#BAM strong

[aellynera]

I'm... just gonna leave this here. OSCAR ISAAC SAID HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. *drops mic*

[maluceh]

mini matilda au that @daiziesssart planted on my head

[owl68]

How old are Mizu & Akemi?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mizu

When talking to the Shogun, Fowler says that he and his partners came to Japan 20 years ago. This means that Mizu is/almost is 20 by the end of the show. Ok, that’s a lot to unpack. Here’s my timeline! :)

Fire of her and mama’s hut- 5 years old

Started living with Master Eiji- 6 years old

Started training with the blade- 11 years old

Made the broken blade sword (& started binding her chest)- 12 years old

Left for revenge but instead found mama- 16 years old

Got married- 17 years old

Killed husband & mama, started tracking Violet- 18 years old

Killed Violet- 19 years old

Started tracking Fowler- 19 years old

Sails to London- 20 years old!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akemi

I’d put Akemi at around the same age as Mizu, so here’s just my evidence. During this time, people got married early. That’s just how it was. Akemi was described as being old (but fertile) by the shogun’s ambassadors and by her father. In contrast, when mama explained that Mikio needed a “young, strong wife” she was around 17 (around the normal age for getting married).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bonus Taigen

Around 21-23. He’s likely a bit older than Mizu based on the childhood flashback that we got. Also, it’s sorta the norm for the man to be older than the woman he’s courting (Akemi).

[reitziluz]

hey about the vow made to radahn?

i had a moment of red string insanity while, as i have been since the dlc dropped, thinking about the motivations and agency of radahn.

(please tell me i'm not the only one stumbling into this hypothesis)

i've been long pondering about gaius, radahn's older brother figure, being an albinauric, one of the opressed people miquella is trying to save. and how he is stated to be cursed from birth, cursed people being also part of miquella's motivations.

i am in the camp that miquella has good intentions, but desperation has driven him to extreme methods. the "he is controlling everyone, nobody is willing!!" angle doesn't sit right with me. frankly, it makes for a less impactful story. it makes things convoluted, where seeing miquella as someone with limited power and a lot of his moves as scrambling to recover from setbacks makes sense. everything didn't go down as planned, there were things out of his control.

so. radahn. he promised to be miquella's consort, for better or worse. what did miquella vow to him?

i considered it, but wanting gaius to be saved doesn't feel like enough motivation for him. or if it was, would the man who learned gravity magic to keep riding his beloved horse decide to abandon his sworn brother so that he can, what, go hog wild in the shattering war?

but thinking about gaius made me think of albinaurics. lack of feet. being cursed from birth. radahn lacks his feet during the festival. that's not anything, scarlet rot rots away limbs all the time.

but scarlet rot doesn't turn your skin gray and sclera black.

marika's children are prone to being born cursed. cursed to be taken over by entities. losing their minds.

it's hard to find a sensible reason for radahn and malenia to have fought. two possibilities i've seen before are 1) radahn wasn't on board with the plan (likely had broken out of miquella's charms and control) so malenia was sent to bring him back in line 2) for some reason, miquella specifically needed him to die and be resurrected, and all the weird circumstances are somehow part of the same plan and make sense for reasons we just can't know but trust me bro they do.

it's interesting that in the story trailer, in radahn's and malenia's fight, radahn's face is shown only for a split second.

gray skin. black sclera.

was radahn, too, cursed from birth?

was he doomed to be overtaken, to lose himself?

had he lost his mind long before he was afflicted with scarlet rot? had he turned into a scourge, and not much else, before he and malenia fought?

did malenia see herself in him? did she want to give him the death he would have wanted? did she want to help him keep a promise he wouldn't have wanted to break?

did miquella vow to save him, like he did the albinaurics, like he did malenia?

[seldomsee]

boooo tomatoes bring back Rachel

[emry-stars-art]

What was Abrams favorite thing that Andrew gave him during his courting attempts?

