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stick-ball · 6 months

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Hi! I'm about to end my whole career!

Here goes the Riko rant that dear @capcavan asked, demanded and begged for.

You know, I get it.

So here's the thing. I get it, Riko sucks. He is the bad guy we all got hung upon. Why? Because he is a rival for our protagonist. He is an angsty, young guy, born into wealth that came from money laundering and human trafficking. It's despicable, the Ravens are bullies and he himself makes lots of bad things happen. Yeah sure, I get that, whatever.

Being raised as a superstar must've been really, really difficult for you.

But I want to really dig deeper right now, this is a Riko rant after all, and you need to really know your fighters. So, to start: a huge trap in toxic families is that the children, even when grown up, will refuse to identify their parents and guardians as negative and toxic people. Not even outside influence can really sway them, usually. Kids that get away from a sinister situation can later tell they were abused, that it wasn't right, but still, they don't get the specifics of what and why, and they are doomed to repeat the same abuse and call it good. Call it right. And sometimes that's substance abuse, sometimes thats domestic abuse, sometimes that's racism and sexism and xenophobia they will grow into believing as the way the world works. Sometimes, thats nepotism and sadism. Only thing that can help is therapy and an environment removed from the control of the original abuse, lots of therapy, lots of space, years of it. A perfect case of a typical toxic family is Aaron.

A perfect case of that could also be Riko.

And here you can call bullshit because Neil had such a fucked up, abusive father and he *knew* it was wrong. Yes, he knew it was wrong for his father to hurt him to the measure he went. Why? Because his mother protected him, because his mother feared his father, not adored him. Because his mother took him away and kept running. A mother, a role model a child feels very strongly about, subconsciously.

Riko was taken from his mother. He was pushed aside by his father and left in the care of a family member, who was easy to glorify for an impressionable child. Because he was a legend. In fanon I often see Tetsuji's character taking a very background role in everything, and sure, he seems pretty background to Neil, because every bad guy seems background to Neil in comparison to his Father - besides Riko, who is the one dangling that threat in front of him. Tetsuji just wants his property back, Riko is playing with fire though. So yeah to us, reading the story, Tetsuji is a total asshole among many such men in the book.

But to Riko he must've meant almost everything for a long time. A crucial thing about Tetsuji is, he is a sadist. Oh sure, sorry, it's only called sadism when done against his team, right? Against Jean or Kevin or Neil? When it comes to Riko, who was in his care for all of his formative years, it was just strict childbearing right? He is a Moriyama after all, so he is evil from birth.

Yeah, I must've mixed something up about Riko being beaten to unconsciousness several times being mentioned in extra content. You think that was a one, two, third times the charm occurance?

Always a commodity, never a human being, not a single person in your family thinking you’re worth a damn off the court— yeah, sounds rough.

I always wondered how sarcastic Neil was saying this. I mean, he definitely meant to land a punch where it would hurt. And he actually knew Riko as a little kid, so he knew more than most.

Stockholm syndrome is very common among victims of childhood abuse. I would know, anyway. It's like the most logical option - the survivior is living in a dual reality. These people are my family, the care for me. They provide for me. They want me to be the best. They also abuse me. They hurt me, but it's for the best. Hurting me is a expression of love. I am grateful to them.

I often wonder how many people who read the books know what a commodity is. A commodity, in the most basic terms, is a basic good that can be used in ccommerce to interchange with goods of the same type. A commodity is not a king, or a queen, or a bishop or a knight, or even a rook. It's a fucking pawn. It's cannon fodder.

Riko is worthless to his family. Riko is just a tool to Tetsuji to generate profit. Riko wants to be worthy to his family. Riko most likely loves his uncle and is ready to do the most insane thing if only it gives him the one thing he desires, which is being seen as worthy by his family.

Kevin and I talk about your intricate and endless daddy issues all the time.

Then there's grooming. Grooming is more obvious when it's done by a stranger who sees the child randomly or in some intervals of time. It's much harder to resist when it's constant. To Riko, Tetsuji is a good person, he is a hero, he is his family, he cares for him, they have a common goal. Riko wants to be what Tetsuji wants him to be. There is a price to pay for it, of course. There is a price for everything. But the price doesn't matter. Riko wants to pay the price he has to pay, to be what Tetsuji wants him to be.

And the thing is, do you think Riko learned how to use his money and crime connections to control others? How to gain power through fear and pain? You think spending his whole life locked in a fucking stadium he taught it to himself how to break people in body and spirit? That torturing them was his special interest? Or maybe are you forgetting that amongst valid responces to trauma, besides fight, flight and freeze there is also fawn? Don't you think it's much more likely, being groomed and enamoured with his captor (bcs thats what Tetsuji is to me, their captor) he impersonated him to the best of his ability? That he learned every leaf in the book from him, because he was his only connection to the family, to his father, to his brother. He was a legend, the creator of exy. Wasn't he always trying to be worthy of him? To be good enough to be loved and wanted? To be great full enough?

I am not saying this absolves him of any of the things he did, but people do insane things under lesser influence, things they would never do otherwise. And I am not talking of people groomed from early childhood, I'm talking of sane adults, being dragged into dangerous and destructive ideologies.

I know it’s not entirely your fault that you are mentally unbalanced and infected with these delusions of grandeur, and I know you’re physically incapable of holding a decent conversation with anyone like every other normal human being can, but I don’t think any of us should have to put up with this much of your bullshit.

Because it isn't, is it? The things HE does ARE his fault, definately. But the reason why? That is not that easy to pinpoint. And Riko is so unstable it hurts. He is so far removed from real life he is completely incapable of conversation. He is a child brought up in a grave, but...

Pity only gets you so many concessions, and you used yours up about six insults ago.

To me Riko is besides all other things, wasted potential. All the things he dreamed of? He could have had them. He was talented, he was determined and had a lot of courage, but all of that was utterly wasted in the violence and malice he was soaked in. In all the violence and malice he created in return.

So please, please, just shut the fuck up and leave us alone.

The most interesting thing about All for the game though is, that in every other book Riko dying would've been the big bad wolf being defeated. But here, that's just a bleep on the radar. Because Riko was a product, not the producer. What I love about All for the game is it shows none of the madness and evil in life started or ended with me or you, with Riko or Neil. Not even with Keylight or Tetsuji. Fuck it did not even end with Nathan dying. It all ends how it begun. With a deal with the devil made in the back of a car, bought with blood money.

#i said what i said and you can cry about it #no vacuum storylines here thank you good-night l #this one is gonna make me so popular with enemies of the state i can feel it #riko moriyama #riko moriyama headcanon #aftg #all for the game #tfc #the foxhole court #aftg headcanon #aftg rant #trauma discussion

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acewithapaintbrush · 2 years

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I wish every closeted aro/ace person, who is constantly being pressured by family to finally get into a relationship, the same experience upon coming out that I've had with my mother:

Since the moment I entered the age where you are supposed to become interested (in my case) in boys, my mother had been a real bloodhound about it. Every boy that crossed my path was a potential boyfriend.

The older I got, the worse it got.

Some man asks me if I want to take turns on the equipment in the gym with him? "Ohhh, he was totally flirting with you! Go talk to him!"

A waiter is nice to me? "Did you see how he looked at you? Wasn't he awfully nice to you? I think he likes you!"

It never went farther than comments, but those were quickly becoming very annoying, especially since I had known for quite some time by then who I am.

One day, some years ago, we are watching TV and there is a lot of talk about sexuality and stuff and suddenly I'm like 'Fuck it' and turn to her and ask: "Do you know what asexuality is?"

"No."

So I explain it to her. How I don't feel any sexual attraction. How, for the longest time, I didn't even know what sexual attraction was supposed to be like, that I thought it was a fabrication of the media.

"I'm not interested in sex. Actually, I'm not interested in a relationship at all. That's arosexual. I have no desire for a partner. Having kids would be the worst thing that could happen to me. I'm happy alone and I want to stay alone."

"That's who I am."

And she sits there and listens to me and I don't even know what I expect. She is a loving and open minded mother, but for years her only goal seemed to have been getting me into a relationship.

So I watch and talk and she sits and listens and at the end of it she is like:

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I get it. I mean I always wanted family and kids. But that's me. I can totally understand not wanting any of that."

And while I'm still sitting there, not exactly shocked, but definitely pleasantly surprised by her easy acceptance, she goes on and on.

"Kids are hard work and they completely change your life and they are expensive. If you don't want any, you definitely shouldn't have any."

"I can see every day how happy you are with your life the way it is, and I'm really glad. There is nothing worse than wanting a relationship and not finding the right one. But there is also nothing worse than forcing yourself into a relationship just because you don't know how to be alone."

"Everyone should live the life they want. Isn't it great that you young people can do that now? Not even 50 years ago you had to be married, you couldn't even open a banking account without a husband! But today women don't need a man for anything!"

And the conversation just slowly peters off and it is finally done. From then on, I am known and understood.

And wouldn't you know it? The matchmaking completely stops. Not one more comment. Not a single one!

Going from a mother who couldn't ignore even the most vague interaction between me and a man without making a comment, to a mother who never brings anything like that up again, was quite jarring, to say the least.

But very appreciated.

Some weeks ago we once again (as we sometimes do) get to talking about this and I'm like "I was actually kinda surprised how well you took it. I expected more of a pushback."

"What? Why would you think that???"

And I'm incredulous, because "You spent YEARS throwing every man who so much as looked a little too long at me my way, insisting that every smile and glance meant that they were flirting with me. And you ask me why I thought you would take my complete disinterest in a relationship badly?"

And my mother sits up straight and grows very serious and says with conviction:

"I only did that because I couldn't understand how you never noticed the attention you were getting!"

"Huuh?"

"Boys and men would flirt with you and you never noticed! Never! And I thought, how can she not notice? It's so obvious! It was driving me crazy!"

"Let's ignore the part where I still don't think smiling and being nice equals flirting… You're telling me that you were only constantly pointing these things out to me, because you thought I was being an oblivious idiot and you needed to… help me?"

"Pretty much, yeah." She doesn't even sound sorry. "How was I supposed to know that you actually weren't interested at all? I just thought you were being dumb and not picking up on some veeeeery obvious signs. Of course I had to help my little dummy."

So, to make my long story short: Her comments were never meant to pressure me into a relationship because she thought that's the only way to live your life. She simply thought her daughter was an oblivious idiot.

I wish you all parents like my mother. Whose weird matchmaking is just an expression of their belief that you are hopelessly unaware of social and romantic cues and that you idiot need all the help you can get, but who, upon learning the truth, will accept you for who you are and will be proud of the person you are.

#aro/ace #aroace #asexual #ace pride #asexuality #arosexual #coming out story #This is very personal but I've wanted to put it into words for a while now and finally managed #Thanks for your attention

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avocado-writing · 1 year

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not your fault, but mine

tangerine x single mother!reader (with tangerine being paternal, I know y’all love that)

2.1k words

cw: kidnapping, brief child endangerment, a lot of swears for the wordcount

tag list: @honestlywtfisgoingon @white-wolf-buckaroo @felhomaly @venusthepirate @lunarpansexual @wanderedaway @georgiee-riviere @mushywutty @piechans @apieceoffabulousshit @4ng3l-0n-34rth @minjaz @starl1g4t @earth-elemental18 @luhvbot @underratedboogeyman @july-is-summer @vocalvixen20cp @northerngalxy @tangerinesgf @chaoticroaddreamerpasta @rxcently @skrrten @nightmarefeast @lost-lila @hardcore-flower @mrsdanieljackson

a/n: thank you to @lady-jane3 for being my beta! if you enjoy this fic you will probably enjoy this one by @whatstruthgottodowithit!

Tangerine has been a little bit in love with you since the two of you first met.

