#my history is rusty still and its from nearly 5+ years ago.

[friesian]

can u say more abt fnv and west virginia i love to hear abt depiction of appalachia in media and stuff

OH WOW sure, i never thought anyone would ask tbh!! i have a passion for early appalachia studies and the history of early coal mine unions SO THIS IS GREAT!! so with 76, i guess my biggest complaint is by taking the role that the overseer wants you to take?? you're objectively taking the place of what cooperate coal mines were doing to workers.

from the wording of the post before (and mind you, i've never played 76 so take this from someone who hasn't played it first hand) you are essentially working as a hired union buster.

the tl;dr: appalachia is taken incredibly face value in FO76 and takes the side of establishing settlements similar to that of company towns, you also take the role for the overseer that is closely related to that of an early day union buster from that era where you are just going to murder everything in your path for a company because the pay is good and it's expected of you from a societal stand point.

so. THE LONG VERSION. here's the meat and potatoes;

a quick run-down-- and being VERY simplified-- for those maybe unintroduced to the history of west virginian coal mines, there was no regulation and honestly? people who had the money or authority did not give a shit even if there WAS. money talked in an incredibly impoverished area like the appalachias.

it got to the point where companies decided-- hey, fuck it! what if we made company-only towns; "Traditional settings for company towns were for the most part where extractive industries existed– coal, metal mines, lumber — and had established a monopoly franchise. Dam sites and war-industry camps founded other company towns. Since company stores often had a monopoly in company towns, it was possible to pay in scrip (a term for any substitute for legal tender). Typically, a company town is isolated from neighbors and centered on a large production factory, such as a lumber or steel mill or an automobile plant; and the citizens of the town either work in the factory, work in one of the smaller businesses, or is a family member of someone who does. The company may also donate a church building to a local congregation, operate parks, host cultural events such as concerts, and so on. If the owning company cuts back or goes out of business, the economic effect on the company town is devastating, as people move to jobs elsewhere." (source)

i'm sure the issue is screaming isn't it.

well, like with fallout 76. there were "unlikable poor people" in the way for these companies. these people were folks who raised issue with the whole "company owning everything". they also had incredibly high death rates as coal miners suffered from having no regulations or any safety when within these mines. there were numerous cave-ins, natural gas deaths, negligence, black lung, no proper training, hiring practical children-- you name it. there were MANY issues with how coal companies wanted to own someone down to the smallest hair. well this came to a head when some workers began to unionize or at least had to have incredibly secret meetings about it. these meetings had to be as secret as possible due to the fact that companies were hiring spies to infiltrate these towns and sniff out unions. "missionaries" were sent in to try to find people by acting as if they were looking to start a union, so they could find and report people who had the spine to speak up about their conditions.

of course, this was in the 1920s at the start of the first red scare, as unionizing was seen as a communist act and thus both companies and the police themselves (which were also hired by the company for these towns) were not only motivated by money but by the fact this was seen as an act of "treason" against america. these led into multiple massacres of these miners, workers, and anyone who decided to take up arms for their family's rights. the biggest of these in the context of west virginia being the battle of blair mountain;

"On the night of August 30, John Wilburn, a minister and part-time miner, led a group of 70 miners—including two of his sons—up the mountain. During a dawn patrol, Wilburn and four other men encountered three of Chafin’s deputy sheriffs including John Gore, an infamous mine guard in Logan County. In the gun battle that ensued, the miners shot and wounded Gore who then shot and killed miner Eli Kemp. Wilburn responded by shooting Gore in the head, ensuring that he was dead. This marked the beginning of the Battle of Blair Mountain. For the next three days, the two sides battled with gatling guns, rifles, and other firearms along the ridge of Blair Mountain. During the second day of fighting, Chafin ordered his men to fly airplanes over the encamped marchers and drop two nausea-inducing gas bombs, and two bombs filled with gunpowder, nuts and bolts. As historian James Green describes it in The Devil is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom, “Something extraordinary happened on Spruce Fork Ridge that day: American citizens were being subjected to aerial bombardment on their own soil.” (source)

note, this is not the only massacre that happened over some unions. there was also the matewan massacre, and not to mention targeted attacks on people rallying for unions that will never be counted as massacre in of themselves.

so if you're seeing the parallels here, a lot of this sounds similar to your player character role in FO76 in my humble little opinion! finding these poor, impoverished people to only slaughter them or scare them away from things they rightfully worked for, let alone if they are teamed up in their own communities.

it sounds JUST like how these companies forced numerous natives from their lands just to harvest coal, and then hire them to pay to live on THEIR OWN LAND. (i want to bet that there's settlement mechanics like in FO4, that you can potentially 'take in' these folk who have already lived there to live on your settlement.... which if so, are you fucking kidding me???) wanting to "reclaim" appalachia (as the overseer claims) is not only INCREDIBLY tone deaf to the massacres, suffering, and is just absolutely SUCKING on capitalist toes, it is disregarding to numerous poc and impoverished appalachian families that had no choice but to do this or have everything taken from them.

it is completely missing the point of WHAT IT MEANS TO BE APPALACHIAN and what that history includes.

the take that FO76 gives on appalachia is incredibly face value at best, and doesn't capture what it means to be a fucking redneck. which is a GODDAMN COMPLIMENT in a west virginian sense.

#WOW this was long and i tried to make it as condensed as possible. sorry. #if anything is wrong or if anyone would like to add anything on please let me know #my history is rusty still and its from nearly 5+ years ago. #especially anyone who is native that would like to add on or correct me PLEASE let me know.

[eskalations]

Smoke and Gunpowder, Chapter 1

A/N: Wow, so I haven't written a fanfic since 2017? That's crazy! I watched FMA: Brotherhood a few weeks ago and couldn't get this ship out of my head. I know that my writing skills are a bit rusty, but hopefully after writing more frequently, I'll be back in the swing of things. This originally started out as a oneshot, but if people enjoy it, I am willing to make it into a series of oneshots based in this universe.

Let me know what you think!

Summary:

Even now, in the privacy of her room and away from the prying eyes of their government, he stiffened at her proximity. The careful lines drawn between the two of them seemed to blur at times like these when they were alone and out of uniform. In the dim light of her room, it was easy to imagine that they were just a quiet country boy and bold city girl again.

(ROYAI GENDERBEND AU)

AO3 | FFN

Tumblr: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

Patience had always been her strong suit.

There were many things she wasn't – calm, collected, stoic (ironically these were all things that were usually recommended in a soldier) – but patient she was.

Except for tonight.

Raina Mustang's dark eyes had been glued to the clock for the past two hours, willing the hands to move faster. No matter what she had done to try and distract herself – shower, cook, read – nothing could keep her mind off the eternal ticking of that damn contraption. So now here she sat in her pajamas with a wet head, eyes still burning from the smoke produced by her attempt at dinner, and book wide open to page 3 – with nothing to show for it except raw anxiety.

She worried her lip between her teeth and shut the book with a huff - there was just no use pretending anymore. She glanced at the pile of papers in front of her and set the book resolutely on top of them. The paperwork she had brought home was surely not getting done in these conditions and she couldn't take her mind off the situation long enough to even bother with it.

He should have been here by now. They agreed on 2100 hours and now it was 2130 – and if there was one thing that Ray Hawkeye was not, it was late.

It looked like neither of them were living up to their usual standards tonight.

The mission was simple enough. Take one of Madame Christmas's girls out to dinner, get the information she had to offer, escort her back to the hotel she was staying in, linger for just long enough to make it seem like their good time had extended beyond their meal, and then get out of there. There was no reason it should be taking this long.

Unless….

Before that train of thought could go any further, there was a timid set of knocks on her door. By the third rapt of knuckles on wood, she had already swung the door open wide and was pulling her visitor inside.

"Colonel!" The man nearly exclaimed, a touch of disapproval in his tone. Ever the cautious soul, her bold actions set his mind reeling. What if someone had seen his dark-haired superior dragging him desperately into her apartment? What would people think?

However, that was the last thing on the Flame Alchemist's mind.

Her eyes narrowed as she gave him a once over. In his civilian clothes, he looked just like the unassuming young man she had met all those years ago – there was just one difference now. While his hair and clothes were typically in perfect order, they were in utter disarray today.

First Lieutenant Hawkeye's usually carefully combed blonde hair was now mussed in a way that implied much less professional activities had taken place prior to their meeting. If that wasn't proof enough that he had been up to no good, the white button up badly hidden by his long brown coat certainly was. With several buttons messily inserted into the wrong holes, it wasn't hard to guess what he had been doing before visiting her apartment.

Despite the incriminating evidence on his person, Raina released a sigh of relief. His appearance was as it always was after one of his "dates" – right down to the slight smudge of lipstick left on the right side of his mouth.

"So," She started casually, a smirk appearing on her lips as she gave him another once over before continuing, "It looks like you had a good time."

A pale hand reached out to pluck at one of the buttons of his shirt – however, her wrist was caught up in the strong grip of her adjutant. His hands were warm, familiar and calloused just as she'd expect a sniper's to be.

"Colonel," His voice was near pleading, face brooking no amusement. While his grip lessened, and allowed her hand to drop – the stern expression on his face did not change. She could see the line of his jaw tighten as he remarked quietly, "You know better than anyone that I have very little fun doing your dirty work."

"That's harsh, Lieutenant," The young woman's lips dropped into a pout, wounded by his words.

Despite the sad look on her visage, the man did not recant his statement.

"It's true." He spoke resolutely, joining his hands behind his back and straightening his spine a bit. She could see in his face though that he held no actual malice for his comrade – he was just tired after working overtime to get the information they needed. The Colonel was grateful to him – however, she could not pass up the opportunity to tease the serious man just a bit. Especially after such a cruel remark.

