#I’m outnumbered
Text
The week before my period my body sides with my two cats and adds ten more times of me going into the kitchen for a glass of water and having to yell YOU JUST ATE before purposefully walking back out.
so… I’m having toast as third dinner. It has a one (1) centimeter thick layer of black-n-orange hagelslag with the little tiger faces on top.
0 notes
Text
Whumptober Day 8: Outnumbered, (alt) Betrayal
I originally gave up on today’s prompts because they were annoying but after I’d written this whole fic I realized outnumbered kind of works actually so! Regular prompt and an alt were used today ✌️
Read on ao3
Warnings: oh boy. Uh, mildly suggestive, dehumanization sort of..? Kind of human-trafficking vibes, but it doesn’t exactly occur. There’s some alcohol. Also a bit of being drugged. And mistreatment of fairies. ...I think that’s it.
————————————————————
A faint pink glow guided Hyrule, Warriors, and Time’s steps through a town in the captain’s time, a jingling that Hyrule knew was born out of nervousness accompanying the light.
The fairy led them all through the town, further and further away from the center and towards the unlit stores and quiet docks. The night only seemed to grow darker, and Hyrule found himself keeping closer to the other’s sides, a feeling of apprehension he couldn’t ignore making his stomach clench.
Right as he was about to ask if the fairy really knew where she was leading them, she zipped down a side street, sparkles trailing behind her, and finally bobbed to a stop.
Hyrule looked up, and grimaced.
The fairy had led them to a building with its windows still lit despite the late hour, her dark pink light catching on a crude portrait of a great fairy holding an overflowing flagon of ale. Faint laughter filtered through the cracks in the door, and Hyrule thought he caught a whiff of alcohol.
Oh hooray, a tavern.
Hyrule gave the picture on the sign a look of distaste, but before he could say anything, the door abruptly swung open. Two men walked out, and the three heroes, ducked around a corner so as not to be seen. A hiccuping laugh came from the one man, and the other slapped him on the back as they stumbled away, neither walking straight.
“So this is where you saw the men take Proxi?” Warriors whispered as the revelers disappeared from sight. The fairy jingled an affirmative as she poked her head out from his scarf, practically shaking with fear.
“Mm-hm. Th-they put her in a tiny bag, one way too small!” she squeaked, sounding terrified. “And she’s not the only one, they had lots of other fairies! I followed them here, but I couldn’t find anywhere to get inside without being seen, and... and I didn’t want to get caught as well.”
She sniffled, and Warriors gave her a gentle smile from where she’d perched on his shoulder.
“It’s alright, we’ll get her and the others back,” he assured, but the fairy still seemed nervous, her wings fluttering anxiously.
“You should get somewhere safe, if these people want fairies you’ll be in danger here,” Time warned, and the fairy quivered in fear. “We don’t want anyone else getting caught. Who knows what they’re doing in there.”
He glanced at Hyrule as he spoke, and Hyrule sighed, knowing the older hero was wondering if he should stay back or not. Time and Warriors were both aware he had fairy blood, and Hyrule could see why they would be concerned, but he wasn’t going to stay back just because of that.
“They won’t know I have fairy blood, and I’m not planning on telling them,” Hyrule said quietly, and glared back at the sign. “And I’m not sitting this out.”
Time nodded with a sigh, and Hyrule thought he caught a flicker of worry in his eye before he turned back to the fairy.
“What’s your decision, little one?”
“I-I’ll stay hidden with you,” the fairy replied quickly, and Hyrule could tell she wasn’t keen on leaving the three of them. She obviously felt safer around the heroes, and Hyrule couldn’t blame her.
Fairies being kidnapped was never a sign of anything good.
“All right, well, looks like we’re going in,” Warriors sighed, and Time nodded, straightening.
“Looks like it. We may want to split up though, I believe we’ll attract less attention that way,” Time said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. “Perhaps I can go in, and you two can follow together?”
Hyrule and Warriors nodded. He didn’t really think it mattered much, but if Time thought that was best, then who was he to argue?
Warriors suddenly raised a hand and began to muss his hair up a bit, making it look more scruffy. Hyrule stared as the captain then kicked some dirt off his boots, running it through his hair and making his blond seem more of a sandy color. Then he tucked his scarf inside his bag, and pulled out a cloak instead, nicely made, but in a dark enough weave so as not to attract attention.
“I’m the local hero, Traveler,” he said at Hyrule’s confounded look, “I don’t exactly blend in.”
“Oh! Right,” Hyrule said sheepishly, feeling foolish for not realizing what the captain was doing. He thought he’d... well, he’d honestly had no clue what he was doing.
Time hid a smile as he left their hiding spot and casually strolled into the tavern. A small burst of sound leaked into the alley with the opening of the door, then was silent again.
“You should be fine,” Warriors directed at Hyrule as he made sure their fairy was tucked safely out of sight in his cloak. “I would be shocked if anyone recognized you or Time... but if you have a cloak you might want to put it on.”
