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luminari-mc · 3 years

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4 Female with satan

Late Night Rescue (Satan x f!MC)

Prompt 4: “I know it’s 2 in the morning, but do you want to...”

Genre: Fluff, Slice of life

Warnings: N/A

A/N: First Satan piece! Coincidentally enough, he has been growing on me a lot more lately. I hope I get to work more on him in the future so I can explore other parts of his personality (I just think he's neat).

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It was with a long, deep groan that MC's forehead met with the surface of her desk. Three long hours on this homework, and she still couldn't see the end of it. When the teacher had first said that the entire class was about to "taste true suffering" for getting a low score on the previous assignement, she didn't think he would actually be this serious. But what was she expecting, really, when it came from a demon teacher?

With a hand that had turned stiff from writing down notes since the beginning of her study session, MC grabbed her phone and slid it close to her face. She sighed upon seeing the time flash on her screen, reminding her of her grim reality.

2:13am.

"Aaah, and we have to wake up in 5 hours..." the hard truth fell from her lips as she painfully straightened herself in her chair. If Lucifer knew she was still awake at this hour, no doubt she would get a full-blown lecture after coming home from RAD tomorrow. She ran her hands over her face in an attempt to wake herself up as she groaned. She wasn't about to get any sleep tonight, was she?

"What's this coffee made out of, seriously?" Frowning, a pout birthed on her mouth upon looking down at her notes. The pile of books next to her only let her see how much more she would have to write before finalizing her assignment, and giving it back to the teacher tomorrow afternoon.

"It's not doing shit." MC propped her elbows on the desk- maybe a bit too loudly given the time-, and placed her head into her hands. If only she hadn't made a detour to the store with Asmo after school! But she had desperately needed new skincare products, and Asmo's puppy eyes had proven to be way too effective against her. Ugh, she could have been in bed already...

She felt her heart skip a bit when the phone under her hand began ringing, the soft ringtone she had set for nightly calls much welcomed to her ears. Although, a small knot took form in her throat as she began to wonder who could be calling her at such an hour. Maybe a wrong number?

She instantly placed the phone against her ear, her tired mind making her forget to check the name appearing on the screen. "Huh, hello?"

"Ah, so I was right. You are still awake after all." The voice, warm and affectionate in its tone, gave MC the impression that it was the first person she was speaking to in a week.

"Satan?" She asked, rubbing a wrist over her eyes.

"You know, I had a hunch it was going to take you some time to finish your work, after you've left dinner so quickly to close yourself in your room. But to still be going at it at this hour..." The demon clicked his tongue. "Did you even take a break since then?"

"No... I mean, I've finished most of my regular assignements. But I've been stuck on this one for a while now." MC replied as she turned around on her chair to stretch her legs, before curiosity took over her. "How did you guess?"

"I went to the kitchen to grab some water." The blonde answered over the phone. "That's when I noticed the light from under your door. I didn't want to bother you, in case you had fallen asleep with the lights on, so I didn't dare knocking."

Looking back at the door, MC felt lucky it had been Satan who called, and not another one of the demons. The Avatar of Wrath had always been one of the few men in the house who had always respected her boundaries whenever she asked to be left alone, especially more when it was to work on something. Yet, she couldn't help but clutch the phone a little more against her ear, feeling grateful that he was checking up on her in the middle of the night.

"Well, I'm definitely not sleeping right now." She giggled slightly. "But what about you, though? Were you asleep before going to the kitchen? I wouldn't want you to stay awake because of me."

Satan's laugh brought a warm feeling in her stomach as it entered her ear. "Actually, I wasn't. There's been a particular problem that's been keeping me awake, you see. So I've been trying to find an idea as to how I can resolve it."

"A problem?" MC blinked, her eyes opening a bit wider.

"You left dinner relatively early today, so you didn't catch up on it." Satan explains. "But I've recently noticed the presence of a kitten in the cemetary. It's been there for a few days now, and as far as I know, it doesn't seem that it left the area to return to a home, so it's just been taking shelter in one of the mausoleums. I told Lucifer about possibly bringing it inside to give him in a warm place so it can sleep and eat, but of course, he refused on the spot."

MC arched an eyebrow. "I thought you of all people wouldn't care about Lucifer's rules when it comes to cats."

The demon laughed in response.

"Oh trust me, I'd love nothing more than to defy his rules on a daily basis. But I've sneaked cats in the house in the past, and it usually doesn't end well for me, and the cats eventually have to leave. It also wouldn't be easy to bring this kitten inside, now that Lucifer knows about it." Satan sighs loud enough for MC to hear over the phone. "No doubt he would be on my tail if I were to try anything."

She mimicked the demon, letting a puff of air escape her nose in frustration. Lucifer was very stubborn when it came to having animals in the House of Lamentation, the only exception obviously being Henry 2.0 since he was a small goldfish. Even Mammon had been yelled at whenever his crows would enter through the windows to drop freshly stolen goods at his feet, but they'd usually only stay for a couple of minutes. So convincing the first-born to let Satan take care of a kitten... would prove to be challening, no doubt.

MC didn't have the time to offer her support, than Satan immediately started speaking again.

"But you know, MC." The smile in his voice seemed to have doubled in an instant. "I think I may have found a solution to this problem of mine. Now, I know you're still stuck on your homework... And I know it’s 2 in the morning, but do you want to..."

Satan let the end of his sentence unfinished, probably waiting for MC to guess it. Her mouth stayed agape for a few seconds, until she finally took the hint.

"Do I want to... help you?"

"We all know Lucifer has a soft spot for you." MC could hear Satan move around his room as he continued to explain his plan. "I take that if you and I were to go and bring this kitten to one of our rooms, he would be a bit more mellow than if I were to try on my own. Would you be up for it?"

MC weighted the ups and downs in her mind. On one hand, getting caught by Lucifer could result in a punishment her exhausted body wouldn't probably be able to take. But on the other hand, she was the only one at this hour who could help Satan with this predicament. And MC would be lying to herself, if she said she didn't want to see this kitten and give it a better home than a cold, damp mausoleum.

"Ah, and if you need a bit more convincing-" Satan's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, "I'll help you finish that assignement of yours tomorrow morning. Whatever it is, I can assure you we'll be done before lunch."

"You would?!" She found herself gasping as if she had just heard the best news of her life. "Satan, that would help so much!"

"It's for Curses and Hexes, isn't it?" Satan's chuckle felt like honey to her ears. "That teacher really is as sadistic as Lucifer, so no wonder you're having a hard time with it. Don't worry, I'll even complete the assignement for you if we need to."

"I'll help!" MC declared, practically jumping out of her chair to go grab her shoes near the door. "B-But, I was going to accept even before you offered me your help, just so you know!"

"Haha, I know MC. You are truly kind." Satan's words felt sincere. "Now then, shall we meet by the entrance? Be careful not to make any noise on your way there. This rescue mission depends entirely on our discretion, after all."

"I'll be so silent, Lucifer might as well think I turned into a ghost." MC grinned while crouching to put her shoes on. "See you soon, Satan. Let's help that kitten together."

"Thank you, MC. I'm really looking forward to do this with you. I will see you there." As Satan hung up, MC could swear all of the exhaustion she had previously acquired in the past few hours vanish in an instant. Who cared in the moment if her back ached a little? Something much more interesting than taking notes was about to take place.

As MC grabbed her jacket and flipped it around her shoulders, she found herself smiling upon stepping out of her room, this innocent but sneaky rescue mission with Satan making her the most excited she had been in weeks. And with him getting to help her tomorrow... it seemed like, for the first time in a while, her stubbornness had worked in her favor.

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takaraphoenix · 2 years

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I don’t understand people who think that BTVS should have ended with “The Gift.” That would have made Buffy into a martyr instead of an autonomous hero taking control of her own future and breaking the chains that dictated her life for so long.

What in the fresh hell that's the season 5 finale. That's the one where she dies (for the second time).

Who in their right mind watches BUFFY the Vampire Slayer and then goes "man, it's too bad it didn't end when Buffy died". Like who does that.

Sure, in a way, killing off the protagonist is a sure-fire way to end something definitely. It's the ultimate way of wrapping things up. But in like 90% of the cases it is also the most unsatisfying?

In this case, even more so than usual. Because Buffy's entire struggle - from season 1 on - was her lack of autonomy. Her fear of dying; she already dies in season 1 and the lead-up to that, her crying and trying to bargain, her wanting to live and to live long. That's been her struggle from the beginning of her narrative and the season 5 finale would just... make it all kind of pointless. Because guess what, even after all you have done, you are still just The Hero Who Does, you are still just another one of those short-lived Slayers, your attempt at building a life for yourself was completely pointless after all.

(And don't even get me started on how much of a plothole I find the ending anyway. So that'd have made this stupid plothole she fell through an even worse way to end the show. I can look past it because the show continues after it.)

The season 7 final is one of hope. She lives. The shackles of the Hellmouth no longer bind her, the entire world lays ahead of her. She fought, she won, she lived.

Ending it at season 7 defies the overarching journey of the show for me, because the main message that BtVS has is that if you fight all alone, if you are the sole Chosen One, you are destined to die, because the burden is too much. You have to share the burden, if you choose to fight with others, you can survive, because you're stronger together. Never mind the underlying defying of the in-universe patriarchal system; the first Slayer enslaved by the Council, the Slayer line kept on a short leash by the Council. She defied the Council and the season 7 finale is her ultimate middle-finger to the Council, to the rules, because no, it doesn't have to be just one Slayer to suffer at all times.

And that's not even bringing up my personal bias of what the fuck, seasons 7 and 6 are literally in the top three of best seasons this show has why would you cut the best out. And season 6 features Once More With Feeling and Tabula Rasa, the best episodes of this entire show, after The Body.

I love season 6 so much, because it steps back from the Big Bad. It has three minor inconveniences (until things escalate too much in Seeing Red and yeah that entire episode was a mistake), but it is mostly focused in the characters, most of all Buffy. It's an essentially character-driven season and you get to see something like that so rarely in TV. It deals with Buffy's trauma, it allows her to act out, to despair, to cope in whatever way she wants, even if it's unhealthy coping mechanisms. Which is also something you get to see too rarely in TV; characters die and get resurrected all the time, characters get tortured and traumatized but because actually dealing with the emotional outfall of this would mean the writers had to put in some work, most characters just shrug it off and I hate that so much, I hate when writers are so cheap, they want the drama of the death/torture but not deal with the trauma of it all. Season 6 is amazing because it does that, it hits emotionally hard and it is such a great Buffy season for that, for her struggles.

And it goes beyond Buffy too. Spike's journey and redemption - which I assume is the main reason these people want to cut these seasons out; the Spuffy and the Spike, because truly I can not imagine another reason. Willow embracing her powers - yes, I hate the addiction plotline in season 6 with a burning passion, but season 7's Willow, when she turns white-haired and embraces her goddess like powers, it felt like her character finally fully came into herself after all the struggle she had with her identity and self-worth. I love the Faith-Buffy dynamic in season 7 and I love how much it wraps things up between them instead of leaving this major plotline just dangling around as the season 5 finale would have had. I love Robin Wood and Andrew Wells and without season 7, we wouldn't have gotten them as a part of the team.

Even if season 6 isn't perfect and even season 7 has some issues, they bring so many good things to the table for the show overall and for Buffy as a character and it genuinely disturbs me that people watch a show about Buffy Summers and would rather have it end with her death than with the powerful leader who gets to live.

#tell me u watch BtVS but don't actually care about the B in the title without saying it huh :/#Buffy the Vampire Slayer #Buffy Summers

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canary3d-obsessed · 3 years

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 26 part one

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

I’m Coming Up So You Better Get This Party Started

The Lans arrive just in time to see Cousin Jin Zixun hassling Su She, and they wonder how he has the fucking nerve to come to a party that they are also invited to.

Su she was invited by his new best friend Jin Guangyao, who deploys a full-on charm attack, wrapping Su She permanently around his little finger.

Smoother than the Lanling weather that’s how he holds himself together Watch out, he’ll charm you

Jin Guangyao grew up with women who earned their living by being charming, pleasant, and hiding their true thoughts from their clients, and he appears to have mastered this useful skill set. With Su She, he exudes confidence and authority, allowing the lesser man to bask in his attention.

With Zewu Jun he deploys helplessness and embarrassment, effectively controlling a man with much greater power than his own.

Lan Xichen confronts him about Su She's presence, and Jin Guangyao pretends he didn't know that Su She was ex-Lan. This seems super unlikely, given that JGY is good at collecting information that he can use to fuck with people, and also that he sheltered Lan Xichen from the Wens directly after Su She betrayed him.

Lan Xichen seems like he doesn't believe what JGY is telling him but then he decides to drop it, passive-aggressively saying that since JGY is uninformed, he's not guilty. Lan Xichen is actually assuming a lot here about his right to tell Jin Guangyao who to invite and who to shun, but JGY doesn't push back. Lying is so much simpler.

(more behind the cut!)

Su She wins for most unintentionally sarcastic-seeming toasting expression.

Jiang Cheng, Party Animal

Jiang Cheng arrives at the party, bringing his Jiang retinue and his bad temper. He super obviously casts around to try to find Wei Wuxian, who already told him he probably wasn't coming to the party.

Jiang Cheng is that guy who only comes to a party because the girl he likes said she was thinking about going, and then he spends the whole party saying "hey have you seen Mei Lin? She said she was going to be here but I don't see her."

Jin Guangyao formally congratulates Jiang Cheng on the Jiang clan's success in the hunt, and Jin Guangshan toasts him. As always, Jiang Cheng reacts to praise from authority figures like it's rain in the desert, smiling from ear to ear. He says that the Jiang Clan will donate the prey from the hunt to the other gentry clans. ...what?

Are we seriously saying that when these dudes go night hunting it's not just to remove dangerous bad stuff, it's for profit?

Like, do they eat monsters? Wear their fur? Make leather from their skin? Carve jewelry from their claws? Is Jiang Cheng wearing a purple monster's skin right now? (There will be an art prompt at the end of this post)

Meanwhile, check out the way Nie Huaisang is looking at Jiang Cheng, wow.

Forecast: Hazing

Having gotten the single pleasant part of the banquet over with, it's time for the Jins to pick on the Lans. Cousin Jin Zixun goads Lan Xichen into taking a drink with him, knowing that this is (mostly) against Lan rules. Jin Guangyao tries to stop him by saying, hilariously, that it's bad to drink and fly on a sword, but CJZX waves this away and keeps pushing, saying that if Lan Xichen won't drink, it's an insult to him.

A random cultivator who is definitely on the Jin payroll backs him up, saying that teetotaling is for losers, and Captain Blowhard boisterously agrees. Loudly agreeing with powerful people is the Yao clan's signature martial arts skill.

Jin Guangyao looks embarrassed and helpless, which is, as mentioned before, his own signature skill. But he's just playing his own part in this piece of theater; everything happening at this party (so far) is happening for the benefit of the Jin Clan. Cousin Jin Zixun is an ass, but he's not actually a loose cannon, and Jin Guangshan is clearly enjoying the Lans' discomfort.

Why? This entire party, the hunt, everything he's done since the end of the Sunshot campaign, has been designed to increase and consolidate his power. His main goal is to get the Yin Tiger seal, but reducing the status of the Lans is also a good move for him. The Lans have been the strongest opponents to the use of resentful energy, and worked the hardest to conceal and contain the Yin iron in the past. If he wants to use resentful energy as part of his own cultivation, he needs them to chill.

So this is a bit of a test; will they comply with the will of the larger group in order to avoid conflict, or will they refuse, which will allow him to label them as iconoclastic weirdos?.

Lan Xichen takes a long look at his brother, who is expressing all sorts of emotions while keeping his face very very still.

At a guess, he is thinking that this entire party is bullshit, that his brother's willingness to play along with these assholes is bullshit, that being viciously beaten for having a single drink in his life was bullshit, that Wei Wuxian not being here right now is bullshit.

Lan Xichen picks the "go along, get along" path, having his drink and using his magic skill of anti-intoxication to neutralize it, as he'd done previously when drinking with Wei Wuxian.

Cousin Jin Zixun picks on Lan Wangji next, and since he cannot magically or even non-magically tolerate alcohol, there is a real risk to his reputation if he drinks. But Lan Wangji breaks rules when he feels like it, not when people tell him to. He pointedly ignores the offered drink while Lan Xichen looks worried.

The rest of the party guests have a wide variety of reactions, none of them helpful, to these shenanigans. Jin Guanshan's son and heir watches with calm interest as the power dynamics play out.

All of this is actually not great strategy for the Jins. The Lans don't play little social games to gain power, because all that time they spend not drinking, not gossiping, and not doing other stuff? Is spent cultivating and practicing sword and musical battle forms. The Lan Bros are overwhelmingly powerful as individuals, and embarrassing them won't change that.

