rain and sun
In the last chapter we saw that sunny is teaching rain once again, about his decisions
1-Make rain awaken naturally: I understand the merits of awakening naturally, "safer", sunny already has a certain understanding of the path
Cons: Rain will not have the amenities of the nightmare spell, such as memories and echoes as well as natural knowledge,
Rain's journey will be comparatively more difficult than her colleagues, if he started training her 4 years ago she is several levels behind in terms of growth, in terms of experience she may be at the same level as them, I'm not talking ahead because they can already be awakened and are already accustomed to their aspects
When she wakes up, Sunny must give her a copy of the [practical bracelet], then another question arises about memories, will she be able to use receive memories? Sunny was only able to keep his own because he made them with his own essence, in a way they are part of him, and this is considering that he awakened through the spell, unless G3 manages to somehow get around this, also remembering that the ancient awakened ones did not have memories and echoes
I think the only real advantage is the time it will take her to reach the transcendent rank, Sunny must give her hellish training so she doesn't become a "glass cannon" like Ling, but considering that she has a certain talent he can reach transcendence in 5 to 6 years depending on her and sunny

When they start pulling away that’s a huge sign the discard is imminent. It doesn’t matter what reason they give for it, look at their actions. You can’t trust their words only their actions.
In my relationship experience with my gf, we were on and off for five years and cycled back over a dozen times. I’ve been hit with blind sided discards throughout the years. Usually the discards happened when I thought things were at their best in the relationship and we were having our most closest and intimate times together. I loved her but my heart had hardened over the years and it morphed into a challenge and experiment for me as I am very interested in human psychology. The last three break ups were all initiated by me after I saw set boundaries bulldozed through by her.
In the past, I would have lingered and waited for the axe to fall not believing she would or could actually leave. Now armed with all this hard learned experience, I prepared and waited for her next hoover. Sure enough she came back each time. Sometimes after much more added betrayal. Sometimes she would monkey branch, she would never admit to it but I would usually find out months or years after the fact. She was great at keeping secrets and sneaking around and telling lies. This last time was more of an experiment for me. Her trigger after the love bombing stage and first discard was sexual intimacy which invoked emotional intimacy. Usually right after an intimate encounter she would either start a nonsensical fight and use my reaction as a reason to leave or would just disappear and ghost.
I’ve struggled with does she only have an avoidant attachment style or is there a cluster B disorder also at play. I really think it is BPD with covert NPD traits combined with an avoidant attachment style forming a mental trifecta; a relationship disaster. I knew this last time wouldn’t work. A zebra can’t change its stripes.
She contacted me again to get back together again. I played hard to get trying to decide if I really wanted this or not. I demanded numerous boundaries be agreed to before I would agree trying again. I pushed her so far away, I thought she might just say never mind but when I saw her reaching her limit, I relented and accepted her back with many boundaries in place. I told myself if these were broke I was done and I would leave. One important boundary was being blocked on social media. She would always keep me blocked on FB and other platforms while we were in a relationship. I felt it was to shield her harem from knowing about me and me knowing about them and what she was doing. She kept other ex’s as friends on FB and actually went back to him after we broke up on two occasions.
I often wondered if we put off having sex could we build a stronger foundation and have a longer lasting relationship. I also didn’t want physical intimacy to cloud my judgement and give me false feelings of love. So we both decided to not be intimate right away and just date and put an emphasis on building a friendship and getting close with out sex. Things were great in the beginning. She was trying hard. She opened up in ways I had always wanted. Some of those were because of boundaries I set in the beginning. I got to meet her family and friends. I saw a lot of the same cluster B behaviors in others close to her and her family members from suicide to serial cheating, multiple and short lived relationships etc…
Slowly I could see the mental fatigue on her face. She began struggling about two months in. We decided to plan a weekend getaway and be intimate. I put down deposits on an Airbnb and made plans. She started an argument the week of the trip. Her issue was that I offered to bring her to my gym as a guest so we could do something healthy together and bond. She just thought that was the worst idea ever. During the argument she also told me she could be talking to someone else instead. She then kicked me out of her house. I thought that was the end of the experiment. In the past any conflict no matter how mild would have been reason enough for her to break up.
Low in behold, I was truly surprised, I woke up to a good morning text from her apologizing saying she was not running away and I was her person and she loved me. She stated she still didn’t feel comfortable going on the trip. I lost deposits. I later questioned her about who she was referring to she could be talking to instead. She said she never could have said that as it would have been mean to say.
Fast forward approximately two months later the old argument about the gym was brought up again by her. It didn’t get to the same level of being kicked out of her house. I kept my cool and just gray rocked her and didn’t react. I just affirmed her and said ok. It seemed to give her some relief and not escalate things. We decided to plan a weekend at a casino where we would spend the night. This went off without a hitch. We had a great time and we were very intimate and had great sex. Afterwards laying in bed enjoying the afterglow, she commented this was never our problem. I asked what was our problem, she said it was her running away. She promised to never do that again. The next day we went her parents house for Sunday dinner. Things were great, she seemed so in love with me. I was elated. We were walking into her parents side entrance when I noticed how happy she was and I commented someone looks like they are in love. She turned around and looked at me with the strangest face. Almost like fear. I was taken aback but didn’t say anything as we were walking into her parents house and then greeted everyone. It was like a switch had just flipped. She became distant and quiet. I didn’t see her again until the following sunday. She gave excuses about having to work a night shift that was at first going to alternate every other day to nightly. At the end of the week she invited back to her parents house for dinner. She still texted but I didn’t receive any phone calls and the texts contained less affectionate terms and only offered up I loves you’s only after I did first.
While at her parents house her mother asked if I was going to her birthday party the next night at a restaurant. I said I would love to but I didn’t know anything about it. She gave her mom a wtf look and then said let’s see how he acts first. Me and her mother both looked at each other and laughed. The next night I show up at her house to pick her and her teenage daughter up who had been committed for attempting suicide in the past for the purpose of going to her mother’s bday party.
Two days in the future was Valentine’s Day, I asked what restaurant would she like to go too. She was like I don’t won’t to go out and gave a reason as the restaurants would be to busy but after my persistent questioning she offered possibly a lunch instead and said she would let me know. I dropped it as she was getting visibly angered. This was totally out of character because she always liked going out to busy places where live music and beer was had. I said ok and we continued on to the party. We were at a restaurant and normally she sits right beside me thigh to thigh and she would keep a hand on my leg. That night she sat atleast a foot apart from me and never touched me the whole night. We barely even spoke. Every time I tried she was dismissive.
After dinner we went back to her house and she sat me down to tell me that she felt pressured to see me after work as she missed going to stores and felt rushed to get home to see me. I didn’t react and just offered a compromise and said I understood how about we schedule a date night then. She never responded and just dropped it. She then brought up the gym argument again. I didn’t respond to it. I told her I was her safe place and to just relax. My head was swimming with thoughts of here we go again. I leave soon after her telling me she was tired and I got my peck on the cheek and left early. I did not receive a good night text or ask if I made it home safely. I sent a good night message and fell asleep.
The next morning I wake to no messages which was very abnormal. I normally get good morning messages from her and I love you’s every day. I sent my normal messages and she responds back saying she needed that. But nothing more additional. I go through my day and get nothing else from her. Normally she sends texts all day long. Towards 4 pm I send a text from a gym and a selfie saying hi , I love you. She hearted the photo and said then said she was going to her mom’s house and sent me a selfie of her. She was all dressed up and didn’t look like she was just going to her moms. I was hoping to get an invite to come over. Nothing more came from her. I asked about her daughter as she had was dealing with possible Covid symptoms and I got nothing in response. I didn’t feel like going home so I went to the movies by myself. Sitting there I was thinking why am I putting up with this. I’m really not happy. I feel so alone.
I go to bed and send my normal good night texts. I wake up in the morning and I did not receive any texts. I decided to try calling her and all my calls were forwarded. I then check her Facebook and now see that I am blocked.
I remembered the boundaries I set and the purpose of the boundaries. The purpose was to respect myself and not be used by her again. I did not want to be hurt and abused by her again. With so many discards done in the past by her, I felt the discard was in full swing. I felt she was possibly cheating and the push back was her trying to create space to water a new infatuation. She had recently transferred to a new department within her company and was promoted and allowed to select people she wanted for her office. My gut was telling me she was talking to someone at work which would explain the recent late night hours.
I decided I needed to end the relationship. I sent her a break up text as she always ended it with me that way. Before that happened to me so many times, I never would have chosen to break up over text. But it did allow me to spell out everything I saw and what I felt. It contained my closure and reasoning in an attempt to make my own closure for myself because I knew she would not give any closure and also to hold her accountable. I ended the break up text with an open door and said if I’m wrong please explain. I will listen. Her response was “Wow you said enough.” “I’m done.” I replied “yep, I know”.
Her mother reached out and apologized and expressed regret. I told her everything. I felt vindicated. She said her and her husband thought so highly of me and hoped it would have worked. She did not know if her daughter was seeing anyone else. We have since stopped communicating but we remain friends on FB.
I credit the lack of sexual intimacy as the reason I was able to look at the relationship with sober eyes and step away when I saw the signs. The signs were abuse. They truly were. If you love a person you would never ask for space and give such a silly reason. Sex would have produced false feelings of love. I was able to look at the relationship objectively and I was actually not happy. My needs weren’t being met. I felt so drained and unseen. I didn’t feel loved. She loved the way I loved her but it wasn’t reciprocated.
I felt the need perhaps due to the trauma bond and the perceived betrayal to learn if in fact she had monkey branched in order to help me move away from her permanently.
I reached out to another family member and the ex she monkey branched to in the past. I explained the above information and I ended up not receiving any new information. Both told her I had reached out and her ex blocked me. My ex then sent me an email demanding I stop contacting her family and friends and further more she would be filing a protection order. I never received the order. My only regrets was reaching out to her family and her ex. It just gave her a reason to smear me and to tell everyone I’m nutty person.
I cant say I’m 100% hoover proof at the moment but I have started dating again. I don’t think she will come back again because I believe she feels I can’t be used anymore and furthermore I’m willing to reveal her bad deeds to her family and friends. I think she will choose to move on to a fresh target who does not know her and what she is capable of doing.

Hi,
The below post is about a 5 min read. I can’t comment about the content but I think it reads well so it hopefully won’t be the worst five minutes of your day.

I am a thirty year old man. I live with my parents but not because I need to. My father is a dementia patient and my mom is the primary caregiver so I stay at home to help her out. I have a good job. It is fully remote and I make decent money. I have had a less than ideal relationship with my father. Growing up he wasn't around much because of his job and when he was home he wasn't very approachable. He has always had terrible anger issues and from a very young age we have been conditioned to walk on eggshells around him. I have an older brother. He is married and lives with his family. We were living with him but as my father's disease progressed it wasn't possible to continue living there for both the disease and his home infrastructure related reasons. We're relatively well off so money thankfully isn't a problem.
I have always had a strained relationship with my father. He was very loving when I was a child but ever since my early adolescence he has never liked me. He loves my brother a lot.My brother had spine related problems as a kid and they had to take him to various hospitals each year and for a few years he had to wear a spinal brace so he had a strained childhood. This really endeared him to my parents. They never pushed him for anything academically or otherwise but he turned out well. He is a good person although he has his problems. As my parents never pushed him for anything they chose me as the child to exercise their high expectations. I did well in school. They had relatively high expectations of me which was fine. The issue was that in the off chance I did not meet those expectations I would be subjected to severe condemnation. And the condemnation was severe. My father, especially since my early adolescence, never talked to me like his son or a child. He always talked to me like I was some hardened criminal. There was never any affection or understanding. If I did well which I often did there were no congratulations. He did not like me having friends for he was scared I'd fall into bad company. He encouraged my brother to have friends as that would help him fit in with his physical issues. My mother wasn't very affectionate either. For her I was the child whose academic performance she could use for clout amongst her peers. She never balanced out my father's attitude towards me. Rather she encouraged it. I told her but she always dismissed it saying it wasn't so. My father was never around much to ever teach me anything but he would get really mad when I made any sort of mistake. He expected me to know everything. There was a time when he could not stand being in the same room as me and would tell me to leave. I thought this was normal until one day my aunt pointed it out. That was the first time I had an inkling that maybe this behavior wasn't normal. Until a year or so before he lost his mind completely to the disease he would taunt me indirectly in front of everyone by saying how much he liked my brother. He didn't do this to say how much he loved my brother but rather how much he hated me. He would casually call me a coward. I really despised my parents growing up. At a young age I would repeatedly cry myself to sleep thinking one day I'll a make a lot of money and return all the money they had spent on my upbringing, which they always made a point of telling me, down to the expense of the hospital for my birth, with interest and tell them that I was no longer their son. I'd change my name and piss off somewhere and never return.
I have never thought of myself as a good person. I have always thought of myself as the scum of the earth. More my parents tried to keep me away from bad company the more I was drawn to it. I lived different lives inside and outside the house. I always hung out with people who were not at my academic level and the delinquents. I had multiple accents. I started drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana at a relatively young age. I have always been addicted to porn. Addiction has always been a problem for me. To this day I struggle with it. It has always been the one true constant in my life. About a year and a half ago as my father's health was deteriorating fast and I could not cope with it. I was drinking heavily and got bloated and sick. Alcohol and marijuana were not just doing it for me. At that time a lot of self improvement content was coming on my youtube feed. Having never exercised in my life, I decided that I had to make an effort to change because I was now the man of the house. I needed to take responsibility so I did. I started working out regularly at home and over time I lost all my excess weight and developed a significant amount of muscle. That also helped me kick my alcohol and smoking addiction although I do still drink and smoke but about twice a week when my mind gets triggered. Working out has become my new addiction. It is hard for me to not workout these days. I have to force myself to take a rest day. It replaced my other addictions but it has not become my saving grace. Rather just another source of escape from my mind. Some days I really overdo it. I need the chemicals.
By far the aspect of my life which has suffered the most are relationships. I have never been able to be truly close to anyone be it friends, family or romantic relationships. I have always struggled with relationships but in the last few I have become completely socially isolated. I have zero empathy just like my father but unlike him I have the ability to recognize it in myself. I cannot look at anyone around me as a human including myself. I feel like an animal and the world feels like a jungle. I am affectionate in my romantic relationships but innately I don't feel any sense of love or desire for companionship. Overtime I end up resenting the person. It just feels like more responsibility. Another person I owe something to. Now I completely avoid romantic relationships altogether. I used to feel sad when I thought about these things but now I don't feel anything at all. These days I date women for a month and then ghost them. My social isolation has conversely improved my ability to charm women. I don't feel any sort of attraction to anyone anymore irrespective of how attractive they are. As I don't feel "human" I don't see them as such either. They're just another entity separate from me. I'm very observant and overtime have learnt to spot behavioral patterns especially in women. With experience I know how to initiate physical contact and mostly they're just spell bound. They feel I'm so confident whereas I don't feel anything at all. Just standard procedure. Although I don't like talking to them I continue to do so for some time until suddenly I don't. Then I don't think twice about them. I feel the same way about friendships.
I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic. I'm just numb to the idea of the future. I am writing this because I need some perspective. Anything from advice to abuse is highly appreciated. I don't intend to go to a therapist because I can never be this vulnerable in front of someone in flesh and blood and I will never take any medication. Thank you for reading. Please drop in some comments.

