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kneelingshadowsalome · 7 months

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Ok but what if I had to continue this story about Knight!Ghost and Presumptuous maiden!reader

She can still feel his breath on her, but the huge body pinning her to the wall ceases to move.

"...What?"

It’s pure shock.

She’s dropped so quickly she has to take support from the stones behind her.

She wouldn’t have to: Simon grabs her by the arm and prevents her from falling forward and back towards that plated chest. His eyes search for hers, and she looks up at the knight who almost raped her – in the corridor of all places like she’s nothing but a common whore. But for the first time ever there’s genuine shock, even fear in his stare. The remnants of lust flicker back alive every now and then, but mostly he looks like she just hurled a powerful curse at him when she told him she’s a virgin.

"I'm sorry,” she tries. “I’ll–I’ll never do it again. I promise."

"Bloody fucking…"

He looks her up and down, the leather straps of his armour wailing from his still heaving chest. She should bolt, now, when Simon has taken a step away from her and is clearly puzzled and confused. But she can’t: those eyes rise to hold her captive again. And now, there’s anger in them.

"You should be whipped."

"For what...?"

Her chest is heaving, too. She never knew how low her voice could get when there's want in the air and in her veins.

"You attacked me, sir. I should have you whipped," she continues like an absolute fool.

"Don't test me, girl," he slurs behind bared teeth. She finally remembers how to shut up.

"Tsk."

Simon nudges his head towards the stairway leading to her quarters. Get out while you can, the gesture says, and she gathers the hem of her heavy woollen dress and flees.

She never believed her miserable begging would stop or sway him. Simon is bound by oath and honour, or then he doesn’t want his master’s wrath upon him. Her worth is between her legs; they both know it. Defiling the king’s daughter could lose him his head.

She climbs the stairs, slips into her room and bolts the door. It should probably be strange that she’s left aching by what just happened. It should make her wake up from her silly dreams, that the only thing stopping this man from raping her is other men, not her feelings and sensibilities.

It should be considered a doom, not fate, that she only wants him more.

…

Simon never participates in the tournaments, but this time, rumour has it that he’s planning to join.

In a distressed hurry, she makes preparations for the great day. There can be no other reason for him to joust other than the wish to win her favour back. His actions speak louder than any words, and just for the sake of that, she has kept her promise. She walks the halls as if the knight called Simon never even existed. She won’t look his way even when he has his back turned on her. She only dreams about him when the moon is full and there are no more candles burning in her lonely room.

But it’s hard.

It’s difficult, and it’s a horrible fate she has to suffer, because now it’s he who can’t keep his eyes off her. Now it’s Simon who has suddenly caught her scent, who is suddenly interested in dangerous, stupid sports such as jousting that could injure or kill a man. But he’s willing to do the thing he apparently hates most – along with the fevered attention of insufferable, flirtatious maidens – because he needs a token of her favour. She’s sure of it: that’s why she embroiders a tiny ‘S’ on her finest, most precious handkerchief.

The tournament day is as beautiful as can be. Her heart is about to rend itself out of her chest when Simon approaches her, riding across the field in his heaviest grey armour. He’s surrendering himself at her mercy, and at the mercy of other people’s ridicule, rumour and gossip by making it known that he thinks himself worthy of her blessing. She wonders if she’s the one being played now: she can’t decipher why he would refuse her one day, then fight to gain her favour the next.

He accepts her silken handkerchief with a blank expression, but his eyes betray the inner turmoil when he sees the embroidery. A plain, simple token would have sufficed – the adorned ‘S’ is a bit too much, it's a clear sign. It’s ten times more clear than her earlier games, ten times more blaring than her vivacious little flirt. She could've embroidered the sentence “If you come up to my room at nightfall, I will let you in,” on it and the meaning would've been just as obvious.

He tucks it under his breastplate and gives her a sideways look that is filled with both distaste and longing. Only Simon can speak entire sentences through his eyes. They say, “You’ve gone too far,” and “If I come out of this alive, you’ll get whipped, or fucked, or both.”

And one thing she never knew about Simon was that he could joust better than anyone. There’s one dead, three wounded and five humiliated by the time Simon is declared the winner of the tournament. Everyone understands now why he never joins these things: he will only rob the fun of other knights by toying with them.

Her chosen one accepts the king’s words and the crowd’s applause with a stern but slightly painful expression. Simon would rather be anywhere but here, but endures being the centre of attention for the rest of the afternoon like a good, patient dog. Then he disappears somewhere, done with being the sudden pet of the people. The next time she sees him is in the morning as she descends the stairs.

“Fawn.”

She flinches from the now familiar dark voice. He’s been waiting for her, and almost prowls forth from the shadows when she’s floating down the steps. There’s a good few feet between them, but she can feel the heat emanating from him. Simon is always blazing like the sun, and he's always tired, downright exhausted, encumbered by pain or something worse.

“Do you always forget your promises so quickly?”

She corrects her posture under his tall shadow; she should’ve known there would be consequences for that handkerchief.

"What crime have I committed now?"

Simon never expects it when she fights back. Long, pale lashes cover the brief bafflement in his eyes, then he reaches for something under his tunic. Her heart skips a beat – he has kept it against his skin, right over his heart, instead of under the plate where he tucked it at the joust.

"This belongs to you," he holds it between them like it’s nothing but a piece of dirty cotton he wants to get rid of. Or then he doesn’t want to stain it with his hands – who knows? This man is so full of contradictions she’s having a hard time getting to the bottom of his soul. She has all the time in the world to study different characters here in the castle, but Simon remains a tightly locked mystery.

"No,” she lifts her chin proudly. “It belongs to you."

His nostrils flare for a moment – a sign of anger or exhilaration; you’d need a powerful witch to tell.

“A knight should return the lady’s favour if he survives the joust,” he mutters, clearly trying to make an effort to speak finely to a fine lady.

“You don’t have to. I made it for you.”

He grunts with frustration, then shoves her gift back inside his tunic. Then he tilts his head. A strange, dark little smile rises on his lips.

"Fawn. Did your father ever beat you?"

It’s only morning, but Simon makes it feel like they’re having this conversation in the cold, damp dungeons. Her heart shudders at the foul words, and yet, she fights to maintain eye contact. She fights both tooth and nail to look straight into the abyss.

"No."

"I can tell."

Insolent bastard, is her first thought at such audacity, but two can play this game, is the second. She takes a slow step forward and rejoices silently when Simon struggles to remain still.

"If I was your wife…" she starts softly, "Would you beat me?"

His nostrils flare again as he looks for a trap where there is none. She’s standing before him without any shields, with no weapons, and he still can’t tell, the poor man.

"I don't beat women," he finally spits. Then he succumbs to the impulse to get away from her, although it looks like he’s struggling to do so, too. He has to wrench himself free, and it gives her more power to rise rooted: to meet his crude manners, the arrogance of a dog.

"You'd never be my wife," is the last thing he says, so quietly that it’s nothing but a mutter; a sullen whisper. The birds have fallen silent, or then she can’t hear them anymore. The golden light that pours from the narrow windows makes it suddenly seem like this morning could last an eternity.

"Why not?" She whispers back.

The moment shatters – her knight escapes like he’s the fragile little fawn now. The clatter of his armour makes it known how much of a hurry he’s in to get away from the golden light... And from her.

#not so dark as the first one but still kinda dark #medieval au #knight!ghost #simon ghost riley x reader #ghost x reader

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ecoamerica · 1 month

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youtube

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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shuttershocky · 10 months

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When I say "when it comes to Type-Moon lore you should think about the whys and not the hows" I mean things like it's absolutely pointless to ask "How did Merlin get Saber and Fate route Shirou to meet again in Fate/Stay Night's epilogue? That should be impossible." and I'm sorry but you're never going to have a real answer to that beyond Merlin vaguely saying "You must be able to wait forever and he must chase you forever"

Nasu never bothered thinking about the how at all. The reason it can happen is because Fate loves the idea that the connection between two souls can exist as a fundamental force of the universe that rivals space and time, and Merlin is a fuckin wizard. To love even as time has stripped their name and face from you, to have forgotten everything but the knowledge that there was love once, wouldn't it be beautiful to witness it outlast eternity? Wouldn't it be beautiful if for your whole life and afterlife you become a nameless, wandering hero, only for the star you've been chasing forever to finally call you home by name?

There is no real answer for How. All there is, is symbolism of the story's themes and a participating wizard.

How did Mash come back after being incinerated by the fire that burnt all of time? Her heart never wavered which meant her shield never did, proving that she too could be every bit a hero as all the souls saved in the Throne despite having never lived a normal human life, and this act moved the heart of a creature every bit a Beast as the demon that destroyed all of time. Why and wizard.

How does Hakuno even manage to summon a servant and participate in the Moon Cell Holy Grail War despite actually being an NPC and thus not even being alive and human? Well Fate/Extra wants you to question what being "real", being human, really means. If you wish to live, enough to cry for help and for a hero to come to your rescue and to feel gratitude to them, does that make you human? When you fight for your life in a death game even when you realize there's no existence for you outside of the machine, are you human? Why, and a conceptual, really big wizard in the Moon Cell.

How did Mikiya meet the manifestation of the Root and be offered a single omnipotent wish? Well you see everybody in this entire literary world kills each other and all passersby for a chance at glimpsing the source of all existence so it would be incredibly ironic if a normal ass man who's sole thing is being a wifeguy and getting beaten up a lot is offered the entire universe by doing nothing, thanks to his wife turning out to BE the Root itself, thus being the wizard behind wizards.

#Fate #Kara No Kyoukai

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kimingyuslover · 6 months

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WONWOO FIC RECS

scandal by @fantasyescapes17 (regency!au, fluff, angst, kinda enemies to lovers!au) pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4

The Viscount's sister with an enormous dowry, beauty and unmistakable talent- you began the London season as the most desired woman in any room. But Jeon Wonwoo (a man who would rather hide in the library than dance at a ball) was beyond your comprehension. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it embroiled you into a scandal with a man you could never love.

the peephole by @rubyreduji (smut)

➥ wonwoo can’t stop thinking about how he wants to ruin his roommate, the peephole in his wall isn’t helping tamper those desires either

neurosurgery department by @taeyegu (fluff, angst, some humor, friends to lovers!au)

“if there is a nice person, please introduce him to me. sometimes like water, sometimes like fire. someone who can love me sincerely. i hope he is someone who is mature and faithful…” (introduce me a good person, joy)

getting closer (angst, smut, crime!au, Joker!Jeon Wonwoo x Chief Inspector!fem!reader) by @multi-kpop-fanfic

Summary: Four months. It has taken inspector Y/N L/N four months to get her hands on Jeon Wonwoo, the maniac, Joker-like criminal, who has thrown the city into total fear. The same criminal who has an obsession with the inspector, because she's the only one who can grant him his greatest wish. They need each other to fulfill their goals and there's only one way - by getting closer to each other, one last time.

bloodily safe by @starlightxsvt (psychological thriller? camgirl au, college au, smut)

synopsis ➳ you have a little secret. one you are desperately hiding. yet the boy you have a crush on has figured it out. now a game of cat and mouse has begun. how do you make it out alive?

game on by @starlightxsvt (pt. 2 of bloodily safe, smut)

synopsis ► ❝ there has not been a single uninteresting moment since you have started living with wonwoo. as halloween rolls around, things only get more riveting. ❞

twisted fate by @smileysuh (smut, some fluff, vampire!wonwoo, vampire hunter!reader, soulmate!au, enemies to lovers!au)

💙 preview. “He deserved it,” Wonwoo assures you, reaching out to grab you by the back of the neck, pulling you closer. He’s covered in blood, and he looks like a sexy, wild monster. But he’s your monster, and you can’t help but react, leaning in- “Jesus Christ,” you hear Jeonghan breathe, turning to give you and Wonwoo privacy while he presses his lips against yours hungrily. At first, you can try to ignore the wet liquid on your fingertips as you grab at his strong shoulders, but you can’t ignore the taste on his tongue. Your body goes rigid and Wonwoo pulls back with a sigh, resting his forehead against yours. It’s an oddly peaceful moment amongst the chaos.

anteric by @smileysuh (smut, friends to lovers!au, frat!au, fake dating!au, ft. mingyu)

💙 preview. when you bump into the guy that ghosted you, your model best friend and roommate, Mingyu, steps up to be your fake boyfriend for the night... and when the asshole is hired at your workplace, your other roommate, twitch gamer Wonwoo, is roped into the charade too - “polyamory exists dude, get over it.”

work husband by @rubyreduji (fluff, ft. mingyu, office!au)

summary: your two coworkers get a bit too involved in becoming your “work husband”

to my youth by @viastro (slice of life!au, smau, fluff, humor, angst)

ミ☆ synopsis: in a world where everyone finds out who loves them within a 10 meter radius through the app love alarm, confessing your feelings without the use of the app is no longer considered normal. however, you refuse to download it in hopes that you’ll be able to fall in love without being dependent on love alarm.