Sometimes it’s pertinent for handlers to be sent on missions with their agents in the field. Insider intel and all that jazz, overseeing what’s going on. When he saw you in the hotel lobby waiting for him and his brother he was smitten with the smart black dress and look of professional interest you wore; but he was fucked when he heard you laugh at one of his jokes.

It was enchanting. You were enchanting.

You wriggled your way into his affections without even meaning to. You worked well with them both, and you were easy on the eyes and on the soul. Strong and capable in your own right, too. The job was easy because you were there; and when you all went out to celebrate that night it didn’t hurt that you were so receptive to Tangerine’s advances you’d ended up shagging him by the recycling bins round the back of the pub.

The fact that you’d exchanged private numbers afterwards was a welcome surprise though. Tangerine isn’t usually the sort of bloke people are interested in having a long term relationship with, so he’d expected it to be a one-and-done sort of night. But then there you were the next week, getting coffee back in London. Like the two of you were civilised people, not involved in the business of murder for hire.

It became a weekly thing. No more fucking, not yet anyway; just sitting there and chatting. He found himself looking forward to it each Friday. Seeing your smile, hearing your laugh again. It was a few macchiatos later you dropped the bomb.

“If this is going to be a thing, you’d better know I have a daughter.”

He peered at you from over the ceramic rim of his coffee cup.

“Right.”

“If it’s a problem, we call it here. She’s the most important thing to me. I like you a lot, Tangerine, but if a single parent is too much for you to handle I need to know now. So you don’t break my heart.”

You were upfront about it and he respected that. Maybe if you were anyone else he’d turn tail and run at that announcement.

But you weren’t anyone else. You were you. Gorgeous, wonderful you.

“That’s alright with me.”

The grin you gave him made him know he’d made the right choice.

Then the moment he’d been bricking it over came. After a few evening dates and a couple of dalliances with you in local hotels, he was introduced to your daughter. She was a shy, quiet girl of six, who hid behind you and peeked out at him from the safety of her mum as a shield.

“This is my friend Tangerine, love. Are you going to say hello?”

When she shook her head and hid her face in your shirt, Tangerine knew he was in for an uphill battle. But he’d fight it, for you.

It was like trying to dig a tunnel through an iceberg with a spoon. The process was long and tiring. But he always made sure to be thankful whenever he was invited along to one of your days out with your daughter, to be given a chance to be part of the family.

Your daughter is cautious. It sounds like you had a nasty breakup with her dad, and you never discuss it much - but your little one has trouble trusting new men because of it, it seems. But as the ice starts to melt around her he finds himself loving her as much as he loves you.

He knows he can’t buy someone’s affections. But when he shells out an eye-watering amount for a stuffed dinosaur at the Natural History Museum and your daughter beams at him, he thinks it might be alright to cheat a bit.

She might be quiet, but she’s concise when she speaks; pithy and never using more words than she needs to. Still she has that same intensity many young children do. She reminds him of Lemon, actually, back when they were kids: sincere to a fault, but affectionate in her own way.

When she first held his hand in a crowd out in public, Tangerine grinned harder than when he heard West Ham got into the FA Cup final (didn’t win though, did they? Fucking Liverpool). Maybe he didn’t sign on to have a kid in his life, but he can’t help but feel incredibly lucky it ended up happening. And sitting with you cozied up on one side of him and your daughter falling asleep on his arm on the other, he’s even more surprised that he’s genuinely happy.

He heads to your house with a bouquet of flowers for you and a toy in garish packaging for your daughter. Oh, he’s going to earn points for this one - she never asked for it outright, but he’s seen the way she lights up whenever the advert comes on the telly. He’s not Lemon, but he’s still smart enough to pick up on these things.

And you’ll be pleased she’s happy, of course. And when you’re pleased it usually leads to him being pleased later that night.

But the blood in Tangerine’s veins freezes when he sees your door is ajar. You don’t leave it open, ever, and he can hear his heartbeat thunder when he nudges it and sees broken glass behind.

He drops the toy, and the flowers burst into petals on the concrete as he runs inside.

It’s a mess. The coffee table is shattered, furniture has been overturned - and, fuck, there’s blood on the carpet. Signs of a struggle.

He shouts for you at the top of his lungs, for your daughter, sweeping the house and checking anywhere someone could be hiding. He comes up empty. Fuck. Fuck! How could he let this happen?

Dazed, he heads into your bedroom. Sits on the bed. Fishes his phone out of his pocket, numbly taps your number to dial it.

He doesn’t hear your phone go in the house. It rings off to voicemail.

Right. Okay. Right. You must have it with you. That’s something.

Adrenaline surging through his body, he checks to see if your location is turned on. It is. Whatever happened, you made sure to know you could be found.

He stands up, clenches his fist so hard his knuckles turn white, and starts to call Lemon as he leaves.

You wake up to the taste of metal in your mouth. Christ, your head hurts. It’s a sharp ache that reverberates around your skull. Something sticky is running down from your forehead and has gummed your left eye shut, but you look around with your right the best that you can.

Some sort of warehouse. Of course. How original. Things begin to come back to you: the men smashing your door in, the couple you managed to deal with before you were overwhelmed. Your hand still hurts from the punch you delivered to someone’s nose, and you remember the satisfying crunch it made. Oh, god - and your daughter trying to run away but getting caught -

You call her name and you feel a shuffling against your back; you try to move before you realise you’ve been restrained. Hands bound behind you, ankles tied to chair legs. With a groan you crane your neck as far as it will go to take a look.

Your daughter comes to, groggy. You can just about make out her familiar shape in your periphery. If they’ve harmed a single hair on her head, you’re going to set this fucking building alight with every cunt who did this still inside.

“Love?”

She lets out a little sob of terror.

“Mum, what happened?”

“I’m not sure, sweetheart. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

She takes a moment to answer, her voice shaking.

“I’m… I’m okay, I think.”

You hope she’s telling the truth, and not just lying to seem brave for you. It’s not like you can turn around and check, is it?

Alright, one thing at a time. You test the restraints. No luck, shit. They’re done tight. With multiple zip ties it feels like. It’s a chore to steady your breathing but you manage to do it, and talk yourself through what you remember.

They burst in, attacked you mostly in silence, but they were talking as they choked you out - about what? Focus, focus.

Oh, fuck. A sentence comes back to you.

‘Let’s see how he likes it when he finds out we have his bird.’

Tangerine. This is all about Tangerine.

You hold back stupid tears. Crying isn’t going to solve anything, is it? But you want to, though. You want to cry over being weak enough to get fucking kidnapped, at being enough of a vulnerability to Tangerine that they’d take you to hurt him, that you got your daughter mixed up in all of this.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The door at the end of the warehouse space swings open. A man crosses over, a balaclava obscuring his face. Despite it all you can’t help but let out a little laugh - how fucking old school, you half expect him to whip out an Anonymous mask.

“Not sure what you’re having a giggle at, love. Seems to me there’s not anything funny about the situation you’re in.”

“Oh, what do you fucking want?” you snap, squaring up the best you can under the circumstances. Keep a brave face for her. The man rolls his eyes.

“Well, darling, a very nasty man likes to get his end away with you. So we figured you’d be a useful bargaining chip when dealing with him. See, he’s pissed off the wrong person, and they’re interested in making sure he pays dearly for it. And the fact you arrange his little missions means this is a two-for-the-price-of-one deal.”

Your daughter whimpers. You bare your teeth at him.

“I don’t give a fuck what you do for me, but let her go. She didn’t do anything, she’s a child.”

The man rolls his eyes.

“What, so she can go running straight to him to tell him where you are? Don’t think so, sweetheart. No, much better to make sure she’s here. Safe. With us.”

He grins and it makes you feel sick. You open your mouth to lay into him, but a beeping from the walkie-talkie at his belt stops you. He grabs it and turns his back to you.

“What?”

There’s the unmistakable sound of gunfire on the other end.

“Oh, fuck, they’re -” is as far as the speaker gets, before he’s cut off with a bloody gargle. The man freezes for a moment, but he’s been distracted long enough - you’ve managed to wiggle one foot free from your restraints and you bring it up as hard as you can between his legs. The man screeches in agony and drops to the floor.

You call for your daughter and tell her to work on her bindings. You feel her struggle behind you. She’s small, maybe she’ll be nimble enough to get free…

The man gets back up all too quickly.

“You bitch,” he spits, and pulls out a knife from around his back. You feel the blood leave you.

Please don’t kill me in front of my daughter.

Any further action he was going to take, however, is somewhat interrupted by the fact a quarter of his head explodes all over you as a bullet flies through it. He looks shocked for a moment before collapsing for the last time.

They’re here. Tangerine and Lemon are dishevelled, covered in blood, and looking worse for wear - but they’re here. Tangerine lowers his gun and runs over to you, dropping to his knees to check you over.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, get her!” you say, motioning back towards your daughter. Tangerine doesn’t need telling twice. He picks up the abandoned knife and starts working on freeing the little girl behind you, as Lemon finishes closing the distance to help you.

You hear your daughter sob in relief and see Tangerine stagger back as she launches herself into his arms.

“Dad!” she cries, burying her little face in his neck. Tangerine doesn’t have an answer to that. It’s the first time you’ve ever seen him properly dumbstruck: standing there, covered in blood and holding your child with wide eyes.

“That’s a lot to unpack,” Lemon mutters with a smile as he finishes letting you go. You stand up and give him a tight hug.

“Am I glad to see your ugly mugs,” you sigh.

“Oi, easy! If you want to keep kissing this ugly mug,” Tangerine says, and it makes your daughter giggle even if she doesn’t loosen her grip.

A bubble of laughter escapes from your lips. Pure relief. Oh, fuck, this could have been bad. It wasn’t though.

Not when you’ve got your boys around to watch your back.

#tangerine x reader #tangerine x you #tangerine x y/n #yes its a mumfield and sons lyric and uhhhh i will NOT be taking my music taste into question thank you xoxox #divider by firefly-graphics

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hyperactivewhore · 5 months

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Hello, so a couple of things I wanted to address regarding your takes on Hope and the Mikaelson family. So, I don't take anything from TO or Legacies as face value. I didn't even watch Legacies, because I was over TVD universe by that point. And I didn't even finish TVD or TO, because of how unbearingly bad they got. But I know enough about how the rest of the show turned out to give my take on things too.

For a show that was supposed to be centered around redeeming Klaus and Hope being the source of redemption for the Mikaelson family, the writers failed miserably in that aspect. For one, they rewrote history, retconned their entire backstory, and made the characters incredibly out of character. Worst thing the writers could've done. There was no redemption or character development whatsoever for anyone. In fact, everyone got worse and became more unlikable as the seasons went on.

You're saying Rebekah and Freya would've been terrible mothers and claiming that they were bitter, jealous, and resentful of Hope or even of their own kids, when we never saw anything that supports that notion. And it's unfair you single out the women in the Mikaelson family, but say nothing whatsoever about the Mikaelson men, who were just as unfit and unstable to be a parent or have any child under their care. How do you justify saying Rebekah and Freya would've been bad mothers, but justify Klaus and Hayley's shitty parenting?

If we're gonna call a spade a spade, Hayley was the very definition of a terrible mother. She constantly endangered herself and Hope while she was pregnant and even after she gave birth and just pawned her kid off to Eve or whoever else to involve herself in dangerous situations she really had no business getting involved in, when she could've been there with Hope. Same with Klaus, he most definitely wasn't father of the year. And there's also all the times they neglected Hope as a baby countless times and would often leave her alone during the most dangerous situations too.

If Rebekah and Freya didn't deserve to be mothers or to have a chance at a normal human life, Hayley and Klaus deserved it even less. Overall, I don't get why you or anyone else are so surprised at the Mikaelsons turning out to be deadbeats and abandoning Hope, when their entire family history and dysfunctional family dynamic speaks for itself. You even pointed it out yourself, that the Mikaelson family are unstable. So, why so surprised at this outcome? What else did you expect? And that's the epitome of why having a spinoff about the Mikaelsons centered around a baby of all things failed miserably. It was the worst mistake the writers could've made and the worst route the writers could've gone.

