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practicalmagicintuitions · 3 years

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Reading on HC

DISCLAIMER: If you will send me an Anon, I will answer in the same tone as your ask, opinion is written.

All information and statements made in this reading or any other post of mine are all alleged until proven to be fact and for entertainment purposes & usage only. All information stated is based on my intuition and my tarot cards. Opinion only. The readings have no intention to cause any harm to the individuals, people featured in it.

Disclaimer 2 : seems extra long reading to me, sorry for that. If there any typo sorry for that too, I wanted to post this today, so I typed like a mofo.

Cards pulled on 15/07

What is happening now?

Devil rx Eight of Wands.

On The Devil card, you can see the couple from the Lovers card chained together while The Devil is watching them. Those two cards are numerological counterparts ( The Lovers 6 The Devil is 15 = 1+5=6) so they have a connection but this is not limited to some romantic relationship. This card also deals with addiction, obsession, influences, control, illusion, materialism. And when the card is upright the pentagram is in the “wrong” position, it’s upside down. So when the card is reversed, the pentagram returns its correct position and becomes the protective symbol again.

So The Devil rx means the chain falls off, it’s an opportunity to free yourself from those obsessive, addictive things which affect you. It's realising you have the power to change. But before you came to this realisation and urge to be free, you have to hit the rock bottom. I feel it’s important to say that in this question I haven’t asked about his romantic relationship, so it could mean changing a circle of friends or situations too.

8 of wands is often called the cupid’s arrow or the falling in love card while it is more about infatuation and adrenalin rush. It’s also a fast-moving card. This card is also called the holiday love card.

So I see two possible options. One of them is he is ready to free himself from some bounding situation fast. And this freeing attempt makes him enthusiastic, cause some adrenalin rush and in this case, it means he is trying to free himself from infatuation. He wants rapid results. The second option is that he is trying to free himself because there is another person, a third one if you like.

HC+NV relationship now.

Eight of Swords rx, Five of cups, The Sun rx.

It’s very interesting to see those 3 cards together, I had to meditate on them a little bit longer.

With the 8ofSwrx I think he has a more realistic, clearer view on this relationship. I think this clarity cause great sadness and regret. (5ofC) Sun rx means the relationship is cooled down. 5ofC is a traditional bad relationship card. Not necessarily a breakup but definitely arguments and disharmony. Because this is about the relationship and because 8ofSWrx is about to break free, release, escape freedom (like the Devil rx) and the 5ofC has a breakup meaning, I think the relationship itself lost its warmth, burnt out. Maybe because the past events were too much or one of the parties is still crying over a “spilt milk” aka cannot let the past go, a past relationship perhaps. If this is about letting go of this current relationship with NV, it won’t be a lucky “escape”. It will bring sorrow, probably thinking about why this didn’t work?

HC feelings, emotions

Judgement rx on top of it 7ofSwords

Judgment rx is about a difficult transition you are resisting or need time to adjust. It’s the refusal to hear the call. Delays, confusion, broken family units. etc. But because we have the 7ofSw on top of it ( and I mentioned before how I pay attention to the cards that fall on the others. This is only my method, maybe others don’t care but I do) I think he is seeking a way out about this situation he seemingly cannot let it go. But this card is an unsettling, shady, sneaky one. It brings dishonesty. Walking on eggshells, getting away with something, preparing for some action. Discomfort is the foundation of this card, it’s almost like you want to be truthful but cannot get what you want with honesty. This is the white lies, diplomatic approach to a situation. You know how he was compared to a politician, this is it basically. I feel this is the I cannot let go, but somehow I want to but my methods and ways won’t be honest and nice. For example when your partner is cheating you but too coward to admit it and accusing you of cheating. You fed up, break up with them, so they got what they want without being hones. That was just an example to describe the card, not the exact situation I saw here. 7ofSw is also means planning, mind games, tactics, being undercover etc.

9ofWands, Page of Cups, Star rx, 2of Cups rx

He was defensive, he protected a young feeling which was a teen love type of emotion ( I remember I got this card ones how this relationship felt at the beginning and I think this was his card back then too) and probably this is why he feels he is stuck, he cannot let go because he was protective over this. And just left this doesn’t seem an option, not with a clear exit. (again, not whit honesty)

With the Judgment rx this again means, hard time to let it go. He feels he was committed to fight for and guard that young feeling (as we saw with his FO post ) but now he is hopeless (Star rx). He also feels he is constantly battling and this wears him out. Maybe that’s why a relationship seems to burn out.

Pages are not just the youngest but they are the news bringers in tarot. This cup could mean gossip, being overly dramatic. To be honest I think this perfectly fits for his FO post and maybe he feels it was too much, too dramatic. On the card, the Page is offering his cups to someone and it could mean he feels he made those offers. He offered his emotions to her but the situation is hopeless. Or more likely it was a false hope. I said once in my previous reading that the most intense feeling I get from him for NV is this Page of cups, teenage love thing, which is more like the first few weeks, head over heels emotion, but this is without any real substance.

There is no love here. 2 of cups if it’s upright is still not the love we saw on the Lovers card. It’s more like the early touchy-feely phase of a relationship which could grow to something more but it could die down too. Reversed 2ofC means trouble in a relationship even the end of it. Two people realise they are not meant to be together. 2ofC not only represents romantic relationships but friendships too. In that case, it could mean a fallout between friends.

What I found interesting is that this could mean a codependent relationship between two people to the extent they cannot leave each other. This resonates with the Judgment rx. 2ofCrx can be a sign of a third person in the relationship or that one of the parties feels attraction outside of the relationship.

His relationship with his family

Wheel of fortune, 2 of wands

Wheel of Fortune could be a fate, a karmic card. As I understand here that it means they as a family have a strong relationship even if the wheel is turning to negative. I don’t see this bond be destroyed by a woman (like MM did with Harry and the BRF). Rifts, arguments yes, but I don’t see this as a permanent situation.

The 2ofW is often described as planning the future because the figure on the card is looking at a globe he is holding in his hands. Here I almost feel he is looking into the wheel.

2 of W is decision making. Seems like a passive card without moving but you are thinking, making plans, so it’s not passive really. He knows the decision he makes will affect many. But as a relationship nor the Wheel neither the 2ofW are good cards. So I definitely sense some trouble now ( at that time of the reading) but he is in the position to change things.

9 of Pentacles, Strength.

The imagery of those cards are very similar. Both have a very bright yellow background, on both, we have a female figure alone with an animal.

9ofP could represent an older woman, but first I want to talk about the Strength card. This is about your inner strength, calm the beast inside you. It means your inner strength is put up on a test. 9ofP could mean that you are sacrificed many things for success. I think he temporarily sacrificed some part of his family and this is what put his strength to the test. This card also correlates with material wealth and success. I used the RSW deck for all of my HC readings but I cannot let go the feeling I have when I am using my own, personal deck which is the Druid Craft Tarot. On that card, the woman has everything financially, but still, there is boredom on her face. She is not happy, she is missing someone or something from her life. And I feel as an emotion this is very much present. He has a good status financially, seems everything is good, but still he is not happy. And this is something that could put his inner strength for a test.

2 of pentacles rx

If this card is upright it means we are successfully juggling between 2 things. Because it’s a pentacle many times this is about 2 jobs, but as I said pentacles are about resources.

If this card is rx it means you cannot do that anymore. You know that you have to choose between the two things. It could mean his family vs NV, or NV and another one, but could mean a poor financial decision for example with his FL house, maybe he overspent. (Tbh I think I mentioned this before somewhere that maybe he will have problems with his house)

This card also could mean a breakup. I don’t see this means a breakup from his family, I think their relationship is tested. Since this is a rx 2 it speaks about imbalance.

This very much describes the whole reading. I felt imbalanced. I had a hard time reading certain combinations, first, this whole didn’t make sense. I am not sure how clear I was, this is definitely not my most polished reading. But then I thought I think I am picking up their imbalance. Because this whole has the “ I want to be free” feeling, but at the same time the “I cannot let it go” too. Like I want to go but there is an anchor which is holding me back.

If we check the cards I get, we have 4 twos ( 2 of cups, wands, pentacles, Judgement), 3 of them is reversed. It means losing harmony, trying to do 2 things at the same time unsuccessfully. The illusion of companionship. You don’t have equilibrium. etc. It’s about decision making, serious ones. Two sides of a story. It also means because those are reversed that he is afraid of making a decision, he rather wants to other make those on his behalf.

We also have 4 eights ( 8of wands, swords, The Star, The Strength). 2 of them upright, 2 of them reversed. Eight is strength. His inner strength is tested, his life gets busier. Reversed one means bondage, lack of courage.

If you want to imagine his situation, imagine a swing. Back and forth, up and down. He needs to make a decision to slow down or stop, or he will lose control and fall off. This is what he is now and this is what I picked up, while I had a hard time understanding the cards.

I hope you enjoyed it. :)

#pmitarotreadings #henry cavill #henry cavill girlfriend #natalie viscuso #opinion #alleged #tarot #tarotreading #celebrity tarot

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ghostmartyr · 4 years

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SnK 124 Thoughts

Have some faith, Reiner.

As if we’d ever forget Han Solo.

The only nice thing about what’s happening now is that it’s forced the right priorities on people. Despite Eren saying, way back in Trost, that people all uniting to face one enemy is too rosy an idea to have a place in reality, for this one island, in these final, traumatic moments, no one wants all these people to die.

With various faces painted on it, most of our main cast on either side has always been focused on one thing: survival. Now Eren rejects that entire concept for the protection of one group. In the barest of bones, that is what every single villain of this manga has always done. Of course the only option is to reject him.

And of course Gabi, who has always been compared to Eren, who has had the most traumatic series of experiences of her young life, stands up and starts fighting.

(One in shadows, one in light. Winning all the high school book reports here.)

This is the best of Eren, in a child who has been ruined by this world just as thoroughly. Gabi will bring back her friends.

Eren chases after slavers to save a girl he doesn’t know.

Gabi runs into streets full of monsters and saves someone who hates her.

I’ve always enjoyed Eren as a protagonist (his dip into antagonist, not so much). In Trost, he takes on the burden of being a symbol of humanity’s hope, but I’ve always felt that his true symbolic nature is that he’s the one who lays claim to humanity’s outrage.

There are things in this world that are simply wrong. Righteous fury without limits is a satisfying reaction to that, and at the start of the manga, it’s something that all of Paradis has basically lost. They’ve grown complacent with their lot in life. Even when the titans invade, they don’t dream beyond reclaiming the territory that they’ve always known.

Eren’s status as a rage monster is very much a meme, and he’s very much more than that, but it has always been fitting that the main character is a bonfire that lights the sparks of the rest of the cast. Eren inspires motion. Before he has any touch of competence and plot magic, he talks and his comrades find themselves listening.

Gabi takes up that torch here.

Reiner is done (again. sorry, Reiner). The world is probably done. Gabi has spent this whole arc being some kind of done.

Gabi gets up, and goes to look for her friend. Falco follows her onto an airship; she follows him into hell.

Gabi gets up, and protects the girl who wants her dead. She faces down a titan with a weapon not meant for the job, and she wins.

Just like the young woman she murdered.

Sasha joins the Survey Corps after Trost. She comes face to face with a titan, and she falters. She fails to kill it, and it comes after her, and she’s scared. She wants to leave. She considers leaving.

Dot Pixis’ speech reignites her will.

Sasha stays, and a month later she saves her little sister.

Her little sister protects a pair of enemy child soldiers.

One of those child soldiers saves her life.

