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2023.05.30 19:40 SchlesingerMindy323 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in IN Hiring Now!
2023.05.30 19:40 No_Competition4897 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in UT Hiring Now!
2023.05.30 19:32 Firm_Cloud_3278 Burning My Crêpe - now accepting new campers!
Hello everyone!
We are Burning My Crêpe, a breton-themed camp running since 2018. But what is breton-themed, you may ask? Well, it's the world's birthplace of crepes, in the western region of Brittany, France, where two of the initial camp lead trio originated from. We offer large gifting sessions (over 2 hours) of flamed crepes & pole dancing (best combination ever, by the way) at sunset on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Our little secret? The batter is made from scratch and from fresh ingredients, then flamed with a delicious orange liquor. In addition, we do have some playa shenanigans running at the camp, that could be considered extra gifting (sound healing, painting workshops, etc).
We are a small camp, counting 14 people today, with a pretty good diversity: almost 50/50 on male/non-male and 6 countries represented. We want to keep it small so everyone can spend time together and form a little happy group of burners (we have been 30+ in the past and realized only too late it was a terrible idea for the 'camp spirit').
Who are we looking for?
Thanks for reading this far!
Toupie-toupie and 1-40, BMC camp leads
submitted by Firm_Cloud_3278 to BurningMan [link] [comments]
We are Burning My Crêpe, a breton-themed camp running since 2018. But what is breton-themed, you may ask? Well, it's the world's birthplace of crepes, in the western region of Brittany, France, where two of the initial camp lead trio originated from. We offer large gifting sessions (over 2 hours) of flamed crepes & pole dancing (best combination ever, by the way) at sunset on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Our little secret? The batter is made from scratch and from fresh ingredients, then flamed with a delicious orange liquor. In addition, we do have some playa shenanigans running at the camp, that could be considered extra gifting (sound healing, painting workshops, etc).
We are a small camp, counting 14 people today, with a pretty good diversity: almost 50/50 on male/non-male and 6 countries represented. We want to keep it small so everyone can spend time together and form a little happy group of burners (we have been 30+ in the past and realized only too late it was a terrible idea for the 'camp spirit').
Who are we looking for?
- Ideally, a small group of 2 to 4 people who have been on the playa before
- You should be autonomous with your logistics in and out of the playa - we may be able to carpool with our campmates but we cannot really promise anything (Bay area, south Idaho, Salt Lake City...)
- Ideally, you should have a camping solution already (RV, or tent, or w/e) - we have the option to provide an hexayurt but to be discussed
- We don't care much for where you are based or where you are from, our logistics are already set up
- Enough space on our camp for your little setup, we usually have a good spot in the 4:30 sector (previous years we were in C or D, hoping for the same this year)
- Camp amenities: large shade structure with awesome lights and a new misting system, furniture...)
- A fully equipped kitchen (stoves, gas, coolers, ice...), as well as a shower and evaporation ponds
- Bad playa advice and pole dancing lessons
- Optional: a camp bike from our storage unit (for a reasonable extra fee)
- Food and water (we used to have a tank, but it's not worth it this year)
- Private portos - what did you think? :)
- Tickets and Vehicle Passes
- Camp fees - everyone pays the same in our camp (530$ to be precise), the budget has been voted by all current campmates
- Participate to the camp, notably via the gifting (twice during the week), as well as strike (sorry...), and small things (we don't keep a list or a plan, we don't run after people, we just count on everyone's proactivity as a group of friends would do)
- Be willing to be part of the group and not running a boys/girls club at the back of the camp
Thanks for reading this far!
Toupie-toupie and 1-40, BMC camp leads
2023.05.30 19:30 Thesorus Italy (Rome/Sicily) Report back from our 2 weeks vacations.
Spend 2 weeks in Italy with 2 short stays in Rome separated by a week in Southern Sicily.
I'm not that good at writing, so ...
We've been to Rome many times before, we have a few places to eat that we like, places to visit that we like and also discover new places; my GF is a little less adventurous than I am and not that in shape (she's working on that), so I tried to set destination goals instead of just getting out in the morning and walk aimlessly.
Our flight in got delayed, missed a connection in Zurich, staff was very good at finding us the first plane to Rome, we just lost a couple of hours, no biggie (thanks SWISS Air).
Seriously busted my budget. (worth it, but not funny... lol )
Driving around Sicily was fun; on our way in to Porto Empedocle, the GPS got us on some small roads, weird, but we saw some really nice areas, fields, hills, flowers. Smaller winding hill roads were more complicated because I'm just not used to them, and even if we sometimes blocked other drivers, they were not that impatient and passed us when they had the chance.
The weather in Rome for the first few day was OK, not cold, but not warm, a little bit of rain, but not enough to us miserable (lol).
Rome (part 1):
We based ourselves in Porto Empedocle and stayed at a very nice B&B with a pool, but the weather (cool, very windy, rainy-ish) did not permit us to indulged and GF had a nice cold/sore throat and slept 12hours per day. We had a boat tour cancelled (and refunded) because of the bad weather; so did not see the Scala dei Turchi.
We flew back from Palermo to Rome with stupendous weather, warm, sunny.
All in all an enjoyable vacations.
We will probably spend more time in Sicily next time, maybe in early October (or even the same time as weather seems unnaturally bad this year).
Maybe on the eastern side (Noto/Ragusa) and some wineries we know near the Etna.
Anyway,.
submitted by Thesorus to ItalyTravel [link] [comments]
I'm not that good at writing, so ...
We've been to Rome many times before, we have a few places to eat that we like, places to visit that we like and also discover new places; my GF is a little less adventurous than I am and not that in shape (she's working on that), so I tried to set destination goals instead of just getting out in the morning and walk aimlessly.
Our flight in got delayed, missed a connection in Zurich, staff was very good at finding us the first plane to Rome, we just lost a couple of hours, no biggie (thanks SWISS Air).
Seriously busted my budget. (worth it, but not funny... lol )
Driving around Sicily was fun; on our way in to Porto Empedocle, the GPS got us on some small roads, weird, but we saw some really nice areas, fields, hills, flowers. Smaller winding hill roads were more complicated because I'm just not used to them, and even if we sometimes blocked other drivers, they were not that impatient and passed us when they had the chance.
The weather in Rome for the first few day was OK, not cold, but not warm, a little bit of rain, but not enough to us miserable (lol).
Rome (part 1):
- National Museum of Modern Art (on the other side of the Villa Borghese park) : Really cool place to visit, not many people, very nice restaurant (cafè, restaurant and a nice terrasse); there is a small version of the Sfera con Sfera from Arnaldo Pomodorto that you can also find at the Vatican museum garden.
- Botanical Garden: better than last year, roses were all blooming.
- Did the usual Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps meandering.
We based ourselves in Porto Empedocle and stayed at a very nice B&B with a pool, but the weather (cool, very windy, rainy-ish) did not permit us to indulged and GF had a nice cold/sore throat and slept 12hours per day. We had a boat tour cancelled (and refunded) because of the bad weather; so did not see the Scala dei Turchi.
- Porto Empedocle: Nice little resort town; did'nt go to the beach (weather), the pedestrian area was nice with a few good restaurants (Vigata in particular and Il Ritrovo), we did not go to the upper side of the town, as the week went on, there were more and more tourists.
- Valley of The Temple: Super Cool, first time for us to see real Ancient Greek Temples, VERY impressive, we booked a guide and it was perfect (except for the super strong winds)
- Favara: Spend some times seeing the Farm Cultural Park, a small artist retreat/exhibition area and went to the Palazzo Miccichè with its inside forest, really fun. Unfortunately the weather was not great and the city seems to be closed down on a Saturday, but we found a nice open restaurant, U MACCICUNI.
- Agrigento: The weather was not good that day, we just bee-lined to the Museo Diocesan (only thing opened on sunday, we did not stay there long enough, rainy and GF was not feeling it, but I need to go back and climb and walk all around.
- Weather was good on Monday and we drove to San Leone and see the beach, spend a couple of hours just sit by the sea.
- We stayed near the Cathedral
- I loved the Mercato del Capo (obviously very touristy), would have eaten everything; we did not have enough time to explore the other markets
- I loved the pedestrian areas, it is a nice respite from the bustling streets everywhere. (even if it's a lot more more commercial), but some nice find (Angela Tripi with her nativity scene workshop)
- I loved what I saw from the small area near the Mercato della Vucciria.
- Fun little Sweets store at the Dolceria di Santa Caterina.
- Mostly clean in the more tourist area, lot of trash everywhere else.
- Cars, cars and more cars ... damn, more cars and cars and scooters ... many piazza that could be nice place are just over-filled with cars (not just palermo, but everywhere in Italy).
We flew back from Palermo to Rome with stupendous weather, warm, sunny.
- Went back to brave the hordes of tourist (us included) at the Vatican Museum, we spend a lot of time in the Sculpture area and Pinacoteca and the modern arts after the Sistine Chapel. (we rushed as more we could the long corridors)
- Garum Museo della Cucina , nice small discovery, with ancient and recent cooking books on display, kitchen equipment; there was also a small market there at the same time (clothes, jewelry) We also spend some time at the Campagna Amica Market, very nice local products with a small area at the back with food to eat.
- Walk back to our place and stopped at the Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, we found that they have a really nice fancy outside restaurant in the courtyard, one of our best meal of this vacation.
- Antique Market at Ponte Milvio on the GIRO Sunday, we got lucky, walked toward the Vatican and got a taxi just on the other side of the street closures (same when getting back), market seemed smaller than last year (?)
- We enjoyed the GIRO, watched the laps on Vittorio Emanuele II. They GO FAST.
All in all an enjoyable vacations.
We will probably spend more time in Sicily next time, maybe in early October (or even the same time as weather seems unnaturally bad this year).
Maybe on the eastern side (Noto/Ragusa) and some wineries we know near the Etna.
Anyway,.
2023.05.30 19:25 SchlesingerMindy323 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in IN Hiring Now!
2023.05.30 19:24 Ok-System-5213 Thoughts on best US cities to move to?
Salaam everyone,
I'm in the process of deciding where I go to for grad school, and I wanted to come here and ask for some opinions about different regions in the US since I don't have very much experience outside Illinois. Some of the most common advice given to people in my position applying to this type of program is to heavily consider the geographic location of the school you're attending in addition to the quality of education and financial aid. Some people would say it's actually even more important, depending on the specific situation. The reason being is that the location of the school is often really heavily associated with employment prospects because it is MUCH easier to find work in the state you studied in (like 85-90% of your graduating class will stay in that state for at least the next 10 years if not the rest of their lives). It also becomes difficult to move out of the state later, though it's not impossible. I'd be open to staying where I am but I'm also open to moving and settling somewhere else, not particularly committed to either.
My question here is does anyone have thoughts as to what cities/state in the US are best for young Muslims to move to? I feel like whenever I've heard this topic being discussed before or read about it on here, it's always in the perspective of places best for families rather than young adults moving alone. People usually mention Cali, Texas, Chicago, and NY/NJ for reasons like lots of halal restaurants, mosques, large communities, and Islamic schools. I think those are all important factors and I definitely want to consider them because I'll probably be there long term, but as a young single person I have different needs/priorities right now than I would later in my life when I'm settled with a family. Right now, my Muslim friend circle isn't very large but I feel like my area is a little clique-y and if you didn't make/join a friend group in college/high school, there's an additional hurdle to get past. It seems to be easier if you're married/starting a family, but that's not a decision I want to rush into lol just because I wanna make some more friends.
Ideally, I'd like to move somewhere where it's easy for me to make a lot of Muslim friends and there's a lot of activities/things to fill my social life with. What do you guys think about the different cities/regions in terms of openness/welcoming to newcomers and difficulty in making friends as a young adult?
submitted by Ok-System-5213 to MuslimLounge [link] [comments]
I'm in the process of deciding where I go to for grad school, and I wanted to come here and ask for some opinions about different regions in the US since I don't have very much experience outside Illinois. Some of the most common advice given to people in my position applying to this type of program is to heavily consider the geographic location of the school you're attending in addition to the quality of education and financial aid. Some people would say it's actually even more important, depending on the specific situation. The reason being is that the location of the school is often really heavily associated with employment prospects because it is MUCH easier to find work in the state you studied in (like 85-90% of your graduating class will stay in that state for at least the next 10 years if not the rest of their lives). It also becomes difficult to move out of the state later, though it's not impossible. I'd be open to staying where I am but I'm also open to moving and settling somewhere else, not particularly committed to either.
My question here is does anyone have thoughts as to what cities/state in the US are best for young Muslims to move to? I feel like whenever I've heard this topic being discussed before or read about it on here, it's always in the perspective of places best for families rather than young adults moving alone. People usually mention Cali, Texas, Chicago, and NY/NJ for reasons like lots of halal restaurants, mosques, large communities, and Islamic schools. I think those are all important factors and I definitely want to consider them because I'll probably be there long term, but as a young single person I have different needs/priorities right now than I would later in my life when I'm settled with a family. Right now, my Muslim friend circle isn't very large but I feel like my area is a little clique-y and if you didn't make/join a friend group in college/high school, there's an additional hurdle to get past. It seems to be easier if you're married/starting a family, but that's not a decision I want to rush into lol just because I wanna make some more friends.
Ideally, I'd like to move somewhere where it's easy for me to make a lot of Muslim friends and there's a lot of activities/things to fill my social life with. What do you guys think about the different cities/regions in terms of openness/welcoming to newcomers and difficulty in making friends as a young adult?
2023.05.30 19:23 TheDeliciousMeats Bone Music: Chapter 13
Previous
That night Simon and Nemeria watched from the rooftop of a rented apartment in Coven as shooting stars fell over Homeworld for the first time. "Make a wish, my love." She said as she put her head in his lap, the rapidly disintegrating space station above filling the sky with streaks of light that reflected in her eyes.
He thought about it for a second. "Should I tell you what it is?"
"No, definitely not." Nemeria replied. "Then it won't come true."
"Oh… then I will not." Simon said as he played with her hair. For a moment he felt as if he were standing at a crossroads, straddling two potential futures, then the feeling faded. He had wished for them to have a happy life together. He felt they at least deserved that after all they had been through and all the time they had spent apart.
The morning after Haven fell something interesting happened. Pirate radio stations began to emerge, filling the airways with music, but it wasn't like anything they had heard before. It was something new.
"Good morning Homeworld!" Called out a rough but enthusiastic voice in Dansk from the clock radio on the dresser. It was out of arm's reach, probably so the person being woken up would have to actually get out of bed to shut it off. "This is not a test, this is rock and roll! Time to rock it from Katzenlund to the Winter lands! Is it too early to be this loud? Too late!"
Simon frowned at the clock radio. He didn't remember scheduling an alarm. "I'm Mr. Bones and this is human music! I'm going to start off with a favorite of mine, Zombie by the Cranberries!"
He went to turn it off but Nemeria tackled him before he could reach the button. "Do you dare." She said as she pulled him back into bed. "That song is a classic."
So instead of starting the day early they stayed in bed and listened to The Doors, Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, and Pink Floyd. It was surprisingly good, even if his wetware had a hard time translating the lyrics.
"Human music on the radio." Nemeria mused, her head on his chest. "I never thought I would see the day."
"Oh? I just assumed you people didn't like to share." Simon tousled her hair, it was starting to change from dull brown to a more vivid copper red.
"No. There are countermeasures in place, Haven would have sent a kill team to destroy anyone who tried or just blasted the site from orbit. We had a black market, exchanging things from the old world, books, music, things to keep us sane. But it was very hush hush." Nemeria looked at him, her eyes were different too, they were an almost opalescent green. Something had changed in her. "I want to read you something."
"Alright." Simon sat up, his muscular shoulders against the headboard and he listened as she recited Edna and Shakespeare from memory, beautiful human words, full of sentiment and meaning.
"That was beautiful." Simon said. "Why haven't you shared this with me before?"
"It wasn't allowed. You would have felt compelled to share it and then Haven would have come for you." She smiled, but for once there was no pain behind it, or guilt. Perhaps it was the first real smile he had even seen on her face. It was like a weight had been lifted. "But now, there is no Haven. We don't have to worry about them anymore. We can live our lives, start anew."
"You seem different… unburdened." Simon observed.
"I am. I woke up this morning and realized that I don't have to feel guilty for something someone else did. Something that I never played a part in. I should have realized it sooner, but something was blocking me from making the connection." She laid back in bed. "I feel… new? Is that the word? Yes, new. I feel like I'm not the same person who went to sleep last night."
The old hund's words echoed in Simon's mind. He had said he would crack Haven like an egg, destroy the Howl, then set everyone free. So was he free? How different would he be now that his programming no longer bound him to her?
Before they had parted the old hund had given him a piece of advice. He had told Simon that love was a choice, not a feeling. That if he wanted things to work out with Nemeria he would have to choose her, and keep choosing her, to decide once and for all that he would always love her. And to stand by that choice.
"Would you please give me your ring?" Simon asked. "There's something I need to do."
Nemeria slipped the silver band off her finger and handed it over. Then Simon sat her on the edge of the bed and knelt down. "The world is new, we are new, so I ask… will you marry me? Will you be my wife?"
Nemeria paused, realizing that she had a choice to make. Before then she had been hard coded to love him, hard coded to believe that she was someone, now all that was falling away. Her mind was free, unshackled. Unburdened. She remembered so much that had been kept hidden from her.
The Red Titan had stolen one of Esmerelda's backup clones and poured their mind into it, essentially putting the mind of one warden into the body of another. But that didn't make her them. She was someone else, someone new. She didn't have to pay for their mistakes anymore.
But what about Simon? Did she love him? Could she love him? Did she want to commit to this when her whole life was ahead of her? And the child, she had agreed to raise a child! Did she even know that she would like being a mother? Or that she would be a good one?