"You know what I think?" She countered while circling around to his back, hands reaching out to divest him of his coat. If there was a slight shake in her appendages due to the history that she had with this part of his body, he was certainly too polite to point it out. "I think you're just frustrated that your superior officer is a better wingman than your fellow male office mates."

Hawkeye didn't miss a beat.

"Considering the fact that I take orders from my younger, female superior every day without complaint – I highly doubt that's the reason for my distaste of these activities," With his coat off and hung by her door, he followed the young lady into her rent home's small living area. "But while we are on the subject of things I am not happy with, let's talk about the way you just let me in the do – wait, have you been practicing?"

"Huh? Practicing what?" Raina paused on her way to the couch, looking back at him curiously. The young man was glancing up at the ceiling as if the answer was going to materialize right in front of him.

Hawkeye's eyes narrowed, his face suddenly resembling the bird that was his namesake.

"It's smoky in here," He stated flatly, his hand drifting into the air and making a slight gesture as if to point it out.

. "I didn't even notice." The Colonel raised her dark brows innocently, choosing to play dumb in an attempt to keep her pride intact. He knew she was a terrible cook and any further evidence of such was sure to just add fuel to the fire.

The young man's expression, however, let her know that he most definitely did not believe her.

Ignoring his reaction, she sunk into the cushions of her couch and allowed an exaggerated sigh to slip from her lips as Hawkeye remained standing. The movement caused the straight, black bangs on her forehead to go airborne for a moment. "I was so busy with paperwork that I lost track of time – any reason you chose today to be late for the first time ever?"

Amber eyes glanced dubiously at the alchemy book laid out on top of the "paperwork" the Colonel had claimed to be doing so diligently before his arrival. If you looked closely enough, you could even see a few lines that still needed signatures that were left empty. The young man wished he could say he was surprised, but that would be a lie.

"The eagerness you displayed at the door says differently, sir."

The Colonel feigned ignorance. "I have no idea what you're implying, Lieutenant. I was simply trying to pull you into my home before anyone saw you standing on my doorstep looking like that."

The man looked down at his clothing stoically before glancing up again and meeting her gaze. While there was a slight flush in his cheeks, his expression remained the same – as though he wasn't standing in the middle of her living in a questionable state of undress.

"If you'll excuse me, sir – I am going to go and refresh myself before we continue this conversation," Hawkeye gave her a quick salute before turning in the direction of the bathroom. However, before he could make it around the corner, he looked back at her and their gazes met once again, a slight smile making its way on to his face. "Why don't you go clean up whatever you were attempting to cook in the kitchen? It seems like the rain isn't the only thing you're useless in."

Before she could even react, he was already down the hall and slamming the bathroom door shut. The audacity.

Raina sat shocked for a moment before rolling her eyes and rising from the couch. Same old Hawkeye – observant as ever. He knew her far too well at this point in their lives to fall for any of her tricks.

Entering the kitchen, she cleaned out the now burnt pasta stuck at the bottom of the pot she had left on the counter. The young Colonel had meant to get rid of such incriminating evidence before her subordinate got there, but it must have slipped her mind once she saw the time.

'Oh well…' She thought to herself as she tossed the remnants of her burnt dinner into the trash. No use in hiding her weaknesses from a man who had been her professional shadow for years. Ever since their initial transfer to East City from Ishval, they had been a package deal. She was grateful for it – since their time in the city certainly hadn't been spent idly.

With General Grumman being a very lenient leader, a majority of his work fell on to the shoulders of those who were under him. While this meant more work for them, Colonel Mustang didn't mind since the more accolades she received, the easier it was to rise in the ranks. Knowing this, Grumman usually reserved his most high profile of cases to the Mustang unit.

Being as feminine as she was – most people did not look at Raina Mustang as a huge threat to their position. Despite her title as a State Alchemist and the youngest Colonel currently serving in the Amestrian military, most top dogs in the brass barely gave her a second glance. Sure - some of them were suspicious of her rise in the ranks – however, many just assumed she had slept her way to the top.

The amount of investigations that had been done on said accusation were numerous, but so far no evidence had come forward to warrant an official court-martial. Let them think what they wanted as long as it didn't affect her goal of being able to repent for the crimes she had committed.

Taking note of her appearance in the reflection of the pot she held, she couldn't say she was surprised by the assumptions. With long black hair and exotically dark features (she thanked whatever higher powers there were daily that her mother was Xingese and contributed to her unique look), Raina could fit right in with Christmas's unassuming gaggle of girls. Her flirty nature and feigned laziness was a façade that played into this persona that she had carefully crafted whenever she had decided what path she wished to take to the top.

She didn't necessarily like being looked down upon for such behavior – however, she was a patient woman. Colonel Mustang knew what she wanted and knew exactly what it was going to take to get it. After the actions that she had taken in Ishval, it was paramount that she become Fuhrer eventually – the sooner the better.

The return of her Lieutenant broke her from her thoughts before they could take an even darker turn.

"So," She casually remarked, dropping the pot into the sink before turning to face the young man. "What's on the menu?"

This Hawkeye was one she was more familiar with. The young man's shirt was now buttoned correctly and his light hair was styled to perfection just as it normally was. If it wasn't for the slight coral smudge that was still visible at the corner of his mouth, she wouldn't have even been able to tell he had gone out earlier.

Glancing at the pot she had in the sink, his response was dry. "Since I'm assuming that pot is the only one in your possession, I suggest a simple stir-fry."

"Fine by me."

They were quiet as they worked to get a small dinner for two prepared – Ray at the stove and Raina on ingredients duty. The smell of burnt pasta was soon replaced by a new, delicious aroma.

Once dinner was finished, they sat across from each other at her small table.

"Which of my sisters entertained you tonight?" Raina asked casually as she took a sip of water, glancing at Ray over the rim of her glass. The young man was taking his first bite and nearly dropped his fork at her choice of words.

"Could you not refer to it in that way?" The Lieutenant finally collected himself long enough to answer, his expression already back to the stoic mask he donned daily. He knew she was just fishing for information – however, he knew her well enough to know that she was also trying to get a reaction out of him. "You know better than anyone that nothing of that sort has ever happened on any of these dates."

Raina shrugged non-committedly, taking a bite of her food and waiting for him to continue.

At her silence, Ray sighed before finally taking a moment to answer her question. "It was Vanessa – you should have been able to tell from the shade of lipstick she chose to leave on my cheek."

He took another bite as Raina chuckled, "I figured she was the one that had been sent. The Madame knows that Vanessa prefers Easy City clients. Did she tell you how long she would be in town?"

Ray gave her a dry look, "We were too busy discussing the information at hand to really talk about anything personal. I will be seeing her tomorrow though."

"I'm sure we'll cross paths at some point," The Colonel commented offhandedly, grinning at the slight panic that appeared on her subordinate's face. "Don't worry, I will make sure we aren't being watched."

Ray gave her a doubtful look before returning his attention to his meal. Raina couldn't let this go without comment.

"You took her out for dinner, right?" She asked, spooning another serving into her mouth before continuing. "Did she steal the food off your plate or did you get so distracted by her womanly wiles that you forgot to eat?"

Ray remained unaffected. "We actually went to a show instead, that's the reason I was late."

The young woman was surprised by this. Her Lieutenant usually stuck to dinner with his dates as it was a more casual experience. In the civvies he sported now, she imagined he had looked quite out of place at the East City Opera.

"Vanessa must have felt quite special then," Raina remarked carefully, taking another sip from her glass. "You don't usually treat the girls to a show."

"I was being followed."

"Oh?" This had the woman pausing mid-sip.

Ray finished chewing before setting down his fork. His dark eyes met her own, the concern evident in his expression.

"This is the first time I have caught someone tracking my movements," The man shared, folding his hands under his chin. "Vanessa felt it too. They were inexperienced from what I could tell in covert operations, so we lost them pretty quickly – however, I chose to remain cautious for the rest of the night and diverted from my usual routine."

Raina sighed in relief, her own dinner forgotten as she leaned back in her chair. "Trust the Hawk's Eye to catch something like that."

"The information Vanessa had was not of an incriminating nature," Ray remarked, speaking on the subject for the first time that night. Raina leaned forward to better hear the man's soft voice. "I have no idea who would have been following me tonight – so please be on your guard when you are out of the office."

"What was the information?" Raina asked, choosing to ignore the warning. Someone following them from afar wasn't going to discover anything noteworthy – her team was much too careful to fall victim to such a ploy.

Hawkeye stood, gesturing for her to follow him down the hall to the bedroom at the back of the house. Her bedroom.

Rolling her eyes at his worry, she followed her subordinate. He often was overly cautious when sharing with her whatever secrets he had discovered, checking for bugs and speaking quietly before relaying the information, but tonight he wasn't taking any chances. The bedroom at the back of her house was the one furthest from the door with curtains that would hide them from the eyes of anyone standing outside.

After shutting the door behind him and surveying the room, Hawkeye turned to address her.

"The information she had was in regards to General Hakuro." He finally revealed, his eyes following her as she took a seat at the end of her bed. "Like I said, it's nothing incriminating – but I know it's something that will interest you."

"I'm listening," Her eyes lit up at the mention of her rival. Despite the seriousness of the conversation though, she couldn't help but add on, "– and I'm sure the bugs that the enemy has hidden are all ears too."

Hawkeye was unamused by her comment. Ignoring his put-out expression, she gestured for him to continue - and, with a sigh, he followed her orders.

"Hakuro is planning on petitioning for Colonel Becker to be moved to Central when a spot is open," The Lieutenant revealed, watching as a familiar fire became evident in the Colonel's eyes. "He heard that you were planning on applying for transfer and has chosen to counter Grumman's recommendation of you."

"Tough luck," Mustang commented, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. "I have it on good authority that Colonel Becker has been having an extra marital affair with one of the Madame's girls out in New Optain."

