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raayllum · 7 months

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yk i was going to ask what your takes/predictions are for the rayla/sarai parallels but then i realized they sure weren't gonna be good and would ruin me but then i realized i do not like myself anyways so you have the floor

So I have a lot of feelings about Sarai and Rayla (and Claudia) being women who are doomed by the narrative and I will try to express them eloquently

Post with Sarai and Rayla parallels (pre-S4)

Post with Harrai and Rayllum parallels (pre-S3) featuring all the potential parallel pairs

The Viren-Avizandum theory that Viren paralleling Avizandum in the intro was to also parallel how the dragon queen caused Harrow's loss of Sarai by having Viren cause Callum to almost lose Rayla (pre-S4, largely defunct but still interesting)

Bonus Claudia and Sarai parallels (being used for dark magic, etc.)

With that out of the way:

Rayla and Sarai do have their similarities, given that they see their enemies as people even when it would be far more convenient not to and everyone else around them is telling them not to ("The human looked up at me, and I saw the fear in his eyes" / "You keep calling it a monster!"). And they see these people as well, people, even when ultimately taking the act of dealing the final blow upon themselves (Sarai being the one to kill the Magma Titan, Rayla killing/tackling Viren off the Pinnacle). There is, of course, the very obvious framing parallel between Harrow watching Sarai ride away in 2x06 and between Callum watching Rayla leap away an episode later in 2x07 that makes my heart do a little pitter-patter every time

We know from Callum's Spellbook and from Sarai's argument in 2x05 that she is staunchly against dark magic - just as Rayla is - but they are both willing to stand by Harrow and Callum anyway even when they choose to engage with it: "I disagree, but I stand by you anyway" / "It doesn't matter what you did before, I just want you to be okay again". (This bodes well for S6 Rayllum in particular.)

There is, of course, that Sarai dies saving Viren, and Rayla almost dies killing Viren / wrecks her relationship with Callum by leaving to hunt him down, causing mother and son to both assume, "Without Viren to perform the spell, the heart is worthless and this was all for nothing" / "I didn't find him..." "Oh, so you disappeared for two years for no reason at all?"

While Harrow and Callum parallel each other more framing and devotion wise (Harrow never moved on from Sarai just as Callum never moved on from Rayla, while Sarai must've moved on fairly quickly after Callum's father's death for Callum to be able to remember the man and only have a 5 year age gap with Ezran. More thoughts on that in this oneshot here <3)... I think Harrow and Rayla are more similar personality wise and that Callum also has a great deal of similarities with his mother. (This is also why Rayla-Harrow and Callum-Viren dynamics tend to parallel each other as well, tbh.)

Basically I don't think there's a clear cut-ness to it - almost everyone in TDP parallels each other at least a little with a generational breakdown of

Personality:

Harrow-Rayla

Viren-Callum

Sarai-Ezran

VS Generational roles

Ezran-Harrow

Rayla-Sarai

Callum-Viren

if that distinction makes any sense? There may be more to the Sarai-Rayla parallels (certainly I can see the "Tell me she wasn't your world" + making a choice said woman doesn't want you to make on her behalf involving dark/star magic and shit, which Callum arguably already has) in S6/7 in the way I thought might be happening pre-S4, but I lean more away from it now. There could always be interesting (or sad) stuff I missed though between the two ladies, so anyone feel free to leave your thoughts in the reblogs/replies!

And like yourself anyway, you deserve a seat

#thanks for asking #requests #queen sarai #tdp rayla #m4rs-ex3 #tdp #the dragon prince #there's also stuff in the book 1 novelization of when callum realizes the egg won't make it #it reminds him of how helpless he felt about his mother's death #and like. that coming back with the prison's comparisons to the egg /#callum always just wanting to Save the People he Loves no matter what??#his mother being that Initial loss in a lot of ways for him? yeah. yeah. i could see it

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zukosdualdao · 1 month

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i've been seeing the take recently that what aang is actually encouraging katara to do is to forgive herself and that he’s not explicitly encouraging or expecting her to forgive yon rha.

the ironic thing is that i do think part of what katara needed from the experience of confronting yon rha was to let go of the guilt she held for her mother sacrificing herself for katara. i find this especially evident in the scene where she recounts the story to zuko and remarks that she's "not the helpless little girl" she was when they came, and how enraged she becomes when yon rha asks who kya was protecting. but though she ultimately chooses not to take revenge, katara facing yon rha and realizing what he did is about him and what kind of person he is and was never her fault is ultimately a good thing. it’s not an easy or fun experience, but i do think it was a very necessary one.

i might be somewhat less critical of aang in this episode if that actually was what he was saying (though if he went about it in the exact same way, i would still find it condescending and not a productive way of reaching out to her.)

but that’s just… literally not what he’s saying.

Zuko: Sokka told me the story of what happened. I know who did it and I know how to find him. Aang: Um ... and what exactly do you think this will accomplish? Katara [Shakes her head in dismay.] Ugh, I knew you wouldn't understand. [Begins to walk away.] Aang: Wait! Stop! I do understand. You're feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people? Zuko: She needs this, Aang. This is about getting closure and justice. Aang: I don't think so. I think it's about getting revenge. Katara [Angrily.] Fine, maybe it is! Maybe that's what I need! Maybe that's what he deserves! Aang: Katara, you sound like Jet.

i think this is the one interaction between aang and katara in which you could maybe argue that he wants her to forgive herself, as he brings up something he's expressed guilt about before, in the storm, (running away before the fire nation killed the air nomads), and she comforted him there and encouraged him not to feel guilty.

but the thing is, he doesn't say anything about how she shouldn't feel guilty. he tries to acknowledge what she's feeling, which is good, but if he was honestly trying to encourage her to forgive herself, i think he would remind her of how she comforted him when he expressed his own guilt. i'm not even totally sure how in tune he is with her guilt. it's not something he mentions when expressing he knows how she feels. (and this isn't me saying he's awful to not know that; it's not something he can necessarily know unless she's expressed it to him, which we haven't seen. but we have seen her try to connect with him over her mother’s death to empathize with him in the southern air temple, and he doesn’t really acknowledge it. so, i do think it shows he has an overly simplistic understanding of her emotions, and that he's not thinking about this in the framework of forgiving oneself.)

if the writers wanted to showcase him encouraging her to forgive herself, they could have had aang say something like, "i know how badly losing your mother must have hurt, but it wasn't your fault, and i'm worried that confronting the man who killed her won't help you."

instead, he immediately makes an argument about moral corruption - he thinks it is about revenge and expresses she sounds like jet because of it. that... is not encouraging her to forgive herself. it's a judgment based on morality. you can argue about whether aang's right or not (i, personally, find his stance reductive in context, but to each their own), but he is absolutely being judgmental here.

this is when the concept of forgiveness comes up:

Katara: Now that I know he's out there ... now that I know we can find him, I feel like I have no choice. Aang: Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness. Zuko: That's the same as doing nothing! Aang: No, it's not. It's easy to do nothing, but it's hard to forgive. Katara: It's not just hard, it's impossible. [Cuts to overhead shot of the field as she walks away, Zuko following behind.]

in it, aang encourages forgiveness directly after katara expresses she feels she has no choice but to confront her mother’s killer. even if aang does mean forgiveness for herself, katara does not hear it that way, as is made evident by the fact she insists forgiveness would be impossible here, and if he does mean forgiveness for herself, i don't know why he wouldn't try to correct that misunderstanding.

Aang: So you were just gonna take Appa anyway? Katara: Yes. Aang: It's okay, because I forgive you. [Pauses.] That give you any ideas?

this might actually be my least favorite part of the episode. while it is generally not nice to take a friend's sky bison without permission, it is so genuinely condescending and a false equivalence to even try to compare that to the murder of her mother, particularly because of how smug aang is about his example of forgiving her for it.

also, aang is trying to "give [her] ideas" about what she should do, and it's clear he doesn't blame himself for katara taking appa. he is not forgiving himself here and telling her that’s what she should do. his point is that he's forgiving her and thinks she should do the same. (for the man. who murdered. her mother. and, while we're at it, would have murdered katara herself if he knew the truth. it is just... not the same situation at all.)

Katara: Don't try to stop us. Aang: I wasn't planning to. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man. [Katara situates herself on Appa's head.] But when you do, please don't choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.

aaaand there we have it.

aang 100% wants and tells katara to forgive her mother's killer. even if you think he also wants her to find healing (which i actually agree he does want for her, but i don't think he expresses it well/in a way that is likely to reach her, and the show acts like he is wise for this regardless) and forgive herself (if he does realize katara needs this, it's not something he expresses), he also very much does absolutely tell katara to forgive her mother's murderer, and that she won't find healing without doing so.

you can agree or disagree with his stance, but that is absolutely the argument he is making, and it’s weird to try to act like it’s not.

and, as i said before, i personally find it reductive. there are things in this world that we should be angry at. there are things people find impossible to forgive. those things may be different for everyone, but they do exist, and that's completely morally neutral. i find the idea that katara has to forgive the man who killed her mother in an act of imperalist violence in order to find healing and inner peace disturbing. no, actually, she doesn't!

this ideology is also very commonly weaponized against abuse survivors in particular, which is a big part of why it is significant that zuko goes with katara on this journey and defends her right not to forgive yon rha, even as he later also respects her decision not to kill him, which shatters the whole false dichotomy of forgiveness vs revenge being presented by aang’s role in the episode.

we don't actually see the talk in which zuko tells aang about what happened, but based on his perspective the whole episode, i very much doubt he framed it as "katara decided to forgive yon rha."

Aang: Zuko told me what you did. Or what you didn't do, I guess. I'm proud of you. Katara: I wanted to do it. I wanted to take out all my anger at him, but I couldn't. I don't know if it's because I'm too weak to do it or because I'm strong enough not to. Aang: You did the right thing. Forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing. Katara [Rises from boardwalk.]: But I didn't forgive him. I'll never forgive him.

aang hears about what happened and assumes that because katara didn't kill yon rha, she forgave him, and katara corrects him. she (quite angrily) tells aang that she didn’t forgive yon rha, and she never will. katara knows exactly what aang was telling her to do, and even at the end of the episode, it’s clear she resents it and resents aang being “proud of her” for his assumption.

