#How often has he imagined himself saying or doing something different? Something that would've resulted in them leaving that bunker togethe

[meagancandraw]

You ever think about how neither of them got to say goodbye?

[stardew-obsessed-ora]

GIVE ME SOME OF YOUR MORRIS HEADCANNONS I NEED THEM IN MY LIFEEEEE B]]]]]]]

HIIIII! TYSM FOR INQUIRING ON MY HCS! I'LL GLADLY FLING THEM AT YOU AT A VELOCITY IN WHICH NOBODY SHOULD BE PELTED BY WORDS :D (they're going to be neatly organized under the cut). I would've gotten to this sooner but life nerfed my ability to get to things within what I consider a reasonable time. I'm doing General HCs + a few dating HCs that have been sitting on my brain for a while. I'd like to note that a few of these are a bit on the angsty side? Nothing too bad, but yk yk.

Word Count: 707 words!

im sorry if this is long, I have NO idea what tends to be seen as an acceptable length for these kinds of things KAHAHAH. Regardless, I hope you enjoy them and tysm again for feeding into my brainrot. B)

・୨・┈┈┈┈・୨ ✦ ୧・┈┈┈┈・୧・

₊꒷︶ HCs Babey WOOHOOOO

˚⊹Morris is around 5'9, but he likes claiming he's around an inch or two taller. If you call him down on this bluff he gets visibly annoyed

-He's literally blind as a bat oh my god. You take this mans glasses away and you've taken away his ability to perceive the world as anything but splotches. If you were to take away his glasses he'd playfully pout then grab them whilst squinting in such an exaggerated fashion (but to him it isn't exaggerated at all. he's doing the best he can to see literally any part of you)

๑‧˚Morris is quite expressive, hyper-expressive even. He practically has an expression reserved for just about every situation you could think of. Its honestly impressive.

-Morris finds it hilarious to sneak up behind Pierre during random points and go "womp womp", and a variety of other similar, ill-fitting noises. To which he is chased off. It's one of the many tiny things he finds a surprising amount of pleasure in.

˚⊹ While Morris wasn't aware of the valley's existence as a child, I do imagine he was actually from a small town somewhere in Bavaria. That's right! I imagine Morris as Bavarian! If you catch him while he's still waking up, there's a chance he'll mutter something to you in Stardew's equivalent of Bavarian-German before snapping awake and correcting it to the English equivalent. He's bilingual, and he's fluent in both English and Bavarian-German.

-Morris has an accent, but he's able to try to limit it as much as possible in order to appeal more to the audience of Pelican Town.

ʚɞ There are aspects of the southern Pelican Town accent he's picked up on. He's like a sponge when it comes to mimicking accents, and as a result, he's also a sponge when it comes to inevitably picking up on the ways people say words differently in Pelican Town. At times, he's slipped up and said certain words in the Pelican Town way™. Yes, it's broken his customer service voice. Yes, he's sobbed over that.

"Over there sits our wonderful Joja Brand™ warsher n' dryer."

"..."

"Yes."

-Morris is ungodly out of touch. Some of the younger workers at his store have shared memes in their company group chat that they totally have because I willed it into existence and he's replied with either "????" or "haha (he's confused and doesn't get it)" You could trick this man into numerous deez nuts jokes if you felt particularly evil. I'm dead serious. It'd go something like this.

"Why, hello farmer! Are you visiting in hopes to talk about that Joja Membership? Or was there something else you were interested in bringing up?"

"Yeah, so I thought Soona worked here? Soona Orlada?"

"Soona Orlada? I haven't heard of t-"

"Soona or Later you're gonna see deez nu-"

"get OUT." He says, eyebrow twitching as he tries not to drop the customer service smile.

˚⊹He has self-confidence issues, regardless of how much bravado he likes showing to the residents of Pelican town and especially to Pierre. He often doubts his own abilities, and questions very often why things haven't turned in his favor despite how much effort he's put into his job and his work. He finds himself burnt out extremely often and ends up sitting at home sulking over another day stuck in a repetitive cycle with no change. Despite this, he knows the next day over he'll force a smile on his face and go about his life the exact same way he always has.

๑‧˚ For a long time, Morris was in heavy denial over just how bad the situation he was caught in was. He was in denial over just how strenuous his own job was, and was in denial over how overworked he was. Along with this, I imagine he was in denial over everything he had been doing wrong in his position. Having corporate constantly breathing down your neck over your specific district performing well clouds your judgement. At first, he'd shoot down any remarks about this. I imagine he reacts poorly to criticism from people he feels aren't adequate or in a position to be commenting on his performance, but he takes it into consideration regardless. After a few more confrontations, I imagine he takes steps to try and improve the working conditions of the little JojaMart he's under. It isn't until Post-Community Center that he actually realizes he's been treated poorly by Joja as well. He'd feel betrayed, but I imagine he'd feel lost and at a standstill on what to do next. Realistically, he'd probably continue to work for them for as long as he could unless a better opportunity reared its head.