Hello reddit! Havent really posted on here before but I find myself in need of some advice. This might be a bit of a long one but I feel like theres a lot of context I need to cover. If anybody bothers to read all of this, some insight would be very insightful because I want to make sure that my personal bias isn’t affecting my thoughts on the matter.
I (25M) met my best friend Jeff (20M) about two years ago. We are coworkers. As soon as we started working together we clicked instantly, and immediately became super close friends. He doesn’t have any other super close friends to talk about his feelings with and I dont have any close meaningful male friendships either, so we grew very close and are a support system to each other. In January of 2023 Jeff had asked me if I’d want to move in with him and his girlfriend in about a year, after about 4 months of us being friends. Both him and her wanted to get out of their parents houses, and wanted to find another roommate to help with rent. I’m trapped at my parents house without making enough money on my own to move out, and dont see myself in a relationship anytime soon to have a partner to help with rent, so this seemed like a great opportunity for us both to help each other out.
His girlfriend, Fiona (20F), is where the problems start to lie. In our two year friendship I have clocked many red flags about her and have grown to really not like her and the way she treats him, and other people. The first I heard about her was in the beginning of our friendship when he asked my advice about a situation he was in. He said he felt stuck in the middle bc his family was pissed at her bc she didn’t get him a gift for his birthday. I asked him if HE was upset about that and he said that he was not, and I told him not to stress about it, bc his feelings on it are the most important thing. The first time I met her we had all went to a movie together. By the movie theater there was a pricy gourmet cookie shop and she had the idea for us all to get cookies and take them into the movie. We all were down, so we went to the shop. Jeff decided to wait in the car while Fiona and I went in. It wound up being cheaper for us to get a four pack rather than each getting our own so we decided to do that, being cordial I let her pick out all of the cookies. When we got to the register to pay she looked over to me for me to pay. I did, kind of assuming that since they were all of ours they would each gave me some money towards it. They did not offer, and I did not ask and thats on me. Then when I dropped her off she requested to take all the leftovers from the cookies home with her and she did. I wasn’t really upset about it but I did think it was a little bit weird, but chocked it up to the awkwardness of meeting new people for the first time, and miscommunication. The next time I met her, the three of us went to the mall together. First she brought us to a piercing shop and showed him the piercing she wanted to get, and told him the price and started asking if she can get it (assuming he’s paying). Jeff really doesn’t make too much money at our job knowing what I make and that he makes less than me. He asked if they could do it next week when he gets paid and she got upset at him and they fought about it. During the same mall trip she brought us into another store she wanted to browse around in and found a dress and bracelet she wanted. She gets to the register to pay and Jeff and I were standing off to the side waiting for her to finish. She hands the cashier the bracelet (the cheaper item) and then without saying anything just turns around and hands Jeff the dress (the more expensive one) expecting him to buy it for her. He did and he looked sad, it really made me upset. There have been many other times where I’ll ask him if he wants to get dinner or something and he’ll tell me he doesn’t have any money this week bc “Fiona wanted to get her nails done” or “Fiona wants to dye her hair”, and he just pays for ALL of it.
We wound up having a conversation about this where I expressed my concern for him and he told me that I “didn’t understand bc I’m single.” I told him no, spoiling your partner can be great if thats what YOU want to do, but its not right for it to be the constant expectation. He told me that “I just dont understand bc I’m gay, and that thats just what having girlfriend is like.” I reiterated that its really not normal and we kind of dropped the conversation. This talk of “thats just what having a girlfriend is” was extremely worrying to me, bc they have been together since they were 14, and this relationship is all he’s ever known.
At another point he expressed to me really not liking being at home bc of the issues between her and his family. I asked about their issues and he said that they really dont get along and he’s always caught in the middle of them. I asked what they have issues about and he said she gets VERY upset that his family refers to her as “Jeff’s girlfriend” when in her eyes she “sees herself as so much more than that”. I asked if they had other issues and that was the only issue he said they have. I told him that that was a non-issue, as she is, in fact at this point in time, his girlfriend. He said he knows. This to me wreaks of the classic abuse of trying to isolate him from his family for no reason. She doesn’t like him having outside forces pointing out the ways she takes advantage of him. Like with the first issue of her not getting him a birthday gift, and his family telling him that was wrong, obviously before I had more context I was on his side, but now knowing what I know I 100% agree with his family.
Sometime in early 2023 she had to move out of her parents house earlier than our plan for the three of us to move out together. And Jeff helped her out and set her up to move in with some extended family of his. After she moves in there, Jeff told me that she wasn’t planning on moving out with us anymore and was going to stay there, but him and I would still get an apartment together. I was obviously very okay with this change of plans. While she was living here she would constantly ask him to sleepover but he really didn’t like spending the night there as it made him uncomfortable, being in his extended families house sleeping in her bed, as they’re very christian. He also just preferred being in his own house and sleeping in his own bed. The problem was, every time he would say no to sleeping over she would blow up at him and start a huge fight that would make him feel like shit until he would eventually just go sleepover to appease her. He at one point expressed to her that sleeping over there made him uncomfortable and why, and told her that he couldn’t deal with her blowing up at him for not sleeping over constantly. He compromised and told her he’d stay over one consistant day a week so she can stop asking and getting upset when he says no. He slept there every week on their day like he said, but this didn’t stop her from continuing ask on the other days of the week and still being upset when told no. An example of him trying to set a boundary, and her just trampling all over it.
One night in November of 2023 he calls me in tears at 2am. He was upset bc he felt so stuck in the middle between what she wanted and what his family wanted. She apparently had asked him to move in with her, but his family was telling him he should stay with them and save up his money, bc they thought that made the most sense for him. He felt caught in the middle bc he couldn’t please both her and his family. He asked me what I thought he should do, and I told him that that really didn’t matter and neither does what his family wants or what his gf wants, all that matters is what HE wants. Does he want to move in there? He told me, no. He agreed with his family’s points of it being smarter for him to just save up money and live at home for the time being while still trying to get his drivers license (him and his gf both do not drive). I told him that I agreed and also thought that was the best idea for him. Especially bc once paying rent, it would be much harder for him to eventually be able to afford a car. Not to mention we still had our plan to move out together the next summer. He wound up getting very heated during our conversation and saying things like how he didn’t want to move in there and he didn’t even care if they wind up breaking up over it. He told her he didn’t want to move in there and she blew up at him and ignored him for the rest of the night. She continued ignoring him into the next day, and he was a mess. Once she started talking to him again he told me he was going over to her place later that night that talk about everything.
After their conversation he calls me to tell me how it went and he starts with “so I’m moving in”. I was taken aback after our conversation the previous night and he told me that she “made him realize how many issues there are in their relationship that he needs to work on, and she thinks him moving in with her is the best way.” I said “and theres things SHE needs to work on too, right?” And he hesitated for a bit before saying “… yeah”. Which made me think it really wasn’t discussed. Him being so adamant about not wanting to move in with her the night before, and then he sees her in person and is immediately convinced to move in there and all of their problems are his fault, really made me feel sick. Not to mention, that this completely trampled over his and I’s plan to move out together and now that would not be happening. He’s apologized to me a lot for that, and I’ve forgiven him and moved on, even tho letting go of the idea of our apartment together which seemed so fun hurt a lot.
Their living situation changed again recently and they moved out of the extended families house and into a new apartment together, greatly increasing their cost of living. I’m concerned for him financially as I know the rent alone is slightly more money than he makes a month from our job. I’m not sure how evenly they’re splitting the cost of living, however even in this new situation she continues to expect him to get her nails done every paycheck and all of her usual “buy me everything I want or I’m going to blow up at you”. I know he’s using his savings to give her what she wants. She’ll frequently call him at work. Like A LOT. Usually about 5 times in an 8 hour shift. And most of these phone calls are just him apologizing profusely for god knows what. And on one of these phone calls I did hear him say that he “could pull from savings to get that for her”.
There are many more examples of ways I see her use and take advantage of him. As well as put him in unsafe situations, but this post is already waaaay too long, and I feel like I’ve provided enough insight into their relationship. I will try to be active in the comments if anybody asks for more context.
If anyone read all of this, thank you! I would really appreciate some advice of what to do in a situation like this. I’ve never not liked a friends partner before. I’ve not said anything exclusively like “I dont like your gf and heres why” but I’ve made comments about things shes does not being right to try to get him to see what I see but I just dont think he gets it. On one hand I feel like I’m being a bad friend to Jeff for letting her abuse him like this, but on the other I’m scared to upset him if I bring it up. I’m terrified of losing or ruining our friendship over this bc he is extremely important to me, and I’m just scared to bring it up especially bc of how much longer he’s known her than me (6 years vs 2). Any advice is extremely appreciated.

Today, we’re building Kamen Rider Ghost, AKA Tenkuji Takeru. This is my 4th entry on building Kamen Riders in D&D.
Let’s start off with our goals for this build. First, we need to be immortal, or at least have ways to be better at avoiding death. Second, we need to be good at punching and being slippery and elusive like a spirit. Lastly, we need to make sure we can help enrich the lives and spirits of our friends.
For stats, we’ll be using Point Buy. Roll for stats if you want, just keep your Dexterity and Wisdom high.
15 Dexterity, as you are pretty quick and acrobatic as a Rider
15 Wisdom, as you are very insightful and know how people are feeling
13 Constitution, as Riders need to be tough
10 Charisma, you are pretty persuasive and very kind, we’ll get some skills to help out.
10 Strength, as while Riders are very strong, you’re still a young man.
And 8 Intelligence, you do know a lot about spirits, but you spent most of your life in a temple, not a university.
For Race, Takeru was a human killed by a Ganma on his 18th birthday and brought back to life, so we’ll make him a Reborn Human. You either get +2 to one stat and +1 to another, or +1 to three stats. We’ll actually go with +1 to three stats, rounding out our Wisdom, Dexterity, and Constitution. You get Ancestral Legacy, giving you proficiency in 2 skills of your choice. Persuasion and Animal Handling would be my picks. You also get Deathless Nature, giving you advantage on saving throws against poison and disease, resistance to poison damage, advantage on death saving throws, you no longer need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep, magic can’t put you to sleep, and you can finish a long rest in only 4 hours instead of 8. Lastly, you get Knowledge from a Past Life, letting you add a d6 to any Skill check you make an amount of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. Take the Acolyte Background for Insight and Religion as you are the heir to a Shinto Temple.
We’ll kick things off as a Monk, as you were trained in martial arts by your father. 1st Level Monks get 2 skills from the Monk List. Acrobatics and History would be my picks. You also get proficiency in a set of Artisan’s tools. Go for Calligrapher’s Tools as they’re the best ones. You get Unarmored Defense, making your AC 10 plus your Dexterity and Wisdom modifiers when you’re not wearing armor, and you get Martial Arts, letting you use Dexterity instead of Strength for your unarmed attacks or Monk weapons, and they use a d4. You can also make an extra unarmed attack as a bonus action.
2nd Level Monks get Ki, letting you start tapping into your Rider powers. You get Ki points equal to your Monk level that recharge on a short or long rest to augment your abilities. Flurry of Blows lets you spend a ki point to make 2 unarmed strikes as a bonus action after you attack instead of just one. Patient Defense lets you spend a ki point to Dodge as a bonus action, and Step of the Wind lets you spend a Ki point to Dash or Disengage as a bonus action, along with doubling your jump distance for a turn. You also get Unarmored Movement, giving you 10 extra feet of movement speed while unarmored. You also get the option of Quickened Healing, letting you use your action to spend 2 ki points to heal yourself equal to your Martial Arts die plus your proficiency bonus. Lastly, you get the option of Dedicated Weapon, which allows you to make any weapon that isn’t heavy that you’re proficient with into a Monk weapon, in case you wanna wield the GanGun Saber.
3rd Level Monks can pick a Monastic Tradition, and Way of the Long Death is fitting for one who’s experienced death. You get Touch of Death, letting you gain Temporary Hit Points equal to your Wisdom Modifier plus your Monk level whenever you reduce a creature to 0 HP.
3rd level Monks also get Deflect Missiles, letting you use your reaction to reduce the damage taken from a ranged weapon attack equal to 1d10 plus your Dexterity Modifier and Monk level. If this damage is reduced to 0, then you can spend a ki point to throw it back at the enemy.
Bouncing over to Cleric for a few levels, as you are of the Shinto faith. We’ll go with Grave Cleric, as it deals with life, death, and easing spirits, and is much more morally sound than Death Cleric. You get Circle of Mortality, letting you heal the maximum amount whenever you cast a healing spell to restore someone from 0 HP, and you learn the Spare the Dying Cantrip, which you can cast as a bonus action and has a 30 foot range. You also get Eyes of the Grave, letting you detect undead such as the Ganma within 60 feet of you as an action an amount of times per long rest equal to your Wisdom modifier.
For your Cantrips, Guidance and Resistance are excellent for helping out your friends, giving them a d4 to add to Ability Checks and Saving Throws, respectively, and Thaumaturgy is useful to give your attacks and transformations special effects. For your spells, you can prepare an amount of spells equal to your Cleric level plus your Wisdom modifier, so 4. Take Protection from Evil and Good, Cure Wounds, Shield of Faith, and Sanctuary. You also get the spells Bane and False Life from the Grave Domain List.
2nd Level Clerics get Channel Divinity once per short or long rest that you can use for 3 different effects. Turn Undead lets you use your action to force Wisdom saves on Undead creatures within 30 feet of you, and on a failure, they’re forced to run away from you. Harness Divine Power lets you use a bonus action to regain a spell slot of a level equal to half your proficiency bonus. Lastly, as a Grave Cleric, you can use Channel Divinity for Path to the Grave, letting you use an Action to mark a creature within 30 feet of you, and having them take twice as much damage from any attack they receive, perfect for setting up a finisher. For your spell at this Level, take Healing Word.
Back to Monk, 4th Level Monks get an Ability Score Improvement or a Feat. Take the Eldritch Adept Feat for the Mask of Many Faces Eldritch Invocation, letting you cast Disguise Self at will so you can transform. Alternatively, if you have an item like the Hat of Disguise that already lets you do that, then take the Weapon Master feat for +1 to Strength and proficiency in 4 Martial Weapons of your choice to better represent the GanGun Saber and its other forms.
5th Level Monks get a pretty big power spike. First, you get Extra Attack, letting you Attack twice in one turn, or 4 with Flurry of Blows. Second, you get Stunning Strike, letting you spend a Ki point when you attack to force a Constitution saving throw of 8 plus your Proficiency bonus and Wisdom modifier. On a failure, they are stunned until the end of your next turn, giving advantage on all attack rolls against them. Third, you get the option of Focused Aim, letting you spend 1-3 ki points when you miss an attack roll, adding +2 to the roll for every point spent to better guarantee your punches land. Lastly, your Martial Arts die increases to a d6 for slightly stronger hits.
6th Level Monks get Ki-Empowered Strikes, making your unarmed attacks Magical. 6th Level Long Death Monks get Hour of Reaping, letting you use your action to force Wisdom saving throws on creatures within 30 feet of you. On a failure, they are frightened of you until your next turn.
7th Level Monks get Evasion, meaning when you make a Dexterity Saving throw to avoid taking damage, you take no damage on a success, and only half as much on a failure. You also get Stillness of Mind, letting you use your action to end an effect of Charmed or Frightened on yourself.
8th Level Monks get another Ability Score Improvement. Bump your Dexterity for better AC and damage.
9th Level Monks get Unarmored Movement Improvement, letting you run up walls and on water as long as you end your turn on stable ground.
10th Level Monks get Purity of Body, making you immune to poison and disease. Your Unarmored Movement also increases to 20 feet.
11th Level Long Death Monks obtain Mastery of Death, letting you spend a Ki point whenever you drop to 0 HP to instead drop to 1 HP. This has no limitations as long as you have Ki points to spend, so while you may have died many times throughout the show, your plot armor and will to live will constantly keep you up. Your martial Arts die also increases to a D8.
12th Level Monks get another Ability Score Improvement. Cap your Dexterity for better AC and the hardest punches.
13th Level Monks get Tongue of the Sun and Moon, letting you understand and speak all languages. The power of friendship and kindness transcends all linguistic barriers.
14th Level Monks get Diamond Soul, giving you proficiency with all saving throws, as your power becomes great enough to excel in almost all situations. Your Unarmored Movement also increases to 25 feet.
15th Level Monks get Timeless Body, meaning you no longer suffer the frailty of old age. Your resurrection basically kept you forever 18.
16th Level Monks get our last Ability Score Improvement. Bump up your Wisdom for better AC and Ki save DC, as well as another Cleric spell you can prepare. Take the spell Command.
17th Level Long Death Monks get Touch of the Long Death, letting you use an action to touch a creature and spend anywhere from 1-10 ki points. That creature must make a Constitution saving throw or take 2d10 Necrotic damage per ki point spent on a failure, half as much on a success. Combine this with Channel Divinity and watch the numbers go up. Your Martial Arts die also increases one more time to a d10.
Our Capstone is the 18th Level of Monk, and you can now have your Mugen Damashii with Empty Body, letting you spend 4 Ki points as an action to turn invisible and giving you resistance to all but Force damage for 1 minute. Keep in mind that being Invisible gives you advantage on attack rolls and enemies disadvantage on attacks against you. You can also spend 8 ki points to cast the Astral Projection spell on yourself to truly venture into the spirit realm. Lastly, your Unarmored Movement increases one more time to 30 feet.
Now that we’ve hit Level 20, let’s go over the strengths of this build. First, you are slippery and hard to take down with 19 AC, Evasion, proficiency in all saving throws, and Empty Body, with Mastery of Death keeping you up in the fight. You also can dish out a crazy amount of damage with Path to the Grave and Touch of the Long Death, dealing upwards of 220 average damage with 10 ki points spent. Lastly, you have some good low-level Cleric spells to help support your team.
For weaknesses, you can burn through your Ki Points very quickly, especially as a Long Death Monk. Between Flurry of Blows, Mastery of Death, Focused Aim, Empty Body, and Touch of the Long Death, 18 can easily become 0 before you know it. You also have below-average HP for a frontline fighter at around 143 average, meaning that despite your resistances and evasion, enough damage can still bring you down. In addition, you also have only three 1st level spell slots and 1 use of Channel Divinity per day, so you need to use them wisely. Last, but not least, you're playing a fairly barebones build. Outside of your subclass features, you’re basically playing a standard Monk with a few spells and immortality tricks, which I guess is poetic given that Ghost is a fairly barebones season. And just like Ghost, it’s not terrible by any means, just not as feature-heavy as other Riders

