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#it’s about the inherent mess immortality makes of love

cer-rata · 2 months

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If I could rework Ra's al Ghul conceptually, I think I'd make him occupy a similar place as Doctor Doom, an entertaining and difficult to deal with fact of life that represents a valid if flawed worldview. This is the direction I'd shift him in:

-Incredibly intelligent and prepared as a rule

-Wildly well resourced

-Still an antagonist but with a moral framework that sometimes leans kind of blue/orange

-Has things and people that he truly cares about in ways that are deeply understandable and even admirable

-Honestly? Kind of has a point ideologically, the problem lying in how he goes about achieving it

-Big ego that he sort of deserves

-Has a master goal that makes sense for an immortal with lots of perspective, even if the drawn conclusion is wrong. This is a big one. You have to be able to believe that he truly could be so smart and experienced and decide to die on the hill he does, without just hand waving him as being crazy. The incoherent ecoterrorism based genocide plot works for hot mess era Poison Ivy, not an immortal, well read mastermind who has had thousands of years to actually come up with real solutions. (And even Ivy has moved on from that, like--)

-Maybe lean away from the Lazarus corruption angle because it's wildly inconsistent and unclear as to what effect it actually has and kind of provides an easy way out instead of forcing Batman and the reader to actually contend with his ideas.

And this is not to say he can't be an unfortunate influence in Damian and Talia's life. But I think it's all much more interesting if the Bruce/Ra's dichotomy doesn't have a wildly obvious moral high ground that positions Bruce as the white savior, swooping in with his evolved western ideals. I think Talia is more rewarding as an idealist who is truly forced to make a hard decision between two men she loves dearly, both as people and for the values they represent, and maybe ends up somewhere in between, coming up with a philosophy that works for her. For that to work their frameworks actually have to be comparable. Parents can mess you up even when they're trying their absolute best and love you dearly, he doesn't have to be cartoonishly cruel to their bodies and minds to get to the point of familial dysfunction.

I'm just going to say it, I think It's time we move on from the evil mystical Arab terrorist that doesn't value human life or women or the wishes of his own family and has no real constructive goal or politics--like I've only been implying it so far, but the inherent racism in the construction of Ra's al Ghul is A LOT to deal with and makes it very difficult to actually enjoy him as a character. Conceptually he's got too much potential to just be a caricature. We live in a world where the Joker is positioned as some kind of ideological foil to Batman, instead of a character with ACTUAL IDEALS.

And enough with the biological determinism stuff! Stop that! Stop that right now! I'm putting "nature vs nurture" on a high shelf until you can behave and not use it to be racist. It might not be coming back people! A thousand years in the dungeon! A thousand years of pain!

#ra's al ghul #dc comics #batman #bruce wayne #talia al ghul #damian wayne #tw racsim #dc editorial answer for your crimes

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ruthlesslistener · 1 year

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Do you think, that in a world where pk did get rid of the radience in the beginning, he would've had a "normal child with his wife? And would his kingdom have an eventually downfall?

Lmao, no way. Two immortals have no need for an heir, and siring a likewise immortal child would have just been a means of creating his own downfall. We also know from his actions that when choosing between Hallownest and family, the Pale King would always choose Hallownest (and keeping control over it), so the risk just wouldn't be worth it. Even Hornet was sired for the benefit of Hallownest rather than a desire for a child, and the White Lady mentioning her fondness for her does not necessarily mean that she wanted children of her own. Fun as it is to speculate, we know nothing about the Pale King's thoughts on her creation, and him locking the Abyss/killing the weaker and impure vessels seems to imply that they were some sort of liability to him. If I had to guess, him imprinting on the Hollow Knight was something that hit him completely out of left field, and that he had no desire for an actual living child until the results of his experiments involving his genetics was staring him right in the face. And even then, he treats the information as something terrible that must be sealed away with the greatest security and punished for remembering, which gives me very strong vibes of a guy who had very little qualms about starting the vessel project bc the idea of having kids meant nothing to him up until reality came and smacked him right in the face. Like, he probably had some regret for it- WL's whole horny jail thing is also a form of punishment for what she did to her children, and she's just as cold as he was, if not moreso- but I don't think the full extent of the horrors hit him until then. And someone who wanted kids wouldn't have gone through with growing brainless bodies with their genes to begin with.

Or, well, maybe I shouldn't say 'no way'. We know from his dialogue at the Abyss lore marker that he deeply regretted what he did, we know from his workshop notes that he believed void to be a thing utterly and inherently without mind and emotion (thus making the vessel experiments ethical in theory), and that he grew to love the Hollow Knight despite genuinely believing that they were empty. And the White Lady starts off talking to Ghost with a very matter-of-fact tone about how she believes that the Hollow Knight failed because they were 'tarnished by an idea instilled', which means that she herself thought that they, as a void being, were incapable of emotion or thought, and that an outside influence must have tampered with them. It's not until Ghost- a vessel who very clearly does not give a shit about appearing empty- visits her more and does things like creating the Voidheart that she starts to soften up, and to reconsider their nature. So it may be possible that both of the gods had some vague streak of parental instincts and longings within them, but that their logical minds completely overwhelmed those desires. It would make sense, seeing as both of the Pale Gods were written to counter the Radiance, who is mostly ruled by emotion with very little logic. So while they had the ability to love their children, and they canonically have the ability to grieve/feel guilt for what they did, they still wouldn't have actually gone out and had a kid out of their own desires to begin with. That would be too much of a risk to them and Hallownest.

But yeah, Hallownest would have fallen anyways. There probably wouldn't be a dead baby pit driven by the necessity for a void-infused host body that could trap a malevolent dream deity for eternity, but it still would have had some form of a downfall eventually, be it a gory mess like in canon, or a slow fade like Unn's. Nothing ever lasts forever, not even in the realm of gods.

#hollow knight #pale king #white lady #hollow knight speculation #thats mostly why i dont like happy aus tbh #or aus where hollow and the others are not voided #pk and wl were very much unaware that their children were alive and suffering until it was too late #and they probs never desired a kid until they realized what they had forsaken #plus i just dont like happy family stories. it has to be unconventional or a fucking disaster #but thats my personal bias speaking there

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noperopesaredope · 1 year

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So, I’ve been working on the Steven Universe crossover episodes for Jacob & Coco Across the Universe (my post canon Collector-centric AU), and during the initial planning, I had an interesting idea. For a bit of context, each planet that the pair visits is meant to teach at least one of them a lesson, typically via meeting a character whom they might be able to learn from or relate to.

In the case of the Steven Universe crossover, Coco was originally just gonna connect with and relate to Spinel (though Lapis could also work a tiny bit). This is still the case, as they gonna become friends in the second part where I give them a pretty touching scene. However, before that, there is an episode in which Coco connects with another character. I’m not sure how I’ll make this happen exactly, as the two won’t truly meet, but Coco will relate to this character. They will relate to her almost as much, if not moreso, than they relate to Spinel.

We have been comparing Spinel and the Collector a lot, but there’s one character that we’ve been overlooking in terms of parallels. And that character is......

Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz

Hear me out!

Let’s start from the beginning. I know she gets a lot of hate, but Pink did actually have a pretty rough childhood, the kind that would mess with one’s sense of right and wrong. Pink was raised by three older sisters, the Diamonds, ancient powerful beings who committed genocide and war for many years. Sound familiar? On top of that, they weren’t always the best to Pink, and never took her seriously. As far as we can tell, this may have been the case for our dear Collector.

Pink had a tendency to treat other people like toys, and it was likely because she legitimately didn’t know better. It can be hard for young immortals to learn that others have feelings, especially when you’re taught otherwise.

And despite that, when she was sent down to another planet, she discovered other lifeforms, and she loved it there. She discovered how wrong the others were, and she hated the destruction her own species brought upon the world and beings she had begun to love. So she fought back. She became Rose.

This is where the stories diverge.

Even after thousands of years, Rose was still learning new things about kindness and love and people. Sure she wasn’t a very good person, but she wanted to be. She tried to be. Even when she kept fucking it up over and over and over again, she tried. She learned how to love and care for other beings, something that went directly against everything she had ever been told growing up.

And eventually, it seems that Rose had a realization of sorts. “There is something about be that is inherently unable to be a truly compassionate being. I was born a Diamond, and I’m not sure I’ll ever really stop being the way I was raised to be. I want to become a human.” And so she did. She likely believed that she wasn’t good enough, kind enough, to be worthy of such love her friends gave her. They didn’t deserve all her flaws.

So she chose to become a being that she believed wouldn’t have those flaws.

Something better.

Someone better.