#antikataang #aang critical #discourse #ask to tag //#long post //#atla #atla critical #i have complicated feelings about the ep because there is a very large disconnect between what it actually says vs how it’s framed #katara #aang #the southern raiders

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topguncortez · 2 years

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Day 29: What Doesn't kill me. . . . ➣prompt: ALT- touch starved ➣character: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x Shy!Wife ➣warnings: mentions of scars, mentions of near death, mentions of out of body experiences, heart surgery, Jake has PTSD ➣note: I apologize cause this is shit but it can be read as a part 2 to Day 6 ➣masterlist | whumptober | library

It had been nearly three months since the accident, and Jake was walking on pins and needles around everyone. The surgery to save her life had been successful, the team of doctors had managed to stop the clot before it caused Y/N’s heart to stop. Jake never left her side once he got to see her after that. It took about twenty-four hours for Y/N to open her eyes, and Jake nearly bursted into tears at the sight. It had been weeks since he had seen those eyes that he loved so much. Jake watched from the side of the room as doctors and nurses began their evaluation on Y/N, checking the incisions on her body, taking her for an MRI of her brain, running tests on her heart to make sure she was strong enough.

Y/N had passed every test with flying colors and was determined more than ever to get home to her kids. She hadn’t seen or held her kids in nearly a month. She wasn’t sure if it was a coma induced dream, but she could remember hearing Ella and Alex talking to her. Jake had acquired the help of Rooster and Bob to get the house ready for Y/N to come home. She miraculously didn’t have any broken bones, it was just that her heart was weak.

The first night home was a clusterfuck of a disaster. Y/N was nervous and excited to be home, and so was Jake. They had spent an additional week post surgery for Y/N to do physical therapy and get stronger. The doctors recommneded for her to stay longer but she kindly told them to go fuck themselves. Jake drove under the speed limit, his green eyes fluttering back and forth from the road to her, making sure that she wasn’t in pain. When they got to the house, it took nearly five minutes to walk from the driveway to the front door, Y/N having to stop and catch her breath. And as soon as they got in the door, five pairs of feet came running towards her.

“Careful!” Jake scolded his kids, “Hey! All of you, go sit!” Jake didn’t like yelling at his kids, it reminded him too much of the way his father yelled at him, but he had to. Y/N looked ready to pass out as she stood in the doorway trying to hold her kids.

The night was very overwhelming between Jake and the kids, and members of the dagger squad being over. Y/N felt like her head was swimming the whole night long, and all she wanted to do was to go to sleep. Jake did his best trying to wrangle the kids, but it was a lot of work. Y/N wasn’t strong enough to really do anything but sit and watch Jake try to stop Eli from jumping on the couch next to his mother. Alex and Ella somewhat understood that they had to be careful, but the younger three Seresin kids didn’t quite get it.

“Jake, I need to go to bed,” Y/N said, her voice cracking as the living room filled with the loud screams of Maxwell Seresin.

“Okay, sweetheart,” Jake said, trying to soothe his son. Y/N felt helpless as she watched Phoenix take the screaming child out of Jake’s arms and walked to another part of the house. Rooster, Bob, and Coyote were working on getting the other kids ready for bed. She tried to put a smile on her face as Jake helped her up from the couch and walked her down the hallway towards their bedroom.

After that night, she was more determined than ever to get back to full health. She couldn’t stand by and not be able to go run with her kids or help Jake around the house. Jake had taken off work so he could be there to help her, from taking the kids to school to taking her to doctors appointments. Jake learned all he possibly could about how to help her recover, and Y/N loved him for it.

But now that some of her restrictions were loosening, Y/N felt herself more than ever being at odds with Jake. She didn’t notice it at first, her body and mind were still weak, but Jake would hardly touch her. It was never more than just a hand on her back to help her walk down the hallway, or his arms wrapping around her body to help her stand from the bed, or a hand through her hair when he’d help her shower. Y/N couldn’t remember the last time he had kissed her. And everytime one of the kids would get close to hugging her, Jake would tell them not to or to be extra careful. She was missing human touch, she was missing the touch of her husband.

Jake was putting the kids to bed as Y/N was brushing her hair at her vanity. She smiled to herself looking at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing one of Jake’s favorite robes, a black satin number with lace fringe. Underneath she was wearing a matching black lace bra and panties, something she knew would drive her husband absolutely mad. Y/N had gotten the all clear from her doctor (after much of her consistent asking) that she could finally have sex with her husband. Y/N needed the intimacy, she needed the loving touch of Jake on her skin.

“I swear, those kids take a shot of espresso right before bed,” Jake said as he walked into the bedroom. He flopped down on the bed on his stomach with his eyes closed. Y/N set her brush down and turned to face him, opening the top of the robe slightly. Jake opened one of his eyes, looking at her. His breath caught in his throat as he pushed himself up a bit, looking at her with both his gorgeous green eyes.

“Whatcha wearin’, sweets,” Jake asked. A smirk graced Y/N’s lips as she got off the bench she was sitting on and walked over to her husband.

“Oh just this old thing,” She said. Jake sat up against the pillows and the headboard, as she climbed onto the bed. He watched her every move as she found herself seated in his lap, “I missed you.”

“You see me every day,” He chuckled.

“I know, but I can still miss you,” She picked up his hands, intertwining them with her own. His eyes became blown with lust as they saw the tops of her breasts pushed up in her bra. His breath hitched as Y/N leaned forward and began to kiss his neck.

“What are you doing, sweets?” Jake asked, as she put his hands on her hips, and began to grind down in his lap.

“What does it look like?” Y/N pulled away, “Trying to engage in foreplay with my husband,” She rushed out before planting her lips on his. Jake kissed her back, holding her close to him for a moment. And then it was like an alarm went off in his head, as he grabbed her and set her down off his lap.

“I can’t,” Jake said, and got off the bed, going for the bathroom.

“And why not!” Y/N yelled. Jake sighed as he stood in the doorway, “For weeks I’ve been trying to get you to touch me and nothing! It shouldn’t be this hard to get my husband to fucking touch me! What is your problem!? Why won’t you-”

“YOU DIED!” Jake yelled, turning around quickly. His chest was red with anger, and she could see the vein in his forehead beginning to throb, “You fucking died, Y/N. Your heart stopped beating. And it’s my fault. All of this is my fault!”

Jake hadn’t cried in front of her. He told himself that he couldn’t, that the second he broke and cried in front of her, it was going to break the facade that he was okay. But he wasn’t, Jake Seresin was far from okay. The day of the accident played in his mind every time he got into the car. He had gotten a new one, thanks to the insurance check, but it still terrified him. Every single thing he did, he did with extra caution, whether that was putting the kids in their carseats, or stopping at a red light. Y/N hadn’t even noticed that Jake gripped the wheel extra tight when he drove, sometimes he gripped it so hard his hands would cramp.

“Jake, the accident wasn’t your fault. The other driver was-”

“I know what the reports said,” Jake sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “I’ve read them over and over and over again to where I can probably recite them perfectly. I know the other driver was drunk and hit us head on. I know that there was nothing I could do to prevent that. I know all that. . . but it’s still my fault.”

Y/N climbed off the bed quickly and crossed the floor to get to him. Jake closed his eyes as she picked up his hand and held it to her chest. He felt tears rise in his eyes at the feeling of her warm skin against his hand. He could feel her heart beating in her chest, and the scar that ran down the center of her sternum.

“I am alive because of you, Jake,” Y/N said, “I heard what you said to me. When you told me to let go, that you would be okay if I needed to go. You helped me to decide if I was going to fight to stay or not. Every single day you would come in and tell me something about the kids or the dagger squad or about the weather. . . I heard it all. And trust me, when they started shocking me and doing CPR, I wanted to give up, I wanted to let go. . . but I couldn’t because of you.”

Y/N had only told her therapist about everything that she experienced when she was in the coma. Y/N thought she was going crazy, having all these vivid memories of the time spent in the hospital, but her therapist said that those memories were real. That it wasn’t uncommon for patients to have out of body experiences and see the world from the other side. Jake had tears streaming down his cheeks as his finger gently ran down the scar on her chest. He had been avoiding looking at it, seeing it as a constant reminder of the worst day of his life. But now, he could see the beauty in it. It didn’t hinder her beautiful skin, it added to it. It made her that much more special.

“Touch me, please,” Y/N cried, “I need you to just hold me.”

Jake nodded, and for the first time in so long, Jake held his wife in his arms.

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3xm-draconic · 5 months

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Pampered (werebat and Astarion story)

Pampered.

Summary: After a very bloody fight at Moonrise Towers the gang stops by a river to clean up, Cyris decides to pamper his vampire and Astarion does the same...

“Oh gods…” Jaheira shuttered as she covered her nose “we all stink like a butcher shop in summer!” she gagged.

Cyris didn’t mind the smell of hot, fresh blood that clung to his skin nor the actual gore that still remained there, nor did he mind the sight of it on his little vampiric lover, Astarion.

The way the slick glossy crimson clung to his pale skin…

It reminded Cyris of strawberry syrup on fresh whipped cream~...

Shit…he was getting hungry…

“We all need bath!” Allegra grumbled, “oh hells” Roger muttered “I’d rather dip myself in the styx than take a bath”, “well I’d like to get goblin and mind flayer guts out of my hair” Shadowheart mumbled as she flicked away pieces of the foes they had killed out of her hair “seriously Cyris did you have to…obliterate them?”.

Cyris thought back on the brutal fight…

Ketheric Thorm was the crazy bitch who seemed…unkillable…and yet was made mortal after all.

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy bastard...

Seemingly killed himself to summon Myrkul, The Lord of Bones, to try and stop them from…well stopping this freaky chick Orin and…well another of Cyris’s exs…Gortash.

Interesting how Cyris was bumping into so many of them…his old flames.

The fight was…scary…

Not because they were LITERALLY fighting a death-god…but…because all his friends were downed…

Say for him…

It was just Cyris and…death…in that moment.

Not his death, Myrkul could keep trying but the enchanted binding tattoos mephistopheles had imbued into Cyris’s flesh would just keep him coming back…but his friend’s deaths…Astarion’s death…

Their mortality…

It was something that…broke him?…in that moment.

No…not broke…

He was already a broken man, no, seeing them…helpless.

It reforged something in him, a will to protect…

In that moment Cyris swore he felt something…in him…burn.

A fire that had once long thought been extinguished, his…desire to help, desire to nurture…

He wanted to see Gale grow from his mistakes, move on from Mystra and show Shadowheart his cat.

He wanted Halsin and Lae’zel to open that animal sanctuary they had been talking about together.