Author’s Note:
Upvotes and comments go a long way in helping me reach a larger audience <3
First
Inside GB-2
“Huh, that wasn’t there before,” Ron said, pointing to a new hole in the wall – another passageway.
Henry turned to look where Ron pointed. Sure enough, there was a new doorway. It must’ve been a section that opened after they restored the power. “Huh, yeah. Let’s check it out.”
He went through, finding a short hallway past it and another room just beyond. Henry signaled for his team to form up, preparing to breach. As they stepped in, they found themselves in a brightly lit room filled with various types of furniture – empty pedestals, comfortable-looking single couches, and empty desks with opened cabinets.
Henry stepped further into the room, eyeing the oddly arranged furniture. The single couches were lined up in neat rows, all facing the same direction – towards the empty desks. It was like some sort of waiting room, but for what?
“Is it just me, or are these couches set up weird?” Isaac asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind. “I mean, who lines up a bunch of single couches like this?”
“Strange, indeed,” Sera agreed. “They seem arranged as though for spectators, yet naught lies before them to behold.”
Like a movie theater, Henry thought. However, there weren’t any screens or holograms to watch. If there was a clue, it would probably be within the couches themselves.
Dr. Anderson approached one of the desks. “Perhaps this was some sort of office or workspace? The desks and cabinets certainly suggest that.”
Isaac then decided to touch one of the seats, eliciting no reaction. He pushed further, sitting down on one of them. At that point, the couch began to adjust its form to better suit Isaac’s envirosuit, as if able to optimize its comfort for the user. Then, a nozzle slowly stretched up from the seat’s headrest area, stopping just short of Isaac’s neck. “Woah!” Isaac bolted up as the nozzle bonked against his helmet.
“Neural interface, maybe?” Henry wondered. “I think we should leave this to the researchers… unless you wanna volunteer as a lab rat?”
“Hell nah,” Isaac vigorously declined the offer. “Hey, there isn’t anything on my helmet is there?”
Henry dusted off the back of Isaac’s helmet with his glove. “Nope, you’re clear. Just gotta hope it ain’t grey goo.”
He could see the dread and uncertainty through Isaac’s visor. Henry gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Well, think about it this way: if it really was grey goo, it would’ve gotten to us – or the Spiranids, for that matter – long ago. C’mon, let’s secure the next room.”
With a nod, Isaac fell in line behind Henry as they moved towards the doorway leading to the adjacent room. Peeking inside, it couldn’t be further from the rest of the room’s they had encountered so far; not at all what they could’ve possibly expected inside an ancient, high-tech alien facility. It was expansive, with a layout that reminded Henry of a high-end restaurant. Comfortable booths lined the walls, while tables of varying sizes filled the central space. The furniture looked almost human – perhaps even indistinguishably so.
The room was tinted with a soft, cozy yellow light. The warm and inviting ambiance felt soothing compared to the clinical feel of the previous areas. The lighting, combined with the plush booths and elegant tables, gave Henry a nostalgic impression.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Ryan remarked. “Think they got any cheesecakes?”
If it wasn’t for the alien decor and helping of sleek devices scattered around the room, Henry would’ve thought they were back home. Hell, there was even a bar, filled with exotic liquors that could probably fetch millions at an auction – or give them the trip of their lives. Beside it however was something unusual. Where he might’ve expected a path leading to the kitchen, he instead found a wall with a slight, rectangular-shaped recess that was just big enough for a tray.
He glanced at Isaac, who returned a knowing look. “Replicators,” Isaac said.
Henry smirked. “Personally, I’m partial to synthesizer, but to each their own.”
They gathered around the wall, which didn’t seem to respond to their presence. Taps on the wall didn’t seem to do anything, either. Henry considered probing further, but decided against it. “Alright, let’s not take any chances. We’ll make a note of this for the research teams to analyze later. Let’s keep looking around.”
Henry split apart from the others, pairing with Ron as they continued to walk around the room. They soon came across another doorway on the far side of the room, which opened up into a short corridor that led into multiple sets of doors. Each had a symbol on the wall beside the doors – one that depicted the basic figure of a person.
Ron pushed open one of the doors, taking a peek inside. “Looks like even the Gatebuilders needed restrooms.”
Finally! “Alright, let’s take a quick break here. Bring everyone else over.”
Thankfully, the amenities within were easily comparable to those of modern society. The toilet looked like a toilet, and the sink resembled a sink. Even in a space as mundane as this though, the Gatebuilder’s technology was evident: self-cleaning surfaces and enough technology to put a high-quality Japanese bidet toilet to shame. At least, that was just from the look of things. Henry didn’t think now would be the best time to check whether the restroom had ass-washing robots or not.
After a few minutes, Henry regrouped with the rest of the team around a central table in the ‘restaurant’. Dr. Anderson was already present, his archaeological kit opened and a spread of alien items organized on the table.
“Ah, Captain!” Dr. Anderson noticed him approaching. “We found cabinets that weren’t empty. Most of the artifacts appear to be personal effects.” He held up a necklace, emphasizing his point. “Jewelry, memorabilia, and some other artifacts that I – admittedly – can’t quite describe.”
Dr. Anderson pointed his pickup tool at a small disc laid out on a padded mat. “It hasn’t shown any active properties yet. It’s rather peculiar; it seems to be a solid disc. Lightweight, unblemished surface, no visible markings or etchings.”
“Have you tried touching it directly?” Henry asked.
Dr. Anderson frowned, manipulating the claws of his pickup tool. “Well, not directly.” Catching the implications in Henry’s query, he continued, “I’ve checked for radiation, toxins – all clear. While I’d advise against direct contact, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the least bit curious.”
Henry nodded. Yeah, the Doc was probably right, but what was discovery without risk? He reached out and picked it up, rotating it in his hands. As his gloved fingers brushed against the surface, the disc suddenly emitted a soft glow.
Henry flinched slightly, almost dropping the disc in surprised. As he fumbled with it, the disc seemed to respond to his touch. Suddenly, a series of objects materialized on the table, appearing out of thin air.
“Oh, shit!” Ron exclaimed. “It just… spawned a bunch of stuff!”
Henry stared at the new items. Several containers, probably holding some kind of food, were still sealed tight and impossibly effective at insulating its contents. It was crazy to think that the food inside might still be hot after who knows how long.
Next to the containers was a bracelet. Possibly normal, possibly enchanted or integrated with technology they couldn’t hope to understand. There was also a bottle of some bright blue liquid – probably for drinking, but there was no way to be sure until Perdue tested it. And then there was the picture, showing a strikingly human couple, holding each other underneath a gorgeous alien sky. It reminded him of memorabilia people would sometimes keep in their wallets, though why humans were there was a mystery.
The last object the disc spat out was a thin, transparent sheet. Coincidentally, it was about the same size as a smartphone. If he had to guess, it probably had the same function as one, too.
“Incredible,” Dr. Anderson gawked at the items. “The disc must be the Gatebuilders’ version of a wallet, somehow using dimensional storage technology!”
“Akin to the Holding Bags,” Kelmithus noticed. He peered into his own Holding Bag, his expression indicating that he was connecting the dots. “Fascinating!”
Dr. Anderson then inspected the image, his face reflecting the same confusion Henry felt when he first saw it. While they continued to sort through the items, Henry explored the sheet further. The moment he tapped the screen, a holographic interface sprung into existence above it.
What he had initially thought was a simple hologram was something far more advanced, almost indistinguishable from reality itself. Almost instantly, they were surrounded by mountains and valleys, details springing up to form a realistic, three-dimensional map.
It was like a pocket holodeck. The only anchors the projection had were the various icons and pockets of text floating around – and the fact that the hologram was transparent enough for him to see his surroundings and his teammates.
Sera seemed to be the most shocked out of all of them. He couldn’t blame her. The sight was surprising enough for himself, who was even familiar with the concept through sci-fi; how much more alien would it seem to someone from – effectively – the past?
“I’ve not beheld such a spell… ever!” she exclaimed softly, pausing to gather her thoughts. “Hold on…” she continued, pointing to the distant peaks. “Why, yon mountain range! Does it not strike you as familiar?”
“Huh?” Ron squinted at it. “Does it?”
“No, yeah, it does!” Isaac said. “Shit, uh, is that the Ovinne Mountain Range?”
Henry brought up the file for the Ovinne Mountain Range on his visor, comparing it to the hologram. “Huh, yeah, it is. What’s a map of that doing in here, though?”
Dr. Anderson raised his hands in the air and spread them apart, mimicking a zoom. Lucky for them, the alien tech seemed to understand what they were going for. Now up close and in full detail, the Ovinne Mountain Range dominated the room. Somewhere in the mountains, an icon that looked like a pair of glasses sat right on top of a Gatebuilder tower, barely poking out of the mountainside.
Ryan crossed his arms as he scrutinized the hologram. “Is this what, Find My iPhone?”
“Hmm… rather likely,” Dr. Anderson agreed. “This device must be some sort of Locator.”
“Locator, huh?” Having this clue was an incredible breakthrough, but he noticed something else. “And right where the Ovinne Mountain Campaign’s supposedly taking place, at that.”
“Indeed, that you mention it, such alignment is surely noteworthy,” Kelmithus remarked. His voice took on a more excited note, “Be it fate, perhaps?”
Henry smirked. “Hah, you’re sounding a bit like Sera, now. Well, looks like fate’s telling us where to go next. Let’s pack this up and head back.”
They carefully stowed the various artifacts in their holding bags, Henry holding on to the Locator. They made their way back to the locker room where they first entered, everyone excited for the next step in their mission.
Henry stepped through the airlock first, emerging on the other side. As he did so, a faint sound caught his attention. It was distant, muffled, but definitely not a sound that belonged to this facility. He wanted to take off the envirosuit, but it seemed that had to wait.
Ron came through the airlock after him. “Bro, you think –”
Henry held up a hand, stopping him short. He raised his weapon, picking up on the ‘something’s not right’ vibe.
Activating his infrared vision and using the laser mounted on his M7, Henry searched for signs of thermal distortions, just like he’d done back at Duke Vancor’s mansion. Ron did the same. As the rest of the team emerged from the airlock, they quickly caught on to the situation. Without a word, they joined them in securing the room.
After clearing the locker room, Henry signaled to move on to the lab next door. It was just as empty as the locker room, but now the sounds were more audible, definitely coming from the hallway just outside. Instructing his team to hold still, he crept toward the doorway to investigate.
He peeked around the corner, and felt his stomach drop. There, in the main hallway, was a group of soldiers. They were decked out in distinctive black armor and cloaks. They had no identifiable markings or insignia on their armor, but it was obvious – these were Nobians.
Henry pulled back, returning to his team. “Contact outside. At least a dozen Nobians securing the hallway.”
Ron’s expression grew serious. “Shit. Any idea on their entry point?”
Henry positioned himself behind a desk, aiming his weapon at the doorway. “Probably the same way we came in.”
“Main corridor’s the only play, huh?” Ryan said.
The main hallway only had one line of sight, and it just happened to be the only way out. Well, the only one they could reasonably access. The facility probably had other exits or fancy teleporters, but they’d already scoured the area for the former and wouldn’t be able to figure out the latter.
“Dozen hostiles doesn’t seem like a lot,” Isaac pointed out, taking out another Black Hornet from his bag. “We’re still good on ammo, too.”
Ron shook his head. “Dozen? Yeah, a dozen that we can see.”
“Owens is right,” Henry agreed. “We can’t confirm their numbers outright. If I had to guess, it would probably be at least fifty. Manageable, but I’d prefer that to be our last resort.”
“How might we fare with a disturbance?” Sera offered.
Kelmithus gripped his staff. “I might conjure an echo of noise distant hence. It shan’t last, but it can afford us enough time for our escape.”
Kelmithus’ plan seemed like it could work, but only if the Nobians didn’t know they were here. “No,” Henry disagreed. “They’ve seen our MRAPs outside. We’d get surrounded.”
“How about negotiation?” Dr. Anderson suggested, a hopeful note in his voice.
“Negotiation? With the Nobians?” Kelmithus questioned.
They all knew what the Nobians were like. It really did come off as a ridiculous idea, but what if Dr. Anderson was right? The archaeologist defended himself, “I know, I know. However, we have yet to confirm their hostility, and it would not serve us well to initiate hostilities with the Nobians.”
Taking in the silence as contemplation, he continued, “If talks break down, we hold our ground here. It’s not ideal, but we’ll control the engagement area and prevent them from flanking us.”
Henry reviewed the situation again. 12 hostiles, but they should expect the worse, so at least 50 hostiles plus failed negotiations. Holding the only way out, they were likely spread out between the hallway, the cave system, and possibly even the forest outside. Dr. Anderson’s plan was solid, but he had a few minor qualms. In particular, holding the line meant possibly exhausting themselves in a battle of attrition.
“Alright. We’ll open with negotiations. I’m skeptical, but it's worth a shot. Should that fail, we can’t engage in a drawn-out conflict. We’ll disrupt their positions and quickly move to the cave outside.”
“Smoke grenades and flashbangs,” Ryan muttered.
“Affirmative,” Henry said, nodding in agreement. “If we can’t see them, we’ll level the playing field so they can’t see us.”
“Captain,” Kelmithus quickly interjected, “Bid me aid your efforts. I’ve insight enough to create fog. I’ve learned from our encounter with the Sentinel Lindwyrm.”
“You can replicate that heavy fog?” Ron asked.
Kelmithus held up his palm, producing an opaque puff of steam to prove his point. “Indeed so, Lieutenant. Adequately do these envirosuits shield us, that I might harness more extreme temperatures for more effective casting.”
Henry was impressed with how quickly the archmage grasped such a concept. “Good. Yen, get that drone into the cave. We’ll hold for updates.”
Yen nodded, carrying out Henry’s order silently. The drone’s feed directly streamed to their HUDs, and after a few minutes, Isaac looked up. “Done.”
Henry analyzed the data. They had visual confirmation of a dozen Nobians inside the facility itself and a staggering forty outside, both in the cave and around the cave entrance. It was an assumption, but there probably weren’t many cloaked soldiers past the hallway. He sighed; the worst-case scenario would have them facing a hundred men in total.
It was a challenge, but the drone’s intel granted them a critical tactical advantage. He analyzed his minimap, selecting and sharing a route with minimal enemy contact. “After clearing the facility’s entrance, we’ll proceed along the designated path. Upon exit, I’ll deploy a flare to signal our movement to the MRAPs for extraction. We will then rendezvous with Zulu-9 and coordinate with air support before re-engaging to secure the site.”
His team nodded, fully on board with the plan. He took a deep breath to steel himself before checking his watch – 16:24. “Alright, time to show ourselves.”
Letting his M7 sling over his chest, Henry prepared two flash grenades – one in each hand – before stepping out. With his team in tow, he moved to the center of the hallway, catching the attention of one of the Nobian patrols.
“Attention, Nobian forces! We request parley. I am Captain Donnager of Alpha Team, Tier 6 Adventurer. We are on an official quest sanctioned by the Adventurer’s Guild. We have no intention of hostilities and seek to discuss our presence and objectives to ensure mutual understanding.”
As Henry’s words echoed through the hallway, the Nobian soldiers snapped into action. He heard the sounds of bowstring being drawn taut and the rasp of metal as swords cleared their scabbards. His hands tightened around the flash grenades.
He kept his gaze steady, projecting a sense of calm; of confidence – enough to convince the Nobians that even outnumbered, he and his team were still no match for them. More soldiers joined the patrol, until all twelve of the previously identified Nobians were upon them. They kept their distance, but Henry could feel the tension boiling.
Just as the standoff seemed to reach a critical point, the air in front of them seemed to fold outward from itself, like watching the effects of gravitational lensing on light. A figure coalesced from the distortion – so this is what invisibility magic looked like.
The man was broad-shouldered and tall, seeing eye-to-eye with him, even despite the extra inches in height the envirosuit gave. As the last wisps of the cloaking magic faded away, Henry found himself staring into a pair of piercing gray eyes that seemed to bore into his very soul.
The newcomer had an angular face and was clad in black armor with a different sheen than the black armor of his comrades. Silver trimmings and an insignia emblazoned on his chestplate – a dagger through a swirl of mist – differentiated his status. A cloak of the same dark hue billowed behind him as he walked forward and drew his sword.
Keeping his sword to the side, he stopped a respectable ten meters away from Henry. “I am Carvus Alnect Virelius, Umber Vicearch of the Order of the Shadow.” He then pointed his sword at Henry, declaring, “Of desecrating sovereign Nobian territory, you stand accused.”
As Carvus spoke, more soldiers materialized alongside him, shimmering into existence as they dropped their cloaking spells. Henry had expected this to happen, but seeing it play out still sent a chill down his spine. How many more were still lying in wait?
The Vicearch kept his weapon on Henry, eyes narrowing. “Commander unto commander, I offer a choice: cede your Holding Bags, that secure passage may be granted unto you. Refuse, and you shall be declared as spies and enemies of the Nobian Empire, your lives forfeit to swift execution.”
READ 2 WEEKS AHEAD: Season Finale Chapter 17 is now available for Tier 2 Manifest Fantasy Patrons and higher!
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Next

