This town is a hotspot. (post deleted by the time I got to it)
https://www.reddit.com/Paranormal/comments/1d2szgj/what_to_do_when_nothing_else_works_help/
What to do when nothing else works? (Help)May 28th 2024, 20:03, by whiskeyhurricanes5
Hi all, this is my first post here so I hope I'm doing it correct and forgive me for the length.
First, I want to establish some things.
1) we've lived in this home for 20 years, we're the first owners in what was a new development at the time.
2) were religious and it's been blessed+mass had several times (prayers, holy water, crosses, holy medals, the whole religious nine yards)
3) during some renovation years ago we found scorched earth over a large location and realize at one point a fire was had on the land
4) recently a friend who's also a historian was able to bring some information to light about the land we're on and the fact that it was actually part of a war happening between several different native tribes over 2 specific things that are on/close to this area and that this area of land was likely burial ground due to the available history about the war that happened
5) I'm a very science and fact based person. Although I've grown up religious, I find myself to be someone who is evidence and science based and I believe strongly that the most likely explanation is often the cause, I wouldn't consider myself to be easily influenced by the unexplained.
***I would ALSO like to add that our neighbors over the years (as neighbors have moved and new ones have come in) have all experienced paranormal events in their own respective homes, it’s not just ours but specifically seems to be this area. How can different people- who aren’t necessarily even friends or talk to each other on a regular basis- all experience similar or unexplained phenomenon.
I know you can only take me on my word here, but I promise, I wouldn't have come to the conclusion that my house is so f*cking haunted if there was ANY other explanation. I also have witnesses that aren't related to me who have experienced things and pictures/videos of things we can't explain that have gone into solidifying my belief.
Things have gotten worse in the last 3 months and we’re exhausted. There’s construction going on around our area and they’re making a lot of big renovations/digging up ground and I believe there has to be some correlation.
Now that you have some context/back story, I'll continue.
Things started to happen in this area almost immediately after moving in, almost 20 years ago.
The things that have occurred are
•Apparitions of a woman and young boy (she seems to be the most active as she’s often seen peering around corners or standing just out of the line of vision)
• THE OWL!!! This might be one of the most unbelievable thing, I understand. However, there is a phantom owl that is heard. Everyone has collectively looked for this owl and no one can find it, the insane thing is that it seems to move around the home in a binaural sound effect. Late at night an owl can be heard outside of every window in the home (even the windows where there is no tree) we will go and look for this owl and never find it. You can hear it (it’s coming from right next to you) but you’ll never see it. We’ve cut back trees and installed motion sensor lights, cams with night vision AND have removed certain tree entirely and even when it’s there, loud and clear, it has never been seen. This goes deeper and there is more about the incidents surrounding this creature in specific but it’s very lengthy and has lore of its own.
• phantom drumming. There was even a Dedicated “watch” group made in the neighborhood to try and find the phantom native drums that occurred at 3am nightly and of course, no one has ever found them. No, these aren’t drums from a Drum set and yes we’re all very sure of the distinct rhythm and sound that it’s native in nature. (To add, I myself am native on both sides)
•UFO sightings in the area. Over the years we have captured photos and footage of unexplained objects making strange patterns that oddly look like certain mathematical symbols (we have photos of it creating the square root symbol out of light)
Other occurrences are
•Running on the roof
•knocking in the house
•moving items
•shadow figures / hooded figures
•Speaking and disembodied voices
•A woman constantly singing at night in our back yard
•feeling touched
•doors opening/closing
•Certain physical aggressions
•a certain white/grey creature seen in the yard that disappears when you get close to it
there is honestly MUCH much more that has happened over 20 years and no, moving isn’t an option.
We’ve tried priest, blessings, sage, prayers. No, we don’t dabble in anything where something could have been done and yes, we have exhausted all natural explanations as to how these things happen.
I’m so tired. Please, if you have experience clearing out something this stubborn, what did you do?
submitted by whiskeyhurricanes5 [link] [comments]

Okay kids, gather around. Time for me to say something. No one is saying it so I will.
Let’s be real. This album isn’t that great. The cover art is dumb. The music videos were very low effort and budget. The songs have little to no lore. You know you were underwhelmed. As much as we love watching Tyler and Josh dick around, that’s not what we expected to watch for 1.5 hours when the album dropped last week. This story has been over a decade in the making and this is how you end it?
“I created this world to feel some control. Destroy it if I want…”
First theory: He told us from the start. This album is toying with the idea of destroying this world he’s created. This is why the album cover is a photo of heavy fire behind Josh and Tyler. Tyler wanted to see what happens if he burns it to the ground after all these years. The “it was all just a dream” approach to Josh never having been real and Tyler still being captured by Blurryface is not the ending anyone wanted. There’s something comforting about that though. As humans we have a desire to push through. To survive. None of us want this to be the ending. That’s why it won’t be.
Background: Scaled and Icy was intentionally and conceptually bad. After blowing up with Blurryface and Trench there was great potential to intentionally sell out with the next album, making Dema a meta experience with the real world. Scaled and Icy was conceptually bad because they wanted to make a bunch of pop songs that take over the radio. Had this been successful it would have made the story so so much more powerful, but the songs they made were mediocre. They didn’t end up selling out. If anything, they chased away the fans who started to feel they were getting too old for twenty one pilots. SAI was a flop and must have been difficult for Tyler to experience, especially after years of executing so many of his previous ideas so well. Genius intention though.
First theory conclusion: The album Clancy is remnants of the Scaled and Icy experience. Tyler’s insecurities (bishops, Dema, whatever you want to translate them as) are the reason he’s toying with the consequences of simply destroying the world he’s created. A piece of him may feel that he’s already destroyed it a bit and wonders what happens if he goes all the way. (Side note: There’s beautiful irony though when one considers the belief that “destruction is a form of creation.”) Destroying this world would most definitely look like what we got. Another borderline pop album desperate for radio play with the lore simply being “Josh was never real it was all just a dream and Clancy gets captured by Blurryface.” Tyler made it very clear when he asked on the livestream though. “You tell me. Does this sound like the end?” No, of course not. Saying “Hello Clancy” does not sound like the end.
Second theory: This is all we get. The album Clancy. Tyler is over telling this story for the last 10 years. He’s destroying the world he created because he’s moving on. His lyricism isn’t nearly as passionate as it used to be and maybe that’s because he no longer deals with the struggles/insecurities that haunted him for so long. Everyone’s been wondering why we didn’t get any screaming in this album. He’s grown and is moving on. That’s what we all have to do in real life at one point or another. That’s the lesson to be learned. Create as much as you have to for however long you have to in order to stay alive.
Third theory: Twenty One Pilots have been on the hunt for another band member ever since it originally broke up and Josh joined. All this music has been attempts to find someone out there who can relate to his life experience so much that they understand all these cryptic lyrics with so many levels to them. Blurryface had multiple levels that the lyrics somehow told including surface level mental illness, then religious exploration, and then a fictional yet symbolic story/world he’s created. As much as any of us might relate to this music, only Tyler understands the lyrics to their profound depths they explore. He’s felt alone and in the end, he thinks that’s the case. He’s accepted that. This is why despite Josh helping him so much through it all, he was never there experiencing what Tyler was experiencing.
I’m now going to address you all as a disappointed father. Y’all. The clique is not what it used to be. There is so much to be discovered. Tyler always gives so much for us to discover. The employee at the exhibit is the one that had to show people that there was something to be discovered and that’s where we got “Clancy The Ultimate Chapter 25” from. Y’all, all that had to be done was a simple translation! What is going on with the clique? Remember how dedicated everyone was with discovering Trench? Remember how dedicated was with the simple single “Level of Concern” during covid? Are y’all really gonna pretend to just be content with this album and these lame music videos? What is going on? Dig deeper! That’s the whole fun of being a twenty one pilots fan (other than being convinced not to kill yourself, of course, but as worth it as it is, that’s not always fun). Obviously there is more to this album whether it be a double album, a film, a book, all of the above, whatever. It’s out there waiting to be discovered! Don’t sit around waiting until as late as August for it to be handed to you on a silver platter you lazy victims of late stage capitalism.
I said what I said. Defend yourselves, contribute your input, apologize, theorize, do whatever. Let's just get more discussion going.
This is all. Stay alive, friends. It’s so worth it, I promise.
Personal context: I’m a 25 year old artist. I stopped listening to twenty one pilots entering my early 20’s. But from 14-18 years old I religiously held onto twenty one pilots because my life sure as hell depended on it. I’ve never heard of anyone as devoted to them as I was (neither people I’ve known in my life nor strangers on the internet). Their music was something sacred and I sincerely considered myself the third member when hearing about the few, the proud, and the emotional.
After all, these lyrics aren’t for everyone, only few understand.
I moved to Mexico and lived there from October 2017 - October 2019 to serve a religious mission for a church I eventually ended up leaving. I had no access to the internet or music. I completely missed the Trench era and hype. It was absolute torture when I heard they had finally come out of hiatus but I had no way to hear the music or watch the videos. By the time I returned to the US and reconnected with society, I slowly forcefully convinced myself I didn’t need twenty one pilots anymore and refused to listen to them. (I was also simply scared to fall out of love with something that was once so special to me.) As bittersweet as it was, this helped me grow and mature a lot and my music taste has expanded exponentially ever since. I’m an audiophile, musician, photographer, writer, and a licensed pilot now. As much as I have intentionally disconnected myself from this band, I owe it a lot and will forever be grateful they convinced me to stay alive during such hard times in my life.

Hello everyone. I usually just lurk Reddit but I'm getting a bit worried about my new beardie.
So I work at a stinky retail pet shop (gross, I know, I want out) and one day we got a shipment of some new bearded dragons. After I acclimated them and brought them to their enclosures, most were acting normal, except for the smallest one, who would jump on my hand and refuse to leave it whenever I cleaned the enclosure and checked the dragons. Management was getting "concerned" about this dragon's attachment to me since he did not like other customers, so since I had a spare enclosure lying around, I brought him home with me and have had him for about a month.
He's been doing extremely well, I've been doing tons of reasearch and spending a lot of time making sure he gets everything he needs, and I even take him outside for at least 10 minutes of natural sunlight each day since my apartment has no real natural light coming in. But I've been getting worried recently because of two things.
For one, his eating behavior is so strangely inconsistent. One day he eats completely normally and is being his normal playful self. The next day, he's interested in eating, walks up to his food, and then just stops before he even tries and runs off. It's so bizarre. He's still healthy physically, his skin has actually gotten a lot better since I got him, as well as his strength, but I don't get why he's not eating the "normal" way. I've read several articles online about how beardies at this stage need a lot of food, and every beardie at the shop I work at eats every day and is always wanting to eat. But for some reason, my little guy just doesn't. There's also been other strange behavior I've noticed, where he'll be staring at the wall behind his enclosure and be acting like something is there (the glass is not reflective). Or he decides to jump onto the lid and try climbing upside down and then freaks out, or like right now where he's trying to climb up a glass wall like a gecko and failing miserably. I can't tell if this is just wacky personality like some beardie owners talk about or a genuine health concern, given that I have raised multiple lizards before with mental/physiological handicaps and this behavior is similar.
For reference, he is currently in a 15 gallon enclosure long, 3 times the size of the one at the store. I asked a friend who owns bearded dragons if I shouls start out with the full enclosure or a smaller one, and she suggested starting with a smaller more manageable one given the fact he isn't even over 7 inches head to tail. I use a 75w basking infrared bulb and a 10.0 UVB bulb for lighting, and the temperature is always between 75-90, never above or below. He has a hide, sphagnum moss, a water bowl that's more like a pool since he enjoys swimming, and an assortment of wood angled upwards that he climbs frequently. The only odd thing about the terrarium is the humidity makes no sense. I can keep solid humidity in every other enclosure except this one, at least according to the hydrometers. It used to stay at 30% most times but lately its been at 20% at multiple points of the day, so I've been misting a bit here in there and watering the substrate. I do that, and then even if it was barely any water the hydrometer shoots way up to 70-80%. Then two to three hours later, the hydrometer claims its back down to 20%. I've used three different hydrometers, and it makes no sense. Most times when it says its 20%, I can still feel some slight moisture on the substrate or plants.
I've gotten him to eat crickets, mealworms, superworms (accident, had a spill and some fell in and he ate them which was surprising), hornworms, dubia roaches and house flies. As far as veggies go, he's very picky, but he has begun regularly eating mashed carrots, the only vegetable he will eat at this time, which I think is fine given his age? He's been defecating and "peeing" normally too.
I don't know. I'm just worried I'm doing something wrong and hurting the little guy. My dad and my friend says its okay and he may just have a weird personality but I want to get an outside opinion from somewhere.
TL;DR I have a baby bearded dragon I've had for a month, he's about 1 1/2 to 2 months old, he's eating fine some days and others he just won't, but is still apparently healthy, is acting out of the ordinary for a bearded dragon and I'm worried I'm doing something wrong or he may be sick. One of my friends and my father have said it's fine but I want an outside opinion.
Thanks.
Quick Edit - Temperature described is in Fahrenheit. In Celsius it's between 23.8-32.2 C.

Part One is linked above.
Anhinga had taken to the library hours ago. What was taking the middle aged NightWing so long to get back to her? And why couldn’t she figure out the rest of what that stone tablet said still? This isn’t… a very productive night, is it? She pondered quietly, tapping her claws against one of the shelves in the library. She had scoured every scroll and book in the history section, and none yielded any useful information that the young MudWing hadn’t seen a dozen times over. She found a few that mentioned old dragon tongue, but for some reason none of them listed any way to learn the language; like it had completely gone extinct and was lost to time. With a disappointed sigh and a close of her brown eyes, Anhinga would close the book and gently place it back on its shelf.
“Little one?” A voice would coo happily from behind her. Anhinga whipped around and was met with a smiling face and friendly eyes, a black talon with its silver bracelet marking upon her shoulder. Fatespeaker seemed tired, but joyous to see Anhinga; she had seemingly mellowed out over the years according to Tsunami’s words when Anhinga had asked… and, she was still grieving her husband. She missed her dragonets. Anhinga understood how that felt. “Hi, Mrs. Fatespeaker… are you doing okay today?”
“Yes, dear. I am fine… do you need to check out a scroll or book?” The NightWing would ask with a tilt of her head, faint teardrop markings glimmering softly in lantern-light. Anhinga would shake her head softly.
“Not today, I actually had a question… do you know anything about Old Pyrrhian? I’ve been trying to translate this stone tablet, and-“
“Old… Pyrrhian? Stone tablet?” Fatespeaker interrupted, curious and incredulous. “Well, I don’t know myself; but I’ve heard of the old language before through Pantalan dragons. Perhaps you should ask Cricket when she’s in town. I’m sure she has some information on it. Bumblebee, too… You should get some rest, dear. Don’t give this up, but please remember to take care of yourself.” Fatespeaker would scold after noticing the dark circles under Anhinga’s eyes, who would try to brush it off with an ‘I’m okay’ but Fatespeaker would shoo her out. “Please, when you find out what your tablet means, let me know! We can turn it into an artifact for your history class.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~ LATER ~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Anhinga made her way back to her dorm, hearing Carmine’s heavy bull-like snoring echoing down the hallway with the collective irritated groans of other students who were kept up by the sound. By now, she’d gotten used to it, rounding through the doorway and flopping onto her soft nest bed. She would lay there, closing her eyes, tossing and turning.
She began to let her mind wander, thinking about today’s events.
What is out there? Who could have wrote this…? It’s not an old tablet, the scratch marks still had splinters of bone from being written with and still had dark scrawls from ink or soot when I found it on the beach. It couldn’t have been written by a Pantalan unless they’re a history obsessed nerd like I am- Yet another snore would break Anhinga out of her thoughts, her eyes popping open and jaw clenching in annoyance. Carmine and her stupid sleep apnea were about to meet claws to the throat. Anhinga got that Carmine literally could not help it, but the dragon always slept on her back just to mess with everyone else and make their lives harder. With a bit of angry gusto, Anhinga would throw herself out of her bed, haphazardly tidy it up, and march out of her dorm and down the hallway. Maybe going for a flight could help her clear her hyperactive mind and make her tired enough to sleep through Carmine’s incessant thunder snorts. Her dorm was thankfully close to the entrance and exit of Jade Mountain Academy, and within minutes she rounded the corridor into the main foyer. Nope. The office lantern was blown out for the night, and the dean, Sunny, was asleep. Anhinga would sneak past and make it to the cave entrance, backing up and sprinting to take off into the night sky.
The breeze was cool, and the moons were bright. Anhinga felt at ease under the stars.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~ ….. ~~~~~~~~~~~ 

*Large talons would falter, large slender wings fall. Into an unknown coast would a strange dragon crash, his body casting a massive shadow over the beach. He’d look up, seeing mountains and grass and ocean, stars and the three half moons. He wobbled and stood on his large talons, seeing smaller old talonprints he’d never seen before in the sand nearby.
Where… is he?*

Hello everybody, I hope all of you are well.
I am writing this post to ask for some advice maybe, or feedback on how to successfully overcome, integrate, and process a mother complex that I think I am slowly starting to come out of, but am still very much entrenched in. I will provide only as much information as necessary to avoid overburdening everybody. To those of you who read, and reply, I thank you.
When I was young I had a tough upbringing as I was/am quite eccentric and this led to ostracization in school. In my life, the sole person who really was emotionally available in a way was my mother. Now, my father is not a bad person by any means, but I was 100% divested of a paternal father figure, as he always preferred to work. He had a problem with the kind of emotional availability that having children would entail (as I see it) and therefore unconsciously sought ways to preoccupy himself.
As a result of my upbringing I had very few friends, and developed a fear of what one could call 'normal socialization'. This is very Puer Aeternus type stuff. I actively pushed away sexual thoughts and matter, repressing any thoughts that would refer to my sexuality in any way possible. These ideas/thoughts would be diverted in other ways such as by an overemphasis on the pleasure of eating good and high quality food, as well as through fetishization. In a psychological sense, I was totally and completely dependent on my mother for a sense of security for most of my life.
Fast forward to today. I am in my 30s and actually took some major steps to freeing myself from that lifestyle. I moved out from my country of origin and as a result was naturally subjected to a wide variety of stimuli, friendships, and the need to adapt in ways I never have. It hasn't been easy, but slowly but surely I have been doing so. However, every day I continue to call my mother on the phone. I seem to depict it to myself as a kind of sympathy, because my mother is divorced and alone aside from having pets, and I out of all of my siblings feels a very deep sense of compassion and sympathy for her. I really do not feel like I have separated myself from her psychologically as a result, while moving definitely has made me develop quite a bit. That being said, I seek approval and validation for my mother all the time on account of this dependence, and I think this is something that is holding me back from "striking out" in the way Jung describes in Symbols of Transformation and perhaps elsewhere.
I have some background in Jung (and philosophy more generally) and am sympathetic to his therapeutic approach. This has been playing on my mind for a long time. I am just wondering, to make a long story short, if there is anything I should consider doing in order to, as Jung puts it, make the archetypes conscious and develop a healthy relationship to that mother archetype/complex. I'm not sure if it's as simple as not calling my mother every day, or something like that. Or does it have to do with making other sorts of archetypal content conscious?
I can list some things that I believe are related to this complex. I am ultimately optimistic, but some of the issues in connection to this have definitely filled me with anxiety.
Thank you in advance to anybody who provides advice or guidance on this matter.