Hyrule nodded as the captain finished off his disguising, and pulled his own cloak tight around himself, looking at the tavern with no small trepidation. It didn’t seem like the sort of place he wanted to hang around, especially based on the drunken laughter that occasionally filtered through the cracks in the door.
He’d had very few good experiences in bars, and had a funny feeling this one would be no different.
They waited a few minutes to distance themselves from Time a bit more, and then Warriors walked over to the door, Hyrule following resignedly.
“Well here we go,” he grumbled, and pushed open the door before Warriors could, the captain following him into the noisy place.
Hyrule tensed, half expecting all sorts of horrible things as they entered, but... nothing seemed out of place. There was a strong smell of alcohol, sweat, and water damage from the nearby docks. The seats were mostly filled despite the late hour, and barely a head turned when Warriors and Hyrule walked in. The large woman manning the bar did glance at them, but then went back to wiping her counter, glaring at a man who spilled a few drops of his drink.
It just seemed like... a normal bar.
“Are we sure this is the place?” Hyrule muttered, and Warriors shrugged, looking around.
“If they’re keeping fairies for some reason, they wouldn’t do it in the open,” he murmured back, then plastered a casual smile on his face. “Let’s see what we can find out.”
They shoved their way to a clear table, Warriors easily blending in with the atmosphere. Hyrule followed suit, and they weren’t bothered as they ordered some drinks and sat down. Hyrule spotted Time across the room from them at a different table, but Hyrule knew better then to stare at him too long and attract attention, and he kept his gaze away.
Instead he studied the atmosphere of the tavern, wincing a little whenever the general noisiness upturned for whatever reason. The place wasn’t as rowdy as some places Hyrule had ended up inside, but it certainly wasn’t quiet, and uneasiness was still churning in his stomach.
He wasn’t sure if it was merely worry over the captured fairies, or something else... but something about this place was making the hair on his neck prickle.
“The men at the table next to you,” their fairy friend suddenly spoke up, just loud enough for Warriors and Hyrule to hear, “they’re the ones who took Proxi, I recognize their faces!”
Warriors nodded, and casually looked around the room while Hyrule flicked his eyes over at the men the fairy had indicated. They were a group of four, with varying appearances, but all of them looked shifty to Hyrule, covered in scars with weapons at their hips.
They were discussing something in low voices, and Hyrule casually leaned over, straining his ears.
“...thing bit me,” one man was saying, looking mad as he rubbed his hand. Hyrule could see bandages peeking from under his sleeve. “And it smarts too, this better have been worth it.”
“It will be, she says the buyer pays extra for the blues. It was lucky we found that one earlier,” a thin man said in a calming voice. “Though even just the pinks we’ve got in the back’ll be enough to set us up for life.”
The others seated at the table grinned, and Hyrule glanced at Warriors, looking to see if he’d heard. By the grave expression on his face, it was clear he had.
“I wonder what the buyer does with them anyway,” the first man said as he sipped at his drink. “Who’d want a bunch of fairies?“
Hyrule felt a flicker of indignation.
“Sells ‘em to doctors or something probably, who cares?” another drawled, taking a large draught of his beverage. “‘S long as we get paid.”
“Ah, but have you ever taken a good look at some of them? If they were a bit bigger, I think I’d want a few,” a man with scars all over his arms said. He smirked. “I saw a Great once, and if the little ones are anything like that... well, sign me up.”
The table burst into laughter, and anger rose in Hyrule’s chest as they began arguing about what the most attractive feature they’d seen on a fairy was, growing more and more descriptive— and crude— as they went.
One of them said something particularly lewd, and they roared with drunken laughter, Hyrule’s face growing hot with fury.
He was about to leap to his feet, but Warriors put a hand on his arm, keeping him from getting up. Hyrule nearly threw him off as he heard another one of them laugh again, feeling himself begin to shake with rage.
How dare they?
“Traveler, fighting these men won’t help us figure out what’s going on,” Warriors said in a low voice, and pulled Hyrule back down. “We need to be patient.”
“I’m not going to sit here and let them talk about fairies like— like that,” Hyrule hissed, but Warriors didn’t move. “Captain let me up, don’t you care—”
“It won’t change anything to confront them. They obviously don’t have the fairies with them, and fighting them might wreck any chance we have of getting them back,” Warriors said firmly, something sharp in his voice.
Hyrule finally looked at Warriors’ face, and realized the captain was just as angry as he was, blue eyes cold with rage. Somehow knowing that Warriors was equally outraged by the discussion made his own anger cool a bit, and he stopped trying to pull out of his hold, slumping in his seat.
“Fine. Then what’s the plan?” he asked, hunching his shoulders when the men at the table next to them laughed again.
“I’ll try and get some more information from our... friends, here, while you see if you can get in there,” Warriors explained quietly, tilting his head towards a curtained off doorway. “They said they had the fairies in the back, I’d assume that’s where they meant.”