It's moot, ultimately, because Wei Wuxian chooses this moment to arrive.

Darkness Visible

Wei Wuxian actually made a big impressive stair-climbing entrance to Jinlintai a few minutes ago, with camera work echoing Lan Wangji's stair climb at the Wen Indoctrination Bureau from several episodes back.

But nobody was around to see that, other than us, and when he appears at the party it's in stealth mode; he steps into the frame from out of nowhere, and drinks Lan Wangji's unwanted drink.

Lan Wangji responds by looking at him like this for the next several minutes.

Wei Wuxian doesn't have time for their usual sport of Extreme Gazing, though; he came for a reason, which is to find and rescue Wen Ning. He gets right to it, asking Cousin Jin Zixun where he's keeping him.

Jiang Cheng, who is the king of worrying about the wrong fucking thing, jumps up to try to stop Wei Wuxian from talking. Like, seriously, he's ok with the Jins trying to take his clan's special extreme weapon, but he's not ok with his head disciple being rude in order to fulfill a whopper of a life debt--Jiang Cheng's life debt, in particular--or being rude in order to preserve the clan's independence.

Jin Guangshan decides this is a good moment to bring up the Yin tiger amulet. Wei Wuxian pushes back, hard, pointing out exactly what Jin Guangshan is doing. He says he's setting himself up to be a new Wen Ruohan.

Lan Wangji pays close attention to Wei Wuxian's reasoning here, and so does Nie Mingjue, unless he’s just trying to mask his confusion.

Jiang Cheng is too busy being horrified to listen, apparently. Or he just doesn’t agree, preferring to be reduced to a secondary authority, rather than defy a primary authority.

Wei Wuxian is, of course, all about independence; he was literally born to be a rogue cultivator, despite being dubbed “patriarch” himself, not long after this.

Let’s Go Crazy Let’s Get Nuts

Wei Wuxian gets tired of the scene and decides to lose his temper. He makes a show of being enraged, and he genuinely is angry, but I don't think he's out of control, this time.

He acts like he's out of control in order to scare everyone, but he makes his points very clearly, reminding everyone that he has power they don't have, that he's good at killing, that he's not patient, and that his teeth are nicer than everybody else’s.

Everybody in the room freaks out to one degree or another--except Jin Guangshan, who is apparently too pissed off to be scared.

It's hilarious that Jin Guangshan thought he was going to get Wei Wuxian to hand the Yin Tiger amulet over by creating a complex system of social pressure against him. Wei Wuxian's favorite way of responding to social pressure is to escalate it into violence, regardless of the consequences; he's been doing that at least since Gusu Summer School and probably a lot longer. Jin Guangshan should know this, given how many beatings his son has taken from Wei Wuxian over the years.

Wei Wuxian does a fantastically sexy scary, theatrical countdown, and Cousin Jin Zixun caves in and gives him the information he wants. It's worth noticing that even under threat of death, CJZX doesn't comply until he visually checks in with his clan leader. He’s genuinely a bad person, yes, but he’s a loyal soldier, which is what most of these clans value most.

As soon as he gets what he wants, Wei Wuxian is perfectly, smugly, in control of himself again. Everyone in the room is still stunned and afraid, so Jin Guangshan has achieved that much, at least; nobody likes Wei Wuxian having the Yin tiger seal now, including Jiang Cheng.

As he leaves, Wei Wuxian has one of those conversations with Lan Wangji in which everything is said in glances in the course of a couple of seconds.

WWX: I love you, I have to leave you; I've got some shit to take care of and I won't be coming back to all of this.

LWJ: I love you; I'm probably going to have to fight you; your funeral is going to be so upsetting

Wei Wuxian turns away from everyone, and you can see the weight settling on his shoulders, as he contemplates the choices he just made and the choices that are still ahead of him.

Jin Guangshan, for the first and only time, loses his temper in front of everybody, literally flipping a table because he's so mad about what just happened.

Art prompt: Jiang Cheng wearing an outfit made of a Chinese mythical creature. Bonus points if it’s a qilin. Bonus bonus points if Zhang Qiling (from DMBJ/Lost Tomb franchise) is standing next to him looking grumpy while Jiang Cheng wears an outfit made from a qilin.

Soundtrack: Get This Party Started by Pink, Charm Attack by Leona Naess, Let’s Go Crazy by Prince.

#the untamed #the untamed gifs #wangxian #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs #learn to count the yiling way #1900 words

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beyondthetemples-ooc · 3 years

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I finished Gideon the Ninth today, and it was five hours ago, but I still haven’t stopped thinking about it!

Gonna do my very best to avoid spoilers, but I’m not going to bother trying to avoid some rambling.

~ This book utterly defies genre categorization, and I LOVE IT for that! SciFi, fantasy, horror, comedy? Murder mystery, even?! I love books that offer something new, crossing boundaries, shattering expectations, not being a cookie-cutter copy of something else that already exists, but wholly being itself. It’s unique, and it’s seamless. Masterful.

~ So Gideon’s a smartass. Love that. I don’t really latch onto goofy jokester characters, certainly couldn’t relate to it, but I’ll admit it was a nice change of pace.

~ Necromancy has never been something I looked into. Not even on a mystical level; I consider myself an eclectic witch and I’ve researched a great many forms of magic that I’ll never practice, but I usually save the death stuff for Samhain. (Sometimes a place is haunted and you just can’t avoid it...) But my point is, it’s not something I go looking for.

This book made it AWESOME. Powerful, multi-faceted, built into a system with rules (which I always respect when magic’s involved). It’s, again, totally unique: everything that happens on The First House (Earth, I think?) adds a new element to the system, and I was as eager to unlock its secrets as the adepts.

~ It WAS who I thought it was in the animation! Not in the way I thought it was, but it WAS her. Her body, anyways.

~ Harrow and Gideon’s relationship was intriguing. Very layered, very dynamic. Looking back on it, I love how it started from a place of disdain and how convincingly the author shifted it over time. Very well developed relationship. Not to sudden, not too sappy, but still profoundly changed over time.

I kind of dread searching for fan content because I just KNOW people are going to be shipping them, and I can see why, but it doesn’t read as romance at all to me? I mean, I’m cool with the lesbian thing (hi I’m pan), but I’m going to pull a cliche here and say “they read like sisters to me”. The whole growing up together thing. Their conversations at the end, to me, read as loyalty and chivalry and the kind of powerful platonic love that most people never find. Intimate, but emotionally. I dunno, I can’t tell which way the author intended it, but my aroace ass definitely didn’t read it as romantic.

~ Harrowhark’s backstory? Wow? Great payoff to several mysteries of the book. This book EXCELLED at making you curious. It’s a Whole New World to me, so I didn’t have ANY idea how any of it was going to work out, but it laid the pieces out enough to make me wonder. And when the mysteries were revealed? SO satisfying! Or terrifying. There were a lot of terrifying things too.

~ There was a sense of both stakes and scale escalating with each battle too, and I’m furiously taking notes on that because escalation is something I know I need to work on in my own writings.

~ Speaking of stakes! This was a BRILLIANT, painful, shining example of how a tragedy SHOULD happen. Make It MATTER!

No, seriously, it actually really truly impressed me how much it MATTERED. It HAD to happen. It had benefits. It left an impact on both a personal level, on the characters, AND an impact on the world around them. It was vast in scope, massively heroic, and most importantly, it paid off.

I read the back of the book so of course I found out who the sequel follows, but I guess now I know why.

And because it mattered so much, it doesn’t feel cheap. It shocked me, but it was bittersweet shock, triumphant alongside the tragedy.

That’s how a tragedy SHOULD be. I don’t want to read something terrible happening just because the author saw fit to randomly twist fate. I don’t enjoy that. I don’t like stories that hurt you just to hurt you.

The escalation, the foreshadowing, the character growth, the worldbuilding, the science, the relationships-- everything in the story culminated in what happened in the climax, and as a writer I have SO MUCH RESPECT for how hugely, greatly, significantly that all paid off! Again, I say: MASTERFUL.

#i liked it in case you can't tell #gideon the ninth #bibliophile #rhs personal posts #...I don't have a personal tag for this yet and I'm not sure I need one? If I wind up needing one I'll add it here.#update like 4 days later: Yeah I definitely need a personal tag. I love this so much #rhs tlt #rhs gtn

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thebakingqueen5 · 3 years

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KW 2021: The Sea & The Sky

Day 7 for Kataang Week 2021 hosted by @kataang-week with the prompt The Sea & The Sky!

Don't mind me crying in the corner that Kataang Week is basically over, but anyways I'm super proud of this last oneshot and hope you all enjoy it!

Links: AO3 | FF.net

Summary: Another year, another, another week of prompts celebrating our favorite couple. Kataang Week 2021 Day 7: The Sea & The Sky. Katara was the sea, Aang was the sky, destined to meet at the horizon where they were bound together for all eternity.

Word Count: 1.7K (barely)

The sea and sky, two entities as old as time itself. In some ways, as contrasting as the night and day, and in others, perfect reflections of one another.

The sea has always been below the sky, left to gaze upon the brilliance of the celestial bodies embedded in it for all eternity and reflecting the light of the bright stars beyond.

The sky has always been above the sea, forever peering down into its depths for the miracles and mysteries hidden beneath, and guiding its steady waves as they crash upon the shores of the Earth.

The sea is the reason the azure sky is adorned with feathery white wisps floating high above the ground, and the sky, in turn, fills the oceans and floods the rivers with the very liquid that makes survival possible.

The sea fosters life beneath its steady, undulating surface. It holds flora and fauna of all shapes, colors, and sizes, and it was a point of fascination for the sky. The sky, in all its glory, could not sustain anything for long. Even the birds that rode over its swift breezes had to eventually land somewhere below. And yet, the sky was free, a vast expanse of space that extended beyond what the sea could ever imagine to be possible. It wasn’t shackled by the chains of the planet, and the sea almost envied it.

In the days of old, when sailors ruled the seas, the ocean and her gentle waves would push them across great stretches of nothingness, while the sky and his stars would aid in guiding them on their journeys. Without the sky, those explorers would be lost at sea, and without the sea, their ambitions would remain sky-high with their dreams of traveling the world doomed to remain just that- dreams.

The sea and the sky have always been connected. Together, they make a thriving world possible. And so it follows that those so closely bonded to their elements, Aang and Katara, would be similarly linked by the fabric of space and time.

Though he was the Avatar, Aang’s native element was that of air. He preferred to soar on his glider high above the clouds, and gravity was a laughable concept to him. True to his airbending disposition, Aang’s natural inclinations were to evade conflict and obstacles in order to move forward, like a leaf on the wind.

Katara was born in the Southern Water Tribe, surrounded by ice, glaciers, and the frigid seas of the South Pole. She wielded the element of water, adapting and accepting things as they came since water was the element of change. She would experience swells of emotion similar to the waves, but she always came down into a steady balance, an ebb and flow just like tides.

Aang and Katara were not each other’s antithesis, far from it actually, but rather each other’s complements. Had they been such stark opposites, their relationship would’ve been much more turbulent, having the highest of highs but also the lowest of lows. They needed not a sharp contrast but rather a soft blend to allow them to communicate with and learn from one another. It was this that allowed them to work so well.

When Katara was firm and unyielding like a tsunami approaching the shore, Aang accepted her stance and often strengthened it. Consequently, if the airbender was flighty and indecisive, Katara would be there to ground him and guide him to something he felt confident in.

Katara was Aang’s earthly tether. When his head drifted up into the clouds, she pulled him back to the real world and allowed him to guide the four nations into an era of peace and prosperity. On the other hand, Aang showed Katara true freedom and what being unrestrained felt like. He brought her up with him on his glider and taught her to defy nature’s laws, to not be afraid to take exhilarating risks, and to keep her ambitions sky-high.

Their worlds collided like the brilliance of colors created as the sun set over the horizon, gradually leaving the realm of the sky and sinking into the sea. Some of their traits reflected each other like the sun’s rays on the sparkling surface of the water, and the others melded together well to make the glorious gradient that streaked the sky as night fell. Together, Aang and Katara created a rich harmony filled with overtones that mirrored the depth of their connection.

When they first met, that instant link, the bond that tied them together, was remarkably evident to all those around them. It was absolutely undeniable.

Though Sokka had mostly been joking when he had called Aang Katara’s boyfriend, there were still some astute observations lying under his exaggerated comment. Sokka knew his sister. She didn’t take to people too well, he had noticed over the years. Katara was protective, almost overly so, of the people she loved, and it was hard for her to let people in.

And yet here was Aang, a boy whom she had quite literally taken into her open arms without so much as a blink of hesitation, a boy whom she was ready to leave her tribe, everything and everyone she had ever known, and travel across the world for. It seemed so out of character. Katara didn’t usually make sense to her brother, but this was something different, something special.

Even Gran Gran had taken notice of the unique energy between them. “Aang is the Avatar,” she had told the Water Tribe siblings. “He is the world's only chance. You both found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his,” and she was right.

That day, Aang and Katara had forged a connection that wouldn’t, that couldn’t, ever be severed. Breaking him out of the iceberg had been the catalyst for the rest of their lives together. Their adventures following only served to deepen and strengthen that link, allowing them to fall wholly and completely for one another and experience a love they didn’t know was possible.

Visiting Aunt Wu was the first time Katara had really stopped to consider how far their bond went and the strength of her feelings for Aang. She knew they had something unique, something exceptional, but she hadn’t ever thought it could run that deep. “The man you’re going to marry… I can see that he is a very powerful bender.” It made sense, didn’t it? The boy who had changed her life for the better would grow to be the man that she would spend the rest of her life with.

Their kiss in the Cave of the Lovers only further cemented the idea in her head, and a part of her began to believe that their meeting was fate, just like the tale of Oma and Shu. Aang, while still reeling from embarrassment at some of his words (“I’m saying I’d rather kiss you than die, that’s a compliment!”), also began to have similar thoughts, thinking that maybe they too had parallels to the starcrossed lovers and that the love that they shared would one day too be immortalized in legend.

The battle in the catacombs underneath Ba Sing Se seemed like an all too abrupt end to their story. It simply didn’t feel real. How could their link just have been cut off like that? No, Katara wasn’t ready to accept it. She couldn’t accept it. It went against the laws of the universe, it wasn’t possible.

She was going to do whatever it took to keep him there with her, and she did. She brought Aang back from the spirit world through the purest of love, light, and determination, and she made it her duty to never let such a thing happen again.

It was what allowed them to fulfill their roles as the Avatar and his waterbending master at Sozin’s Comet and have their kiss afterward, the early buddings of a relationship that would last a lifetime. Years later, they would go on to pronounce that love to all their friends and family, but, for now, they were more than just their fates.

Just as Aang was able to manipulate water along with his primary element of air, the heavens held clouds in its vast expanse of sky, connecting it to the sea. The sea sent water up in the form of vapor to create those fluffy masses above, and the sky releases the water that the clouds hold in torrents of rain back down to the ground, tying the two together in an endless cycle.

Similarly, waterbending was one of the many things that bound Aang and Katara. It was the reason they had met, the reason Katara was able to break Aang out of that iceberg, and it was the reason they embarked on their epic journey to the North Pole- to learn from the masters and even become ones themselves.

Waterbending linked them as sifu and pupil, strengthening their bond. Without waterbending, Aang may have never realized that fateful day of her adjusting his form of the effect she had on him, the full intensity of the pull, the attraction she held in his eyes.

Waterbending had made Katara especially attuned to the rhythm of the waves rising and falling, and it didn’t long for her to notice how her and Aang’s dynamic reflected it, ebbing and flowing in a delicate yet harmonious balance.

Their meeting had been fate, an event necessary for the survival of the world itself, but that did not define them. With each other, they were not their destinies. They were not the Avatar and his waterbending master, nor were they the beacon of hope for the future of the Air Nation.

No, they were Aang and Katara, two people who had defied all odds, overcome all obstacles, and quite literally gone to the Spirit World and back all in the name of love. They were not the heroes who had saved the world, but soulmates, fated just as the sky and the sea were to meet at their own horizon. They were two people irreversibly linked to each other then, now, and till the end of time itself.

#kataang week #kataang week 2021 #kataangtag #kataang #kataang fanfic #the sea and the sky #aang #katara #aang x katara #atla fanfiction #soulmates #bc yes

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vivithefolle · 3 years

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Hi Vivi, can you share some thoughts on the "Hermione deserves to be/should have married to XYZ because she is way too good for Ron" mentality of this fandom??

I’m gonna copy-paste a Quora answer of mine, because recycling is important!

Claiming that Ron is “out of Hermione’s league” is a statement rooted in sexism, classism and probably a bunch of other -isms.

It might seem like I’m just throwing buzz-words around but let me explain.

First off, the sexism.

Oh, the sexism.

As I’ve pointed it out in yet another one of my answers (I’m so sorry for drowning you all in a plethora of links), Ron is very much a female-coded male character.