#seventeen x reader #seventeen smut #seventeen smau #wonwoo smau #wonwoo x reader #wonwoo smut #wonwoo #jeon wonwoo x reader #kml.recs

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thisblogisaboutabook · 5 months

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The Fated Truth

Azriel x Reader

Truth-Teller’s origin story. A multi-pov oneshot.

A/N: this story came to me after listening to the songs seven, vigilante shit, it’s nice to have a friend, and my tears ricochet by taylor swift.

warnings: attempted sa, language, suggestive language, parental abuse, violence, main character death

The Angel

-Ladies always rise above -

Remove the dagger from his heart.

-Ladies know what people want-

Wipe the blood from the corner of your kohl lined eyes.

-Someone sweet-

Spit on the bastard.

-Someone kind-

Swipe at the next overgrown male.

-Someone fun-

Hit your mark, swing around, drive your dagger into the brute on your six.

“Well, shit.” you think to yourself as a group of ten overgrown bats rush toward you. Siphons glowing.

The irony isn’t lost on you that yet another thing they withheld from you would contribute in damning their very existence. A female with siphons was considered absurd and absolutely out of the question, it wasn’t your place - yet this incontrolable blast of raw killing power begged to differ.

One moment those pricks were running toward you and the next, they were ashes in the wind.

Looking at the dead females around you, pure rage boils within. Your insides could be cooked at this point for all you know. Not a single feeling but uncontrollable rage.

A gasp breaks the silence. One of the females is still alive. Running to her, her eyes filled with panic, breaths rapid and shallow. You lean down and whisper to her before unsheathing your dagger and holding it up. Her eyes widen in terror but not at you - behind you. You turn to look.

“Azri-“

The blast of power hit before you could finish saying it - your mate’s name - your final breath.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Journal

Nine year old Y/N

“I made a new friend! His name is Azriel. He’s like me! He’s two years older than me and can’t fly but he still has his wings. I wish I still had mine, we could learn to fly together. Azriel has burn scars too but his are on his hands instead of his back like mine.

He’s really quiet but it’s okay, I talk and he listens! He has shadow powers though. I don’t think I’m supposed to say this but they’re really cute! One of them followed me home from my chores today.

I have to go now. Dad is yelling. I think he’s mad again.”

11 year old Y/N

“Father hit me again last night. I got upset and my power hiccuped. I asked him for a siphon and he locked me in the cellar for asking. I have bruises that hurt really badly but I’m okay.

Azriel saw me this morning. I tried to hide the bruises but he notices everything. I cried and he listened to me. Sometimes I think he’s the only person who sees me.”

13 year old Y/N

“One of father’s friends came over two nights ago - they were drinking. I had to refill their mugs of ale and the friend grabbed me inappropriately. Father laughed. When he left the room his friend pulled me into his lap and his hand drifted below my waist. I was scared and my power flickered, throwing me backward and flipping the chair over with him in it.

The blast broke his arm and nose. I don’t feel bad.

I tried telling father what happened but he didn’t listen. He locked me in the cellar from that night until this morning.

One of Azriel’s shadows found me and picked the lock. Father either forgot he locked me away or didn’t care because he never came to check on me or give me food. I found a canteen of water on one of the shelves though.

Azriel retrieved me as soon as his shadow notified him. He took me back to Rhysand’s Mother’s cabin and she fed me. Azriel stayed by my side as I took a bath - there were even bubbles. I’ve never had a bath with bubbles before. Azriel saw my scars peaking over my towel after I climbed out of the bath and instinctively clenched his hands. I took them in my hands and kissed them. Our scars prove our strength. He tells me mine are beautiful but his are too. All of him is.

He’s my best friend.”

15 Year Old Y/N

“I spent the day with Azriel yesterday. Sometimes we sneak away and train. He teaches me self-defense maneuvers and even some Illyrian fighting techniques. My powers have been growing a lot lately too. I am still not allowed siphons though. It’s getting harder to contain but training with Azriel serves as an outlet.

I got into a fight with father again two nights ago. He threw a knife at me. I avoided it but if it hit me, it would have landed in my chest. He called me an “ungrateful whore just like my mother.” I was told that mother died in childbirth but sometimes I wonder if it’s not true.

When he locked me in the cellar this time, I let out a blast of power. It ripped a shelf off the wall and down with it came a dusty box I’d never seen before. I opened it to find a beautiful obsidian-hilted knife and a note that said:

For my beautiful babe. May the light of truth always find you, even in the darkest places. I will always love you. -Mother.

I can’t believe it was there all of this time. It broke my heart to know that she had been locked away in the cellar too. The only thing she was able to give me. She loved me. Those words meant so much. Someday I will be reunited with her in the realm beyond and she’ll share her truth with me.

Oh I almost forgot!! Azriel snuck into my room this evening and I showed him the knife. He held me while I cried tears of joy and sadness over this gift from my mother.

He’s going to train me in wielding it.”

16 Year old Y/N

Father was away on a training exercise last night so I went to a party at Rhysand’s cabin. It was fun but Morrigan was there. She’s so beautiful and I think Azriel likes her. He looks at her like she’s the brightest star in the sky.

He’s my best friend and I have loved him for a long time but sometimes, I feel an ache in my chest. Maybe I love him as more than a friend? I left the party early and trained with my hunting knife alone at our usual spot. He didn’t come looking for me.

This morning he stopped by and we practiced together. He seemed sad for a bit but I didn’t press. He tends to prefer more physical methods of expressing his feelings. He was still sullen afterward so I brought him back to my house for tea. We laid in bed together for hours. I know it’s frowned upon but it’s never gone past holding each other. He needs touch as much as I need his listening ear.

I think I’m going to ask him to spend the night.

17 year old Y/N

Yesterday was my 17th birthday. Father didn’t pay any mind to it as always. He says it’s “a reminder of what I did to my mother.” He drank himself into oblivion which left me free to leave the house. He probably never realized I left.

Sometimes I want to tell him that I know his secret - that there was more to her death than my birth but I know better. The following blow up would be catastrophic. At this point, my power has been growing so much that I think… I think I’m more of a danger to him than he is to me.

But… something big happened. Azriel took me flying. We looked at the stars and he flew me far north to see the Aurora. It was almost as beautiful as him. I may or may not have cried tears of joy.

Az playfully kissed my tears away but then something happened - what started as friendly kisses sparked a flame within me and I… I noticed a shift in his scent too. We locked eyes and he kissed my lips. Hard, fervently, like maybe he sees me as something more. We landed in a clearing under the Aurora and kissed for hours.

I love him. I love him wholeheartedly.

18 year old Y/N

Something happened last night! Az and I have spent a lot of nights together recently. Any time father is away, he comes over and we lay in bed kissing and talking for hours until his shadows inevitably lull me to sleep. But last night, I kissed his jaw and down his neck - he grabbed my wrist and growled!! Not a scary growl but a… possessive growl. He told me that if we started this, he wouldn’t be able to hold back.

So…. I kept kissing him. Lower. And Lower. And, well… the rumors about wingspan are true.

We had each other over and over all night, until Cassian and Rhys came knocking on my door looking for him.

18 Year old Y/N part two:

Father has hardly been around. He’s been visiting other camps. I’m thankful for the break from him and especially thankful for the time I’ve spent with Azriel. We’ve spent countless hours entangled with each other over the past few months. My power has been stirring a lot, it’s still growing. Training hasn’t been enough so this physical outlet between Azriel and I has been a lifeline. I can’t get enough of him. He told me he loved me - and I knew this time it was different. He truly loves me and not just as his friend. He knows that I love him too.

But things have also been trying… Morrigan has visited a few times recently and he’s still so enamored by her. Honestly, I get it. But it still hurts. Sometimes I want to say something about it but I don’t want to cause problems. There’s a rumor that she slept with Cassian a couple of years ago and things have been different between Azriel and Morrigan ever since. He broods more than ever when she’s around.

Maybe I need to fuck him senseless, until all he can think about is me.

Just kidding, but seriously.

19 Year Old Y/N

“I have a secret.

A really big, life altering secret.

Azriel is my mate. I don’t know if he knows but last night - things were really passionate, when we came together, that golden thread people talk about, it just… SNAPPED for me.

Things have been really bad with father lately and there have been more wing clippings happening. My heart hurts for the girls. I used to feel sad because I never had a chance to touch the skies (until Azriel learned to fly and carried me into them) - but to have been able to fly for so many years and lose the ability. I couldn’t imagine. Those males deserve to suffer.

Father made a comment recently saying that he gave me a ‘gift’ by cutting off and burning my wings as a child. It made me furious - my power slipped. It destroyed most of our living room furniture and half our kitchen table. I could scent the fear in him when it happened. I think if he wasn’t such a coward - he would have killed me. I have hardly seen him since.”

20 Year old Y/N

“Azriel is taking me to a formal party at another camp! I can’t wait. Rhysand’s mother even made me a dress for it. It’s the most beautiful clothing I’ve ever owned. She also added a hidden sheath for my knife.

I just finished getting ready - I feel like a shooting star. I’ve never felt so… so powerful and gorgeous. My eyes are lined with kohl and my hair is braided with silvery strands woven in.

Tonight is the night I’m telling Azriel. I’m nervous, so, so nervous, but he deserves to know that we’re mates.

Morrigan will be at the party too. I really hope I’m not making a mistake by telling him tonight. I know he still cares for her so I will wait until after the party and it’s just the two of us in the sky before telling him. Maybe he’ll take me to look at the Aurora again.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The Survivor

The infamous Shadowsinger made his way to her - approaching slowly, trembling, two palms up in the air as if to placate her.

He knelt down to the female who cried out in a blood curdling scream of pain and fear.

“P-pl-please don’t!! Don’t hurt me!”

“I’m here. You are safe.” The Shadowsinger choked out.

She didn’t understand. Why would he kill that female? She was only trying to help.

“Y-yo-you ki-killed h-her.” She cried out right before everything went black.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Shadowsinger

Devastation. Pure devastation threatened to rip Azriel to shreds. What the hell happened in a matter of hours?

He’d barely seen Y/N at the dance. She’d arrived to the party with all eyes on her. She held her head high, wearing her scars proudly. He couldn’t help but admire how she let them shine tonight. He’d walked in with his hand on her back his scarred skin to her scarred skin. It wasn’t a flaw at all, but a lovely match. They were beautiful together.

Tonight was the night he would ask her to move in with him. He was now making a small salary - enough to buy a little cabin for the two of them. It was time for her to get the hell away from her horrid father. He planned to take her to view the aurora that she loved so much - and present her with a special gift - her very own siphons. She was the strongest Illyrian female he knew - really she was stronger than any Illyrian he knew aside from maybe him, Rhys, and Cassian. She’d struggled with her power and the misogynistic Illyrian bastards in Windhaven refused to allow her or any female such a privilege.

He’d worked out a plan with Rhys, who convinced the smith that crafted the siphons that he was going to try his hand at wearing siphons one more time - claiming he had a new method of siphoning his power through them that would prevent shattering. While they both knew it was bullshit and the siphons would never work for Rhys - they would then gift them to Y/N without raising suspicion.

Mor was at the dance tonight. He had gone over to visit with her and shared his plans for tonight with her. She squealed and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek and a huge hug, requesting a celebratory dance. They’d gone out on the dance floor for a couple of songs and when he pulled away to steal a dance with Y/N she was gone.