“I saw them through the window earlier, they definitely went back there,” their fairy peeped from Warriors’ cloak, sounding even more scared.
“Fine. Good luck,” Hyrule murmured, and slipped into the crowd before Warriors could reply.
He made his way over to a shadowy spot next to the door, jostled and bumped nearly the entire way. Squeezing past a particularly large man, Hyrule tucked himself in the corner and waited patiently for an opportunity to slip through the door. He glanced over at Time while he waited, and saw that he was chatting rather amiably with the woman at the bar, an easy-going smile on his face.
Well hopefully he’s doing something useful, Hyrule thought to himself, still angry at the conversation he’d overheard. He knew Warriors was right about not fighting yet, but listening to them discuss fairies like that had lit a rage in him that wouldn’t be going away any time soon.
It’s no wonder fairies tend to hide from Hylians.
A barmaid finally walked past him into the back room, and Hyrule silently followed her past the curtain, finding himself in a dark storage room.
It appeared to be mostly kitchen items, extra food and barrels of what Hyrule assumed was alcohol of some kind. There were no fairies in sight, and Hyrule frowned as the barmaid left, looking around the room. It seemed like every other storage-type room he’d seen of this kind; messy, somewhat dirty, and no sign of anything illegal.
Well... not obvious ones anyway.
Hyrule began combing the room, his heart thudding in his chest. The bad feeling he had was even more intense now, and it made it difficult to focus on finding anything out of the ordinary. He kept having to hide when the barmaid returned multiple times, but he continued to look, aware that the longer he was back here, the more likely it was he’d be caught.
He was nearly on the verge of leaving and seeing if Warriors had had better luck, when suddenly he realized the crates in the corner were stacked oddly, like nobody ever actually wanted what was inside them.
Hyrule quickly went over to the stack, and noticed the faint outline of a door behind the crates, so similar to the wall it was nearly impossible to see unless you knew it was there.
Ah-hah.
Hyrule pushed the crates aside as quietly as possible, wincing at the creaking they made, then carefully turned the knob and slipped inside.
And nearly fell to his knees.
The room had no windows, but it didn’t need them, the inside lit by the countless jars lining the walls, all crammed to the brim with fairies. Several of them had at least three in one jar, a few filled tight with even more, and Hyrule couldn’t do anything but stare at them all in horror for a moment.
Most of the fairies were fluttering around in the jars, some swirling in more panicked circles, but some were lying worryingly still at the bottoms, their glows faint. The distressed magic from all of them was enough to make Hyrule’s head spin, chimes ringing in his ears, and he nearly tripped when he finally stepped forward.
How could someone do this?
“Traveler?”
He turned around at the whisper, and saw Warriors slip inside behind him, looking grim.
“Those men didn’t have anything to say to me, they must have thought I just wanted in on the money. I don’t think... oh. Farore preserve us,” he whispered as he looked around, and Hyrule swallowed.
He felt sick to his stomach all of a sudden, and barely noticed as Warriors stepped fully into the room, looking around in horror. The fairies noticed their presences then, and the chiming in the room grew even louder, frantic and hopeful as they realized who they were.
”Is that Link?”
“No, it’s his friend! Brother!”
“It’s Link and his friend!”
“Brother! Fairy kin!”
“Are you here to get us out?!”
“Brother please save us!”
“Brother!”
“Link!”
“Everybody quiet! Are you trying to bring the enemy in here?!”
At the bossy chime, the other fairies quieted down, and Hyrule looked around for the familiar voice that had spoken. One of the few blue glows in the room caught his eye, and Warriors perked up.
“Proxi!”
“Link!” she said with a happy jingle, and Hyrule smiled as Warriors reached up to gently take the bottle she was trapped in. “You’re here to save us?”
“We are,” Warriors assured, cradling the bottle. Hyrule swallowed back his nausea and joined his side, frowning at the sight. Three other fairies were pressed inside of the bottle with Proxi, and she herself was near the bottom, her blue glow dim.
“...Are you okay?” Hyrule asked in concern, and Proxi hesitated.
“She got hurt when they captured us,” another fairy said quietly.
“You’re hurt?” Warriors said sharply, and Proxi let out a dismissive jingle.
“Oh I’m fine, can you get us out?” Proxi asked a little impatiently, and Warriors sighed, then nodded, tugging at the cork.
It didn’t budge though, and no matter what Warriors did it refused to come out. Hyrule tried then, but he didn’t have any luck either, and they looked at each other in dismay.
They didn’t want to hurt the fairies, so they couldn’t try breaking the glass. Melting it or using anything heavy was out of the question as well, as were most methods Hyrule could think of, but how were they going to free all of the fairies if they couldn’t even open the jars?
“I think they must be magically sealed,” Hyrule said morosely after they’d tried everything they could think of. “There’s no way this cork is this strong without some help.”