Okay I’ve been sitting on this one because I was trying to give it my best answer and like. I still don’t know lol

I know that people in the replies and tags are going to have incredible answers as well so I want this to be more of a “here’s a collection of things he likes the most” and I get to start so here’s my take:

It’s a book. I hear your valid confusion but LISTEN. In the stretch before Abram finally realizes what’s been going on with the gifts/etc, Andrew gives Abram a book - could be poetry, could be a romance story, idk - with a ribbon just barely peeking out of one page. Abram, obviously, doesn’t think much of it and he’s never been big on reading (I don’t know why I never have Neil liking to read lol is that canon) so he keeps the book on his dresser or something like “I’ll get around to it if he insists”

And then after Abram actually, clearly says he can accept Andrew’s advances, Andrew remembers about it and realizes Abram must not have ever opened the book because he would have figured this all out before now if he had

He asks him about it, if he ever read it, and Abram’s like “…no”

So Andrew tells him to. Later, when Abram’s back in his room, he picks up the book and checks out the first page, and it’s something pretty obviously unimportant or unrelated. And the next page. Eventually he thinks to check the ribbon; he flips to the pages and somewhere on them a quote is underlined in steady deep blue ink:

My glances through the eyes of friendship grow more brief by the day. You remain in the kindest, softest embrace of my heart, but now I find myself watching, hopeful, and friends do not look at friends the way I sometimes look at you.

Stunned, in a word.

But this is something he can figure out. This isn’t flowers - they’re lovely but die so quickly, and Abram doesn’t know the language of them or which ones Andrew would like. It isn’t meals shared, because that’s too common by now. It isn’t direct words or actions of affection because those are far too awkward for someone with so little experience with them. But Abram looks at this book, sees exactly what to do with it, and he knows certainly that this is a way the prince wouldn’t mind communicating because he was the first to do it. Abram doesn’t even have to be around when Andrew reads it.

So Abram spends the next several days scanning the book when he has time, finding many quotes he could perhaps imagine returning, finding a few he keeps marked just in case. Then he finds one that he doesn’t even bother marking with a scrap paper, he immediately picks up his pen and underlines it.

I look at the moon and she has your face: the brightest thing in my sky, the most beautiful, and so, so far away.

(And @jtl-fics had the sweetest idea of Abram pressing and keeping the flowers from the bouquet Andrew gets him in this post; and that he uses some to make bookmarks probably because he knows how much the prince likes books. He would definitely use one of those bookmarks to mark the page he underlined rather than the scrap ribbon 🥰)

Anyway the next time Abram sees the prince he wordlessly hands him back the book. Andrew sees the new mark but doesn’t try to open it yet (which relieves Abram more than he’ll admit), just keeping it under his arm until he has somewhere to put it. But it doesn’t take him near as long to find another quote, since he tends to get distracted reading the context or surrounding passages; he underlines the very next sentence and gets the book back to Abram the next morning. Understanding the risk of Abram’s misunderstanding and completely willing to explain himself in plain terms when Abram asks. Still with the pressed flower bookmark.

To have you near enough to touch should surely destroy me.

When Abram opens it later he first sees that the pages look very familiar - those passages look very familiar - that quote is certainly familiar. And he gets very worried very quickly. Maybe Andrew didn’t like that one, maybe Abram had chosen wrong and he didn’t know how to do this as well as he’d thought. But he doesn’t close it fast enough not to finally, mercifully read on and realize that some of the ink on the page is not his own black ink. After it, dark enough to almost be black in the wrong light, is Andrew’s dark blue.

But after reading Andrew’s quote he does in fact close the book quickly, sitting back and just staring, mostly because he’d surprised himself; he won’t know Andrew’s intention for certain until he asks, but this time - likely for the first time - Abram looks at the word destroy and doesn’t immediately think of the harm he’s done. (Andrew’s new, unfamiliar way with words had to work it’s way into Abram’s understanding eventually.)

They go on as long as there’s still quotes they like in the book, and only once does Andrew get frustrated that Abram stole one of his before he could get around to using it.