If only Coco could do that too.

~~~~

So yeah, I realized there are an unhinged amount of parallels between the Collector and Pink Diamond. Yes, I am part of the Pink Diamond Apologist Squad. That is mainly because of the parallels between the two gave me realizations. Also, I like Rose and think her arc is actually kinda inspiring when you tell it in order. Also, her being a bad person was probably a retcon.

But anyways, yeah, that is my mini-essay comparing these two very interesting characters.

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mimdecisive · 2 years

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the beautiful aspect of glimmer’s fucked up mentality with her family is she projects her own feelings of inadequacy onto them and assumes they’re waiting for her to mess up, because Glimmer views her family as unreachable standards before she sees them as people. Her entire family is the image of perfection, reflected in their character designs. Not one hair out of place.

And Glimmer is a mess in more ways than one, and she doesn’t feel like she’ll ever be even close to as good as the rest of her family. Glimmer perceives herself as a disappointment, and she projects that feeling onto every one else.

It’s why she never actually talks to Angella, because she feels like Angella thinks she’s too weak/not good enough to fight rather than Angella’s sense of responsibility when it comes to keeping Glimmer safe. Angella says herself that Glimmer didn’t know about her guilt for what happened to Micah because Glimmer doesn’t talk to her.

Micah is a unreachable idol for most of her childhood. He’s immortalized in murals and statues, and regarded as a hero and super powerful sorcerer. He’s perfect and nothing she’s told changes that, and she doesn’t think she’ll live up to him.

And Castaspella is a different story. Her Aunt is royalty and wasn’t born or married into it, she earned it and she’s well-respected. She has not a hair out of place, and she’s better than Angella at keeping her emotions in check. Glimmer seems, on some level, aware that she can hurt Castaspella’s feelings on a way she doesn’t with Angella— but it’s mostly after she’s already hurt them.

The way Glimmer talks about her achievements with Castaspella is actually, notably, to put an emphasis on Angella believing in her and She-Ra. Throwing around the two things that usually get support. But Castaspella, unlike most people, isn’t all like “yeah a bunch of kids can win a war that’s been going on 30+ years because my SIL thinks so”.

That’s not enough for her to regain the hope she lost when she was fighting the war herself. Instead, it makes Castaspella feel like she doesn’t have a right not to believe if Angella does, because Castaspella also struggles with severe feelings of inadequacy. (And, notably, deals with it pretty similarly to Glimmer!)

And part of Glimmer’s “silent” arc throughout the series is gradually coming to understand that her relatives aren’t the perfect people she painted them as in her mind. They’re people too, and they struggle just as much as she does.

After S1, she realizes Angella is not infallible and Angella starts trusting her more and Glimmer realizes her mom thinks she’s capable, she just loves her a lot. This is later kind of broken in S2-S3, since Glimmer starts leaving Angella in the dark about her decisions. (Crimson Waste.)

And as for her relationship with Castaspella, it doesn’t seem to have fully clicked for Glimmer until S5 (or maybe S4) that her Aunt is also a person and not infallible, as the way her and Castaspella interact changes. Glimmer acts more on equal-ground with her, and is ready to comfort her when she seems upset.

She even shoots SW a dirty look for insulting Castaspella, because she recognizes her Aunt might not show that it gets to her, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t.

and the writing is kinda good there. I think they could’ve better expressed this arc of Glimmer’s, because it was… basically the brunt of her psychological issues. The idea that people are inherently better than her is something she struggles with throughout the show, and the primary reason why she’s so concerned with being replaced as a friend.

And she had to learn from SW in S4 because SW was the first (and only) person to tell her that she had an opportunity to be better than her family members, and to learn from where they failed and whatnot. Glimmer needed and wanted to hear that, and SW knew it. Even if Castaspella had offered to reach Glimmer, Glimmer wouldn’t have accepted and she wouldn’t be able to explain why.

She kind of ends up just… snapping out of this mindset in S5.

basically: Angella, Micah, Castaspella and Glimmer need to go to family therapy. (Invite Adora and DT later on, because they need the regular kind of therapy first.)

#spop #she ra #castaspella #glimmer #analysis #of sorts #castaspellma au #lightly implied #adora #micah #angella #momgella #also lightly implied

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takaraphoenix · 2 years

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Ok then, still I ask for the prompt 12 for your original :)

Sure thing! And thank you! ^^

“I'm better than you could ever dream of being!”

Buying a house had been the easiest part of it all. The hardest was being an old vampire moving into a new territory. One would think that wolves were territorial, but once one proved themselves to them, they tended to be amicable; Berto moving to San Francisco, then to New York, then back to San Francisco? No problems. But vampire clans were different from wolf packs. There was no inherent bond and vampires wanted to be leaders, show their power.

Gabriel Kim was too old to play second fiddle. He had someone he trusted in New York to take over leadership of the clan, but he'd be damned if he took a backseat in San Francisco. Which, he knew was risky. Coming into a new town not just with the intent to move in but to take over?

“It would be much, much better if you accepted this... change in leadership.”

Gabe kept his voice low and patient, his fingers curled around a chilled wine-glass. He projected an image of calmness, which only irritated the man opposite him even more. Tobias McKay was... Well, no, Gabe didn't have anything positive to say about him. Greedy, power-hungry but completely lacking any kind of leadership abilities. The two most loyal of Gabe's clan-members had come with them to San Francisco. Currently, one was on either side of him.

“You know Gabriel's name carries weight,” pointed Grace out, perched on the arm-rest of Gabe's chair. “You know your clan would be salivating at getting a leader as old, powerful and experienced as him. They'd turn their backs on you faster than you could blink.”

“I'm a fantastic leader,” Tobias pressed out between gritted teeth.

“I'm better than you could ever dream of,” pointed Gabriel out dryly. “And you know that.”

Of course he did. Tobias wasn't even half a century old. Quite frankly, Gabe wondered how such an inexperienced young vampire had even gotten this position. No, San Francisco was clearly in need of a leadership change. He offered a smile over the rim of his glass, showing off his fangs.

“I'd advise you not to make a scene,” Salvador requested. “I'd hate to have to clean up a mess.”

Mh, Gabe loved those two. Salvador and Grace were a power-couple and they had supported him so well in New York. He knew that with them at his side, he'd easily reign in the local clan.

“This is not the last you've seen of me,” Tobias threatened him.

How adorable. Gabe offered a bemused smile as he watched the young vampire storm out of the room. He was sure that this wouldn't be the last he'd see of Tobias, but he was also not afraid of that at all. He could take care of a small fry like that, with ease.

“...Why are the lights off? Did we not pay the electricity bill, babe?”

Gabe exchanged a look with Grace and Salvador. They'd turned off the lights and used candles to set the scene. Berto entered the living room with a confused look on his face.

“Or are we having a candlelight dinner?” Berto's eyes landed on Salvador and Grace. “Oh, hey, Sal, Gracie. Is this like a candlelight double-date? Did I know about that?”

Gabe cleared his throat and put his glass aside. Getting up, he headed over to his husband to steal a kiss. Maybe not tell Gabe that he'd been antagonizing a local now former clan-leader. Berto may be a werewolf, but he was quite peaceful. He would probably not approve of the mild threatening.

“It's a surprise,” offered Gabe. “Now, what do you feel like? We thought we'd order in.”

“Aaw, that's such a nice surprise,” Berto grinned from ear to ear. “Mh... I feel like Chinese.”

“That sounds delightful, it's been a while since I last had Chinese!” Grace smiled delighted, heading out. “Where do you keep your take-out menus?”

Spontaneous double-date. Why not. Gabe turned to exchange another look with Salvador, who offered him an amused smile in return. They had been friends for over a century now. Most people came and went, in an immortal's life, but these two had been such a constant part of his life.

“I like this,” whispered Berto pleased, kissing Gabe's cheek. “Those two are always fun.”

#GaBerto #Story: [N]ine Lives

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popentertainment-moviereviews · 2 years

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THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (2022)

Starring Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton, Aamito Lagum, Burcu Gölgedar, Matteo Bocelli, Kaan Guldur, Jack Braddy, Hugo Vella, Alyla Browne, Pia Thunderbolt, Anna Adams, David Collins, Angie Tricker, Anthony Moisset, Berk Ozturk, Sage Mcconnell, Abel Bond, Agani Gecmez, Ayantu Usman, Peter Bertoni, Lianne Mackessy, Harlan Norris and Leslie Krahner.

Screenplay by George Miller and Augusta Gore.

Directed by George Miller.

Distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. 108 minutes. Rated R.

Writer/director George Miller has always had eclectic tastes in projects. From the all-out dystopian action of the Mad Max films to the supernatural dark comedy of The Witches of Eastwick to the medical melodrama of Lorenzo’s Oil to the family-friendly talking animals of the Babe and Happy Feet movies, you never know quite what is going to capture his interest.

So, it’s not exactly a shock that he totally reboots again for his latest, a highly-stylized romantic fantasy-drama about the existential difficulty of life as a genie – a story that, as the title suggests, spans about three millennia.

Three Thousand Years of Longing is an interesting, smart, diverse and extremely well-made movie. The acting by the two leads is terrific – as to be expected with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. The movie looks stunning. It’s a very impressive achievement.

I just wish that I could say I liked it more than I did.

Strangely, for a film which is about the immortal life of a djinn – which explores multiple encounters the creature has over the years – the film does not quite deliver the magic that is its hero’s stock in trade. Also, for a film that strongly posits that the only thing that can make the millennia bearable is love, Three Thousand Years of Longing feels oddly cold and detached.

For a film that is all about storytelling – and a great deal of the film is just the djinn telling his stories in flashback – the actual story is kind of the weak point here.

In fact, storytelling is the specialty of the lead character Alithea (Swinton). A professor who specializes in Narratology, she is in Istanbul to give a lecture at a conference. She’s kind of a loner, someone who not only enjoys but relishes a solitary search for knowledge. Or so she says.

One night in her hotel suite, she inadvertently releases a djinn from its bottle. The djinn (Elba) begs her to make three wishes of her heart’s desire so that he can be released. The problem is, as a specialist in the world of mythological fables, Alithea is all too aware of the dangers inherent in taking a djinn up on such an offer – there are often unforeseen circumstances which undo the good that is expected. Also, honestly, she is unsure she believes he is really a djinn. Even if he is for real, she is really rather content with her life of scholarly solitude. She is having trouble with the idea of coming up with wishes that are “her heart’s desire.”

Therefore, while she is deciding, she has the djinn tell her stories of his previous encounters with humans, as well as his years of solitary waiting in between.

And that is what happens, the djinn tells a series of fantastical tales about his experiences with humankind spanning the centuries, while Alithea listens and periodically asks him questions. It feels like a bit of a waste that a strong actress like Swinton is used in a role that is largely reactive for the first two-thirds or so of the film. Her interactions are ramped up during the last segments, where Alithea finally comes up with a wish, which becomes much more complicated for both of them than either one would have imagined.

The mythological flashbacks are interesting, but overly condensed. The modern-day sequences work a little better, although I’m not sure the storyline ever quite connects completely. Three Centuries of Longing is a brave attempt by Miller to tell a very different kind of tale, but more than occasionally the plot feels like a bit of a muddled mess.

However, wow, it all looks amazing.

Jay S. Jacobs

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#Three Thousand Years of Longing #2022 #Movie Review #Idris Elba #Jay S. Jacobs

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elvesofnoldor · 7 months

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like anne rice could be such good writer if she just wrote with compassion and empathy for her characters. There was this "baby Jenks" character from the beginning of the queen of the damned and her story was so afforded so much genuine love and compassion it was literally my favourite part of the first part of the book. Baby Jenks' story reminded me of some of the best Sandman one-off characters' story tbh, it was that good. Wish Anne Rice always write with so much love and compassion though. Anyways, It's no wonder, tbh, that Baby Jenks character is actually Claudia (lestat wept for that girl because he was weeping for Claudia from his life, pretty sure at this point Anne Rice consciously projects her own motherhood onto him). maybe at that point in anne rice's life, she has heard enough about things like re-incarnation and all the better places one can go to after death that all that stuff is allowing her to started to make peace with the tragic death of her late daughter?? but i wonder if she ever got to walk out of her grief? cause idk? she kept writing vampire books??? to the end of her life???

