takes a shot on target that squirts by all the GT players and rolls to the goal mouth area where (AC 1) is all alone and she takes a shot on the wide open net, (AC 1) gets her first league goal in a good display of running to the open lane rather than chasing after a ball that her teammate is in control of. Looks like GT will have a very difficult time for a tie score. Cannot blame (GT 21- GK), she played it well, AC just played it better, (AC 33) subs off and (AC 02) enters the game
Highlights:~18' GT & AC Sub: (GT 7) subs off, (GT 66) enters the game, first sub for GT in the game, (AC 02) subs off for (AC 33) to enter the game
FINAL SCORE LINE: ------- GT 1 - 4 AC------------------------, ChaeYoung comes up big for AC in net, JeeIn gets her first goal, HaNa gets her first goal, great showing from AC, GT lost their focus, again HaeNa is the enigma, she gets goals but her first touch is terrible and she managed to messed up her footwork to cede that 4th goal. JeongSun was strong in net just the scoreline makes her look worse, her decision making from leaving her goal line is good, HyunYi was off her game.
PREVIEWS: FM v WC, WC looks strong, Naori combo having some chemistry, SoYeon outmuscling WC defense and that last shot in the previews looks like a goal, so most likely isn't hahaha
2023.05.31 21:24 Masteur Spring and the Trials of the Untested
Staski stood by his father’s feet at the Yuanqatsan’s annual celebration heralding the coming of Spring. The sound of banging drums and synchronized chants filled the air as smoke from eight different campfires climbed up into the afternoon sky. Behind each of the eight campfires were eight teenage boys standing atop tree stumps, their faces veiled in a woven hood. Behind them stood the village Crones. The widowed old ladies wore ornamental dresses made of woven cattail, each one decorated in a different mix of feathers, shells, bones, and teeth.
A Kingfisher flew overhead, catching Staski’s gaze.
It was the birds like the kingfisher overhead, returning to Where the Sea Meets the Land, that announced All-Mother has granted Spring to return.
Villagers first spotted the return of the spring birds just a few days earlier. Children ran around eagerly sharing with one another which birds they saw as parents smiled and let out sighs of relief. The Crones confirmed it — All-Mother has blessed us with the return of the warm months — and set today to be the day to celebrate.
For many, the Spring Festival was a joyous occasion. One of celebration, familial pride, and accomplishment. For the Yuanqatsan Nobodies, it was a day of shame.
The chanting died down as the eldest Crone, Plaqa, began to speak.
“All-Mother has thanked us for our dutiful service to her and her creations,” the old Crone spoke, “and she blesses us with the return of the birds, the return of the fish, and the end of the Cold Months. We must never waver from our commitment to thank All-Mother for all that she has blessed us with.”
“And we thank those who tested their commitment to All-Mother,” the Crone motioned towards the eight veiled boys. “We had eleven Untested take The Trial during the Cold Months, and eight Untested showed their undying commitment to All-Mother. Today we celebrate, as these Untested become Men.”
Staski watched with eager intensity. He was envious, as well — at just eleven years of age, his parents said he must wait at least another year before taking The Trial himself. He wasn’t ready, Father said, and failure would bring insurmountable shame.
Every year during the cold months, when the birds and many animals return to All-Mother in the distant paradise, the Yuanqatsan hold The Trial — where Untested boys venture alone into the wilderness and return with gifts to the Crones and All-Mother. Those who succeed are ushered into manhood at the Spring Festival, and they’ll be allowed to marry and begin families. Those who fail become a Nobody, their reputation tarnished and their ability to find a suitable bride severely diminished.
Simply finishing the Trial isn’t everything. The gifts they bring determine the title the Crones bestow upon them at the Spring Festival. The better the gifts they manage to track, hunt, or gather the more prestige they’ll bring to their family.
Eight boys returned with gifts for the Crones and All-Mother. Two returned empty-handed with their heads in their palms — disgraced and branded a Nobody — and one Untested was never seen again.
Plaqa approached the first boy. He was bigger than most, and even with his face veiled, Staski knew it to be Latsi. He was the son of Huttasqik the Fearless, one of the settlement’s most powerful patriarchs.
“All-Mother thanks you for the gift,” the Crone pulled down the veil to reveal a stern-faced boy of 12 years. Latsi was the first to return from The Trial, dragging behind him a small marsh deer. An impressive gift in an even more impressive time. Although directly helping an Untested during their trial was strictly forbidden, the boys are allowed to take with them any familial items such as bows or spears — a definite advantage to Untested of powerful or influential families.
"We name you, Latsi the Fearless!" The Crone belted and was met with applause, as the attendees — including Statski — banged all manners of drums. It was a prestigious title and the same as his father’s, ensuring the family’s power will remain.
Staski looked up as the kingfisher glided back into sight.
He imagined being the kingfisher, feeling the breeze beneath his wings as he flew gracefully over the village. He pictured himself in the skies, looking down at the settlement from the view of the majestic bird.
Along the marshy shore, an earthen berm in the rough shape of a crescent moon cradled the village Staski had always called home. Cordgrass and cattails, carefully manicured by the women of the settlement, grew up from the adult-sized berms. Even from the skies above, the kingfisher could see the outlines of oyster beds built into the base of the berms.
Piers built of water-resistant cypress logs and planks jutted out from the center of the half-circle berm. A variety of nets, baskets, and harpoons lay idle on the docks, waiting to be scooped on the morrow by busy hands. Most of the vessels floating along the piers and piled up against the berms were simple canoes, in which the vast majority of Yuanqatsan used daily to fish. A few were much larger --- enough to seat a half-dozen men --- with hulls made of sewn planks.
Narrow plank bridges connected the coastal piers to the stilted homes that stood within the protective embrace of the berms. Each sat about four feet off the muddy ground, offering protection from water snakes and seasonal flooding. Roofs made of thatched cattails shielded the inhabitants from the sun. Most were only enclosed on only two to three sides with both full- and half-walls made of wattle and daub. The afternoon breeze through the openings kept the homes comfortable in the otherwise humid marshes.
The houses along the berm were the largest and most eloquent, inhabited by the wealthiest and most influential families of the village with titles like The Brave, The Fearless, or The Hawk-Hearted.
Staski swooped down and perched himself atop the largest and most ornate of the stilted houses. Etched into the framing logs of the home were carvings of birds like swooping kingfishers, terns, and ospreys, wading egrets and herons, jittering snipes, and drumming woodpeckers. Along the exterior, chimes made of shells and bones jingled in the breeze.
Staski launched upwards as the kingfisher and climbed into the sky with momentum from a coastal updraft.
Not phased by the gathered mass of jubilant Yuanqatsan at the village center, Staski circled the skies above. The circular structure of the village became increasingly jumbled as the ever-expanding village reached into the wood. The houses became smaller and more clustered, with the plank bridges connecting the stilted homes looking like a messy spider web of wood from above.
Poorer fishermen, crabbers, and gatherers inhabited the exterior huts. The men there came from less-influential families and bore more modest titles like The Crabeater, The Web-Footed, or The Faithful. Sprinkled among them were the lowest of Yuanqatsan families --- The Nobodies -- who attempted to eek out a life with minimal support from the crones and society.
Staski circled back through the village and towards the distant horizon over the water.
"Son..." whispered a voice.
Staski flew further and further, overtop miles of salt marshes dotted with patchwork islands of vegetation.
"Son," the voice said again louder.
The village was a distant speck of green and yellow behind Staski, being swallowed by the land as he flew further and further. The paddies of cordgrass disappeared beneath him, leaving just a vast blanket of blue beneath the pinkening sky. If he kept flying, somewhere and someplace, he was certain he'd find the paradise All-Mother made for her creations. The paradise that was always warm and the food plentiful -- the paradise where many of her creations, like the Kingfisher, returned to during the Cold Months.
When would her proudest creation of all, the Yuanqatsan, be welcomed back to All-Mother's Paradise?
"Son," Staski jolted awake. His father was looking down at him, his hand gripping his shoulder and eyes squinting in the smoke. "Pay attention, son, and play your drums. You do not wish to anger All-Mother, do you, son? It may be you standing up there next spring, do you want All-Mother to remember you ignoring the blessings from the crones?"
Staski shook his head and started banging his hand-held drum once again. His father nodded and returned his attention to the proceedings in front of him.
The ceremony proceeded with the crones thanking and bestowing more titles. A few poorer Untested boys, without much in the way of helping tools, returned with baskets of crabs. It was more difficult to crab in the winter, certainly, but it was still the most basic of gifts for All-Mother.
Still, the gift of crabs ensured the Untested boys would become men and although they would not reap considerable honor, it was a step above being a Nobody. It was what most of the boys brought, being given titles like The Crabeater, The Web-Footed, and The Wet-Handed.
Two boys from well-to-do families received honorable titles for their baskets of muskrats and squirrels --- one becoming The Valiant-Armed and another The Bold-Hearted.
Staski caught a moment to look up, trying to find the kingfisher in the darkening sky.
The bird was nowhere to be seen.
submitted by Masteur to DawnPowers [link] [comments]
A Kingfisher flew overhead, catching Staski’s gaze.
It was the birds like the kingfisher overhead, returning to Where the Sea Meets the Land, that announced All-Mother has granted Spring to return.
Villagers first spotted the return of the spring birds just a few days earlier. Children ran around eagerly sharing with one another which birds they saw as parents smiled and let out sighs of relief. The Crones confirmed it — All-Mother has blessed us with the return of the warm months — and set today to be the day to celebrate.
For many, the Spring Festival was a joyous occasion. One of celebration, familial pride, and accomplishment. For the Yuanqatsan Nobodies, it was a day of shame.
The chanting died down as the eldest Crone, Plaqa, began to speak.
“All-Mother has thanked us for our dutiful service to her and her creations,” the old Crone spoke, “and she blesses us with the return of the birds, the return of the fish, and the end of the Cold Months. We must never waver from our commitment to thank All-Mother for all that she has blessed us with.”
“And we thank those who tested their commitment to All-Mother,” the Crone motioned towards the eight veiled boys. “We had eleven Untested take The Trial during the Cold Months, and eight Untested showed their undying commitment to All-Mother. Today we celebrate, as these Untested become Men.”
Staski watched with eager intensity. He was envious, as well — at just eleven years of age, his parents said he must wait at least another year before taking The Trial himself. He wasn’t ready, Father said, and failure would bring insurmountable shame.
Every year during the cold months, when the birds and many animals return to All-Mother in the distant paradise, the Yuanqatsan hold The Trial — where Untested boys venture alone into the wilderness and return with gifts to the Crones and All-Mother. Those who succeed are ushered into manhood at the Spring Festival, and they’ll be allowed to marry and begin families. Those who fail become a Nobody, their reputation tarnished and their ability to find a suitable bride severely diminished.
Simply finishing the Trial isn’t everything. The gifts they bring determine the title the Crones bestow upon them at the Spring Festival. The better the gifts they manage to track, hunt, or gather the more prestige they’ll bring to their family.
Eight boys returned with gifts for the Crones and All-Mother. Two returned empty-handed with their heads in their palms — disgraced and branded a Nobody — and one Untested was never seen again.
Plaqa approached the first boy. He was bigger than most, and even with his face veiled, Staski knew it to be Latsi. He was the son of Huttasqik the Fearless, one of the settlement’s most powerful patriarchs.
“All-Mother thanks you for the gift,” the Crone pulled down the veil to reveal a stern-faced boy of 12 years. Latsi was the first to return from The Trial, dragging behind him a small marsh deer. An impressive gift in an even more impressive time. Although directly helping an Untested during their trial was strictly forbidden, the boys are allowed to take with them any familial items such as bows or spears — a definite advantage to Untested of powerful or influential families.
"We name you, Latsi the Fearless!" The Crone belted and was met with applause, as the attendees — including Statski — banged all manners of drums. It was a prestigious title and the same as his father’s, ensuring the family’s power will remain.
Staski looked up as the kingfisher glided back into sight.
He imagined being the kingfisher, feeling the breeze beneath his wings as he flew gracefully over the village. He pictured himself in the skies, looking down at the settlement from the view of the majestic bird.
Along the marshy shore, an earthen berm in the rough shape of a crescent moon cradled the village Staski had always called home. Cordgrass and cattails, carefully manicured by the women of the settlement, grew up from the adult-sized berms. Even from the skies above, the kingfisher could see the outlines of oyster beds built into the base of the berms.
Piers built of water-resistant cypress logs and planks jutted out from the center of the half-circle berm. A variety of nets, baskets, and harpoons lay idle on the docks, waiting to be scooped on the morrow by busy hands. Most of the vessels floating along the piers and piled up against the berms were simple canoes, in which the vast majority of Yuanqatsan used daily to fish. A few were much larger --- enough to seat a half-dozen men --- with hulls made of sewn planks.
Narrow plank bridges connected the coastal piers to the stilted homes that stood within the protective embrace of the berms. Each sat about four feet off the muddy ground, offering protection from water snakes and seasonal flooding. Roofs made of thatched cattails shielded the inhabitants from the sun. Most were only enclosed on only two to three sides with both full- and half-walls made of wattle and daub. The afternoon breeze through the openings kept the homes comfortable in the otherwise humid marshes.
The houses along the berm were the largest and most eloquent, inhabited by the wealthiest and most influential families of the village with titles like The Brave, The Fearless, or The Hawk-Hearted.
Staski swooped down and perched himself atop the largest and most ornate of the stilted houses. Etched into the framing logs of the home were carvings of birds like swooping kingfishers, terns, and ospreys, wading egrets and herons, jittering snipes, and drumming woodpeckers. Along the exterior, chimes made of shells and bones jingled in the breeze.
Staski launched upwards as the kingfisher and climbed into the sky with momentum from a coastal updraft.
Not phased by the gathered mass of jubilant Yuanqatsan at the village center, Staski circled the skies above. The circular structure of the village became increasingly jumbled as the ever-expanding village reached into the wood. The houses became smaller and more clustered, with the plank bridges connecting the stilted homes looking like a messy spider web of wood from above.
Poorer fishermen, crabbers, and gatherers inhabited the exterior huts. The men there came from less-influential families and bore more modest titles like The Crabeater, The Web-Footed, or The Faithful. Sprinkled among them were the lowest of Yuanqatsan families --- The Nobodies -- who attempted to eek out a life with minimal support from the crones and society.
Staski circled back through the village and towards the distant horizon over the water.
"Son..." whispered a voice.
Staski flew further and further, overtop miles of salt marshes dotted with patchwork islands of vegetation.
"Son," the voice said again louder.
The village was a distant speck of green and yellow behind Staski, being swallowed by the land as he flew further and further. The paddies of cordgrass disappeared beneath him, leaving just a vast blanket of blue beneath the pinkening sky. If he kept flying, somewhere and someplace, he was certain he'd find the paradise All-Mother made for her creations. The paradise that was always warm and the food plentiful -- the paradise where many of her creations, like the Kingfisher, returned to during the Cold Months.
When would her proudest creation of all, the Yuanqatsan, be welcomed back to All-Mother's Paradise?
"Son," Staski jolted awake. His father was looking down at him, his hand gripping his shoulder and eyes squinting in the smoke. "Pay attention, son, and play your drums. You do not wish to anger All-Mother, do you, son? It may be you standing up there next spring, do you want All-Mother to remember you ignoring the blessings from the crones?"
Staski shook his head and started banging his hand-held drum once again. His father nodded and returned his attention to the proceedings in front of him.
The ceremony proceeded with the crones thanking and bestowing more titles. A few poorer Untested boys, without much in the way of helping tools, returned with baskets of crabs. It was more difficult to crab in the winter, certainly, but it was still the most basic of gifts for All-Mother.
Still, the gift of crabs ensured the Untested boys would become men and although they would not reap considerable honor, it was a step above being a Nobody. It was what most of the boys brought, being given titles like The Crabeater, The Web-Footed, and The Wet-Handed.
Two boys from well-to-do families received honorable titles for their baskets of muskrats and squirrels --- one becoming The Valiant-Armed and another The Bold-Hearted.
Staski caught a moment to look up, trying to find the kingfisher in the darkening sky.
The bird was nowhere to be seen.
2023.05.31 19:22 M_Tootles "Cargos, Slatterns & Butchery" with Helya & Grisel (Spoilers Extended)
This post is part of a series looking at the massive amount of 'rhyming' (and occasionally rhyming) recursivity I believe exists between (a) the homecoming of Petyr Baelish to the Fingers and (b) the homecoming of Theon Greyjoy to Pyke.
While this series/post can be read simply as a study 'for its own sake' of the curious recursion between these storylines, it is my belief that the 'rhyming' explored here between the stories of Petyr and Theon exists (at least in part) to foreshadow that, like Theon, Petyr Littlefinger, is (among other things) a scion of ironborn kings, because Petyr is Hoare-ish: I.e. because Petyr's blood is (in some part) the blood of the ironborn kings of House Hoare of Orkmont and, later, Harrenhal.
You can find an index of every post I've made on the topic of a Hoare-ish Littlefinger (including every post in this sub-series) [HERE].
Even if I'm wrong about Littlefinger's lineage, the 'rhyming' recursivity between the homecomings of Theon and Petyr detailed in this series remains, and certainly merits attention.
NOTE: In what follows, all uncited quotes are from ASOS Sansa VI, which describes Petyr's homecoming to his "Drearfort" tower of the 'Smallest Finger', or ACOK Theon I, which describes Theon's homecoming to "drear" Pyke.
As in past posts, I sometimes use "→" as shorthand for "'prefigures' and/or 'informs' and/or 'is reworked by' and/or 'finds a recursive rhyme in'.
As in: ACOK Theon I → ASOS Sansa VI.
This post picks up straight-away from where Part 8 left off. You can read Part 8 [HERE].
If you want to begin at the beginning, Part 1 is [HERE].
Recall that Bryen and Umfred come from shore to offload Sansa (who's just been promised a cup of wine to help with her upset "tummy") from the Merling King's rowboat:
Consider that Petyr's servant Kella has many bastards i.e. children, popping one out every few years:
Kella happily greets Petyr as he comes ashore, much as Lordsport's slattern "call[s] out to some passing Ibbenese sailors". Note that the sailors on the Merling King are likewise 'passing' — passing through:
The captain's daughter is "plump", as Kella is "fat":
She tells Theon…
She thereby helps Theon 'pop one off', a la Kella "pop[ping] one out".
Like Kella, she seems a bit stupid:
A Hoare, we might say.
This connects to Kella, specifically because of her name: Kella is a near anagram for "kale", a dark green plant, like the "dark green lichen".
Actually, the name Kella may have anothere precursor in Theon's story: "Qalen", the maester Theon asks Helya about upon his arrival at Pyke:
Consider first that Grisel, like the captain's daughter, seems slightly stupid (but eager to please), as she fails to grasp Petyr's sarcasm and takes his derisive joke about gulls' eggs and seaweed soup as an order:
(Gretel is a variant of "Greta". "Grisel" sounds like gristle, whereas in Hansel and Gretel the witch is trying to fatten Hansel up — she don't want no stringy meat! Note the thematic symmetry as well: By treating Hansel kindly and feeding him delicious treats, the witch is essentially "grooming" him for her own benefit/consumption, as Theon and Petyr groom the captain's daughter and Sansa, respectively, for their own benefit. Finally, note that "pebbles" are a key motif in Hansel and Gretel, prefiguring the proliferation of "pebbles" on Pyke, the 'rhyming' "pellets" on Petyr's Finger, and the isle of "Pebble" that leads to Petyr's Finger.)
The two "old" castle keepers neatly invert one another. Consider Grisel's comments about the old rushes and fire in Petyr's tower:
Where Helya leads Theon to his rooms on his orders—
This sharply reverses the situation Theon finds at Pyke, when he's deposited not in a single room shared by a bunch of people who've lived in it forever and warmed by a hearth with a burning fire, a la Sansa, nor in the "snug bedchamber" in the Sea Tower he'd anticipated (which sounds like Littlefinger's little "tower" by the sea), but in the Bloody Keep, in a whole-ass "suite" of large but "chilly", even "cold" rooms with incredibly high ceilings — rooms which haven't even been opened, much less lived-in, for "years", and which are the very definition of "dreary":
Most obviously, Theon's request for hot water prefigures Sansa's request for a hot bath:
Note also that Sansa requests her bath after thinking…
Slightly less obviously, the "wall hangings [that] were green with mildew" are reworked by Petyr's own green 'wall hanging': his grandfather's shield, which is painted with a "light green field" and which "hung… above the hearth". The "mildew" is reworked by the fact that the paint is "cracked and flaking" i.e. flawed. And maybe also by the "light green field", since a field grows crops which get milled and which get dewy.
Given that Theon's rooms are in several ways like Lysa (newly 'open for business' after a long period of being closed and untouched by men, etc.), and pronouncing aunt like antler, we also might say that where the Lysa-like rooms are "cold" and "damp", Lysa herself is Sansa's "cold" aunt. Rhyming 'rhyming'.
That "years had come and gone since" the room with the Lysa-like mattress "had last been opened" is reworked not just by Lysa getting laid, but textually when Sansa is told Lysa is coming to the Drearfort (where she is 're-opened', so to speak):
Littlefinger is himself a kind of River King (as Lord Paramount of the Trident), right? And note that we read all about his "slaughtered" "sons" just before he enters the tower, wherein we then see the foul betrayers who murdered their 'brothers'. I'm talking, of course, about his sheep and his sheepdogs:
(Note the word "mortified". This points straight back to Theon in his Bloody Tower for two reasons: First, greyscale, which mortifies the flesh, killed Balon's brother Harlon, who died "in a windowless tower room" at Pyke. Second: Theon will, in his next chapter, be truly mortified by the realization that "Esgred" is his sister Asha, where that masquerade in turn prefigures Sansa masquerading as Alayne.)
So the "cold" Bloody Keep with its partner the Kitchen Keep and its story of a "slaughter", betrayal, brother killing brother, a River King's sons' bodies "hacked to bits in their beds" — all these motifs are reworked by Kella's account of one of Lord Paramount Petyr's sheep-'sons' being killed by its lexicial 'brothers', the very "sheep-dogs" who were supposed to guard it, and of other sheep-'sons' being verbatim "butchered", i.e. slaughtered on a killing bed and in the process surely hacked into pieces that were then preserved against spoilage for future consumption, such that the resulting "cold salt mutton" could be used as travel rations. Which jibes with Theon's language, creatively interpreted:
Littlefinger has it… but it's not enough.
submitted by M_Tootles to asoiaf [link] [comments]
While this series/post can be read simply as a study 'for its own sake' of the curious recursion between these storylines, it is my belief that the 'rhyming' explored here between the stories of Petyr and Theon exists (at least in part) to foreshadow that, like Theon, Petyr Littlefinger, is (among other things) a scion of ironborn kings, because Petyr is Hoare-ish: I.e. because Petyr's blood is (in some part) the blood of the ironborn kings of House Hoare of Orkmont and, later, Harrenhal.
You can find an index of every post I've made on the topic of a Hoare-ish Littlefinger (including every post in this sub-series) [HERE].