I don’t know how many follow or have read the books in this sub, but this is one of the most interesting things I’ve found after reading Rhaenyra being called “Maegor with tits” by the Green opposition.
This is all from the Internet. A click away from any phone.

Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought.
An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. These accounts are written as dialogues, in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the Socratic dialogue literary genre.
Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the Socratic problem. Socrates was a polarizing figure in Athenian society. In 399 BC, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. After a trial that lasted a day, he was sentenced to death. He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape.
There were four charges that were brought against Socrates. They were that he argued the weaker claim over the stronger claim, that he argue the physical over the metaphysical, that he was against the gods and that he was corrupting the youth.
Socrates was found guilty by a jury of 501 Athenians and was sentenced to drink a deadly poison, named hemlock. Many scholars have argued that the charges against Socrates were politically motivated and have understood his trial and conviction as an attack upon freedom of speech and an indictment of democracy.

The Last Moments of Maegor’s Reign, losing against a misogynistic society led by petty and ambitious nobles and against the Faith of the Seven, a religion that enforces gender roles and inequality between men and women.

By 48 AC Maegor's tyranny could no longer be borne by the realm. At Storm's End Aenys I's last surviving son, Prince Jaehaerys, put forth his claim to the throne, supported by Lord Rogar Baratheon, who was named Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King by the prince. Jaehaerys had two dragons on his side, his own mount Vermithor and his sister's mount Silverwing, against Maegor's Balerion. Grand Maester Benifer secretly escaped on a ship to Pentos. Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery, two of Maegor's Kingsguard, also deserted him. Lord Daemon Velaryon, the admiral of the royal fleet, and brother of Alyssa Velaryon was the first of the great lords to forsake Maegor, taking the royal fleet with him, and many other lords followed his example. The great houses of Lannister, Tyrell, and Arryn came out against Maegor and in the riverlands House Tully gave support to Septon Moon and Ser Joffrey Doggett, the leaders of the Poor Fellows.
Maegor called his banners in response, but few answered, giving Maegor an army of barely four thousand soldiers. Despite this, Maegor refused to surrender. At the end of the war council, Maegor remained behind alone in the throne room to brood. He was found dead the next morning by Queen Elinor, seated on the Iron Throne with his robes covered in blood and his wrists slashed. A spike from one of the swords on the throne behind him was impaled through the back of his neck. How Maegor died was never discovered. Some say he had been killed by Queen Elinor, others that he had been killed by a knight of his own Kingsguard. Yet others say he had been killed by a builder who escaped the slaughter three years earlier and desired revenge, and many believe that Maegor had been killed by the throne itself. Others believe that Maegor killed himself by opening his wrists on the blades of the Iron Throne.

The fate of Maegor’s loyal supporters.

Owen Bush was a knight of the Kingsguard during the reign of King Maegor I Targaryen. When Maegor suspected Queen Tyanna of the Tower of betrayal, he had Owen and his sworn brother, Ser Maladon Moore, bring her to the dungeons, where she confessed.
Maegor the Cruel gradually lost political support, resulting in a rival threat in his nephew, Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen. Two of his Kingsguard defected to Jaehaerys, and Maegor lost a third guard when Owen was found dead outside a brothel in 48 AC, his member cut off and stuffed in his mouth.
Maladon Moore was a knight from House Moore and a member of the Kingsguard during the reign of King Maegor I Targaryen. When the king suspected Queen Tyanna of the Tower of treason, Maladon and Owen were dispatched to seize the queen and deliver her to the dungeons, where Maegor was said to have slain her while Maladon was present.
After Maegor died in 48 AC and his nephew King Jaehaerys I Targaryen took the Iron Throne, Maladon was accused of being involved in the death of Queen Ceryse, allegedly restraining her when Ser Owen accidentally killed her. Maladon denied these charges, insisting she died of "shrewishness". While the charges were never proven, Maladon lost his head for his involvement in Queen Tyanna's death, of which he was guilty.
When Queen Tyanna of the Tower admitted to poisoning Queen Alys Harroway during her pregnancy, Tyanna promised the same would happen to Elinor. Tyanna was proven correct when Elinor gave birth to a stillborn abomination said to have been born eyeless and with small wings. Elinor was one of the two wives who survived the king, the other being Queen Rhaena Targaryen.
After King Maegor's death, Lord Daemon Velaryon proposed that King Jaehaerys I Targaryen marry Queen Elinor to reconcile with Maegor's supporters when a bride was being considered for the king, but nothing came of the proposal. After Jaehaerys's ascent, Elinor departed King's Landing dressed in the robes of a penitent. She visited her two elder sons at the Eyrie and Highgarden before retiring to her father's seat at the Three Towers with her youngest son.
Later, King Jaehaerys commanded Elinor to go forth and spread his Doctrine of Exceptionalism to the peoples of the Seven Kingdoms, as well as the goodness of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, becoming one of the Seven Speakers. Her queenly raiment became shabbier and more threadbare each day, and she eventually gave up all claims to nobility, becoming Mother Elinor at the great motherhouse in Lannisport.
House Rosby was one of the first houses to yield peacefully to House Targaryen during Aegon's Conquest, surrendering to Rhaenys Targaryen and Meraxes. The Rosby lands became part of the crownlands surrounding King's Landing. Lord Jon Rosby was named Warden of the Sands by King Aegon I Targaryen during the First Dornish War, but Jon was killed in the Defenestration of Sunspear.
Ser Rayford Rosby defended King Maegor I Targaryen during his trial of seven, but Rayford was slain during the fighting. Lord Rosby remained loyal to the king even as his downfall became certain, and was one of the last to see the king alive. In the chaos that followed the discovery of Maegor's body, Lord Rosby drank a cup of hemlock to join his king in death. His young son received forgiveness from King Jaehaerys I Targaryen at Dragonstone.
In 47 AC, King Maegor was dealing with the issue of his lack of heirs, despite having already married three women. Lord Daemon Velaryon, Rhaena's uncle and a member of Maegor's small council, advised Maegor to wed Rhaena, to unite their claims and prevent new rebellions, and to gain her as a hostage against any potential schemes of Dowager Queen Alyssa. Later that year, Maegor summoned Rhaena to King's Landing, and she did not defy him. At the Red Keep, Maegor married Rhaena in a triple ceremony, together with Elinor Costayne and Jeyne Westerling. As the three women were all widows of men Maegor had killed, they became known as the "Black Brides". Immediately following the wedding, Maegor declared Rhaena's elder daughter Aerea as his heir until he had sons of his own, while disinheriting Rhaena's youngest brother Jaehaerys in the same decree.
After Maegor’s death, discussion arose as to who had the better claim to the Iron Throne. There were some who suggested that Rhaena's claim, as the firstborn child of King Aenys I Targaryen and Queen Alyssa Velaryon, was the strongest. Her gender argued against her, however, and Rhaena herself had come to loathe King's Landing and its court. The claims of her daughters were argued for as well. If Maegor was to be considered a usurper, the true king would have been Rhaena's first husband, Aegon, who had claimed the throne before Jaehaerys had. As such, some suggested the throne should pass to one of his daughters by Rhaena, Aerea or Rhaella.
As time passed, Rhaena began to resent the fact that her claim to the throne, and that of her daughters, had been dismissed in favor of Jaehaerys, to whom she began to refer as "my baby brother". In addition, Rhaena begrudged her mother for promoting Jaehaerys's claim over her own.
Ser Walton Towers was granted Harrenhal by King Maegor I Targaryen in 44 AC after winning a melee in Lord Harroway's Town, but Walton died soon after from his wounds. Harrenhal thus passed to his eldest son. Lord Jordan remained loyal to Maegor during the king's wars, and Lord Rosby were the last to see the king alive before Maegor's death on the Iron Throne. Along with Lords Darklyn and Staunton, Jordan yielded the Red Keep to Prince Jaehaerys, Princess Rhaena, and Princess Alysanne Targaryen. The three lords were sent to the black cells, but were eventually pardoned by King Jaehaerys I after surrendering some of their land.
Jordan eventually died of a chest congestion. Harrenhal passed to Jordan's last surviving son, Maegor Towers, as Jordan's older sons had all died fighting for King Maegor.
Maegor's father, Lord Jordan Towers, was one of the last lords of the Seven Kingdoms who remained loyal to King Maegor I Targaryen. All of Jordan's sons died fighting in the king's wars, with the exception of young Maegor.
Maegor became Lord Towers after the death of his father due to a chest congestion. When King Jaehaerys I Targaryen began a royal progress in 53 AC to celebrate the new year, his first stop was to see the new Lord of Harrenhal, then only nine years of age.
Maegor was an impoverished lord who resided in the Tower of Dread with only a cook and three men-at-arms. Since the rest of Harrenhal was empty, King Jaehaerys settled his widowed sister, Rhaena Targaryen, in the Widow's Tower in 56 AC. Maegor and Rhaena eventually became friends, and she cared for his servants after Maegor passed away in 61 AC. Harrenhal was granted to House Strong after Rhaena passed away in 73 AC.
Maegor was sickly and poor.
Socrates speaks his last words to Crito: "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt". Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely that Socrates' last words were implied to mean that death is the cure, and freedom of the soul from the body.
Asclepius, Greco-Roman god of medicine, son of Apollo (god of healing, truth, and prophecy) and the mortal princess Coronis. The Centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing. At length Zeus (the king of the gods), afraid that Asclepius might render all men immortal, slew him with a thunderbolt.
Zeus saw Asclepius & his medical skills as a threat to the eternal division between humanity & the gods. Asclepius met a tragic end when he was killed by a thunderbolt thrown by Zeus.
Socrates ultimately does not fear death because of his innocence, he believes that death is not to be feared because it may be one of the greatest blessings of the soul.
The reasons for Socrates not escaping when he had the chance the night prior; are made explicit before the Laws make their speech. Because escape defies the will of the Athenians, it requires stealth and bribery, shameful practices that are unjustified in the current situation.
Socrates Feared Democracies Would Elect Demagogues. The term arose in Greece in the fifth century BCE, right around Socrates's time, and is often used negatively. Socrates himself was extremely worried that the democratic format would give rise to a demagoguery.
Demagogues are political leaders who seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
Modern demagogues include Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and Joseph McCarthy, all of whom built mass followings the same way that Cleon did: by exciting the passions of the masses against customs and norms of the aristocratic elites of their times.

This is why Maegor and Socrates died. They challenged authority and lost. They were silenced by the powerful lords and by the elected council of Athens whom were given power by the common people.
They were “heroes”.
“My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight.
George R.R. Martin.
King Maegor had married all his brides and gave them Queenly status.

Jeyne was married to Lord Alyn Tarbeck. She was widowed when Alyn died during the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye in 43 AC. Jeyne was pregnant when her husband died, and gave him a posthumous son a few months later.

In 47 AC, Jeyne was being courted by a younger son of Lyman Lannister, the Lord of Casterly Rock, when King Maegor I Targaryen sent for her to be wed to him. She married Maegor in a ceremony at King's Landing, along with Lady Elinor Costayne and Princess Rhaena Targaryen. As all three women had been widowed due to Maegor, they became known as the "Black Brides". The stories told of the wedding night claim that Jeyne was given a fertility potion by Queen Tyanna of the Tower, and either drank it, or threw it in Tyanna's face. After the wedding, Queen Jeyne's son was confirmed as Lord of Tarbeck Hall, and sent to Casterly Rock to be raised as a ward of Lyman Lannister.

Lord Edwell Celtigar, the Hand of the King, announced half a year after the wedding that Queen Jeyne was pregnant, and Queen Elinor's pregnancy was announced shortly afterwards. Maegor, joyful, showered both his wives with gifts and honors, and granted new lands and offices to their fathers, brothers, and uncles. Unfortunately, Jeyne's labor began three months early, and she gave birth to a stillborn child, monstrous, lacking arms and legs but possessing both male and female genitalia. Jeyne herself died soon after.
In 48 AC, Tyanna of the Tower confessed to having poisoned Jeyne's child in the womb.

Tinfoil theory.
At the end of Maegor’s reign, House Baratheon, Lannister, Tyrell and Arryn rebelled against Maegor. Maegor had sent the young son of his fourth wife (Jeyne Westerling) as a ward(hostage) to House Lannister. Then he sent the two eldest sons of his sixth wife (Elinor Costayne) as wards(hostages) to House Tyrell and House Arryn. When the great houses rebelled, Lord Daemon Velaryon, the brother of Alyssa Velaryon, escaped with the Royal Fleet and left King’s Landing.
Maegor called his banners to fight against the threat but they were too few and Elinor Costayne begged him to surrender to save her two eldest sons and the son of the long deceased Jeyne Westerling. He banned her from the council room and refused to surrender and his lords and him and Rhaena made battle plans well into the night. At the end of the war council, Maegor dismissed everyone and stayed alone in the throne room to brood.
The following morning, Elinor Costayne found the King dead, his wrists slashed and throat impaled on the back of the Iron Throne.
This is all hidden in the awoiaf wiki.
George is a better writer than we’ve given him credit for.
Please feel free to discuss and ask questions.

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Last Week's List: https://www.reddit.com/RocketLeagueEsports/comments/1cxr3pk/our_top_100_pro_players_may_1319_update/
Last Standings of Split 1: https://www.reddit.com/RocketLeagueEsports/comments/1c56gss/our_top_100_pro_players_2024_splitmajor_1_last/
22-23 Season Last Standings: https://www.reddit.com/RocketLeagueEsports/comments/16gfxlt/our_top_100_rlcs_players_2223_season_last/
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A summary of the main criteria (and some observations) I'm using as I update this list:

• 1st: Good Consistency >> Peak and Floor (the main purpose of this list is to rank the good individual consistency of players, whether in games with his teammates, random people, or solo. What I mean by good consistency is a set of several factors that tell me, in my view, whether what the player is doing is normal or is he reaching his ceiling/floor, such as making fewer mistakes, being more confident in plays, having a balance between individual plays and team plays, not straying too far from his defined playstyle, all this over several games, among other factors)
• 2nd: Majors/Other Lans > Online (It's obvious that any RLCS player's goal is to win Majors and finish far in Worlds, so presumably they will put more focus and effort into these events than anything else, which is why I put the performance that players result in Lans as a priority above online events, in addition to having external factors such as the nervousness of playing at a Lan because of the crowd or other reasons, which might affect the performance and consistency of a player, are also important factors that might change the performance of a player)
• 3rd: Worlds >> Majors/Other Lans (Worlds is like Lans, only with more risk and reward, so every good or bad performance in it will change a player's placement with more weight than any other criteria, and not only will it change at the moment, but if a team or individual players perform excellently at Worlds, their ranking will be harder to drop for some time, even though this can sometimes result in a player who currently doesn't perform as expected to be quite high on the list because they won Worlds or performed well in it, but in my opinion I see that as I assume that the ultimate goal of many players is to win at least one Worlds, many players will put their all into achieving this, so they will be at their best overall performance, thus making me have to put them very high those who have good performance in it. And note that at no point do I specify that I use team result as a factor in changing player ranks, with the exception of winning Worlds. This is because for me an individual player can often be performing well but his team is not, so I try first to see how the players on that team acted as a group and as individuals, impartial to the outcome of that match)
• 4th: 3v3 > 1v1 > 2v2 (As I want to compare players on their individual overall performances, I also use the performance of those who practice the other main game modes, even though they are not official modes in RLCS, 1v1 and 2v2. This may seem unfair, as there are numerous players on the list who do not practice, or are not seen practicing, the other game modes, but in these situations I do two things: first, that player will have some disadvantage because of this on my list, even if he is having more success and results at RLCS 3v3 than a player who practices all modes but has a better current overall than him. Second, I try to either base how that player who only focuses on RLCS would perform in 1s and 2s with the way he plays, which isn't easy but since I just use my opinion without seeing a lot of stat numbers it's not so hard to just imagine, or I just do it as a imaginary balance, if that player is very consistent in 3v3 but doesn't play other modes, that player will have his overall compensated for his performance in that game mode, as it happens with RLCS players who are extremely good at 1s but do not have significant recent results on RLCS)
• 5th: RLCS > Unofficial Events (the same reasons used in the Majors and Worlds criteria can be used here as well, such as the importance of the event having more influence, the material and mental value of good performance, etc.)
• 6th: My Opinion = Our Opinion (peoples comments - and PMs - and my views on the week have the same weight, so everyone is free to say their opinion and we'll debate and make the changes that were decided)
• And lastly, some answers to pertinent questions that I think are easier to answer here than to answer each comment asking these:
• "Why do some players have a number saying how much they have moved up/down, while others don't? Or why does player A who was overtaken in place by player B not have a down arrow?" Well, those of you who have already seen some of these updates may have noticed that there are three ways for a player to move in this list, the most obvious way is for me to manually move the player up or down a defined number of positions, according to what I thought of their performance this week and/or according to your feedback, this form of movement affects other players around player A, but I do not choose to place arrows for these players who have had an indirect change in the list just to avoid filling up the updates with unnecessary symbols, I just want to focus on the player who had a direct position change. The other way for a player A to move on the list is by swapping places with a player B, this is also the way in which players enter the list, because for one player to enter, another must leave, these changes I inform below the list in the "Recent Notes" and I choose not to write the numbers on the player's side on this way again because I don't want to fill the list with information that is not necessarily needed, also other players around these who had their positions swapped are not affected. The last way for a player to change position on the list is as I said in the first way, when a player indirectly changes position because player A next to him has moved up or down, this way I don't include any arrow or number because I don't want to highlight this change so much because it was not caused by opinion or feedback from the week;
• "Why is player A below player B? Player A is clearly better than player B in all aspects, and player A beat player B this week in the regional/major" These questions are good because I can demonstrate the main factor of this list. This is not a power ranking of players, nor is it a sum of victories and positive results of each player and their teams, much less head-to-head results. In this list I try to place the most consistent players in their individual performances, so to be at the top of this list a player does not need his team to win all the time, or that he has the best mechanics of everyone on the list, he just needs to perform well over time, make fewer mistakes than others, and be crucial in important moments. Player A's team is winning a lot and player B's is losing a lot, this also matters of course, player A is mechanically gifted while player B is the "glue" of his team, this also influences the positions, but the main focus is who is being most consistent in their performance over a "long" period of time, using what you have in skills well in solo and cooperative play, no matter who your team is. Who player A faces certainly matters too, otherwise the list would be a little more messy if consistency was the only factor used when including players from less competitive or balanced regions.
• "Why don't you move player A up from 70th to 10th when he's clearly been playing really well these past few weeks?" This question also has something to do with the last question, as the answer would also be consistency, but not just for player A, but for the list as well. My goal was for this list to be a single thing that shaped itself a little each week, with gradual changes that gain pace as player A continues to perform good or bad, which demonstrates the weight of each change. If I changed a few players with such big moves each week, I would be missing out on some of that, and practically be making a new list every week. Even when there are cases where player B was playing reasonably and then the next week he becomes a sub and stops playing for the rest of the season, I can't remove him from the list straight away, as I would be saying according to the criteria that player B suddenly lost all his consistency from one moment to the next, and there is also the chance that player B will leave the sub and return to playing the way he used to.
• "And why 100 players? It would be much easier 20 or 30 at most" For this, I completely agree that making a top 20 would be much more acceptable than what I've been doing, but I also see countless other lists like that, so for me it would be more boring to make a list like that using only 20 or 30 players when you have other more "true" lists like that to see, which have more concrete data than pure opinion. This way of doing I also think it's cool to represent more players, more regions, more teams, and it's much more dynamic with more options of players to choose from. So in short, I only do it this way because I think it's cooler lol.