"It's Mollie" Hawkeye confirmed, his eyes looking quickly over to the window before meeting her gaze again. It was in these moments that his position as a sniper was most evident – always watching. "The Madame has a plan to keep this transfer from happening but she wanted to run it by you before taking action herself. That's why I'm meeting Vanessa tomorrow – to let her know your answer."

"What's the plan my foster mother has come up with?"

"Blackmail," The young man commented dryly, as if it could have been anything else where the Madame was involved. Her greatest weapon was the information she had against pretty much any high-ranking officer in the military – of course the answer was blackmail. The Colonel gave him a small smile at this solution.

"Let me guess," She stood and walked over to where he was stationed in the corner of her room, her voice low and even. "His lover will threaten to go to the press if he chooses to leave her alone in New Optain?"

"Precisely."

"He has a wife and kids too, does he not? I think Hughes shared with me once that he did…" Hawkeye nodded in confirmation, prompting a deep sigh from his companion. "So such a story would affect not only him, but other parties as well?"

"Meaning he has much more than just his career at stake." The Lieutenant finished lowly.

Raina nodded, stopping in front of him. It was so strange to see him without his gun holsters positioned over his shoulders – but she knew better than to assume that he was not armed. He never went anywhere without at least two loaded pistols on him. She knew him so well, yet any outsider would think they were strangers from the way they danced around each other.

Even now, in the privacy of her room and away from the prying eyes of their government, he stiffened at her proximity. The careful lines drawn between the two of them seemed to blur at times like these when they were alone and out of uniform. In the dim light of her room, it was easy to imagine that they were just a quiet country boy and bold city girl again.

But too much had happened since those days for them to lose themselves completely.

Glancing up at Hawkeye, Mustang chose her next words carefully. "Do you think it's fair that one day we may have to answer to our sins - yet for Becker to answer to his, we would have to destroy the lives of others in the process?"

The young man remained still, meeting her gaze steadily. Always her moral compass, he was the one she usually came to with such sensitive questions. While his voice certainly held a degree of sympathy, there was a firmness in it that spoke of a steely resolve.

"The goal is to not have to reveal this information," He reminded her gently, his chin tilted downwards to better gauge her reaction to his words. "Vanessa said they will do as they always do and hang it over his head just long enough for our transfers to be processed. After that, Mollie will conveniently disappear from his life."

Raina nodded, aware of the usual protocol the girls followed. They knew just how to play their cards right to further her career while remaining unassuming. It wasn't their fault that the men in the military seemed to have both loose lips and loose morals.

"You can tell Vanessa that I'm fine with the plan," Raina conceded, though there was one thing about the situation that bugged her. "Do you really think he'll take the bait though?"

One of Hawkeye's blonde brows rose. "In a position where bad press can possibly get someone court-martialed? I think it's more than likely that he will."

She couldn't argue with that.

"Alright," She agreed, nodding slowly as she worked through the plan in her head again. She wouldn't be applying for transfer for another month, so Mollie should be able to hold Becker off long enough to get everything processed before anyone became too suspicious.

Hawkeye gave her a stiff nod as well, acknowledging that he heard her orders. With his mission now completed - the young man began to shift, his eyes drifting to the bedroom door, signaling that his thoughts were now focused on leaving.

"Should I muse you up a bit before you go?" Raina asked, knowing this would rattle his nerves. Her hand reached out to play with a button on his shirt, the warmth of her palm seeping through the fabric and causing him to stiffen. "Do you think that would get tongues wagging again in regards to my activities outside the office?"

"It was already risky enough for me to come here in the state that I was in," Hawkeye reminded her – a clear warning evident in his tone. This was her lieutenant, always playing by the rules. "Please do not do anything else that could possibly result in an investigation. The Madame's services already could get us into serious trouble if anyone found out."

The Colonel gave him an innocent look at his words. "I don't know what you mean, Lieutenant – I was simply offering you the same services that my sister provided you with."

He raised his brows again. "I highly doubt that, sir."

The young woman shrugged, turning away from her subordinate. Opening her bedroom door, she walked back down the hall to where their dirty dinner plates still sat on the table. When Hawkeye made a move to pick them up, she batted his hand away. He had cooked for her, the least she could do was clean up the dishes.

She brought him his coat and helped him put it on. While the look he gave her was one of thanks, there was a slight warning in his eyes as well. She smoothed her hands over his arms before taking a step back, giving him the space she knew he needed.

But before he could turn the knob on the door, she stopped him with a gentle hand.

"Lieutenant?"

The young man turned towards her, wondering what else she could have to say.

With a smirk on her face, the Colonel stepped forward. Suddenly, their breaths were mingling and her usually unshakeable Lieutenant was frozen. Staring deeply into his eyes for a moment – she waited, watching for a reaction.

Before anything could be said, she reached up to the side of his mouth and swiped at the coral colored patch of skin that he had left unattended earlier. Drawing her fingers back, she gave him a wry look.

"Coral's not my color, but we wouldn't want anyone getting the wrong idea – would we?"

#royai #roy mustang #riza hawkeye #royai fanfic #royai fanfiction #royai fic #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fma #fmab #fma fic #fma fanfic #fma fanfiction #fma au #royai au #genderbend au #fanfic #fanfiction #my fanfiction

[aliceslantern]

Heartlines, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, chapter 5

Twelve years ago, Xemnas betrayed the royal court of Radiant Garden to his father, Xehanort. Prince Ienzo flees to another city and begins university in the aftermath, hoping the anonymity will protect him from eager eyes with ill intent. The darkness spilling across the country, as well as an individual from his past, cut short Ienzo's new beginning and bring new conflicts to light. Strained between the desires of his magic and his heart, Ienzo's choice will change him forever.

Modern Fantasy AU, Soulmates, Zemyx. Updates Fridays until it's done.

Chapter summary:  Ienzo investigates Demyx further, and comes to a shocking revelation.

Read it on FF.net/on AO3

---

Ienzo told Aeleus everything.

The man seemed more tired than usual. He’d been gone for the past two days on some resistance mission neither Even nor Ienzo really knew anything about. He’d slept soundlessly, almost breathlessly, on the couch for two hours before Ienzo tried to feed him and convince him to sleep in his proper bed. But when Aeleus asked how he was… the words had spilled out of him almost against his will.

“There are more people like me here, Aeleus,” he finished. “That much is certain.”

Aeleus ate steadily. Ienzo had made pho; he’d forgotten how much he missed cooking with an actual full kitchen. “Of course there are,” he said. “Not everyone goes underground in our sense. Some merely prefer to hide.”

“In some ways I feel so… naive,” he admitted slowly. “I wish you would tell me some things so I don’t feel so ignorant.”

Aeleus smiled and squeezed Ienzo’s hand. “If I could, I would,” he said. “Even I am only allowed to know pieces, parts.” He set aside his empty bowl. “Though I am curious. I had thought all the seeker lines… were eradicated.”

“But why, if they’re functionally harmless? He has no magic.”

Aeleus rubbed at his eyes. “Their abilities are purely passive… and somewhat latent. It’s thought seekers would do anything to trigger their own abilities, even if they do not consciously realize it. But once they wake… they are a force to be reckoned with. Their individualism was what made them dangerous.”

Ienzo exhaled. Was that why Demyx was so drawn to him? Because on some level he thought Ienzo’s power would awaken his own?

“...Moreover… and Even would say this is all silly mythology.”

“If Even says it’s silly, then I want to know it all the more.”

“Seekers pairbond. It’s thought they spend their days looking for their soulmate… and if they find them, they know. Ironically… despite the individualism, they are nearly dependent on those they bond with."

Ienzo smiled a little. “That is very mythic.”

“I admit I’m rather jealous of you. I’d like to meet one.”

“Well, if I can be subtle about it, I’ll ask him.”

“He might not know much about his own culture.”

“...Soulmates.” Ienzo shook his head. “As if anyone has time for love right now.”

---

Still, why was it Ienzo agreed to see him again?

Thanks to the psychology professor, Eraqus, he was able to test out of many gen-ed courses. But this left Ienzo with a dilemma--namely, that he had no idea what to actually major in. It seemed like a superficial problem to have, on top of all this.

“ Precisely why I wanted you to actually take those classes,” Even told him, with a scowl. “To get to know your cohort, your community--because that influences it too.”

Ienzo pursed his lips. “Why bother, when we might have to run again at any moment? You should have at the very least given me the choice, Even.”

His disposition did not improve. “You know little of the actual world. Gods forbid I try to actually let you learn.”

“Learn what? On paper, I already know all of the content. And you don’t want me to truly get close to anyone--else you would actually let me socialize, instead of calling me until I return home.”

His head snapped up from his computer. “How dare I worry for you, you mean? If there are Heartless and seekers and goodness knows what else--”

“Even. I can take care of myself. You have to let me make my own decisions. Otherwise, what type of ruler would I ever hope to be?” A bit of an underhanded move, but true regardless.

Even turned pink, and his scowl deepened. He knew Ienzo had cornered him. “Very well . Now leave me be. I have to finish this report.”

Ienzo put on a jacket and left the house. He told Demyx he’d meet him at the streetcar station nearest the beach. He thought about what Aeleus told him, about soulmates. He thought of the warmth, the prickling he’d felt with his own magic whenever they were together. Was it possible that--?

Perhaps it was simply a silly schoolboy crush, and given that he’d never much had one on anyone else, this was just how his magic reacted normally. Surely he couldn’t simply ask Demyx what he’d felt, could he?

Something to ponder. Aeleus had said it was myth. Ienzo reminded himself to try and study more magic history. It had been some time, and he was rusty.

The streetcar was relatively empty for this time of day, so his trip was smooth and easy. Ienzo liked public transit, its cleanliness, its efficiency. If only all of life could be organized so neatly. He watched the band of sea grow closer and closer until finally the conductor urged him to get off at the terminus.