Even if I'm wrong about Littlefinger's lineage, the 'rhyming' recursivity between the homecomings of Theon and Petyr detailed in this series remains, and certainly merits attention.
As in: ACOK Theon I → ASOS Sansa VI.
If you want to begin at the beginning, Part 1 is [HERE].
The Myraham's Prophetic Cargo
After Theon makes port, the captain of the Myraham announces his cargo to the people on the docks of Lordport and we read about the offloading of the Myraham:"We're out of Oldtown," the captain called down, "bearing apples and oranges, wines from the Arbor, feathers from the Summer Isles. I have pepper, woven leathers, a bolt of Myrish lace, mirrors for milady, a pair of Oldtown woodharps sweet as any you ever heard." The gangplank descended with a creak and a thud. "And I've brought your heir back to you."Most of what we read there seems to be reworked in and around Littlefinger's homecoming in ASOS Sansa VI, when the Merling King brings the Dreadfort its heir, Littlefinger, as well as the seeming heir to Winterfell, Sansa. This begins with the Arbor wine and fruit we see off-loaded from the Merling King:
Oswell made two more trips out to the Merling King to offload provisions. Among the loads he brought ashore were several casks of wine. Petyr poured Sansa a cup, as promised. …Besides the straight repetition of Arbor wine, oranges, apples, and heirs, the repeated Oldtown motif is baldly reworked by Sansa's description of the wine, which is patently Oldtown-summer-esque, per the only substantive pre-AFFC description of Oldtown, which associates it with hot, fruity summer nights:
… The wine was very fine; an Arbor vintage, she thought. It tasted of oak and fruit and hot summer nights, the flavors blossoming in her mouth like flowers opening to the sun. She only prayed that she could keep it down. Lord Petyr was being so kind, she did not want to spoil it all by retching on him.
… "Grisel," he called to the old woman, "bring some food up. … Oswell's brought some oranges and pomegranates from the King." …
Grisel reappeared…, balancing a large platter. … There were apples and pears and pomegranates, some sad-looking grapes, a huge blood orange.
"King Maekar's summer was hotter than this one, and near as long. … [T]he heat was fierce while it lasted. Oldtown… came alive only by night. … I remember the smells of those nights, my lord—perfume and sweat, melons ripe to bursting, peaches and pomegranates, nightshade and moonbloom." (AGOT Eddard V)The Myraham's "mirrors for milady" prefigure Sansa being figuratively groomed by Petyr and literally grooming herself in Petyr's Eyrie after he takes over:
When Gretchel fetched her Lysa's silvered looking glass, the color seemed just perfect with Alayne's mass of dark brown hair. (AFFC Alayne I)The Myraham's "woodharps sweet as any you ever heard" presage Sansa being attacked by Marillion, whose "voice was strong and sweet", (AFFC Sansa I) after he sings a song (about blowjobs?) called "Milady's Supper" (supper a la the Myraham-ish fruit Sansa eats for supper when she lands) during Petyr's wedding bedding:
Lady Lysa's singer launched into a bawdy version of "Milady's Supper"….The Myraham's "woven leathers" and "Myrish lace" are reworked into the "laces unlaced" i.e. unwoven during said wedding:
By the time they had gotten him into the tower and out of his clothes, the other women were flushed, with laces unlaced, kirtles crooked, and skirts in disarray.That it's a "bolt of Myrish lace" is interesting: After Sansa boards the Merling King, she sees a singular "bolt" from a crossbow strike Dontos, and then two more:
Lothor Brune dipped his torch. Three men stepped to the gunwale, raised crossbows, fired. One bolt took Dontos in the chest as he looked up…. The others ripped into throat and belly. (ASOS Sansa V)Three crossbow bolts? What does that remind us if not… a Myrish crossbow:
"The king is playing with his new crossbow," Tyrion said. Ridding himself of Joffrey had required only an ungainly Myrish crossbow that threw three quarrels at a time…. (ACOK Tyrion VI)What about the Myraham's "pepper"? I suspect this gets box-checked first by Sansa trying not to "retch" as she is off-loaded along with the wine with which Littlefinger tries to settle her tummy, as just two chapters later peppers are tightly linked to "retching" of the sort Sansa feels like doing:
[Tyrion] found himself on his knees retching… that double helping of fried eggs cooked up with onions and fiery Dornish peppers. (ASOS Tyrion X)GRRM seems to play off the "pepper" motif in other ways, as well. Consider that the gathering to meet the Myraham and the shouted questions that prompt her captain to announce her cargo—
A handful of Lordsport merchants had gathered to meet the ship. They shouted questions as the Myraham was tying up.—get reworked by Petyr's household all gathering "to meet" the Merling King and by their peppering one another with questions:
Servants emerged from the tower to meet them; a thin old woman and a fat middle-aged one, two ancient white-haired men, and a girl of two or three with a sty on one eye. When they recognized Lord Petyr they knelt on the rocks. "My household," he said. "I don't know the child. Another of Kella's bastards, I suppose. She pops one out every few years."She's a "popper", then, in case we didn't catch that retching → peppers. (This also reworks Theon "popping one off" with the captain's daughter, who is in many ways reworked by Kella, as will be discussed below.)
… [Petyr]… gave the old woman a kiss on the cheek and grinned at the younger one. "Who fathered this one, Kella?"A gathering, and questions, questions, questions, as when Theon docks.
The fat woman laughed. "I can't rightly say, m'lord. I'm not one for telling them no."
"And all the local lads are grateful, I am quite sure."
"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man. … "How long will you be in residence?"
"As short a time as possible, Bryen, have no fear. Is the place habitable just now, would you say?"
"If we knew you was coming we would have laid down fresh rushes, m'lord," said the crone. "There's a dung fire burning."
"Nothing says home like the smell of burning dung." Petyr turned to Sansa. "Grisel was my wet nurse, but she keeps my castle now. Umfred's my steward, and Bryen—didn't I name you captain of the guard the last time I was here?"
"You did, my lord.…"
… Petyr gestured toward the fat woman. "Kella minds my vast herds. How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"
Recall that Bryen and Umfred come from shore to offload Sansa (who's just been promised a cup of wine to help with her upset "tummy") from the Merling King's rowboat:
The two old men waded out up to their thighs to lift Sansa from the boat so she would not get her skirts wet.This reworks the "shorehands… off-loading… casks of wine" from a Tyroshi trader docked with the Myraham—
[Theon] spied a Tyroshi trading galley off-loading…—which itself prefigures the above-quoted off-loading of the Merling King (when "Oswell made two more trips out to the Merling King to offload provisions" including "several casks of wine", from which Petyr immediately "poured Sansa a cup, as promised").
Shorehands rolled casks of wine off the Tyroshi trader, fisherfolk cried the day's catch, children ran and played. A priest in the seawater robes of the Drowned God was leading a pair of horses along the pebbled shore, while above him a slattern leaned out a window in the inn, calling out to some passing Ibbenese sailors.
Kella & The Slattern
What about that "slattern lean[ing] out a window" to greet "some passing… sailors" while "children ran and played"? I submit that she is one of several motifs from Theon's homecoming prefiguring Petyr's servant Kella. I'll explain.Consider that Petyr's servant Kella has many bastards i.e. children, popping one out every few years:
"I don't know the child. Another of Kella's bastards, I suppose. She pops one out every few years."We only see one; presumably the others are off somewhere, running and playing, perhaps.
Kella happily greets Petyr as he comes ashore, much as Lordsport's slattern "call[s] out to some passing Ibbenese sailors". Note that the sailors on the Merling King are likewise 'passing' — passing through:
"From here the King turns east for Braavos. Without us."Consider most of all that Kella's something of a slattern herself: She's "not one for telling them no".
"I can't rightly say, m'lord. I'm not one for telling them no."Indeed, something Lysa says pretty clearly codes Kella as a verbatim "slattern", underlining the recursion:
"And all the local lads are grateful, I am quite sure."
"How would you like to spend your life on that bleak shore, surrounded by slatterns and sheep pellets?" (ASOS Sansa VII)So I think the vignette with the slattern and the children in Lordsport pretty plainly prefigures Kella. But I think she's prefigured by two more pieces of Theon's homecoming.
Kella & The Captain's Daughter
Keeping in mind that Kella has a bunch of bastards ("she pops one out every few years) and that she's "not one for telling them no", consider also that she is (a) literally 'with child' — or rather, with a child—a girl of two or three with a sty on one eye—that she's (b) "fat"—
"Who fathered this one, Kella?"—and that she's (c) coded as a bit stupid:
The fat woman laughed.
"Kella minds my vast herds. How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"All like Theon's "captain's daughter".
She had to think a moment. "Three and twenty, m'lord. There was nine and twenty, but Bryen's dogs killed one and we butchered some others and salted down the meat."
The captain's daughter is "plump", as Kella is "fat":
The girl was a shade plump for his taste…She is likely pregnant with Theon's bastard, a la Kella the bastard-popper.
She tells Theon…
"You can put it in me again, if it please you…"…and accedes to his request for a blowjob, so she's "not one for telling them no."
She thereby helps Theon 'pop one off', a la Kella "pop[ping] one out".
Like Kella, she seems a bit stupid:
She looked rather stupid when she smiled, but he had never required a woman to be clever.And finally, she offers to work in Theon's castle—
The stupid girl did not seem to be listening.
She… learned quickly for such a stupid girl….
She looked at him stupidly, so he left her there.
I'd work in your castle, milord.—just as Kella works for Petyr.
Kella: The Spreading Patch of the Smallest Finger?
Besides the "slattern" and the captain's daughter, I suspect Kella may also riff on — of all things — the "spreading patches" of "lichen" on "wet" Pyke as Theon sails by:[Pyke was] wet by the same salt waves, festooned with the same spreading patches of dark green lichen, speckled by the droppings of the same seabirds.Get it? A spreading 'patch'? In combination with "lichen" a la "licking" and Pyke being "wet"? And not just wet, but "wet by… salt waves", when as we know from the captain's daughter, semen tastes "salty", "like the sea". It's like Pyke is being described as a turned-on "slattern" with her legs spread.
A Hoare, we might say.
This connects to Kella, specifically because of her name: Kella is a near anagram for "kale", a dark green plant, like the "dark green lichen".
Actually, the name Kella may have anothere precursor in Theon's story: "Qalen", the maester Theon asks Helya about upon his arrival at Pyke:
"And what of Maester Qalen, where is he?"Qalen would be pronounced Kalen. Qalen → Kalen → Kale → Kela → Kella. Anyway…
Grisel & The Captain's Daughter
Something similar is going on with Petyr's servant Grisel, the "thin old woman" who was his wet nurse but who "keeps [his] castle now":"Grisel was my wet nurse, but she keeps my castle now.Grisel is similarly prefigured by two people from Theon's homecoming, including first the captain's daughter who wants to work in Theon's castle as Grisel works in Petyr's "castle".
Consider first that Grisel, like the captain's daughter, seems slightly stupid (but eager to please), as she fails to grasp Petyr's sarcasm and takes his derisive joke about gulls' eggs and seaweed soup as an order:
"Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home. When I break my fast on gulls' eggs and seaweed soup, I'll be certain of it."Then there is the captain daughter's resume:
"If you like, m'lord," said the old woman Grisel.
Lord Petyr made a face.
"I'd work in your castle, milord. I can clean fish and bake bread and churn butter. Father says my peppercrab stew is the best he's ever tasted. You could find me a place in your kitchens and I could make you peppercrab stew."This surely prefigures what we're told about Grisel making a sea-based soup of her own (i.e. the just mentioned "seaweed soup"), baking bread, and churning butter for Petyr:
Grisel reappeared before he could say more, balancing a large platter. She set it down between them. … The old woman had brought a round of bread as well, and a crock of butter.Where Grisel used to be Petyr's wet nurse, Theon suckles the captain daughter's nipple as if she's a wet nurse:
Grisel climbed up to the bedchamber to serve the lord and lady a tray of morning bread, with butter, honey, fruit, and cream.
Theon's finger circled one heavy teat, spiraling in toward the fat brown nipple. … He took her nipple in his mouth….And finally, where Theon kisses the captain's daughter on the ear—
"You can put it in me again, if it please you," she whispered in his ear as he sucked.
[Theon] drew the captain's daughter close and kissed her on her ear.—Littlefinger kisses Grisel on the cheek:
Oswell and Lothor splashed their way ashore, as did Littlefinger himself. He gave the old woman a kiss on the cheek and grinned at the younger one.
Helya & Grisel (& Gretchel)
Grisel also rhymes with and reworks Helya, who keeps Balon's castle:A bentback old crone in a shapeless grey dress approached him warily. "M'lord, I am sent to show you to chambers."Get it? "Helya and Grisel", a la "Hansel and Gretel".
"And who are you?"
"Helya, who keeps this castle for your lord father."
(Gretel is a variant of "Greta". "Grisel" sounds like gristle, whereas in Hansel and Gretel the witch is trying to fatten Hansel up — she don't want no stringy meat! Note the thematic symmetry as well: By treating Hansel kindly and feeding him delicious treats, the witch is essentially "grooming" him for her own benefit/consumption, as Theon and Petyr groom the captain's daughter and Sansa, respectively, for their own benefit. Finally, note that "pebbles" are a key motif in Hansel and Gretel, prefiguring the proliferation of "pebbles" on Pyke, the 'rhyming' "pellets" on Petyr's Finger, and the isle of "Pebble" that leads to Petyr's Finger.)
The two "old" castle keepers neatly invert one another. Consider Grisel's comments about the old rushes and fire in Petyr's tower:
"If we knew you was coming we would have laid down fresh rushes, m'lord," said the crone. "There's a dung fire burning."That's a recursive reversal of Helya's (lack of) preparation for Theon's visit: Where Grisel has a fire going even though she didn't know Petyr was coming, and where she proactively apologizes for not changing the rushes, telling him "we would have laid down fresh rushes… if we knew you were coming", Helya neither lit a fire nor changed the heavily foregrounded "old and brittle" rushes in the rooms Theon is given—
"Nothing says home like the smell of burning dung."
"I'll have a basin of hot water and a fire in this hearth," he told the crone. "See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill. And gods be good, get someone in here at once to change these rushes."—despite having ample forewarning of his coming:
It was not as though they had no word of his arrival. Robb had sent ravens from Riverrun, and… Jason Mallister had sent his own birds to Pyke….The joke is underlined by the introduction of "Gretchel" — Gretel with a borrowed H from Helya/Hansel — who fetches washbasins of water (which, see below), "la[ys] a fire in the hearth" and "tend[s] to the fire", brings food and discusses food storage in Petyr's Eyrie in AFFC Sansa I & Alayne I. (In other words, she 'keeps his castle.')
'Rhyming' Interiors
That's just the beginning of the reversals in the many recursions between Theon's lodgings at Pyke and Sansa's in the Drearfort.Where Helya leads Theon to his rooms on his orders—
"Show me to my chambers, woman," he commanded. Bowing stiffly, [Helya] led him across the headland to the bridge. …—it's Petyr who leads the way into his tower, casually inviting Grisel (and everyone else) to follow him:
Whenever he'd imagined his homecoming, he had always pictured himself returning to the snug bedchamber in the Sea Tower, where he'd slept as a child. Instead the old woman led him to the Bloody Keep.
"If you like, m'lord," said the old woman Grisel.Petyr jokes about his hall being "dreary", and perhaps it is, but while it's "small" and "even smaller" within, his tower is also home to his servants, and hence very well lived-in.
Lord Petyr made a face. "Come, let's see if my hall is as dreary as I recall." He led them up the strand…
Within, the tower seemed even smaller. An open stone stair wound round the inside wall, from undercroft to roof. Each floor was but a single room. The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs. Above that was a modest hall, and higher still the bedchamber.(Note that the "mastiff", which we see as Petyr leads Grisel in, recalls Helya bowing "stiffly" before leading Theon to his rooms.)
This sharply reverses the situation Theon finds at Pyke, when he's deposited not in a single room shared by a bunch of people who've lived in it forever and warmed by a hearth with a burning fire, a la Sansa, nor in the "snug bedchamber" in the Sea Tower he'd anticipated (which sounds like Littlefinger's little "tower" by the sea), but in the Bloody Keep, in a whole-ass "suite" of large but "chilly", even "cold" rooms with incredibly high ceilings — rooms which haven't even been opened, much less lived-in, for "years", and which are the very definition of "dreary":
The halls here were larger and better furnished, if no less cold nor damp. Theon was given a suite of chilly rooms with ceilings so high that they were lost in gloom. [Omitted but see below.]A ton of the motifs here (including the omitted stuff, which I'll return to) get recycled and reworked in Petyr's tower.
[Omitted but see below.] It was not fear of ghosts that made him glance about with distaste. The wall hangings were green with mildew, the mattress musty-smelling and sagging, the rushes old and brittle. Years had come and gone since these chambers had last been opened. The damp went bone deep. "I'll have a basin of hot water and a fire in this hearth," he told the crone. See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill. And gods be good, get someone in here at once to change these rushes."
Most obviously, Theon's request for hot water prefigures Sansa's request for a hot bath:
"Might I have a hot bath as well?" asked Sansa.Note that Kella fulfills the request, not Grisel. This 'fits', as it's not Helya who brings Theon's water, but "two thralls".
"I'll have Kella draw some water, m'lady."
Note also that Sansa requests her bath after thinking…
She desperately needed a bath and a change of clothes.…whereas Theon changes his clothes immediately after the quoted passages.
Slightly less obviously, the "wall hangings [that] were green with mildew" are reworked by Petyr's own green 'wall hanging': his grandfather's shield, which is painted with a "light green field" and which "hung… above the hearth". The "mildew" is reworked by the fact that the paint is "cracked and flaking" i.e. flawed. And maybe also by the "light green field", since a field grows crops which get milled and which get dewy.
Brittle Bryen's Brigantine, Brindled Mastiff, & Old Blind Dog
As mentioned, the motif of unchanged rushes from Theon's homecoming recurs when Petyr comes home. But Petyr's homecoming also lexically riffs on Theon's rushes being quote-unquote "old and brittle" by giving us Bryen in "brigantine" who is very "old" but not, seemingly, brittle, as he still walks watches, not with his "old blind dog", but with a "brindled mastiff":"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man. He looked to be at least eighty, but he wore a studded brigantine and a longsword at his side. …Is the brindled dog a "mastiff" 'only' a wink at Theon going mast-stiff for Asha? (See Part 4.) Maybe. But it's worth mentioning that when Theon is first being stirred by Pyke's banner and it's being battered about like the shield we see in the Drearfort three sentences after the mastiff, it's also (a) flying from a very stiff "mast" and (b) juxtaposed with a very large 'dog' of sorts:
"Bryen—didn't I name you captain of the guard the last time I was here?"
"You did, my lord. You said you'd be getting some more men too, but you never did. Me and the dogs stand all the watches."
Sansa found Bryen's old blind dog in her little alcove beneath the steps…
The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs.
The banner streamed from an iron mast, shivering and twisting as the wind gusted like a bird struggling to take flight. And here at least the direwolf of Stark did not fly above, casting its shadow down upon the Greyjoy kraken.
Musty Old Mattresses
The old, "musty-smelling and sagging" mattress (in the chamber that has just been re-opened after long periods of being closed and uninhabited) from Theon's homecoming is answered in Petyr's homecomiong by Lysa, who arrives a few pages later in the chapter, eager to finally have sex again with Petyr. "Mattress" is slang for a sexually available woman (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mattress) and Lysa sags—Lady Lysa was two years younger than Mother, but this woman looked ten years older. Thick auburn tresses fell down past her waist, but beneath the costly velvet gown and jeweled bodice her body sagged and bulged.—and smells stale. (Note that Lysa is on a mattress here.)
Her aunt was drenched in sweet scent, though under that was a sour milky smell. Her cheek tasted of paint and powder.Lysa's "cheek tast[ing] of paint and powder" riffs on the line about Theon's "distaste" and "fear of ghosts":
It was not fear of ghosts that made him glance about with distaste.The distaste wordplay is obvious: Lysa tastes bad. As for the "fear of ghosts", Lysa (whom Sansa fears) being covered in "powder" reminds us of Sansa being afraid of a "spirit" covered in powdery flour:
When the spirit stepped out of the open tomb, pale white and moaning for blood, Sansa ran shrieking for the stairs…. Arya stood her ground and gave the spirit a punch. It was only Jon, covered with flour. (AGOT Arya IV)This line—
The halls here were larger and better furnished, if no less cold nor damp.—is reworked by Lysa as well, who is big and well-dressed ("better furnished", so to speak)—
[B]eneath the costly velvet gown and jeweled bodice her body sagged and bulged. Her face was pink and painted, her breasts heavy, her limbs thick. She was taller than Littlefinger, and heavier; nor did she show any grace in the clumsy way she climbed down off her horse.—but cold to Sansa and horny/wet/"damp" for Petyr.
Given that Theon's rooms are in several ways like Lysa (newly 'open for business' after a long period of being closed and untouched by men, etc.), and pronouncing aunt like antler, we also might say that where the Lysa-like rooms are "cold" and "damp", Lysa herself is Sansa's "cold" aunt. Rhyming 'rhyming'.
That "years had come and gone since" the room with the Lysa-like mattress "had last been opened" is reworked not just by Lysa getting laid, but textually when Sansa is told Lysa is coming to the Drearfort (where she is 're-opened', so to speak):
It had been years since Sansa last saw her mother's sister…"I wonder whether Lysa crying and speaking to Sansa of being "bound by blood" to her—
Tears welled suddenly in Lady Lysa's eyes. "We are women alone now, you and I. Are you afraid, child? Be brave. I would never turn away Cat's daughter. We are bound by blood."—might not be in part a play on the fact that "the damp went bone deep" in the Bloody Keep. By saying that, Sansa's damp (i.e. crying) aunt "went bone deep", so to speak. (If you're "bound by blood" to someone, you have a "bone deep" bond with them. Also, bone → bound wordplay?)
Braziers → Bracing?
Did Theon's attempt to drive away "the chill" and damp of the salty sea air of Pyke using "braziers"—See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill.—inform (via wordplay: braziers → bracing) Petyr's line when the Merling King pulls up to the Drearfort?
Lord Petyr came up beside her, cheerful as ever. "Good morrow. The salt air is bracing, don't you think? It always sharpens my appetite."And/or is that "sharpening" motif a recursion of Theon sharpening his dirk immediately after said braziers are lit?
After some time, they brought the hot water he had asked for. … While two thralls lit his braziers, Theon stripped off his travel-stained clothing and dressed to meet his father. … He hung a dirk at one hip and a longsword at the other…. Drawing the dirk, he … pulled a whetstone from his belt pouch, and gave it a few licks. He prided himself on keeping his weapons sharp.
Gods Be Good!