Paradis begins without a spark. Even the people who are signing up to be soldiers are mostly doing it so they won’t be seen as cowards, or so they can go further into the walls as Military Police. People who want to go outside and kill the titans are nuts. The Survey Corps is nuts. They’re a waste of taxes, and anyone who wants to join them is a suicidal idiot.

Enter Eren. Enter enough fury and impact that the fire can’t be contained in one person, and the sparks start spreading. The people who have been left to tend their own fires for years are given kindling. The people who don’t know what it’s like to not be freezing cold are given a taste of warmth.

For a series that begins in stagnation, a protagonist devoted to movement is going to inspire the most change.

Then he decides to commit genocide and ruin everything, but hey, look at how much that’s inspiring people to get along!

Eren, you’re a fucking disaster.

Niccolo basically hands us the series’ thesis on a silver platter, so I’ll refrain from trying to fit his quotes into anything resembling a paragraph.

Niccolo is not Eldian.

Eldians are the one with the ability to literally transform into monsters. A physical manifestation of the horrors all humans are capable of if you take away their reason. That’s why the world calls them devils. They’re all a bunch of ticking time bombs just waiting to go off; why wouldn’t the world condemn, hate, and fear that?

Those ticking time bombs always take at least one more person willing to start the timer for them.

In the current era, Marley has been the force happily strapping bombs to children’s chests.

Niccolo hits on the truest point. From someone who is not Eldian, who cannot physically manifest the horrors all around them that could not exist without certain genetics--

Niccolo has a devil inside of him, too. He’s given in to it. He has been a monster, so lost in his despair that he’s willing to kill children.

The true enemy of this world is not titans. It’s falling prey to the demons every human carries inside. That is the universal human experience, and everywhere people fall in that fight, evil follows.

Titans exist because a man rapes a slave and has her children eat her.

That evil is a fault of human nature, not blood.

Niccolo and Gabi have been the monsters.

Unlike most titans, they have the option of coming back. They’ve had the fortune to live long enough that they can come back. Hell, it might be because she hits the bargaining phase, but even this chapter Gabi goes from suggesting killing Eren to talking to him and using his power for something actually useful.

-pats Gabi on the head-

Not bad, kiddo.

To the left, we have Jean and Connie.

Hell.

Connie’s simplest (as well as the most exciting, because he’s running off to Wall Rose territory with Falco, who has Ymir’s memories), and rather devastating. For four years, his mother has been a titan. Unable to move. She’s his only remaining family. Everyone else in his village, Connie spent their last night alive praying that they would die. He’s one of the three people left who remember Utgard.

Being trapped on a tower in the middle of the night, being hunted for sport by people he’s known all his life.

On Zeke’s command.

The man Paradis is forced to consider an ally. The man Connie is not allowed to touch. The man who is still, years later, turning people into titans. The man one of his closest friends ostensibly betrays them for.

After all that, his friends have someone who can save his mom, and they try to tell him no. Because that might hurt the feelings of their enemies. People like Reiner, for instance. The guy Connie still cries for in Return to Shiganshina.

Don’t worry about your mother, Connie. Worry about the feelings of everyone else.

Also Sasha is dead and this kid’s bestie pulled the trigger.

But seriously Connie, chill.

[chill not found]

Connie has, frankly, done a fantastic job holding everything together. The fact that he’s only snapping now speaks greatly to his character, and leaves me not too concerned about Falco. Connie ranks as one of the lowest on who’s left of people who would be willing to kill a child. Even if it’s for his mother, if Falco’s awake, I don’t think Connie can do it.

...If he can, the manga will have actually found a way to get even darker, which, if we’re being honest, I sort of thought we were beyond at this point, so flip a coin I guess.

Jean likewise has some of my favorite material in this chapter. He’s grown into a far better commander than he was at Trost, and having the terrain duplicated so well only emphasizes it.

But as ever, the true entertainment comes from Marco.

Who is also dead.

Yes, still.

“You’re not a strong person... so you can really understand how weak people feel.”

Jean is not wrong that destroying the rest of the world sort of fixes Paradis’ main problems. The issue is that it’s horrifically immoral, not that it wouldn’t be effective (until a civil war breaks out).

Because everyone spent all their time hating them, their only protection was murdering them all. And it’s all on one person’s decisions. They’re hardly involved, aren’t they? If they sit back and do nothing, it’s just karma, right? What could they possibly do at this point?

“But you’re also good at recognizing what’s going on at any given moment. You know exactly what needs to be done. I mean... most humans are weak, including me... But if I got an order from someone who saw things like I do... no matter how tough it was, I’d do my damnedest to carry it out.”

Jean’s right. They do reap the benefits of this horrible choice. No more complicated politics. Just a blank slate to do better on. Everyone on Paradis gets to live. Without putting too fine a point on it, that’s an argument we’re probably all familiar with, and here a character is, pointing it all out.

This fixes all their problems. Good, right?

No.

Because standing back and doing nothing while genocide is committed is fucking wrong.

That’s a question this series has grappled with from the beginning; which is more important, survival or doing what’s right?

In the start, we have a protagonist who is fully comfortable throwing his own life away in the name of doing what’s right. At the moment, he’s giving every appearance of being fully comfortable throwing away everyone else’s life in the name of keeping the people he cares about alive.

This chapter, we have Connie arguing for his mom’s life over someone more politically relevant’s.

Bringing back another fandom favorite, Serum Bowl pretty much locks these arguments in a cage and pokes them gently with an assault rifle.

Survival says Erwin. Armin doesn’t matter, except to Eren and Mikasa. Erwin matters to Levi in a way he doesn’t to them. What’s right falls to the floor except to be brandished like a machete against the other side’s wants. Hange has to swoop in and pick it up, and by then Floch’s involved and clubbing everyone over the head with his newfound fanaticism.

Once it’s gotten to that point, humanity’s continued survival still says Erwin.

It’s still saving a man’s life.

A man who will die without this intervention.

For the reason of bringing him back to life to suffer in everyone’s place.

It’s pragmatic, and it truly is best for humanity’s survival beyond the walls.

It is also deeply unkind.

Send these thousands of people to their deaths so the rest can live. Eat each other. Die, die, and die until someone can live. Anything that promotes survival is, in fact, the right choice.

In the Female Titan arc, when Armin and Jean are watching the full extent of Erwin’s plan in front of their eyes, Armin says that Erwin might very well be evil for it, but given where they are, that’s a good thing. That someone strong enough to be that measured with their few remaining lives is in control--even if he’s committing a moral evil, he’s protecting something more important.

It is the preliminary version of Floch’s eventual conclusion.

They need a devil to ensure their survival.

Levi ultimately rejects that.

He doesn’t bring a man back to life so that he can bear their burdens.

It’s one of the smaller goods of the series. After a life of suffering through what is necessary, Levi chooses to release Erwin from it, even though he’s still tactically essential. Again and again people have discussed how much it would help if one more strategist was out Paradis’ table in these times. Levi’s decision is what prevents the most experienced from taking a seat.

Levi picks to be kind over making the choice that more properly secures survival.

Because the survival of what? More choices leading down the exact same road? The endless cycle of sacrifice that’s turned human bodies into resources instead of recognizing them as people?

Titanization at its core?

In the Serum Bowl, Levi doesn’t choose who he wants to survive. He chooses what. He chooses to recognize a man as human instead of a commodity. Something the two brats screaming at him couldn’t let go of. Something he couldn’t let go of.

Do you want to survive, or create a world worth surviving in?

Eren’s actions will destroy the world beyond the walls he always wanted to see. Indiscriminately. Some of it deserves destruction and worse. The parts that don’t will be swept away all the same.

This plan creates the world the First King told them they all lived in; there is Paradis, and nothing beyond it. The rest of humanity is dead.

Thanks to forfeiting all humanity.

And I guess if anyone on the island has a problem with it, kill them too. Also anyone who encourages anyone to have a problem with it. Just set up your secret task force, give the names, and keep those named living in terror for a century until one of them becoming a serial killer in response seems perfectly reasonable.

For those in need of the reminder, Karl is a douche.

Karl thought genocide was such a bad thing that he committed genocide over it, but it’s okay because his genocide was smaller.

Eren thinks genocide is such a bad thing he’s set up to commit genocide over it, but it’s okay because his genocide is going to be so big it’s going to end all genocides. Until Floch remembers he has a gun, probably. Which seems to be always. In which case this genocide will lead to a series of smaller genocides, eventually leading to not enough people being alive for genocide to be committed.

Curing the world of genocide once and for all.

Yay.

What I’m saying is that genocide is bad.

Full stop.

Genocide is bad.

-draws underlines-

-draws angry grrr face-

Bad.

Perhaps maybe these people should stop doing it.

For all the moral reasons, sure, but since we’re clearly beyond that point, maybe someone could just quietly suggest with the force of the world ending that maybe imitating the exact behavior that led to literally all of our cast’s problems is not the best move.

Also, Floch shouldn’t get to point a gun at Yelena’s head. Only Yelena gets to hold guns to people’s heads. She makes it cool. Floch makes everyone wonder why Floch still hasn’t died, only to remember that ah, yes, of course people like Floch don’t die.

BUT HEY, AT LEAST THEY KILLED ALL THE TITANS THAT USED TO BE THEIR COMMANDING OFFICERS. I’M SURE THAT’S NOT RELATED TO FLOCH’S GOOD MOOD AT ALL.

You know, it’s not that things are continuing to get worse. They are simply following the roadmap of horror we were handed in the brochure for this arc. None of this is new, it’s just now in play. So it’s not getting worse, it always was worse.

...Yelena, just take the gun and shoot Floch before you die. I feel like that’s the fastest path to something good happening.

Let’s see... points to all our kidlets being a dominant force against titans now. Them Trost Redux feels. Points to Jean realizing that Eren has power of friendshipped himself into villain status (allegedly). Points to Armin remembering how Pixis gave the humans of Paradis their first victory. Points to all of Sasha’s family because I like them.

Then that’s the chapter.

HOW YOU FEELING, ANNIE FANS?

#Shingeki no Kyojin #SnK 124 #Gabi Braun #Connie Springer #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #spoilers #tl;dr #chapter post

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hidden-behind-the-fourth-wall · 4 years

Text

Home - Chapter 2

Pairing: Steve Rogers x F!Reader\

Warnings: Angst, Fluff, a little bit of smut, swear words - like seriously Language, Cap!

Summary: A month. It has been a month since Steve left leaving you nothing but a short letter. You are more than excited to see him.

A/N: So yeah! I would never expected that the first part would get so much recognition and love. I am so happy! So I wrote this part two. Because I could not decide whether I would like to end it with an angst or fluffy Cap, I decieed to do BOTH. Yep... well. Hope you ejoy it at least as half as you did the first part. @ @imanuglywombat is ok to add up to the challenge as one work :P

HUGE, thank you to the amazing @andromedahereicome for being my beta reader! You rock!

Word count: 3500+

A month. You waited a whole month. Long, exaggerating and exhausting. You had no message from any of the three, no phone call, no letter. Nothing that would tell you that they were alright. The only thing that kept you sane was the fact that you were able to hack their phones and knew that they were still on the move. All three people you cared about so dearly: Natasha, that has become like a sister, Sam who was always able to make you smile and him. Damn Steve Rogers, with whom you fell in love.

So by the end of the month you decided to make a huge “welcome back” dinner. For the three of them. You made sure to make a favourite dish each. You bought a bottle of good wine and couple of boxes of beers for the boys and waited excitedly for their arrival. You waited until it was eight in the morning when you became aware that they were not coming. You checked your phone couple of times, your emails, but there was no message. There was no message from any of them. No message from Steve.