Ron is emotional, wears his heart on his sleeve, has anxieties and inadequacies, walks off in order to cool down, has a temper, puts other people before his needs, and pretty much adopts Harry when he rescues him in the second book. He’s the Heart of the Trio: he doesn’t rely on sole logic, he can believe something without proof, he is sensitive and thus is the easiest to hurt emotionally.

Whether you call it a “beta male”, a “wuss”, “defying gender roles” or a “soft boy” is your own business, but the core of it is that Ron doesn’t meet the standards for people’s vision of a “desirable” masculine figure.

The little things Ron quietly performs in the books - when he helps Harry into his pyjamas in Chamber of Secrets because Harry’s arm is bloop; when he’s worrying about Hermione’s whereabouts in Prisoner of Azkaban; when he helps Harry unwind after his visions in Goblet of Fire; when he puts food onto Harry’s plate and wakes him up from his nightmares in Order of the Phoenix; when he beams that Hermione was “perfect, obviously” when she passes her Apparition test - all those caring gestures don’t seem like much, but if you bother to think about it, they paint an enormous picture.

Who gets Hermione to stop overworking while making her feel good about her accomplishments? Who comforts Harry from his nightmares and cares for him in the dead of the night, when nobody is awake? Who makes sure his friends are healthy and happy? Who wards off the dark and depressing thoughts, be it with his fists or a joke?

It’s Ron.

When you think about it, “traditional masculinity” in Harry Potter is as much frowned upon as “traditional feminity” is - which sometimes bites Rowling in the butt when you remember how she obviously seems to consider that Hermione and Ginny are the only desirable kind of girls.

Vernon Dursley? The entrepreneur “king of the household” prejudiced suburbian middle-class Dad? Fits in the usual tropes of traditional masculinity.

Dudley Dursley? The typical “boys will be boys” spoiled middle-class only child who’s the apple of his parents’ eyes and even takes up boxing, as if he wasn’t traditionally masculine enough.

Draco Malfoy? See Dudley, but toss in “upper-class posh aristocrat bully who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty so he has henchmen do it for him because he’s too rich for this sh-t”, would remind you of a few Christian Greys or Gatsbys.

Dolores Umbridge? Oh no, cat pictures, decorative plates, talks to teens as if they’re babies and PINK, SO MUCH PINK!!! So disgustingly feminine!!

Rowling very much frowns upon traditional gender roles - with Molly Weasley being an exception because Rowling feels very strongly about being a mother, and relates to Molly a lot.

Right - so, being a beautiful mess of paradoxes and contradictions (a “soft boi” who also punches bullies in the face, a fussy mother-hen who swears like a sailor, a tall athlete with badass scars on his arms who’s nurturing and sweet; in short, a wonderfully human character), Ron is obviously going to be a polarizing character. You painfully relate to him and get defensive when he’s criticized, you feel his characterization hits a bit too close to home so you hate him, or you disregard him completely because you can’t see anything “special” about him…

Now, onto another very, very sexist point that is often made.

People say that Hermione “deserves better” than Ron, often claiming that they “aren’t intellectual equals”, then citing Harry (who is mistaken as being some sort of slumbering genius but honestly, the kid is really a bit daft) or Draco (since apparently, being rich must equal to being intelligent) or, god forbid, Snape (because he’s a teacher and teachers are meant to be clever).

Soooo, I could go the loooooong way and pull out all the receipts that prove that none of these characters are perfectly intellectually matched to Hermione…

Or I could go the long way and simply give you this: this obsession with finding an “intellectual equal” for Hermione reflects the mentality of “women are not allowed to be better at something than their husband”.

Yep.

A woman has to be all-around pretty good at everything, whereas a man has to be the absolute best in his area of greatest competence (surely better than any puny female!) with a help-meet there to compensate for his weaknesses. People are very, very uncomfortable when Ron and Hermione reverse this dynamic. Hermione is extremely intelligent and dedicated to intellectual pursuits, but is complete pants at things like self-care and people skills. Ron is bright enough to keep up with her and strong in her areas of weakness.

Even if Ron was as dumb as a sack of rocks (he’s not), his other virtues are more than enough to “justify” Hermione loving him. (Because she needs an excuse?) But no. A woman has to be with a man who outdoes her in her area of greatest strength. - credit to @lytefoot

People don’t want Hermione to be with a man who’s her “equal.” They want her to be with a man who can be The Man so she can know the contentment of being The Woman.

But, with this sexist line of thought, how do we justify how Ron is supposed to be such a bad match for Hermione? Because if it was just about mere sexism, Romione would surely be more popular. Imagine! Ron happily raising the children, being a house-husband and proud of it, while Hermione is out there fighting for justice in the wizarding world! What a power-couple, defying norms and gender roles and not being the least bit conscious of it, prime OTP material for sure! So why do people still want Hermione to put Harry, Draco, or god forbid², Snape in Ron’s place? Is this an irrational hatred of redheads? An Harmionian’s delirious wet dream? A failure to separate the actors from their characters?

It’s all this and, quite frankly, something more: the inherent classism that comes with Ron’s status as an explicitly working-class coded character.

I know, I know, “Vivian! Calm down with the buzzwords, you’re starting to sound like an online pretend-feminist magazine!”

Or “Come on, people who don’t ship Ron and Hermione together aren’t all sexist or classist!”

Of course, of course! I know that! I’m not implying that!

But some of the “reasons” why they claim that Ron and Hermione can’t work - are extremely classist in nature, that’s just it!

Come on, think about it! What are the Number Ones arguments people always pull against Ron? Or the most common Ron-bashing tropes (look at fanfics and watch the number of stories that use at least one of those)?

Ron is stupid/mediocre

Ron is lazy/useless

Ron resents his wife’s hard work/success

Ron is a homophobe

Ron is a drunkard

Ron (the big prude who at 16 had never kissed a girl and sees a first kiss as the prelude to a wedding) is massively oversexed and cheats on Hermione with anything that moves

Not only do these “reasons” completely ignore ALL OF RON’S CHARACTERIZATION - except for the “lazy” bit but come off it, all teenagers are lazy and Hermione’s the exception to the rule - but it matches perfectly with the negative stereotypes associated with working-class white men in fiction.

It’s also very funny to note how many (assumedly middle-class or financially secure) fans look down on Ron for being “whiny” or “greedy” when he expresses the desire to have money of his own, or blame his parents for “not knowing when to stop” or “being irresponsible”, or even look down on them for being “too proud to accept help”!! Also how shocked people are when Ron dares to stand up for himself when Hermione or Harry act badly towards him. How dare this country boy not listen to the wisdom of his social “betters”?

So, obviously, because our Heroine can’t go with a Nasty, Mediocre Working-Class Man, she must be paired off with someone of Proper Status: say, a Hero that was raised in a middle-class home and might be a bit psychologically damaged but it’s nothing all those gold coins in his vault can’t fix; or this Rich Posh Aristocrat who actively rooted for her death, he’s a little bit eccentric and has some exotic pet-names to call you, but I’m sure you’ll learn to love him and will unearth the gold coins in his bank account… I mean, the heart of gold that lies within the surface; oh, why not a Way Too Big An Age Difference Teacher if you’re looking for a “cultured man” who has zero things in common with you; we can also bring Convenient Plot Device Famous Rich Foreign Athlete if you want some diversity and you don’t feel original!

But we can’t - oh, we mustn’t let her be with this Terrible Working-Class Boy! His brothers are fine, they have money, they have jobs, so they’re obviously Not As Mediocre. But let our precious Hermione be with this Just-Got-Out-Of-School hooligan? She can’t possibly be in love with him! You’ll see darling, you’ll get bored eventually! He’s too mediocre for you, you deserve a man who outclasses you - I mean, who can provide for you! You’re a fragile little flower who scars people for life when she’s not happy with them, what makes you think that this boy can possibly handle you even though he’s done so for the past seven years?

You wanted it, you got it.

People are shallow, have misconceptions about Ron’s character that they are unwilling to correct or use classist and sexist arguments to try to make it so that either Ron is the Devil himself / Hermione is a higher kind of being that can only orgasm if sufficiently “intellectually stimulated” / what-have-you.

#vivi answers #ask #ron weasley #hermione granger #romione #ron weasley defense squad #ron weasley defence squad #sexism #classism #hp meta #fandumb #hp fandom

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psychedellic-phase · 4 years

Text

Fifteen (pt 13)

(gif by me! I use the iphone app momento)

tw: language, angst, mentions of drug use (relapse), mentions of miscarriage

word count: 7.3k (im sorry)

masterlist

series masterlist

Spencer got up from the cold tile floor, fuzzy unicorn in hand, and faced the window above the kitchen sink. He stared out of it, admiring the snow that was still falling lightly, wondering if it was raining in Seattle. His memory flashed to the last time he stood in the rain with you, but he tried to shake the images away. Instead he watched the snowflakes hit his windowpanes and melt. He hoped that maybe you were somewhere staring out of a window, admiring the dreary weather, and thinking of him too.

He found his place against the dishwasher again, sliding down as his mismatched socks gave way so he could stretch his long legs out fully. He pulled the nearly empty box onto his lap and appreciated the light weight of it, as he continued with his twelfth letter and thirteenth item. Thirteen, a number whose history of unluckiness stems all the way back to the thirteen attendees of the Last Supper, and tracks through the number of steps leading up to the gallows, all the way to the number of letters in the names of some of the most infamous criminals.

Thirteen was a haunted number, which rightly accompanied a haunting letter.

“This one’s long. It’s a month of tarnished memories packed into a few pieces of paper. So far I’ve gone through half of a college-ruled one subject notebook and I’ve had to change pens twice. It’s nearing 2:30, and the wine is finally hitting my empty stomach. Sorry in advance for the way my handwriting will be. I’ll try to make this make as much sense as I can.

If you look at your thirteenth item it is the notepad I stole from that resort in Florida. There isn’t much around to signify this letter. You don’t keep mementos from one of the saddest days of your life, but for some reason I took this useless paper and shoved it in my purse on my way out. Good thing I did, or you’d have no item to attach to these memories. Though I suppose that might be better.

The resort was where we were going to be at for our ‘babymoon,’ whatever that is. What a dumb idea, I’m still mad at myself for letting Garcia talk us into one. She just made it sound so appealing.

Once everyone knew I was pregnant, Hotch pretty much sat me in Quantico with Penelope. There were a few local cases where I was lucky enough to go visit the ME’s office, but usually I kicked my feet up in her lair while you were out in the field.

“A what?” I said one day as she ran DNA through CODIS. The two of us were drinking herbal tea, and I was barely 16 weeks. I just looked like I had a big lunch in my stomach, not a baby the size of an avocado.

“A babymoon. It’s like a honeymoon, but you go when you’re pregnant. It’s one last trip for mommy and daddy to go on and spend quality time together. How many trips have you and Dad-Wonder even been on?”

I shrugged. We didn’t travel much for pleasure. We traveled for work, so on our rare days off we liked to be at home.

“I mean we’ve gone to Vegas and Connecticut a few times.”

She rolled her eyes, “Visiting family, my dear, is not a vacation! I was thinking you two would go to the beach. You guys relax and wade in the ocean and Spencer can build sandcastles that defy every law of physics!”

I laughed at that. You and the beach? It just didn’t feel natural to me. Probably because you aren’t capable of actually relaxing.

“That does sound fun,” I said and I spoke to my barely there stomach, “And it would make daddy take a few days off.”

Penelope squealed and started clicking at her computer, “I’ll find a resort online right now! Okay so how about Marco Island? It’s gorgeous and in Florida, so it’ll be like eighty and sunny, even in the beginning of December.”

“I’ll have to talk to Spence about it. I mean I know it would be fun and all but we really should be saving money for a crib, and car seat, and bassinet, and high chair, and a rocking chair, and a baby swing, and a—“

Garcia stopped me from spiraling out of control, “That is why you throw a huge baby shower! People buy those things for you.”

I rubbed my tummy again, “Oh no, Daddy is very particular about what things are bought.”

“That’s why you have a registry, Momma Bear. Now, no more excuses.”

Before I could even call you, she had put in both of our requests for days off and we had a week long reservation at this fancy resort that you see listed at the top of this notepad, the “Crystal Cove”.

I was only slightly mortified that she did all this without me asking you. Mostly, I was happy. I was afraid you wouldn’t say yes, but if PG already booked it, you kind of had to agree. And to my surprise, you did.

When you got back from that case we were at home, you eating something I had poorly made from a random cookbook on a shelf. I had decided to start cooking more, so I could make homemade meals. I wanted to be that mom who cuts sandwiches into flower shapes and always has fresh baked bread and cookies laying around. I wanted us to be those parents; the ones who are so sickeningly in love that their kids roll their eyes every time they kiss. We were those parents, kind of, if we could even be considered ‘parents.’ At that point, I don’t think we were. But we were definitely in tooth-rotting, sickeningly sweet love.

“So, I have a surprise for you,” I said, coming up behind you and rustling your hair.

“Hm?” You said, stuffing your face like you hadn’t eaten in days. You probably hadn’t. You’re the king of forgetting to eat. Maybe that’s how you stay so skinny.

“I booked a trip, well I guess technically Garcia did.”

“A trip?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, a trip, to the beach. Penelope called it a ‘babymoon.’”

You laughed, “A babymoon? I’m not familiar."

I smiled and sat across from you, “It’s like a honeymoon, except it's just me and you relaxing and spending quality time together before this lil dude makes his appearance.”

You smiled, “I’m telling you, it’s a girl.”

I rolled my eyes, “It’s definitely a boy, but stop ignoring my offer.”

“Well, it’s not really an offer so much as it is you telling me that we’re doing this.”

“Okay, yes Garcia helped me book it already, and yes she put in our requests for days off, but you can say no.”

You did your little nose twitch scrunch thing, “I’d never say no to quality time with you, Love.”

You leaned over and kissed me, and I squealed, “I’m so excited! I have to buy maternity bathing suits now! Oh and a sunhat!””

Spencer smiled fondly, recounting that day. He was thrilled to go, minus the part where he’d have to wear shorts, and flip flops. Something about the piece that goes between your toes makes him squeamish. He was looking for the right opportunity to use something special he had bought for you, and you had just given him it. A week on a beautiful beach with the love of his life? That would be the perfect time to ask you what he had been waiting to ask you since JJ’s wedding. He was going to take Hotch’s advice; stop waiting, start doing, and get down on one knee with a blue velvet box.

He never got the chance to. The trip was supposed to be in the beginning of December, around your week twenty-four. You never got that far.

He got up from the ground, immediately digging around in a drawer full of pencils and compasses and rulers, finding the blue box in a corner. It was covered in pencil shavings and dust. He hadn’t looked at it in months. He held it delicately in his hands before opening it.

It was plain, but he remembered you said that was what you wanted.

“Oval, of course and silver,” You had explained to Penelope and JJ at a night out years ago. Derek and Spencer sat on the opposite side of the table, but his ears perked up at the mention of rings.

“I like just the band,” JJ said, admiring her own ring, “And I have Henry’s birthstone, the citrine, so I didn’t need another one.”

“What kind of stone Y/N? I’d love a pink diamond! Or a ruby! Imagine!” Penelope gushed.

You shook your head, “I’d take cubic zirconia, if it was coming from the right guy.”

Both Penelope and JJ stuck their tongues out, “Nuh-uh!” Garcia said, grabbing her phone to scroll through more pinterest photos.

“Spence will be getting you a diamond.”

You rolled your eyes and whispered, “Don’t jinx it JJ! And I don’t want a diamond.”

Her mouth dropped, “No diamond? Really.”

“Diamonds aren’t ethically sourced.”

“Lab grown! Get lab grown!” PG piped it, showing you a picture of a ring, just an oval in a plain silver setting.

“That! That’s the one!” You said and Garcia giggled, going on a rant about her dream wedding.

Spencer had gotten that exact ring. Lab grown, oval, classic, beautiful. It was what you wanted, and you deserved everything you ever wanted.

Spencer looked at the notepad. He could tell you had a hard time picking an item for this letter. He knows this letter is the end, the other two are the epilogue of a story he wishes you kept writing. Crystal Cove is the place where he had planned on asking you to marry him, but it ended up being the place where your love story ended. He tossed the notebook to the side and decided that the souvenir for this letter was now going to be this ring. This ring that sparkled and shined, even in the dull incandescent lights of his kitchen. This ring that belonged on your finger, and not in the back of a drawer. This ring that you didn’t even know existed, but if you had, maybe you’d still be together.

“I did buy three maternity bathing suits, and you bought shorts. Spencer Reid in shorts. It was going to be the best trip ever. We were going to snorkel and look at sea turtles and sunbathe and drink virgin piña coladas by the ocean. We were going to get couples massages and spend every moment loving and appreciating each other.