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The List (15th of the Season):

1. 🟰🇫🇷 Zen 👑
2. ⬆️🇺🇸 BeastMode
3. 🟰🇲🇦 Itachi
4. 🔻🇫🇷 Vatira
5. 🟰🇫🇷 Seikoo
6. ⬆️🇫🇷 M0nkeyM00n
7. ⬆️🇺🇸 Daniel
8. ⬆️🇸🇦 Trk511 (+1)
9. 🔻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rise
10. 🔻🇺🇸 Firstkiller
11. ⬆️🇺🇸 Atomic
12. 🟰🇫🇷 Alpha54
13. 🔻🇧🇪 Atow
14. 🟰🇫🇷 Juicy
15. 🟰🇸🇦 Rw9
16. 🟰🇲🇦 Dralii
17. 🟰🇸🇦 Nwpo
18. 🟰🇫🇷 ExoTiiK
19. ⬆️🇸🇦 Kiileerrz (+1)
20. ⬆️🇵🇱 Oski (+2)
21. 🟰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ApparentlyJack
22. ⬆️🇫🇷 Radosin (+1)
23. 🟰🇧🇷 Yanxnz
24. ⬆️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Joyo
25. 🟰🇺🇸 Lj
26. 🟰🇧🇷 Lostt
27. 🔻🇺🇸 Chronic
28. 🟰🇧🇷 Drufinho
29. 🟰🇺🇸 Hockser
30. 🟰🇪🇸 Crr
31. 🟰🇪🇸 AtomiK
32. ⬆️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Noly
33. ⬆️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Archie (+3)
34. 🟰🇨🇱 Reysbull
35. 🟰🇳🇱 Joreuz
36. 🔻🇺🇸 Chicago
37. ⬆️🇨🇦 JKnaps
38. 🟰🇸🇦 Smw
39. ⬆️🇧🇷 Kv1 (+2)
40. 🔻🇲🇦 Nass
41. 🟰🇸🇦 Ahmad
42. ⬆️🇺🇸 Justin
43. 🟰🇺🇸 Ayyjayy
44. 🟰🇺🇸 Cheese
45. ⬆️🇵🇹 AcroniK (+2)
46. 🟰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kash
47. 🔻🇺🇸 Retals
48. ⬆️🇺🇸 Comm
49. 🟰🇧🇷 Diaz
50. 🔻🇺🇸 Arsenal
51. 🟰🇧🇷 Nxghtt
52. ⬆️🇧🇷 Motta
53. 🔻🇺🇸 Majicbear (-2)
54. 🟰🇸🇦 M7sn
55. ⬆️🇺🇸 2Piece (+2)
56. 🟰🇪🇸 Stizzy
57. 🟰🇺🇸 LionBlaze
58. 🔻🇪🇸 Dorito
59. 🟰🇧🇷 Swiftt
60. 🟰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Eekso
61. ⬆️🇺🇸 Paarth
62. 🟰🇩🇪 Rezears
63. ⬆️🇧🇷 Aztromick
64. ⬆️🇦🇹 Ivn (+2)
65. 🟰🇦🇷 Ajg
66. 🔻🇸🇦 Okhalid
67. 🔻🇺🇸 Evoh
68. ⬆️🇺🇸 Andy
69. 🟰🇩🇪 Tox
70. ⬆️🇦🇺 Bananahead
71. 🔻🇺🇸 Wahvey
72. 🔻🇧🇷 Droppz
73. ⬆️🇦🇺 Fever (+4)
74. 🟰🇳🇱 Oaly
75. 🟰🇧🇷 Brad
76. 🟰🇺🇸 Zineel
77. 🟰🇩🇪 Catalysm
78. 🟰🇧🇷 Sad
79. 🟰🇦🇺 Amphis
80. 🟰🇪🇸 MaRc_By_8
81. 🟰🇺🇸 Frosty
82. 🟰🇧🇷 Bemmz
83. ⬆️🇺🇸 Aqua
84. ⬆️🇪🇸 TehQoz
85. 🔻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Creamz
86. 🔻🇧🇪 AztraL (-1)
87. 🔻🇺🇸 GarrettG
88. 🟰🇧🇷 Wisty
89. 🟰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rehzzy
90. ⬆️🇺🇸 Aris (+6)
91. 🟰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 RelatingWave
92. ⬆️🇸🇦 Venom (New)
93. 🟰🇦🇺 Superlachie
94. ⬆️🇺🇸 Fiv3Up (New)
95. 🟰🇺🇸 Percy
96. ⬆️🇩🇪Rizex45 (+1)
97. ⬆️🇺🇸 Gyro
98. ⬆️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Toxiic (+2)
99. 🟰🇦🇺 Torsos
100. 🔻🇺🇸 Reveal

(⬆️): Rising, (🔻): Falling, (🟰): No Direct Change
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Recent Notes:
• Out of the List: 🇸🇦 T7LM and 🇺🇸 Mist 😰
• 🇸🇦 Venom re-enters the list in place of 🇸🇦 T7LM at 92nd place 👏
• 🇺🇸 Fiv3Up re-enters the list in place of 🇺🇸 Mist at 94th place 👏
• 🇺🇸 Gyro and 🇺🇸 Reveal swap places
• 🇪🇸 TehQoz and 🇺🇸 GarrettG swap places
•🇺🇸 Aqua and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Creamz swap places
• 🇦🇺 Bananahead and 🇧🇷 Droppz swap places
• 🇺🇸 Andy and 🇺🇸 Wahvey swap places
• 🇧🇷 Aztromick and 🇺🇸 Evoh swap places
• 🇺🇸 Paarth and 🇸🇦 Okhalid swap places
• 🇧🇷 Motta and 🇪🇸 Dorito swap places
• 🇺🇸 Comm and 🇺🇸 Arsenal swap places
• 🇺🇸 Justin and 🇺🇸 Retals swap places
• 🇨🇦 JKnaps and 🇲🇦 Nass swap places
• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Noly and 🇺🇸 Chicago swap places
• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Joyo and 🇺🇸 Chronic swap places
• 🇺🇸 Atomic and 🇧🇪 Atow swap places
• 🇺🇸 Daniel and 🇺🇸 Firstkiller swap places
• 🇫🇷 M0nkeyM00n and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rise swap places
• 🇺🇸 BeastMode and 🇫🇷 Vatira swap places
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Top 5 Rising and Falling Players (Past Two Updates):
Fastest ⬆️

• 1st: 🇦🇺 Fever +13
• 2nd: 🇦🇺 Bananahead +10
• 3rd: 🇧🇷 Aztromick +7
• 4th: 🇺🇸 2Piece, 🇺🇸 Aris, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Joyo and 🇺🇸 Justin +6
• 5th: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Archie, 🇦🇹 Ivn, 🇫🇷 M0nkeyM00n, 🇸🇦 Smw and 🇪🇸 TehQoz +5

Fastest 🔻

• 1st: 🇧🇪 AztraL, 🇪🇸 Dorito and 🇸🇦 Okhalid -9
• 2nd: 🇺🇸 Evoh and 🇪🇸 MaRc_By_8 -8
• 3rd: 🇺🇸 Firstkiller and 🇺🇸 Retals -7
• 4th: 🇺🇸 Ayyjayy, 🇺🇸 GarrettG and 🇲🇦 Nass -6
• 5th: 🇧🇪 Atow, 🇺🇸 Chronic, 🇧🇷 Droppz, 🇺🇸 Reveal and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rise -5

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Average Top 10 Teams (as of player rankings this week):

1. G2 Stride 🇺🇸 - (6.6) ⬆️
2. Gentle Mates 🇲🇦🇫🇷 - (7.3)
3. Karmine Corp 🇫🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇧🇪 - (8.6) 🔻
4. Vitality 🇫🇷 - (11.6) ⬆️
5. Team BDS 🇫🇷🇲🇦 - (13.3) ⬆️
6. Team Falcons 🇸🇦 - (14) ⬆️
7. Gen.G 🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 - (19.3) 🔻
8. Oxygen Esports 🇵🇱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 - (25.6) ⬆️
9. Furia 🇧🇷 - (25.6) 🔻
10. Spacestation 🇺🇸 - (30) 🔻

____________________________________

In this I'll go over each characters feats and make sure this debate ends fairly on both sides. We will do both anime and manga interpretations, if anyone would like me to do only manga or only anime I'll be happy to do so. Without further or do let's get started:
Now this isn't to be a Gokutard or Goku d-rider but as of now Son Goku slams Saitama almost effortlessly, I'll explain.
We will be giving both of them all their abilities, power ups, and we will be using statements heavily (ofc we are using feats but to scale feats we need statements to back them up, not all the time necessarily, but in this case we do for context)
Saitama before he became the opm he was a regular human who simply worked out every single day until he became so powerful he could one punch any enemy
Some fans of the show take this way to literal as we've seen people who can tank hits from him like boros and garou. Saitama has only been shown to one shot enemies that are weaker than him since we know he has never shown his true power or speed at all in the first parts of the series and chapters of the manga.
People also misinterpret the statement of saitama breaking his limiter as a way of saying he now has no limits whatsoever, which was debunked heavily by lots of powerscalers, just because you break a limiter doesn't automatically make you limitless, we see characters like goku break their limiter multiple times but we know goku isn't limitless he just has limitless potential.
Saitama has alot of statements over feats especially in some of his first appearances, I feel like any sane person would understand that saitama can't actually one punch characters that are on his level or above his level.
Let's get into speed feats for saitama so we can start getting into the differences.
Saitamas moon feat where he jumps from the moon back to earth took him 1.5 seconds( which would mean he was moving at around 260,000km/s) only .2 off from the speed of light (which takes 1.3 seconds to get from the moon back to earth)
The distance between the moon and earth is approximately 384,400km (or 238,855 miles)
This would mean, not even at full power he was close to hitting the speed of light.
Let's move on to other speed feats, flashy flash stated that he has already met four people who surpassed him in speed including saitama and if the name didn't already give it away then yes in this moment saitama was moving faster than the speed of light, later down the line he fights cosmic garou which introduces some crazy speed feats
When him and garou was fighting he demonstrated some very fast fighting speed when he uses his omnidirectional punch, which took incredible speed this would put him at mftl and he could calc even higher when he simply farts to catch up to cosmic garou which would put him at mftl+ and he would cap at that.
Strength feats:
Saitama has alot of Strength feats
When saitama uses serious table flip he lifts the surface of Jupiter's moon and nearly destroys it which is impressive since this feat was performed outer space and can be calculated from moon level Strength to planet surface level Strength.
Power( including AP):
Saitama shows great power as he was able to sneeze and separate the gases of jupiter, which is a great and heavily impressive feat due to the fact that jupiter is is 11x bigger than earth and he was able to casually sneeze the gases away mind you ITS A SNEEZE. But sadly he didn't destroy the planet which can't be used to say he can sneeze planets away because that's not demonstrated.
Him and garous clashing destroyed multiple stars which would include the galaxies surrounding them, which could calc saitama and garou to multi galaxy level easily but they would cap at that, they have not demonstrated any further feats that put thm above that.
Durability and endurance(stamina):
Saitamas Durability is absolutely bonkers as he survived hits that could destroy the surface of planets and could also survive attacks that can destroy actual planets
When garou and saitama were clashing blast had to move them to the moon or else earth would be destroyed sadly that feat alone would put both of them at planetary but ofc they get more powerful and become multi galaxy.
Saitama was able to survive attacks such as gamma ray burst, collapsing star roaring cannon, etc.
Saitama is also able to continuously fight without showing any signs of being tired whatsoever as we see once garou gives up Saitama is still chilling ready for more and still has enough power left to live up to his name and simply go back in time to one punch garou before the punch even lands.
This is where we get into the true scaling of his power growth and "limitless potential"
A graph shows Saitamas growth compared to garous and it was stated that under intense emotion he grew exponentially in seconds, and no one could keep up with him or was on par with him.
This statement shows that saitama can grow endlessly under intense emotion but that statement tends to get overlooked by alot of saitama fans because they don't like to admit that saitama doesn't grow as he fights he grows depending on his emotions.
Therefore saitama would scale to
Galaxy-Multi galaxy level MFTL+
With moon level to planet surface level Strength and Between planetary and Galaxy level durability/AP
Time for son goku
Speed:
In the frieza saga goku was already thousands of times faster than light as we see he can handle burter and jiece as burter was stated to be "the fastest in the universe" and goku casually outscales him in speed.
Goku was also fast enough to one shot recoome before recomme even noticed he disappeared.
Skipping to the cell saga
Goku and cell were fighting so fast it was hard for the z fighters to keep up, as piccolo stated that he couldn't see them and in dragon ball we all understand the fights are slowed down so we can see what they are doing.
Jumping to super, goku fought hit who has the ability to manipulate time by skipping into the future goku was able to catch up to him and hit him, which can be calculated from infinite to immeasurable speed, since he is moving forward in time with just raw speed alone, he also was able to move in a area that has no time/space( Zeno destroys trunks timeline) which would require absurd amounts of speed
Power and AP:
Back to the frieza arc goku was able to best frieza who was destroying planets by creating supernova with a lift of his finger as we seen when he destroyed planet vegeta.
Frieza was also stated to have the power capable enough to destroy the universe which is inconsistent since we don't see him actually destroy the universe, and cell was also stating that he can destroy the whole solar system which is crazy already since solar systems are bigger than galaxies which means cell would be well than enough to take on saitama.
This shows that saitama wouldn't even get past cell😭 and thats before super perfect
Mind you cell stated that he has infinite or bottomless power and strength which can easily be misinterpreted as cell simply meant his energy not his actual power or strength, this means cell already has more stamina than saitama by an infinite amount
Back to goku
Goku was clashing fists with beerus that would destroy the entire macrocosm even though goku was simply nullifying beerus attacks by matching them so he wouldn't destroy the universe, elder kai stated that the Shockwaves were getting stronger but thats only cause gokus nullifying was losing its affect the further they went.
This is similar to how bulletproof glass stops a bullet, the glass simply nullifies the bullets affect.
The dragon ball macrocosm or universe is a infinite growing universe as its already infinite, this universe also has 7 infinite realms inside of it with the kaioshin realm and otherworldly being deemed as super transcendental or just superdimensional which means they transcend the casual time/space and live outside of it
With that being explained beerus could've destroyed all of that in a single punch if goku wasn't there mind you beerus wasn't at full power when he was fighting goku
And goku matches those same punches, he eventually absorbs this same energy or power into his base form and now has that power in base meaning in base gokus universal+ in base...IN BASE.
Strength and durability:
Goku is able to easily lift and drag weights nearly the same size as buildings which is scary asf(this is before beerus shows up)
But the things goku lift are never stated he just lifts huge things without context lol
Goku is able to tank attacks that can destroy universes and even can withstand the gravitational pull of backhoes casually while damaged, backholes can destroy planets instantly meaning a weekend goku can withstand planet destroying attacks and he also casually compares the blackhole to bulmas gravity chamber
Stamina:
Goku has shown to get tired but after fighting for hours on end which means goku can fight for close to what seems like a day at best, we could use the hyperbolic time chamber as him fighting for a year but we simply don't actually know if goku fights the whole time while he is in there or not.
Goku based off of those feats alone would scale from
Low multiversal-low comp multiversal Infinite- irrelevant speed
With AP at universal+ Durability at universal-universal+
The fact that ppl truly think this is a debate is outrageous