You weren’t mad, really. You understood. They were away doing some kind of mission and did not want to compromise it by sending a stupid text. You wanted them to be safe. You really understood. At least you tried. You tried to not feel disappointed when you packed all the food into the freezer. You tried not to overthink when you put all the alcohol in the basement. You really tried not fall apart because of something as stupid as a man.

But you couldn’t. As much as you knew how pathetic it made you look and feel, you couldn’t help but fall on your pillow and just cry, because there was just something inside of you saying, that if he really tried and wanted to contact you, he would have been able to. So you just laid in your bed, thinking about the man that you gave your heart to. A man that chose not to come back to you.

“You are a coward, Rogers”, the blonde sighed deeply preparing himself for the talk. He knew the woman enough to understand when she was pissed at him. For instance, calling him by his name was one of the ‘symptoms’.

“We would put her in danger, Natasha. Please tell me how does that make me a coward?” He calmly asked, navigating the jet for one of their safe houses. Sam was sitting behind them listening to the exchange, fighting with himself not to message you. But he promised Steve that he would not.

“You know that the ‘danger’ bullshit is just a cover for your fear of actually committing to someone.” She raised her hand when he tried to say something. “For the first time since you woke up from the ice you were given an opportunity of a normal life. A life that Tony was always tormenting you about.” Her voice became softer when she spoke again. “I understand that it is scary. Being a normal guy. A man with a house, a woman by your side and, maybe one day, even a normal job. Who knows where life would bring us.” Her hand landed on his thigh, but he didn't shift, didn't even take his eyes of the road. “I know you are scared to even think about the possibility of being happy, when you blame yourself for everything that happened with the Accords. But Steve, no one blames you. We all decided for ourselves. It was our decision. Plus…” She took a deep breath and took her hand away, looking at her phone. “The only person you are really punishing now is her. She doesn’t know why you’re about to break your promise, why you never contacted her. She may look like a tough cookie, but Steve, she is a broken glass. And trust me with this.” She got up and put a hand on his tensed shoulders. “When someone as broken as she gives someone her heart, it’s a huge step.” Captain looked up wanting to say something, but decided to stay quiet seeing Nat’s look. She smiled sadly at him and sat next to Sam, who just shook his head at his friend, as a symbol that he thought the same as Romanoff.

Steven Grant Rogers was never good with women. In the 40’s he was a skinny nobody. A sickly boy who could not even stand a chance in the alley fight. Always defended by Bucky, he never dreamt that any girl would ever look his way. Even during double dates that Barnes tried to set him up on, he was always just a shadow ignored by the dame, who was more interested in his friend than him.

But then he went to the army and met her. Agent Carter. Peggy. The most amazing, fierce in the most sexy way possible, and beautiful gal he ever met. She saw him as more than this skinny nobody. She saw the potential in him, the same as dr Erskine had. She was by his side when he was injected by the serum, when he disobeyed the orders to go find Bucky, when he lost his best friend, and (she was with him) till the last minute, until the plane crashed. He fell in love with her quickly and deeply. His first love. When he woke up 70 years later the only thing he thought about was the date he had missed with the love of his life.

When he finally found her she was an old, dying lady. But still as beautiful as he remembered her. Still as witty and cheeky as those 70 years ago. But she was a mother and a wife to some other man. She wasn’t his. He lost his chance to be with the love of his life. At the funeral… No, still in the hospital when he saw the tears in her eyes, he realized that he would never be happy again. Not with any other woman. His love, his soul mate, as he stupidity believed, was gone. He decided to dedicate himself to work or whatever that was, and deal with the fact that love was not for him. Not anymore. He had his chance and it blew.

But there you were. You were there for him when he didn’t even notice. You were the one who found Peggy for him, you were the one that saved their asses in Washington. And you continued to be there for him. You went against Tony, against Ross, the government, the UN. Everyone. You went with him and welcomed him to your home. Your get-away from the harsh world, from reality. You told him about your family, fears, favourite colour, how you hated tomatoes but you loved ketchup, spaghetti and bloody Mary. How you always have wanted to have a dog and a lizard, but because of the job you never could.

One night, when he was falling asleep, he realised with pure fear that he was falling for you. For this normal, amazing, sweet and beautiful from inside and out woman. You were different from Peggy, but in this positive way. You were different. Different from anything he has ever met. He felt calm and safe with you. He felt domestic when you cooked him dinner, or when you just sat on the couch and read a book. He loved when you read to him some of the poetry from the times he missed. He loved your voice. So soothing and calm. He remembered always falling asleep with his head on your knees. Your hands gently stroking his hair. You always sat there, letting him sleep. No matter how uncomfortable it was.

And then the kiss happened. The electricity he felt when your lips met was something he had never experienced before. Not even with Peggy. And it scared him. He feared this feeling so much, that when he felt your hands on his belt he froze and panicked. It was going too fast.

He expected to see the disappointment and anger in your eyes when he pulled away. But you only smiled at him and gave him one of your lovely gazes. You made him relax and forget about the embarrassment he felt. You were so patient and understanding that it drove him crazy. Because he was already so in love with you. And when you were both watching an awful movie, and your hand was moving so close to his aching cock he couldn’t take it any longer. He he made love to you and believed, at the time, that everything will work out.

But everything changed when he woke up and noticed a message from Sam about ‘needing him ASAP’. It was then that he realised that a normal, domestic life was not for him. He was a soldier, a fugitive, a criminal. He could not pull you into this world. You were too innocent, too sweet to follow him into this darkness. So he packed, and leaving only a letter, he stepped out of the house, without even a goodbye kiss.

When he wrote that letter he hoped that maybe he will change his mind. Maybe something will change and he would come back and just be with you. Have this damn, beautiful life Stark could not shut up about. He wanted it, but he knew it wasn’t for him.

He hated himself when he asked Sam and Nat not to contact you. He knew they were your friends, and that you meant a lot to them. But he practically begged them. He told them about the time you spent together, the kiss, the night and the letter. They were not happy with it, but decided to accept his request. He knew it pained them greatly not to talk to you, but he thought it was what was best for you.

He felt even worse when Natasha finally decided to talk to him. He never thought that he hurt you so much. He hoped that his actions would bring you peace. But seeing your crying face rested on the bed you both once shared pained him so much. He watched you from the shadow, when you prepared the dinner and then cleaned it up. How many times did he want to just walk to you and pull you into his arms and spend the rest of his life with you. He wanted it so badly, but the fear of actually hurting you was too much for him. He was scared. Afraid for you.

But there you were. All in tears. Laying in that bed that held this one amazing memory. Your body, the way you smiled at him when he kissed you harder and more passionate than anytime before. The way you looked at him when you took his clothes off, and let him do the same to yours. They way your lips curled around his cock bringing him the pleasure he has never experienced before. The way you swallowed him with this beautiful smile and stars in your eyes. The way you experienced his body, inch by inch, and enjoyed every minute of it.

He remembered the silkiness of your skin, the flavoured he cherished so much when he tasted you. The moans that you made, those beautiful noises that made him want more and more with every swipe of his tongue. And this alluring side of you when you came groaning his name. He never felt so proud as he felt in that moment. He never felt as happy as when you turned him on his back and slowly, enjoying every stretch, you sat on his burying himself in your tight pussy. The feeling of your walls clenching his cock made him go over the moon, and oh the fear of finishing it too quickly. But one look over your blessed face and he knew he wanted to give you pleasure, hear you call his name again, listen to those moans and whines. He never knew he could make a woman so happy, and the thought of bringing tears to your eyes when you came again was everything to him.

THE ANGST:

He wanted you to be happy. He wanted you to be safe and start everything over. Without him being the barrier. He hoped that one day you would be able to forgive him and go on with your life. Even if it meant with someone else.

So he took the last glance your way. The glance he would cherish till the end of his life. The glance that would haunt him forever as the picture of how much he hurt you. Remembering the laughs and subtle smiles you gave him, he took the letter he wrote to you and shoved it through the doors.

And with his heart breaking piece by piece, he turned on his heel and left, agreed with Natasha, he was a cowards.

You didn’t know what time it was when you woke up, but the sun was almost down and you felt even more tired than before sleeping. Your eyes hurt from crying, and your head felt heavy. You walked down the stairs and the first thing you saw was an envelope with your name on it under the doors.

You opened it and your heart froze when you recognised the handwriting. Steve. You suppressed the tears and started reading.

Sweetheart,

God I don’t think I have a right to call you that anymore. Nat called me a coward, but I think a jerk would be a better term. Jesus, I miss you so much, and I wished that I was able to just get my head out of my ass and just stay here with you, in this beautiful house and call it home.

But I can’t. Y/N, sweetheart, the love of my life. After Peggy i never thought I would be able to call anyone like that. But here you are. This amazing human being. You see me not as a Captain, but Steve Rogers. You probably know me better than anyone, including me. This is why I hope you will understand why I have to do this.

Being with you would probably be the best thing that would ever happen in my life. Writing this I can imagine myself waking up to see that beautiful face of yours. I dared myself to create this beautiful image in my head where we have this family with two boys and a little princess girl, who would have the same beautiful eyes as you. And a dog. And a lizard you would name and take care of, because I would be too afraid to approach it.

I am being such a jerk right now. I know. God the night we spent together, the promises of love I gave you were not a lie. And I need you to know that! I love you, sweetheart. I love you more than anything in this entire world, but I cannot be with you.

Call it cowardness or selfishness. But I believe that being with you would only bring you danger. And I would never forgive myself if something happened to you. I want you to have a life you deserve and a life with me is not it.

I am a fugitive, a runaway, a criminal. I have to hide all the time and be reminded by the fact that I can never truly be free. I made that choice and I cannot expect you to follow it. It breaks my heart, but I do truly believe that if I want to see you happy I need to let you go.

And seeing you happy is the wish of my life. My dream come true. I will keep my eye on you, to make sure you’re safe. Sweetheart, baby, my sweet darling I want you to live your life and enjoy it, even if it means with someone who isn’t me. I want this for you, even if it will break me.

I know asking you this is too much. But please do not grow to hate me. Writing this letter and saying goodbye to you is the hardests and most painful decision of my life, and I did land a plane in the ocean. So please don’t hate me. Live your life the best you can and be happy.

I love you with all my heart.

Steven Grant Rogers.

P.S. Forgive Sam and Nat for not contacting you, it was because of me . But I would not want you to lose your friends so I will ask them to call you when we will be in safe grounds.

You fell on your knees, not even trying to control the tears that started to flow. This was over. It should not really hurt that much. It hasn’t really started yet, but this one night, the time you spent with him… He loved you and he still left.

Hate him? How could you ever hate him. He was a good man, with a beautiful, innocent heart. You didn’t hate him. What was more, you loved him even more. And this had broken you even further.

Happy ending:

He wanted a normal life so much. He wanted to have a simple taste of it even if just for a while. He wanted to feel your warmth and hear your awful jokes. So he made up his mind. It was selfish but this one time he would listen to Nat and Tony and get the life he always wanted.

A knock on a door woke you up. You quickly stood up, afraid. No one should know of this place and there was no way for anyone to track you. You made sure of that. So you took a small gun from your night stand and went to the doors.

"Who… who is it?" You asked, your voice shaky and raspy from the sleep.

"I'm sorry, I know I'm late…" you put the gun away and opened the doors, your eyes widened and heart beat fastened. There he was. In his civil clothes, a sign of a beard and his hair grown a bit. But it was him. Steve fucking Rogers. There he was, nervously smiling at you with the eyes shining with hope. "Hey, still in your pyjamas?" You opened your mouth but no words came out. You could not believe it. You have been crying your eyes out the whole night for him. The man who broke your heart was here. But why? To pick up the pieces of your heart or to break it even more? "Can I come in, sweetheart?" You stepped away and opened the door a bit more for him to enter.