Let's start from the beginning. Buckle up because this is going to be a LONG post.
3 weeks ago, I'd decided I'd had enough and asked my family for support to talk with a therapist I was under before to try and improve my social skills. I'd deemed it necessary because after a hard, good look at my situation I'd realized that my social skills were affecting every SINGLE aspect of my life: lots of opportunities, friendships, fun events, memorable get togethers all wasted because my lack of social skills gave me anxiety. It was unbearable. The worse part was most of the events I had skipped was not with strangers, but with my best friends. I have been best friends with these guys for a decade, and my social anxiety was making it hard to talk with them. It was that bad. Imagine you'd trust these guys with your life and you can't even hold eye contact with them.
Finally, we'd decided on a day for my first session after a long time, it was on a Saturday, but there were challenges to be overcome before we even get to the session: I had to attend 2 social events I'd planned with my friends on the same week.
I have frequent mood swings and during a time of absolute high, while I was attending a seminar I'd talked with the group for hours and had made plans with them. During that moment I was happy and excited that I was taking the initiative to get myself out there; the next day however was a complete nightmare: I'd realized what I had done and I can't practically back out because I'd talked big about being there (I don't normally go out so they were excited to see me). It was a hard 2 days of overthinking and anxiety about how things MIGHT turn out - How I could mess it up for everyone; how we seldom meet due to work and I'd ruin that moment of peace for all of us. If the first meeting bombed, then the next meeting was a guaranteed no-show from me, and the therapy session on Saturday would be completely ruined for me too.
Now the night arrives, the day before the first meeting - we were gonna eat out, just us friends, then just fuck around anywhere we wanted. I couldn't sleep. This is where the shift in my mindset started. My mind had placed this event on a pedestal, and my thoughts changed from My dumbass is going to ruin the evening for everyone to I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT FAIL THIS TIME. The last time I'd attended with them I was a complete mute and was stuck to my phone the entire time, with some of them questioning me if I was alright, and all I could utter was a simple: "I'm just sleepy, is all" (And yes, I WAS NOT SLEEPY AND WAS JUST LOOKING FOR AN ESCAPE). That traumatized me to hell that I had been skipping get togethers since then, and I was hellbent in making sure the same thing DIDN'T HAPPEN AGAIN.
Eventually I fell asleep, and the next day came. I was feeling anxious, but energized. It was the same feeling I got when going into battle (like defending a project from a panel), yes at times I would get anxious due to overthinking, but I was more zoned in on preparations. Now keep in mind, I'm quite close with this group, but I haven't talked to some of them in years, some of them I barely talk to, and only 2 of them I talk to frequently. I'd lasered in on what I knew about these guys, their recent activities, possible topics of conversation, I'd replayed possible interactions, body languages, all of it. It was like preparing for a thesis: First you get the stomachache and headache, and anxiety 3 hours before, but the final hour before, you're just focused on nothing else BUT PREPARATIONS.
Now, I have a bad case of paranoia when walking to malls, and I often find myself fidgeting and sweating a lot because of this. Even worse because I was wearing accessories (I never wear any accessories when going out) and I felt conscious that it might look out of place or goofy. None of that happened. I was riding a motorcycle, and feeling the wind against my face seemed to put me under a spell: anxiety was slowly slipping from my brain. When I walked inside the mall to meet up with some of the guys, I didn't feel any anxiety, any paranoia. There was nervous energy, but it felt natural.
Fast forward and the first guy I meet is the guy I talk to the most, I thought I'd freeze up then and there, unable to talk or hold eye contact, but when I saw that he was happy to see me, and I was happy to see him too, all unnecessary thoughts went out. Everything just flowed instinctively. We talked for a solid 20-30 minutes trying to catch-up, it all felt comfortable, I didn't feel compelled to think too hard about what to say or do next, the words just flowed endlessly from my mouth; the body language I was completely conscious of was a non-factor. Then some of the other guys arrive: we make small talk, fun talk, but it wasn't as in the zone as the one I had earlier, but it felt natural. People pulled out their phones, I pulled mine too, but it didn't feel forced.
It felt as if I was playing a turn based game and I just knew what to do. At that moment there was no cause of anxiety because there was no need for it. I just knew what to do, when to back off and listen, and when there were dry / awkward spots well yes it felt awkward but my anxiety didn't spike up like it usually did.
Fast forward later and all of us have met-up and are going to a restaurant, and we're all sitting together. For the first time in years, I have never been so happy that I'd decided to go and didn't skip. It was a complete eye opener. I talked to everyone at least once or twice throughout the entire experience; we laughed, made jokes, we caught up with each other, we listened to stories: it was so different from what I normally knew, and I didn't care enough to ask how I was keeping up - I wanted to enjoy the moment. Eye contact, the one I dreaded the most, for once didn't feel forced and I felt comfortable enough to hold it with others. For the majority of the time, I think 90% of it I wasn't on my phone at all, I wasn't looking at the ground. I was having fun with them.
Most of the guys there were extroverts and introverts, but I was the only one with social anxiety. At that moment, I felt completely liberated. I know it's not a one-off thing because I noticed a lot of things during that moment. I noticed when I had to listen, when I had to talk, when to break off eye-contact, when to switch topics. It felt like the skills that I needed had been all there all along, and the only thing stopping it from manifesting was my own anxious thoughts.
Of course, my social battery ran out near the end. There were times where I'd try to crack a joke but my voice was too low and people would stare at me and ask "Ha?" but I'd just wave it off with a laugh and tell them to continue. Any other time an interaction like that would shut my brain off and torment me for days - but that wasn't the case. It became a passing "oh well" and I just went on and never lingered on it. When we got tired and were running out of things to talk about I felt comfortable sitting there just fiddling with my drink or listening, or just looking around and it never made me anxious, just an "oh..." and nothing more. When looking back to those awkward moments, all I can think about is how I could've handled it better - actually trying to learn from the interaction instead of letting it put me down, and I am completely sure that it wasn't me just being in a high because I don't regret a single thing, even the awkward parts. It's the first time I've had awkward situations where I didn't overthink or implode on the spot.
The entire experience has me thrilled even now hours after the event, because what I experienced during that event showed me what I could do; in a way, it felt like I had broken through an obstacle and I was glad I didn't stay behind to just sit behind my PC, because what I learned in those short 4 hours will outclass even thousands of hours spent on the internet learning about social skills (Keep in mind, the topic I normally talk about with them is video games; during the entire time, we rarely talked about games). It was a necessity, and now I'm even more excited to attend the second event (this time with some strangers), and eventually my therapy session!
If you'd read this far. Thank you! I just wanted to share this moment of victory with people who can relate to issues of social anxiety. If there's one thing I learned that I want to give out as an advice: Just give yourself a chance, no matter how small. I have only one life to live, and what compelled me was that I didn't want to spend the next 20-30 years as I was: I would rather embarrass myself completely in the pursuit of improving myself than stay in this nest of anxiety and depression. I want to live too, and my desire for a better life, I hope will completely eclipse my fear of the challenges that come with it.

A couple of things to appreciate about Gwyn and why many readers loved her 🩵
You'll be surprised to know that Gwyn has the most appearances in the book among the secondary characters in the book (I think Rhys has the same or a bit less appearances) but the point is she was a prominent character in ACOSF.
— Gwyn helped the children of Sangravah escape, and instead of running away with them she chose to stay behind to hide the trapdoor so the soldiers don't go after the girls. Gwyn sacrificed herself to save them (I hope she gets to see them one day).
✅ Selfless
— Gwyn called out Nesta when she saw a slight change in her behavior (probably for guessing she was a trauma survivor) and asked her to not infantalize her. She did not allow others to view her as fragile despite her hidden scars.
✅ Bold and Self-aware
— Gwyn was the key to reforming the Valkyries and because of how much Nesta and Emerie meant to her, she wrote a chapter that included them and she also gifted them the friendship bracelets which is a marker of their friendship and bond.
✅ Appreciative
— Despite having a nasty arrow wound on her thigh and lost a lot of blood, she refused to leave Nesta alone and wanted to face those males and die alongside her. Nesta had to knock her out so she doesn't.
✅ Brave and Loyal
— She relishes in taking a challenge and pushes herself to do her best. She was the first to join training, the first to cut the ribbon and the first to win the Blood Rite Qualifier.
✅ Ambitious and Challenging
— When Nesta struggles to open up to Gwyn because she feels ashamed of what she did in the past, she still told Nesta that her story is worth telling. Nesta kept hesitating and Gwyn held her hand and reassured her and welcomed Nesta to join her at the services to listen to the music.
✅ Understanding and Empathetic
— When Nesta and Cassian fought at the bridge and Nesta made Mor take her to Emerie's home. Gwyn shows up there an hour later which makes the first time Gwyn ever steps outside of the library and the training ring and it was to be there for her friend.
✅ Puts Her Friends First
— When the Priestesses join the training for the first time, she warmly welcomed them.
✅ Kind
— Against all hope, she pushes her friends towards Ramiel's summit to take the road no one dared to take and to prove to everyone that something new can be as powerful and unbreakable.
✅ Perseverence
Those are a couple of traits that come to my mind right now on why Gwyn is such a beloved character.
Despite dealing with hidden scars and survivor's guilt, she took steps on her own towards her healing journey. The scars will no doubt linger but I truly appreciate where Gwyn was at the start of the book to where she is by the end of it. There is still more to explore with her and can't wait to see her finally take a permanent step to move out the library and see the world as she wished.
Go ahead and share what you love about her 🩵