In this I'll go over each characters feats and make sure this debate ends fairly on both sides. We will do both anime and manga interpretations, if anyone would like me to do only manga or only anime I'll be happy to do so. Without further or do let's get started:
Now this isn't to be a Gokutard or Goku d-rider but as of now Son Goku slams Saitama almost effortlessly, I'll explain.
We will be giving both of them all their abilities, power ups, and we will be using statements heavily (ofc we are using feats but to scale feats we need statements to back them up, not all the time necessarily, but in this case we do for context)
Saitama before he became the opm he was a regular human who simply worked out every single day until he became so powerful he could one punch any enemy
Some fans of the show take this way to literal as we've seen people who can tank hits from him like boros and garou. Saitama has only been shown to one shot enemies that are weaker than him since we know he has never shown his true power or speed at all in the first parts of the series and chapters of the manga.
People also misinterpret the statement of saitama breaking his limiter as a way of saying he now has no limits whatsoever, which was debunked heavily by lots of powerscalers, just because you break a limiter doesn't automatically make you limitless, we see characters like goku break their limiter multiple times but we know goku isn't limitless he just has limitless potential.
Saitama has alot of statements over feats especially in some of his first appearances, I feel like any sane person would understand that saitama can't actually one punch characters that are on his level or above his level.
Let's get into speed feats for saitama so we can start getting into the differences.
Saitamas moon feat where he jumps from the moon back to earth took him 1.5 seconds( which would mean he was moving at around 260,000km/s) only .2 off from the speed of light (which takes 1.3 seconds to get from the moon back to earth)
The distance between the moon and earth is approximately 384,400km (or 238,855 miles)
This would mean, not even at full power he was close to hitting the speed of light.
Let's move on to other speed feats, flashy flash stated that he has already met four people who surpassed him in speed including saitama and if the name didn't already give it away then yes in this moment saitama was moving faster than the speed of light, later down the line he fights cosmic garou which introduces some crazy speed feats
When him and garou was fighting he demonstrated some very fast fighting speed when he uses his omnidirectional punch, which took incredible speed this would put him at mftl and he could calc even higher when he simply farts to catch up to cosmic garou which would put him at mftl+ and he would cap at that.
Strength feats:
Saitama has alot of Strength feats
When saitama uses serious table flip he lifts the surface of Jupiter's moon and nearly destroys it which is impressive since this feat was performed outer space and can be calculated from moon level Strength to planet surface level Strength.
Power( including AP):
Saitama shows great power as he was able to sneeze and separate the gases of jupiter, which is a great and heavily impressive feat due to the fact that jupiter is is 11x bigger than earth and he was able to casually sneeze the gases away mind you ITS A SNEEZE. But sadly he didn't destroy the planet which can't be used to say he can sneeze planets away because that's not demonstrated.
Him and garous clashing destroyed multiple stars which would include the galaxies surrounding them, which could calc saitama and garou to multi galaxy level easily but they would cap at that, they have not demonstrated any further feats that put thm above that.
Durability and endurance(stamina):
Saitamas Durability is absolutely bonkers as he survived hits that could destroy the surface of planets and could also survive attacks that can destroy actual planets
When garou and saitama were clashing blast had to move them to the moon or else earth would be destroyed sadly that feat alone would put both of them at planetary but ofc they get more powerful and become multi galaxy.
Saitama was able to survive attacks such as gamma ray burst, collapsing star roaring cannon, etc.
Saitama is also able to continuously fight without showing any signs of being tired whatsoever as we see once garou gives up Saitama is still chilling ready for more and still has enough power left to live up to his name and simply go back in time to one punch garou before the punch even lands.
This is where we get into the true scaling of his power growth and "limitless potential"
A graph shows Saitamas growth compared to garous and it was stated that under intense emotion he grew exponentially in seconds, and no one could keep up with him or was on par with him.
This statement shows that saitama can grow endlessly under intense emotion but that statement tends to get overlooked by alot of saitama fans because they don't like to admit that saitama doesn't grow as he fights he grows depending on his emotions.
Therefore saitama would scale to
Galaxy-Multi galaxy level MFTL+
With moon level to planet surface level Strength and Between planetary and Galaxy level durability/AP
Time for son goku
Speed:
In the frieza saga goku was already thousands of times faster than light as we see he can handle burter and jiece as burter was stated to be "the fastest in the universe" and goku casually outscales him in speed.
Goku was also fast enough to one shot recoome before recomme even noticed he disappeared.
Skipping to the cell saga
Goku and cell were fighting so fast it was hard for the z fighters to keep up, as piccolo stated that he couldn't see them and in dragon ball we all understand the fights are slowed down so we can see what they are doing.
Jumping to super, goku fought hit who has the ability to manipulate time by skipping into the future goku was able to catch up to him and hit him, which can be calculated from infinite to immeasurable speed, since he is moving forward in time with just raw speed alone, he also was able to move in a area that has no time/space( Zeno destroys trunks timeline) which would require absurd amounts of speed
Power and AP:
Back to the frieza arc goku was able to best frieza who was destroying planets by creating supernova with a lift of his finger as we seen when he destroyed planet vegeta.
Frieza was also stated to have the power capable enough to destroy the universe which is inconsistent since we don't see him actually destroy the universe, and cell was also stating that he can destroy the whole solar system which is crazy already since solar systems are bigger than galaxies which means cell would be well than enough to take on saitama.
This shows that saitama wouldn't even get past cell😭 and thats before super perfect
Mind you cell stated that he has infinite or bottomless power and strength which can easily be misinterpreted as cell simply meant his energy not his actual power or strength, this means cell already has more stamina than saitama by an infinite amount
Back to goku
Goku was clashing fists with beerus that would destroy the entire macrocosm even though goku was simply nullifying beerus attacks by matching them so he wouldn't destroy the universe, elder kai stated that the Shockwaves were getting stronger but thats only cause gokus nullifying was losing its affect the further they went.
This is similar to how bulletproof glass stops a bullet, the glass simply nullifies the bullets affect.
The dragon ball macrocosm or universe is a infinite growing universe as its already infinite, this universe also has 7 infinite realms inside of it with the kaioshin realm and otherworldly being deemed as super transcendental or just superdimensional which means they transcend the casual time/space and live outside of it
With that being explained beerus could've destroyed all of that in a single punch if goku wasn't there mind you beerus wasn't at full power when he was fighting goku
And goku matches those same punches, he eventually absorbs this same energy or power into his base form and now has that power in base meaning in base gokus universal+ in base...IN BASE.
Strength and durability:
Goku is able to easily lift and drag weights nearly the same size as buildings which is scary asf(this is before beerus shows up)
But the things goku lift are never stated he just lifts huge things without context lol
Goku is able to tank attacks that can destroy universes and even can withstand the gravitational pull of backhoes casually while damaged, backholes can destroy planets instantly meaning a weekend goku can withstand planet destroying attacks and he also casually compares the blackhole to bulmas gravity chamber
Stamina:
Goku has shown to get tired but after fighting for hours on end which means goku can fight for close to what seems like a day at best, we could use the hyperbolic time chamber as him fighting for a year but we simply don't actually know if goku fights the whole time while he is in there or not.
Goku based off of those feats alone would scale from
Low multiversal-low comp multiversal Infinite- irrelevant speed
With AP at universal+ Durability at universal-universal+
The fact that ppl truly think this is a debate is outrageous

Myrnova asked for us to join her back at her shop until the feast, since she wanted to do some repairs and start getting things sorted for our departure. we joined her back at the shop and helped her get stuff sorted out around the shop before departure. she asked if there was anything else we needed to get repaired besides what we already left here earlier, to with i said "i may have a few things". i pulled out my storage device and started empty out all the weapons, armor, and ores i had into two piles, one small pile for repair and another large pile to be broken down for materials. Myrnova asked if I'd be able to help her carry her gear and such with my device, with i was going to offer anyway. she said it might take a few days to get everything repaired, broken down, reforged, and stored, to with we offered to help in whatever way we could. after we finished talking and closing up the shop for the day, we rejoined the people of the realm in a feast to celebrate our victory against the invaders. we told the people that we would be around for a few more days to resupply and help Myrnova get things sorted out before we all head out to our next destination. the next few days flew by as we rested up, visited the surrounding isles while helping with patrols, did some training to hone our skills, and various other things until Myrnova finished up in the shop. she not only repaired, but upgraded our equipment and even made a few new weapons, including a weapon for me that changes modes between a twisted blade sword to a duel bladed scythe. we gathered up all that remained and stored it away before going around and saying our goodbyes to the people of the realm. we gathered on the edge of the isle and i told the group to save their energy for when we need it, so I'll carry us to were the space between realms is with Xeyu's directions. i begin a draw energy in for the transformation as the rest of the group waved goodbye once more to the one seeing us off. i didn't think I'd have enough room to transform where we stood, so i stepped off the isle and transformed in mid-air, shortly followed by the rest of the group jumping down and landing on my back. Xeyu pointed me in the direction we needed to go and off we went toward our new destination.
we were ready to see what was to come next and full of hope that we could continue to save one world after another. after we had been flying for some time, Xeyu seem to be perplexed, asking if we could stop for a moment. Xeyu was having trouble locking down where the space between the realms leading to the next crest bearer, going by the theory that there may have been a shift when we sealed up the tear. for now we will have to go through another realm's rift get access to the one we seek. after some discussion, we decided this shouldn't be a real problem, since our goal is to stop the invading forces across all the realms, so we'll start with a few before we can get to our next member. Xeyu refocused in on the closest spot to access to another realm and guided me to the location. Xeyu explained to us that even though there is an access point we can rift through, we still don't know what awaited us on the other side, so we should be ready for anything. i asked if I'd have to change back before we go through, but Xeyu explained that since it's not a rift between a collapsed realm, we'd be going straight through. Xeyu focused in and formed a crack in space large enough for me to fly through to the other side and made sure we were ready before pulling open the crack to form the rift and had me fly through, quickly closing it up behind us. as we looked upon the world we entered, we were stunned, seeing the world had already started a full blown war against the demonic invading forces. we had no time to lose, as i told everybody to hold on while i went into a nose drive toward a large group of demons. when we were close to striking distance i told them to release, at the same time transforming back into my normal form and drawing out my new weapon. enemy forces flew back from the impact of our landings, as we each instantly leaped into battle. we battle on for hours, wiping out the invaders by the thousands, but still saw no end in sight to the forces before us. Myrnova and Xeyu noticed something strange in the distance as they fought off flying forces. we turned all our attention toward what they saw, as i cleared a path the best i could at that moment with a dragon fire blast. when we got over to that location, we noticed a familiar sight but worse, 3 tears in space where the forces were coming out. Xeyu quickly asked us each to block a tear, as they try to seal them up, one at a time. we each took a position at a tear, fighting off not only the enemies coming out of the tears, but also the forces coming in from behind. one by one, Xeyu sealed up each tear, getting more skilled with each time, while gaining better understanding of the space around them. even after sealing those tears in space up, more demons kept flowing in from behind us. we took to the air in search of more tears in space, in which we found several. we followed a similar plan as the others, guard and seal, until we eventually had them all sealed up and the forces before us until we cleared the battlefield. we were rather confused though by the fact there were no residential forces to be seen anywhere, as i questioned if they might have passed away or are held up somewhere. for the time it did not matter, we needed to keep moving toward and after a quick rest, Xeyu found us our next rift. we kept in mind that this may be a long journey before we reach our next goal, at which point we walked through the rift to the next world.
for several more realms we went through similar events, talking to the people, fighting for our common cause, few place siding with the other side. as we worked our way through these worlds, we collected and studied numerous things from each, adapting with what we learned along the way. we managed to get several storage devices similar to mine made on one of the worlds to make it easier for each of us. each time we sealed up a tear in a world, our path toward our goal shifted in location. we encountered more empty worlds and started to concluded that these may be use by the enemy for mass deployment. we had a few near death encounters along the why, as we fought against gods of some realms, but in the end we were still victorious. we got blessing from beings that we freed from corruption, weather that was by cleansing or death. at some point during this journey we lost track of how many worlds we went through and started to question how many more are to come. Xeyu skills by this point had increased to point where they developed a mental map of where each realm we've gone through, including access shifts from sealing tears, but we were still having problems getting to where we wanted to go. finally we landed on a world that didn't have us entering into a battle, well at least with evil forces, as we were surrounded mere moments after arriving here. we told them we meant no harm and only wish to help those of this world fight off the evil in these world. it was at this moment they informed us that there was no evil in this world and they wanted to know how we got here. we voluntarily went with them back to their fortress, along the way answering various questions and getting answers to some of ours. as we approached the fortress, Xeyu started to act a little strange before asking a question that concerned them "is there a gate here?", to with they responded "how do you know that?". we arrived at the fortress and got escorted straight to their leader, at which point we talked back and forth for hours, resting up and eating a proper meal for the first time in a while. Xeyu explained somethings about their ability and in exchange the leader showed us to the gateway. they explained that until we arrived, this was the only way in or out of their world, which is why it's so heavy guarded. they told us that this gate lends to the cosmic mountain crossroads, so we may be able to find a way to where we wanted to go. we thanked them as we explained that we were looking for that exact location, mentioning our crests again, to with they mentioned an enchanter of sorts having a mark that looked similar. with this we had our way, a few clues to follow when we got there and with this we stepped through the gate to cosmic mountain crossroads.

Problem: I struggle to think of things I want to do in D&D
Things I think are contributing to this (but if you think there's something else please ask/tell!): - Lack of experience making characters: Usually I mold myself to the most interesting set of characteristics based on my limitations. With D&D there is no limitations, so it's hard for me to pick since it's hard for me to pick one thing over another since there's examples of me having fun with any sort of character in some video game/media. Trying to make a character based off myself is hard because I usually view myself as the most boring person since I am myself all day everyday - I don't know what I want to do in D&D: Probably ties in with character creation & the character's motivation, but I as a player don't know what I want to do. It also makes it very hard that I really really enjoy just sitting around relaxing while people are doing stuff. However if I am doing that I may as well just watch critical role or something. I'm trying to get creative and interact with the world with my friends since I know it is possible to get to something that is significantly more fun than just watching people do stuff - Overly afraid of taking up too much time/making decisions that force players to go a certain way: No one has every been bothered by me taking up too much time, rather they are bothered by my lack of doing anything. They try to be supportive, but there's always part of me that worries too much that it'll make it a bad/boring experience for others. It's not like super massive anxiety like I used to, but there's this lingering feeling of "Uuugh... I reaaally don't want to deal with that right now. I just wanna chill" sort of vibes
Summary of Experiences if you want context on my experience with D&D: - 1st and current Campaign gone on for 4 years once every week: Started off trying to be a Paladin because I wanted to fill the tank & healer roles, not realizing that's really not that important in D&D. Though since it was Paladin, I kinda went full on lawful good paladin, so I was probably putting a lot more restrictions on myself that I didn't need to do. Later was more neutral good due to the rest of the party kinda resembling an loot goblin type party, and it is kinda hard to justify their actions (which also made me feel a bit out of place) After a while after taking a large risk in a dangerous zone, my character got turned into a Hydra (and then later on full on multi-headed dragon and stuff for other reasons). Everyone loves the fact that it's a big ol' dragon and stuff, however after a while it feels like the hydra thing is a crutch, and that it's gotten repetitive at this point since there's not much else to the character than that. Don't think it's a problem, but I do remember old power gamey member (who later left for reasons) being jealous of how strong the hydra was, and being mad at me for not using it's power to just destroy everything. Then my DM was also very confused why I am so afraid to initiate combat with anything. I just don't want to get into combat fights if it means one of my team members might die, especially since I find RP type alternatives much more interesting most of the time. Combat still fun though, it's a nice little break from all the RP stuff. Longer fights do end up feeling like just doing spreadsheets though, and they do tend to make me get a little too relaxed that I start to get very sleepy Recently I've tried to make a more normal character that is just an artificer armorer that wants to research the world, but I realized just how absolute trash I am at making characters once I gave it a few test runs. Even though it's the same level, it's interesting going from my OP other character that has gotten power ups for doing certain things, and being rich from hoarding thousands of gold (since I'm afraid to spend it on anything, or nothing interests me enough to buy), to going to a character that does like 1/3 the damage of other characters and 10 gold. That said, really makes me realize I really can't care about how strong/weak my characters are at all. Again, makes me feel out of place among my loot-goblin party members

• 2nd Campaign was probably half a year: Smallest group of players generally just 2 players for most sessions, but sometimes it got up to 4-5 players. I also attempted to make a jerk kobold character to contrast the character from my first campaign. Couldn't really keep up the rude persona though, and turned more into the guy that has a good heart but is rough around the edges sort of deal by the end of the campaign (also my IRL personality started seeping into the character more as time went on. Part of that was because of all the puzzles that I loved making me have to think really hard). Though sometimes I wonder if I should count this because this was a D&D session in VR where everyone was doing voices and doing poses. We'd play in a D&D map with miniatures, dice rollers, and the DM would draw things to give a better idea of what is happening in the world, and he was very experimental and it was awesome. That said, makes me wonder if it being in VR biased my experience to love this campaign so much. At that point you're basically just LARPing
  
• Various 1 shot campaigns: With random people, but with only one friend in common, it was really hard for anyone to get any sort of good chemistry with each other so it pretty bad
  

Any questions or suggestions?