Anyway thank you for the sweet ask, here’s a quick sketch of Andrew reading to Abram in the library

[moonyswarmsweaters]

‘Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But…’ by Arctic Monkeys but it’s Sirius to the Black family after he left

[godsworstson]

that should be me...

[deiaiko]

#19.3 Unravel

It had been some time since Agni felt this nervous. Not even talking with Jinsung Ha recently had made him feel like this. He fiddled with the mask on his hand as he waited for Grace to come back. He had thought hard on how to deliver the news, but he knew that no matter how he phrased it, Grace would be upset. Velt nuzzled under his palm and Agni gave her a few pats, before deciding that she would be better inside her bowl in his lighthouse, just in case the shinsu acted up around Grace after he received the news.

Grace came back wearing the comfiest shirt and shorts Agni knew Grace liked to wear on lazy days. He joined him on the floor, and they ate dinner together. Agni always finished last, so while waiting for him to finish his meal, Grace told him about his day with Bam. Grace was intrigued by how much his way of thinking had changed, and how glad he was to be able to be by Bam's side when he was having a bad day. It reminded Agni of the hidden floor, when Grace faced his sworn enemy.

They left the used bowls on the coffee table and went to brush their teeth. Afterwards, they turned off the light and went upstairs to sit on their bed. Grace's curious gaze never left him, and Agni curled his feet nervously.

Grace was the one who broke the silence. "So…what is it?"

Agni's breath hitched. This was the part he dreaded most. "I talked with the crocodile earlier. Did you know that he could manipulate stone already?"

"Huh." Grace needed a few seconds to let the information sink in. "Didn't Rak learn it on the Hell train? How does he know it?"

"Turns out our crocodile also traveled back to the past like us. He found the young crocodile and taught him."

"What?!" Grace gasped, wide eyed. "That means our Rak is–!!"

"He's dead." Agni quickly snuffed out that hope. They had been in delusion for long enough; it was time that they faced the bitter truth. "He suffered a fatal injury from the explosion. He couldn't have lasted long without proper help." Agni omitted the actual cause for Rak's death, but still kept his words true. "I'm sorry."

"…Oh." Grace looked lost, just like Agni was. His lips parted a little, but they closed before any sound escaped.

Agni gently squeezed Grace's hand, encouraging and comforting as he let the silence stretch on, giving Grace some time to process the information.

"Agni…" Grace whispered, "do you think Hatz and Isu…?"

Agni bit his lip and avoided his gaze, as the nightmare of that day replayed in his mind. He witnessed Hatz get his arm ripped off when trying to protect him. He could still recall the clang of a sword hitting the floor, and Hatz's suppressed scream that gnawed deep at his guilt. He witnessed Isu get beheaded after being taken hostage, the memory of warm blood painting them both still vivid like it happened yesterday. 

Agni refused to acknowledge their possible deaths, because it felt like a nightmare that one day he could hopefully wake up from. He avoided the topic when Grace brought it up, so he wouldn't have to say it aloud and make it real. He had been so hard on himself, because he couldn't get rid of the feeling that he had failed Grace and everyone else involved.

Agni knew this had to change if he wanted to live better, now that they had gotten a second chance. So he swallowed down the lump in his throat that had built up over the years and asked mostly to himself; "What are the odds of their survival?"

"There's always a chance–"

"Grace." Agni looked him straight in the eye. "They were already severely injured before the explosion hit."

Grace fell silent and went still.

Agni felt a pang of guilt upon witnessing Grace's reaction. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap." Agni fiddled with his hands. He realized that he didn't know how much Grace knew of what happened. "My scar…do you know how I got it?"

"I…was told it was from the family heads' battle." Grace looked thoughtful. Agni knew he was trying to be careful with his words. "A stray attack?"

"It could have been worse." The memory of the scorching heat on his skin felt like it had only happened yesterday. He passed out right when he was about to heal Isu, and only found out later that he also lost sweetfish at that time. The days he spent recovering from the burn, to withstand the excruciating pain every second he was conscious, and finally coming to terms that it'd be a permanent scar, was one of the turning points that had changed him forever. Were Grace not there to care for him, he might have ended up destroying himself even more.