"You… you came back… why?" You asked, hugging yourself, almost afraid to hear the answer to that question. He raised his brow and smiled sadly. You looked tired, weak and fragile. And yet so beautiful.

"I promised, right? I promised I'll come back to you."

"You haven't contacted me… not a call, no message not even a stupid email saying you were alive, you were fine… that you even planned on coming back!" You finally hissed, pushing him away by his chest. "You left with no words of goodbye!" Your voice was shaking and getting higher. With every word you were pushing at him, punching his damn muscular chest. "You left after you screwed me! Damn it, Steve I thought you were different. Better than that." Your open handed punches turned into fist ones. "I thought you loved me. I thought I was more than some toy…". He grabbed your wrist and pulled you to him, crashing you into a hug.

"I'm sorry, doll. I am so sorry" his hands came around your body, pulling you as close as it was only possible. "Jesus baby I never thought of you as a… gosh… a toy? Really?!" He pulled you away and looked in your eyes. "I love you. I love you so much but I was a coward. A jerk! I though not contacting you and leaving would bring you peace…"

"So why are you here?" You cried, your fingers clutching onto his jacket.

"Because I love you. So much!" He smiled and run his finger through your lip. "I'm tired of running away. I want to know how it is to be Steve Rogers, a normal guy. A man with a beautiful woman by his side and a possibility of a normal life."

"What about the Accords?"

"I plan on meeting with Tony. Have a talk, maybe figure something out." He connected his forehead with yours and sighed. "I want to have a normal life with you, if you let me. If you want me here, in you little asylum, your home…" there were pleading tears in his eyes and you couldn't help but lean into his touch.

"You stupid idiot!" You chuckled and kissed him softly. "It's not my home…" he frowned but smiled when you kissed him again. "It's ours."

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fandom-queenliness · 5 years

Text

The Breaking Part 3: Kagami

This is Part 5 of my Burning series, you can read the rest of it here.

Shoutout to @im-here-for-the-content for helping me with this!

This is shorter than my other pieces simply because Kagami does not beat around the bush and blunt as hell. Anyway, onto the pain!

The Breaking Part 3: Kagami

Kagami was not surprised when Chloe exited the elevator looking drained. She walked over to the chairs where they were seated and dropped down. Nino moved forward and asked how it went, and the blonde mumbled something about nearly snapping his wrist. Kagami felt pride at that. Agreste deserved to hurt for what he had done.

Marinette’s voice rang through her head and she flinched. The pain she spoke with—it killed Kagami. It made her want to break something.

A man exited the elevator and scanned the waiting room, when he spotted her he walked over, carrying a long object wrapped in white cotton. He bowed and offered it to her.

“Kagami-sama,” he greeted. “The package you requested.”

She nodded and grabbed it, holding it delicately in her hands. “Arigatō gozaimasu.” The man – an assistant of some sort – left.

Nino looked over to her. “What is it?”

“A symbol,” she answered, “a sword.”

Worry made its way onto his face. “Are you planning to kill him?”

She shook her head, running a finger along the black hilt. “I am not expecting it to ever be used. It is symbolic.”

Chloe’s head tilted but she did not comment. “Your turn. His secretary told me she wouldn’t announce you, just in case he calls security. She’s planning to quit after today anyway.”

Kagami nodded to the secretary, who was manning the desk a floor below Agreste’s office instead of her usual one right outside it. She held hate in her eyes for her boss.

She gripped the hilt of the sword and nodded to her friends, then headed for the elevator, jabbing the button. Her last look of her friends was Chloe wiping away tears as Nino comforted her.

Agreste looked up when Kagami walked in. He was holding his wrist close to his chest and she thanked Chloe for that. The betrayed look in his eyes was worth it.

“Agreste,” she greeted coldly, placing her package in the chair beside her. She remained standing.

He looked up from where he was leaning against the desk and grimaced. “Hey. Sorry, Chloe just dropped by. You think she’s mad?” He held up his bruising wrist jokingly and it set a fire within Kagami. He was joking, laughing, as his wife fell apart. The nerve, the selfishness—

She took a breath, steadying herself. She had words to say before her anger could be loosed.

“But can you believe it?” He asked, rubbing his wrist. “I thought Chloe would understand, growing up with politics and all. She at least should have understood why I would need to clear my name.” Agreste sighed. “She even thinks everyone would be against me. But you’re here, proving her wrong. I never would have expected she would…” he sighed and shrugged. “She’s just being dramatic. Hey, do you think I could use your phone to call Marinette? She hasn’t been answering my call—”

That was the final straw, assuming he had the right to talk to the woman he had hurt more than anyone else. Kagami held up a hand and he paused, puzzled.

With no emotion, she told him, “I am here to formally cut any connections with you.”

His smile dropped, he stared at her. “What?”

“I find myself unable to remain your business partner when you have committed acts that go against my morals and expectations of you,” she told him ruthlessly. A weight was lifted off of her with each word, like tiny anchors. “Any and all business between us is over. You will be getting calls from my lawyers later today.”

“Bu—but you’re my friend!” Agreste protested, sounding like a petulant child.

She held up a hand, and it took all of her mother’s training to keep it from trembling. “Are you addressing me as a business partner or a friend?”

“A friend. What else?” He said, still staring like a gaping fish.

“Excellent.” She pulled her arm back and punched him in the mouth. He fell against the desk with a dull thud.

“Wha—Kagami what the hell?!” Agreste shouted, holding a hand to his bloody mouth. She stared down at him, remorseless.

“You wanted your friend, well here I am,” she told him, spreading her arms. “I am the friend you lied to, the friend who loves your wife—evidently more than you do.”

Agreste scrambled away from her, behind the desk, trying to get out of her reach—useless.

“You are a stain upon your family, upon this world,” she told him, anger filling every word. “You betrayed your wife and friends. No longer can I look upon you without seeing a liar and a bastard.”

He tried to speak, made to put a hand forward but she pushed onwards. “You are without integrity, honesty and loyalty are absent from you.” She planted her hands on the desk and leaned forward. “You are a coward, you are weak.”

“I thought you would understand!” Agreste burst out, his own anger making itself known. “You grew up like me, you must understand what it’s like Kagami!”

“Keep my name out of your mouth,” she snarled over the desk. “I will not have cowards speak of me. Cowards who hide behind their family name and use their upbringing to justify their mistakes.” She slammed her fist down on the desk, making it rattle. “You are a grown man, you can no longer hide behind your father’s mistakes. Everything you have done is your own fault and you are weaker than I thought if you are attempting to blame it on a bad childhood.”

He stepped forward, glaring at her. “My reputation is all I have! Without out it— without it I am noth—"

“You think your reputation is all you have? What of your wife?” Kagami seethed. “Your friends? Your children? Or are those just things you may abandon, expecting them to remain where you left them? You are still that child who is blind to the harm he causes others, lost in your perfect world where nothing can go wrong. You are still that fool who is selfish enough to think Marinette will just fall into your arms, forgive you after a moment of anger. You won’t even let her feel anger! It’s been less than two hours and already you think you may speak to her.”

Marinette was worthless to him, she meant less than the words of others in his eyes. She was glad she had left her sabre at home, she would have killed him then and there.

She shook her head and stood up straight. “You expect her to love you no matter what you do, that she will accept your mistakes when she is the one hurt more than anyone else. It’s just like all those years ago when we went on that double date to that ice rink.” Oh, the silent tears Marinette had shed when she recounted it. Kagami wished she had realised then the pain Agreste was causing her. She would have told her to leave him before he hurt her even more.

“You were pining after Ladybug—Marinette herself—and thought it was acceptable to string me along, to ask me on a date when you were still not over her. I was fool enough to agree, to think I was helping you when all I was doing was enabling you. And you dragged Marinette along too, selfish even when you couldn’t see how hurt she was.”

Outrage flashed across Agreste’s face. “I didn’t know she was Ladybug! She never told me how she felt, how she—she was Marinette! And she agreed to that date, all on her own. It was her decision, you can’t blame that on me!”

“I can blame you for being blind!” Kagami shot back. “I can blame you for being selfish in every part of your life. I can blame you for being a characterless coward. I can blame you for so many things because you are idiot enough to not learn from your mistakes. I can blame you for playing Marinette’s heart then and breaking it now. I can blame you for denying her the chance to be with someone who cherishes her more than you ever could. Someone who has stood beside her and seen all the wrongs you have done and let her go regardless.”

Agreste gaped again. “Who—Luka? Marinette chose me over Luka all on her own! It was her choice!”

He still didn’t know about Felix, Kagami realised. He was still so blind that he couldn’t see the longing and love in his brother’s eyes whenever he looked at Marinette.

“You are a small-minded fool,” Kagami said instead. It wasn’t her place. “Marinette had options other than you then, and she has them now. She doesn’t need you, and only an idiot will think she wants you after what you have done. She has people who love her, and she doesn’t need an honourless husband.”

Agreste stomped forward, pointing a finger at her. “I—”

“You haven’t changed in all the years I have known you,” Kagami said over him. “You are still a passive aho. You are a child. You couldn’t even tell her of your disgusting deeds yourself, to her face you instead made it all public, so desperate to be seen in the best light you didn’t even pause to think of your family. The definition of selfish cowardice. Ruining any chance of leniency in an effort to avoid false drug charges.” She growled. “You’re an even bigger idiot than I could ever think. You have dishonoured your name and your family. You have tainted every memory anyone has of you with the betrayal you have committed. You have ruined anything and everything.”

“I—”

“Your children will look at you and they will see a monster. They will see you only as a shame. They will spend the rest of their life with the knowledge their father is a heartless beast that cared more for his own pleasures than them. You shall be their greatest regret, the man who tore their family apart over sex, not even love. You will no longer be their father, instead, all they will see is the man who broke their mother’s heart. They will hate you.”

He took a step back, eyes wide with shock before narrowing into rage. “Kagam—"

She didn’t give him a chance to speak, grabbing his shirt and pulling him down until he was sprawled across the desk. He let out a cry and looked up to her in fear. She grabbed his tie, pulling him up until he was nearly choking. “You are a stain upon this world,” she hissed. “An enemy to Marinette and her children. Your words are worth less than dirt. Nothing you say can be trusted after months of lies. You were weak enough to betray her, and you are no longer worthy to even call yourself hers. You have dishonoured her and everyone who loves you.” With that she let go of him, grabbed the package she had brought with her, unwrapping it and holding it up for him to see. The silver blade of the sword glinted in the light.

He gasped and scrambled away, pressing himself again the glass wall behind him in horror. “That—that’s a—”

“A wakizashi,” she finished ruthlessly. “The sword of ritual suicide. Samurai would fell themselves with their wakizashi to restore their honour.” She laid it down on his desk and met his eyes. “I leave you this not to tell you to kill yourself—even now I hold some regard for your health.” Her voice was bitter. “I leave this to you instead as a constant reminder of the crimes you have committed. The dishonour your actions have brought upon you and all who know you: Marinette, Emma, Hugo, Felix, Nino, Chloe, Alya, your father. Your mother.” He winced at that and she pressed on it. “You have dishonoured the woman who raised you by committing such acts against your family. You have dishonoured the dead and the living.”

She stared at him, at his shock and fear, and felt no guilt. “Goodbye Agreste. My lawyers will be calling.” She turned for the door.

He ran out from behind the desk, eyeing the wakizashi fearfully. As she touched the door handle he grabbed her arm. She froze, turning to look at him with only one eye.