The motifs of Theon yelling "gods be good" at his servant and of "ceilings so high that they were lost in gloom" are recursively reworked when Lysa summons Sansa (like a servant) to speak with her the morning after she weds Petyr. Sansa responds to the summons by thinking, verbatim, "gods be good", and is then told they'll be heading to the Eyrie, which we know is "so high you can stand on the parapets and look down on the clouds", i.e. it has parapets 'so high that they were lost in the clouds':Lady Lysa was still abed [like a good mattress!], but Lord Petyr was up and dressed. "Your aunt wishes to speak with you," he told Sansa, as he pulled on a boot. "I've told her who you are."The notion of a "ceiling" so high it is lost in gloom is perhaps also reworked by the story Lysa tells Sansa about Petyr's "rise" to power: She says she "always knew how high [Petyr would] rise", and it's my belief that said rise has likely seen him 'lost', spiritually, in 'darkness'. (Note that ceilings are a frequently invoked metaphor when talking about climbing the corporate ladder.)
Gods be good. "I . . . I thank you, my lord."
Petyr yanked on the other boot. "I've had about as much home as I can stomach. We'll leave for the Eyrie this afternoon."
Seven towers, Ned had told her, like white daggers thrust into the belly of the sky, so high you can stand on the parapets and look down on the clouds. (AGOT Catelyn VI)
"Half his teeth were gone, and his breath smelled like bad cheese. I cannot abide a man with foul breath. Petyr's breath is always fresh . . . he was the first man I ever kissed, you know. My father said he was too lowborn, but I knew how high he'd rise. Jon gave him the customs for Gulltown to please me, but when he increased the incomes tenfold my lord husband saw how clever he was and gave him other appointments, even brought him to King's Landing to be master of coin. That was hard, to see him every day and still be wed to that old cold man.(Recall that the motif of bad/fresh breath there reworks the "winey stench of the old man's [Sylas Sourmouth's] breath", which Theon thinks about roughly ¼ page prior to being shown his suite in the Bloody Keep.)
Butchered Sons & Brothers
Lysa continues to rant:"Jon did his duty in the bedchamber, but he could no more give me pleasure than he could give me children. His seed was old and weak. All my babies died but Robert, three girls and two boys. All my sweet little babies dead, and that old man just went on and on with his stinking breath. So you see, I have suffered too." Lady Lysa sniffed. "You do know that your poor mother is dead?"Those references to (a) a bunch of dead "babies", including two brothers, one of which was "murdered" when Lysa's father, Hoster Tully, who ruled the Riverlands, betrayed Lysa's trust; and to (b) foul smelling breath, a la Sylas, and finally to (c) the Red Wedding — a bloody betrayal of Sansa's brother, who was King of the Riverlands — particularly (per Sansa saying "Tyrion told me") as it's described by Tyrion—
"Tyrion told me," said Sansa. "He said the Freys murdered her at The Twins, with Robb."
Sansa did not need to hear how her brother's body had been hacked and mutilated, he decided; nor how her mother's corpse had been dumped naked into the Green Fork in a savage mockery of House Tully's funeral customs. (ASOS Tyrion VII)—are one of the ways ASOS Sansa VI rejiggers the part of Theon's description of his Bloody Keep suite I "[omitted]" earlier, which entails betrayals, murdered brothers, a River King, slaughter, and bodies "hacked to bits".
[Theon] might have been more impressed if he had not known that these were the very chambers that had given the Bloody Keep its name. A thousand years before, the sons of the River King had been slaughtered here, hacked to bits in their beds so that pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland.Lysa's speech with its reference to her abortion and to the Red Wedding (and to stink-breath like Sylas's) isn't the only (or even the main) way Petyr's homecoming chapter refracts those images from Theon's homecoming, though.
But Greyjoys were not murdered in Pyke except once in a great while by their brothers, and his brothers were both dead.
Littlefinger is himself a kind of River King (as Lord Paramount of the Trident), right? And note that we read all about his "slaughtered" "sons" just before he enters the tower, wherein we then see the foul betrayers who murdered their 'brothers'. I'm talking, of course, about his sheep and his sheepdogs:
"How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"Note the kitchen, recalling that the Bloody Keep is paired with the Kitchen Keep as Theon first gazes on Pyke:
… "Three and twenty, m'lord. There was nine and twenty, but Bryen's dogs killed one and we butchered some others and salted down the meat."
"Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home.…" … "Come, let's see if my hall is as dreary as I recall." … A handful of sheep were wandering about the base of the flint tower…. …
Within, the tower seemed even smaller. An open stone stair wound round the inside wall, from undercroft to roof. Each floor was but a single room. The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs.
Farther out were the Kitchen Keep and the Bloody Keep, each on its own island.Note, too, that the sheep are coded as Petyr's "sons", in a way (a la the "slaughtered… sons of the River King" Theon remembers in his Bloody Tower rooms), and not just because he owns them. He says that Kella has lots of bastards and that she minds his sheep, right? And what else does he say of Kella, in jest? That she 'is' the "mother" of his "daughter," "Alayne Stone":
"Alayne . . . Stone, would it be?" When he nodded, she said, "But who is my mother?"The joke foregrounds the notion of Petyr as the father of Kella's children. And while she supposedly has a bunch of bastards, we don't see them. We just see the one girl with the livestock-evoking eye with a sty. It's almost like the sheep she looks after are her children. And thus like Petyr is their father.
"Kella?"
"Please no," she said, mortified.
"I was teasing.
(Note the word "mortified". This points straight back to Theon in his Bloody Tower for two reasons: First, greyscale, which mortifies the flesh, killed Balon's brother Harlon, who died "in a windowless tower room" at Pyke. Second: Theon will, in his next chapter, be truly mortified by the realization that "Esgred" is his sister Asha, where that masquerade in turn prefigures Sansa masquerading as Alayne.)
So the "cold" Bloody Keep with its partner the Kitchen Keep and its story of a "slaughter", betrayal, brother killing brother, a River King's sons' bodies "hacked to bits in their beds" — all these motifs are reworked by Kella's account of one of Lord Paramount Petyr's sheep-'sons' being killed by its lexicial 'brothers', the very "sheep-dogs" who were supposed to guard it, and of other sheep-'sons' being verbatim "butchered", i.e. slaughtered on a killing bed and in the process surely hacked into pieces that were then preserved against spoilage for future consumption, such that the resulting "cold salt mutton" could be used as travel rations. Which jibes with Theon's language, creatively interpreted:
[T]he sons of the River King had been slaughtered here, hacked to bits in their beds so that pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland.(They were slaughtered and hacked to bits only so as to properly preserve them against spoilage during their upcoming journey "back to their father on the mainland", you see!)
Theon's Honor Guard
The conditions in Theon's rooms are consistent with the cold welcome he receives, both from Aeron—The priest's manner was chilly, most unlike the man Theon remembered.—and Balon—
Theon pulled off his gloves. "… Why is my father not here to greet me?"—and they're thus part of a broad yin/yang 'rhyme' with Petyr's initial homecoming, which is warm and welcoming and full of familiar faces, whereas Theon knows no one, such that he thinks:
"He awaits you in the Sea Tower, m'lord. When you are rested from your trip."
And I thought Ned Stark cold.
It is as if I were a stranger here….The reversal is wryly underlined when Petyr is greeted at the shore by his "captain of the guards", Bryen:
"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man.Thus Petyr ironically gets the "honor guard" welcome Theon hoped he'd get on his arrival 'home':
[Theon] saw… no honor guard waiting to escort him from Lordsport to Pyke, only smallfolk going about their small business.Notice that where no one stops what they're doing for Theon, everyone stops when Petyr arrives. And of course, everyone in his household recognizes him, whereas no one recognizes Theon. Which is telling, because in a deep sense, that's all Theon really wants, deep down: a little recognition.
Littlefinger has it… but it's not enough.
(SUB)SERIES CONCLUDES IN PART 10: Oswell & Aeron; Lothar & Dagmer; The Closing Twist
2023.05.31 19:20 M_Tootles "Cargos, Slatterns & Butchery" with Helya & Grisel. (Spoilers TWOW)
This post is part of a series looking at the massive amount of 'rhyming' (and occasionally rhyming) recursivity I believe exists between (a) the homecoming of Petyr Baelish to the Fingers and (b) the homecoming of Theon Greyjoy to Pyke.
While this series/post can be read simply as a study 'for its own sake' of the curious recursion between these storylines, it is my belief that the 'rhyming' explored here between the stories of Petyr and Theon exists (at least in part) to foreshadow that, like Theon, Petyr Littlefinger, is (among other things) a scion of ironborn kings, because Petyr is Hoare-ish: I.e. because Petyr's blood is (in some part) the blood of the ironborn kings of House Hoare of Orkmont and, later, Harrenhal.
You can find an index of every post I've made on the topic of a Hoare-ish Littlefinger (including every post in this sub-series) [HERE].
Even if I'm wrong about Littlefinger's lineage, the 'rhyming' recursivity between the homecomings of Theon and Petyr detailed in this series remains, and certainly merits attention.
NOTE: In what follows, all uncited quotes are from ASOS Sansa VI, which describes Petyr's homecoming to his "Drearfort" tower of the 'Smallest Finger', or ACOK Theon I, which describes Theon's homecoming to "drear" Pyke.
As in past posts, I sometimes use "→" as shorthand for "'prefigures' and/or 'informs' and/or 'is reworked by' and/or 'finds a recursive rhyme in'.
As in: ACOK Theon I → ASOS Sansa VI.
This post picks up straight-away from where Part 8 left off. You can read Part 8 [HERE].
If you want to begin at the beginning, Part 1 is [HERE].
Recall that Bryen and Umfred come from shore to offload Sansa (who's just been promised a cup of wine to help with her upset "tummy") from the Merling King's rowboat:
Consider that Petyr's servant Kella has many bastards i.e. children, popping one out every few years:
Kella happily greets Petyr as he comes ashore, much as Lordsport's slattern "call[s] out to some passing Ibbenese sailors". Note that the sailors on the Merling King are likewise 'passing' — passing through:
The captain's daughter is "plump", as Kella is "fat":
She tells Theon…
She thereby helps Theon 'pop one off', a la Kella "pop[ping] one out".
Like Kella, she seems a bit stupid:
A Hoare, we might say.
This connects to Kella, specifically because of her name: Kella is a near anagram for "kale", a dark green plant, like the "dark green lichen".
Actually, the name Kella may have anothere precursor in Theon's story: "Qalen", the maester Theon asks Helya about upon his arrival at Pyke:
Consider first that Grisel, like the captain's daughter, seems slightly stupid (but eager to please), as she fails to grasp Petyr's sarcasm and takes his derisive joke about gulls' eggs and seaweed soup as an order:
(Gretel is a variant of "Greta". "Grisel" sounds like gristle, whereas in Hansel and Gretel the witch is trying to fatten Hansel up — she don't want no stringy meat! Note the thematic symmetry as well: By treating Hansel kindly and feeding him delicious treats, the witch is essentially "grooming" him for her own benefit/consumption, as Theon and Petyr groom the captain's daughter and Sansa, respectively, for their own benefit. Finally, note that "pebbles" are a key motif in Hansel and Gretel, prefiguring the proliferation of "pebbles" on Pyke, the 'rhyming' "pellets" on Petyr's Finger, and the isle of "Pebble" that leads to Petyr's Finger.)
The two "old" castle keepers neatly invert one another. Consider Grisel's comments about the old rushes and fire in Petyr's tower:
Where Helya leads Theon to his rooms on his orders—
This sharply reverses the situation Theon finds at Pyke, when he's deposited not in a single room shared by a bunch of people who've lived in it forever and warmed by a hearth with a burning fire, a la Sansa, nor in the "snug bedchamber" in the Sea Tower he'd anticipated (which sounds like Littlefinger's little "tower" by the sea), but in the Bloody Keep, in a whole-ass "suite" of large but "chilly", even "cold" rooms with incredibly high ceilings — rooms which haven't even been opened, much less lived-in, for "years", and which are the very definition of "dreary":
Most obviously, Theon's request for hot water prefigures Sansa's request for a hot bath:
Note also that Sansa requests her bath after thinking…
Slightly less obviously, the "wall hangings [that] were green with mildew" are reworked by Petyr's own green 'wall hanging': his grandfather's shield, which is painted with a "light green field" and which "hung… above the hearth". The "mildew" is reworked by the fact that the paint is "cracked and flaking" i.e. flawed. And maybe also by the "light green field", since a field grows crops which get milled and which get dewy.
Given that Theon's rooms are in several ways like Lysa (newly 'open for business' after a long period of being closed and untouched by men, etc.), and pronouncing aunt like antler, we also might say that where the Lysa-like rooms are "cold" and "damp", Lysa herself is Sansa's "cold" aunt. Rhyming 'rhyming'.
That "years had come and gone since" the room with the Lysa-like mattress "had last been opened" is reworked not just by Lysa getting laid, but textually when Sansa is told Lysa is coming to the Drearfort (where she is 're-opened', so to speak):
Littlefinger is himself a kind of River King (as Lord Paramount of the Trident), right? And note that we read all about his "slaughtered" "sons" just before he enters the tower, wherein we then see the foul betrayers who murdered their 'brothers'. I'm talking, of course, about his sheep and his sheepdogs:
(Note the word "mortified". This points straight back to Theon in his Bloody Tower for two reasons: First, greyscale, which mortifies the flesh, killed Balon's brother Harlon, who died "in a windowless tower room" at Pyke. Second: Theon will, in his next chapter, be truly mortified by the realization that "Esgred" is his sister Asha, where that masquerade in turn prefigures Sansa masquerading as Alayne.)
So the "cold" Bloody Keep with its partner the Kitchen Keep and its story of a "slaughter", betrayal, brother killing brother, a River King's sons' bodies "hacked to bits in their beds" — all these motifs are reworked by Kella's account of one of Lord Paramount Petyr's sheep-'sons' being killed by its lexicial 'brothers', the very "sheep-dogs" who were supposed to guard it, and of other sheep-'sons' being verbatim "butchered", i.e. slaughtered on a killing bed and in the process surely hacked into pieces that were then preserved against spoilage for future consumption, such that the resulting "cold salt mutton" could be used as travel rations. Which jibes with Theon's language, creatively interpreted:
Littlefinger has it… but it's not enough.
submitted by M_Tootles to pureasoiaf [link] [comments]
While this series/post can be read simply as a study 'for its own sake' of the curious recursion between these storylines, it is my belief that the 'rhyming' explored here between the stories of Petyr and Theon exists (at least in part) to foreshadow that, like Theon, Petyr Littlefinger, is (among other things) a scion of ironborn kings, because Petyr is Hoare-ish: I.e. because Petyr's blood is (in some part) the blood of the ironborn kings of House Hoare of Orkmont and, later, Harrenhal.
You can find an index of every post I've made on the topic of a Hoare-ish Littlefinger (including every post in this sub-series) [HERE].
Even if I'm wrong about Littlefinger's lineage, the 'rhyming' recursivity between the homecomings of Theon and Petyr detailed in this series remains, and certainly merits attention.
As in: ACOK Theon I → ASOS Sansa VI.
If you want to begin at the beginning, Part 1 is [HERE].
The Myraham's Prophetic Cargo
After Theon makes port, the captain of the Myraham announces his cargo to the people on the docks of Lordport and we read about the offloading of the Myraham:"We're out of Oldtown," the captain called down, "bearing apples and oranges, wines from the Arbor, feathers from the Summer Isles. I have pepper, woven leathers, a bolt of Myrish lace, mirrors for milady, a pair of Oldtown woodharps sweet as any you ever heard." The gangplank descended with a creak and a thud. "And I've brought your heir back to you."Most of what we read there seems to be reworked in and around Littlefinger's homecoming in ASOS Sansa VI, when the Merling King brings the Dreadfort its heir, Littlefinger, as well as the seeming heir to Winterfell, Sansa. This begins with the Arbor wine and fruit we see off-loaded from the Merling King:
Oswell made two more trips out to the Merling King to offload provisions. Among the loads he brought ashore were several casks of wine. Petyr poured Sansa a cup, as promised. …Besides the straight repetition of Arbor wine, oranges, apples, and heirs, the repeated Oldtown motif is baldly reworked by Sansa's description of the wine, which is patently Oldtown-summer-esque, per the only substantive pre-AFFC description of Oldtown, which associates it with hot, fruity summer nights:
… The wine was very fine; an Arbor vintage, she thought. It tasted of oak and fruit and hot summer nights, the flavors blossoming in her mouth like flowers opening to the sun. She only prayed that she could keep it down. Lord Petyr was being so kind, she did not want to spoil it all by retching on him.
… "Grisel," he called to the old woman, "bring some food up. … Oswell's brought some oranges and pomegranates from the King." …
Grisel reappeared…, balancing a large platter. … There were apples and pears and pomegranates, some sad-looking grapes, a huge blood orange.
"King Maekar's summer was hotter than this one, and near as long. … [T]he heat was fierce while it lasted. Oldtown… came alive only by night. … I remember the smells of those nights, my lord—perfume and sweat, melons ripe to bursting, peaches and pomegranates, nightshade and moonbloom." (AGOT Eddard V)The Myraham's "mirrors for milady" prefigure Sansa being figuratively groomed by Petyr and literally grooming herself in Petyr's Eyrie after he takes over:
When Gretchel fetched her Lysa's silvered looking glass, the color seemed just perfect with Alayne's mass of dark brown hair. (AFFC Alayne I)The Myraham's "woodharps sweet as any you ever heard" presage Sansa being attacked by Marillion, whose "voice was strong and sweet", (AFFC Sansa I) after he sings a song (about blowjobs?) called "Milady's Supper" (supper a la the Myraham-ish fruit Sansa eats for supper when she lands) during Petyr's wedding bedding:
Lady Lysa's singer launched into a bawdy version of "Milady's Supper"….The Myraham's "woven leathers" and "Myrish lace" are reworked into the "laces unlaced" i.e. unwoven during said wedding:
By the time they had gotten him into the tower and out of his clothes, the other women were flushed, with laces unlaced, kirtles crooked, and skirts in disarray.That it's a "bolt of Myrish lace" is interesting: After Sansa boards the Merling King, she sees a singular "bolt" from a crossbow strike Dontos, and then two more:
Lothor Brune dipped his torch. Three men stepped to the gunwale, raised crossbows, fired. One bolt took Dontos in the chest as he looked up…. The others ripped into throat and belly. (ASOS Sansa V)Three crossbow bolts? What does that remind us if not… a Myrish crossbow:
"The king is playing with his new crossbow," Tyrion said. Ridding himself of Joffrey had required only an ungainly Myrish crossbow that threw three quarrels at a time…. (ACOK Tyrion VI)What about the Myraham's "pepper"? I suspect this gets box-checked first by Sansa trying not to "retch" as she is off-loaded along with the wine with which Littlefinger tries to settle her tummy, as just two chapters later peppers are tightly linked to "retching" of the sort Sansa feels like doing:
[Tyrion] found himself on his knees retching… that double helping of fried eggs cooked up with onions and fiery Dornish peppers. (ASOS Tyrion X)GRRM seems to play off the "pepper" motif in other ways, as well. Consider that the gathering to meet the Myraham and the shouted questions that prompt her captain to announce her cargo—
A handful of Lordsport merchants had gathered to meet the ship. They shouted questions as the Myraham was tying up.—get reworked by Petyr's household all gathering "to meet" the Merling King and by their peppering one another with questions:
Servants emerged from the tower to meet them; a thin old woman and a fat middle-aged one, two ancient white-haired men, and a girl of two or three with a sty on one eye. When they recognized Lord Petyr they knelt on the rocks. "My household," he said. "I don't know the child. Another of Kella's bastards, I suppose. She pops one out every few years."She's a "popper", then, in case we didn't catch that retching → peppers. (This also reworks Theon "popping one off" with the captain's daughter, who is in many ways reworked by Kella, as will be discussed below.)
… [Petyr]… gave the old woman a kiss on the cheek and grinned at the younger one. "Who fathered this one, Kella?"A gathering, and questions, questions, questions, as when Theon docks.
The fat woman laughed. "I can't rightly say, m'lord. I'm not one for telling them no."
"And all the local lads are grateful, I am quite sure."
"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man. … "How long will you be in residence?"
"As short a time as possible, Bryen, have no fear. Is the place habitable just now, would you say?"
"If we knew you was coming we would have laid down fresh rushes, m'lord," said the crone. "There's a dung fire burning."
"Nothing says home like the smell of burning dung." Petyr turned to Sansa. "Grisel was my wet nurse, but she keeps my castle now. Umfred's my steward, and Bryen—didn't I name you captain of the guard the last time I was here?"
"You did, my lord.…"
… Petyr gestured toward the fat woman. "Kella minds my vast herds. How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"
Recall that Bryen and Umfred come from shore to offload Sansa (who's just been promised a cup of wine to help with her upset "tummy") from the Merling King's rowboat:
The two old men waded out up to their thighs to lift Sansa from the boat so she would not get her skirts wet.This reworks the "shorehands… off-loading… casks of wine" from a Tyroshi trader docked with the Myraham—
[Theon] spied a Tyroshi trading galley off-loading…—which itself prefigures the above-quoted off-loading of the Merling King (when "Oswell made two more trips out to the Merling King to offload provisions" including "several casks of wine", from which Petyr immediately "poured Sansa a cup, as promised").
Shorehands rolled casks of wine off the Tyroshi trader, fisherfolk cried the day's catch, children ran and played. A priest in the seawater robes of the Drowned God was leading a pair of horses along the pebbled shore, while above him a slattern leaned out a window in the inn, calling out to some passing Ibbenese sailors.
Kella & The Slattern
What about that "slattern lean[ing] out a window" to greet "some passing… sailors" while "children ran and played"? I submit that she is one of several motifs from Theon's homecoming prefiguring Petyr's servant Kella. I'll explain.Consider that Petyr's servant Kella has many bastards i.e. children, popping one out every few years:
"I don't know the child. Another of Kella's bastards, I suppose. She pops one out every few years."We only see one; presumably the others are off somewhere, running and playing, perhaps.
Kella happily greets Petyr as he comes ashore, much as Lordsport's slattern "call[s] out to some passing Ibbenese sailors". Note that the sailors on the Merling King are likewise 'passing' — passing through:
"From here the King turns east for Braavos. Without us."Consider most of all that Kella's something of a slattern herself: She's "not one for telling them no".
"I can't rightly say, m'lord. I'm not one for telling them no."Indeed, something Lysa says pretty clearly codes Kella as a verbatim "slattern", underlining the recursion:
"And all the local lads are grateful, I am quite sure."
"How would you like to spend your life on that bleak shore, surrounded by slatterns and sheep pellets?" (ASOS Sansa VII)So I think the vignette with the slattern and the children in Lordsport pretty plainly prefigures Kella. But I think she's prefigured by two more pieces of Theon's homecoming.
Kella & The Captain's Daughter
Keeping in mind that Kella has a bunch of bastards ("she pops one out every few years) and that she's "not one for telling them no", consider also that she is (a) literally 'with child' — or rather, with a child—a girl of two or three with a sty on one eye—that she's (b) "fat"—
"Who fathered this one, Kella?"—and that she's (c) coded as a bit stupid:
The fat woman laughed.
"Kella minds my vast herds. How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"All like Theon's "captain's daughter".
She had to think a moment. "Three and twenty, m'lord. There was nine and twenty, but Bryen's dogs killed one and we butchered some others and salted down the meat."