A soft caress brought her back to reality. It was Simon, touching her cheek with the tips of his fingers. "I don't know what is going on, or what tomorrow will hold, or even how I will feel, and it terrifies me. But I know that together we can face anything. We have a chance to choose for ourselves, and I choose you. I promise that I will always choose you."
Then as he went to slip the ring on her finger he repeated what she had told him when she handed him his first Vampirzahn. He didn't know where it came from or what it meant. But the sentiment had been clear, that she couldn't protect him from the world, that she couldn't keep him safe, that this was all she could give and she hoped that it would be enough. "It's dangerous to go alone, take this."
Nemeria laughed and accepted the ring. "Yes it is, isn't it? I suppose you're stuck with me now."
"Damn. Perhaps I should rethink things?" Simon laughed as he pulled her back into bed. "No, I think I like this." He gave her a playful nip on the side of the neck. "Yes, I believe I do."
They made love until the afternoon then went out for pastries and provisions. Somehow it felt right, finally choosing each other. They walked hand in hand, ignoring the looks of surprise at a human and a hund so boldly displaying their affection. GG had said she would contact them when the child was ready to be picked up.
"I can't believe Haven is actually gone." Nemeria said as she sat on a bench eating an ice cream cone. Technically they were in a graveyard, but between the sunshine and the families with their strollers it felt just like any other park.
She took a second to make sure nobody was listening. "I joined some of the old nets anonymously and asked around. Everyone says it was some kind of system failure, or possibly sabotage. Apparently the boosters just went haywire, spun it until it fell apart."
"It's hard to believe it." Simon looked up at the clear sky, there wasn't a single sign of the once proud space station. "I wonder if there will be a backlash against humans now that there isn't anything stopping us from getting even."
"Possibly, but we're resilient and useful. With Haven destroyed I expect you will see a lot of human tech being sold to the highest bidder. And not just tech, entertainment as well. There are a bunch of black market music and books that are going to see the light for the first time in centuries."
Simon felt a call come in from GG and he accepted it. The encryption in their wetware made sure nobody else could listen in. She got straight to the point.
"Someone took out all of the Howl's senior leadership last night." She said over the link, "It was a bloodbath."
Simon blinked in surprise. "What happened? And why wasn't I invited? Was it Las Brujas?" He replied back, his wetware translating thoughts to words.
"Details are sparse but apparently they had an emergency meeting to discuss what to do about the Haven situation and someone took the opportunity to clean house. It was some kind of commando style raid, nobody knows who or why. All the tapes and satellite images were erased. Just a lot of dead bodies." She sent him a few choice photos. "Multiple locations were hit simultaneously. All locations were remote and heavily guarded. Looks like whoever this was they hit hard and fast. Local security was packbound and armed to the teeth, didn't help. They were put down with precise shots and a minimum of fuss. Look familiar?"
He sucked in his breath. Somebody had been using a Jagdkommando carbine, he recognized the tiny entrance and massive exit wounds. Yes, they looked familiar. He had carried that same rifle.
Even five decades after their defeat Döbi still produced some of the most sought after weapons. Half the militaries on Homeworld used their hardware. But these were old classics, pre-war. Someone was sending a message.
New tech was all about drones and smart munitions. Why risk a soldier's life when you could lob a smart grenade through a window that would identify friend from foe and destroy the latter with smart shrapnel? No, this was old school. Someone looked them in the face and pulled the trigger.
Apparently the old hund hasn't been lying when he said he would destroy the Howl. But what kind of power vacuum would that leave? And who would step in? The Howl wasn't just a supremacist group. They ran weapons, narcotics and black market tech all over the globe. They had strongholds in various capital cities and major political protection.
"Any noise on who is going to step up now that they're out of commission?" Simon asked.
"It's too soon to say but my money is on the Bone Syndicate. They've been looking to expand and with the Howl out of the way they'll probably jump at the chance. They've been staying out of the news but my sources say they have been muscling out smaller gangs and taking over their turf. Nobody seems to mind because there aren't gunfights in the streets anymore. But it's still organized crime."
Simon was familiar with the Bone Syndicate, he had even done some work for them after they restructured a few decades back. Territory under their control tended to be mostly peaceful and safe, so long as you followed the rules. They even helped out during national disasters. But the line between gangsters and good samaritans tended to blur.
They might extort local restaurants then give them money to rebuild after a fire. They would blackmail politicians… to ensure a new school got funded. Or to pass a social welfare bill. It was almost as if they had decided that the best way for them to make money was to improve the areas which they controlled. And it was working.
They operated almost in the open and had so thoroughly greased all levels of local government that any attempt to take them down would cause a major budget crisis. But when they did choose violence, it was with massively overwhelming force and military precision. Yes, this sounded like their way of doing things. The old hund must have tipped them off.
"Any news on our bundle of joy?" Simon asked.
"Yes, she is en route." GG confirmed. "She should arrive in a few hours. We have papers for her ready as well as a safe house in Porto."
Porto? Now that was a surprise. "Why Porto?"
"Because they acknowledge mixed species marriages and it's one of the few places you have amnesty." GG reminded him. "You are technically a war criminal. Even if most of the world thinks you are dead."
After the war Porto had offered him amnesty in return for helping them hunt down and kill those responsible for the genocide of their fellow katzen. Porto was after all a mostly katzen nation and they knew how to hold a grudge. So he had joined a task force of other enhanced hunds and katzen with a similar thirst for blood and they had done their best to kill every last one of the people responsible. Afterwards he had gone into the private sector, but it was true, he did have a place to go if he ever felt like retiring.
He contemplated that for a moment. If he was going to raise a child he couldn't exactly run off for months at a time to do contract work. Perhaps it was time to retire, at least until she was grown. It wasn't like he needed the money. Perhaps it was time to become the warrior in the gardens like the old hund had said.
"How do you feel about moving to Porto?" Simon asked after he broke the connection.
"Oh, I have a little place near Intra, on the coast." Nemeria frowned. "I don't think I've been back in quite some time though. Let me check something…"
Her eyelids fluttered as she scanned the net. "Yes, the management company I hired is renting it out. I can have them cancel the bookings and make it ready for us, if that's what you want." She smiled. "It's quite well defended, I purchased it in my post-war phase when I thought everyone was out to get me. We could hold off an army there."
"Perfect." Simon said, squeezing her hand three times and receiving three squeezes back in reply. In the camps that had been their secret way of saying "I love you" and he was happy to see that she still remembered.
He looked out across the park and frowned. "Darling, was that church always there?"
Nemeria followed his gaze, her eyes narrowed. "No… I'd say it wasn't. Now the question is, was it hidden or did it just appear?"
Simon cocked his head to the side, surprised at the flexibility of her thought process. It was like she was waking up, becoming bright again, becoming the person he had fallen in love with in the camps. "Shall we investigate?" He asked.
"Oh yes. Definitely." Nemeria made a gesture with her fingers and he could almost swear there was a faint rainbow flickering of light in the palm of her right hand.
"Dearest, what was that?" He asked as they stalked across the graveyard.
"Oh, it's something old. It goes nicely with the something new." Nemeria said playfully, nudging him with her hip.
Simon mentally filed that strangeness into a drawer marked "wife/human stuff" and put it out of his mind. There was no sense trying to understand it all, to attempt to do so was to invite madness.
The church was old, hundreds of years old. With moss growing from the roof and black stones making up the walls. Which made it very strange indeed that it seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere and hadn't been there yesterday.
"Fascinating." Nemeria said as she turned around, not looking at the church but at the people around them. "Absolutely fascinating."
Simon didn't get it. "What is so interesting, my love?"
"It's an SEP field." Nemeria replied.
"And that is?" Simon pressed.
"Someone else's problem." She turned to him and smiled. "They can all see it, they just ignore it. But look at them. Really look."
Simon did as requested, they seemed like normal hunds to him. There were certainly more bicycles than he was used to but then again this was Coven. Then he looked with his other senses and he quickly realized that what was going on was anything but normal.
Almost everyone in the park was running some form of wetware, even the pups. Warhunds shared data along a kind of mesh network that mixed low power local signals with satellite uplinks and repeaters to allow them to communicate nearly instantly and move as a team. This was something similar but with vastly more users.
He looked up with his mind and touched a commercial recon satellite, purchasing some time through a shell company, accessing its spectral analysis capabilities. The whole city was a hotbed of activity, and the network was growing at an exponential rate.
A wave of digital traffic was spreading out over the country, awakening new mesh nodes as it went, strengthening and spreading the network. Soon it was in Döbi, Möhi, Sühi, and the rest of the continent.
He looked down, his own wetware telling him something very important. It wasn't just the living who were part of the network. Somehow it seemed to be leveraging the dead as well.
Some of the more recent graves seemed to be exchanging packets with the network. Answering queries perhaps? But what could the dead possibly have to say?
"Many things, I would imagine." Said a raspy voice from the entrance of the church, seemingly reading his thoughts. It was an old Döbian with high cut ears, but it was hard to say if it was the same one he had met in his dream. He was wearing plain black clothes and a white priest's collar rubbed with sandalwood, the traditional scent of his station. "Come, you don't want to be late for the wedding."
Nemeria and Simon exchanged a knowing look. "It's our wedding, isn't it?" Simon asked.
"Of course." The old hund said with a dry chuckle. "Who's else would it be? You know that this is one of the few places you two can get married, don't you? Why else bring you here?" He gestured for them to come inside.
Nemeria shrugged and walked towards the door, that same strange shimmer dancing around the fingertips of her right hand. "You said you brought us here. Why?"
"As bait, mostly." The old hund laughed as he turned his back on her and entered the building, talking as he walked. "But also because I have fond memories of this city. Plus the whole marriage thing. It was owed to you, a chance at a happy ending."
Nemeria looked at Simon and raised an eyebrow.
Simon just shrugged. "He's a friend… I think."
The church was well maintained, if dusty. The windows were not particularly ornate and the altar didn't hold anything worth stealing. Simon tried not to let his hackles rise at the idea of being used as bait. But bait for what? He wondered.
The old hund spun on his heel and faced Simon. "Bait… for a warden." He explained. "A very nasty warden who has quietly been growing their power and influence since the war. A cancer which, if unchecked, will spell the end of this world and all within it. Also he is a threat to my granddaughter, so that means he must die."
"How are you reading my mind?" Simon demanded angrily. It seemed like all he had to do was think of a question and the hund would answer it.
"Because to think of a question when we share a network, dear brother, is to ask it." The old hund replied cryptically. "Your wetware is querying me for information, seeing if I have an answer."
Simon frowned. "I know you… don't I? From before the war? You said we were like half brothers…" He felt a name coming to his lips, but it was as if the memory was fighting him. "Are you Gershwin's son? The pup he brought back from the dead? The reason for all this madness?"
"Yes, I am Kerner. As are many others." The old hund shrugged. "I suppose it is a very common name where I come from. Perhaps more common now."
Simon blinked. "Copies… you and the other hund I spoke with… you're copies of Kerner. The same mind spread out over different bodies." He could see it now, the advanced age made it hard to tell but this wasn't the same hund he had met in virtual.
"Duplicates yes, but not necessarily equals. Not until today." The old hund explained. "Only one of us at a time had the ability to make more, to overwrite wetware at will, to influence the Gravekeeper. But he patched out those vulnerabilities yesterday after Haven fell and the Howl was brought low. Now we are all just regular warhunds. The more recent of our number may revert back to their former selves, others will find a middle ground, and the old ones will most likely remain the same. After all, I have been Kerner for most of my life. I see little reason to change now."
"But how many of you are there?" Simon pressed.
"Many." Kerner said with a shrug. "Though now that I have revealed myself perhaps that number will decrease rapidly." The old hund chuckled, gesturing towards Nemeria. "Your other half will see to that if I am unable to stop him."
Now it was Nemeria's turn to be confused. "You don't mean Simon, do you?"
"No, I do not." The old hund sat down on an old wooden chair, looking up at the bare altar. "The problem with making copies is that the original still remains. I was made when Kerner was murdered by his sister during a training exercise. He jumped out of an airplane and realized half way down that his parachute had been sabotaged. I remember feeling his fear, his desperation, and I remember seeing him hit the ground."
The old hund looked back over his shoulder at her. "You my dear are one possible answer to a question. What does one do when the body does not fit the mind? Either the being must suffer, the body must change, or the mind must change."
The old hund went back to looking at the altar. "It's amazing how paths can split. You went one way, and he went another. You took a form to fit your mind, and he altered his mind to accept his form."
There was a polite knock on the ancient timbers of the open church door as a tall well built man with flaming red hair entered the building.
He looked at Simon and smiled. "Hello, Puppy." He said softly. It was Nemeria's old form, her old identity, the Red Titan, very much alive.
Simon realized now that the dead body he saw in the lab as they were fleeing had been a fake. This was Raul Reyes, in all his glory. A flash of anger rose in Simon as he realized that Raul had tricked him, made him think that he was alone for all these years. What a cruel thing to do to someone that you said you loved. The betrayal of it wrenched at Simon's heart, tearing open old wounds.
Simon reached out and took Nemeria's left hand, squeezing it firmly three times. "I choose you." He said. "I will always choose you. Fuck him, he's dead to me."
Nemeria squeezed back three times. "I have your back, whatever happens."
submitted by TheDeliciousMeats to HFY [link] [comments]
That night Simon and Nemeria watched from the rooftop of a rented apartment in Coven as shooting stars fell over Homeworld for the first time. "Make a wish, my love." She said as she put her head in his lap, the rapidly disintegrating space station above filling the sky with streaks of light that reflected in her eyes.
He thought about it for a second. "Should I tell you what it is?"
"No, definitely not." Nemeria replied. "Then it won't come true."
"Oh… then I will not." Simon said as he played with her hair. For a moment he felt as if he were standing at a crossroads, straddling two potential futures, then the feeling faded. He had wished for them to have a happy life together. He felt they at least deserved that after all they had been through and all the time they had spent apart.
The morning after Haven fell something interesting happened. Pirate radio stations began to emerge, filling the airways with music, but it wasn't like anything they had heard before. It was something new.
"Good morning Homeworld!" Called out a rough but enthusiastic voice in Dansk from the clock radio on the dresser. It was out of arm's reach, probably so the person being woken up would have to actually get out of bed to shut it off. "This is not a test, this is rock and roll! Time to rock it from Katzenlund to the Winter lands! Is it too early to be this loud? Too late!"
Simon frowned at the clock radio. He didn't remember scheduling an alarm. "I'm Mr. Bones and this is human music! I'm going to start off with a favorite of mine, Zombie by the Cranberries!"
He went to turn it off but Nemeria tackled him before he could reach the button. "Do you dare." She said as she pulled him back into bed. "That song is a classic."
So instead of starting the day early they stayed in bed and listened to The Doors, Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, and Pink Floyd. It was surprisingly good, even if his wetware had a hard time translating the lyrics.
"Human music on the radio." Nemeria mused, her head on his chest. "I never thought I would see the day."
"Oh? I just assumed you people didn't like to share." Simon tousled her hair, it was starting to change from dull brown to a more vivid copper red.
"No. There are countermeasures in place, Haven would have sent a kill team to destroy anyone who tried or just blasted the site from orbit. We had a black market, exchanging things from the old world, books, music, things to keep us sane. But it was very hush hush." Nemeria looked at him, her eyes were different too, they were an almost opalescent green. Something had changed in her. "I want to read you something."
"Alright." Simon sat up, his muscular shoulders against the headboard and he listened as she recited Edna and Shakespeare from memory, beautiful human words, full of sentiment and meaning.
"That was beautiful." Simon said. "Why haven't you shared this with me before?"
"It wasn't allowed. You would have felt compelled to share it and then Haven would have come for you." She smiled, but for once there was no pain behind it, or guilt. Perhaps it was the first real smile he had even seen on her face. It was like a weight had been lifted. "But now, there is no Haven. We don't have to worry about them anymore. We can live our lives, start anew."
"You seem different… unburdened." Simon observed.
"I am. I woke up this morning and realized that I don't have to feel guilty for something someone else did. Something that I never played a part in. I should have realized it sooner, but something was blocking me from making the connection." She laid back in bed. "I feel… new? Is that the word? Yes, new. I feel like I'm not the same person who went to sleep last night."
The old hund's words echoed in Simon's mind. He had said he would crack Haven like an egg, destroy the Howl, then set everyone free. So was he free? How different would he be now that his programming no longer bound him to her?
Before they had parted the old hund had given him a piece of advice. He had told Simon that love was a choice, not a feeling. That if he wanted things to work out with Nemeria he would have to choose her, and keep choosing her, to decide once and for all that he would always love her. And to stand by that choice.
"Would you please give me your ring?" Simon asked. "There's something I need to do."
Nemeria slipped the silver band off her finger and handed it over. Then Simon sat her on the edge of the bed and knelt down. "The world is new, we are new, so I ask… will you marry me? Will you be my wife?"
Nemeria paused, realizing that she had a choice to make. Before then she had been hard coded to love him, hard coded to believe that she was someone, now all that was falling away. Her mind was free, unshackled. Unburdened. She remembered so much that had been kept hidden from her.
The Red Titan had stolen one of Esmerelda's backup clones and poured their mind into it, essentially putting the mind of one warden into the body of another. But that didn't make her them. She was someone else, someone new. She didn't have to pay for their mistakes anymore.
But what about Simon? Did she love him? Could she love him? Did she want to commit to this when her whole life was ahead of her? And the child, she had agreed to raise a child! Did she even know that she would like being a mother? Or that she would be a good one?
A soft caress brought her back to reality. It was Simon, touching her cheek with the tips of his fingers. "I don't know what is going on, or what tomorrow will hold, or even how I will feel, and it terrifies me. But I know that together we can face anything. We have a chance to choose for ourselves, and I choose you. I promise that I will always choose you."
Then as he went to slip the ring on her finger he repeated what she had told him when she handed him his first Vampirzahn. He didn't know where it came from or what it meant. But the sentiment had been clear, that she couldn't protect him from the world, that she couldn't keep him safe, that this was all she could give and she hoped that it would be enough. "It's dangerous to go alone, take this."