“I don’t like what that means for this whole operation,” Warriors murmured, still carefully holding the bottle. “If they have enough resources to get so many magically sealed jars... this might be bigger than we thought.”
Hyrule swallowed, his stomach still unsettled.
“So what do we do?”
“Fetch Time, I suppose,” Warriors sighed. “See if he has any ideas. We need to tell him we found the fairies anyway, and I don’t see us figuring anything out any time soon.”
“He probably has an item or something that just opens bottles,” Hyrule said with a faint smile. “Or a mask.”
Warriors almost smiled back. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Someone’s coming!” a fairy by the door suddenly squealed, her voice shrill with alarm. Warriors carefully set the jar containing Proxi and the other fairies back on the shelf, then dove behind a discarded crate with Hyrule, the both of them ducking down as much as possible as the door slid open.
“...saw someone by the storage room, and those guards were in earlier. We better start shipping out tonight,” a voice said, and footsteps tromped into the room. “...Ugh, this place always makes my head hurt when we’re full.”
Hyrule pressed tighter against Warriors’ side as the voice drew near, trying to make himself smaller. The crate really wasn’t a good hiding spot, but there was nothing else in the room big enough to shelter behind.
Multiple sets of footsteps moved over to their side of the room, right next to the crate they were behind, and Hyrule nearly stopped breathing, forcing himself to stay still. Warriors swallowed, and Hyrule could feel his heart thudding where his head had ended up on his chest.
“Well you won’t have to deal with it much longer,” a different voice drawled, and Hyrule recognized it as one of the men who’d been at the table. “Once we load these in the hold you’ll be fine.”
It was silent for a minute, and Hyrule found himself holding his breath.
“Besides, we have other business to take care of.”
The crate Warriors and Hyrule were tucked behind suddenly lit up like a flare, a pink so dark it was nearly red flashing above them.
Hyrule was nearly blinded by the light, but when he looked up in shock, he saw the fairy that had guided them to the tavern chiming and flashing a deafening alarm, showing exactly where they were hidden.
Before Hyrule could even reach for his sword, he and Warriors were yanked out from behind the crate and restrained, unable to escape. They both kicked out and struggled, Hyrule even trying to bite the men that had grabbed him, but they were grossly outnumbered, and quickly subdued.
Both were tied up and shoved against the wall, but Hyrule only had eyes for the fairy who had come to them in tears earlier because she’d seen Proxi be kidnapped. She was floating right next to one of the men who they’d overheard at the table earlier, and a sickening feeling rolled through Hyrule.
“How could you?” he asked, anger and disbelief warring inside of him. How could a fairy fall so far to betray her own kind like that?
The fairy’s glow dimmed.
“They said they would hurt my sister,” she whimpered, and Hyrule felt a brief stab of pity.
“If you’d told us the truth, we could have helped you,” Warriors cut in with a grave look, and the fairy turned away.
The other fairies on the walls had been chiming frantically throughout all of this, Proxi’s voice shouting the loudest of them all, and making a truly deafening racket that only grew when Hyrule and Warriors were tied up. The men were obviously growing sick of it, and the one with the scarred arms abruptly drew a knife and pressed it to Hyrule’s neck, then looked around at the fairies.
“Shut up now, or he loses his life.”
The fairies went dead quiet.
The scarred man waited a second, then withdrew his dagger, placing it back into a holder at his waist. “Thank you. I would’ve hated to get blood on the floor.”
“Have you no shame?” Warriors snapped. “What you’re doing here is cruel, you can’t put that many fairies in one bottle without endangering their lives!”
The men laughed, and one looked Warriors up and down.
“Great, a knight with morals. Do we kill him?”
“Nah, look at his face, he’s a handsome one,” someone else spoke up. “Bet we could get good money for him downriver.”
Warriors slightly paled, but his cold expression didn’t change.
“What about the kid?”
“I’m not a kid,” Hyrule said, and didn’t flinch from the scarred man’s gaze when he strode up to him. “And you’re going to regret every single thing you’ve done here today.”
The man chuckled. “The only thing I’m going to regret today is that I didn’t make more money then I’m already going to.”
He leaned right up into Hyrule’s face, and the traveler still glared at him despite how his heart was thumping. His eyes trailed across his face, pausing when they got to his eyes, and he studied them in silence for longer then was normal.
“...Take them both. We can figure out what to do with them after we’re on our way,” he said as he leaned back, a deceptively easy-going smile on his face. “I think there’s more to them then meets the eye.”
He looked directly at Hyrule when he spoke, and the traveler’s blood ran cold.
He knows.
Warriors gave him a wide-eyed look, but then cloths were shoved over both of their noses, a sickly smell coming off of them. Hyrule struggled not to breathe, knowing it would be bad if he did, but he hadn’t had a chance to take a deep breath.
Time had better notice we’re gone soon, he thought desperately, watching as Warriors began to slump next to him. Or we’re going to be in serious trouble.