The actual trip? Much different than the one we had planned on paper, but let’s first discuss that time between the hospital and the trip.

It was four weeks. Four weeks of me sitting at home while you were off at work. Four weeks of the door opening and Derek walking through, not you. And on the odd chance that it was you opening the door, you’d be appearing at odd hours of the night to grab a new suit or a file or a snack and then getting back in your shitty car and going to your apartment. Each time I heard that comforting sound of your satchel hitting the floor, I’d crawl out of the cave of blankets I was in to find you, and you’d act like I wasn’t even there.

For the first few days, you asked me how I was and if I was feeling better, then you’d check your phone and wave goodbye. After that, I was lucky if you’d say hello, then I was lucky if I even got a glimpse of you. You never held me. You never kissed me. You never told me you loved me.

I got all my information about you from Derek. Every day I texted you, “Have a good day at work! Talk soon?” And everyday you didn’t answer, so I’d ask Derek if you were okay. He’d always tell me what you were doing. Usually you would take a stack of files of cases to a dark room and make preliminary profiles to send back to the departments, alone. I’d tell him thank you, and the next day would be the same nonsense.

Those four weeks dragged. It was like every minute was an hour and everyday was a year. I was healing, even without you, everyday I felt better and better. But that’s relative to the day before. I haven’t felt ‘good’ yet. I haven’t felt ‘happiness’ yet. But I will. And I’m counting on that.

My mandatory leave was four weeks, and at the end of that Hotch called me in for a ‘mandatory psychological evaluation.’ I didn’t tell you about it because you weren’t speaking to me, and even when you did you were angry and snappy and rude.

I didn’t pass the evaluation. Even though the BAU wrote those damn questions, I still didn’t pass. When my four weeks were up, you were expecting me at work, and I never showed. You didn’t notice how not okay I was because you were too busy handling your own feelings, which I understand. You have to take care of yourself first, deal with your own trauma before touching anyone else’s. So, your trauma was none of my business, a concept you should've applied to my healing process.

I was supposed to come back on a Monday and when I didn’t show you came to the house. You opened the door and yelled my name. It was a sound I hadn’t heard in weeks, and it felt good. I thought you had finally come home. I thought you were finally ready to heal with me, but you weren’t. You were there to judge me.

I think I ran to where you were, a smile on my face that I didn’t think I was capable of making, “Hey!”

You looked so put together in a neatly pressed suit, but your eyes exposed you. They were bloodshot and the bags were so large they almost reached the end of your nose. I had on one of your shirts; it was comforting at the time. Not so much anymore.

You looked me up and down, a small scowl forming on your face, “Where were you today?”

I took a deep breath, and I lied, because lying to you felt easier than telling you the truth. The truth that I was not deemed stable enough to come back, even though I wanted to. I needed to be distracted. I was ashamed, scared, confused.

“I-I didn’t go.”

“Didn’t go? You’ll get fired Y/N.”

I sighed, “No, my leave got extended.”

I could feel the way your eyes bore into my skull as I dodged eye contact.

“Extended?! It’s been four weeks.”

“I’m not ready!” I desperately wanted you to see through it. I thought I was ready, but the papers disagreed.

“Hotch let you do that?” Your voice was increasing and I found myself inching away from you.

“He encouraged it!” Another lie. He didn’t ‘encourage’ it. He forced me.

You rolled your eyes, grabbing your bag and opening the door again.

“You’re leaving? Spencer c’mon I-”

You cut me off by slamming that door in my face.

That’s when I started closing myself off. I started dreading the sound of your feet against the floor at three am. I started to put my own walls up, but they would dull in comparison to the Great Wall of Spencer you built around yourself to keep me out.”

Spencer was always good at putting walls up. In fact, you were the only person to ever get him to take (almost) all of them down. There’s a side of him he doesn’t show anyone, a side of him that he reserves for himself, and when something happens, that’s where he goes. He goes to the corner of his brain where he feels safe, and the walls come up to protect him.

And in those last four weeks, he did just that. He put the walls up, shut you out, and decided that was better. Except it wasn’t better, it just was easier. It was easier for him to bypass you and find a new outfit for work tomorrow. It was easier for him to disappear in the office until the odd hours of the morning. It was easier for him to hide away from you, because when he’s exposed he always gets hurt. It was easier to act like everything was fine, even though everything was the opposite of fine.

He never needed to go to the house, part of him was drawn there like a moth to a lantern. He was drawn to you. As much as he didn’t want to see those four walls, he still needed to check on you. He just did it in his own damaged way. He’d get a glimpse of you in old sweats and a shirt with a hole in it, hair a mess and mascara from two weeks ago adding to your eye bags and he’d be reminded that he couldn’t be there for you. He would never be enough, and he’d retreat into the comfort of solitude.

He was so preoccupied with being hurt, that he didn’t realize just how much he hurt you too.

“I had forgotten about the stupid trip, and so had you. You were too preoccupied with work and not speaking to me and I was preoccupied with crying and trying to speak to you. I only remembered the trip when I got an email from the airline about the flight, they had to move our seats or something stupid. I decided that was a reason for you to actually need to speak to me like I was a person, so I took advantage of it.

I intercepted you at home one day. I had been sitting in the kitchen waiting for you. You came home at two am.

“Hey,” I said, immediately as you walked through the door. You looked surprised that I was up.

“Hi, I’m just gonna—“

“Spencer, stop. We have to talk.”

You crossed your arms, not leaving the threshold of the door, “No. I told you a million times Y/N, I don’t want to talk.”

“Not about...” I couldn’t find the words and you started up the stairs.

“Are we going on this damn trip or not?” I said, my voice cracking from lack of use.

You stopped, looking over the banister at me, “You didn’t cancel it?”

“I didn’t think of it until now. We’re supposed to leave in two days.”

You groaned, “Why didn’t you cancel it?”

I threw my hands up. As if all of this was my responsibility?

“I was preoccupied! Did you cancel your days off?”

You shook your head, rubbing your face, “No, God. Can we still get a refund?”

I was hurt that you didn’t want to go, but not surprised. As I stared at the front door from my spot at the kitchen table I decided that I was going to go no matter what. It was going to be refreshing to look at the ocean instead of an empty nursery. That would be my distraction.

“I-I’m going. I’ll pay for your half, but I’m going. I’m losing my mind here, Spence.”

You looked at me again, still contemplating your options.

“I get it, okay? You can’t be in this house, but neither can I. Maybe we can talk and stuff on neutral ground. I-I just want you there with me, the way it was supposed to be.”

Then you took me by surprise, you nodded, “Yeah, yeah we’ll go.”

I’m sure I lit up like Rockefeller Center at Christmas, “Really?”

You rubbed your eyes, “Yeah, we can go Y/N.”

I was feeling lucky, so I pushed it, too hard, “Are you staying tonight?”

Your voice went from sleepy to sour, “No.”

And you vanished up the stairs, taking all my hope in us with you.

I knew deep down it wouldn’t end well. I knew it was going to be fighting and yelling and arguing, but any time with you was good time with you at that point. And I favored the little bit of serotonin and dopamine you flood my brain with as opposed to staring at the gray walls of the kitchen alone.”

Spencer only agreed to go because he thought he was getting there. Everyday he felt a little better when he’d walk through the door, but he still wasn’t ready. He thought a week of no work and no one to talk to except you would bring the walls down. This would finally be the catalyst in a reaction that was taking far too long to complete. He also couldn’t stand the thought of you flying and spending a week alone. He felt better about you being alone here because you weren’t really alone. You had Derek visiting, Garcia dropping off baskets, phone calls from Emily, the odd visit from Rossi, and apparently phone calls to Hotch, but on that island you’d really be alone, and he was worried about how you’d handle it.

“So two days later we got on a three hour flight to Miami, and I drove our rental car to this resort. We didn’t talk much the whole time, besides some small talk about the flight and other odd comments. It was painfully awkward, and I regretted even coming.

We didn’t speak until I used the keycard to open the door, and we stared at the one king sized bed in the room.

“Oh,” was all you said when you realized you’d have to share with me.

“What?”

“There’s only one bed.”

I rolled my eyes, “Spencer, we’ve shared a bed for three years.”

You just stood at the door with your hands fidgeting on the handle of the suitcase, “I’ll call down and ask for a cot to be brought up.”

“A cot? Are you serious?” I couldn’t believe you, “Why come if you wouldn’t even share a bed with me? I said I’d be fine alone.”

You opened your mouth to speak, but changed your mind.

“Great communication skills Spence. Really, I’m impressed.” You rolled your eyes and finally started to unpack your bag, “I came because I was worried about what you’d do here all alone.”

Part of me was happy you were worried, but a bigger part was annoyed, “I’ve been handling being alone fine, thanks.”

You scoffed, “Yeah. That’s why you need Derek to bring you food everyday, because you’re doing so well.”

I bit my tongue and tried to speak calmly, “Well at least someone checks on me everyday.”

That shut you right up.

The three days you were there went as follows: we slept as far apart from each other as we could, despite how badly I wanted to cuddle into your arms. We’d get up in silence, eat breakfast in silence, walk to the beach and read in silence, eat lunch and dinner in silence, and each night we’d yell at each other until we fell asleep on opposite sides of the bed.

Remember what I said to trigger the fight on December third, your last day there? How could you forget? It’s the fight that broke us up.

“So, I was thinking of going to a counselor,” I said, staring at the waves lap the sand from the balcony of our room. The air felt cold for eighty degrees. But maybe that was just because the air between me and you had been cold for weeks.

You were sitting next to me, but I could tell you were worlds away.

“Spence,” I nudged, trying to snap you out of your daydream.

“Hm? What?”

“I said I’m going to go to a counselor.”

You twisted your face, “A counselor? What for?”

I shrugged, “I-I think it’d be good for me. It’s a grief counselor.”

You turned to look at me, your brow covered in sweat and your eyes watery. You were incessantly bouncing your left leg, rubbing at your nose, and you seemed disinterested in every single thing I was saying or doing. In fact, you’d been acting that way since the first day you disappeared to your apartment.

“Counselor? Yeah,” You were fidgeting, barely making eye contact.

A feeling I can only describe as pure dread formed in my stomach. I thought I might puke, but I swallowed the feeling and kept talking, “I got a recommendation from Hotch. He said he went to Dr. Stevens after Haley died. He said it really helped.”

You were still not listening.

“I think it’d be good if we went together.”

That finally got your undivided attention. “Together?” You snapped, “No.”

“Why not?” I said it with an air of exhaustion and despair. I was tired of this. So fucking tired of it.

“I’m not going to a damn therapist, Y/N,” You seethed, your metal deck chair scraping against the concrete as you stood in front of me.

The sky looked stormy, palm trees whipping in the wind as you came before me. The bags under your eyes looked like bruises, and you had on sleeves. It was eighty and you had on sleeves.

“Okay, I’ll go alone then. I think he could really help us though.”

I was giving up on fighting. I didn’t understand how when I was at my absolute low you could just keep kicking me while I was down. All I wanted was for you to go to someone and talk about it. That’s it. You were acting like I’d asked you to move a mountain for me, which, might I add, at one point you would have done.

“He? You really think a male therapist is going to help? You lost a baby, Y/N—“

“WE,” I clarified, for what felt like the fiftieth time, “We lost a baby.”

You rolled your eyes and ignored me, “You lost a baby. How does a male therapist help you through that?”

I was angry now. It was bubbling up to the top and I thought I might explode.

“He’s a grief counselor! He’ll help me through my GRIEF! And I think you should go because clearly you have a lot going on. You always have! You should’ve been seeing someone for years.”

“Oh, I have a lot going on?” You sneered, “Of course I have a lot going on! I go to work everyday to bring you home a paycheck so you can sit around all day and do nothing.”

I stood up, got close to your face, “I’m on leave.”

“Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that.”

You bypassed me and went inside, and my hot anger turned into wet anger and fat tears were rolling down my cheeks.

“Do you know how traumatic this was on my body? Do you? Everything hurts and you were supposed to be there! You were supposed to take four weeks off too! You were supposed to be there for me!”

“Yeah and who’s there for me!” You yelled, louder than I think you ever had; at me at least. You had thrown your suitcase on the bed, haphazardly grabbing your clothes from the drawers and shoving them in.

“I would’ve been,” I said softly, coming up behind you to grab your arm lightly, “If you had let me.”

You pulled back, “Don’t touch me!”

I reached up to wipe my eyes and crossed my arms in front of myself defensively, “I want to be there for you, Spencer. I do. Why won’t you let me?”

You didn’t answer, because even you didn’t know why. You just stood over the suitcase, one arm on either side of it, hair matted to your sweaty face, panting and panting.

The facts I had chosen to ignore were staring me in the face again. Or maybe I was just that oblivious.

“I’ve never seen you like this. This isn’t you, Love,” I tried to say in my most soothing voice. The dread had clawed its way back up to the back of my throat.

“Or maybe this is me,” you said softly, and I swear you were crying. Or maybe I hoped you were, that way we were both sobbing. That’s as close to togetherness as we could get.

“Maybe this is who I am now, or who I’ve been all along.”

I reached out for you again, but stopped myself, “No, Spencer. The real you isn’t this angry, and bitter, and mean.”

You slammed your hands against the bed, “Yes it is!”

“Is that what you’ve been doing all this time?” I said sadly, shaky breaths between words, “Is that what you’ve been going to your apartment and doing?”

You turned around, skin sweaty and eyes red, “What? What are you talking about now? God, do you ever stop talking?”

I snapped, ignoring your last jab there, “Are you using?”

Your face contorted into a sour expression, “Am I using?”

“Yeah, Spencer! Are you? Because I can’t see any other reason for why you’re so irritable and sweaty and out of it! So I’ll ask you again, are you going through withdrawal?”

You looked like I had literally punched you in the gut, and I kind of had. It was a low blow, I’ll admit it, but I was seriously worried about you. If an event would trigger you, this would’ve been it.

“What? No!”

I wasn’t sure whether or not I should believe you, but I knew I had to support you either way. I love you, even when you’re angry at me, I still love you. Even when you throw clothes and seethe at me through gritted teeth, I still love you. That’s my fatal flaw. No matter how many reasons you give me to stop loving you, I never will.”

Spencer let out a shaky breath, lower lip pinched between his teeth. Was he really that terrible? He didn’t remember being so spiteful. Reading it back, he understood why you thought he was high, and he had thought about it more than he cared to admit. But he hadn’t touched the stuff in seven years, and he wasn’t about to start again now.

‘No matter how many reasons you give me to stop loving you, I never will.’

That line made him want to cry, hands clenching the ring box as if it were a stress ball. That line simultaneously felt like a stab in the gut and a breath of fresh air. He had given you so many reasons to walk away, and the one reason to stay was there in his palm, unused.

““It’s okay if you are. I understand this is a... hard time. I’ll support you through this,” I put my hands out to touch your chest.

“I’m not high and haven’t been in years!” You swatted my hands down.

“Then what the hell is going on!?”

“I’m angry and I’m sad and I’m heartbroken!” You yelled, going back out onto the balcony to stand in the rain that had started pouring down in sheets.

“Spencer! Stop!” I followed you out, tears mixing with rain to the point that I didn’t know which was which.

“I’m just confused! It’s hard to see the point in all this anymore. Maybe it’s just not worth it,” You said, yelling at the ocean not at me. Rain soaked our clothes instantly. Part of me was hoping this scene would end like the ‘notebook’ we’d kiss and you’d spin me around. I guess this is kind of like the notebook, it’s a story to help you remember us. Except you don’t have Alzheimer’s and I wrote 15 letters, not 365.

“Maybe what’s not worth it?” I was yelling too, just so you could hear me over the sound of the wind and the rain.

“This!” You gestured between us. I felt like you knocked the air out of me, my whole body stinging.

“But I love you!”

“All of this has made me realize that love isn’t everything! I love you too but we need more than that!”

That was the first time I’d heard you say ‘I love you’ in a month, but it was a double edged sword. I bit my lip so hard I think I started bleeding, “Love isn’t enough? Are you kidding me, Spencer?”

You swallowed thickly, “No! I’m not kidding. I’ve never been more serious!”

“So what? That’s it?” I said it quietly, but I wanted to scream at you. I wanted to scream that you were being an idiot. You were being ridiculous. You were being unnecessarily cruel. But I didn’t. I was tired and water logged. I had finally given up.

You ran your hands through your hair, “No–it’s–we we aren’t over Y/N. I’m just saying that it’s gonna take more than love to fix us.”

“Well maybe if you were ever home, we could actually try. But you aren’t. You’re always gone! So explain to me how we’re going to fix this. What’s it gonna take Spencer? What do you want from me?”

You took a deep breath, uttering words I was so sick of hearing, “We need space and time.”

“Space? Time? It’s been a month Spencer! I let you go to work. I let you spend every day at your damn apartment. I stopped calling. I stopped checking in. How much more space and time do you want?”