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 217] [Chapter Index and Blurb] [Chapter 219 June 11 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.
***
Ginger makes an offer to Lakadara. The rest of Telkandra's remaining brood discuss the fate of their allies.
“Not good?” Sara asked as Helias strode into the tent and made his way straight to the bottle of wine.
“Not good,” Helias muttered.
Sara nodded woodenly. “Privacy spell?
The tauroll waved his sheathed Fangroar and after pouring himself and his wife a drink, sat down. “We’re safe. Oh Galena, this is really not good.”
“How dead are we?” Sara asked, her tone light.
“We’re not dead. We’re just in a lot of danger and even if we somehow force the humans to retreat, we’ve lost this war,” said Helias.
“Explain.”
Helias drank deep, noting that Sara was also drinking deep as well. “Thorgoth is going after the humans. That part of the plan is as good as it gets. We’ll be attacking them, and using the dragons, whilst our forces hold off Titania. Our objectives are also well-chosen.” Helias buried his head into his hands and let out a deep groan. “But winning this doesn’t change anything.”
“If we can defeat the humans, why won’t that change anything?” Sara bit her lip. “Unless it renders us unable to beat Titania?”
“Yes. Even on the chance we beat the humans we won’t be able to invade them, we won’t be able to defeat Titania. We’d be at a stalemate and both armies would have to withdraw.” His hands dropping to the table, Helias stared at his wife. “And we don’t have any reserves left. We’re going to lose the war, even if Thorgoth lives.”
“If we defeat the humans—”
The general shook his head. “By defeat, I mean we’ll hurt them but we can’t prevent them from withdrawing. We might kill a few of their leaders, their important mages and Otherworlders, but they will still have soldiers. After coming so close, they won’t surrender. They’ll keep attacking until they kill enough of Thorgoth and Berengaria’s supporters that nobody will help them, or until both of them die.”
“Alright so, what do we do?” Sara asked. Helias looked at his wife, noting how still she sat. Her wings were clamped tight to her back and her lips were drawn tight.
“Sara, I don’t have good answers.”
Sara steepled her trembling fingers as best she could. “They’re going to be better than mine. I don’t know anything about war.”
“Right. Well, you need to surrender to the humans if you are captured. Present yourself as a non-combatant. Cry, scream, anything to declare that you don’t mean any harm,” Helias said.
“Why not Titania?” Sara asked.
“She has every incentive to kill you off and far less compunction about doing so. Killing our family off would allow her to have more land to give away to her loyalists. In contrast, the humans have Erlenberg troops fighting with them along with those of the Lightning Battalion. They’re going to be far more friendly to Alavari civilians,” Helias said.
Soft hands, grabbed onto Helias’s waist with a surprisingly firm grip. “What about you? I can get away, but how are you going to survive this?”
“I don’t know. I—”
“Don’t you dare! Our daughter needs her father and I need my husband!”
The general stared at his wife. “Sara, I can’t surrender to the humans if we win. They want me dead.”
Sara refilled Helias’s glass. “Then you need to help Thorgoth defeat them.”
“Then what? We’re never winning this war. Thorgoth is going to be invaded and—”
Cutting him off with the clink of her goblet against the table, Sara hissed, “And what? Why think that far? We can plan for that after this battle, so long as you are still here and with me.”
Letting out a breath Helias pushed his hair back and allowed himself a sigh. Reaching across the table, he took his wife’s hand.
“Sara, you’re right, but you know you can escape this if Thorgoth is defeated.”
The harorc placed her other hand on top of his. “We’re partners. I need you. We need you. So promise me that you’ll do your damndest to live.”
Helias closed his eyes and nodded. “I promise. First things first, before we turn in we need to talk to the dragons.”
***
Fennokra stalked slowly toward the camp. This wasn’t the collapsed side-passage where she and Yolandra had some privacy. This was the main camp where Thorgoth and their army were preparing for what had to be the final battle.
It was also where her siblings were swallowing the last of what seemed to be a side of salted pork.
“Velkandra, Makentra, we need to talk.”
Their second-eldest sister licked her lips, her neck rising to Fennokra’s level. “I am assuming you mean in private?”
“Of course.” Fennokra could see Velkandra’s haunches tensing to raise herself higher. Her sister was trying to look down on her. Allowing her head to dip, she held her height.
“Alright.” Velkandra flicked her tail and Makentra, licking his lips, followed them.
Since their enemies had set up their siege camp behind them, the Alavari camp had been reduced in size. Still, there was the alcove of the collapsed tunnel. Whilst couriers and soldiers crossed across this natural cavern to the defenses on the other side, they kept a good distance away.
Yolandra was waiting for them, scratching something into the cave wall. Fennokra let out a rumble in her throat and her sister turned from the wall suddenly, shaking her head.
“Velkandra, Mankentra—”
Velkandra puffed a cloud of smoke out. “What’s this all about?” she hissed, lips drawn back to show teeth.
Fennokra took a step away from her sister to take Yolandra’s side, her eyes narrowed. “Are you joking? Do you not think we should at least discuss what is going on?”
“And what would be the point? It is a bit late to be having this discussion. The course of the winds have been chosen,” said Velkandra.
Yolandra rose to her full height on her four legs, but even so she was still shorter than the silent Makendra. “The winds can be fickle, Velkandra, and where we are is proof.”
Velkandra pursed her lips, eyes for the first time, looking toward the ground. “The survival of our family is tied to that of Thorgoth. To abandon him would be death by the hand of the Stormcaller and her allies or by his hand.”
“Besides, if we were to abandon Thorgoth’s cause, that would be dishonorable. We promised to assist him,” said Makendra.
Fennokra blinked at her brother’s tone. It was quiet and yet there was a touch of a deep growl to his voice. His claws were ever so slightly digging into the ground.
“We are dragons. We can think and make decisions for ourselves. We are allowed to consider other options, are we not?” Fennokra asked.
Velkandra’s tail flicked violently side to side as her neck turned to her younger sibling. “Then why does it sound as if you wish to follow in the wingbeats of our elder sister?”
“Who we killed. I was there. I lost a claw striking her down!” Fennokra raised one clawed hand, flexing the remaining digits.
“On that, why did we have to kill Lakadara?”
All golden eyes fixed on Yolandra, who held the gaze of her siblings with a contemptuous scowl.
“Lakadara betrayed us,” said Velkandra, almost growling.
“I’ve been thinking over what happened. Lakadara said nothing about betraying our mother. She merely was questioning if Thorgoth was trustworthy,” Yolandra said.
A scowl flaring his nostrils, Makentra growled. “He fed us, trained us in how the humans and their allies fought. Hid us from their eyes—”
“And now Caldra is dead!” Yolandra exclaimed.
“Which is why we must kill the Stormcaller and her friends! So we can avenge him and our mother!” Velkandra almost completely unfurled her wings. Only the tips slapping the stone forced her to pull them back.
“Then what?” Yolandra asked.
Velkandra frowned. “Then what? We’d have our revenge—”
Yolandra’s tail cracked against the ground. “Then what? You all must have heard of what Thorgoth is capable of. What he’s done to others.”
Makentra rolled his eyes. “Sara’s story is just a story. She might have been just trying to turn you.”
“She was honest and she is not the only tale I’ve heard. You must have heard rumors of what Thorgoth did to his own son, Teutobal,” said Fennokra.
“Propaganda,” Velkandra hissed through her gritted teeth, while smoke wafted through the gaps. “In any case, we have no other option. We fight or we die.”
Fennokra, her claws grinding against the floor, had had enough.
“Velkandra, Makentra, have you ever considered that Thorgoth is perhaps using us for his own goals? We have not even considered what he might do to us after we’ve destroyed the humans and their allies. How do we know the Stormcaller and her allies might treat us better? Besides in the first place, she never intended to kill our mother—”
Fennokra blinked. She was flying backwards, something hard was bearing her into the wall. Dizzy as if struck by one of the Stormcaller’s spells, she realized that the force was the foreclaws of her elder sister. Mad rage lit those golden eyes that were the exact same shade as hers. Horrified, Fennokra tried to throw Velkandra off, but her sister was larger and heavier than her.
“Say that again. I dare you to say that again—ARGH!”
Velkandra rolled off, forced off of Fennokra by the Yolandra shoving into her side. As the elder dragon recovered, the smallest of Telkandra’s brood hissed, “It’s the truth! You are a fool to deny it!”
An ugly sneer on her lips, wings quivering with fury, Velkandra snorted. “The truth? Oh right so we are speaking the truth then. Well here’s the truth. Our kind is doomed!”
Makentra blinked. “Sister?”
“Of course Thorgoth is going to get rid of us or try to after this campaign. He has to, but right now he needs us and that’s what we need to rely on until we gain more strength. Of course, whether he wins or the Stormcaller’s allies win, how can we expect to survive in a world dominated by these lesser species hm? How could they ever not see us as a threat?”
Velkandra stalked toward the wide-eyed Fennokra and Yoandra. Her head turned side to side as she fixed her sisters with wild wide eyes.
“Well? Tell me Fennokra. Speak the truth Yolandra. Or are you both too afraid to admit that our kind are doomed and the only thing is to live as long as we can and hopefully avenge those that hurt us as we do so.”
“You’d have us fly to our deaths?” Makentra asked.
The stammering voice brought Velkandra around. Extending a wing, she touched its tip to her brother’s. “I would at least have us fly together.”
Fennokra shook her head. “We’d knowingly fly with a murderer of children and someone who would want to kill us after we’ve stopped being helpful to him.”
“And we have no other options,” said Makentra. Letting out a breath, he rose to his claws and walked away. “I’ll see you tomorrow, sisters.”
Velkandra, without another word, turned for the exit. “You know it’s true, Fennokra, Yolandra.”
Fennokra closed her eyes. Yolandra, though, narrowed hers. “Doesn’t change that Lakadra’s blood is on our claws.”
Velkandra flinched and left. She strode away so quickly she nearly stepped on Helias and Sara as they came to the cave. She gave the pair no acknowledgement other than a growl.
“See you tomorrow, General,” said Makentra, his tone curt. “We will talk to King Thorgoth ourselves for the plan’s details.”
“Of course,” said Helias. He bowed as the pair left before turning to Yolandra and Fennokra. “I believe we missed something important?”
“Be honest, General Helias. Even if we succeed tomorrow, your king has no use for us after we help him kill the Stormcaller, am I correct?” Fennokra asked.
Sara and Helias didn’t say anything. Their slight move to stand closer so they could hold hands was enough.
“I thought so,” said Fennokra. She let out a sigh and glanced at Yolandra, who nodded. “We will be on the battlefield tomorrow. Where are we going?”
“You’re going with me. We’re attacking the forces sallying from Kairon-Aoun. The plan is that you dragons breathe flame over their army to soften them before we attack.
“Understood. Any questions Fennokra?” Yolandra asked.
Fennokra shook her head. What could be asked anyway?”
Yolandra flashed the pair a joyless smile. “For what it is worth, you two have been good caretakers to us. Even if it was to preserve your own lives.”
Helias didn’t bow. Instead he extended a hand. Yolandra stared at him, but Fennokra, recognizing the gesture, extended a single talon.
“May you always be able to see the sun.” At the dragon’s blink, Helias smiled. “It’s an Alavari saying. It may come from when we used to be enslaved by the Goblin Empire. It means good luck.”
Yolandra nodded and Fennokra found herself smiling.
“Our mother taught us a saying as well. May you never fly alone. I wish that for you both,” said Fennokra.
“Thank you,” said Sara in a quiet voice. She curtsied and the two dragons dipped their heads. They watched Helias and Sara leave with placid smiles.
Then, when nobody was looking, they turned from the entrance to hide their bulks as best they could. The gloomy light of the alcove their only curtain of privacy.
***
Frances slowed slightly as they approached Lakadara’s enclosure. However, Ginger did not slow down.
“Hold on, Ginger, what’s the plan?” Frances asked.
Adjusting her new crown mid-stride, Ginger said, “I’ll show you. I’m certain it’ll work, though.”
Frances’ eyebrows rose. “Is that crown getting to your head already?”
The new Queen of Erisdale flashed a slightly nervous grin over her shoulder. “Yes actually, but I think that’s a good thing in some way. Don’t you?”
Frances found herself nodding. It was strange to see her friend even more confident than usual and so comfortable in the regal crown that she wore atop of a standard Lightning Battalion light blue uniform. Yet she rather enjoyed the new gait that Ginger had.
“I do.” Frances smirked. “Your Majesty.”
Ginger rolled her eyes. “Fuck you.”
Giggling, Frances stopped herself as they drew even closer to Lakadara. The dragon was drawing herself up, placing her massive foreclaws over each other.
“Lakadara. I am Ginger, the new Queen of Erisdale. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
The dragon coughed, blowing out a puff of smoke. “Greetings Ginger, Queen of Erisdale. I’m sorry for your predecessor’s demise.” Lakadara’s golden eyes narrowed. “Why are you here?”
Ginger dipped her head. “Thank you and as to why I’m here. I have a proposition. If you accept it, I will grant you and your kin, the domain of the Erisdalian mountains marked by the Kwent River Valley, Freeburg and Athelda-Aoun as your home in perpetuity, so long as you do not attack humans unless in self-defense.”
“I am unfamiliar with human geography. From the Stormcaller’s expression, I assume that is a lot.”
Frances swallowed and closed her mouth, but she didn’t question her friend. Ginger, still smiling slyly, nudged her. “It is. Frances, can you lend me a hand here?”
Nodding, Frances closed her eyes and imagined a rough map of Erisdale and its territories. With a wave of Ivy’s Sting she created an image of Erisdale, highlighting in red the expanse of the mountains that bordered Alavaria and Erisdale. The area that Ginger had described sketched a rough red triangle between the three points. It was a fairly sizeable area with a low and Alavari human population.
“My husband is in negotiations with Queen Titania and I’ll have to talk to Frances and Prince Timur, but we are quite certain that Athelda-Aoun will also be included in this area,” Ginger said.
Lakadara’s golden eyes were flickering as she examined the land. Suddenly, she turned, long neck arching toward the Erisdalian Queen. “And what must I do? Fight on your kingdom’s behalf?”
Ginger shook her head. “No.”
“No?”
“Nope. If you would like to do so we can renegotiate the agreement, but my husband and I fully intend to grant you this land.”
The dragon’s tail lifted up as her eyes narrowed. “Explain yourself and the favor you seek. This is far too generous.”
“Let me explain myself first. If what I’m told by my experts is correct, you can lay eggs by yourself without a mate, but it takes time right? A few decades?”
“Yes. Still, that doesn’t explain—”
“Here me out. This war is going to end. We may lose, but if we win, banishing you to the north is making you Queen Titania’s problem and she’ll have more than enough problems to deal with. You might just end up coming south again and we know how that ended. I’d prefer to avoid that so that means we need to make an agreement. You need a new home and I need peace for Erisdale. If the kingdom has to give up some poor agricultural land then I’m all for it.”
The dragon nodded. “I see, but why so much land? Why not just give me a cave? Or request my service as Thorgoth did?”
“And how will you eat? Hunt? Where will your grown children go? I’m making an agreement that will last for decades, not just a few years. As for service? I was tempted, but you wouldn’t agree to that anyway and why should you? We haven’t given you any reason to agree.” Ginger gave Frances a wave to dispel the map. “Maybe in the future we can work something out, especially if the dragon population increases. Your service in return for more food, but again, I want to start us off on the right path, not the left path.”
“Left path?” Lakadara asked.
“Erisdalian expression. It means the wrong path,” Frances said helpfully.
Lakadara nodded slowly. “You still ask for a boon, though.”
Ginger nodded. “Yes. I want you to speak to your siblings. Before the upcoming battle starts, tell them of my deal with you. So long as they choose to accept that deal and defect, then I will have it so our forces will not hurt them. After that, you may leave. I will not request you to fight with us.”
“You want me to show myself to Thorgoth? To the siblings that tried to kill me?” Lakadara asked, mouth agape.
Ginger stepped closer to the dragon, who lifted her head away from the queen. “I want you to save your siblings. I want you to save yourself from becoming the last purple dragon in existence. I would rather you not be alone, stewing in hatred for my kingdom and our allies who brought down your family, even if we had just cause. I want peace. What do you want?”
“How do I know I can trust you?” The dragon suddenly grimaced. “Ah, right, you want a lasting peace. You have every reason to want peace.”
Ginger, arms crossed tapped her foot. Frances could see how stiff her friend was, but the action was also comforting. That her magic-less friend had such control over the situation, despite being faced with the dragon was rather…badass.
Letting out a puff of smoke that slowly drifted into the cavern, the dragon pondered the queen’s proposal. Frances held her breath and yet the dragon remained silent, only her tail moving from side to side.
Ginger waited, still content to wait for the dragon’s answer. Frances couldn’t. The tension coiled in her chest, waiting to explode.
“Lakadara, what do you want for your future?” Frances asked.
The dragon glanced at Frances, golden eyes wide. She turned back to Ginger, who continued to stand tall, awaiting Lakadara’s answer patiently.
“I accept your offer, and your promise for the future,” said Lakadara, dipping her head.
“We are glad that you wish the same as we do,” said Ginger. She extended her hand and Lakadara, took her claw and put the tip of it on the queen’s palm.
*Author’s Note: Queenly Ginger was really neat to write 😀 *

True Name: Sakamoto Ryouma
Class: Lancer
Source: Historical fact
Region: Japan
Gender: Male
Alignment: True Neutral
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 72 kg
Character Creator: Keikenchi
Character Design: pako
Character Voice: Kase Yasuyuki & Horie Yui
Appearance in Main Works: Fate/Grand Order

Strength: B	Endurance: C	Agility: B+
Magic: C	Luck: A-	Noble Phantasm: EX

Class Skills

Magic Resistance: C+
When Super Oryou gets serious, Oryou's hide prove quite the magical barrier, Ryouma!
Riding: EX
A special Riding Skill given to Ryouma for crossing the Bakumatsu period Japan riding the dragon that is the changing eras. It's a Skill exclusive for riding Oryou, existing separately from other Riding variants.

Personal Skills

Dragon of the Restoration: A
The man called a mystical dragon in a human body. His fleeting life briming of pride, crossing the Bakumatsu period Japan riding the dragon that is the changing eras solely for the sake of the people, was like a soaring dragon.
White Serpent of Takachiho: A-
The serpent who failed to become a dragon. The serpent, initially a black abomination held in contempt, aimed for the heavens in attempt to become a dragon, but ultimately, the serpent couldn't manage it.
Amanosakahoko (Pair): B
The pike of light fallen handle-first from heaven. The spear of the heavenly gods, which sewn together heaven and earth to seal the black abomination. Originally a single polearm, but taking the form of pair when weilded by the hero and the serpent.
The pike of light fallen handle-first from heaven is both a blessing and a curse.

Noble Phantasm

Ryuu yo, Wadatsumi no Hara wo Yuke (My dear, venture through the vast oceans)

Rank: EX	Type: Anti-Army Noble Phantasm
Range: 2-70	Max. Targets: 700 persons

By offering the Amanosakahoko that Ryouma pointed at the heavens, the black serpent sheds her skin and grows wings, becoming a white serpent of such beauty that she could be mistaken for a divine dragon.
Clad in radiant-white arcanity from the Age of Gods, the White Serpent of Takachiho exerts tremendous power. This form possesses physical abilities beyond comprehension and can deploy a sturdy physical barrier, preventing any mediocre attack from hurting her, potentially making her the god of the new era.
Instead of becoming a dragon and soaring the skies, she chose to be the serpent travelling the sea with the hero.
Pronouns (Ryouma)

• First person: Boku/washi (in Tosa Dialect Mode)
• Second person: Kimi/oman (in Tosa Dialect Mode)
• Third person: Kare/kanojo
• Master: Master

Pronouns (Oryou-san)

• First person: Oryou-san
• Second person: Omae/name without honorifics
• Third person: Koitsu/are
• Master: Ningen/omae

Personality

Pretty much the same as a Rider. Oryou hasn't changed either.

Motives and attitude toward the Master

He wishes for his relationship with his Master to be like that between two friends from the same town. Oryou is relatively fond of them and doesn't mind helping out every now and then.

Dialogue examples

• Ryouma: "Let's get washing them all away, then." Oryou: "I'll scrub them hard."
• Oryou: "Yaaay. Oryou-san turbo peace."
• Ryouma: "Oh? Time for the Kaientai to go all out?" Oryou: "Right... Ryuu yo, Wadatsumi no Hara wo Yuke"
• Oryou: "Done. Time for Oryou's victory peace. You do it too, Ryouma." Ryouma: "L-like this?" Ryouma & Oryou: "Yaaay!"
• Oryou: "I am the White Serpent of Takachiho. For thy offerings, some frogs would be welcomed." Ryouma: "Hahaha, you can't keep a solemn face either, Oryou."
• Oryou: "Fine, I can let Izou ride the tip of my tail." Ryouma: "Make sure not to drop him."
• Oryou: "Now that you're a Lancer with no divinity, we can kick that Archer's butt. Good job, Ryouma. We're having frogs for dinner tonight." Ryouma: "I wish it were that easy."

Historical character and figure

A loyalist living through Japan's Bakumatsu. Born from a country samurai family in Tosa, he deserted his fief, studied under Katsu Kaishu, founded the Kameyama Shachuu (which would later become the Kaientai), intermediated the Satsuma-Choushuu Alliance, and devoted himself to the restoration of imperial rule, overall contributing a lot to the Meiji Restoration. However, his ideals fell to assailant's blade, thus he never got to see the age of Meiji.

Character in Fate/Grand Order

An aloof man on his mid-20s appearance-wise. He may be a master of the Hokushin Ittouryuu, but he’s actually a kindhearted guy who dislikes conflict to his very core. Instead, the mysterious belle by his side will take the lead.
His default Class is Rider, but circumstances lead to this manifestation of him as a Lancer.
This form, in possessing of the Amanosakahoko and one of the Three Knight Classes of the Holy Grail War, is a what-if possibility that Sakamoto Ryouma could have attained, and a Servant powerful enough to uphold the reputation of Hero of the Restoration.
If Sakamoto Ryouma is summoned as Heroic Spirit, he's restricted to only getting either the polearm or the serpent as a Noble Phantasm. That goes to show how much of miracle it is that he is capable of using both.
He is a master of the Hokushin Ittouryuu and his swordsmanship is a force to be reckoned with, but the course he practiced was for the naginata, so the Lancer class is where he can best put his prowess to work. In addition, Super Oryou is bursting with power. Together, they're an invincible Kaientai.

Regular weapons

• Ryouma: Amanosakahoko (because he snapped it in two, he has the ability to split it into two spears). Super Ryouma Gun (can switch into Sniper Mode). "And dontcha forget mah Mutsu-no-Kami Yoshiyuki¹".
• Oryou: Hyper Power-Up Oryou Martial Arts and easily spammable beams of something unknown.

Related characters

Okada Izou
His best friend in their town. He wanted to stay best friends but their relationship never recovered from their split. After an incident where he got punched, they managed to return to their nostalgic ways.
Takechi Hanpeita
Former fellows who split off due to ideological differences. Takechi holds Ryouma in such regard that he believes Ryouma's presence would have spared the Tosa Imperialist Party from its failures. After an incident where they got punched, they managed to return to their previous ways.
Tanaka Shinbei
Takechi's right-hand man. In life, Shinbei kept Ryouma away from Takechi. He was probably annoyed at the faith Takechi had in Ryouma.
Nakaoka Shintarou
"It wounds me to disagree with Nakaoka in a discussion. Nonetheless, if I can't discuss with him, there is no one else worth discussing with."²
While Ryouma was frequently suspected, he was trusted by everyone. He and Ryouma compensated for what the other lacked.
Takasugi Shinsaku
They share mutual respect, with Ryouma acknowledging Takasugi as The Unicorn Prodigy and Takasugi acknowledging Ryouma as the Dragon Soaring the Skies. They also envy each other, believing one has what the other lacks.
Voyager
Ryouma can't hide his excitement about a rocket that can fly to space. Oryou gets competitive and begins an irregular training regime to fly to space.

Comments from the illustrator

Have a nice triiiiiiiip!!! Feels great to see those two having fun. I can hope they don't break any property or any debt-ridden alcoholic anywhere they go, but I know that's not a realistic expectation. (pako)

Translation notes

1. Sakamoto Ryouma's favorite katana. The same he uses in his Rider version.
2. Historical quote from the real Sakamoto Ryouma.

