i had a sleep paralysis nightmare this morning.
so i decided to make content out of it 👍
but really, sometimes if i'm not feeling well, i daydream about one of the characters i simp really like helping/comforting me.
n this time i started daydreaming about Nightmare comforting me. bc this was the worst sleep paralysis i ever had, and it left me feeling on edge for a bit after waking up. (i don't usually get nightmare-ish sleep paralysis)
n so i decided to make it into a little Nightmare x reader drabble where reader has a sleep paralysis nightmare, based on the one i had this morning.
this goes from horror to fluff real quick lmao. hope yall like it! :>
if you want to skip the sleep paralysis, go straight to the pink sentence!
(tw: sleep paralysis. sleep paralysis demon.)
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You're laying in bed, with half of your vision blocked by the hood of your jacket. All you can see is your bed.
You go to lift your hood.
But you can't move.
But you feel your arms move.
You feel yourself move to grab your hood. As heavy as it may feel, you're sure you did it.
But your hood is still there.
You don't see your hand.
Panic wells up in your stomach. You can't move. You can't see.
Gathering the little strength you have in your groggy state, you try to push yourself into a sitting position.
Again, you feel yourself scoot up the wall behind you.
But you don't see anything change.
Your vision feels frozen.
Closing your eyes, you try again to push your hood up.
When you open them, you can see your hand grabbing your hood.
But your hood is still there. and your hand is frozen in place. even though you feel it at your side again.
It's like your vision is broken.
But closing your eyes helped?
You close your eyes, and attempt to push yourself up again.
Opening your eyes, you think you're sitting up now. at least a little bit.
You close your eyes again and attempt once more to push your hood off your head.
It's off your head. You feel it on your neck.
When you open your eyes, you're laying down and your hood is blocking half your vision.
You try again.
You're sitting up. You can see your room.
You can see your window.
Something passes by your window. A shadowy figure. It looked humanoid, but were those antlers?
You're scared.
It happens again.
Your mother is in the room now. You're trying to ask for help, but she seems confused, and you can't get the words out.
She's standing near the window. Not too close, but you're scared.
Something. someone. appears at the window. but not outside it. They're inside.
Their eyes are wide, and they have an unsettling smile. Something about them seems deeply wrong.
You try to scream, and point at them to alert your mother.
Nothing but air comes out.
When your mother turns around, she only seems more confused. She doesn't see them.
Are you hallucinating?
You see something else in the corner of your eye. A dark figure.
You turn your head to look at it.
... Nightmare?
It's Nightmare. He's standing at the foot of your bed. Looking at you with a calm, yet concerned expression.
You remember you'd been living in his castle for a while now. This is your room in the castle... So why is your mother here?
Looking back, your mother and the unsettling person is gone.
Everything seems clearer. You feel like you can move better.
You look back at Nightmare as he walks closer. "Nightmare?" You spoke. You can speak again.
He stops next to you and places a hand on your head, comfortingly petting your hair. "You are safe. It is only sleep paralysis." His tone is soft, made to comfort you, and it works. You feel some of the fear melt away. You feel protected.
"Sleep paralysis?" You remember what it is, and it makes sense, but you ask anyways.
"Yes." He leans down and places the hand not petting your hair on your chest, just below your collar bones. "You should wake up now."
Everything fades out.
And you open your eyes.
Nightmare is sitting in a chair next to your bed, with a hand on your forehead. He'd pushed the hood off your eyes while you were asleep.
He opens his eye a second after you, and smiles warmly. "There you are."
You blink up at him, but immediately decide not to do that again, as the fear of falling back in runs through you. Instead, you decide to sit up, and Nightmare retreats his hand as you do, looking slightly more concerned, as he likely noticed your fear.
He places the same hand on your back to rub soothingly, and leans a bit closer, using the other to gently guide your chin to look at him. "Don't worry. You are safe.. I'm here." His words are firm, but so gentle.