-I like imagining Morris as a bit of a foodie. Dude absolutely knows the best restaurants in the Ferngill republic, and absolutely enjoys a good meal. Unfortunately, due to having such a demanding job, he hasn't been able to visit any of them in god knows how long. He's had to live on those incessant Joja Microwaveable Dinners for an unspeakable amount of time (he needs help). I reckon offering up home cooked meals to him is one of the fastest ways to his heart.

₊꒷In a relationship I imagine Morris to be kind of like a cat slowly warming up to his partner. He's been lonely for most of his life, and while he's touch starved, I don't think he'd be all that used to giving or receiving affection. In fact, I like imagining that for the first little bit while he's warming up to dating he gets all red faced over any gentle touch. Heaven forbid you kiss the guy while he's still getting used to things LMJKSDHKS. He's moreso one to give words of affirmation or gifts than gentle embraces during the first little bit of a relationship. Once he warms up, however, I imagine he gives ungodly nice cuddles and gentle kisses whenever he sees his S/O. Of course, that isn't to say he doesn't still prefer surprising his lover with little gifts here and there.

ʚɞ When Morris gets particularly embarrassed or flustered I imagine he likes to look away and push his glasses against his face, acting like he's unphased, or he hides his face with his arm or his hand. It's a huge habit of his and he's definitely done it unintentionally when the farmer shoots down something he says or one of his Joja-Related endeavors.

-Morris enjoys carefully planned, thought out home dates or picnic dates as opposed to anything extravagant. Sure, he adores a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, but seeing his S/O put so much effort into making sure he has a good time... it absolutely warms his heart. Bonus if they plan some kind of stargazing date with all kinds of things to do beforehand. At first, the concept and appeal confuses him, but the fact that they found such joy in it... he starts enjoying it as well.

₊꒷Morris cries whenever he feels an excessive amount of just about any emotion. If someone were to get him a little overly happy he'd start tearing up then apologize. If he gets too comfortable with his S/O in bed he starts to tear up. No, he doesn't know why. No, don't feel bad. He's literally in heaven. Cloud nine, even. Similarly, I imagine him as one of those angry criers. He gets absolutely pissed off and you just see him start to tear up before screaming at someone then apologizing.

๑‧˚ He enjoys plushies. I'm not expanding on why I think this I just think he'd like a cute squishmallow. He wouldn't show his enjoyment openly but you know damn well he'd have it with him in bed every night. A little buddy, if you will. If he's caught with it he chucks that shit out of view then apologizes to it privately later.

[diamondcitydarlin]

I watched Damsel last night and oh my god, loved it!!! The visuals and writing kinda brought back those Game of Thrones glory days feels and I love the trope of woman who is wearing nice dress gradually disfigures it as she has to survive and become a bad ass, and the bond with the dragon !!! The themes about the destructive nature of patriarchy and classism !!!

I did have a couple of notes, but these are things that I don't know would've gotten a good answer/resolution within a two hour or so movie run time but I think they're interesting nonetheless;

Like okay, am I the only person who kinda felt bad for Prince Henry in a way? I can't have been the only one. I'm not saying he in any way deserves to 'get the girl' in the end or should have saved her or even have had a different ending, but I sympathized for him a little regardless. He did, of course, participate in his family's ritual sacrifice of at least two girls, but the impression is very much given that he has been taught to do little else than what his mother and kingdom bids him to do. He clearly doesn't want to be part of this in any way, and does of course end up pleading Flora's case (not that this absolves him, he was quick enough to dismiss those other sacrifices when suggesting he wanted to marry Elodie anyway lmaoo) and when he does his mother bitingly calls him 'weak'. I just have to wonder how he was groomed growing up to one day do this, how often he must have been told that it was his 'duty' and 'for the good of the kingdom' and thought he was prepared to be STRONG like his forefathers ('strong' here meaning willing to sacrifice innocent women, of course) but when the time came he wasn't as ready as he thought he'd be or, really, at all. In fact, I'm not really arguing his ending here because I think it's significant that he's consumed in the dragon's flame by the end, the result of his male ancestor's entitlement and violence. I think there's something being said here about how the patriarchy consumes and destroys the men within it, too maybe, like Elodie's father's death. Idk I guess I'm just trying to say I felt bad for him despite everything lmao, which begs the question of what he might have done differently to save himself from the inevitable end? Or if he even could?