Koby future progression in the marines
First I would like to say that in my opinion the marines can’t do anything or pose a threat to anyone at the moment. People are saying the marines will fight the world government but I can’t see them posing a threat.
Right now the world government have the seraphim, the mother flame which is hinted at being the fuel for Uranus, the holy knights which only interact when it’s absolutely needed. They didn’t even react when saint charlos got beat up twice. The 5 elders and anyone who is pro celestial dragon and those fodder knights at maryjoa.
Whilst the marines have one conflicted admiral being kizaru, akainu, greenbull, fujitora and not worthy of mentioning as of 1115 vice admirals and other marines.
There are also powerful forces such as cross guild, strawhats, Blackbeard pirates, red haired pirates and the revolutionaries.
The marines alone aren’t beating any of these forces. I can’t see the marines beating strawhats, obvious reasons, failed against blackbeards crew and even lost Garp (can’t see them doing another rescue arc atleast by themselves), shanks crew is a force the marines do not want to mess with and they shown that at wano and marineford, I can’t see the marines winning against Crossguild without the strawhats involvement due to mihawk being apart of it.
Now this brings me to the title of this post, Koby progressing in the marines. Koby realistically has no chance of ranking from captain to even vice admiral if these people are all the endgame people left around. Koby is apart of sword but he also has the hero title so just like Blackbeard said he wouldn’t get fired just because he got captured. But being part of sword might also slow down progress as they could be fired at any moment (that’s just an idea tho).
The fact Koby got the hero title during the timeskip, I believe that the next progression after being a hero would be becoming a vigilante. And to be fair Koby did join sword which is basically a vigilante corps as they are people who are marines but can fight whoever they want. I believe Koby will stay in the marines but still board the strawhats ship. This will allow him to fight stronger opponents whilst doing his marine duties such as making arrests. This would therefore make him a true vigilante.
Koby future opponents, out of all the people I mentioned Koby would have a reason to meet/fight them.
First Blackbeard pirates, Koby has history with them easily, I believe Koby will fight Kuzan, it would show koby has reached the strength of an admiral and it will be like how luffy defeated kaido showing his strength. Both of garps disciples, it would be kinda like a garp vs kuzan rematch but garp(Koby in this scenario) would not be distracted by the other blackbeard pirates as the strawhats would be dealing with them. Like i said before the Marines are not going alone like last time as they lost Garp, sword’s strongest force.
Next Crossguild, I can’t see the marines winning against Crossguild due to one reason being mihawk. Crossguild are the marines biggest threat but because mihawk is zoros endgame opponent I cant see Crossguild losing to the marines if Zoro is not even in attendance. This means that Koby/marines would need to team up with the strawhats at one point to take them down as Zoro vs mihawk is destined to happen. Koby meeting Alvida again would be good to see, I also saw somewhere that ussop would get his final bounty by defeating buggy.
Then red haired pirates crew, this is the crew that saved Koby from akainu. I believe Koby has some respect towards the red haired pirates. The same kinda respect that he has towards luffy. This means luffy and Koby both have ties toward shanks in a way. So unless the strawhats battle the red haired, I can’t really see Koby fighting.
The strawhats, as we can see on egghead the marines can’t do nothing to them with luffy toying with an admiral.
The last endgame opponent for the marines/koby would be the world government, I believe Koby will fight warcury the god of justice and change how the justice of the marines and the world in general with it being honest/true justice. Warcury also has a strong body, so Koby vs him will test and improve the strength of his fist. Koby will be able to address kuzan and warcury flaws with their justice and succeed as Garps pupil and the best way to do is to join the strawhats.
Currently the marines justice right now is called absolute justice and most base marines follow it. Once the world government is defeated I believe Koby will reform the marines with his justice being honest/true justice which means something on the lines of the marines use their own judgement to judge who is the true enemy is. This type of justice would also reduce stuff like racism within the marines and government.
After the marines after reformed, fujitora would become the next fleet admiral as akainu justice would be rejected and he would probably be kicked out due to killing multiple allies. Koby, maybe smoker and someone else would become the new admirals following the new justice created in the marines.
About helmeppo, helmeppp father was captain before being taken in. Morgan was a follower of absolute justice, whilst helmeppo will be a follower of honest/true justice. Koby will board the strawhats as helmeppo becomes captain, therefore Koby entrust his ship and crew to helmeppo who takes his place for the time being. This will also mirror the first meeting as Koby stopped being a pirate and joined the marines branch which was under captain morgan. Then Koby will join pirates whilst leaving his team in a captain helmeppo control. Helmeppo progressing to the same rank as his father would be a good thing to see.
Before anyone starts saying Koby is luffy garp, let me remind u that Koby hasn’t even met luffy post timeskip or even chased him. Everytime bro has met luffy he has been one punched. Smoker fills that role more than Koby as he has been chasing since lougetown and even got the Garp team up during punk hazard. Garp saying Koby is the future of marines would also come true as like i said before Koby will change the justice within the marines. Random thought but prince gus will also be an admiral as he is Koby marine rival.
In conclusion, Koby must board the strawhats ship or he has no hope of progressing within the marines and getting stronger. I can’t see how Koby will progress without fighting alongside the strawhats.

Every time I see a chess meme I have an unquenchable thirst to play. And once I start, I will binge match after match trying to chase the endrophin rush of my last win. I was warned that chess was addictive but I never intended to get in this deep. I thought one game here and there, what's the harm? I didn't realize just how easy it was to get hooked on this stuff.
It's too late for me. I'll be chasing this dragon the rest of my life. But for all the wild youths out there thinking that playing chess will make you look "cool" just know that it comes at a cost and this road ain't as glamorous as it seems.
In the wise words of Danzig: Mother, tell your children not to walk my way.
Time to go play more chess.

Koby future progression in the marines
First I would like to say that in my opinion the marines can’t do anything or pose a threat to anyone at the moment. People are saying the marines will fight the world government but I can’t see them posing a threat.
Right now the world government have the seraphim, the mother flame which is hinted at being the fuel for Uranus, the holy knights which only interact when it’s absolutely needed. They didn’t even react when saint charlos got beat up twice. The 5 elders and anyone who is pro celestial dragon and those fodder knights at maryjoa.
Whilst the marines have one conflicted admiral being kizaru, akainu, greenbull, fujitora and not worthy of mentioning as of 1115 vice admirals and other marines.
There are also powerful forces such as cross guild, strawhats, Blackbeard pirates, red haired pirates and the revolutionaries.
The marines alone aren’t beating any of these forces. I can’t see the marines beating strawhats, obvious reasons, failed against blackbeards crew and even lost Garp (can’t see them doing another rescue arc atleast by themselves), shanks crew is a force the marines do not want to mess with and they shown that at wano and marineford, I can’t see the marines winning against Crossguild without the strawhats involvement due to mihawk being apart of it.
Now this brings me to the title of this post, Koby progressing in the marines. Koby realistically has no chance of ranking from captain to even vice admiral if these people are all the endgame people left around. Koby is apart of sword but he also has the hero title so just like Blackbeard said he wouldn’t get fired just because he got captured. But being part of sword might also slow down progress as they could be fired at any moment (that’s just an idea tho).
The fact Koby got the hero title during the timeskip, I believe that the next progression after being a hero would be becoming a vigilante. And to be fair Koby did join sword which is basically a vigilante corps as they are people who are marines but can fight whoever they want. I believe Koby will stay in the marines but still board the strawhats ship. This will allow him to fight stronger opponents whilst doing his marine duties such as making arrests. This would therefore make him a true vigilante.
Koby future opponents, out of all the people I mentioned Koby would have a reason to meet/fight them.
First Blackbeard pirates, Koby has history with them easily, I believe Koby will fight Kuzan, it would show koby has reached the strength of an admiral and it will be like how luffy defeated kaido showing his strength. Both of garps disciples, it would be kinda like a garp vs kuzan rematch but garp(Koby in this scenario) would not be distracted by the other blackbeard pirates as the strawhats would be dealing with them. Like i said before the Marines are not going alone like last time as they lost Garp, sword’s strongest force.
Next Crossguild, I can’t see the marines winning against Crossguild due to one reason being mihawk. Crossguild are the marines biggest threat but because mihawk is zoros endgame opponent I cant see Crossguild losing to the marines if Zoro is not even in attendance. This means that Koby/marines would need to team up with the strawhats at one point to take them down as Zoro vs mihawk is destined to happen. Koby meeting Alvida again would be good to see, I also saw somewhere that ussop would get his final bounty by defeating buggy.
Then red haired pirates crew, this is the crew that saved Koby from akainu. I believe Koby has some respect towards the red haired pirates. The same kinda respect that he has towards luffy. This means luffy and Koby both have ties toward shanks in a way. So unless the strawhats battle the red haired, I can’t really see Koby fighting.
The strawhats, as we can see on egghead the marines can’t do nothing to them with luffy toying with an admiral.
The last endgame opponent for the marines/koby would be the world government, I believe Koby will fight warcury the god of justice and change how the justice of the marines and the world in general with it being honest/true justice. Warcury also has a strong body, so Koby vs him will test and improve the strength of his fist. Koby will be able to address kuzan and warcury flaws with their justice and succeed as Garps pupil and the best way to do is to join the strawhats.
Currently the marines justice right now is called absolute justice and most base marines follow it. Once the world government is defeated I believe Koby will reform the marines with his justice being honest/true justice which means something on the lines of the marines use their own judgement to judge who is the true enemy is. This type of justice would also reduce stuff like racism within the marines and government.
After the marines after reformed, fujitora would become the next fleet admiral as akainu justice would be rejected and he would probably be kicked out due to killing multiple allies. Koby, maybe smoker and someone else would become the new admirals following the new justice created in the marines.
About helmeppo, helmeppp father was captain before being taken in. Morgan was a follower of absolute justice, whilst helmeppo will be a follower of honest/true justice. Koby will board the strawhats as helmeppo becomes captain, therefore Koby entrust his ship and crew to helmeppo who takes his place for the time being. This will also mirror the first meeting as Koby stopped being a pirate and joined the marines branch which was under captain morgan. Then Koby will join pirates whilst leaving his team in a captain helmeppo control. Helmeppo progressing to the same rank as his father would be a good thing to see.
Before anyone starts saying Koby is luffy garp, let me remind u that Koby hasn’t even met luffy post timeskip or even chased him. Everytime bro has met luffy he has been one punched. Smoker fills that role more than Koby as he has been chasing since lougetown and even got the Garp team up during punk hazard. Garp saying Koby is the future of marines would also come true as like i said before Koby will change the justice within the marines. Random thought but prince gus will also be an admiral as he is Koby marine rival.
In conclusion, Koby must board the strawhats ship or he has no hope of progressing within the marines and getting stronger. I can’t see how Koby will progress without fighting alongside the strawhats.

Koby future progression in the marines
First I would like to say that in my opinion the marines can’t do anything or pose a threat to anyone at the moment. People are saying the marines will fight the world government but I can’t see them posing a threat.
Right now the world government have the seraphim, the mother flame which is hinted at being the fuel for Uranus, the holy knights which only interact when it’s absolutely needed. They didn’t even react when saint charlos got beat up twice. The 5 elders and anyone who is pro celestial dragon and those fodder knights at maryjoa.
Whilst the marines have one conflicted admiral being kizaru, akainu, greenbull, fujitora and not worthy of mentioning as of 1115 vice admirals and other marines.
There are also powerful forces such as cross guild, strawhats, Blackbeard pirates, red haired pirates and the revolutionaries.
The marines alone aren’t beating any of these forces. I can’t see the marines beating strawhats, obvious reasons, failed against blackbeards crew and even lost Garp (can’t see them doing another rescue arc atleast by themselves), shanks crew is a force the marines do not want to mess with and they shown that at wano and marineford, I can’t see the marines winning against Crossguild without the strawhats involvement due to mihawk being apart of it.
Now this brings me to the title of this post, Koby progressing in the marines. Koby realistically has no chance of ranking from captain to even vice admiral if these people are all the endgame people left around. Koby is apart of sword but he also has the hero title so just like Blackbeard said he wouldn’t get fired just because he got captured. But being part of sword might also slow down progress as they could be fired at any moment (that’s just an idea tho).
The fact Koby got the hero title during the timeskip, I believe that the next progression after being a hero would be becoming a vigilante. And to be fair Koby did join sword which is basically a vigilante corps as they are people who are marines but can fight whoever they want. I believe Koby will stay in the marines but still board the strawhats ship. This will allow him to fight stronger opponents whilst doing his marine duties such as making arrests. This would therefore make him a true vigilante.
Koby future opponents, out of all the people I mentioned Koby would have a reason to meet/fight them.
First Blackbeard pirates, Koby has history with them easily, I believe Koby will fight Kuzan, it would show koby has reached the strength of an admiral and it will be like how luffy defeated kaido showing his strength. Both of garps disciples, it would be kinda like a garp vs kuzan rematch but garp(Koby in this scenario) would not be distracted by the other blackbeard pirates as the strawhats would be dealing with them. Like i said before the Marines are not going alone like last time as they lost Garp, sword’s strongest force.
Next Crossguild, I can’t see the marines winning against Crossguild due to one reason being mihawk. Crossguild are the marines biggest threat but because mihawk is zoros endgame opponent I cant see Crossguild losing to the marines if Zoro is not even in attendance. This means that Koby/marines would need to team up with the strawhats at one point to take them down as Zoro vs mihawk is destined to happen. Koby meeting Alvida again would be good to see, I also saw somewhere that ussop would get his final bounty by defeating buggy.
Then red haired pirates crew, this is the crew that saved Koby from akainu. I believe Koby has some respect towards the red haired pirates. The same kinda respect that he has towards luffy. This means luffy and Koby both have ties toward shanks in a way. So unless the strawhats battle the red haired, I can’t really see Koby fighting.
The strawhats, as we can see on egghead the marines can’t do nothing to them with luffy toying with an admiral.
The last endgame opponent for the marines/koby would be the world government, I believe Koby will fight warcury the god of justice and change how the justice of the marines and the world in general with it being honest/true justice. Warcury also has a strong body, so Koby vs him will test and improve the strength of his fist. Koby will be able to address kuzan and warcury flaws with their justice and succeed as Garps pupil and the best way to do is to join the strawhats.
Currently the marines justice right now is called absolute justice and most base marines follow it. Once the world government is defeated I believe Koby will reform the marines with his justice being honest/true justice which means something on the lines of the marines use their own judgement to judge who is the true enemy is. This type of justice would also reduce stuff like racism within the marines and government.
After the marines after reformed, fujitora would become the next fleet admiral as akainu justice would be rejected and he would probably be kicked out due to killing multiple allies. Koby, maybe smoker and someone else would become the new admirals following the new justice created in the marines.
About helmeppo, helmeppp father was captain before being taken in. Morgan was a follower of absolute justice, whilst helmeppo will be a follower of honest/true justice. Koby will board the strawhats as helmeppo becomes captain, therefore Koby entrust his ship and crew to helmeppo who takes his place for the time being. This will also mirror the first meeting as Koby stopped being a pirate and joined the marines branch which was under captain morgan. Then Koby will join pirates whilst leaving his team in a captain helmeppo control. Helmeppo progressing to the same rank as his father would be a good thing to see.
Before anyone starts saying Koby is luffy garp, let me remind u that Koby hasn’t even met luffy post timeskip or even chased him. Everytime bro has met luffy he has been one punched. Smoker fills that role more than Koby as he has been chasing since lougetown and even got the Garp team up during punk hazard. Garp saying Koby is the future of marines would also come true as like i said before Koby will change the justice within the marines. Random thought but prince gus will also be an admiral as he is Koby marine rival.
In conclusion, Koby must board the strawhats ship or he has no hope of progressing within the marines and getting stronger. I can’t see how Koby will progress without fighting alongside the strawhats.

This is all from the Internet. A click away from any phone.

Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought.
An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. These accounts are written as dialogues, in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the Socratic dialogue literary genre.
Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the Socratic problem. Socrates was a polarizing figure in Athenian society. In 399 BC, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. After a trial that lasted a day, he was sentenced to death. He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape.
There were four charges that were brought against Socrates. They were that he argued the weaker claim over the stronger claim, that he argue the physical over the metaphysical, that he was against the gods and that he was corrupting the youth.
Socrates was found guilty by a jury of 501 Athenians and was sentenced to drink a deadly poison, named hemlock. Many scholars have argued that the charges against Socrates were politically motivated and have understood his trial and conviction as an attack upon freedom of speech and an indictment of democracy.

The Last Moments of Maegor’s Reign, losing against a misogynistic society led by petty and ambitious nobles and against the Faith of the Seven, a religion that enforces gender roles and inequality between men and women.

By 48 AC Maegor's tyranny could no longer be borne by the realm. At Storm's End Aenys I's last surviving son, Prince Jaehaerys, put forth his claim to the throne, supported by Lord Rogar Baratheon, who was named Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King by the prince. Jaehaerys had two dragons on his side, his own mount Vermithor and his sister's mount Silverwing, against Maegor's Balerion. Learning of her brother's claim, Queen Rhaena Targaryen fled from Maegor in the night, escaping on her dragon Dreamfyre with the Valyrian blade Blackfyre, and her daughter, Princess Aerea, adding a third dragon to her brothers cause. Lord Edwell Celtigar resigned his position as Hand and returned to Claw Isle and Grand Maester Benifer secretly escaped on a ship to Pentos. Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery, two of Maegor's Kingsguard, also deserted him. Lord Daemon Velaryon, the admiral of the royal fleet, was the first of the great lords to forsake Maegor, taking the royal fleet with him, and many other lords followed his example. The great houses of Lannister, Tyrell, and Arryn came out against Maegor and in the riverlands House Tully gave support to Septon Moon and Ser Joffrey Doggett, the leaders of the Poor Fellows.
Maegor called his banners in response, but few answered, giving Maegor an army of barely four thousand soldiers. Despite this, Maegor refused to surrender. At the end of the war council, Maegor remained behind alone in the throne room to brood. He was found dead the next morning by Queen Elinor, seated on the Iron Throne with his robes covered in blood and his wrists slashed. A spike from one of the swords on the throne behind him was impaled through the back of his neck. How Maegor died was never discovered. Some say he had been killed by Queen Elinor, others that he had been killed by a knight of his own Kingsguard. Yet others say he had been killed by a builder who escaped the slaughter three years earlier and desired revenge, and many believe that Maegor had been killed by the throne itself. Others believe that Maegor killed himself by opening his wrists on the blades of the Iron Throne.

The fate of Maegor’s loyal supporters.