like it's honestly such a mess that she wrote IWTV in response to the very tragic death of her daughter. I have to be honest, i cannot begin to imagine just how painful it is to go through something that traumatic, but i also felt like writing a psychosexual gothic horror vampire story is not exactly therapeutic either. It's kind of funny that it takes getting into the vampire chronicles for me to truly understand what vampires really are. But i do, finally. Vampires are not weird fantastical creatures, they are not Death itself, and they are certainly not Life Everlasting. Vampires, like ghosts, are simply a spiritual embodiment of the very rejection of Death. They are very effective device to examine the human condition, because we as human beings all fundamentally reject the inevitability of death and obliteration of the self we currently possess. We inherently fear change, fear loss, the changefulness of life, and the annihilation of self. Vampires embody a certain state of mind that's frankly universal in humans. But I don't think Anne Rice always wrote her vampire chronicles knowing vampires are??? if she ever knew??? Definitely not at the beginning though, when Louis was definitely just her self-insert and he brought Claudia to live with a theatre of vampires and they live happily ever after. I mean, midnight mass really got the Point when it says "the only way to achieve True Immortality is to accept and embrace death, and because vampirism is inherently about rejecting death, it will NEVER be life everlasting". Honestly the only reason that motivated me to read more Vampire chronicles is....well...i wanna know if Lestat can just? idk, be happy? be free? But this dude kept trying to get together with his abuser and i honestly don't even know what to say. Really i do not understand why Anne Rice kept making it happen. I have seen zero evidence that Louis changed to become better person and someone actually deserving Lestat's love. And more importantly, idk man, im not a psychologist but can you stop being a p*dophile??? so um. humm. i don't fucking know about this, lol. Like, im gonna be fucking real here, fuck all that "lestat was a bad person" " lestat was manipulative" shit, please grow a brain!!! Lestat was a good and loving person!! Period! all his bullshit has to do with the fact that he died a horrific and traumatic death and was never able to free himself from the pain and despair that trapped him in his vampiric state. But to let go of his pain and truly be the good person that he always was again, it'd require him to...well, embrace true death. But since Lestat will never end im guessing he will just have to stop being a bonafide vampire and become some sort of dark fantasy faery creature lmao. I'm starting to suspect the reason people think prince lestat trilogy is cringey because her vampires just...aren't even vampires by the end of it lol. Im suspecting that Anne Rice literally had to come up with some fantastical mumbo jumbo to justify her vampire characters finding happiness because these bitches kept walking into the sun and they kept not dying from it. I mean, lestat croaking for reales is kind of depressing so MAYBE i will take this shit. maybe i will still read the prince lestat trilogy lol. I heard there is bloodborne lore in there.

#mae overshares #i dont wanna say it but i think i finally decided to get into vampire media cause i was just fucking depressed #ok my life sort of fell apart mid 20s couple of years ago and i hadn't talk about it and i never will #and it was why i went back to tolkien. i had to escape into tales of elves (immortals) to numb my own pain #but for the longest time i was crying all the time just thinking abt the possibility that my loved ones will die #i was so scared that i will never see my grandpa before he passes. im still mortified tbh #i can't face the changefulness of life. and i longed for everything to stay the same. for lack of loss #im afraid of aging. im afraid to turning old. you know. regular depression shit #and im raised buddhist!!! and a key buddhist teaching is that you have to let go of the self to be free #the only way to life Everlasting to stop being obessed with the current consciousness you possess #you have to accept that the person you are now WILL disappear. but you will never end #i know exactly what Life Everlasting is supposed to be and i still! wish for fairy tale immortality!#faith is nothing in comparison to pain. pain overwhelms everything. faith. reason. knowledge #i think maybe tumblrinas are just crying for help when they casually joke abt getting immortality from vampires #cause for the first time in my life i got the morbid humour? i was like 'haha yeah if a vampire came and kill me i will say thank you <3'#i was like 'the thought of becoming some sort of horrid creature is kind of cool as long as i stay young forever <3'#'esp if said horrid creature wants to fuck me <3'#honestly. it's really hard to let go of pain. and my pain was nothing compare to the shit a lot of people had to go through #it's so EASY to become trapped in your own pain and grief

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drwcn · 3 years

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follow up to [post] exploring the crack au if lwj was a girl

〒▽〒 ps im not trying to erase canon lwj representation, not at all, wangxian is mm in all my other fics, this is just stupid fun

in a ceteris paribus situation aka all other things staying equal:

1) Lan Wangji 100% still has a resting bitch face, which probably would get her a couple of “Lan-er-guniang 美若天仙 (beautiful as an immortal/goddess) but would benefit from smiling more” comments but nobody is that desperate to die yet so, she’s spared. But damn... imagine the sheer number of thirsty boys who’d try to secure a marriage with LWJ. None of them is good enough for Wangji as far as Lan Xichen is concerned. Okay - maybe in Lan Xichen’s opinion, Nie Mingjue is good enough, but he couldn’t be less interested. I see her as I see Huaisang, Xichen please.

2) Everything interaction between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian in Wei Wuxian’s first life is now 500% more scandalous.

Exhibit A) Their first meeting at the gates; Jiang Cheng immediately felt his spidey senses tingling. —“You’d sooner have immortals flying out of your ass than get with someone like her. The second jade of Gusu? The pearl in old man Lan’s eyes? C’mon.” —“Shut up, A-Cheng.” —“Uh-huh.” —“Also, she’s not that pretty. Her brother Zewu-jun is much better. There’s a reason he’s ranked first.” WWX is still a disaster bi. — “LMAO, you? Zewu-jun? Please.”

Exhibit B) Just because LWJ is a girl does not mean WWX grew more brain cells.

WWX, straight up to Lan Qiren’s face, “Lan-meimei and I - we’re zhiji.” (he means it like we’re kindred spirits, peas of a pod, etc) LWJ: *does not deny* Lan Xichen: ⚆_⚆ Lan Qiren: ಠ╭╮ಠ

Exhibit C) Lan Wangji getting drunk the first time. Wei Wuxian knew he crossed a line the minute he invited Lan-er-guniang for a drink. Really, WWX, even for you, this is inappropriate. When Lan Wangji fell face first onto the table, Wei Wuxian knew, he fucked up. “Hey....hey...Lan....Lan...-er-guniang,” He poked her. “Don’t...don’t sleep here! You can’t sleep here! If your Uncle finds out or if Jiang-shushu finds out...they’ll skin me alive and then...and then they’ll make me marry you! I don’t want to marry you; you don’t talk and I’m too young!”

WWX, being a dipshit, “Hey Lan Zhan, call me Wei-gege.” LWJ, drunk as fuck, “Wei..gege.” WWX *((( heart )))* ???

Exhibit D) The Cold Pond. Okay, so I don’t think Zewu-jun would sabotage his sister’s virtue by sending a stupid teenage boy her way while she’s bathing, but doesn’t mean Su She is above all that. Wei “I didn’t see anything I swear!” Wuxian. Lan “I will gouge out your eyes.” Wangji. Somehow they still end up in the cave. Maybe WWX got in the water after LWJ got out and got sucked into the vortex and LWJ heard the commotion, turned around, saw WWX had disappeared. “Wei Ying?!” A panicked LWJ jumps back into the pond, “Stop fooling around, come out!”

Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing 👀👀 when LWJ and WWX fall out of the cave together. Also the fact that Lan-er-guniang and Wei-gongzi went missing, together, for two days. Who knows what could’ve happened. I mean anything really. I mean... that’s gotta stir the pot a little were it not for the Yin Iron stealing everyone’s attention away from this bit of juicy scandal.

Oh the whole story... so much to work with, so little time.

3) Because Lan Wangji is a girl, now suddenly there’s a high ranking member of the Lan Clan who can host the girls at Cloud Recesses. I mean, Mianmian, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, Lan Wangji - SISTERLY FRIENDSHIP. Other than Mianmian, none of the girls are really talkers which suits Lan Wangji perfectly. Even Mianmian’s chatter is endearing.

4) Lan Wangji is absolutely still a powerhouse during the Sunshot Campaign. The inherent aesthetics of fem!lwj telling the Wen goons to “kneel” - no one will deprive me of this. Also she will still cut off your arm if you cross her - Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao ya better watch out still.

I am TORN between two options: Lan Wangji tol and kickass or Lan Wangji smol and kickass. On one hand, the aesthetics of willowy elf-like LWJ, on the other hand, 5′2′’ of whoop ass who can and will throw an unconscious wwx over her shoulder firewoman-style and toll him to safety.

And amongst other things:

A) Lan Wangji still becomes Chief Cultivator, because excuse me who else is left to clean up this mess? Jiang “Short-fuse” Wanyin? Nie “I won’t do what I’m not intended to do” Huaisang? Jin “13 year-old” Ling? Or Sect Leader Yao? Technically, being a woman means that she was never Lan Xichen’s heir, but at the end of it, it’s not like Gusu Lan is left with a lot of choices. Just the poetic justice of Gusu Lan pleading for Lan Wangji to come back when she fully intends to 隐居山野 (retreat into the mountains) with the resurrected WWX.

Lan Wangji being Chief Cultivator would echo Lan Yi’s tenure and rectify the fact that Gusu Lan’s only female head of family “failed”. Lan Yi had to face a mountain of prejudice because she was woman; someone has to say “up yours” to that. A woman as not only the sect master of Gusu Lan but the Chief Cultivator? Love that for Gusu Lans. (⌐■_■) ☞ ☞

B) Because of ~ sexism ~ I wonder if Lan Wangji would get titled “Hanguang” at all even after the Sunshot Campaign. Even Lan Yi, the SL Lan of her time didn’t have a title. Chances are LWJ won’t either. (Note: Violet Spider is not a title, it’s a moniker). So — say after the way Lan Wangji is still just “Lan-er-guniang”, and she does not obtain the title “Han Guang” until after she leaves Cloud Recesses and become rogue. (srsly how did they come up with these titles in canon, did gusu lan just look at 21 year old lwj and be like yah he’s lord light bearer *cue trevor noah stand up joke* why do you call yourself “great” britain? isn’t that a bit presumptuous? shouldn’t you go around doing good things and then let other people come to the conclusion: oh britain look how great you are? same logic with lwj.)

Lan Wangji, a Jade of Gusu or a nameless rogue, still goes where trouble is, helping those who need it. After laying low for a year or two to heal, Lan Wangji began night hunting. Donned neck to ankle in white silk and tulle, and a weimao (wide brimmed veil hat) obscuring her face, she became known to the people as Hanguang Sanren, the lightbearing wanderer. Gusu’s highest power probably has some idea who she is - or at least they can guess - but the vast majority of people don’t.

C) Lan Sizhui raised by rogue Lan Wangji as his mum would be different. Still cultured, respectful, but definitely with an air of keeping others at arm’s length.

For instance, grown-up Sizhui running interference and saving a cohort of gentry disciples on joint hunts.

Jingyi: 这人谁呀？Who is this guy? Zizhen: 多谢兄台搭救之恩，小可看您眼生，敢问兄台尊姓大名，何门何派，改日当登门拜访. Many thanks for saving us. I don’t believe we’ve met, pray tell what is your name and sect, so we may visit at a later time to thank you for tonight. Sizhui: 在下无门无姓，单名思追。举手之劳不足挂齿，怎敢劳烦各位名门子弟答谢。My name is Sizhui, belonging to no family and to no sect. As for tonight - I only did what anyone would; it bears no mentioning and requires no thanks. Jin Ling: 你这人，看你工力不凡，想和你交个朋友，可你怎么遮遮掩掩的。Hey you, we see you’re a talented cultivator and want to make your acquaintance. Why are you so dodge-y? Zizhen：金陵 — Jing Ling - Sizhui: 若是有缘，还会相见。告辞。If it’s fated, we will meet again. Farewell.

Later: Jingyi: 思。追。思追谁？Si. Zhui. To recollect and long for whom? Sizhui: 母亲的一位故人. Someone from Mother’s past. Jingyi: 你父亲？...Your father? Sizhui: 我不知。I don’t know.

I thought about how cute it would be if sizhui and jin ling knew each other but guys...Jiang Cheng literally thinks he killed Sizhui’s biological father. Like he literally thinks he orphaned Sizhui before Sizhui is even born. And Lan Wangji would never accept anything from Jiang Wanyin, not that it would stop Jiang Wanyin from trying.

A package of books here, a new robe for Sizhui there. Lan Wangji doesn’t know how Jiang Cheng keeps finding her. She and Sizhui are nomadic.

D) The inevitable conversation after wwx is revived.

You know what would be funnier than Jiang Cheng thinking Sizhui is a wangxian baby is if Lan Qiren thinks Sizhui is a wangxian baby.

#cql #the untamed #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lmao what is this #cql ficlet #corie fics #lwj fic #f!lwj

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therealvinelle · 3 years

Text

Carlisle wouldn’t want to be human

This really goes for most of the Cullens, Rosalie excepted (I think Edward would last one day without his telepathy and superpowers before this happened (well honestly I think his denial would keep him from ever admitting this but this isn’t an Edward post so we’re cutting this thought short right now before it spirals)), but I see both Edward and general fandom just sort of take it for granted that if anyone offered Carlisle a miraculous human again pill (and I’m just picturing that as some hokey pill being sold on ad TV) he’d praise Jesus and swallow that down immediately, and I’ve to see anybody argue with that so here I go.

First of, if Carlisle were to suddenly find himself human again I have every belief that Aro would materialize and go, “My dear Carlisle has been made a human? How tragic! Never fear, old friend, I’ll fix that for you. Om nom nom.” and then Carlisle would not be human. And I’m only half joking when I say that, because Carlisle has a lot of friends, and while his animal diet is all well and good, if he were to actually do something like this they’d be very sad his human obsession has gone too far and stage an intervention. “We’re doing this because we love you, Carlisle. Now please try not to be too delicious. Om nom nom.” And then we’re back to Carlisle being a vampire again, though with slightly longer hair this time.

More seriously, if Carlisle was offered this miracle pill, then as a doctor he’d probably be less than enthused about it. He was there to see what happened to the Native Americans when the Europeans came carrying brand new disease, and after viruses and bacteria have had 350 years and a globalized planet to evolve, our seventeenth century priest is going to be in trouble. He’s unvaccinated to boot. He also has a completely different intestinal bacterial flora than modern humans do, which I imagine would not be fun for his digestion. This guy would be a sickly, constipated mess.

As for the main reason - why would Carlisle ever want to be human?

Before he’d mastered his thirst, then he’d probably feel obligated to. For as long as he hadn’t mastered it there was always the risk of him losing control and killing somebody. In his early days he certainly would have jumped on the chance. But none of this is a problem anymore.

So, to take the reasons why he wouldn’t say yes in the present day - first of, why would he not want to be a vampire? He is past worrying about his thirst. His vampirism is at this point purely an asset to him. It makes him great at his job. All his friends and family are vampires. If he were to become human again, he’d not just suddenly suck at his job (as I imagine he has incorporated his super senses into his work to the point where he would pretty much have to learn everything anew if he still wanted to be a doctor), his brain would be slow and limited, and he could never see his cherished friends, people he has known for centuries, again. He’d have to start over with another fake identity in a new place, and sure, this time he could stay until he died of old age, but he’d still be lying to everybody he met about his identity. Carlisle is very much a social butterfly, and he’d be unable to form meaningful friendships when he could never get truly personal with anybody.

In other words, Carlisle would be signing himself up for a lonely life of being average if not bad at his work. And his work is incredibly important to him.