I'm a little shocked there wasn't more to the healing glow worms lmao. This is probably the only place in the film I feel like there's a weakness or a hole, because I was thinking that she'd use them to restore the dragon's children to life (I mean, they presumably restored the dragon's EYE so like??? maybe it's possible??) and that would break the curse and restore all the women who died to life as well, because I thought their spirits were being contained in the glow worms!!! I really thought all that was going on! I think it should have been tbh, imagine all those women getting a second chance at life and going back with Elodie and dragon lady to her land or whatever! Maybe a little saccharine and convenient but it's what I wanted lol

Anyway those are my sort of outlier weird thoughts, on the whole it's a very good film and reminds me a lot of films from the 80's-early 00's, it's cool to see a kind of return to that style of unironic fantasy adventure. Highly recommend, 11/10 stars

[the-single-element]

Good morning.

At long last, our season of feast days has ended, and we rejoin - in media res - the story of Jesus's career as a human preacher.

By this point, Jesus's attempts at information security - at doing his work quietly - have fallen apart. He hasn't quite given up on entering towns yet, but whenever he does, he's faced with these sorts of situations: people crowding around him looking for miracles, demanding his attention to the extent that he doesn't have even a minute of time to himself.

We often hear of Jesus's disciples trying to "screen" the crowds in such situations, helping their teacher to not get overwhelmed (even if, sometimes, they overshoot and screen out people whom Jesus wants to welcome in).

But today, we hear about a different sort of wrong call - a mistake people sometimes make, even in our modern society - and the lesson Jesus can teach us, as a result, about how to help a loved one when the world seems to be against them.

The trouble begins when Jesus's plight catches the attention of his extended family, who happen to be in the area. We're not talking Mary and Joseph here; relatives we might call "distant" in our own society were, in that time, considered much closer, and more involved in each other's lives. (Consider the caravan Jesus's nuclear family traveled in for feast days when he was a child, and the number of "relatives" who must have been in the same caravan.)

So these were people who knew Jesus from his youth, and cared about him, but maybe didn't know him as well as Mary and Joseph did. They saw Jesus in his ministry, and thought to themselves, "he's overworking himself", "he's not in his right mind", and tried to extract him from the situation on those grounds.

Regrettably, far from being the familial support they probably intended… this was the worst justification they could've given. "Not in your right mind", in that era and culture, was generally attributed to the influence of unclean spirits. Yes, this was considered a solvable problem, even back then - something treatable. But for a preacher? It would've thrown into doubt everything he was preaching about, by implying that he might be a false prophet.

And indeed, Jesus's political enemies jumped on this. Aha! Jesus's own family is calling him possessed! Let's take that ball and run with it; we can even write off his miracles as the actions of evil spirits!

How disappointing this must've been to Jesus! How frustrating! So as he refuted this slander… he tucked another message inside the overt one. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." This wasn't just about the risible hypothetical of "Satan casting out Satan"; this was, I think, a covert rebuke to his own family: that, if they fight him over this, over his ministry and the path he has to walk, it'll only be to the whole family's sorrow and detriment.

It'll create a rift between them that can never really heal.

Consider the TaNaKh excerpt of today, from the myth of the Garden of Eden. In that scene, the poison of eating "the knowledge of good and evil" unripe has already begun to take effect; Adam, who once said of Eve, "at last, this one is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh", now refers to her as "that woman whom you put here with me" in order to more easily assign her the blame.

Imagine if that had been allowed to continue! None of us would have ever been born! At those stakes, the fact that God finds a scapegoat in that moment - accepts the shift of blame onto snakes - becomes entirely understandable. Anything at all to prevent the first family of humanity from falling to dissention and self-destruction for as long as possible.

This is why Mark's good news today ends with Jesus and his family still in tension - with Jesus saying that, for now, he'd rather stay with people who he knows will stand with him on his mission.

And as for us… we, too, must clearly consider, when we act in love, what the fruits of our actions might be. In particular, we must be careful when we act publicly - in the sight of our loved ones' enemies - that our words and actions are presenting a united front, not accidentally undermining our loved ones instead.

In this particular season, I'm sure you can think of a few examples of how badly that can go.

Yes, this is harder. It means we don't get the benefits of the world seeing us as the "reasonable one" when interceding on someone's behalf. But Paul reminds us, from his own experience, that this is the kind of pressure of which we should be unafraid. It's the kind of pressure that helps us refine our love to being closer to the kind of love that God has for us - the love of the Kingdom of God. It's the kind of love and support which Jesus hoped to see from his own family.