Yelena watched the doorway through which the young Ashfield scion had just left for a few moments more as she pondered over the meeting they’d just had.
Precocious indeed, she thought with a smile.
A smile that only grew as her gaze flitted over to her childhood friend’s… complicated expression.
It seemed young William’s decision had come as much a surprise to his instructor as it had come to Yelena herself.
“He said no,” Joana said after a few moments.
Yelena nodded slowly as she reclined into her friend’s surprisingly comfortable chair. Given what she knew of Griffith, the Queen had half expected the thing to be harder than mithril when she first sat down - but it was surprisingly plush.
“Not without good reason,” Yelena said as she shifted about.
“Good reason?” Joana scoffed. “You offered him your daughter’s hand.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You offered all of your daughter’s hands.”
Yelena rolled her eyes at her friend’s tone. “And if he’d accepted I would have considered it a bargain.”
A minor scandal and the loss of a number of future marriage alliances was ultimately nothing compared to the ability to raid Kraken nests. And that was ignoring that a hypothetical means to slay kraken in deep water would undoubtedly have other applications.
Applications that would be incredibly useful in the months to come.
Though, perhaps, if young William’s plans came to fruition that coming storm could be delayed by a few years.
“…Are things truly that desperate?” Joana asked quietly.
“They’re not great,” Yelena admitted, massaging the bridge of her nose. “The Blackstones… I knew they’d resist the reforms, but to threaten open rebellion?”
She’d not expected that. Not even in her wildest dreams. Lindholm’s only human ducal house had ever been wilful, and their antipathy towards the Orcs who dwelled in the Sunlands was well documented, but surely even they could see why Yelena was doing what she was.
Regardless of what her critics said, her decision to end the slave trade in Lindholm was most assuredly not the result of ‘useless sentiment’.
Far from it.
Oh certainly, Yelena had no love for the institution of slavery, for reasons both moral and financial, but that wasn’t why she’d created the abolitionist movement.
With each passing year, the Homeland’s view of Lindholm grew ever more covetous. More and more the Sun Empress and Desert Khan’s rhetoric centred less on their ongoing deadlock with each other and more on the idea of ‘recovering wayward territories’.
Certainly, that could have been a reference to Old Growth as much as Lindholm, but Yelena doubted it.
Lindholm might have scared the Solites and Lunites into retreating by choosing to engage them over deep water, but ultimately those victories were borne of a lack of conviction on the part of her foes.
Had the two disparate fleets been willing to risk the permanent loss of a small portion of their mithril cores in order to achieve victory and push towards the mainland, they may well have been able to flip the allegiances of a number of Lindholmian houses.
Oh, certainly, the high elves and dark elves of Lindholm might have prided themselves on maintaining the strictures of equality that defined the Old Empire – but with either Solite or Lunite airships hovering over their family castles, she couldn’t help but wonder if some might reconsider their stances on their fellow elves.
No, while an invasion of Lindholm would certainly be costly, it was entirely within the realm of reason.
An invasion of the Old Growth however?
There was a reason the Wood Elves – as they named themselves – had managed to remain independent of both the other two, much larger, nations despite sharing land borders with both of them.
Their strange magics might have been muted and weak beyond the borders of their home, but within their territory they were nigh invincible.
No, if there was to be any ‘reclamation’ of any territory belonging to the old Aelven Imperium, it was likely to come from Lindholm.
To that end, the kingdom could ill afford to keep feeding people and iron into the meatgrinder that was the Sunlands. Could ill afford to keep orcs that might otherwise be valuable mages laboring in the fields under the eyes of watchful taskmasters.
Lindholm needed every mage-knight it could get – regardless of the color of their skin or the shape of their ears.
Yet after year and years of negotiations and attempts to shift public opinion on the matter, the North still remained willfully ignorant of that truth.
“Surely they know that even if they win, any kind of division between us will just see the Homeland sweep over them?” Joana said.
Yelena shrugged. “I have a feeling that Duchess Blackstone’s victories over both the Lunites and Solites has left her confident of repeating the fact should it come to that.”
Foolhardy, in her eyes, but no one had ever accused the Blackstones of being meek. Nor being incapable of backing up their sometimes insane claims. What other House could lay claim to an ancestry that had once beaten back the Old Imperium at the height of its power?
Where other human nobles had been sworn into the Old Imperium on their knees with their battered armies scattered to the winds, the Blackstones managed to resist long and hard enough that the Imperial Legions had been forced to come to the negotiating table.
Ultimately, the Blackstones had still been absorbed into the Empire, but they’d done so on their terms with their heads unbowed.
…Though it was somewhat ironic that nearly a thousand years on, it was now those same humans in the position of the old Imperial Legion while it was the free orcs who now utilized the same strategies as the old Blackstone tribes – right down to the Wyvern riders.
“I could imagine that,” Joana muttered.
“Is it strange that I think she might pull it off?” Yelena said – though only because she was sure that no one beyond her friend and silent guards was listening.
“Part of me wants to argue that, but… do you think it’s a human thing?”
Yelena thought about the Blackstones and the young man who’d just turned down a chance to be king one day.
“Perhaps,” she admitted.
Personally she thought it was because humans didn’t live as long – and there was more of them. When your life could be measured in but a single century, perhaps you were a bit more inclined towards taking risks that might make an elf balk?
…Risks like trying to take your first year team up against a third year team in the name of trying to avoid a war.
Or at least delay it.
“I still can’t believe he said no to your offer,” Joana said, something… complicated in her friend’s expression.
Yelena grinned at the sight, though she wrestled down the urge to ask a number of probing questions of her normally straight laced friend, who seemed to have a childish crush on a young man nearly ten years her junior – and her student beside.
Normally she’d be all over a scandal that delicious.
Alas, right now was work time. “I can. He gave me his reasons and they were solid.”
Well, solid enough. If you squinted a bit. And tried to think ‘human’.
Rather than all-but guarantee a war by having the Crown break off his betrothal, he intended to do it himself.
Loudly and publicly.
And if he won – and that was a big if – he’d all but destroy any kind of excuse the Blackstones might have to declare war in response. Indeed, by being ‘shamed’ in such a public manner they’d need to spend a few years at least regathering lost support.
After all, who would want to follow a house into a civil war just after their heir was publicly humiliated by a team of cadets two years her junior?
Academy fights weren’t just schoolyard squabbles. They were civil conflicts writ small. A microcosm of the constant jostling and jockeying of Lindholm’s houses.
In other words, they held weight.
If Willaim could beat his fiancée, Yelena knew she’d owe him more than she could ever truly repay. A few more years of preparation would turn an almost guaranteed defeat into something much more even.
Especially if she could scoop up who knows how many mithril cores that were otherwise just littering the ocean. Ninety percent of them would be of limited use immediately, but a few years would give her time to construct at least a few more airship hulls to house the devices.
All that was required was for William to win.
“Solid,” Joana scoffed. “His plan is to go up against a group of third years with a team of firsties.”
Yelena tried to keep the intensity she was feeling out of her tone as she leaned forward. “You don’t think he can do it?”
Joana opened her mouth before hesitating. “I… normally I’d say no. Talented as they are, the gap in experience is just too wide.”
“But…”
The dark elf rolled her silver eyes behind her glasses. “But, with William’s newest invention…” The woman paused. “Son of a bitch.”
For just a moment Yelena was treated to the rare sight of her friend laughing. “I can’t believe I thought he ‘just wanted to use it in a schoolyard fight’,” the Instructor said.
“Well, he sort of is, in a way.” Yelena shrugged. “It just so happens to be a very important schoolyard fight.”
Joana laughed. “I suppose it is.”
“Still, do you think he can win?”
Joana straightened up. “I genuinely don’t know. With his new invention he might be able to catch her off guard. If he can skew the numbers in his favor at the start, they might have a chance.”
Yelena frowned. Not exactly the ringing endorsement she wanted to hear, but that was part of why she valued Joana’s friendship.
Always had really, even when the girl had first come to court at the age of ten as a potential playmate for Yelena’s daughters and told her that her dress made her look like some kind of tropical bird.
Something Yelena realized upon closer inspection was true.
Ever since, the Queen had made a point of checking in with the girl from time to time, if only for the occasional shot of unvarnished truth.
It was a strange ‘friendship’ from the outside looking in, but one that got less so as time went by and the age gap became less stark.
“Well, let’s hope the human capacity for the nigh impossible isn’t relegated entirely to the Blackstones,” Yelena muttered.
Because if it wasn’t, the boy would either have to marry one of Yelena’s daughters or die.
She could not afford the knowledge in his head to reach the Blackstones. To that end, he’d either accept her offer – rolling the dice on the onset of war and all that might come with it – or he’d suffer an accident.
As much as it pained the royal sovereign’s heart to see such a bright and enterprising soul be snuffed out before its time.
Being forced to make such decisions was simply the price of wearing the crown.
“Still,” Joana said, and Yelena was grateful for the distraction as she looked up. “Will you actually leave him alone if he pulls this off?”
Yelena scoffed.
“Of course not. If anything I’ll up my offer.” She shrugged. “I’ll give him you, myself and half my court if it means getting my hands on what’s in his head.”
It was actually a little amusing how Joana flushed at her words, even as she shook her head.
“Yes, that sounds a lot more like you.”
Yelena nodded. Damn right it did.
Though as she did, a thought occurred to her. “Hey Joana?”
“Yes?”
“In your reports to me, didn’t you mention the Ashfield boy having some kind of nickname.”
The dark elf pondered the words for a moment before stiffening. “Hmm, he does actually. A rather apt one considering. Apt enough that I’m wondering if whatever he used to kill Al’Hundra is related.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. What is it?”
Joana leaned back, her head craned upwards, as if seeking strength from above.
“Kraken Slayer.”
Yelena laughed. She couldn’t help it.
“Of course it is.”
“You killed Al’Hundra.”
William was still reeling a little from the conversation he’d just had, so he was actually a little caught off guard by a finger being shoved into his face the moment he stepped back into his teams quarters.
Ah, he thought. I promised answers.
Though it seemed that in his absence his team had managed to figure out some of those answers without him.
Glancing past Olzenya’s outstretched arm, he saw Marline shaking her head – as if to vehemently deny she’d told them anything.
She needn’t have bothered, her geass precluded it as an option. Hell, even once everyone found out it would preclude it as an option.
Which was for the best for the moment because now he wasn’t so much trying to hide what he’d done as how he’d done it. Admittedly, Marline didn’t know anything beyond the broadest details, but she knew enough to know that it was some kind of enchantment combined with alchemy.
Now it was possible the forces working against him – or rather simply to profit off him – had already figured that out and he’d hear the alchemy lab exploded any moment now, but he’d sooner put it off for as long as he could.
To that end, he turned to Olzenya – though not before politely lowering her pointing arm.
Something that, to her credit, the high elf allowed – actually looking a little embarrassed by her outburst and thus rudeness.
“Honestly, I was expecting something like that to come from Bonnlyn, not you,” he said to the slightly flushed high elf.
As he glanced over toward where the dwarf was sitting, she shrugged. “I realize I may not be the most classically polite individual around, but I’ve been a merchant long enough to recognize when someone’s got a trade secret they want to keep close to their chests.”
If anything, Olzenya flushed harder, as while she might not have been familiar with trade secrets, she was most definitely familiar with the notion of house spells that needed to be kept secret.
“I also thought ambushing him at the door was a little rude,” Verity murmured from the back of the room.
Olzenya coughed, before backing up. “Of course, I apologize for that William.”
More bemused than anything else, especially as the elf curtsied, he waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Or, understandable, I guess.”
“Good,” Ozlenya smiled, glad for his acceptance… before she shouted again. “Because you lied to us.”
“I did?”
“He didn’t,” Marline said. “He said he had something to bet against Tala.”
Indeed he had, something he’d kept hidden under a sheet. After all, he’d not wanted his big surprise to be spoiled by the rumors of his coming beating him to the cafeteria.
And they would.
Rumors in the academy somehow managed to move at light speed.
“He implied it was gold,” Olzenya shot back.
“And you said Tala wouldn’t go for it, but you came with us anyway,” Bonnlyn said.
Indeed, he had implied it was gold. Or ‘something valuable enough to catch her interest’.
“To comfort him after she shot him down,” Olzenya said. “Instead I damn near tripped over my own feet in front of everyone when he pulled an honest to goddess mithril core out of his ass.”
William was actually a little thrown off – and amused – by the sudden display of crassness from the noble girl.
“But he didn’t lie.” It was actually a little surprising – and heartwarming – to hear Verity speaking so forcefully.
And that Olzenya didn’t immediately snap at her for doing so. The team really had come a long way in just a few months.
Ah, the joys of shared suffering, William thought as he watched the girls bicker amongst themselves.
“As I’m sure you’ve all guessed, I have indeed been less than open about a few things,” he said, silencing all of them – except Marline who’d yet to speak in the first place. “With that said, I’ve never once lied to you about my end goal.”
“Breaking off your betrothal,” Marline said finally.
“Breaking off my betrothal without starting a war,” he said. “If it were that easy, the Queen would have done it for me just now.”
“You met the Queen?” Olzenya sounded a little faint.
“I did.”
Oh, how he did.
“Oh ancestors, please don’t tell me you hit on the queen!?” This time Marline sounded a little faint.
And he actually felt a little offended. “What!? Why would you think that.”
“You’re doing the same thing you do when we talk about Instructor Griffith,” Bonnlyn said with studiously neutral voice. “Or Instructor Morline. Or Instructor Flen. Or some of the guards.”
“Or that one cafeteria lady,” Verity chimed in, a little red in the face.
“Or the-”
“I do not!” He’d finally had enough of these aspersion on his character.
Across the room, a number of sighs rang out, even from the elves.
“At least now I knew why he never checked me out,” Bonnlyn said. “He’s got mommy issues. And I’m not old enough to tickle them.”
“Still, the Queen?” Olzenya hissed.
“I mean, have you seen her?” Marline muttered back. “I mean, I don’t agree with him… but I get it.”
“I didn’t ‘perv’ on the Queen.” Some part of him died on using such childish language. “We had a meeting about my plans and… what occurred with Al’Hundra. Needless to say, the fact that I’m here means she’s agreed to go ahead with them and I’m also to keep quiet about anything I may or may not have had to do with any Kraken going missing. Or their cores.”
He deliberately left out the royal marriage offer.
Still, with those words the room went silent. After all, if the Queen had told him to say nothing, he was expected to say nothing. Just because the North in general didn’t have much respect for royal authority didn’t mean the rest of the kingdom did.
Quite the opposite.
“Well, if the Queen has commanded you to remain silent, I suppose there’s nothing to be done,” Olzenya muttered. “Though I would like answers some day.”
“Hell, I’d like to know why you brought Marline in on your plans,” Bonnlyn said, glancing at the Dark Elf. “You know, and not the rest of us.”
There was no missing the hint of hurt there – which he understood.
“I can promise you it was purely a matter of convenient circumstance,” he said. “And I can promise you, I didn’t confide in Marline for free.”
All the girls glanced up as the dark elf nodded slowly. “He’s not lying – though I can’t say anymore. Literally. It’s a price I paid willingly, but one I doubt any of you would be interested in.”
Almost as one, he could see the lightbulbs turn on in everyone’s brain simultaneously – except for Verity, who took a few seconds.
‘Geass,’ thought none of them said it.
This time though, when the girls looked between him and Marline, there was a definite sense of wariness to it.
“Well, I suppose there’s nothing else to say then,” Bonnyln said. “I guess we should…”
“…Go to bed,” Olzenya nodded warily.
William grinned. “Good idea. Big day tomorrow and all that.”
That was an understatement, and he could tell everyone was thinking it as they made their way over to their rooms.
Still, it was true all the same.
They’d need their rest if they wanted to stand a chance tomorrow.
Indeed, they’d need every advantage they could get.
To that end, William could only hope he’d stacked the deck in their favor enough to matter.
…It took him a long time to get to sleep.
When he did awake, in the early hours of the morning, it was to the sound of an explosion.
In the direction of the old alchemy labs if I’m not wrong, he thought with a grim smile.
It seemed someone had decided to investigate his storage room even sooner than he’d anticipated.
Annoying, but it hardly mattered at this point in time.
All that really mattered was going back to sleep.
He had a big day ahead of him, after all.
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The internet is a strange place, inadvertently designed to bring out the best and worst in people. People can be whoever or whatever they want to be. For predators and malignant narcissists and who live in their own delusions to begin with, it's like a hunting ground. They can create whatever persona they wish, fill their victims' heads with lies and half-truths that paint them out to be someone they are not, and by the time their victim actually meets them, it's too late - they've already created an image in their mind of this perfect person the narcissist has convinced them they are, and it usually takes time before the curtain comes down, the lies fall apart, and the mask breaks away.
I'm no saint, and I've learned my own tough lessons from the internet. I grew up under not-so-great circumstances, only getting 5 years of education before I turned 18 and was largely raised by a computer screen. Along the way, I catfished a woman in her mid-20's when I was 14-16 years old. It wasn't intentional at first, I told everyone that I was in my mid-20's and I worked as a bouncer at a bar in NYC. I never meant any harm, I was just raised by a computer and spent all my time alone playing MMOs and learned quickly that if I told people how old I was, they'd stop playing with me. So a bouncer seemed like a job I could bullshit about easily enough, and I was a big dude at 6'1 260lbs so I figured I could maybe pass it off as legit if it ever got hectic.
I started playing with this woman in her 20's and her husband frequently. We became friends fast, and soon we were virtually inseparable on the game. Her marriage ended up not working out, and after they separated she told me she had feelings for me. I should've admitted I wasn't who I said I was then, but I was young and dumb and she was the only real friend I had, so I kept up the ruse. Eventually I did come clean, and she broke it off with me not long after. We stayed friends, albeit with my heart hurting pretty bad, for a few months afterwards - until she met Jack.
When she first told me about Jack, he sounded like a great catch. He had his own IT business in Canada, was a couple years older but not by much, and she was infatuated with him. Obviously I was crushed and didn't handle it well, being a practically feral teenager at the time, so not long after they started getting serious she ghosted me altogether. I was around 17 at the time, and shit started going off the rails for me. After I got out of juvie, I started drinking heavily on a near-daily basis and selling and doing drugs. This led to a lot of pathetic, inebriated, desperate attempts to contact her and apologize for how I acted.
After months of being ignored, eventually grief and regret turned to anger, and finally acceptance. When the pain passed and I came to my senses a bit, I had an epiphany and realized that if I loved her as much as I thought I did, the best thing for both of us would be to let her go. I was a high school dropout with no job, selling drugs to get by. She had 2 kids, and what kind of life could I provide for them? She made the right choice, my age and the fact I made a grown woman fall in love with a teenager not withstanding, and as bad as it hurt I realized it was selfish of me not to accept the way things were and leave her alone, so I did.
10 years or so later, I had gotten my shit together. Worked my way up from cleaning dead shit out of swimming pools, to an entry level position at an environmental consulting firm, to a Project Manager at one of the largest firms in the field in the DC area. I'd met someone, got her pregnant, and for some reason I felt a pull to contact her again. Not to rekindle an old flame, but because she had been a tremendously positive influence on my life in a time where I had few. She was the first good thing I had in my life at a time when I was sleeping on old blankets on a hard floor in an abusive home, and what I'd held onto from our time together wasn't our romantic relationship, it was the best friend I'd ever had. And something made me want to tell her that all that work she put into getting my head right wasn't in vain, and I'd finally made it out of the gutter.
So I messaged her on Facebook, and to my surprise she actually responded. We started talking again, and soon it was back to every day. When my baby mama got back on drugs and turned abusive and was putting my daughter's life in jeopardy on a near-daily basis, she was the one who convinced me I could fight for custody - that I had to fight for custody. So I did, and I won, and I've had full custody of of my daughter since she was 6 months old and for the 10 years since.
But eventually we parted ways again. I'd started seeing someone, and part of me knew I couldn't commit to another woman while I was still carrying on with her. Our relationship had started turning romantic again, and she had dropped some hints about old Jack that would come to the forefront later, but she wasn't ready to leave him and I didn't want to be that guy, so I sent her a message explaining why we had to stop talking, apologized, and ghosted her.
7 more years went by after that night. The relationship I abandoned her for soured quickly when I found out that chick was a carbon copy of my baby mama, and I quit dating to focus on my career and raising my daughter. But on the long, 2+ hour commutes each way from work, I often found myself stuck pondering the "what ifs". What if I hadn't ghosted her? What if our age gap wasn't there, and we'd never had to split up to begin with? I knew in my soul I was never going to find someone like her again, but I made peace with it. I imagined her happy life, her kids with Jack, and convinced myself I made the right choice.
Then COVID hit, and near the start of it, I stumbled on a post on reddit about this dude who sent his high school sweetheart a message many years later apologizing for how he treated her and telling her how her presence impacted him, and I thought to myself, "Hey, I did that!". So I started writing a reply, and for the first time told the story of this girl and I. I'd never told a soul about what happened with us, not even my family or closest friends. Maybe it was the stigma of having an online relationship back in those days that carried over, or maybe it was just too personal to share with my friends or family. It got long, so eventually I just decided to start a new thread. When I was done, it was so long I figured no one would ever read it, but I hit submit anyway and put my phone down and got back to work.
Well, I was wrong. People did read it - a lot of people. Soon my phone started blowing up. Thousands of comments, hundreds of DMs, people offering me book deals and asking if they could have the rights for a screenplay or have me on their podcasts. It was fucking surreal, and being generally a private person who tries to fly under the rader, it got overwhelming fast. Eventually I reached out to her again on Facebook, warned her about what happened, and apologized for putting her business out there.
She didn't respond for a couple weeks, and when she did we started talking again almost immediately. And then in mid-April 2020, she told me that she needed to talk to me. She spilled everything, and told me exactly who Jack was. How he would hack into her devices to spy on her, threaten to kill her and her partner if she ever left him, say vile things to her and her daughters, calling the young girls cunts and bitches. How he alienated all her friends and family, and kept them all isolated in the house her parents bought them that he would rarely leave.
And I felt deceived too. All those years I'd convinced myself that she was happy, that she got together with Jack and was living the life she deserved. In reality, Jack intentionally got her pregnant not long after he flew out to her state the first time. He quickly moved into her house, and refused to work or provide not only for her kids or their kids, but for the other 3 children he abandoned in Australia and Canada who he had no relationship with, with 3 different women he victimized in the same manner. When she was 8 months pregnant with their first kid, she was working nights doing hospice care while he sat on his ass playing videogames all night and talking to his ex. In 17 years, this fucking loser with 7 kids by 4 women worked a grand total of 5 weeks, quit his job, claimed he got PTSD from the experience, and somehow manipulated his way into getting SSDI for it. They survived off SSDI and her parents' charity for years.
But Jack was reading all of this, because like I mentioned earlier, he was hacking her devices and watching us talk remotely. Jack knew the jig was up, and slowly started to unravel. She told him she wanted a divorce, and that she was not going to sever her friendship with me again. And he pretended to take that well, going as far as to try to befriend and manipulate me. He tried every trick to keep her he'd done for years - telling her he was going to get help and would change first, then when that failed he made suicide threats and somehow got his therapist to call her and tell her as long as she didn't leave him he wouldn't kill himself, and then he tried to intimidate her. Eventually he went off the rails completely and sexually assaulted her when he thought she was sleeping.
She called me from her parents' house crying the night it happened, and I convinced her to file a police report. She did, and a couple weeks later Jack got removed from the home, served with a protective order, and charged for sexual abuse. This of course did nothing to stop Jack - he broke into their house a couple days later when she and the kids were out to upload a folder of revenge porn to his Google Drive under the guise of wanting to drop off a cake for her birthday.
Then the stalking started. Jack would relentlessly message her all day and night on Facebook, switching between rage, trying to garner sympathy, convince her he would change, and threatening self-harm. We later found out via a cyber forensics report that he was hacking into the laptop she had taken with her while she hid at her parents' and had been so bold as to steal her Victim Impact Statement and send it to all his World of Warcraft buddies as a joke.
And he didn't just stalk her, he came for me too. Constant unauthorized attempts to access my accounts for everything from Windows to my bank, spam calls and emails - shit, the wormy little fuck even got his friends to stalk my social media and pretend to be strangers to gaslight me. I ignored all of it, and he got desperate enough to send me a lovely message attempting to extort and blackmail she and I, claiming he had "all my posts" but wouldn't do anything with them if I called him. The tipping point for me is when he subscribed to my small YouTube channel - which had nothing on it but 3 videos of my daughter. That veiled threat wasn't lost on me.
But Jack fucked up. I don't know if he thought his insane nonsense would scare me off, or if in his delusions he really thought he was the bad mother fucker he convinced himself he was, but Jack didn't know jack about me. I'm a crazy fuck too, and while he was sitting on his fat ass playing World of Warcraft all day every day for the past couple decades, I was selling drugs and hanging with some of the grimiest mother fuckers Baltimore had to offer. I've seen and experienced a lot of real violence outside a computer monitor, and the prospect of a violent resolution to this saga didn't phase me a whole lot. I'd spent years trying to be a better person and avoid conflict, but I sure as shit wasn't afraid of it either. Leading up to this point, I was already trying to calm myself down and talk myself off the ledge and not pack my guns and drive out there to keep watch until the police did their thing and put him away, which took a lot longer than it should have - this fucking guy violated his protective order 80 times in just a couple weeks.
So I called him, and he spent the next 26 minutes crying over the phone like a drunk little bitch, while I tried my best to be kind and to talk him off the ledge. And yes, I did record it, and yes it is hysterical listening to it now in hindsight, and yes I still have the recording. Anyway, I told him he was scaring the shit out of her and the kids, and he promised to leave us alone and I told him if he could chill the fuck out I would try to talk her into giving him more access to the kids. The next day, she got an email from her first ex-husband - Jack had reached out to him with a link to my reddit post trying to get help from him to come after me, which he promptly shut down and sent to her.
The next few weeks were terrifying as Jack descended further into madness and became more scared and desperate. He knew she was gone and not coming back, and he was facing real charges and real jail time, and while Jack is a fucking moron in a lot of ways, I'm sure he knew a fat, greasy computer nerd with a sex offense conviction wasn't going to have a good time in County. Jack was a murder-suicide waiting to happen, the police were doing nothing to stop his stalking, and I felt powerless to help her. Eventually after he sent her $50 over PayPal at 4:00am with what appeared to be a suicide note, I had enough. I called the DA's office, asked them why the fuck this was being allowed to happen, and promised them I'd been taking meticulous notes and if anything happened to her I would be taking it straight to the media. The DA told me if I was going to make threats the conversation was over, but sure enough he was finally arrested not long after.
Ironically we had remained platonic friends through most of this, but the shared experience of dealing with this psycho brought us closer together and things quickly changed. We knew he wasn't going to stop when he got out of jail, I felt responsible for her safety after my stupid reddit post started this chain of events that led to Jack's unraveling, and with the world seemingly coming apart during COVID, decided if we were ever going to meet it felt like it was now or never. So I booked a plane ticket across the country, spent a week with her and her family, and a few days after I came home she flew out to visit me and meet my family.
We went into it with no expectations. I fully accepted we might not click and our relationship would go back to being platonic. For my part, I just wanted the closure of finally meeting this person who had such a profound impact on my life before COVID mutated or something and killed us all.
But we did click, and the next two weeks were life-changing. I met and cooked for her entire extended family the day after I arrived, and it went well. While I was there I got her mom's email address, and after I went home I had an idea. I knew her parents had met in DC, so I emailed her mom and asked her for a list of places that were special to her, and she told me about the church her parents had met in. I asked her to keep our conversation secret so it would be a surprise, and she did.
So when she comes out to the east coast, I take her on a tour through DC and park the car a few blocks down the street from the church. As we're walking by, she notices the church and comments on how beautiful it is.
I keep it cool and respond, "Yeah, that's a pretty important place.".
She looks at me and says, "Oh? Why's that?".
"That's where your parents met.".
She audibly gasps, giddily bounces a bit, starts to cry, and we pulled down our masks (fuckin covid) and kiss. Her reaction is easily one of the greatest memories in my life. What I didn't know at the time, was that her parents had told her about that church since she and her siblings were kids. When the church changed denominations, the church took the angel statue off the top and brought it back to her home state, and her parents had taken them to see it a few times throughout her childhood.
Anyway, getting sidetracked here, the sappy love story stuff is a different story altogether.
A month after we met for the first time, I had quit my job, sold everything I couldn't fit in my sedan, and she flew back out and drove across the country with my daughter and I.
Sounds crazy as hell, and it was, but it worked out better than it should have. I got a good job making more than I did back home right away, her kids loved me, and my daughter loved her and adjusted to her new home fast. And by the time Jack got out of jail for felony cyberstalking, sexual abuse, and Intimidation of a Witness in a Domestic Violence case, we had cameras all over the house, and I had taught my fiancee how to shoot - which she quickly became better than me at.
But Jack's time in jail didn't slow him down, and the 2-10 year suspended sentence didn't deter him at all. As a matter of fact, on his first day out one of the first things he did was start trying to hack her accounts again. He managed to con an elderly couple he knew threw World of Warcraft from a different state into letting him live with them, and from there he spent a lot of time and energy stalking us and hacking our devices to the best of his ability. He also convinced these poor, very stupid elderly people from his videogame to bankroll a lengthy, expensive divorce. Somehow a man who hadn't worked in almost 20 years managed to run us into over $50,000 in legal fees in two years. How a marriage with zero assets turned into a two year battle when both parties were officially in poverty before the divorce, or how the family courts never saw through the bullshit is beyond me.
To Jack's credit, he did a pretty good job remaining a thorn in our side. Largely due to the complete and utter ineptitude and indifference of the police and District Attorney who could and should have put a stop to his bullshit at any point in that time. Old Jack got hit with a permanent criminal stalking injunction and a 10-year protective order along with his probation, and no amount of effort on our part would get the police, DA, or probation to put a stop to it, despite mountains of evidence.
He successfully managed to draw the divorce out right up to the wedding we planned a year and a half prior, with his attorney putting in motion after motion to delay the process. With all our family and friends coming from all over the country and as far away as Japan, we accepted our wedding would just be a celebration and not an official wedding. Until the night before the wedding, she got a call from her attorney - he had made a call to the clerk's office at the court and got her to move the paperwork to finalize the divorce to the top of the pile, and she was officially divorced. Our wedding would be a real wedding after all, and despite Jack's best efforts, he lost again. We had the wedding on a remote ranch that we rented for a week, and foolishly decided to cater and decorate ourselves, which would have been a colossal undertaking without the extra 4 hours to drive into town and get our marriage certificate at the courthouse. But we pulled it off and it was everything we could have hoped for and then some, and we were officially married.
Jack of course didn't stop after the divorce was finalized. The list of shit he tried to do to us before and after that is too long to spell out in an already too long post, but here are some choice bits:
He wrote a demented letter to the oldest of his kids with her who severed her relationship with him, calling my wife and her mother "vipers and cowards" and promising we would "answer for what we've done sooner or later".
He continuously hacked our computers, miscellaneous accounts tied to our emails, and any other devices he could get into - dropping in remotely via Amazon Alexa, phones, etc.
He set up bots to send us thousands of spam emails, sign us up for dozens of international newsletters all at once, and requests for consultations for things like solar panel installations.
He told the kids vile lies about my wife and I, although the most egregious was when he used a court-ordered therapy appointment with his second oldest daughter to accuse me of distributing child porn, told the therapist I am an "evil man", and told him I wasn't safe to be around his daughters. This led to her being forensically interviewed by the police, where she spelled out what happened, but of course they did nothing.
He gave the two youngest children cell phones to sneak into our house, with Google accounts activated and location tracking turned on.
He sent packages to our house 5 times in the space of a few months, one of which was addressed to himself and contained nothing but a bag of Stevia and a pack of gum. These packages generally came to our door the day before his scheduled visitation with the kids.
During this time my bank account was hacked four times in the span of just a few months with nearly identical fraudulent charges. In each of these instances, I had completely changed my bank account information.
He filed false reports with CPS twice, alleging we were beating the children, locking them in the closet, and not feeding or bathing them. This led to a CPS agent coming to our house to investigate.
We brought all this to the police over and over as it happened, and they did nothing. The DA running the case wasted 5 months subpoenaing a fake email address that we told them when we reported it was fake and spoofed. After finding out about that, we went to the DA's office to find out what the fuck was going on. A Victim's Advocate met with us, and was horrified about how the case was handled, looked up the prosecutor assigned to the case, rolled her eyes and said "Oh...it's Stephanie", confirming what we already knew - this prosecutor was completely incompetent, an elect3d politician moonlighting as a prosecutor. She called us the next day to tell us the actual DA called a meeting and a warrant was put out for Jack's arrest. For some inexplicable reason, they pulled the warrant back, and the advocate told us it was because the DA was pursuing more serious charges.
Then, they stonewalled us. The Victim's Advocate we had met with that actually tried to help us was moved off our case, and the new one assigned refused to talk to us or return our calls. The few exchanges we had with her, she made it abundantly clear she had the DA Office's interests in mind and not ours. We decided to just stay quiet and let the process play out and hope for the best, up until we received an email on Friday night before Election Day from the Detective telling us Stephanie had closed the case. I assume she didn't want her incompetence coming to light, and didn't want to shut the case down before Election Day knowing we would be on the warpath.
Eventually, Jack caught wind that he was officially under criminal investigation, but clearly had no idea they were never going to press charges. He got quiet for a bit, until he was ultimately let off probation early. We still get the occasional reminder he's out there watching, but his fear of going back to jail and the belief it might happen cowed him a bit. So instead he harasses us through the family courts, filing constant bullshit motions with no evidence to support them, and for some reason the courts let it continue. Somehow a man who makes ~$800 from SSDI and is only paying $30 a month total to support his 3 kids with my wife is able to fund tens of thousands of dollars worth of legal proceedings every year, and no one in the family courts has ever stopped to ask how he is paying for it or why all this money isn't being spent on supporting these children.
But despite Jack's best efforts, his bullshit hasn't worked. My wife and I have been together for four years soon, and married for two. His kids call me dad and hate his guts, only seeing him because the courts force them to. I continue to advance in my career, landing two major promotions in the past 2 years and now running a division in one of the largest companies in my field in this part of the country. I just enrolled in college to go back to school and get a degree in family law with a focus on domestic violence. The most frustrating part of the whole experience with ol' Jack was having no one to turn to when all the institutions who were supposed to keep this from happening ignored us, and even though I'll be well into my mid 40's before I accomplish my new goals, I plan to advocate for domestic violence victims and do everything I can to lobby for change to these laws to keep as many people as I can from going through what my wife and I did. I learned that the only way to beat these people at their game is to play on the same field right along with them, and that's what I intend to do.
My wife went back to work too once she healed from some of the trauma, making $30 an hour as a personal assistant for a fella who's had two movies made about his life. Our kids struggled a bit with school and dealing with all their biological parents' issues, but they quickly turned it around and have been excelling. We're all happy, healthy, and doing better now than ever.
As for Jack? Well, he's pushing 50 and still spending his days alone, playing World of Warcraft and jerking off in this old couple's basement. Nothing has changed there, and now he's too fat, old, and visibly an enormous fucking loser to victimize women in the same way he did in his youth. I have no doubts he'll find another victim eventually, probably when these old weirdos bankrolling his life now finally wise up, but one thing Jack forgets is that karma is a mother fucker, and I have a giant database of evidence that I can and will send out to whoever I please to help pull that mask down and keep him from doing this to someone else. Nothing is more appealing to a potential love interest than hearing their man cry like a drunk bitch for 26 minutes to the man he claims stole his wife, while simultaneously admitting to sexually assaulting said wife.
As wonderful as it would have been for Jack to go to prison where he can't hurt anyone again, there is some catharsis knowing Jack will forever be in a prison of his own making. His children want nothing to do with him, and he'll never see them graduate or walk them down the aisle. Jack will die miserable and alone, and in his narcissistic delusion will still be blaming everyone else for the colossal failure of his life, while continuing to fail to grasp the one thread that ties all his misery together - himself.
And since he somehow manages to find and stalk most of my social media, I'd wager Jack will end up reading this too. I hope he does in all honesty. And Jack, if you are reading this, I want you to know that you can kick, flail, manipulate and lie, cry and complain until you're red in the face. None of it matters. You don't matter. You'll leave this world alone, as sad and bitter as you are now, and the world will be a better place for it.