He’d searched the party through when a couple of males burst through the door - yelling of a female going crazy and murdering local villagers.

Az immediately vacated the party to take down the assailant - sending another partygoer to alert Rhys and Cassian who were currently bedding a set of twins in one of the suites.

He was taken back when he landed at the site of the attack. The carnage was brutal with blood coating the snowy ground, littered in dead males and females. His heart nearly stopped when he realized, at the center of it all, there she was. Y/N holding her hunting knife over a severely injured female.

Stunned by the sight, Azriel prepared to send a wave of power out and knock the knife from her hand. Right as the power readied itself for Azriel to fire, she turned and looked at him. Her eyes met his and snap. His body jolted - a golden thread between him and the blood splattered beauty before him - the surge caused his arm to jerk and a much more powerful blast emitted from his siphons. He missed his target. For the first time in his life, he missed it. Instead of the knife, the deadly blast of power hit her.

His mate. His best friend. His equal. His eternity - ripped away in a second.

Everything after that was a blur. His only memories of those moments played on a constant reel in his head flashing images of the injured girl screaming “you killed her!!!!”, collapsing on top of Y/N’s lifeless body, screaming to the mother or any other deity that may listen - begging for her chest to rise and fall again, and then four strong hands pulling him off of her before everything went black and his brothers voice calmed his mind.

~~~~~~~~~~

Days later Azriel woke up from whatever sedation Rhys had put him in. When he woke, Cassian was by his side. It was all of a minute before the memory came flooding back.

Azriel thrashed only to find he’d been restrained.

“Brother..” Cassian said firmly.

“Brother!” he yelled

Azriel’s wrists and ankles were on fire as he thrashed. He had to get to her, had to.

Finally Azriel cried out “Y/N!!! Y/N!!!!”

“My mate! Where is she!? WHERE IS SHE!?” he screamed and cried, thrashing against the restraints with all of his might.

Everything went dark again.

“Az…..” Rhys spoke softly into his mind

Azriel didn’t have the strength to scream or yell in this space of sedation. He could only whisper “where is she?”

Silence filled the void of his mind before Rhys spoke. “She’s gone, Az.”

Devastation flooded through him, filling him completely, making that one sided bond reverberate every ounce of emotion back to him.

Rhys waited patiently, sending soothing waves of darkness into his mind. Knowing Azriel well enough to wait until he was ready to send a thought back.

“Why, Rhys? Why did she do it?”

Again, that damned silence as Rhys paused.

“If I show you now, I’ll have to keep you under for longer, Az. You’re a danger to yourself right now and this… it’s heavy, brother.”

“Do it” he gritted.

Azriel’s mind became entranced in a vision. Before him a massacre. He was seeing through the eyes of a frightened female, eyes bleary from sobbing.

A large group of males had corralled several females into a circle, some as young as five or six. The males all carried sharp objects ranging from sickles and scythes to swords and axes.

A male stepped forward - Y/N’s father - who spoke:

“Females of Illyria have not served us well in many years. They forget that their purpose is to care for us, maintain our homes, and cater to our physical needs. Instead, they insult us by wasting time and energy on training - as if our protection is not enough? Young females smuggle herbs into our camps that delay their bleed so they can fly where they please, whoring around with whomever they please. These behaviors reflect negatively on all of Illyria, leaving us to appear weak to enemies.”

And then the bloodshed began. The males ran at the females, corralling them in closer and closer. Butchering wings and brutalizing any female who dared fight back. The screaming, gods awful screaming, pierced the air.

Male screams suddenly burst out - a blast of power knocking ten of them on their asses.

And there she was, in her resplendent glory.

“Hello boys.” She smirked.

Y/N’s father stepped forward. “My traitorous daughter, and dressed like a slut too. Shall we show them what happens to women who don’t obey.”

“Oh yes, ladies, my father took my wings when I was four. He burnt the stumps too. See these scars?” She turned around briefly with a wave to her back. “Someone I love helped me realize how beautiful they are, a stark reminder of what I can overcome.”

She paused, looking to the females as she addressed her father:

“So yes, father, perhaps this is the fate of disobedient females - but allow me the honor of showing YOU the fate of males who think they can steal a females power.”

-They say looks can kill and I might try-

Her piercing eyes again met her father as she threw a hand out, sending another blast of power - a death blow - turning him to ash in the wind.

Before any of the males could react, she sent another larger blast, creating an opening near the most vulnerable of the females.

“RUN! Those of you who can fight - you may stay. Those of you who are unable - there is no shame in leaving now! Seek shelter!”

The females nodded toward a teenage girl, signaling her to gather the youngest females and ran off with them. Any males that tried stopping them were turned to ash.

“Ladies, show them who we are!” Y/N cried.

-The ladies simply had enough-

They were outnumbered, so terribly outnumbered. Some females had died before Y/N arrived - bleeding out from the butchering of their wings but the few remaining females fought bravely. Because of their lack of training, the males easily overtook many of them but Y/N led them bravely, valiantly, taking them out as best as she could.

As the female numbers lessened Y/N cried out for the females to evacuate, to seek healers. The remainder of the females fled aside from two females (one of which this visions point of view was from) who appeared to have more training than the others.

Y/N looked to them giving a knowing look seemingly saying “give them hell.” They adjusted their stances into that of the most fearsome warriors, and took on the remaining males as more and more fled in.

Y/N’s power was like nothing they’d ever seen. She took down male after male.

Before she could react, two males approached from behind taking out the other female and knocking out the vision of the female whose mind Rhys had gleaned into.

As the female blacked out, the vision faded away. Silence once again filled the air for several minutes before Azriel said:

“But.. she was holding a knife over the female. I don’t understand.”

Rhys answered in a heartbreakingly soft tone

“I can show you, brother. But this will be hard to see. Are you sure?”

Azriel replied firmly, “show me.”

Rhys hesitated before continuing. But then the vision resumed as the female regained consciousness:

Her eyes were so blurry. She was hurting terribly but managed a gasp. Around her, all of the males were dead and the bodies of their fallen sisters painted the snow red. Emotion flooded through her, she couldn’t move. As her vision cleared further, she saw her. The female who fought so bravely for them.

Y/N saw her and ran over. The blood caking her braid causing panic. The trauma of this night was too much - the blood so triggering. Y/N sensed the fear and whispered “I am here. You are safe now. Look at my eyes, not around you, not at the blood on me, just my eyes.” The female tried but couldn’t look away from the blood in her hair. “I’m going to bring my knife out and cut the braid. Do not be afraid.” Y/N once again unsheathed her knife, lifting it, when loud wings flapped in. The injured female couldn’t get words out, her only signal to Y/N, a wide eyed look of panic.

Y/N turned around - breathed out “Azri-“ just as that fatal blow of power hit her.

“STOP!” Azriel cried out in his mind. It was too much.

Azriel’s body began convulsing as a mixture of rage, heartbreak, and panic flew through him. “I KILLED HER. I KILLED HER. MY MATE. MY MATE. MY MATE.”

Rhys had no choice but to send out another wave of sedation to his brother.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next several weeks were spent in and out of sedation. Rhysand had found that Y/N’s father had been planning the attack for months, perhaps even longer. The camp was chosen for the first attack because of the party - a distraction to lessen the chances of interference from outsiders.

He planned to carry out more attacks throughout Illyria in coming months. Had it not been for Y/N, more would have happened. Her heroic actions prevented so many more losses than just the ones that were saved that night.

Azriel stayed bedridden for months - only leaving when Cassian and Rhys nagged him enough that it wasn’t worth the energy to refuse them. One day Rhys brought in a box, inside the box, Y/N’s knife and a journal. “She would have wanted you to have this.”

Azriel’s chest broke at the sight. Her mothers knife, the knife they’d spent hundreds of hours training with. He almost refused it but it felt like a piece of her. A reminder of her goodness, of the mate he lost.

That night he laid it under his pillow - an odd comfort as he read through the journal. The journal unveiling that she knew they were mates. His heart cracked further knowing that the reason she’d stepped out that night was likely to get some air after she saw him with Morrigan. “Stupid.” His inner thoughts cried out to him. How could he have been so blind?

He lay awake for half the night as he read through her journal - he sobbed for hours until his shadows finally lulled him to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

Truth-Teller

“Azriel” a soft voice whispered.

“Azriel” the lovely voice whispered again.

He was dreaming.

He tried to whisper her name but couldn’t speak.

“I don’t have much time, I need you to listen.”

He again attempted to speak but no sound came. He nodded his head.

A flash of light illuminated his mind and there she was. Somehow even more beautiful than she’d been - if that were possible. Her form illuminated with an incandescent glow, face full of light - a light that only came from insurmountable joy and happiness. And behind her, behind her were stunning golden feathered wings. An angel, his angel, stood before him… with six glowing siphons.

“Azriel, please do not cry for me. I am at peace. This was always my destiny. The lovely truth of my life was that all of the pain led me to you, I found a love, a friendship, that so few experience. Every step led me to where I am now and this afterlife is beautiful. The truth of life is that fate is inevitable.”

She waved a hand and out stepped more winged females. The females who died in the attack.

“What happened was not an accident, it was fate. You could not have changed the outcome. When you sent your power out toward me and the bond snapped, my power shot through the bond into you, reflecting back to me. You only sent out a small blast, the fatal blow came from my refracted power.”

Azriel’s eyes widened at the revelation. His heart still completely shattered but the guilt slightly lessened.

“When you sealed my fate it trapped a piece of my soul in the knife. I am forever bound to Truth-Teller. When you carry truth-teller you carry a piece of my power, of me, with you. Though, I will be with you regardless, as a part of me will always rest…” she held a delicate hand to her heart, “right here.”

His mind raced. Truth-Teller. What she’d named her knife after the truth of her mother was unveiled with it.

“I must go now, Azriel.” She waved an arm again to her fellow angels. “I am the keeper of the Mother’s gate and this is my legion. This was always my destiny - this and to love you. I will keep the bastards out and someday, someday far from now, I will hold the gate open for you.

Until then, may the truth set you free my love.”

A beautiful woman resembling Y/N stepped forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Her mother. The angels all nodded to Azriel in confirmation.

“My precious mate, I will love you for eternity.” Y/N whispered as she shot toward the sky - right into the most vibrant aurora he’d ever seen.

~~~~~~~~~~

Truth-Teller

500 Years Later

Azriel still thought of her every damn day, Truth-Teller never leaving his side. His North Star, the angel guiding him through life. He never told his brothers - didn’t know how to explain how that broken mating bond glowed inside him whenever his intuition failed. She’d guided him in her own way all of these years.

Leading up to the war with Hybern the tug became stronger and stronger. A warning of the strife to come.

For the first time since the night Rhys brought him her journal and Truth-Teller, she reappeared to him.

“Azriel.” Her melodic voice whispered, a sweet song serenading his soul.

“Azriel, I don’t have much time.” that honeyed voice whispered.

In the same fashion as last time, he couldn’t speak. Managing only to nod.

“I have carefully pulled the strings of fate as much as I am capable. A war is coming with a fate that I am unable to divulge. The Mother has allowed me to share just this:

“The fawn who sees carries the truth. When the time comes, you will know.”

Azriel furrowed his brows with confusion.

Y/N smiled softly, outshining any star in the sky, more captivating than the spirits of Starfall. “The truth will set you free. Do not fear loving again.”

He fought and fought, trying to speak, thrashing against the walls of his mind he was able to mutter three words to her.

“I love you.”

She placed a hand on her heart.

“I know, my love.”

Spreading those magnificent wings, she shot from his mind, the void filling with the echoes of her song.

“Until eternity reunites our souls.”

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thecagedsong · 9 months

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So one take on TOTK’s ending I’ve seen quite a bit of is the idea that it deprived all dramatic weight from Zelda’s sacrifice and that she should have suffered the consequences of her choice (I.e. stay a dragon forever or come back as a dragon human hybrid). This strikes me as a shallow reading of the text and another example of how some people think punishment (or in this case “dying for a cause”) is the only viable ending for someone who made the choice Zelda made. It really rubs me the wrong way given all the development and tragedy she faced in both games. What are your thoughts?