And if we are to be his adopted sisters and brothers, co-heirs to the kingdom - if, as Jesus says today, those who can internalize his message are his "real" family - then it's the kind of love that we can learn, too.

[crookedmusician]

Once Again

A/N:- This is just a drabble that popped up in my head and is based on "The Amazing Spider-Man" universe, NOT based on the Marvel mcu. If you haven't watched the movies then pls read this with an open mind. The drabble is also fixed in a time that is five years after Gwen dies and is completely based on my thought and universe. Please don't read it if you're not comfortable.

Peter Parker x Fem Reader

Genre : Slight Angst, Comfort, Slice of Life

Warnings : Very Slight and descriptive mentions of wounds and death, the characters are all adults, Y/N has a defined profession for the sake of the plot

*This is also not proof read so please bare with any errors if there are any*

It's been Five years.

Five years since Gwen's funeral. Five years since New York city was almost destroyed. Five Years since an innocent boy lost his sanity to death. Five Years since Peter Parker was too late to save his love, his best friend and his emotions to grief.

It had been Five years since that faithful day that still seemed to haunt Peter from time to time.

After the......incident happened, five years ago, Peter had shut off. He didn't talk, eat or even go to work. His job was willing to let him off that time, but the mental pressure that had bundled up inside Peter's head had refused to go. As a result, even after Peter came back, he was only a shell of himself, an empty treasure from which the gold had been stolen - just like how life was stolen from the eyes of so many he failed to save on that one dreadful day.

But If anything broke Peter more than his incompetency to save the lives of those millions he failed, it was the death of Gwen. Death of the only person Peter beleived to have given him a purpose to be Spiderman and save the city and it's residents. His reason to survive every battle he fought. His best friends, girlfriend and his reason, to just live.

Peter still remembers that day, that moment as clear as day. He still remembers the catastrophe that was caused that day, the destruction, the smell of death and spilled blood that matted the air in a heavy silence. He still remembers how the life wilted out from Gwen's eyes as she fell from the tower, as he held her afterwards; he still remembers how her once warm body turned deadly pale, her cheeks stopped sport the regular blush - and they all haunted him. They Traumatized Peter through his day, haunted his nightmares and swam in front of his mind each and every moment he lived. So Peter did the only thing he thought might help, he shut off everyone out of his life, he shut off the flow of emotions in his being, & he swore to never let anyone in, he vowed to not care about anything except defending NYC against the new villains attacking everyday.

Cause Peter Parker may have been a hero, but his emotions flowed through his veins as thickly as the spider's venom in his blood. So promised, to shut out and never let anyone in. That became his coping mechanism.

Yet again, five years later that same spider-boy found himself in the exact position he had been in, five years prior - sitting on the bed of a rooftop apartment while the huge scratches on his chest were being cleaned by the slender hands of a young woman sitting in front of him. It was an awkward kind of deja vu for Peter - Both hurting and comforting to know that someone - other than May cared for him still, however the recollection couldn't help but bring those ugly thoughts back into the forefront of Peter's mind. The same thoughts that occupied his mind in the waking hours.

The scratches burned and sizzled under the alcohol, even though it was applied with softness and expertise; but Peter didn't Flinch. Yes, there was a slight wince here and there, but no reaction revealed was too strong. Years of constant battle against the seemingly never-ending villains of New York happened to make Peter a bit more cautions and tolerating of his injuries - something that seemed to work greatly in favour of Peter at the moment - so as to not make the budding doctor in front overthink her capabilities.

Was New York always so needy and loud for the Spider-Man? This was something that occupied Peter's head often.

However, when he thought back on it, perhaps it was better for him to put his life on the line than have someone innocent or desiderate to live to fight the devils.

I mean, he did fit all the requirements for this job didn't he?

He was young, had the abilities, tolerant of the aftermaths of the fights he carried carved in his skin, bones and blood. Moreover he didn't have anyone to rely on or care for - May would be able to live with him, his job wasn't so special to him if he didn't require the money either. On the contrary Peter thought it to be a blessing to die - to forget all the turmoils, catastrophes of the world; to forget how many villains needed to be fought or how many people needed to be saved - to just forget.

Peter always thought, that maybe he wasn't made for love. That maybe he didn't deserve it. He thought about how everyone he loved left him, deserted him and thinking back on them, he just wondered how much love favoured him in this life. Maybe love didn't favour him at all, maybe love hated him, maybe that's why death always won in each of his chapters. Maybe that's why, Peter had become a void - because love refused to favour the life of this boy. He never really understood why lover never looked upon him with a smile. But guess there was never really an explanation for some grudges.