Your face is warm at how intimate his hand on your chin feels, and his very smooth and handsome voice in your ears, yet it also helps so much to relax you and make you feel safe.
Half to distract from the warmth in your face, even though he's definitely noticed, judging by how his expression turns more smug than concerned, and half out of genuine curiosity, you finally speak. "Um... was that- was that really you in my dream?"
It seems to work to distract him as he answers. Moving his hand from your chin to tuck some hair out of your face as he does so.
"Darling, that wasn't a dream, that was a nightmare." His expression regains a bit of concern for a moment as he pauses, but it's gone before he speaks again. "But yes, that was me. I'd felt your fear as I was passing by your room, and when I came in, I saw that you were having a nightmare, so I decided to lend my aid." His hand had moved from your hair once he was done righting it, and is now resting on the bed, next to your thigh.
"I'm sure you know of my ability to enter and control dreams and nightmares. Sleep paralysis is no different. I was happy to help you out of yours, little shadow." His smile is fond as he raises his hand once more to cup your cheek, and rub his thumb over it, leaning a little closer as he does.
Your cheeks feel warm again, at how close he is, and how gentle his hand is on your cheek. You can't help the urge to lean into his touch, and so you don't even try to fight it, placing your hand over his as you lean into it.
Even though you know you weren't in any real danger, you still feel like he saved you. You're grateful to him. You're not sure how to repay him, but you do know what you so badly want to do in this moment.
Placing your free hand over his collar bone and lightly grip at his sweater, you lean a bit closer to his face, and look down at his mouth. but you stop there and look to the side.
You retreat that bit you'd just leaned in, your face feeling much warmer now. You don't know what you're doing. Maybe your lack of good sleep gave you too much confidence. As if The Guardian of Negativity would want to kiss you. What were you thinkin-
Nightmare chuckles. You look back at him with widened eyes.
His smug expression is mixed with that of fondness... You sometimes forget that he can basically read your mind... Fuck.
You look away again. Your face feels like it's burning.
But you quickly look back when he gets much. much closer. His hand moving from your cheek to the side of your neck, and brushing into the hair on the back of your head, while his other hand slides down your back to the lower half.
He chuckles again, no doubt at how red your face is, and your shocked expression. "Darling, if you thought I wouldn't want to kiss you just as bad as you want to kiss me right now, you'd be sorely mistaken.~" He just about purrs, inches from your mouth.
The hairs on your neck and arms stand as he speaks, and both your hands ball into his sweater over his chest. You didn't think you could get warmer, but you do.
His cheeks are looking a little flushed too as the lid over his socket lowers, and he looks down at your lips, before slowly, and gently closing the gap.
It's a very tender and loving kiss. Not what you were expecting coming from him, but it's amazing.
You lean into it the moment the shock melts away. You feel like you're melting in his arms.
After another long, blissful moment, he pulls away, before picking you up to move you over and make room for him on your bed, and climbs in next to you.
Once he's laid down, he pulls you close again, and combs through your hair, nuzzling your face, before sighing into your cheek, and then kissing it. "You make me soft..."
You're so full of warm feelings right now, it's almost overwhelming, and you hope it's not overwhelming for him. It's all so hard to believe, but seems so genuine. More genuine than you'd ever seen Nightmare. To think he'd let his guard down so much with you.
You almost let out a giddy giggle as you bury your warm face in his sweater, just under his chin, and he wraps his arm tighter around you, using one of his tentacles to pull your blanket over both of you.
As you lay comfortable and warm in his arms, feeling his chest rise and fall against you with his breath, you start to feel yourself falling back to sleep. You forget you even had that nightmare before all this.
The last thing you hear and feel before you're asleep again is Nightmare placing a kiss on the top of your head and speaking, almost in a whisper.
"Goodnight, little shadow."