“Please Kagami,” he begged. “We both know this doesn’t mean much. Marinette will forgive me, take back the wakizashi. See sense—”

She elbowed him in the gut and then kicked him in the ankle, putting all of her rage and loathing into the moves. He fell to the floor and she stood over him. She placed a foot on his chest and put weight on it, making him groan.

“Do not speak to me,” she hissed. “You are without integrity, without honour. Be thankful you are even breathing now.” She removed her foot, stalking to the door. She paused just outside, ignoring the looks some of the designers were giving her. Kagami stared down the coward she had once called friend with no regrets. “You are nothing.”

Adrien stared after her as she disappeared into the elevator, left lying on the ground with only the injuries she had given, the words she had said, and the wakizashi.

It felt really good to write this. Sometimes I wish I could punch Adrien too.

Anyway, next up is Nino’s part!

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holden-norgorov · 6 years

Text

A seriously angry recap of all the things I hated in the finale.

Because I had to write down all the disappointment and outrage that I have inside, otherwise it will consume me until I die. I had to give vent to everything that disgusted me in a less-detatched, more personal way than the unemotional one my objective thoughts usually are expressed with. If you want to read highly pissed-off complaints for healing purposes, this is your post.

Implying that discovering that your mother is also your step-sister is a more validating reason to commit murder than being yourself a victim of physical and psychological abuses for years during your childhood. Offensive, short-sighted, self-erasing. By suggesting that Wolfgang killed his father and uncle out of this revelation, the writers nullified the character’s self-worth, depth and integrity.

“I’m not worth it”. “Wolfgang, you are!” It turned out he wasn’t worth it at all because things didn’t change. Nobody had any kind of conversation and the result was that Kala was portrayed as happy staying in the loveless, unhealthy marriage she was already in and that Wolfgang kept being the “lover” who wasn’t worth being chosen. Rajan became suddenly so important that an entire two-seasonal storyline of the most epic love story of all time had to be thrown out of the window just to please him? Who the fuck cared about him? He was selfish and sexist for two seasons, and a lame, uninteresting character with no personality beyond being a kiss-ass.

Capheus being a clown for all the episode irritated the fuck out of me. He had always been particularly joyful, but 1) not at this ridiculous, over-the-top level, and especially 2) not under these circumstances. This is war. They are all risking their lives and could be found and killed in any seconds. He is risking his whole political career and has left all his loved ones home alone. One of his clustermates is imprisoned in a BPO facility and likely being tortured. This is possibly the worst you could get: this episode was not meant to feature lighthearted, careless people joking around and being idiotic. His behavior is completely inappropriate and disrespectful of the situation. Someone with a brain, in those circumstances, would have slapped him in the face. What the fuck.

Nomanita getting an entire scene exclusively used to provide a last-minute backstory capable of justifying Lana’s selfish decision of taking Paris from Kalagang and giving it to them out of nowhere and with no apparent reason. I am so mad about this, it almost seems deliberate from Lana. Paris was a turning point for Kalagang, a pivotal moment that represented their first and only chance in all the show to be finally happy and together. Nomanita already had it all. Nomanita have always been the healthiest, happiest couple. They could have married literally anywhere else and it would have changed nothing in their relationship, because they had already had 24 episodes of domestic and happy moments. Why Paris of all cities? This was an intentional betrayal to Kalagang fans and storyline.

Lito’s freak-out about the carbs is beyond any fucking comment. It vividly looks like they all are on camping, or taking a funny, enjoyable trip. The writers should be ashamed of themselves for cheapening such a beautiful show and such wonderful characters with stupid moments like this and so many others (such as: Nomi’s coffee moment, Wolfgang jokingly pointing the rocket launcher on Capheus, Rajan asking Kala to teach him to use a gun as if they were not in a dangerous, life-or-death situation but just having fun, Puck with Sun’s hair and so on: there are a lot).

Sun and Mun being OOC as fuck and acting as if they were old acquaintances was just ridiculous and forced to an exponential level. This is entirely the writers’ fault and has nothing to do with time constraints, because the writing was just cheap and the characters unrecognizable. They had only met twice before this phone call (and both times by mistake). Sun here was weirdly intimate and emotively open despite having been closed and guarded of her interiority for two seasons sometimes even with her other selves. Mun was the very definition of cringe. “I think those two words might have made getting shot worth it.” Give me a fucking break. Who are these people? And don’t even get me started on the inconsistency with the line “I am not very good with words” that goes directly against the very reason why Sun was interested in him in the first place (i.e. the passionate way he talked about her to her teacher and the cautious but accurate analysis he provided of her psychology while fighting in the graveyard). Here they were odd and extremely cliché to the point of contrasting with their very essence.

Capheus greeting Rajan in that way was so wrong and insulting both to attentive viewers and to all the people in this world unable to obtain proper medications for themselves or their loved ones. It disregarded and destroyed everything about Capheus’ character and almost made me vomit. Rajan embodied all the socially powerful people directly responsible for Shiro’s improved sickness that almost caused her death in S1. Rajan’s unethical business was the very reason why Capheus had to be involved with Silas Kabaka in the first place, resulting in all his S1 storyline that almost led him to his death. Do any of you remember Capheus and Kala’s expressions when Rajan revealed this? Both of them had never been so hurt and incredulous during all the show. Capheus’ blind forgiveness of someone who was the ultimate reason of one entire season of his suffering and fighting for survival left me utterly speechless and offended. The writers turned all of this into a joke, especially considering Capheus storyline in S2: he had decided to politically represent his country, his own people, exactly because of the injustices they had to face on a daily basis because of poverty and unfair hierarchy. Welcoming Rajan, the symbol of this hierarchy that basically made his whole life a living hell, in that way was incredibly unbelievable. I was seriously shocked by this.

Kala’s behavior when Rajan arrives in Paris can be explained only in two ways: a) either she was on drugs all the time, which means she was capable of making them using her knowledge as chemist and then taking them because she was so desperate for Wolfgang that she wanted to be high, or b) she was just under a love spell. These are the only explanations to the way she behaves here; in both cases, she clearly wasn’t herself. Logic, continuity and coherence were all non-existent. The facts: Kala had made promises to Wolfgang both in 2x10 and 2x11 and the only reason why she hadn’t explained things to Rajan yet was that he had shut her off and sent her away without giving her the opportunity to do so. But her mind was crystal-clear and she was finally ready (in fact, her entire storyline had been built in order to make her brave enough to finally make this decision). But in here, she betrayed every promise she had made to Wolfgang and basically became a lying coward, erasing all the character development she had been through. She acted as a bitch. This confrontation was unavoidable at this point. She let Rajan believe that the real problem in their marriage was her nature as a sensate, which actually has never been a source of conflict at all (she didn’t want to marry Rajan even before realizing what she was). I wanted to slap her for how she acted in this whole episode. She also really felt under a love spell because for 23 episodes she had never spontaneously kissed Rajan before out of sincere will. In 1x02, Rajan kissed her and she didn’t even return the kiss (the only reason why she didn’t break it was that they were at their engagement party and it would have been highly inappropriate); in 2x01 she kissed him out of pity and guilt because she felt responsible for breaking his dick and ruining their honeymoon. And that was it. So, witnessing her starting a kiss to a man she spent two seasons being uncomfortable with (especially physically) and feeling objectified by felt really wrong and unexpected and utterly unreasonable. She seriously looked like she was on drugs, I was in disbelief.

Aunt Kirsty overtaking a whole team of BPO soldiers supposedly using her unknown superpower ninja abilities was so ridiculous and cheap that it was like the writers themselves wanted to prove us that they could do everything they wanted and ruin all the show’s credibility as they pleased. Seriously what the fuck was that. Sense8 became a cartoon for kids and we didn’t know? God.

The complete lack of Wolfgang’s PTSD was absolutely unforgivable and unrealistic. We are talking about a man who spent all of his life building several walls to protect himself from the outside, trying to keep everyone at distance exactly because of the traumas he experienced since childhood that he couldn’t recover from. He has always been emotionally secretive and unavailable to everyone except Kala (and she took two seasons of serious efforts to make him finally open up and expose himself). He was tortured daily several times when he was under BPO’s captivity: he had and needed to show both physical and psychological scars in the aftermath. PTSD was a natural response that inevitably had to happen and be shown both for credibility and for a matter of character’s coherence and integrity. Wolfgang being rescued from this severely traumatizing condition and not showing the slightest consequence of it was beyond idiotic. And worse: from that moment he actually started acting more carefree and behaving in the exact opposite way than the one that should logically be expected from someone with his personality going through an experience like that. He started joking around and taking everything lightly and in a more emotionally invested way than he had ever done even before this imprisonment. It was like watching a fairy tale of stupid bullshit. What a fucking mess.

Rajan’s evident privileged treatment from the writers was so obvious and cheap that it ended up being nausea-inducing. He was literally everywhere and for no reason at all since he had no abilities. In the club, he is the only sapiens being close to the physical exchange. Why on this planet should this be safe or acceptable or even convenient since he is incapable of doing anything? Every other non-sensate was far away, even members of the Cluster such as Lito who could have been useful through sharing. Instead Rajan was on the front. Ok. And the idea that Wolfgang, a taciturn man who spent two seasons being jealous of Rajan, would spontaneously approach him and thank him for doing absolutely nothing is hilarious. Rajan didn’t save Wolfgang. Kala was the one who intervened to prevent Lila from shooting him. Rajan stepped in only to save Kala and was able to steal Lila’s gun just because she was already being attacked. And as soon as that happened, she took the gun back because Rajan obviously didn’t have a clue on what he was doing (which is acceptable, because he just wasn’t suitable for that situation: the mistake was including him there in the first place). Daniela herself had been previously shown to be comfortable in using a gun. Why not exposing her to the physical place of the exchange instead of Rajan? I seriously don’t get it. Which advantage could Rajan provide to the situation? The writers were so transparent. The same can be said with the Napoli’s scene. Rajan is the only sapiens entering the camorra building without any reason or combat skill. WHY. Not only he is untrained and incapable, but he also doesn’t even know the plan (Kala has to explain it to him while already inside and targeted by enemies!). It’s like they did everything in their power to include Rajan everywhere and let him be some kind of saver or hero that he clearly is not. The writing was insulting. Rajan mistakes a taser for a gun but then uses that same taser to save Kala’s life? How stupid do the writers think we are, exactly? Not to mention that Wolfgang being unable to treat Kala’s stomach wound was completely OOC, but then again, Kala and Wolfgang were both RAPED as characters in every way possible in this episode. Wolfgang was able to canonically treat a much worse wound when Felix was almost killed despite being in evident pain. This was all ridiculous. And what about Lila shooting Kala in the stomach? In this very episode she was able to shoot dead five people at a great distance without even trying when stealing Whispers. She was a hired gun, and here Kala was literally in front of her. Nothing in this scene makes the slightest sense, I swear.

The scene where Will asked where Sun was, as if he wasn’t able to mentally connect with her was absurd. And Nomi actually taking five minutes to visit her was just a cheap way for the Sun x Mun exchange to happen and was incoherent. “I found Sun” doesn’t make sense because they are telepathically connected and Nomi shouldn’t need to find her. Cheapness for everyone.

Kala spontaneously kissing Rajan again when she finally has the occasion to physically be with the love of her life after he was tortured and nearly killed is probably the most absurd and embarrassing moment I have ever seen in television. It’s beyond any rational comment at this point. I was about to throw something at my screen. And Wolfgang accepting this despite probably believing that Kala and Rajan had already talked things through was incoherent, unthinkable and hysterical. WHO-ARE-THESE-CHARACTERS. This moment destroyed me more than I can convey with words. It was a betrayal to two seasons of marvelous Kalagang growth and development. I could ramble about how much I hate this moment for pages, but I already wrote a post about it and it would be better for me not to stop too much on this because it literally broke my heart and enraged me more than anything else ever did. Kala and Wolfgang were entirely different characters.