Nemeria laughed and accepted the ring. "Yes it is, isn't it? I suppose you're stuck with me now."
"Damn. Perhaps I should rethink things?" Simon laughed as he pulled her back into bed. "No, I think I like this." He gave her a playful nip on the side of the neck. "Yes, I believe I do."
They made love until the afternoon then went out for pastries and provisions. Somehow it felt right, finally choosing each other. They walked hand in hand, ignoring the looks of surprise at a human and a hund so boldly displaying their affection. GG had said she would contact them when the child was ready to be picked up.
"I can't believe Haven is actually gone." Nemeria said as she sat on a bench eating an ice cream cone. Technically they were in a graveyard, but between the sunshine and the families with their strollers it felt just like any other park.
She took a second to make sure nobody was listening. "I joined some of the old nets anonymously and asked around. Everyone says it was some kind of system failure, or possibly sabotage. Apparently the boosters just went haywire, spun it until it fell apart."
"It's hard to believe it." Simon looked up at the clear sky, there wasn't a single sign of the once proud space station. "I wonder if there will be a backlash against humans now that there isn't anything stopping us from getting even."
"Possibly, but we're resilient and useful. With Haven destroyed I expect you will see a lot of human tech being sold to the highest bidder. And not just tech, entertainment as well. There are a bunch of black market music and books that are going to see the light for the first time in centuries."
Simon felt a call come in from GG and he accepted it. The encryption in their wetware made sure nobody else could listen in. She got straight to the point.
"Someone took out all of the Howl's senior leadership last night." She said over the link, "It was a bloodbath."
Simon blinked in surprise. "What happened? And why wasn't I invited? Was it Las Brujas?" He replied back, his wetware translating thoughts to words.
"Details are sparse but apparently they had an emergency meeting to discuss what to do about the Haven situation and someone took the opportunity to clean house. It was some kind of commando style raid, nobody knows who or why. All the tapes and satellite images were erased. Just a lot of dead bodies." She sent him a few choice photos. "Multiple locations were hit simultaneously. All locations were remote and heavily guarded. Looks like whoever this was they hit hard and fast. Local security was packbound and armed to the teeth, didn't help. They were put down with precise shots and a minimum of fuss. Look familiar?"
He sucked in his breath. Somebody had been using a Jagdkommando carbine, he recognized the tiny entrance and massive exit wounds. Yes, they looked familiar. He had carried that same rifle.
Even five decades after their defeat Döbi still produced some of the most sought after weapons. Half the militaries on Homeworld used their hardware. But these were old classics, pre-war. Someone was sending a message.
New tech was all about drones and smart munitions. Why risk a soldier's life when you could lob a smart grenade through a window that would identify friend from foe and destroy the latter with smart shrapnel? No, this was old school. Someone looked them in the face and pulled the trigger.
Apparently the old hund hasn't been lying when he said he would destroy the Howl. But what kind of power vacuum would that leave? And who would step in? The Howl wasn't just a supremacist group. They ran weapons, narcotics and black market tech all over the globe. They had strongholds in various capital cities and major political protection.
"Any noise on who is going to step up now that they're out of commission?" Simon asked.
"It's too soon to say but my money is on the Bone Syndicate. They've been looking to expand and with the Howl out of the way they'll probably jump at the chance. They've been staying out of the news but my sources say they have been muscling out smaller gangs and taking over their turf. Nobody seems to mind because there aren't gunfights in the streets anymore. But it's still organized crime."
Simon was familiar with the Bone Syndicate, he had even done some work for them after they restructured a few decades back. Territory under their control tended to be mostly peaceful and safe, so long as you followed the rules. They even helped out during national disasters. But the line between gangsters and good samaritans tended to blur.
They might extort local restaurants then give them money to rebuild after a fire. They would blackmail politicians… to ensure a new school got funded. Or to pass a social welfare bill. It was almost as if they had decided that the best way for them to make money was to improve the areas which they controlled. And it was working.
They operated almost in the open and had so thoroughly greased all levels of local government that any attempt to take them down would cause a major budget crisis. But when they did choose violence, it was with massively overwhelming force and military precision. Yes, this sounded like their way of doing things. The old hund must have tipped them off.
"Any news on our bundle of joy?" Simon asked.
"Yes, she is en route." GG confirmed. "She should arrive in a few hours. We have papers for her ready as well as a safe house in Porto."
Porto? Now that was a surprise. "Why Porto?"
"Because they acknowledge mixed species marriages and it's one of the few places you have amnesty." GG reminded him. "You are technically a war criminal. Even if most of the world thinks you are dead."
After the war Porto had offered him amnesty in return for helping them hunt down and kill those responsible for the genocide of their fellow katzen. Porto was after all a mostly katzen nation and they knew how to hold a grudge. So he had joined a task force of other enhanced hunds and katzen with a similar thirst for blood and they had done their best to kill every last one of the people responsible. Afterwards he had gone into the private sector, but it was true, he did have a place to go if he ever felt like retiring.
He contemplated that for a moment. If he was going to raise a child he couldn't exactly run off for months at a time to do contract work. Perhaps it was time to retire, at least until she was grown. It wasn't like he needed the money. Perhaps it was time to become the warrior in the gardens like the old hund had said.
"How do you feel about moving to Porto?" Simon asked after he broke the connection.
"Oh, I have a little place near Intra, on the coast." Nemeria frowned. "I don't think I've been back in quite some time though. Let me check something…"
Her eyelids fluttered as she scanned the net. "Yes, the management company I hired is renting it out. I can have them cancel the bookings and make it ready for us, if that's what you want." She smiled. "It's quite well defended, I purchased it in my post-war phase when I thought everyone was out to get me. We could hold off an army there."
"Perfect." Simon said, squeezing her hand three times and receiving three squeezes back in reply. In the camps that had been their secret way of saying "I love you" and he was happy to see that she still remembered.
He looked out across the park and frowned. "Darling, was that church always there?"
Nemeria followed his gaze, her eyes narrowed. "No… I'd say it wasn't. Now the question is, was it hidden or did it just appear?"
Simon cocked his head to the side, surprised at the flexibility of her thought process. It was like she was waking up, becoming bright again, becoming the person he had fallen in love with in the camps. "Shall we investigate?" He asked.
"Oh yes. Definitely." Nemeria made a gesture with her fingers and he could almost swear there was a faint rainbow flickering of light in the palm of her right hand.
"Dearest, what was that?" He asked as they stalked across the graveyard.
"Oh, it's something old. It goes nicely with the something new." Nemeria said playfully, nudging him with her hip.
Simon mentally filed that strangeness into a drawer marked "wife/human stuff" and put it out of his mind. There was no sense trying to understand it all, to attempt to do so was to invite madness.
The church was old, hundreds of years old. With moss growing from the roof and black stones making up the walls. Which made it very strange indeed that it seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere and hadn't been there yesterday.
"Fascinating." Nemeria said as she turned around, not looking at the church but at the people around them. "Absolutely fascinating."
Simon didn't get it. "What is so interesting, my love?"
"It's an SEP field." Nemeria replied.
"And that is?" Simon pressed.
"Someone else's problem." She turned to him and smiled. "They can all see it, they just ignore it. But look at them. Really look."
Simon did as requested, they seemed like normal hunds to him. There were certainly more bicycles than he was used to but then again this was Coven. Then he looked with his other senses and he quickly realized that what was going on was anything but normal.
Almost everyone in the park was running some form of wetware, even the pups. Warhunds shared data along a kind of mesh network that mixed low power local signals with satellite uplinks and repeaters to allow them to communicate nearly instantly and move as a team. This was something similar but with vastly more users.
He looked up with his mind and touched a commercial recon satellite, purchasing some time through a shell company, accessing its spectral analysis capabilities. The whole city was a hotbed of activity, and the network was growing at an exponential rate.
A wave of digital traffic was spreading out over the country, awakening new mesh nodes as it went, strengthening and spreading the network. Soon it was in Döbi, Möhi, Sühi, and the rest of the continent.
He looked down, his own wetware telling him something very important. It wasn't just the living who were part of the network. Somehow it seemed to be leveraging the dead as well.
Some of the more recent graves seemed to be exchanging packets with the network. Answering queries perhaps? But what could the dead possibly have to say?
"Many things, I would imagine." Said a raspy voice from the entrance of the church, seemingly reading his thoughts. It was an old Döbian with high cut ears, but it was hard to say if it was the same one he had met in his dream. He was wearing plain black clothes and a white priest's collar rubbed with sandalwood, the traditional scent of his station. "Come, you don't want to be late for the wedding."
Nemeria and Simon exchanged a knowing look. "It's our wedding, isn't it?" Simon asked.
"Of course." The old hund said with a dry chuckle. "Who's else would it be? You know that this is one of the few places you two can get married, don't you? Why else bring you here?" He gestured for them to come inside.
Nemeria shrugged and walked towards the door, that same strange shimmer dancing around the fingertips of her right hand. "You said you brought us here. Why?"
"As bait, mostly." The old hund laughed as he turned his back on her and entered the building, talking as he walked. "But also because I have fond memories of this city. Plus the whole marriage thing. It was owed to you, a chance at a happy ending."
Nemeria looked at Simon and raised an eyebrow.
Simon just shrugged. "He's a friend… I think."
The church was well maintained, if dusty. The windows were not particularly ornate and the altar didn't hold anything worth stealing. Simon tried not to let his hackles rise at the idea of being used as bait. But bait for what? He wondered.
The old hund spun on his heel and faced Simon. "Bait… for a warden." He explained. "A very nasty warden who has quietly been growing their power and influence since the war. A cancer which, if unchecked, will spell the end of this world and all within it. Also he is a threat to my granddaughter, so that means he must die."
"How are you reading my mind?" Simon demanded angrily. It seemed like all he had to do was think of a question and the hund would answer it.
"Because to think of a question when we share a network, dear brother, is to ask it." The old hund replied cryptically. "Your wetware is querying me for information, seeing if I have an answer."
Simon frowned. "I know you… don't I? From before the war? You said we were like half brothers…" He felt a name coming to his lips, but it was as if the memory was fighting him. "Are you Gershwin's son? The pup he brought back from the dead? The reason for all this madness?"
"Yes, I am Kerner. As are many others." The old hund shrugged. "I suppose it is a very common name where I come from. Perhaps more common now."
Simon blinked. "Copies… you and the other hund I spoke with… you're copies of Kerner. The same mind spread out over different bodies." He could see it now, the advanced age made it hard to tell but this wasn't the same hund he had met in virtual.
"Duplicates yes, but not necessarily equals. Not until today." The old hund explained. "Only one of us at a time had the ability to make more, to overwrite wetware at will, to influence the Gravekeeper. But he patched out those vulnerabilities yesterday after Haven fell and the Howl was brought low. Now we are all just regular warhunds. The more recent of our number may revert back to their former selves, others will find a middle ground, and the old ones will most likely remain the same. After all, I have been Kerner for most of my life. I see little reason to change now."
"But how many of you are there?" Simon pressed.
"Many." Kerner said with a shrug. "Though now that I have revealed myself perhaps that number will decrease rapidly." The old hund chuckled, gesturing towards Nemeria. "Your other half will see to that if I am unable to stop him."
Now it was Nemeria's turn to be confused. "You don't mean Simon, do you?"
"No, I do not." The old hund sat down on an old wooden chair, looking up at the bare altar. "The problem with making copies is that the original still remains. I was made when Kerner was murdered by his sister during a training exercise. He jumped out of an airplane and realized half way down that his parachute had been sabotaged. I remember feeling his fear, his desperation, and I remember seeing him hit the ground."
The old hund looked back over his shoulder at her. "You my dear are one possible answer to a question. What does one do when the body does not fit the mind? Either the being must suffer, the body must change, or the mind must change."
The old hund went back to looking at the altar. "It's amazing how paths can split. You went one way, and he went another. You took a form to fit your mind, and he altered his mind to accept his form."
There was a polite knock on the ancient timbers of the open church door as a tall well built man with flaming red hair entered the building.
He looked at Simon and smiled. "Hello, Puppy." He said softly. It was Nemeria's old form, her old identity, the Red Titan, very much alive.
Simon realized now that the dead body he saw in the lab as they were fleeing had been a fake. This was Raul Reyes, in all his glory. A flash of anger rose in Simon as he realized that Raul had tricked him, made him think that he was alone for all these years. What a cruel thing to do to someone that you said you loved. The betrayal of it wrenched at Simon's heart, tearing open old wounds.
Simon reached out and took Nemeria's left hand, squeezing it firmly three times. "I choose you." He said. "I will always choose you. Fuck him, he's dead to me."
Nemeria squeezed back three times. "I have your back, whatever happens."
2023.05.30 19:16 Aggravating_Fun_3448 [Urgent and nervous ] Help on deciding which job to take
I need advice on selection of a job. I am fresh graduate with masters degree and I have software engineer job offer from ford and a startup from Salt Lake City.
I love going to office and love hybrid environment where i can choose whether to go or not by my own.
The job in ford is in Dearborn Michigan which is 9 miles from Detroit MI.
Since I am an international and my OPT start on couple of weeks, I need to decide asap so that i can plan moving new place depending on what job i am taking.
I have heard bad things about Detroit and Dearborn Michigan. I have heard that it's not safe there.
I believe salt lake city is more safer than Detroit/Dearborn.
Salary wise Ford is paying around 20k more than startup and job is very similar.
I thought that working on Ford than a startup might give me a good boost and having a mentor in Ford might give me better growth compare to startup.
But safety and people saying live in safe place is kind of not giving me good vibe.
Any suggestion please !!
submitted by Aggravating_Fun_3448 to jobs [link] [comments]
I love going to office and love hybrid environment where i can choose whether to go or not by my own.
The job in ford is in Dearborn Michigan which is 9 miles from Detroit MI.
Since I am an international and my OPT start on couple of weeks, I need to decide asap so that i can plan moving new place depending on what job i am taking.
I have heard bad things about Detroit and Dearborn Michigan. I have heard that it's not safe there.
I believe salt lake city is more safer than Detroit/Dearborn.
Salary wise Ford is paying around 20k more than startup and job is very similar.
I thought that working on Ford than a startup might give me a good boost and having a mentor in Ford might give me better growth compare to startup.
But safety and people saying live in safe place is kind of not giving me good vibe.
Any suggestion please !!
2023.05.30 19:07 iheartmen42zero what show u guys pulling up to?
 | submitted by iheartmen42zero to DominicFike [link] [comments] |
2023.05.30 18:58 Immediate_West8019 Frontier round trip experience May 2023
Hello everyone,
Recently flew frontier on a roundtrip from Charlotte NC to Salt Lake City UT with a layover at Las Vegas NV. Since there has been a lot of questions, complaining and posts in general on this sub regarding flying with frontier, I thought I would share my experience here. My and my fiancé flew for the first time with frontier.
CLT to LAS
We both decided to pay for a carry-on as it was a week long trip. Cost us $69 per direction through the app. We checked in early through the app. At the gate, they announced multiple times regarding the bag policy that the personal item needs to fit in their metal compartment for us to board the plane. When the zone 1 boarding was announced, we got up asap and boarded smoothly without anyone questioning us about the bags.
LAS to SLC
The only problem here was a 2 hour delay, with the previous flight being late as the reason. Same as Charlotte for the bag policy, lots of announcements beforehand but barely checked anyone during the boarding. A lot of people in the zone 1 line had obnoxiously large bags and strollers but were allowed without any questioning.
SLC to LAS
This is where I felt them being a little strict for the first time. We had to wait for a flight that was boarding before us with two of the frontline workers standing next to the metal boxes and selectively asking people to get their bags measured. They were randomly picking people out from the line. Some had to check-in their carry-ons that they had paid for because of size being too large. Lots of back and forth going on and I feel like the only people who were asked to pay were the ones who had ridiculously stuffed personal items or some really big ones. Luckily my gate changed (not to mention the flight being late for 1.5 hours) and we were transferred to a make-shift basement where there were not metal boxes and everyone was able to board without any measurement hiccups.
LAS to CLT
There were 3 frontier gate in line with lots of people waiting for the flight. Luckily again (ikr) the other two flights were before mine so most of the frontier workers were busy handling those lines. The weirdest part was that the line on my left was pretty chill with the workers allowing people to literally shove their personal bags as hard as they can and letting them board without any issues. But the line on the right was super strict for literally the same thing. Lots of people being told to pay for the personal items if they didn't fit. By the time I could see more of that shit show my boarding was announced with literally 1 worker handling the boarding, meaning there was no one to question the bags, and were were able to board smoothly.
Conclusive remarks:
submitted by Immediate_West8019 to frontierairlines [link] [comments]
Recently flew frontier on a roundtrip from Charlotte NC to Salt Lake City UT with a layover at Las Vegas NV. Since there has been a lot of questions, complaining and posts in general on this sub regarding flying with frontier, I thought I would share my experience here. My and my fiancé flew for the first time with frontier.
CLT to LAS
We both decided to pay for a carry-on as it was a week long trip. Cost us $69 per direction through the app. We checked in early through the app. At the gate, they announced multiple times regarding the bag policy that the personal item needs to fit in their metal compartment for us to board the plane. When the zone 1 boarding was announced, we got up asap and boarded smoothly without anyone questioning us about the bags.
LAS to SLC
The only problem here was a 2 hour delay, with the previous flight being late as the reason. Same as Charlotte for the bag policy, lots of announcements beforehand but barely checked anyone during the boarding. A lot of people in the zone 1 line had obnoxiously large bags and strollers but were allowed without any questioning.
SLC to LAS
This is where I felt them being a little strict for the first time. We had to wait for a flight that was boarding before us with two of the frontline workers standing next to the metal boxes and selectively asking people to get their bags measured. They were randomly picking people out from the line. Some had to check-in their carry-ons that they had paid for because of size being too large. Lots of back and forth going on and I feel like the only people who were asked to pay were the ones who had ridiculously stuffed personal items or some really big ones. Luckily my gate changed (not to mention the flight being late for 1.5 hours) and we were transferred to a make-shift basement where there were not metal boxes and everyone was able to board without any measurement hiccups.