The memories of the sea were louder now, harder to fight-- Braig, where is _____?

I dunno, I just turned around for five seconds, couldn’t have gone far--

The feeling of water rushing into his lungs, sand as the riptide tossed him back and forth like a ragdoll-- then a memory he was almost certain he hadn’t recalled in some time, of another child in the water, a child with blonde hair and shiny scales guiding him towards the surface--

“Hey, Zo! You made it!”

Ienzo gasped a little. He had to have corroborated that memory. It was impossible that happened--Braig had to have been the one who saved him from drowning, or Aeleus, not some kind of--creature that looked just like the man in front of him-- “Hi, Demyx.”

He cocked his head. “You okay?”

“Yes… I… fine. Shall we?”

“Uh. Sure.”

They walked along the boardwalk, the old, sand-weathered boards creaking under their feet. Various food vendors, gift shops, and game booths dotted the surface, leading to a set of stairs down to the beach itself. “You ever been?” Demyx asked. “It’s too cold to swim, but still pretty to look at.”

Ienzo breathed that sea-tinted air, the echoes of the memory making both him and his magic feel… so very strange. Was he being put in a thrall? But this felt like none of the thralls Even and Merlin had trained him on. It did not feel like conscious magic. “Sure. Let’s go.”

They took off their shoes when they got to the water. The sand, in this twilight, was pleasantly warm. A few people milled about; the brave were swimming, some wading, others flying kites or playing with dogs or simply watching the water. They walked closely enough that every few drifts of tide, Ienzo could just barely feel the cool water on his toes. He felt… relaxed, he realized, even in the presence of this essential stranger.

“Does this remind you of your home?” Ienzo asked him. Demyx’s expression was dreamy, his eyes trained on the ocean outside.

“It… does. Whenever I really feel homesick… I come down here. It’s a little too cold for surfing now, but even just the sound of the waves… or the birds…” He sighed. “I was supposed to go back for a visit. Before it… fell.”

“I truly am sorry.”

He smiled sadly. “It’s not your fault.”

Ienzo wondered if it actually was; if he hadn’t been running, if he’d done something or fought , would Destiny Islands be whole?

Demyx took a breath. “I wanted to… talk to you about something,” he said. “And I know it’s going to sound totally insane--”

Ienzo’s heart beat harder.

“But I can’t stop thinking about it, and I wonder if it’s actually true--”

He felt almost like he couldn’t breathe, the world getting dizzy, his magic practically screaming at him to open his eyes and see what was right in front of him--

“Hey… you okay?”

Ienzo’s knees gave out, and everything went dark.

---

“...zo? Hey.”

He blinked. He was lying on the soft sand of the beach, and the right leg of his pants was awkwardly wet. “What happened?”

“You fainted. Here.” He was handed a bottle of water.

Ienzo sat up slowly. His right eye didn’t hurt, but it did feel warm, almost like it was glowing. He opened the lukewarm water and drank it.

“Sorry about your pants. I wasn’t able to fully catch you.”

“...They’ll dry.” He looked back towards the boardwalk--there were no people near them. They were almost completely alone in this strange little cove. “A… friend of mine told me a little about seekers.”

A flush brightened Demyx’s face. “What did they say?”

“He said… that you subconsciously seek out your soulmate, and when you find them, you know.” Demyx’s face was still doubled in his vision. “Is that true? Is that what you're actually seeking, not magic users to protect?"

A substantial pause. All Ienzo heard for a long moment was the waves. Then, finally, “yeah. It’s true.”

Ienzo sat up a little more. “When we…” He swallowed, and forced himself to lock eyes with him. “When we met. I felt something in my magic. I didn’t know what it was, but I wonder--”

“If we--” Demyx cut himself off. His eyes were watering.

“That wasn’t the first time we met, was it?”

“No.”

Ienzo’s heart was beating so hard. “When I was… little. My family and I took a trip to your islands. My caretaker… lost track of me, and I nearly drowned. I was saved by… something. It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” The tears ran over.

“You’re not human.”

“Not completely. But neither are you.”

Ienzo shook his head slowly. “Not completely.”

Demyx took both of his hands. “I’d forgotten it… all the way up until… you saved me from that Heartless, and then I didn’t believe it was you until…”

The pull was growing stronger. “Then what are you?” Ienzo asked.

“I guess you would call it… a siren? I guess?” He bit his lip nervously. “But we… I don’t remember how, I really don’t, but I lost the ability to change form… and one day I just washed up on the beach. I forgot who I was for years .” He took out the pendant. “And since then…”

“You’ve been looking for your history and your family.”

“And you.”

Ienzo’s breath caught.

“I know we’re… we’re basically strangers, but… I know we’re…” He swiped at his eyes. “Right? You felt it too.”

Slowly… in a state of disbelief… Ienzo nodded. The prickling feeling inside of his magic only intensified. Demyx took one hand and touched his cheek. Ienzo gasped despite himself. He’d never had these feelings… maybe there was a reason --

Demyx had said he was a siren. Maybe this was all some kind of enchanting magic he’d never experienced--

But his own energy was telling him this was all truth.

Demyx leaned in a little. How had Ienzo not noticed how he smelled before? Like ginger, and salt, and something else he had no name for. “I…” Ienzo was breathing shakily. He should’ve been embarrassed, falling apart like this. “I’ve never--”

“Would you want to?” Demyx asked gently.

“Yes.” He closed the space between them, and Demyx’s lips on his shouldn’t have felt so right . It took him a moment to learn how to do it. Those callused hands tangled in his hair, pulling him a little closer--

Another stronger, warmer wave broke over him, making the fine hairs on his arms stand up straight--

Demyx broke away first, pressing his forehead against Ienzo’s. “Your hair’s glowing again,” he said softly, pressing a kiss against Ienzo’s cheek.

The pleasure he’d found quickly shattered. “No,” he said, snapping his head around to see if there were any witnesses. “Oh--”

“No one can see us,” Demyx said. “I’m blocking you from view.”

“I just--I don’t know how much magic was released by--” He licked his lips. He could still taste him, for gods’ sake, a weirdly sweet flavor.

“I’m blocking you,” Demyx repeated.

He got it. “You can… you can do that?”

“More like…” He brushed his fingers across Ienzo’s cheek. “Distracting whoever would listen. Making them think about their dinner, or…”

“Passive,” Ienzo repeated. “What do we… what now?”

“I didn’t… I didn’t think I’d get this far.” Demyx blinked the tears out of his eyes. “I mean… I guess…”

“Get to know each other?”

He laughed a little, and Ienzo did too.

“I don’t know how I’m going to explain this,” he told Demyx. “My father… I’m not sure I fully understand what’s going on--”

“Me either.”

“I was told…” He could barely breathe. “I was told… when I didn’t understand the situation… to research. To gather data.” Demyx’s hand, against the small of his back, was so warm. His whole body felt suddenly so much more alive.

“I think I understand,” Demyx said, and kissed him again.

---

“Where have you been ?” Even’s voice was shrill, and Ienzo noted, not without worry. He was late, he knew; the sun had been down for hours. “And why are you--covered in sand ?”

Ienzo winced a little. He had a choice to make here--to lie, or tell the truth. But something this big… he had to be sure. And Even did have a nigh-bottomless knowledge of the monarchy, and Ienzo’s own magic. “I’ll… explain everything, I promise, but know I am fine . Let me clean up, and then we can…”

Even touched his shoulder. He lifted a strand of Ienzo’s hair, the tips of which were still luminous. “Oh,” he said softly. He seemed frozen; Ienzo was able to pull away with ease. Even remained there, his one hand still raised, muttering to himself.

Ienzo took a shower. His skin seemed more sensitive than before; in fact, all of his senses seemed as though a film had been peeled away. He combed his hair and looked at himself in the mirror. He took a deep breath. He put on some pajamas and rejoined Even in the parlor.

The heavy mahogany desk had been cleared off. “Up you get. Up,” Even said, steering him over. Wordlessly, Ienzo listened; the wood was cold and hard after the sand. Even forced him to lay down.

“Are you going to tell me why I was never informed about all this pairbonding nonsense?”

“Shut up ,” Even hissed. “Be still.”

Ienzo felt coldness leaching into his body, making him shudder. Even’s magic was always sharp and angular as it probed his. Finally, after what felt like a long time… the coldness dissipated. Ienzo shivered. He sat up slowly. Even was breathing hard, with an odd look on his face, as though someone had struck him. “At first I wondered… if he had placed some advanced enchantment on me,” Ienzo said. “But judging by your expression… that is not the case.”

Even seemed to be struggling. “I’d thought…” He began softly.

“You knew this was a possibility,” Ienzo said. “You knew , and you never said--” A sort of rage blotted out the coldness. “Why didn’t you--”

“It’s old magic, Ienzo,” Even said, spreading his arms. “Ancient, even.” He pressed a hand to his forehead. “It’s that boy, isn’t it? The one Aeleus mentioned… the seeker?”

“So is he my mate, or isn’t he?”

“That’s for you to determine,” he said. “You needn’t… accept this bond, Ienzo.”

Ienzo thought of that kiss, and the many that had followed, the way it all made him feel .

“In fact, if you do… you might as well send up a flare saying “here I am!””

“He blocked me.”

Even’s head snapped up.

“When we were figuring this out. His magic eclipsed mine.” He knotted his hands together. “Why did you not tell me this was a possibility?”

“Because almost all seekers are dead!” Even all but yelled. “How was I to know you’d come in contact with one, much less we’d run into him here of all places? Child, did you even know which gender you favored?”

Ienzo shook his head wearily. He was tired now. “You remember that diplomatic trip we took to Destiny Islands? When I… nearly drowned?”

Even softened. “Do I remember. It’s one of the many reasons I’m going prematurely gray. It’s due to Braig’s carelessness that you almost lost your life.”