Something struck his chest, and Hyrule gasped in spite of himself, breathing deeply of the sweet smell of the cloth. His head immediately began to swim, and he took in another breath without thinking. A voice said something above him, and Hyrule slumped against Warriors’ side as his senses began to leave him, one last flicker of desperation fighting to keep him awake.
He couldn’t let them do this he... he couldn’t...
Hyrule’s vision swirled into a black void, and he fell limp against Warriors’ shoulder, totally unconscious.
Time was their only hope now.
#this will be continued on another day :]#linkeduniverse#linked universe#lu hyrule#lu warriors#lu time#linked universe fanfic#whumptober#whumptober 2023#day 8#alt prompt#betrayal#outnumbered#writing from the floor#I’m picking on Hyrule’s magic/fairy ties again sorry my guy 😔#this is only sort of whump but#well#I got caught up in the story alright I admit it#the next part will definitely have whump though hehe
92 notes
·
View notes
Note
we need to post a poll just to find out if the majority of your audience or english or Elsewhere. ngl I thought most were american
they definitely are mostly american but my beloved english followers like to crawl out of the woodwork sometimes 🫶🏼
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
Not to let my Animorphs past nip at my heels too too much, but…
I think what Jason Todd really needs is his own version of—
“You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered.”
Let him have an arc with people he saved or helped as Robin.
Or, hell, people/kids he helped BEFORE Bruce, when he was living on the streets!
Obviously, Jason had a deep connection with Bruce. Which is why it destroyed him to find out that the Joker was still alive. Because, when you think about it, avenging someone’s death isn’t so much about their death as it is about their life.
That someone’s existence was so important to you—that they mattered so much—that the one who caused the absence in your life MUST be dealt with accordingly.
Now, we all know Jason won’t get the kind of satisfaction he craves from Bruce.
BUT!
I do think it would help him to see that his life had meaning. That he helped people. That he was good. That he mattered.
And for that to happen outside of Bruce.
(As a sidenote, I also think this is why it would be nice for Jason to learn about the whole “Dick killing the Joker after he namedropped Jason” thing. Because, again, I think it would help to reinforce that Bruce wasn’t the only one who recognized his existence. Bruce wasn’t the only one who had the capacity to acknowledge that Jason mattered.)
#that quote always messes me up.#little wintry mix of Doylism and Watsonian thoughts. Doylistically—I think this would help the character evolve in a way that was organic…#…to their pre-existing narrative and characterization.#Watsonian: Jason Todd needs someone to fucking acknowledge his existence mattered BEFORE he died.#look…animorphs primed me to consider the moral and psychological ramifications of enlisting child soldiers to fight a guerilla war…#against a force they were constantly outnumbered and outgunned by.#you can see the crossovers here I’m sure.#late night blorbo rambles.#also everyone should read Animorphs. and Everworld.
85 notes
·
View notes
Text
My 2023 art summary :)
#this mel's art#art 2023 summary#blood tw#we have significantly improved the number of women in this year’s art log yippee#because erm. last year was hobbyani binge. and. women rep in hobbyani is in hell.#this time the ladies even outnumber the guys yippeee 🎉#the only character who’s on this and last year’s summary is Haku Kurenai and idk what emotion that makes me feel#ehhhhh I’m not tagging specific fandoms because I’m lazy but I guess if you wanna know who anyone is just ask
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
Whumptober 2023, Day 8: "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier."
Whumptober 2023 Masterlist
Read at your own risk! They're only snippets of a larger story, with no resolution that will be posted online anytime soon; they are being posted out of order; and the characters don't have names. Enjoy!
Contents: angst, death, murder, arrest, vicious rumours/false accusations
Previous | Masterlist | Next
Word count: 1250 || Approx reading time: 5 mins
"I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier."
Teaser: And to be safe, she needed to be free—far from the man who’d taken her away because he believed he could, that his royal blood made him all-powerful, that he deserved to have his fists curled tightly around anything or anyone he pleased. He’ll never let go, she’d said. He’ll never give up.
"I'll never be a hero who all the citizens adore / But if I hide to save my life, what has my life been for?"
The scholar watched her go.
He watched her vanish, watched her wide eyes shimmer with tears as she made her escape.
Met her gaze when, for the most agonizingly beautiful instant, she looked back.
And then was gone.
“I’ll distract him,” he promised. Breath stuttering in his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and wondered if she could feel how his heart thundered against her shivering form.
“Come with me,” she whispered. “Please. But we have to go. Now.”
We have to go. Away from here, away from the castle, away from the place that had turned her visit from a holiday into hell.
He wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to say yes, to let her cling to him—and to let himself cling back—for all of eternity, to let centuries pass them by in perfect harmony and happiness. He wanted to. He wanted her.
“I don’t want to go without you,” she said, squeezing more tightly.
He needed her.
He needed her safe.