Then there’s the fact that as a doctor, modern viruses aside, when it comes to health problems Carlisle has seen it all. He would know better than everybody that even if the modern viruses don’t make him a sickly mess, even if he doesn’t join the statistics of people who die in tragic accidents, he could still get a brain aneurism at the age of 24 and his human LARP is over. And who knows, maybe he had some nasty disease lurking in his DNA just waiting to ruin his life had he lived long enough, such as ALS. But assuming that Carlisle says “I’LL RISK IT”, even if he makes it to an older age, aging is no joke. Dementia, gout, incontinence, the general and inevitable decline of his body - this is the looming shadow hanging over all our heads. For an immortal who has seen countless humans succumb to it, why choose this?

And for what?

So he could have kids of his own, presumably with Esme?

He has a whole family. Rosalie and Edward especially are his children. Just, this guy loves his whole family so much, I can’t imagine he’d throw them aside in favor of some faceless toddler concept. I also don’t think he’d even want kids of his own, but I think that’s for another post. And also mostly a vibe.

So he could grow old with Esme?

Again - why? She’d be just as much an outcast as he, and face all the same health risks (except I suppose for the modern viruses, she hasn’t been dead for that long). I can’t imagine he’d want to sit idly by and watch her either die ahead of schedule, or live long enough to become unable to care for herself.

Then there’s the fact that at most he’d have six or seven decades. To him, that’s just the blink of an eye. And, again, a very unpleasant blink where he loses everything, is less intelligent, and slowly dies.

Lastly there’s the fact that the human he was is dead, his time has passed. Carlisle doesn’t belong in the human world any longer. He interacts with it because helping humans gives him joy and meaning in life, but he’s a man out of his time and this brave new world is not the one he once lived in. He would not in any way belong, and I think he knows that quite well.

Just, the whole idea that Carlisle would want this is founded on Carlisle having some sort of innate worship of humans where being human is inherently better. I’m sorry, but that’s Edward. If Carlisle felt this way, he wouldn’t be turning others into vampires, and he wouldn’t have vampire friends all over the globe. To him, thirst isn’t a problem, and his vampirism means he can save more humans than he otherwise would. The remaining concern would be God, but Carlisle’s life philosophy is that being a vampire is not by itself a sin, so he’s fine in that regard too.

In summation, I think Carlisle is quite happy being a vampire, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

#carlisle cullen #twilight #twilight meta #twilight renaissance #note on the intestinal bacterial flora #a study was done on an african tribe whose members were eating the same food as their ancestors had for thousands of years #and a group of regular americans #they switched diets #and the african tribesmembers' gut flora was noticeably decreased after just a few weeks #and as far as i remember this was irreversible change #while the modern americans did not have noticeable change #so if i understand that correctly then this might not be such a big problem for carlisle #but it's still food for thought #and i imagine the transition period would suck #he'd probably just take the easy way out and eat unprocessed organic food #be that hipster #vegan vampire and hipster human #... i'm quitting this 'carlisle's indigestion combat tactics' tag spiral #before it gets weirder #point is this guy would lose everything #he could never see his friends again #and in exchange he gets to give a forced smile and say 'yay. i'm human. yayy...'

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theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin · 3 years

Note

"I have some problems with [Luke] as a character)" was mentioned in your Reylo response post. Very interested in what your thoughts are on Luke! 👀

Do you want me to get murdered?! Well, if I didn’t get lynched for calling Sirius Black a Stephen King villain I can surely do no worse here.

Let’s do this.

Caveat that, as usual, I am wearing a heretic hat and expect no one to agree with what I’m saying.

Luke Skywalker, much like Harry Potter, is not the character the authors and vast majority of the audience seem to think he is. Luke is seen as the true coming of the Jedi, the light side of the Force incarnate, and someone so innately good he was able to redeem his father, restore peace to the galaxy, and restore the Jedi Order.

I disagree with all of this.

I think this is what Luke thinks he did but the truth is far sadder and, well, in general worse.

First, let’s start off with Luke’s hero’s journey throughout the saga.

Luke starts your ordinary guy, he’s not bad by any means, but he’s not particularly good either. He lives in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, part of a relatively well off family, and set to inherit the world’s most boring business: moisture farming. He has dreams of going out, seeing the world, and becoming a great pilot.

Important to remember but what most people gloss over: Luke starts if not pro-empire then neutral towards it. Luke wants to attend flight school, given his desire for glory and adventure, he probably wants to join the empire’s military. He might not like Storm Troopers all that much but the fire of revolution doesn’t burn in his heart the way it does Leia’s.

Now, personally, I like this about Luke. It makes sense to me. Given where and how Luke grows up, given all he’s ever known, I think this makes perfect sense for his viewpoint. He might get hassled by stormtroopers now and then but the empire really doesn’t interfere with his life except in a) propaganda b) offering an escape from his dull existence. What would someone like Luke know about the Rebel Alliance?

The movie however... sort of goes out of its way not to acknowledge this, and this is where I start having problems with Luke. Luke gets Leia’s message about Obi-Wan Kenobi, sees the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in his life, and gets to embark on this amazing adventure. The story sort of takes it for granted that he then agrees with old hermit, Obi-Wan, that the empire is evil. This is helped because Luke does too.

In other words, Luke’s opinions are very shallow and lack any introspection. Finding himself in the company of Jedi, smugglers, and hot rebel princesses, Luke suddenly goes, “Ah, yeah, I hate the empire!” We never really see him change his mind by reflecting over what the Death Star means/the destruction of Alderaan, the death of his relatives, or his meeting with Darth Vader. Luke seems to be won over... Honestly, it feels like it’s because the Rebel Alliance let him fly a plane before the Empire did.

Then he blows up the Death Star, is a galactic hero/enemy number one of the empire, and he’s full on board resistance man and the next Jedi.

Which brings us to point number two, Luke legitimately thinks he’s a Jedi.

Obi-Wan gives him half a word of advice for maybe half of a day, watching Luke swing a sword around and get shot at by a robot. Yoda trains Luke in a swamp for, generously, maybe a week or so before Luke ditches him (against his advice even) to go save his friends. Luke has 0 training (beat out only by Rey, who wasn’t trained at all). More, he lives in a world where everything he knows of the Jedi is colored by Palpatine’s propaganda and old legends. The Jedi temples have been ransacked and presumably next to nothing of the Jedi culture remains, I can imagine Palpatine as being nothing but thorough in his elimination of the Jedi religion. The Jedi survived in Obi-Wan, Yoda, and in some sense Anakin Skywalker.

They do not survive in Luke. Luke puts on some quasi-Jedi robes, slashes his sword around a few times to save Leia from Jabba, and he says, “Now I am a Jedi!” Luke is that kid, LARPing, yelling “firebolt, firebolt, firebolt!” Only, that is, if the LARPing consisted of him representing a massacred culture thinking he’s it’s sole legitimate heir. So... Luke is playing Cowboy and Indians, and he’s the Indian.

In my opinion, Vader wasn’t so much redeemed as he always had a very high priority in finding his son and keeping him alive. The obvious way to do this would be to take Luke as an apprentice and, eventually, murder Palpatine. Well, that didn’t pan out, and eventually Anakin chooses murder-suicide to save his son’s life. It’s very touching, I’m not knocking the moment, but I do think a lot of that was Anakin vice the inherent goodness of Luke.

Anyways, Luke and pals save the day, they start a new republic and then they learn life is complicated. The new republic fails within decades, worse, it’s feeble and likely torn apart by civil war, strife, and constant infighting. It is utterly powerless, to the point where the First Order easily rises to replace the Empire and take over its vast resources (with Palpatine building a secret sith army on the side no less). That Leia rather than lead an army through the new republic in the sequels is leading her own private resistance army is very telling.

Fitting in with this, Luke starts a Jedi Academy. The prequels, and yes go ahead and slander them all you like but they’re better than many admit, taught us a few things but one of them is that it is hard to be a Jedi. To walk the path of a Jedi is to open yourself up to great temptation to use the dark side, and the dark side isn’t just some strange quirk or sense of duality, it is the equivalent of selling your soul. It is an unnatural action that leads to unnatural abilities.

You get a bunch of Force Sensitive kids in a room: you better know what you’re doing.

Luke doesn’t. He collects a handful of the remaining Jedi artifacts that Palpatine somehow didn’t destroy, opens up his Jedi School (even teaching his nephew), and within maybe five years the place is burned to the ground, his students murdered by his nephew, and his nephew runs off to join a Sith Lord who appeared out of nowhere (Luke not realizing that this was just immortal cockroach Palpatine).

Luke then becomes a grumpy old man who just can’t deal, sits on a rock drinking blue milk, and whines that for how shitty of a teach he was that Obi-Wan guy was worse for messing up with his father. Which, frankly, is very in character for Luke.

Luke has never really failed in his life, or at least, never had to recognize his own failure. So, when he does, he a) doesn’t realize what went wrong b) blames everyone but himself c) sits on a rock and waits to die.

So yeah, that’s Luke for you.

A whiney, shallow, stupid, somewhat narcissistic, hero. I... don’t dislike the concept of his character, played more straight I’d love his character, but I dislike that people talk about him like he’s the most noble creature to ever grace the planet and has this inherent understanding of a murdered people that the murdered people themselves never had.

(All the Jedi were doing it wrong! Luke made the real Jedi Order! Is something I see a lot and... well... say what you will about their philosophies, but this kid who was not a part of that culture “doing it better”... That’s real problematic folks, real problematic.)

#ask #anon #star wars #anti luke skywalker

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ashenpages · 3 years

Text

Current Projects & Emoji Voting Key

Quick disclaimer: I’m a romance writer in all aspects of the term, so most of my works will contain mature content. Engage at your own risk, you know the rules, you’re responsible for curating your own experience of the internet, blah blah blah.

This post serves as a current mock up of fic ideas I’m either actively working on or considering working on next. You can drop me an ask about any of them, or just vote via the emoji combo I’ve assigned them.

Voting lets me know you’re excited about an idea and makes it more likely I’ll actually work on it. You can vote anytime, there’re no deadlines or winner announcements, just me gauging your interest by what I see in my ask box most often.

You can also ask me about the original stuff I’m working on currently. The current WIPs are Medusa centric and the emoji for them is: 🐍

Support my original work on Ko-fi and Patreon.

- Lupin: 🤑🤠💍 These are all oneshot ideas, between 5-15K each. If you want to vote for a specific idea, send me the emojis and the number of the idea.

Born from the idea that Goemon and Zenigata probably couldn’t be an item, my brain decided to come up with how I could write for them. Goemon’s teaching an ikebana class as part of his training, and Zenigata shows up as a student on forced recreational leave for his health from the ICPO. Zenigata wins the samurai’s heart through flowers. But what happens when Lupin and Jigen find out? (Only good sexy things, I promise. These beans are in a healthy polycule--be gay, do crimes) (WIP)

Jigen/Lupin, but it's Jigen deciding to seduce Lupin while wearing his own Lupin disguise. The thief is waaaaay too into it, and some artistry is taken with the sex so that they don't mess up the disguise too much during their encoutner.

Jigen/Zenigata/Lupin where Jigen has some fantasices about Zenigata, but is pretty sure they'll never happen. Tells Lupin about them. Suddenly the fantasies are coming true, in the middle of a heist, and Jigen doesn't what to do except get swept up in the moment and enjoy. Plot twist, it's Lupin dressed up as Zenigata granting all his gunman's dreams. Plot twist again, Zenigata catches them at it.

Zenigata/Lupin, where Lupin keeps doing good things in illegal ways and Pops has to find a way to punish him for it. Good thing for Pops Lupin's a masochist?

Trans!Lupin and Trans!Jigen premise: Jigen cares for Lupin after the master thief has top surgery, since Jigen has Been There and Done That. Caring, sweet, and a little sexy. Lupin is a much better patient than Jigen.

The one time Zenigata caught Lupin in an alley and kissed him and it was Jigen in disguise. Things get sexy anyway, and Zenigata has crushes on two thieves now. Lupin and Jigen "kidnap" him later for an evening of taking care of their inspector.

The background plot of Jigen's Gravestone where we see Jigen think he's done for and try to leave Lupin. Our thief has none of it, and we get to relish in the inherent eroticism of Lupin sitting in sniper fire, knowing Jigen's got his back. This is the moment I think Jigen finally believes he can be with Lupin forever.

I love the idea of something longer and more plot driven like a Lupin special where Lupin ends up in hot water and Jigen and Fujiko have to work together to save him. Jigen and Fujiko have such an interesting relationship. They're both partners of Lupin, they don't really like each other, they constantly screw the other over, but when it really matters they take care of each other. I'd like to see that highlighted a little more and also give them space to call each other out and bicker. Nothing sexy between them, but maybe a really interesting threesome with Lupin and Fujiko in a strap on once they save their boy.

- Sonic Vampire Novelist Coffee Shop AU: 📚☕💐

Shadow is an immortal vampire who has seen the world change for the worse too many times. These days it feels like he only lives for his coffee dates with Rouge, another immortal who loves each new era they encounter, warts and all. He has to admit that the book series she got him into speaks to him, at least. If someone in this era can understand him without meeting him, it can’t all be bad. But he hardly expected the goofy blue barista at the new coffee place to understand him the way those books do.

This is a novel length romcom romp with some big feelings about what it means to watch as things change, grow, and die. Expect lots of Big gothic feelings from this one, emotionally charged kissing, and overly-adoring sex. But also expect shenanigans from everyone in the coffee shop, which include Rouge, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and more.