I'll make sure to let this clear for anyone who decides to read through: I didn't finish The Vampire Diaries, I only got to watch season five before the plot bored me and I just watched season one and half of season two of Legacies, but I have read enough over the years and I know all that happens in the three shows, what characters appear and etc.

Is funny how you complain about the Mikaelson and company being "out of character" as if they hadn't been already ooc in season three. Klaus loved witches and the writers completely erased that from his character because recognizing it would mean having him go for Bonnie. Caroline was mean before turning into a vampire, and if they had followed the established lore and canon of vampirism, she would have been just worse than she was as a human instead of the preppy girl she turned into. They completely trashed Elena's character to have her fall for Damon and forget about Stefan, so the fact that you're complaining about this sounds like just an excuse to shit on both shows.

I don't know why you're so pressed about Hope's existence. I have never said she was her family's redemption, I have always said she wasn't and that it was completely unfair of Elijah to put that burden on a baby. She was a plothole and I have stated that her character shouldn't have been made no matter how loved she is. But saying she had no impact on her family is stupid: Hope didn't made them stop being monsters, that's true, but she played a big part on making them change themselves.

Her existence forced her father to stop seeing only for himself, she united Klaus and Rebekah after they literally tried to kill each other by making Bex look after her when she was only a baby, Elijah finally stopped taking his brother's side in everything and she made their toxic codependent relationships slightly better. But at the end of the day, Hope was just a kid and a kid would never erase a thousand years of trauma, abuse and toxicity. It's true, she wasn't her family's redemption but she's the only reason why they stopped being shitty to each other.

There is evidence of why Rebekah would be a bad mother, just see how she behaves around children/teenagers. Marcel was ten and she groomed him, the moment her niece grew up and she couldn't play house with her any longer she left her in the dust, all while remembering how she spent "glorious months covered in dirt" because she spent less than a year with her as a baby and that is what she wanted, a baby, not a child, and just look at how she acted with Elena and Caroline. Rebekah was jealous of both of them, she was jealous of Hayley and Freya herself even made a joke about how she would be jealous of their own niece - it was about how she would stay nineteen forever hence beauty forever, but my point remains.

Rebekah would be a bad mother as far as we know in canon because everything suggests that. She's a child herself, just seventeen and her brain isn't even fully developed yet: she's easily jealous, tends to have emotional issues and has a low self esteem. What would be weird is that she wouldn't be jealous and a bad mother to her child, not otherwise. I love her, but she is a bad person and doesn't deserve to be a mom.

Freya is literally the same. She was traumatized with the child she lost and she viewed him/her on Hope, but she never gave a damn about making sure her seven years old niece didn't grow up traumatized and she completely forgot about her the moment Nik was born so yes, this information is enough for me to think she would be a bad mother. And look at what she did to Davina, who was barely eighteen.

The Mikaelson didn't and still don't deserve a normal happy life simply because they aren't good persons. They would be shitty parents, the two canon parents we have (Klaus and Freya) are bad parents and they don't even know how to behave around teenagers.

Saying Hayley is a bad mother is wild. Did you want her to stay home with Jackson while her daughter's family was being attacked every time they breathed? Hayley never put herself in a dangerous situation while pregnant willingly, it was always people coming after her and their child because she was carrying a Mikaelson kid. I don't know how she "pawned" her kid to somebody else to go help the Mikaelson, she was fighting with them because once again, they were Hope's family. She made some shitty choices, yes, but she was stuck in the most dangerous family to ever exist and the only way out was death: she never had the chance to decide if she actually wanted to have Hope. Both Elijah and Klaus forced it on her, they never asked her if she wanted an abortion and it was quite clear she would have died if she tried getting one.

I guess you pulled all of this information from your ass, because I never justified Klaus’s shitty parenting; I've always said time and time again he was a bad father, and I never said I was surprised at the Mikaelson being deadbeats when they already were in The Originals.

I don't know why you say the show "failed miserably" when it didn't: the rankings are good, it was nominated for awards a plenty of times and it is the favorite show of more than half of the fandom.

#honestly 💀#klaus mikaelson #rebekah mikaelson #freya mikaelson #hope mikaelson #elijah mikaelson #hayley marshall #marcel gerard #camille o'connell #caroline forbes #elena gilbert #the originals #the vampire diaries #tvd #to

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zabiume · 7 months

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Kazui is soo sneaky lol. How do you think Ichigo and Orihime discipline him? (Or if they do at all)

oh, i think about this a lot honestly, and i've always guessed orihime would be stricter than ichigo on some fronts. that's not to say he'll never step in when needed, but i do think about his own childhood and how, after his mother's death, he probably just....shut down and tried to make things easier for his father out of guilt that he "took" masaki away from isshin, yuzu and karin. i don't think ichigo allowed himself to be "parented" much after masaki died (whether that means being soothed, or being disciplined). the kid that cried easily disappeared really quickly and became someone who was Tough ("you don't need to focus on me; yuzu and karin are the babies!"). when you think about it, a lot of ichigo's personality even as a teenager was just. him wanting to do everything on his own and wanting no one to worry about him ever.

as a father, i don't think he'd ever want kazui to grow up too fast or swallow back his own emotions, especially since ichigo IN CANON believes this about parenting:

as a result of that, i think ichigo is a little indulgent with kazui, letting him linger in childhood longer than he allowed himself.

meanwhile, i don't think orihime is overbearing about it but i do think she has certain expectations that she wants kazui to meet (not big ones, but i did read somewhere that he uses proper honorifics and there's no way he learned that from ichigo lol). i feel like she's the type to hand out a couple of warnings, but if those aren't followed then there are definitely consequences. orihime is gentle and loving and fun for the most part but she was also raised by a single father/brother, so parenting feels a little do-or-die for her as a mother (a kind of "all he has is us!!!!" mentality), but ichigo balances her out with his calm practicality and reminders that they aren't the only ones in his life, he has lots of adults who care about him and things will be fine, most things we make big deals about aren't worth making big deals over. i also think he's left the financial decisions to her since he's got no head for it while she is pretty practical about budgeting (since she's done that her whole life and he's had isshin take care of that for him and isshin wasn't very smart at it either😅)

i think they're both the type to sit down and talk about feelings, especially if they feel like kazui being sneaky is him "acting out" but i don't think kazui is an act-outer just yet (from what we've seen so far). he's just got an innate sense of curiosity, which i do think ichigo and orihime try to encourage even though they're both very protective, i mean. it's really nice that kazui gets to explore town on his own while orihime watches him with her fairies – a nice mix of freedom and security that you could only get if your parents were some of the strongest people in this universe.

it's also nice that ichigo works from home and orihime works part-time. kazui probably sees them both a lot and they both probably see each other a lot, which is a happy and healthy dynamic for a family like them to have. i always say this, but there's no one right way to do family (whether it's dividing up the chores or deciding who works and who gets to stay home/the need-want dichotomy, where some parents work because they have to, financially, while others don't necessarily have this obstacle) -> it's all just a matter of what works for the individual families, and the freedom they get to make these choices within their families. the biggest barrier to family isn't about who is the housespouse – the husband or the wife – but about whether or not the individual partners are able to fulfill all their personal and professional goals and be happy. most socioeconomists will tell you that the right to work for all genders isn't enough, that there need to be adequate parental leaves and provisions, that men need to start pulling their weight around the house and help out, that parents need community to raise their children and expecting parents to be superheros is a pressure that causes more harm than good.

but, magically, ichigo and orihime don't seem to struggle with any of this, since they seem to be doing fine with their set-up so far. i know there's been a lot of conversation about their post-canon life, but despite kubo's sexism i genuinely think ichigo would be a good, ideal husband, so it's hard for me to see either of them having socioeconomic/cultural struggles that most people in contemporary society (esp those in het marriages) do 😅 their biggest problems are all probably shonen-esque, like what are we going to do about that garganta that opened up in our kitchen? and not, say – how do we make ends meet this month while also giving enough time for our kid?

is it idealistic and almost utopian? sure. but it's a shonen and intentionally or not, ichigo and orihime do have a lot of good things going for them, because kubo probably doesn't want to give them real life struggles — just universe-shattering ones.

#i am a big believer that kazui is an only child...big brother kazui headcanons are cute but he gives me major only-child vibes #he is probably pampered to death but i would give anything to see orihime give him a good talking-to at least once😂#asks #i bet ichigo has a little bout of Sadness when kazui goes off to college bc they used to spend so much of their days together #when he was home. orihime thinks it's very cute and puts together a father-son day for them so she can get the tv to herself for once #they think she's so thoughtful but really she just wants to watch her shows w/o ichigo questioning the Logic of everything for once

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pixiesdirt · 4 months

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Hi im pixies dirt aka Angelica and I will be using Tumblr to write about my DND horror campaign called "The Black Sabbath" which is about gothic cowboys who are connected to the seven sins. The main antagonist is "N0TH1NG" . An eldritch being that represents chaos, it is currently imprisoned in Malmo aka "Order". The main villain is "The Dark" it's a malevolent black fog that is the embodiment of evil and horror who created all monsters in the world of "Vundabar". The seven sins in my universe are represented as seven kings, terrifyingly humanoid looking abominations, each expressing a different emotion of "N0TH1NG". They pick seven creatures to represent themselves to bring nothing back into existence which means the end of everything. The party consists of:

Entropy, the Sin of WR4TH. Child of Ozzy Morninstar, a tiefling blood hunter/paladin who created the Black Sabbath, an organization of monster hunters with the sole mission of destroying the dark, who abandoned Entropy at a young age after the death of their mother. Entropy went on to dedicate themselves to finding Ozzy and killing him.

Jude, the Sin of 3NVY. A young lad who met entropy at the orphanage. The two instantly connected, committing many mischiefs together, and eventually falling in love, but soon after Jude was bitten by Dracula and made a slave to his will. He was then freed by Ozzy when reports of a vampire posing as a priest made it to his door.

Rose, the Sin of GLUTT0NY. A young orc girl who grew up in a poor village, was being sent away to live with their godfather Ozzy Morninstar, a grand feast would send her off but sadly a monstrous beast in the shape of a wolf, with a howl so sickly it would make grown men cry, it killed everyone except for Rose after their mother tossed them a silver pendant. The wolf hid itself inside of Rose, forever feeding off the guilt she holds from that night.

Hemlock, the Sin of SL0TH. Born in a forest that surrounded a town named "Tralucidumbra", the young moth creature had spent his entire life protecting the town with his family. The town at first feared the moths but soon grew to accept them as their protectors. But on one fateful night, when the red moon was high, Hemlock woke to the sounds of nothing. Not a single gasp, not one breath, not even the sounds of a child's steps staying up too late, nothing. They flew to the town and found not one person, alive or dead. Hemlock had failed the town, he spent the rest of his life looking for them, he grew tired, and weak. But he would not stop pursuing, he couldn't, he never would.

Spire, the Sin of PR1D3. Practically kicked from their home, Spire was born with a rather strange oddity, the ability when wet to turn into a fish creature. They would use this ability to help all things as strange as themselves, from monsters as old as time, to creatures born from the dark itself, they pride themselves with their natural gift to heal and tame beasts. Unknowingly forming a contract with their king and the dark. They would go on to live in a lagoon surrounded by five stones, each with a single line of varying length meaning something...

Nyx, the Sin of LUST. Relatively new to the party, Nyx appears to be human but whenever anyone takes a closer look into their eyes they would feel as if they were dreaming, specifically the kind where you feel as if you're falling and wake up just as you hit the ground. They speak as if death was watching them, eyes black as the void, and occasionally they will talk to their fellow party members as if they were other people entirely.