There is something beautiful and tragic and meaningful about the stories etched upon our skin by powers beyond our control. I don't think the people that wish for Amputee Link or Dragon Zelda think that 'dying for a cause' is the only reward for sacrifice. It comes from the truth that most of us don't get to recover from the consequences of our actions the way characters in a story can. Which I absolutely get (one of my earliest fics was written to call out anime fanservice). To escape with no scars or signs that anything awful happened can feel unrealistic or like cheating in a world where we must bear the consequences of our actions. But is that really what happened?

First off is the Doyalist framework the story has to exist within. This is a video game for a major franchise that, while they are excellent at re-writing and ignoring their own canon, still needs to be available for future stories to be told through it. After all the emphasis botw placed on the 'goddess bloodline', if they were to kill Zelda, or even render her sterile, that puts a huge shadow over any future games they could make. You don't kill Harry in the Order of the Phoenix. The stories of Hyrule are far from over, even if this would be a satisfying end point for the timeline. Heck, there's no guarantee Link's not going to wake up in his underwear in a damp cave a third time, tbh. That's the reality of why Zelda had to return to her old body.

But does that mean that totk is a bad story? Does it render Zelda's sacrifices meaningless? Do these sacrifices only have meaning if she came back visibly changed?

I don't think so. Because the sacrifice was never about her body, it was always about her sense of self. "To become an immortal dragon is to lose ones' self" was the sacrifice that was demanded and that Zelda offered.

Guess what? She did have to leave Link to face Ganondorf without her. Zelda did lose all sense of herself for uncountable years. Zelda's memories, her sense of self, was stripped away from her and scattered across all of Hyrule.

It was only because Link loved her enough to collect the pieces of who Zelda was, only because he was able to understand them through the gift of Rauru's arm, and only because both Sonia and Rauru consigned themselves to living as spirits for as long as Zelda was a dragon, that Zelda's sense of self was returned.

It may feel like cheating, or maybe unearned, that Zelda got her body and sense of self back with no visible changes. But how many times have other people stepped in to help shoulder the consequences of your actions? How many times did your parents step in when you made a mistake, to give you another chance?

You ever leave the fridge open as a kid, and accidentally spoil all your food? In a family where money is tight, Mom and Dad might have to sacrifice eating full meals for a while so that their children can eat. That sacrifice is a form of love. If the neighbor hears about it (thin walls) and brings over some casseroles they took from their food stores, that took a few hours to make, does that diminish the parent's sacrifice for their kids? The consequences of that sacrifice, going hungry, have gone away because someone else stepped in.

The mistake was Rauru and Sonia's, letting Ganondorf in and not being strong enough to stop him. The sacrifice was Zelda's, her mind/memories/self. The intercessors are Rauru, Sonia, and Link, unwilling to let Zelda bear the full weight of her sacrifice.

Yes, we live in a world where we often do not get to walk away from the consequences of our sacrifices/choices unscathed. But we also live in a world where, every once and a while, we do get to walk away with only internal changes. Almost always because other people were willing to sacrifice too. Your parents? your siblings? Your friends? Your god?

Zelda's hylian body is a reflection of the sense of self she regained. Of her agency as a character instead of as a mindless dragon/a living sacred site. Zelda's character arc ends with her accepting the sacrifice demanded of her by reclaiming her responsibility towards the people of her Hyrule, taking up the mantle of power and leadership once again. The fact that other people step in to blunt the weight of that sacrifice does not degrade how Zelda changed to get there or what she went through.

It's actually the conclusion of Rauru, Sonia's, and Link's arcs that they also sacrificed to support Zelda. Her arc pulls all the others to their conclusions. Zelda is the narrative gravity of totk. I can't call that bad writing.

#ask thecagedsong #totk meta #totk spoilers #loz #loz totk #Zelink #light dragon #tears of the kingdom #totk zelink

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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mymainwastoocluttered · 2 years

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When Vil Doesn’t Play The Villain (Vil)

Vil gets transmigrated into his favorite novel.

NOTE: I only write for female reader but everyone is welcome to read it!

Another indulgent, low effort thing to distract me from my allergies

— (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

“Vil… no… I’m–ah! Mhn… I’m still married!”

“To a man who will never love you as you deserve.”

Vil blows on her sensitive neck, enjoying the shivers that shake her body, enjoying the knowledge that he’s the only man that has made her do that. After weeks, months trying to win her affections, he finally has her; her mind, her body, her heart are all his, and soon the band on her finger will be his too.

To think he’d die a terrible death, only to transmigrate into his favorite novel. Vil hadn’t known if it was good or bad luck, until he met his favorite character, and now he knows for sure that it is the best of luck. To be able to share an existence with her, to be able to see her hair dance with the wind and her skin be kissed by the sun, to be able to hear her sweet voice directed to him…

Vil had fallen fast and hard.

(Y/N) went from his favorite character to his favorite person faster than the chandelier that fell on him in his past life hit his head.

Now, if only she weren’t married to that repugnant male lead.

Princess (Y/N) Branco, the ultimate villainess of the novel named “Wishing By The Well”. The villainess who, contrary to most in the genre, actually keeps her role until the very bitter end thanks to her incredibly sharp mind and outstanding skills, a woman who needed to be killed off in her sleep for no legal means could ever touch her. A woman who could’ve ruled the world, but only wished for her husband to not disgrace her with a public affair.

Vil had loved her from the very beginning of the story, and only finished the novel because of her. (Y/N) had been raised to marry the prince from a very young age, being born in a ducal house. She never had any problems rising to the demands of the people around her, her diligence and hard work trampling any difficulties she encountered. And as a noble, she had long abandoned the sweet dreams of love and adventure.

She admitted multiple times through the book that she would not mind if her husband had a secret lover, or got himself a concubine. All she wanted was to be respected as the first and main wife, so she had less to worry when she rose to the throne with the prince—who undoubtedly needed a woman like her to reign in his stupidity. But that disgusting fool simply refused to do something so small like keeping his pants on.

He practically worshipped the ground the “Main Character” walked on, gifted her dresses and jewelry and many other luxuries. He went everywhere with her, and gave in to her silly commoner whims easily like a sheep follows a shepherd. And in the end, it all reflected terribly on the princess, who quickly got ridiculed for being “incapable of keeping her husband interested”. For every dress he gave the mistress that became a trend, it was a new designer that taunted the princess by trying to sell her the same design. For every jewelry he gave the mistress that blinded the passersby, it was a new jewelry store that told the princess her chosen piece wasn’t available anymore. For every gesture of love he showed towards the mistress, it was a new line of mockery thrown the princess’ way.

And despite all that, (Y/N) kept herself beautiful, and showed herself ruthless. Even cruel at points. It was glorious to read as she’d finally let go of the shackles she kept around herself so she could become the perfect princess, and showed the dangerous, poisonous black widow that hid behind a fan.

And it had been even more breathtaking to watch it with his own eyes.

Duke Vil—the original owner of the body, conveniently also named Vil—was supposed to be the second male lead, to follow the protagonist like a good little lap poodle; jumping and barking when she asked, and then obediently stepping back and whining in sadness while she threw herself at the arms of another man. Vil—the one who took over the body—had despised the character, thinking he’d be better off devoting himself to the villainess–

And now he can correct that plot hole with his own lips.

“Soon, my dear, everything will fall into place, and the ring on your finger will carry my name instead, and the crown you deserve will be yours,” he promises her in a feverish whisper, drunk on her presence.

“Won’t royalty be too burdensome to you?” (Y/N) asks, meeting his searing kisses with her own. To be the one to see this monument of a woman soften and relax, that’s why Vil got his second life.

“My dear, I’m already killing a future monarch, nothing can burden me if I have you.”

“How villainous~”

“If anything, we’re saving this country.”

She laughs, resting fully against him, giving him the permission to pick her up and take her to his room, and Vil does so quickly, not one second to waste when he has her in his arms.

The one time he isn’t a villain, he’s usurping a throne for his beloved.

Maybe there was some rhyme to those castings back in his first life.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst imagines #twst x reader #x fem reader #vil schoenheit #vil schoenheit x reader

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blingblong55 · 6 months

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Masquerade -Call of Duty

This is a collection of quotes from a radio show called 'Dangerously Yours' from Ep titled 'Masquerade'. (none of these quotes or ideas of how the story develops are mine.)

---- GN!Reader, enemy!Reader, enemy!COD character, enemies to lovers? ----

You are a spy for your country, you were sent to kill the target so you made him/her fall in love and you also fell into your own trap. Neither of you can be with the other for if you are, you'll both get killed. So, you tell him/her what your plans were and he/she tells you they knew all along. You are in denial of your feelings for him/her and in the end, you end up killing him/her. His/her last words were, 'I love you R/N." And as his/her people asked if he/she needed help, all they said was basically no, that they want you to find your own path in life and that with hope, someday, you would believe that they were truly in love with you which is very much true.

This next part is of the characters in COD that I think would be the ones playing Rudolph Estefan and you of course play Catherine. These quotes are taken from the comment section...and from what i listened to as I wrote them down

[Italic for the COD character]

----

(Vladimir Makarov)

“Look, [R/N], a shooting star! Did you wish?”

“Oh, I didn’t have time.”

“Then there is something you wish for.”

“Yes…”

“What did you wish?”

“I was wishing that… we were two other people. Two people who need not say goodbye.”

“Perhaps it can be that way.”

----

(Valeria Garza)

[Orange is a third character]

“Oh, I wish you wouldn’t go to see that woman/man tonight, [ma'am]-“

“how could I stay away? Elvear, for the first time in my life, I am completely, head-over-heels in love!”

“but countess Garza-“

“I know what you’re thinking, ‘I have a mission to perform and I have no right to fall in love', but… things don’t always work out the way we’d like to have them work out, hey Elvear?”

“oh, I don’t know what’s to come of all this, sir.”

“no, Elvear, neither do I. Neither do I, but perhaps we shall find out tonight.”

----

(Alejandro Vargas) "[R/N], I offer you the three things most dear to me, my heart, my country and my dreams."

"You are too generous."

"[R/N], you must listen to me. Since that first hour we met, I've been completely yours. There's never been anyone else for me, there never will."

"Oh please, please don't say anymore. There are worlds between us, worlds that can't be crossed with words."----

(Alex Keller)

"I'm going to tell you something [R/N], something that will put my life in your hands."

"your life..."

"It would mean my life were the news to get to certain circles yes."

"Then don't tell me, how do you know you can trust me?"

"I love you...and I believe you love me."

----

(John Price)

“you may as well take my heart, [R/N], it’s already full of you. You walked into it the day we met.”

“You’re a fool, John Price.”

“but isn’t any man who falls in love?”

----

(Simon 'Ghost' Riley)

"Do you know what you are to me? You are something to believe in again. You're a type of person that had ceased to exist for me. A fine honest woman/man."

----

(Rodolfo Parra)

“Oh, my darling, you’re such a child. take your foolish little dream in your heart and go, please go!”

“what is it, what’s wrong my dear?”

“you know nothing about me- you’ve known me only three weeks!”

“three weeks…? [R/N], I’ve known you all my life.”

“all your life.”

“it’s true! I’ve seen you in a thousand plays, and read you in as many books. when I’ve heard beautiful music I’ve thought, ‘[She’d/He'd] like that.’ I’ve looked at flowers and known that one day I’d give them to you-“

“Oh, stop, stop! you must listen to me. I am not that woman/man! Perhaps I was once, but I am not now! You see… you were wrong. you can’t trust me.”

----

(Logan Walker)

"I had Elvear look you up the day you arrived."

"And it...it didn't make any difference?"

"It didn't make any difference. You see, I trust you. You came here to betray me and to betray my country, that is your mission countess/count [R/N]. And yet I'm so sure of your love that I will trust you with my life and what is far more valuable the life of my country."

----

(John 'Soap' MacTavish)

“if I betray you…I betray myself. If I betray him, I betray my country. My country is very dear to me.”

“dearer than I?”

“no…no, not dearer than you.”

----

(John Price)

“You’re very clever, aren’t you? I can read you like a book now. You thought I was young, and easily swayed, that you could make me love you, and I would throw over my country—my duty for you—!”

