#intriguing!

[gilmores-glorious-blog]

wick has a younger brother who he’s worried about?!

[ren-tama]

Oh, neato, some panel parallels! (Ch.6 & Ch.9)

[starman-john-tracy]

Alan sneaks up the big stairs, box in hand as he makes his way over to the space elevator. He's been waiting for this delivery for weeks, bugging Virgil about taking him to the mainland to pick it up since the second after he ordered.

And now it's here.

"EOS, I've got a priority care package for Space Case, can you get the elevator down?"

Unfortunately for him his surprise is ruined when said space case picks up the comm instead.

"What's in the box, Alan?" John's hologram has a cocked eyebrow and a slight frown. He doesn't seem to appreciate the nickname in the slightest, and he's been sent up one too many pranks to take a nice gesture at face value. "And why did you hope Eos would pick up, not me?" He suspects she's absolutely in on whatever this is.

Lucky he woke up in time to hear the comms buzz.

[i-heart-hxh]

June 27th Togashi tweet!!

[blackjackkent]

OK, let's see how much of this Harding quest we can knock out. It's called 'The Waiting Stone', and we're off to Kal-Sharok in the Deep Roads to see if the dwarves there can help her understand her new earthbending powers.

"Thanks for coming, Rook. I hope the Kal-Sharok dwarves have some answers."

This whole thing is a bit weird for Helena, I think. She doesn't really have a strong sense of herself as a dwarf, certainly not as an underground dwarf, and yet the Deep Roads and those who live there are a significant part of that heritage that she doesn't really acknowledge. There is a sort of strange and instinctive recognition in her bones at being in this place, and that makes her somewhat uncomfortable because it is so different from anything else she's ever experienced.

Still, the bright side of fighting gods is everything else feels more manageable by comparison. So she's not going to back down from this if Harding needs her help.

This particular area of the Deep Roads seems as if it used to be an active mining area, complete with elaborate statuary, but there's no immediate sign of anyone waiting as a welcoming committee, perhaps because there are rocks falling regularly from the ceiling:

JK spoke too soon. There are, of course, 234251234 deepstalkers:

Yeah, Helena already hates it here.

Luckily the deepstalkers aren't terribly difficult to fight, and setting off bombs under a group of them does make a very satisfying effect. There's also plenty of ledges around here to yeet them off.

We're actually not as far underground as I thought, because the quest path leads us to a dwarven structure lit by a surprisingly bright shaft of sunlight from a crevasse above:

Gorgeous.

Harding is supposed to meet someone named "Stalgard" here. Helena is skeptical:

"So you don't actually know who, or what, this Stalgard is?"

"A new friend... I hope?" Harding says, but it's clear she's not entirely sure about the situation either.

And several deepstalker fights later, we finally get to meet the man, striding out from behind the heavy doors of the structure's facade - a stout bearded fellow with an elaborate facial tattoo and armor that has a six-pack of abs molded into its design.

"Stalgard?" Harding asks cautiously.

"Yes." His voice is cool and flat, curiously accented - a far cry from the boisterous, animated dwarves Helena knows from the streets of Minrathous.

"I--" Harding starts to say, but he cuts across her, curt.

"Lace Harding. Of the Inquisition."

Harding blinks. "Wait, how do you know about--"

"And this is the one they call Rook," he says, turning his piercing gaze on Helena. "A Dalish elf," he adds, eyeing Bellara.

"Bellara!" Bellara says brightly. "Nice to meet you!"

The man only grunts in response. All in all, taking in the three of them, he seems singularly unimpressed.

This grinds Helena's gears a little; it's similar to the reception she's gotten on the handful of past occasions she's spoken to undergrounders on behalf of the Dragons. As a surfacer, she's been automatically lesser in their eyes. "So you've heard of us," she says warily.

"You have brought a strange assortment to our gates, Lace Harding," Stalgard says, as if Helena hadn't spoken.

Helena hisses an irritated breath between her teeth. "Someone did their reading," she drawls.

Stalgard does shoot her a sharp glance this time. "We are not as blind as Orzammar wishes," he says flatly. "We know enough."

Harding, clearly trying her best to ignore Helena's acerbic tone, squares her shoulders and presses on. "I... I'm looking for someone touched by the ancients," she says. "Does that mean anything to you?"

Stalgard looks her up and down for a moment, then nods. "Yes," he says. "She has been waiting for you. Follow - and keep your weapons ready." He squints again with brief suspicion at Helena and Bellara, then turns away. "The roads are dark. The creatures there, even more so."

[senualothbrok]

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[safflowerseason]

I get Alan Sepinwall's tv newsletter, and this week he teased how his upcoming book on The OC will shed light on the behind-the-scenes conversations around the Marissa/Alex relationship.

(the pic actually a gif of Seth's over-the-top reaction to Marissa in Alex's apartment)