He wanted Roger and Allegra to open their very own bar together.

He wanted Wyll and Karlach to get married like he had heard Wyll talk about.

He…he…

He wanted to introduce Astarion to his mother…to his family…

He felt Yondalla’s strength in him, her shield was at his back in that moment…

He also felt the fury of The Great Guardian Bat, the primal rage, the instinctive nature to defend…

It was not the simple hunger of blood that drove him to defeat a FUCKING GOD…

It was not Rage of repressed issues, stress or simple insanity…

It was…stupid as it sounded…

Love.

He loved them…Astarion mostly…but he loved all of them.

“...I guess I did overdo it, Shads” he chuckled.

They wandered the surface again, happy to be out of the underdark till they found a nice, slow-moving stream “alright…um…everyone is going to be off to clean up then?” Gale awkwardly mumbled as he rummaged around for soap and a new set of robes in his backpack, “well…I wouldn’t mind you washing my back, Stormcloud~” Shadowheart cood as she sauntered past Gale to a secluded spot near the river.

Everyone paired off (except for Jaheira) and whent to the river to bathe…except for Cyris And Astarion, Cyris had something else planned…

Cyris had found a bag of holding and had crammed a bunch of shit in it, one item inside was a folding collapsible boat. “Cyris, what are you doing?”

Astarion pondered as he stripped down to his undergarments, “I’am making an makeshift bathtub for for you sugarfangs~” he hummed sweetly, Astarion smiled “how sweet~” he paused “I don’t…I don’t suppose you could make the water warm could you?” he asked curiously.

Cyris Showed Astarion the large metal pot of water he had set aside, “I’ll use heat metal just long enough to warm it up darlin, not too hot for ya” he nuzzled the vampire, “I even squirreled away some things I found in moonrise towers I think you’ll like~”.

Astarion eased himself into the…odd contraption…but the warm water was soothing and helped ease the bruises from the battle “Ahhh~” he sighed contently.

Cyris got out two ornate little bottles “milk and honey or lavender and spice?” He showed the bottles to him, they were bottles of high quality bodywash and shampoo.

“How did you get those?” Astarion pondered, “Duergar like all dwarves have pride in their hair and beards, I bargained for these off the ones we helped kill that drow prick” He got out an ornate chest “I bargained for a few beauty items…”

Astarion loved this.

He loved being absolutely pampered like this…

Soaking in a warm bubbly bath, with a clay mask on his face, Cyris manicuring his nails and his aches and pains just melting away.

“Mmmm~ this is a delight, thanks Cy I definitely needed this after fighting Thorm” Astarion hummed, “I know darlin…” Cyris trailed off.

Astarion sat up “Cyris?”, “...Starry…I just, back there…I could have lost you…” Cyris said his voice full of worry “I could have lost all of you”.

Astarion sighed and cupped Cyris’s face in his hands “I know darling, it frightened me too, I was so scared, not because I was dying but because I saw you so…panicked..so helpless” Asiarion hugged him, they were both naked so there was no worry of getting their clothes (new or old) wet “but we’re ok now” he smiled.

Cyris smiled and hugged him tightly back “and I’am never letting anything hurt you or them like that again” he softly said.

Astarion got out and dried off, he felt fresh and invigorated, As he brushed his hair he saw Cyris dumped the old bath and prepared his own, “Cyris~” Astarion murmured “you pampered me, I think I should pamper you too”, “ah sugarfangs you don’t-”, Astarion kissed him “I insist darling~”.

Astarion helped Cyris wash and brush his long mane of thick black hair “I love your hair, it's just as soft as your werebat fur” Astarion hummed, “well that's what it’s basically is” Cyris laughed, Astarion rolled his eyes “I know, I was just saying that…well..you are soft, I find your fuzz to be…well…comforting”.

After bathing everyone met back to set up camp and cook lunch.

“So…you have a vampire AND a werebat on the team?” Jaheira pondered, scratching her head “and they are not evil?”

“No we are not” Astarion said, annoyed at her comment, “we may not be the best people, but we aren’t the worst of the world” Cyris shrugged.

“They are good deep down, once you get past all the mudery bits, we trust them so you can too” Gale informed her, “...ah, fine” she grumbled.

It was another full moon that night…

Cyris was forced to be stuck in werebat form for the entirety of the night.

Cyris couldn’t really do anything, he wanted to help around camp but he was too big and only had his sharp clawed thumbs.

….useless…

“Darling~ come here for a moment” Astarion cooed.

Cyris crawled over carefully so he would not bump into anything in camp, he had to be weary of his immense size.

“Darling~ Iam feeling a little…well a little down, could I cuddle with you?” Astarion pleaded with big sparkling ruby eyes.

Cyris chirped and unfolded his wings, he embraced his little vampire in a warm hug and laid down in their tent as best he could.

…mmm~ happy now…

The Astarion was curled up safe and warm in his big werebat boyfriend’s wings, buried in his fluff and gently squishing his face “who’s the most handsome and cutest creature of the night?”, he squeaked happily and nuzzled him, “that's right, you are darling~” Astarion kissed his lover’s big leaf-shaped nose.

“You are my big beautiful bat~” he smiled.

#baldur's gate 3 #fanfic #dnd character #dnd #oc #astarion x oc #werebat #baldurs gate astarion #astarion #soft astarion

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the-whumpening · 2 months

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Worldbuilding Wednesday #2

Today’s Topic: More on Ash’s Family

Last week, we talked a little about Ash’s siblings and how they all got their names from Tybalt, the Prince of Cats. This week, I’d like to touch on his parents and upbringing. (Pretty text-heavy this week, no pictures unfortunately.) (Content warnings for animal death, family trauma, and dehumanizing language)

Ash’s father is a human . . . Sort of. He’s a human who was somehow infected with lycanthropy, which turned him into a weretiger. Weretigers in this universe can sort of run the spectrum between “just a large, powerful tiger” and “bipedal muscular humanoid with tiger features and a human brain.” Gregor (or, his full name: Theodin Gregor) has experienced both during his life. When Ash’s litter was conceived, he was transformed for one of the first times, and he was fully feral and almost fully tiger; however, by the time he and Ash reconnected when Ash was an adult, he was much more of the in-control, bipedal kind.

And boy was that reconnection a lot. See, Gregor had left the litter before they were even named (though he’d heard about it through the catnip-vine); Ash never forgave him for abandoning them. (It’s actually quite typical for male tigers to stay with their mate and cubs until they reach adulthood.)

But Gregor was ashamed and disgusted by his actions, even though he had practically no control over it. He lashed out at Ash when they met again; Ash only reminded him of his past and everything he’d rather forget. He said some really hurtful things—calling Ash a beast, a half-breed, an abomination, saying he wished he’d killed him when he had the chance. Kane was his only saving grace. If they hadn’t stepped in and stopped Ash, he would’ve killed Gregor on the spot. Instead, he agreed they’d go their separate ways, but swore if they ever crossed paths again, it would be their last.

Mama Tiger, to her credit, tried her best. She had three healthy cubs that thrived and easily took to their ecological niche . . . and one weak, hairless, helpless little cub that she feared might never be able to care for himself. She loved him fiercely, though, and protected him as any mother would. She was patient and loving and tried to teach him everything she could, but she only had so much time. By the time he was 12, she was old and getting weaker. Too weak to protect herself when another tiger started a fight for territory. Ash couldn’t save her. He hauled her injured body to safety and stayed with her as she died.

He wore a necklace with her tooth on it every day until he reunited with his siblings. Before leaving, he gifted it to them as a promise that they’d find one another again.

When Ash was around 16, he’d been living on his own in the wild for a few years. That’s when Kane (Nekane Catteau) stumbled across him. They were one of the first humanoids Ash ever encountered, and he was understandably wary. But Kane felt a familial bond immediately, and they had to make sure this feral boy would be safe. They gained Ash’s trust over several months of quietly inserting themself into his life: bringing food, demonstrating survival techniques, lounging by a fire and playing their pan-flute. Over time, Ash warmed up to them and they started spending time together.

Ash’s first barbarian rage came as a result of protecting Kane, but that’s a story for another day ;)

#the caged tiger #whumpblr #whump writing #whump community #writeblr #not whump #ash and evius #dnd whump #dnd fanfiction #worldbuilding #worldbuilding wednesday #sorry this is long and just text #couldn't think of a way to organize it nicely to make it more engaging honestly

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itshungreysuzuki · 3 months

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watch my dumb ass speed run febuwhump because I got the prompts late

Day 2 - Solitary Confinement (Luca Balsa)

Tags: Angst, Violence, I have a heavy hand for emotions, questionable grammar, warnings for overbinding & unhealthy binding.

Luca was thrown into an empty, small cell. All he did was defend himself, when another prisoner had provoked him. The sting of his knuckles was a reminder of the incident, the other man an inch from death. Of course, a guard took any chance to throw people into solitary confinement. Luca was alone, he usually was around a crowd of people. Perhaps he would be left to rot? No, that was out of their power, he was here under manslaughter, not murder. The metal collar chafed the burned skin below, and with no stimuli, the thoughts wormed in.

Even when his father was alive, they couldn’t exactly see eye to eye unless it involved engineering. The fairer sex had no reason to dirty her hands on motor oil, but he never liked dresses. Good god, how did his mother walk around like that? Luca always felt at home in science, trial and error until you make a new invention. Then of course, he died in that explosion, doing something he loved. Alva never had the time to learn about him, preserving his fragile facade like a glass mask that cracked further and further until it broke, depositing him in this hellhole.

He despised being called a girl. He wasn’t a girl, he would never trap himself in that constricted shell. The bandages hurt, and Luca knew if he looked, his ribcage would be smothered in bruises. But it helped him. Loneliness meant he could do as he pleased, unwrapping the bandages to see the damage. There were bruises all right, including the kick from the cafeteria riot, punches from a fight, and the binding.

He only looked at his ribs, before wrapping the bandages back onto his chest. Sometimes food came in through the door during confinement. The fourth day he dreamed Alva, woke up crying and screaming into his knees. Nobody was there for comfort because this was solitary confinement.

“Alva…,” he said to himself, huddling into a helpless ball. What the hell was he doing? Men don’t cry! Why did he need to have emotions like a godforsaken girl!? Yet Luca huddled into this helpless creature over a bad dream. Such an ugly and pathetic display.

Maybe he would be alone the rest of his life because of his sorrow. Some horrible excuse of the male species. Luca wanted out, but he was violently spiraling out of control of something as simple as his head.