The six of them are tasked with finding the name of their kings to break free of them. No one in the past has ever done it, will they succeed, and what will happen next? I don't know but we shall see.

If you liked this then please watch us live on twitch or join the discord!!!! I will be making more posts about these lovely people and their ties with the seven kings in more depth/detail. Have a lovely day!!!!

#dnd #writing #oc #worldbuilding #aspiring writer #dnd character #streaming #Spotify

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egalitarian-tomboy · 1 year

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Rocky the Demented Matchmaker (A Lackadaisy Theory)

Before we get into the post I want to clarify that this post has spoilers for the Lackadaisy webcomic & overarching world that has been canonized so far. If you would like to avoid spoilers for the comic, please bookmark this post and go read up to the latest chapter currently available on the Lackadaisy official website. You have been warned.

After Rocky, in a moment of delirious honesty, admitted to Ivy that he took the blame for a family tragedy that he might’ve had nothing to do with in order to keep Freckle in school undisturbed by the consequences of what happened. It’s clear how much he loves his cousin. I’d even go as far as to say that he considers him more of a brother than a cousin. Since he’s a whole 5 years older than him, there’s a considerable age gap between the two in regards to life experience and knowledge about the world. Even if he isn’t book smart, Rocky’s got more street smarts that it’s all second nature to him. So when he gets his cousin into the business of liquor running for Lackadaisy as a hired gunman partner, he wants to offer him something in exchange for putting his life on the line - A Girlfriend / Possible Wife.

Keep in mind this series takes place in 1927. 2 years before the Great Depression and creeping toward the looming collapse of the prohibition era in 1933. During this time men were typically married by 24 while women were married by 21. Although there are cases that show that some men and women got married as young as 17 (with parental consent). Rocky is 23 years old, a Bachelor who has never been married or has been in a serious romantic relationship (that we know of). From his current line of work and his mental state of mind right now, finding a wife is the least of his concerns. But that isn’t the case for Freckle. While his mother is still pretty young, 48 years old to be exact, that doesn’t mean that Freckle wouldn’t have some prodding from her regarding settling down and having kids of his own.

So what do you do when your cousin is a fellow bachelor that’s down on his luck? You introduce him to someone that might want to be something more than friends.

In comes Ivy Pepper. Goddaughter of Mitzi’s deceased Husband and recently single jazz baby of the Lackadaisy. She’s not single for what she’s done on her part per say, it’s because Viktor intimidates all of her ex boyfriends physically to the point of being put in a wheel chair for going near her since he sees her as a daughter to him. So how far in the relationships she actually got are up in the air. But the moment she meets Freckle, she’s head over heels for him. Immediately noting how cute he is and inviting him on a date while Rocky gets something to clean up the mess she made on purpose to distract him.

Now you can say that Rocky had no intentions on playing matchmaker, since they just got done extracting revenge on the pig farmers, I’d argue that Rocky knew exactly what he was doing when he introduced him to Ivy. Especially since his reaction to her calling Freckle her boyfriend and proclaiming to Viktor they’re dating wasn’t one of confusion, it was gleeful teasing. Even before that, when they were at Ivy’s college he teased Freckle about how Ivy must’ve fallen head over heels for him already in a wink-wink nudge-nudge kind of way. Trying to get across the idea of maybe seeing Ivy as a girlfriend or possible wife in the future. Even his teasing / overreacting of her asking if Freckle was introducing her to his mother was more panicked in the way that it was far too early for Freckle to introduce her as his girlfriend. They hadn’t even had a proper date or first kiss. a REAL first kiss. Not what she did before as a quick peck on the lips after they got done meeting with Viktor. No that real proper first kiss would come later.

SPEAKING OF WHICH. The other reason why I believe Rocky is the maniacal mastermind behind this ship, the crazed captain if you will, is because of the way he talks to Freckle after he had his first real kiss with Ivy in the truck. Asking him if they still weren’t on a first name basis after kissing / possibly making out in that truck. To which Freckle officially starts calling her Ivy instead of Miss Pepper. Even though he didn’t deny being her boyfriend in front of Viktor after she declared them a couple, he didn’t necessarily agree that he was her boyfriend either. It wasn’t until she kissed him quickly on the lips in the car that he possibly started to truly fall in love with her. She smooched him once and he was ready to ask her for another kiss before he went off on his big night with Rocky. But this time, a proper one where they had more privacy and Rocky wasn’t there to make any sort of remarks.

And all my mans had to say after they were in the truck together was “Are you seriously not on a first name basis after kissing like THAT?”

Nah.

You can’t tell me that Rocky hasn’t been playing matchmaker this entire time trying to get his cousin a girlfriend. Nope. Nuh uh.

#Lackadaisy #Lackadaisy spoilers #Long Post #Ivy x Calvin #Ivy x Freckle #Calvin x Ivy #Freckle x Ivy #Ivy Pepper #Calvin McMurray #Rocky Rickaby #Lackadaisy Theory #Haven't done one of these in a while

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the-fiction-witch · 2 days

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Home

Media - My Left Hand Man / Phantom Halo / Sleep No More Character - Samuel Emmerson Couple - Samuel X Reader Reader - Y/n (Neighbour) Rating - Sweet af Word Count - 1422

Samuel sat down on the staircase of his little house, everything felt as if the world was falling for him, Samuel had never had an easy life. Born to a mother with serious mental health problems, and a father who drinks, smokes and gambles himself beyond excess. But he had felt some peace of late, and it had all come crumping down. His mother had run off, his father had gotten them so far into debt the family had not a single dime to their names, men were coming around threatening and asking for their father, because his father had taken what little they had pawned off and ran off to the casino, and it was unlikely he was going to come back, his brother becket had gone out three days ago and had not yet come back without a word to samuel where he was going, and now Samuel had come home after a day of reciting Shakespeare on street corners with a whole five bucks to get himself through to find the landlord had bolted the house and left everything his father hadn’t already taken left in a backpack on the front step for samuel to take with him. He didn’t cry, he just sat on the step with the bag and his five bucks in hand trying to think what he was to do.

"Hey, Sam!" A voice catches his attention, he looks up and sees Y/n the girl who lived in the house next door,

Y/n heads down the street, In a pair of combat boots, some high-waisted black jeans, a sheer net t-shirt with a small red vest over it, a Moto jacket hung over her satchel bag, her hair pulled into two braids that fall down her shoulders,

“Oh, hey Y/n,” He tried to smile at her, “How was… wherever you’ve been?” he tried to strike up a conversation almost as a way to distract himself from everything,

“Fine, same as always.” she shrugged as she came over, “You okay?”

“Uhhhh yeah, I uhh…” He sniffled,

“The place locked up again?” she asked noticing the bolt on the front door,

“Yeah,” He nodded,

“Where’s your dad?”

He shrugged,

"I know, it's hard. I'm sure you'd dad will show up he always does" she says as she sits down beside him on the step,

“He pawned everything we had,” he told her, “He’s gone to the casino, if they don’t shoot him on sight for his debts he’ll get drunk and gamble it all away anyway and then they’ll shoot him. That or he’s gonna get picked up and taken out by one of the many other people he owes.” He explained, “No… he ain’t coming back Y/n,”

“Your mom?”

“My mom ain't be back for five years… if she wanted to be back she would have come home by now.” He said tears starting to fall,

"come here I'll be your mom, I'll take care of you Sammy" she smiled pulling him so he could rest his head on her shoulder, “I mean not literally more like an older sister but you know what I mean,”

Samuel laughed and smiled and buried his face on her shoulder, “Thank you so much, Y/n, I really wish I had an older sister like you…” he muttered tearfully,

"well you have Becket doesn't your big brother take care of you?"

“Not really, he always just steals whatever money he can and runs off till he runs out of money, he just doens’t want to be here,” Samuel explains,

"oh you poor thing," she cooed hugging him tighter,

“Now I don’t know where anyone is, I don’t know if anyone is coming back, the house is bolted and I don’t have any idea what to do…”

“How long have you been sat out here?”

“Four hours…”

"ohh Sammy, you poor thing. It's okay. Come on come with me,"

“What?” he asked in shock,

“Come on,” she just got up holding his hand, and his bag, she leads him next door to her own house, everything inside was much nicer than this, this house actually had doors, the windows weren't broken, and it felt warm. She quickly makes some hot chocolate in the kitchen and hands it to him letting him sit on the sofa with a blanket "Drink up as much as you want, I'll go run you a nice hot bath once you’re done and we'll get in a pizza," she smiled kissing his forehead,

“Wait… Y/n…” he stopped her and as he held her arm Sam's tears flowed down, “You really don’t mind?”

“Course not,”

“I can stay tonight?”

“You can stay as long as you need to,”

“But I don’t have any money-”

“Did I ask if you did?”

“No, but I…” He stuttered “Y… you're so nice to me, but … what would your dad say, if you take in a thief?

"I don't know never met the guy," she shrugged,

“So is it alright if I… stay?”

"you can stay as long as you like, I promise" she reassured, "and even once you go you are welcome to come back any time you like for as long as you like. Eat my food, drink my drinks, use my shower, use the bed, any painkillers or medication you need just tell me. I'll take care of you I promise"

Samuel couldn't contain his feelings and just broke into tears thinking about how much care he needed in his life, and all of that just because you offered him a shelter and a place he could call home. He hugged her tightly and buried his face in her shoulder, then he spoke again while sobbing “Thank you… thank you very much, I can't believe how kind you are…”

"awww that's okay Sammy, no need to worry,” she smiled hugging him too she kissed his head and let him hug as long as he needed,

Samuel just stayed there hugging her, feeling so safe and protected in her arms. Every now and then he would say some words but would just end up sobbing into her shoulder. He was shaking from the amount of adrenaline and emotions he felt as he hugged her, his lips were trembling with sadness as he held Y/n close,

“What about your mom? Won't she get mad at you because you took me in?”

"I highly doubt it, she doesn't live here"

Samuel's eyes widen as he hears this, “Wait, she doesn't?! You.. you live here on your own?” He is surprised of course as he assumed Y/n wasn’t that much older than him if not the same age, it did make life easier as they could just care for one another,

"no, I left when I was fourteenth. She was… Not a nice drunk, and she was always drunk. So I left and bounced around the system till I got a solid job and here we are. Trust me you could cost me a hundred bucks a week it's not gonna be a problem,"

“But, what if someone finds out you took me in? They can report us, we can get into trouble…”

"why? Why is it anyone's business?"

“Well, because you know I am a thief, if they find out you are basically sheltering me, they would come for us, I could maybe even be arrested for being in your house and you could be in trouble for that.”

"Sammy you're a pickpocket. You pinch phones and wallets out of strangers' back pockets half the time people don't even know they've been robbed just assume they lost it. Trust me no one is coming after you and even if for some reason they did, I am not going to let them take you just for being in my house. This is my house and I allow whoever I want in it"

“Well, you're right I guess, but still… I don’t want to cause you any trouble”

"I promise you are welcome to stay as long as you like we can get you cleaned up and maybe look into getting you a little job? Or you can just be my little maid"

“Wait, really?” he smiled “You promise I can actually stay with you and help you with house chores” Samuel's eyes sparkled at the thought of being able to have a safe place to stay

"of course, you’re welcome to stay and if you want any help you have only to ask, now… How about I go run you a nice hot bath with some bubbles?"

“Really?!” Sam asks happy and excited, “I would really like it if you did that for me actually…”

“Okay give me a second, you enjoy your hot chocolate,” she smiled as she headed to the bathroom,

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zaceouiswriting · 2 years

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The last straw

Character: Alec Lightwood x male reader

Universe: Shadowhunters

Warnings: None

„Can you two shut the fuck up, for once?“, your loud voice called out to the two people making everyone's life a living hell.