The captain's daughter is "plump", as Kella is "fat":
The girl was a shade plump for his taste…She is likely pregnant with Theon's bastard, a la Kella the bastard-popper.
She tells Theon…
"You can put it in me again, if it please you…"…and accedes to his request for a blowjob, so she's "not one for telling them no."
She thereby helps Theon 'pop one off', a la Kella "pop[ping] one out".
Like Kella, she seems a bit stupid:
She looked rather stupid when she smiled, but he had never required a woman to be clever.And finally, she offers to work in Theon's castle—
The stupid girl did not seem to be listening.
She… learned quickly for such a stupid girl….
She looked at him stupidly, so he left her there.
I'd work in your castle, milord.—just as Kella works for Petyr.
Kella: The Spreading Patch of the Smallest Finger?
Besides the "slattern" and the captain's daughter, I suspect Kella may also riff on — of all things — the "spreading patches" of "lichen" on "wet" Pyke as Theon sails by:[Pyke was] wet by the same salt waves, festooned with the same spreading patches of dark green lichen, speckled by the droppings of the same seabirds.Get it? A spreading 'patch'? In combination with "lichen" a la "licking" and Pyke being "wet"? And not just wet, but "wet by… salt waves", when as we know from the captain's daughter, semen tastes "salty", "like the sea". It's like Pyke is being described as a turned-on "slattern" with her legs spread.
A Hoare, we might say.
This connects to Kella, specifically because of her name: Kella is a near anagram for "kale", a dark green plant, like the "dark green lichen".
Actually, the name Kella may have anothere precursor in Theon's story: "Qalen", the maester Theon asks Helya about upon his arrival at Pyke:
"And what of Maester Qalen, where is he?"Qalen would be pronounced Kalen. Qalen → Kalen → Kale → Kela → Kella. Anyway…
Grisel & The Captain's Daughter
Something similar is going on with Petyr's servant Grisel, the "thin old woman" who was his wet nurse but who "keeps [his] castle now":"Grisel was my wet nurse, but she keeps my castle now.Grisel is similarly prefigured by two people from Theon's homecoming, including first the captain's daughter who wants to work in Theon's castle as Grisel works in Petyr's "castle".
Consider first that Grisel, like the captain's daughter, seems slightly stupid (but eager to please), as she fails to grasp Petyr's sarcasm and takes his derisive joke about gulls' eggs and seaweed soup as an order:
"Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home. When I break my fast on gulls' eggs and seaweed soup, I'll be certain of it."Then there is the captain daughter's resume:
"If you like, m'lord," said the old woman Grisel.
Lord Petyr made a face.
"I'd work in your castle, milord. I can clean fish and bake bread and churn butter. Father says my peppercrab stew is the best he's ever tasted. You could find me a place in your kitchens and I could make you peppercrab stew."This surely prefigures what we're told about Grisel making a sea-based soup of her own (i.e. the just mentioned "seaweed soup"), baking bread, and churning butter for Petyr:
Grisel reappeared before he could say more, balancing a large platter. She set it down between them. … The old woman had brought a round of bread as well, and a crock of butter.Where Grisel used to be Petyr's wet nurse, Theon suckles the captain daughter's nipple as if she's a wet nurse:
Grisel climbed up to the bedchamber to serve the lord and lady a tray of morning bread, with butter, honey, fruit, and cream.
Theon's finger circled one heavy teat, spiraling in toward the fat brown nipple. … He took her nipple in his mouth….And finally, where Theon kisses the captain's daughter on the ear—
"You can put it in me again, if it please you," she whispered in his ear as he sucked.
[Theon] drew the captain's daughter close and kissed her on her ear.—Littlefinger kisses Grisel on the cheek:
Oswell and Lothor splashed their way ashore, as did Littlefinger himself. He gave the old woman a kiss on the cheek and grinned at the younger one.
Helya & Grisel (& Gretchel)
Grisel also rhymes with and reworks Helya, who keeps Balon's castle:A bentback old crone in a shapeless grey dress approached him warily. "M'lord, I am sent to show you to chambers."Get it? "Helya and Grisel", a la "Hansel and Gretel".
"And who are you?"
"Helya, who keeps this castle for your lord father."
(Gretel is a variant of "Greta". "Grisel" sounds like gristle, whereas in Hansel and Gretel the witch is trying to fatten Hansel up — she don't want no stringy meat! Note the thematic symmetry as well: By treating Hansel kindly and feeding him delicious treats, the witch is essentially "grooming" him for her own benefit/consumption, as Theon and Petyr groom the captain's daughter and Sansa, respectively, for their own benefit. Finally, note that "pebbles" are a key motif in Hansel and Gretel, prefiguring the proliferation of "pebbles" on Pyke, the 'rhyming' "pellets" on Petyr's Finger, and the isle of "Pebble" that leads to Petyr's Finger.)
The two "old" castle keepers neatly invert one another. Consider Grisel's comments about the old rushes and fire in Petyr's tower:
"If we knew you was coming we would have laid down fresh rushes, m'lord," said the crone. "There's a dung fire burning."That's a recursive reversal of Helya's (lack of) preparation for Theon's visit: Where Grisel has a fire going even though she didn't know Petyr was coming, and where she proactively apologizes for not changing the rushes, telling him "we would have laid down fresh rushes… if we knew you were coming", Helya neither lit a fire nor changed the heavily foregrounded "old and brittle" rushes in the rooms Theon is given—
"Nothing says home like the smell of burning dung."
"I'll have a basin of hot water and a fire in this hearth," he told the crone. "See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill. And gods be good, get someone in here at once to change these rushes."—despite having ample forewarning of his coming:
It was not as though they had no word of his arrival. Robb had sent ravens from Riverrun, and… Jason Mallister had sent his own birds to Pyke….The joke is underlined by the introduction of "Gretchel" — Gretel with a borrowed H from Helya/Hansel — who fetches washbasins of water (which, see below), "la[ys] a fire in the hearth" and "tend[s] to the fire", brings food and discusses food storage in Petyr's Eyrie in AFFC Sansa I & Alayne I. (In other words, she 'keeps his castle.')
'Rhyming' Interiors
That's just the beginning of the reversals in the many recursions between Theon's lodgings at Pyke and Sansa's in the Drearfort.Where Helya leads Theon to his rooms on his orders—
"Show me to my chambers, woman," he commanded. Bowing stiffly, [Helya] led him across the headland to the bridge. …—it's Petyr who leads the way into his tower, casually inviting Grisel (and everyone else) to follow him:
Whenever he'd imagined his homecoming, he had always pictured himself returning to the snug bedchamber in the Sea Tower, where he'd slept as a child. Instead the old woman led him to the Bloody Keep.
"If you like, m'lord," said the old woman Grisel.Petyr jokes about his hall being "dreary", and perhaps it is, but while it's "small" and "even smaller" within, his tower is also home to his servants, and hence very well lived-in.
Lord Petyr made a face. "Come, let's see if my hall is as dreary as I recall." He led them up the strand…
Within, the tower seemed even smaller. An open stone stair wound round the inside wall, from undercroft to roof. Each floor was but a single room. The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs. Above that was a modest hall, and higher still the bedchamber.(Note that the "mastiff", which we see as Petyr leads Grisel in, recalls Helya bowing "stiffly" before leading Theon to his rooms.)
This sharply reverses the situation Theon finds at Pyke, when he's deposited not in a single room shared by a bunch of people who've lived in it forever and warmed by a hearth with a burning fire, a la Sansa, nor in the "snug bedchamber" in the Sea Tower he'd anticipated (which sounds like Littlefinger's little "tower" by the sea), but in the Bloody Keep, in a whole-ass "suite" of large but "chilly", even "cold" rooms with incredibly high ceilings — rooms which haven't even been opened, much less lived-in, for "years", and which are the very definition of "dreary":
The halls here were larger and better furnished, if no less cold nor damp. Theon was given a suite of chilly rooms with ceilings so high that they were lost in gloom. [Omitted but see below.]A ton of the motifs here (including the omitted stuff, which I'll return to) get recycled and reworked in Petyr's tower.
[Omitted but see below.] It was not fear of ghosts that made him glance about with distaste. The wall hangings were green with mildew, the mattress musty-smelling and sagging, the rushes old and brittle. Years had come and gone since these chambers had last been opened. The damp went bone deep. "I'll have a basin of hot water and a fire in this hearth," he told the crone. See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill. And gods be good, get someone in here at once to change these rushes."
Most obviously, Theon's request for hot water prefigures Sansa's request for a hot bath:
"Might I have a hot bath as well?" asked Sansa.Note that Kella fulfills the request, not Grisel. This 'fits', as it's not Helya who brings Theon's water, but "two thralls".
"I'll have Kella draw some water, m'lady."
Note also that Sansa requests her bath after thinking…
She desperately needed a bath and a change of clothes.…whereas Theon changes his clothes immediately after the quoted passages.
Slightly less obviously, the "wall hangings [that] were green with mildew" are reworked by Petyr's own green 'wall hanging': his grandfather's shield, which is painted with a "light green field" and which "hung… above the hearth". The "mildew" is reworked by the fact that the paint is "cracked and flaking" i.e. flawed. And maybe also by the "light green field", since a field grows crops which get milled and which get dewy.
Brittle Bryen's Brigantine, Brindled Mastiff, & Old Blind Dog
As mentioned, the motif of unchanged rushes from Theon's homecoming recurs when Petyr comes home. But Petyr's homecoming also lexically riffs on Theon's rushes being quote-unquote "old and brittle" by giving us Bryen in "brigantine" who is very "old" but not, seemingly, brittle, as he still walks watches, not with his "old blind dog", but with a "brindled mastiff":"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man. He looked to be at least eighty, but he wore a studded brigantine and a longsword at his side. …Is the brindled dog a "mastiff" 'only' a wink at Theon going mast-stiff for Asha? (See Part 4.) Maybe. But it's worth mentioning that when Theon is first being stirred by Pyke's banner and it's being battered about like the shield we see in the Drearfort three sentences after the mastiff, it's also (a) flying from a very stiff "mast" and (b) juxtaposed with a very large 'dog' of sorts:
"Bryen—didn't I name you captain of the guard the last time I was here?"
"You did, my lord. You said you'd be getting some more men too, but you never did. Me and the dogs stand all the watches."
Sansa found Bryen's old blind dog in her little alcove beneath the steps…
The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs.
The banner streamed from an iron mast, shivering and twisting as the wind gusted like a bird struggling to take flight. And here at least the direwolf of Stark did not fly above, casting its shadow down upon the Greyjoy kraken.
Musty Old Mattresses
The old, "musty-smelling and sagging" mattress (in the chamber that has just been re-opened after long periods of being closed and uninhabited) from Theon's homecoming is answered in Petyr's homecomiong by Lysa, who arrives a few pages later in the chapter, eager to finally have sex again with Petyr. "Mattress" is slang for a sexually available woman (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mattress) and Lysa sags—Lady Lysa was two years younger than Mother, but this woman looked ten years older. Thick auburn tresses fell down past her waist, but beneath the costly velvet gown and jeweled bodice her body sagged and bulged.—and smells stale. (Note that Lysa is on a mattress here.)
Her aunt was drenched in sweet scent, though under that was a sour milky smell. Her cheek tasted of paint and powder.Lysa's "cheek tast[ing] of paint and powder" riffs on the line about Theon's "distaste" and "fear of ghosts":
It was not fear of ghosts that made him glance about with distaste.The distaste wordplay is obvious: Lysa tastes bad. As for the "fear of ghosts", Lysa (whom Sansa fears) being covered in "powder" reminds us of Sansa being afraid of a "spirit" covered in powdery flour:
When the spirit stepped out of the open tomb, pale white and moaning for blood, Sansa ran shrieking for the stairs…. Arya stood her ground and gave the spirit a punch. It was only Jon, covered with flour. (AGOT Arya IV)This line—
The halls here were larger and better furnished, if no less cold nor damp.—is reworked by Lysa as well, who is big and well-dressed ("better furnished", so to speak)—
[B]eneath the costly velvet gown and jeweled bodice her body sagged and bulged. Her face was pink and painted, her breasts heavy, her limbs thick. She was taller than Littlefinger, and heavier; nor did she show any grace in the clumsy way she climbed down off her horse.—but cold to Sansa and horny/wet/"damp" for Petyr.
Given that Theon's rooms are in several ways like Lysa (newly 'open for business' after a long period of being closed and untouched by men, etc.), and pronouncing aunt like antler, we also might say that where the Lysa-like rooms are "cold" and "damp", Lysa herself is Sansa's "cold" aunt. Rhyming 'rhyming'.
That "years had come and gone since" the room with the Lysa-like mattress "had last been opened" is reworked not just by Lysa getting laid, but textually when Sansa is told Lysa is coming to the Drearfort (where she is 're-opened', so to speak):
It had been years since Sansa last saw her mother's sister…"I wonder whether Lysa crying and speaking to Sansa of being "bound by blood" to her—
Tears welled suddenly in Lady Lysa's eyes. "We are women alone now, you and I. Are you afraid, child? Be brave. I would never turn away Cat's daughter. We are bound by blood."—might not be in part a play on the fact that "the damp went bone deep" in the Bloody Keep. By saying that, Sansa's damp (i.e. crying) aunt "went bone deep", so to speak. (If you're "bound by blood" to someone, you have a "bone deep" bond with them. Also, bone → bound wordplay?)
Braziers → Bracing?
Did Theon's attempt to drive away "the chill" and damp of the salty sea air of Pyke using "braziers"—See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill.—inform (via wordplay: braziers → bracing) Petyr's line when the Merling King pulls up to the Drearfort?
Lord Petyr came up beside her, cheerful as ever. "Good morrow. The salt air is bracing, don't you think? It always sharpens my appetite."And/or is that "sharpening" motif a recursion of Theon sharpening his dirk immediately after said braziers are lit?
After some time, they brought the hot water he had asked for. … While two thralls lit his braziers, Theon stripped off his travel-stained clothing and dressed to meet his father. … He hung a dirk at one hip and a longsword at the other…. Drawing the dirk, he … pulled a whetstone from his belt pouch, and gave it a few licks. He prided himself on keeping his weapons sharp.
Gods Be Good!
The motifs of Theon yelling "gods be good" at his servant and of "ceilings so high that they were lost in gloom" are recursively reworked when Lysa summons Sansa (like a servant) to speak with her the morning after she weds Petyr. Sansa responds to the summons by thinking, verbatim, "gods be good", and is then told they'll be heading to the Eyrie, which we know is "so high you can stand on the parapets and look down on the clouds", i.e. it has parapets 'so high that they were lost in the clouds':Lady Lysa was still abed [like a good mattress!], but Lord Petyr was up and dressed. "Your aunt wishes to speak with you," he told Sansa, as he pulled on a boot. "I've told her who you are."The notion of a "ceiling" so high it is lost in gloom is perhaps also reworked by the story Lysa tells Sansa about Petyr's "rise" to power: She says she "always knew how high [Petyr would] rise", and it's my belief that said rise has likely seen him 'lost', spiritually, in 'darkness'. (Note that ceilings are a frequently invoked metaphor when talking about climbing the corporate ladder.)
Gods be good. "I . . . I thank you, my lord."
Petyr yanked on the other boot. "I've had about as much home as I can stomach. We'll leave for the Eyrie this afternoon."
Seven towers, Ned had told her, like white daggers thrust into the belly of the sky, so high you can stand on the parapets and look down on the clouds. (AGOT Catelyn VI)
"Half his teeth were gone, and his breath smelled like bad cheese. I cannot abide a man with foul breath. Petyr's breath is always fresh . . . he was the first man I ever kissed, you know. My father said he was too lowborn, but I knew how high he'd rise. Jon gave him the customs for Gulltown to please me, but when he increased the incomes tenfold my lord husband saw how clever he was and gave him other appointments, even brought him to King's Landing to be master of coin. That was hard, to see him every day and still be wed to that old cold man.(Recall that the motif of bad/fresh breath there reworks the "winey stench of the old man's [Sylas Sourmouth's] breath", which Theon thinks about roughly ¼ page prior to being shown his suite in the Bloody Keep.)
Butchered Sons & Brothers
Lysa continues to rant:"Jon did his duty in the bedchamber, but he could no more give me pleasure than he could give me children. His seed was old and weak. All my babies died but Robert, three girls and two boys. All my sweet little babies dead, and that old man just went on and on with his stinking breath. So you see, I have suffered too." Lady Lysa sniffed. "You do know that your poor mother is dead?"Those references to (a) a bunch of dead "babies", including two brothers, one of which was "murdered" when Lysa's father, Hoster Tully, who ruled the Riverlands, betrayed Lysa's trust; and to (b) foul smelling breath, a la Sylas, and finally to (c) the Red Wedding — a bloody betrayal of Sansa's brother, who was King of the Riverlands — particularly (per Sansa saying "Tyrion told me") as it's described by Tyrion—
"Tyrion told me," said Sansa. "He said the Freys murdered her at The Twins, with Robb."
Sansa did not need to hear how her brother's body had been hacked and mutilated, he decided; nor how her mother's corpse had been dumped naked into the Green Fork in a savage mockery of House Tully's funeral customs. (ASOS Tyrion VII)—are one of the ways ASOS Sansa VI rejiggers the part of Theon's description of his Bloody Keep suite I "[omitted]" earlier, which entails betrayals, murdered brothers, a River King, slaughter, and bodies "hacked to bits".
[Theon] might have been more impressed if he had not known that these were the very chambers that had given the Bloody Keep its name. A thousand years before, the sons of the River King had been slaughtered here, hacked to bits in their beds so that pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland.Lysa's speech with its reference to her abortion and to the Red Wedding (and to stink-breath like Sylas's) isn't the only (or even the main) way Petyr's homecoming chapter refracts those images from Theon's homecoming, though.
But Greyjoys were not murdered in Pyke except once in a great while by their brothers, and his brothers were both dead.
Littlefinger is himself a kind of River King (as Lord Paramount of the Trident), right? And note that we read all about his "slaughtered" "sons" just before he enters the tower, wherein we then see the foul betrayers who murdered their 'brothers'. I'm talking, of course, about his sheep and his sheepdogs:
"How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"Note the kitchen, recalling that the Bloody Keep is paired with the Kitchen Keep as Theon first gazes on Pyke:
… "Three and twenty, m'lord. There was nine and twenty, but Bryen's dogs killed one and we butchered some others and salted down the meat."
"Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home.…" … "Come, let's see if my hall is as dreary as I recall." … A handful of sheep were wandering about the base of the flint tower…. …
Within, the tower seemed even smaller. An open stone stair wound round the inside wall, from undercroft to roof. Each floor was but a single room. The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs.
Farther out were the Kitchen Keep and the Bloody Keep, each on its own island.Note, too, that the sheep are coded as Petyr's "sons", in a way (a la the "slaughtered… sons of the River King" Theon remembers in his Bloody Tower rooms), and not just because he owns them. He says that Kella has lots of bastards and that she minds his sheep, right? And what else does he say of Kella, in jest? That she 'is' the "mother" of his "daughter," "Alayne Stone":
"Alayne . . . Stone, would it be?" When he nodded, she said, "But who is my mother?"The joke foregrounds the notion of Petyr as the father of Kella's children. And while she supposedly has a bunch of bastards, we don't see them. We just see the one girl with the livestock-evoking eye with a sty. It's almost like the sheep she looks after are her children. And thus like Petyr is their father.
"Kella?"
"Please no," she said, mortified.
"I was teasing.
(Note the word "mortified". This points straight back to Theon in his Bloody Tower for two reasons: First, greyscale, which mortifies the flesh, killed Balon's brother Harlon, who died "in a windowless tower room" at Pyke. Second: Theon will, in his next chapter, be truly mortified by the realization that "Esgred" is his sister Asha, where that masquerade in turn prefigures Sansa masquerading as Alayne.)
So the "cold" Bloody Keep with its partner the Kitchen Keep and its story of a "slaughter", betrayal, brother killing brother, a River King's sons' bodies "hacked to bits in their beds" — all these motifs are reworked by Kella's account of one of Lord Paramount Petyr's sheep-'sons' being killed by its lexicial 'brothers', the very "sheep-dogs" who were supposed to guard it, and of other sheep-'sons' being verbatim "butchered", i.e. slaughtered on a killing bed and in the process surely hacked into pieces that were then preserved against spoilage for future consumption, such that the resulting "cold salt mutton" could be used as travel rations. Which jibes with Theon's language, creatively interpreted:
[T]he sons of the River King had been slaughtered here, hacked to bits in their beds so that pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland.(They were slaughtered and hacked to bits only so as to properly preserve them against spoilage during their upcoming journey "back to their father on the mainland", you see!)
Theon's Honor Guard
The conditions in Theon's rooms are consistent with the cold welcome he receives, both from Aeron—The priest's manner was chilly, most unlike the man Theon remembered.—and Balon—
Theon pulled off his gloves. "… Why is my father not here to greet me?"—and they're thus part of a broad yin/yang 'rhyme' with Petyr's initial homecoming, which is warm and welcoming and full of familiar faces, whereas Theon knows no one, such that he thinks:
"He awaits you in the Sea Tower, m'lord. When you are rested from your trip."
And I thought Ned Stark cold.
It is as if I were a stranger here….The reversal is wryly underlined when Petyr is greeted at the shore by his "captain of the guards", Bryen:
"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man.Thus Petyr ironically gets the "honor guard" welcome Theon hoped he'd get on his arrival 'home':
[Theon] saw… no honor guard waiting to escort him from Lordsport to Pyke, only smallfolk going about their small business.Notice that where no one stops what they're doing for Theon, everyone stops when Petyr arrives. And of course, everyone in his household recognizes him, whereas no one recognizes Theon. Which is telling, because in a deep sense, that's all Theon really wants, deep down: a little recognition.
Littlefinger has it… but it's not enough.
(SUB)SERIES CONCLUDES IN PART 10: Oswell & Aeron; Lothar & Dagmer; The Closing Twist
2023.05.31 17:47 britishgeorgia GENEALOGY PICNIC at the Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA (south of Atlanta) - Saturday, June 3 9:00-3:15 EDT - FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
The Georgia Archives and the Georgia Genealogical Society are sponsoring the Annual Genealogy Picnic this Saturday, June 3, from 9 a.m.-3:15 p.m. at the Georgia Archives. This is in-person only. Come enjoy the presentations and socialize with other genealogists. Bring a sack lunch or have lunch on your own.
No pre-registration is required, and the event is free and open to the public. Bring a friend!
9:00 - 9:30 a.m.: Registration
9:30-10:30 a.m.: Breaking Down Brick Walls Using FamilySearch (Lynn Schlick, Alabama Genealogical Society)
10:30-10:45 a.m.: Break
10:45-11:45 a.m.: Taking a Second Look: Reviewing Existing Records For More Genealogical Clues (Tamika Strong, Reference Archivist, Georgia Archives)
11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.: Lunch on your own (Archives Reference Library will be closed from 12-1 p.m.)