So lonely. He hugged himself in an attempt to feel better but he just felt hollow.

(me reading this: what the FUCK was i writing!?)

#febuwhump #hungreyanpost #identity v #luca balsa #angst #tumblr fic #no ship #headcanon soup

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ailendolin · 1 year

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bed bargain: Isabelle and Thomas from bbc ghosts

Here's your ficlet, anon! I must admit I didn't know what to do with your prompt at first but I hope you like this little exploration of what might have been.

Next up:

Conversationalist: [Alison] rambles in their sick state.

✿: feeling so out of it, they need constant attention - Caphavers

Ask Games are here & here. Filled prompts are here & here on AO3.

Prompts for these two ask game are closed. I'm currently accepting ones for this ask game as part of my 500 followers celebration.

————

In Dreams

Bed bargain: [Isabelle] won’t stay in bed. [Thomas] convinces them.

In a perfect world, Thomas would have lived.

He might not have won the duel but he would have survived the wound, and Isabelle and her father would have seen that his affections were honest and true and that he was willing to defend her honour with his own life. She might have kissed him right then and there as he lay against the tree and was being treated by the doctor – just like he had told Alison in a desperate attempt to hide the truth about his broken heart and lonely death. The letter in his pocket would have been forgotten and in its place happy promises been made.

They would have married in the summer. Thomas could see it all in his mind – the bright blue skies stretching endlessly for miles above their heads; the blinding sunlight highlighting the smile on Isabelle’s face; the roses everywhere around them in bloom, filling the air with their sweet fragrance. Isabelle would look radiant in her wedding dress, like Aphrodite come to life. More beautiful than the goddess, even. Thomas would give her a rose, white as snow and pure as Isabelle’s smile when they leaned in to kiss in front of everyone to seal their vows, and Isabelle would pin it in her hair before they danced together and laughed and lived.

Their first child would be born a year or two later – a girl, Thomas’s little Marigold. She would have to fight her way into the world, aided by her mother, and be loved all the more for her strength. Thomas would dote on her and rarely allow her to be taken away from him. With Marigold nestled safely in his arms, he would sit with Isabelle and gently encourage her with sweet kisses and love-filled prose to stay in bed and give her body the time it needed to heal after the difficult birth. He would sing her songs, would read to her from her favourite book, would point out the silly shapes the clouds formed in the sky outside the window – anything to keep her smiling and make her recovery easier for her to bear. It would not be easy but Thomas would not utter a single word of complaint. How could he when every second he spent with Isabelle felt like a gift?

A few years later, they would welcome another child into the world: sweet William who had Isabelle’s eyes and Thomas’s nose, the poor lad. Young Will would ensure that Higham House would be known as Thorne House for the next two-hundred years – a legacy that came at a cost. His birth would be even more difficult than Marigold’s had been; would last longer and be more complicated. It would almost cost Isabelle her life and affect her health for the rest of her days. She would be forced to stay in bed for weeks afterwards and this time, Thomas’s helpless attempts to make her smile would fail and he would bear the brunt of her frustration more than once.

It would test their marriage like nothing else had before and while Thomas would consider the year after Will’s birth the hardest of his life, he would still look back on it with a smile because he knew it could have been so much worse. Isabelle’s anger at him, at the world, at herself was no hardship to face when he reminded himself that he could have lost her, could have lost William too if things had just gone a little differently.

This life he’d never lived haunted Thomas’s dreams every year when Isabelle’s Death Day came around. He had been by her side back then, had watched her wither away like a flower without sunlight after the birth of her second child, unable to hold her hand or open the curtains to show her that the sun still shone in the world outside. When at last she succumbed to her illness and the light took her away, he had shed the tears Francis hadn’t cried for her before Robin had gently steered him out of the room and away from her body.

Thomas couldn’t be sure things would have turned out differently for her if he hadn’t been so foolish on that fateful October day but he knew he would have cared for Isabelle more than Francis ever had. He would have seen that she was happiest when in the company of him and their children and made sure to be with her when she fell ill so she would not have felt alone for even a minute.

Maybe his love, the love of their children, the love for them, might have been enough to grant them a happily ever after.

In Thomas’s dreams, it always was.

#thomas thorne #isabelle higham #bbc ghosts #bbc ghosts fanfic #my fic #ask game prompt ficlet

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madou-dilou · 2 years

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About Viren and Lissa

This is a mash-up of the suppositions and speculations on Twitter, Tumblr and Discord about Viren and Lissa’s divorce, and the custody of Soren and Claudia. This event is more important than it seems, because had Claudia left with Lissa, she wouldn’t have captured the unicorn whose horn was necessary to perform the vengeance spell that murdered Thunder.

Fell free to correct, elaborate or comment !

Viren had first supposed that Lissa's disgust was solely due to his new face, but since her aversion didn't vanish after he went back to normal, it had to be something else.

Disgust for dark magic ? But she married a dark mage. She must have known that.

Back then, we had supposed that Lissa had left because Viren had done something atrocious to save Soren. Sacrificing someone, or several people, or something akin to that. But it didn't make sense.

Why would she leave the children to Viren if she knew he was this dangerous ?

So it may be simpler than that. Maybe after all, she couldn't forget Viren's hideous looks even beneath the usual face. Must be really hard to forget such a sight. Imagine your loved one looking suddenly like... this. It's terrifying.

It could be. That's a valid explanation.

But it’s fiction, so there must be more drama : what if there was more to it than just that ?

What if Lissa had hindered the recovery spell ?

Not that she didn't love Soren, she loved him, she did; but she simply thought that the boy was doomed. And she knew how dangerous dark magic could be for the caster. She didn't want Viren to risk himself for a helpless cause. She didn’t want to lose both her son and her husband. But it turned out the spell actually worked. Soren was there, living, breathing, walking, talking, he was okay. So, to her, Viren's face wasn't just ugly. It meant "If I had listened to you, our son would be dead." Even with the cosmetics on. That's a walking, talking reminder of her guilt.

How can you live with this?

That could explain why she left. But not why she cut all ties with her children. I can get feeling guilty, but to the point of disappearing completely from their lives, no visits, no letters, nothing, as if she were dead ? It doesn't quite add up.

So someone supposed that Lissa actually did try to reach them. That she wrote hundreds of letters. To Viren, to Soren, to Claudia. Maybe she didn't send all of them, but she did write. Send them some news, ask them how they were doing. Then why does her family do, act, and feel, as if she vanished? Because Viren may be burning all the letters without even reading them. Lissa couldn’t quite explain why staying was so difficult for her. So Viren simply thought she left because he was ugly. Imagine how he must have felt. He risked his life to save his son's, and all that his wife has to say is "You are so ugly now, I can't even stand your sight." Ouch. We know how ingratitude hurts him, even if it’s only percieved. We know how resentful, petty and bitter he can be. He killed Thunder many years after Sarai's death. He mocked Harrow's pet bird, bringing it into the throne room to attend his coronation, as a way to cope with Harrow's brutal treatment of him. Harrow's pet bird. He needlessly tortured people while he definitely could have offered them a quick death. He tried to kill people, including children, who simply disagreed with him.

Cutting ties between Lissa and her children would then be a way to take revenge on her ?

EDIT 17.10.2022

Eventhough the TDP universe doesn’t strike me as prone to arranged marriages, there also is the possibility that Lissa simply never wanted to have children. After all, the novellization says that Viren had always wished to have a son whom he could forge to his own will. So Lissa may have seized an opportunity to forsake this life that she actually never wanted in the first place -Claudia, in Book II, says something along the lines of “maybe my mother was just looking for her own hapiness.”

#tdp #tdp viren #tdp lissa #tdp soren #tdp Claudia #tdp analysis #tdp speculation

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skylerscull1 · 2 years

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Beyond Birthday Character Analysis Part 1

The Los Angeles BB Murder Case was a watershed event for L and had affected both him and the children of Wammy's House immensely. The change had started with the death of A in May which had led to B's eventual disappearance from Wammy's House. A's death had broke B. A was the first attempt at creating a backup for L and B was the second, together they formed the first generation of successors for L. They were orphaned, stripped of all identity and purpose beyond becoming someone else, they had their names taken from them. A couldn't handle the pressure of living up to L and took their own life… whilst B sought to not only be L but to be better then him, to surpass him. It had driven A to suicide and driven B to madness. Beyond Birthday was both brilliant and deviant, he held a personal obsession for L. L was a title promised to the both of them, something they trained for like soldiers. It’s what they would’ve wanted more then anything.

The first generation was always meant to fail, it was an experiment, they were only prototypes, not given the L code, expected to fail from the very beginning. Both B and A would’ve taken that personally when they found out, A would’ve realized that all his hard work was for nothing, that his future and name was taken away for no reason what-so-ever, that was what broke him, to know he had no purpose, that he's expected to fail and that he'll never be enough for L. Beyond Birthday took it as a challenge, he thought that as long as there was L, B would never be L. As long as the original existed, the copy was always a copy. So if he got rid of the original, proved himself better, then he would no longer be the copy - but the original. Beyond Birthday wanted to be more than that though, more than just a copy, he wanted to prove himself better, to gain L's attention, to crawl into his skin. Imagine the pressure that must’ve been on him, to forever be climbing to an unreachable goal, expected to fail from the very beginning. That could lead to obsession, to have that single-minded goal and to watch it continuously be ripped out from under your feet.

That is what led Beyond to murder, in part because of his desire to one-up L, knowing that he would never be enough, also in part because he wanted L's attention more then anything, if he couldn’t get validation from his idol then any attention would do, and also in part because surely his eyes had driven him mad. L was Beyond’s whole world, the only thing that must’ve been keeping him going in a life where death followed him everywhere. It must’ve bred obsession. To be born with the ability to see death, to know when everyone is going to die... imagine what that do to a person, to know the exact day and time in which someone would die and to never be able to change it or do anything about it- it could breed helplessness, apathy and anger even - the faceless nameless L however? L is deathless, eternal. Whether or not B had seen L's true face or not, the title itself would be enough to intrigue him. The title of L gave a purpose, something to strive for, to be useful and have a reason to live in a world where he was reminded of the inevitability of death every time he opened his eyes. Beyond could see death, and it disagreed with him. He was cursed from the very beginning.