“He wasn’t the one who saved me. Demyx was.”

“Oh…” He turned pale. “And the magic released as you struggled for your life… must’ve forged that bond.” He thought a moment, then dashed over to one of the books on a bookshelf. “No matter. I’m certain there’s a spell somewhere that could break it, and you can simply--”

“Break it?” Ienzo repeated.

“Don’t tell me you want this, Ienzo?”

Ienzo’s hand fluttered to his lip without meaning to. “Would it be so terrible?” he mumbled. “Especially… if he does have a shielding property.”

Even groaned. “Child, I know you are flush with hormones, and this magic is hard to resist, but think a moment.”

The embarrassment burned his cheeks.

“How do we know he isn’t allied with Xehanort?”

“If he spent years looking for me, do you really think he’d hurt me?”

“Does he know who you truly are?”

Ienzo said nothing.

“Exactly, Ienzo. Exactly .”

He stood. “I’m going to bed,” he said.

Even followed him. “Tell me you’re not thinking about it.”

How could he not? “I think you should allow me to make my own decisions, Even.”

“Ienzo--”

“I am very tired. Good night. ”

He tramped up the stairs, reeling. So this was… true, then. He and Demyx were… A flush came over him. Even was partially correct; ever since they’d kissed on the beach, some thing had woken up in him, something hot and wanting, something that had previously been much quieter.

Ienzo drew the blinds and lay in bed. He looked at his cell phone--messages from Demyx--

I hope you got home safe. Everything feels so much louder now… I feel so awake…

Ienzo took a quick breath. I do too.

What do you want to do?

He knew what he wanted. What he said instead was, I need to know more about you. And you need to know more about me.

Just give me a time and place.

Some place private… away from those that may listen.

Leave it to me.

Ienzo set the phone aside. He started up at the moonlight playing on the ceiling. Mate , he thought. I have a mate. Someone who knew neither of his gender nor of his heritage. Someone who might try to get away from him if he found this out.

Ienzo could tell him, gauge his reactions, and wipe his memory if need be…

He wanted to trust Demyx. If his magic could protect Ienzo… could that possibly be a way for him to finally do something about Xehanort’s forces? For him to find out more information to pass on to the resistance?

He said he’d tell Riku about the resistance… but he needed to know more about him, too. Demyx was probably a good way to find out more about all this…

That kiss…

He’d known, in an aqueous sort of way, he’d likely have to have an heir at some point, and even for him children didn’t spontaneously come out of thin air. But he’d never thought of how he’d get one, nor imagined marriage, nor even… allowed himself the possibility of fantasy, of being loved. His life was too split, always on the run. How could he settle down? He’d barely had friends, much less a boyfriend or girlfriend, much less a lover-- he had not, prior to those hours on the beach, even kissed --

Kissed, and kissed, and kissed…

He traced the material of his waistband absently. Perhaps Even was right, he had to ignore this impulse.

He felt awake, and a little less alone. Perhaps it was for this reason, but he let his hand slip below the waistband, to feel at skin he normally avoided, to stroke it gently and imagine he was not the one touching it--

He gasped, feeling it break over him, and instead of feeling shame as usual, he instead felt release, felt… hope.

#heartlines #ienzo #demyx #zemyx #even (kingdom hearts) #aeleus #au #soulmates au #alternate universe

[fulltimeviking]

Hoppípolla

Summary: Hiccup is a semi-stressed out chief and Nuffink is just a hyper active ball of energy wanting to play in some rain puddles with his Dad - Takes place a year before the epilogue in httyd 3 and is based off of a Sigur Rós song. 

Imma be real with you chief - this is 100% unapologetic fluff, written purely for the reason that I just needed some more fluffy fics about the Haddock family in my life and decided to provide some myself no matter how badly written or rusty my fanfic writing skills are 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also forgive me if it seems a bit unpolished or kind of rushed, I’ve been trying to get this done for weeks and yesterday I finally put my foot down and decided I was going to finish it this week, and I managed to wrap it all up this evening. I’m also lowkey drugged up on medication atm so I wrote the last paragraph and edited the entire thing through half lidded eyes, so if you see a spelling mistake, that’s probably why. 

Anyway I could make up excuses about my writing and keep putting off posting this all day but I’m going to stfu now - I hope you like it!

“So you have all the plans? Nothing else you need or-” “I’ve got everything I need to start right here” Fishlegs patted the scrolls “I promise you’ve got nothing to worry about chief, I’ve got it all under control” “right” Hiccup sighed a little, another weight off his shoulders “great, thank you”. 

A passing storm had done some wreckage to a few houses and whatnot and everyone else had been preoccupied with their own reconstructions, the chief being left with the bulk of it all, but his council members had been willing to help out and for that he couldn’t be more grateful.

Nuffink was sat down fidgeting with the hem of his oversized tunic, swinging his legs on a chair ten times too big for him in the Ingerman’s living room, it wasn’t an anomaly for the chief and chieftess to bring the kids on errands with them and at this point Zephyr and Nuffink were fully accustomed to it. That didn’t stop them from being boring sometimes though, especially when the rain had calmed down and there were over a hundred puddles outside with his name on them. “Nuffink?” Hiccup called from the door “we’re done now!” the little boy perked up and slid down from the seat, running to the to meet his father who picked him up and rested him on his hip “now what do we say?” he asked him as they stepped outside. Nuffink looked blank for a second “umm- oh, thank you for letting me sit in your house Uncle Fishlegs”

“Awwww the pleasure is all mine little guy” Fishlegs cooed “you’re welcome round any time” “thank you again” Hiccup said “they just grow up so fast don’t they?” the ingerman carried on “Little kids, I swear he was getting carried around like a baby not that long ago” he said a little tearily “… you okay there?” “yep!” he answered too quickly and rubbed at his eyes “it’s the humidity… because of the rain, and allergy seasons coming...  makes my eyes misty” he shuffled awkwardly for a second before quickly turning on his heel and going back inside “see you around chief!” he didn’t wait for a response as he shut the front door hastily behind him.

“Well” Hiccup looked at his son with a smile and Nuffink showed off his own toothy little grin “guess we’re heading home now bud” Hiccup moved to start walking down the steps but Nuffink wriggled around in protest “I want to walk!” he insisted “okay okay” his dad chuckled and put him down “hold my hand while we walk down the stairs though, yeah?” he offered his hand and Nuffink instinctively took hold of it - just one of the upsides to having such a cuddly child “don’t want you to faceplant in the floor again” Hiccup mumbled under his breath cringing a little at the memory - stairs had never been such a menace.

He kept his eye on his son as they walked carefully down the slippery stone steps, the little boy walking one at a time and looking intently at the big rain puddle at the bottom. Hiccup grinned “big step down here buddy, you’ll have to jump!” Nuffink’s face lit up instantly and Hiccup kept hold of his hand, helping him jump up a little higher so he splashed down hard into the puddle, making him giggle in delight. He let go of his father’s hand and ran ahead, splashing around in all the massive rain puddles the small storm had left behind, the actual rain now just mere droplets so he didn’t need to worry about the boy catching a cold.

The two stayed that way for a while, Nuffink running ahead and splashing in all the puddles before him, his dad not too far behind with a small smile on his face that he couldn’t contain.

Maybe it was just because he was still a relatively new parent, only 5 years in the game and whatnot - but Nuffink although a little quiet, was an adventurous and turbulent kid, and seeing his offspring so joyful and carefree made him ridiculously happy. “Daddy!” the 3 year old snapped him from his thoughts and tugged on his sleeve, pulling him as best as he could towards the small pools of water ahead of them “oh no, no can do buddy” Hiccup pulled back a little and laughed awkwardly - he always tried to deny it when his wife, or his friends, or his village accused it of being so, but he had to admit he really hated to say no to either of his children.

Nuffink cocked his eyebrow, puzzled “why?”

“Because I could hurt myself”

“Why?”

Hiccup knelt down to his level and pointed at his prosthetic “because of my leg, you know my fake leg?” Nuffink nodded knowingly “It’s metal see” Hiccup gave it a knock to prove his point “so it makes it easier for me to slip-” “I won’t let you slip!” he insisted and took a tight hold of his father’s hand, pulling him along. The chief nearly fell forward on his face but caught himself last minute, walking hunched over at a low level as his youngest child dragged him onwards “I’ll hold your hand daddy and you won’t fall!” “Nuffink!” Hiccup tried to sound firm but laughed heartily instead, great job Hiccup, very disciplinary, he thought. Without warning the toddler gave him another tug and pulled his father into one of the multiple shallow puddles on their path home. Before his dad could get in a word of protest Nuffink grabbed at his free hand, jumping up and down. Hiccup sighed, though truthfully he had no intention of not indulging him, he took a slightly tighter hold of his hands as he raised him up and let him drop back down with an almighty splash “Again!” his son kept demanding eagerly grinning “Okay! Up again!” Hiccup obliged everytime and lifted him up. One time he lifted him with a bit more gusto, and dropped him down hard sending water up in both their faces making Nuffink laugh and wipe at his face with his hands.

Hiccup forgot that it was his son that was the small support that kept him in one place as he took a step forward, accidentally placed his prosthetic on a small rock in the floor and slipped, landing on his backside in the water cursing and making his son laugh even harder. “Oh it’s funny is it? my pain is funny to you?” He joked as he moved onto his knees and Nuffink giggled “it is?!” Hiccup said in pretend shock and the young boy shrieked in laughter “oh my gods, of all people, my own son!” he dramatised “the betrayal!”