Jayce and Clary looked at you shocked. Until now, you never opened your mouth in destaining. Just running with the flow, except with Alec. You found amusement to stress him out. But this was going too far even for you.

You had heard from your family back home, that Alec is short to lose his position in the Institute, because of unauthorized missions. Since Clary came, everything had changed. Jayce and Alec’s relationship fell apart and you could not hear her voice anymore.

„Clary is a narcissistic little girl, who does not understand the world in the slightest. Even if her mother can be saved, the price is too great and her mother is not worth enough to lose everything.“ But your pleas as always fell on deaf ears. Jayce whined like the little bitch he is, which only let your eyes roll back into your head. „Would you be okay with Alex losing the Institute Jayce? To save a woman who betrayed her entire kind? A woman who stole from the angels?“

Before you even asked these questions, you knew the answers he would give or more likely Clary would give.

Just as he opened his mouth, Clary was already talking shit about her being new to this part of her, and she just wants her mother back. Just her manipulative self, to make everyone bend to her will.

„You disgust me, Clary. Nobody likes you. Everything done for you, was only because Jayce asked us to. We would've never done anything like this for a girl we just met. So get back down from your high horse and either go with our rules or fuck off. Because if Alec loses his position, I will make sure you will never find a friendly smile under any of us!“

As your threat was delivered you slammed your hands on the table your friend group was standing in front of, walking away in a rage.

All four of them watched you stomping off, completely stunned at your aggression and especially wanting the best for Alec. It took all of them especially Alec a moment to comprehend everything. „I think you should go after him, big bro,“ Isabelle told her brother, with an obvious wink. He did not understand this light gesture but still did what his sister told him to do. He was in no shape to decide for himself.

It wasn’t hard to find you. A long array of beaten-up men walked out of the training room. Alec had a perfect view of you, as you trashed the next one challenging you. Nothing you did could calm down the storm brewing up in you.

Just as you were about to give the finishing blow to your next victim, another stick stopped yours. Furious eyes looked in the calm collected one of your Instituts leader. Alec stood strong and proud in front of you. Eyebrows cocked up in a challenging way.

Not a single second was wasted by you, as you began to slam your stick onto his. Sweat drops flew around as you fought with everything you had. Alec who never was a master of close combat had massive complications to fight you or stand against you in any way.

„Are you going to tell me, what was this all about at the table? You taking my side? To be honest that one came as a surprise.“ Even though you were sure, that he did not mean it that way, he looked and sounded smug as nothing in his life before.

It took you over the edge, getting even more aggressive with Alec, till the point, where he was on the ground, with the end of your stick at his throat. „Don’t think too much about it Alec or you might hurt your little pretty head.“

Not knowing what came over him, after hearing you telling him something like this, he slammed his feet, against your legs, for you to fall over. Just a moment after you had won the match, you lay on the floor, with Alec between your legs, his arms beside your head. „Seems as if I have one, what do I get?“

It was the closest you ever were to Alec, his lips so close to yours. Full, mesmerizing a sin you could not let go of. Before his smile could falter, his light laughter stop echoing through the wide hall, you grabbed his neck kissing him, as you wanted for years. He tasted like cherries and mint.

For a moment there was a hesitation on his side, but it quickly subsided, as his hands began to run down your torso. But the moment could not hold on forever. But you had to separate. Sadly breathing was still a thing.

„That was…“

„Sorry, this should’ve never happened, I know you are in love with Jayce and-“

You tried to get away from him, but Alec had you prisoned in his presence. „In love with Jayce? Did you talk to Isabella too much?“, he laughed out almost maniacally. „Yeah she has some fantasy, I had a crush on him for a while, back when we became parabatai. But since then I moved on to an even prettier face.“ His hand slowly cupped your right cheek.

„Why didn’t you tell me?“, you asked him out of breath and confused.

„I thought you hated me, always playing pranks, making me go insane.“

Now it was on you to chuckle, „I did this only to get to you, I never wanted anything more than be close to you and these pranks always brought you to me,“ you confessed to him sincerely.

„By the angels, you are cute.“ Another kiss followed the long one you had before. This time full of affection. „Thus this means you stop with the pranks?“

„Maybe don’t go ever again in your room?“, he suggested cheekily to the guy above him. But Alec just laughed. He had known before he asked that it wouldn’t stop. But now it did not matter anymore. From now on it would be an excuse to be with you, without anyone knowing. He did not want anyone else to see his more loving side. You knew this and had silently agreed to never tell a soul.

As you both stood up, brushing go the none existent dirt on your sweat-drenched clothes, you together used the back passage you find a room to talk or do better things with your mouths, who knows?

[Masterlist]

#Shadowhunters #shadowhunters imagine #Shadowhunters x male reader #Alec Lightwood x male reader #Alec Lightwood imagine #Alec Lightwood #x male reader #male reader #male reader imagine #x male reader imagine

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starryevermore · 1 year

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do not chastise the dove (epilogue) ✧ steven grant, marc spector, jake lockley

do not chastise the dove ✧ a royal moon knight au | ao3 | pinterest board

pairing: knight!steven grant x fem!princess!reader x knight!marc spector x knight!jake lockley

series summary: you were a princess who would rather be anything but a royal; he was the knight her father forced her to marry—a true match made in hell if there ever was one. but, as the wedding inches closer and closer, it seems that, perhaps, your father had finally done something right by you.

chapter summary: a look into what the future holds.

word count: 6,120

warnings?: visiting elaine’s grave, talks of death, pregnancy announcement, inaccurate depictions of giving birth, marc being anxious about being a father, fluff, pet name (dove), not proofread

The Royal Cemetery was a place that was rarely visited. It was completely closed off from the public. Only members of the Royal Family and their guests were allowed to enter. You had only gone once before, just after your mother had passed. You were supposed to be in school at the time, but it had not even been a week since she had been buried. You couldn’t focus on your studies at all, so you found yourself sneaking out the back door and walking all the way to the cemetery. You sat in front of your mother’s grave well past nightfall. You told her all about how you missed her, how you wished you could have hugged her one last time, told her you loved her one more time. You had every intent on staying there forever, but Pearl arrived just as the stars began to twinkle.

When you returned to the palace, Benjamin banned you from going to the cemetery again. At the time, you convinced yourself that he had been worried about you, that he didn’t know where you had gone. You had been so sure that if you asked just nicely enough, he might visit your mother’s grave with you one day. That day never came. Now, you knew he banned you from the cemetery because he cared about his public image. The King didn’t know where the Princess was? He couldn’t keep track of his daughter? It was a tabloid mess if there ever was one. That day had been the beginning of the end of your freedom for a long, long time.

It was strange being back there now. It was even stranger being there with company. Marc held your hand tight, a bundle of flowers in the other. He dropped your hand as he carefully placed the bouquet on Elaine’s grave. He glanced at you, then back to the headstone.

“Your daughter is a wonderful woman,” Marc said to the headstone. “I…I want you to know she’s in safe hands. I will never let a day go past without her knowing how loved she is. She deserves all the good in the world, and I will make sure she gets that.”

Your mouth quirked up into a smile. It was still so rare for Marc to make grand statements of love and affection. He was more of an actions-speak-louder-than-words kind of person. You, of course, appreciated his actions. You wouldn’t change a single thing about him. But, still, when he had those rare romantic movie type of declarations of love, your heart always soared. You knew how big of a deal it was to him, and so you savored every last word.

“I wish you could be here,” you said. “There’s not a day that doesn’t go by without me missing you. I like to think, though, that you’re still here, guiding me through life. Guiding me straight to the loveliest, kindest men I’ve ever met. I mean, you did guide me straight to the truth about my birthright, didn’t you? Thank you. I love you, mommy.”

Marc looked at you, his pretty brown eyes soft. “We should come here more often, keep your mom updated on our lives. Maybe even bring Cleo down, our kids when we have them.”

Your smile grew. Marc still had his doubts about becoming a father, but he had slowly started talking more about the future. One day, he even told you how he wanted three kids. He even confirmed that he liked Steven’s suggesting of naming your son, if you should ever have a son, Randall. Sometimes, when he was feeling even bolder, he would tell you about family traditions he wanted to share with the children. How they would have a bar or bat mitzvah. How Marc couldn’t wait to teach them how to play dreidel. How he looked forward to sharing family recipes. Once, you even found him ordering children’s books, ones Steven told you had been his favorite during his childhood.

“That would be wonderful.”

Marc slipped his hand into yours, giving it a squeeze once, twice, three times. You bid your mother farewell before the two of you began walking around the cemetery. Every so often, you would point to a headstone, tell Marc about the family member. You weren’t sure how much he was paying attention. Most of his focus, it seemed, was on you and you alone. That is, until a question came to Marc’s mind.

“Is Benjamin buried here? I would have thought he’d be buried beside your mom.”

You pointed to a corner of the cemetery darkened by the shade of a large tree. A new headstone had been placed there, but it was already being destroyed by winding tree roots coming out of the ground. “Over there.”

Marc snorted. “You pick the spot?”

“I would’ve left his grave unmarked if I did,” you said. “I let the groundskeeper handle it. I almost expected him to bury Benjamin beside my mother. That had always been the plan. Benjamin even had the gravesite picked out. But the groundskeeper holds grudges against those who forbid their family from coming here, it seems.”

“Have you got our spot picked out?”

“I was thinking beside my mother. I feel like she might be lonely, all by herself.”

Marc smiled. “That’s sweet of you, dove.”

“And a bit morbid,” you laughed. “Now, come on. I’m starting to get hungry.”

“Good, because Steven’s been begging to eat for the last little bit.”

“And you just let him starve?” you said with a fake gasp. “We’d better go now, then. We can eat and talk more about the future, yeah?”

“Sounds like a perfect plan, dove. A perfect plan indeed.”

Coronation day had finally arrived. You felt like an odd mix of Anna and Elsa from Frozen, Anna’s excitement fueling you but Elsa’s anxieties making you keenly aware of just how many eyes were going to be on you. It felt a bit silly to be so nervous. After all, you had already been Queen for a year. This was more of a formal ceremony than anything. The power was yours, it couldn’t be taken away. However…You certainly could make a fool of yourself.

What if you tripped on your way into the cathedral? What if, when you got out of the car, the door was shut on the train of your dress and it got ripped as the driver drove away? What if you jumbled up all of your words? What if you dropped the crown? Oh, it could all be a disaster!

“You’re gonna do fine, my dove,” Steven said watching as you fussed over your dress.

Well, all things considered, even if the worst happened, at least you looked beautiful while it happened. You had chosen an off-the-shoulder blue gown, adorned with floral appliques. It was tradition that royals wear blue—the family color—to coronations. In any case, the dress was gorgeous when you picked it out, and it looked even more gorgeous on you.

“I’m scared,” you said.

Steven rose from his seat before you could blink, coming to stand behind you. He put his hands on your hips, turning you around. As you looked at him, he dipped his head, pressing his forehead against yours. “It’s scary going out there,” he said. “Can’t deny that, can I? I can’t. Every time we do a public engagement, I’m terrified that I’ll come out as a bumbling fool. That I’ll trip over my feet or I’ll say the wrong name. But every time, I get up and it turns out fine.”

“What if this time is different?”

“I’ll be there to support you. Marc and Jake, too, if you’d prefer one of them to jump in. Your entire support system, honestly. If you end up doing something silly, we’ll all do the same thing. You fall? I’m taking a tumble too. You start speaking backwards? I’ll jump up and start speaking backwards too. Alright? The only thing you need to be scared of is the press running stories about how the Queen married a brainless half-wit.”

You let out a laugh. “You’d really do that?”

“Without a second thought.”

You bit down on your lip, holding back another laugh. “Well, then I think we should go now, yeah?”

“Lead the way, my Queen Dove.”