BRAVO

• 'This Year Almost Broke Me': Tom Schwartz Reveals 'Scandoval' Almost Shut Down His Restaurant After Losing 80% of His Business (Emily Rella for Entrepreneur)
• Vanderpump Rules Cast Relives Their Most Iconic (and 'Cringey') Moments (People exclusive)
• 3 minute video: Lisa Vanderpump On Future Of ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Amid Hiatus (Access Hollywood YouTube)
• Every Delusion in This Season of Vanderpump Rules (Michelle Cohn for Vulture)
• ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Reunion Finally Charts a Path Forward as Lala Doubles Down (Alec Karam for The Daily Beast)
• It’s Time for ‘Vanderpump Rules’ to Say Goodbye for Good (Lexi Lane for The Daily Beast)
• Big Blonde Hair Founder Lauren Sebastian Dishes on the Fashion Hits and Misses of the 'Vanderpump Rules' Season 11 Reunion: Photos (OK! Magazine exclusive)
• Nia and Danny Booko Are Now House-Hunting After They "Outgrew" Their Valley Home (Bravo)
• Carl Radke On Whether He’ll Return For ‘Summer House’ Season 9 Post-Lindsay Hubbard Breakup: “There’s A Lot To Consider” (Samantha Nungesser for Decider)
• Paige DeSorbo Says She Picks Out Her Outfits to Match 'Whatever Cocktail I'm Drinking That Night' (People exclusive)
• Olivia Flowers Celebrates First Anniversary With Boyfriend Alex: "Cheers to Stage 5 Clinging" (Bravo)
• 41 Stars Share Their Go-To Sunscreen: Sofía Vergara, Kyle Richards, Garcelle Beauvais, and More (E! exclusive)
• The Goat’s Reza Farahan Doesn’t Regret Insulting Jill Zarin: ‘She Is a Little Bit of a Bitch’ (US Weekly)
• Anya Taylor-Joy Talks First Leading Role in 'Furiosa,' Eloping With Malcolm McRae & New 'Housewives' Obsession (Just Jared)

NEW JERSEY

• Teresa Giudice barks back at Margaret Josephs’ claim that Luis Ruelas ‘pissed her money away’ (Page Six)
• Teresa Giudice calls Tori Spelling her 'instant BFF' after appearing on her MisSpelling podcast to promote the new season of RHONJ (Daily Mail)

ORANGE COUNTY

• RHOC’s Tamra Judge Slams Ryan Boyajian’s Alleged Connection to Shohei Ohtani Gambling Scandal (US Weekly)
• Shannon Storms Beador's Daughter Sophie Is Officially a College Graduate (Bravo)
• Former Real Housewives of Orange County star Kelly Dodd congratulates husband Rick Leventhal on his new job at Newsmax - three years after he left Fox News (Daily Mail)

NEW YORK

• Brynn Whitfield Reflects on Her Friendship with Pandora Vanderpump “in a Former Life” (Bravo's Hot Mic podcast)
• Countess Luann: ‘I Deliver a Great Show, It’s a Party With One Big Happy Housewives Family’ (Stellar Magazine)

BEVERLY HILLS

• Kyle Richards Shares Surprising Reaction to Mauricio Umansky Moving Out of Their House (E!)
• Kyle Richards Reveals Where She Stands With Morgan Wade Amid Rumors They Stopped Talking (Heavy)
• Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Sutton Stracke Isn’t ‘Shocked’ by Dorit and PK Kemsley’s Separation (US Weekly)
• Jennifer Lawrence ‘Gave the Performance of a Lifetime’ Prank Calling Lisa Rinna During ‘Peak COVID’ (US Weekly)

ATLANTA

• Porsha Williams Spills on ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ Return, Divorce Drama, & More (That Grape Juice)
• Porsha Williams' Affordable Home Finds Deliver Real Housewives Glam Starting at Just $7.99 (E!)
• Real Housewives Of Atlanta alum Marlo Hampton, 48, almost busts out of an orange bikini as she poses in a bathtub... after exiting Bravo franchise (Daily Mail)
• Shereé Whitfield Departs Real Housewives of Atlanta Ahead of Season 16 (People)
• Kim Zolciak and Kroy Biermann Rush to Court Pleading for Foreclosure Auction Over Their $6 Million Georgia Mansion Be Postponed (Radar Online exclusive)
• See a Throwback Photo of Kim Zolciak with Brielle & Ariana Biermann: "Incredible" (Bravo)

AFRICAN FRANCHISES

• ‘Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip SA’: Q&A with LaConco (The South African)

Links to this week's episode discussion posts:

• VPR S11E16🍸
• The Valley S1E9 🏘️
• RHONJ S14E2 🍝
• Summer House S8E12 ☀️

Good morning all.
Basically I’m a new fan (since about a year ago), so I didn’t meet other fans growing up on tumblr and everything.
So I’m wondering where do you meet and connect with other swifties? On subreddits like this? TaylorSwift is a lot more to discuss her music than talking to people, and I assume so is this.
But I would really love to have people to chat to about excitement as my date of Eras Tour get closer, someone to show my friendship bracelets to, and discuss new and old releases with.
I’m 27F btw, this is a throwaway acc so don’t let that put you off lol. My Eras date is Dublin night 3 in case anyone has the same!

Lore: One day, a demon with a high rank invaded the mortal world to seduce them from the right path and feed on their negative emotions. This is how he theropodized the world from 1929 to 1939. However, one elderly lady, a member of a secret association of magicians (Hare Potter😦) , challenged him to a “duel”. When they got together, the lady immediately used a powerful spell and, at the cost of her body, “killed” him. The lady herself turned into a strange black creature, later they were called shadowlings. The demon was too strong to die. He split into millions of weak fragments of sins. Most of them became ordinary people due to weakness. However, one of the fragments of Greed was strong enough to revive the original body. He founded a casino with rules:you lose = you give up your soul. You win = you get eternal wealth. Need I say that almost no one could win? With each soul, the shell of fragments returned and merged with the Gentleman.
And at this time, the Lady realized that the spell was also split and hit several people, turning them into shadowlings. She began to look for them all and invite them to live in the Dark Forest, in exchange for shelter and help from her. If they did not agree, the Lady still “convinced” them. The Gentleman himself soon realized that he needed a little help (from boredom). And how lucky he was when one of the Lady’s shadowlings decided to use magic and the Gentleman decided to “play along” with him and came to him, calling himself a god. He offered him "friendship", Shadowling accepted the offer with great pleasure.Now the Gentleman has a spy and a traitor in the ranks of his enemy.Only after a series of terrible deeds did the now “clergyman” realize that this was not a god, but a demon. However, he will not be free from it any time soon...