But if love never favoured him, Then what was this sudden weird electric sparks coursing through his body? This weird fluttering that seemed to keep him up at nights thinking about this one person that flew in his life and and broke past all his resolves to nestle herself comfortably inside the confines of the walls surrounding his heart?

And Peter really never could understand what was happening in his body. At first he thought that perhaps it was his spidey senses. But after a while, when he actually came to a conclusion, he was dumbfounded. Being deprived of love and refusing the comfort of any other hands rather than his own for such a long time - the revelation - was actually quite unexpected by him.

But to say that Peter didn't see all of the unfolding and development of feelings, would be a mistake. Mayhaps, Peter did knew what was happening, did knew that he was falling in a bottomless hole; but the feeling of letting go, the feeling that encompassed the journey was so blissfull it was hard to deny himself the pleasure after denying it for such a long while.

So we recount to a faithful afternoon, two years prior, to an empty & silent alley in one of the bustling streets of NYC.

XXX ♤♡◇♧ XXX

It was just another day in the life of Peter Parker - waking up, packing his suit, taking an early leave or going on a feild trip for his job only to fight the villains and end up all bloody. The only difference was the gushing wound on one of Peter's upper legs that seemed way worse than his regular wounds.

Peter seeked sanctum in one of the empty alleys of the New York Streets to treat the wound only to find himself looking sideways at a young bespectacled woman with curious eyes, hair in a messy bun, clutching one strap of a heavy-looking backpack with some folders and pages in the other - she was staring at him with worry in her orbs.

Usually it wouldn't have been a problem, he'd hit up some pick up lines and flee as far as possible with his wounded leg and never meet the girl again - it was simple and easy without any damage to either his social or personal life. And it would've been easy and simple - Only if Peter had been wearing his mask. But he sadly wasn't, and now he gazed back like a deer caught in the headlights as the figure approached him slowly and cautiously and stopped a few feet away.

"Can you walk?" The words were almost whispered with caution.

"Excuse me?" Peter said in a breathless voice; swinging through the city with an almost torn-off leg does hurt more than Peter imagined, after all.

"Can You walk? With that leg of yours?"

"Yes, I suppose. But why?" Peter asked with confusion and weariness.

"Then please come to the top floor. I can treat your wound."

The clutch of the strap got a bit tighter as the words tumbled out of her lips in the hushed silence of the alley. To say Peter was surprised would be an understatement; it had been a while since someone willingly wanted to help him. But then again, Peyer wasn't weak, was he? He surely could handle that little much laceration wound on his own, right? So just like Peter have always done, to all his colleagues, his neighbours, supposed friends, associates and May, he declined.

"Thank you for the offer but I can Handle this on my own," Peter uttered in the same dazed voice, opting to turn his head down as if signalling the end of the conversation.

"I'm sure you can," the voice chirped again to fill the whispery silence, "to the best of your abilities, but It would be better if I had a look at it. I'm a medical student so I'll be able to ptch it up reall quick too. Besides to treat you'd have to either swing or walk back to your home, and you really can't do either with that deep of a cut anyways. So let me have a look at it, please."

"I said I you do-"

"No you can't, you may clean it or patch it up until you can do it up but the slash is huge, don't you see? If you don't treat it immediately, your whole leg would either get infected or you'll bleed to raw. And I don't think you'l be able to swing your way around the city with a half infected leg anyways. So Please for your leg's sake enter the third window from the right on the top floor of this building so I can nurse the damage. I'll try to get there ASAP," and with that the girl hurried inside a door on the side of the monument on right.

Peter however, was still failing to recover from his daze, and by the time her words actually registered in his head the wound had started to sizzle with wind. He gathered his own stuffed backpack and as slowly and painlessly he can, followed the instructions.

Peter swung to top of the building & crept insided the bedroom of a rooftop apartment that looked very comfy despite being a complete definition catastrophe to found himself in a pair of freshly washed shirt and jogging shorts half an hour later - the girl said they belonged to her father and brother previously.

Peter stared at the unknown woman as she wrapped up the incision in a white cloth. Her fingers were skilled & worked in a quick yet sure manner.

"You can handle pain very well you know?" The woman broke the awkward silence with a glance at Peter's face only find him staring back at her with a monotone face, "the area around the gash had already started getting infected, if I found you a bit later your leg might've fallen off. Still you're very lucky. Thankfuy no valuable nerve was heavily dama-"

"Why are you helping me?" The rambling was interupted by the strict and straight voice of the spidey

"Excuse me?"