To never be able to form a connection with someone else, because you are already in mourning, to be separated from ones peers by the death hanging over everyone's heads, to be isolated due to something no one else could possibly understand - that can only be isolating. It must've broken him long before he even came to Wammy's House. Imagine what it might be like to know the exact day and time in which your mother and father will die - do you think Beyond Birthday had tried to change their fate? How do you suppose he felt to know there was nothing to could do to change the numbers, to change a persons life-span - to save the people who cared for him? Would it hurt every time he formed a bond and had to watch the numbers count down day after day? Or do you think he grew numb to it?

To know that death is always around the corner - to see the lifespans of everyone but himself, a lonely statistic in a haze of red, the only outlier. That gift of seeing death must've been more of a curse than a gift.

If Beyond Birthday had formed a bond with young A, then he must've known from the very beginning when A would die. Was B quietly suffering watching those numbers count down, trying desperately to hold on, to stop the count down? Perhaps that's when he finally lost all hope in the world, and in himself - perhaps he even blames L for A's death, whether he saw it coming or not, it must've killed him inside to know everyone he ever loves will leave him, to be able to know the when but never know the how, to never be able to change anything, like he was forever backed into a corner, swarmed with the death of the world. Perhaps he blames L for his inability to change A's fate, A did die because of L after-all - perhaps his thought was this "A killed himself due to the pressure of living up to the title of L, if L didn't exist then he wouldn't have killed himself, and A would still be alive." It may not be the most logical of a thought process, but helplessness often leads to irrational anger at the world, to lashing out. It would drive someone crazy to be so isolated from ones peers, to be unable to connect in fear of losing someone - it must’ve drove him mad, to know that his actions didn’t matter, that he’d always be alone - to be so isolated and yet so desperate to prove himself better.

Perhaps no one mattered, they were all going to die anyways, why torture himself by bonding with a person when they’re fated to leave him? He must have thought “In the end, everyone leaves, so why bother? Life is meaningless, so why should I care, we’re all just meaningless numbers in a pile of useless statistics after-all.” If everyone was fated to die, then why did it matter how? It was only delaying the inevitable after-all. I doubt he even thought of his actions as wrong, Beyond Birthday only killed those who were fated to die that day anyways, he relied so much on his eyes that he probably never paused to think that perhaps if he didn’t decide to kill them then they would’ve lived on. He sought control but he never fully believed that his actions mattered, that they ever did. In a meaningless world where everything was fated to die eventually, morality and the law and depictions of right and wrong - why did they ever matter?

Beyond Birthday had tried to kill himself during the The Los Angeles BB Murder Case, he had set himself on fire, intending to be his last victim. He could not know his own death date- perhaps this was his attempt to regain control, his attempt to end a life of misery, one full of death. His one desire was to beat L, when that goal is accomplished, what else is there to live for?

Never being able to change anything, proven time and time again that there is nothing you could ever do that would have an actual affect, that is learned helplessness. If nothing Beyond does matters - then why hold back, why care about consequences? Feeling that you have no control can lead to anxiety, depression or emotional distress. It can lead to anger and lashing out, perhaps him killing others wasn't only a way to gain L's attention, but also a way to regain control over life in a world where he felt he had no control. If he could not stop death, perhaps he could cause it instead, to be the reason it happens, to be the thing that causes it, to have some form of control over the thing that had been the main focus and trauma of his life.

If you were to look through Beyond Birthday’s eyes, how do you think you would feel if you were to have had his eyes all your life?

#beyond birthday #deathnote #death note #character development #psychology #character analysis #death note b #writing prompt

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residents-of-the-darkforest · 8 months

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Clanmates (Sprouting Thorns)

Dusk cast long shadows across the camp, painting the forest in criss-crossing darkness. The leaves of the few non-pine trees in ShadowClan’s territory were beginning to lose their bright colour, dotting the sky with yellow-orange spots.

The sun ducked behind their shelter, giving a bite to the already cold air. Cats still mingled in the clearing, though they kept to where the shadows didn’t touch. Aldereyes, however, kept himself hidden in the darkest corner he could find. A mouse lay untouched between his paws. His attention was on his Clanmates.

He had been so quick to fret and panic about Myrtlewing’s betrayal as well as his own. Yes, he spent what felt like a moon in his own head with one-thousand thoughts a second, wondering why Myrtlewing, his most trusted Clanmate, best friend, and…possible mate?--He still wasn’t clear on that–would do something so horrid and wrong. Now, he began to ask himself another question:

Why was it horrid and wrong?

Aldereyes had been so quick to believe so. After all, it is what he has been taught since he was a kit: the life of the Clan is more important than the individual, never harm another Clanmate, do not take a life you don’t need to.

Everyone knew those things, everyone lived by them. In the humming chattering of the nearing night, he wondered if it was truly how he felt. Did he believe it was wrong? Did he believe it was horrid? Or are those just things that have been shoved into his head for so long by Stormstar, because his father couldn’t have anything less than a son who followed the code with everything in him?

But of course he knew murder was horrid, of course he knew betrayal was wrong.

But did he care?

Clanmates…just the word had always felt so important to him. It wasn’t just a word though, was it? They were just cats, and what have they ever done for him?

The bitter wind swept through his fur and to the pit of his belly. The air reminded him of the freezing nights many moons ago, when he had been a crying kit alone in the nursery with a dead mother. Did anyone console him? Did anyone visit him? Not even his sister or her mother, who were in the same den said anything soothing, for StarClan’s sake!

He remembered, now that his mind was consumed with it, getting sick and having to spend time in the medicine den. He remembered his racing heart, fearing that he would die just like his mother, the last cat that had ever cared about him before Myrtlewing.

He tried to recall if Stormstar visited him then. He thinks so, but his mind there is hazy, and he cannot be sure if it is only wishful thinking that he remembers it.

Now that poor excuse of a father has the gall to control Aldereyes’s every move? If Stormstar’s image was so important to him, why didn’t he bother visiting his half-orphaned son?

Was Alderkit not important enough?

His burning gaze swept the clearing. I was never important enough for any of you! They wouldn’t have even cared if he had died back then, would they? They wouldn’t even care now. One day of mourning and then they move on with their lives as if nothing had ever happened.

All his life living by the code, following his father’s every wish, doing everything he could to be a model Clanmate, for what? To live, die, and be forgotten by cats that didn’t care enough to stop him from freezing to death as a helpless kit?

Why should I care about them if they die, then? Why does their life have so much more value than mine?

Something hot dripped along his shoulders, slinking like worms through his skin and pounding against his chest. It was like rage, but much more pleasing. Aldereyes would learn moons later that it was the first feeling of a thrill. The first real blood-rush beginning to make its presence known as he gazed around his clueless, precious Clanmates.

They had spent all his life treating him as just another Clanmate, just another mouth to feed, just another cat to give an empty compliment to for work well done.

He was unimportant to them.

He was nothing for them.

Now, their selfishness would be their downfall. They have spent so long ignoring Aldereyes that they wouldn’t be able to tell his thoughts, to name his expressions, to see what he is planning.

For once, Aldereyes didn’t feel bad at all.

==================

--We've already caught a glimpse of it, but now Aldereyes's dark side is really starting to come out.

--Aldereyes and Hootpetal ARE somewhat friends at this point, but Alder's focus is currently on everything negative.

--It was noted in previous chapters, but Alder's Clanmates DO notice him. He's well-known as the best fighter in the Clan, possibly hunter too, but anything they say doesn't mean much to him, because you say "great catch!" to everyone. There's nothing more to it, nothing more personal.

That's what Alder means when he thinks that he's unimportant to them--he's just another Clanmate that could easily be replaced.

That's also why he and Myrtle became friends in the first place: he felt like Myrtle actually saw him.

Taglist: @ambitiousauthor @wills-woodland-warriors @starfalcon555 @umbranoxs @elementaldeityoffood @liberhoe

@frightnightindustries

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iguessitsjustme · 1 year

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I FINISHED REBORN RICH AND I HAVE QUESTIONS, if you would like to talk about it!? When HW went back as DJ, didn't he change stuff? Didn't he take some of Soonyang's biggest projects for Miracle and wasn't he the biggest shareholder of Soonyang, so where did that go after he died?

And wasn't HW's mother's death changed and his father's job remained, so he wasn't unemployed which meant HW could complete his education? And even if we consider, his father gave up on the job, didn't he get the credit card waiver? Shouldn't HW be in much better circumstances?

And Soonyang Micro. Wasn't it donated? So where did it come from again? I have so many questions when it comes to this and I rewatched some of the episodes to try to understand this but I just don't get it. I want to say they are plot holes and leave it at that but there are just some glaring problems with it and I need answers lol.

Hello my dear anon! Of course I want to talk about Reborn Rich! I am always willing to talk about any show ever. But ESPECIALLY Reborn Rich. I'm not gonna lie and say I didn't also have a million questions after that show ended and even have some of your same questions. Because they are great questions, but I think I do have a workable answer for all of them. But this is just my interpretation of things and how I'm explaining all of these things to myself and I could be totally and completely wrong because they are excellent questions and not a single one of them is actually answered in the show itself. Reborn Rich asks a lot of its audience in that we have to do a lot of the legwork in order to figure things out and many things were intentionally left open ended which worked for me because I like trying to explain away things like this. SO with that said, here are my answers and they may or may not work for you, but they are what work for me.

Where did everything go after Do Jun died?

There's no way to say definitively where everything went after he died. All we know for certain is that Do Jun left 3% of the shares with his mother. I believe he left those with her because he knew she had no interest in Soonyang, but wanted to give her a way to fight against that family if she ever needed it and she would never use those shares greedily. The rest of it is all a guessing game. I'm assuming that the remaining assets that were Do Jun's were given to Mason Oh and that anything that was Soonyang's that Miracle had acquired were sold. Mason was Do Jun's partner and CEO of Miracle. Mason wasn't after Soonyang like Do Jun was and ultimately, they were really good friends. I think that after Do Jun died, Mason would have sold off anything to do with Soonyang. It wasn't ever his fight and all it would do is serve as a reminder of his friend and partner who was no longer with him.

Why didn't things change for Hyun Woo if Do Jun changed everything?