Agni hadn't realized he had his left hand clawing on his cheek until Grace pried his hand off and frowned, "You're doing it again."

"Maybe I should wear the mask…" Agni muttered to himself. After all, Grace gave it to him less so he could hide the scar but more to prevent him from unconsciously hurting himself. The only time he could safely take it off was when Grace was around.

Agni bit his lip nervously when Grace didn't reply. He no longer had the courage to look Grace in the eye that spoke so much concern, so he leaned close and rested his head on Grace's chest. "Rak, Isu, Hatz and Hwaryun were trying to get me out of that damned place. But we were caught while escaping, and…it was a bloodbath. I was…too occupied to react to the incoming heat. Rak shielded us from the explosion. And when I woke up…"

"They weren’t with you," Grace finished it for him after Agni trailed off a moment too long.

Agni nodded dazedly, "I've been telling myself that they're still alive, after a blow that could kill rankers. But…who am I kidding? I was lucky enough to survive with just this little–" Agni vaguely pointed to himself– "inconvenience."

Agni felt a hand gripping his arm, and he pulled away to see Grace looking at him with a pained expression. His eyes were glossy and his lips were pulled into a thin line. Trusting his instinct, Agni reached out to gently trace and cup Grace's cheek with his free hand.

"I'm sorry," Agni muttered. "I'm sorry, for not telling you sooner."

Agni silently witnessed tears that streamed down on his love's face. It was a bitter sight that Agni wished he'd never have to see again, that he had tried to avoid for so long by not telling him. He pulled Grace in and held him close to his chest, as if Agni was trying to gather his own crumbled heart back together.

Grace mumbled their late best friends' names as he held onto him tighter, shaking from each breath he took between sniffles.

Agni felt his own eyes sting with unshed tears. He remembered the years he spent climbing the tower together with his old team. Despite their banter being his source of headaches, Agni knew he too had come to acknowledge them as his cherished friends. Only when they were gone did Agni realize how much he'd miss having them around. Seeing the younger them didn't exactly close the gaping hole in his heart, but at least the emptiness was more filled.

Agni squeezed Grace tighter. "We have their younger selves with us now. We will protect them better this time."

Grace only nodded and sank further into his embrace. And Agni planted kisses on his hair, relishing the thought that after everything he had gone through, Grace was still a constant in his life. As long as he had him, everything would be okay.

When Grace started shaking again, Agni caressed his hair and hummed a comfort song they had known by heart. Still, it didn't make falling asleep any easier for Agni, especially not after admitting that his nightmare was very much real. However, as he had been through grief…this, too, would pass.

Masterlist

Previous

Next

Let me know your thoughts in the reblogs <3

☕ Buy me coffee ☕

[sprainedankleproductions]

fuck you *foils your c!clingy and c!emerald*

[willowcreektownie]

Introducing...

Shoji Hiyashi

Age: 28 Hometown: Kiyomatsu, Mt. Komorebi Education: Foxbury U and UBrite, Computer Science + Economics Occupation: Start Up Entrepreneur Relationship: madly deeply in love Fun Fact: runs his own start-up called Snow Monkey Technologies "Chill innovation, hot results"

and Kali Henry-Khan

Age: 25 Hometown: Ohan'ali Town, Sulani Education: Ubrite, Communications + Language & Literature Occupation: Macro-Simfluencer eventual documentary journalist Relationship: taken Fun Fact: named after the Hindu goddess Kali after her father Krishna due to their similar meanings

| next

[aellynera]

The Return of Operation Oscar (the full story)

Okay, so here’s the full story. Because I realize that this was technically my fourth trip to NYC since Operation Oscar, but the one in October didn’t technically count since that was me going to support @lisazamanart at her gallery show. Anyway.

Ironically, it was at that gallery show that I first learned about the play, since that had just been announced. And when I got home, I got me a membership to BAM, and I was going to be a responsible adult and get cheaper tickets, but then I thought about it, and since one of the shows was ON MY BIRTHDAY, I... was not responsible at all and got 2nd row tickets, dead center. Because it was my birthday and YOLO.