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because I can? Am I not allowed to help you? You looked like you needed some serious help though," The woman asked tilting her head slightly.

"Is it a plot?" Years of practice had certainly helped Peter maintain a Poker face, which came in handy as he stared at the confused eyes of the woman in front of him - his heart deeming the expression to be cute.

"A plot?" The woman repeated as she looked at him in disbelief, "You think l'm helping you because l'm involved in a...a...a stupid gang or something that wants to murder you?"

"Or it could be an individual plan," Peter shrugged nonchalantly as he dared not remove his eyes from his supposed - captor.

"An individual pl-?"

"Why else would you help me? If not for your own benefit?"

At this The woman seemed to become a little pissed at Peter's words as she sputtered with her next sentences before finally giving a coherent reply, "Maybe fighting with evel people all your life makes you heroes feel as if good people don't exist but trust me, they do. And quite contrary to your assumptions I just so happen to be one of them."

The woman tied the cloth around Peter's leg in a tight knot & rose from her seat collecting the equipments back in her first aid box, opting to leave the room, offended - instead finding herself halting mid-step at peter's voice calling out to her.

"I'm Peter," Peter gazed at her retreating figure and as she turned around to look at him with judging eyes, "Peter Parker."

The words were uttered into the sunset in a softer tone - as if the speaker was almost shy, which - looking back at the circumstances - Peter probably was. And as the dying rays of the sun filtered through the drawn back curtain of the only window in the room - the one Peter had entered through - encasing the room in all it's ethereal glow, Peter was able to finally get a glimpse of his healer, clearly.

The rays fell on the bed and on womanly figure, bathing her in the delicate glow of dusk, highlighting her dainty features. She was handsome, very much so in the afyernoon light; and despite being pissed and offended a few mintues prior, she took her time in tilting the corners of her lips into a soft amd pleasant smile as the injured man stared at her in awe - that was perfectly hidden beneath his Poker Face.

"I'm Y/N L/N." The names etched itself in Peter's brain ringing sweet bells everytime, serenading him into calmness.

And so since that fateful day, it became a regular event. Whenevr Peter would get hurt - no matter how small or big the wound, he'd always find himself on the doorstep (or window sill), of the tenth floor building on the same street he never remembered the name of. And slowly as the days swept by, the visits weren't just limited to treating wounds. Infact, contary to either of their professions, Peter found both of them had quite a lot in common, and their opinions generally matched - and for the ones that didn't, both of their adjustable manners suited the situations. And as the days brew into nights, Peter found a companion in Y/N - one that Peter hoped lasted for life.

Peter found a best friend to look after him and talk with on rainy days and summer evenings.

××× ♤♡◇♧ ×××

Now, two years later as Peter sat on the same bed he had so many times before, he thought back on all the bitter and sweet memories Life gifted him, and perhaps they were needed for Peter to bring him to this point in life - and Peter never wanted to go back.

It was late. The sun had gone down a few hours prior and the moon glowed brightly in the sky, peeking in through the windows as Peter observed the familliar figure beside him - nursing another one of Peter's daily unwanted gifts.

She looked dainty, almost unreal as the moonlight illuminated the room casting it in the soft glow of night time. As Peter gazed at her, he started carving out all the plains and roughs of her faces, the shape of her eyes, lips and nose, the way her lithe fingers glided across Peter's skin - and Peter couldn't find it in himself to intrupt the dance her fingers were engaged in on his chest. A light breeze swept in through the wind making rounds of the room and messing with the strands hanging around Y/N's face as Peter gazed at the seemingly engaging spiral of movements infront of him.

"Staring is rude, you know?"

The peaceful silence occupying the room was suddenly broken, giving Peter a small start, as Y/N lifted her head barely so as to glance up at Peter's face, her lips curving into a small smirk at the look of slight surprise on his face, before her skilled hands resumed their work.

After a breif moment of comprehension - and more staring as Y/N wrapped up the gashes and stood up to starighten the sheets on the bed as much she could with the tall figure lying on top, Peter finally found his voice strong enough to utter the two words - that he hoped would convey all that was unsaid and all that he wanted to say but couldn't.

"Thank You."

Y/N looked up once again at Peter with a teasing yet soft grin and breathy chuckle, "Pete, don't be so modest about yourself. Patching up your wounds provide me an excuse to practise my skills on a regular basis. And as a junior doc, It's more benifitting to me that it is to you."

Peter let out a breathy chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck as Y/N turned around to put the first aid box at the top of one of her bedroom shelves, "Still thank you, for everything you've done for me. I really appreciate it."

