Just A Ranger’s Apprentice Fan

"Aaaand its a no on the sunglasses."

"I think they're cool!"

Just think about it, Will was a really good cook, because Halt was a good cook. Like mentor like apprentice. I also think that Halt really loves to cook, he finds immense joy in it. I think Pritchard really loved to cook too, and thats where Halt got it from, because Crowley knew how to cook well and he liked food-especially good food-but I don't think he really has a passion for it, not like Halt and Pritchard.

Ok, so, this is a very crazy idea I had out of nowhere while organizing my bookshelves:

Imagine that Will is Halt's biological son, born in Hibernia as a result of an arranged marriage and raised alone by his father after his mother died in childbirth. Now imagine if instead of Ferris trying to kill Halt, the twins talked things through and decided to fake Halt's death so their father would name Ferris heir to the throne (since Will would be too young). Once the deed is done, Halt goes to Araluen to become a Ranger. However, he willingly leaves Will behind to be raised in the court, since he doesn't want to drag him into a dangerous life in the wilderness, and because he knows Ferris position is more politically secure if he has an heir. He gifts little Will the bronze oakleaf necklace that used to be Pritchard's when he was an apprentice and that the old Ranger gave to him. Ferris promised him that he would care for Will, and Halt always visited over the years when he could. They also communicate through letters. Like canon, Halt meets Crowley, recruits the rogue Rangers, fight Morgarath, trains Gilan, all of that, and he keeps his royal past a secret, so no one even knows he has family. Meanwhile, in Clonmel, Will grows into the extroverted, kind, witty, curious and smart boy he is in canon, being raised as his uncle's heir instead of an orphan, which makes him more confident than he is in The Ruins of Gorlan. He also grows up with his cousin Sean. Will loves Halt deeply, never takes off the necklace his father gave him (not knowing it's meaning) and cherishes his visits and letters, but he doesn't know his father is a Ranger because Halt doesn't tell him the truth, saying he works as a forest warden. Will suspects this isn't true because his father is too skilled to be just a forest warden, but doesn't pressure Halt out of respect. He trains archery, knife throwing and other Ranger skills just to have something in common with the father he rarely sees, unknowlingly becoming a self-taught Ranger outside of the Corps. Think of him as a male version of Maddie in TRR: Dutiful crown prince by day, Ranger by night.

Years later, Morgarath prepares to go to war against Araluen a second time: He makes a secret alliance with Tennyson. In exchange for Morgarath providing muscle (his mercenaries) and tactical advice, Tennyson uses the Outsiders cult to drain the wealth of Hibernian kingdoms, starting with Clonmel. The gold stolen from Clonmel's nobles and commoners via the Outsiders' extortion racket is smuggled across the sea to fund Morgarath’s war machine in the Mountains of Rain and Night. Tennyson's cult begins preaching that King Ferris and Crown Prince Will are "false rulers" who refuse to protect the people from bandits (the mercenaries Morgarath promised). Once Clonmel is economically crippled and politically divided by cult riots, Morgarath plans to land a mercenary fleet, execute Ferris, and use Clonmel as his western staging ground to launch a surprise naval invasion against Araluen's west coast. He knows that if he only attacks from the south, Araluen’s Rangers and army can bottle him up. An attack from the western sea forces Duncan to split his forces.

As the Outsiders cult grows in Clonmel, Ferris has Will investigate them, knowing how stealthy his nephew is. Will learns about the cult's connection to Morgarath’s forces across the sea (remembering the warlord from his father's stories). He gathers evidences of their plans to Clonmel and present them to Ferris, who then sends him to Araluen with the mission of showing the evidences to King Duncan and request his aid in purging the Outsiders from Clonmel. Will goes hoping to receive the King's help and to discreetly meet with his father to tell him about what's happening in Clonmel.

So there Will goes, and upon entering on the throne room for the private audience with Duncan, he sees Halt (a supposed forest warden) standing beside the King and the Ranger Commandant, freezes and says 'Dad?'

Hey so as in most fandoms there's a lot of focus on shipping and all that but I was wondering if anyone would be interested if I organized an AroAce event week for Deltarune? There would be prompts and all that

the next page shows susie speaking to kris, saying, "otherwise, you woulda said already, right?" kris' eyes are shown looking away from her, guilty. next is ralsei swimming in a hot tub with kris, saying, "if a happy ending does exist somehow, it's with you, kris." kris' eyes are then shown looking down, despondent. finally, kris' father, asgore, is shown saying, "i'm immensely proud of you."

the next page shows kris with their hair covering their eyes and a full body illustration of december holiday, holding her bat and standing in front a dark fountain. no words are spoken.

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.

Here's the complaint filed to the court, the primary source for the case mentioned in the article. You can find mentions of GDID on page 30 of the document or 34 of the PDF.

I also made a PDF version!!