Firstly, I'd like to state that, as always, I am not trying to police what anyone write. Fanfiction is for the writer first and foremost, so I'm just trying to start a discussion.
I find reaction fics, despite being a fairly odd concept, to be a fun idea, and I enjoy reading them. That said, there is one big complaint I have when it comes to them; bloated casts.
The larger you make your cast, the more reactions you have to write from each character, and the more likely their reactions will blend together. How do you write everyone from Classes 1-A, 1-B, their parents, their teachers, and all of the other pro-heroes while still giving relevance too every character? Whatever the theoretical answer, the practically always results in most characters only get a few lines per chapter. At that point, why not just cut a few characters out?
The problem is amplified when you start to mix heroes and villains together. Why would Shigaraki, Dabi, or Toga care about something horrific they see, when they are serial murderers? They wouldn't, and they would most likely mock the heroes who do care. This mean that the reaction fic either turns into a "Deku and Shigaraki bickering fic", or you have to write the villains OOC.
When you need to have your own ASB/ROB step in and stop the cast from getting out of control and/or fighting each other, it starts to feel unwieldy.
I would suggest looking at whatever media/fic you are using as the subject of reaction, and then limit yourself based on that.
Are you writing a fic where the cast reacts to the series? Consider limiting yourself to just 1-A, 1-B, or the LoV, rather than all three. 1-A gets the opportunity to reflect on what has happened to them, whilst also getting forewarning about what may happen in the future. 1-B gets to see that their "rivals" actually lead pretty terrifying lives, and maybe they should tone down the interclass rivalry rhetoric. The LoV also gets the chance to reflect, but in a different way. All of the potential dynamics are heavily muted when the three are combined into one.
For that matter, going even smaller than Class 1-A might be a good idea. Writing, say, just Deku, his immediate group of friends, and, possibly, Bakugou, would allow you to focus much more intimately on each character. You would lose width, yes, but you might gain depth.
To give an example of what I mean, one of the best reaction fics I have ever read is a RWBY fic titled Describing The Series Via References. In the fic, Team RWBY receives a mysterious device which informs them that, in another universe, there is a show that, by sheer cosmic coincidence, happens to line up exactly with the major events of their lives, including their futures.
They are then given the ability to use this device to learn about the future, with a single caveat: the only thing they have access to is the memes within the FNDM. They can see what volume the memes come from, but they have no other context for them, resulting in Team RWBY having to attempt to avert disaster by figuring out what the memes mean.
One interesting element of the story is the culture clash. Team RWBY don't get all of the references made, because most of the outside media referenced simply does not exist in their world. They hear the name "Zootopia", and assume from the name that it is a bigoted film about faunus. They hear the word "furry", and are horrified, because that word is a grievous anti-faunus slur in their world. There is a meme that calls Ren a "Genji main", but Team RWBY have no idea what that means, because Overwatch doesn't exist in their world.
None of these references are explained to them, either. They have to figure things out on their own, and sometimes they just have to accept that they aren't going to understand a reference. Furthermore, they don't just idle with this information, they whatever they can figure out in order to stop bad things from happening in the future.
Eventually, another character, Penny, joins them after they discover memes that expose her biggest secret early, which results in them having an earlier and deeper friendship with her. At the end of the day, however, the fic limits itself to five primary characters, and it benefits immensely from that.
That's about all I had to say. Again, write what you want, I was just curious to see what others thought of this.
Also, sorry if this post is written badly, I just got out of bed in the middle of the night and decided to type this up.
EDIT: Fixed a few spelling mistake, though there are probably many more. Again, just woke up.

I’d like to begin this invitation of advice or experiences by stating that what I want in life is a partner who feels like home, will always give me their genuine effort, & will love me through all of the highs, mediums, & lows of life.
I specifically want to know about any advice or things I should consider when it comes to the age gap I have with the man I’m seriously considering making a staple & serious part of my life. I (29f) met (40m) 3 years ago & we have been seeing each other for a little over a year. We met at the public school in which we both work- he’s the social worker, I’m a teacher. When I first saw him, he looked like a meat head (he’s pretty muscular, bald, beard, wears hoodies) & I’ve always been into nerds so it never occurred to me that I’d end up attracted to him. The first year we knew each other, it was very surface level, & then, during the second year of my time at the school, I got to know him better, as I did a few coworkers I now consider close friends. This second year of friendship was also a tough period for me as I was going through a divorce from with a man who wasn’t on the same life path as me & kind of made me dislike myself just for being me (wanting kids, needing to be intrinsically motivated in my career rather than financially motivated)- basically he was type A & I am B. I was absolutely enamored with him in my twenties & was crushed that it didn’t work- I spent a lot of time trying to change myself to accommodate his desires.
Anyhow, as I was processing my divorce & creating friendships, I got to know M(40) better both at work & at hang outs with friends outside of work. I watched how the kids at school just flocked to him & how kind he was with everybody. He coached the basketball team, did an after school program with the SRO to help at risk kids, & often stepped in to help others with tasks that weren’t related to his job as social worker. & he always did it with a positive attitude & good sense of humor. People just LIKE him, you know? It became obvious that he was just a really good person. One day, we had a discussion about kids & how we both wanted them. He told me I’d be a great mother because of how I treat the students & I told him he’d also be a wonderful parent. & he cast his spell on me & I slowly started falling for him. I couldn’t quite figure it out. Here I was, recently divorced from a relationship that had a tremendous affect on me mentally/emotionally, & I was gaining feelings for a man who was very different from my ex, & 11 years older than me. Was I just looking for a distraction? Was I using him to boost my confidence up after it had spent so much time at all time low? Or was I simply recognizing that this man had all of the features that I’d been missing in my past relationship & maybe I should pay attention to that? I was worried that my judgement post- divorce couldn’t possibly be clear, so I expressed that I had feelings for him but had to take things very slow. I was a bit of a mess as I tried to take the initial steps to get closer to him. I’d get emotional & have somewhat of a panic attack, or I’d go through some wishy washy phases when it came to wanting to see him in general. No matter what it was, he said that he understood, he wasn’t going anywhere, & that he just wanted me to be ok. He’d always ask what he could do to help & what I needed from him to feel better. If we were kissing & he felt that I wasn’t comfortable, he’d stop. One time he could tell that I wasn’t feeling great & he cried because he thought he’d made me feel bad. Needless to say, he was always there for me & ACTUALLY cared about how I felt. As we got closer, he was always respectful, would leave me flowers on random or special occasions (like when I was in an art show that he attended, or the first day of a new semester at work), wanted to make things like holidays memorable for me (one time I specifically thought was sweet was when he decorated my place with a Christmas tree & lights because “it’s your first Christmas in your new apartment, it should be festive!”). I consistently got solid evidence that he was emotionally mature, ready for a relationship, & wanted the same things as me.
So, I thought, “why is this sweet, courteous, kind, responsible, funny man single?” I’d heard some woman at work “pick” at him about this & say “I just don’t get how you’re single!” & I honestly wondered myself. You always heard that it’s a ref flag if a man dates a woman over 10 years younger & that it’s because “women his age didn’t want him”. Well, there are a few rational explanations I could think of: 1. He’d been sexually abused by his stepsister for years as a child. He’d told me that he’d had a few relationships during his 20s & 30s, but they didn’t last long & he’d had some issues with women not dealing with his anxiety around sex well. With me, this was not an issue, really. We’d taken the physical really slow, & when one of us felt anxiety as things heated up, the other stopped & supported. After a few months, it became a non-issue & we were able to have great sex with no fear that one of us would get anxious. I think us being so patient & supportive in those initial tough moments & making it clear that we were just as happy to show non-sexual affection helped bond us a ton. 2. When he was younger (childhood-20s) he was overweight. He began balding in his 20s & so he shaved his head. Maybe there weren’t a lot of women who wanted to be with the overweight, bald guy? Women can be just as shallow as men.
So, I began to try to look for any signs that maybe this man is “grooming” me or something. I looked for issues as well as green lights. How’s his family? His brother is happily married with children & he is close with his family, seeing them weekly. What are his friends like? I enjoy his friends. They’re nice, fun people & his best friends are in happy marriages. Does he manipulate you? No, he treats me like a princess (I’m not used to it) & tries to establish healthy relationship patterns (he always insists on a weekly date night, suggests activities together, such as me weight lifting with him & him running with me). He also hypes me up like no other- If I’m wearing a risky outfit that I love but know my mom would insult, BAM he is the first one to compliment it as his jaw drops to the floor. Always telling me how strong, sweet, & cool I am. Made me take his gloves when we went on a snowy hike & I’d forgotten mine. Just basically an endless stream of courtesy. Sometimes I worry if he’s just being really sweet to me because he wants to keep me- he’s said he’s trying to be less of a “people pleaser”- but he has always been consistently kind to me in a genuine manner.
I have gotten a lot of evidence that this is a solid person with whom I could build a beautiful relationship & family with. Everything he’s shown me has been positive as far as communication, morals, empathy, kindness & life plans is concerned.
So… is the 11 year age gap a concern? Should I be more paranoid about why he is still single, or are my theories valid? Although he goes to the gym daily & is like a kid at heart, should I worry about his age when it comes to us potentially raising kids? He’d likely be 43-45 by the time I was ready for that.
If anyone has any experience with being the victim of or being a partner to the victim of someone who went through sexual abuse as a child, please give any thoughts of how that might have affected someone when it comes to dating.
If you have any thoughts, please let me know. Truthfully, I do have other potential options if I pursued them & I’m not afraid of being alone, but I’m feeling that I’d like to commit to a relationship.