“That's not the way to look at it, [R/N].”

“You weren’t so wise after all! Because you’ve lost you hear me?! Lost! You’ve guessed wrong in our little duel of wits! You forgot how close hate is to love!”

“You don’t know what you’re saying [R/N].”

“You never loved me—! You knew that I loved you, and you used that!”

“[R/N] stop talking like a child—we’re playing for countries now!”

“Yes we are, aren’t we!”

----

(Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick)

“This is a gun in my hand, Kyle…I’d advise you to be careful what you say.”

“Well, rather melodramatic, aren’t you? tell me, will I be the seventh notch on the gun or the eighth? haha. do you mind if I smoke?”

“…smoke?”

“I always smoke at the theatre. somehow it enhances the performance.”

“You can do anything you please, Kyle, but you have very little time to do it in.”

----

(Keegan P. Russ)

“…You mean you’re actually going to kill me...?”

“I mean just that.”

“Well…go ahead.”

“…I’ll do this my own way…Look…you already know my purpose in being here. Now you will either give me my information, or I will kill you. You have until 9 o’clock.”

“You won’t do it. You can’t pull the trigger. You can’t pull it because you love me. It takes a very brave and a very cold woman/man to do that [R/N], I don’t think you can…Isn’t that true? Isn’t that why you’re waiting…?”

“That's not true!”

----

(Simon 'Ghost' Riley)

“Or is it that you want to watch your victim? You want my heart to constrict with agony, my hands to shake! You want me to plead for my life so you can make a generous gesture and spare me…Sorry [R/N], I don’t seem to be in the mood for prayers tonight.”

“You don’t think I’ll do it? That's why you’re so brave…You don’t think I’ll do it…You wouldn’t be so brave otherwise…! You’re a coward at heart! You lied to me, you deceived me—“

“You lied to me…you deceived me!”

“You tried to deceive me.”

“I’m tired of listening to you!”

“You gave me your heart, you know. You’d like me to hand it back, whole again, but I won’t. You’ll live a long time yet, [R/N], an eternity without me. You will look into the faces of passers-by, hoping for something that will, for an instant, bring me back to you. You will find moonlit nights strangely empty because when you call my name through them there will be no answer. Always your heart will be aching for me and your mind will give you the doubtful consolation that you did a brave thing.”

“you dare to talk of bravery.”

“what else do we have to talk about, [R/N]? For me, there will never be another woman/man but you. But for my heart, there is another love that must come before you, my country.”

----

(König)

“you’re so still… your face is like ice. what are you thinking, [R/N]?”

“…what does anything you can say matter? You betrayed me with words. What good are words… when your heart is breaking? if I fail now, I should deserve to die. You tricked me into loving you.”

“Aren’t you forgetting that you came here for the same purpose?”

“I couldn’t have betrayed you, I tried to tell you- you said you already knew. I was as honest as I knew how to be.”

“Do you think I wanted to love you, knowing where you came from and what your mission was? Don’t you suppose that every hour we were together I was thinking, ‘[She’s/He's] just pretending’?”

“I wasn’t! I loved you!”

“and I loved you so much I let you pretend! Because you brought something to my days I couldn’t stand the thought of losing. Listen to your heart [R/N]. Feel it pounding.”

----

(All of the COD characters...for sure)

“Your time is up.”

“Then, my last words, I love you, [R/N].”

“You’re determined to die with a lie on your lips?!”

*gunshot*

“I…love you, [R/N]…”

“Oh, god.”

----

(All of the COD characters...for sure)

“Tell her/him the truth? Tell her the truth so that she/he will watch the stars through tears instead of following the one cold star that is her/his destiny? No, no, Elvear, let her/him think I never loved her/him. One day, she/he will follow a flag to the same fate as mine. We must…leave her/him the strength for that hour.”

A/N: Anyway...hope you liked it?

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ninapi · 5 months

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- ̥۪͙۪˚┊❛ Obsession❜ (Christmas Special)┊˚ ̥۪͙۪◌

Premise: When someone doesn't know you exist is your sole source of comfort, things can't get a bit weird. In Christmas day things are better for everyone, including Geto Suguru.

Word Count: 2717

Note: Merry xmas everyone! 🫶🏻🎄☃️

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A wondering soul that feeds on human filth. That’s the way he would describe himself, especially on nights like this.

The night sky was murky, not a single star in the sky and it looked like it would snow any time now.

He’s had to swallow three curses today and the negative toll in his body could be noticed a mile away.

His thoughts had been very chaotic as of late and he barely even sleeps.

All he thinks about is how awful this world is and how it’d be better if curses didn’t exist, but not even the strongest sorcerer would be able to wipe them all clean, as more grow out of humans every day.

Humans must be the problem, why must they be so evil and hateful, why are they always so depressed and anxious? If they were sorcerers the world wouldn’t be this bad, is their fault for not being able to use curse energy but create it and let it out of control.

Useless, useless humans.

On his way back to the academy Suguru stopped by a cafe that looked like it was about to close.

He needed something bitter, something that would kill that disgusting taste out of his mouth.

The only worker left in said cafe was a girl that appeared to be about his age, probably a part-timer, even in the dark her beautiful rounded eyes and shining smile were a sight for sore eyes.

She took his order and headed to the back to prepare it herself as the rest of her coworkers had headed home for the night. When she came back with his order though, it wasn’t at all what he had ordered, “I’m sorry, I’m actually not a barista so making a hand dripped seasonal coffee isn’t in my skill set, but my parents say I’m very good at making hot chocolate and since it’s so cold outside today, I thought maybe what you needed was just something warm and sweet? Maybe I read the situation wrong but I hope you like it nonetheless, you don’t have to pay me or anything!” she had even done a cute snowman print on the top of the foam for his drink and he couldn’t help but smile.

A nice ending to such an awful day.

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There’s a reason why Suguru doesn’t sleep well, the nightmares hunt him, some aren’t even related to his life, the overconsumption of curses has been doing some damage in his mental stability and he is even afraid of his own shadow at times.

He still hates humanity, he’s this deranged all because of them.

All except that one sweet girl from the coffee shop down second avenue, she’s an angel.

He wished he at least knew her name, but he wasn’t proactive enough to even ask.

In nights like this, where his nightmares keep coming back over and over again doesn’t matter how many times he’d wake up in the middle of them, all that would ground him to reality was the thought of her smile.

He’d imagine him walking over from behind, surprising her with a soft warm hug. Wrap his scarf around the two of them so she wouldn’t be able to escape his love.

He’d imagine her making more of that hot chocolate that was oh so delicious and completely wiped out the taste of death from his mouth.

Even better, he’d imagine her kissing the hot chocolate into his mouth.

While he was not able to sleep even with such comforting thoughts, at least the nightmares would go away.

But this night in particular he just didn’t seem to be able to snap out of it, he’d talk to his pillow like it was you, holding it close to his body, sweet talking it to its death as it has now been reduced to mush and it’s in his trashcan after a wave of reality made him seen the pillow for what it was.

So next morning he was just not able to control himself anymore, he had to see her, he had to look into those beautiful eyes up close, even if it was for a second he needed to hear her lovely voice, sniff the same air that came out of her mouth while greeting customers, he needed to be in the same space as her, even if he didn’t dare to come closer.

He learned your name was (Y/N) after one of your coworkers yelled at you after spilling some coffee on the counter and burning a customer’s hand. He wanted nothing more than to burn his face with the same coffee just so he would scream in pain. How dare he yell at someone as precious as you? That scum, of course, he had to be human…

That day he also learned you don’t work there every day and that you’re in school too. You were reading some cards while there were no customers ordering, like a good girl. Such a lovely dedicated young woman, you had to be a saint for sure, a goddess probably.

And with an all time high, he left the shop without you even noticing he was there.

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In all truth, he thought seeing you for real once more would put an end to this tightness of his chest. He was fully conscious of how creepy he was being and how unreasonable it was to be feeling so many things for a complete stranger, but things were very difficult for him.

He was lonely, sad, stressed. A huge turmoil was building up inside of him as days went by and you were the only positive thing inside that mind of his.

Hence, he held into the thought of you so tightly that at some point he stopped having nightmares completely. All he would dream about was of that lovely face of yours and how you would live with him in this beautiful world without regular humans and curses.

But he forgot something crucial.

You were very much one of them, a human, nothing more.

And the realization of that hit him hard on the face when Friday came around, the day to drop by the cafe and creep on you without anybody noticing.

Just that this Friday was different.

A pesky curse was touching you in a nasty way, almost as if it was fondling you.

Of course you couldn’t see it, nor feel it really, but distress was clear on your face the entire time he was there.

He had to do something, he couldn’t allow that disgusting thing to keep its hands on his precious babe.

But what if eating said curse tasted like you?

A sudden need to get it into his array of curses rose in his chest sending him to spiral into a very unexpected ride that left him panting and whimpering on his seat, traumatizing a child that was sitting on a table close by.

He was creeping himself out at this point, but the thought of you was the only thing that kept him away from total insanity, and he needed to get that thing off of you, was the least he could do after all you’ve done for him, even if you had no clue of what that was.

But he didn’t know how to get it off without you noticing, he had to develop a plan quickly. And so he remained hidden on an alleyway close to the shop waiting for you to leave for the day.

Once you did, you looked miserable. Staying all day watching you like a hawk made him realize you weren’t the happy goddess he thought you were but a normal human. The same coworker that yelled at you last time kept harassing you all day and to make it worse someone called you in your break and he could hear you sobbing from where he was hidden. It was now clear to him that curse was actually coming out of you, it wasn’t something that got attached but rather created by you. An awful realization as he saw how not even his pure angel was free from the disgusting nature of human kind.

You were stressed and sad and that made this weak pesky curse to come out. He wanted to do more for you than just exterminating the flower of doom that blossomed from your distress, he knew that wouldn’t really make all that was bugging you to go away, but was all he could do. He couldn’t really just talk to you after all.

He had been so hooked up with the entire situation that he hadn’t noticed today was Christmas Day. Apparently to you that was a big thing and for the look on your face probably the plans had been cancelled earlier.

The curse noticed him following them and kept taunting him by touching you in a suggestive manner as if making fun of him, it was irritating to say the least but he couldn’t just send one of his big curses to chase it away, it could get you harmed and that’s the last thing he wants.

He had to get close and he didn’t know what to do.

Lost in his thoughts he didn’t realize you had stopped walking, making him bump onto your back. The drink you were holding, a Christmas present given to all employees at the cafe, falling into the snow. “Oh, I’m so sorry miss. Are you ok? I was just so distracted I didn’t see you there…” of course he saw you, he’s been following you for hours, but it wasn’t entirely a lie.

“It’s ok, don’t worry. I don’t even drink tea anyways…not like they would know that at my workplace, they don’t care enough for that…” the last part came out as nothing but a whisper but he heard it. He knows you’ve been struggling at work and most likely at home too, but of course he couldn’t really say anything about it.

“How about I buy you something you do like in exchange?”

“That’s not necessary really…today is Christmas Day I’m sure you have something better to do than buy a stranger a drink.” oh but there was nothing he’d rather do than to breathe the same air as you, this was already the best Christmas he’s ever had. Again, something he couldn’t tell you.

“Not really, I was going to go out with my school friends but they’re all busy so they cancelled it. Have nothing better to do. But if you do, I understand, I can give you the mon-“ you stopped his babbling before he continued, truth is, you were feeling very lonely and the thought of not going to your empty house this early was lovely. “I-I don’t…I don't have anything to do either…” your cheeks were tinging red and his liver was pounding in pain at your beauty, an odd feeling I may add.

“Then how about we go to that place over there? Seems designed for cute girls…I bet they have more than tea there.” his nonchalant attitude made his almost flirting banter so smooth it made you even more flustered so you just nodded and walked with him.

“You like chocolate right?” that startled you, was he some kind of stalker? He was, honestly, but you didn’t know that. The moment you saw his face it clicked in your head, that one customer that had to drink your hot cocoa just because you were too slow at closing that night.

“Oh! I knew you looked familiar! And yes, I do love chocolate.” your cute giggles were music to his ears, he was in love wasn’t he?