The streets were lined with citizens from all over the kingdom and abroad as the driver took you to the cathedral. As the car passed by, cheers erupted from the crowd. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of people were waving at you, pointing at the car. Your heart lifted at the sight. Part of you knew that many were gathered just to say they caught the glimpse of the Queen on her way to the coronation. But, it felt nice to see so many people there in support of you.

You reached over, taking Steven’s hand, as the car approached the cathedral. When the car came to a halt and the door opened, Steven got out first before helping you. Attendants descended upon you, aiding you with the long train, ensuring that the door did not slam on it and rip it. Steven walked in front of you, leading the way into the cathedral. You gave a few smiles to the press as you walked, but you mostly kept your gaze focused on the entryway.

All eyes were on you as you walked inside. You, again, tried to ignore it. Kept your eyes to the front. Focused on the officiant waiting for you. Watched Steven as he went to his seat in the front row. You stopped when you reached the stairs, letting the officiant hold his hand out for you to take as he helped you up the stairs. You turned to face the crowd as the attendants fixed your train.

Finally, you sank into the throne, look out at the crowd. The officiant stepped in front of you. He asked, “Madam, is your Majesty willing and able to take the Sacred Oath?”

“I am willing and able,” you answered.

“Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the Peoples of our Great Kingdom according to our laws and customs?”

“I solemnly promise so to do.”

“Will you promise to protect our Great Kingdom against enemies without and within?”

“I always will.”

“Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgments?”

“I will.”

The officiant took the Royal Scepter from one of the attendants and passed it to you. You held it carefully with both hands, swallowing hard. Wow. This was real. This was becoming a reality—even more so than it already was.

“Then repeat after me.” When you nodded, the officiant continued. “I, Y/N Y/M/N Y/L/N…”

“I, Y/N Y/M/N Y/L/N…”

“…will rule with compassion, extending charity and mercy to all my people…”

“…All this I have promised, I will perform as champion of my beloved country and her people.”

The officiant turned to another attendant, taking the crown off of its velvet pillow. He turned back to you, holding the crown over your head. “In accordance with law and custom, I crown you, /N Y/M/N Y/L/N, Queen of our Great Kingdom.”

He placed the crown on your head, then turned to face the crown. “Long live the Queen.”

The crowd echoed back—perhaps Steven the loudest of all— “Long live the Queen!”

Layla squeezed your hand as you looked at the white stick in your hands. You couldn’t believe it. You had wanted this, but…God, it felt so different when you knew it was a reality. You had been feeling sick for a week, waves of nausea constantly washing over you. This morning, when you looked at your calendar and realized you were weeks late for your period, you sent a worker out to pick up an assortment of pregnancy tests. She came back with five, and all five told you the same answer.

“When are you going to tell them?” Yelena asked.

“Soon,” you said. “I want to do it today, but…I don’t know. I’m scared that it might scare Marc.”

“Marc will be fine,” Layla assured you. “He’ll be scared shitless, sure. But if you think he might run or stop fronting or whatever you’re worried about…I know him well enough to know he would never abandon you like that. Especially not when you’re in such a vulnerable state. He would sooner die.”

“How should I tell them, though? Should I do something elaborate? Be more coy? I just…Pregnancy announcements are a big deal. I want to get this right.”

“Just tell them outright, don’t make a big fuss of it,” Yelena said. “Walk up to them, say I’m pregnant bitches!, and go about your merry way. No muss, no fuss.”

“…you’re pregnant?”

“No, not me, Y/N,” Yelena said, turning towards the door. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the man in the doorframe. “Oh shit.”

You lifted your head to see Jake standing in the doorway to your office, his jaw slack. You dropped the pregnancy test, it clattering on the desk.

Scott, who stood behind Jake, peaked around him. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was a bad time,” he said.

“It…It’s not a bad time at all. Jake, come in. Um, everyone else…Could we have a bit of privacy please?”

Layla stood up and ushered Scott away. Yelena, however, remained standing beside you. When you raised an eyebrow at her, she let out an “oh!” before following Layla and Scott out, shutting the door behind her. You stood up, picking up one of the pregnancy tests, and walked over to Jake. You took his hand, and placed the test in it.

“Two lines…That means positive?” he asked as he looked at it.

You nodded.

“And, you’re sure?”

“I took five tests, all positive. We’ll still have to go to a doctor to check. False positives do happen and all that. Plus, it’s good to just start going to a doctor and getting everything ready. But…Yes. I’m sure.”

Jake’s arms were wrapped around you in an instant, squeezing you tight, nearly lifting you right off the floor. “We’re going to have a baby! We’re going to have a baby! We need to go get a, a crib and a bassinet and a stroller! We need to get baby books and parenting books and diapers! Babies poop a lot, so we should start stocking up now! And—”

You placed your hands on either side of his face, stopping his rambling with a kiss. “Shh, we have months to worry about all of that.”

“Times flies, my dove.”

“Well, waiting a day won’t kill us.” You kissed him again. “How are the others holding up?”

“Steven’s been jumping for joy, trying to take control ever since I walked in here,” Jake said.

“And Marc?”

“He’s still rambling about all of the things we need to do to prepare for our little baby.”

You let out a laugh. Well, you supposed that wasn’t the worst reaction. In fact, it was probably the best reaction he could have had. “In that case…I suppose it’s time for a celebration, hm?”

Jake wiggled his eyebrows at you as he said, “Oh, I’m ready for the biggest celebration.”

And, oh, he was.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the love between Her Majesty, Queen Y/N Y/L/N and His Royal Highnesses, Princes Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley in a union commended to be honorable among all,” the officiant said.

You looked at Marc in front of you, unable to hide your smile on your face. You still couldn’t believe he had offered to front for the public wedding ceremony. The one that would be televised internationally. The one that everyone would be watching. If you were honest, you had thought Steven might have been the one to front again. He was all about grand statements of love, after all. But this…This felt perfect.

Marc held your hand, his thumb rubbing the top of it. “You look beautiful, my dove.”

You had reworn your dress from the private ceremony, with some small alterations. You were a few months into your pregnancy now, and you were just starting to show. Before the dress had been let out, it had been near impossible to close the dress up without ripping the seams because of your belly bump.

Marc had been…Well, you hesitated to call his reaction feral, but it was pretty damn close when he walked in your dress fitting and saw your bump. For all intents and purposes, he was still incredibly nervous about being a father. But there was something about seeing you carry his child that sparked a sort of energy in him that was near impossible to contend with.

“And you look handsome, my love.”

“And therefore, this union has not been entered into lightly but reverently, passionately, lovingly, and solemnly. Into this, these two persons present now come to reaffirm their wondrous union,” the officiant continued.

The officiant paused, looking between you and Marc, before smiling and continuing, “William Penn tells us to never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely. He that minds a body and not a soul has not the better part of that relationship, and will consequently lack the noblest comfort of a married life.

“Between a man and his wife, nothing ought to rule but love. As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way to keep them well together.

“A husband and wife that love one another show their children that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their authority in their families by the contempt of one another, and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples.

“Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment, affection; it being the basest of passions to like when we have not, what we slight when we possess.

“Here it is we ought to search out our pleasure, where the field is large and full of variety, and of an enduring nature; sickness, poverty or disgrace being not able to shake it because it is not under the moving influences of worldly contingencies.

“Nothing can be more entire and without reserve; nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere; nothing more contented than such a couple, nor greater temporal felicity than to be one of them.”

Marc had been the one to pick out the opening reading. He had found the poem among Steven’s books and declared it perfect for the ceremony. And oh, how could you deny him when he pulled out his pretty puppy dog eyes?

“There are few loves in this world as pure as the one I have witnessed between the Queen and the Prince Consorts,” the officiant said. “In the short time I have shared with them, it has become clear to me, as it should be clear to all, that these two adore each other. Their love is the kind of love we should all strive to have. They care of each other. They respect each other. They ensure the other’s happiness, always. It is surely the kind of love that artists try to paint, that writers try to write, that will endure forever, always.”

You took a moment to look out at the crowd. The cathedral was filled to the brim and then some. This was, after all, the event of the year. Everyone who was anyone wished to attend. Members of Parliament, foreign dignitaries, and, of course, all of your friends. It was almost strange, seeing so many people there. At least, compared to the more intimate, private ceremony.

You looked back at Marc as the officiant said, “Her Majesty and His Royal Highness have chosen to share the traditional vows.”

The two of you had done personal vows for the private ceremony. You and the boys debated on sharing an updated version of those vows today, but in the end, the answer was clear. Some parts of your love, of your lives, was meant to stay private. The entire ceremony was to be broadcast internationally. The world didn’t need to know all of the ins and outs of your love for each other.

“Your Royal Highness, if you would repeat after me: I take you to be my wife, my partner in life, and my one true love.”

“I take you to be my wife, my partner in life, and my one true love.”

“I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before.”

“I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together.”

“I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.”

“I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.” Marc paused. “And every day after that, too.”

You smiled as the officiant directed you to say the same vows. Once you finished, the officiant said, “We will now exchange rings as a symbol of this couple’s love. May we have the rings?” Layla stepped forward and gave you Marc’s ring and Marc your ring. The officiant looked to Marc, and said, “Your Royal Highness, please repeat after me: I give you this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you.”

“I give you this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you,” Marc said, sliding the ring onto your finger.

The officiant turned to you. “Your Majesty please repeat after me: I give you this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you.”

“I give you this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you,” you repeated, placing the ring on Marc’s finger.

“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you wife and husband.” The officiant looked at Marc. “You may now kiss the bride.”

“My pleasure,” Marc said.

Marc grabbed at your waist, spinning you into a dip and kissing you positively senseless. Well, that was certainly going to be the picture plastered across the front page.

As Queen, the annual birthday parade now celebrated your birthday instead of Benjamin’s. The first two years of your reign, you had opted out of the tradition. There was far too much going on between gaining your footing as Queen, planning the coronation and public wedding ceremony, and recovering from the string of attempts on your life. Now, after all of the dust had settled, you decided it was time to revive the tradition.

You settled in the open carriage, smoothing your hand over your much larger baby bump. You were a month out from delivering your little bundle of joy. This was actually to be your last public engagement for a long while. After this, you planned on resting until you had to go to the hospital. Finally, after months of carrying her, you would finally get to meet your baby Eliana.

“Little one bein’ fussy?” Jake asked he sat next to you. He wrapped one arm around your shoulder, his other hand coming to rest on your belly. “Because I told her this morning that she needed to be extra good for a couple of hours.”

Jake loved doing that. Talking to your baby bump, you mean. Most mornings when you woke up, you would find Jake with his head resting on your bump, telling little Eliana all sorts of stories. About how her daddies were excited to meet her. How he hoped she grew up to be like her mommy. Sometimes, he would tell her fairytales, though he often forgot most of the details and made them up on the fly. (And, sometimes, you woke up and found Marc doing the same, though he often stuck to telling her how much he loved her. You never let him know you caught him, letting him have the moment to himself.)

“Oh, don’t worry. She’s settled down after breakfast,” you said. “Think she’s taking a nap in there right now.”

“Good.” Jake leaned, kissed the side of your head. The carriage jolted forward as the parade began, leading out onto the streets of the capitol. “Can you believe this time next year, she’s gonna be sitting right here in between us?”

“No,” you said. “I can hardly believe that in a month’s time, I won’t be carrying her in my belly anymore. I think I’m gonna miss it.”

Jake gave you a wicked grin. “Guess we’ll just have to put another baby in ya then, won’t we?”

“Mm, I would like that.”

Before Jake could say any more, your attention was pulled away by the sound of the cheering crowd. You painted on a smile, getting ready to wave at those in attendance. As you got closer to the crowd, though, you spotted a familiar face in the crowd. You tapped your hand against Jake’s leg. He looked at you, following your gaze to the girl in the crowd. Little Daisy stood there with her parents, giving you both a toothy grin.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” she shouted when she realized you were looking at her.