- Sonic Blazamy, "Like the Sun": 💖🌸💎

Amy Rose has been in love with Sonic for a while.

Or has she?

When the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are trapped as the fuel sources for Doctor Eggman’s newest evil scheme, Amy teams up with Blaze, Rouge, and Cream to save them. With Sonic out of the picture and Amy fulfilling his role, was she ever really in love with him? Or did she just want to be like him?

This is a novel length epic romance with lots of competent women and lots of romantic Blazamy content. Expect flowery hopes and dreams, badass self-actualization, and glancing hand touches that give way to cuddly and sweet sex.

- Persona 5: 🗡🍛☕

After bringing down the Metaverse twice, Ryuji didn’t think graduating high school and figuring out what to do with his life would be so hard. Akira’s back in town, and the gang’s more-or-less all in Tokyo, but everyone else seems to have a plan while Ryuji just floats. How’s he supposed to change the world when he’s not a phantom thief anymore?

This is a novel length fic that addresses how powerless one can feel being just one person in the face of all the corrupted systems and bigotry the world has to offer. It’s about holding on to what you believe in, working through the doubt, and fighting your way to a better tomorrow with the power you do have. The whole gang is queer, featured relationships being Mako x Ann, Ryuji x Akira, Futaba & Yusuke as platonic life partners. Akira is polyamorous and omnisexual, Futaba’s asexual and aromantic while Yusuke is demisexual and very romantic, Makoto’s a lesbian, Ann and Ryuji are bi, and Haru’s pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic. They’re one giant band of queer Phantom Thieves, and even if they’re not really doing the Metaverse thing anymore, they’re still gonna save the world!

Also, I’m gonna make Makoto not a cop. That super didn’t age well. Zenkichi and his boss can work on making them better/abolishing them for other better organizations.

- Hades Game: ❤️‍🔥💀

Oneshot. I just really need to elaborate on the threesome you can have with them in-game, okay? Healthy and canon poly relationships are so few and far between, so often I have to do a ton of groundwork to explain why it’s working in the fic, but NOT WITH THESE KIDS!

Get ready for Meg helping Zag and Than be better at expressing their feelings, lots of kissing, and probably pegging.

- Castlevania Animation Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: 🧛🏰🛌

Castlevania gave Alucard a threesome last season, and I just really need S4 to give me him being taken care of by his partners. They’re probably not going to give it to me, so I’ll need to do it myself. This is just an everybody loves Alucard oneshot, with the gang’s signature banter (to an extent), Sypha being sexy, and Trever being remarkably sincere. This fic is gonna feel like that Ann Hathaway picture with Trevor kissing Alucard and Sypha holding the end of Trevor’s whip while she leans her head on Alucard’s shoulder adoringly.

- Devil May Cry Nico/Lady/Trish: 💋✨😈

Nico’s gay, okay? Like really, really gay. And Lady’s bi and not into men who make her pay bills, but very into women who make amazing guns for her and demonesses with hearts who fight by her side. Trish is ace, but loves people and is pretty attached to Lady at this point. Plus it’s cute when Lady blushes and says nice things like they’re insults. I don’t have super solid ideas for them yet, and I envision these more like a polycule where Lady’s with Nico and with Trish but they’re not with each other more than seeing it as a threesome, but who knows what might happen. This is probably 1-2 oneshots depending on ideas, but might turn into a series of oneshots if people are interested (or I can’t control myself and inspiration strikes).

- Post FMA:B Blind Roy & No Alchemy Ed: 👀👑🙏

This is actually an old novel-length fic I wrote ages ago and didn’t post that didn’t turn out well because I was new to writing sex when I first wrote it. The plot is good, and is all about Roy learning to work with his blindness to reclaim his ambition of being Fuhrer and changing the system to something that actually cares for its people. He and Ed reconnect, fall into bed, and both set about working through their respective traumas about being “useless” having lost their sight/alchemy. They go to Xing as an ambassadorial party to offer Amestris’s collaboration on Al and May’s Alkahestry experiments--and uncover a plot that might threaten both kingdoms.

- Age of Calamity continuity Mipha x Revali: 🦚🐟💘

The first time Revali noticed Mipha, it was in the heat of battle. She stole his mark, taking them down with a flurry of quick blows from her spear. Violence rained from her like water--and then she healed him on her way to her next battle. No questions, no conditions, just pure kindness. The usual need to measure himself against those around him was quiet in her wake. And Revali couldn’t understand it. But how to get to know more about her? A fish and bird may fall in love, but where would they live?

This fic could be a oneshot or novel length depending on how far down the hole I fall. I need it to cover time, but it could be done in linked vignettes or with actually covering events in detail. I may elect to do a oneshot just to get it done and out of my system faster. So much fic to write, so little time.

Expect trans!Revali, polyamorous Zoras, scary competent Mipha, songbird Revali, love confessions that are made up entirely of berating Link for not loving Mipha the way she wants him to, and breaking these characters a little outside of their assigned roles in BotW and Age of Calamity. Background Link x Zelda, and Urbosa x Zelda’s Mom.

- Epic desert romance about Urbosa and Zelda’s mom: 🏜🏝⚡

I just think Urbosa should kiss women and Zelda’s mom should get more development and maybe a name or something. Also, lightning imagery/metaphors/play.

It also went way over my head that Riju wasn’t Urbosa’s daughter the first time I played BotW, so now I want to write about the Gerudo queen who refused to produce an heir. The Gerudo are fascinating and have a very interesting cutlure, but I think it could be examined from a nonbinary perspective that rejected pregnancy and wanting to find a husband. Not in like a hateful way, but in a way that examines if that’s really right for everyone. There’s that shop in town that sells Voe armor, after all. Maybe finding a husband and having children isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. And Urbosa really doesn’t want to.

#age of calamity #Devil May Cry #RoyEd #Castlevania #Breath of the Wild #Hades Game #Sonic the Hedgehog #Lupin III #Persona 5

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mytrashcanlife · 3 years

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Ashes to Ashes Jasper x Reader Part 1

It was an accident. A mistake. But Carlisle couldn’t just leave her there.

Two parents had been lost to a house fire, leaving a little girl to walk the streets looking for help. Once the proper authorities had been notified and the fire was put out, a social worker arrived at the scene to find the child, shaking and crying, with the town doctor Carlisle Cullen. The girl appeared to be fine, she was a little bruised up with a few scratches here and there, but she didn’t appear to have any burns. The social worker recognized the doctor and asked a simple enough question,

“Hey, aren’t you a foster parent? You already have the three teens right?”

Carlisle couldn’t blow their cover, so he said, “yes that’s correct.”

“Look I’m going to be honest with you, we’ve got more kids than workers and definitely more kids than parents, it’s going to take a bit before we can find her a new home. Would you be alright with holding onto her just until we can find her somewhere else to go? It would be a big help. It should only be a couple of days. Is that alright?””

Carlisle looked at the girl, wrapped in a safety blanket with tears in her eyes. She’d been through enough. Spending god knows how long at a police or fire station to be sent to who knows where to endure who knows what else wasn’t going to help her. At least he knew she’d be safe with him and his family until she could be placed somewhere else.

“Of course. Do I need to sign anything?”

“No, I’ll put it in the file system when I get to the office tomorrow. Thank you so much”

The two of them walked over to the child. She looks up at them with recognition. Everyone here knew each other, and she recognize them even if she didn’t truly know them.

“Hi what’s your name sweetie?”

“(y/n).”

“Okay (y/n) well this is Dr. Cullen, and he’s going to take you home with him until we can find you a family member or someone else to live with okay?”

“Yes ma’am. Hi Dr. Cullen.”

“Please call me Carlisle. You ready to go?”

“yeah I guess so”

To say that the others were confused would be one hell of an understatement. Esme and Rosalie recognized the look of trauma on her face and knew immediately that something was wrong. Their nurturing instincts allowed the child to adjust to the new environment a bit easier. Once the girl was calmed down fed and sleeping in the spare bedroom, all hell broke loose downstairs. Edward was not happy about this situation.

“Let me get this straight. You adopted a human child?”

“No Edward I did not. I’m not stupid. Her parents just died, and the system is a mess. We are just housing her until they find somewhere else to put her.”

“How long will that take? We leave in three weeks.”

“She probably has an aunt or a grandparent, or someone to take her. The social worker said it should only be a few days.”

Rosalie finally cuts in “Edward relax. The girl’s been through hell. She just needs a place to stay for a bit and acting like she is a burden is not going to help her. Besides it’s only temporary.”

“Exactly, only temporary.” Right?

Wrong. What they didn’t know was that the social worker never filed the case, nobody was notified and when it came time to move again she was just getting comfortable around the family. She was another child lost to the system. A mistake, but after all the girl had been through and how happy she made Rosalie and Esme, he couldn’t just leave her behind.

So that’s how you ended up with the Cullen family at 4 years old moving for what will certainly not be the last time. We’ll call it a happy accident. There was one big rule though that nobody was allowed to break: Nobody tell her.

This wasn’t actually the easiest rule to abide by because children are curious, and they say things they shouldn’t. The best example being that you noticed that your family’s eyes were all gold, but not yours. Your eyes are (e/c). Normal enough but not in your family. When asked Carlisle states that the eye color is a genetic defect and you don’t have it because you were adopted. You accepted this and many other explanations for strange occurrences in your house.

When you were around five the Volturi caught wind of your existence and to put it lightly they were not happy. They thought you were either an immortal child or at the very least you knew what they are and that means the Cullen family broke rule number one. Carlisle heard they were coming and had to call a family meeting. Edward sounded calmer than he really was.

“why do they even care about her? she’s a child! Do they think we turned her?”

“I don’t know why their coming, but they are an we need to put their mind at ease. We have nothing to fear Edward. We didn’t do anything wrong.” Rosalie joins in the conversation, voice laced with concern.

“I don’t know Carlisle, Edward’s right. Even if we didn’t do anything they don’t know that. We might be in big trouble”

“Who’s in trouble?” The family looks over to see (y/n) standing in the doorway to the living room. Esme takes care of this one.

“Nobody is in trouble dear. We just have some people coming over soon and we want to make sure they don’t think we broke any rules.”

“Who’s coming over?”

“Some extended family.”

“Do I get to meet them?” Esme looks at Carlisle for help. Edward tries to answer but Carlisle cuts him off

“absolutely n—"

“Yes, you do. Don’t worry dear everything is fine. Go back to bed”

“Okay. Goodnight”

They all say their goodnights and you go back upstairs to bed.

“How did none of us notice her?”

“We were too busy fighting, now Edward stop panicking it’s going to be fine”

“You’re going to get her, if not all of us killed.”

A few days later they did arrive. You met them in a field a few miles away from the house. They looked at you in confusion. Aro turned to Carlisle who stood far closer than normal to prevent (y/n) from overhearing any part of their conversation.

“She’s completely human.?”

“Yes. We ended up with her by accident she doesn’t know anything, and she doesn’t need to know anything. She’s perfectly normal and I would like to keep it that way.”

Jane cuts in, “How do explain us being here?”

“She thinks you’re extended family. Any question she’s had about appearances so far I’ve convinced her is nothing more than genetic defect. Eventually we’ll have to leave her but she’s a child with literally nowhere else to go.”

“Bring her here.” Carlisle looked back at you on Emmet’s shoulders laughing and hesitates. “We just want to speak with her. Bring her here and stand down.”

“(y/n), This is uncle Aro he and the others want to talk to you is that okay? I’ll be over there with the family if you need anything.”

“Okay.” You hop off Emmet’s Shoulders and run over to these new family members. “Hi. My name is (y/n) and I’m five. I’m adopted, but that’s okay cause my family loves me. You’re Uncle Aro right?”

“Yes dear.” You turn to Jane with a look of awe.

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Jane.”

“Hi Jane. You’re pretty.” Jane smiles slightly.

“Thank you.”

You turn back to Aro. “Carlisle said that you think he did something wrong, but he didn’t do anything. I promise. The whole family is really nice to me, and they would never hurt me. One time a boy pulled my hair and Emmet gave him a look so mean he ran away. I promise they didn’t do anything, and Carlisle said that if I shook your hand that you would know I wasn’t lying.” You hold your hand out and Aro takes it. He seems dazed for a moment before looking back down at you smiling.

“I believe you. How about you go back over to your family and send Carlisle back over here okay?”

“Okay.” You bound back over to your family and tell Carlisle to go back over to uncle Aro.

“So? What’s the decision?”

“She lives. But we’ll be visiting her every year to make sure she’s oblivious. Let’s see how long you can keep up this façade.”

“You know you can’t keep this up for her entire life Carlisle. Eventually she’ll have questions you can’t answer. She’ll either turn or she’ll die.”

“She will do neither Jane.”

“Suit yourself, but you know the rules. Don’t break them.”

“We will return this time next year. Be ready.”

“I will. Thank you. Goodbye.” Carlisle turns around to find you on the ground making a flower crown while Rosalie was braiding your hair. “(y/n) come say by to your cousins and uncle.”

“Okay.”

Given the circumstances you grow up pretty normal. You make friends in your classes while you’re at each school for a few years before the family comes up with some strange reason as to why you have to move. You’re bubbly and happy and appreciate the inherent sanctity of human life. You take up sewing as a hobby, learning it from Esme who enjoyed nothing more than teaching you. You tried to join sports like cheerleading but with all the moving team sports didn't work. Emmet however did take you rock climbing consistently so there was that outlet for all your energy. You even enjoy your yearly visits from the “other side of the family.” Making small gifts for them each time they visit. At one point you even asked if you could go visit them instead since they live in Italy, but Carlisle said no in such a way you knew better than to ask again. Jane begins to return the gifts you make with her own, sometimes bringing small trinkets or even clothing for you. Carlisle is surprised when you tell them his decision, and Jane actually looks disappointed that you can't visit them. For two more towns and 12 more years everything is great. Until It was time to move again this time to somewhere Carlisle liked to call home: Forks Washington.