This is what I've been puzzling over the most since I finished the series. And I think I have come up with a decent explanation. So the reason for Hyun Woo's mother's death did change, but their financial circumstances did not. Hyun Woo's mother lost everything, and I mean everything, to Soonyang. So while his father kept his job, they still were more than just broke. There's a reason his mother felt so helpless that she stepped out in front of that bus. So going to school wouldn't have really been feasible for Hyun Woo. He still would have given up that opportunity in order to work and make money to hopefully send his brother to school. And his dad might have kept his job, but he didn't seem like he was the one handling the finances in the family. It was Hyun Woo's mom and then Hyun Woo when she died. I can see how they would still be on the outs because Hyun Woo would still blame his dad's inability to money manage for his need to work and he would still be driven to Soonyang. Did Do Jun set them up to have a better life? Oh absolutely he did. But they were barely holding on before and now they're a little more steady, but that doesn't mean they aren't still broke. I think Do Jun even said something during one of the episodes about how expensive it was to be poor. Do Jun made it possible for Hyun Woo's family to start living rather than how they were before just struggling to survive.

Wasn't Soonyang Micro donated?

This question actually made me go back and rewatch part of episode 15. What was actually reported was the Do Jun was going to donate the funds. I don't believe he had actually donated the inheritance yet. He just let the press know what he was up to and used that to take over Soonyang. And then before he had a chance to follow through, because donating that much money takes time and resources, he died. And he was the only one who knew that Soonyang Micro was the source of those funds. Not a single member of that family had any knowledge of Soonyang Micro until Hyun Woo brought it to their attention. So once Do Jun died, the knowledge of where that inheritance was coming from died with him. Also, every member of that family believed Do Jun had been left with nothing. They all probably thought he was lying out of his ass for the publicity, not realizing that he did, in fact, have an inheritance to donate. None of them were particularly bright enough to follow up on that. So I think it was more of a timing thing for this. Do Jun fully intended to donate the funds, but died before he was able to and then everything happened for Hyun Woo to inform Soonyang of its existence.

Shows like Reborn Rich are particularly enjoyable for me because none of these questions has a definitive answer and I need to truly think about it and it inspired people to talk and discuss and come up with their own theories. I don't necessarily think that these are plot holes, but rather plot points that went unexplored in favor of other, more relevant plots. So what we were told by the show for each of these was the end result, but we simply weren't provided the context for how it got there. Maybe they thought we didn't need it, maybe they wanted to spark discussion, maybe they didn't think it through (though I highly doubt this one), maybe they thought we wouldn't care. Whatever the reason, I have come up with answers that are satisfactory to me, and hopefully these are satisfactory for you too.

#reborn rich #reborn rich the series #korean drama #kdrama #thanks for the ask #also please always feel welcome to come scream at me about shows #i hecking love it #i always always always want to talk about shows #and if it's a show i haven't seen #well then that's just a recommendation for me isn't it?#but i have seen a lot of shows

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everyscreentoobeseen · 2 years

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Arcane Characters the Batboys would relate to if they watched the show.

Duke would vibe heavily with Ekko. Turning a bunch of lost kids into a vigilante group that fights against the injustices of their city? Then meets a mentor from the top ring of the elite? Thats Duke's origin story. (When Tim tells him that Ekko will probably get time powers next season, he's even more hyped.)

Tim was the one who played LOL and was excited for the Arcane series, forcing everyone to watch it with him instead of the normal family movie nights. Caitlyn is his favorite because he understands what it's like having rich parents who both seem to want nothing to do with you but also try to stop you from helping others. He also sees a little bit of himself Jayce during the Council Bribes happen. A little bit of Victor when the character refused to stop his experiments. He can't help but think of him and Stephanie when watching the Caitvi scenes.

Dick saw so much of himself in both Vi and Jinx he actually had to talk about it with Bruce after the series was over. He knew exactly how Vi felt when she was given so much responsibility over her younger siblings and how much pain she was in when all the male members died on her watch. Dick could picture the same scene of Vi and Powder in the alleyway, but with himself as Vi and Powder as any of his younger brother. But when Vi slapped Powder, he was instantly reminded of when Bruce slapped him for disobeying a command in the early Robin years. After the first arc, He saw so many similarities between The Sisters trying to reconnect, with him when he was trying to bring Jason back to the flock. But during The Jinx Boxing scene it was eerily familiar to how Dick took his anger out on Punching Bags instead of people.

Jason, surprise surprise, instantly felt connected to Jinx/Powder. He knew exactly what it was like being in the shadow of the older sibling who was "twice the person at half their age." Milo and Claggor reminded him of all of Dick's Teen Titan friends who either felt Jason could do nothing right or could only tolerate him because he was Nightwing's younger brother. But he did connect with Vander, Milo, and Cloggor during the Monkey Bomb scene... (guess why) He also connected to the Jinx Boxing scene the same way Dick did. But the one person he hates admitting to emphasizing with is Silco. He hates that Silco was manipulating Jinx into fighting against her own family, but he can't say he dosent understand what it's like to be willing to get your hands dirty in order to have or make a better life for more people.

Damian was shocked to realize that Mel was raised nearly the same way he was. The way The Meridas valued being both the Wolf and the Fox, was the exact mentality of the Al Ghuls. Only difference was Damian couldn't just watch his mother and grandfather make and enact the "necessary" decisions. He was the one decapitating children. Yet both Mel and Damian were exiled. It was something to reflect upon after the series ended.

Bruce was surprised that nearly every main character in the show would somehow reflect an aspect of Bruce's life. He first saw himself in Vander. Adopting four orphans to make up for his sins. Being a leader who plays both sides to keep the peace. Getting overwhelmed when the kids go through a rebellious phase. But the sisters were similar to Bruce's youth. Powder reminded him of him before and shortly after Crime Alley, the feeling of helplessness as your family is ripped away from you. Feeling as if nothing you do is enough to keep your family together. Vi was more like him when he hit puberty. All that misplaced anger and highly protective instincts made him lash out against any bully picking on him or other kids. Of course, during the Monkey Bomb scene, he was hit with both Jason's death scene and the Crime Alley flashbacks. Alternating between Vander and Vi. The Vi slap scene hurt because it reminded him of all the times he took his anger out on his family. Even though they needed him to be their rock, he would always get overwhelmed and say something to them he'd regret it nothing at all. Almost every time Vi met with her sister he couldn't help but think of all the fights he had with his own family. Caitlyn was similar to when Bruce first started working on his detective skills. He was so gung-ho about figuring out who was the kingpins and who was secretly working for them. Caitvi definitely reminds him of Him and Selina. Jayce is a great representative of how Brucie Wayne is supposed to act outerly, a charismatic pillar for the elite who wants to use his resources to help everyone. But it also makes him remember all the times of Brucie's good intentions screwed up the lower class of Gotham. Mel is who he feels like on the inside when he perfectly manipulates the Socialites and Board members into taking his side at important discussions. He did feel like Ekko's Firelight design was probably inspired by Batman. A vigilante who makes his own tech? Wears a mask/costume with a fake voice? Blatantly copying him. (Duke did not appreciate that comment)

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stitched-upx · 2 years

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SALLY FINKELSTEIN is a 32 year old from COOLSVILLE ; owns a META PHYSICAL STORE , sally is HETEROSEXUAL. her favorite song is SHE , WINONA OAK. born on DECEMBER 16TH , 1989 , she is a SAGITTARIUS SUN , GEMINI MOON , SCORPIO RISING !

SUMMARIZED;

Being locked in a cage that was Sally’s room for most of her childhood and young adolescents Sally is very timid and soft spoken. It depends on who she’s around. She has a mask, one that she’s undeniably herself in and the other where she hides the darker parts of herself from the public. She yearns for adventure and spontaneity which can cause her to be a little reckless at times. Though her premonitions save her from doing too much damage- most of the time anyway. Sally feels constantly torn between helping others like her--and on the other hand trying to resist the darker parts of herself. She fears if she ignores those feelings for too long that something catastrophic will happen.

HEADCANONS;

Sally has extreme claustrophobia due from being locked in her room for most of her young adult life. She hates being in small places, or in extremely large crowds. It reminds of her of a time that she felt completely helpless and can set off an intense panic attack.

While Sally was homeschooled she still always felt like the odd one out. Now being independent in the real world she can’t help but to feel she doesn’t necessarily fit in it. Not that she cares but she still see’s the looks people give her and her shop. Sally just wants to help people whom are like herself or interested in magic.

Her father was the main source of her pain--and yet Sally still can’t forgive herself for the fate she caused him. It was all those years of torment locked inside her and she finally couldn’t take it anymore. The magic she didn’t know she had within her took over and tried to break free. That’s all she wanted-- was to be free. Instead her freedom costed her fathers life. Whilst she’s happy to be on her own her father’s death haunts her, which causes her to have plenty of night terrors.

Her favorite place to wind down is in the forest or the cemetery. She never found those places unsettling or creepy, it’s always felt peaceful to her. She likes to talk to the spirits there whether they show themselves or not. The dead deserve love too especially the ones whose families are no longer living to visit them.

After her fathers death and learning that she was a witch Sally spent a lot of time studying it and practicing her powers. She didn’t want what happened to her father happen to anyone else, especially Jack. She feels more in control than she did when she was younger but there are times that she cannot ignore the dark whispers that flow from her fingertips urging that she was destined for more.

Sally wishes she knew more about her mother before she passed. Now that her father is gone all those questions are left unanswered. Where did her mothers powers come from? Did she inherit them too? Did she make a deal with a demon, was she blessed with a gift? Sally would never know and that killed her the most. The unknowingness of it all.

Jack Skellington is her best friend and confidant. She goes to him with anything. Her dreams, her visions, her fears, he knows it all. Except she is hiding one thing rather important from him. How she made a deal with Otis in exchange for her metaphysical shop. She’s worried Jack will show up at her shop one day and wonder why Otis is there and rather frequently too--but she’s too afraid to tell him that she made a deal with his enemy.

Otis has stirred a whirlwind of emotions within Sally. He’s everything that Jack isn’t and maybe that’s why she’s curious about him even though she’d never admit that aloud. He embraces the darker parts of her--which scares the absolute shit out of Sally.

Seeing the future probably sounds intriguing to most people but her visions aren’t always accurate. People’s actions could change the fabric of the timeline with sudden impulses and decisions. It was always a 50/50 when it came to her premonitions. She’d seen so much death, loss, and pain and it was nice to have an alert into the future but at times it also made her feel completely helpless. When a premonition begins she usually gets a wave of nausea and sense of dizziness.

#🧵 If I live to see the seven wonders || headcanons.#animaniahqintro

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theawesomeally · 6 months

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Farewell and Goodbye Part 4

“Is she dead?” he repeat the question, even though he think I already know the answer.

Cade just smiles that awful smile.