Cover Art!
Just because you’re transported to another world, doesn’t mean you’ll escape from your pain.
Abused by her parents, thirteen-year-old Frances only wants to be safe and for her life not to hurt so much. And when she and her class are transported to the magical world of Durannon to fight the monsters invading the human kingdoms and defeat the self-titled Demon King, Frances is presented with a golden opportunity. If she succeeds, Frances will have the home she never had. If she fails, Frances will be summoned back to the home she escaped.
Yet, despite her newfound magic and friends, Frances finds that trauma is not so easily lost. She is dogged by her abuse and its physical and invisible scars. Not only does she have to learn magic, she has to survive the nightmares of her past, and wrestle with her feelings of doubt and self-loathing.
If she can heal from her trauma, though, she might be able to defeat the Demon King and maybe, just maybe, she can find a home for herself.
[The Beginning] [<=Chapter 216] [Chapter Index and Blurb] [Chapter 218 May 28 or see the next chapter now on Patreon]
The Fractured Song Index
Discord Channel Just let me know when you arrive in the server that you’re a Patreon so you can access your special channel.
Frances and company catch up before the final battle.
***
“Hold on. How would he win this battle if we outnumber him and surround him?” Ginger asked.
“He could target our leadership. Focus on killing Titania, Antigones, you and Martin,” said Ayax.
“Only, he’d have to kill Sebastian and Megara, as well as Edana and you too, Frances, along with a whole list of targets. I’m not sure how he could pull that off,” said Elizabeth.
Ayax grimaced, brow furrowed, but Frances knew the answer to that question.
“Thorgoth doesn’t need to find half the targets he’s after. Myself, mom, Titania, our strongest mages and the rest of the people that will be on his list have leadership positions. Like it or not we’ll be involved in the battle and he just needs to find us on the battlefield. A well-placed spell and he’d snuff any non-magic person out,” Frances said.
“So what do we do then?” Martin asked.
Frances’ heart was pounding, for she knew the answer, but was afraid to give it life. Yet what could she do but tell what she knew was the truth?
“Take the battle to him. Thorgoth will have to operate by himself with maybe just his Royal Guards. We need to hold him and his escort and defeat him before he hurts everybody else.”
“So, all the Otherworlders, our best mages?” Ayax asked.
“Not all of them. But my mother and I, Jessica and Leila, Dwynalina and Jim and Nicole, with a few Otherworlders holding off his guards,” said Frances.
Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Ayax and I can go after Queen Berengaria. I can’t imagine her going far from her husband.”
“This is assuming we can at least split the attention of the dragons and keep them occupied of course,” said Martin. He touched Ginger’s elbow. “Not that I don’t trust you dear.”
“Oh I know, but it is a consideration.” She swirled the wine in her cup. “That means Martin and I will be directing the battle with Sebastian and Alexander.”
“It’s likely you’ll be the overall commander with Martin. Alexander and Sebastian would then take charge of their own contingents,” said Elizabeth. She bit her lip. “Do you feel up for it?”
Ginger shrugged. “I mean, we have to—”
Elizabeth reached out to pat her friend’s shoulder. “Martin, Ginger, you know we have every faith in both of you, but if you need help, there is no shame in asking for it.”
“Besides I think we’re all scared. I know I am,” Ayax said with a smile. Even so, they could all see how her tail looked like it was trying to twist itself into knots. Frances figured her cousin wasn’t trying to hide her fear, just trying not to alarm or panic them.
Martin sighed. “I think that’s the problem, Liz. Duty compels us. Love binds us. So I know no matter what happens, I know we’ll stand together to face him. Still, we are afraid and while I know I won’t run, I worry that fear may cloud my judgment at a crucial moment.”
Ginger wiped her eyes, but her tears now flowed freely down her cheeks. “How do I know I won’t panic, and make a bad call? How do we know we are all coming back? We can’t. I…I guess we have to accept that, but I don’t want to lose you. Any of you.”
Drawing her friend into a tight hug, Elizabeth gently patted Ginger’s back. “I don’t either. I suppose that for me, I’ve always looked to my faith in God, and in you all. Have we not triumphed in all we’ve faced?””
Frances found herself nodding, her throat unclenching and the tight nervousness in her shoulders and neck fading. What remained was a faint feeling of lightness that lifted her chin.
“You’re right. We should believe in ourselves, and hope. Hope for a future when we win this war. Hope that our good will triumph over Thorgoth’s evil. Hope that in a few days, we’ll be home with our family, and our friends.”
Martin gave Frances a wondering look. “How are you able to hope that?”
Frances smiled. “I think that I have always been good at having hope. I didn’t realize it until now, but even in my darkest moments, I always hoped that I would find a place where I could be me.”
Ayax stood up, raising her glass. “To faith, friendship and hope. May it see us all through our final trial.”
Rising to their feet, the five touched glasses and drank deep. They all were smiling. The pain and fear in their hearts soothed by the hope they held and the determination to see each other once again.
***
“Frances, can I walk with you?”
Frances would never have said no to her best friend, and she could tell that past Elizabeth’s bright smile, her friend was worried. There were just too many small signs learnt from years of friendship. She was scratching behind her ear, and her eyes were narrowed just slightly from the tension in her face.
“Of course,” said Frances, falling in beside the tall Otherworlder. “How are you and Ayax?”
Elizabeth giggled. “We’re great! Fantastic even. She and I are even talking about what we might do after the war. We have so many plans and well, I kind of wanted to talk to you about that.”
Frances waited as Elizabeth continued to walk beside her, lips pursed.
“I know that after the war, I’m choosing to stay here with Ayax, with all of you. I just…” her voice trailed off, and her walk slowed to a crawl.
Taking a slight breath, Frances touched her friend’s hand. “Liz, you know it’s okay for you to doubt that.”
Elizabeth stopped and shook her head. “Oh no, I don’t have any doubts about my decision. At the very least, I’m past the point where my doubts aren’t going to change my decision. I know I’ve changed too much in the past seven years. I’ve come to terms with my sexuality. I’ve fallen head over heels in love with a woman who loves me just as much. I’ve commanded armies, led soldiers into battle and helped to make decisions affecting hundreds of thousands of people. I can’t go back pretending I’m Grade 8 and neither do I want to.” She squeezed Frances’s hand. “My decision is the right one. I know it in my heart and I’ve prayed about it. I can do a lot of good here and me going back? That won’t just hurt the people I love here, but it’ll hurt me and my family at home. I can’t hide who I’ve become and I’m proud of what I’ve grown into.”
Frances closely studied her friend knowing Elizabeth wouldn’t mind her staring.
“So what are you feeling, Liz?”
Closing her eyes, Elizabeth sniffled. “Guilt. It’s stupid. I know I’m making the right choice. I’m sure in my heart that God is encouraging me to make this choice, but I still feel guilty.”
“How could you not? You know your family loves you.”
“And I’m abandoning them. I know I’m doing the right thing but I still feel like I’m doing something wrong,” said the Otherworlder.
Frances hugged her best friend, squeezing her tight, hoping that her warmth and touch could comfort the woman who she’d trusted as much as her own mother.
“Liz, if they are everything you told me, they’re going to be alright. Have faith in them, like your faith in me and your friends.”
Elizabeth let out a sigh, but returned the hug. “Thank you, Frances. If…if the worst comes and you are sent back without me, go to them. Tell them I love them.”
Tears in her eyes, Frances nodded. “I promise. If you are sent back, I will take care of Ayax.”
Elizabeth let out a gurgly hiccup. “Thank you. I know you will.”
***
The historic coronation of King Martin and Queen Ginger would found what would be known as the Congrey dynasty. Con for Conthwaite and Grey for King Jerome’s dynasty.
It was an unusual coronation as King Martin and Queen Ginger were long-betrothed but not married. Yet King Jerome and Queen Forowena’s wills had been clear. Apart from that, the coronation involved as many of Eridale's traditions as possible in light of the circumstances.
Down the parade route attended by all those that could be mustered, King and Queen marched in at the head of an honor guard composed of their closest companions. These included Frances, Elizabeth, and Ayax, who held three poles of a crimson banner that hung over the pair. The fourth corner was held by Martin’s sister Mara, who wore a slightly undignified grin. Yet, nobody could really blame her.
Martin wore a black-white checkered tunic with red-gold trimmings and shoulder epaulets. His trousers were dark gray with again red-gold tassels. Ginger did wear a dress. It was of a dark maroon with silver lacing. A bejeweled gorget studded with emeralds hung from her neck and her ears sparkled with dark blue sapphires.
There was one minor alteration. As the procession marched up to the entrance of the old Goblin Empire palace, on a raised wooden dais dressed with elaborately embroidered carpets stood the attending dignitaries. They included all the other Erisdalian lords and ladies such as Viscountess Katia and Lord Tarquin, dressed in all the finery they could muster. Other notables such as Prince Timur, representing the Kingdom of Alavaria, Grandmaster Edana of the White Order and Alexander and Eloise of Erlenberg stood proudly side by side.
Towards the center of the dais were three figures. King Sebastian and Queen-Consort Megara, and the former Queen Janize. Sebastian and Megara were standing, holding Queen Forowena’s crown, whilst the heavily pregnant Janize sat, holding King Jerome’s crown. Thorgoth may have taken their decorated helmets, but he did not have their ceremonial attire.
Martin and Ginger stepped out from under the awning, giving their bearers a brief nod, before taking the last steps up the dais.
Whistling a spell, Megara touched her throat with her wand. “Who stands before the crowns?”
Martin knelt to one knee. The bearers of the awning followed. “Sir Martin of Conthwaite. A Knight of Erisdale.”
Ginger curtsied low. Frances nearly split her lips as she grinned at her friend’s perfect form. “Ginger. Just Ginger of Erisdale.”
Janize’s expression was unreadable as she rose to her feet. There was a slight archness to her features, and yet that could just be how she lifted her haughty cheeks.
“As witnessed by all, and by the King and Queen of Lapanteria, do you swear to defend Erisdale with all means at your disposal including force of arms?”
“We do.”
“Do you swear to uphold the laws of the land and the rights of Erisdale’s citizens?”
“We do!”
“Do you swear that until your dying breaths, to govern and reign over Erisdale not for your benefit, but for the benefit of the people and for their future generations?”
From her kneeling position, Frances frowned. That wasn’t quite the right oath. The wording was “Do you swear to govern over Erisdale wisely and justly?” She supposed that she might have missed it, or maybe there was a variation.
Yet as she noted her fiance’s face, she noticed his eyes were wide and her mother’s eyebrow was arched.
Not skipping a beat, Martin and Ginger bellowed. “We do!”
“Do you swear that you will do your utmost not to make the same mistakes as your predecessors and do whatever it takes to preserve Erisdale’s peace, even if it may cost you your lives?”
Frances blinked. Janize had gone completely off script. There was no fourth oath.
However, Martin and Ginger only hesitated for a moment as they exchanged a glance and looked up to meet Janize’s gaze.
The blonde woman’s eyes were bright and the hands holding Jerome’s crown were trembling ever so slightly. Frances had wondered why she’d insisted on doing this. Martin and Ginger had wanted to approach her to ask if she was willing, but the enigmatic former queen had surprised them by demanding they allow her to crown them. She now had an idea as to why.
“We do,” said Martin, smiling.
Ginger returned that smile. Blinking back her own tears, she took a breath. “In the name of Queen-consort Forowena and your brother, King Jerome. We solemnly swear.”
Janize closed her eyes, a single tear running down her cheek.
“Then as the last heiress of House Grey, I pass the crown of Erisdale on forever. Long live the Congrey dynasty. Long live Martin the Hero of Erisdale and his queen to be Ginger, whom I dub Erisdale’s Burning Heart.”
Lifting Jerome’s crown high, she set it onto Martin’s head. Swiftly taking Queen Forowena’s crown from Sebastian, she set it on Ginger’s head.
“Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger!” Janize bellowed as Martin and Ginger rose to their feet.
The crowd chanted back, their voices filling the great cavern. “Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger! Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger!” Frances could barely hear her own voice over the crescendo. The call that they all raised. Like the sound carried up into the void, she could feel herself be carried up. It was like she was floating on the power of their united song.
Turning around, Martin and Ginger smiled at Frances. Their eyes were wide, and she could see them clasp each other’s hands tightly.
Frances found herself standing on her feet, the pole to her awning in her hand. Without a second thought, she stabbed the pole’s spike into the ground. As her hand dropped to Alanna, she paused for a moment before her mind caught up with her body, and she nodded as if to herself.
Drawing the estoc, Frances raised her blade high, saluting her two friends.
“Long may they reign! Long may they reign!”
Elizabeth was right behind her, hammer raised high. Ayax followed suit with her staff and Mara and the rest were soon drawing their weapons. From the corner of her eye, Frances even spotted Morgan and Hattie raising their wand and staff.
“Long may they reign! Long may they reign!”
***
Helias glanced over his shoulder toward the accursed city. Despite the distance, there was a tremble in the air of Kairoun-Aoun itself.
“Helias?” Sara asked.
“Sounds like they crowned Martin and Ginger. They’re going to attack soon,” he said.
Sara nodded, her tense jaw the only sign of the worry that had seized the harpy-orc. As gently as he could manage with his rough, scarred hands, he wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Sara. We’re going to be fine.”
“You’re lying,” she said with eyes fixed forward.
The general couldn’t help but wince. “Sorry.”
Slowing in her stride, Sara placed a hand over Helias’s. “I still appreciate you trying to comfort me but I would prefer you to tell me the truth. How bad is it?”
Helias looked around. “Thorgoth may pull off a miracle and get himself and Berengaria out. However, a lot of Alavari are going to die.”
“What are you going to do?” Sara asked.
“I’ll have to attend this meeting and see what Thorgoth is planning. We’ll make a plan after that.”
“You and I know it’s not going to change anything,” Sara said, looking up at her husband, who could not meet her gaze. Yet, she didn’t push him away. Instead put her hand around his waist, drawing him closer.
“I know, but I want to be sure,” said Helias in a low tone.
“I understand. See you soon,” said Sara.
***
Helias found himself exchanging side-long glances with Glowron. The pair sat, both leaning forward toward King Thorgoth and a pacing Queen Berengaria, who’d finished explaining tomorrow’s strategy.
“Do you have anything else to add, my good generals?” Thorgoth asked. The king still smiled easily as he swirled a cup of wine in his hands.
Glowron shook his head. His tone was short but he kept this expression neutral. “No sire.”
The goblin general was Helias’s superior in rank and social class. The fact of the matter was that if Glowron had no objections, then there was no way the tauroll could object.
And still, Helias felt bile rise in the back of his throat. He froze, ever so briefly. Closing his eyes, he shook his head. Nothing mattered, except for Sara and Gwendilia.
“No sir. I’ll have my troops ready for tomorrow.”
That should have been that. They would have been dismissed to prepare for tomorrow’s suicide mission, but the king’s whims had other plans.
King Thorgoth put his cup down and leaned forward. “Oh come on my good generals. Surely you have something to improve on this plan.”
Glowron’s expression remained blank, whilst Helias smiled. “Your Majesty, you were the one who taught me everything I know. I can think of nothing I can add to your strategy.”
Queen Berengaria strode toward him. “You’re usually so talkative, Helias. Are you sure you have no other thoughts?”
“I beg your apologies, but I do not have any further additions to your plan, Your Majesty. My lord Glowron?” Helias asked.
“I do not either, my liege—” Glowron fell silent and Helias’s tail stiffened.
Thorgoth and Berengaria were no longer smiling and with a few more steps, the harpy queen had put herself behind the two generals.
“Let me be plain, we are now not asking you about how to improve the plan. We are asking for your thoughts. Give them.”
The Demon King’s remaining dark eye was narrowed. The other was now covered with a black silk eyepatch, the remains of the scar that Queen Forowen had given him, a discoloration scouring a line along the side of his face and right over his ear. In spite of the king’s injury, Helias felt nothing but cold dread dry his mouth.
“Your Majesty, my only thought is that we have no option but to follow your plan. No matter how we got into this situation, the only thing we can do is go forward and try to win this day,” Glowron said.
“And do you blame me, Glowron?”
Helias watched, eyes wide as somehow the much smaller goblin general continued to meet the king’s eyes. “I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t assign some responsibility to you at all, but I believe we ought to have thought of the possibility of such a trap. So the responsibility is mine as well.”
Thorgoth nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, Helias saw the slightest of nods that Berengaria gave to her husband. Alarm shooting his gaze back toward the Demon King, Helias found the full attention of his sovereign and sometimes uncle directed right at him.
“And you, General Helias?”
Lie and he might not be able to make it convincing enough. Tell the truth about what he thought about this war and he was never seeing Sara and Gwendilia again. Thorgoth hadn’t just been hurt, his pride had been wounded and he was now backed into a corner. It would be unwise to anger him, but what to say? What could he say?
All he could think of, and see was his child and her adoring gaze. All he could feel was the touch of Sara’s hand against his. They’d become closer than he could have imagined and were more than just companions with mutual goals now.
If he was to die, then maybe he could tell this truth.
“I am mostly thinking of my wife and my child, my king. The coming battle has me greatly concerned with how dangerous it shall be.”
Thorgoth narrowed his eyes at Helias for a brief moment. The tauroll, staying very still, waited for the presumed reaction by Berengaria.
Whatever Berengaria did made Thorgoth arch an eyebrow.
“I thought you didn’t consider your wife to be worth much,” said the king in a mild tone.
His mind racing, Helias ran with the idea. “She has responded well to the constraints and discipline I’ve enforced on her. She does nothing but facilitate all my needs and has served me well.”
He could feel Berengaria’s eyes narrow, but Thorgoth was already leaning back onto his chair. “Good for you. You are dismissed.”
“Thank you, sire,” said Helias, almost unable to hide his sigh of relief.
***
Author’s Note: While I wish I could have spent more quality time with Martin, Elizabeth, Ginger and Ayax, I do love the best-friend/team that I created for Frances. This chapter and the last was my little way of giving each of them a bit of time with Frances before the final battle.

My best friend was in love with me the entirety of our relationship I think. I moved in with my cousin (f26) and her friends both male 28 when I(f) was 23. It was the most fun loving, kind group of people I’d known to that point. Going home at the end of the day really felt like going home more than I’d ever felt.
I especially connected with J and I often thought to myself over the 2 years of living together that I could die happily in a nursing home laughing about life with him.
We’d all go out a lot to the bars and it would always be a super fun night. But a couple of times, J would come onto me afterwards, and I didn’t want that so I would push him away and tell him no. And I would explain afterward that I loved him as a friend.. my best friend, which pales in comparison to hear as a response, but I sincerely meant it and he seemed to accept it well.
3 years later, I moved away and J and I stayed in regular contact over the phone/text. From my vantage, I was so happy my best friend and I had worked through our feelings and could stay in close contact.. and that wasn’t the case..
Eventually he disclosed that he was in love with me and we had a final conversation where I explained that I was not attracted to him… I loved him as my best friend and that wasn’t enough for him.
How could I be so completely in love with someone that I regularly thought, “I could die happy with this person”, and yet the idea of intimacy was repulsive?
I still don’t have an answer. We met up after 7 years this winter and the same scenario unfortunately played out..
At this point in my life, I suppose I live healthily in the belief that sexual compatibility and friendship will combine into one romantic love, but if this relationship spells one thing out way too clearly for me, it’s that on some level, you really don’t choose who you love.

Hello everyone. I've been on this site for a long time and have come to realize that not everyone here is genuine, and not everyone is actually interested in making friends. I've seen groups of people who are here for quick entertainment and, once satisfied, discard you like a used tissue. I've also seen many people here just for NSFW entertainment, as shallow as a pond, with no substance or intelligence.
I'm here seeking that unique, rare individual who is genuinely interested in talking, someone bright, entertaining, and able to hold a conversation. There are those who are here for friendship, but they are unable to communicate. I apologize if this seems rude, but in order to have communication, you need someone who can actually communicate.
I have a variety of interests and hobbies, like everyone else: music, television, reading, and going on excursions outside. Some of my deeper interests include discussing politics without getting upset, as long as fingers aren't pointed. For example, I lean towards the Republican side. I don't agree with everything they say, but it's my belief system.
I'm a Christian and agree with Christian principles, but I am open to talking to others with different beliefs. I can discuss Dungeons and Dragons all day—strategies for victory, spells, combat tactics, and social interactions. I also enjoy the multiplayer tabletop role-playing game known as Traveler. I've played video games my entire life and know plots and stories from Metal Gear Solid, the relationship dynamics of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, the fun dialogue from Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell series, as well as discussing fighting games, first-person shooters, and role-playing games like Final Fantasy, The Witcher, Dragon Quest, and many more.
If you want a genuine friend, feel free to reach out.

Hello everyone. I've been on this site for a long time and have come to realize that not everyone here is genuine, and not everyone is actually interested in making friends. I've seen groups of people who are here for quick entertainment and, once satisfied, discard you like a used tissue. I've also seen many people here just for NSFW entertainment, as shallow as a pond, with no substance or intelligence.
I'm here seeking that unique, rare individual who is genuinely interested in talking, someone bright, entertaining, and able to hold a conversation. There are those who are here for friendship, but they are unable to communicate. I apologize if this seems rude, but in order to have communication, you need someone who can actually communicate.
I have a variety of interests and hobbies, like everyone else: music, television, reading, and going on excursions outside. Some of my deeper interests include discussing politics without getting upset, as long as fingers aren't pointed. For example, I lean towards the Republican side. I don't agree with everything they say, but it's my belief system.
I'm a Christian and agree with Christian principles, but I am open to talking to others with different beliefs. I can discuss Dungeons and Dragons all day—strategies for victory, spells, combat tactics, and social interactions. I also enjoy the multiplayer tabletop role-playing game known as Traveler. I've played video games my entire life and know plots and stories from Metal Gear Solid, the relationship dynamics of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, the fun dialogue from Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell series, as well as discussing fighting games, first-person shooters, and role-playing games like Final Fantasy, The Witcher, Dragon Quest, and many more.
If you want a genuine friend, feel free to reach out.

TLDR: it’s obvious that my friends boyfriend is hitting on me. She knows he makes me uncomfortable but is still dating him. Is it really all a joke and am I overreacting? Do I continue our friendship or not?
My best friend has been dating this guy for about 5/6 months and I’ve only met him a couple of times. There’s a few things he’s done that’s made me question his behaviour and I’m just trying to decipher if I’m overthinking things or if his behaviour is strange to anyone else.
Examples: A few months after they started going out, he followed me on instagram (my insta was public at the time and I couldn’t really have him unfollow me unless I blocked him and that also felt weird so I just left it). I hadn’t even met him in person at this point, never even had a conversation with the guy. I just found that quite odd. I told my friend about it but she didn’t seem to find it as strange as I did. I let it go because I thought maybe they talked about it beforehand.
The first time he met me in person, he asked me a few times if I had a man myself and what kind of relationship I’m looking for at this stage in my life. It felt really personal for a first meeting and I was a little spooked by how many times he brought up that same question in one night. But I tried to rationalise thinking maybe he wants to set me up with one of his mates or something. And again, my friend was present while this was happening and encouraged me to respond so I just didn’t know if I was overreacting.
This one is weird and his excuse does not seem believable to me. I got a dm from him on insta and it was a nude. He apologised when I replied with ‘wtf is wrong with you’ but his explanation seemed very odd to me. He said he was meant to send it to my friend but it’s just such a weak excuse to me. Like I know it happens, sometimes you send the wrong thing to the wrong person and it’s a complete accident. But why is he sending his gf nudes on dms when at this stage of dating it would normally be over messages? I told her about it and she wasn’t phased because she believed that it was an accident. I feel like I’m overreacting from how little it seems to bother her.
There is one more incident and it just really made me wonder why my friend is still with him. He, out loud in front of other people, said I was ‘bangable’. As you can imagine, after hearing that I told my friend he makes me uncomfortable and I don’t want to be around him anymore. I even said to her, if she had an ounce of self-respect she’d be dumping him now. But she is adamant he was just ‘joking around.’ I am so confused. Like what does this man have that’s making her stay because it’s certainly not his loyalty.
It’s not that I’m doubting he’s hitting on me and he wants something from me. It’s more that I’m so confused by my friend who doesn’t seem to care about what’s happening right in front of her eyes. And even more, she knows how uncomfortable he makes me and continues to keep a relationship with him. I did block him on Insta and private-ed my account after that.
Would you agree that it’s all a joke? Do I keep the friendship despite her staying with that guy? But then I feel like ending a friendship over a guy is also not good. Like I’m genuinely just so baffled by this. And they’re both so nonchalant about it that I feel like I’m crazy for even thinking it’s odd. What should I do?
I’m really struggling trying to find the words to describe how fucking weird this whole thing has been for me that I feel like anyone reading this probably thinks I’m illiterate but I swear it’s so hard to convey what’s going on in my head. If you want some clarification just let me know because I don’t blame you if you have questions. (There’s defo grammaspelling mistakes but it’s midnight so apologies but I’m sleep deprived).