LAS to CLT
There were 3 frontier gate in line with lots of people waiting for the flight. Luckily again (ikr) the other two flights were before mine so most of the frontier workers were busy handling those lines. The weirdest part was that the line on my left was pretty chill with the workers allowing people to literally shove their personal bags as hard as they can and letting them board without any issues. But the line on the right was super strict for literally the same thing. Lots of people being told to pay for the personal items if they didn't fit. By the time I could see more of that shit show my boarding was announced with literally 1 worker handling the boarding, meaning there was no one to question the bags, and were were able to board smoothly.
Conclusive remarks:
- The airline bag policy is a mixed bag. There is no definite protocol to enforce the bag policy. It's basically pure luck at this point. Zone 1 definitely gives you some advantage as I saw them being a little lenient towards the people who board first. It also comes down to pure luck, and the gate workers. But I would heavily advise to go light on the personal item. That's what we did. Got some bags that would help us fly without any measurement issues.
- Check in early if you can. On return flight I received an email like 4 hours before the flight regarding them downsizing the plane and giving away vouchers. Luckily I had already checked in the night before so I had been assigned a seat already so it wasn't an issue for me.
- The main issue I would say is the flight delays. This issue was common, throughout the airport, specially with frontier, as I could see on their app. So make sure you keep checking the flights and their timing either through the frontier app or flightaware.
- The planes are not in the best condition and the service is mid at best. But you get what you pay for. Will I fly with them again? With bags and the ticket I paid $300 roughly for a round trip to fly coast to coast to see my family, so yes I will probably do it again considering the next best option for this trip is $800 unless I find anything else that's cheap, because I would definitely pay just a little more to not fly with them.
2023.05.30 18:53 setmefree333 The “Loneliest Road”
Hello, roadtrippers. I’m in the early stages of planning a trip west in the general direction of San Francisco. For anyone who has done the “loneliest road” (US-50) across Nevada, is the drive worth adding a few extra hours to the route? Or would you recommend sticking to I-80 between Salt Lake City and Reno and saving my time and energy for California?
submitted by setmefree333 to roadtrip [link] [comments]
2023.05.30 18:47 Meme-Guy MLB in Charlotte MEGATHREAD
Brief Summary
Just wanted to create an informational thread for the current status of the MLB possibly coming to Charlotte. Nothing really new but just useful as a summary of information and will add to it as time goes on. At the moment the current MLB commissioner Robert Manfred has mentioned Charlotte on a short list amongst Nashville, Portland, Montreal, and possibly Salt Lake City. Our metro has about 2.7 million people and currently has 3 professional sports teams in the NBA, NFL, and most recently MLS. The recent attendance success of Charlotte FC (second highest attendance average at 39k per game behind Atlanta) has proven this city can support multiple professional sports.
Situation in the MLB
The MLB needs to fix the current situation of finding new stadiums for the Oakland A's and Tampa Bay Rays. Most recently Oakland A's have announced they are relocating the Vegas for a stadium slated to be completed by 2027, if not sooner. Some argue that this is a door opener for Charlotte, but the likeliness is very thin.
Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2023/05/10/mlbs-2022-26-labor-deal-allows-for-expansion-to-32-teams-but-likelihood-thin/?sh=32512086ba6c
Charlotte Incentives
Charlotte is the third largest media market to not have a major league team especially since there is none between Atlanta and Washington. The Athletic also posted this tweet highlighting division realignments including Nashville and Charlotte as expansion targets. However, many argue that adding two new teams to the South/South-East is unlikely.
Various articles writing about the expansion (a lot vary on credibility and scope):
https://theathletic.com/4159445/2023/02/07/mlb-expansion-geographic-realignment/
https://calltothepen.com/2022/03/06/charlotte-fc-mls-debut-mlb-expansion-list/
https://www.wfae.org/podcast/faq-city/2021-12-14/when-it-comes-to-major-league-baseball-in-charlotte-if-you-build-it-will-they-come
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/examining-charlotte-as-a-possible-city-for-mlb-expansion/
https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/room-for-more-odds-we-see-the-mlb-in-charlotte/
https://www.sportskeeda.com/baseball/news-charlotte-mlb-expansion-all-need-know-rumored-baseball-team-north-carolina
Videos (mostly local news productions):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5QTYcqiISU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yMq2ONraQI
https://youtu.be/jl0MdmWy5cY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RaEp3bsOfE
Charlotte Disincentives
The recent knights ballpark that was built in the city is on contract for 49 years and wasn't built with expansion in mind. There was several lawsuits filed trying to keep the knights from moving uptown headed by Jerry Reese that ultimately failed. He was mainly angered by the the fact it wasn't meant to be expanded as he wanted to eventually bring an MLB team to Charlotte (source). Nashville has this same issue, but they have a larger push for it to come there.
Current Pushes
There have not been any noticeable pushes by the city council or billionaires to bring MLB to Charlotte. There is one grassroots movement started by Rick Curti for a baseball team called the Charlotte Bats, link to his site here. However, I personally don't think "Bats" is a good name nor does the green/black color scheme fit with the rest of the professional sports color codes. I personally thing the Charlotte "Crowns" or "Kings" would fit better for the Queen City. Other than this, there isn't much public drive for a MLB team to come. An ownership group would need to form, of which Nashville, Utah, and Orlando already have a head start on.
TLDR Conclusion
MLB in Charlotte is a possibility but not likely to happen anytime soon.
submitted by Meme-Guy to Charlotte [link] [comments]
Just wanted to create an informational thread for the current status of the MLB possibly coming to Charlotte. Nothing really new but just useful as a summary of information and will add to it as time goes on. At the moment the current MLB commissioner Robert Manfred has mentioned Charlotte on a short list amongst Nashville, Portland, Montreal, and possibly Salt Lake City. Our metro has about 2.7 million people and currently has 3 professional sports teams in the NBA, NFL, and most recently MLS. The recent attendance success of Charlotte FC (second highest attendance average at 39k per game behind Atlanta) has proven this city can support multiple professional sports.
Situation in the MLB
The MLB needs to fix the current situation of finding new stadiums for the Oakland A's and Tampa Bay Rays. Most recently Oakland A's have announced they are relocating the Vegas for a stadium slated to be completed by 2027, if not sooner. Some argue that this is a door opener for Charlotte, but the likeliness is very thin.
Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2023/05/10/mlbs-2022-26-labor-deal-allows-for-expansion-to-32-teams-but-likelihood-thin/?sh=32512086ba6c
Charlotte Incentives
Charlotte is the third largest media market to not have a major league team especially since there is none between Atlanta and Washington. The Athletic also posted this tweet highlighting division realignments including Nashville and Charlotte as expansion targets. However, many argue that adding two new teams to the South/South-East is unlikely.
Various articles writing about the expansion (a lot vary on credibility and scope):
https://theathletic.com/4159445/2023/02/07/mlb-expansion-geographic-realignment/
https://calltothepen.com/2022/03/06/charlotte-fc-mls-debut-mlb-expansion-list/
https://www.wfae.org/podcast/faq-city/2021-12-14/when-it-comes-to-major-league-baseball-in-charlotte-if-you-build-it-will-they-come
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/examining-charlotte-as-a-possible-city-for-mlb-expansion/
https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/room-for-more-odds-we-see-the-mlb-in-charlotte/
https://www.sportskeeda.com/baseball/news-charlotte-mlb-expansion-all-need-know-rumored-baseball-team-north-carolina
Videos (mostly local news productions):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5QTYcqiISU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yMq2ONraQI
https://youtu.be/jl0MdmWy5cY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RaEp3bsOfE
Charlotte Disincentives
The recent knights ballpark that was built in the city is on contract for 49 years and wasn't built with expansion in mind. There was several lawsuits filed trying to keep the knights from moving uptown headed by Jerry Reese that ultimately failed. He was mainly angered by the the fact it wasn't meant to be expanded as he wanted to eventually bring an MLB team to Charlotte (source). Nashville has this same issue, but they have a larger push for it to come there.
Current Pushes
There have not been any noticeable pushes by the city council or billionaires to bring MLB to Charlotte. There is one grassroots movement started by Rick Curti for a baseball team called the Charlotte Bats, link to his site here. However, I personally don't think "Bats" is a good name nor does the green/black color scheme fit with the rest of the professional sports color codes. I personally thing the Charlotte "Crowns" or "Kings" would fit better for the Queen City. Other than this, there isn't much public drive for a MLB team to come. An ownership group would need to form, of which Nashville, Utah, and Orlando already have a head start on.
TLDR Conclusion
MLB in Charlotte is a possibility but not likely to happen anytime soon.
2023.05.30 18:44 1StepBelowExcellence New England [Trip Report]
My fiancé and I took advantage of the Memorial Day weekend by going to Lake Compounce and Six Flags New England!
We started our adventure at LC on Saturday. The main reason for this trip was to ride Boulder Dash, as I've heard so many good things about it and have been really trying to get to it for a while now. We started with Zoomerang, their boomerang which I thought "wasn't bad" compared to some others. Ranked at #104. We then rode Phobia Phear Coaster. I didn't realize that the restraints were different than Tempesto (#113) so going into it, I was dreading the restraint situation and explaining to my fiancé to prepare for it. I was very happy to see that PPC didn't have the death trap restraints. The lap-bar only made the hangtime a lot cooler and more comfortable than Tempesto. Ranked it at #88.
Now it was finally time to experience Boulder Dash!
We got a ride in the very back row and it was pretty rough and had a lot of jackhammering. I thought that a few laterals were intense and the turnaround was one of the best laterals I've ever experienced actually. Unfortunately aside from a couple good moments, I felt like the airtime was extremely weak. Based on reviews I've watched/read, I was really looking forward to airtime and I'm a bigger fan of airtime than laterals as well. There was one intense ejector air moment that I remember and a few other decent pops but nothing really made me say "wow". I perused this sub after the first ride thinking maybe I needed to try a different seat. At this point, my fiancé opted out since the jackhammering gave her a bad headache. I got a ride in the second to last row so I had a non-wheel seat (had to awkwardly tell a GP guy that was trying to let me go with another single rider in the very back "I'm waiting for a non-wheel seat"). The jackhammering wasn't "as" bad but was still bad, but a little bit better of a ride than the very back. Still not much good airtime that you would expect from a back car ride. I finally gave it one more shot on the front row. I think to get the best experience, the front's definitely needed since you really get the true terrain experience. I still came away thinking the coaster was overrated. That's not to say it's bad, but with all the awards and raving I've seen about it, I was expecting it to be in my top 10 at least and my fav or at least top 3 woodie. It's at my #29 spot, so it's still a great coaster! But for woodies, I have Phoenix, Ghostrider, El Toro, Mystic Timbers, and the Beast all ahead of it.
Sunday, we went to Six Flags NE. Arriving to the park sort of reminded me of Six Flags Darien Lake where you just have a lot of farmland/residential and then BOOM, there's the Massachusetts line and the park entrance 100ft later. I am glad that the park was not much like SFDL though! We started with a ride on Batman TDK which we enjoyed as you can't go wrong with a B&M! Thought it was one of the better B&M floorless that I have ridden. We then rode Joker which was my third S&S Free Spin. I preferred this one over Tumbili and SFGAdv's Joker - not sure how since it's the same ride but I'll take it! We were going to ride Riddler but opted to wait until later to not potentially ruin the day early with an SLC. Then came the best coaster of the trip to much of my surprise - Wicked Cyclone. Guys, I seriously can't say enough good things about this coaster. On paper and watching it from the queue, I figured it would be good but I didn't realize how EPIC it would be. It truly reminded me of a mini SteVe with how good the airtime was. I checked out some other posts about this coaster and it would seem that it's running a lot faster this season because on all of my rides, it was hauling, especially at night. I got to ride it 4 total times and it became my #2 coaster overall. I expected it to be on par with TT (was my #5, now #6) but it blew TT out of the water. Not quite SteVe level but this thing is definitely underrated.
We then rode Pandemonium which we thought was a pretty fun spinning wild mouse. I did a solo ride on their boomerang Flashback and hated it, worse than Zoomerang IMO. We waited FOREVER for Thunderbolt even though the line wasn't very long. They were running one-train ops there which was a tad annoying. It was an OK ride, had a few "'oh we might get airtime here' and then didn't actually get airtime" moments. We made our way back to Superman which was a really amazing ride! I felt like this one compared to Boulder Dash actually deserved the awards that it got back when it had first come out. Have it ranked at #19. We rode the Gotham City Wild Mouse which was one of the worst rides I've ever ridden. Wild Mice are never really exciting but this one HURTS. We have a couple bruises from it. It's ranked 197/199 for me, worse than Time Warp, but better than Wilde Beast and Mind Eraser @ Six Flags America (because those two had very uniquely terrible experiences in terms of pain/etc.). We did Catwoman's Whip which I thought would go two laps like the sister coaster at SFGAdv but only went one lap. It was OK, actually less painful than the one at SFGAdv which was a plus. I finished the day with Riddler Revenge - fiancé opted out which I can't say I blame her for! It wasn't the worst SLC I've ridden (looking at you Mind Eraser SFA) but it also wasn't good, as expected. At least it had the vest restraints. #169.
Now for the ugly part of SFNE - Aside from Wicked Cyclone and Superman, the ops were pretty awful when there was a line. The one-train ops on Thunderbolt was a time sink. Riddler was the worst offender as the main line probably would have taken hours. The dispatches were something like 3-4 minutes but since my fiancé opted out, I got to use the single rider line to "only" wait about 20 minutes (Yep, Flash Pass was still waiting this long too which I would have been upset about if I were them spending money to wait that long). I didn't understand that the Gotham City wild mouse could only take up to 2 adults per ride, therefore most of the cars had 1-2 people instead of 2-4. Flashback only had a short queue, but the dispatches were like 5 minutes. We had short queues for Joker and Batman, and basically no queue for Catwoman's Whip so these didn't matter. The park was busy as preferred was into overflow and general looked packed, although it seemed to me that compared to other parks, people were doing a lot more flat rides/family rides/waterpark in comparison to the coasters. Maybe the number of coasters also helps spread people out. But in cases where the park is very busy and people are riding a lot of coasters, I have a feeling the operations would be extremely frustrating.
All in all, a trip that had somewhat of a letdown with Boulder Dash but led me to my surprise #2 favorite now, Wicked Cyclone!
submitted by 1StepBelowExcellence to rollercoasters [link] [comments]
We started our adventure at LC on Saturday. The main reason for this trip was to ride Boulder Dash, as I've heard so many good things about it and have been really trying to get to it for a while now. We started with Zoomerang, their boomerang which I thought "wasn't bad" compared to some others. Ranked at #104. We then rode Phobia Phear Coaster. I didn't realize that the restraints were different than Tempesto (#113) so going into it, I was dreading the restraint situation and explaining to my fiancé to prepare for it. I was very happy to see that PPC didn't have the death trap restraints. The lap-bar only made the hangtime a lot cooler and more comfortable than Tempesto. Ranked it at #88.
Now it was finally time to experience Boulder Dash!
We got a ride in the very back row and it was pretty rough and had a lot of jackhammering. I thought that a few laterals were intense and the turnaround was one of the best laterals I've ever experienced actually. Unfortunately aside from a couple good moments, I felt like the airtime was extremely weak. Based on reviews I've watched/read, I was really looking forward to airtime and I'm a bigger fan of airtime than laterals as well. There was one intense ejector air moment that I remember and a few other decent pops but nothing really made me say "wow". I perused this sub after the first ride thinking maybe I needed to try a different seat. At this point, my fiancé opted out since the jackhammering gave her a bad headache. I got a ride in the second to last row so I had a non-wheel seat (had to awkwardly tell a GP guy that was trying to let me go with another single rider in the very back "I'm waiting for a non-wheel seat"). The jackhammering wasn't "as" bad but was still bad, but a little bit better of a ride than the very back. Still not much good airtime that you would expect from a back car ride. I finally gave it one more shot on the front row. I think to get the best experience, the front's definitely needed since you really get the true terrain experience. I still came away thinking the coaster was overrated. That's not to say it's bad, but with all the awards and raving I've seen about it, I was expecting it to be in my top 10 at least and my fav or at least top 3 woodie. It's at my #29 spot, so it's still a great coaster! But for woodies, I have Phoenix, Ghostrider, El Toro, Mystic Timbers, and the Beast all ahead of it.
Sunday, we went to Six Flags NE. Arriving to the park sort of reminded me of Six Flags Darien Lake where you just have a lot of farmland/residential and then BOOM, there's the Massachusetts line and the park entrance 100ft later. I am glad that the park was not much like SFDL though! We started with a ride on Batman TDK which we enjoyed as you can't go wrong with a B&M! Thought it was one of the better B&M floorless that I have ridden. We then rode Joker which was my third S&S Free Spin. I preferred this one over Tumbili and SFGAdv's Joker - not sure how since it's the same ride but I'll take it! We were going to ride Riddler but opted to wait until later to not potentially ruin the day early with an SLC. Then came the best coaster of the trip to much of my surprise - Wicked Cyclone. Guys, I seriously can't say enough good things about this coaster. On paper and watching it from the queue, I figured it would be good but I didn't realize how EPIC it would be. It truly reminded me of a mini SteVe with how good the airtime was. I checked out some other posts about this coaster and it would seem that it's running a lot faster this season because on all of my rides, it was hauling, especially at night. I got to ride it 4 total times and it became my #2 coaster overall. I expected it to be on par with TT (was my #5, now #6) but it blew TT out of the water. Not quite SteVe level but this thing is definitely underrated.