And to be safe, she needed to be free—far from the man who’d taken her away because he believed he could, that his royal blood made him all-powerful, that he deserved to have his fists curled tightly around anything or anyone he pleased. He’ll never let go, she’d said. He’ll never give up.
That she had escaped his grasp on her own was a miracle.
If he finds me again, he’ll never let me leave.
So the scholar pulled away, clasping her hands as their bodies peeled apart, loath to put any cruel, miserable distance between them, yet knowing he had no choice. He made his promise again. “I’ll distract him.”
Of course, she knew; she must have; she knew him inside and out; she knew his very soul. He was no soldier, no fighter. “What—what are you going to do?” Her fingers tightened, still tangled in his. “They think you’re the one who—”
“I know.”
“They think you killed me.”
“I know.”
She shook her head, those fragile bird’s-wing bones trembling against his. “Please don’t—You can’t—”
“I’ll just distract him long enough for you to run,” he said. Tugged his hand free. Brushed a lock of hair from her dirt-streaked cheek, relishing the silken smoothness of her skin for what was sure to be the very last time. “Then I’ll—I’ll run. I’ll find you.”
Empty words, a hollow promise, a vow of nothing.
“But they think you did it,” she said again, echoing the rumours, the warnings that had been circling him for days, the words that would haunt his memory for the rest of his life. “They’ll arrest you. They’ll kill—”
“They won’t.” He did not know if that was true. “I can’t let him hurt you again. I won’t.” Overcome with too many thoughts, too many fears, too many jabs of paralyzing terror that would conquer him if he allowed it, he drew her close again. One final embrace.
Against him, she shuddered.
“I will find you,” he whispered, despising himself for the lie. He wrapped his coat around her to hide her stained and ripped dress, almost unrecognizable from its former loveliness. Why hadn’t he thought to give it before? “Now. Run. Please.”
“Don’t get hurt,” she said. There were tears on her cheeks. Why? He wished she wouldn’t weep for him. He was a liar and a coward, a fool who’d spent an entire lifetime quailing at conflict and lying to himself. To the end, he knew, those things were what he would remain, even as he did this, this preposterous thing, this stupid but courageous but illogical but selfless thing.
Nothing but a coward.
I love you, he was supposed to say, sealed with a kiss that contained everything that swelled inside him but which he could not put into words. Instead, he said, “Run.”
The scholar watched her go.
***
He was no fighter, but he was a magicwielder, and he was in love with a girl who everyone else believed was dead—who, they believed, he had murdered in cold blood.
He could not protect his reputation, but he could protect her.
He saw the looks, the gazes that turned from confusion to suspicion to astonishment. As recognition flashed across their faces.
I’ll distract him.
But the soldier—who was supposed to see him and, bound by duty, arrest him for his supposed crimes—kept walking, even as those he commanded realized that a wanted man was in their midst.
The commander would find her. He was looking for her, and she could not outrun him. He would find her and bring her back to the prince, and they would lock her away, shut her up in the dark. A girl of leaves and sea air and sunlight, and the prince and his commander would keep her until she wilted and died.
He would use her, she’d choked against his shoulder. She had something they wanted, something she’d kept hidden from everyone, something they’d discovered and were unwilling to relinquish.
No. The scholar wouldn’t allow it. If she wanted to hide, she must have had her reasons.
If he let the prince take her away and hurt her some more…
He wouldn’t forgive himself.
Never.
He raised his hands, magic crackling at his fingertips, and he froze the commander in his tracks. Although he saw the man begin to shake and his eyes to bulge in confusion, other images overtook his senses: her gleaming tears, her torn dress, her bruised wrists.
Her teasing, pealing laugh, the ethereal whisper of her hair against his fingers, the musical sweep of her bare feet through fragrant, luscious grass.
He unleashed his magic and watched the soldier stiffen, as if his bones would crack and shatter. He halted. He fell.
“Commander!”
Shouts from far away.
“Commander?”
And then—
“It’s—it’s him! There!”
He was discovered now for the act he was committing, but the scholar knew he could not run. He was weak. A coward. A liar.
Words flowed over him, words he knew he should heed, but he had to stop the commander from getting up again, had to keep the attention on him, had to make sure she got away.
“Commander!”
“Don’t move!”
“He’s magicwielding!”
“Someone stop him!”
“Sir!”
“Stand down!”
“Commander!”
“He’s not breathing!”
“Get him!”
“He’s dead!”
The scholar released his hold, sudden dread coursing through his blood.
Dead?
No.
No.
He hadn’t wanted to—
I’ll distract him. Run. Please.
A diversion, an opportunity.
That was all he—
“I said, he’s dead!”
How?
The scholar stared down at his hands, hands that had never before wielded power strong enough to do what he had just done.
A crowd pressed in around him—too many, too many. Someone knocked him to the ground, and as his glasses went flying and the world turned to a soft watercolour blur, he was awash in shattering pain and biting terror.