1:00-2:00 p.m.: Finding Francis: One Family's Journey from Slavery to Freedom (Dr. Elizabeth West, Academic Director, Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora, Georgia State University)
2:00-2:15 p.m.: Break
2:15-3:15 p.m.: Ask An Archivist Panel Discussion: Georgia Archives Resources and Search Strategies (Georgia Archives staff) (To submit a question, go to https://forms.office.com/1m4fYFT1i1).
The Georgia Archives is located at 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, GA 30260.
www.GeorgiaArchives.org
submitted by britishgeorgia to Genealogy [link] [comments]
No pre-registration is required, and the event is free and open to the public. Bring a friend!
9:00 - 9:30 a.m.: Registration
9:30-10:30 a.m.: Breaking Down Brick Walls Using FamilySearch (Lynn Schlick, Alabama Genealogical Society)
10:30-10:45 a.m.: Break
10:45-11:45 a.m.: Taking a Second Look: Reviewing Existing Records For More Genealogical Clues (Tamika Strong, Reference Archivist, Georgia Archives)
11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.: Lunch on your own (Archives Reference Library will be closed from 12-1 p.m.)
1:00-2:00 p.m.: Finding Francis: One Family's Journey from Slavery to Freedom (Dr. Elizabeth West, Academic Director, Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora, Georgia State University)
2:00-2:15 p.m.: Break
2:15-3:15 p.m.: Ask An Archivist Panel Discussion: Georgia Archives Resources and Search Strategies (Georgia Archives staff) (To submit a question, go to https://forms.office.com/1m4fYFT1i1).
The Georgia Archives is located at 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, GA 30260.
www.GeorgiaArchives.org
2023.05.31 15:22 Prestigious-Fold-876 Maze of Tartarus - Tips and Tricks
Hello friends! This is uncle Papi again!
Since I couldn't find a definite guide for the Maze of Tartarus anywhere, I'll try to share some tips on this hard challenge for all players that are having difficulty and want help to progress.
This post is by no means the optimal way to do. I'll just share here what worked for me on my journey from 1F to 30F. Hopefully some of the information will be helpful to someone.
Please be welcome to share your stories or contribute as well!
Some tips beforehand:
Team: SM Lilebette, Kyle, Eliza and Rei.
Strategy: I was very excited in my first fight! SM Lilebette was responsible to deal the damage, since monsters are weak to earth. Kyle, Rei and Eliza served as mana batteries, spamming Honey Elixir on SM Lilebette to keep the damage going.
2F: Elements x6 (one of each type).
Team: Shin, Gravein, AoG Baran and Gaoul.
Strategy: Since each spirit has different resist/weaknesses, I decided to approach with neutral damage. AoG baran has native SCT sustain and the other characters were there just to use buffs/debuffs.
3F: Medrone, Winged Menace x2.
Team: Vaughn, Carol Nº 4, Romel and Lily.
Strategy: The birds start flanking you (one on each side), so your primary goal should be bringing them to the same side to cleave them with skills, hitting both at the same time. They are weak to fire, so Vaughn had an easy time breaking them (I did give him Bird Slayer, since he doesn't have it by default).
Romel and Carol were mainly responsible for buffs/debuffs, while Vaughn had Honey Elixir to keep the damage going.
Lily was there casting and keeping the boss from casting their spells, debuffing them as well.
4F: Gold Dabourne (a lot of waves).
Team: Meredy, DXR-MK02.
Strategy: Very easy floor since the monsters are weak to instant death. I had Meredy and DXR-MK02 equipped with Death God skill.
Things were looking very good until I reached next floor.
5F: Saint Pokkle.
Team: Melza, Tinkili and Vergil
Strategy: This is where things start to get complicated, since you just arrived from a very easy floor.
The boss will likely 1-shot your unit if the unit is weak to light and the unit is not a plant. That being considered, I had to give everyone in the group Mimicry[Plant] (via skills or equips).
Melza was built full tank. As she has a very high light resist, she didn't take too much damage and she could do double duty as a healer. I kept in mind to equip all aggro skills/accessories I could to really make her shine.
Tinkili had buffs/debuffs and God Heal, spamming her special on CD.
Vergil came in with damage, using his special on CD to be immune to flinch. I stacked a lot of movement speed on him so he could close the gap faster. Also, his S1 teleports him straight behind the enemies, which made the job easier. I had to raise his light resistance so he wouldn't get one-shot.
Positioning here is very important, as Vergil needed to stay behind the boss to avoid being cleaved together with Melza.
Raising light resistance is also very important, so that Golem SSR ark is very good in this fight (+20 light/dark resist).
The boss will sometimes cast Star Verse, which will hit VERY hard, so Magic Barrier, Shadow Wall, Metis, Lostoma (on the boss) and Decoy can help you survive.
6F: Nocturne Tinkili and Fan Sahagin x3.
Team: Mia, Dabourne, Pokkle, Ghost.
Strategy: The fight is not hard. The enemies are easily grouped and are weak to thunder. The boss will likely 1-shot your unit if the unit is male.
That being considered, use monsters and/or female units to deal with the floor. The Sahagins, if left unchecked, can hit very hard, so be sure to nuke them down or use a female tank if you must (Maddine, Melza, etc.).
Mia went on rampage while the other monsters were on buff/debuff duties and using Honey Elixir when they could.
When the boss is low, she will use a Dark special which will hit hard, watch out for that.
7F: Lightning Myura (and his offsprings) x1.
Team: Gorm, Logia, Shida and Lilebette.
Strategy: The boss is weak to earth and casting magic is the way to go. I don't have many casters, so I decided to go for physical damage instead. The boss is resistant to shadow but you can always lower its resistance with Weak and Circles.
Also, bring resistance to stun, since the boss will hit like a truck if a unit is stunned. Also, avoid staying at the edges of the room, since the boss can pin you there and do a lot of damage (dont know if it was a bug or intencional).
The boss itself is vulnerable to ailments, so Logia + Annula Melth did the trick, while Gorm tanked and Shida did the damage.
Lilebette was responsible for healing and buffs/debuffs/revives as needed.
8F: Igneed x2.
Team: SLeona, Gobl, SMaddine and Zekus.
Strategy: There are actually 2 bosses here but they start on top of each other, making you think there's only one. Both bosses can be broken, so take advantage of that. Each time you break them, they become more and more resistant to break.
The main catch here is the fire attack that he launches when close to death but there are many ways to lower its damage (Walls, Buffs, Debuffs, etc.).
Gobl and SLeona were responsible for breaking the boss, while SMaddine and Zekus were responsible for buffs/debuffs, respectively. SLeona also did the damage.
9F: Ancient Ritual Remants x1.
Team: Ardine, Hobgobl, Sahagin, Barcello.
Strategy: I'm not going to lie, all characters here were just used as mana batteries for Ardine, which ripped through everything with his neutral damage.
Arks/skills that trigger effects on kill are very useful, since there are many waves of mobs that keep appearing during the fight.
10F: Gold Gaoul x1.
Team: Lanceveil, Davan, Duran and Beyland.
Strategy: The boss has a VERY high defense and you can't use any spells, so debuffs that are activated on "Battle Start" are very useful here.
Davan gives all enemies Blazer + Drain and Ghost Hime ark gives Spirit Riot. Very useful here.
Your DPS want skills that bypass defense, such as Piercing/Diabolos skills or the Terror of the Grana Seas ark + axe equipped.
11F: Lightning Pablaboria x1.
Team: Riesz, Leona, Leena and Dyne.
Strategy: That -500 thunder resist IS A TRAP!!! And I fell for it!
The boss ABSORBS thunder, so the goal is to deal earth damage instead. Being immune to flinch is nice, if you can afford to (via units or arks).
The boss will spawn 4 creatures that, if not killed, will turn into new Pablos. If you manage to kill all 4 of them, the boss will instantly break. This is when you should go all out on damage.
Leena took care of healing and buffing, while Riesz/Dyne acted as mana batteries for Leona.
12F: Soul Eater (a lot of waves).
Team: AoG Zouglas, OG Alice, Yashamaru and Princess Lilah.
Strategy: Death God works against the ghosts... IF you can manage to hit them.
Yashamaru did the work, while OG Alice acted as a mana battery for him and AoG Zouglas gathered the ghosts to make things easier.
Lilah was there for healing, since the ghosts can dish out some damage.
13F: Beast Abeliol x1.
Team: DB Rei, SLanceveil, Vazard and Theria.
Strategy: The boss has 2 "stances":
Buffs, however, are indispensable! Bring Walls accordingly.
Also, be careful on what kind of elemental you use on the boss. I didn't test everything but I found that if you hit him with light, he'll get empowered and wipe the floor with you.
You can do the fight without a healer but you'll have a hard time unless you can kill the boss very quickly. Also, I used a thunder team but you can also use an earth team or mix both to take advantage of both "stances".
14F: Divine Beast Rock Mekia.
Team: D'dii, Luke, 9S and AoG Lily.
Strategy: The boss starts the fight immune to magic damage but, at 50% hp, he'll switch over to being immune to physical damage, so you need a flex team who can deal both of types of damage.
DO NOT USE ANY ELEMENTALS OTHER THAN DARK OR LIGHT, as the boss will get buffed and wipe you out. This also includes auto-attacking with elemental weapons, so pay attention to your equipped weapons.
DO NOT USE SPECIALS EARLY ON, as the boss gets resistant to it when you use them. Save them for when the boss is close to dying, so you can finish it off.
It is a good idea to have your caster do the same type of damage as your dps (because of Circles and other synergies). Also, the boss is vulnerable to blind and other ailments.
D'dii took care of the healing and ailments, 9S handled buffs, revives and helped debuffing the boss, Luke dealt with the 1st phase and AoG Lily dealt with the 2nd phase.
15F: Godhunter Shin x1, Yashamaru x1.
Team: Roland, 2B, PT Robin and Luger.
Strategy: Ignore Shin at the start, just focus Yashamaru.
Be careful with his clones and try to find the real Yashamaru and nuke him down. Since he has SCT Theft, you need Honey Elixir to keep your skills going. PT Robin and Luger were there as batteries for 2B and Roland.
After Yashamaru dies, focus on Shin. When he's close do death he'll use his Special non-stop, so try to save your special/skill stocks to nuke him down when he gets to about 30%.
There are a lot of arks that gives benefits against humans, make use of them!
16F: Thunder BaBat (a lot of waves).
Team: AoG Degrogue, Dark Melza and Lukiel.
Strategy: The bats are vulnerable to instant death, so Death God can be used here. Dark Melza/Lukiel were just used as mana batteries for AoG Degrogue.
If you have enough thunder resistance on AoG Degrogue, you won't need a tank or healer. As in every stage with waves, having on-kill skills (pose of victory/glory/honor) is very useful.
Also, again, many arks give benefits that last for the entire wave whenever you kill an enemy. Those kinds of arks are good here (Death God SSR, for instance).
17F: PB-SWEEPER G x1 (and his robots).
Team: Eren, SZekus, Saint Lilebette and Warlock Leena.
Strategy: The boss flies, so you need ranged attackers or casters.
The boss will sometimes slams the ground below him, dealing huge amount of damage, so be careful about your positioning and don't let the boss hover above your characters.
Eren was useful to tank the ground robots, since he's very resistant and can do some damage. Since I was using 2 ice units and the boss is not weak to ice, I had to employ circles and weak.
When you kill the 2 flying bots, the boss will keep spamming robots to annoy you. Remember that SZekus can become near immortal if you give him Goddess Kiss and an ice weapon (DW if possible).
18F: Gold Grammos (a lot of waves).
Team: SEliza.
Strategy: As I was starting to come short on good units to use and wanted to save some for the later floors, I had to choose between efficiency and availability.
SEliza was perfectly capable to solo this floor, as she could take some hits. But be warned that the Gold Grammos hit very hard.
Movement speed is key here, along with Pose of Honor to regain MP.
19F: Grandworm x3.
Team: SMeredy, Robin, Blood Rose (don't laugh!) and Angela.
Strategy: This fight is VERY annoying if it doesnt start well. It took me a lot of tries to get it right.
Robin needs to be 5-star here, as he gets the very useful skill Stun Research. With his auto-attacks (16 hits), he can apply stun VERY easily. I also had the Cactus Hammer equiped on him, just in case. The SR Ark Eternal Clock De=Rowe is very useful on him because it increases the duration of his stuns by 30%.
Blood Rose was used as a healer and buffedebuffer, while SMeredy acted as a dps (using only her S2, which is ice-based).
Angela just sat back and rocked her ice magic.
20F: White Knight Melza x1, Gallant Flame Vaughn x1, Ice Emperor Seilios x1.
Team: SGoroth, SRoland, GA Lukiel and Zleorg.
Strategy: This fight can be hard because when Vaughn and Seilios are close to dying, they get a HUGE damage buff, so they need to die ASAP. Try to spread the damage but not too much to the point where they all get low at the same time.
Melza herself can be a pain because of her guard skill that activates a lot and she HEALS while guarding, so bring units/skills/arks that can pierce that guard (Shockwave skill, for example). Another useful tip is to lower her ailments resist and try to inflict illness on her, negating all her healing (it worked wonders).
GA Lukiel was crucial in the 1st part of the fight to nuke Vaughn and Seilios without risk of them getting uber buffed.
After Melza dies, she gets reborn as Dark Melza, dealing dark damage instead of light. Dark Melza is VERY easy to break, so SGoroth kept her permanently broken while SRoland destroyed her.
Zleorg was surprisingly useful in this fight because of his resistances and ability to target elemental weaknesses.
21F: Tetrodon x1 (and his companions).
Team: Goroth, Murren and Seilios.
Strategy: Yikes, the boss will inflict you with LOTS of ailments, so come prepared! Also, the stage's special effect lowers your max HP and the boss' special also lowers it even further.
I used my SC to get all status resistances that I could and used accessories to resist what I could as well.
Murren could probably have soloed it but it would take too long, since he needed to cast Honey Elixir and kept getting interrupted.
22F: Abaddon the All-consuming x1, Tentacle x3.
Team: Claire & Dalgion, Zaix, Yuri and Saintly Theria.
Strategy: More ailments and heavy shadow damage. The boss is VERY susceptible to breaking, so Zaix did the job with Claire's help, while Zaix and Yuri did the damage and Saintly Theria took care of keeping the team healthy.
23F: Star Jelly x1 (Thanks Tony for the advice on improving my time here!).
Team: Maddine, Doura.
Strategy: This fight looks very hard at first sight, until you notice the boss attack pattern. It COPIES your attacks! Taking advantage of that, if you use the spell Soul Spark (which is a suicidal spell), the boss will copy it and suicide.
Take notice, however, that it still deals a ton of damage, so bring some means to stay alive (Determination, Decoy, Shadow Wall, Magic Barrier, Metis, etc.).
24F: Yggdrasil x1, King Pokkle x1, Spirit x1, Pokkle x1, Death Plant x1 and Gaoul x1.
Team: SMelza, BB Shin and Dilmordo.
Strategy: The boss will start the fight immune and will stay so until you kill all the adds first. You should start by killing King Pokkle first, leaving the Spirit for last.
When all adds die, the boss breaks, so save all your skills for this moment! After the boss recovers, the adds appear again and you have to repeat the cycle.
Bring some means to recover SCT (Pose of Glory, Honey Elixir, etc.) and you're good to go!
25F: Cryofoul Medrone x1.
Team: Nero, Graphel, TB Sevia and V.
Strategy: Foul indeed, this fight was VERY hard for me. So many opportunities to win the fight were lost just when things were apparently going well!
The key here was to use V to keep the boss stunned and use Graphel to dish out damage. TB Sevia did the healing/reviving (she did work a lot in this fight) and Nero helped with the damage.
Bring resistance to Illness, as the boss can inflict it. And most importantly: don't lose heart and keep trying!
26F: Greaver, Abyssal Spirit x1.
Team: Alphonse, Stahn, Alice and Sera.
Strategy: The boss starts the fight summoning some skeleton adds. After you kill the adds, the boss will become immune to both physical and magical damage (specials still work).
How do you get around it? The answer is simple: BREAKING! Stahn is there for this reason and, once the boss is broken for the 1st time, it will take damage normally and will summon the skeleton adds again during the fight.
Be careful because the boss uses dark attacks and spells and they hurt. Sera is there to keep the team alive, while Alice can take care of the adds and Stahn can take care of the boss. Alphonse tried to gather the skeletons for Alice.
27F: Holy Gourmet Phagodelus x1.
Team: Vayne.
Strategy: I thought this was a good time to use my Trishula, so I gave it to Vayne and he soloed the stage. Just bring some health and earth resistance and you're good to go!
The boss saps MP, so things like Proud Force or Dusk are not very useful here. Again, some arks/skills that work with low mana, like Abandoned City of the Seas SSR, can be very useful here since your MP will drop very quickly.
28F: Burning Fortress Gabord x2.
Team: SBeyland, Sevia, Maja and SM Theria.
Strategy: Very hard fight for me. I had to start using the big guns or I wouldn't be able to progress. The boss does fire damage so bring resistance! There are a lot of items/equips that give resistance to fire, now is the perfect time to use them.
Sevia was very useful because her special HALVES ALL DAMAGE! And it fills very quickly, so you can easily maintain 100% uptime.
The boss alternates into being resistant to physical and magical damage, so you need to deliver both here. SBeyland and Maja did the job.
29F: Venom Dragon Babalaad x1.
Team: Skeleton, Adel, AoG Mayly and Phal.
Strategy: This boss can be deceptively strong because of its mechanic. By itself, it doesnt to a whole lot of damage. However, if one of your characters is poisoned, it deals HUGE damage to them! And to make things worse, the boss CAN LOWER YOUR AILMENTS RESISTANCE! So be above immune to poison to have an easy time here.
The boss itself can be made vulnerable to ailments, so Phal and Mayly kept it under control with Stun Research. Meanwhile Adel discharged all his fury onto the boss.
30F: None other than El'dravahna, the Imperator himself! x1.
Team: SGorm, Lelouche, Joker and Lougseus.
Strategy: Not too much to say, the boss hits very hard and has a lot of HP. It can be broken, altought I only had those 4 units left and not much room to wiggle.
SGorm was very useful because he used his buff on Joker to make him tougher. Lelouch is very tough himself and was the main MVP in this fight with Grand Aura/Brave Phaser and Goddess Kiss. Lougseus was my healedebuffer while Joker was my mana battery for Lelouch.
I saved my "Absolute Power of Obedience" when I had all stocks full and when the boss was close to dying, so he wouldn't pull any tricks on me.
-
And that's how my journey through Tartarus ended, at least for now. I really had fun suffering through all those floors, trying to figure out what to do in each one.
I have used ALL units I have on my account and almost all of my arks. Also, all units that I used were at least lvl 110 (5-enhance), with the exception of SRoland and Lelouche who are 6-enhance. All units are also at least 4-awaken (with many being 6-awaken and SRoland being 8-awaken).
The most fun part, in my opinion, was to make use of old units and equips. There are so many equips that I have that I thought were useless and, in the right situation, they were game changing! Same can be said about the units, I really had fun finding a use for Kyle or Barcello, or even the monsters that I raised with so much love and care!
Also, keep in mind, folks, that this is NOT an easy content. It's extremely hard and it can be frustrating at times but it feels really good when you manage to beat a floor!
If you're having a hard time, do not feel shy to take a break and build up more units (or try to acquire some). I made sure units have learned all ark skills that I have available, as it allowed me for diversity and to use the weaker units as mana batteries or as supports/tanks.
submitted by Prestigious-Fold-876 to lastcloudia [link] [comments]
Since I couldn't find a definite guide for the Maze of Tartarus anywhere, I'll try to share some tips on this hard challenge for all players that are having difficulty and want help to progress.
This post is by no means the optimal way to do. I'll just share here what worked for me on my journey from 1F to 30F. Hopefully some of the information will be helpful to someone.
Please be welcome to share your stories or contribute as well!
Some tips beforehand:
- There is a summary of each boss, listing its elemental chart (weaknesses/resistances) and ailment resists, as well as its type. You can take full advantage of elemental weaknesses and slayers, which you SHOULD (as much as you can).
- Pay attention to each scenario, as most of them are special floors and some arks have synergy or special effects on them.
- Do NOT be afraid of using units! You can always re-do early floors to free up units for later floors when you progress. Its no use having a very good unit sitting on the bench waiting for the "right floor". Use what you can to progress, that's all that matters!
- Crimson Ore equips are very useful because they free up gear for other characters.
- Do NOT underestimate your weaker characters! Many fights can be made much easier by having access to buffs/debuffs and they can be perfect for that role! Also, there's always Honey Elixir and WAP to make them useful.
Team: SM Lilebette, Kyle, Eliza and Rei.
Strategy: I was very excited in my first fight! SM Lilebette was responsible to deal the damage, since monsters are weak to earth. Kyle, Rei and Eliza served as mana batteries, spamming Honey Elixir on SM Lilebette to keep the damage going.
2F: Elements x6 (one of each type).
Team: Shin, Gravein, AoG Baran and Gaoul.
Strategy: Since each spirit has different resist/weaknesses, I decided to approach with neutral damage. AoG baran has native SCT sustain and the other characters were there just to use buffs/debuffs.
3F: Medrone, Winged Menace x2.
Team: Vaughn, Carol Nº 4, Romel and Lily.
Strategy: The birds start flanking you (one on each side), so your primary goal should be bringing them to the same side to cleave them with skills, hitting both at the same time. They are weak to fire, so Vaughn had an easy time breaking them (I did give him Bird Slayer, since he doesn't have it by default).
Romel and Carol were mainly responsible for buffs/debuffs, while Vaughn had Honey Elixir to keep the damage going.
Lily was there casting and keeping the boss from casting their spells, debuffing them as well.
4F: Gold Dabourne (a lot of waves).
Team: Meredy, DXR-MK02.
Strategy: Very easy floor since the monsters are weak to instant death. I had Meredy and DXR-MK02 equipped with Death God skill.
Things were looking very good until I reached next floor.
5F: Saint Pokkle.
Team: Melza, Tinkili and Vergil
Strategy: This is where things start to get complicated, since you just arrived from a very easy floor.
The boss will likely 1-shot your unit if the unit is weak to light and the unit is not a plant. That being considered, I had to give everyone in the group Mimicry[Plant] (via skills or equips).
Melza was built full tank. As she has a very high light resist, she didn't take too much damage and she could do double duty as a healer. I kept in mind to equip all aggro skills/accessories I could to really make her shine.
Tinkili had buffs/debuffs and God Heal, spamming her special on CD.
Vergil came in with damage, using his special on CD to be immune to flinch. I stacked a lot of movement speed on him so he could close the gap faster. Also, his S1 teleports him straight behind the enemies, which made the job easier. I had to raise his light resistance so he wouldn't get one-shot.
Positioning here is very important, as Vergil needed to stay behind the boss to avoid being cleaved together with Melza.
Raising light resistance is also very important, so that Golem SSR ark is very good in this fight (+20 light/dark resist).
The boss will sometimes cast Star Verse, which will hit VERY hard, so Magic Barrier, Shadow Wall, Metis, Lostoma (on the boss) and Decoy can help you survive.