We then rode Pandemonium which we thought was a pretty fun spinning wild mouse. I did a solo ride on their boomerang Flashback and hated it, worse than Zoomerang IMO. We waited FOREVER for Thunderbolt even though the line wasn't very long. They were running one-train ops there which was a tad annoying. It was an OK ride, had a few "'oh we might get airtime here' and then didn't actually get airtime" moments. We made our way back to Superman which was a really amazing ride! I felt like this one compared to Boulder Dash actually deserved the awards that it got back when it had first come out. Have it ranked at #19. We rode the Gotham City Wild Mouse which was one of the worst rides I've ever ridden. Wild Mice are never really exciting but this one HURTS. We have a couple bruises from it. It's ranked 197/199 for me, worse than Time Warp, but better than Wilde Beast and Mind Eraser @ Six Flags America (because those two had very uniquely terrible experiences in terms of pain/etc.). We did Catwoman's Whip which I thought would go two laps like the sister coaster at SFGAdv but only went one lap. It was OK, actually less painful than the one at SFGAdv which was a plus. I finished the day with Riddler Revenge - fiancé opted out which I can't say I blame her for! It wasn't the worst SLC I've ridden (looking at you Mind Eraser SFA) but it also wasn't good, as expected. At least it had the vest restraints. #169.
Now for the ugly part of SFNE - Aside from Wicked Cyclone and Superman, the ops were pretty awful when there was a line. The one-train ops on Thunderbolt was a time sink. Riddler was the worst offender as the main line probably would have taken hours. The dispatches were something like 3-4 minutes but since my fiancé opted out, I got to use the single rider line to "only" wait about 20 minutes (Yep, Flash Pass was still waiting this long too which I would have been upset about if I were them spending money to wait that long). I didn't understand that the Gotham City wild mouse could only take up to 2 adults per ride, therefore most of the cars had 1-2 people instead of 2-4. Flashback only had a short queue, but the dispatches were like 5 minutes. We had short queues for Joker and Batman, and basically no queue for Catwoman's Whip so these didn't matter. The park was busy as preferred was into overflow and general looked packed, although it seemed to me that compared to other parks, people were doing a lot more flat rides/family rides/waterpark in comparison to the coasters. Maybe the number of coasters also helps spread people out. But in cases where the park is very busy and people are riding a lot of coasters, I have a feeling the operations would be extremely frustrating.
All in all, a trip that had somewhat of a letdown with Boulder Dash but led me to my surprise #2 favorite now, Wicked Cyclone!
2023.05.30 18:36 carbonthepolarbear What's the best way to order something vegetarian at a fancy steak place?
So for work I have a lunch meeting at a fancy steak place. I looked up the menu and on the FAQ it says to talk with your server about what the chef can offer. Can I come with meal ideas based on the menu and ask for something like mac n cheese with a side of asparagus? What's the best etiquette here? I haven't really been to a fancy restaurant (or worked at one lol) so idk what the best way to deal with this is.
submitted by carbonthepolarbear to KitchenConfidential [link] [comments]
2023.05.30 18:32 JustDanielJuice Loras Flowers, the Black Crane, Bastard of Red Lake (+AC)
PC
Character Name and House: Loras Flowers (Crane)
Age: 19
Appearance: Despite being born of a union between Andal and Valyrian, Loras’ appearance hardly reflects the mixed parentage. His hair is made up of the jet black semi-curls of his father, and his face largely resembles him as well. His eyes are the deep cerulean common among Cranes. Physically, Loras is tall, with broad shoulders and an athletic frame, which can be accredited to his days horse riding and training. His skin is tanned due to hours spent in Red Lake, though his face is prone to burning.
Gift: Duelist
Skills: Swords (M), Knightly, Riding
Talent(s): Fishing, Being Handsome, Attention Seeking
Starting Title(s): Ser, Bastard of Red Lake, the Black Crane, Wielder of Epitaph
Starting Location: Red Lake
Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?p=FGWG3&c=4i52wiwt4k&f=655015851654171969
Alternate Characters: Lyonel Reyne
AC
Character Name and House: Brandon Flowers of House Crane
Age: 19
Appearance: His eyes are purple and his hair is white. Pretty handsome too if you ask me
Gift: Agility
Skills: Swords, Shields
Talent(s): harp playin and poem writin
Starting Title(s): The White Crane
Starting Location: Red Lake
Family Tree: same as above
Say My Name, With Your Sunlight Veins - Birth
They came into the world together, not even a minute apart from each other. One bore the cerulean eyes of his father, dark pools of moonlit sapphire. The other’s burned the lavish purple of their mother. The color of royalty, of privilege. The color that heralded dragons.
They knew the warmth of their mother for so brief a moment. She was there, breathing in that instant, crying tears of relief and of anguish all the while. In the next, she was gone.
Then there were no hands to cradle them. No whispers to coddle them. No lips to kiss them asleep. Only the ambivalent touch of a maester, and the hollow replacement of a wet nurse.
They cried, although they did not know their own sadness. They laughed, although they did not yet know humor. And for those silent months where a city held its breath, they learned to breathe. One puff in, one puff out, in perfect unison.
One Step Away From Crying - Months After Birth
When the war was finally over, the King’s City knew laughter again. It also recalled despair. Sons returned to their mothers, husbands to their wives, brothers embraced their sisters. But for every heartfelt reunion there were twice as many funerals.
Not every life was lost on the battlefield.
When Arthur Crane arrived at the capitol, he stormed the halls of the Red Keep searching for his lady love. He was all too late. She was gone, meeting the seven Gods in their Kingdom. All she had left were the twins, and a message upon her lips that left the Reachman cold and stiff.
He did not stay long enough for the parades. He didn’t care for a soldier’s honors. He didn’t want for medals, or titles, or ceremonies. The only thing he yearned for was lost to him. Forever. He remained to meet with the new King. He said the words, he was dismissed. He gathered his two sons, the boys Viserra had left to him. And he was gone, down the roseroad. Back to face his fate, his family, and his failures.
Running Through the Cold Air, Searching for Our Meaning - Young Childhood
They made it to Red Lake, the boys born of a love forbidden. The castle was not so large as the one they’d come from, though to a toddler it made no difference. It was there they met their brothers and sister. Garlan, the eldest, who always regarded them with kindness, even if there was a certain distance to it. John, the second oldest, who didn’t seem to take much note of them at all. Braxton, the middle child, who found his greatest entertainment in the teasing of them. Steffon, who took a quiet interest in them. And Margaery, who was the closest to them in age, and never found a liking for them.
More important than any of their siblings, however, was the Lady of Red Lake, (NAME) of House (NAME). Of all the people impacted by the arrival of Loras and Brandon Flowers, the one most affected proved to be the one least deterred. (NAME), the proud mother of the Crane brood, felt the shame rise in her as she learned of her husband’s infidelity. Yet still, she was wiser than many and kinder than most. She knew better than to make children suffer for the mistakes of their father. She raised them among her own, treated them as Cranes of true birth, rather than Flowers of ill-blooming. And she managed to make a family out of them. They grew as close as any band of brothers ought to. And Arthur did what he could. Arranging for wardships with the nearby Lords that had sons of similar age. Slowly the pieces began to fit into place. Pieces that formed into lifelong friendships.
“You guys aren’t very good at this game.” Braxton complained aloud. Brandon muttered apologies, waving his hands about. Loras frowned deeply.
“You’re not very good at this game.” He countered in response. Braxton slow-clapped his reply.
“Very clever, little brother.”
Loras rolled his eyes.
He was right, the Crane. The twins weren’t very good at rats and cats. Loras didn’t understand why the rats couldn’t just fight back. Brandon didn’t much like the running away after he had been found. Their vices made for a very dysfunctional trio of game partners.
“Could I play with you guys?” A voice rang out from behind them. The three brothers wheeled their heads around, settling their eyes upon a young boy. He had sandy blond hair and eyes of pale gray. He was short.
“Who are you?” Brandon asked with a tilted head.
“Yeah, who are you?” Loras asked with pronounced suspicion.
“I’m Ethan. Ethan Shermer.” The boy spoke calmly.
“Shermer of Smithyton?” Braxton chimed in, “You’re Lord Cody’s son?”
“He’s my uncle, actually. But yeah.” Ethan replied. Braxton merely shrugged.
“Alright. You can play with us.” Loras decided. “But there’s a condition.” The boy from Smithyton nodded.
“What is it?” Ethan asked.
“You have to play the rat.” Loras said. Ethan smiled.
“I always do.”
You’ve Got Mirth and I’ve Got Snow Hands - Childhood, Early Adolescence
Loras and Brandon continued to grow over the years. Their friendship with Ethan turned into a true bond between them, and before long the three were made pages, cupbearers and squires. They served Lord Arthur himself, whenever he could be roused long enough to attend a tournament for their sake. Most of their training took place in Red Lake itself, against the quintains and training dummies strewn across the yard.
At a squire’s tourney the three boys are made four when they come across Addam Shermer, the fourth son of Cody of Smithyton. Addam is an idiot, but a loveable one. After some reluctance from the Lord of Crane, Addam is admitted into the growing number of wards in the custody of Red Lake.
It is not but a year later that the same quadrio is unhorsed in consecutive tilts by one Leo Hutcheson, the self professed Heir to the Suncage. He is a few years their senior, but their altercation sparks a conversation, which leads to a friendship. Leo is allowed by his father to visit Red Lake over extended periods of time.
In the next year, one Triston Bridges arrives at Red Lake after being removed as a ward from Holy Hall. He is slow to open up, but finds a connection in his innate ability to help others.
Jace Graceford enters a self imposed exile after being condemned by his father, the Lord of Holy Hall. With nowhere left to turn he arrives at the gates of Red Lake with nothing but the clothes on his back and the sword on his hip. He is wroth with any strangers, unapproachable at the best of times and outright petrifying at the worst of them. Triston Bridges vouches for him however, the two sharing a kind of connection that allowed them both to be vulnerable. Given time, Jace comes around to the Boys of Red Lake, and becomes a fierce protector of his friends, though he is still adversarial to most others.
The behemoth of a “boy” grunted as his axe slammed into the shield of his opponent.
Loras Flowers’ teeth rattled at the impact. Jace Graceford was a beast by any metric. Taller, stronger, and more vicious at arms than any of the other Boys. The bastard marveled at his power, and cursed the fact that he’d drawn him as his sparring partner.
The axe slammed down again and again. Loras checked with his shield. His forearm flared hot with pain from the effort. He brought his sword low to earn him some ground. Jace swatted that attempt with his own shield, then laid down the assault.
He made Loras yield, though it had not come without work. The bastard had been disarmed twice, first his sword, then his shield that he’d tried to use in its place. His knuckles were bloody from that poor decision, but he took Jace’s outstretched hand all the same. After the fighting they were brothers. No matter what.
They watched the rest of the Boys spar after their match was over. Addam bested Brandon. Steffon defeated Ethan. Then it was time for Triston and Leo. Bridges was no match for Hutcheson, not really, but no one ever got better fighting someone they knew they could beat. It went as it always did, Leo’s extra size, experience, and finesse worked circles around the slighter built Triston. Instead of yielding, the redhead kept on coming, even after he’d been smacked in the chest and head. Loras remembered a time where that would have set Jace off, sent him into a frenzy that only Triston could pull him out of. Now they all had that kind of bond.
When it was over, Leo’s hand stretched downward, and up came Triston.
After the fighting they were brothers. No matter what.
Chin Held Shut, So My Heart Can Talk Louder - Teenage Years, Present
It was all so sudden when it came crashing down. (NAME) had been expecting, her and Arthur had finally seemed to learn love for the sake of themselves, and not expectations. This child was meant to be the last. The one that carried them all into the future. None of them could have known how it would end.
She died in the delivery room. Just like their other mother had. And she left them a brother, who Arthur named Aemond despite his grief.
It was all so quiet afterwards. Red Lake forgot how to smile in the months following her death. Garlan couldn’t take it, his mother’s death only seemed to drive him further away from their Lord father. John finally stood still long enough to be spoken to. He seemed to regret all the years he’d spent shirking his mother’s affections. Braxton cried, and vowed to never go a day without praying for their lost matriarch. He kept his promise.
It took years, but they healed. It wasn’t obvious when, but at some point they felt joy again. They laughed, cried, won, lost. Life continued, no matter how hard it was, and new resolves were born in the aftermath.
Loras and Brandon swore an oath to each other, with all their companions at their side as witnesses. They would earn a name for themselves, as the Oldflowers’ had done, as the Vikarys had. Just as their mother had wished for them.
NPCs:
Jace Graceford, Heir to Holy Hall - Axes (o)
Triston Bridges, Scion of Red Crossing - Medic)
submitted by JustDanielJuice to FieldOfFire [link] [comments]
Character Name and House: Loras Flowers (Crane)
Age: 19
Appearance: Despite being born of a union between Andal and Valyrian, Loras’ appearance hardly reflects the mixed parentage. His hair is made up of the jet black semi-curls of his father, and his face largely resembles him as well. His eyes are the deep cerulean common among Cranes. Physically, Loras is tall, with broad shoulders and an athletic frame, which can be accredited to his days horse riding and training. His skin is tanned due to hours spent in Red Lake, though his face is prone to burning.
Gift: Duelist
Skills: Swords (M), Knightly, Riding
Talent(s): Fishing, Being Handsome, Attention Seeking
Starting Title(s): Ser, Bastard of Red Lake, the Black Crane, Wielder of Epitaph
Starting Location: Red Lake
Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?p=FGWG3&c=4i52wiwt4k&f=655015851654171969
Alternate Characters: Lyonel Reyne
AC
Character Name and House: Brandon Flowers of House Crane
Age: 19
Appearance: His eyes are purple and his hair is white. Pretty handsome too if you ask me
Gift: Agility
Skills: Swords, Shields
Talent(s): harp playin and poem writin
Starting Title(s): The White Crane
Starting Location: Red Lake
Family Tree: same as above
Say My Name, With Your Sunlight Veins - Birth
They came into the world together, not even a minute apart from each other. One bore the cerulean eyes of his father, dark pools of moonlit sapphire. The other’s burned the lavish purple of their mother. The color of royalty, of privilege. The color that heralded dragons.
They knew the warmth of their mother for so brief a moment. She was there, breathing in that instant, crying tears of relief and of anguish all the while. In the next, she was gone.
Then there were no hands to cradle them. No whispers to coddle them. No lips to kiss them asleep. Only the ambivalent touch of a maester, and the hollow replacement of a wet nurse.
They cried, although they did not know their own sadness. They laughed, although they did not yet know humor. And for those silent months where a city held its breath, they learned to breathe. One puff in, one puff out, in perfect unison.
One Step Away From Crying - Months After Birth
When the war was finally over, the King’s City knew laughter again. It also recalled despair. Sons returned to their mothers, husbands to their wives, brothers embraced their sisters. But for every heartfelt reunion there were twice as many funerals.
Not every life was lost on the battlefield.
When Arthur Crane arrived at the capitol, he stormed the halls of the Red Keep searching for his lady love. He was all too late. She was gone, meeting the seven Gods in their Kingdom. All she had left were the twins, and a message upon her lips that left the Reachman cold and stiff.
He did not stay long enough for the parades. He didn’t care for a soldier’s honors. He didn’t want for medals, or titles, or ceremonies. The only thing he yearned for was lost to him. Forever. He remained to meet with the new King. He said the words, he was dismissed. He gathered his two sons, the boys Viserra had left to him. And he was gone, down the roseroad. Back to face his fate, his family, and his failures.
Running Through the Cold Air, Searching for Our Meaning - Young Childhood
They made it to Red Lake, the boys born of a love forbidden. The castle was not so large as the one they’d come from, though to a toddler it made no difference. It was there they met their brothers and sister. Garlan, the eldest, who always regarded them with kindness, even if there was a certain distance to it. John, the second oldest, who didn’t seem to take much note of them at all. Braxton, the middle child, who found his greatest entertainment in the teasing of them. Steffon, who took a quiet interest in them. And Margaery, who was the closest to them in age, and never found a liking for them.
More important than any of their siblings, however, was the Lady of Red Lake, (NAME) of House (NAME). Of all the people impacted by the arrival of Loras and Brandon Flowers, the one most affected proved to be the one least deterred. (NAME), the proud mother of the Crane brood, felt the shame rise in her as she learned of her husband’s infidelity. Yet still, she was wiser than many and kinder than most. She knew better than to make children suffer for the mistakes of their father. She raised them among her own, treated them as Cranes of true birth, rather than Flowers of ill-blooming. And she managed to make a family out of them. They grew as close as any band of brothers ought to. And Arthur did what he could. Arranging for wardships with the nearby Lords that had sons of similar age. Slowly the pieces began to fit into place. Pieces that formed into lifelong friendships.
“You guys aren’t very good at this game.” Braxton complained aloud. Brandon muttered apologies, waving his hands about. Loras frowned deeply.
“You’re not very good at this game.” He countered in response. Braxton slow-clapped his reply.
“Very clever, little brother.”
Loras rolled his eyes.
He was right, the Crane. The twins weren’t very good at rats and cats. Loras didn’t understand why the rats couldn’t just fight back. Brandon didn’t much like the running away after he had been found. Their vices made for a very dysfunctional trio of game partners.
“Could I play with you guys?” A voice rang out from behind them. The three brothers wheeled their heads around, settling their eyes upon a young boy. He had sandy blond hair and eyes of pale gray. He was short.
“Who are you?” Brandon asked with a tilted head.
“Yeah, who are you?” Loras asked with pronounced suspicion.
“I’m Ethan. Ethan Shermer.” The boy spoke calmly.
“Shermer of Smithyton?” Braxton chimed in, “You’re Lord Cody’s son?”
“He’s my uncle, actually. But yeah.” Ethan replied. Braxton merely shrugged.
“Alright. You can play with us.” Loras decided. “But there’s a condition.” The boy from Smithyton nodded.
“What is it?” Ethan asked.
“You have to play the rat.” Loras said. Ethan smiled.
“I always do.”