“Thirty-four days,” you mumbled, just so I could barely hear. The thunder rolled, mostly drowning it out.

“What was that?”

“It’s been THIRTY-FOUR days, Y/N. Thirty-four. I don’t know how you expect me to be okay after only thirty-four days.”

“I don’t expect you to be fine! I expect you to speak to me! To look at me! I want to go to bed crying and have you there next to me. I want to be there for you when you’re crying. The only way we get better is if we do this TOGETHER!”

The anger looked like it melted off of you, and I took that as my opportunity to approach. I threw my arms around your soaked body as you shook with sobs into my shoulder. I held you like my life depended on it, because in a way it did. You wrapped your arms around me too, and everything felt okay. We were standing in the pouring rain, holding each other as we cried, and somehow I felt more okay than I had in the thirty-four days prior. It felt like maybe you were coming back to me.

You weren’t.

We stood like that for what felt like hours, and eventually I pulled you inside. I wish I didn’t. I wish we stayed there, holding each other in the rain until the sun came up and dried us off. I foolishly thought the rain washed our sins away.

“It’s going to be okay,” I said, my head on your shoulder as we wrapped ourselves in towels, “I promise.”

You shrugged me off of you, going back to packing your bag.

“Spencer, stop packing, please,” I begged, grabbing the items you were putting in and taking them back out.

“I don’t want to be here anymore,” you said plainly, taking a shirt and putting it back in.

“I-I thought—“

“Thought what, Y/N? That because I cried to you and told you I loved you that we were magically okay?”

I stammered, “No. No! But I thought it meant we were in this together now.”

“You just accused me of relapsing an hour ago.”

“And I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, but that’s not a reason you should go,” I pleaded, reaching for you again. I thought if you walked away I’d never see you again.

“You don’t trust me,” your voice cracked.

“No, Love, I—“

“Don’t call me that.”

The pain in my chest bloomed, sending a wave of heartache through my entire body. A heartache I still haven’t been able to shake. It’s still there. Some days it's a thunder crack and sometimes it's a low grumble, but it’s always there. The rain hasn't stopped.

I hadn’t even realized that you were completely packed until you zipped the suitcase shut.

“You’re really leaving?”

You stopped at the door, hand on the handle, to turn and face me. I didn’t need to use my profiling skills to see how much pain you were in, and my pain doubled at the sight. I’ve always been an empath when it comes to you, feeling what you feel like it’s my own.

“I am.”

I crossed the room and threw my arms around you, sobbing into your chest. To my surprise, you wrapped your arms around me lightly.

“I understand,” I said, looking into your eyes, “We can’t be there for each other the way we need to.”

You nodded into my shoulder, “Stay. When you get home from this we’ll talk. I just need a few more days.”

I shook my head, finally coming to the realization that we didn’t work anymore. We weren’t healthy anymore.

“Don’t bother. The writing’s on the wall, Spence,” my voice wavered, and I regretted every word as they left my mouth, “I’ve been waiting for that person from the hospital to come home to me. I’ve been waiting for the Spencer who lends me his shirts and fact dumps and eats IHOP and ice cream with me to come home.”

I felt your breath stop under my arms, “But that Spencer, the Spencer I love, isn’t here anymore. We need to be alone.”

I felt you shake with tears under me, and that triggered mine, “We have to break up.”

I wish I never said it. I wish I gave you those few days, but we both know those few days would’ve turned into weeks and months and we would’ve ended up here anyway. I wish you didn’t let me say them. I wish you kissed me to shut me up and told me I was being stupid. I wish I didn’t watch you go down that elevator, tears on your cheeks. I wish I didn’t spend the other four days in an empty king sized bed, crying for you.

I realize now that you changed. I did too. Instead of wishing for the old you, I should’ve learned to love the new you. I think I would’ve, if I had given it a chance. Actually, I know I would’ve. I think I’d fall in love with every version of you that could ever exist or has ever existed. You and I, we’re meant to be together.

I know you probably don’t believe in it, but I like to think that we’re twin flames; we’re two halves of one soul that somehow ended up in two bodies and constantly pull to find each other again. I’ve read a lot about them recently. Twin flames don’t necessarily end up together. They can even just be two people with an intense friendship. They’re people who help each other grow, even if that means they’re only in your life for a short time. I like to think that we are that case, and that in some parallel universe I’m with you and we have our daughter and we’re happy. I just wish that I was in that universe now.

I know it’s for the best that we went to the damn Crystal Cove and broke up. I’m sure someday in the future I’ll be pleased with that decision, but for now, I still regret it.”

Spencer stared at the notepad, eyes flicking between that in his left hand and the ring box in his right. He took the ring out and admired it in the light. It glinted and glimmered, delicately refracting light onto the cabinets. He slid it halfway down his ring finger because that’s as far as it would go. He imagined it was on your slender, perfectly manicured hand instead of his, but an ache formed where his heart was when he realized it’d never end up here.

Spencer grabbed the notebook. It was unlined and the paper felt flimsy and thin. He got up from the floor to find a pencil in the drawer the ring had been hidden in, and took it out to scrawl his own letter to go with his own memento. A sixteenth letter for a sixteenth item you had no idea even existed.

“Y/N,

I’d like to consider this letter sixteen, to go with the engagement ring that’s in my palm. I bought this ring the day after we ate dinner at Rossi’s and showed everyone tiny FBI onesies. I have your perfect ring here in my hand, a plain silver band with a lab-grown diamond in a four-prong setting in the center, just like you told Garcia you wanted. I should’ve given it to you the day I bought it, but I waited until the perfect opportunity presented itself.

What you didn’t know about the trip to the Crystal Cove was that I was going to propose to you there. I was going to get down on one knee in the sand at sunset after dinner. I even had a whole speech planned. I was going to tell you that I never thought I could love anyone as much as I love you, or that anyone would ever love me the way that you do. I was going to say that it amazes me how everyday, I wake up and love you more than I did the night before. And everyday I think it’s be impossible to love you and our daughter more than I do right now. I wanted to tell you that I want to wake up every morning and feel that for the rest of my life. I want the good, the bad, the ugly, I want it all. I want Korean film festivals and IHOP breakfasts and to talk to the moon. I want tubs of ice cream and overly sentimental flowers hanging from the wall. Most of all I wanted to say that I want to spend every day of my life making you happy.

That speech still applies today. I still love you enough to ask you, but I don’t think you love me enough to say yes.

It’s okay. It really is. I haven’t decided what to do yet, but if you do read this, just know that it’s okay. I promise you, it’s okay. I’m not the bitter, angry man I was at the Crystal Cove anymore. I changed again, and I hope you’re right. I hope we are twin flames and your soul will come looking for mine, and I hope it happens in this universe, not the infinite parallels that may or may not exist. I miss you and I want nothing more than for you to come back. Come home, Love, please come home.

-SR”

He stared at the notebook page, before tearing it off and folding it in half, placing it in his pocket for safekeeping. He went on his computer and bought the cheapest one-way ticket to Seattle that he could find. He needed to see you. He needed you to see this letter, see this ring. He needed to make this right.

The flight was a red eye, leaving at midnight, so he’d get to the Seattle field office by eight. He looked at the leather watch and saw that it was nearly nine. He decided had to finish, and he had to finish now, as he grabbed letter #14.

PART 14

------------

Taglist!

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#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid angst #spencer x you #spencer reid x you #spencer reid fic #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #cm #matthew gray gubler #mgg #dr spencer reid

171 notes · View notes

thebisexualdogdad · 4 years

Text

Teen Wolf the Camp Half Blood AU

Co written with @inhumanshadows

The kids and their parents:

Scott - Poseidon

Allison - Artemis

Stiles - Hermes

Derek - Ares

Lydia - Aphrodite

Kira - Athena

Danny - Apollo

Malia - Demeter

Isaac - Apollo

Brett - Dionysus

Theo - Hades

Liam - Hephaestus

Jackson - Aphrodite

Aidan - Ares

Ethan - Ares

Jordan - Hephaestus

Hayden - Demeter

Mason - Dionysus

Corey - Hermes

· So Stiles and Hermes kids love to fuck with the Artemis and Ares kids while they are training

· Alison is the only hunter that doesn't travel with the goddess

· The Hermes kids will lay paint grenades and wait for the ensuing carnage.

· Stiles also is like a third Stoll sibling

· Derek is the one who saves Stiles' ass from getting kicked

· Derek stops his siblings from attacking Stiles like every other week

· Brett and Mason throw the best parties every Friday night

· And it's the only place all the cabins truly get along

· Those parties defy expectations in that alcohol isn't a big part of why everyone gets along

· It's just everyone hanging out and relaxing

· And it's the best place for everyone to hang out with their significant others

· Those who are dating are seated next to their S/Os or dancing

· And those who are crushing on each other are being set up by their friends or desperately trying to make a move

· Hayden is trying to get Malia to just go talk to kira

· Scott is asking Percy advice about talking to Isaac and it's going swimmingly

· pun intended

· Malia finally kisses Kira when they are dancing together and Hayden "accidently" bumps Malia closer to her

· Malia is furiously apologizing when Kira kisses her to stop her rambling

· And everyone at the party is like finally!

· Being from Aphrodite Lydia is embodies love and is the most romantic girlfriend

· Lydia and Alison are talking about their favorite things about camp

· Stiles is sitting in Derek's lap making out.

· And nobody knows where Danny or Aidan are cause they snuck off to fool around in the woods

· "They'll be fine" is the general consensus around the party.

· Corey and Mason are cuddled together, enjoying the stars

· And Theo is basically grinding on Liam on the dancefloor

· There is not a cabin on site that Stiles and the Hermes kids have not annoyed the shit out of

· Nope. And Stiles doesn't care that it could cause a prank war.

· Scott likes to sit at the bottom of the lake by cabin 3 to think and get away from it all. · Isaac has been looking for him and just stands on the pier "I can't breathe underwater..."

· "Just float with me then"

· And they float on their backs, holding hands, looking up at the cloudy skin

· They lay there for what feels like an hour and then go into the cabin to lay together. Thankfully Scott's powers make drying off easy as hell

· Theo and Liam are the chaotic boyfriends, they are getting into trouble all. the. time.

· They're basically always on cleanup duty after dinner

· And they are always sneaking out after curfew

· Usually to steal food from the kitchen

· And they always get caught by the furies that patrol the camp after curfew

· Danny and Aidan are the athletic couple they are always working out together

· They make it a competition every time

· Meanwhile Stiles is in the background eating chips like "i wonder what it's like to be in shape"

· Derek snags the bag out of his hands. "well time to stop wondering and start doing

· Stiles is whining but Derek makes him go on a run with him

· "This is torture! You're trying to kill me! You're a horrible boyfriend!"

· "No I'm making sure you don't have a heart attack from all the junk food."

· Derek assures him that they'll start small

· Stiles agrees to be a little healthier but Scott still sneaks him snacks when Derek's not looking

· Derek knows. He talks to Isaac about it.

· "Idky they're sneaking around. I never said that Stiles had to cut out junk food completely."

· Isaac: "Simple... our boyfriends think different"

· "They share one brain cell and currently neither one of them has it"

· "exactly. But if it gets stiles to be a bit healthier... it's a step in the right direction"

· Meanwhile Jordan is busy forging a new collapsible spear

· Which Stiles takes from his cabin and is messing around with it and accidentally spears his foot

· Everyone hears the scream and the Stolls carry Stiles to Danny

· Danny heals Stiles while Derek is scolding him for being so dumb

· "In my defense... I was left unsupervised"

· Parrish is like "with my spear which you stole!"

· Stiles "oh calm down worry wart you can make another one'

· Parrish is inspecting the weapon. "You aren't getting out of this that easy

· Jordan makes Stiles clean out the entire Hephaestus cabin

· Stiles is like what's the big deal and then immediately regrets everything when he sees all the dirt and rust

· Jordan pats stiles on the back. “Here’s the instructions and supplies. Good luck. I’ll check on you in two hours.”

· When Jordan does come back Stiles is sitting on an upside bucket eating donuts

· "Stiles!"

· "What! I need energy!"

· “You haven’t cleaned a thing!”

· "Look at that corner it's spotless!"

· "There's a spiderweb Stiles"

· "That's mister webs home I'm not destroying his hard work!"

· Jordan is not happy. · “I’ll be back.” He leaves and brings Derek back. “Here mave you can get him to do it

· "Stiles, if you don't clean this cabin we will be doing 5 laps around the lake"

· "What?? That's insane!"

· "Babe the Ares kid doing 10 before breakfast"

· “Exactly the Ares kids! They’re like their own military.”

· “Come on Stiles. There’s a lot to go...”

· "Ugh fine. But I'm having an entire pizza when I'm done"

· “We’ll see...”

· Meanwhile Thiam are fooling around in the showers

· As they always do though with Theo being in Hades there's absolutely no rules about coercing with other campers so they always have a place to fool around in his cabin

· Nico is typically off with his boyfriend so the place is empty and even then. Theo had Jordan install soundproofing

· Lydia often kicks Jackson and the other Aphrodite kids out so she can have alone time with Allison

· Some think Lydia is pushy but Jackson knows to listen to her

· Allison, Lydia, Malia,Kira, and Hayden also have girls night in the Aphrodite cabin

· Makeovers, spa days, general destressing. While the boys are jumping from the roof of cabin 3 to the lake

· And they have water guns which Scott doesn't need and he just makes full on waves crash on people

· Someone inevitably loses his shorts

· It's usually Danny which no one complains about

· If it’s someone else no one complains either

· Everybody is gay and just horny teenagers

· Malia often takes Kira for strolls through the woods and points out every kind of flower

· Malia makes the best flower crowns

· She makes Hayden wear one too whenever she gets pouty

· "Turn that frown upside down little sister"

· Hayden is like whenever you ask a kid “is that a smile?” And like 5 seconds later they are smiling and laughing

· Hayden would never admit but she really likes having Malia as a sister

· She loves her sister. And she wouldn’t change it

#teen wolf imagine #scott mccall imagine #stiles stilinksi imagine #allison argent imagine #lydia martin imagine #derek hale imagine #isaac lahey imagine #danny mahealani imagine #kira yukimura imagine #malia hale imagine #headcanons #co write #co written #inhumanshadows

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ilvero-love · 4 years

Text

1.13 Summer Solstice: Thoughts on MFMM 1.13 King Memses Curse

The evolution of Jack and Phryne across Season 1

The heart of this episode is about Phryne and the resolution of her backstory and that is as it should be. Yet, when considering this episode, I cannot do it without looking at the evolution of the relationship between Phryne and the Inspector that has occurred over the previous 13 episodes.

In many ways, the relationship we have watched evolve, continues as per usual in this episode. Jack attempting to lay down the rules and Phryne defying them. The difference in their characters is beautifully revealed through Jack’s determination to get a handle on the Foyle case. He is calm and methodical as he revisits all prior evidence in a logical order on his butcher’s paper wall. Meanwhile, Phryne, understandably, is running on instinct and emotion.

The scene where Jack attempts to control Phryne by arresting her is a delightful revelation. Stunned that Jack would attempt to curtail her in this way, she kicks him leading to the charge of assaulting a police officer being added to withholding evidence as he locks her away for her own safety.

I love that our spirited heroine kicks Jack just as much as I love Hugh apologising “I’m sorry Miss, I’m sorry Miss” as he carries her to the cells.

Phryne’s distress as she realises she is trapped in a cell while two people she loves (Jack and Jane) are in danger is hard to watch. It is lightened by Hugh ‘assisting’ Dottie to break Phryne out.

Having given herself to Foyle in an attempt to save Jack and Jane, it is actually Jack and Jane who come to her rescue.

And who didn’t swoon as Jack carried our unconscious heroine from the building?

But it is the closing scenes that are the most compelling when considering Jack and Phryne’s relationship. The scene at the graveside is one of the most intense of the series and it is fitting that Jack stands by Phryne’s side.

There is a gorgeous moment, almost lost within the scene, that subtly consolidates Jack’s importance to Phryne. As she sits by the graveside crying, it is Jack she reaches for.

At a time of deep despair, she reaches for the man who has stood beside her as she sought to solve the mystery of her sister. It was this simple, understated act that confirmed for me that this pairing was at the heart of the series.

Whilst Kerry Greenwood may not have wanted her literary character Phryne to be tied down to any man, thankfully our writers/producers saw an opportunity to develop one of the great love stories. This simple clasping of hands brings together two characters that, whilst on the surface appear disparate, when one looks at them as the sum of parts across the 13 episodes, it is undeniable that they are the yin to each other’s yang. But I’ll come back to that point soon.

The final scenes at Phryne’s party only serve to reinforce the pairing. There has been a decided shift in their relationship. What Jack and Phryne have shared has forged a bond that goes beyond physical attraction. There is no teasing, just a deep connection. Importantly, there is no judgement. Jack recognises the role the loss of Janey has played in the development of Phryne’s character and he acknowledges it, saying to her, “You owe it to her to keep living to the hilt”. Jack and Phryne are lost in each other’s gaze, as if both are aware of the shift in their relationship.