#jasper #jasper cullen #jasper cullen x reader #fanfiction #this took forever #twilight #twilight fanfiction #twilight renascence

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balillee · 3 years

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a ramble on why i'm obsessed with the idea that dream's like some immortal chaos deity and what that might do for his character:

THIS MIGHT NOT BE THE FIRST TIME HE'S RULED THE WORLD

take into account the village that went mad and you have a massive opportunity for civilisations before and after that leading up to the events of the Dream SMP. Dream living in each one, propositioning himself as a ruler each time and watching on excitedly as he pushes people in the directions he needs them to go so he can watch them dissolve and crumble under his feet. He may have started out happy and friendly but eventually became bored of it, turning to sadism to get his kicks because he knows his life is unending and it won't have any longterm consequences. He's seen civilisations in poverty starve to death, he's seen and/or committed genocides, he's seen wars shatter nations beyond repair, and this just so happens to be the civilisation that we, the viewers, are allowed to see - it's good to assume from that standpoint that the end of the lore for the SMP is the death or the end of Dream as a character, so that finally a civilisation can learn to flourish.

It also makes sense for him to be obsessed with Tommy, something I've made a post about before, because you can argue that Dream's never met someone as chaotic, hopeful and determined as Tommy is. He's met people as ideologically kind and as methodically ruthless as Tubbo, he's met bringers of death that he can bend to his whim like Techno, he's met ruthless dictators like Schlatt, he's met tactically weak diplomats like Quackity, he's met easy-to-break revolutionaries like Wilbur - he's played with them all before and he's enjoyed messing with them. He knows how to manipulate and break them like it's the easiest thing in the world because he's done it countless times before.

But then there's Tommy. Dream's never met a Tommy before, someone who off the bat will take the chance, no matter how stupid, to disobey him. And when Dream asserts his dominance over this annoying kid, he doesn't break like the others, he resists to try and claim what's rightfully his. He inspires others by challenging the status quo and for the first time, he sees people break away and try to resist him rather than whoever he was hiding behind. It makes sense for Dream to love it every time L'Manberg loses, or when Tommy loses, because it's so satisfying to do something new to someone so hopeful for once.

Why do you think we focused on how Dream was able to gaslight Tommy for a week and a half? Because Dream found it more fun than anyone else he could have done it to - manipulating others is child's play, he's done it before because he's met every type of person. But Tommy? Tommy becomes fun because he needs to think of new and exciting ways to break him. Making him suffer is enjoyable, because it reaffirms Dream's power, makes him feel less threatened (and plus it's likely he could feel humiliated that out of everyone, it's this irrational sixteen year old that gets under his skin.)

Techno's fun, too, mainly because he can always manipulate someone like Techno, an unending anti-villain, to do exactly what they swore not to do and give Dream his power back. Techno is Dream's perfect weapon, and each person Dream's seen that looks like Techno did the same.

Someone like Karl, who reads the history books from civilisations past, makes Dream remember to hide his identity. Clay, Cornelius, Dream - they're all the exact same guy, it's just that he needs to change so that the history books don't pick up on it. (This kind of makes Karl threatening to Dream in a way and that's funny as fuck)

If when Tommy and Tubbo go to face Dream 'one last time' they don't find where Dream actually lives, I'll riot. We all joke about Dream's homelessness and I'm convinced that it's just a bit, bc I so hope that Dream lives in this inhuman-like mansion or citadel with traps at every turn. Instead of a bed, he just has a place where he recharges. He doesn't have a kitchen, he has a weapons inventory from nations past. He has a library of every book he's ever found left over like relics, so he can point at the journals and think - 'hey! that's me!' He has a museum of relics and trinkets like crowns, jewels and daggers, things with inherent worth - but this clingy sixteen year old weirdo has an attachment to two pieces of vinyl with no practical worth, just sentiment.

And Dream's thinking, for the first time, that's he's going to have the most fun he's ever had.

It also makes the idea that Ranboo and Dream know each other even more exciting because one could theorise that one of those ancient civilisations could have been the end, hence why, from a storytelling standpoint, it's closed off to everyone. Dream can't keep doing what he does so he has to hide the evidence, but he allows this half-enderman with memory problems out because he can't remember what happened, and Dream's going to torture him with that for kicks. Ranboo's the one that can stay around because not only is he fun to fuck with, but he can also not remember it. He might be able to put the pieces together about Dream's puppetmaster-like nature, but like hell could someone as nervous and depressed as Ranboo do anything about it on his own, let alone convince others of the same.

Conversely, Ranboo's anti-sides rhetoric could stem from having witnessed a civilisation from long ago tear itself to shreds because of Dream's ideological division of the people, and while he may not remember Dream as a person, or even that civilisation, it's most definitely made an impact on how he views the world. It could be why he has Dream as a voice in his head talking to him, because only now has he started to recognise it as Dream, because he's met Dream again.

ughhhghhhgghghh sorry rambling i just want this to be canonised so i can have even more of a reason to want to roundhouse kick the fuck out of c!dream also i want it to be so satisfying if and when tommy finally beats him n gets the discs back bc i don't know if literally any characters other than him, tubbo(?) and ranboo know that when dream's dead they'll literally all be free plus tommy deserves it he's seen enough

#dream smp #dream smp headcanon #dream smp theory #dreamwastaken #tommyinnit #ranboo #dsmp #dsmp headcanon #dsmp theory #tommyinnit mcyt #ranboo mcyt

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anonniemousefics · 4 years

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The Nine Terrifying Moons | Chapter Three

Fandom: The Folk of the Air | Jude + Cardan

Synopsis: Based on the response to this post. :) Jude’s not sure what she expected motherhood to be like, but it isn’t this.

(SO MUCH FLUFF HERE. Really. Just. The fluffiest. I can’t help myself.)

Chapter Three: The Third

I think maybe I am meant to be a cautionary tale, not a happy ending.

I think that someone who has manipulated and lied and schemed as much as I have is destined only for tragedy.

And now it’s finally come for me.

I think this over and over again, like a spell I’m chanting to grant myself some measure of grim acceptance, while Cardan and I ride a ragwort horse all the way to the mortal realm. It’s the best course of action we can come up with in the moment of panic.

The moment I knew we were facing a potentially devastating complication, I wanted – no, needed – a human doctor.

Pregnancy is rare among the Folk, and I now find I’m not interested in trusting faerie midwives with a decidedly human condition. If there is something wrong with me, or with our baby, I want to know what it is, everything about it. I don’t trust anyone who might want to strike a deal for my child’s wellbeing or concoct some potion that, while saving the pregnancy, also gives our baby a third eye or snaggle-teeth or an appetite for blood. I’m also having flashbacks of a conversation long ago with Oriana, when she divulged details of Oak’s horrific birth. How there’d been complications that had cost Liriope her life. How Oriana herself had carved the baby out of her friend’s stomach.

I shudder hard at the recollection and press my cheek hard against Cardan’s back as we ride, my face between his shoulder blades. Hard pass. On every bit of that. Just – one massive hard pass. We are finding a real doctor.

Cardan didn’t even argue. Though he insisted it was time to tell The Court of Shadows, if only for safety reasons while we made an unannounced, unplanned emergency run to the mortal realm.

Nothing goes like either of us had hoped. There are no tears of joy. There are only tight, grim expressions and tense words while plans are made. How we will prevent our enemies from learning of the child and our absence. How we will remain protected while among mortals.

I have hardly a word of help to offer, and that alone is horrifying. I have always schemed and survived – it’s what I am. But there, instead, I can only sit with a hand at my flat stomach, my sole focus on willing this little rebel in me to hear her mother’s first command.

Don’t go. Please. I love you.

Please stay.

Please.

I’ve resented this for weeks, and now I’m begging for the nausea, the aches, the exhaustion to stay – all of it. Any reassurance that I’m not losing this newfound love before I’ve even really gotten to know it.

But I also wonder if I should just accept fate. I have always felt from the beginning that I did not deserve this. That I am stealing a happiness that I have not earned.

“How are you faring?” Cardan asks me over his shoulder, the whine of the wind in my ears. We’re somewhere over the sea, jostled by the roll of the ragwort horse’s gallop beneath us.

“The same,” I answer. Sick. Dizzy. Terrified of what comes next. Unconsciously, I grip his body to mine harder. He’s tense, every muscle on edge. This is unlike any journey we’ve made yet. There’s nothing to fight, and still everything to lose.

“Nearly there,” says Cardan, but it sounds like he’s saying it more for his own benefit. He hates the journey over the sea, the precariousness of ragwort horse travel. I’m not in any state to offer reassurances, or even tease him to lighten the mood.

Sure enough, the clouds part, and the city lights along the coast of Maine wink up at us. It’s evening, and dark beneath a heavy rain cloud, and as soon as we’re low enough, we’re being pelted with sheets of rain. By the time the ragwort horse alights its oaken-hooves on the pavement, Cardan and I are both soaked to the skin.

We dismount, invisible beneath a glamour, at the far end of a hospital parking lot. The sign at the entrance glows with a red cross and the name, Down East Community Hospital. It was the best I could think of to do at a moment’s notice: instruct the ragwort horse to find us an emergency room.

I wrap my arms around myself as Cardan holds out a hand to gather up the horse. The leaves of its mane and the bark-like coat of its body begin to curl in on itself, like a plant rolling in on itself for the night. A moment later, it’s only a few leafy twigs that Cardan can hide in his pocket.

We both look absurd, and I’m just now realizing it. We look like we’ve just run out of a community theatre dress rehearsal for a low-budget melodrama. Cardan’s tried to dress down, but he’s still Cardan, and he’s wearing tight black trousers and tall boots over his calves. He’s thrown one of the zip-up hoodies I keep in my wardrobe for trips to the mortal realm over a loose white shirt. He also must have been feeling particularly festive this morning after last night’s romp, and he’d gone and added a bit of kohl to his eyes before I’d woken up and shit hit the fan. And he’s still wearing gold rings all over his fingers and in his pointed ears. Combined with his soaked, inky hair, he looks a bit like a member of an 80’s rock cover band who’s recovering from being pushed into a pool.

It’s kind of nice. He rarely looks a mess. It makes me feel like we’re in this together, at least.

For my part, I didn’t let Tatterfell braid my auburn hair today, and now it’s just long and windblown, so I’ve tried to pull it all to one side to keep it managed. I’m wearing a simple pair of brown trousers with little silken flats that were my least flashy pair of shoes. I’ve got a shirt and olive-colored vest on beneath a hoodie similar to Cardan’s that was supposed to keep me warm, but now it’s sopping wet.

We both pulls the hoods on our sweatshirts up over our heads as we make a mad dash for the automatic sliding doors of the ER, racing against the onslaught of rain. Once we’re inside the vestibule between sliding doors, I stop a moment to grab Cardan’s arm and gather myself. He puts a bejeweled hand over mine, his expression tightened in concern.

“I’ve never done this before,” I confess, breathless. Hospitals, emergency rooms, doctors. It’s all foreign to me.

“I’ve done it even less.” Cardan’s looking more pale by the minute. The rising terror in both of us is palpable.

“I should call Vivi,” I spout, and Cardan’s nodding furiously in agreement, for once graciously not pointing out how he’s been saying this very thing for weeks.

But when I look around, there’s not a phone in sight. There’s only a poorly lit waiting room on the other side of the glass vestibule, and bored-looking nurses waiting at intake windows. Shit. Shit. How do mortals do this? How to they get treatments for mortal ailments and weaknesses and not fall to pieces fretting over their inherent, inevitable vulnerability in the process?

Suddenly, the surety of immortality is looking rather cowardly by comparison.

“Maybe one of the nurses will let me commandeer a phone,” I mutter, and I let my fingers slide from Cardan’s arm to his hand. My palm is starting to sweat when he laces our fingers together, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

The glass door to the waiting room slides with a hissing whisper, and inside there are people crowded in the cheap chairs lining the walls. Somewhere, a toddler is wailing out of sheer boredom while the evening news anchors jabber on a TV mounted in the far corner above a potted plant. Cardan’s already drawing stares with his ominous, messy appearance. He found a beanie in the pocket of the sweatshirt to cover the pointed tips of his ears, but there’s still kohl streaking his prominent cheekbones. I’m gonna need to clean him up at some point.

Right now, all I’m focused on is slipping into the first open intake seat and figuring out how in the hell I’m going to see a doctor for the first time in my mortal life. I am going to be brave. I have trained for nothing less.

“Hi, how can we help you today?” says a warm-looking middle-aged nurse behind the desk. She has short grey hair and floral scrubs, and a pair of readers perched on the bridge of her nose. Her badge says her name is Josie.

“Um.” My mouth feels dry, but I push on anyway. “I am—I am pregnant, and, um, I’m having some…” I draw in a shaking breath. Why is this so hard? “Some bleeding. I think I need to see a doctor right away.”

“Of course, honey,” Josie says, and peers over her readers. “Have you spoken with your OB?”

“I don’t have one,” I shake my head, my face starting to flush as Josie’s concern increases. I’ve never felt like I belonged in the mortal realm, and it’s never felt more apparent that I’m an outsider.

“Okaaay,” Josie says, slowly, adjusting her readers as she turns to her computer. “Let’s get you registered. Name?”

I hesitate again. I’ve never given my name in any sort of official capacity here among mortals. Especially not since I’d gotten married. What do I want to be called?