Owen Bush was a knight of the Kingsguard during the reign of King Maegor I Targaryen. When Maegor suspected Queen Tyanna of the Tower of betrayal, he had Owen and his sworn brother, Ser Maladon Moore, bring her to the dungeons, where she confessed.
Maegor the Cruel gradually lost political support, resulting in a rival threat in his nephew, Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen. Two of his Kingsguard defected to Jaehaerys, and Maegor lost a third guard when Owen was found dead outside a brothel in 48 AC, his member cut off and stuffed in his mouth.
Maladon Moore was a knight from House Moore and a member of the Kingsguard during the reign of King Maegor I Targaryen. When the king suspected Queen Tyanna of the Tower of treason, Maladon and Owen were dispatched to seize the queen and deliver her to the dungeons, where Maegor was said to have slain her while Maladon was present.
After Maegor died in 48 AC and his nephew King Jaehaerys I Targaryen took the Iron Throne, Maladon was accused of being involved in the death of Queen Ceryse, allegedly restraining her when Ser Owen accidentally killed her. Maladon denied these charges, insisting she died of "shrewishness". While the charges were never proven, Maladon lost his head for his involvement in Queen Tyanna's death, of which he was guilty.
When Queen Tyanna of the Tower admitted to poisoning Queen Alys Harroway during her pregnancy, Tyanna promised the same would happen to Elinor. Tyanna was proven correct when Elinor gave birth to a stillborn abomination said to have been born eyeless and with small wings. Elinor was one of the two wives who survived the king, the other being Queen Rhaena Targaryen.
After King Maegor's death, Lord Daemon Velaryon proposed that King Jaehaerys I Targaryen marry Queen Elinor to reconcile with Maegor's supporters when a bride was being considered for the king, but nothing came of the proposal. After Jaehaerys's ascent, Elinor departed King's Landing dressed in the robes of a penitent. She visited her two elder sons at the Eyrie and Highgarden before retiring to her father's seat at the Three Towers with her youngest son.
Later, King Jaehaerys commanded Elinor to go forth and spread his Doctrine of Exceptionalism to the peoples of the Seven Kingdoms, as well as the goodness of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, becoming one of the Seven Speakers. Her queenly raiment became shabbier and more threadbare each day, and she eventually gave up all claims to nobility, becoming Mother Elinor at the great motherhouse in Lannisport.
House Rosby was one of the first houses to yield peacefully to House Targaryen during Aegon's Conquest, surrendering to Rhaenys Targaryen and Meraxes. The Rosby lands became part of the crownlands surrounding King's Landing. Lord Jon Rosby was named Warden of the Sands by King Aegon I Targaryen during the First Dornish War, but Jon was killed in the Defenestration of Sunspear.
Ser Rayford Rosby defended King Maegor I Targaryen during his trial of seven, but Rayford was slain during the fighting. Lord Rosby remained loyal to the king even as his downfall became certain, and was one of the last to see the king alive. In the chaos that followed the discovery of Maegor's body, Lord Rosby drank a cup of hemlock to join his king in death. His young son received forgiveness from King Jaehaerys I Targaryen at Dragonstone.
In 47 AC, King Maegor was dealing with the issue of his lack of heirs, despite having already married three women. Lord Daemon Velaryon, Rhaena's uncle and a member of Maegor's small council, advised Maegor to wed Rhaena, to unite their claims and prevent new rebellions, and to gain her as a hostage against any potential schemes of Dowager Queen Alyssa. Later that year, Maegor summoned Rhaena to King's Landing, and she did not defy him. At the Red Keep, Maegor married Rhaena in a triple ceremony, together with Elinor Costayne and Jeyne Westerling. As the three women were all widows of men Maegor had killed, they became known as the "Black Brides". Immediately following the wedding, Maegor declared Rhaena's elder daughter Aerea as his heir until he had sons of his own, while disinheriting Rhaena's youngest brother Jaehaerys in the same decree.
After Maegor’s death, discussion arose as to who had the better claim to the Iron Throne. There were some who suggested that Rhaena's claim, as the firstborn child of King Aenys I Targaryen and Queen Alyssa Velaryon, was the strongest. Her gender argued against her, however, and Rhaena herself had come to loathe King's Landing and its court. The claims of her daughters were argued for as well. If Maegor was to be considered a usurper, the true king would have been Rhaena's first husband, Aegon, who had claimed the throne before Jaehaerys had. As such, some suggested the throne should pass to one of his daughters by Rhaena, Aerea or Rhaella.
As time passed, Rhaena began to resent the fact that her claim to the throne, and that of her daughters, had been dismissed in favor of Jaehaerys, to whom she began to refer as "my baby brother". In addition, Rhaena begrudged her mother for promoting Jaehaerys's claim over her own.
Ser Walton Towers was granted Harrenhal by King Maegor I Targaryen in 44 AC after winning a melee in Lord Harroway's Town, but Walton died soon after from his wounds. Harrenhal thus passed to his eldest son. Lord Jordan remained loyal to Maegor during the king's wars, and Lord Rosby were the last to see the king alive before Maegor's death on the Iron Throne. Along with Lords Darklyn and Staunton, Jordan yielded the Red Keep to Prince Jaehaerys, Princess Rhaena, and Princess Alysanne Targaryen. The three lords were sent to the black cells, but were eventually pardoned by King Jaehaerys I after surrendering some of their land.
Jordan eventually died of a chest congestion. Harrenhal passed to Jordan's last surviving son, Maegor Towers, as Jordan's older sons had all died fighting for King Maegor.
Maegor's father, Lord Jordan Towers, was one of the last lords of the Seven Kingdoms who remained loyal to King Maegor I Targaryen. All of Jordan's sons died fighting in the king's wars, with the exception of young Maegor.
Maegor became Lord Towers after the death of his father due to a chest congestion. When King Jaehaerys I Targaryen began a royal progress in 53 AC to celebrate the new year, his first stop was to see the new Lord of Harrenhal, then only nine years of age.
Maegor was an impoverished lord who resided in the Tower of Dread with only a cook and three men-at-arms. Since the rest of Harrenhal was empty, King Jaehaerys settled his widowed sister, Rhaena Targaryen, in the Widow's Tower in 56 AC. Maegor and Rhaena eventually became friends, and she cared for his servants after Maegor passed away in 61 AC. Harrenhal was granted to House Strong after Rhaena passed away in 73 AC.
Maegor was sickly and poor.
Socrates speaks his last words to Crito: "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt". Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely that Socrates' last words were implied to mean that death is the cure, and freedom of the soul from the body.
Asclepius, Greco-Roman god of medicine, son of Apollo (god of healing, truth, and prophecy) and the mortal princess Coronis. The Centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing. At length Zeus (the king of the gods), afraid that Asclepius might render all men immortal, slew him with a thunderbolt.
Zeus saw Asclepius & his medical skills as a threat to the eternal division between humanity & the gods. Asclepius met a tragic end when he was killed by a thunderbolt thrown by Zeus.
Socrates ultimately does not fear death because of his innocence, he believes that death is not feared because it may be one of the greatest blessings of the soul.
The reasons for Socrates not escaping when he had the chance the night prior; are made explicit before the Laws make their speech. Because escape defies the will of the Athenians, it requires stealth and bribery, shameful practices that are unjustified in the current situation.
Socrates Feared Democracies Would Elect Demagogues. The term arose in Greece in the fifth century BCE, right around Socrates's time, and is often used negatively. Socrates himself was extremely worried that the democratic format would give rise to a demagoguery.
Demagogues are political leaders who seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
Modern demagogues include Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and Joseph McCarthy, all of whom built mass followings the same way that Cleon did: by exciting the passions of the masses against customs and norms of the aristocratic elites of their times.

This is why Maegor and Socrates died. They challenged authority and lost. They were silenced by the powerful lords and by the elected council of Athens whom were given power by the common people.
They were “heroes”.
“My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight.
George R.R. Martin.
King Maegor had married all his brides and gave them Queenly status.

Jeyne was married to Lord Alyn Tarbeck. She was widowed when Alyn died during the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye in 43 AC. Jeyne was pregnant when her husband died, and gave him a posthumous son a few months later.

In 47 AC, Jeyne was being courted by a younger son of Lyman Lannister, the Lord of Casterly Rock, when King Maegor I Targaryen sent for her to be wed to him. She married Maegor in a ceremony at King's Landing, along with Lady Elinor Costayne and Princess Rhaena Targaryen. As all three women had been widowed due to Maegor, they became known as the "Black Brides". The stories told of the wedding night claim that Jeyne was given a fertility potion by Queen Tyanna of the Tower, and either drank it, or threw it in Tyanna's face. After the wedding, Queen Jeyne's son was confirmed as Lord of Tarbeck Hall, and sent to Casterly Rock to be raised as a ward of Lyman Lannister.

Lord Edwell Celtigar, the Hand of the King, announced half a year after the wedding that Queen Jeyne was pregnant, and Queen Elinor's pregnancy was announced shortly afterwards. Maegor, joyful, showered both his wives with gifts and honors, and granted new lands and offices to their fathers, brothers, and uncles. Unfortunately, Jeyne's labor began three months early, and she gave birth to a stillborn child, monstrous, lacking arms and legs but possessing both male and female genitalia. Jeyne herself died soon after.

In 48 AC, Tyanna of the Tower confessed to having poisoned Jeyne's child in the womb.
This is all on the awoiaf wiki.
George is a better writer than we’ve given him credit for.
At the end of Maegor’s reign, House Baratheon, Lannister, Tyrell and Arryn rebelled against Maegor. Maegor had sent the young son of his fourth wife (Jeyne Westerling) as a ward(hostage) to House Lannister. Then he sent the two eldest sons of his sixth wife (Elinor Costayne) as wards(hostages) to House Tyrell and House Arryn. When the great houses rebelled, Lord Daemon Velaryon, the brother of Alyssa Velaryon, escaped with the Royal Fleet and left King’s Landing.
Maegor called his banners to fight against the threat but they were too few and Elinor Costayne begged him to surrender to save her two eldest sons and the son of the long deceased Jeyne Westerling. He banned her from the council room and refused to surrender and his lords and him and Rhaena made battle plans well into the night.
At the end of the war council, Maegor dismissed everyone and stayed alone in the throne room to brood.
The following morning, Elinor Costayne found the King dead, his wrists slashed and throat impaled on the back of the Iron Throne.
Lord Rosby was one of the last people to see his king alive and drank a cup of hemlock to follow him in death.
Lord Jordan Towers named his last son Maegor and died of a chest conjection after Jaehaerys’ ascension to the Throne.
Elinor Costayne left King’s Landing while donning the clothes of a penitent and eventually renounced all claims to nobility and became the owner of a Motherhouse in Lannisport.
Ser Maladon Moore was executed for his involvement in Queen Tyanna’s death whom had confessed to poisoning King Maegor’s wives.
Queen Rhaena was expelled from King’s Landing and her claim to the Throne was ignored because of her gender.
Ser Owen Bush was found dead in a brothel with his cock stuffed in his mouth.