6F: Nocturne Tinkili and Fan Sahagin x3.
Team: Mia, Dabourne, Pokkle, Ghost.
Strategy: The fight is not hard. The enemies are easily grouped and are weak to thunder. The boss will likely 1-shot your unit if the unit is male.
That being considered, use monsters and/or female units to deal with the floor. The Sahagins, if left unchecked, can hit very hard, so be sure to nuke them down or use a female tank if you must (Maddine, Melza, etc.).
Mia went on rampage while the other monsters were on buff/debuff duties and using Honey Elixir when they could.
When the boss is low, she will use a Dark special which will hit hard, watch out for that.
7F: Lightning Myura (and his offsprings) x1.
Team: Gorm, Logia, Shida and Lilebette.
Strategy: The boss is weak to earth and casting magic is the way to go. I don't have many casters, so I decided to go for physical damage instead. The boss is resistant to shadow but you can always lower its resistance with Weak and Circles.
Also, bring resistance to stun, since the boss will hit like a truck if a unit is stunned. Also, avoid staying at the edges of the room, since the boss can pin you there and do a lot of damage (dont know if it was a bug or intencional).
The boss itself is vulnerable to ailments, so Logia + Annula Melth did the trick, while Gorm tanked and Shida did the damage.
Lilebette was responsible for healing and buffs/debuffs/revives as needed.
8F: Igneed x2.
Team: SLeona, Gobl, SMaddine and Zekus.
Strategy: There are actually 2 bosses here but they start on top of each other, making you think there's only one. Both bosses can be broken, so take advantage of that. Each time you break them, they become more and more resistant to break.
The main catch here is the fire attack that he launches when close to death but there are many ways to lower its damage (Walls, Buffs, Debuffs, etc.).
Gobl and SLeona were responsible for breaking the boss, while SMaddine and Zekus were responsible for buffs/debuffs, respectively. SLeona also did the damage.
9F: Ancient Ritual Remants x1.
Team: Ardine, Hobgobl, Sahagin, Barcello.
Strategy: I'm not going to lie, all characters here were just used as mana batteries for Ardine, which ripped through everything with his neutral damage.
Arks/skills that trigger effects on kill are very useful, since there are many waves of mobs that keep appearing during the fight.
10F: Gold Gaoul x1.
Team: Lanceveil, Davan, Duran and Beyland.
Strategy: The boss has a VERY high defense and you can't use any spells, so debuffs that are activated on "Battle Start" are very useful here.
Davan gives all enemies Blazer + Drain and Ghost Hime ark gives Spirit Riot. Very useful here.
Your DPS want skills that bypass defense, such as Piercing/Diabolos skills or the Terror of the Grana Seas ark + axe equipped.
11F: Lightning Pablaboria x1.
Team: Riesz, Leona, Leena and Dyne.
Strategy: That -500 thunder resist IS A TRAP!!! And I fell for it!
The boss ABSORBS thunder, so the goal is to deal earth damage instead. Being immune to flinch is nice, if you can afford to (via units or arks).
The boss will spawn 4 creatures that, if not killed, will turn into new Pablos. If you manage to kill all 4 of them, the boss will instantly break. This is when you should go all out on damage.
Leena took care of healing and buffing, while Riesz/Dyne acted as mana batteries for Leona.
12F: Soul Eater (a lot of waves).
Team: AoG Zouglas, OG Alice, Yashamaru and Princess Lilah.
Strategy: Death God works against the ghosts... IF you can manage to hit them.
Yashamaru did the work, while OG Alice acted as a mana battery for him and AoG Zouglas gathered the ghosts to make things easier.
Lilah was there for healing, since the ghosts can dish out some damage.
13F: Beast Abeliol x1.
Team: DB Rei, SLanceveil, Vazard and Theria.
Strategy: The boss has 2 "stances":
- hunder Stance: Vulnerable to earth, uses thunder magic.
- Ice Stance: Vulnerable to thunder, uses ice magic.
Buffs, however, are indispensable! Bring Walls accordingly.
Also, be careful on what kind of elemental you use on the boss. I didn't test everything but I found that if you hit him with light, he'll get empowered and wipe the floor with you.
You can do the fight without a healer but you'll have a hard time unless you can kill the boss very quickly. Also, I used a thunder team but you can also use an earth team or mix both to take advantage of both "stances".
14F: Divine Beast Rock Mekia.
Team: D'dii, Luke, 9S and AoG Lily.
Strategy: The boss starts the fight immune to magic damage but, at 50% hp, he'll switch over to being immune to physical damage, so you need a flex team who can deal both of types of damage.
DO NOT USE ANY ELEMENTALS OTHER THAN DARK OR LIGHT, as the boss will get buffed and wipe you out. This also includes auto-attacking with elemental weapons, so pay attention to your equipped weapons.
DO NOT USE SPECIALS EARLY ON, as the boss gets resistant to it when you use them. Save them for when the boss is close to dying, so you can finish it off.
It is a good idea to have your caster do the same type of damage as your dps (because of Circles and other synergies). Also, the boss is vulnerable to blind and other ailments.
D'dii took care of the healing and ailments, 9S handled buffs, revives and helped debuffing the boss, Luke dealt with the 1st phase and AoG Lily dealt with the 2nd phase.
15F: Godhunter Shin x1, Yashamaru x1.
Team: Roland, 2B, PT Robin and Luger.
Strategy: Ignore Shin at the start, just focus Yashamaru.
Be careful with his clones and try to find the real Yashamaru and nuke him down. Since he has SCT Theft, you need Honey Elixir to keep your skills going. PT Robin and Luger were there as batteries for 2B and Roland.
After Yashamaru dies, focus on Shin. When he's close do death he'll use his Special non-stop, so try to save your special/skill stocks to nuke him down when he gets to about 30%.
There are a lot of arks that gives benefits against humans, make use of them!
16F: Thunder BaBat (a lot of waves).
Team: AoG Degrogue, Dark Melza and Lukiel.
Strategy: The bats are vulnerable to instant death, so Death God can be used here. Dark Melza/Lukiel were just used as mana batteries for AoG Degrogue.
If you have enough thunder resistance on AoG Degrogue, you won't need a tank or healer. As in every stage with waves, having on-kill skills (pose of victory/glory/honor) is very useful.
Also, again, many arks give benefits that last for the entire wave whenever you kill an enemy. Those kinds of arks are good here (Death God SSR, for instance).
17F: PB-SWEEPER G x1 (and his robots).
Team: Eren, SZekus, Saint Lilebette and Warlock Leena.
Strategy: The boss flies, so you need ranged attackers or casters.
The boss will sometimes slams the ground below him, dealing huge amount of damage, so be careful about your positioning and don't let the boss hover above your characters.
Eren was useful to tank the ground robots, since he's very resistant and can do some damage. Since I was using 2 ice units and the boss is not weak to ice, I had to employ circles and weak.
When you kill the 2 flying bots, the boss will keep spamming robots to annoy you. Remember that SZekus can become near immortal if you give him Goddess Kiss and an ice weapon (DW if possible).
18F: Gold Grammos (a lot of waves).
Team: SEliza.
Strategy: As I was starting to come short on good units to use and wanted to save some for the later floors, I had to choose between efficiency and availability.
SEliza was perfectly capable to solo this floor, as she could take some hits. But be warned that the Gold Grammos hit very hard.
Movement speed is key here, along with Pose of Honor to regain MP.
19F: Grandworm x3.
Team: SMeredy, Robin, Blood Rose (don't laugh!) and Angela.
Strategy: This fight is VERY annoying if it doesnt start well. It took me a lot of tries to get it right.
Robin needs to be 5-star here, as he gets the very useful skill Stun Research. With his auto-attacks (16 hits), he can apply stun VERY easily. I also had the Cactus Hammer equiped on him, just in case. The SR Ark Eternal Clock De=Rowe is very useful on him because it increases the duration of his stuns by 30%.
Blood Rose was used as a healer and buffedebuffer, while SMeredy acted as a dps (using only her S2, which is ice-based).
Angela just sat back and rocked her ice magic.
20F: White Knight Melza x1, Gallant Flame Vaughn x1, Ice Emperor Seilios x1.
Team: SGoroth, SRoland, GA Lukiel and Zleorg.
Strategy: This fight can be hard because when Vaughn and Seilios are close to dying, they get a HUGE damage buff, so they need to die ASAP. Try to spread the damage but not too much to the point where they all get low at the same time.
Melza herself can be a pain because of her guard skill that activates a lot and she HEALS while guarding, so bring units/skills/arks that can pierce that guard (Shockwave skill, for example). Another useful tip is to lower her ailments resist and try to inflict illness on her, negating all her healing (it worked wonders).
GA Lukiel was crucial in the 1st part of the fight to nuke Vaughn and Seilios without risk of them getting uber buffed.
After Melza dies, she gets reborn as Dark Melza, dealing dark damage instead of light. Dark Melza is VERY easy to break, so SGoroth kept her permanently broken while SRoland destroyed her.
Zleorg was surprisingly useful in this fight because of his resistances and ability to target elemental weaknesses.
21F: Tetrodon x1 (and his companions).
Team: Goroth, Murren and Seilios.
Strategy: Yikes, the boss will inflict you with LOTS of ailments, so come prepared! Also, the stage's special effect lowers your max HP and the boss' special also lowers it even further.
I used my SC to get all status resistances that I could and used accessories to resist what I could as well.
Murren could probably have soloed it but it would take too long, since he needed to cast Honey Elixir and kept getting interrupted.
22F: Abaddon the All-consuming x1, Tentacle x3.
Team: Claire & Dalgion, Zaix, Yuri and Saintly Theria.
Strategy: More ailments and heavy shadow damage. The boss is VERY susceptible to breaking, so Zaix did the job with Claire's help, while Zaix and Yuri did the damage and Saintly Theria took care of keeping the team healthy.
23F: Star Jelly x1 (Thanks Tony for the advice on improving my time here!).
Team: Maddine, Doura.
Strategy: This fight looks very hard at first sight, until you notice the boss attack pattern. It COPIES your attacks! Taking advantage of that, if you use the spell Soul Spark (which is a suicidal spell), the boss will copy it and suicide.
Take notice, however, that it still deals a ton of damage, so bring some means to stay alive (Determination, Decoy, Shadow Wall, Magic Barrier, Metis, etc.).
24F: Yggdrasil x1, King Pokkle x1, Spirit x1, Pokkle x1, Death Plant x1 and Gaoul x1.
Team: SMelza, BB Shin and Dilmordo.
Strategy: The boss will start the fight immune and will stay so until you kill all the adds first. You should start by killing King Pokkle first, leaving the Spirit for last.
When all adds die, the boss breaks, so save all your skills for this moment! After the boss recovers, the adds appear again and you have to repeat the cycle.
Bring some means to recover SCT (Pose of Glory, Honey Elixir, etc.) and you're good to go!
25F: Cryofoul Medrone x1.
Team: Nero, Graphel, TB Sevia and V.
Strategy: Foul indeed, this fight was VERY hard for me. So many opportunities to win the fight were lost just when things were apparently going well!
The key here was to use V to keep the boss stunned and use Graphel to dish out damage. TB Sevia did the healing/reviving (she did work a lot in this fight) and Nero helped with the damage.
Bring resistance to Illness, as the boss can inflict it. And most importantly: don't lose heart and keep trying!
26F: Greaver, Abyssal Spirit x1.
Team: Alphonse, Stahn, Alice and Sera.
Strategy: The boss starts the fight summoning some skeleton adds. After you kill the adds, the boss will become immune to both physical and magical damage (specials still work).
How do you get around it? The answer is simple: BREAKING! Stahn is there for this reason and, once the boss is broken for the 1st time, it will take damage normally and will summon the skeleton adds again during the fight.
Be careful because the boss uses dark attacks and spells and they hurt. Sera is there to keep the team alive, while Alice can take care of the adds and Stahn can take care of the boss. Alphonse tried to gather the skeletons for Alice.
27F: Holy Gourmet Phagodelus x1.
Team: Vayne.
Strategy: I thought this was a good time to use my Trishula, so I gave it to Vayne and he soloed the stage. Just bring some health and earth resistance and you're good to go!
The boss saps MP, so things like Proud Force or Dusk are not very useful here. Again, some arks/skills that work with low mana, like Abandoned City of the Seas SSR, can be very useful here since your MP will drop very quickly.
28F: Burning Fortress Gabord x2.
Team: SBeyland, Sevia, Maja and SM Theria.
Strategy: Very hard fight for me. I had to start using the big guns or I wouldn't be able to progress. The boss does fire damage so bring resistance! There are a lot of items/equips that give resistance to fire, now is the perfect time to use them.
Sevia was very useful because her special HALVES ALL DAMAGE! And it fills very quickly, so you can easily maintain 100% uptime.
The boss alternates into being resistant to physical and magical damage, so you need to deliver both here. SBeyland and Maja did the job.
29F: Venom Dragon Babalaad x1.
Team: Skeleton, Adel, AoG Mayly and Phal.
Strategy: This boss can be deceptively strong because of its mechanic. By itself, it doesnt to a whole lot of damage. However, if one of your characters is poisoned, it deals HUGE damage to them! And to make things worse, the boss CAN LOWER YOUR AILMENTS RESISTANCE! So be above immune to poison to have an easy time here.
The boss itself can be made vulnerable to ailments, so Phal and Mayly kept it under control with Stun Research. Meanwhile Adel discharged all his fury onto the boss.
30F: None other than El'dravahna, the Imperator himself! x1.
Team: SGorm, Lelouche, Joker and Lougseus.
Strategy: Not too much to say, the boss hits very hard and has a lot of HP. It can be broken, altought I only had those 4 units left and not much room to wiggle.
SGorm was very useful because he used his buff on Joker to make him tougher. Lelouch is very tough himself and was the main MVP in this fight with Grand Aura/Brave Phaser and Goddess Kiss. Lougseus was my healedebuffer while Joker was my mana battery for Lelouch.
I saved my "Absolute Power of Obedience" when I had all stocks full and when the boss was close to dying, so he wouldn't pull any tricks on me.
-
And that's how my journey through Tartarus ended, at least for now. I really had fun suffering through all those floors, trying to figure out what to do in each one.
I have used ALL units I have on my account and almost all of my arks. Also, all units that I used were at least lvl 110 (5-enhance), with the exception of SRoland and Lelouche who are 6-enhance. All units are also at least 4-awaken (with many being 6-awaken and SRoland being 8-awaken).
The most fun part, in my opinion, was to make use of old units and equips. There are so many equips that I have that I thought were useless and, in the right situation, they were game changing! Same can be said about the units, I really had fun finding a use for Kyle or Barcello, or even the monsters that I raised with so much love and care!
Also, keep in mind, folks, that this is NOT an easy content. It's extremely hard and it can be frustrating at times but it feels really good when you manage to beat a floor!
If you're having a hard time, do not feel shy to take a break and build up more units (or try to acquire some). I made sure units have learned all ark skills that I have available, as it allowed me for diversity and to use the weaker units as mana batteries or as supports/tanks.
2023.05.31 14:21 ClayCrucible Instrument checkride write-up - success!
I passed my instrument checkride yesterday (yay!) and I thought it might help other folks who are working on instrument or thinking about it for the future if I shared my write-up. My flight school sends pretty much all of their students to the same DPE, so they had a tremendous amount of information about past checkrides to share with me, and they asked me to do a write-up of my own. An edited version of that is what follows!
TLDR: I started instrument training three months ago, did the written before any flight lessons, added 50 hours to my logbook in those three months, and passed the checkride with just barely enough instrument hours to qualify (I had to time build a bit in the past month). DPE said I did great, even though I had some nerves and we changed the flight plan a lot in the air!
Background: I began my instrument training about three months ago with the Sporty’s videos for ground school, Sheppard Air for test prep, and a perfect score on my written before my first instrument lesson. I started instrument training with another flight school in a simulator for a G1000 Cessna 172 for two lessons before I decided I wanted to be able to fly the Cirrus SR22, so I switched to NoVA Pilots (Leesburg, Virginia, KJYO) for instrument plus Cirrus transition training. I came into this training with about 110 total hours, most of the 50 PIC cross country I needed, but only 4.0 of the 40 hours of instrument time I would ultimately need. Zero hours in Cirrus aircraft, though I did have my high-performance endorsement from Cessna 182 training.
Instrument training: I started flying as much as possible throughout the end of March, all of April, and the first half of May. I did a total of 22 flight lessons, plus a handful of flights on my own or with a safety pilot once I had enough experience to solo the SR22. I did two flights that qualified for the long cross country, with the one I highlighted for the checkride going from Leesburg to Charlottesville, Baltimore, Harrisburg, and Martinsburg, with two ILS approaches, one VOR, and one RNAV GPS. I went into the checkride with 3.7 hours of actual instrument and 38.6 simulated, or 42.3 total. My logbook ended up with 160 total hours.
Checkride prep: I did four total mock checkrides, two each with two different instructors. The flights were exactly what the DPE planned for us to fly, though different from what we ended up flying! For the oral, I had all of the materials the DPE asked for in his email from ten days prior to the checkride, and I printed out everything that would otherwise be electronic (mainly a copy of my Foreflight logbook, the flight plan, performance calculations for the scenario flight, personal minimums). I arrived to the conference room an hour before the scheduled start time and arranged materials in four areas:
· Pilot qualifications: Pilot certificate, medical certificate, ID, knowledge test results, ground school certificate from Sporty’s, SFRA training certificate, Cirrus icing course certificate (not required, but nice to have), logbook with endorsements, printed copy of my IACRA form.
· Airplane qualifications: Engine logbook, propeller logbook, airframe logbook with Post-It notes for the relevant sections (annual / 100 hour, pitot-static inspection, transponder inspection, etc.). I also had the NoVA Pilots binder to show current hours on the engine, plus the POH (since no one else was flying the plane that morning).
· Documents for the flight scenario: Weight and balance, aircraft performance (takeoff and landing distances), ICAO flight plan, NAV log from Foreflight, Leidos Flight Service full briefing report including weather and NOTAMs (80 pages). I don’t think we used any of this during the test – for the flight plan we used Foreflight on my iPad, and we just talked through the rest.
· Reference materials: Physical copies of the FAAIM and ACS, printouts of diagrams for electrical, fuel, and pitot-static systems, PilotsCafe reference sheet. The latter came in handy and the DPE liked it – he had a copy of his own on hand.
Oral examination: We took around two hours total for the oral, starting with the qualifications and electronically signing IACRA. The DPE explained what he would ask about, the ability to take breaks, the plan for the day (oral, then a lunch break, then flight).
Questioning was straightforward. Beyond my flailing on whether the transponder inspection was required every 24 months or 12 months for a minute, I was able to answer questions satisfactorily. Lots of focus on risk and options.
· Always keep fuel in mind – if given a hold with a 30 minute EFC time, how does that affect planning? I might request a route elsewhere, and I would definitely let ATC know if I’m in a “minimum fuel” situation, which is different from “emergency fuel”.
· If my glideslope fails while on an ILS, I can fly it to localizer minimums, and I need to let ATC know about the equipment failure.
· Know about icing and where it can form. If there’s no AIRMET Zulu for icing even if it’s cold enough, there’s still risk of unexpected moisture or perhaps it’s only light icing, which doesn’t get an AIRMET but is still a problem. If there are no PIREPs, maybe that means no one else is foolish enough to fly! And even though I’m flying a FIKI certified aircraft, if I encounter icing the plan has to be to get out of it.
· If an ADAHARS fails, this aircraft automatically uses the other as a backup, showing an appropriate notification. What does the POH say about continuing flight in this scenario? Go to the Abnormal Procedures section and see.
· If Alternator 2 fails, what happens? Alternator 1 will keep things going, but the aircraft isn’t approved for IFR flight on one alternator, so getting to the ground where you can get it fixed is important.
· If the static ports somehow both become blocked, there’s an alternate air source.
· MOCA would typically only be used if I need to get low to avoid ice, for instance.
· If I’m flying on Victor airways using GPS and there’s a GPS failure, I can use VOR navigation.
· If I have a passenger who really needs to get to their destination, I’ll make sure I have an alternate way of getting them there (flying commercial, driving). GA means you need to be prepared to scrub a flight for safety at any time.
· Know about circling minimums, circling radius, and the inverted C (white C on the black background). Similarly, know about the inverted T symbol and inverted A symbol (bonus points for inverted A with NA – not authorized for use as an alternate airport, likely because of a lack of weather reporting).
· In the debrief, the DPE pointed me to AIM 1-1-17 to talk about being able to use an expired navigation database if you verify that your waypoints are all correct. I was extra conservative on that question, saying that I would need to update the database before flying.
Flight portion: The DPE fully briefed me on the flight plan ahead of time:
· Depart Leesburg on runway heading, climbing to 1,200 MSL (he originally said 1,300 in the conference room but said 1,200 in the runup area). Expect vectors to Martinsburg airport.
· Fly the ILS 26 at Martinsburg to minimums, expecting to go missed.
· Fly the published missed into the hold at MRB VOR.
· Fly the VODME-A approach to Winchester, circling to whichever runway is in use. Plan to go missed there and then expect vectors to the next approach rather than the published missed.
· Fly the RNAV GPS 32 approach to Winchester, likely starting at either JASEN or DORGY depending on which direction we went after the VODME. Expect to fly this one partial panel with no autopilot. Fly this all the way to a landing – full stop, taxi back.
· And then done! Fly back to Leesburg with no foggles.
That was the briefing, anyway! The DPE explained that he would play the role of Potomac Approach throughout. I didn’t realize at first that this meant that he wanted me to “check in” with him after departure (he had to prompt me for that when I asked if I could climb once we were past the 1,500 foot Bravo shelf).
I tuned Martinsburg weather in COM2 active in the runup area and Martinsburg tower in COM1 standby, with the hope of getting info about which KMRB runway was in use as early as possible. On departure from runway 35, we climbed out on vectors and then direct MAPEL for the ILS 26. No chatter on KMRB tower, and winds were light, but slightly favoring runway 8. As we approached MAPEL and the DPE had “cleared me for the approach” we heard another aircraft check in and receive runway 8. Mild oaths ensued from the DPE, and he “cancelled my approach clearance” and had me “request” the VODME-A to Winchester.
I flew that approach, starting at MRB VOR. Lots of traffic working out of Winchester, and runway 14 was in use. We were in a rough spot for actually squeezing into the pattern for landing, so I descended to pattern altitude (above minimums), turned right to enter left downwind for 14, descended to minimums by the time I turned base, and flew a low approach at minimums over the runway and away to the east.
One approach complete.
The DPE gave me an altitude to climb to and a vector, and cleared me for the ILS 32, cleared direct JASEN. I got myself re-situated with the foggles and the autopilot back on. As we approached JASEN he said we would actually fly this as a localizer approach instead of ILS (so, non-precision). I think this was largely so we wouldn’t get in the way of conflicting traffic coming back off 14, staying higher. I reset the minimums to LOC level and noted my step-down fixes and time component.