I’d like to think this is the moment Phryne recognises that Jack is a man who may just allow her to be herself, free from the confines of societal expectation. The unspoken exchange as they stare into each other’s eyes is only broken by Dot.

As Phryne reaches across the table to ask Jack to stay and help her celebrate, she acknowledges his importance to her. But, as she returns to the party, Phryne once again dons her carefully manufactured facade.

Only Jack sees through her. The look that passes between them from the doorway across the room is deeply charged. The slight smile he gives her, aside from setting my heart aflutter, belies the significant shift in their relationship that has occurred. Jack never takes his eyes off her and Phryne herself is obviously aware of him in a way that is not trivial or sexualised as many of her male suitors are.

Which brings me back to my earlier comment regarding the consolidation of their relationship. Over the course of the series, we have watched both Jack and Phryne evolve from the characters we met in Cocaine Blues. Consider Phryne: carefree, sexually liberated, uninterested in being tied down to anyone or anything. Indeed, it is only her desire to solve what happened to her sister Janey that has seen her return to Australian shores. Meanwhile Detective Inspector Jack Robinson is serious, withdrawn and in all honesty, we know very little about him.

But as the episodes unfold, we learn more about the vivacious lady detective and her protagonist inspector. We learn that the scars of World War 1 run deep as does Phryne’s sense of guilt over her sister’s disappearance. Nothing in Phryne’s backstory is an excuse or justification for her licentious behaviour, her experiences merely inform her current choice of actions. As she herself states she hasn’t taken anything seriously since 1918. She is determined to enjoy the good life and that seems to be primarily through the more sensual aspects of life.

Similarly, Jack’s experience of the war has informed his choices. To Jack, who holds family and honour close, the failure of his marriage coming on top of the horrors of the war, has led him to withdraw into himself. It is only as the episodes roll out that we see the spark creep back into Jack. To begin with, it is characteristic snark but by the end there is distinct humour in his exchanges and an openness to Phryne that would never have occurred to the Jack we met in episode 1.

But the evolution of both characters is not an accident, rather it is carefully nurtured. The writers/producers took a huge risk when they deviated so significantly from the original characterisations of Kerry Greenwood. But to their credit through the careful and consistent development of the characters across the series, through narrative that guides and develops the relationship in a realistic and valuable way, I believe they have retained the integrity and value of the literary Phryne and, at the same time, laid the groundwork for a believable relationship that the commitment-phobe Phryne of Episode 1 would have run a mile from.

For us to accept and to even care about a relationship between Jack and Phryne, it needs to be beneficial to both. Phryne cannot stop being the strong independent heroine we all love her to be. If her love interest pulls her down we either devalue her or reject the love interest. Instead any worthy suitor needs to build her up, strengthen her, improve her. But it must be a two-way street, she must also bring value to her love interest. She must view him as her equal intellectually and morally. If she doesn’t then he is no more than a diversion, retained only for the amusement he provides her. The writers have indeed provided us such a relationship. Jack and Phryne stand alone as individuals: both strong and independent but together they are even better and therein lies the true attraction of this relationship and the reason it works without detracting from the literary Phryne. They are, in short, the yin to each others’ yang.

A quick search through Google defines this as : “ The simple meaning is: You complete me. However, there is more to it. It's also about balance. So the other meaning would be : You balance me out. In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang represent how two even opposites can compliment each other and should be considered as a whole” (www.Quora.com). A perfect summation really of the relationship we see in this episode.

As Jack and Phryne exchange that loaded glance across the room at the end of Season 1, it is clear that the relationship between them has changed. I don’t think either Jack or Phryne are quite aware of how yet but there is no denying the resultant undercurrent. For those of us watching, we are in for a delightful ride as they, as well as us, navigate the new levels the relationship has moved to.

And what a delightful ride it shall be.

All screencaps taken from cap-that.com

#mfmm #mfmmseason1 #phrack #phryne x jack #detective inspector jack robinson #detectivejackrobinson #kingmemsescurse

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moons-and-stars-and-shit · 3 years

Note

hi! I saw your event after reading a few of your works! Congrats on 300! I would like a star match up [•.•]

my self ship is tsukishima kei & i’m a cancer

𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣 𝕄𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕦𝕡 𝕎𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕋𝕤𝕦𝕜𝕜𝕚

𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑠 🪐

The Moon (Emotion) rules Cancer, and the Planet Venus (Love) rules Libra.

These planetary partners share a love of home, family and romance. While Libra is known for its balancing nature (the Balance is Libra’s symbol, after all!), these love partners share nurturing personalities and desire harmony over conflict.

More than any other match-up of Signs, this astrological pair brings a warmth and sense of stability to those around them.

Despite all the harmony and homey happiness, though, Librans, whose life approach is based on intellect, can be a bit snobbish and superior, and Cancer, who looks at life through emotional lenses, still has those easily bruised feelings to contend with.

𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 🔥💧🍃🌬

Cancer is a Water Sign, and Libra is an Air Sign.

Libra sees life as a pure mental exploration, while Cancer’s experience is more tactile, more kinesthetic.

Cancer is most satisfied when their emotional needs are met, while Libra simply focuses on what stimulates their mind.

At times, these lovers may find it difficult to understand one another. Conflicts can arise in this relationship if Cancer seems too crabby or Libra seems too provocative.

Both need to learn that they simply view the world in different ways.

𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 🤞

Cancer can be one of the most trusting zodiac signs, but there is an irritating side to Libra’s nature that they rarely stay immune to.

While Cancer wants a quiet family life with no interference from other people, Libra can’t seem to stay away from other people, seeking their affection and approval day after day.

At some point their Cancer partner has to ask themselves if this is the kind of partner they want to have children with.

On the other hand, Libra finds the whole approach to a romantic relationship Cancer has a bit unrealistic.

This can easily lead to a lack of trust in Libra, especially if the Sun is in final degrees of the sign.

𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 🤝

As signs ruled by Venus and the Moon, it is safe to presume that their relationship is in a way very important.

Although Libra is in charge for the upper, spiritual nature of Venus, it is still a sign of relationships and the Moon will only emphasize the need for closeness and harmony.

Their communication will not be too difficult, but there is a chance they won’t share many interests or respect each other enough for it to have true quality.

Their main problem could surface if they start making unrealistic plans together.

The expectations of Cancer with Capricorn as their opposing sign would be extremely practical and strict.

Libra does exalt Saturn, but it is not an Earth sign, and usually they remain in the field of ideas instead of a practical approach to materialization.

Cancer doesn’t understand how someone can be so far from reality and this could lead to a strange passive conflict that could endanger their entire relationship.

Cancer needs to realize that Libra has its place among the Air signs, in the field of ideas - not necessarily their realization.

It is important to remember that Libra has a troubled Sun and usually looks for a partner with more fire and passionate energy than Cancer normally has.

However ugly that might sound, they need someone to feed on, and they normally have strong relationships with fire signs which produce enough energy even for their loved ones, or Air signs who don’t really care about it.

The sign of Cancer unconsciously calculates and distributes energy to their inner priority list, and they will rarely have an excess big enough to shower Libra in it.

𝐸𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 😠😔😊

Both Moon and Venus represent emotions, and they are both highly emotional signs.

However, their emotional context is very different, for Cancer is looking for a love on Earth and Libra is looking for someone to take to heaven.

This is exactly where the spiritual side of Libra’s Venus takes away their true chance to share a life together.

It is a Venus that doesn’t need to eat or sleep, for as long as it feels the unique, balanced love.

Cancer will understand this idea to some point, but probably look for a more grounded partner when they realize that this is a pattern that isn’t about to change.

As two cardinal signs, they could have a long unsatisfying relationship because they are both waiting for a groundbreaking moment to set them free.

In some cases they should be advised to make a change if they are not satisfied, and search for someone who could make them happier.𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑠 🤲

As both of them are signs of relationships – family relationships or relationships with partners – they will both value a pleasant and joyful connection between two people.

If they find it with each other, they will certainly have trouble letting it go, both of them understanding that it is not that easy to find.

However, their entire system of values differs greatly beyond the point of relationships, and while Cancer will value tenderness and care, Libra will value responsibility and platonic love.

That doesn't sound promising, does it?

𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦𝑠 💪

Cancer and Libra could do many things together, but it is questionable if they will want to.

Cancer is a sign that exalts Jupiter and although they can be perfectly happy with a grumpy partner, they would appreciate them not to have a need to impose their grumpiness on them.

There is a secret desire to every Cancer to travel the world, while having the safe base to come home to, but Libra could destruct their beliefs and lead them to doubt they simply don’t want to deal with.

With Cancer’s mild and mellow temperament, Libra will probably feel even more inadequate and grumpy, for they need someone to be their opposition and defy them in order to have respect and sexual charge.

𝑆𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 💕

Probably the biggest restriction in the relationship between Cancer and Libra is in things they want from their partner.

Cancer wants someone responsible, to take them by the hand if needed and complement their emotional nature with practicality.

Libra wants someone who is full of life, energized, strong and full of initiative to follow their ideas.

They can really disappoint each other if any expectations are set wrongly at the beginning of their relationship.

The best way for them to build a love that is to last, is for both partners to hold on to their independence whatever happens.

If they focus on love and worry about earthly things each on their own, Cancer could “compromise” on heavenly love, as much as Libra would like to have a family.

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu fandom #haikyuu hcs #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu matchups #tsukki #tsukishima #tsukishima kei #300followerevent

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ghost-band-aids · 4 years

Text

Interview with GHOST and TRIBULATION

The Undisguised Truth

TOBIAS FORGE and JONATHAN HULTÉN have a lot in common. While one of them currently slips into the role of the exalted charmer Cardinal Copia as the singer of GHOST, the introverted TRIBULATION guitarist on stage transforms into a fascinating, expressive being who exists beyond genre and gender boundaries. What is real, what is an artificial figure? METAL HAMMER met both of them during their tour together for a conversation that allows far more than just a look behind the scenes of two of the most popular metal bands at the moment, but also unexpectedly intimate insights.

Tobias, originally you didn't want to be the singer of Ghost. Did the mask help you to come to terms with this exposed role?

Tobias Forge: Yes, well, at least from today's point of view. But I never wanted to be unknown.

What function does your stage make-up have, Jonathan?

Jonathan Hultén: It helps me to put myself in a certain mood. The idea behind it is to isolate and reinforce a fraction of myself, an aspect of my personality. To immerse myself in this is an experience beyond the everyday state of mind.

Strengthen also Cardinal Copia or Papa Emeritus facets of your personality, Tobias?

Tobias Forge: I'm not shy, but I'm not as sociable as Cardinal Copia - and also not a "physical clown" like him. What I do is a kind of mixed bag. I imitate people I find funny or interesting.

Basically, the way actors do it. If you asked Robert DeNiro how he came up with the young Don Corieone, he would probably say: Well, there was this guy in my old neighborhood... The costume gives you the opportunity to completely surrender yourself in that moment and just be that new person. That's interesting, because you only reveal it to a few people for a limited time. You don't have to see how that person lives the other 22 hours of the day. Like with actors: James Bond is cool because you only see certain sides of him. Never in the bathroom or shower. Well, not in the toilet, in the shower. But always in the company of a snake or something he kills.

How long does the transformation take?

Tobias Forge: But you finished much sooner than I did.

Jonathan Hultén: For pragmatic reasons. I like to get it done as soon as possible so as not to get in a bind later. How about you?

Tobias Forge: We have a very tight schedule. Pretty much exactly one hour before the show starts I walk in the door as Tobias and come out as someone else.

What does this transformation do to you?

Jonathan Hultén: You have to enter a stage with emphasis. So it's good to be prepared.

Tobias Forge: And that's what happens within this hour. You slowly start to move differently... I love being a different person for two hours and then changing back. But I need some time for that, usually I stay alone for an hour after the show.

Jonathan Hultén: That's good. As far as I can, I try to do the same. Mostly by doing something that I can be introspective about... ...carry things back and forth or something.

Tobias Forge: I think that's very important. There is potential suffering in art, especially in mental health. The smaller the discrepancy between yourself and the person you are portraying on stage, the harder it is to deal with. If you are merely associated with your stage character, people expect you to behave like that in real life.

And that can be problematic...

Tobias Forge: Exactly, because they created this super human being who can do anything, who has a carte blanche. Everyone applauds, everyone laughs, and everything you do is funny or cool. And if you take it to the bar afterwards... There are bad examples of people who can't get down in normal life, become alcoholics or, well, die.

Jonathan Hultén: Sure, all that can be destructive. But in my case it was very helpful to discover my more explosive, extroverted sides. And to dare to give them more space, because privately I am quite shy. That's also part of the process of building up, which takes a long time.

I gradually gain self-confidence from this, so that I can now express myself better in everyday situations.

Tobias Forge: I think they are one and the same. It's like mental martial arts, where the person who doesn't like the fight, but still has to face it - within the limits of the dojo, of course, so as not to hurt anyone. And, yes, art is basically good for anyone who has the desire to become someone else. It's a generalization, but I think there's a lot of truth in it: many artists choose this path because they weren't very popular at school. Or they can't come out of themselves, but their art offers them an opportunity to do so. It's fun to go on stage, to transform and feed off the energy or admiration.

How you interact with the audience has changed over the years.

Tobias Forge: Sure. The masked person has an advantage of about 70 concerts, so 1,000 hours on stage. If I had given myself the same amount of time to develop without the make-up, without the role, just with acoustic guitar, I might have created a completely different stage personality. But this is completely uninteresting for me, because I prefer this super character! (laughs)

Jonathan Hultén: transformation would then no longer be so dramatic, but much more subtle.

Tobias Forge: And you'd have to be comfortable in your own skin.

Jonathan Hultén: I'm working on it. (laughs)

Jonathan, your solo debut, CHANTS FROM ANOTHER PLACE, will be released soon and you will also be touring with Chelsea Wolfe. Will you be different on stage there than you are here with Tribulation?

Jonathan Hultén: It has become harder to separate the two. They are like different shades of the same color. And I've found that they both borrow a lot from each other. The tribulation performer exists much longer, so he has much more experience. He/she is like an archaeologist who explores an inner wildness and passion. Over the years a lot of weird stuff has been dug up and included.

On the other hand, the solo performer, who has only been around for about three yen and is still is at the beginning of the excavations. However, I expect that also here many interesting things will appear

What can we expect from you live?

Jonathan Hultén: Just like with Tribulation, the atmosphere will be very important. But apart from some dramatic excursions, the show will be mostly silent and contemplative. The silence gives more room for more complex emotions to unfold in a way that I miss in the energetic performances of Tribulation.

These in turn defy the unwritten rules of a traditional metal show, not least thanks to you. Tribulation are considered a death metal band...

Tobias Forge: I wouldn’t call you guys like that.

Do you see yourselves as pioneers? Do you enjoy being different?

Jonathan Hultén: I stopped thinking about whether people see me as stupid, weird or whatever. It's the only way I can do it. Headbanging just wasn't enough. I felt there had to be something bigger, some kind of ectase. This may be weird, but it feels good.

How important are grace and style to you?

Jonathan Hultén: Both are important, but it's equally important not to be obsessively attached to them. Someone once said that grace is a combination of spontaneity and control. It's a good rule of thumb - on and off stage. It's always about balance. Every situation is unique and requires a unique approach.

Tobias Forge: You should be really proud of it, apart from the fact that your music is great. Your performance is dramatically different from any other. Besides the music, your physical attributes and the way you present yourself make you a very unique and interesting person. Strange, cash, different. You should definitely pursue that. Yes, I think you should see yourself as a pioneer.

Jonathan Hultén: Mm, thank you. (chuckles)

What does that do to your audience?

Tobias Forge: If you are a live musician, have an antenna for it and you don't completely care, you always enter a symbiosis with the fans. Give and take, almost like in a physical relationship. You will try to perfect ways to give pleasure to each other. I know it sounds weird, but every decent relationship changes with age. You grow together, you have new needs or ideas. That's why some couples bring in other people, or whips or plugs. It's the same with you and the audience. During our second show I noticed that our audience is very positive, but I couldn't make a rhyme out of it.

Why that?

Tobias Forge: The room was filled with Hard Rock people, the kind of people I've been playing to since I was a teenager. But they weren't headbanging as usual. Instead they did something else.

Jonathan Hultén: Wiggle.

Tobias Forge: Yeah, they were wiggling around. (laughs) And singing and laughing, very different from what I knew from Death or Black Metal shows.

Are there any other special features of your fans?

Tobias Forge: When we played the first headliner shows in America, I noticed for the first time the gender diversity in our audience. Our fans are a lot of girls, a lot of guys, and a lot in between. We've always been a magnet for people who are unhappy with their gender or don't feel they belong anywhere: Kids, many outsiders and outcasts in various fragile states.