“Jude Duarte-Greenbriar,” I hear myself answer. From the chair beside me, Cardan titters a little amused laugh to himself and then bites it back when I shoot him a look. He likes the sound of it, too.

“Okaaay,” Josie says again, pecking at her keyboard. “I’m gonna need you to spell that for me, honey.”

I appall Josie further as the registration process yields the fact that I have neither a driver’s license nor an insurance card. With each of Josie’s judgmental sighs, I can sense Cardan stiffening with repressed irritation next to me, and it’s only stressing me out more. I should have had a talk with him first about promising not to curse anyone. I’m half-expecting Josie to sprout cat ears at any minute.

“While we can’t legally decline services based on insurance,” Josie says, doing little to suppress her concern, “I will need you to sign this agreement that says you understand that, since you are not presenting insurance today, you will be personally responsible for the entire cost of today’s visit.” And she shifts a clipboard toward me.

“Oh, look, love,” Cardan suddenly chimes in. He slides a wet leaf from his pocket across the registration desk as his voice takes on the heady, dangerous quality of magic. He’s conjuring a glamour. “I think you can see all of the insurance information you require here.”

“Oh, good, you found your card!” Josie exclaims, delighted, as she takes the leaf and begins happily clacking away at her keyboard.

“Do not get carried away,” I hiss at Cardan while Josie’s distracted. “That should be a one time thing.”

But Cardan just slits his kohl-lined eyes at me, looking like the smug bastard he’s always been, and leans an elbow on the registration desk, throwing Josie a coy smile. The glamour in his voice when he speaks again is just as sinfully seductive.

“And Josie, my sweet,” he says, “you’ll let my wife borrow your phone to speak with her sister, won’t you, dearest?”

“Of course, Mr. Greenbriar,” Josie replies, with the charmed-sweet smile of the glamoured. She shifts her desk phone to me, handing me the handset. “Just press nine for outgoing calls, honey,” she tells me.

I’m frowning at Cardan’s wicked smirk as I accept the phone.

“I don’t think that was entirely necessary,” I whisper to him while Josie types away. He grins at me. I don’t really want to admit that he’s just been pretty useful, and he knows it.

Regardless of how ill-gotten this privilege is, I do need Vivi. I dial her cell phone, one of two numbers I know, and wait while it rings.

And rings.

“She might be screening her calls,” I say to Josie, sheepishly. “Her father is…” Oh, how to describe what Madoc is like these days. “…over-bearing and tricky.” And I hang up and try again. Josie gives a tight, uncomfortable smile, peering over her readers.

“You are not concerned about how unusual this is,” Cardan tells her, the glamour dripping off his voice, and I smack his arm to get him to stop. Josie settles again as the phone keeps ringing.

I have to hang up and dial two more times before Vivi finally picks up. She sounds irritated when she answers.

“Vivi, this is Jude,” I say, slumping in relief that she’s finally answered.

“Jude? Seriously? What?” The annoyance in her voice vanishes as she’s scrambling to understand. “You’re calling me? Where are you? Are you ok?”

“I’m at the Down East Community Hospital emergency room,” I say. “Can you come?”

“Oh, my God.” It sounds like Vivi’s suddenly frantically looking for her keys. “Yes, I’m coming. I’ll be there. Why are you there? What’s going on?”

“It’s a lot to explain over the phone,” I say, slowly, white-knuckling the handset. “I’m ok, and Cardan’s here, but I just really need you.” I hate it more than anything, but I can’t keep the frightened younger sister out of my voice now that I’m actually talking to Vivi about this. The first rush of relief hits me when Vivi replies without hesitation:

“Ok. It’s gonna be ok. I’m on my way.”

I let out a long breath as I hand the phone back to Josie.

“The nurse will call you back when they’re ready for you,” says Josie, and gestures to the crowded waiting room. “Have a seat.”

“Or--” Cardan starts, leaning forward, and I know he’s about to throw out another glamour to speed things along. In the blink of an eye, I clap a hand over his mouth before he can say another word.

“Thank you,” I tell Josie, through a gritted smile, and urge Cardan to move along.

“Your moral stance on glamours ought to have a loophole where our child is concerned,” Cardan gripes as we shuffle to the nearest available two chairs.

“You Folk are like addicts with glamours,” I snap back as we take a seat. “You don’t know when to stop.”

“I believe I’ve proven myself capable of great restraint,” Cardan says, looking miffed for a moment until a People magazine on a nearby table catches his eye and his curiosity of mortals gets the better of him.

He has the right idea, I think. Distraction would be the key to getting my mind off the blood and not falling apart right now. I’ve done everything I can at this point, and now we must wait.

I busy myself for a moment by wrapping the cuff of my sleeve over my fingers and wiping off the rain-splattered streaks of kohl off Cardan’s face, so that the father of my child looks less like the troubled D-list celebrities his People magazine is trashing. He’s not drawing any less attention, but there’s not much either of us can do about that. If you’re not accustomed to the allure of the Folk, it’s nigh impossible to not stare and stare and try to decipher what it is about them that’s so otherworldly. But at least now they’re staring for the right reasons and not at his ruined eyeliner.

With nothing more at arm’s length to distract me, I rest my head against the wallpaper behind me and let my vision go unfocused in the general direction of the TV in the corner. I don’t want to think about the whining toddler in the room, who’s mad at his mother for not bringing the right stuffed animal with them to the hospital. What would I do with a half-human child in Faerie who fell ill or wounded? What would we do? Would the land let Cardan heal him? Would we have to make this journey again? What if I forgot the right stuffed animal, too??

Amazing that I’m suddenly assuming this child is going to survive whatever’s happening now, I realize, and this worry spiral is helping no one.

Once upon a time, I’d been the girl determined to become a thing feared. What has happened inside me, that I’m now this terrified woman? I hate it. I hate it, and I don’t know how to stop it.

“You’re not afraid of that everything will change?” I remember asking Cardan, three moons ago. I had thrown out the last of my birth control that day. We’d snuck away from a revel to lie beneath the massive tree that grew out of the top of the palace of Elfhame, staring at the stars above and dreaming of what they could hold.

Cardan looked to me, his hands behind his head in the loam, his crown slightly askew. He smiled, and the moonlight made him almost too beautiful to bear.

“I cherish every change you’ve ever brought me, Jude,” he said, and he stretched out a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers softly lingering at its rounded edges. “I don’t see why this should be any different.”

“You’ve not always felt so gracious about the changes I’ve foisted upon you,” I pointed out. “And you don’t get to exile me now if my parenting pisses you off.”

I’m not sure what I thought he’d think of such a statement, but it was out in the night air anyway. His gold-rimmed eyes darkened as he pulled his hand back, folding it over his chest. I watched him as he stared up at the stars again, waiting for his response, and with each second, regret began to sink in.

“I consider myself fairly thick-skinned,” he said at last, “but that was uncalled for.”

“I was teasing--” I started, but he shot me a dark look.

“There was a measure of truth in your voice,” he countered. “You don’t lie as well as you think you do.”

“I don’t see what you’re so put out about,” I huffed, pulling back to glare at the night sky. “You weren’t the one living in exile.”

“Not this again,” Cardan groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face. “Five years, Jude. It’s been five years,” he sighed into his palms.

“And now we’re discussing children, and it’s a very large and potentially aggravating change,” I said. “Maybe I am a little wary.”

“Of me?” The moment I saw the unguarded devastation on Cardan’s face, it was like I’d slapped him, and not in the fun way. I wanted to be swallowed down by the loam, covered in a grassy grave. Everything about this was awful. I wanted children with this man. Why was I dredging up ancient history?

But Cardan had been right. There’d been a measure of truth to it. It’s been a deliriously wonderful five years, but we are not entirely new people. We have a terrible past. And I feared what demons a significant change like this could summon.

When I didn’t answer right away, Cardan sat up so his back was to me, burying his head in his hands.

“Cardan…” I shifted so that I was propped up on my hands.

“What else can I give you to make this right?” he fretted to the ground in front of him. “I have given you everything. Every part of me, everything you see before you. It was wrong for both of us to take our games as far as we did, but I would have thought by now--”

“It was an off-handed comment made in poor taste.” I wanted to put a stop to everything that was happening. Rewind the whole evening.

Instead, he looked over his shoulder at me, visibly aching.

“I will not be like my father. I refuse it,” he retorted, and when I cocked my head to the side, not understanding, he went on. “Eldred collected consorts and sired children the way some people curate shoes: to suit his vanity. And I have that in spades already; there’s no need to spawn more. What I would want for a child, more than anything, is to not know what it is to grow up as an accessory. To not fear that his mother will be discarded. Jude, if you cannot trust so little of me, then this is poorly timed. Perhaps we need another five years. Or ten. Or however long you require.”

I sat up and scooted next to him, tucking my chin against his shoulder.

“I trust you,” I assured him in a whisper, and, as if he couldn’t help it, his eyes closed as he leaned his head towards mine. He smelled like oakwood and leather, like everything I’ve ever wanted. “I would not still be with you if I did not trust you.”

I wanted to push back the thick curls from his forehead, and so I did. And held my palm against his jaw as I leaned my forehead to his while the stars twinkled overhead.

Five years later, and sometimes we’re still finding little bits of armor that need to come off. For me, becoming a fearsome thing is not an option for handling motherhood, just as Cardan refuses to mirror his father’s vanity. But when I take off this bit of armor, this need to be feared and respected, it feels as if there is nothing underneath yet. Only vulnerability. Only terror.

I think of it now, in the ER waiting room of the Down East Community Hospital, while I snake my arm through his, looking at him while he’s ogling People magazine. He looks a mess, and there is no one I trust more. I’m still not convinced we’re shining examples of excellent would-be parents. But I’m afraid and vulnerable in the worst ways, and there’s no one I’d rather see me through it.

“Eldred would never have done something like this for any of his consorts,” I point out to him in a whisper, and he looks back at me with a pleased smirk.

“You are my wife,” he indicates, and gives my cold knuckles a swift kiss before turning back to whatever filth is engrossing him in People.

“Jude Duarte-Greenbriar?” There’s a nurse at the emergency room door calling my name. I draw in a breath. Here we go.

The nurse in blue scrubs takes my vitals and makes us somewhat comfortable in a makeshift space where we’re surrounded by taupe-colored curtains on three sides while I wait on a hospital bed. There’s a squeaky grey plastic chair for Cardan to sit on, and no more TV or People magazine – just the assurance that a doctor will see me soon. And then we’re left with our dread to stare at the taupe curtains around us, listening to the squeak of hurried shoe soles against linoleum and the occasional beeping of hospital pagers. The air is acrid, like someone’s tried to scrub it clean, and it’s making my stomach lurch. It must show on my face as I swallow hard against the rising bile, because Cardan swiftly hands me a blue plastic barf bag that the nurse has left him in charge of. He’s wary of my empty threats to aim for his shoes.

“Jude, are you decent?” calls a voice from the other side of the curtain. “You have visitors.”

The curtains scrape against their tracks on the ceiling, and I can’t hold back a relief grin at the sight of Vivi and Heather.

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” It’s all Vivi can say as she sweeps in to wrap me in a hug.

“Hey,” Heather graciously greets Cardan while the two are awkward to the side. She’s looking effortlessly cool, with her shoulder-length pink hair in soft waves. She has holes in her jeans in all the right places, and she’s wearing a breezy, colorful boho top that shows off her brown shoulders. I try to give her a wave while Vivi is squeezing the life out of me.

“What are you doing here?” Vivi demands when she pulls away, holding me by the shoulders. She’s given her golden hair a short, edgey chop that almost hides the pointed tips of her half-fae ears when it falls the right way. She tends to favor t-shirts and jeans, but today she’s in tight black pants and a grey v-neck under a jacket, and I’m hoping I haven’t interrupted a date.

“Well.” I shift a glance between the two of them, simultaneously gladdened that they’re here and nervous with how I now I have break the news. “This isn’t how I wanted you to find out…” And then Vivi gasps.

“Are you pregnant?!” she squeaks.

“Oh, my God, V,” Heather rolls her eyes. “You can’t ask people if they’re pregnant.”

“She’s right, though,” I interject. “I am.”

“Jude!” Vivi exclaims, fondly, and takes my face in her hands, and, for a brief moment, I realize this is all I’ve been wanting for weeks. I grin, sheepishly. Then Vivi narrows her cat-like eyes at Cardan.

“You knocked up my sister?” she jabs.

“Bold of you to assume it’s mine,” he quips back, and Vivi feigns a disgusted gasp as throw the empty barf bag at him.

“Force of habit,” Cardan tells Heather with a shrug.

“Congratulations, Cardan,” Heather replies, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“But why are you here?” Vivi turns to me again. “Does Taryn know? Does Madoc?”

“No on both counts,” I shake my head. “It’s early. And we’re here because--” Ugh, I hate this. I hate this. “I started bleeding.”

“Oh, no.” Heather’s face is etched with genuine concern. It’s been a roller coaster of a few minutes.

“But why are you here?” Vivi tries again, and I see what she’s getting at. Why not be seen to by the royal midwives?

“I’m mortal,” I say, quietly. “This is a mortal thing. I felt like I needed a mortal doctor.”

And Vivi takes my face in her hands.

“I completely, one-hundred-percent agree,” she says, whole-heartedly, and there’s relief there, too. She’s always wanted me to spend more time in the mortal realm.

We crowd around the hospital bed for a while to catch up. Heather makes a run to the vending machine to bring back some snacks, and soon the tightness in my chest is releasing and unwinding. This was the distraction I needed. For a few minutes there, I could almost forget what had brought us to this weird, curtained-off corner to begin with.

But then the curtain scrape on the track again. There’s an orderly waiting there in blue scrubs, pushing a wheelchair.

“They’re ready for you in ultrasound now, Jude,” he tells me, and indicates that I’m supposed to ride in the chair. I bristle at the gesture. I’m not sure of the last time I’ve been asked to do something so vulnerable and humiliating. I am not ill. I don’t need this.