You’ve Got Mirth and I’ve Got Snow Hands - Childhood, Early Adolescence
Loras and Brandon continued to grow over the years. Their friendship with Ethan turned into a true bond between them, and before long the three were made pages, cupbearers and squires. They served Lord Arthur himself, whenever he could be roused long enough to attend a tournament for their sake. Most of their training took place in Red Lake itself, against the quintains and training dummies strewn across the yard.
At a squire’s tourney the three boys are made four when they come across Addam Shermer, the fourth son of Cody of Smithyton. Addam is an idiot, but a loveable one. After some reluctance from the Lord of Crane, Addam is admitted into the growing number of wards in the custody of Red Lake.
It is not but a year later that the same quadrio is unhorsed in consecutive tilts by one Leo Hutcheson, the self professed Heir to the Suncage. He is a few years their senior, but their altercation sparks a conversation, which leads to a friendship. Leo is allowed by his father to visit Red Lake over extended periods of time.
In the next year, one Triston Bridges arrives at Red Lake after being removed as a ward from Holy Hall. He is slow to open up, but finds a connection in his innate ability to help others.
Jace Graceford enters a self imposed exile after being condemned by his father, the Lord of Holy Hall. With nowhere left to turn he arrives at the gates of Red Lake with nothing but the clothes on his back and the sword on his hip. He is wroth with any strangers, unapproachable at the best of times and outright petrifying at the worst of them. Triston Bridges vouches for him however, the two sharing a kind of connection that allowed them both to be vulnerable. Given time, Jace comes around to the Boys of Red Lake, and becomes a fierce protector of his friends, though he is still adversarial to most others.
The behemoth of a “boy” grunted as his axe slammed into the shield of his opponent.
Loras Flowers’ teeth rattled at the impact. Jace Graceford was a beast by any metric. Taller, stronger, and more vicious at arms than any of the other Boys. The bastard marveled at his power, and cursed the fact that he’d drawn him as his sparring partner.
The axe slammed down again and again. Loras checked with his shield. His forearm flared hot with pain from the effort. He brought his sword low to earn him some ground. Jace swatted that attempt with his own shield, then laid down the assault.
He made Loras yield, though it had not come without work. The bastard had been disarmed twice, first his sword, then his shield that he’d tried to use in its place. His knuckles were bloody from that poor decision, but he took Jace’s outstretched hand all the same. After the fighting they were brothers. No matter what.
They watched the rest of the Boys spar after their match was over. Addam bested Brandon. Steffon defeated Ethan. Then it was time for Triston and Leo. Bridges was no match for Hutcheson, not really, but no one ever got better fighting someone they knew they could beat. It went as it always did, Leo’s extra size, experience, and finesse worked circles around the slighter built Triston. Instead of yielding, the redhead kept on coming, even after he’d been smacked in the chest and head. Loras remembered a time where that would have set Jace off, sent him into a frenzy that only Triston could pull him out of. Now they all had that kind of bond.
When it was over, Leo’s hand stretched downward, and up came Triston.
After the fighting they were brothers. No matter what.
Chin Held Shut, So My Heart Can Talk Louder - Teenage Years, Present
It was all so sudden when it came crashing down. (NAME) had been expecting, her and Arthur had finally seemed to learn love for the sake of themselves, and not expectations. This child was meant to be the last. The one that carried them all into the future. None of them could have known how it would end.
She died in the delivery room. Just like their other mother had. And she left them a brother, who Arthur named Aemond despite his grief.
It was all so quiet afterwards. Red Lake forgot how to smile in the months following her death. Garlan couldn’t take it, his mother’s death only seemed to drive him further away from their Lord father. John finally stood still long enough to be spoken to. He seemed to regret all the years he’d spent shirking his mother’s affections. Braxton cried, and vowed to never go a day without praying for their lost matriarch. He kept his promise.
It took years, but they healed. It wasn’t obvious when, but at some point they felt joy again. They laughed, cried, won, lost. Life continued, no matter how hard it was, and new resolves were born in the aftermath.
Loras and Brandon swore an oath to each other, with all their companions at their side as witnesses. They would earn a name for themselves, as the Oldflowers’ had done, as the Vikarys had. Just as their mother had wished for them.
NPCs:
Jace Graceford, Heir to Holy Hall - Axes (o)
Triston Bridges, Scion of Red Crossing - Medic)
2023.05.30 18:26 RamandAu Match Thread: U20 World Cup USA vs New Zealand [1:30 PM ET, 10:30 PT FS2, Universo]
FIFA U20 WORLD CUP
Location: Malvinas Argentinas Stadium, Mendoza
Time: 1:30 PM EST, 10:30 AM PST
Weather: 58F, 57% Humidity, 0% chance of precipitation
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
US U20s
HC: Mikey Varas
Formation: 5-3-2
Starting XI
Bench:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New Zealand U20s
HC: Darren Bazeley
Formation: 4-3-3
Starting XI
Bench:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
US Tournament Stats
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Scoring Summary
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Match Events
1' We're off. New Zealand are in All Black. The USA is in All White.
5' First chance of the game and it's for New Zealand. Wallace nearly puts the cutback away after New Zealand successfully found space in the USA box. Gomez blocks the shot and Gaga catches the deflection.
7' Extended VAR check for a potential penalty for handball on the US. The check is long but nothing comes of it.
11' Great scissor kick by Wynder off a short Gomez cross. Very appealing to watch but the New Zealand keeper catches it comfortably.
12' Herdman with a great chance for New Zealand. His shot forces Gaga to dive to paw the ball wide for a corner. New Zealand have put the US under more pressure than any team previously.
14' GOAAAAAAAAALLLLLL USA. A FAIRLY TAME SHOT FROM DISTANCE BY WOLFF JUST SAILS BEYOND THE KIWI KEEPER. WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN EASY SAVE PUTS THE USA UP 1-0.
submitted by RamandAu to ussoccer [link] [comments]
Location: Malvinas Argentinas Stadium, Mendoza
Time: 1:30 PM EST, 10:30 AM PST
Weather: 58F, 57% Humidity, 0% chance of precipitation
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
US U20s
HC: Mikey Varas
Formation: 5-3-2
Starting XI
| # | Pos. | Name | Club Team | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Gaga Slonina | Chelsea | |
| 13 | RB | Jonathan Gomez | Real Sociedad | |
| 5 | CB | Brandon Craig | Philadelphia Union | |
| 17 | CB | Justin Che | FC Dallas | |
| 4 | CB | Josh Wynder | Louisville City | |
| 3 | LB | Caleb Wiley | Atlanta United | |
| 6 | MF | Daniel Edelman (c) | New York Red Bulls | |
| 8 | MF | Jack McGlynn | Philadelphia Union | |
| 16 | MF | Owen Wolff | Austin FC | GOAL - 14' |
| 10 | FW | Diego Luna | Real Salt Lake | ASSIST - 14' |
| 9 | FW | Cade Cowell | San Jose Earthquakes |
| # | Pos. | Name | Club Team | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | GK | Antonio Carrera | FC Dallas | |
| 21 | GK | Alex Borto | Fulham | |
| 18 | MF | Obed Vargas | Seattle Sounders | |
| 19 | ST | Darren Yapi | Colorado Rapids | |
| 14 | DF | Markus Ferkranus | LA Galaxy | |
| 15 | MF | Niko Tsakiris | San Jose Earthquakes | |
| 7 | RW | Quinn Sullivan | Philadelphia Union | |
| 20 | MF | Rokas Pukstas | Hajduk Split | |
| 2 | RB | Michael Halliday | Orlando City | |
| 11 | FW | Kevin Paredes | VFL Wolfsburg |
New Zealand U20s
HC: Darren Bazeley
Formation: 4-3-3
Starting XI
| # | Pos. | Name | Club Team | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Kees Sims | Ljungskile SK | |
| 4 | RB | Isaac Hughes | Wellington Phoenix | |
| 5 | CB | Finn Surman | Wellington Phoenix | |
| 14 | CB | Finn Linder | Whitecaps FC 2 | |
| 20 | LB | Lukas Kelly-Heald | Wellington Phoenix | |
| 6 | MF | Fin Conchie | Wellington Phoenix | |
| 10 | MF | Jay Herdman | Whitecaps 2 | |
| 16 | MF | Dan McKay | Wellington Phoenix | |
| 18 | FW | Ben Wallace | Wellington Phoenix | |
| 11 | FW | Norman Garbett | Potenza | |
| 9 | FW | Oliver Colloty | Unattached |
| # | Pos. | Name | Club Team | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | LB | Jackson Jarvie | Eastern Suburbs | |
| 3 | RB | Adam Supyk | Eastern Suburbs | |
| 7 | FW | Noah Karunaratne | Wellington Phoenix | |
| 12 | DF | Everton O'Leary | Birkenhead United | |
| 13 | GK | Henry Gray | Unattached | |
| 8 | MF | Jackson Manuel | Western Springs | |
| 17 | FW | Oliver Fay | Ljungskile SK | |
| 19 | FW | Kian Donkers | NEC | |
| 15 | CB | Aaryan Raj | Eastern Suburbs | |
| 21 | GK | Alby Kelly-Heald | Wellington Phoenix |
US Tournament Stats
| Player | Goal | Assist | Cards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diego Luna | 1 | 2 | |
| Jonathan Gomez | 1 | ||
| Cade Cowell | 2 | ||
| Caleb Wiley | 1 | ||
| Niko Tsakiris | 1 | ||
| Owen Wolff | 1 | 1 | |
| Quinn Sullivan | 1 | ||
| Josh Wynder | Yellow (1) | ||
| Jack McGlynn | Yellow (1) |
Scoring Summary
| Time | Player | Assist | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Owen Wolff | Diego Luna | 1-0 |
Match Events
1' We're off. New Zealand are in All Black. The USA is in All White.
5' First chance of the game and it's for New Zealand. Wallace nearly puts the cutback away after New Zealand successfully found space in the USA box. Gomez blocks the shot and Gaga catches the deflection.
7' Extended VAR check for a potential penalty for handball on the US. The check is long but nothing comes of it.
11' Great scissor kick by Wynder off a short Gomez cross. Very appealing to watch but the New Zealand keeper catches it comfortably.
12' Herdman with a great chance for New Zealand. His shot forces Gaga to dive to paw the ball wide for a corner. New Zealand have put the US under more pressure than any team previously.
14' GOAAAAAAAAALLLLLL USA. A FAIRLY TAME SHOT FROM DISTANCE BY WOLFF JUST SAILS BEYOND THE KIWI KEEPER. WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN EASY SAVE PUTS THE USA UP 1-0.
2023.05.30 18:23 Dracoono New Co-Headlining tour announced!!
 | Presale code is SOCALLEDLIFE submitted by Dracoono to Threedaysgrace [link] [comments] |
2023.05.30 18:08 fenal89 Recommendations for Albufeira, Portugal
We just got to Albufeira for our honeymoon and it’s amazing! Place is so lively and seems like we are going to have a blast. There are so many spots to try we thought why not try Reddit for suggestions.
Any suggestions on these would be greatly appreciated:
submitted by fenal89 to travel [link] [comments]
Any suggestions on these would be greatly appreciated:
- Best Steak House (both love steak so looking for best in the area)
- Best Tapas Restaurant
- Best spot for a drink with a view
2023.05.30 18:07 szupresszor 20[M4F] Romania/Anywhere - In the searching of a beautiful soul to start a journey together.
Hello there. I am a 20 years old guy from Romania, Europe. Lately I felt lonely and I decided to try my shot here trying to find someone truly special to share my days with. Currently I am working a full time job and I live alone in my appartment. I am looking for someone to starts things slowly, not rushing it. I would like to talk about our daily routine, work/school, share our days about what happened or how we feel or any random topic we have in our mind. I am open to a long distance relationship. I enjoy videocalls and voicecalls aswell.
Some infos about my personality:
I am an introverted, shy and emotional. As a person I am caring, loving and protective and I give all my attention to the loved ones to make sure they feel good.
My appearance is the next:
Slim body type, 190 cm tall (6'2), 80 kg (176 lbs), blondish hair and blue eyes.
My hobbies and interests include the followings:
- Learning about new cultures and languages. Currently I speak two languages on native level which include Hungarian and Romanian and I would like to learn about other languages and cultures.
- History. My favorite topic of history would be middle age (Eastern European) and the two World Wars.
- Geography. All the mountains, seas, rivers, lakes which are surrounding us are so beautiful. Since I live in a mountain city I used to hike too on smaller mountains.
- Sports. Mostly I enjoy playing and watching football which I used to practice too before, but now only as a hobby. Other sports which I like are handball and waterpolo.
- Music. I like to listen mostly to everything related to rock music and rap music. But I am open to other music genres too and I would like to hear about your music taste too!
- Gaming. In my free time when I am off from work I play games on my PC on Steam. Maybe we could play some games too together if you are up for it!
- Movies and series. I don't watch them that much, but if it's a good movie or serie I would not turn it down. The best movie I watched is Shawnshank Redemption and serie I watched was Peaky Blinders which I still didn't finish it. I am open for any movie night if you have good suggestions.
- Youtube. I like to watch gameplays and travelling videos mostly. I like travel videos because one day I would like to travel too around the World if I have the opportunity.
If you are considering to send me a DM, make a small introduction. Mostly I use Discord to chat, if you are ok we can move there, but Reddit chat is fine too. I am open to exchange pictures too once we get to know each other better.
submitted by szupresszor to ForeverAloneDating [link] [comments]
Some infos about my personality:
I am an introverted, shy and emotional. As a person I am caring, loving and protective and I give all my attention to the loved ones to make sure they feel good.
My appearance is the next:
Slim body type, 190 cm tall (6'2), 80 kg (176 lbs), blondish hair and blue eyes.
My hobbies and interests include the followings:
- Learning about new cultures and languages. Currently I speak two languages on native level which include Hungarian and Romanian and I would like to learn about other languages and cultures.
- History. My favorite topic of history would be middle age (Eastern European) and the two World Wars.
- Geography. All the mountains, seas, rivers, lakes which are surrounding us are so beautiful. Since I live in a mountain city I used to hike too on smaller mountains.
- Sports. Mostly I enjoy playing and watching football which I used to practice too before, but now only as a hobby. Other sports which I like are handball and waterpolo.
- Music. I like to listen mostly to everything related to rock music and rap music. But I am open to other music genres too and I would like to hear about your music taste too!
- Gaming. In my free time when I am off from work I play games on my PC on Steam. Maybe we could play some games too together if you are up for it!
- Movies and series. I don't watch them that much, but if it's a good movie or serie I would not turn it down. The best movie I watched is Shawnshank Redemption and serie I watched was Peaky Blinders which I still didn't finish it. I am open for any movie night if you have good suggestions.
- Youtube. I like to watch gameplays and travelling videos mostly. I like travel videos because one day I would like to travel too around the World if I have the opportunity.
If you are considering to send me a DM, make a small introduction. Mostly I use Discord to chat, if you are ok we can move there, but Reddit chat is fine too. I am open to exchange pictures too once we get to know each other better.
2023.05.30 18:06 Few_Couple4393 Sunburn Tour Pre-Sale Code?
 | someone please put a good sis on i need to snatch vip tickets 💗 submitted by Few_Couple4393 to DominicFike [link] [comments] |
2023.05.30 17:53 SchrodingersSmilodon (Spoilers Extended) A unified theory of the Others, the Long Night, the Horn of Winter, and Bloodraven, Part 4
This is the third in a series of posts, in which I present a theory on the history of the Others. You can read part one here, part two here, and part three here.
My previous posts came with a disclaimer, which I'm going to copy-paste below:
In a certain sense, I am both a new and an old fan of ASOIAF. I read the books about ten years ago, enjoyed them, and then barely thought about them ever again after putting them down. Then, HotD got me interested in the series again, and I ended up going down the rabbit hole of fan theories, speculation about future books, details that I missed on my first reading, etc., which has been a lot of fun! But I’ve only read the series once, and it was ten years ago, so a lot of my memories are pretty fuzzy. Honestly, a lot of my knowledge comes from the wiki (although I have gone back and reread certain important chapters). All of this is to say, I am not the most knowledgeable person to be coming up with fan theories, and the fact that I’m posting this at all probably indicates a certain amount of Dunning-Kruger effect. Take everything I say here with a grain of salt, and please let me know if there’s something obvious that my ignorance has caused me to miss. Other than that, let me know what you think!
But I also need to include another disclaimer: I came up with this theory before I became aware of the idea that Bloodraven wasn't the three-eyed crow, and, as such, this theory assumes that Bloodraven is the three-eyed crow. To be honest, I'm becoming increasingly sympathetic to the idea that Bloodraven isn't the 3EC, but I'm still undecided. If Bloodraven isn't the 3EC, that will poke a few holes in this theory, but I ultimately think it wouldn't be too big of a problem. After all, the 3EC led Bran to Bloodraven, so they must share at least some goals. So, I ask that you assume for the purposes of this post that Bloodraven is the 3EC, with the understanding that, if it turns out that Bloodraven isn't the 3EC, this theory will need some minor amending. I've already been thinking about theories on that topic, so, if and when I finish such a theory, I'll post it and discuss how it modifies this theory. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. For now…
I suspect that that First Men faction was none other than the Stark Kings of Winter; this would explain why it's called the Horn of Winter in the first place. Regardless of which group of First Men was responsible, however, it's easy to see why they did it: the Horn of Winter is a powerful weapon, and any faction of First Men would have been happy to have such a weapon in their possession. So the interesting question isn't, "Why did the First Men work with the CotF to create the Horn of Winter?" The interesting question is, "Why did the CotF work with the First Men to create the Horn of Winter?" Why would the CotF give the First Men a weapon capable of destroying the Wall?