Nuffink pulled at his arm “stoooppp” he whined guiltily “I’m sorry” “Buddy I’m just joking” He smiled reassuringly and ruffled the boys dampened hair “okay” his son was unable to hide the mischievous smirk on his face before completely splashing his father in the face and running off “what- you tricked me!” Hiccup said in disbelief, albeit a little impressed. Oh yeah, he’s his mother’s son. He gathered himself and set off in a careful run so he wouldn’t slip, and tried to catch up to him, the two laughing ridiculously. They carried on like that for what felt like nowhere near enough time, messing around in the rain puddles, Hiccup enjoying it almost as much as his son, but more because he was spending time with his child and less because he enjoyed getting splashed in the face with cold water.

Every time there was a long puddle Nuffink ran straight at it and went sliding on his tummy, his dad only a pace behind him ready to help him up so the little boy could set off looking for more. Whenever Hiccup thought he was going to slip and fall again he’d slide to the ground on his knees before his prosthetic got its chance, Nuffink took to habit of using this opportunity to kick a bit of water at him and even though it barely reached him, Hiccup would act appalled, get up and catch him by his arms and swing him around, his boots skimming the water on the ground and the boy screaming in delight.

His father couldn’t wipe the stupid smile off of his face, it’d probably been the most relaxed  and happy he’d felt in a while - although the storm was passing, it was a big one and probably wouldn’t die out for another few days or so if the elder was right, and she was always right. The thought gave the young chief a migraine, he hated to admit it, it felt like admitting defeat in a way, but the workload seemed to pile up easy for him so easy these days and he’d be lying if he said it never got on top of him.

Then ironically enough, it was the thing that should have been one of the most stress-inducing things that turned out to be a source of relief. Zephyr and Nuffink. Not even just playing, but spending time with and being around his children made him feel like he himself was a young boy - spending time with his own father… it dwindled as he got older, the war between dragon and viking taking its toll. They grew apart. From the minute Hiccup found out he was going to become a father with his first he had had been slightly fearful of history repeating itself, but hearing his youngest laugh and watching him look up at him with those familiar green eyes made him 100% certain of one thing. He would never let that happen, not in a million years.

He shook his head and scoffed at himself. Thor almighty, he was turning way too soft.

The wind started to pick up - it blew by not too bad but enough to make Hiccup and the boy shiver in their drenched clothes. Hiccup looked up at the sky and saw the storm clouds getting darker, covering up the what would’ve been a nice sunset. He grimaced, more bad weather meant more damage to occur and more work to be done, though the toddler’s sniffling snapped him back to his current situation. Nuffink’s clothes were entirely soaked through, his boots making funny sounding squelching noises as he walked and his long-ish blonde hair hung dripping down his face.

Hiccup stopped and knelt down to try sort him out a bit, he brushed his hair back with his fingers so it didn’t hang over his eyes and tried to wring out the bottom of his tunic best he could without taking it off him and making the poor bugger shiver any more then he was.

Nuffink wasn’t one to complain too much, he was a relatively well behaved child, but the look of discomfort on his face at being wet and cold was unmistakable, the puddles suddenly seeming a lot less appealing then his warm comfortable house. “I think we better hurry on home now bud” his dad noted as the rain started again. Hiccup took off the fur chiefs cloak he wore and wrapped it snug around Nuffink before picking him up to carry him -  it was so big on him it hung down by such a margin that if you looked from a distance you would think he were carrying a baby “better not catch a cold eh?”

The chief picked up the pace, sticking to the dry bits of grass as the rain picked up and came down heavier, fortunately the bulk of the storm only kicking in once they finally entered the Haddock household.

Zephyr was sat at the table, drawing something in one of her many little notebooks, whilst Astrid tended to dinner, which by the look of their seemingly clean little kitchen area, must have been prepared by somebody else (thank odin). The boys presence became known when Hiccup shut the door behind him hastily before any rain could fly in, Zephyr looked up from her drawing and laughed a little at the sight of them “aha! Momma look! They’re all wet!” the girls mother turned around and stared a little

Astrid stood back, taking in the sopping wet mess before her, hands on her hips looking them both up in down in question “what in Thor’s name have you two been doing?” Nuffink tugged on one of his dad’s braids as he nuzzled his head into the crook of his shoulder, tired from his days ventures. Hiccup looked at Astrid with a daft grin “puddle hopping”.

#I'm so tired #and my head hurts #but this took me forever and I'll be damned if I didn't post her tonight #I hope you all like it! #I was going to put a link for ao3 but I think I'll post it on there and update this post with a link in the morning #Hiccup #Hiccup Haddock #Nuffink #Nuffink Haddock #Haddock family #httyd #httyd 3 #httyd 3 spoilers #httyd thw #httyd thw spoilers #my writing #my fic #oneshot fic

[urbancoroner]

Old Pahokee High School

The historic school that educated Pahokee students for 68 years.

Despite the massive destruction caused by the nameless but disastrous Hurricane of 1928, some buildings did manage to somehow withstand the winds and flooding. One of these buildings is the old Pahokee High School, constructed in early 1928, the same year as the deadly storm.

A similar comparison is Hurricane Irma which was also a Category 4 - even a Category 5 at one point, with winds of 185 MPH - but thanks to the mercy of Mother Nature or the Santeria of Hialeah (depending on who you talk to) it dodged us at the last minute. Pahokee was not so lucky in 1928 when they received a direct impact from the storm that made landfall in Palm Beach as a Category 4.

The old Pahokee High School officially opened for the 1930-31 school year. Though it had been built two years before, the school's opening was likely delayed by the long and intensive cleanup efforts following the storm.

Until Belle Glade High School was built in 1941, Pahokee High School was the home of students from Port Mayaca, in western Martin County, all the way around Lake Okeechobee and nearby to Clewiston. At the time, Pahokee was the third most populous city in Palm Beach County and a lively urban center that shipped produce down canals to the coast. It was considered to be one of South Florida's most important cities.

The old school, now shuttered with wooden boards and left abandoned, stands in stark contrast to the relative squalor of its surroundings. The ornate Mediterranean Revival style architecture and rich history even earned the school building a spot in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It's beauty, even now, speaks to a time when Pahokee was more than an unfortunate and relatively unknown blip on the map.

The first floor is more or less open, the walls having been almost completely removed and with only the wooden framework left behind, like someone had started the process of renovating or demolishing it but just gave up. Although the entire fancy outer facade of the building looks to be made of stone or concrete, the floors on the inside are made entirely of wood. Not the fancy wooden flooring you see today in Lowes, but thin, unpolished strips - no doubt the original flooring. According to the National Register of Historic Places, it is the oldest building in Pahokee and was officially closed in 1998 when the new school was built directly behind it.

On the inside, even though the floors are the original wood, they are surprisingly solid. Shout out to good old Florida architecture. It may be 2017 - almost a century later - and one would assume that we build things better and stronger these days, but let me tell you those houses out in Pines, Weston, and Parkland would be nothing but a pile of junk and weeds in less than a decade, let alone a nearly a century. No one builds like this anymore. Kaine's old house in Pembroke Pines that has been sitting empty for five years or so currently has a tree growing straight up through the floor of the kitchen. And not a little tree, mind you. The Everglades is persistent and for a building to survive that long in muck hell is truly impressive.

Situated against the walls of what was once each classroom are the old coiled steam radiators made from cast iron, still looking new and in perfect condition despite the fact that they're outdated by 60 years or so. It's hard to imagine needing a heater at all with how stiflingly hot it is most of the time when you go that far inland in Florida and no longer get the benefit of a cool sea breeze, but I suppose it does get colder out in the Everglades and in Pahokee than it does for the coast during the winter. The sea breeze that benefits us in the summer by slightly cooling the air near the coastline also makes any winter cold fronts we get milder as opposed to inland in the Everglades where it's known to regularly freeze over.

Even though the floors are made of wood, luckily the staircase the leads to the second floor is made of metal. The rusty stairs remain stable enough to climb, as long as you skip over the broken one - if you're even able to spot it in time - and dodge the piles of discarded bones from small animals that fell prey to the owls that inhabit the upper floor.

There are more windows blown out on the second floor, which still doesn't offer much of a reprieve from the persistent heat of the Everglades, but does make the lighting inside the building really beautiful. The second floor contains even more classrooms, these with the walls intact and looking much more whole. There were even blank spots devoid of paint on the walls from where the blackboards once were.

Near the stairs is a dark bathroom that looks like it was taken straight out of Midwich Elementary in Silent Hill. I almost expected to find the mangled body of a janitor in the far stall and hear a siren go off at any moment. Unfortunately, the only thing peeling on the walls was old paint and the stalls were all empty, so it looks like I'll have to wait for another day to meet my dude Pyramid Head.

In the main hallway, underneath a layer of poop from years of birds nesting in the rafters, ‘ENGLISH DEPARTMENT’ was painted on the wall. The bold, navy blue letters were illuminated by the light from a boarded up hole in the wall at the end of the hallway that had once led to a second floor balcony.

Since its closure, ownership of the historic building was turned over to the city of Pahokee and the only thing people could agree on about its future was that it could not remain shuttered and derelict. Ideas for the now-abandoned school range from renovating the building using it as the new city hall, a museum, a mall, an adult living center, or simply demolishing it altogether.

Time has not been kind to the city of Pahokee but the school itself has remained standing throughout the decades just as it withstood the storm almost a century ago.

#urbex #urban exploration #urban exploring #abandoned #school #old pahokee high school #south florida #writing #florida

[frankkjonestx]

How upcoming missions to Mars will help predict its wild dust storms

It started with a spring breeze. The Opportunity rover watched with its robotic eyes as the wind blowing through Perseverance Valley kicked puffs of rusty Mars dust into the air. In more than 14 Earth years of exploring the Red Planet, the rover had seen plenty of this kind of weather.

But the dust grew thicker. Small flecks swirled like wildfire smoke through the atmosphere, turning sun-filled midday into dusk, then night. Within a week, the dust storm spanned more than twice the area of the contiguous United States and eventually encircled the whole planet, allowing just 5 percent of the normal amount of light to reach Opportunity’s solar panels. The rover went quiet.