i'm working on a novel and would like to know if anyone could tell me any improvements i could make to the first chapter and prologue
Prologue
The day had started the same way it had for the past two years. The only difference was that I was going home. The hallway was crowded with people walking to and from their classes. Everyone was crowded next to each other so the halls were making the area feel claustrophobic. All the people talking mixed with the summer heat made me feel like I was locked in a sauna. I walked with Preston to the last class we would ever have together and as usual he was smiling. I never got why he always smiled even in situations where people should be sad he still smiled. He knew what today meant for me and he tried to keep light of the situation. I kept my head down away from what was ahead of me. My mind was too clouded about returning to see my family to notice anything in front of me. I walked into another student. It felt like I had walked into a wall. I knew immediately I had walked into tree. I stumble onto the ground and the commotion around me slows down to make room for us. He turned his bulky body around and apologized profusely without saying a word even though I had walked into him. He helped me off of the ground before hurrying down the hall.
“Alexandria, are you doing okay?” Preston said he had tilted his body downward so I had to look down to look him in his eyes. The way he was standing made him look like an idiot but he didn't seem to care. The way he acted made me laugh, which caused his smile to widen.
“I'm doing fine, just got lost in my head.”
“Thinking about how you’ll leave soon,” he said
“Was it that obvious?” He was the only person I told about me being an exchange student. I came to spend high school in Newkinawa and he was the only person I ever hung out with.
“I see what you mean,” he said “Newkinawa is a beautiful place with beautiful people to live in it…myself included”
“You wish,” I say with a smile we continue walking through the hallway “I'm just not excited to go back yet”
After I say that his smile grows wider “So you will miss me after all”
“I wouldn't say that much” I responded whilst smiling.
We had made it to our last class only to see it closed with a sign labeled “Uma incident” Uma was a student known for messing with the chemistry lab and destroying school property in the process. I've never actually met her but Preston says “She's a little weird but still nice”
“Guess class is canceled for today,” Preston remarked with a smile “Wanna go out to the court till the bell rings.”
“Sure let's go” I respond
The place we ate every day was outside. It used to be a tennis court before I moved in. Now they put trees and flowers all over the place. Preston really liked the blue color of the flowers but it just never clicked for me. I look over at Preston and he's staring up at the sky. There are a number of clouds in almost enough to block the sun but it still pokes its rays through and lands on Preston's face. The clouds swim in front of the sun till they block out the sun's light. Preston faces towards me.
“I'm gonna miss you Alexandria” he says
“You know you can just call me Alex,” I replied. I start to smile again. “I'll miss you too!" He smiles toward me again as we get up to leave as the clouds start to clump together and rain slowly falls. As we're walking back to the school there's a loud tearing sound followed by screams as the ground shakes.
The ground tears itself apart as the dirt and stone erupt from the ground. The sky blackens and a pale blue light escapes the earth. Then creatures erupt from the ground in a violent ejection from the earth creating a white pillar diffusing as they reach higher in the air. Some are clawing their way out of the cracks like maggots out of a corpse. People are swept into the updraft screaming for their lives.
The creatures descend like a tidal wave and tear apart any people caught in their path. They storm out of the crack in hundreds as more cracks in the earth form. Me and Preston started running away as people were screaming behind us. A girl running next to us has her legs slashed by a creature. The monster begins to tear open her chest as she chokes on her own blood. The monster shovels her lungs and innards into its decrepit mouth. Me and Preston keep running until we're met at the entrance of the school and we catch the attention of a monster as it begins to savagely rush toward us. The monster resembles ghosts my father told me about. But this one looks monstrously horrific. It floats in the air and opens its mouth so wide it nearly replaces its entire torso; its jaws hold savage teeth each the same old gray color of its body. Its eyes glow a rotten yellow color through the dark. It stretches out its arms showing its giant hands and claws like fingers. It swipes at us leaving a giant claw mark on the door behind us but Preston ducks my body down to avoid the attack. We run around it as the monster swaps its focus to another bystander. Screaming past us. Me and Preston run into the parking lot as people scream around us. We hide next to a car.
“What the hell is happening!?” I yell to Preston. More of the creatures fly over us and swoop down to people like vultures on roadkill devouring the fleeing people.
Preston starts to breathe heavily ”we need to get out of here and someplace safer”. As we were talking one of the monster phases through the car we were hiding next to forcing us to run into the street.
“Lets go to your house till things cool down” i say to Preston through panted breaths
“Wait couldn't we head to your house instead” Preston says.
“Why would that matter your house is closer anyways” i respond
“But-” Preston is interrupted by two creatures swooping above us to grab another person. The two monsters begin to pull the person apart while he writhes in pain before having his flesh be torn in half and having his organs be devoured.
“Come on lets go!!” I say as I grab his hand and run even faster.
By the time we reach Preston's house any living person is gone. On the street are just corpses laying torn and mutilated on the roads and sidewalk. The air in the neighborhood feels cold despite the season being summer. When I walk down the street I can still hear the occasional horrific wail the monsters give off. We move closer to Preston's house and I can see him sweating. He looked more worried than before when the creatures were chasing us and he kept darting his eyes away from his home.
“Preston, are you feeling okay?” he doesn't respond to my question and keeps darting his eyes. He walks slowly behind me and as I reach for the door handle and when I touch it it feels nearly freezing. I wrap my hoodie around my hand and slowly open the door. The house is quiet so me and Preston creep further into his house. The inside is cold and damp as if we were locked in a freezer. The further we move into the house the louder a subtle chewing sound is heard.
“It sounds like rats are eating a dead cow over there” I whisper. Preston continues to stay silent behind me. We slowly walk closer towards the kitchen and the sound gets louder and louder and louder until we reach the room.
We're met with a rancid smell of vomit and blood. My blood starts to run cold and every instinct in my body is telling me to run. I can feel Preston breathing get heavier as we get closer. We turn the corner and see Preston's mom lying on the ground dead with one of the creatures hunched over slurping her intestines. The sight causes me to vomit alerting the monster to our presence. The creature turns around and its mouth turns into a mortifying grin as it flies into Preston's moms body. The corpse begins to rise and spur splashing blood over the kitchen. When the corpse stops spasming it picks itself up from the ground and with glazed over eyes it holds its intestines in its hand and gives us the same grin it did when it was outside her body. The possessed corpse lunges at me and starts to chase me around the kitchen. The body is running into the walls and cabinets spraying its blood and other loose organs around the area as I'm avoiding its assault. The corpse leans over and ejects one of its loose intestines towards me, wrapping me in it. It pulls me towards it so fast I'm flung towards the ground. The corpse limbers over to me and raises its free hand aiming for my head. The creature's deranged smile causes the corpse’s cheeks to tear apart. It places both of its bloodied and demented hands on my face and starts to press my skull into the ground. I struggle to breathe. The room starts to get dark and blood escapes my head.
Until Preston jumps on top of his mothers corpse with a kitchen knife and repeatedly stabs it in the head. The possessed body tries to shake him off but he keeps stabbing, blood gets in on his face and tears start to escape his eyes. The creature violently ejects from the corpse's mouth causing her head to nearly explode and Preston stops stabbing the body. The body falls over in a splash of blood and organs. The monster leaves phasing through the roof leaving Preston crying over his mother's body. As the blood mixes with the tears he collapses to his knees crying. I walk over and hug him as the air around us turns bitter and the chill of death leaves the room and us with it.
Chapter 1 Eclipse
It's been 2 months since the apocalypse started. We've kept ourselves alive by looting grocery stores and houses, we hide from the creatures as we have no way to fight back against them. Preston came up with the idea to call them glanter’s. He’s looking better since we left his family home but I can tell something is wrong with him that he's not telling me. Everytime I ask him about it he tells me it's no big deal. I asked him earlier today and he just told me
“don't worry about it, I'm over it” without even looking at me. Now we're walking through the street and I'm walking behind Preston, I can barely see his head past the giant bag we're both carrying on our backs we use to carry supplies. I look up at the sky and it's still pitch black except for the moon giving us any amount of light. Preston turns around to face me.
“Let's check out that house, it might have some cool stuff in it” he points to a white house to our right. The house is a two story building with steps leading to the front door. There's a generator poking out from the backyard. The driveway is empty save for a couple of dried blood stains and tire marks. It's similar to the other houses in the neighborhood except for a couple broken windows.
“Sure why not” We head over to the house and I see something shining on the side of the house in the corner of my eye. I turn my head to look at it closer but it quickly disappears before I can see it clearly.
“Probably squirrel or something” I mumble to myself. Preston walks up the stairs to the house and I walk up the steps behind him as a breeze blows past my face. Preston tries to turn the door knob but the door is locked. I start to pull out a lockpick I grabbed at the store earlier. I motion towards Preston to move out of the way as I kneel down to pick the lock. It takes me a couple of minutes to unlock the door so I walk inside the house and Preston follows behind me while closing and locking the door. The doorway of the house leads to a dark room so I take a flashlight out of my bag to illuminate the area. Were put into the living room and bookshelves are on the walls and a large TV sat in front of a large black couch with smaller chairs surrounding it. Dust is covering every surface of the room and spiderwebs litter the corners of the walls. The area smells like moth balls and there's a lack of blood anywhere nearby.
“Guess the owners got out before the Glanter’s got in, '' I say to Preston. When he doesn't respond I turn around and he's already looking further into the house. When I find him he's managed to find a flight of stairs that lead to a lower portion of the house.
“I'll check on him later,” I think to myself as I headed towards the kitchen to see if we could restock on food. I walk past a bedroom and remark on how childish it looked. The walls were painted with blue and green stripes and a bunk bed sat on the right wall. There's a chest at the foot of the bed so I walk over and lift the top off of it. The box is layered with children's toys, a multitude of dolls, bears, and figures all jut out of the box. I notice a small robot toy and inspect it in my hands.
The cold metal makes my hand shiver and the sharp body shape makes the robot bigger than my hand. There's red lining around the robot's buttons surrounded by the cold gray of the robot's “skin”. It reminds me of a toy my little brother had. My heart feels heavy as I worry about what happened to my family. If they're alive, dead, or worse…possessed. The thoughts send a chill down my spine but I push them aside for now. I put the toy in my bag and exit the bedroom.
I can see the kitchen is down the hallway so I walk down the hall and enter. The kitchen is pretty clean except for a couple of dishes in the sink and the dust. There's a table seated for 3 people in the center of the room. I start opening the cabinets in search for any food or water. There's boxes of cereal leftover on top of shelves and a mix of chip bags and cookies in neat boxes stationed in the cabinets.
“Score,” I say to myself as I begin to put the snacks into my bag. When the cabinets are empty I look inside the fridge. The inside of the fridge ran out of power so most of the food inside is rotted. There are a couple of bottles of water in the front so I shove those in my bag. There's also a bag of oranges that still seem to be healthy in the back. I grab them and toss them on the table. There's rotten sandwich meat hidden in the drawer of the fridge.it smells like a dumpster outside of a butcher shop. I wrinkle my nose at the smell. I look around the kitchen for any bread with no luck.
I continue to look through the fridge until I hear Preston scream from another room. Immediately I bolt out of the kitchen leaving my bag behind and run towards the lower part of the house. I run down the stairs and nearly trip on the steps. The stairs lead to a big room. There are posters to tv shows and movies I don't recognize. The walls are painted black and there's a bear skin rug on the floor. I notice Preston standing next to a really big TV hyperventilating. I walk over to him and ask him.
“Are you ok? What happened?”
He talks through deep breaths “I… saw a… spider.”
“What?!” I respond in confusion.
“It was really big and I had jumped at my face”
“Sure it was.” I say while laughing “Let's go upstairs there's some food in the fridge we can eat”
“Wait, I think you should check this out.” He says while pointing towards one of the walls. I grab Preston's flashlight off the floor and face it towards the wall. Hanging halfway off the wall is a large map labeled Newkiwana scavenger hunt of 76.
“I think we should take it,” Preston says “You can read a map right?”
“A little but I'm not the best at it,” I say to him “can you read a map?”
“it shouldn’t be too hard it’s mainly pictures any way I'm sure I can figure it out”
I walk over to the wall where the map is hung there are trophies covering tables and shelved in their own personal cases one of them reads “1st place 100-meter swimming competition for 1986 Zack Hemmingway” and another one reads “2nd place 100-meter swimming competition for 1989 Zack Hemmingway”
“Guess this guy really liked swimming,” Preston remarks while staring at a wall of newspaper clippings. All of them are about the same person in swimming competitions. All labeled different things like “a new record for Zack “the dolphin” Hemmingway”,
‘Zach Hemmingway our star plans for the future” all the newspapers are about this kind he has paler skin and a bulky enough build to swim pretty well. Most of the pictures have him coming out of the water in a pool, his long black hair soaked and sitting at his shoulders. Another one has him sitting at a desk over a pile of books and his hair in a knot , “vicious wipeout ends the Dolphins career”, and “ex-swim champ Zack Hemmingway found in a drunken stupor outside strip club.
“Everyone has their own hobbies I guess,” I say as I take the map off of the wall and fold it up. “Sucks what happened to Zack though” I walked over to Preston’s bag and put the rolled map in one of the pockets. I walk back up the stairs and Preston grabs his bag and follows behind me.
We make our way towards the kitchen and Preston starts looking through the fridge for anything to eat. I grab an orange from the table and throw it at his head. The fruit bounces off his head and rolls on the floor. He turns around and grabs the fruit from the floor
“Why did you throw an orange at me?”
“It's the only food we have unless you plan on eating spoiled a sandwich“ He starts to peel it while walking towards the table. We both take a seat and start to eat the oranges from the bag. He plants his feet on top of the table and bites into the fully peeled orange. I grab a water bottle from a bag and start to drink from it as Preston says.
“I saw a dvd player in that man cave downstairs we could watch a movie if it still has power”
“Sure it could be fun.” Me and Preston spend the rest of our time eating until the bag of oranges is emptied and we head back downstairs. Preston grabs the DVD player from under the table and blows the dust off the top of it; he plugs it into the wall as I plop myself onto the couch. He plugs the DVD player into the TV and sits on the recliner next to me. He presses a few buttons on the remote and the TV lights up. I squint my eyes at how bright it is. It's the most amount of light I've seen that didn't come from a flashlight. I notice there's a box filled with DVDs. I pull the box over towards me. I ruffle through the box and see movies like Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2, and Home alone.
“Dude some of these came out just before the world turned inside out” I say to him.
“Really? Let's play one.” He responds. I toss him Terminator 2 and he puts it into the DVD player.
We spend the next couple hours watching movies and laughing together. It's some of our only moments of peace we’ve had since the end of the world and to me it's the most fun I've had yet. We're putting in the next DVD when there's a loud crash outside and the TV shuts off. Preston goes behind it to see if it's still plugged in.
“I think the generator outside is busted” i say
“It seems that way” Preston replies while backing away from the tv” i'm gonna go check it out”
“Don't worry I got it” I say as I hop out of my chair. Preston waves goodbye as I head up the stairs. I make my way back through the hallway leading to the living room and front door. I reach the door and start to turn the knob. I open the door wide as a car speeds down the street. I step out of the door to see what had happened when I hear the screech of a glanter. It cuts through the sky like an unholy opera singer. A group of them fly by and chase the car as I rush back inside the house. I slam the door shut and look through the window as I see a couple of smaller glanters grab and shake the car violently looking for the driver. They tear at it, ripping off doors and breaking the windows. The driver screams as the seats cover with blood and he's ripped out of the car as multiple smaller glanters tear and bite off parts of his body like piranha's until his body is completely devoured. I run back to the man cave to warn Preston about what had happened. I spot him laying in his chair spinning a DVD disc on his finger.
“It's not safe outside right now”
“Why not?
“There's glanter's outside, they just ate a dude in his car”
“Did they see you come inside?”
“I don't think so , they flew off before I went inside.”
“well we're not dead so I'm gonna say they didn't see you. But let's stay here for a couple more hours just to be safe”
“Sounds good i'm gonna go find the master bedroom.” I start to walk back up the stairs to the house
“ Hold on why do you get the master bedroom” Preston says while walking after me.
“Because I'm gonna find it first” I say as I start to run to find the bedroom. He chases after me in pursuit of the bedroom. Me and Preston run around the house looking for the master bedroom. We look through room after room finding closets, the garage, a bathroom and a door leading to a balcony in the back of the house. I manage to run into the bedroom and yell out to Preston.``Found it!!”
He comes walking into the room breathing heavily from the running. We both check out the room. The walls are painted a cream yellow and the bed takes up most of the room's center. The bed has burgundy sheets poking out from its bottom and a quilt with multi-colored floral designs lay sprawled out on top of it. There's a wardrobe built into the wall and a black leather couch sits comfortably on the left wall.
“Dibs on the bed” I say as I jump on top of it. I stretch out on top of the quilt and search for a comfortable part to sleep in.
“Where am I supposed to sleep then?” Preston complains
“You can sleep on the couch it looks soft enough” I respond while pointing towards the couch “I saw some spare blankets in one of the closets”
“Alright i’ll be right back” he mumbles to himself “why do i always get the couch”
“ I'll be right here if you need me,” i call after him. I sit up on the bed and start to look around the room more. I notice the entrance to the wardrobe is cracked open slightly. I hop out of the bed and grab a flashlight from my bag as I walk into the wardrobe. I turn on my flashlight and stare in awe at how many clothes are in there. The room is only half as big as the bedroom but it's still bigger than any closet I've ever had. The wardrobe is full of shirts, dresses, pants, and shoes for men and women. I immediately start to look through the shoes to see if any fit my size. I throw a pair of black high heels behind me as Preston finds me in the wardrobe. He looks around before asking me.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding a new pair of clothes to wear cause I've been wearing the same pair of jeans for waaaaay too long”
“Fair enough. Is there any guy stuff in there?”
“Yeah right there” I hook my thumb behind me to point to the other end of the closet.
“I'm sure they won't mind if we take a couple of things…they're probably dead by now anyways,” Preston says with a slight grin on his face. The way he said made me spin my head to look at him but he was already on the opposite end of the wardrobe looking at suits.
I shake away the thought and continue looking for any pair of sneakers in my size. 40 minutes pass before I walk out of the wardrobe holding a new pair of jeans and a black guns-N-roses t-shirt. I toss the clothes on top of the bed and check to see if the shower in the bathroom still works. I turn the dial and wait for a moment. The shower head chokes a little before water comes pouring out. I reach my hand under the showerhead to feel the water. The water is cold, it causes my hand to shiver when I take it out. I shake the water off and say to myself.
“Good enough” as I start to take off my old clothes and get in the shower. The cold water bounces off my skin, it sends shivers down my spine but I still get the old dirt from the last few months off of me. I step out and see a couple of dry towels hanging off of the door. I grab one and dry my body off and grab another to wrap around my head and dry my hair. I step out of the bathroom and Preston is still inside the wardrobe. I put on my new clothes while his back is turned and walk over towards him when I'm finished.
“Still haven't found anything,” I ask him
He turns around “Nothing yet, the only thing interesting was this coat.” He holds a leather coat up to me. The coat is made of black leather and has a skull covered with blue flames on the back. There's a black shirt inside the coat with a skeleton hand making a thumbs-up embroidered on the front.
“ That's pretty cool, it's better than what you're wearing right now at least” he's outfitted in a blue hoodie with holes on the chest and tears at the sleeves. He also has a shirt with a faded picture of a blue flower printed on it.
“I guess you're right” he gets up from the floor and exits the wardrobe. He lays the clothes on the couch along next to the blanket and pillow he brought into the room.
“The shower works so you can get yourself clean In there,” I say to him
“You know, a shower sounds really good right now.” He gets up from the floor and grabs a pair of pajama pants that were laying next to him. He leaves the wardrobe and enters the bathroom, closing the door behind him. After a moment the water turns on and I hop on the bed to get ready to sleep. I squirm myself into the quilt and rest my head against one of the pillows. I shut my eyes and fall asleep listening to the passive sound of the shower like rain on a car.
I'm in a void. It feels like I'm standing in a puddle of water that reaches to my knees. I wade my way forward looking around for anything in the darkness. In the distance I can see 3 figures l. I moved closer to them and their silhouettes get clearer. I realize they are my dad and brothers. I start to run towards them kicking up water behind me until something grabs my leg. It pulls down violently forcing me under the water without a breath of air. I kick at the thing grabbing me until something grabs my other leg. I look down and see two glanter's each with a monstrous smile on their faces. They stare back at me and one of them tugs my leg harder than before and tears it off of my body. The water around me turns red as the glanter laugh's. The other smiles wider as it starts to fling me around the water forcing any air left in my lungs to be forced out as I scream in pain. The glanter throws me away and I can see my family slowly fade into the distance as I'm flown away.
I struggle to swim back to where I was, one of my legs is missing and the other is broken. The glanter's find me again and I try to get to the surface to escape them. I'm flapping my arms in any attempt to escape as one of the glanter's flies in front of me and grabs my arm. I look at the monster with tears in my eyes as it bites my arm and tears my body away from it. It flings my body away and with my remaining arm I clutch the wound as the water floods into my body leaving me in the void I started in. I look around and the glanter's seem to have left. I turn behind me and see my family again, this time I'm closer than before.
I grit my teeth and drag my body towards them slowly as I leave a trail of blood and tears behind me. I finally reach my family and grab one of my father's shoes. I stare up and he looks at me. His stare causes me to feel cold as a grotesque smile grows on his face. I stare in shock as my brothers each have the same look as my father.
I shoot up from my sleep panting heavily in a cold sweat.
“It was just a dream..just a dream…just a dream” I look at my hands as tears fall into them. I look around the room and see Preston sleeping peacefully on the couch. The room feels frozen in place as a chill runs down my spine. I get out of the bed and walk out of the bedroom. I make my way through the dark hallway and find the entrance to the balcony I saw earlier. I creak open the screen door and head outside. The Balcony is pretty large, about the size of the kitchen in the house. There are some chairs knocked over next to a table and I pick one up to sit on it. I look out into the expanse of the neighborhood, houses lined up next to each other, dozens broken apart by roads, and dead bodies scattered across the roads.
I look up in the sky and sit back in the chair. The sky looks empty except for the moon giving this world its only source of light. Without the moon, we’d be left in darkness. It hangs in the sky alone, no stars, no clouds, nothing but itself, and the void of the sky. I think back about the dream I had. My dad and my brother's all dead and possessed and then they kill me. I start to tear up thinking about it. I try to wipe away the tears but it’s no use. I'm too scared for my family. I don't know where they are if they're alive if they're worried about me I don't know anything! I start to quietly cry into my hands. I don't know how long I'm sitting there until I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn my head to face it and I see Preston. He was smiling and looking at me. I turn away to wipe my tears and he walks next to me.
“I heard you sneaking out of the bedroom so I followed you to see where you were going.” he says “but that's not my question.” he pauses and looks at me “my question is what’s got you feeling so down?” he leans over the railing of the balcony
“It's nothing, I just came out here to clear my head.” I say as more tears escape from my eyes in big slow drops that ride down the sides of my face.
“if you don't feel like telling me you don't have to but i'll be here if you ever change your mind”. He looks up at the moon before turning to face me and his smile widens “I'll always be here with you…trust me I'm not going anywhere”
I stare up at him and wipe away my tears as a smile grows on my face to match his. I get up and stare over the balcony with him. “So where are we heading next?” I say to him, Preston pulls the map we got from the man cave downstairs out from his pocket.
“After I got out of the shower I decided to take a look at the map for anything interesting we could see.”
“Ok did you find anything?” i ask
“I did,” he points at a spot on the right of the map. “We should head to the museum”
“I didn't want to go to a museum before the apocalypse why would i want to go now?'' I ask him.
“Well the best part of museums is the cool stuff right”
“Yeah what about it”
“The only problem is that you could only look at the fossils and armor but you could never take them.”
“So you want to rob a museum?” Prestons eyes light up at the question
“Exactly they might have a really cool sword I could use, or I could sharpen a dinosaur tooth and use that as a weapon, there might be a cursed shield that can summon the dead to fight for you. This opportunity is too good to pass up. We need to go!”
“That does seem pretty cool but wouldn't carrying that stuff weigh us down. What if a glanter is chasing us and we can't run fast enough because of the stuff we took from the museum.”
“We’ll only take things that are light. Even then I could just block the glanter with my newly acquired 2000 year old shield.”
“Fair enough we can go in a couple hours” I yawn and stretch out my arms. “Cause I'm feeling way too tired to walk all the way over there right now.”
“Alright i'm heading back to my couch and THEN we’ll head out to the museum” he leaves the balcony and heads back to the master bedroom leaving me alone on the balcony.
“Thanks Preston I'm not leaving either” I say into the sky. I turn around and walk back inside the house, closing the balcony door behind me. I walk back into the bedroom and Preston is hunched over and holding a flashlight looking at the map. He’s drawing lines through roads and marking X’s in different areas.
“What are the X’s for?” i ask him
“They’re places that glanter’s usually stay around. I'm marking them off so we remember not to go through them, or at least be more cautious.”
“Cool. Did you find where we are right now?” He points to an area where the lines all converge out of.
“Right around here is where the neighborhood ends. So if we follow this path we can make it to the museum in one piece” I pat him on the back and take the map from his hands.
“Get some sleep Preston, we have a full day tomorrow” he grins to himself before laying down on the couch. I put the map back into my bag and hop on the bed to get to sleep. I cover my body in the quilt and roll over facing away from Preston as he falls asleep. I nestle myself into the bed and slowly fall asleep to get ready for the next day.
I'm awoken by Preston shaking the bed I'm sleeping on. My eyes open and the room is foggy, I wipe away the sleep from my eyes and focus my attention towards Preston. He's practically jumping out of his skin with excitement, he's already fully dressed for the trip and shaking the bed with a wide smile on his face.
“Ok ok i'm up the air feels heavy as a groggy feeling fills my body. I wipe my eyes and the room starts to clear up. I turn to face Preston. He's still shaking my bed to wake me up, he’s already fully dressed and nearly jumping out of his skin in excitement.
“Ok ok, i'm up you can stop shaking the bed” i say
“Then get up we’ve got a long walk ahead of us” he says as he stops shaking the mattress. He grabs the map from my bag and points to one of the red lines.
“We're gonna follow this way to the museum. We’ll move past the hotel around the ice skating rink and around the park. We’ll mainly stick to walking through the streets, we might have to go rooftop hopping to avoid any glanter’s if we see them but i'm sure we won’t reach that point.” he explains
“Wait, wait, wait, why are avoiding the skating rink and the park” i ask
“ everytime we go near the park there's weird noises and light coming out of it”
“And why can't we go to the ice skating rink?”
“I didn't think it would be important”
“It couldn't hurt to check it out at least”
“Fine we could make a detour”
“Ok and how do you plan on getting on top of roofs?”
“I'm sure we'll figure it out when we get to it”
“Ok man as long as you’re sure '' I yawn and step out of the bed. Preston starts to put the map in his bag. I walk into the bathroom with my clothes and change out of my pajamas. Minutes later I walk out and see Preston sitting on the couch twiddling his thumbs.
“Finally you're out” he smiles at me before handing me my bag and slinging it over his shoulder. We took a last look inside the kitchen to see if we missed anything. Afterwards we leave for the outside. The cold air bites at my face but Preston walks down the stairs, his face buried in the map. I jog to catch up to him as we both head into the street.
“Hey Preston, could I see the map?”
“Sure” he hands over the map and continues walking. I look at the map and the numerous lines drawn on roads. I look at the corner of the map and notice a small map key with numerous symbols for different areas like a library, school, hospital, and more. There's even a way to tell how far away each location is. The text reads “1 inch=5 miles” I quickly count how far we are from the museum.
“Dude this museum is like 100 miles away.”
“Yep it'll be a long walk, it'll take us a while to get there”
“Did you plan on us walking there the whole time?”
“We might find bikes or something.” he pauses “well i did think we would walk the whole way”
“This is gonna take us weeks to get there!”
“Did you have anything else planned?”
“Well…i guess not but we should still try to find some bikes or something”
“Ok if we see any way to travel faster we’ll take it”
“Alright cool” I hand him the map back and he folds it back up and puts it in his bag. We walk further until we leave the gated neighborhood we started in. Preston takes the map back out and looks at it before he turns right and continues walking. I follow him staring forward at the expanse of the road. The outside of the neighborhood is surrounded by roads all leading to different parts of Newkinawa. We walk past a sign that reads “Coretown 20 miles ahead” I nudge Preston towards the sign and he checks the map again.
“Yep, the museum’s in Coretown. Would you believe the residents were pretty proud of it. Should be a fun place to explore” he says
“Yeah but it’ll take us a million years to get there.” i complain
“Lighten up, I'm sure it will be worth it”. We continue walking down the road slowly making our way to Coretown.