Between JASEN and CLADD, the DPE “failed” the autopilot and “failed” the PFD by covering it with an opaque film. I went to reversionary mode and flew the localizer approach by hand, using the MFD. As we got to minimums, another aircraft took off from 14 straight toward us without making a radio call of any sort until they were 200 feet above the ground. We diverted around them to the left (safety pilot call), then turned right over the airport and back to CLADD to fly the published missed.
Two approaches complete.
This was all still hand flying, and the DPE was figuring out his next move as I hand-flew the teardrop hold entry at CLADD. I did a second full lap in the hold (the first one I had to extend a bit to avoid traffic), stressing the whole way about maintaining altitude, airspeed, and the holding course, but I did it!
Hold complete (x2).
Finally, the DPE said that since we were flying a nice, fast SR22, we could fly all the way to the other side of the airport and do the RNAV 14 to LPV minimums for our precision approach (for the purpose of the checkride). Autopilot back on at last, as I navigated us off to the west.
Along the way, the DPE took me through a couple of unusual attitudes. I screwed up the nose low attitude at first, adding power before realizing my mistake and reducing it, but correctly leveling the wings and bringing the nose up. He noted that I jumped the gun a little there but I fixed my mistake, and he was satisfied. He then did a nose-high attitude, which I did fine with. Then back on course with the autopilot.
Unusual attitudes complete.
I had loaded the full RNAV GPS 14 from SOGBE, but the DPE cleared me to ZENDI, originally at 3,700. I requested 4,200 at ZENDI, which he gave me. From there, things were much easier! I correctly configured the autopilot in APR mode, confirming that GP mode was armed, and I babysat the speed and the checklist usage to get us fully on course. I flew the approach to LPV minimums, at which point the DPE told me to go visual and land. This was probably the best landing I’ve ever had in the Cirrus – super gentle and smooth.
Three approaches complete.
I did a full stop taxi back and pulled into the runup area to run my checklist to prepare to return to Leesburg. Then a nice, simple, visual flight back with no drama. The DPE actually pulled out his iPad to take a picture of the airport as we approached 17 on a three-mile final – it was a lovely day. One more nice landing at Leesburg, taxi to park, and my instructor met us at the hangar as the DPE congratulated me! Two hours on the Hobbs for this flight.
Debrief: After putting the plane in the hangar, refueling, and cleaning it up, the DPE and I drove back to the school and my instructor met us there. The DPE had surprisingly little for me in the debrief. He shared a couple of recommendations for continuing my IFR education – IFR Magazine and the Aviation News Talk podcast. He suggested I make my personal minimums a little more conservative. He explained the expired database usability issue. He noted that I could have used FPLN when in reversionary mode to have better awareness of when I had passed each checkpoint (I was a little unsure when hand-flying and started my next descent a bit late, but still got to minimums). That was really it! He complimented my flying and printed my new certificate, and posed for a picture shaking my hand. Wonderful day!
submitted by ClayCrucible to flying [link] [comments]
TLDR: I started instrument training three months ago, did the written before any flight lessons, added 50 hours to my logbook in those three months, and passed the checkride with just barely enough instrument hours to qualify (I had to time build a bit in the past month). DPE said I did great, even though I had some nerves and we changed the flight plan a lot in the air!
Background: I began my instrument training about three months ago with the Sporty’s videos for ground school, Sheppard Air for test prep, and a perfect score on my written before my first instrument lesson. I started instrument training with another flight school in a simulator for a G1000 Cessna 172 for two lessons before I decided I wanted to be able to fly the Cirrus SR22, so I switched to NoVA Pilots (Leesburg, Virginia, KJYO) for instrument plus Cirrus transition training. I came into this training with about 110 total hours, most of the 50 PIC cross country I needed, but only 4.0 of the 40 hours of instrument time I would ultimately need. Zero hours in Cirrus aircraft, though I did have my high-performance endorsement from Cessna 182 training.
Instrument training: I started flying as much as possible throughout the end of March, all of April, and the first half of May. I did a total of 22 flight lessons, plus a handful of flights on my own or with a safety pilot once I had enough experience to solo the SR22. I did two flights that qualified for the long cross country, with the one I highlighted for the checkride going from Leesburg to Charlottesville, Baltimore, Harrisburg, and Martinsburg, with two ILS approaches, one VOR, and one RNAV GPS. I went into the checkride with 3.7 hours of actual instrument and 38.6 simulated, or 42.3 total. My logbook ended up with 160 total hours.
Checkride prep: I did four total mock checkrides, two each with two different instructors. The flights were exactly what the DPE planned for us to fly, though different from what we ended up flying! For the oral, I had all of the materials the DPE asked for in his email from ten days prior to the checkride, and I printed out everything that would otherwise be electronic (mainly a copy of my Foreflight logbook, the flight plan, performance calculations for the scenario flight, personal minimums). I arrived to the conference room an hour before the scheduled start time and arranged materials in four areas:
· Pilot qualifications: Pilot certificate, medical certificate, ID, knowledge test results, ground school certificate from Sporty’s, SFRA training certificate, Cirrus icing course certificate (not required, but nice to have), logbook with endorsements, printed copy of my IACRA form.
· Airplane qualifications: Engine logbook, propeller logbook, airframe logbook with Post-It notes for the relevant sections (annual / 100 hour, pitot-static inspection, transponder inspection, etc.). I also had the NoVA Pilots binder to show current hours on the engine, plus the POH (since no one else was flying the plane that morning).
· Documents for the flight scenario: Weight and balance, aircraft performance (takeoff and landing distances), ICAO flight plan, NAV log from Foreflight, Leidos Flight Service full briefing report including weather and NOTAMs (80 pages). I don’t think we used any of this during the test – for the flight plan we used Foreflight on my iPad, and we just talked through the rest.
· Reference materials: Physical copies of the FAAIM and ACS, printouts of diagrams for electrical, fuel, and pitot-static systems, PilotsCafe reference sheet. The latter came in handy and the DPE liked it – he had a copy of his own on hand.
Oral examination: We took around two hours total for the oral, starting with the qualifications and electronically signing IACRA. The DPE explained what he would ask about, the ability to take breaks, the plan for the day (oral, then a lunch break, then flight).
Questioning was straightforward. Beyond my flailing on whether the transponder inspection was required every 24 months or 12 months for a minute, I was able to answer questions satisfactorily. Lots of focus on risk and options.
· Always keep fuel in mind – if given a hold with a 30 minute EFC time, how does that affect planning? I might request a route elsewhere, and I would definitely let ATC know if I’m in a “minimum fuel” situation, which is different from “emergency fuel”.
· If my glideslope fails while on an ILS, I can fly it to localizer minimums, and I need to let ATC know about the equipment failure.
· Know about icing and where it can form. If there’s no AIRMET Zulu for icing even if it’s cold enough, there’s still risk of unexpected moisture or perhaps it’s only light icing, which doesn’t get an AIRMET but is still a problem. If there are no PIREPs, maybe that means no one else is foolish enough to fly! And even though I’m flying a FIKI certified aircraft, if I encounter icing the plan has to be to get out of it.
· If an ADAHARS fails, this aircraft automatically uses the other as a backup, showing an appropriate notification. What does the POH say about continuing flight in this scenario? Go to the Abnormal Procedures section and see.
· If Alternator 2 fails, what happens? Alternator 1 will keep things going, but the aircraft isn’t approved for IFR flight on one alternator, so getting to the ground where you can get it fixed is important.
· If the static ports somehow both become blocked, there’s an alternate air source.
· MOCA would typically only be used if I need to get low to avoid ice, for instance.
· If I’m flying on Victor airways using GPS and there’s a GPS failure, I can use VOR navigation.
· If I have a passenger who really needs to get to their destination, I’ll make sure I have an alternate way of getting them there (flying commercial, driving). GA means you need to be prepared to scrub a flight for safety at any time.
· Know about circling minimums, circling radius, and the inverted C (white C on the black background). Similarly, know about the inverted T symbol and inverted A symbol (bonus points for inverted A with NA – not authorized for use as an alternate airport, likely because of a lack of weather reporting).
· In the debrief, the DPE pointed me to AIM 1-1-17 to talk about being able to use an expired navigation database if you verify that your waypoints are all correct. I was extra conservative on that question, saying that I would need to update the database before flying.
Flight portion: The DPE fully briefed me on the flight plan ahead of time:
· Depart Leesburg on runway heading, climbing to 1,200 MSL (he originally said 1,300 in the conference room but said 1,200 in the runup area). Expect vectors to Martinsburg airport.
· Fly the ILS 26 at Martinsburg to minimums, expecting to go missed.
· Fly the published missed into the hold at MRB VOR.
· Fly the VODME-A approach to Winchester, circling to whichever runway is in use. Plan to go missed there and then expect vectors to the next approach rather than the published missed.
· Fly the RNAV GPS 32 approach to Winchester, likely starting at either JASEN or DORGY depending on which direction we went after the VODME. Expect to fly this one partial panel with no autopilot. Fly this all the way to a landing – full stop, taxi back.
· And then done! Fly back to Leesburg with no foggles.
That was the briefing, anyway! The DPE explained that he would play the role of Potomac Approach throughout. I didn’t realize at first that this meant that he wanted me to “check in” with him after departure (he had to prompt me for that when I asked if I could climb once we were past the 1,500 foot Bravo shelf).
I tuned Martinsburg weather in COM2 active in the runup area and Martinsburg tower in COM1 standby, with the hope of getting info about which KMRB runway was in use as early as possible. On departure from runway 35, we climbed out on vectors and then direct MAPEL for the ILS 26. No chatter on KMRB tower, and winds were light, but slightly favoring runway 8. As we approached MAPEL and the DPE had “cleared me for the approach” we heard another aircraft check in and receive runway 8. Mild oaths ensued from the DPE, and he “cancelled my approach clearance” and had me “request” the VODME-A to Winchester.
I flew that approach, starting at MRB VOR. Lots of traffic working out of Winchester, and runway 14 was in use. We were in a rough spot for actually squeezing into the pattern for landing, so I descended to pattern altitude (above minimums), turned right to enter left downwind for 14, descended to minimums by the time I turned base, and flew a low approach at minimums over the runway and away to the east.
One approach complete.
The DPE gave me an altitude to climb to and a vector, and cleared me for the ILS 32, cleared direct JASEN. I got myself re-situated with the foggles and the autopilot back on. As we approached JASEN he said we would actually fly this as a localizer approach instead of ILS (so, non-precision). I think this was largely so we wouldn’t get in the way of conflicting traffic coming back off 14, staying higher. I reset the minimums to LOC level and noted my step-down fixes and time component.
Between JASEN and CLADD, the DPE “failed” the autopilot and “failed” the PFD by covering it with an opaque film. I went to reversionary mode and flew the localizer approach by hand, using the MFD. As we got to minimums, another aircraft took off from 14 straight toward us without making a radio call of any sort until they were 200 feet above the ground. We diverted around them to the left (safety pilot call), then turned right over the airport and back to CLADD to fly the published missed.
Two approaches complete.
This was all still hand flying, and the DPE was figuring out his next move as I hand-flew the teardrop hold entry at CLADD. I did a second full lap in the hold (the first one I had to extend a bit to avoid traffic), stressing the whole way about maintaining altitude, airspeed, and the holding course, but I did it!
Hold complete (x2).
Finally, the DPE said that since we were flying a nice, fast SR22, we could fly all the way to the other side of the airport and do the RNAV 14 to LPV minimums for our precision approach (for the purpose of the checkride). Autopilot back on at last, as I navigated us off to the west.
Along the way, the DPE took me through a couple of unusual attitudes. I screwed up the nose low attitude at first, adding power before realizing my mistake and reducing it, but correctly leveling the wings and bringing the nose up. He noted that I jumped the gun a little there but I fixed my mistake, and he was satisfied. He then did a nose-high attitude, which I did fine with. Then back on course with the autopilot.
Unusual attitudes complete.
I had loaded the full RNAV GPS 14 from SOGBE, but the DPE cleared me to ZENDI, originally at 3,700. I requested 4,200 at ZENDI, which he gave me. From there, things were much easier! I correctly configured the autopilot in APR mode, confirming that GP mode was armed, and I babysat the speed and the checklist usage to get us fully on course. I flew the approach to LPV minimums, at which point the DPE told me to go visual and land. This was probably the best landing I’ve ever had in the Cirrus – super gentle and smooth.
Three approaches complete.
I did a full stop taxi back and pulled into the runup area to run my checklist to prepare to return to Leesburg. Then a nice, simple, visual flight back with no drama. The DPE actually pulled out his iPad to take a picture of the airport as we approached 17 on a three-mile final – it was a lovely day. One more nice landing at Leesburg, taxi to park, and my instructor met us at the hangar as the DPE congratulated me! Two hours on the Hobbs for this flight.
Debrief: After putting the plane in the hangar, refueling, and cleaning it up, the DPE and I drove back to the school and my instructor met us there. The DPE had surprisingly little for me in the debrief. He shared a couple of recommendations for continuing my IFR education – IFR Magazine and the Aviation News Talk podcast. He suggested I make my personal minimums a little more conservative. He explained the expired database usability issue. He noted that I could have used FPLN when in reversionary mode to have better awareness of when I had passed each checkpoint (I was a little unsure when hand-flying and started my next descent a bit late, but still got to minimums). That was really it! He complimented my flying and printed my new certificate, and posed for a picture shaking my hand. Wonderful day!
2023.05.31 10:05 its_givinggg The REAL tea on the Golden Circle - RWT London
Hey y’all so this was my experience as a short person (5 ft tall) who had general admission (not early entry) Golden Circle tickets
So my group and I arrived at the stadium to start queuing at around 11 am. At that time there were probably 50-75 other general admission entry folks in front of us, which was great considering the number of people who were all queued behind us as the day went by. They didn’t seperate us by standing section, there was ome line for general admission and one line for early entry, regardless of whether you were CR, GC, or in the GA pit. The Beyhive sections were automatically in early entry.
Early entry line was let in 45 minutes before the general admission line at 4:15. By the time my group had made it to the section there were about 3-4 rows of early entry GC in front of us. Now. I’m 5 ft tall. I wore 5 inch platform boots to give my self SOME type of chance to see anything. But lemme be honest with you, even just 3-4 rows back it was still a struggle to see the stage. So I had to put on my game face, be smart and manage to inconspicuously snake my way to the front of the section as close to the barrier as I could as the section was starting to fill. As the section starts to fill everyone got closer and closer together which gave me the opportunity to discreetly move thru people following the flow of the crowd as we filled out. As I moved there were times I would get stuck directly behind someone 3+ inches taller than me, and at that point I knew I would still have to keep moving.
About 10 minutes before the show started I made it behind some guy who was about 5 inches taller than me. It was just him between me and the barrier. I made a hail mary attempt and decided to ask him if we could switch spots because I honestly couldn’t see past him. My prayers were answered and the sweet guy let me switch! It took me the full 2 hours we waited for Beyoncé to come out to make it from the 3-4th row back to the barrier, and the only reason I made it was because of LUCK. If that guy had been having a bad day that would have been it for me😅
So all this to say if you have GC tickets with general admission and you are short, you will have to be not only extremely strategic but LUCKY. Because honestly if I hadn’t found a way to the barrier my view most likely would have been obstructed the whole night. And this was my first EVER concert, and it was Queen Bey, so that just wouldn’t do.
If you are under 5’5 with general admission GC tickets you’d better invest in some platforms Imma be so honest with you. I’ve seen people say “It’s a Beyoncé concert, any seat in the house is perfect!” But I honestly don’t think that applies to short people. Invest in platforms, and try to get there as early as you can if you want a chance at making it to the barrier. Be strategic if you don’t wanna just be watching the big screen or thru your phone screen. Or get seated tickets.
Now onto the actual show. My view from the barrier of the GC was TOP TIER. Dare I say better than standing in CR or even the Beyhive (and Imma get to them mfs in a minute). There was this slightly raised edge piece on the barrier that I stood on that allowed me to see over the Beyhive’s heads giving me a clear view of the Queen. It was SURREAL.
The reason I say this was possibly better than standing in CR or even the Beyhive is because again as a short person, unless you make it to the very front of those sections you will be fighting to see over people taller than you, because you’re standing on flat ground. Not only that, but the catwalk/circle part of the stage was also quite tall and tbh the only people I could see in CR were tall people who could see over the catwalk stage. Anyone shorter than them stuck behind them probably had a rough time seeing Bey when she was on the main stage. If you’re shorter and in the Beyhive/CR (especially Beyhive) your best bet is to be either at the very front (barrier) or literally the very back, preferably with platformed shoes. Standing in the middle of the crowd will have you struggling, and forget it if your shoes don’t have any height.
And as for the Beyhive pit, at least the one I was behind, they were pretty disappointing to watch. They had all that space and barely any of them danced. I only saw ONE person consistently dancing and singing the lyrics to a lot of Bey’s songs. She was the only one dancing and singing to Virgo’s Groove of all songs! So yea, wasn’t really feeling the vibe going on in front of me.
The vibe coming from the stage tho? UNMATCHED. Beyoncé ate. Her backup dancers and singers ate. The band ate. The outfits were envy worthy. The entire show run was beyond my wildest dreams I won’t go into depth of just how fucking amazing it was cause I’m sure there are a hundred other posts that will say the same thing. But yea, best night of my fuckin life
submitted by its_givinggg to beyonce [link] [comments]
So my group and I arrived at the stadium to start queuing at around 11 am. At that time there were probably 50-75 other general admission entry folks in front of us, which was great considering the number of people who were all queued behind us as the day went by. They didn’t seperate us by standing section, there was ome line for general admission and one line for early entry, regardless of whether you were CR, GC, or in the GA pit. The Beyhive sections were automatically in early entry.
Early entry line was let in 45 minutes before the general admission line at 4:15. By the time my group had made it to the section there were about 3-4 rows of early entry GC in front of us. Now. I’m 5 ft tall. I wore 5 inch platform boots to give my self SOME type of chance to see anything. But lemme be honest with you, even just 3-4 rows back it was still a struggle to see the stage. So I had to put on my game face, be smart and manage to inconspicuously snake my way to the front of the section as close to the barrier as I could as the section was starting to fill. As the section starts to fill everyone got closer and closer together which gave me the opportunity to discreetly move thru people following the flow of the crowd as we filled out. As I moved there were times I would get stuck directly behind someone 3+ inches taller than me, and at that point I knew I would still have to keep moving.
About 10 minutes before the show started I made it behind some guy who was about 5 inches taller than me. It was just him between me and the barrier. I made a hail mary attempt and decided to ask him if we could switch spots because I honestly couldn’t see past him. My prayers were answered and the sweet guy let me switch! It took me the full 2 hours we waited for Beyoncé to come out to make it from the 3-4th row back to the barrier, and the only reason I made it was because of LUCK. If that guy had been having a bad day that would have been it for me😅
So all this to say if you have GC tickets with general admission and you are short, you will have to be not only extremely strategic but LUCKY. Because honestly if I hadn’t found a way to the barrier my view most likely would have been obstructed the whole night. And this was my first EVER concert, and it was Queen Bey, so that just wouldn’t do.
If you are under 5’5 with general admission GC tickets you’d better invest in some platforms Imma be so honest with you. I’ve seen people say “It’s a Beyoncé concert, any seat in the house is perfect!” But I honestly don’t think that applies to short people. Invest in platforms, and try to get there as early as you can if you want a chance at making it to the barrier. Be strategic if you don’t wanna just be watching the big screen or thru your phone screen. Or get seated tickets.
Now onto the actual show. My view from the barrier of the GC was TOP TIER. Dare I say better than standing in CR or even the Beyhive (and Imma get to them mfs in a minute). There was this slightly raised edge piece on the barrier that I stood on that allowed me to see over the Beyhive’s heads giving me a clear view of the Queen. It was SURREAL.
The reason I say this was possibly better than standing in CR or even the Beyhive is because again as a short person, unless you make it to the very front of those sections you will be fighting to see over people taller than you, because you’re standing on flat ground. Not only that, but the catwalk/circle part of the stage was also quite tall and tbh the only people I could see in CR were tall people who could see over the catwalk stage. Anyone shorter than them stuck behind them probably had a rough time seeing Bey when she was on the main stage. If you’re shorter and in the Beyhive/CR (especially Beyhive) your best bet is to be either at the very front (barrier) or literally the very back, preferably with platformed shoes. Standing in the middle of the crowd will have you struggling, and forget it if your shoes don’t have any height.
And as for the Beyhive pit, at least the one I was behind, they were pretty disappointing to watch. They had all that space and barely any of them danced. I only saw ONE person consistently dancing and singing the lyrics to a lot of Bey’s songs. She was the only one dancing and singing to Virgo’s Groove of all songs! So yea, wasn’t really feeling the vibe going on in front of me.
The vibe coming from the stage tho? UNMATCHED. Beyoncé ate. Her backup dancers and singers ate. The band ate. The outfits were envy worthy. The entire show run was beyond my wildest dreams I won’t go into depth of just how fucking amazing it was cause I’m sure there are a hundred other posts that will say the same thing. But yea, best night of my fuckin life
2023.05.30 15:11 Janius [H] Medal of Honor, Crysis 2, Luck Be a Landlord, Dicey Dungeon, Mail Mole [W] Oaken, Bug Fables, offers
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Mostly looking for Bug Fables and Oaken, but I will consider other games that I don't know about/aren't on the list. I really like to play Roguelites, RPGs, Strategy, Card games, and certain sims.
Janda's Tradable
Janda's Wishlist https://barter.vg8cec/w/
submitted by Janius to indiegameswap [link] [comments]
My barter.vg page
Mostly looking for Bug Fables and Oaken, but I will consider other games that I don't know about/aren't on the list. I really like to play Roguelites, RPGs, Strategy, Card games, and certain sims.
Janda's Tradable
- 112 Operator
- 911 Operator
- A Blind Legend
- Agent in Depth
- Aground
- Alchemist's Castle
- Anomaly Warzone Earth
- Arcade Spirits
- Autonauts
- Backbone
- Beasts of Maravilla Island
- Book of Demons
- Builder Simulator
- Calico
- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
- Cook, Serve, Delicious!
- Cosmic Express
- Crysis 2 Maximum Edition
- Curse: The Eye of Isis
- Dead Age
- Death Squared
- Detached: Non-VR Edition
- Dicey Dungeon
- Dishonored
- Doom 64
- Doughlings: Arcade
- Doughlings: Invasion
- Dustforce
- Edge
- Eternal Threads
- Eternal Threads
- Farming Simulator 17
- Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue
- Five Dates
- Frick, Inc.
- Ghostrunner
- Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
- Guns & Fishes
- Harmony's Odyssey
- Hyper Gunsport
- Izmir: An Independence Simulator
- Kingdom Two Crowns
- Lighthouse Keeper
- Luck be a Landlord
- Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For-
- Lust from Beyond: M Edition
- Mail Mole
- Medal of Honor
- MegaRace 1
- MegaRace 2
- Meow Express
- MirrorMoon EP
- Nomad Survival
- Non-Stop Raiders
- Orbital Racer
- OUT OF THE BOX
- Perfect
- Pill Baby
- Pixross
- Planet TD
- Porcunipine
- Project Chemistry
- Quadrata
- Re:Call
- Remnants of Naezith
- Rescue Party: Live!