And this time as Y/N turned around to look at her best friend, she paused for a second, taking in the scene before her. The moon casted the same glow on Peter's form as it had on her back - except this time, the star gazed one was Y/N.

She had always wondered how she never once felt awkward with the close proximity, she always seemed to share with Peter. Her heart once whispered because they were menat to be; but the rational part of her brain was quick to shut down the irrational daydream before it could flourish. However the warmth of her cheeks when Peter looked at her, the tiny fluttering in her stomach whenever he'd smile, the warmth in her being when they hugged couldn't be stopped from spreading all through her body.

There were nights, when she wondered how it would be if she was brave enough to turn the page to the next chapter and just ask her best friend out. But then again, even though happiness was granted if the proposal was accepted - the pain, heartbreak and loss of warmth in their friendship, at the refusal was granted in a much greater probability. And thus Y/N drifted off to sleep every night thinking of all the 'ifs' of the world.

But this wasn't the world of dreams, it was the waking world, and as Y/N realised the soft glow in Peter's eyes when he looked at her, she wondered - no, hoped that her feeling might probably be reciprocated.

"It's honestly no biggie Pete. It really isn't," She neared the bed as she said the words, finally sitting upon it with one leg folded on the matress and the othe rdangling down the side, her eyes searched Peter's face carefully noticing the genuine-ness behind Peter's words, "however what is a problem is that you've hadn't had a single mouthful since the meager breakfast this morning. Honestly dude, don't you ever get hungry? If I wa sin your place I'd be starving! Heck, I'm starving even now!"

Peter let out a small breathy laugh at Y/N's dramatics. She always tended to be the more dramatic one, especially regarding matters of food. So sporting a soft smile he looked up Y/N.

"No I'm fine, I'd just have something to eat when i get home."

"Home? Do you even know how late it is?! It's," she hekd up the digital clock on the side of her bed, "9.15 already! You literally live on the other side of the city! By the time you reach your home it would be way past 10! I ain't letting you starve till then boy!"

By now, Y/n had stood up on her feet in front of the bed with her hands on her hips - and Peter found it to be way too cute for her, "Call up Aunt May and tell her that you'll be eating here today. I'll go and start whipping something up in the kitchen, ok?"

"Ok."

"Good," Y/N turned around & exited the room heading down the halls to the kitchen, to scour how much she can that would fill both her and Peter up, while Peter rested on her bed.

Ever since that incident five years ago, Peter had always wondered that maybe love wasn't really meant for him, that maybe love didn't favour him. But now, as he stared at the moonlit retreating figure of Y/N L/N, he prayed to all the love gods in existence, to favour him just this once as he drafted up the same confession, he had been drafting for the past years, to finally come out of his heart and in to minds of the beauty he called his bestfriend.

A/N : Pls tell me how you like it in the comments this is my first story and I would really appreciate the feedback!

Please don't repost or rwupload my work anywhere apart from here.

[msbluebell]

Me and my brother were talking about what-ifs in the story and he brought up how it's a given that Dimitri would've likely continued down that dark path beyond the Gronder Field battle if not for Rodrigue's sacrifice. We know Byleth knows that Dimitri considers him a second father, so suppose she did react in time during the post-Gronder fight, how would things pan out if she took that blow instead to spare Dimitri further sorrow? I can only imagine the Dimileth angst coming from that

The thing we need to think about when diving into the topic of Dimitri’s redemption and how Rodrigue’s sacrifice set it off is the psychology behind it. 

Keep in mind that this is all my personal interpretation of the game’s events and what would happen with these changes, so if you disagree with me that’s 100% valid.

Now, Dimitri is broken. I know, shocking, but I really mean this. Dimitri is one of the most broken characters I’ve seen in a long time and I completely understand how and why he got there. Dimitri is a mentally ill man that went through a series of very traumatic events, never got the help he needed, kept the trauma bottled up until it nearly broke him, and then went through ANOTHER series of very traumatic events all while suffering a mental breakdown, and then was subsequently isolated in the woods with nothing but hallucinations that constantly reinforced toxic ideas in his head until they were all he believed.

He is a broken, confused, psychological MESS of a human being. He has had the same self-hate and guilt whirling around in his soul for five straight years now. He’s constantly had the fact that he is unworthy of life, that he needs to avenge the dead, and that he is only allowed to live so that he can make sure the dead find rest reinforced to the point where nothing else seems to even matter to him.