“Don’t you want to know how we found her?” His voice is teasing. “It’s a great story.”

“Just because I’m a kid doesn’t mean I’m one of them.” His voice was very quiet and he wouldn’t meet his eyes but it sounded like the truth. The very first reaction he’d had to the subject was to try to put some distance between him and his peers.

There was a brief exchange of words, then, instead of showing the unseen newcomer in immediately, Billy looked up at him in surprise, stepping backward, Billy glanced around until he caught sight of a figure standing in the shadows beyond the light in front of him. Cade stood with his back toward Billy, gazing out into the hallway and the smile ran away from his face. There was something about Cade that made his blood run cold.

Billy again stepped in close, his rifle pointing at Cade’s face. “Cade?!,” he replied, holding his voice as steady as possible and then stopped. Lifting his head, Billy looked at Stefan and his blood froze.

“Stefan,” he breathed, horrified. Billy cleared his throat and peered up at Cade, hoping that he could at least delay the execution until he felt a bit better, but there was a haunted look to the eyes that Billy had not seen before.

“Hello, Billy.” The voice was unfamiliarly hesitant with his typical charm. He hid his surprise with an elegant nod of welcome. “How pleasant of you to join us! You're just in time for the moment of truth. Now, I would like to have the dagger back.”

Cade found himself gaping at the small, blond-clad figure striding purposefully toward the hallway that had set down in the midst of battle. Though he willed himself to move, to turn away, he found he could not. He remained rooted in place, clutching his unfired weapon, staring despite himself.

And in response, the figure of Cade turned and looked sideways, directly at Billy. The Brothers saw only light reflecting off Billy, and his own fear. But he wasn’t. The glance lasted barely a second. Then Cade resumed his pace, deep in thought as he strode toward him.

Cade moved forward slightly. “Your mother is gone. She was weak and foolish, like her little Billy.” Cade’s reply was replete with pity. And anger. In what he hoped was a casual tone, so he added, “So I gave her last wish. But such a small, insignificant request is easily granted."

Be quick, he told himself. That was the solution. Don’t think too much about anything. Let your instincts guide you.

His instincts weren’t doing a very good job on any other aspects of his life, but at least he was still alive. He felt safe trusting them once again, in the service of Cade.

Billy stood there trying to absorb all the information he was telling him. Making him hesitated in his reply, almost so long that Cade was sure he would deny his request. Finally, he answered after what seemed like an eternity. "No," he declared, and jutted his chin in his usual fashion. He winced at the movement, but Cade could see that Billy was not going to do as he was asked and so Billy shot Cade a sly grin. It was now up to Billy. In order to keep the game going, he was going to have to sacrifice his life in order to save Rocky's future.

Silence.

Oh, well. Dang. Apparently, after all his mouth does work better than his brain. Or at least quicker. That was the command Cade had given him, on threat of death. “Put it on the ground,” Cade growled and the dagger, which had moved away from Stefan's throat, moved back and the point eased into his skin. The sharp pain reminded Stefan that he was helpless and he slowly reached into his jacket to bring out the few coins that he had.

Stefan snickered and then asked, “Yeah, did you notice whether it was a child or…no is he just a little guy?”

Damon shot Billy a piercing glare for a long moment before turning his attention back to Cade. Then he backed away, too late, as he reached out with claw-like hands for him. Cade couldn’t help but laugh out loud and hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“But why continue to toil when I on the other hand can get you your mother back just like that?” He snapped his fingers. “All I have to do is ask on your behalf. Come on, child. You’re almost there. Let’s make this deal, and I’ll get you across the finish line.” Cade made this chilling threat in a totally reasonable tone of voice. "But if the price of your cooperation is his life, then so be it.”

It was a price Billy could never have paid. He couldn’t take the chance that Cade was not bluffing. He nodded. A trace of a grin flashed across Stefan’s face. “Well, he’s got that part right.”

Similarly drawn by the sounds of conversation and disagreement, a third group of vamps had arrived. Held rapt by the confrontation, the squad of vamp looked on as intently as did the Salvatore Brothers and Billy. Fearful of taking an initiative that might be frowned upon, they awaited a command from Cade.

Stepping out onto the walkway, Billy moved toward Cade. There was no hesitation in his stride or in his voice. “That’s what I want you to believe,” he kept his voice calm, hoping not to appear too threatening. The boy looked scared and was visibly shaking but he wasn’t pleading—just stating a fact. Oh. Honestly, that’s the only response he could come up with at the time. Sure, heroic means well, but he’s liable to give them an earful well-deserved comeuppance that only he knows how to dish out. His brain did a mental tug-of-war on whether he should stick to the basic facts or tell himself how strange things were happening and he was on a mission to figure them out.

The safe option was the basic facts. He wouldn’t be lying and yet he could continue his games without the meddling of Rocky. His mother and father had left behind a legacy of fierce love, and a history Billy now ached to follow. They had also left him behind. He had thought he was alone, but in a moment, he would not be. In a moment, he would have a vast family—a brotherhood.

Billy's head instantly arose as he looked apprehensively over at Cade. “But it’s not true. I am no longer looking for my mother, give Rocky his wish and his future!” Billy waited for a nod from Cade before continuing.

Silence reigned in the room for what seemed like an minute. Finally, Cade answered since apparently something about the chid apparently had captured his attention. “If you want your precious friend to ever have a decent future, you’d better give me what’s mine… is also to know what I’m up to,” he laughed in a sinister manner, “well child, there’s only one thing I’m after…” he paused and stared at me briefly.

Billy looked back at him with a trace of amusement in his eyes, along a smile formed across his face, but one look at Cade showed that while he understood, he didn’t actually approve of the way he went about his plan. Raising one sceptical eyebrow, "I have the real dagger," tone was a mix of command and empathy. “You don’t need them. Not here.” he whisper to him with his tongue heavy and throat closing on him. "Not with me," he added, his voice smooth and measured.

Shook his head in something that might be amusement and stilled, giving him that long considering look again. “Power. Sweet, sweet, power,” he began, but Cade wasn’t having any backtalk. He gave Stefan a vicious shove and his equilibrium was still so out of kilter that he tumbled to the ground. He rubbed his hands together with joy on his face, and then he stopped. He stared at him, and his smile was back on, “for that to happen child, I’ll be needing that from you.”

Billy stood up to himself so they’d be face-to-face, not him looming over to him at the thought of that, his fear heightened. “I volunteered to take their place, because I…could sense this is important to you,” The voice was quiet with not a hint of a challenge in it. Now, he was in complete agreement with Cade and damned himself as he did so.

“Calm down child,” he annoyingly uttered as he wiped the remainder of the remnants from his mouth, “I can feel your fear from here,” added, then started walking towards him, slowly, taking his time until he was face to face with him.

“Hm.” The grunt hit a skeptical note. “Put it on the ground boy, slowly and carefully.” For some reason, the sight of the dagger was enough to give Cade a pause. He stared at him for a moment before reacting. “That dagger—is mine.”

Cade’s grim expression did not change. “Sorry to disappoint you, Billy,” he said in a low, hard voice. “This party is over.” He gestured, and all around the area, lights blazed to life. Cade curled his lips in a combination of amusement and pleasure. This is going even better than he had hoped. “Brave, but foolish, child,” he said gently to Billy.

The crowd went perfectly silent.

The boy was frightened and kept shifting his weight from foot to foot. He wished desperately that he hadn’t come with his ideas tonight but his fear of the man overrode any common sense. This time when he moved, it hit the old grandfather louder as it responded by chiming out of rhythm and time. As he turned the still-standing corner of a hallway, movement caused him to raise his stake reflexively.

Sparks danced in front of his eyes. The edges of his vision faded to black. Blue and dark swirls spun around him, wraith-like. He felt momentarily faint and wondered if it was possible to dissolve into the telekenisis. He was a speck caught in the updraft over a fire—yet somehow he had the audacity to try to command the fire to do his will. Frightened and unarmed, he found himself confronting inhaled sharply and froze.

“It’s settled, then,” immediately Billy replied, his voice rising into full oratorical mode with an offsetting smile on his face, one of confidence and calm. The fight began immediately, then an idea pops in his head. He presses the button on his watch, which transforms into a high-tech eavesdropping device. He puts it in his ear and is now able to hear The brothers and Cade talking. Quickly, Billy pushes another button on his watch, which fires a mini-dart at Cade. The dart goes into Cade’s neck line as well as injects him the venomous cure instead.

That seemed fair. Cade saw Billy throw a second grenade behind the line of approaching vamp. When it went off with a resounding crack, it blew a vamp backward like a bowling ball into other vamps knocking them off their feet. Some of them were the vamp flying, arms and legs flailing, ectoplasm exploding, knocking Cade out temporarily. But knowledge was not the same thing as experience, just as clever technology wasn’t the same thing as he was confident that he could defeat them at a fair fight.

Billy caught the dagger in his free hand and attacked again. But even with two daggers, he could not hold back Cade for long. Billy smiled and began to toy with him, knocking the extra stake out of Damon’s hand. Leaping and spinning down from the wall, he swung his stakes at Damon, trying to close into tight defensive groups, their stakes deflecting the bolts wildly. Billy hit a trigger on his proton pack. Two smaller proton pistols popped out. A skilled deadeye, started taking down Vamps with dual-hand ambidextrous precision. He then began firing with dual-hand precision. Billy gave himself over to the open area, to his awareness of his surroundings, to his sudden oneness with the Salvatore Brothers trying to kill him.

A Bluetooth phone device stuck in his ear. Then Billy pulled a fake dagger from his pocket and threw it at the closest Cade. The dagger flew uselessly past the man’s ear and leaped into the air. He took advantage of the noise and tore through and sprang his hidden blades at ready. Billy saw Damon’s shadow and turned, too late to draw a weapon, but not too late to stare into Billy’s blue eyes as the slender metal pierced his throat from behind, closing in on the few vamp guarding the siege weapons.

Billy stared at his hand, seeing the blade activated, lean and lethal beneath the five digits—no, there were four, he had only four on his right hand, the ritual—

“I can do this,” He said, staring at the ceiling. he jumped when fingertips touched his skin, but he tried not to tense. He could see the worry in his eyes when the buzzing began.

Billy stood toe to toe with Damon, and they looked directly into each other’s eyes. He stabbed the closest enemy while running past him.