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is nezha eternally 12?
yeah he is he told me himself in a t&t parking lot
12 is an arbitrary number. if you're looking for a source that literally says the exact phrase "nezha is eternally 12" you're uhh probably not going to find one. you're also probably not going to find a source that outright states that he grew into an adult. i think the reason 12 has become a popular number is because it sort of straddles that point between true childhood and adolescence, but again, it's arbitrary.
in fsyy, nezha is 7 when the whole thing with ao bing and returning his flesh and bones to his parents happens, which as far as I'm aware is the last time that an exact age is given for him in that particular novel. fsyy is also not the end all be all of "canon", but it did have significant implications for both practiced religion and literature (1, ch.5). sangren also notes that 7 being the age given is important.
i've only read about half of jttw so far, but don't think any physical or chronological age is stated for him, except that sun wukong calls him "小哥" (little guy/young man/etc.) when they first meet lol.
(a couple of nezhas from this copy of fsyy)
but the exact number of 12 isn't the point behind the statement. imo the idea behind the sentiment is that nezha is culturally perceived as a child. he is metaphorically and literally associated with and representative of the traits and struggles of childhood. he is "the most popular and classic cultural image of child personification in the literature of China" (2). the portrayal of the child - what traits they embody, which authorities they subvert, how their agency develops and affects the world around them - will change with the sociopolitical environment of the country, and portrayals of nezha have always changed along with it, for the reason that his image is inextricable from that of a child's (3, 4). he is a representation, reflection, and symbolization of the youth.
(some media puts more emphasis than this on others, i.e. the songs used for the '03 cartoon opening and closing, which really emphasize him being little, being young (少年), and being the same age the presumably child singer (他的年纪跟我一般大) lol)
(this paper looks at the appearance of nezha in various medias for the past ~100 years, including adult portrayals, although it does make the assumption that adult actor = adult character and girl actor = girl character which is.. not really correct imo… also it includes 1979 nezha naohai as part of its 'adult image' era which is ????? so i would take its conclusions with a grain of salt and just look at its descriptions.)
you're also going to get a different answer if you look at it from a more religious viewpoint. as far as i know, he has religious iconography as both a child and as an adult, but his appearance is much more varied and doesn't necessarily have the same collective set of easily recognizable traits. here are some posts with artwork and statues of nezha (interspersed with some of hong hai'er): x y z.
however, the thing is that i don't think many modern adaptations can make the claim that they drew from a religious iconography basis more than they drew from the most popular cultural image of nezha. i then wish they would be more cognizant of the fact that, in the source from which they drew, nezha is most widely recognized as a kid, and treat that with respect.
obviously nezha is not always portrayed as a child. nezha is not always anything, there are just recurring visual and thematic elements that make him a cohesive and recognizable figure, i.e. the twin buns, the iconic weapons, the lotus imagery. being a child or a youth is also one of these things, and its significance, imo, is well analysed and documented.
at the end of the day this answer is only so long-winded because it's the internet. go text your parents and ask them how old they think nezha is.
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The Great Bakeoff (pt 1)
I'm waiting for my dough to rise so let's have some fun and see how several of the blorbos handle making bread :D
Healthcare AU
Malon smiled, hands on her hips as she surveyed all the ingredients and cookware in front of her. She had organized her tools on her counter like a scrub tech would lay out tools for a surgery, which she had noted halfway through with a touch of amusement, but it was routine to her, so she let it carry over into her kitchen.
Today was the day she and Time finally had more than one day off together, and she was choosing to celebrate. Being domestic and making some bread seemed appropriate, and she'd gone to the bakery with Four enough times to want that amazing smell of freshly baked bread wafting through her own home.
Time to get to work. Reading the cookbook, she yelped when she felt hands slide around her waist.
"Oh, you!" she harrumphed, bopping her husband on the face with a roll of paper towels. "I'm trying to bake!"
"I see that," Time noted. "Need some help?"
"The last time you tried to help you set the bread on fire."
"That was only one time, dear."
Malon shooed him. "Go outside and spend some time with the horses like you've been wanting to. I'll meet you out there."
Time smiled and obliged, though not before stealing her dish rag and making her chase him and pay a toll of a kiss for its safe return. Eventually she set to work, focusing and enjoying the task at hand. As she combined flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, she couldn't help but wonder how all of this would make a good loaf.