- Rogue: Genesia
- Rym 9000
- Safety First!
- Songbringer
- Soul Axiom Rebooted
- Soul Searching
- Soulblight
- Soulflow
- Space Crew: Legendary Edition
- Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition
- Stacking
- StarCrossed
- Steel Rats
- Stick Fight: The Game
- stikir
- STONE
- Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
- Survivalist
- SWINE HD Remaster
- System Shock 2
- System Shock: Enhanced Edition
- Teacup
- The Amazing American Circus
- The Enchanted Cave 2
- The Forest Cathedral
- The Inner World
- The Wild Eight
- Ticket to Ride
- Turok
- Treasures of the Aegean
- Voyage: Journey to the Moon
- Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
- White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
- World of Goo
- Worms Rumble
- Wounded - The Beginning
Janda's Wishlist https://barter.vg8cec/w/
- Absinthia
- Aethermancer
- Age of Wonders 4
- Alchemia: Creatio Ex Nihilo
- Angkara: The Horde
- Arcadian Atlas
- Archmage Rises
- ARIA CHRONICLE Amazon
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- Ash of Gods: The Way
- ASTLIBRA ～生きた証～ Revision
- Astrea
- Backpack Hero
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Before Your Eyes
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- Braid
- BRAVELY DEFAULT II
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- Capes
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- Castle of the Underdogs : Episode 1
- Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
- Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game
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- Curious Expedition 2
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- Devil's Deck 恶魔秘境
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- Dice Hero: The Unoriginal Story
- Die in the Dungeon
- Diplomacy is Not an Option
- Disgaea 6 Complete
- Draft of Darkness
- Dreadful River
- Dream Tactics
- Dungeon Alchemist
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- Eden's Last Sunrise
- Epic Battle Fantasy 5
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- FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE
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- Gunfire Reborn - Visitors of Spirit Realm
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- HELLCARD
- Hero’s Hour - Rogue Realms
- Hex of the Lich
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- I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
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- Immortal Tactics: War of the Eternals
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- Inkbound
- Intergalactic Pawn Shop
- Keylocker Turn Based Cyberpunk Action
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- Knock on the Coffin Lid
- Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
- Lakeburg Legacies
- LakeSide
- Lost In Fantaland
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 1
- Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 2
- Mercenaries Rebirth
- Miasma Chronicles
- Monster Roadtrip Hitchhiker Pack - Oz & Amira
- Moonbreaker
- Netherguild
- News Tower
- Night Book
- Night Trap - 25th Anniversary Edition
- Oaken
- OCTOPATH TRAVELER II
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- Quartet
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- REMORE: INFESTED KINGDOM
- Ring of Fire: Search for a Killer
- Rising Lords
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- RPG Time: The Legend of Wright
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- Zelter
2023.05.30 10:13 maximusaemilius Humans are way harder to kill with poison than one might think...
Another galactic summit, more issues to deal with, and more problems to discuss, not the largest being the Burg war, and the attack on earth. Though it had been thwarted by the planet's natural hellish landscape, there were still discussions to be made about whether the Rundi and the Vrul would help to provide a defense Nexus to the remaining planets. As well as disaster relief on the Gromm home world.
The GA summit chambers at the Rundi home world were, once again, rife with alien lifeforms. It was also, once again, rife with Rundi underlings who were trying very hard not to freak out with all the duties that were being placed on their backs.
At least one thing was made clear this time, there was no point in getting human food for the summit, since the human delegates always insisted on trying all the other alien food. Leave enough of the nectar orbs from the Drev home world out, and that seemed to keep the humans happy enough.
Dr. Krill accompanied the commander into the summit, as was usual.
Sunny was not with them today, seeing as she had work to do back aboard the ship.
That left just the two of them.
Felt almost like old times.
The captain was dressed up in his fancy UNSC uniform, and as such, he was obligated to behave.
Apparently behaving didn't mean avoiding arguments with his most important doctor, who –despite being a complete genius– was hardly capable of getting the captain to agree with him.
"I just think that there should be better security at these things. All of the most important people in the galaxy are here."
"Krill, there is an entire armada outside, I hardly think we need to worry about being attacked by the Burg. Besides, their attack on earth completely broke their spirits and they have retreated back to their own space. We haven’t heard anything from them in a month now… There is no way they would try getting in here."
Krill crossed both sets of arms,
"I disagree, commander. I have been looking into human history of warfare, and I think that a spy could easily-"
*"Krill calm down will you. Besides, spies rely on the fact that you can disguise yourself to look like the other side. The Burg are so fugly that they'd be noticed in half an instant.
They came around the corner, and the commander was nearly knocked onto his back as an Iotin brushed past, hurrying from the banquet hall.
The commander tripped back into a wall,
"Woah watch... yourself."
The Iotin disappeared around the next corner, and the commander looked after him with a frown.
"Didn't know those guys could move that fast. Wonder why he could be in such a hurry?”
Krill waved it off as the commander poked his head into the banquet room,
"Oh look, pink orbs!"
"Commander, don't you think we should wait until after the summit, when the food is being served?”
The man waved a hand,
"Oh no one will notice one or two of them missing."
He quickly snuck into the room and Krill rolled his eyes as the man came out munching on one of the pink fruits.
”Maybe three? I mean four orb fruits are not much right?”
"And they made you leader of the fleet?”
"Yes. Also that means I deserve at least five orb fruit… Also, technically they are thinking of making me leader of the entire Galactic armada, but I digress."
"Lord help us all."
The captain made a face.
"What? It's true!”
The man shook his head.
"No, not you, this fruit tastes... Weird."
"Good weird or bad weird?”
He shrugged and took another bite.
"Weird… but not bad enough for me to stop eating it, so good weird I guess?”
He stuffed the rest of the orb into his mouth and licked the juices off his fingers.
Krill sighed,
"I still can't believe they would choose you."
"Better believe it."
The two of them walked into the main conference chamber to sit down with the other delegates. The human delegation was near the top tier, and so that is where they went, taking a seat just to the right of the Rundi chairwoman's box.
The entire room was alive with the sound of alien life.
Commander Vir leaned over to speak with one of the delegates and Krill was left to watch the room.
Most of the delegations were here, though the Iotin delegation had arrived late. Seemed strange considering he had seen one of their number not long ago.
The light dimmed a couple of times, and the chairwoman took her pedestal and began to greet the delegates. Krill looked on politely as was his want, though he wasn't entirely interested in the whole thing.
The charwoman could be rather long-winded when she got going.
He sat there through a good few minutes of it, glancing over at the other human delegates on occasion. Vir looked almost sleepy, though that was almost to be expected, he was never very good at politics, even though he was involved in them so much.
He turned back to the delegation.
The commander shifted uncomfortably in his seat during a discussion about intergalactic trade laws, and Krill looked over again.
The man had taken to licking his lips repeatedly.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah fine, just thirsty."
He muttered, Krill let it go, though something made him turn back not to long after. The human was rubbing at his mouth, which appeared red, though he supposed that was supposed to be expected. Little lines of sweat were trickling down from his hairline.
He scooted a bit closer.
"Commander, are you feeling alright?”
He was waved off,
"Yeah, I'm ok, it just got a little hot in here as all... Feeling kind of... Faint. Maybe a little nauseous. I am sure I'll be fine. Probably just need something to eat."
The talks continued, but Krill wasn't focused on them anymore. The commander was not looking very good. He was sweating enough that the collar of his dress shirt was almost soaked. The tint of his face had gone from healthy blush to a yellow parlor. He looked as if he was about to pass out. A few of the other human delegates had started to notice.
Someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Commander are you feeling alright."
"I... I think I... Just need to... Walk around."
His voice was slurred.
"I don't think that's a good idea commander?"
Krill said turning his head to face him.
His pupils were unusually wide, despite the dark space around them.
*"The human was breathing hard now, one hand over his chest. His dry mouth from earlier was gone, replaced by saliva production so excessive he was having to clear his mouth every couple of seconds.
He looked at Krill, and the expression on his face was enough.
"I think I'm going to be sick."
The other delegates had leaned over, sensing the commotion, and they stood to let Krill and the commander pass as he stood and wobbled his way towards the stairs.
Krill could sense something was wrong almost immediately.
Dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea…
"Someone, help him walk."
Krill ordered, not caring about the delegation anymore.
Their sudden movement had caused a bit of commotion on one side of the room. The commander paused on the stairwell, and instead of turning towards the exit, he turned towards the delegation floor. Krill tried to grab him, tried to stop him, but the human – even in his weakened state – was still too strong.
A muttering had grown up around the crowd as he staggered onto the floor.
The chairwoman stopped speaking looking on in confusion.
"Commander, are you alright?”
The human paused at the center of the floor.
Everyone in the room was now watching him.
In the main lighting he looked absolutely horrific.
He was so pale his skin was almost yellow. The skin around his mouth was red. Sweat drenched the side of his face. He was drooling so badly that it was, at this point, impossible to control.
"The... food... Has been poisoned."
He choked out through heaving breaths.
And then he collapsed to his knees, vomiting violently on the white marble floor.
The entire delegation stood, shock and uproar filling the room. Krill ran over to help the human whose arms and hands were shaking as he tried to hold himself up.
The sight was horrifying. Saliva dripped in strings from his mouth. His clothing and hands were stained pink from the orb fruit from earlier.
Krill remembered he said it tasted weird.
Could he really have been poisoned?
A couple other human delegates vaulted over the railings and onto the floor, grabbing the man by the arms as his strength began to fail him. His body was shaking violently now.
Krill practically scream-ordered one of the assistances to grab his medical kit number three B (the one for poisons and toxins)
The entire room was in an uproar.
Krill jammed his finger at the Iotin representatives,
"Don't let them leave!"
The Iotins stood in shock as the delegations turned on them.
The Drev delegation, weaponless, still managed to make a circle around the group.
"Someone, go grab the food, and get me a sample!"
The commander had been rolled onto his side. His body continued to reject whatever toxin it had been given, though Krill desperately tried to avoid him aspirating and choking. That only got harder once the man began to cease and convulse. He had to reduce the absorption, but he also needed to keep the man from throwing it back up.
His kit was open on the floor, and he had the others help him with the tubes and medication. Adam wouldn't be helping him now, so he would have to get directly to the stomach himself.
He had one of the other humans hold him, as he inserted the tube and began with the activated charcoal. Hopefully that would be enough, before they got test results back. One of the Rundi came sprinting into the room, holding one of the pink orbs, handing it over to one of Krill's assistants who was ordered to test the fruit with one of the testing strips.
They did as told and the entire group waited for the results.
When the strip turned blue, Krill knew what it was.
It was at least similar to some toxins he had seen before and attacked the central nervous system in humans through absorption in the gut. The dosage had been too high however, and while the human could potentially choke to death, much of the toxin had already been rejected by the body.
"Someone cut open his sleeve."
The uniform was ignored as the sleeve was cut open and Krill placed an IV reaching into his kit for the antitoxin.
"You... Just have that lying around?"
One of the other humans asked and Krill nodded.
"I work with humans. I expect them to ingest stupid things that could kill them on a regular basis."
He was calm on the outside like a doctor should be, but on the inside, he was panicking horribly. The commander was not looking good.
But he placed the IV and made the injection.
"Someone test the other food. I want to know if this was planned for just the humans or for the entire delegation.”
His orders were quickly followed, and they found the toxin in almost every dish that had been in the banquet hall.
"You should be glad it was the human who took it first."
Krill was saying, the chairwoman asked:
"Why is that?"
"Because, the human body is the only one that would have noticed the poisoning before it was too late. The human brain responds to toxins that affect the central nervous system with dizziness and nausea. For any other species, you would have been dead before the symptoms kicked in."
On the floor the human convulsions had stopped. His heart rate was decreasing now, but Krill was keeping an eye on it.
The Iotins were still looking around in panic as the Drev glowered at them.
"What is the meaning of this?”
Their leader called. Krill turned on them anger in every line of his body,
"We saw one of you leaving the room before we entered, and they were in a hurry. So, forgive me if I am a little suspicious."
More uproar, but the Drev kept the delegates in check.
”Come on, commander."
Krill muttered. If he was going to wake up, it would be in the next few minutes, if only for a little bit.
One of the other humans had ripped open his uniform jacket, removing his tie and pulling the coat off, discarding it to the side. Krill was more than grateful for their help. Even more pleased when the commander opened his eyes bleary, his pupils almost back to normal.
"What... happened?"
He slurred,
"Congratulations, sir! You saved the entire delegation from death by poisoning. You're a hero!”
He groaned,
"I don't feel like one."
He leaned his head back onto the floor.
"Catch the bastards who did this for me will you?"
He licked his lips,
"I'm gonna pass out again now."
And then he did as promised.
Once again, the human body had managed to save the day.
Because as it turns out, humans are actually a lot harder to poison that one might first assume. Give them to high of a dose, and they will throw it up, give them too low of a dose and it won't kill them.
Plus, the human body is very good at letting everyone know when something is wrong.
It is especially difficult to poison a human when their best friend is an experienced doctor.
Whoever had done this, had not succeeded in their end goal.
And they wouldn't likely be free for long.
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The GA summit chambers at the Rundi home world were, once again, rife with alien lifeforms. It was also, once again, rife with Rundi underlings who were trying very hard not to freak out with all the duties that were being placed on their backs.
At least one thing was made clear this time, there was no point in getting human food for the summit, since the human delegates always insisted on trying all the other alien food. Leave enough of the nectar orbs from the Drev home world out, and that seemed to keep the humans happy enough.
Dr. Krill accompanied the commander into the summit, as was usual.
Sunny was not with them today, seeing as she had work to do back aboard the ship.
That left just the two of them.
Felt almost like old times.
The captain was dressed up in his fancy UNSC uniform, and as such, he was obligated to behave.
Apparently behaving didn't mean avoiding arguments with his most important doctor, who –despite being a complete genius– was hardly capable of getting the captain to agree with him.
"I just think that there should be better security at these things. All of the most important people in the galaxy are here."
"Krill, there is an entire armada outside, I hardly think we need to worry about being attacked by the Burg. Besides, their attack on earth completely broke their spirits and they have retreated back to their own space. We haven’t heard anything from them in a month now… There is no way they would try getting in here."
Krill crossed both sets of arms,
"I disagree, commander. I have been looking into human history of warfare, and I think that a spy could easily-"
*"Krill calm down will you. Besides, spies rely on the fact that you can disguise yourself to look like the other side. The Burg are so fugly that they'd be noticed in half an instant.
They came around the corner, and the commander was nearly knocked onto his back as an Iotin brushed past, hurrying from the banquet hall.
The commander tripped back into a wall,
"Woah watch... yourself."
The Iotin disappeared around the next corner, and the commander looked after him with a frown.
"Didn't know those guys could move that fast. Wonder why he could be in such a hurry?”
Krill waved it off as the commander poked his head into the banquet room,
"Oh look, pink orbs!"
"Commander, don't you think we should wait until after the summit, when the food is being served?”
The man waved a hand,
"Oh no one will notice one or two of them missing."
He quickly snuck into the room and Krill rolled his eyes as the man came out munching on one of the pink fruits.
”Maybe three? I mean four orb fruits are not much right?”
"And they made you leader of the fleet?”
"Yes. Also that means I deserve at least five orb fruit… Also, technically they are thinking of making me leader of the entire Galactic armada, but I digress."
"Lord help us all."
The captain made a face.
"What? It's true!”
The man shook his head.
"No, not you, this fruit tastes... Weird."
"Good weird or bad weird?”
He shrugged and took another bite.
"Weird… but not bad enough for me to stop eating it, so good weird I guess?”
He stuffed the rest of the orb into his mouth and licked the juices off his fingers.
Krill sighed,
"I still can't believe they would choose you."
"Better believe it."
The two of them walked into the main conference chamber to sit down with the other delegates. The human delegation was near the top tier, and so that is where they went, taking a seat just to the right of the Rundi chairwoman's box.
The entire room was alive with the sound of alien life.
Commander Vir leaned over to speak with one of the delegates and Krill was left to watch the room.
Most of the delegations were here, though the Iotin delegation had arrived late. Seemed strange considering he had seen one of their number not long ago.
The light dimmed a couple of times, and the chairwoman took her pedestal and began to greet the delegates. Krill looked on politely as was his want, though he wasn't entirely interested in the whole thing.
The charwoman could be rather long-winded when she got going.
He sat there through a good few minutes of it, glancing over at the other human delegates on occasion. Vir looked almost sleepy, though that was almost to be expected, he was never very good at politics, even though he was involved in them so much.
He turned back to the delegation.
The commander shifted uncomfortably in his seat during a discussion about intergalactic trade laws, and Krill looked over again.
The man had taken to licking his lips repeatedly.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah fine, just thirsty."
He muttered, Krill let it go, though something made him turn back not to long after. The human was rubbing at his mouth, which appeared red, though he supposed that was supposed to be expected. Little lines of sweat were trickling down from his hairline.
He scooted a bit closer.
"Commander, are you feeling alright?”
He was waved off,
"Yeah, I'm ok, it just got a little hot in here as all... Feeling kind of... Faint. Maybe a little nauseous. I am sure I'll be fine. Probably just need something to eat."
The talks continued, but Krill wasn't focused on them anymore. The commander was not looking very good. He was sweating enough that the collar of his dress shirt was almost soaked. The tint of his face had gone from healthy blush to a yellow parlor. He looked as if he was about to pass out. A few of the other human delegates had started to notice.
Someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Commander are you feeling alright."
"I... I think I... Just need to... Walk around."
His voice was slurred.
"I don't think that's a good idea commander?"
Krill said turning his head to face him.
His pupils were unusually wide, despite the dark space around them.
*"The human was breathing hard now, one hand over his chest. His dry mouth from earlier was gone, replaced by saliva production so excessive he was having to clear his mouth every couple of seconds.
He looked at Krill, and the expression on his face was enough.
"I think I'm going to be sick."
The other delegates had leaned over, sensing the commotion, and they stood to let Krill and the commander pass as he stood and wobbled his way towards the stairs.
Krill could sense something was wrong almost immediately.
Dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea…
"Someone, help him walk."
Krill ordered, not caring about the delegation anymore.
Their sudden movement had caused a bit of commotion on one side of the room. The commander paused on the stairwell, and instead of turning towards the exit, he turned towards the delegation floor. Krill tried to grab him, tried to stop him, but the human – even in his weakened state – was still too strong.
A muttering had grown up around the crowd as he staggered onto the floor.
The chairwoman stopped speaking looking on in confusion.
"Commander, are you alright?”
The human paused at the center of the floor.
Everyone in the room was now watching him.
In the main lighting he looked absolutely horrific.
He was so pale his skin was almost yellow. The skin around his mouth was red. Sweat drenched the side of his face. He was drooling so badly that it was, at this point, impossible to control.
"The... food... Has been poisoned."
He choked out through heaving breaths.
And then he collapsed to his knees, vomiting violently on the white marble floor.
The entire delegation stood, shock and uproar filling the room. Krill ran over to help the human whose arms and hands were shaking as he tried to hold himself up.
The sight was horrifying. Saliva dripped in strings from his mouth. His clothing and hands were stained pink from the orb fruit from earlier.
Krill remembered he said it tasted weird.
Could he really have been poisoned?
A couple other human delegates vaulted over the railings and onto the floor, grabbing the man by the arms as his strength began to fail him. His body was shaking violently now.
Krill practically scream-ordered one of the assistances to grab his medical kit number three B (the one for poisons and toxins)
The entire room was in an uproar.
Krill jammed his finger at the Iotin representatives,
"Don't let them leave!"
The Iotins stood in shock as the delegations turned on them.
The Drev delegation, weaponless, still managed to make a circle around the group.
"Someone, go grab the food, and get me a sample!"
The commander had been rolled onto his side. His body continued to reject whatever toxin it had been given, though Krill desperately tried to avoid him aspirating and choking. That only got harder once the man began to cease and convulse. He had to reduce the absorption, but he also needed to keep the man from throwing it back up.
His kit was open on the floor, and he had the others help him with the tubes and medication. Adam wouldn't be helping him now, so he would have to get directly to the stomach himself.
He had one of the other humans hold him, as he inserted the tube and began with the activated charcoal. Hopefully that would be enough, before they got test results back. One of the Rundi came sprinting into the room, holding one of the pink orbs, handing it over to one of Krill's assistants who was ordered to test the fruit with one of the testing strips.
They did as told and the entire group waited for the results.
When the strip turned blue, Krill knew what it was.
It was at least similar to some toxins he had seen before and attacked the central nervous system in humans through absorption in the gut. The dosage had been too high however, and while the human could potentially choke to death, much of the toxin had already been rejected by the body.
"Someone cut open his sleeve."
The uniform was ignored as the sleeve was cut open and Krill placed an IV reaching into his kit for the antitoxin.
"You... Just have that lying around?"
One of the other humans asked and Krill nodded.
"I work with humans. I expect them to ingest stupid things that could kill them on a regular basis."
He was calm on the outside like a doctor should be, but on the inside, he was panicking horribly. The commander was not looking good.
But he placed the IV and made the injection.
"Someone test the other food. I want to know if this was planned for just the humans or for the entire delegation.”
His orders were quickly followed, and they found the toxin in almost every dish that had been in the banquet hall.
"You should be glad it was the human who took it first."
Krill was saying, the chairwoman asked:
"Why is that?"
"Because, the human body is the only one that would have noticed the poisoning before it was too late. The human brain responds to toxins that affect the central nervous system with dizziness and nausea. For any other species, you would have been dead before the symptoms kicked in."
On the floor the human convulsions had stopped. His heart rate was decreasing now, but Krill was keeping an eye on it.
The Iotins were still looking around in panic as the Drev glowered at them.
"What is the meaning of this?”
Their leader called. Krill turned on them anger in every line of his body,
"We saw one of you leaving the room before we entered, and they were in a hurry. So, forgive me if I am a little suspicious."
More uproar, but the Drev kept the delegates in check.
”Come on, commander."
Krill muttered. If he was going to wake up, it would be in the next few minutes, if only for a little bit.
One of the other humans had ripped open his uniform jacket, removing his tie and pulling the coat off, discarding it to the side. Krill was more than grateful for their help. Even more pleased when the commander opened his eyes bleary, his pupils almost back to normal.
"What... happened?"
He slurred,
"Congratulations, sir! You saved the entire delegation from death by poisoning. You're a hero!”
He groaned,
"I don't feel like one."
He leaned his head back onto the floor.
"Catch the bastards who did this for me will you?"
He licked his lips,
"I'm gonna pass out again now."
And then he did as promised.
Once again, the human body had managed to save the day.
Because as it turns out, humans are actually a lot harder to poison that one might first assume. Give them to high of a dose, and they will throw it up, give them too low of a dose and it won't kill them.
Plus, the human body is very good at letting everyone know when something is wrong.
It is especially difficult to poison a human when their best friend is an experienced doctor.
Whoever had done this, had not succeeded in their end goal.
And they wouldn't likely be free for long.
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