“It got so bad so quickly, we didn’t even have time to react,” says Keri Bean of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Bean had joined Opportunity’s rover-operating team just before that May 2018 storm.

Dust storms like that one, which snuffed out Opportunity for good, are the most dramatic and least predictable events on the Red Planet (SN: 3/16/19, p. 7). Such storms can make the nail-biting process of landing on Mars even more dangerous and could certainly make life difficult for future human explorers.

Despite almost 50 years of study, scientists are missing some key data that would help explain how dust gets kicked into the air to form planet-wide storms and what keeps it circulating for weeks or months at a time.

“We just do not understand how dust storms form on Mars,” says planetary meteorologist Scott Guzewich of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. History has shown that certain regions and seasons are more prone to dust than others. “Other than that, we’re … blind.”

Mars missions set to launch this summer, from the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates, will help solve that pressing mystery. NASA’s new rover, Perseverance, will carry a suite of weather sensors called MEDA, for Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer. Those sensors will build on decades of Mars exploration and fill in missing puzzle pieces.

“Predicting dust is the ultimate goal” for MEDA, says planetary scientist Germán Martínez of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. The data MEDA will collect will be “the most substantial contribution to this topic so far.”

Dust, dust everywhere

Dust is as important to weather on Mars as water is on Earth. With no oceans, scant water vapor and a thin atmosphere, Martian weather can be monotonously calm for about half the Martian year, which lasts close to 687 Earth days. But when the Red Planet’s orbit brings it closer to the sun, dust storm season begins.

In the 10-month dusty season, which corresponds to spring and summer in the southern hemisphere, extra sunlight warms the atmosphere. That warmth generates strong winds as air moves from warm to cool regions. Those winds lift more dust, which absorbs sunlight and warms the atmosphere, generating still stronger winds, which lift even more dust.

There is a season

Mars’ dusty season lasts from the start of southern spring to the end of southern summer (thicker blue line), when the Red Planet orbits closest to the sun. The extra sunlight warms the atmosphere, setting off a feedback loop that can lift dust into the sky and send it circulating around the globe.

Universal Images Group North America LLC/Alamy Stock Photo

Universal Images Group North America LLC/Alamy Stock Photo

The storms come in a range of sizes: Local storms can cover an area about the size of Alaska and last up to three Martian days (each of which lasts about 24.5 hours); global storms can engulf the planet for months. The storm that defeated Opportunity raged from the end of May through late July. Such global storms probably result when several smaller storms merge.

Global dust storms have affected Mars exploration since the arrival of the first long-term robotic visitor in 1971, when NASA’s Mariner 9 orbiter found the planet’s surface entirely obscured. Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, both survived a global dust storm in 2007, yet a large regional dust storm ended the Phoenix lander’s mission in 2008.

There has never been a Mars mission that didn’t worry about dust.

A farmer’s almanac

Luckily, Mariner 9 was an orbiter, with no plans to land. It just had to wait for the skies to clear to start snapping pictures of the Martian surface. But the same 1971 storm is probably to blame for vanquishing two Soviet landers that arrived at almost the same time.

Spacecraft that must land to do their work can’t just wait for better timing. Launch windows for missions between Earth and Mars open only every 26 months or so. Engineers who design landing systems need to know what conditions a spacecraft will face when it gets there, says Allen Chen of the Jet Propulsion Lab, who leads the entry, descent and landing for Perseverance.

The most important factor is the density of the atmosphere. Even though Mars’ atmosphere exerts just 1 percent of the pressure of Earth’s on the planet’s surface, both the thin Martian air and the wind blowing through it slow down the spacecraft and affect where it lands, Chen says.

Perseverance will take pictures of the ground while parachuting through the atmosphere and match the images to an onboard map made with images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Based on those details, an in-flight navigation system will steer the rover to a safe landing spot, helping the rover touch down within an area 25 kilometers wide — the most precise Mars landing ever.

“But that’s dependent on being able to see the ground,” Chen says, without dust obscuring the view.

To land a rover, engineers like Chen rely on forecasts that use the past to tell the future — ​similar to weather forecasts on Earth, but with less data. Atmospheric scientist Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, a self-described Mars weatherman, put out a Mars weather report every week until September 2019. His forecasts are based on statistics and historical data, mostly taken from orbit. “It’s almost like a farmer’s almanac in my head,” he says.

Cantor’s forecasts for Mars landings since 1999 have been “pretty accurate,” he says, and he boasts that he predicted the storm that ended the Phoenix mission to within three days. More accuracy wouldn’t have saved Phoenix, he says. The lander’s batteries were already low from low winter sunlight levels and the buildup of dust on the solar panels. “It was just a matter of what storm was going to be the mission-ending one,” he says.

He foresees clear skies for Perseverance’s touchdown in February 2021. Based on the season and weather patterns in the past, the probability of a dust storm hitting within 1,000 kilometers of the center of Perseverance’s landing area is less than 2 percent, Cantor and colleagues reported in the journal Icarus in March 2019.

But just in case, Chen’s team trained the navigation system to “deal with it being pretty darn dusty,” Chen says.

A constellation of weather stations

As Mars missions get more complex, and especially as NASA and other groups contemplate sending human explorers, being able to prepare for dust storms takes on extra urgency.

“Someday, somebody is going to go to Mars, and they’re going to want to know when and where storms occur,” Cantor says. “That’s when this stuff becomes really important.”

Cantor would know. Well over a decade ago, while testing a different rover system in Southern California, he jumped into a 2-meter-tall dust devil just to see what it would feel like. “Not one of my smartest moves,” he says. He wasn’t injured, but “it did not feel good. It felt like getting sandblasted.”

Martian astronauts would be protected by more than shorts and a T-shirt, but dust could easily invade human habitats and clog air filters — or damage astronauts’ lungs if they breathe it in. The dust may even carry poisonous and carcinogenic materials that could make astronauts ill over the course of a mission.

Astronauts will need to know when to stay inside. Part of the problem in predicting storms is a sheer lack of data. For Earth’s weather, meteorologists use thousands of ground-based weather stations, plus data from satellites, balloons and airplanes. Mars has only six active satellites, run by NASA and the European and Indian space agencies. And just two sets of weather instruments report from Mars’ surface: one on the Curiosity rover, which has been collecting data since 2012 (SN: 5/2/15, p. 24), and a nearly identical set that arrived with the InSight lander in 2018.

Collecting dust

More than seven Earth years in the Red Planet’s dusty atmosphere has taken its toll on the Curiosity rover, shown in “selfies” the rover took in October 2012 (the 84th Martian day of its mission, left) and in February 2020 (Martian day 2,687, right).

JPL-Caltech/NASA, Malin Space Science Systems

JPL-Caltech/NASA, Malin Space Science Systems

But those two spacecraft are practically neighbors, a big weakness for understanding the whole planet. “It’d be like having one of your weather stations in D.C. and the other in Buffalo,” Guzewich says.

Perseverance will help fill in the gaps. So might China’s first Mars rover, Tianwen-1, set to launch in July with an instrument to measure air temperature, pressure and wind. The Russian and European ExoMars mission, scheduled to launch in 2022, includes a lander called Kazachok equipped with meteorology and dust sensors (SN Online: 3/12/20).

From the air, the UAE’s Emirates Mars Mission, known as Hope, will observe weather, including storms, and how the atmosphere interacts with the ground. Over one Martian year in orbit, Hope will help build a global picture of how the atmosphere changes day to day and between the seasons.

Just having a few more weather stations will be a big boost, says José A. Rodríguez Manfredi of the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid, principal investigator for MEDA, the weather sensors on Perseverance. “We will have a mini network working on Mars in a few years.”

But four or five weather stations on the ground probably won’t be enough. To reliably predict dust storms, what Mars scientists need is a global network collecting data all the time.

To cut down on the cost of such a network, Guzewich suggests figuring out which measurements “would give us the most bang for our buck.” For Earth, NASA and other agencies use a type of study called an Observing System Simulation Experiment to figure out which variables are most important for predicting the weather. Satellites are then designed to focus on those most valuable observations. Such a study has never been done for Mars, but the only obstacle is funding, Guzewich says.

“Mars atmospheric scientists have been clamoring” for such experiments, he says. “We’re not going to reproduce Earth’s observing network before humans go to Mars. It’s not going to happen…. But maybe we could do something that is financially and technologically reasonable that really does make a difference and gets us to the point where we can predict the future a couple days in advance.”

China’s space agency plans to launch its first Mars mission, called Tianwen-1, in July. Its rover (illustrated atop the lander) will measure air temperature, pressure and wind, among other things.Xinhua

Blowing in the wind

Mars forecasts also suffer from a lack of fundamental information, Martínez says. How hard does the wind have to blow to lift the dust? And what does the dust do once it’s airborne?

This is where Perseverance will shine. The rover will make the best direct measurements yet of wind speed and direction on Mars, especially the vertical wind that lifts dust upward.

For a long time, scientists struggled to understand how dust was lifted into the air at all. “It seemed like it couldn’t be possible,” Guzewich says. “The atmosphere is so thin, a single particle of dust or sand is so heavy, it just shouldn’t work.” Observations and experiments over the last 20 years suggest that once sand grains start bouncing along the surface, they can knock into other grains and knock smaller particles upward. But it’s still not possible to tell which of those bouncing grains will lead to a storm — or which of those storms will go global.

Mars climatologists have tried to make detailed wind measurements for decades, Martínez says, but have hit several stretches of bad luck. Only five surface missions — the Viking 1 and 2 landers in 1976, the Pathfinder lander in 1997 and the ongoing Curiosity and InSight missions — have provided useful data on wind speed and direction near the surface. And even those have had mixed results.