“Then lets go get some chocolate. Since that day I kinda became addicted to it too, you were right, you’re definitely a pro at making it.” being with him was making all the sadness and depressive thoughts from your head to go away in such an easy nonintrusive way it was amazing. Of course you had no idea you were doing even more than that for him by just existing in his own space.

“I’m glad you didn’t hate it…I was so nervous!”

His soft chuckles were so attractive, he was so attractive it was hard to think about how your boyfriend just broke up with you via phone call, on Christmas Day. This is just what you needed. “You should be proud, I’m a man that drinks bitter coffee all the time, and you turned me into a chocolover.” and your secret lover too, but that was better kept hidden for the time being.

The afternoon was fantastic after said encounter.

You went to that pink shop in the new district which was full with other high school girls giggling loudly. He got you a Christmas parfait which was hell more expensive than the stupid tea he dumped on the snow, but filled your heart with excitement.

Seeing you eating it like a child made his heart feel so full he almost forgot about killing the damn curse.

After a lovely stroll by the nearby park he took advantage of how cold you seemed to relive one of the many fantasies he had with you while also killing the curse at the same time, a win-win situation.

He took off half of his scarf and wrapped it around your neck, bringing you impossibly close to him, while you were all flustered and looking like a cute couple Christmas card, he was gathering the disgusting curse in his palm turning it into a little ball and saving it in his pocket. He did more than what he thought he was even allowed to dream of and all he could think about now was about kissing those soft rosy lips of yours. And by the look of you, you were thinking the very same thing. “You know…I was dumped today…I didn’t love him or anything so its fine…but don’t you think it might be you know like…” you sighed afraid of using the words that were hunting your thoughts. “Destiny?” his smug grin was making you shy again but he was right, that’s what you were thinking of, so you just nodded.

“Why were you dating him if you didn’t love him? If I may ask…” you two remained there by a decorated lamp post, wrapped in the warmth of his fuzzy scarf, nearly holding each other though not really touching just yet. “I was just lonely…”

His heart dropped, you were lonely just as he was. The realization that other people might be feeling similar to him, even if it was for different reasons, was oddly comforting.

“I can understand that feeling…But if you ask me, you’ll be better off without that bastard. Who makes a beautiful girl like you sad in Christmas day? I would smack him on the face if he was here..” he really did know how to make you smile, this was so comforting, for both of you, it was like your little heaven made out of snow and Christmas decorations.

“You’re too good to me, Geto-san…”

“Well you deserve that and more. That smile is way prettier than the frown you had when we met earlier. I would like to see it on your face again. If you’d like to see me again, that is…” he was crossing a line, one he couldn’t back off from. But it wasn’t like it was absolutely necessary for you to know he’s been secretly stalking you for weeks…right…?

“I slipped my phone number in the front pocket of your coat a couple of hours back…” and just like that, this year’s Christmas brought both of you a very unexpected gift.

The gift of hope, the gift of feeling understood and maybe, just maybe a bigger one, the gift of…true love.

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Masterlist

#jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu fanfic #jujutsu x reader #fluff #jjk #jjk fluff #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jjk geto #geto suguru #geto fluff #angst #geto x reader #getou suguru x reader #jjk fanfic #geto suguru x reader #geto suguru x you #geto suguru x y/n

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a-funeral-pyre · 19 days

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May Day Parade 2024 - Prompt One: May King Mordred

I did an attempt at re-editing and finally posting an old fic of mine for @queer-ragnelle 's May Day Parade! Although I have to admit I am not fully satisfied by the translation, but there is not much that can be done for that. Here we go:

“Yit that traytour […] Turns hym furthe tite, and talks no more Went wepand awaye, and weries the storndys That ever his werdes ware wroght, siche wandrethe to wyrke” (Allitterative Morthe Arthure)

The sky should not have been so dark today. It is barely midday, and this should have been a peaceful day. But the sun is gone, along with any hope of changing things.

It doesn't cause you any pain. Darkness is your most ancestral memory.

You were born in darkness. You were always destined to live there. Generous hands have rescued you from the abyss only to lead you onto a path devoid of light.

Deep down, you have known it from the beginning.

Before you even knew who you really were there was a voice that came from the night and whispered to your soul. You knew you were fated to be more than just a fisherman's son.

You thought your destiny was to become the heir of a king. You realized too late that you had to be an avenger.

Your father must pay for what he did.

It seems everyone has forgotten the massacre he chose to carry out. Everyone except you. And now you will bring justice and take your rightful place.

You could have repressed your hatred if it weren't for the blood that unites you. You did not ask to be born. You are just the result of his actions, but he's always been too busy looking at you suspiciously to realize that. He never wanted you and he tried to destroy you as soon as you came into this world. The time has come to punish him.

And you don't care how many will be burned by your revenge. Not anymore.

You could have spared Guinevere. But she didn't deserve to have Gareth pay for her. You wished it was her beautiful, cruel face to be frozen in death, her head to be severed. She could have loved you. If not as a wife, then at least as a friend.

But you are the symbol of her husband's guilt, and this is enough to make you enemies.

Now it doesn't matter anymore. You stopped desiring her. When you return, seeing her become aware that in the end you won - the bastard, the traitor, the sick fruit of the king's sin - will be enough.

This time you are certain to win. The darkness around you is witness to this. You will have what is yours, you will avenge the victims of your father, your mother...

And yourself.

Maybe your father thought this time would never come. Maybe he believed that welcoming you into his court was enough to erase the fact that he tried to kill you.

He was naive enough to think you were harmless and he thought that, like everyone else, you couldn't see through his mask of justice and virtue.

All you had to do was look him in his eyes to know what he thought of you. A youthful mistake, a child that should never have been born, dangerous just for existing. He could never have been a father to you. He could never see you as anything other than an enemy.

Now he doesn't hide it anymore.

All your life you have done what he taught you. You have lied. You will rise to power by cheating and killing, as your grandfather did, and you will prove yourself to be your father's worthy son. Then the throne can only be yours.

You are not alone. You have an army with you. Men who saw you worthy of being king, men who long to see you in your father's place. And it doesn't matter that they only follow you for the benefits you promised them. They chose to help you. They chose to raise you to the place you should not have conquered by force. They are more loyal to you than your family ever was.

You have them, and more. You have the blood of kings on your side. You are about to kill a murderer If there really is a just God, He can only be on your side.

You can finally take off the mask you've kept on for years and breathe. For the first time, you are truly alive.

This unnatural night that has fallen on the world will be the dawn of victory for you.

The lie you have woven all these years has come to an end. Just a few hours and you will be king. You will get what you want. You will be respected, you will be loved.

You have to keep telling yourself this until it's all over. Just one last trick on yourself. Just enough to keep going.

Then you will be satisfied with having repaired the wrong you have suffered. You will be able to go on living alone. It won't be too difficult – it's just what you've done so far.

You were born for this moment, to follow the path that fate had written for you. You will have to be able to survive what comes next.

You will have to delude yourself that you can achieve victory. That you can be the master of your destiny.

You have believed in your hatred for so long that you no longer perceive its meaning, but you have gone too far to stop now. You've been alone too long to find a way to bridge the gap between you and your father. From the beginning you had to take on this role. Thus said the prophecy that shaped you.

Deep down you are aware that only emptiness will come afterwards. You've been waiting for this moment your whole life. And you are afraid, because without the desire that has sustained you so far you will no longer be anything.

This will be your last moment. If you survived, you could try to be reborn. You could truly live, finally, once you are free from your father's shadow.

But you are not made for the light of life. Only for this darkness. Only in this moment, now that you are so close to your goal, you really exist.

And nothing has changed compared to before. You are still completely alone.

You had no one to accompany you this far. If Agravain lent you his help, it wasn't because he believed in you. There is no seer who can advise you along the way. As if the fate that put you on this path had abandoned you from the beginning.

You are not naive enough to delude yourself that things will change when all this is over. You have to believe that it is a valid price to pay for what you are about to do, because now you can no longer go back.

You will undo everything you were, everything you are. You're not sure if you'll still be anything after that.

But you can't care about what you might have been if there had been another way. Not anymore. It didn't matter to your father, a bastard born of deception too virtuous to let you become king like he did. You should follow his example, at least this time, and bury all visions of a brighter future.

Even if you had the chance to rebel in the past, you can't do it now. You are just the shadow that must suffocate the light.

You see him, your father, in front of you. Proud and terrible. White and shining. The sun that disappeared from the sky was incarnated in him.

It will burn you, and you know it. You are already defeated. You're better off accepting it and giving up. He will never forgive you, you would die anyway, but at least you would have consciously chosen something, even just once in your entire life.

There's no more time.

As much as it is a crime, as much as it is useless and does not fulfill your hopes, you will do what is right. What you want, what you have to.

All you will do is fulfill desires that were never entirely yours. You have to accept your nature. You are just an instrument of fate.

And when your father dies, you will bring no new dawn. Only darkness and silence, again.

You could have had a normal life. Arthur might have made you his heir. Or he would simply smile at you, every now and then. He would have spoken to you with the same love with which he spoke to your brothers. If he hadn't believed in the prophecy. If I hadn't hated you. If you had not hated him, fulfilling your fate.

You never had a choice.

You had to get here no matter what. You have shed too much blood and tears. Gawain, who, however loyal he was to the wrong person, was still your brother, was only the last of the sacrifices, of the bodies you had to pile up to climb to this moment.

You can't stop anymore. There is nothing left that can save your soul, or at least deprive you of the painful awareness of having lived in vain.

Your father was a glorious and ephemeral flame. You were born just to turn the page.

Nothing more than this.

You existed for him, and together with him you will die. There is nothing you can do to change things now.

Just a moment and you will be free from everything. Whatever awaits you in hell will be no worse than the years you spent on this Earth.

And as his spear slides into you, as his light pierces you, you just wish you had another chance, to go back, change fate, and be happy.

But it's too late. Your name will always be a whisper in the darkness, a black stain in this shining legend, and in your torn body there is no longer enough breath to cry out your pain.

Camlann stands silently over your ruin.

#arthuriana #fanfiction #my writing #sharing my writing #mordred #May Day Parade #queer-ragnelle

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byler-alarmist · 9 months

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So I know we collectively hate time reset/dimension wipe theories about S5, but.....maybe it does need to happen?

Assuming the last couple seasons of ST weren't some elaborate manifestation by Mike to deal with the trauma of losing Will, there are some problems that seem like they can't be fixed without some kind of a reset.

El. Just El in general. Owens was able to give her a fresh start, a new name and a chance at being "normal", However, too many people know about her telekinetic abilities and the ability to open and close gates to the Upside Down. I think she would be in danger of being kidnapped and studied/used as a weapon forever. She can't just kill off/destroy the entire U.S. government (if only), so her file will probably be available for years and even if not, enough people know about her existence that bad actors could target her.

Now that the UD is merging with the RU, will it be contained to Hawkins? Will it spread throughout the country? The world? Even if it is all a hive mind, if they killed Vecna and somehow closed all the gates (it exhausts El to even close one) , would those spores or whatever still be floating around and infecting things in the RU? How could they ever get rid of all of it or ensure that it was all contained in the UD?

As long as both the UD and El exist, even if Vecna is defeated, scientists/governments will always track her because trhey will want to know more about/study/find lucrative applications for the UD. They would still want to use El or use her to find their own way to open gates.

If all this is true and Will/El/the Party need to destroy the UD to make sure no one ever crosses over again, is that really fair? Even if Vecna harnessed the dark particles and created dangerous monsters out for blood, it is hinted that the UD is not inherently malicious. Sure, the Party want to kill Vecna, but if he's gone and the creatures are just minding their own business, would they be fine with destroying it?

And even if they wanted to, could they? How? If it turns out we're right about Will having powers, how would he use them to destroy the Upside Down? I highly doubt his powers would be like El's or involve gates. If he had some kind of creation powers, would he just recreate the UD with glowy light particles and make it beautiful? But even if he did this, wouldn't scientists still want to find a way inside to study it with El"s gate-opening powers?