Jonathan, Tobias' words seem to resonate with you.

Jonathan Hultén: Yes, they do. I don't speak for tribulation as a whole when I say this, but I personally don't feel I belong to either gender. But I've never felt the need to choose either. Androgyny is what I feel most comfortable with. This tendency probably also applies to performance, whether tribulation or solo.

Tobias Forge: The best portrayal of the devil I've ever seen is from the movie 'The Passion of Christ'. Satan is portrayed by a woman, but speaks in a man's voice and thus becomes the epitome of androgyny, completely genderless. For incorporating this aspect into your stage personality, I give credit to you and the band. Especially when you get together with Adam (Zaars, guitarist of Tribulation) on stage, it seems elfish and feminine, but also masculine. This is incredibly interesting and unusual, especially in the rigid heavy metal genre with this "men are men" and "women are women" thing: Doro Pesch, girl, Manowar, guys, great. But when I think of all the metal bands I like, there are also examples of very attractive androgyny, which is not necessarily sexual. Not to mention seventies rock bands.

You have been confronted with different kinds of music and art forms from a very young age. Does that give you an artistic advantage?

Jonathan Hultén: It helps me to keep my relationship to art fresh, to get excited. Whether in childhood or in adulthood: open-mindedness helps the creative process. If you're not afraid of opening up to all kinds of different music styles, you can find inspiration in the most surprising places. No matter where the idea comes from - the important thing is whether it works. Certainly, this is reflected in all areas of creative work. Become the medium through which the flow of inspiration flows - then collect the gold pieces that this flow carries with it and create something beautiful out of them.

Does the metal context limit your expressiveness?

Tobias Forge: I don' t feel restricted with Ghost at all. There are only a few ideas I can' t realize with the band, because Ghost is a combination of all the things I like about music, cinema and theatre. But if there is enough time in the future, I would love to be in a completely different band where I am not the center of attention. I am a guitarist and would like to sing backup. That corresponds to me much more.

Jonathan Hultén: I'm exploring something new, and it's been quite interesting - and different. There are endless possibilities to discover yourself, artistically and as an artist. Only unfortunately there is not enough time.

I'm afraid that we don't have enough time either.

Tobias Forge: Yes, but these things are existential. They are not only about art and being an artist, but also about how both are connected to the human psyche and why people, artist or not, need art to function in modern times. That, by the way, is also one of the things I appreciate about tribulation: You are artists, not just any death metal band. I don’t want to hang anybody on the fence but especially in metal many musicians claim that they make music for themselves first and foremost. That’s not true! As soon as you go on stage you want to get something back. Even GG Allin! And his gigs were really a confrontational and bad experience for every lover of the fine arts. Playing just for yourself? That's not how it works. You either do it to please or to deliver something. People laugh, cry, clap, scream, whatever... And when they leave, they feel a little bit better. That's entertainment!

Anja Delast/ Metal Hammer

-------------------------------------------------

Please do not share without naming the origin. I have taken a lot of effort with it and unfortunately it is distributed without stating the origin. It's somehow sad...

#thebandghost #the band ghost #cardinalcopia #cardinal copia #tobiasforge

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isabeladraws · 4 years

Photo

harrington fam doodles 🌿🌟🌻 big headcanon dump below | ko-fi

jett phoenix harrington, air & metal att

thief player and very good at it (becomes captain eventually)

not so academic but get's good enough grades (beckett still pushes him a lot)

loves to travel (one year he suddenly hates it)

him and selene are T R O U B L E M A K E R S

mischevious and playful

knows the deans office like the palm of his hand

popular at school

takes every opportunity to show off like his mom

sunday's clumsy twin

cry baby

runs hot and biggest cuddler

loves animals. he would always bring an injured animal home to nurse them back to health

sporty and energetic, can't sit still for very long

kind and open minded

has sunday’s chaoticness with none of becketts caution lol

wears his heart on his sleave

beckett was the only one that could calm him as a baby

he starts to thrive academically at penderghast after picking his major (there was a lot of comotion surrounding this because beckett wanted him to choose the right path and be involved but the friction in their relationship made it seem beckett was disappointed and frustrated with jett instead)

selene maeve harrington, air & wood att

daddy's girl tm

can do no wrong in becketts eyes

very good at school with not much effort

teachers love her. sunday taught her all the tricks

her favorite subject is natural studies, anything with herbology and potions

butterflies are her motif

veeeery michisvious and is never caught. atlas taught her a few tricks to get past professors/beckett (she cant fool sunday though)

appears to be unapproachable but is very loving

atlas is her favorite person

loves to garden & animals (bugs especially)

bff with shreya's daughter (shreya and atlas may or may not be married in my headcanon)

she likes to travel and meet new people/species

keeps a journal that is spelled to leave you smelling like farts for 48h if you (jett) try to read it

has sunday's chaoticness with becketts caution/awareness

morning person, loves to watch the sunrise

loveees to dance and beckett is more than eager to be her teacher and dance partner

has beckett's snobby/expensive taste

pro at skiing

she hates how often dad pulls out his philosophy major card to scold them for using their powers on each other (they all do tbh)

she names her plants

very curious bub

marlow archie harrington, water & metal att

the baby tm

a bit of a wallflower compared to his siblings

beckett sees a lot of himself in marlow

loovees water related books

enjoys being near the water a lot

has very specific interests, like we'll just spit out random facts at the dinner table and beck and sunday look at each other like ??

he takes long ass baths (very particular with his bath bombs too)

he can be a bit blunt and rude if he's flustered and with strangers

atlas taught him how to breathe underwater and he spends a lot of time exploring

the merpeople love him, he brings them snacks

mister know it all, the smarty pants

beckett doesn't seem to be as hard on him as he is with jett

lowkey hates to travel

he enjoys routine and being in familiar places

observant and forgetful

big video game fan

he's better at metal than jett but jett has a better grasp of other attunements than he does

loves to sleep with his parents and it was a habit hard to kill

asked for a fish tank for xmas but felt bad for the fish so he released them in the middle of the night

he's the one that figures out the triplets together can make sun magick

sunday & beckett's grocery shopping buddy

loves to cook

vegetarian

he doesn’t have freckles like his siblings, just a bunch of moles

sunday & beckett as parents

not sure what their jobs would be (i would love to hear your thoughts on magickal jobs?) beckett maybe would have a job that he could do anywhere since his major is magick philosophy? sunday i think could go on to do thief professionally for a while but quits after getting pregnant. i don't think she'd want to go back afterwards. i wish we had more info what could be done post uni or an idea of the majors we could take. i could see both of them teaching later in life though.

in my mind, they travel aaaaa lottt. like maybe twice a year would be least they travel. sunday wants to see the attunned world and beckett is more than happy to give her that. they both love exploring and gives them opportunity to be espontaneous and nerdy at the same time. beckett loves teaching sunday about things he always knew growing up but she's only now discovering. it started when sunday was asked to join a pro thief team and beckett was studying away for his masters. they'd take mini trips almost every 2 months to escape their lives and have these unforgetable memories. they got the bug and never stopped since.

sunday after getting pregnant - which i think they were parents quite young at 25 - she wants to stay with her kids, beckett too, and they both find this need to be home all the time. they want to be there 24/7 and not leave the kids with nannies or babysitters. do not get me wrong, they ask the pend pals and the family to watch them frequently for sanity and date nights. beckett officially went back to work after 1 year of staying home, he started working properly after 8 months of the triplets being born though. sunday didn't mind being at home with them. she found motherhood to be the greatest code she could ever crack.

around 6 months of the babies being born, beckett and sunday tried to travel for a few days to a nearby lake town. there, they discovered marlow's affinity to water. they had a hunch, the kid loved bath time but being in untamed water sparked something in him. after that, they decided to keep travelling, to take their kids exploring. they went on a trip almost every 2 months after that. beckett went back to work and it was time to adjust a little and slow down.

sunday became an avid photographer. they had filled out 3 albums in a year. "they grow so fast!!" she would say when beckett made fun of her after pulling out the camera.

as you can tell, they travel a lot. after the kids get a big bigger, they try to stay places a bit longer, so they can really explore. they do settle when the kids reach school-age, but keep travelling during weekends, school breaks, etc. i think they'd make big moves every 3 years, until officially settling in in their forever home, before the kids join penderghast. (this could change, depending on their jobs. but yeah u get the gist)

sunday cant cook for shit when she becomes a mom. beckett is much better at that. she becomes better bc she cant lose to her husband, of course. the kids will say they prefer her food now over his.

WHEN DO THEY GET MARRIED? who knows folks jdsngk (secretly eloping after graduating penderghast?)

surprisingly, sunday is the one with an iron fist. she sets rules like cleaning up, curfew, no using their powers to hit or fight each other, etc and she’s the one the kids don't want to defy the most. beckett gets annoyed easily but settles down fast and lets them go do everything in the end. sunday doesn't disapprove of them exploring and doing kid stuff but she has a bit of fear given what atlas has been through.

sunday is the ultimate soccer mom. the kid's biggest cheerleader

beckett teaches the kids yoga super early, marlow and selene find it very relaxing

beckett makes the triplets wear penderghast's uniform

sunday packs them regular clothes so they can wear wtv they want when they aren’t visiting (beckett made a surprise visit once so now they have a backup uniform in their bags at all times)

every sunday of the month is tuneless food day. (get it) they usually also make trips to tuneless cities during weekends to get even more in the mood.

sunday and beckett collect postcards from wherever they go. they have a big wall full of mementos and family photos.

(i haven't decided on familiars for the kids and i kinda want a new type for selene *coughs* butterfly *coughs*)

sunday starts some homeschooling with the kids. being attuned to every element has its perks and she enjoys teaching them spells. they’re quite advanced for kids their age, magick wise

#grab a cup of tea u guys lmao #beckett x mc #the elementalists #beckett harrington #sunday olsen #te fanart #the elementalists fanart #te mc #harrington triplets #selene harrington #jett harrington #marlow harrington #fanart #my draws #choices #choices fanart #IGNORE TYPOS PLEASE

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dismuch47 · 3 years

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Vision2.0 Theory Train

I gotta admit, when I saw that corpse!Vision flash in ep 4, my hope of Vision2.0 being an active part of this series began to sink. And then seeing him collapse in the mid-season preview, outside of the hexagon spell-radius...the theory lined up with him being dead.

BUT THEN... rumors and pictures of the possible Viv and Vin casting from awhile back have me soaring! So "The Visions" will happen, or could be interwoven in with WandaVision, because this IS about Vision too, even if he is playing second fiddle. I love them together... but in the impending divorce, I choose the awkward synthezoid dad to fangirl on. So, forgive me if my theories have more to do with him. Also, the Tom King's "The Visions" was one of the comics consulted and the actors read it in prep for this series. Veeeeeeeery telling. Also, also... about half of the fandom admits that corpse!Vision could have just been a flash of Wanda's mental psyche, not what is actually physically before her. We will find out. Hopefully soon.

I've already mentioned that I'm 90% sure Vision is alive, as he has energy readings on Darcie's screen, he has his own side adventures, and since day one he has been actively questioning the realities around him. If he was a mere corpse puppet, these things would not be. "Oh well Wanda is just THAT META, making him so organically true to who he is that he questions her..." You're telling me it is Wanda's DESIRE to keep hoodwinking and wiping his memory, and she's doing that confrontational dance with herself... when she likes to usually yeet confrontation away?? Yah, don't think so. Out-of-control elements usually has to do, story-wise, with the power of the human spirit or soul against an oppressively powerful circumstance (sometimes even supernatural). If Vision is dead...how does his little robo!Soul keep popping out of step in Wanda's master production? Clearly the other PEOPLE have feelings and mis-step... but usually not in front of Wanda... and Vision can do the same. BECAUSE HE HAS A SOUL, DARNIT. JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. FIGHT ME.

So here's my long-winded theory, which will morph into what I hope happens so "The Visions" is a thing in all this intrigue (because Viv and daddy Vision are a gift to the Marvel world; fight me some more)

5 years go by before the Blip, in which Shiri can have attempts at recreating Vision. He's mostly backed-up, but the process was not completed before Thanos' goons attacked her lab; there is no mind stone, only fragments; and his first body is trashed, so she's starting from scratch. But what could possibly power something that advanced? "YAH WANNA BUY SOME BATTERIES??" And it just so happens that the curmudgeon raccoon is in Wakanda at that time, tot'n quite a few of those power cells around. Maybe she is driven to replicate Vision in hopes that he might provide answers about where her brother and half of her people have gone; perhaps she needs a win after such a blow... but it's all in vain. Vision2.0 knows nothing about the vanished. He doesn't look the same and he certainly doesn't have a connection to humanity that he once did. He is Gray Vision. He is handed over to the Avengers, but he's a tough remember of their failure. So he goes elsewhere, and in the 5 years, he creates his own family (Viv, Vin, Virginia... and Sparky) and learns humanity by play-acting with his suburbia family in a very A.I. intolerant world.

So Wanda snapped away and then blipped back. It's been a few days since Tony's funeral, in which Wanda seemed broken, but holding together... so something must have happened to feed the idea that she needs to make her own destiny. Defy balance and reach into chaos to grab what she desires: she has the power to do so. She will deny this temptation once, but it will motivate her to see if she can reassemble the mind stone and bring Vision back on her own. This fails, of course, but Shiri mentions the existence of Vision2.0, hoping this will give Wanda closure... but it launches Wanda into an obsession. But what she finds enrages her; she can't imagine moving on from Vision... but she witnesses his likeness with a family, house,... a new love. That's when she decides chaos is the way. Whether Agatha or someone helps her, the ingredients of the resurrection require the soul of the departed (and this would be uncharted waters for all, as it is a synthezoid... is there even a soul?) She needs his body, the fragments, and Vision2.0's life. He is NOT a willing participant in the ritual, to say the least, but he knows he can't outrun or overpower Wanda, so he willingly leaves his life to protect his family unit. Whatever occultish variation of hex Wanda does works, and Vision looks, acts, and thinks like she remembers... playing by her rules. Of course, she doesn't realize that this hex benefits sinister powers by keeping her distracted with contentment. Yet there is something odd about the life she has sacrificed for... (I think it's because it's a robo!Soul that helped establish her bliss that the surroundings are adapting, evolving, and moving along at a fast pace... like a learning computer rebooting... and manifests as different decades. Neat theory, right?) However, the more Vision keeps scratching at that itch of something being off, the more Vision2.0's feelings on the matter are going to surface. And while new Viz remembers how he felt about Wanda at one time, his allegiances are NOT with her, resulting in some unpleasantries. Just a "Serious case of the Mondays, am I right?"

I hope when Vision pops out and collapses, he can still function before being dragged back into the Hex Spell...and that a tracker is out long enough to register to Viv and Vin to find their abducted father-unit. Viginia can't come. She's too busy smashing plates and singing "Row Your Boat" because her brain-waves are based on a very UNSTABLE WANDA. Which might tip S.W.O.R.D. off to Wanda needing more than just to be apprehended.

In Summation:

-This is Vision2.0: this Vision is alive

-Viv and Vin could be on the way and make an appearance at S.W.O.R.D. encampment

-Wanda has given in to occultism chaos (Which the Hexagon is believed to have mystic properties, but usually having to do with balance and the cosmos)

-The Hexagon is perimeters of Wanda's control... and maybe even the fragile balance of her mind...

-This is def a job for Dr. Strange: HEAL HER INSIDE AND OUT, STEPHEN

Thank you for reading the ramblings of a mad fan-woman.

#wandavision #scarletvision #theories #wanda maximoff #vision #house of m #the visions #elizabeth olsen #paul bettany #FOR THE CHILDREN

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valla-chan · 3 years

Text

65 Questions You Aren't Used To answered by ME

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you?

Sometimes, but it always goes away fairly quickly.

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?

3, im not actively afraid of the dark itself but it can exacerbate paranoias

3. The person you would never want to meet?

The guy on reddit with like 100 different parasites he spreads to people around him

4. What is your favorite word?

Catgirl or Ghost maybe idk

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be?

Monterey Cypress

6. When you looked in the mirror this morning what was the first thing you thought?

Oh my god my hair is so fucked, i look dead in the face too

7. What shirt are you wearing?

gray longesleev :)

8. What do you label yourself as?

gray-ace trans girl who is probably actually nonbinary but ignores that for the sake of simplicity

9. Bright room or dark room?

dark

10. What were you doing at midnight last night?

in a voice call watching my friend stream hl2: lost coast

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far?

19-20

12. Who told you they loved you last?

gf :)

13. Your worst enemy?

congress republicans

14. What is your current desktop picture?

I have 3, and currently all of them are on images of hatsune miku

15. Do you like someone?

mhm

16. The last song you listened to?

No Children - The Mountain Goats

17. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?