“THANK YOU, DAISY!” you shouted back, turning to look at the way her face lit up as the carriage continued down the road.

“Did ya hear that? She remembers me!” you heard her say before you turned back around to face the front.

“I hope Eliana is as happy as Daisy,” you said to Jake.

“With you as a mommy? She definitely will be.”

You grabbed Jake’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “I love you so much.”

“And I love you, my dove.”

“Just one more push!” the nurse said. “Just one big one, okay?”

You screamed as you pushed, gripping Marc’s hand so tight it might break. He squeezed back, telling you encouraging words that you mostly drowned out with your shouts. Then— A noise louder than your screams filled the room as your baby was born.

The nurse held your baby as the doctor cut the umbilical cord. “Congratulations,” she said, smiling widely as you. “It’s a girl!”

“A girl?” you repeated. You looked at Marc, a tired smile on your face. “We’ve got our sweet Eliana. Oh, I can’t wait to hold her!”

“Well, let’s not think about that right now. We got another baby to have,” the doctor said.

You raised your head off the pillow, looking at the doctor with furrowed brows. “Another? You told us we were having just one!”

“Sometimes, one of the babies blocks its twin in the ultrasounds,” he said. “In any case, you need to get ready to push ‘cause this baby’s coming out whether you only expected one child or two.”

The nurse, who had passed your baby to another nurse so she could be cleaned up, glared at the doctor. “Don’t be such a dick,” she hissed at him. She looked back at you, smiling. “Just gotta do it one more time, okay? Lean back, and start pushing when we tell you to, just like we did before.”

You settled back, head falling on the pillow again. You took a moment to look at Marc, seeing the color drained from his face. “You okay, my love?”

“I wasn’t prepared for two. I was barely prepared for one,” he whispered.

“It’ll be okay,” you said. “We can handle assassination attempts and hidden family plots, can’t we? We can handle this just fine.”

Marc swallowed hard and nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Several minutes, too many pushes, and a sore throat later, your second child was born. A boy, your Randall. You watched as he was taken away, too, to be cleaned up. You glanced at the doctor, who started to get up.

“No more, right? No secret triplet I should know about?” you asked.

The doctor shook his head. “Just the two, I swear.”

“You also swore there was just one,” Marc muttered.

You patted Marc’s arm, turning his attention back to you as the doctor left. “You’re gonna be okay, love. It’s not what we expected, but we always wanted multiple kids. We’re just getting a head start on that big family sooner than expected, yeah?”

“One newborn is hard, two is…unimaginably difficult,” Marc said.

“We can handle it. And if we can’t, we have a wonderful support system to help us.”

Before Marc could reply, a couple of nurses entered the room, your babies in their arms. “It’s important the babies get plenty of time with mommy,” one of them said, passing you Eliana. The other nurse handed you Randall. Both babies were settled in either book of your arm, nestled in there like it was home. “Don’t want to shock them too much after leaving the womb, hm?”

You thanked them and they soon left the room after telling you to shout if you needed anything. As you and Marc were left alone, you looked at him, seeing his gaze entirely focused on your children. He almost looked like he wanted to ask something but like he was too scared to say anything. You took a shot in the dark as to what that might have been.

“Go on, my love, hold her,” you said, holding Eliana out towards Marc.

He stared at her. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. His gaze lifted to look at you, his head giving a small shake.

“She deserves to know all of her fathers. My love, I wouldn’t ask you to hold her if I thought you would drop her or scare her or hurt her in any way. You’re one of her fathers. You deserve to hold your baby.”

Marc looked back at Eliana. He glanced at Randall, nestled in the crook of your other arm. Eliana cooed at him, wiggling in her cocoon of a blanket as if she was trying to reach out for him, practically crying out, hold me! hold me, please!

“I trust you.”

Slowly, Marc extended his arms, one hand going behind Eliana’s head, supporting her as she nestled in his arms. “She’s so tiny,” he breathed out. “She looks like she could be broken so easily.”

“Not so easily. Babies are resilient, you know,” you said. “This is gonna be hard, Marc. I can’t lie to you about that. But we can get through. That’s what matters. That we don’t give up, that we try to do what’s best for our kids. Sometimes, they might love us for it. Others, they might hate us for it. But let them grow up knowing that we all tried.”

Marc sniffed. He leaned down, brushing his nose against the top of Eliana’s head as he kissed her forehead. “I’m gonna protect you. I’m gonna keep you safe,” he whispered. He looked back to you, his eyes glassy. “I’m gonna make sure no one hurts our family.”

You watched as Randall doddled around the ballroom, his chubby little hand clutching Layla’s fingers. Of everyone in attendance, he was probably the most comfortably dressed. Rather than forcing him into a tuxedo and making him uncomfortable all night, you had purchased one of those t-shirts that has a tuxedo design printed on. Paired with some comfy shorts, he was practically wearing pajamas. Eliana was similarly comfortable, wearing a pink t-shirt and shorts. Unlike her brother, though, she had clung to her daddies all night long.

“Are you gonna let me dance with daddy?” you asked, tickling under Eliana’s chin as the band began a new song.

She shook her head, giggling.

“Hm…Well, how about we both dance with you?” you asked.

Her little face lit up. She let out a noise that almost sounded like she said “yess!!”

Steven let out a laugh, adjusting Eliana so he had a better grip on her before leading you and her onto the dance floor. You placed one hand on Steven’s shoulder, wrapping your other arm around Eliana. Steven put one hand on your waist. Together, the two of you swayed to the music.

“Me!”

You looked down, seeing Randall doddling up to you as quickly as he could manage. Layla let out a laugh, scooping him up and helping him get the rest of the way to you. You let go of Steven, balancing your baby boy in your arms, before continuing to sway.

“How could I ever forget my boy?” you asked, kissing his cheeks. “Gotta have both my babies, don’t I?”

It was your first birthday ball since…Well, the horrible one that sent your entire life as you once knew it spiraling. You had chosen to not hold the ball last year when you revived the birthday parade tradition. It was one thing to sit in a carriage and smile and wave for a few hours. It was an entirely different thing to stand in the ballroom for a couple of hours, even if you did forgo the heels. Now, though, as your sweet babies were nearly a year old, it felt right to bring it back. A new family, a better tradition.

“What about this boy? I think you forgot his kiss this morning.”

You lifted your gaze to look at Marc, who was now fronting. You smiled and leaned in, careful to not bump Randall’s head against Eliana’s, and gave him a gentle kiss. “That better, my love?”

“Hmm, it’ll have to hold me over for now.” He smiled slightly. “Happy birthday, dove.”

The song came to an end and Layla stepped forward, Yelena by her side, offering to watch the kiddos so you and Marc could have a moment to yourselves. You both agreed, passing the toddlers to them, before slipping your hand in Marc’s and leading him out to the balcony.

“As nervous as I was for all of this,” Marc said, looking up at the stars, “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

You smiled at him, leaning your head against his shoulder. “Me neither. Everything is more amazing than I ever could have imagined.”

You felt a shift in Marc’s body language and, when you lifted your head, you realized that Jake was now fronting. “I can think of something that would make this even more amazing.”

A brow raised. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“Adding another member to the family.”

You smiled. “You know, I think that would be an amazing birthday present.”

It was almost strange, feeling so happy. So content. For so many years, you had been on edge. You were scared and anxious and hated the way your life was headed. There was a constant weight on your shoulder. But ever since you met your husbands, that weight was slowly being lifted off of you until now, when you felt as light as a feather. You could breathe. You weren’t afraid anymore. Ever since you met your husbands, you felt free to live, to love, to be authentically you. Sure, you still had to paint on a smile for public engagements (after all, anyone who spent their days being attacked by flash photography could much rather glare than smile), but otherwise? You didn’t have to pretend anymore.

You once thought that, if you had a choice, you would be anything but a royal. You thought that it wasn’t what you wanted. You thought it ripped your freedom from you. You thought you would never be able to do anything right. Now, you knew that this was the life you always wanted. Being a royal had its issues, to be sure. But when you looked at your life that you had built with Marc, Steven, and Jake by your side…You wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I love you, dove. We all do.”

“And I love you all, too, my loves. Forever and ever.”

And all was well for now and forevermore.

FIN.

#do not chastise the dove: a royal moon knight au #steven grant imagine #steven grant x reader #steven grant x fem!reader #steven grant x female reader #marc spector imagine #marc spector x reader #marc spector x fem!reader #marc spector x female reader #jake lockley imagine #jake lockley x reader #jake lockley x fem!reader #jake lockley x female reader #starrywrites #starryevermore

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sluttish-armchair · 1 year

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You know… Julia lives in a hostel, I assume, for other young people in the Anti-Sex League. “”””Celibate””””, single people. Winston lives in his apartment alongside the Parsons Family, in what is probably a complex made for families; which makes sense because Winston and Katharine were trying (very uncomfortably) to have children. But as we know, Winston and Katharine separated eleven years before the start of the novel. This means that Winston has been living alone among families, observing them, for over a decade.

On one hand, it may be a relief to him that he has no one in his life, because family members are expected to turn each other into the Thought Police:

Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and every- thing connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother—it was all a sort of glorious game to them. All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children.

In his eleven years, he likely watched his acquaintances get picked off one-by-one by their own children. He likely saw the glimmer of zealous joy in the eyes of expecting parents who moved into the complex in their place, only for the same thing to happen to them. No wonder he doesn’t want to have children.

But at the same time:

To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink—greetings

Now, this is interesting. Generally speaking, everyone is expected to be together as much as possible; “ownlife” is a crime. If you’re going to do something, you have to be with other people, or you are a rebel. And as previously stated, Winston lives in apartment complex made for families; no one living there is alone…

Except for him. His wife left, and he has no children. He was also separated from his parents at a young age and hasn’t even begun to process the trauma. He probably looks at these new children raised by the party, for the party and gets jealous. They have what he craves: a living mother and father; but they kill them. Every time a child reports their parents to the Thought Police, he is watching his mother and father get killed over and over.

He looks at Mrs. Parsons and calls her Mrs. Parsons instead of “comrade” because he views her as the mother figure who was so violently ripped away from him, and wants to show her the same respect as he would his mother; because he knows she won’t get that from her own children. He helps Mrs. Parsons because he feels he is in debt to his mother for running away from her. But that debt can never be repaid because what’s done is done; and it is eating him alive.

Winston is alone.

#nineteen eighty four #george orwell #1984 book #literary analysis

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tonechkag · 1 month

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Are you indiginous Russian, or etnic Russian? I'm asking this because I'm confused. If the former, then I understand. It's a shame Russians killed a lot of those tribes (a lot went extinct). But if the later, then I don't understand. You are now not part of a group, culture, and country that doas not view women as people, is about only vailenc in every form of it (phisical, mental, emotional, sexual, ect).

I mean Russians view wife beating as a form of love to the point that women who abendond it, and got together with non Russian men, were questioning if they partners loved them dou to them not beating them. Just look at Russia's domastic vailenc statistics, or how they say "It's a family value" about it. Or how there are up and running websites there, where they dox people who live there and part of the Lgbtq community, in hopes that they will get killed for it. Or what are they doing in Ukraine, and in the countries they went to. In Georgia Russians are openly fetishes the locals, whaile taking resorces away from them. Ask people from Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, or from any country that Russia has a history with. They will tell you the truth, and that really nothing good, or usefull, or worthy come out of that country, that culture, and those people seince the Russian revolution.

Sorry if I sound rude, but I just don't get it, why someone would be proud of it, and call themself that.