Jonas and the Mother talking like walking encyclopedias contrast so heavily with the cheap writing of the episode that their scenes end up being really laughable and impossible to be taken seriously.

The song sequence was completely useless, pure fanservice garbage that stole real usable time that was very much needed since many storylines were left entirely open without justifications. The “What’s Up” moment in 1x04 became iconic because it conveyed a precise message that was the core of all the show, was a set up for everything that came after and had also the purpose to show the ability of each character to connect all together for the first time. Instead, the song sequence in this episode was obviously insert only because the first one really gained a huge success in the fandom and they simply wanted to reply it for fanservice purposes. But this was entirely pointless and the very definition of a waste of time. The characters felt very much like the actors themselves goofing around, and there were also completely avoidable coherence mistakes (Felix and Rajan on the train) that cheapened the already-compromised credibility of it all. The editing of all the episode was bad, especially in this scene.

Other time gets wasted showing characters eating pizza without a tie to the plot or anything at all. Were the writers deliberately trying to make the worst choices possible? They basically did everything wrong and handled the time horribly.

I already talked about the bullet scene, but Kala being able to visit Wolfgang while unconscious was another cheap mistake. I’m particularly angry because for 23 episodes Sense8 was able to be almost flawless in coherence, but this episode is just a giant mess. This moment is OOC and simply wrong on every aspect, and who wrote it surely must have been a stranger to the show.

The last half-hour of the Special is so weird. It’s like the writers suddenly forgot that the main characters are sensates. Will asking Kala what she wants was another ridiculous moment that was so incoherent with their scene in 2x08 that I seriously considered this to be an intentional way for the writers to let us know that they willingly fucked up with Kalagang. The main peculiarity of their interaction in 2x08 was that Will was able to read Kala’s emotions without asking and state out loud what she was afraid to admit to herself: that she loved someone else. Their interaction in 2x08 was based on clarifying that Kala was not suffering from a feeling indecision but a morality struggle, and that Will exactly knew what she wanted. Their moment in 2x12 disregards everything about it. Will acts like he doesn’t already know what she feels and asks her questions as if he couldn’t read her emotions, and Kala is supposed to show signs of romantic indecisiveness despite her troubles were never feelings-related? In 2x08 Kala couldn’t stop talking haphazardly (as she always does when concerned about something) and here she just silently shrugs? This moment is beyond laughable and goes against everything established before, and the characters are frankly unrecognizable.

It’s unbelievable the idea that two whole seasons of perfect Kalagang development led to a conclusion where Kala holds hands with Rajan and Wolfgang sits behind them as a complete stranger. It feels like a nightmare. I am homicidal about this. They really destroyed them, both as a couple and individual characters.

Amanita clearly states in 1x07 that she is afraid of and hates fireworks because they symbolize war and are a failure. So why is she perfectly happy here when they are used during her own wedding? It wasn’t that hard not to be OOC. The writers really wanted to discredit the canon in every way, I’m incredulous.

The conclusive physical, actual orgy which includes also non-sensate characters sends a horrible message. First, it goes completely against the symbolical meaning of the previous orgies (which were meant to show the sensates’ ability to share sexual arousal every time someone in the Cluster was having actual sex; it was nothing physical or carnal but purely abstract and metaphorical). Second, it’s highly offensive to asexual people, because sex is conceived here as the highest expression of love and the only way to resolve untouched confrontations (instead of having actual conversations). Third, it provides sexual erasure to Lito (canonically gay), Nomi (canonically lesbian) and Kala (canonically demisexual). Fourth, it goes against the well-praised theme of inclusivity and diversity of the show because everyone at the end turns out to be the same (pansexual), thus erasing every single representation provided in the previous episodes. Fifth, it portrays an unfair and insulting view on how sexuality actually works. The idea of a man — whose entire storyline is built around the fact that he is completely, exclusively gay and couldn’t manage to even fake a relationship with a woman — willing to have sex out of the blue with someone of the opposite sex is gross and actually sick. Sexuality is highly intimate and personal: it’s not about open-mindedness, but about self-comfort. It’s disrespectful to think that a gay man would be okay to get laid with a woman, because he just is by nature not comfortable in that situation. I am a straight guy and I could never picture myself with another man, it would make me unhealthily uncomfortable with myself. This applies to everyone’s very own sexuality. The same can be said for Kala, who here is depicted as a promiscuous woman willing to share her body with the very same man who she couldn’t bring herself to feel comfortable with for two seasons. Kala was a very moral person described as demi-sexual and she could only be comfortable in a sexual scenario with Wolfgang because they are sensates and their level of trust and connection is unparalleled. If Wolfgang and Kala hadn’t been sensates inside each other’s heads and feelings, Kala would have never slept with him: she needed that kind of intimacy and closeness to open up sexually. The Kala who pulls Rajan down and gets almost hungry of being used as a sex object here is not the usual Kala from the first 23 episodes, it’s another character entirely who sends a conservative and sexist unacceptable message.

Wolfgang’s sudden bisexuality is not representation, nor something to be proud of: it’s just an offensive, out-of-nowhere twist created only for shock value. One of the first traits that we understand about him in the show is that in order to avoid opening up emotionally, he constantly sleeps around with women only. This is canonically confirmed in two occasions: first, in 1x04, when he and Felix talk about their teenager adventures, nothing is mentioned about them being open to relationships with other boys (and if Wolfgang had been bisexual, it would have surely been pointed out in this moment); second, in 2x01, we canonically see him picking up girls using a date-app which features women only. This highly indicates that he is not into men, because if he was, he wouldn’t hide it at all. Also, if he had really been sexually attracted to men, he would have surely fallen for Felix because of how close they are, and this didn’t happen. This is not to say that sexuality is permanent or unaffected by change. But if Wolfgang’s character arc had really been about a sexuality struggle, an appropriate path of self-discovery should have been shown and developed carefully. People just don’t wake up and decide to change sexual orientation out of the blue. These things require internal process and self-questioning. This sudden twist is a joke to people who really have to face a complex self-examination in order to understand whether their sexuality is changing or evolving.

Wolfgang touching Rajan’s lips before kissing him is a slap on the face of Kalagang’s fans because that was THEIR intimate gesture, and theirs alone.

Wolfgang and Rajan barely know each other. Wolfgang would NEVER perform that private gesture with anyone but Kala, and the idea that he would make love to her with her husband included is pure nuts. This was the ultimate bullshit from the writers who managed to annihilate everything about Kalagang. It’s almost as if Lana had personal reasons to sabotage them in every way possible, because the result is just too heavy-handed and transparent not to be intentional. I seriously hope that she didn’t feel the need to ruin them just because they are a straight couple, because that would make her discriminatory and petty as fuck. This moment was seriously unwatchable and unbearable. I don’t have the proper words to describe the utter disgust I really experienced.

#sense8 #sense8 special #amor vincit omnia #i needed to give vent to my hurt feelings #and to expell some rage that is consuming me since june 8 #i'm grossed out #lana fucked up so hard I lost the respect I had towards her as a writer #this is beyond insanity #kalagang #anti rajalagang

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jugandbettsdetectiveagency · 7 years

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The Serpent and The Swan - Ch.8

My plan went a little further in this chapter originally but I’ve split it up so you’re not waiting as long for an update this time. I promise next chapter is filled with Betty and Jughead happiness, in the midst of all the drama!

Ch.1 / Ch.2 / Ch. 3 / Ch.4 / Ch.5 / Ch. 6 / Ch.7 / Read on AO3

Jughead ached all over. His entire body felt sore and mistreated, and that was probably because it had been.

He should have known something like this would happen. All the hints his father had been dropping, telling him to wait and see. He’d waited, he saw, and then he’d had an entire cavern’s worth of rocks dropped on top of him, pinning him helplessly to the ground while everything else crumbled around his useless body.

Betty. Her name echoed relentlessly through his throbbing head as his mind tried to swim back into consciousness.

What he wouldn’t have given to be able to see her face in that moment, and not just in the hazy, unfocused images his subconscious was producing as he found a weight pulling him back into the murky depths of sleep. He wanted to be able to hear her delicate laugh, to feel the warmth from her shy smile pouring over his face as she looked up at him with bashful eyes. Those wide eyes – he’d never stop getting lost in their impossible depths, full of every emotion he didn’t think he was capable of being shown, let alone reciprocating. Jughead had only had the honour of feeling her soft, inviting lips against his own once, and it was a memory he was sure he’d carry with him until his dying day, no matter how far or soon that day might be.

He’d been so distant from her, despite the gaping chasm it caused to open up in his chest, threatening to swallow him whole. The sight of her in his doorway, those eyes like shattered sea glass as she begged for him to open up, to let her in, in every sense of the words, haunted him even now. From the moment Queen Alice had announced the death of the King he knew. The last little part of him that had been clinging to the notion that Betty’s father’s illness was mere coincidence buckled and fell, leaving only the doubtless knowledge that FP had been involved somehow. He wanted to have faith in his father, longed for it even. But he’d wished for things before and knew that the universe was never so giving.

He groaned as whatever carriage he was in juddered to a stop, a harsh wind chilling him as soon as the door was wrenched open and he was shaken roughly.

“Come on, get up,” a gruff voice ordered, and Jughead put every last ounce of effort into opening his eyelids. It took a minute for him to adjust, but he could see one of his father’s lackeys waiting for him to move, and the flickering, orange glow of firelight just over his shoulder. “We don’t have all night,” he barked when Jughead still hadn’t made to move.

He stumbled out on weak legs, half dragged, half falling towards the small house in front of them, signs of life visible from within.

“Here,” the man demanded, pushing on Jughead’s shoulders to get him to sink into the wooden chair in the centre of the room. He put up no fight as he felt his arms being tugged behind him, coarse rope scratching at the soft skin of his wrists as they were bound behind him. Every instinct within him called out to struggle, but the energy to do so could not be summoned. The back of his head thumped rhythmically, matching the beat of his heart pumping blood around his limp body, and he vaguely recalled the feeling of glass shattering with his impact before the world succumbed to inky darkness.

“What…” Jughead tried to talk but all that came out was a wisp of a breath, his throat dry and raspy. He tried again. “What’s going on? Where are we?” he croaked, trying to get his eyes to focus on something, anything while they attempted to roll back into his head. His gaze landed on something in front of the fireplace, cast into shadow by the roaring flames, and he wished he hadn’t bothered.

There, in a crumpled heap, lay his father. His eyes went wide, dry lips dropping open to release a whoosh of air. His muscles went rigid as everything but FP’s lifeless form faded away. In the dim lighting Jughead could see the unnatural angle of his arm as it folded over his stomach, the cuts and bruises strewn across his worn, aged skin, including the river of dried blood running down the side of his face, stemming from the open wound at his temple.

“Is he…?” Jughead whispered, unable to tear his eyes away.

“Dead? Not quite,” came a voice from over his shoulder, a voice he recognised. It was then that he noticed the shallow movements of FP’s chest, rising and falling with some difficulty, but definitely steady and consistent. A sharp pain erupted behind Jughead’s forehead as he tried to look for the voice’s owner, emitting a low grunt as he grit his teeth in an effort not to cry out. “Comfortable, little snakelet?” Mustang sauntered into view, an obnoxious sneer plastered across his features.

“Where’s my sister?!” he yelled, searching the room for any sign of her.

“She should just be arriving home by now, she’s being taken care of.” The words didn’t offer him any comfort, unsurprisingly.