On the other hand if he (or someone else) has some kind of time powers,, when would they reset it back to? Or what would they go back in time to change? Is there something out of space and time that doesn't belong? (Somehow I am reminded of El saying she doesn't belong anywhere).

If Will or someone else wiped out the dimension that contains the UD (or banished it to another dimension), MKUltra would still have been doing their telekinetic children experiments, right? And if they went back in time, how far back would they have had to go? Back before Henry was taken to Brenner? Would El have been created at all if her mother wasn't part of the MKultra experiments?

Bonus thoughts about a reset: we know how much the Duffers love The Neverending Story. Spoilers for Neverending Story after the cut:

At the end of the Neverending Story movie, Fantasia (the world of fantasies and dreams a bowlcut kid has been reading about in his book) is destroyed by the manifestation of emptiness that is the Nothing. Bastian ({the bowlcut kid) realizes he has the power to make Fantasia (the world of his fantasies) anything he dreams.

After he takes ownership of his role as master of this reality (by giving rhe Childlike Empress a new name 🤔), the entire world of Fantasia is wiped out and it's just Bastian and the Empress together in a black void. All that remains is one grain of sand (a glowing particle, if you will).

The Empress hands the particle to Bastian and tells him his wishes will recreate Fantasia. He recreates it the way he imagined it, and notably brings back all the people who died as a result of the Nothing.

Even more tellingly, he exclaims:

"It's like the Nothing never was!!"

👀👀👀👀

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savagewildnerness · 29 days

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Lestat at the start of The Tale of the Body Thief:

Hi! I’m The Vampire Lestat! I’m 6ft tall & VERY attractive! Miami’s pretty great! Apart from all vampires can’t stand each other so we’re all solitary now! I love that though! (Even though I am in love with all vampires. I wonder where my beautiful mother, who is also my child is?)

I love killing the evildoer!!!… Can I be good if I save just one human who would have been murdered from death….? I don’t think so (but I’d appreciate it if you thought so!)

Wait… this murderer I’ve been following is utterly insane & unaware he’s even a murderer… I won’t even get to drink all his delicious murdery thoughts… how very disappointing… AND he’s not even beautiful! He’s ugly & dirty & mad…. but that old lady he was going to kill… she is so wonderful: her incredible life & self & the skeleton leaf of her younger self that she remains as now. Why, we even have the same taste in novels! I guess I’ll kill the murderer. SIGH. That was unsatisfying….

…Whoops I killed the lady too. In a very sexy way though! I’m so awful! (It was so Romantic!) I’m hungry for MORE!

Why is this weird person who’s followed me round the world giving me a story? Probably just some mad mortal & it means nothing.

Oh look, there’s David Talbot! I think I might have ruined his life, but I’ll just follow him everywhere anyway. I do worry about him.

I’d write a book about Rembrandt & The Devil if I was mortal. Here’s my plot summary… maybe that writer - Anne Rice could write it for me….? Obviously, since I’m a vampire, *I* can only write about MYSELF!!!

Gosh! I wish Claudia would stop haunting me. I can’t talk about it really, but I wish Akasha hadn’t turned me into a cipher to the terror of masculinity & made me a massacring evil Angel from which I can never absolve myself. And worse… I enjoyed it. It was sexy too. Why did I (sexily) kill that old lady? I THINK IT IS TIME TO SHUFFLE OFF THIS (IM)MORTAL COIL!!!

Well, I know I said I’d ruined David’s life, but I think I’ll just nip in for a visit & tell him he’s got less than a year to live & that I’m suicidal & am off to kill myself immediately…. But I’ll check a few hundred times if he’d like to be a vampire too! Just to torture him some more. David’s so funny! Why on Earth is he reading Faust & the bible!!!?! Bonkers!! Mmmmm… David is so beautiful & sexy too. But yes. I am ready to DIE.

I don’t know if I can kill myself, but I AM THE VAMPIRE LESTAT, so OF COURSE I’ll make like Icarus himself & fly directly into the sun! I’ll eat the sun if I can! I MUST MAKE SURE I AM TOTALLY NAKED BEFORE I FLY TO MY DEATH! Did you hear me? I’m taking my clothes OFF!!! I’m flying to the sun NAKED! I’ve done it! I have no clothes on at all! Are you sure you’re not thinking about how sad it is that I want to die & you’re definitely thinking about how naked I am instead?

I’m not in any way thinking about how I might only get a sun tan from this & I don’t want it to be uneven. I am SUICIDAL! I’m suicidal AND naked! I do sometimes lie to myself. But I wouldn’t lie to you. So let’s just say it’s one & the same to me - if I am blotted from existence or if I just get a marvellous tan. OK THEN! You’re absolutely certain you’re thinking about how naked I am?! Let’s go!

Oh no! I’m not dead, but this hurts a lot. I wish I was dead… I don’t think the sun can kill me…. But let’s give it one more go….

Omg… I gave it two whole days & this hurts a lot & it might take a year to kill me. I think I’ll just stay alive after all. I’ll just go lie naked on David’s tiger rug for 3 days as I contemplate my existence some more (he killed that tiger, you know!) I’m sure this won’t traumatise him any further & that it has zero psychological implications.

3 days later! I *suppose* I’d better put some clothes on now.

Woohoo! I’m glad I’m not dead actually. OMG I have such a FABULOUS sun tan! I have never looked more exquisitely beautiful! Thank GOODNESS I had the prescience to attempt suicide NAKED in order that I’ve made total use of this effect! Look at my iridescent eyes! Yippee! I’m so excited I could do a tap dance! I can’t believe I wanted to die so very deeply & now I’m filled with delight about how pretty I am! I think I’ll try to kill myself more often! Next time I’ll make sure that as I feel the sun like the fire of Hell upon my skin, I do a little twirl, just to make sure the tan is that much more even!

…

#the tale of the body thief #anne rice #interview with the vampire #lestat de lioncourt #the vampire lestat #iwtv lestat #david talbot

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jessource · 1 month

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prompts:　prelude to ecstasy by the last dinner party.

here comes the feminine urge, i know it so well.

do you want me, or do you want control?

this is the only thing i know how to do.

i could never live with the guilt of lying.

and lately i've been thinkin', what if i keep sinking?

i hope they never understand us.

even when the cold comes crashing through, i'm putting all my bets on you.

cleanse my soul, make me whole.

she's there when i wake up, at the end of my bed with a smile on her face and a gun to my head.

do what i can to survive.

cause we're a lot alike.

a sailor and a nightingale dancing in convertibles/

i know i'm better off not looking back.

oh, anyone could kill me, and i'd never ever let it be you.

foolish thinking i could have you.

i don't exist without your gaze.

and just for a second, i could be one of the greats.

when i was a child, i never felt like a child.

you could swim in these eyes.

wine is on your blouse.

i wish i knew you back when we were both small.

what i'm feeling isn't lust, it's envy.

hold me, we can't go back.

you can hold me like he held her.

guide me, show me how, and let me be your arrow.

wish i could do without this blood on my face.

i will fuck you, like nothing matters.

time slips away.

to nurture the wounds my mother held.

i will hold your hands to stop them from shaking.

i am not the girl i set out to be.

the best a boy can ever be is pretty.

i fade away.

strike me, pierce me straight through the heart.

it's my fate to have never seen you.

my darling, believe me, i was born to be with you.

i wish i knew you before it felt like a sin.

if i drown will they make me a star?

you don't wanna hurt me, but i want you to.

how i wish the trees would swallow me, make me a forest, take away my soul.

i'm just a mirror, pretty glass, an empty heart.

i wish that i had the guts–the dignity to put up a fight.

when you laid like a wolf with your head on my lap. i felt like one of those portraits of women protected by a beast on a chain.

i'll leave you flowers, but not my name.

what good are red lips when you're faced with something sharp?

when i put on that suit, i don't have to stay mute.

i'll see you on sunday.

i wish that i let you have the dignity of letting me go.

you smiled so sweetly as you threw me down the rocks.

oh, ballerina bend under the weight of it all.

no one else is to blame.

i wish i could be a beautiful boy.

i have gotten too tall.

when you drown, do they know who you are?

i need to slow my thinkin'.

i want to take your picture.

i'd spend the mornings by your side.

if anyone could kill me, it probably would be you.

is it in this city?

i break apart without your arms.

i wish you had given me the courtesy of staying one more night.

a guard dog there just for her. if only she know that with one wrong move, he'll turn around and tear off her hands.

when i drown, will i get very far?

no i won't speak to you.

forgive me, father, won't you take it back?

let me make my grief a commodity.

break my glass to fix your heart.

burn me.

je ne veux pas penser.

i wish you had given me the courtesy of ripping out my throat.

we're both just addicts.

if it takes all night, i will be on your side.

there is candle wax melting in my veins.

it could take some time, time to talk freely.

he's got letters on his fist: r-i-d-e.

tell me how you're feeling, i'll reflect the reason.

i'd die for you, no questions asked.

everyone will love me!

i wish i didn't want you.

do you want me to care when you just disappear?

failure to commit to the role, i admit was a failure you achieved on your own.

i'll be ceaser on a tv screen, champion of my fate.

ain't it fun to hold the world in your hand?

when you're lying here i believe you love me.

when you drown, they'll forget who you are.

everyone will like me then.

there's nothing for me. here, where the world is small.

i'd break off my ribs to make another you.

i'm only here, for your entertainment.

do you feel like a man when i can't talk back?

#rp prompt #rp meme #rp sentences #rp lyrics #rp starters #lyric prompts #prompts #memes #rp sentence starter #spotify on repeat #the last dinner party #prelude to ecstasy #memes.#meme.#mymemes.#*

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queerregulusablack · 2 years

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Bellatrix emerged from the column of black smoke with her wand already drawn, a sneer twisting once pretty features into something manic and cruel, and she spat out the words to a killing curse with purpose, flinging it in the direction of her cousin with a flourish; and Sirius turned, just in time to see the pulse of green come careening toward him-

Only for a weight to slam into his back, tackling him to the ground before the curse could hit, leaving it to instead crash harmlessly against the side of the archway taking up the centre of the room.

The person who had tackled Sirius shoved him over onto his back even as a second figure emerged from behind the tattered curtain, manifesting out of drifting grey light and empty air.

“Circe’s tits, Padfoot, a man would think you’d never cast a bloody Protego in your life! Watch your surroundings, would you? I can’t always be out here saving your arse, you know.” Sirius stared up at the young man crouched over him, at the familiar brown eyes behind round glasses and the broad grin he’d not seen in fourteen years; and James Potter leavered himself and his best friend back to their feet in the same moment that his wife, still as beautiful as the day she died, whorled on Lucius Malfoy, teeth bared.

“What the hell do you think you’re trying to do to my son, Lucius, you prick?” She threw herself at Malfoy as the man gaped at her, and wrestled his wand out of his hand before she hexed him with it; and James, nudging Sirius back in the direction of Remus and Harry, sighed wistfully.

“Merlin, I love that woman,” he breathed; and a third, final silhouette formed from the archway, stepping out from beneath the curtain and shoving a hand back through sopping wet curls, cool grey eyes scanning the men and women scattered around the chamber.

His focus zeroed in on Bellatrix, who stared back at him with an expression of open shock, mouth hanging open; and Regulus Black, still eighteen, soaked through and scowling, broke into a run at her.

It took her a solid two seconds to move, to stumble down off the outcropping of rock she’d been stood atop and stumble toward the exit; but Regulus had been a seeker, once upon a time, and death hadn’t robbed him of that speed, and when he hit her it was with as much force as James had hit Sirius, taking her to the ground and wrestling her wand from her hand even as she screamed and clawed up at him.

“You’re dead!” She screeched, fighting her baby cousin for her wand, and he yanked it fully from her hand before he scoffed down at her, dirty lake water still dripping from his hair.

“Riddle fucking wishes,” he retorted; and then hit her with a curse that manifested in a flash of bright red light, knocking her quite unconscious before he clambered back to his feet.

Back at the arch, James Potter was staring at him with warm, soft brown eyes; and Regulus blushed, cheeks bright pink, and bared his teeth at him.

“Stop gawking and get yourself a bloody wand, Potter, unless you want to go right back where we came from!”