“You killed him!” someone roared. “You killed the commander!”
“N—no.” It couldn’t be true. But they’d said. He hadn’t. But they’d screamed it out. He’s dead, he’s dead. But he was a coward, and he was weak. You killed him. But he couldn’t have. “I didn’t—”
“He’s dead, you murdering bastard!”
I wasn’t trying to—
Noise rose around him, furious and panicked, coalescing into one thick wall of sound. Words and words and words and screams and words and bellows, so many voices, too many, too much. Nonsensical. Foreign. Commander. Magic. Him. The girl. Dead. Dead.
Under arrest.
Murderer.
Dead.
Doomed.
Previous | Masterlist | Next
#whumptober2023#no.8#lyric#“I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.”#outnumbered#oc#original content#fic#angst#death tw#murder tw#arrest tw#vicious rumours#false accusations#lps man of letters
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
This us amazing actually i love the vibes
#at a little pride event beforehand#and it’ so cool#I’m definitely outnumbered as a Boston fan#But !!!!#pwhl#pwhl lb
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
trying to find women roommates is like being a lesbian on dating apps. No matter how hard you try to filter them out, there will be a shitload of surprise men.
i just got the “we’re actually a straight couple looking for a third :)” of apartment hunting. I was talking to this woman who was renting out a room. I had to *directly ask* who lived there before she revealed that she had a WHOLE HUSBAND and an UNCLE WHO LIVES IN THE BASEMENT like girl you already have roommates
#I’m not hardline against living with men *my age*#But I don’t want to be outnumbered and don’t want anything to do with men way older than me.#I don’t wanna be like “NO BOYS ALLOWED!!! GIRLS ONLY” but I do need the 40-something men to stop sliding into my messages
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
thinking about 4-sided dive and Taliesin talking about Bells Hells being npcs and like...
Reality itself works so different for PCs and NPCs. There’s the obvious class level things but also like. Death saves are a PC thing - it’s an optional rule for NPCs and honestly not widely used. Unless they’re the big bad, or it’s specified nonlethal, basically anyone the main characters knock to 0 is instantly dead, whereas you usually have to work to kill a PC permanently.
There are a lot of fallacies that dnd parties tend to fall into as they get higher levels and less attached to the world. Getting super rich and just giving away gold like it’s nothing when it’s a full days labor. Expecting to find high level magic items for sale in backwater towns or get someone to cast spells for them. Being surprised that the random townie they hit has <5 hp.
Main Characters get to live in the cartoon logic world where they can get stabbed in the gut and be better with a good nights rest, versus everyone else living in this grimdark world where all of these attacks cause serious, permanent injuries, and even if they do get brought up from 0 they’ve got months of recovery.
Every other member of the Bells Hells has either always been close enough to Adventurers that they got caught in the bubble (Orym, FCG) or have been weird long enough they forgot it’s not normal (Chetney, Laudna, Imogen) if they ever knew (Fearne). But Ashton? Ashton feels like they still view the world the way they did as an npc thug.
Of course you run and leave people behind. The only healing you have is potions, and once someone’s down chances are even that won’t bring them up. What’re you gonna do with a corpse, bury it? That’s not worth a life, you leave them behind, no second thoughts...
And going from cartoon world to grimdark world is scary af, suddenly realizing what you do leaves scars - but it’s nothing compared to the reverse. Going from violence having consequences to it all being fixed in the morning. Learning that this could all have been fixed so easily but instead you were watching people be hurt - learning that it’s relatively cheap to bring people back from the dead. That’s horrifying.
#critical role#Ashton greymoore#bells hells#cr meta#this is very ramble but is like 2am I’m justified#something about the hells saying you never leave someone behind to the cut purse who tried to run#while they had everyone else dead on the ground and outnumbered 8 to 1#and the expectation from the group Ashton was gonna kill the wizard#and instead they just rifled through their pockets and stole their shit like a cutscene reset#def projecting some of my favorite tropes here but#it’s the way adventuring parties don’t internalize the fact that what they do is just murder#vs the POV of someone deeply aware of the fact#and like he’s fine with it but he’s kind of worried that they don’t get it
73 notes
·
View notes
Text
my favourite…
music artists:
little mix
leighanne
anne marie
mimi webb
rita ora
olivia rodrigo
zara larsson
leah kate
one direction
songs (atm):
my love by leighanne
don’t say love by leighanne
no time for tears by little mix
secret love song by little mix
shout out to my ex by little mix
one i’ve been missing by little mix
cuckoo by anne marie
bad girlfriend by annemarie
haunt you by annemarie
i’ll break my heart again by mimi webb
good without by mimi webb
back home for christmas by mimi webb
get him back by olivia rodrigo
good for you by olivia rodrigo
tv shows:
gilmore girls
heartstopper
ginny and georgia
little mix the search ofc
outnumbered
alexa and katie
i’m a celeb lmao
movies:
boxing day
mean girls
dear evan hansen
lm5 the tour film (ik it’s not the same but it counts in my mind)
enola holmes
actors:
millie bobby brown (enola - enola holmes)
leighanne pinnock (georgia - boxing day)
kit connor (nick - heartstopper)
kizzy edgell (darcy - heartstopper)
corinna brown (tara - heartstopper)
antonia gentry (ginny - ginny and georgia)
sara weisglass (maxine - ginny and georgia)
alexis bledel (rory - gilmore girls)
ellie leach (faye - coronation street)
#lols have this#it might not be pinned but here#now i love all the heartstopper cast but there’s r my favs#and i love ALL of lm songs#but can’t list them all so have the ones i’ve been enjoying atm#just bored so made it lol#enjoy#littlemix#little mix#jade x leigh anne x perrie#leigh anne pinnock#perrie edwards#jade thirlwall#heartstopper#ginny and georgia#gilmore girls#i’m a celeb#outnumbered#my fav songs#my fav singers#get to know me
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
@whumptober
@whumptober-archive
Title: Words don't come easy
prompts: “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier.”; Overcrowded ER ; Outnumbered ; “It’s all for nothing.”