The person who was supposed to go with me couldn’t, so I ended up talking my mom into taking the bus into the city (it’s only like a 1.5 hour ride, and even though way more expensive than it used to be, still easy.) So I was not only excited to see Oscar, but also my mom on my actual birthday.

Thennnnnn on the Saturday before my birthday (which is also the day the play opened, and my uncle’s birthday) I had a seizure? I think? Still not entirely sure what happened, but I  ended up in the hospital for a couple days but the whole time I felt fine and I was like we are NOT cancelling the NYC trip because I will literally cry and I’ve been looking forward to it for so long... so, long story short, after a little back and forth, I got out of the hospital on 6 Feb and flew to NYC on 9 Feb. YOLO!

So anyway, Lisa and I had been talking before my flight, basic stuff like how I was going to the city and she was leaving to go back to London, and how it sucked that we would miss each other because we’d really like to say hello and stuff. I got to NYC, grabbed a cab from LaGuardia to Brooklyn, and got to my hotel. I was supposed to text my mom when I got there, since she was already in the room, and I was walking into the lobby doing just that when a tiny British woman tackled me and I was like, “LISA?!” and as it turns out, this is the hotel she always stays at in Brooklyn and my mom and I had just picked it by chance because it was super close to the theater and VOILA, Lisa and I got to see each other anyway! My mom couldn’t figure out what was taking me so long and who I could possibly find to talk to in our hotel lobby so I got to introduce them and it was the most lovely totally unexpected surprise. And I got all the theater and stage door dirt from her, too. 😂😂

So the next day after breakfast, we went exploring a bit and we did find the theater, then went to the amazing pizzeria on the corner and back to the hotel to relax until it was play time. And let me tell you, for the size of the theater and the three-hour (with intermission) run time and our second row seats, I would have been happy. Oscar Isaac was like twenty feet away from me most of the night of my birthday and what else could I have asked for? But then after the show we decided to check out the stage door and we found it quite easily. There were only like maybe? 20? people waiting at the stage door, all very polite and well-mannered and very cognizant of the barricade they’d put up. All the cast came out, we cheered and we clapped. Rachel Brosnahan was 2nd last to come out, and she was very sweet (and also fucking amazing in the play itself; I was surprised and thrilled with her performance, what a treat!) She signed my program and it was all very lovely.

Then. Then. Last to come out was Oscar, and he quite happily made his way around the barricade while I tried to remember how to breathe. But he ended up being SO NICE and so sweet and when my mom mentioned that it was my birthday, the next thing I know I’m getting squished in a hug and I’m getting a resounding “happy birthday!” and my mom is telling him that I came all the way from Tennessee for this and he’s like “hey, my dad lives in Tennessee!” and there were smiles and probably me looking like a total idiot and he had his arm around me for the picture even though you can’t really see it but IT WAS THERE OKAY.

The program:

My favorite picture in the history of ever:

It took a long road to get here. There was the lobby incident, and us not knowing or thinking to get to the stage door at the 92nd St Y (although we did loiter at his car), and then FINALLY I got to meet him (ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!) and every time I look at this picture I grin like a complete idiot and I’m not sorry about it and if I can figure out how to get to the play again, I will because it was amazing.

AH. MAY. ZING.

[mysterious-corpse]

Ok if you ignore the pain and the fear I feel like being punched super hard would be rlly fun. like woag and then I’m on the ground. stand back up, again again! like that one game you play when you’re little where you stand up on a bed and someone immediately pushes you back down over and over sort of like a one-hole whack-a-mole

​just being like. wrenched from the space you were just in

[krytus]

"ian short for lesbian" is still one of the funniest name things ive considered. should my pen name be ian....

[pjsk-headcanons]

WHO LAYPUT CHANGEHENSS

hi :3

who would mistaken this for a malcom in the middle blog... what

oh um right headcannon

kanade needs glasses. bad. :3

.

[nicomoon69]

resisting the urge to make a genshin oc just so I can have them interact w kaveh