James blinked out of whatever trance he’d been trapped in, shaking his head hard, and then turned back to Sirius with that same grin.

“Sorry Pads, need to borrow this quickly.” He snatched the wand from Sirius’ hand, before - in tandem with Regulus and Lily - pointing it up, at the centre-point of the ceiling.

“Sanguis incarcerous maxima,” Regulus declared, voice even and carrying around the room - and making one or two other people falter, at the familiarity of a voice none of them had expected to ever hear again - and Lily and James echoed him, one after the other, before they each redirected their wands at a Death Eater, Lily at Malfoy, Regulus at Bellatrix, and James at the first one to cross his eyeline, trading curses with Ginny Weasley and Tonks behind where Sirius and Harry still stood.

The tips of each of the wands glowed, a bright pulse of electric blue light; and then there were yelps from all around the room as chains sprang into existence around the Death Eaters, confining them quite effectively and leaving them to thump unceremoniously to the ground.

“Brilliant,” Hermione Granger breathed on the other side of the room, staring at the bound wizard on the floor in front of her; and back at the arch, James let out a whooshing breath, bracing his hands on his knees as Lily and Regulus both moved back to join him.

“Godric, Lils, I know you said it was going to be odd, but this is- this is bloody weird. How long were we dead? Fourteen years? Merlin’s shrivelled ballsack, I never thought having teeth could feel weird. Do your teeth feel weird, love?”

“James,” Lily murmured, wrapping a hand around his elbow while her eyes remained fixed on Harry, half hidden behind Sirius; and it was Remus who raised his wand, pointing it at both of them with an uncertain frown on his face.

“Oh, Circe,” Regulus muttered, and sat down on the edge of the platform; and Remus cleared his throat, and addressed James first.

“The first gift I ever gave to Harry after he was born.” James’ eyes flicked to his, and he looked surprised for a moment, before he sighed, and rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Merlin, Mooney, that’s… I mean the first one I ever counted was the crocheted hippogriff you put in his cot; the lumpy one you cobbled together from one of your mum’s patterns. Original pattern was for a horse, I think you said. The wings were uneven. But I know you saw it as your refusal to be his godfather. So, typical for you two, your first gift to Harry would have been Sirius.” James rolled his eyes, while Remus blinked hard and lowered his wand; and Lily huffed out a soft laugh, leaning against James’ side.

“Idiot. We were always going to make you both his godparents; Mary insisted she’d only be godmother to sprong number two, so she could teach them all sorts of mischief.”

“Because your offspring really need the extra help,” Regulus remarked dryly, looking back over his shoulder at the lot of them; and he locked eyes with his brother, blinking at him impassively even as Sirius visibly ground his teeth together.

“Well? No demands for my proof of identity? You used to wet the bed until you were six. You stole my socks all the way up until you ran away from home. When our mother was pondering marrying you off to Narcissa, you told her you’d rather marry a troll, and walked around carrying the umbrella stand for a week referring to it as Lady Black, until we found out Cissa had been betrothed to Lucius instead.”

Behind Sirius, Harry let out a spluttering laugh, and James grinned at the sound; and Sirius swallowed visibly before he moved to drop to his knees beside Regulus, taking his face in his hands and scanning his face a little desperately.

“Reggie,” he whispered; and it was Regulus’ turn to swallow too hard.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” he told his big brother flatly; and Sirius wrapped his arms around him, tugging him in against his chest for a tight hug while he buried his face in his hair.

His wet hair.

“Why are you soaked, Reg?” He choked out, not letting the teenager go, and Regulus laughed humourlessly even as he wrapped his arms around him in return.

“Miscalculated how the magic would work. We all came through in the state we died in; s’why James isn’t wearing shoes. Idiot.”

Back by the arch, Lily had stepped up to Harry, until she was close enough to cup his cheek in the palm of her hand; and when he tentatively leaned into the touch, she pulled him briskly into her arms, James embracing the both of them and propping his chin on top of Harry’s head.

“He’s not wrong,” James murmured, and Lily laughed tearfully, holding onto her son as tightly as she could without hurting him.

The murmur of voices around them had picked up, Harry’s classmates and the handful of Order members who had come to their rescue shuffling closer; and Regulus pressed his face harder against Sirius’ shoulder while Remus stood between the two reuniting families, unsure which to go to but prepared to keep away anyone who tried to disturb them; and then Albus Dumbledore swept into the room, looking windswept and like he’d just been in a fight, Cornelius Fudge hot on his heels.

“Alastor, what happened?” He demanded, looking around the room; and then froze when he took note of the three unexpected pairs of eyes fixed on him.

“Ah, fuck,” Regulus muttered; and Lily Potter threw herself across the room.

“You son of a bitch!” She cried; and punched Albus squarely in the face.

#regulus black #james potter #lily evans #jegulus #jegulily #starchaser #just a silly little something I've been messing with between Actual Projects #Through The Veil - fic #fanfiction #QRABs Fic #There we go shiny new fic tag

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likecanyoujustnot · 3 months

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Cardan’s letters pov

Part 5: vexation

A/n: I wrote this one last don’t know why. Oh well. I really struggled for ideas for it. I had to make sure cardan didn’t sleep on his back in the court of shadows scene lol.

Part 4. Part 6

Another bloody revel.

I was getting sick of them. Which was saying something since I used to count down the days till the next one.

But Jude had been here then.

I still hadn’t heard back from her, and the roach was refusing to give me any information about her, probably knowing I would do something irrational. Which I would.

“My king.”

Jude?

I turned to the voice.

“Taryn.”

She looked like she hadn’t betrayed me and her sister a month and a half ago. She looked innocent. But there was a tiredness to her, evident by the bags under her eyes and her pale skin. Her simple green dress doing nothing for her complexion.

There was no news of Madoc other than he was somewhere north with the court of teeth. This unnerved me. He was undoubtedly biding his time until he stuck. He always believed me to be a weak and incompetent king. And I would show him I was not.

“What do you want?” I snapped.

“I wished to know if you had heard from Jude.” Her hands where clasped in front of her.

I kept my face as blank and my posture as relaxed as I could. “Why would I? I exiled her, put a death penalty on her head, if she sets foot here she could die.” She could die, if a guard found her and decided to kill-now-ask-questions-later, I didn’t even want to think about it. But Taryn didn’t need to know about the loophole.

“I wasn’t sure if maybe she’d asked to be able to come back.”

“It’s Jude, she doesn’t ask permission, if she wanted to be here she would, and she would first go for the people, who have betrayed her.” I put an emphasis on people, hoping she would get the hint that Jude was just as upset with her as she was with me. Presumably.

I got the reaction I wanted from Taryn. She flinched. “I really didn’t mean it.”

“You didn’t mean to pretend to be my seneschal, and trick me into releasing my general from his oaths, effectively allowing him to declare war on me?”

“He made it sound like it was the right thing to do.” She looked at her feet.

“That’s what manipulation is. Now get out of my sight.” I didn’t have time for her self-pity stories.

How could she just stand there and look so much like Jude, but be so wholly different? I watched her retreating back, her shoulders tense.

I stared at the wine in my glass. Horrid thing.

There were footsteps up to the dias.

“Cardan.” A soft feminine voice said.

Nicasia. My former friend, my former arranged fiancée, my former lover. Before she’d ruined that. Today was a day for bringing up past demons.

“What.” I snapped, not even trying to be pleasant. I was only going to stay another few minutes before I went back to sulk over my disastrous marriage.

She looked beautiful. Dark hair swept up and held in place with pearled combs, the cut of her deep purple dress low and inviting. Once upon a time I would’ve invited her to my bed, but the princess was as interesting to me as a rock in that moment.

“You’ve been acting weird.”

I sighed. “I don’t need you to worry about me.”

“You’re my friend.”

I raised a brow at her. “Didn’t stop you from cheating on me.”

She at least had the decency to look ashamed. “That was a long time ago.”

“Yes, and I’ve finally come to terms with it, I was never enough for you Nicasia, no one will ever be, you will tire of who ever warms your bed and move on like they never existed.” I was married now, and Nicasia needed to understand nothing would ever come of pining over me again. “I no longer have to deal with your presence to avoid upsetting our parents, I will never marry you, no matter what your mother may want. And that is final.”

She looked hurt. “Is that it? You’re ending our friendship over mistakes I made years ago?”

“I’m ending our relationship for many things, what you did to Jude when you kidnapped her being one, allowing balekin to control her, starving her.” The way she looked as she was half dragged out of the water would haunt me till the end of my days. She’d been so pale, so thin. I threw up that night. Cried for seeing her like that. My strong fierce Jude. “Allying with the man who killed my family-”

“Those were my mother’s choices.” She protested.

“And you went along with them.” I shut her down.

“Is that it? Jude? You care that much for her you would cut me out of your life?”

“I’m not cutting you out, I’m merely suggesting you stay away from the high court when it is not absolutely necessary.” I stood.

“It is Jude.” She laughed. “Of course it is, I knew you liked her, we all did, you’d stare at her, bring her up in conversations that had nothing to do with her, you’re pathetic.”

I kept quiet. I could not deny it. I loved Jude more than anything. And i was glad to be rid of Nicasia, had been looking for a way for years. Now I had one.

“I hope she never comes back. Or she does just so she can kill you. You’d deserve it.” She storms away back to her entourage of kelpies and merfolk.

Good riddance.

She had been a good friend, cruel, but never to me. When we’d decided to take our relationship further, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

Until it wasn’t.

I’d written another yesterday.

To the High Queen of Elfhame

Above me is the same silvery moon that shines down on you. Looking at it makes me recall the glint of your blade pressed to my throat and other romantic moments.

I do not know what keeps you from returning to the High Court- whether it is a vexation with me, or whether, having spent time in the mortal world, you have come to believe a life free of the folk is better than one ruling over them.

In my most wretched hours I believe you will never come back.

Why would you, save for your ambition? You have always known exactly what I am and seen all my failings, all my weaknesses and scars. I flattered myself that at moments you had feelings for me other than contempt, but even were that true, they would make but a thin gruel beside the feast of your other, greater desires.

And yet my heart is buried with you in the strange soil of the mortal world, as it was drowned with you in the cold waters of the undersea.

It was yours before I could ever admit it, and yours it shall ever remain.

Cardan

It was the longest one that I had written, one that bared what was in my heart, and left things unsaid, for me to tell her if she ever did come back.

I took the crown of my head and studied it.

It was heavy, made of soft gold, it would be so easy to just, break it.

But I wouldn’t do that.

I kept it in my hand as I got up to leave the revel.

I was stopped by a young woman, thick dark hair that offset the slightest green tinge in her skin. I noticed her fingers had an extra joint. Strange, but not unheard of.

“My king.” She bowed.

“Can I help you?” I sneered at her.

“I was wondering if you may wish to join me tonight?”

I huffed. “Not interested, sorry.”

She looked crestfallen as I walked away.

I caught a flash of orange hair as I walked away.

Of course Locke would swoop in to “comfort” a woman at the same party his wife was at.

He made me sick.

I hoped someone cut his throat

I stared at the ceiling from where I layed in bed. Hands folded over my bare stomach, wishing, as I always did, that Jude was here. She would chastise me for being so pathetic, for longing so strongly for her.

56 days. 8 weeks. 5 letters.

And I hadn’t even gotten a “piss off Cardan, I’m not coming back”

It was silence.

As always during this time of night, even before her exile, my thoughts strayed to Jude.

To her smile and mouth, her soft hair, her curves and the way she tasted when I kissed her. The noises she did her best to muffle. How every time she looked at me I wanted to make the world disappear so it would just be the two of us and I could live out my fantasies.

Great. Now I was hot and uncomfortable. But I wouldn’t do anything about it.

This was my self-inflicted punishment, the misery.

I couldn’t sleep on my back.

The position was too vulnerable. Reminded me too much of the horrors I’d faced from my brother.

Maybe one day I would tell Jude.

Maybe.

If,

She,

Ever,

Came,

Back…

#the cruel prince #cardan greenbriar #cardans letters pov #jurdan fanfic #jude duarte #jude x cardan #the queen of nothing #queen of nothing #folk of the air #the folk of the air

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