Well, it doesn't have to be perfect, she supposed. Just edible. I can do edible. I'm a mighty fine cook, after all... or at least I used to be before my nursing career destroyed my free time.
But she'd never baked, and she knew how precise of an art that was.
Malon poured the hot water into the mixture, hesitantly stirring it with a spoon before getting her hands dirty. The first mistake was that she definitely should have put flour on her hands to avoid the dough sticking to her, but it seemed to form together well enough under her hands.
Smiling at her work, Malon covered the dough and set a timer on her phone before washing her hands and strolling out to see Link riding Epona around the field.
Ordon Fam
Uli stress baked and she would be the first one to admit it.
Most of her cooking was meals - hearty stews, egg and milk based recipes, vegetables and the occasional fruit or meat that Rusl would bring. But when her worries clenched her heart and made it to her hands, she would end up buying ingredients off Sera and setting to work.
Today she had to distract Colin while her husband and Link were away in Kakariko, an all-too-quiet rainy morning after such a horrific night. Link had been so dreadfully injured, and Rusl--
Uli bit her cheek, blinking tears away. Colin giggled from her bedroom where he was babysitting Hana.
She let her hands do the work automatically, easing her mind and heart, settling into a familiar, comforting routine. The dough was smooth and bouncy under her hands, a satisfying texture that distracted her enough. She could get her worries out through liberally kneading it, hands and mind so in sync that she hadn't even noticed she'd been abusing the dough for so long the shadows in the house had shifted positions.
Shaking her head, she covered the loaf to let the dough rise, making her way to her children.
The Wildlings
Tilieth stared bemusedly at the ingredients. Her finger bounced from item to item, listing it out loud in an attempt to ensure she had everything. After repeating the word salt four times and staring into the void, she discovered why her brain was short circuiting.
"I forgot flour!" she groaned.
Wait! No, she hadn't forgotten flour, that was literally the most basic ingredient to making bread. She had it somewhere.
One search later, Tilieth had discovered that not only did she have flour, but also shriveled Hylian tomatoes that probably would have benefitted from being eaten a week ago.
Okay. Now she had what she needed.
Excited, she began to mix ingredients, having never made bread before. She wanted to see if she would be any good at baking different kinds of loaves, hoping to try new food and perhaps even share it with her parents and Abel. Her newlywed husband was actually sleeping in for the first time since they'd been married, and she was going to take advantage of it by surprising him.
Rummaging through their kitchen, she paused as she found that she wasn't entirely sure where the measuring cup was. She was certain she had put it in this one cabinet, but...
Ah, wait, her mother had moved it when Til had gotten overwhelmed organizing the new home.
With a triumphant, quiet ha! Tilieth pulled the item in question out and held it up to inspect it happily. She finally had everything she needed.
It wasn't until she was halfway through kneading that she remembered she didn't have a bread knife to cut the loaf that she was halfway through making.
The Princess
Zelda took a steadying breath as she stared at the bowl. Link had been cooking with her and teaching her basic recipes for a while now, and she finally wanted to try something for herself. Her friend and loyal companion was out of town, having gone to Zora's Domain to visit, leaving Zelda to sort out organizing her new home.
This was the first meal she'd ever made alone.
For a moment, she felt heartache at the thought of it. But it only lasted a moment, and instead, she felt eager, excited anticipation bubbling in her chest. No, she no longer was fed by royal chefs, no longer provided provisions by any settlement or outpost they visited. But she was building a new life for herself, and she finally felt like she was regaining her footing in a world that had seemed so empty and foreign a few months ago.
This was more than just baking bread. This was the start of a new chapter, this was her proving to herself that she could do this.
And so she set to work, having researched the recipe meticulously, eager to get every aspect of it right, ready to show herself that she was capable, that nothing was wrong with her, and that if she could piece herself back together, then she could rebuild Hyrule just as well.
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