Vivi notices and puts a hand at my arm.

“It’s just standard hospital procedure, Jude,” she says, in her tone of voice she uses to convince Oak to eat vegetables.

So I comply. Heather and Vivi tell us they’ll wait for us to get back, and then we’re off. Cardan follows the orderly, and every once and awhile, I hear him having to jog to catch up – he’s easily distracted by what all the mortals are up to in this place.

I’m wheeled into a dark room with an exam table. Next to it is a bunch of strange equipment I’ve never seen before – screens and wands and all sort of buttons. A technician waits for us there, a woman in pink scrubs with a badge that says her name is Brenna. Her dark, curly hair is pulled back tight against her scalp, and she has kind brown eyes that smile when she tells me to make myself comfortable on the exam table.

“And is this Dad?” Brenna wants to know, cheerfully waving Cardan in to have a seat on a grey plastic chair next to me.

“Not my dad,” I say, not understanding the question at first. Then it dawns on me. “I mean, he’s the father, yes. Of the baby.” Oh, my God. This is off to a great start. Cardan’s trying very hard to not laugh outright at me and failing miserably. His laugh comes out like one long snort.

“Happens all the time,” Brenna says, with another cheerful wave, which makes me wonder why she’s still asking it, then.

“First baby?” Brenna now wants to know, making small talk while she’s queuing up her equipment.

“First everything,” I reply, hoping that will explain my nerves. “First baby, first ultrasound, first try.”

“Oh.” Brenna sounds impressed and looks to Cardan as she wheels around in her swivel chair. “Nice shootin’, Tex,” she tells him, with a wink.

“Thank you, Brenna,” Cardan accepts graciously, puffing out his chest a little. I roll my eyes.

“This may be the only time I’m ever complimented on my marksmanship,” he tells me. “Let me have this moment.”

“All right!” Brenna interrupts. “Let’s see what you’re cookin’ in there, mama.”

She rolls up my shirt and tucks in some scratchy paper into my leggings. Then squirts some cold gel across my abdomen. I watch in fascination while she rolls her device over my stomach, and then she turns her screen to us.

“And here’s your little guy,” she says. “Or gal. Can’t tell yet, obviously.”

For a moment, time stops.

Next to me, Cardan draws in a breath.

Something squirmy and alive curls and stretches in the grainy black and white pixels of Brenna’s screen. It doesn’t look quite human. Or fae. It looks kind of alien, if I’m being honest. But I can see its tiny limbs and the outline of its perfectly round head, and it’s moving. Like a manic little seahorse, our little shrimp is bobbing all over the place, alive and well.

“Looking good,” Brenna says, and Cardan barks out a surprised laugh. I’m smiling so hard my face might break.

“Oh, I was sure I’d stabbed it,” Cardan sighs in relief, slumping in his seat, and it’s my turn to laugh.

“That’s not actually possible,” Brenna tells him, and maybe now he’ll believe it. “Let’s see if we can hear the heartbeat.”

She clicks and clacks at some buttons, then turns a knob. Pushes a little harder on my abdomen.

A fluttering, steady whooshing sound fills the speakers in the room. I don’t know when I grabbed Cardan’s hand, but I’m squeezing it hard now. I glance at him. He’s utterly transfixed on the screen, his dark eyes wide, his lips parted. He looks like how I feel when I’m in bearing witness to great and ancient magic.

This isn’t all vomit and exhaustion. This is happening. This is real.

We are making something new. Something entirely unique. Like magic.

“Ok, this might be your issue.” Brenna breaks the enchantment, zooming in on something dark on her screen. My heart, which moments before felt like it might burst, squeezes and contracts in panic now.

“This is a sub-chorionic hematoma,” she says, pointing to the screen and making some notes. “The doctor will explain all this to you.”

“What is it?” Cardan’s voice is tight, panic thinly-veiled. “Is it dangerous?”

“They’re pretty common,” says Brenna, not looking at us while she takes measurements and notes. Like she drops these kinds of bombs regularly. “It’s basically an accumulation of blood between the uterine wall and the fetal membrane. It can cause bleeding, especially as the baby gets bigger and jostles it around. They usually resolve without much issue.”

“Usually?” Cardan’s not assuaged.

“Well, again,” Brenna says, looking at him sidelong, “the doctor will read this and give his advice. But it can increase the risk of miscarriage in some cases. Not always, though. The doctor will tell you how he wants you to treat it, but it usually involves some bed rest or limited activity, nothing too strenuous or crazy. Don’t go horse-back riding!” And she laughs as if only a crazy person would get on a horse while pregnant.

I look to Cardan. He looks to me. It’s hit us at the same time.

The ragwort horse.

How the hell are we getting home?

“Huh.” I barely had time to digest my realization about the ragwort horse before Brenna was back with more. She swivels the device on my stomach around some more. Cocks her head to the side.

“Are either of you a twin?” she asks.

Cardan points at me like I’ve done something wrong he doesn’t want to be blamed for.

“Why?” I ask, slowly, cautiously.

“It does run in families,” Brenna says, and turns the screen to us again. “And I’m seeing two babies here.” She looks back at Cardan. “And on the first try, Tex,” she says, looking impressed again.

Now, nothing feels real. I think I might leave my body. There are two squirmy aliens in the black and white screen, the lazier of the two now floating into view. Brenna adjusts the knobs some more to bring the new heartbeat into focus, just as strong as the first.

“Jude.” I can’t decipher what Cardan’s feeling now. He looks unlike I’ve ever seen him before. Something between elation and sheer dread is warring between his wide eyes and furrowed brow. He grips at the beanie over his hair like he’s trying to keep his own head from flying off.

“Are you and your twin identical?” Brenna asks. I nod, stupidly.

“These, too,” she nods, and points at the screen. “See: they’re sharing a sac.” She draws in a deep breath. “This does elevate the risk more, with the hematoma. The doctor will go over all of this with you. But I’ll bet he’ll want you on some kind of bed rest. Weekly check-ups. That sort of thing.” And then she squints hard at the screen. “What is that?” she wonders aloud. “Is that a tail?”

“You don’t see a tail,” Cardan says, but he’s so flustered and shell-shocked, he’s forgotten to use the glamour.

“I think I might, though.” Brenna squints harder.

“You don’t see a tail,” Cardan says, louder and hurried, this time with the weight of magic heavy in his tone. “Everything you see looks normal to you.”

A glamoured smile flutters over Brenna’s pleasant features as she lifts the device from my belly and clicks off her equipment.

“Everything looks normal,” she hums, happily. “Congratulations, you two.”

“Everything but the hematoma, right?” I cock my head to the side as she rolls away her swivel chair. “The doctor will speak to us about that.”

“What hematoma?” Brenna’s still smiling as she stands with her clipboard. “Everything looks normal. I’m going to call an orderly, but pretty much you’re free to go. Congratulations!”

“Cardan,” I accuse under my breath as she leaves, leveling a glare at him.

“You are carrying twins.” He’s just agape at me, either unaware or unrattled by how the poor wording in his glamour just muddled everything.

“The doctor won’t know about the hematoma now!” I exclaim.

“We’ll scrounge up another one somewhere,” Cardan waves me off. ��Jude. Twins.”

It’s not helping me feel any better, him saying it over and over again. I slump into my hands, weighted by disbelief and frustration. What am I going to do? This can’t possibly be real, can it?

“I am going to get so huge,” I moan into my palms in self-pity. I know it’s vain, but at the moment, it’s all I can think. In the land of willowy Folk, I already stick out like a sore thumb. Now I’m going to be a sore and massively swollen thumb.

Cardan’s shifted to stand in front of me on the exam table. And he runs his hands up and down my arms, almost reverent.

“You are magnificent,” he reassures me, softly, and presses a kiss against my head.

“Why are you not freaking out?” I ask, and pull him by the hoodie pockets so I can hug him again if I need it. I think I may need it. “This is two babies. We don’t even know Thing One about taking care of one baby, and now there will be two.”

“We may require a few more house cats,” Cardan jokes, and when I scowl, he asks, “That’s still not amusing? I shall persist. One of these days.”

“You know, I hear that’s a mortal fatherhood trait,” I point out. “Persisting over and over with the same unamusing joke to the embarrassment of everyone around you.” And I wrap my arms around his waist as I look up at him. He’s warm, and everything is a little more bearable when he’s close and smiling.

“I think you are implying that I’m excelling at fatherhood so far,” Cardan grins down at me, and I’m surprised to see it looks as if his gold-rimmed eyes are glistening.

“Are you all right?” I ask, softening at the sight. He blinks, furiously, as he buries his long fingers in the hair at the nape of my neck, holding me close as he looks over my face.

“I just--” His voice is hoarse when he starts, so he clears it and tries again. “This is more than I ever dared to consider,” he says. “I did not dream that this kind of life would ever be an option for me. Family that looked after each other, that loved each other – that always seemed to me to be a strictly mortal gift. As if the Folk had bargained for everlasting life long ago and forsook all hope of familial love in the process. I had accepted that it wasn’t mine to have. But you.”

He shifts his hands so that he holds my face, and I feel swallowed by the adoration in his admission. All I can do is close my eyes as he holds me. I can think of nothing else when his nose brushes my forehead.

“I am overcome by all you have given me,” he whispers, and I think I might cry. My hands twist in the fabric of the sweatshirt he wears.

“I love your words,” I whisper back, “but you give me too much credit.” I pull back to look at his mirthful, glistening eyes and say: “If it were left up to me, I would never have given you twins.”

He laughs outright, unguarded and thrilled.

“Lucky for me, then,” he says, and kisses me.

I have kissed him hundreds, maybe thousands of times. We have shared passionate, unbridled kisses and desperate, devouring kisses. We’ve kissed at quick partings, and we’ve kissed with soft, gentle comfort. I like everything about them all. But this is something entirely new, something that surprises me still. It’s filled with gratitude and promises and dreams of the future, and though it is intimate, I would not have felt ashamed if someone had walked in.

It’s the kiss of complete trust, and in that moment, I feel assured that, in Cardan, I have not made a mistake. There is much to figure out still. But this is right.

So, we will have twins. I will meet this challenge with resolve. For right now, anyway, the quantity of babies is the least of our concerns.

“How in the hell am I supposed to get home?” I ask, the moment we pull apart. Cardan rests his hands on my shoulders, screwing up his beautiful mouth in thought. The ragwort horse. The bed rest. The doctor we must scrounge up somewhere. There are a dozen new bullets swirling on a to-do list, and none of them lead us back to Faerie any time soon.

“I haven’t the foggiest,” he confesses. “Which further complicates matters, because there is absolutely no chance that I am leaving you here.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” I say, and press back a smile. “And also glad,” I add.

Cardan meets my smile with a little wicked smirk of his own.

“Is it time we scheme together once again?” he asks.

We cannot get home until this is resolved, and we cannot leave Faerie ungoverned. I have no idea where to even start on this problem.

But that’s certainly never stopped us before.

There’s a knock at the door. The orderly has arrived with the wheelchair to take us back to Vivi and Heather. I give Cardan a secret, knowing smile.

“I suppose it is,” I agree.

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

Tag list! Let me know if you’d like to be added: @yellowavocadopit, @dagypsygirl, @ireallyshouldsleeprn, @booklover-sleeplover, @mwejh, @courtofjurdan, @faeriequeenofwest, @sugawsites, @loveyourselfsolid, @owl0y0s, @feelinglikecleopatra, @akaloto, @charrise, @persephxnecoven, @raging-bisexual-alert, @rteme, @nahthanks, @emmabookworm08, @elorcanislife, @snusbandxknifewife, @poeticbrownmermaid,

#the folk of the air #tfota #jude duarte #cardan greenbriar #jurdan #jurdan fanfic #vivienne duarte #the cruel prince #the wicked king #the queen of nothing #post-qon #babies!#baby fic #pregnancy fic #fluff #jurdan fluff

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ettawritesnstudies · 3 years

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I was just reading the answer for that ask and you said you asked yourself why the fae would take human children and that inspired your story, and now I'm wondering about the answer! Why do the fae take human children in your story, if that's not a big spoiler?

as soldiers and spies in this case! It’s pretty messed up

Fae are functionally immortal unless directly killed, and posses inherent magic, which makes them incredibly powerful. There are two courts of fae - seelie and unseelie - broadly split along the line of “how should we interact with humans?” Seelie think that they should leave humans alone. At worst, they’re beneath the fae’s notice, at best, they’re good people who deserve to live lives of peace. If humans come to the seelie court as runaways, often seeking favor or refuge, the Seelie will grant wishes and send them on their way. They’re not necessarily benevolent or good or kind, but they’re not actively malicious either.

The unseelie think that humans are a nuisance that need to be eradicated or enslaved. Fae should rule the world, they’re obviously superior, etc. These are the cruel creatures that trick humans into selling their souls, manipulate them into acting as their agents, or just actively hurt them as a form of entertainment.

Naturally, these two factions “fight” a lot. But fighting a physical war would cut their immortal lives short, and neither is that selfless. So the humans become proxies.

Seelie don’t take changelings, but sometimes a human will volunteer to fight for them, and the seelie will gift them with magic abilities and devices to help them on their quests. many of the folk heros from legend belong to this class of “Powers.”

But the Unseelie don’t subscribe to such niceties as “free will” and “consent” so they take children. Easier to indoctrinate and control that way. Leaving changelings is a way to collect information (since they’re literally moles/spies living amongst the “enemy), avoid suspicion and the consequences of their actions. Sometimes the changeling also torments the human family. The Pied Piper is basically the general of this child army, and it controls them with the music. The abduction that earned it the name was one of the more dramatic instances.

Sometimes the changeling is taken in and loved by the human family.

I’ll let you guess how this affects my main characters.

Unrelated to the war, but the Unseelie court is the one from the legend of Tam Lin that has to pay the tithe to Hell every 7 years. They use human kids for that too and the Piper is responsible for providing the sacrifice. That shows up briefly in the story. If the Piper is distracted, the heroes can get on with their quest.

#etta rambles #runaways #thank you so much for the ask! I'm glad you're interested in the story #that turned into an essay huh #sorry about that

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