Mitch McConnell

18. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?

Donald Trump

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do?

A clone of myself, who i would make work on my portal mod lul

20. What is your best physical attribute? (showing said attribute is optional)

My hair perhaps

21. If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do?

I dont know if this would make me male, female, or a trans man!

22. Do you have a secret talent? If yes, what is it?

Getting people to like me when i want them to, i guess? It sounds manipulative but if you dont use it to manipulate people, and you dont always do it (because sometimes you dont want the person to like you), then is it?

23. What is one unique thing you’re afraid of?

I am afraid that my perception of other things is inaccurate and eventually i will realize that people around me regard me as someone who is very much detached from objective reality.

24. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your disposal.

Crab+lobster mix, avocado, cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, sourdough bread, basil+a bit of garlic, and probably other stuff i cant think of.... oh and sunchips stuffed inside that i could pull out and eat.

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it?

Save it!!

26. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, but you have to leave immediately. Where are you going to go?

California!

28. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?

1) If you die we eat you

29. What is your favorite expletive?

simply saying the word KILL!

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno?

My computer :( it would cause the most extreme impact to have it be destroyed. i would feel terrible about everything else though

31. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

I’d rather not say.

32. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit… you can move to anywhere else in the world!

sounds awful :(

33. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn’t think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?

My kitty :(

34. What was your last dream about?

I was playing a hidden level in Frogger: the Great Quest but then @ sleepysoul DM’d me to ask what my newest video was about cause she was weirded out by it, and i went to my youtube channel to find this bizarre video about crab-catching, which slowly descended into this video showing bizarre and cosmic horrors. For some reason i thought i uploaded it and tried to defend the video, but i could not explain it

35. Are you a good….[insert anything you’d like here]?

I am a good 3d modeler, texturer, game mapper, and other things that have to do with digital 3d artstuff

36. Have you ever been admitted to the hospital?

37. Have you ever built a snowman?

yes

38. What is the color of your socks?

All of mine are tan or dark blue. super lame and boring

39. What type of music do you like?

Most currently, it fluctuates between “weirdcore” type aesthetic playlists of music, and anything Vocaloid.

40. Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?

Sunrises, because im usually not awake for them so they are extra special

41. What is your favorite milkshake flavor?

strawberry maybe

43. Do you have any scars?

One on the side of my butt where i tore it open on the bathtub faucet, one on my elbow from a bike accident, and

44. What do you want to be when you graduate?

I dropped out :(

45. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

my cheekbones and eyebrow ridge stick out so weirdly, id make it not look like that

46. Are you reliable?

on small things? yes. on big things? nope, not in the least.

47. If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?

Have you finally gotten out of this rut and found happiness and success?

48. Do you hold grudges?

i kinda do but try not to

49. If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature, what new animal would you create?

Catgirl

51. Are you a good liar?

only when im not trying to.

52. How long could you go without talking?

consecutively, maybe a fourth of a day

53. What has been you worst haircut/style?

short.

54. Have you ever baked your own cake?

I’ve helped, but never done it myself!

55. Can you do any accents other than your own?

Oh, believe me, no. But i do it anyway because its objectively hilarious

56. What do you like on your toast?

Not beans.

57. What is the last thing you drew a picture of?

Miku :) (it turned out so badly i scrapped it)

58. What would be you dream car?

Golden Leopard Print Golf Cart

59. Do you sing in the shower? Or do anything unusual in the shower? Explain.

I lie down as to not pass out (and cause warmn wotter....)

60. Do you believe in aliens?

[redacted]

61. Do you often read your horoscope?

never

62. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet?

E? (it has a nice synesthetic color)

63. Which is cooler: dinosaurs or dragons?

Dinos

64. What do you think about babies?

gremlins. strange beings. they are very strange and creepy-ish but can be cute but RARELY. keep away.

#thast me #i was boared sooo

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biribirichan1 · 4 years

Text

We’ll find a way

A million memories flood through Ichigo as he witnesses Rukia, radiant in her royal regalia - ascending the steps to the high priest waiting to crown her as the first reigning queen of their nation. Queen Rukia. His heart felt like it would burst from pride - she had worked so hard to overturn the rules that said that only male heirs could be in line for the thrown. Even as a child, that’s what she’d aspired to. “Just you watch Ichigo, I’ll be Queen one day,” - with her arms held out to the sky, and her eyes sparkling with the ferocity that he loved so dearly.

Ichigo clutched his heart. “Don’t think about her eyes, you fool. You’ll never make it through this.” He knew that his heart was not just bursting, it was also slowly breaking, because he knew today marked the day when they had to part their ways. He’d known for so long that this day would come, had steeled his heart for it - so why did it still hurt so bad? It’s not like he hadn’t been warned. By his dad, by his friends, by anyone who knew. But call it fate, call it being soul mates, there was no keeping them apart. Ichigo had tried. Really he had. The first time he and Rukia had been caught kissing, his dad had given him the scolding of a life time. “We in the Shiba clan exist solely to guard the Kuchiki royalty, not to fall in love with them!” Isshin had roared. “She’s a princess, Ichigo! One day, she’ll be married into other royalty. You’re just looking to get your heart broken, son.”

After that, he had managed to avoid Rukia for a week. A mere week - until the red string of fate crashed them together. He smiled wryly thinking that rather than it being the string of fate, it was Rukia who had crashed him to the wall and kissed him senseless.

“Rukia, we’ll end up like Romeo and Juliet.”

“I don’t care,” she shot back, defiance in every fiber of her being. “Now, shut up and kiss me back.” And Ichigo had shut up and kissed her. He had never been able to say no to her anyways.

As the days turned to months, and the months turned to years, and Rukia successfully avoided all her suitors, Ichigo had started to get optimistic - perhaps, just perhaps, by some stroke of fate, they could be together.

That illusion didn’t last very long. Rukia’s determination and her magnetic personality really got people’s attention in court. Combined with her success on the battlefield, she had become immensely popular. Ichigo had long known it in his heart, but Rukia was born to be a Queen to her people. So it was no surprise to Ichigo, when without his own heir, her ailing older brother, King Byakuya, made Rukia his successor, defying hundreds of years of tradition. When Rukia told him, he had been so happy. He had picked her up and spun her around in the garden they were in and kept saying, “I always knew.” Rukia however, in response had burst into tears - one the few times in his life that he had actually seen her cry.

“Rukia, love, what’s wrong? You’ll be the first Queen of the land. You’re making history. You should be so proud!”

Rukia didn’t say a word. She had just wept, and held him close. Ichigo found out the reason for her tears from his father. “She has to choose her husband within a year of her coronation.”

As Ichigo had ranted and raged, his father laid a hand on his shoulder and told him, “His Highness broke all the rules to make Rukia the next queen. It’s just not possible for one person to alter so much at once.”

And so the race towards coronation began. King Byakuya had wanted to hand off the crown before he passed away to ensure a smooth transition. Their country was at a delicate stage with war brewing on the south borders, so it was essential to keep the morale high. It seemed to Ichigo that all the old advisors planned to incorporate the hunt for Rukia’s husband as part of the morale boosting activities.

“Should we really be having such lavish parties with His Highness in such a state and a brewing war?” Ichigo had complained to Rukia one night.

Rukia just flashed him her enigmatic smile, and said “Looks like someone is jealous.”

“Can you blame me. That pompous ass had his hands all over you while danci-” his words were cut off by a passionate kiss from Rukia. “Ichigo, you know I have eyes only for you, right?”

Night after that, all of Ichigo’s protests were drowned by her kisses and assurances of “Trust me” and “I love you” and “We’ll find a way.” Ichigo knew he was just fooling himself, but how could he say no to her, when all he knew was just to be with her? To love her? To never let her go? So he let himself be fooled and allowed himself to love her as long as he possibly could. And so the days kept going much like before, until it was finally the night before the coronation, and he knew he couldn’t continue this farce any longer. The advisors had finally picked a suitable man in his eyes. Ichigo had scrutinized Prince Renji for days, and couldn’t really find any major faults with him. He knew Rukia would be happy eventually, if she allowed herself to be. After all, she was getting to live out her life long ambition. He was just getting ready to go to her garden, where they usually met, and bid her farewell on his own terms. It was already getting harder and harder for them to meet in secret after she was named King Byakuya’s successor. He knew it would be almost impossible to meet alone after she was crowned Queen.

As he got ready to go, he heard a knock at his door, before a crying Rukia stumbled in and into his arms. “Rukia, what are you doing here?”

“Ichigo, Ichigo”. She kept crying his name and holding him like there was no tomorrow.

“Rukia, what are you doing - we can’t keep doing this! Your coronation is tomorrow -” Suddenly Ichigo felt his heart shatter. Rukia’s tears, her desperation, all clicked into place with such a painful clarity. It’s tomorrow, his heart thundered. It’s tomorrow. All this time, he had been thinking that he would bid her farewell today without really understanding what that meant. His heart had numbed him to his true circumstances. To his reality. But finally with Rukia in his arms, his heart had awakened.

He stopped fighting her, and poured his heart and all his love into her, hoping, wishing it would stay with her for her entire lifetime. Even if he was no longer there. Because today was all he had with her. There was no tomorrow. After tomorrow, all he would have would be his inner demons with her smiles, and the memories of the time they spent loving each other.

Later as they held each other, Ichigo had tried to say how much he loved her. Had tried to say goodbye. Each time, Rukia had chased his farewells away with her kisses. She didn’t want them. So he resigned himself to just holding her and loving her until the first rays of dawn spilled across the bed they shared.

Rukia was the first to get up. As she pulled on her clothes, and got ready to leave, her mask was back on. She looked at him and asked, “Ichigo, you had once said that you’d leave the Shiba clan as soon as I got crowned. Is that still what you plan to do?”

Ichigo looked at her. “Rukia - I.” He hung his head. “You know I’ll always love you, and cheer for you and pray for your success. But I don’t think I could see you be married to someone else day in and day out. I just couldn’t. It’d kill me, Rukia.”

“I see. Very well then.” And before Ichigo could even say anything, she was gone. Gone from his arms, from his room, and out of his life forever. “Goodbye, Rukia.”

The tears wouldn’t stop anymore. Ichigo looked at his beautiful Rukia, radiant with the crown over her head. “Long live the Queen,” the jubilant crowd shouted. “Long live Queen Rukia!”

Rukia beamed at the crowd in front of her, and raised a hand for silence. “Today we have made history,” she roared. “To anyone who thinks that a woman is any less than a man, take note. The heavens have spoken and the people have spoken. I, Rukia, am proud to take up the crown today, and serve as your very first Queen.”

The roar was deafening. Ichigo looked around to see some of female spectators clapping with tears in their eyes, some waving their handkerchiefs, and some cheering with their fists raised. Rukia’s special squad of female warriors, Division 13, had their swords and spears high up in the air and kept chanting Rukia’s name again and again and again. He couldn’t have been prouder. He knew that Rukia had the whole country mesmerized by her charisma, just as she had him in her spell for all these years. “Look at how far you’ve come, love.” Ichigo breathed.

Rukia raised her arms again for silence. “As you all know, we are passing through a turbulent time. War is brewing on the southern border, and the lack of rains has our farmers in a dire crisis. It is exactly because the times are so pressing that I will need all your support and dedication. Together we will push this country to peace and prosperity once again!” More cheering erupted.

Rukia paused for a bit, and then started again, but in a slightly somber voice. “Though I will warn all of you - the road to prosperity is not easy and requires many sacrifices, changing of old mindsets and new ways of thinking. There are many places in which centuries old tradition have safeguarded our peace and happiness, but there are also places where it has held us back. Kings before me have promised to uphold tradition and honour in their coronation speech, but as you can see I’m a little different.” Rukia gestured to her dress.

The crowd roared with laughter, and Ichigo amused himself by seeing the sour expressions on the members of the royal advisory panel. Trust Rukia to use humour in her coronation speech and piss off those old farts. No one other that that daredevil could have the guts to pull that off.

Rukia continued, “So today, as your Queen, instead of promising to uphold tradition, what I promise to uphold are my people’s happiness and this country’s prosperity. Help me make that a reality everyone. Work with me!”

The crowd went crazy. Never before had a royalty asked to work with the common public. Never had they put the happiness of the people before the country’s traditions. “Rukia, you were born to a Queen. You’ll be amazing.” As he started walking away from the crowd, and out of Rukia’s life, he just wished he could have cheered for her success from right beside her than being just another spectator in the crowd. “Be happy, my love.”

...

“What do you mean, my application to quit got rejected?” Ichigo yelled at his father, who also happened to be his superior as the head of the Shiba clan).

“Here, you can see it for yourself. It has Queen Rukia’s seal and everything.” Isshin grinned.

“Dad - this is not funny. Who does that? I’ve never heard of a royal guard’s application being rejected! This is so ridiculously petty - even by her standards.”

“Ichigo - my boy. Calm down.” Isshin dropped his voice, “You’re one lucky bastard. Haven’t you heard? Rukia got into a lot of trouble after her coronation.”

Panic flooded his heart. “What do you mean, dad?”

“What I mean, you silly son, is who do you think all that breaking tradition in her coronation speech was aimed at? Shortly after she was crowned Queen, she broke off the engagement with Prince Renji too.”

“She WHAT?!” Ichigo sat down on the nearest chair and put his head in his hands. “Dad, I’m so confused. I let her go. I said goodbye. Why is she jeopardizing herself for me?” Ichigo knew how twisted court politics was, and felt nothing but fear for Rukia.

Isshin sighed, “Did Her Highness ever say goodbye to you, Ichigo? She told me she intended to fight for you with everything she had, son.”

“But the advisors, the generals - she’ll lose support in court. Dad, you know how it is...” Ichigo trailed off.

“Well, be thankful that your girlfriend has got quite the super powers. The generals can’t win the war without her, the advisors can’t win against her popularity. She’s been playing her cards magnificently.”

Patting his son on the back, Isshin continued, “Ichigo, stop sulking and go meet up with her. But before you do, do think of how you’ll handle her rage at submitting your resignation. You know how she hates it when people don’t believe in her.”

Ichigo balked. His dad was right. There would be hell to pay.

...

“Ah Ichigo, I thought you quit.” Rukia said impassively.

“Your highness, this is the matter I requested a private audience for - to speak about my application.”

Rukia turned to the two clerks handing off papers for her to sign, and said, “I’ll finish this in a few minutes. Can you give us some privacy?”

“Of course, your Majesty.” The two men turned to leave, closing the door beside them as they exited.

A deathly silence filled the room, until Ichigo could take it no more.

“Rukiaaa,” he pleaded.

In response, he got a heavily embroidered cushion in his face. “You fooool. You were actually going to leave, weren’t you? Didn’t I tell you to trust me?”

“You were crying the night before the coronation. I thought you had given up hope too. How would I know you had other plans?”

He got another cushion thrown at him. “Of course, I was crying! I was scared! Do you know how hard its been - fighting for you - for us?” Rukia trailed off, furiously wiping away the tears that had sprung up in the corner of her eyes.

Ichigo couldn’t take it any more. In one swift motion, he closed the gap between them and took her in his arms, breathing her in. “Rukia, I really am sorry. I should have believed you. Forgive me.”

He heard a muffled no from his chest.

“Rukiaaa, you know how crazily in love with you I am right? I won’t lose faith again. I’ll fight for you - for us, for our love.”

Silence.

Ok, Ichigo thought, she’d need a little more coaxing. “How about to make up when you get off the next day, you and I can have a little picnic in your garden. I’ll get all your favourite snacks.” He inched a little closer. “I’ll even smuggle in some of the juices boxes from the Southern border that you love so much.”

“Ichigo, we’re might be going to war with them!”

“Doesn’t mean they don’t have the best tasting juice in the continent.”

“Humph, fine.”

Ichigo laughed. Even with the crown on her head, Rukia’s pout made her look so much like the child she truly was. He leaned down to kiss her, and thanked the gods, or fate or whatever supernatural beings there were for allowing him to still be with Rukia. He didn’t know if they truly could ever get married, or be together like a normal couple, but he realized in that moment that he didn’t need normal. As long as he was the one in her heart, he was content to simply be by her side and love and cherish her with all his soul.

“I love you, Rukia.”

---

Happy Ichiruki month everyone! This story turned out to be super long because I combined 5 days worth of prompts! Written for Ichiruki AU Week Prompt Day 17: Coronation, Day 18: Tradition, Day 19: All my Demons have your Smile, Day 20: Romeo and Juliet, Day 21: Supernatural. I’m not sure if the characters were too OOC, but I tried to keep Rukia’s feisty nature alive as the heir to the throne, and Ichigo’s angst vibe from when he lost his powers and couldn’t see Rukia. Let me know what you thought! Hope you enjoyed

#ichiruki #ichiruki month #ichirukimonth2020 #ichigo x rukia #au week

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