“What are you doing?” Jughead grunted, tugging against his restraints as he felt the spinning of the room start to subside, his strength growing.

“Ahh, the young prince is in the dark. Been spending too much time with that Swan bitch of yours, have you?” Mustang sneered. Jughead felt his blood boil at the mention of Betty, lunging for the man in front of him only to be stopped by the bonds that held him fast. “I have to say, we didn’t plan for the two of you to actually fall for each other. Guess you must have more charm than we realised,” he laughed heartily, circling Jughead the way predator hunts prey. It was a common analogy whenever someone dealt with the Serpents; people weren’t equals to them, they were objects to be conquered.

“So, what was the plan?” Jughead tried to ask calmly, tilting his head as he looked up at Mustang questioningly. “Get an in, kill the King, and then what? Get hunted for murder. You weren’t exactly subtle,” he spit, upper lip pulling back over his teeth in distaste.

Mustang just continued to grin, something unsettling beginning to press on Jughead’s chest until he could feel his heart pounding in his ears. He strolled lazily over to FP, crouching on the toes of his boots as he gripped the unconscious man beneath the chin, fingers clearly pressing down on his airways. FP gurgled softly in his slumber.

“Nah, you see… That’s where this nice little scapegoat comes in,” Mustang murmured, jerking FP’s head up, lowering his face to hover over him. “There’s a benefit to having a useless piece of shit for a ruler. Easy to blame.” He looked back over to Jughead, teeth glinting in the firelight.

“Why? What do you get out of this?” Jughead asked, genuinely at a loss. Mustang stood up, running a calloused hand over his dirt-matted hair.

“You ask a lot of questions, kid,” he said, jabbing an accusing finger at him.

“Then answer some,” Jughead retorted, refusing to back down. That earned him a grim chuckle.

“You’ve got more balls than your father, I’ll give you that.” He pulled up a chair, twisting it so the back faced forwards and straddled the seat. “You see this?” He tugged up his already rolled sleeve, exposing the S-shaped serpent tattoo inked prominently on his forearm. It wasn’t unusual for those in close keeping with the court to brand themselves with such a symbol. Jughead was thankful that the matter wouldn’t be pushed until he reached eighteen, not rushing to mar himself with the mark of a place he hadn’t been proud of in a long time. Mustang’s fingers ran over the image, trailing pointedly over the scar running straight through the middle. It was long and white, winding distinctly through the body of the double headed serpent, end to end. The cut must have been deep. “This is the mark of the Wyrm. It binds us, keeps us together, and together we are sick of seeing some drunken coward run our homeland into the ground. It’s time for change and we’re here to see it through,” Mustang finished proudly. There were distinct mutterings erupting from the crowd, of agreement and solidarity for who Jughead assumed was their ‘leader’. He scoffed.

“So you kill the Swan King? Are you stupid? What does that get you? You’ve committed treason in not just one but two factions,” he said, nodding his head towards FP’s inanimate figure. “The High Council is going to have a field day sentencing you – all of you,” he shouted, casting his gaze around the room, straightening as much as he could in his chair.

“The High Council won’t be a problem,” Mustang grinned maliciously, tapping two fingers against his tattoo once more. Jughead’s nostrils flared as he understood the insinuation. Panic started to bubble in his throat. He willed it down, breathing steadily as he recalled the sensation of riding through the grounds of Castle Aeris with Betty on horseback, the summer breeze wrapping around them in a cloak of youthful abandonment. How was he meant to keep her safe tied to a chair in the middle of nowhere, like an animal in a cage? He didn’t even know how many days they’d been travelling to get here.

“And what next? War? I’d like to see you try and get hold of enough resources to even get close to winning,” Jughead taunted. He knew the fastest way to get information out of Mustang would be to taunt him, to make him feel inadequate. It was working.

“It’s not that hard when you’ve got a backer,” he replied, all but flaunting his plan in the prince’s face. “And Clifford Blossom has been most accommodating.”

The Blossoms are in on this too, Jughead thought, mind racing. He thought back to all the visits that had brought Cheryl and her father to his home, King Clifford disappearing behind doors with his father to discuss any amount of unknown topics. Jughead knew he must not have done a very good job of hiding his horror because Mustang laughed freely.

“Not so smart now, are we?” he jeered. “Your father thought he was smart, too. All those meetings he took with King Clifford, talking about a union for the ‘strength and prosperity of our great factions’. Little did he know that union didn’t involve him, not in the slightest. You were never supposed to marry that perfect princess, you know? Your engagement to Princess Cheryl has been in the works for a long time. The plan just took a little detour, a way into the Swan’s nest so they could be attacked from the inside.

“FP just thought they were going to clean ‘em out, take them down by ridding them of their riches. He couldn’t wait; turns out he had a bit of grudge against their Queen for leaving him high and dry some years back.” Jughead’s brow furrowed. “He basically did all the work for us! All we had to do was swap the herb he was going to use to weaken the King for a slow working poison and that was it – one dead King. It was almost too easy,” Mustang joked. Jughead bristled; despite their less than favourable relationship, hearing these men talk about using his father this way sickened him to his stomach, almost as much as the thought of the bloodshed that was inevitably to come did. “Once King Clifford comes to power we’re going to get everything he promised us. Power beyond anything you could imagine,” Mustang bragged.

“They won’t go down without a fight,” Jughead tried, feeling himself losing with every second passing.

“Then a fight is what they’ll get,” Mustang retorted.

“I won’t marry Cheryl.” It was a last ditch attempt, said around a growing lump in his throat, words sounding thick and feeble even to his own ears.

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll have a choice, snakelet. Deal’s done.” He was looming over Jughead now, blocking all light from his vision as he towered over the prince, the victor taunting his conquest.

The room was silent save the bursting and crackling of firewood. Jughead had nothing left to say, no defences left to use. It was over.

He jumped at the sudden harsh rapping against the outside door, every man in the room reaching for their weapons as they took on defensive stances. Mustang gestured for one of them to go and open the door with a jerk of his head, readying his sword for the intruder. Jughead craned his neck, hoping beyond hope that his out was waiting just beyond the slatted wood. The door swung open, the lithe figure standing there bathed in moonlight.

“Hello, gentlemen. Thanks for waiting for me,” Joaquin said breezily, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. Mustang strode over to him, placing the tip of his blade pointedly at the base of the man’s throat.

“We didn’t know where your loyalties lie,” he said suspiciously, sizing him up. Joaquin’s expression remained unfazed, but Jughead was sure he could make out just a hint of wariness in the depths of his friend’s eyes as he surveyed the room, resting on Jughead for no more than a second. He blinked and it was gone, settling back into his usual stoicism.

“I place my trust in whatever is best for my faction,” he said firmly. “And if that no longer includes our King then far be it for me to stop whoever tries to rectify that fact.” He spoke with a calm measure that almost had Jughead believing him. Almost…

Mustang peered at him for a moment longer, eyes searching his face thoroughly. He must have been satisfied with what he found for a moment later he lowered his sword, nodding quickly while stepping back to let Joaquin inside.

“And I can help,” Joaquin continued, placing his back to Jughead, hands clasped behind him. “I was able to hear some of what they are planning to do after you left the castle. No one pays much mind a servant,” he reminded them. A sly smile slipped onto Mustang’s face. He clapped Joaquin approvingly on his shoulder, imploring him to share what he knew.

But Jughead wasn’t concerned with that, barely noticing the interaction. His gaze was focused solely on Joaquin’s hands, more specifically his upturned palm. He’d unfurled his fingers slowly, the movement catching Jughead’s attention, and there, nestled in the palm, was a shaky but unmistakable drawing of a rose.

Jughead’s heart stopped before picking up again in double time. Betty, it could only mean Betty. Was she here? She was foolish, so foolish, if she was – she could get hurt? Jughead felt a swell of affection despite his worries, the thought of her glowing presence so close by making his head spin all over again. He could practically feel her warm skin against his hands, smell her sweet, floral scent. He tried to keep his reaction minimal, allowing the conversations around him to filter back in.

“So, go on. Tell us what they’re going to try,” Mustang said excitedly, almost bouncing on his feet with the idea that he’d have even more advantage over the enemy. Joaquin sent a look over his shoulder, raising one eyebrow at Jughead. Jughead nodded subtly in return and Joaquin closed his fist.

“Perhaps we should do it out of earshot of certain prisoners. Just in case,” he suggested smoothly. Mustang glanced over at Jughead as if he’d forgotten he was even there in all his excitement.

“Fuck, yeah you’re right,” he agreed, looking around the room.

“Allow me,” Joaquin offered, moving swiftly over to untie Jughead and haul him up, gripping his arms a little on the uncomfortable side of tight, keeping up the façade. He made a show of retying Jughead’s wrists, and Jughead could feel the give in the new knot that wasn’t there before. Joaquin shoved him over to the far side of the room, opening the door there and pushing him through.

“The window,” he mouthed to Jughead before slamming the door and plunging him into darkness.

Jughead spun round, wrenching his hands free the first second he could, using his fingers to search along the walls. There was just barely a sliver of moonlight pouring through the cracks in the shutters and he fumbled for a moment before pulling them open.

Not two seconds after he’d got the window open a face appeared and Jughead was breathless.

He didn’t know how many days it had been since they’d last seen each other but he knew that it was too many, regardless. She was just as beautiful as he had remembered her to be, more so, the images his fogged brain had conjured up not doing her elegance justice. Her golden hair was wild and windswept, eyes bright and frantic as she gripped at the windowsill, finding his face in the darkness.

“Juggie,” she breathed, and all other thoughts left him.

She reached for him, pulling herself over the ledge by her hands on the back of her neck, her fingers slipping into his hair as she crushed her lips to his. He wondered briefly if they’d ever slow down, be able to explore and taste one anther unhurriedly, without the overwhelming desire to take as much as the other was willing to give. He’d give everything if it meant never having to be parted from her.

Their lips found a sweet rhythm, pushing and pulling in a frenzied dance until they were both without breath, gasping into one another’s mouths without restraint.

“I’m sorry, Betty,” he panted against her mouth, bringing his hands up to cradle her flushed cheeks, feeling damp trails against his fingertips. “I shouldn’t have pushed you away. I just thought my father…” He couldn’t resist dipping in for one more kiss, pressing against her with a bruising passion, communicating every apology he didn’t have the breath left to say.

“It’s okay,” she chanted, over and over, soothing him gently. “I understand it’s okay.” Her fingers didn’t stop combing through his hair, pulling him back from the brink.

“Betty, it’s bad. What they’re planning… I’m not sure if we can fight it alone,” he worried, tracing every last detail of her in case…

Just in case.

The sea of jade in her eyes solidified with a steely resolve that he had never witnessed before, sending shivers branching out across his shoulders and down the expanse of his back.

“We’ve got to try, Jughead. We can do nothing but try,” she affirmed, eyes darting over his shoulder at the sudden noise from the other room. “Come on, we have to leave quickly,” she whispered hurriedly, looping her hands around his arms to pull him through the window.

“Where are we?” Jughead asked in a whisper as they ran away from the building, unfamiliar with his surroundings.

“About three days ride south of the castle,” she informed him, securing the saddle of the white and grey horse tied under a covering of nearby trees, hushing her when she started to whinny softly. Jughead smirked.

“I see my lessons have paid off,” he teased, folding his arms across his chest. Betty rolled her eyes, untying the rope with nimble fingers.

“You can congratulate yourself later,” she huffed, an affectionate smile accompanying her words. “Climb up,” she instructed.

