Hello!

I hope you all had a wonderful week and Halloween!

Mine was interesting- 

I didn't go trick or treating but I did do some laser tag with my friends so uh yay!

Other then that I did do some spooky art because I can. 

Thoughhhh before I get to that I want to give you a ball. 

Ignore my terrible handwriting. 

Anyway, Turkey, or Türkiye, celebrated its independence day this past week. I know I've missed a lot of independence days, but hey, I just wanted to draw something for the event.

So now, we can get into the spooky stuff ig.

First, I want to explain something before I show the first image because, you see, in my AU, a very small minority of cities can see ghosts. Currently, I have three that can do this: Wilmington, Venice City, and Prague. 

More will probably pop up eventually, but for now, it's just these three.

Because of this I wanted to do art on one of them and uh here it is:

Prague and the Kingdom of Bohemia (Ghost)

All Prague wanted to do was find some- wait. Never mind, I'm sorry, I don't actually know.  

Uhhhhhhhhh anyway- if you're wondering, no one believes he can actually see ghosts. 

I know, it's unfortunate.

Where are the fingers?

Uhhhh... I got a little lazy, okay? TvT

Next. My favorite of this week.

Louisiana (French Colony)! 

This is now one of my favorite drawings. 

It originally was a sketch I did during math, but I decided to redraw it, and I love how it turned out! :D

I've also been thinking about Louisiana recently because my history teacher said that all the French territory after the Seven Years' War went to Britain, which I was pretty positive wasn't correct. After all, I remember reading about the treaty that Spain and France made which was that Spain would take Louisiana until France could get it back, which they did during the Napoleonic Wars, and then Napoleon sold it to the U.S., but I phrased it as a question since I didn't want to correct him outright because I felt like it might be a little rude, and he didn't know that until he searched it up. 

So, uh, yay! 

Random fun fact: the people of Louisiana (or the city of New Orleans) wanted Napoleon sent to them after his defeat, but the countries that decided where to put him said no because they didn't like that idea.  

I learned that when I visited Louisiana actually :D

The creature behind her is a Rougarou, a werewolf-type thing myth down in Louisiana. 

What will she be doing with this creature? Hmmm... I don't actually know.. but it won't lead to anyone DYING or anything. 

Now here you go:

Barony of Carbery dressed up as a pirate for Halloween! (Or as it was called back then All Hallows Eve)

Basically, in my headcanons some people thought Carbery was a pirate (there was some piracy involved with some of the ruling families in Carbery) sooo to be funny he decided to dress up as a pirate while random countries come in for trading purposes. 

Now, is Carbery actually a pirate, though? He will say no. 

Also, yes, Carbery is now a guy.

I hope it confuses you more hehe. 

So now the next one is an unfinished drawing I wanted to share anyway :)

Mexico! (Also in the framed photos some paintings of Aztec Empire and New Spain, also a certain somebody in the frame Mex is looking at)

I wanted to do something involving the ofrenda but I didn't get to finish and my motivation left me :(

So now you have this unfinished drawing. 

I will probably try again in the future. 

Now, have some more balls.

Roman empire! 

Romans back in the day had a festival called Lemuria, which was a way to exorcise any mean ghosts who were around by walking around at the house at 12AM, chanting, and throwing black beans. 

I thought it was interesting so uh yeah. 

I thought that it had been a while since I'd done anything Guts and Blackpowder related, and for Halloween, there is a limited map called Sleepy Hollow. 

It's a two-parter, AND IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. 

The first part is simple.

BUT THEN THE SECOND PART IS A BOSS BATTLE BETWEEN A HEADLESS HORSEMEN AND HIS MINIONS WHO BARLEY TAKE ANY DAMAGE 

I didn't get to play much, though, because of school. 

Still, frustrating and fun. 

U.S. and New York are staring at someone who unfortunately kicked the bucket. 

Now. We have reached the end of that. 

It is time. 

For.

Some.

LOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The nightmares kept replaying in her mind again and again. Blood, death, and tragedy. She couldn't forget it at all; this was all her fault. That would never change.

If I hadn't talked to England, none of this would have happened. They would still be alive. Leinster thought to herself as she sat by the fireplace, finding the warmth to be comforting but not enough to make her forget what had been done. It was all she could think about. The memories couldn't be left behind; so many had died because of her. My fault.

Besides the fireplace, the rest of the room was surrounded by darkness. Some things like her harp and the wood of her bed stand were illuminated by the light of the fireplace. Leinster sat in front of it, wrapped in a brown cloak, her head bent low.

Leinster continued to sit there closing her eyes, trying to drown out the memories from her mind, but she couldn't. Dublin, Meath, Ulaid, Connacht, Osraige...

She felt worse as she thought about Osraige. Sure, they hadn't gotten along all the time, but he was still her son, and she still cared about him, and yet he died. Because of me.