NASA’s InSight lander, shown here in a mosaic of selfies the spacecraft took, carries a set of weather sensors called TWINS, or Temperature and Wind for InSight. The lander is one of just two weather stations on the Martian surface. Mars atmospheric scientists say they need more to predict dangerous dust storms.JPL-Caltech/NASA

“Arguably, the best wind record on Mars is still the one from the Vikings, 40 years ago,” Martínez says. Curiosity was supposed to take direct wind measurements in all directions with a pair of electrically heated booms that jutted away from the rover’s neck. “We had great expectations,” Martínez says.

But photos the rover took of itself showed that one boom was damaged as the rover landed, and out of commission. For the first 1,490 Martian days of Curiosity’s mission, the rover could take measurements only when the wind was blowing head on. Then, in October 2016, the second boom broke. In April, researchers suggested a way to hack Curiosity’s temperature sensors to get wind data, but there’s no plan to use that hack at the moment, Guzewich says.

That leaves InSight, but its wind readings are muddled by other parts of the lander getting in the way of airflow. The readings are still useful, but the MEDA team hopes to do better.

Taking lessons from InSight and Curiosity, Perseverance’s MEDA will have more wind sensors that reach farther from the rover’s body. The sensors will be protected by a shield until after the rover has landed safely.

“We are very excited,” Martínez says. “The vertical wind has never been measured before on Mars. We’re going to do that.”

Measuring wind speeds will help scientists determine how hard the wind must blow to kick up dust, the first step in triggering a dust storm.

That figure has personal resonance for Bean, the former Opportunity rover operator. Her first shift was exactly two weeks before the mission-ending global dust storm. She told the rover to use its arm to brush the surface of a rock.

“My coworkers blamed me for starting a whole butterfly effect,” she says. “You brushed the surface,” they joked, “the dust went up, you started the whole dust storm.”

In its end-of-mission report, the Opportunity team admits it will never really know what ended Opportunity’s nearly 15-year run. One possibility is that the dust grew too thick on the solar panels for gentle wind in the calm season to blow the dust off.

One potential fix would be to design future rovers to vibrate their solar panels fast enough to make dust skitter off, Bean says. Once humans are on the planet, they could just clear dust with their arms.

A week or so before Opportunity was officially declared lost, Bean decided to memorialize the rover. “I’d always liked tattoos, but nothing ever spoke to me,” she says. In college, she had studied Mars’ atmospheric opacity — the amount of light that can penetrate an atmosphere’s dust, represented by the Greek letter τ. So Bean got a tattoo on her arm of the last measurement Opportunity sent to Earth: “τ=10.8.” That stands for a night-dark sky in the middle of the day.

.image-mobile { display: none; } @media (max-width: 400px) { .image-mobile { display: block; } .image-desktop { display: none; } } from Tips By Frank https://www.sciencenews.org/article/perseverance-mars-weather-dust-storms

[sj4iy]

Translation: “Ryuusui no Tsubasa” (Chapter 01)

So, here’s a little project I decided to work on for fun.  Of course, the ‘fun’ also includes ‘hair pulling’ when I realized how much Chinese and archaic kanji I would have to look up in order to translate it...but hey, I like a challenge.

This is a series that started in Gekkan Shounen Magazine mid-2016, so it’s pretty new.  It’s set in ancient China (200 BC), and there is a lot of actual Chinese history.

So, some upfront notes...because this is a Chinese story written in Japanese, I am going to use the Chinese names whenever possible instead of the Japanese readings.  Keep in mind, I only know rudimentary Chinese (I took a semester of Mandarin in college), so there’s a very high probability that I will screw up these names...anyone is absolutely free to correct me.  Also, if I don’t catch a reference, chalk it up to the fact that I haven’t studied Chinese history in about 12 years, so...I’m reeeeeally rusty.

Alright, with that said, here’s the text translation of the first chapter (41 pages).  I am not going to edit these because I don’t have the time, honestly.  So here’s the text translation...just follow the normal reading order of the page and you will know where everything goes.

Ryuusui no Tsubasa

Shiki Ryuukou Seike Iden

Wings of the Dragon Master 

Shiji: Lord Liu Genealogy Legends

Author: Masatoshi Kawahara

Page 3:

[China]…

To be exact, this is not a country…

The lands and people of the four corners of the country are called the Di to the North, the Man to the South, the Rong to the West, and the Yi to the East, and it is said to contain the heart of the world within its summit…

This is an ancient tale, when that consciousness slept amongst heaven and earth.

Page 4:

There was once a man who was heading east among those lands…and from the point of view of ancient China, those lands already belonged to the eastern barbarians known as the Yi.  

Page 5:

The yellow stone…moved?

It’s falling…

No, that is no rock.

It’s a young child…

Page 6-7:

It was at this time…

That the man named Zhang Liang, and formally known as Zi Fang, found the child with the form of a yellow stone.

Notes:

Zi Fang is his “courtesy name”, which was given to adult males to use in formal situations.

Page 8:

In 221 B.C., there existed a situation of separate rule, and the continent of China was at the same time called “The Seven Kingdoms”.  A single man then used his power to achieve unification for the first time.

Even though this man was named Ying Zheng, the generations after remember him by a different title…

This man, who was the first in entire world to give birth to the notion of an “Emperor”…

Is therefore etched into history as

The First Emperor of China (Qin Shi Huang)

Page 9:

However, 2 years later, in the spring of 219 BC

Ahh~

Page 10:

You don’t look hurt, but where are your parents?

Heeeey, is anyone here?  A child just fell!

There’s no answer…

Page 11:

Ah

Hey

I return what I receive, you know

Page 12:

Ah ha ha ha

A stone…

This is also yellow, but…

Is it….a jewel?

Here, take it.

What, don’t you need it?

Page 13:

Uh…

Just what is this child?

There are almost no signs of life in this area…is he the child of travelers, or was he abandoned?  

Or possibly…?

Page 14:

I can’t get free…

The child’s strength, I thought he would let go after some time, but…in fact, he’s still clinging very tightly to me.

It’s hard to breathe.

I get it

I’ll take you with me…so let go already.

Page 15:

Mm hmm

But I’ll tell you this…

The horse is already carrying as much baggage as it can…so you can’t ride it.

My body is weak

So I can’t hold you or carry you on my back

So if you can’t keep up I’m leaving you behind.

Yes~

Page 16:

I can no longer…

Hah, hah

Call this area a road, can I?

Page 17:

Hah, hah

I told you, didn’t I?

Page 18:

That my body is weak…

Which means you shouldn’t follow me.

However…

There is no more road…am I lost?

Or maybe the land I’m looking for…never existed from the start?

Page 19:

Mm Go

Hm?

Hey

Don’t go off on your own…there’s no road that way.

Page 20:

Hey! Wait!

No…is this

A road?

Ah~

Page 21:

What do you see?

!?  A skull?

Page 24:

He is not pointing at the skull…it’s a village

The land among Yi that faces the sea

Does that mean

That this child is a villager?

No, why?

He is not pointing at his hometown…it looks as if he is indicating the road.

Page 25:

Why!?

Ah~

No, that’s not it…I have a bad habit of overthinking and reading too much into things

However

This is a good omen

Have I somehow reached the land I have struggled to find…

Traveller

Page 26:

Where are you from?

Page 27:

What…was this feeling just now?

And above all, when did he get behind me?

However, he’s enormous…He easily exceeds…8 shaku 

This is it.

Notes:

“Shaku” is an ancient Japanese unit of measurement.  It’s roughly equal to one foot.  The stranger is nearly nearly 8 feet tall.

28-29:

Yes…

My heart…is racing

Answer me

Page 30:

I wish to see Chief Cang Hai.

If I said that I don’t know anyone like that…would you leave?

Notes: 

In Japanese, he is adding “君” to the end of Cang Hai’s name.  However, looking this up in Chinese, I found that this honorific is somewhat different than it is in Chinese...it indicates someone of a higher status.  Because the man is the chief of the village, I am using that title...for now, at least.

Page 31:

That skull

It belongs to a person who didn’t listen to what they were told a year ago

And met a bad end.

That’s a lie, isn’t it?

That skull is much older than that…it has been exposed to the elements for ten, maybe twenty years.

Page 32:

Well…I could just make a new one.

Perhaps you could.

Page 33:

No~!

He’s trying to protect me

By standing in front of me?

Page 34:

The child of your village knows respect.  I won’t forget my debt.

There is no child like this in our village.

Excuse me, but could you repeat yourself?

Look well at this face…I rescued this lost child and brought him here.

This shitty brat does not belong to our village.

Then where is this child from?

Page 35:

I don’t know.

Of course you don’t…however, perhaps Chief Cang Hai might know.

That’s not-

May I finish?

Are you saying that Chief Cang Hai does not know more about THIS than you…

So tell me, are you saying that the village chief does not know anything?

I’m not saying that…

Page 36:

I understand…I shall stay silent on the matter of your contempt of the chief.  No, I sort of instigated that from the start, I’m sorry.

Wha…?

Shall we go, then?  I will apologize to Chief Cang Hai.

If possible, could you bring my horse from below?

I will kill you.

Page 37:

Please do.

You…are you not afraid of me?

Yes

I am afraid of you.

However…

Page 38:

It is precisely because I am afraid of you…that I am here, burning with joy.

On the other hand, if you were nothing but an ordinary peasant, I would have probably collapsed.

That is to say, If you were to kill me, that would be as far as my ambitions go.

If my desire did not reach you, then please…kill me.

You wanted to see the chief.

What are you up to…what do you want?

Page 39:

Yes.

Page 40:

My desire…is to kill the First Emperor of China.

Okay, so, that was the entirety of the first chapter.  I’m just working on this for fun, I don’t have a time frame or anything, so I’ll get to this as I can.

#ryuusui no tsubasa #manga #translation #shounen #gekkan shonen magazine