ReptileRae

All of the gods have chosen champions, who represent them in the world. A champion doesn’t lose their powers until their own death, even if the god that gave them the powers dies (their pantheon ceased to be worshipped etc). A champion is supposed to follow the will of their patron god. A champion can voluntarily surrender the powers they’re given by converting to a new religion, but there is no guarantee at all that they’ll be blessed by any of the gods in that new religion.

The Fourteen Flames still have champions running around because the pantheon of the Fourteen are being kept alive by the propensity of the Essosi cities to offer shrines to various different gods, regardless of how many followers there are in the city. Each of the Fourteen gifts their champions with different things.

The Red God has one champion, and his champion has minions (the Red Priests and Priestesses) that get some measure of power from him, but nothing their champion will be able to call upon.

The Drowned God has one champion; it drives the Iron Born nuts whenever the champion isn’t one of their number (last time around the champion was a Velaryon)

The Old Gods have any number of champions scattered across the lands, each with a different power. Brynden is the champion of the Old God known to the ancient First Men as the Three Eyed Raven.

Then we have the Seven… Baelor was born as the champion for the Warrior. He only admitted it to himself (and the Realm) at Redgrass. He used the power of the Warrior to win the field, and though they sing his and Maekar’s praises, he knows that without the Warrior’s power, there was every chance his brother would have died that day, at the very least.

He’s never met any other champions for the Seven… until he meets Dunk. Baelor has no idea which of the Seven Dunk champions, but he can feel it on him. He thinks, after the mess with Tanselle and Aerion, that Dunk is a champion for the Maid. But Dunk didn’t defend Tanselle because she was a woman, it is part of it, but no. No, no, Dunk defended Tanselle because she was innocent, and Dunk is charged to defend the young and innocent. His champion is the Mother. Baelor only realises this when he’s dying in Dunk’s arms, the ghostly hand of the Stranger reaching down for him. He finds it's fitting. He defended Dunk, because Dunk was innocent, too.

Dunk’s never really used the power of the Mother. Sure, he’s nurturing, good with children, and animals, and all of that sort of thing, but that’s a passive use of the Mother’s gift. That comes with him everywhere, he doesn’t have to focus for that, but there are other gifts from the Mother, he knows. Some he never has intention of using, like the gift to give him a womb so he can bear children if he ever wants them (he currently does not) and the gift to take the womb away again after, once he decides he’s done with childbearing (he’s done with childbearing right now, thank you, Mother). There are some gifts that he hesitates to use, like the gift to bring a new burst of life to something that is dying. He only ever really tried with Rafe, she survived the attack from the Gold Cloaks, but she is mute and has very bad scarring on her throat (Arlan taught them a signing language so they could communicate). He also tried it a bit in the Reach, that one year there was a terrible drought, all the fields he could get to, he gave a burst of life, to encourage them to grow faster and stronger, even without water.

Dunk would have been content to go the rest of his life without using that aspect of his gifts on another person, again, but as he cradles Prince Baelor in his arms, the hand of the Stranger reaching for the prince, he realises he has no choice. He does not want Baelor to die, not like this, not for him. Not Baelor, who surely must be the Warrior’s own champion. So, he pushes a burst of life into Baelor, prodding his body to kickstart its own healing, flooding Baelor with life until the wound has healed enough that he can survive on his own.

Afterward, when news of Dunk being the Mother's champion spreads, Valarr begs Dunk to please, please, please bless him and Kiera, they’ve been trying for a kid for sooooo long, please!!! Dunk blesses them maybe a little bit too much and Kiera ends up giving birth to twins... and then the next pregnancy she has twins again, too, but it’s fine, it’s cool, they all live and everyone is happy. The Spring Sickness might or might not happen, but Dunk’ll probably save Matarys, even if it does happen… and Baelor is busily trying to do his own bird mating dance with Dunk but he’s in competition with Lyonel, even if only the two of them know it (Dunk is blissfully unaware). Baelor wins eventually, purely on accident.

He was lamenting to Dunk that he never got to be a girl dad, and Dunk absently asks if he’d like to be one, and then has to explain about the whole ‘hey, yeah, I can have a womb if I want one’ thing, like

“Yeah, the Mother keeps reminding me that I can have a womb if I want one, even though I’ve told her a million times I don’t want one. But, if I was gonna have one, then I’m only having one after marriage, because I’m not birthing any bastards. Not if I’m making a life at court!”

So Baelor has to go off and talk to the High Septon about recognising marriage between the champions of the Warrior and the Mother when both of them are men… the High Septon is going on Pilgrimage to Andalos afterwards, because holy fucking gods, he doesn’t get paid enough for that...

Baelor gets all of this sorted and then asks Dunk when he wants the marriage to be. Dunk is very confused, and Baelor has to be like 'so we can have a baby?' and Dunk is like 'oh. Wait. You actually want to marry me?!' and Baelor's like 'yes?!?!? I've been trying to get in your pants since Ashford!!!' and Dunk is so flustered. He's been nursing the Mother of All (heh) crushes on the prince since the moment he saw him, but he figured it was never gonna go anywhere...

And anyway, that's how Dunk becomes the Queen Consort.

me: yeah i know, they’re all primary colors, it’s perfect

When you go for an MLS (Master’s of Library Science, which is a thing, and which is usually required for “professional-level” library work [which is also a weird and contentious concept that I won’t go into here]), one of the things you study is the organization of information. This deals with how to determine what a book or other material is “about"—a concept we tongue-in-cheek call “aboutness"—and how to convey that to a potential user of the item and make it easy for them to find. Things like keywords and subject headings, do I put this book about how often wild birds attack aerial drones in with books about birds or with books about technology, if its a fictional novel do I put fantasy in it’s own section or mix it in with all of the other fiction, so on and so on.