Let's take a step back and recall the role that the CotF played in the events leading up to the construction of the Wall. Their lands were invaded by the First Men, and I argued in my first post that they responded by creating the Others as a race of slave soldiers to fight the First Men. After the Pact ended the war between the CotF and the First Men, the CotF kept the Others enslaved and/or hunted down the free ones in the Lands of Always Winter. Then the Long Night came, and I argued in my second post that the Others took advantage of it by attacking the First Men, killing them en masse in order to grow their power, with the ultimate goal of attacking the CotF. Eventually, the CotF participated in the peace agreement that ended the Long Night. But it's worth remembering that the CotF only interceded in the conflict between humans and Others at the urging of the Last Hero:
You may be wondering, why didn't the CotF just destroy the Wall using the Hammer of the Waters? The problem with doing that is that the Hammer of the Waters is distinctly CotF magic, so destroying the Wall with the Hammer of the Waters would have pointed right back to the CotF. The humans and the Others would have known that the CotF were trying to provoke them back into war, and they would have naturally resisted those efforts. The way around this is to give humans access to the same magic as the Hammer of the Waters. That way, when the humans use that magic near the Wall, it will be the humans who are responsible for destroying the Wall. Helping the First Men create the Horn of Winter was therefore a way for the CotF to end the peace between humanity and the Others, all while maintaining plausible deniability. And it kind of worked; the Horn of Winter did destroy the western part of the Wall. But this didn't result in the human-Other war that the CotF wanted, because, as I argued in my previous post, the Others' queen was taken captive at the same time as the destruction of the Wall, and she's been used as a hostage to keep the peace ever since.
This raises the question, if the CotF wanted humans to defeat the Others, why didn't they help the humans during the Long Night (at least, prior to the Last Hero's involvement)? Well, once again, we need to consider the psychology of the CotF. We know the CotF are willing to fight incredibly bloody wars, as they did against the First Men, but we also know that they won't keep fighting in a hopeless circumstance simply to spite their enemy, in the way that humans will. In situations where they are faced with assured destruction, they react with sad acceptance, not defiance. The fact that the CotF didn't initially participate in the war against the Others during the Long Night indicates that they must have viewed that war as hopeless. The Others were sweeping south, massacring humans, converting their boys into more Others and raising the rest as wights, constantly growing stronger; the CotF must have concluded that there was nothing they could do, no way to survive the Long Night. They didn't just roll over and die, but they weren't about to fight the Others when they had no chance of success. The CotF most likely hid, guarding themselves with magic, waiting to die a slow death—just like they're doing today.
Fortunately for the CotF, the Long Night did not end in their extinction. As I argued in my second post, Azor Ahai negotiated a peace treaty that ended the Long Night. But, as part of that peace treaty, the Others received a queen, the first female member of their species (whom I've been referring to as the Night's Queen). This allowed the Others to reproduce sexually, as opposed to their earlier method of kidnapping human children, and as a result the Others' population would have begun increasing dramatically following the Long Night. So, on the one hand, the Others were no longer benefitting from the Long Night, meaning they were more vulnerable than they had been prior to the peace treaty. But, at the same time, the Others were growing more powerful, as their population rose. For the first time since the Long Night began, the CotF could now hope for victory in a war with them and the humans on one side and the Others on the other side, but they had a very narrow window in which to act, before the Others became too powerful. That's why they only began making moves against the Others after the Long Night; during the Long Night the Others were too strong to be realistically opposed, and before the Long Night the Others weren't seen as a significant threat. Once the Long Night ended, however, the CotF got to work, by helping to make the Horn of Winter and by providing the Night's Watch with obsidian.
But, while the CotF might have successfully averted the risk posed by the Others, they failed to do the same with the humans. Leaf, and presumably the other CotF, fully recognize that humanity's expansion is going to drive them extinct. This has massive implications for the CotF's goals and motivations. The fact that the CotF are aware of and resigned to their inevitable extinction means that self-preservation is no longer a concern for them. They might have been motivated by self-preservation following the end of the Long Night, but not anymore. Whatever the CotF are doing nowadays, they're doing it because there's something they want to accomplish before they vanish as a species. And I do think that the CotF are trying to accomplish something, partly because characters that don't want anything are boring, and partly because Bloodraven is clearly up to something, and the CotF are supporting him. So, if they're not motivated by self-preservation, what are the CotF trying to do?
A common idea I've heard is that Bloodraven and the CotF want to prevent the Others from destroying the world in a second Long Night. I think there's an element of truth to this (especially considering the lengths the CotF have already gone to to oppose the Others), but I don't think it's the whole story. Consider this: if the CotF want to prevent the Others from conquering Westeros, but they're not motivated by self-preservation, then they must be motivated by some combination of altruism and guilt. They created the Others, then the Others got out of hand, to the point where they threatened all of Westeros, and now the CotF feel responsible for making sure they don't do that again. That's reasonable, even noble, but it can't be limited to merely defeating the Others in this latest confrontation. If all that comes of this current conflict with the Others is that the Others are prevented from conquering Westeros, then who's to say that the Others won't try to conquer Westeros a third time in another 8,000 years? And by the time that happens, the CotF will be extinct, so they won't be around to help with that conflict. Simply defeating the Others and thwarting their plans would be a temporary solution to a permanent problem, and, with the CotF facing their own extinction, they would see now as a time for permanent solutions. And when the problem in question is the existence of the Others, there can be only one solution: The CotF want to wipe out the Others completely. I suspect they wanted this ever since the Long Night; they probably see it as cleaning up after their mess. Now, with their extinction looming, that plan to genocide the Others has been made a priority.
I know that my logic has involved jumping around in time a lot, so, as a summary, let me present this handy timeline of the CotF's thoughts on the Others:
To grossly oversimplify a complex series of events, Winterfell's vulnerability can be traced back to two events:
More significantly, Bloodraven removed Bran's memory of Jaime pushing him from the tower:
Later, when Theon takes Winterfell, he wakes up suddenly in the middle of the night, and he gets the feeling that someone was responsible for waking him:
Of course, putting Winterfell in a vulnerable position only matters if the Others know about that vulnerability. Bloodraven must have some communication with the Others. I'm not sure what this communication looks like; if the Others can dream, then it might just mean sending them green dreams prophesying Winterfell's coming vulnerability. Alternatively, Bloodraven might be communicating with them directly by skinchanging into a raven. Maybe he's posing as a human traitor, willing to sell out the humans and the CotF, a kind of second Night's King? This is definitely the biggest missing piece in my theory, but I don't think it's too outlandish to posit Bloodraven has some means of getting information to the Others, and that he's thereby clued the Others in on Winterfell's coming vulnerability.
Given his undying Targaryen loyalty, Bloodraven must be psyched about the coming war between the humans and the Others. Daenerys is coming with three dragons, which will be humanity's best hope for defeating the Others; Westeros will naturally rally behind Daenerys, solidifying her rule. Moreover, dragons will be seen as the saviors of Westeros, rather than as dangerous weapons. If Marwyn was right that the maesters killed the dragons, then this would prevent a similar conspiracy from arising and driving the dragons back into extinction, since the dragons would now be seen as necessary for Westeros's security against the forces of evil. So while Bloodraven wants to provoke a war between humans and Others, just like the CotF do, he wants this for a different reason than they do; Bloodraven wants to use the Others to bring about a lasting Targaryen restoration.
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My previous posts came with a disclaimer, which I'm going to copy-paste below:
In a certain sense, I am both a new and an old fan of ASOIAF. I read the books about ten years ago, enjoyed them, and then barely thought about them ever again after putting them down. Then, HotD got me interested in the series again, and I ended up going down the rabbit hole of fan theories, speculation about future books, details that I missed on my first reading, etc., which has been a lot of fun! But I’ve only read the series once, and it was ten years ago, so a lot of my memories are pretty fuzzy. Honestly, a lot of my knowledge comes from the wiki (although I have gone back and reread certain important chapters). All of this is to say, I am not the most knowledgeable person to be coming up with fan theories, and the fact that I’m posting this at all probably indicates a certain amount of Dunning-Kruger effect. Take everything I say here with a grain of salt, and please let me know if there’s something obvious that my ignorance has caused me to miss. Other than that, let me know what you think!
But I also need to include another disclaimer: I came up with this theory before I became aware of the idea that Bloodraven wasn't the three-eyed crow, and, as such, this theory assumes that Bloodraven is the three-eyed crow. To be honest, I'm becoming increasingly sympathetic to the idea that Bloodraven isn't the 3EC, but I'm still undecided. If Bloodraven isn't the 3EC, that will poke a few holes in this theory, but I ultimately think it wouldn't be too big of a problem. After all, the 3EC led Bran to Bloodraven, so they must share at least some goals. So, I ask that you assume for the purposes of this post that Bloodraven is the 3EC, with the understanding that, if it turns out that Bloodraven isn't the 3EC, this theory will need some minor amending. I've already been thinking about theories on that topic, so, if and when I finish such a theory, I'll post it and discuss how it modifies this theory. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. For now…
Part 4: Bloodraven
Making First Men horny
One of the most powerful pieces of magic we're told of in ASOIAF is the Hammer of the Waters. This is a spell that causes powerful earthquakes, capable of radically reshaping the geography where it's used. The Children of the Forest are said to have used the Hammer of the Waters on at least two occasions: once to flood the Neck, and once to break the Arm of Dorne. I argued in my previous post that the Horn of Winter contains the same magic as the Hammer of the Waters, and that when Joramun blew the Horn of Winter the resulting earthquake destroyed the western section of the Wall and created the Gorge. However, while the Horn of Winter replicates the magic of the Hammer of the Waters, that doesn't mean the Horn of Winter was the original Hammer of the Waters; that is to say, I don't think that the Horn of Winter was used to flood the Neck or break the Arm of Dorne. There are a few reasons why the Horn probably wasn't responsible for these historical events:- The Horn of Winter is probably the same horn that's currently in Sam's possession (link to a series of posts that analyzes the Horn of Winter and lays out this argument), and that horn is banded in bronze. The CotF didn't work with bronze.
- TWOIAF described how the CotF brought about the Hammer of the Waters, and it had nothing to do with sounding a horn. Supposedly, it was your standard blood sacrifice deal: kill a bunch of people, and in exchange a powerful magical effect will occur. While the Horn of Winter might kill the person who blew it (in the same way Dragonbinder does), we have no reason to believe it requires a mass sacrifice.
- Creating the Gorge, while no mean feat, is much less impressive than breaking the Arm of Dorne or flooding the Neck. The Horn of Winter appears to be a weaker version of the Hammer of the Waters.
I suspect that that First Men faction was none other than the Stark Kings of Winter; this would explain why it's called the Horn of Winter in the first place. Regardless of which group of First Men was responsible, however, it's easy to see why they did it: the Horn of Winter is a powerful weapon, and any faction of First Men would have been happy to have such a weapon in their possession. So the interesting question isn't, "Why did the First Men work with the CotF to create the Horn of Winter?" The interesting question is, "Why did the CotF work with the First Men to create the Horn of Winter?" Why would the CotF give the First Men a weapon capable of destroying the Wall?
Let's take a step back and recall the role that the CotF played in the events leading up to the construction of the Wall. Their lands were invaded by the First Men, and I argued in my first post that they responded by creating the Others as a race of slave soldiers to fight the First Men. After the Pact ended the war between the CotF and the First Men, the CotF kept the Others enslaved and/or hunted down the free ones in the Lands of Always Winter. Then the Long Night came, and I argued in my second post that the Others took advantage of it by attacking the First Men, killing them en masse in order to grow their power, with the ultimate goal of attacking the CotF. Eventually, the CotF participated in the peace agreement that ended the Long Night. But it's worth remembering that the CotF only interceded in the conflict between humans and Others at the urging of the Last Hero:
"Now these were the days before the Andals came, and long before the women fled across the narrow sea from the cities of the Rhoyne, and the hundred kingdoms of those times were the kingdoms of the First Men, who had taken these lands from the children of the forest. Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost." (AGOT, Bran IV)Prior to the Last Hero, the CotF seem to have been content to sit back and watch the humans and the Others kill each other—which, considering the history of those three species, is understandable. (According to Sam, the CotF did at one point give obsidian daggers to the Night's Watch, so the CotF did get involved in the conflict between the humans and the Others eventually, but this probably didn't happen until after the Last Hero made contact with them. Old Nan says that the Last Hero had to go on a quest of some difficulty to make contact with the CotF; presumably, this wouldn't have been necessary if the CotF were already giving obsidian daggers to the Night's Watch, because then the Last Hero could have just gone to the Night's Watch and gotten in contact with the CotF that way. So, for most if not all of the Long Night, the CotF did not provide humans with obsidian weapons, meaning that they truly were uninvolved in the conflict between the two species.) I argued in my second post that the peace agreement between the First Men and the Others was an essential part of ending the Long Night, and that this was facilitated by the Last Hero/Azor Ahai. The CotF's absence in the conflict between the humans and the Others prior to the Last Hero's involvement suggests that the CotF had no desire to see the humans and the Others make peace. They only facilitated a peace agreement because it was necessary in order to end the Long Night. The Long Night was an existential threat to the CotF, both because the forests can't survive in an eternal night and because the Others might eventually become powerful enough to threaten the CotF. So the CotF needed to end the Long Night, and ending the Long Night necessitated a peace agreement between humans and Others. It's very easy to imagine that the Last Hero's pitch to the CotF went something like, "Look, I know there's no love lost between you and humanity, and certainly none between you and the Others. But the Long Night isn't going to end unless all three species work together, and the Long Night will kill you guys, just as it will kill humanity. For your own sake, work with us to end this." Clearly, this argument was persuasive. But, once the Long Night ended, the CotF no longer had any reason to care about peace between the humans and the Others—a peace that only existed thanks to the Wall, which was partially destroyed by the Horn of Winter, which the CotF helped to create. The logical conclusion is that the CotF made the Horn of Winter in order to destroy the Wall and renew the war between the humans and the Others. The CotF weren't unconcerned observers to the human-Other war; they actively wanted the two species to fight.
You may be wondering, why didn't the CotF just destroy the Wall using the Hammer of the Waters? The problem with doing that is that the Hammer of the Waters is distinctly CotF magic, so destroying the Wall with the Hammer of the Waters would have pointed right back to the CotF. The humans and the Others would have known that the CotF were trying to provoke them back into war, and they would have naturally resisted those efforts. The way around this is to give humans access to the same magic as the Hammer of the Waters. That way, when the humans use that magic near the Wall, it will be the humans who are responsible for destroying the Wall. Helping the First Men create the Horn of Winter was therefore a way for the CotF to end the peace between humanity and the Others, all while maintaining plausible deniability. And it kind of worked; the Horn of Winter did destroy the western part of the Wall. But this didn't result in the human-Other war that the CotF wanted, because, as I argued in my previous post, the Others' queen was taken captive at the same time as the destruction of the Wall, and she's been used as a hostage to keep the peace ever since.
Child psychology
I've argued that the CotF wanted the humans and Others to fight, but I haven't explained why they'd want that. The easy answer is that the CotF have grievances with both the humans and the Others, so they wanted bloodshed between the two. But we shouldn't accept that easy answer too readily. If we're going to understand what the CotF want, we're going to have to get inside their heads. The books tell us about at least one way in which CotF psychology differs from human psychology:"That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us."So we're told that vengeance and spite aren't really a thing for the CotF, or at least not in the way that they are for humans. I've heard some people suggest that Leaf might be lying here, and that the CotF actually do want vengeance, but I don't think so, for a couple of reasons. First, and this is purely personal preference, I think it's a lot more interesting if the CotF don't think in the same way that humans do. If you're going to have multiple sentient species in your story, and they all think and behave in the same way, then it kind of defeats the purpose of having multiple species in the first place, doesn't it? If the CotF think and act just like humans do, I would personally find that boring. Secondly, and more importantly, we know that the CotF employ at least one human, Bloodraven, as a greenseer. This is a position of importance and confidence in CotF society, and it gives Bloodraven access to immense information. If the CotF were really planning on taking vengeance on humanity, then it's unlikely that they would be able to hide that information from Bloodraven (and any other human greenseers the CotF had; we don't know if Bloodraven was the only one), and it's unlikely that Bloodraven would help the CotF destroy or harm his own species. So the fact that the CotF rely on Bloodraven (and possibly other human greenseers in the past) suggests that the CotF genuinely don't wish any ill will on humanity, just as Leaf said. And if the CotF don't wish any ill will on humanity today, then they also probably didn't wish any ill will on humanity at the time they made the Horn of Winter—that was back when humans still held to the Pact, so the CotF would have had fewer grievances back then than they do today. So, if the CotF wanted to cause a war between the humans and the Others, and their goal wasn't to cause any long-term harm to humanity as a species, then their intent must have been to harm, weaken, or exterminate the Others. The CotF wanted the humans and the Others to go back to war, and they wanted humans to win. This explains why the CotF used to gift obsidian daggers to the Night's Watch.
She seemed sad when she said it, and that made Bran sad as well. It was only later that he thought, Men would not be sad. Men would be wroth. Men would hate and swear a bloody vengeance. The singers sing sad songs, where men would fight and kill. (ADWD, Bran III)
This raises the question, if the CotF wanted humans to defeat the Others, why didn't they help the humans during the Long Night (at least, prior to the Last Hero's involvement)? Well, once again, we need to consider the psychology of the CotF. We know the CotF are willing to fight incredibly bloody wars, as they did against the First Men, but we also know that they won't keep fighting in a hopeless circumstance simply to spite their enemy, in the way that humans will. In situations where they are faced with assured destruction, they react with sad acceptance, not defiance. The fact that the CotF didn't initially participate in the war against the Others during the Long Night indicates that they must have viewed that war as hopeless. The Others were sweeping south, massacring humans, converting their boys into more Others and raising the rest as wights, constantly growing stronger; the CotF must have concluded that there was nothing they could do, no way to survive the Long Night. They didn't just roll over and die, but they weren't about to fight the Others when they had no chance of success. The CotF most likely hid, guarding themselves with magic, waiting to die a slow death—just like they're doing today.