Each blades were unique. He had adjusted the mechanism on one of his gauntlets to enable him to fire his blade as a projectile weapon, turning it into a throwing knife. His other blade, knew, was twin-pronged. Two poisoned knives flew in, their blackened blades burying themselves into the backs of two vamps. In a flash now, he flicked his left wrist and plunged the two sharp metal points into the belly of the lone vampire standing beside him. As he doubled over, he snatched the man’s own stake, sprang back, whirled it around, and drew the stake’s point along the vampire's neck fell upon the enemy.

Billy caught this only fleetingly. He was busy taking down those who might follow him. He punched one vamp, who stumbled backward, whirled to slice the throat of another charging vamp behind him, then completed a full circle to seize the vamp’s head and slam it into the dusty, hard-packed ground.

At least it made him drop to his belly. The aisle he had been climbing had no cover. He had nothing to hide behind. Billy took more time to line up the second dagger, but the injured vamp was still alive and thrashing around. His elbow slammed into the side of her jaw, and pain shot through his head. Frustrated, he shoved him away. Cade in the aisle used his distraction to shoot again, but his wounded comrade was just as much of a distraction for him.

The bolt missed him and hit the chair behind him, kicking up marble debris. Billy exhaled and waited a second for the steadiness he needed, ignoring the ringing of foot steps coming up the aisle from behind his target, and threw.

The stake slammed into Damon’s heart. He jerked, his runestaff went dark and clattered free, and slumped onto the floor. Billy shifted around to check on Stefan’s fight, only to see him further down the rows, clutching the shoulder of his brother drenched in blood. It was Stefan. One of the vamps coming up his aisle prepared to shoot again.

Without taking time to aim, Billy grabbed a stake from Damon and threw it at Stefan. The Stake hammered into his chest, and he flew backward, the staff escaping his grip. It banged on the edge of the wall before sliding back down the aisle, back into the darkness of the amphitheatre.

Billy heard a faint whistling sound. Then something thudded into his shoulder. He looked down to see that it was a bone dagger, he looked up for a moment, catching his breath, his eyes on the biggest threat present—Cade. The man was not only massive and a cunning pyschic, he was intelligent. That was why Billy, had selected Cade as his own target.

Forming, at last hearing, a request. A request that wouldn’t go away, he knew. It would never go away. He made up his mind. Instead of retreating, he advanced. Instead of running for safety, he took up the challenge. There was no real choice, he told himself as he advanced to the edge of the walkway. Looking down at his watch again, there wasn’t much time left as he knew his plan hadn’t worked. Billy looked down at his blades; he couldn’t kill him; he knew he was going to slaughter him. Billy felt cold, the dreadful feeling of impending danger creeping into his bones. A small figure knelt hunched in front of it. He raised his gun and called out, all but snarled his reply. “Cade!" The word escaped his lips involuntarily.

Billy's voice caused Cade to freeze where he was. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Billy turn his gun toward his advanced on him. Billy leapt at high speed. The gun discharged harmlessly into the air. Cade saw the dark figure at the safe lunge and heard the discharge of a revolver. He dove toward the floor and returned fire. A second shot sounded within seconds of the first.

Cade’s back arched as the bullet struck him. His hands slowly slid away from his shirt and he slipped to the floor. He watched as the light from the lamp seemed to recede into the distance and it occurred to him that he was suddenly cold. Hadn’t he remembered to build up the fire? The pain intensified and he found it harder to bring in the air that he needed.

He began to panic and with as much strength as he could summon, while still hid in the shadows.

“Wait.” Billy breathed, trying to catch his breath he had to count to three before he dared to open his mouth. "Come and get it.” When he felt them angling in toward him, he twirled his bone dagger in line while he took his fighting stance, and batted Cade away from the brothers. Awaiting his pleasure, rising from his hiding place.

Billy didn’t waste energy on speech, blocking each of Cade’s moves and driving Cade a step backward. Frustration made him strong, even if he presently had no outlet for that strength. Bringing down the ceiling could kill both of them and probably wouldn’t have a profound effect on the ground. If it really was distributed across the entire planet, it could be unkillable.

Billy stepped slowly at first, then came on in a sudden rush, his dagger coming in hard, right to left. But with only a slight movement, the fake dagger stabbed under the other dagger, then lifted up, and Bill'ys dagger went flying harmlessly high of the mark. With a slight reversal of his wrist, Billy stabbed straight ahead, and Cade had to throw himself backward. He brought his dagger across as he did, trying to parry, but Cade had already retracted his blade by then and had settled back into perfect defensive posture

“Don’t be embarrassed, Child. As you can see, my powers are far beyond yours,” Cade said with complete confidence and calm.

“I don't think so,” Billy countered, moving toward him in a more measured and defensive manner, his borrowed dagger held across his body diagonally, up over one shoulder.

Against that posture, Billy's sudden flurry of attacks seemed exaggerated and inefficient, for Cade. Now, as the battle played out between Cade and Billy, who the child showed its brilliance proceed to leapt and spun, slashing side to side, chopping and thrusting, but all of Cade's movements seemed far more efficient. He followed a single line, front and back, his feet shifting to keep him constantly in perfect balance as he retreated and came on suddenly with devastating thrusts that had made Billy move backward. “Child, you disappoint me,” Cade taunted. “You holds you in such high esteem.”

Billy steadied himself and shifted his dagger from hand to hand, getting a better grip on it. Then he exploded into motion, coming on again fiercely, his dagger flashing all about. He kept a better measure of his cuts this time, though, reversing his angle often, turning a wide slash into a sudden thrust, and he soon had Cade backing, the dagger working furiously to keep Billy at bay.

Billy pressed forward more forcefully, but Cade continued to fend off the strikes, and then his momentum played out. He was too far forward, while Cade remained in perfect balance, ready for a counterstrike.

And then it was Cade suddenly pressing the attack, his dagger stabbing and retracting so quickly that most of Billy's cutting parries hit nothing but air. Cade had to jump back, and then back again, and again, as those thrusts moved ever closer to hitting so Billy stepped forward suddenly, stabbing low for Cade's thigh. Down went the dagger to intercept, but to Billy's horror, retracted his weapon and thrust it right back out, up high and across the other way. Cade couldn't get his weapon.

Cade gave a little growl and thrust forth his hand, loosing his grip.

#tvd #vampire diaries #tvd x reader #tvd fanfiction #tvdu #the vampire diaries #Goodbyefanfic #action fiction #my fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #tvd rp #stefan salvatore #Cade #damon salvatore #elena gilbert

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casspurrjoybell-28 · 7 months

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Alpha's Temptation - Chapter 33 - Part 2

*Warning Adult Content*

"I had never known true pain until I saw that Alpha slaughter my mother in cold blood, right before my eyes.

I watched as she fell to the ground, the gravity of what had happened not even hitting me.

I hid silently in that tent the whole night, paralyzed.

Lucien and Theo found the decimated camp the next day.

It was Lucien's worst nightmare.

I still remember the devastated look on his face when he found me still hiding in that tent like a coward.

Theo blamed me for her death.

I did too.

But Lucien never did.

He never took his grief or anguish out on me, despite how badly it hurt him.

He tried to be strong, even, for Theo and I because we were still kids.

But the loss of her was too much for him to bear.

He fell into depression.

And every time I looked at the broken shell of the man that used to be the proud Alpha of our pack, guilt overtook me.

It was all I could feel sometimes.

Watching him mourn her was just as painful as my own mourning.

It was a reminder that I took away what he loved most in the world.

His mate.

His Luna.

After that, I became strong.

Puberty hit me like a train and I sprouted up.

I worked out.

Got into fights.

I just wanted to be invincible.

I felt like it could make up for how weak and helpless I'd been as I watched that Alpha kill her.

I didn't want a mate, either.

After seeing what both Lucien and my biological Mom went through because of their mates, I swore I'd never claim mine.

Because they can get hurt and die in the blink of an eye when you aren't there to protect them.

And I never wanted to feel the pain of losing someone I loved again after I lost Rose.

Mates make you vulnerable.

And I...

I felt like I didn't deserve one anyway.

For so long, I've only been going through the motions, putting this self-inflicted guilt and restriction on myself.

Thinking that it's the only way someone like me can live."

Daemon gazes at me, eyes glittering with an emotion I can't name.

"So why, when I look at you, do I feel like I don't want to live like that anymore?"

My heart shatters for him.

For how much he's gone through, suffering all alone and torturing himself inside.

I pull him in close, blinking the wetness from my eyes.

"You don't have to, Daemon. You can live however you want," I say gently, stroking my fingers over his stubbled jaw.

"Even if the guilt still haunts me?"

"S-Something will always haunt all of us. But that doesn't mean you don't deserve all that life has to offer. Because you do. You deserve happiness. She w-would have wanted that for you."

"You think?" he asks me.

"I know," I confirm.

"And f-for you, it's probably hard to see that what happened wasn't your fault. It's so hard to stop blaming yourself when what you experienced felt so real, so dependent on your actions. But there are some things that were always going to be out of our control. So, what happened? It was Dark Moon's fault. All of it. Not yours. I know people have probably told you that before but..."

"No," Daemon stops me.

"Hearing it from you is different. What you think is important to me. I've... never told anyone any of this before."

He observes my face, uncertainty prominent in his voice.

"Y-You don't have to worry about me seeing you different. Because I don't. I would never," I say, shaking my head.

"I know," his lips form a small smile.

"Sometimes I think you're an angel."

"Oh, Daemon," I sniffle, resting my head against his chest.

I'm no angel.

Did he forget I'm from the pack that's responsible for her death?

I mean, I know I wasn't a part of it but it's still disconcerting.

"It's true," he interrupts my thoughts, running his hands through my hair. "She would have loved you."

Knowing he's talking about Rose, I tear up for the hundredth time today, letting out a small sob.

I can't imagine how much she's been missed.

How brave her sacrifice was.

She was a wonderful person.

Why is it always the ones least deserving of it who suffer the worst?

Daemon strokes my back to me calm me down like he always does and I cling to him tightly.

How ironic.

He just told me his Mom was killed in front of him, yet I'm the one being emotional.

I don't even think I've ever seen him cry.

"Daemon, I should be the one comforting you right now."

Daemon lifts my chin to face him, placing a soft kiss on my lips.

"You have a good heart," he says when he pulls back.

"That's why you feel so deeply for others."

"My heart isn't... good," I deny.

It's really not.

It's twisted and pierced with thorns.

"Yes, it is," he insists. "I see you. And it's a damn good heart."

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