Besides the crackling of the fireplace, the silence was tantalizingly awful to hear. For a moment of sitting there, she believed she could hear the faint sound of a woman wailing and screaming. A banshee. A sign of death.

Leinster hissed under her breath, "Curse my luck."

She tightened her grip on the cloak as she heard the banshee getting louder and louder until she couldn't drown out from her ears.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She instantly shot up to her feet, turning on the spot, whipping out her sword, and pointing it threateningly at whoever was behind her, her breathing shaky.

But she lowered it at the sight of who it was. The Kingdom of Ireland had a mix of a bit of surprise but also a frown on his face as he held his hands up in a non-threatening way. She noticed that he was holding a scarlet ruby pouch in his left hand.

"Sorry. I didn't realize it was you." Leinster muttered, letting the sword slip out of her hands before turning to face the fire again.

"I assumed," he shrugged, moving beside her. "I wanted to visit since it's All Hallows Eve."

"Wouldn't England disapprove of you visiting me?" she asked, her eyes still focused on the burning flames.

"England can go jump off a cliff for all I care." Ireland snorted, rolling his eyes.

Leinster chuckled before asking, "So what's that in your hand?"

"Just something I made." Ireland extended his hand that held the object and Leinster took it.

The pouch felt very soft and light, and she carefully opened it, revealing a small round cake decorated with a cross that smelled strongly of ramson. Dark spots seemed to be pressing on the inside of the cake, which Leinster assumed were dried fruit.

Leinster smiled and said, "It looks great Ireland."

"Really? Well thanks, I guess now I can only hope it tastes as good as it looks. The first couple of times I tried making these, Dublin was obviously pretending to like them. I am pretty sure he just didn't want me to feel bad," Ireland sighed.

"I'll tell you the truth, don't worry," Leinster replied before taking a bite. She had to admit that it wasn't bad. It tasted just like fruit and sweets with a hint of doughiness. "I like it."

"Really?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah, I like it a lot!" Leinster smiled before taking another bite. Ireland was beaming now.

Once Leinster finished, she sighed and sat back down in front of the fire, a soft breeze caused by her cloak from her quick movement. Silence persisted afterward until Ireland spoke, "Is something wrong?"

"No, of course not, why?"

"You seem more quiet, distant, and sad, actually you have been acting this way for a while now, but only recently it's started to get worse."

Leinster was silent for a long time before finally speaking, "Ireland, you wouldn't understand since you are still young, but, sometimes... People do things they cannot forgive themselves for things that they want to change but because of time we cannot. They are haunted by their past actions and they know they will never be forgiven nor will they forget what they've done."

She wanted to continue, but a lump started to form in her throat, which prevented her from going on. Because of her silence, Ireland spoke, "One, I want to say I am an adult thank you and two, most importantly, I may not understand what you've done or why you blame yourself, but I do know that you should let go of whatever you've done. It's clearly draining you of energy and I can tell it's why you've been acting like this. Harping on about whatever you did is not good for the soul. It's probably what's making you distant and it's taking away from you paying attention to what's in front of you."

Leinster listened and had to admit; she felt the guilt wash away slightly at his words. "But Ireland, what I've done is still impacting us right now."

"Then if it is, don't face it with fear, face itt..." he hesitated momentarily, "With courage? Maybe? Nevermind– acknowledge it, face it, and move on."

Leinster was under the impression he didn't know what she had done, but his words were still nice to hear. She couldn't deny they provided her comfort. However, how could she face England? That was like marching right up to a dragon. She could never do that. But maybe I can redeem myself. "Perhaps you're right."

"I am? Yes!" Ireland said with the slight edge of a tease to it.

"Never change Éire. You have a good heart." Leinster sighed, turning to give him a soft smile.

Ireland smiled, a smile that reminded Leinster of Osraige, "I'll try not to." There was a pause before Ireland spoke, "Do you want to play the harp together like old times?"

"I would love to," Leinster replied, standing up, feeling no longer terrified. She smiled as she watched Ireland walk over to the harp and talk about whatever nonsense came to his mind.

Sometimes, he truly reminded her of her son, and it was nice to have someone around anyway. Leinster turned her head and caught sight of the carved harp that she still had after all these years.

Some days, she still wondered why she kept it, but she couldn't imagine giving it away. Staring at the harp, she felt a calming feeling. Perhaps she was still here for a reason.

Maybe there was still time to try again.

End.

Leinster not getting tortured for once?

I know! Shocking!

I know it's a little short so forgive meee

But anyway, I decided to give you guys something wholesome since I am not that meannnn. Next week might be something wholesome as well. 

Idk yet but it will either be Dublin lore or Iar Connacht lore. 

Anyway, the banshee mention may have or may not have been relevant. 

Now. Please hand over your thoughts, concerns, and theories. 

Did you guys remember the carved harp, though? Or did you forget?

Well that's all because now I want to go eat some food. 

Wait actually, nvm have this meme I found in my attic first:

Alright, now, for real, I am leaving.

Goodbye friends! See you whenever!