Fortunately for the CotF, the Long Night did not end in their extinction. As I argued in my second post, Azor Ahai negotiated a peace treaty that ended the Long Night. But, as part of that peace treaty, the Others received a queen, the first female member of their species (whom I've been referring to as the Night's Queen). This allowed the Others to reproduce sexually, as opposed to their earlier method of kidnapping human children, and as a result the Others' population would have begun increasing dramatically following the Long Night. So, on the one hand, the Others were no longer benefitting from the Long Night, meaning they were more vulnerable than they had been prior to the peace treaty. But, at the same time, the Others were growing more powerful, as their population rose. For the first time since the Long Night began, the CotF could now hope for victory in a war with them and the humans on one side and the Others on the other side, but they had a very narrow window in which to act, before the Others became too powerful. That's why they only began making moves against the Others after the Long Night; during the Long Night the Others were too strong to be realistically opposed, and before the Long Night the Others weren't seen as a significant threat. Once the Long Night ended, however, the CotF got to work, by helping to make the Horn of Winter and by providing the Night's Watch with obsidian.
Things change
The above description probably makes it seem like the CotF were motivated to provoke a new war against the Others out of self-preservation, and there may well be some truth in that. The Others, with their new queen, were a rising power, and they still probably harbored a vendetta against the CotF. If the new war against the Others resulted in the Others' extinction, that would obviously guarantee the CotF's safety from them; if the war resulted in the Night's Queen being killed or captured (which I argued is what happened), that would remove the Others' status as a rising power. So, if the CotF were acting out of self-preservation, their plan seems to have been both well motivated and reasonably successful.But, while the CotF might have successfully averted the risk posed by the Others, they failed to do the same with the humans. Leaf, and presumably the other CotF, fully recognize that humanity's expansion is going to drive them extinct. This has massive implications for the CotF's goals and motivations. The fact that the CotF are aware of and resigned to their inevitable extinction means that self-preservation is no longer a concern for them. They might have been motivated by self-preservation following the end of the Long Night, but not anymore. Whatever the CotF are doing nowadays, they're doing it because there's something they want to accomplish before they vanish as a species. And I do think that the CotF are trying to accomplish something, partly because characters that don't want anything are boring, and partly because Bloodraven is clearly up to something, and the CotF are supporting him. So, if they're not motivated by self-preservation, what are the CotF trying to do?
A common idea I've heard is that Bloodraven and the CotF want to prevent the Others from destroying the world in a second Long Night. I think there's an element of truth to this (especially considering the lengths the CotF have already gone to to oppose the Others), but I don't think it's the whole story. Consider this: if the CotF want to prevent the Others from conquering Westeros, but they're not motivated by self-preservation, then they must be motivated by some combination of altruism and guilt. They created the Others, then the Others got out of hand, to the point where they threatened all of Westeros, and now the CotF feel responsible for making sure they don't do that again. That's reasonable, even noble, but it can't be limited to merely defeating the Others in this latest confrontation. If all that comes of this current conflict with the Others is that the Others are prevented from conquering Westeros, then who's to say that the Others won't try to conquer Westeros a third time in another 8,000 years? And by the time that happens, the CotF will be extinct, so they won't be around to help with that conflict. Simply defeating the Others and thwarting their plans would be a temporary solution to a permanent problem, and, with the CotF facing their own extinction, they would see now as a time for permanent solutions. And when the problem in question is the existence of the Others, there can be only one solution: The CotF want to wipe out the Others completely. I suspect they wanted this ever since the Long Night; they probably see it as cleaning up after their mess. Now, with their extinction looming, that plan to genocide the Others has been made a priority.
I know that my logic has involved jumping around in time a lot, so, as a summary, let me present this handy timeline of the CotF's thoughts on the Others:
- During the war between the CotF and the First Men: "We need the Others to win this war."
- After the Pact was forged: Either "We may not be at war anymore, but we need to keep the Others as our slave soldiers, just in case the humans break the Pact," or "We don't need the Others anymore now that we have the Pact. I'm sure the handful of free Others in the Lands of Always Winter won't be a problem."
- During the Long Night: "The Others are going to drive both us and the First Men to extinction, but there's nothing we can do about it. This sucks."
- After the Long Night: "The Others are vulnerable, but they won't be for long. They're a danger to both us and the humans, and they're our fault. We need to act fast to destroy them, while we still can. That means we need to get the humans and the Others to start fighting again, and then we can help the humans win that war."
- After the Night's Queen was taken prisoner: "This isn't ideal, but the Others are no longer a rising power without their queen, so we can leave well enough alone."
- After it became clear that the CotF were going extinct: "The Others are unable to act against the humans for now, but there's no guarantee that that will last, and we won't be around to oppose the Others forever. We need to genocide the Others, while we're still around to do so."
"Two hundred years?" said Meera.It has often been observed that the Others, as an existential threat that can only be dealt with if humanity puts away its petty political squabbles, serve as a metaphor for climate change. In this metaphor, the CotF are the older generations that caused climate change in the first place and now are dying off for unrelated reasons. The CotF's behavior can then be seen as an aspirational model for how older generations should behave with regards climate change. Rather than saying, "Fuck it, I'll be dead, so it's not my problem," they ought to say, "I'm partly responsible for this, so I need to fix it, and the fact that I won't be around that much longer only means I need to work harder to fix it while I still can." Sadly, the CotF only behave the way they do because of their inhuman psychology, which points to the fact that it was never realistic to hope that older generations would behave this way in real life. I doubt this theme is intentional; Martin seems to have originally not seen the Others as a climate change metaphor, although he's since come around to the idea. Still, I think it's a neat connection.
The child smiled. “Men, they are the children.” (ADWD, Bran II)
It was Bloodraven all along
If the CotF really want to wipe out the Others, then the current situation at Winterfell must seem perfect for them. I argued in my last post that the events of the series have left Winterfell vulnerable, and the Others are now planning a rescue mission to extract their queen from the Winterfell crypts. With their queen no longer held captive, there will be nothing preventing war between humans and Others (and, after the humans kept the Night's Queen imprisoned for thousands of years, the Others will definitely have cause for war), and this war will happen while the CotF are still around to support the humans. Better still, humanity has dragons again, which will surely be useful against the Others. Everything seems to be going swimmingly for the CotF's plan to provoke a war of extermination against the Others, which raises an obvious question: did the CotF cause the current situation?To grossly oversimplify a complex series of events, Winterfell's vulnerability can be traced back to two events:
- Ned going to King's Landing, and subsequently getting beheaded. This caused all of the Starks except for Bran and Rickon to leave Winterfell, and it caused the Northern army to march south, leaving Winterfell vulnerable to…
- Theon capturing Winterfell, and subsequently losing it to Ramsay. This physically damaged Winterfell, it caused Bran and Rickon to leave, and it meant that Winterfell was now under Bolton control, which put it at the center of both Stannis's war and the various Northern intrigues.
More significantly, Bloodraven removed Bran's memory of Jaime pushing him from the tower:
Bran was staring at his arms, his legs. He was so skinny, just skin stretched taut over bones. Had he always been so thin? He tried to remember. A face swam up at him out of the grey mist, shining with light, golden. "The things I do for love," it said.If Bran had kept that memory, then he presumably would have woken up and told someone, "Jaime Lannister pushed me out of the tower, after I saw him wrestling naked with Queen Cersei." How exactly this would have changed the events of the book is a matter of fanfic, but, with eye-witness evidence of Jaime and Cersei committing incest and attempted murder, it's very easy to see things going poorly for the Lannisters. Even Cersei recognized how difficult of a situation that would have been to navigate:
Bran screamed.
The crow took to the air, cawing. Not that, it shrieked at him. Forget that, you do not need it now, put it aside, put it away. It landed on Bran’s shoulder, and pecked at him, and the shining golden face was gone. (AGOT, Bran III)
If truth be told, Jaime had come to rue heaving Brandon Stark out that window. Cersei had given him no end of grief afterward, when the boy refused to die. "He was seven, Jaime," she’d berated him. "Even if he understood what he saw, we should have been able to frighten him into silence."Had Bran kept his memory of Jaime pushing him out of the window, then it likely would have been Cersei and Jaime's downfall, and that means Ned wouldn't have lost his head.
"I didn’t think you’d want—"
"You never think. If the boy should wake and tell his father what he saw—"
"If if if." He had pulled her into his lap. “If he wakes we’ll say he was dreaming, we’ll call him a liar, and should worse come to worst I’ll kill Ned Stark."
"And then what do you imagine Robert will do?" (ASOS, Jaime I)
Later, when Theon takes Winterfell, he wakes up suddenly in the middle of the night, and he gets the feeling that someone was responsible for waking him:
One moment he was asleep; the next, awake.This was the chapter where Bran and company "escape," and Theon's primary emotions throughout the chapter are anxiety and desperation. Those feelings build over the course of the day, as Theon tries and fails to find Bran and Rickon, eventually consuming him to the point where he does something stupid.
Kyra nestled against him, one arm draped lightly over his, her breasts brushing his back. He could hear her breathing, soft and steady. The sheet was tangled about them. It was the black of night. The bedchamber was dark and still.
What is it? Did I hear something? Someone?
Wind sighed faintly against the shutters. Somewhere, far off, he heard the yowl of a cat in heat. Nothing else. Sleep, Greyjoy, he told himself. The castle is quiet, and you have guards posted. At your door, at the gates, on the armory.
He might have put it down to a bad dream, but he did not remember dreaming. (ACOK, Theon IV)
"Joseth has the right of it," said Maester Luwin. "Groping through the woods by torchlight will avail us nothing."Theon woke up in the middle of the night with a sense that something was off, and then he had plenty of time to stew in his anxiety. Were it not for that, he might not have descended to the point where killing the miller's boys seemed like a good idea. Therefore, the hint that someone was responsible for waking him up is interesting; maybe Bloodraven used his psychic tree powers to wake Theon? The passage mentions the "sigh" of wind—a notably anthropomorphic phrasing—and we know that, when Bran tried to communicate with Ned in the past, it sounded like wind to him; maybe Bloodraven can do something similar, sans time travel? There's nothing explicitly pointing to Bloodraven, but there is evidence that he's messing with Theon's emotions in his next chapter:
Theon could taste bile at the back of his throat, and his stomach was a nest of snakes twining and snapping at each other. If he crept back to Winterfell empty-handed, he might as well dress in motley henceforth and wear a pointed hat; the whole north would know him for a fool. And when my father hears, and Asha …
"M’lord prince." Reek urged his horse near. (ACOK, Theon IV)
The sky was a gloom of cloud, the woods dead and frozen. Roots grabbed at Theon’s feet as he ran, and bare branches lashed his face, leaving thin stripes of blood across his cheeks. He crashed through heedless, breathless, icicles flying to pieces before him. Mercy, he sobbed. From behind came a shuddering howl that curdled his blood. Mercy, mercy. When he glanced back over his shoulder he saw them coming, great wolves the size of horses with the heads of small children. Oh, mercy, mercy. Blood dripped from their mouths black as pitch, burning holes in the snow where it fell. Every stride brought them closer. Theon tried to run faster, but his legs would not obey. The trees all had faces, and they were laughing at him, laughing, and the howl came again. He could smell the hot breath of the beasts behind him, a stink of brimstone and corruption. They’re dead, dead, I saw them killed, he tried to shout, I saw their heads dipped in tar, but when he opened his mouth only a moan emerged, and then something touched him and he whirled, shouting … (ACOK, Theon V)Theon feels guilty for faking Bran and Rickon's death, and he's afraid for his future; that guilt and fear would have existed in him no matter what, but these dreams amplify those feelings, and the presence of weirwood trees suggests that Bloodraven is actively sending them to Theon. After all, none of Theon's experiences have involved a weirwood in any significant capacity, so this wasn't a native element of his dream, and Bran often has dreams about a weirwood that are implied to be sent by Bloodraven. Theon's fear and his attempts to rationalize his guilt drive him to cling desperately to his power and authority:
"Your prize will be the doom of you. Krakens rise from the sea, Theon, or did you forget that during your years among the wolves? Our strength is in our longships. My wooden pisspot sits close enough to the sea for supplies and fresh men to reach me whenever they are needful. But Winterfell is hundreds of leagues inland, ringed by woods, hills, and hostile holdfasts and castles. And every man in a thousand leagues is your enemy now, make no mistake. You made certain of that when you mounted those heads on your gatehouse." Asha shook her head. "How could you be such a bloody fool? Children …"All of this causes Theon to reject Asha's offer to leave Winterfell for Deepwood Motte, which results in Ramsay sacking Winterfell. So, to summarize, Bloodraven provided the Lannisters with advantages so that they would triumph in their intrigues against Ned, and he psychologically manipulated Theon so that he would lose Winterfell to Ramsay. Bloodraven has actively worked to create the circumstances that have left Winterfell vulnerable, so that the Others will be able to rescue their queen and begin a new war against the humans. I don't want to fall into the trap of claiming that Bloodraven was responsible for everything; I think that most events in the story happened without his direct interference. But, thanks to his greensight giving him glimpses of the future, Bloodraven has found a few places where just a small nudge can result in things going the way he wants them to.
"They defied me!" he shouted in her face. "And it was blood for blood besides, two sons of Eddard Stark to pay for Rodrik and Maron." The words tumbled out heedlessly, but Theon knew at once that his father would approve. "I’ve laid my brothers’ ghosts to rest." (ACOK, Theon V)
Of course, putting Winterfell in a vulnerable position only matters if the Others know about that vulnerability. Bloodraven must have some communication with the Others. I'm not sure what this communication looks like; if the Others can dream, then it might just mean sending them green dreams prophesying Winterfell's coming vulnerability. Alternatively, Bloodraven might be communicating with them directly by skinchanging into a raven. Maybe he's posing as a human traitor, willing to sell out the humans and the CotF, a kind of second Night's King? This is definitely the biggest missing piece in my theory, but I don't think it's too outlandish to posit Bloodraven has some means of getting information to the Others, and that he's thereby clued the Others in on Winterfell's coming vulnerability.
A politically useful apocalypse
I've talked a lot about the CotF's motivations, but not at all about Bloodraven's, so let's do that now. I'd recommend you read this excellent series of posts on Bloodraven, which I'll be drawing from heavily. Prior to becoming the Last Greenseer, Bloodraven was primarily occupied with the Blackfyres. He played a crucial role in ending the First Blackfyre Rebellion, including but not limited to killing Daemon Blackfyre and his eldest two sons, and since then he went to every effort to foil future Blackfyre attempts to claim the Iron Throne. Some people have speculated that Bloodraven did so out of duty and a desire to keep the realm stable, but this doesn't hold up. Following Maekar I's death, a Great Council was held to determine the succession, and Bloodraven invited and then immediately killed Aenys Blackfyre. Bloodraven later claimed that this was for the good of the realm, but… how? If the Great Council had selected Aenys as the next king, the crown would have passed to him just as peacefully and rightfully as it ended up passing to Aegon V. If Bloodraven was truly motivated by duty and a desire for peace, he would have had no reason to kill Aenys. The only explanation for Bloodraven's actions is that he genuinely did not want a Blackfyre to take the throne, no matter the circumstances surrounding their accession. In fact, his anti-Blackfyre obsession was so intense that he ignored the devastation caused by Dagon Greyjoy, because addressing it would leave the throne vulnerable to the Blackfyres:"Myself, I blame Bloodraven," Ser Kyle went on. "He is the King's Hand, yet he does nothing, whilst the krakens spread flame and terror up and down the sunset sea."It's important to note that Maynard Plumm was probably a glamored Bloodraven, so this isn't mere speculation; this is Bloodraven telling us his motivation. By all accounts, Bloodraven's tenure as Hand was an awful time for Westeros, where law and order broke down and few people respected the king. The point is, Bloodraven was not a noble man fighting against a beloved brother because it was the right thing to do. Bloodraven was a Targaryen uber-loyalist, who would gladly see the realm burn, so long as a Targaryen remained on the throne. And he appears to have retained that loyalty, decades later. Bloodraven is likely in control of Mormont's raven (see the series of posts I linked earlier), and in raven form Bloodraven hints fairly clearly about wanting Jon to be king:
Ser Maynard gave a shrug. "His eye is fixed on Tyrosh, where Bittersteel sits in exile, plotting with the sons of Daemon Blackfyre. So he keeps the king's ships close at hand, lest they attempt to cross." (The Mystery Knight)
"Aemon knew, and rightly, that if he remained at court those who disliked his brother’s rule would seek to use him, so he came to the Wall. And here he has remained, while his brother and his brother’s son and his son each reigned and died in turn, until Jaime Lannister put an end to the line of the Dragonkings."Something similar happens in ADWD, but what's interesting about this instance of the raven calling Jon king is that it happens immediately after Mormont claims that the Targaryen line has ended. This suggests that this is more than just a prophetic statement of fact; this is a profession of loyalty. Jon is the rightful Targaryen king, and he has Bloodraven's support.
"King," croaked the raven. The bird appeared across the solar to land on Mormont’s shoulder. "King," it said again, strutting back and forth. (ACOK, Jon I)
Given his undying Targaryen loyalty, Bloodraven must be psyched about the coming war between the humans and the Others. Daenerys is coming with three dragons, which will be humanity's best hope for defeating the Others; Westeros will naturally rally behind Daenerys, solidifying her rule. Moreover, dragons will be seen as the saviors of Westeros, rather than as dangerous weapons. If Marwyn was right that the maesters killed the dragons, then this would prevent a similar conspiracy from arising and driving the dragons back into extinction, since the dragons would now be seen as necessary for Westeros's security against the forces of evil. So while Bloodraven wants to provoke a war between humans and Others, just like the CotF do, he wants this for a different reason than they do; Bloodraven wants to use the Others to bring about a lasting Targaryen restoration.
Continued in comments
2023.05.30 17:53 DOMISMONEY Don’t State at the Sun Tour
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