OP is organizing books by how they would look for them. OP’s partner is thinking in terms of aboutness. This is a system that works for OP because it’s their personal library: they know basically what books they own and they only own books that are relevant to them, and if they know what the book looks like, that can be a quick way to find it.

In a library that assumes the public (or people who do not own that particular collection of books) are using the collection, that doesn’t work. Books are often re-issued in multiple covers, or re-bound in new covers when they get worn out, and if the user doesn’t know what the book looks like or is expecting a different cover, they’re lost. That’s why non-personal libraries used standardized cataloging systems like the Dewey Decimal System or Library of Congress System to organize a book by what it’s “about”, and then put books about the same or similar topics together, marked with labels and signage so a person unfamiliar with the book or collection can find their way to it.

Basically, OP’s system works for their own personal library, because it’s best suited to how the primary user—OP themselves—looks for books. OP’s librarian partner is coming from a background of thinking in terms of a public-facing collection, where aboutness is the key criteria and communicating it to a user unfamiliar with the collection is the priority.

so if they’re organized by subject and i know the one i want is purple i can go to the History section and see three purple spines and it’s the one with the big white font, there, got it.

you would receive the supply once a month

the brand/type will vary so you could

an important thing to know about Count Binface is that he was previously Lord Buckethead, pictured here with Theresa May in 2017.

Lord Buckethead previously ran against Margaret Thatcher in 1987 and against John Major in 1992. Lord Buckethead ran for the Gremloids party.

Officially all Lord Bucketheads are the same Lord Buckethead who went away for a while and returned; however, it has come to light that Lord Buckethead (1987, 1992) and Lord Buckethead (2017) were two different guys under the bucket.

Following the 2017 general election the original creator of Lord Buckethead (not either of the guys who had worn the costume) asserted his legal rights over the character and 2017 Lord Buckethead acquiesced. and so, Count Binface came into being.

In the 2019 general election Lord Buckethead and Count Binface both ran against Boris Johnson, Binface as an indepent and Buckethead having joined the Monster Raving Looney Party. (NB this Lord Buckethead was a third different guy, not 87/92 Buckethead)

Lord Buckethead won the race (ie, got marginally more votes than Count Binface) but has not stood in an election since whereas Count Binface has been very prolific, running in two mayoral elections, two by-elections, and one further general election in 2024:

dunk, nervously, asks what’s wrong, thinking he did something. still on a knee and trying not to fidget, dunk watches baelor come up to him and put a gentle hand to the new scar on his cheek, frowning.

Baelor? Hard as a fucking rock.

Maekar? Using a pillow to cover his crotch.

Dunk doesn’t argue about the Trial of Seven. He accepts it with more grace than Baelor would have, if he had been in the knight’s place. And what’s more, if Baelor’s not mistaken, the hedge knights seems… amused. But that can’t be right, surely?

“You will find six men?” Baelor asks, just to be certain. Ser Duncan hums, his eyes glittering.

“I already have my six, your grace. I shall be ready come the morn,” the hedge knight assures him. Baelor feels discomforted. He’s missed something, he just doesn’t know what.  

“Will you stay with me a while, Ser Duncan?” he asks, hoping to have the opportunity to try and weasel out whatever it is that he’s failed to pick up on. And, if he can convince the tall knight into his bed, well, that’s neither here nor there. Ser Duncan smiles, a soft, beautiful, terrible thing.

“Ask me again after the Trial, your grace,” Ser Duncan says, dipping his head before he turns and leaves without being dismissed. The sheer gal of this man is… well, it’s certainly intriguing. Ser Duncan has his attention.

But I think it’s even funnier to imagine a world where all of the dancing and feeding each other is, in fact, the hedge knight equivalent of getting married.

So the Trial happens as in canon- except, of course, that Baelor survives- and everyone expects that when Dunk is asked to join the Targaryen retinue he will accept, or at the very least decline so that he can return to his hedges.

And then Dunk’s like, “sorry, I have to respectfully decline, I’m going home with my new husband.”

And everyone is like “husband??? new????? When did he have the time???”

Only for Dunk to turn around and point at Lyonel like “yeah, we got married my first night here. He pulled out all the stops- I didn’t know Lords would have any idea about hedge knight traditions but damn he pulled them off well”

Dunk doesn’t argue about the Trial of Seven. He accepts it with more grace than Baelor would have, if he had been in the knight’s place. And what’s more, if Baelor’s not mistaken, the hedge knights seems… amused. But that can’t be right, surely?

“You will find six men?” Baelor asks, just to be certain. Ser Duncan hums, his eyes glittering.

“I already have my six, your grace. I shall be ready come the morn,” the hedge knight assures him. Baelor feels discomforted. He’s missed something, he just doesn’t know what.  

“Will you stay with me a while, Ser Duncan?” he asks, hoping to have the opportunity to try and weasel out whatever it is that he’s failed to pick up on. And, if he can convince the tall knight into his bed, well, that’s neither here nor there. Ser Duncan smiles, a soft, beautiful, terrible thing.

“Ask me again after the Trial, your grace,” Ser Duncan says, dipping his head before he turns and leaves without being dismissed. The sheer gal of this man is… well, it’s certainly intriguing. Ser Duncan has his attention.