Fandom: Naruto
Rating: Mature.
Summary:
After thirteen years of isolation, it is difficult for Madara to explain how he feels. He feels emotions but he no longer knows how to use them. He is afraid to talk to the people he loves, he fears making them run away.
Words can hurt if let go, but they kill if held.
Midern AU
#whumptober 2023#whumptober2023#no.8#“I’ve got soul#but I’m not a soldier.”#Overcrowded ER#Outnumbered#It’s all for nothing#madara uchiha#obito uchiha#izuna uchiha#rin nohara#fic#naruto#fanfiction#lyric#suicide attemp#depressing#loneliness#angst#sole berladieri writer#modern au
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
the simple Solution is to just read everything dc comics (or a comic company dc absorbed) has published
Shdjjffk literally to some extent that is exactly what I desire to do! I have a stockpile of “which characters/teams/events to read every comic for next” that is continually growing. Because I love deep diving through comics!!
The problem is that that I somehow want to read all of these comics all at once. Which is an incredibly unwieldy and slow way to do it because there is in fact a (rough estimate) bajillion comics. So I try to take turns by limiting my current read throughs to some specific goal, so that I can get through sections of the full amount of comics I want to read faster.
…Which is where I run into more trouble because I in fact like a (rough estimate) bajillion characters, not just the ones on my current reading list. (But there’s already so many base characters on my current reading list, I dare not add more yet.)
#(of course. there are some things that I’m not interested in reading *at all* for whatever reason. but those things feel outnumbered.)#my brain every day: what if I started reading x. (me: WAIT you’re already busy with reading 100 OTHER things!!!!)#heroesriseandfall#asks#anon#comics reading adventures
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Wait this is importy to me. I am a calendar lover and enjoyer and I looove planning
#well I always make calendars start on Monday and all my friends thing I’m wrong for this. but I wanna know how outnumbered I truly am#also. I just care a lot about this. I loooove a calendar :)
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
I haven’t even kept up with c3 but y’all what is UP with Percy being formal with/about Keyleth? Where are my bestie foils?? What happened? Is it because Keyleth will go to Emon at the drop of a hat if Vex calls her, and she’ll deliver a bunch of hooligans to Whitestone out of nowhere, but when Percy calls for her she leaves him on read for approximately 15 business days?
#is it because vex and Keyleth are in LOVE???#I’m gonna assume it’s yes until proven otherwise#Keyleth has no hard feelings toward Percy#it’s just funnier to tell him she’s busy and then tree stride to the slayer’s cake to spend the afternoon with vex and pike#talk to me about grumpy middle aged Percy being constantly outnumbered and outvoted by the vm girls
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’m just thinking about the importance of tragedy in narrative. I don’t hate everybody lives AUs, but when the popular fanon interpretation of a story is a steadfast adherence to a happy ending, where no one dies, where all tragedy is removed, at that point is it really the same piece of media?
#text#everybody lives stories are fun as what-ifs#but I kindve feel a disconnect when I’m looking for canon-compliant fan works which are all outnumbered by happy end AUs#like are we really enjoying the story if the best way to interact with it is to remove all the ‘sad bits’ like they aren’t important?
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
I’m so asking for the bthb one. I do love a whump fic 💗
🔫
Sorry this took me so long to get to, love 😘
🔫🔫🔫🔫
TK nods and looks around. “So, what’s your plan?”
#thank you for playing#I’m sorry I’m so slow#I’ll finish the fic eventually#911 bingo#outnumbered in a fight prompt
2 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
chaoticjeli
Untitled
levialexandraaa
levi
orcmystic
sometimes I'm human, and then sometimes I eat.
beautifulaestheticblog
beautiful aesthetic
male-vore-belly
Male Vore & Bellies