Jughead’s couldn’t help but eye up the dark horse tied to the neighbouring tree, gaze flitting between it and the building they’d just left. Betty’s eyes flooded with sympathy, following his train of thought. She rubbed a comforting hand over his arm.

“We have to go, Jughead. Joaquin said he’d be fine, that he’d try and follow as soon as he could,” she assured him, but he could see the doubt in her eyes, feel the hesitancy in his own. With gritted teeth he nodded, mounting the horse, only looking back to help Betty up behind him. He had to have faith in his friend’s abilities. Either that or try and convince himself that the only way he could help him was to move forwards.

“The Blossom’s faction is to the west, the Andrew’s to the east. If we head towards the latter we can make it to Polly’s farm around noon,” she instructed him, pointing in the right direction before wrapping her arms securely around his waist. Jughead nodded, sighing as he relaxed against her touch, gripping the reins firmly to start their journey.

Betty filled him in on her mother’s story as they rode, understanding finally dawning on Jughead as he heard about their parent’s pasts. In return, he told her everything he knew about the Whyte Wyrm.

“The Blossoms,” Betty whispered against his shoulder. “Of course. Mother said she didn’t trust them, that they’d had a hand in bleeding our faction dry with bad investments for the past few years,” she told him dejectedly. He stroked reassuring fingers across the hands locked over his stomach, as much as he could reach in their current position. He felt her responding kiss against his shoulder blade.

“I think that’s where they must be heading next, and if they have more members of their group riding up from the south it would make sense for them to have a meeting point halfway between the two,” Jughead mused, referring to the house they’d departed from. Betty hummed in response.

“If they’re moving on to the Blossoms we only have so long to gather a resounding army. Castle Aeris is the weakest its ever been, its defences completely down.” She took a breath. “I say we head on to the Hounds as soon as we’ve rested at Polly’s, warned her what might be coming. They already have an alliance with the Ravens which makes them twice as strong as they already were and they should be willing to help us. No one wants a kingdom entirely run by Blossoms,” she muttered in disdain.

Jughead didn’t reply, too lost in thought. Something Betty had said struck a chord within him, manifesting itself as an idea that was rapidly growing by the second.

“Jughead, what is it?” Betty asked in concern, sensing something was off.

“What you said, about the Hounds already having an alliance… well, it makes sense. To try and strengthen the factions as much as possible while we still have the chance,” he began slowly. Betty saw the flush creeping up his cheeks as he spoke, confusion causing her brow to crease.

“What do you mean?” she asked again, stroking encouraging fingers across his stomach. He swallowed visibly.

“If there’s a legal tie between the Serpents and the Swans it might incite pause, make some people reconsider which side they want to fight for.” He took a breath. “We should get married, Betty. As soon as we reached your sister’s village I want to marry you. Partly for completely selfish reasons, like the fact that I’ve never been more certain of anything as I am that I want to live out the rest of my days by your side. And… with everything happening those days could be limited.” Betty frowned, not wanting him to talk that way but she didn’t interrupt him. “Like I said, the union might help us strategically but… also… I want you to be mine.”

Betty wished she could have seen his face more clearly as he spoke, desperate to see the way he would look at her with that unmistakable sincerity that she had grown so used to seeing emanate from him. She bit her lip against the grin that threatened to split her face, trying not to focus on the twinge of guilt that plucked at her stomach for feeling so happy and contented in their current circumstances. She just couldn’t help it.

“Yes,” she whispered, stretching up to plant a quick, promising kiss to any exposed skin she could reach. “Yes, Juggie, a thousand times,” she continued despite the emotion clogging her throat. His relieved laugh filled her with an overwhelming hope, that they could make it through this, and that they could be together. She clung to him tighter as they headed over the fields towards their next stop.

#bughead #bughead fanfiction #bughead au #betty cooper #jughead jones #betty x jughead #riverdale #riverdale fanfiction #bughead fan fiction #jetty #writing

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therightnewsnetwork · 7 years

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PROFESSOR POSTS HIS WISH FOR WHITES: “LET THEM F**KING DIE!”

Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut is another fine illustration of the contemporary state of Higher Education. Johnny Eric Williams, a professor in its sociology department, is among the reasons why it enjoys this distinction.

On June 18, Williams—a black man—posted some blatantly anti-white remarks on his Facebook wall. Supposedly, after they went viral, Trinity and Williams were besieged with threats. Such was the alleged intensity and nature of the threats that administrators closed campus on the day of June 21.

Williams, for his part, maintains that he never meant for his remarks to be made public and that he was deliberately misconstrued by “conservative” sites.

You be the judge of this.

Below are two of Williams’ posts from June 18. The first reads:

“It is past time for the racially oppressed to do what people who believe themselves to be ‘white’ will not do, put [an] end to the vectors of their destructive mythology of whiteness and their white supremacy system. #LetThemFuckingDie.

And then there was the second:

“I’m fed the fuck up with self identified ‘white’s’ daily violence directed at immigrants, Muslims, and sexual and racially oppressed people. The time is now to confront these inhuman assholes and end this now.”

On June 16, Williams shared on his page an article from the Medium. The essay’s title is: “Let Them Fucking Die.”

The author, “Son of Baldwin,” prefaces his own remarks with a quotation from a Fusion piece that references the mass shooting of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise and his colleagues in Alexandria, Virginia. The article notes “the irony” that Scalise, a person who “kept company with racists” and “white supremacists” and who is “one of the most anti-LGBTQ politicians in Washington,” “may owe his life to a queer black woman.”

Son of Baldwin expresses his frustration over what this episode “symbolizes.” He asks: “What does it mean, in general, when victims of bigotry save the lives of bigots?”

The author launches into a rant that, in addition to being replete with lies, fallacies, and inaccuracies, suffers from a painfully conspicuous lack of originality. We have all heard this tirade before, tirelessly, for decades. It is the cardinal dogma of what I have elsewhere referred to as “Blackism,” precisely that ideology designed to grant instant racial “authenticity” to any and all blacks who affirm it:

Blacks are perpetual victims of perpetual White Oppression.

Son of Baldwin is clear as to the course of action that blacks who are in a position to help white “bigots” should take. His position is boldfaced type:

“Let. Them. Fucking. Die.”

But don’t just do this. Blacks should “smile a bit” when they let white “bigots” die, for they “have done the universe a great service.”

And in case there is any ambiguity as to when, exactly, blacks should allow white “bigots” to die, Son of Baldwin tries his best to dispel it in advance.

“If you see them drowning,” “in a burning building,” “teetering on the edge of a cliff,” or if “their ships are sinking,” “their planes are crashing,” or “their cars are skidding,” blacks should smile as they let these white “bigots” die.

Bear in mind that while Son of Baldwin’s focus on white bigots would seem to suggest that he is not referring to all white people, it is a certitude to anyone familiar with Blackist newspeak, the rhetoric of “white supremacy,” “institutional racism,” “white supremacy” and the like—rhetoric, not incidentally, that both Son of Baldwin and Johnny Eric Williams espouse—that all white people are “bigoted.”

Son of Baldwin underscores this interpretation when he writes about “white/cisgender/heterosexuals who practice bigotry (or do not believe they practice bigotry even when they do)” (emphasis added) [.]”

This is article that Professor Williams shared.

Ever since Williams became the focal point of this controversy, he has maintained that he does not endorse allowing individual whites to die. Rather, it is for the death of a system of “white supremacy” that he calls.

“I’m calling for the death of a system, white supremacy, not the death of white people.”

The President of Trinity College, Joanne Berger-Sweeney, condemned Williams’ use of the hashtag, “LetThemFuckingDie,” as “reprehensible and, at the very least, in poor judgment.” She added that, “No matter its intent, it goes against our fundamental values as an institution [.]” Before proceeding further, she has turned the matter over to the Dean of the Faculty to determine whether any college “procedures or policies were broken.”

Two Connecticut politicians, Republican House Leader Themis Klarides and state Senator George Logan, both Trinity graduates, wrote a letter to Berger-Sweeney imploring her to terminate Williams immediately. “We are calling upon the school to immediately, and permanently, remove Mr. Williams from the ranks of the school’s faculty,” they state.

Perhaps Professor Williams is sincere when he insists that it is not the demise of individual whites, but, rather, that of a system that he wants to see die. Judging from the quality, both stylistic and substantive, of his social media posts, this is a distinct possibility. It is a distinct possibility that Williams is genuinely as intellectually inept as someone would have to be not to recognize that, grammatically and logically, his posts can only be read as a call for allowing white “bigots,” “ignorant assholes,” i.e. a plurality of beings, not a single “system,” to die.

The other option is that Williams is a coward and a liar who is now retreating from his initial position because of the backlash to it. Williams very well may be receiving the shock of his life in being made to realize that it isn’t just black leftist SJWs that can get angry, that when people understandably think that someone is calling for their deaths, they will call for the same in return.

At any rate, decent people must condemn the threats of violence against Williams that are now allegedly being made against him. I for one won’t even call for his termination. This, though, is only because Williams is but a symptom of a much larger system that has long since gone to the bad.

For sure, there remain many committed college instructors who care deeply about supplying their students with a genuine liberal arts education. And, to be fair, many, possibly most, of these are liberal-left. Yet, regrettably, the Johnny Williams of the academy are legion. The only difference between Williams and the untold numbers of humanities professors at colleges and universities throughout the country is that Williams got caught for expressing his anti-white vision.

Removing him would be like removing one cockroach from an infestation and thinking that the problem is solved.

The pressure that is now being brought upon Williams must be brought by the public upon the whole Academic Industrial Complex, for Williams’ view is but a variant of the intellectually vapid and morally toxic ideology that dominates academia today.

Source: Jack Kerwick @ FrontPageMag.com

The post PROFESSOR POSTS HIS WISH FOR WHITES: “LET THEM F**KING DIE!” appeared first on Tea Party Tribune.

from http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/professor-posts-his-wish-for-whites-let-them-fking-die/

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patriotnewsblogger-blog · 7 years

Text

PROFESSOR POSTS HIS WISH FOR WHITES: “LET THEM F**KING DIE!”

New Post has been published on http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/professor-posts-his-wish-for-whites-let-them-fking-die/

PROFESSOR POSTS HIS WISH FOR WHITES: “LET THEM F**KING DIE!”

Williams, for his part, maintains that he never meant for his remarks to be made public and that he was deliberately misconstrued by “conservative” sites.

You be the judge of this.

Below are two of Williams’ posts from June 18. The first reads:

And then there was the second:

On June 16, Williams shared on his page an article from the Medium. The essay’s title is: “Let Them Fucking Die.”

Son of Baldwin expresses his frustration over what this episode “symbolizes.” He asks: “What does it mean, in general, when victims of bigotry save the lives of bigots?”

Blacks are perpetual victims of perpetual White Oppression.

Son of Baldwin is clear as to the course of action that blacks who are in a position to help white “bigots” should take. His position is boldfaced type:

“Let. Them. Fucking. Die.”

But don’t just do this. Blacks should “smile a bit” when they let white “bigots” die, for they “have done the universe a great service.”

And in case there is any ambiguity as to when, exactly, blacks should allow white “bigots” to die, Son of Baldwin tries his best to dispel it in advance.

This is article that Professor Williams shared.

“I’m calling for the death of a system, white supremacy, not the death of white people.”

Removing him would be like removing one cockroach from an infestation and thinking that the problem is solved.

Source: Jack Kerwick @ FrontPageMag.com

The post PROFESSOR POSTS HIS WISH FOR WHITES: “LET THEM F**KING DIE!” appeared first on Tea Party Tribune.

http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/professor-posts-his-wish-for-whites-let-them-fking-die/ %cats%

#conservative #republican #tea party

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