I'm both. My mother is Russian & my father is Chuvash. I have never been ashamed of my Russian family & I never will be. Being ashamed of it & pretending it doesn't exist won't magically make the bad parts dissappear. I simultaneously have a deep love for Russia's rich culture & history while not ignoring the suffering & wrong that's happened along the way (& is still happening). Holding both truths at the same time is possible regardless if people believe it or not. In my humble opinion, holding both truths & acknowledging the ugly parts of one's history is necessary for genuine healing, progression & a complete sense of self. But of course, that doesn't mean we endorse those horrible things. We should use them as a blueprint to do better in the present & future. That's all any of us can do.

These days it seems like so many people can't see outside of this Black vs. White polarizing way of thinking. It honestly drives me insane.

There's not a single country that hasn't committed atrocities in it's past. There's not a single person alive who's ancestors haven't done some fucked up shit. Are you sending these types of messages to Japanese people? They were committing some pretty horrific war crimes back during ww2 like The Rape Of Nanjing. What about Germans? They were genociding Jews, Slavs & Romani. What about the Dutch? They killed a fuck ton of the Lenape people when founding New Amsterdam (now known as New York City). Wait what about the various tribes in Africa that have been at war with each other since time immemorial? Ever heard of the Volhynia Massacre where Ukrainians slaughtered & raped Poles? What about Turks? Mongolians? Chinese? Indians? Need I go on? Are all people everywhere supposed to hate themselves? Or is it just Russians who are expected to perform this masochistic self-flagellation to appease random people on the internet?

Take a long hard look at your own history before pointing fingers at others. You're bound to find a skeleton or 2 in your own closet that you're not proud of.

#oh & if u think indigenous people are somehow incapable of committing the same heinous acts you're delusional #like we weren't these pure wholesome faiytale characters that never did anything wrong & lived in complete harmony with each other #its quite infantilizing & erases true history which frankly is just colonization under a slightly different guise #this may go in one ear & out the other #but i stand by what I've said #asks #anon #russian #chuvash #i might add more tags later my brain is fried & ive been sick all day

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destinyc1020 · 8 months

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honestly i feel bad for clubchalamet cause i really do feel like fans like this do have something going on with mental health. i don't want to armchair diagnose but listening to this i'm like omfg girl, you are not okay! a lot of times when stans get way too invested in actors love lives, there's something else going on. she really needs to step outside and try to enjoy her own life, i listened to part of the spaces talk and she's just like all the delusionals in chris evans and tom hiddleston's fandom, and the tz antis who all deny that their fave is dating. like no one should be spending that much time upset about something they have no control over, with someone they don't even know! i've been there in the past when i was much younger and it just makes me sad that these ppl aren't growing out of it, i think they'd be a lot happier if they did

Yea Anon... I agree... 😔 It's just sad. Some of these fans get into parasocial relationships with their faves and it goes too far sometimes. 😔 I feel bad for her too. I mean, she freely admits that she's 30 years older than Timmy (so, she's obviously older than even 45 👀), and she swears that she's not infatuated with him, but idk girl... 👀 I don't usually put THIS much attention on someone's relationship that I'm not infatuated with, ykwim? Like, I may not like certain couples, but I just shrug it off and don't even give them a second's thought. But when you're THIS invested in a relationship, usually there's some infatuation involved lol.

But hey... I could be dead wrong.

Either way, I don't understand how people can be so upset over people they don't even know. Yea, I don't care for their family, but I also don't know how Kylie is with Timmy in private. He seemed happy from what I saw last night. She seemed happy with him. Maybe they have things in common we don't know about. Idk...

Even if the mother and Kylie orchestrated this relationship, isn't that how it USUALLY is?? Like, women go after men ALL the time lol. Especially GOOD-looking, eligible men with good careers. That's nothing new. 😅 That's how a LOT of these relationships in Hollywood have started in fact. Some actresses will have their team reach out to the actor's team to set up a date or an introduction. This is nothing new at all in Hollywood. You think it's only the men going after the women all the time??? Chiiiile...PLEASE. 🙄 Mothers too have been trying to hook up their daughters with some eligible single men. That's been done since the dawn of time lol. I don't really see the crime??

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zatannaroth · 10 months

Text

ＣａｕｓｅｙｏｕａｎｄＩ

The sun has gotten brighter each day, ever since talia had chosen to stay with her heart instead of hearing her 'demons'. It was painful for her to leave the place where she had grow up and trained. But she knew it was the right thing to do. No more hurt people... especially ones who had family.

She was different from her father and her sister. Ra's and Nyssa. But she had the same dreams as her mother... To be a good mother and wife. Talia never had her mother but she did had her father. Although it was never the same affection as a mother would give to her. All of her life was training and being prepared to kill if necessary. Nyssa wasn't really in the picture but when she is. She was the greatest fighter and would most likely take Ra's Al Ghual place.

And so when Ra's told Talia that she was the one who is taking his place. She had knew that she was going to trained extra hard then she had ever expected. She wasn't able to cry, not even a single tear. That's when she knew that she had felt trapped. That is not she ever wanted. Her dreams were slowly becoming just dreams.

Talia was only 17 when she had met her beloved. Yes he was already older then her. But he looked good for his age, she would never really pay attention whenever her father would bring new recruitments. But some things about that men was different. Her father wanted her trained him privately. Talia had no problem with it...or so she thought. Bruce was trying to focus each movement whenever they practice and would quickly learn his mistakes soon after. Her father had told her that he was special, he was born and raised in Gotham and appeared to be rich. Talia could help but laugh in her head...what kind of billionaire would love to train to be an assassin?

Late at night Talia would go and sneak out to go her mother garden. Where she would always sit by a beautiful water fountain that her father had made his wife. Yes, she knew that her father was very much in her mother. She remember very little but yet meaningful memories.

So when Talia was heading over to the water fountain, she surely didn't expected Bruce to be there as well. His eyes meet her. And insisted on leaving her alone and that he would never tell her father. Talia could help but to let out a small laugh. One that she had haven't done in a while. They decided to stay together. At first it was quiet until she was the one who spoke first. She didn't why but told him everything about her. Bruce stay quiet the whole time, because he didn't wanted to interrupt her story.

She didn't mean to cry as she look down at the water and apologize immediately. But then felt a hand on her cheek making her head turn. Bruce had the other one move a strand of her hair away from her face. He gave her a gentle smile and nod his head.

"It's okay...let them out." He spoke softly and she did end up crying some more. Finally able to break down after years of holding, She was now able to set them free. While Bruce held on to her the whole time.

That night change her. He changed her. So now She and Bruce would go at night to the fountain. They would talk for hours before the sunrise. She had one time asked him if he was every in love. He stayed still for a little moment and nodded. "I met her when we were kids...she was there when my parents died that night." Talia didn't know how to respond when he asked her that same question. "Have you ever been in love?." She wanted to look at his eyes and say yes. But she was just a child still. She's has never been with someone besides him.

When Talia had turn 18. It was the hot season. She surely regrets being born in June. Talia had made a mentle note not have a child during June nor July. When she was expecting to see Bruce at the fountain in middle of the night. She couldn't help but to fan herself due the heat. "Sorry I'm little late." Bruce held a small box. Talia was a little suspicious about it. She had received gifts today but didn't expect one from him.

He sat down face to face, putting the box in middle between them as they look at each other eyes. She asked what's in the box and he gave her Smile and told her to open it up. Talia broke the eye contact first and opened the small box.

It was a ring.

She felt a small panic and looked back Bruce. He laugh and told her it was a promise ring. She knew what that meant and couldn't believe that he did had feelings for her. He was always so respectful and make sure she was never uncomfortable. She honestly didn't think that her feeling would every matter to him. But that prove her wrong. Talia could help but to fan herself once more. It felt hotter now that she had a small panic.

Bruce took notice and slowly slid his feet and then his body into the water fountain. Making Talia caught off guard. "what are you doing?!"she asked him as she held the small box up to her chest. "We're in the summer time Talia. You have to cool off." He let out his hand. Talia stare at his hand for a moment before taking it. She careful let her white nightgown into the water. Bruce notice that she had already had the ring on her ring finger. It was sparkling at the pale moonlight.

The water was cold but felt nice. She didn't left go of his hand. As she made her way to sit on his lap and laugh how both of them are getting wet from water above them. It had felt like there was rain around them. Bruce wrapped his arms around her making sure she was comfortable. She play with his now wet hair and felt butterfly in her stomach. looking down at lips and back at him.

"Can i kiss you Talia?."

She has never done this before.

"yes."

By age 20, Talia was experience a heart break. Her and Bruce were now enemy's. After two years of what felt like a honeymoon paradise. Everything was now over. Bruce had now become The Batman back in Gotham City. there was a couple of time where they have crossed paths for either business or mission. She hated that he knew her and she knew him.

She hated her father that he made her go even though he knew what have happened to them. But then again that's what she gets for choosing her father instead of her heart.

Somehow she had met the other villains in Gotham City. And in particular with one, Selina Kyle. She couldn't help but to feel jealous towards the kitty cat. Everybody knew that the bat and cat had always a thing going on. While Talia was always stuck in the shadows. She had wish she could leave this mission before it ever began.

When the league made their way in Gotham. She knew Bruce will go after them. Now matter what it takes, he wants the league out of his city. Talia was staying at her place. She wanted to feel comfortable without her dad or anyone bothering her.

The sun was already gone and the night was out. Talia was on her couch reading a book with some tea besides her. When all of a sudden the lights of her apartment went off. She didn't panicked no. But instead took a sip of her tea and placing her book to the side.

"why are you here."

Talia smile softly as she got up from the couch. "I live here." She responded back and made her way to her bedroom. She felt a hand on her arm pulling her back. "you know I mean taila." Of course she knew what he meant. "And you think hurting me will get give you information detective."

"what happened to beloved?." Of course he would asked that question. she yanked her arm back and walked away. "I think you should go back to that kitty cat of yours. She knows what's going on. You are just wasting your time here." She closed the door behind her but didn't Lock it. There was no point anyways.

Talia got into bed but didn't close her eyes but instead let a tear drop down on to her pillow. She heard the door gentle open. "I'm not wasting my time here Talia. You are the one who knows Ra's and brother blood plans are. The other's are just his puppet's." Talia didn't replay just started at the dark wall. She felt Bruce present behind her. She squeezed her eyes tight.

"Talia I know you are not a bad person. You would never wanted hurt to others especially children." Talia felt a gut Punch in her stomach as She held her pillow tight. He must to heard her whimper because he lay a hand on her shoulder. Her father and bother blood were doing something awful together causing them to do sacrifice on people especially newborns.

Talia didn't wanted to help but her father manipulate her. She felt sick for what she had become. Talia broke down, she couldn't control the tears anymore. She felt Bruce sat down on the side of the bed. And pull her up and onto his chest to let her cry on him. She held him tight and smelled his scent and remembering that was one way to put her asleep peacefully.

At 22, Talia was now a married women, she and Bruce decided to have it private with the family. Although dick wasn't fan of her. He still made a speech for them at the ceremony. Talia felt a little sad that she did not have have any relatives to witness her big day. Her father and the league were no longer a threat to Gotham City. Bruce had made sure they were far away from her. And told her that he was finally able to give her the dreams that she had always wanted. To be a wife and...soon to be a mother.

And so the sun gets brighter each day. She wake up and looks over to her heart where it belongs, her beloved. He has well trapped in his arms. But this time she knows, she safe.

At age 23..

it was late night after patrol, Bruce was looking for his wife all over their house. But then immediately realized when she was. He head out to their large garden when there was a similar fountain that he had made her. She had still looked beautiful like the day he met her. He notice that she spotted him. Bruce took a seat and saw her feet in the water and so he did the same. Talia got closer and lay her head on her beloved shoulder. Bruce notice she had put something in his lap. He looked down at it And realized it was test, a pregnancy test.

Positive.

There was no more hell life for her but instead there was heaven. She had finally said yes to heaven. Finally said yes to her dreams.

#brutalia #talia al ghul #batman x talia al ghual

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