As far as he’s concerned the only two fates he’s worthy of are death and vengeance. If he attains either than he’ll have attained his purpose. Anything else, love, friendship, comfort, warmth, the little things that make us alive? He is utterly unworthy of those things as far as he’s concerned. He can’t even begin to conceive that people still care about him he’s brainwashed himself with this idea so much. And, also, I think he may also deeply resent everyone around him for 1) trying to take care of himself 2) not being there when he needed them when he was in the woods being hunted for five years. Heck, the one person he seemed most like his old self with before his atonement was Dedue, who went out of his way to save Dimitri and was ONLY not with him the last five years because he was just that gravely injured and literally unable to be by his side. I don’t know what everyone else was doing for those five years (other than looking for Dimitri, which he can’t reasonably assume, and doing what they can to aid people during the war), but Byleth’s reason for why they weren’t there DOES seem a little iffy and weird, so I don’t even blame him for being prissy, especially if he at all mourned them, which he clearly did.

Point is, he’s a hot mess of such bad mental health issues that you could honestly write a whole psychology paper on it and turn it in for a grade.

Now, onto why this is important to consider for that whole scene.

The attempted assassination is important for two very different reasons that both are very important to why Dimitri is tries to leave to do a suicide run against Enbarr and ultimately meets Byleth for his redemption. One is obviously Rodrigue, but there’s another that people often overlook.

Fleche.

Fleche is very important to the ‘why’ in Dimitri’s redemption.

Fleche is a sad look at who Dimitri is and how he could have ended up. Fleche is someone who lost her brother, the person she loved most, misidentified his killer (Byleth, although that was the best case for him at the time honestly and Dimitri is the main cause for his death) though said misidentified person was a huge factor in the death, and set out for revenge. Revenge was her driving goal from, to the point of insanity, and whether she realized it or not she became just like Dimitri in her goal.

She may not realize this, but Dimitri actually heavily empathized with her goal. He willingly let her into the army when he heard that she wanted to avenge her brother, and didn’t even sound AS dismissive about it as he could’ve. He got it, and he was willing to let her ride along his army for revenge.

He’s not even mad at her for stabbing him.

See that look on his face? That’s not the look of someone who is angry. He gets it. He gets why she’s doing this. He doesn’t even really blame her. He knows this is what she needs to do, and he knows he deserves it. As for as he’s concerned, he’s deserved to die for a long time, and he’s just going to die for someone else’s revenge rather than his own.

Through Fleche Dimitri sees a reflection of his own madness. He see’s what he is, and he sees what he’s caused. This is the face of his worth. Fleche is a living personification of everything he’s done wrong and everything he’s failed at. He caused her to become this, and he’s going to die to help her fulfill her purpose. This was what HE was meant for. To die for the sake of vengeance.

Then Rodrigue cuts in and basically says, “Ah, no, actually. Because I’m not going to let that happen.”

Rodrigue’s sacrifice served to show Dimitri that, yes, your life is WORTH something to other people, and that you aren’t meant to die for anyone’s revenge. Rodrigue willingly choosing to save Dimitri’s life is a direct contrast to the ideals that Dimitri has brainwashed himself with: that he’s deserves to die.

Rodrigue no-sells the revenge death and shows Dimitri that not only are there people who WANT him to live, so much that they’re willing to stake their own life on it selflessly, but that they want him to live for something OTHER than the revenge he’s been seeking. They’re not trying to hinder him for their own goals, they’re trying to take care of him for HIS sake.

Rodrigue’s act is one of pure, selfless, fatherly love. It’s a love that Dimitri has denied himself for five years, and didn’t realize was being directed his way before now. It’s a drastic show of affection that cuts through years of brainwashing. In theory, the same result could have been achieved if Rodrigue was injured in the process, or even not at all as long as he simply stood in the way of the death and Dimitri, but…well…him dying for the cause is more emotionally impacting from a story telling perspective.

I also love the symbolism of Byleth being the one to cut Fleche down for good because they’re the one that finally fully turns Dimitri towards redemption and instill the idea that he deserves to live for himself, thus “killing” the idea he needs to die for vengeance. 

So, would the results change at all if Byleth were the one that stepped in the way of Fleche’s revenge? 

No, I personally don’t think so.

Dimitri is in love with both Byleth and Rodrigue. It’s just two different kids of love. He very openly admitted to loving Rodrigue like a second father pre-timeskip (Dimitri has a few dads, doesn’t he?). Byelth can either be romantic (which I interpret as canon based on his interactions with them in cut-scenes) or platonic love of a close friend. He simply denied himself those affections during his time as Feral!Dimitri (Actually, the more I talk about it, the more Punished!Dimitri sounds more accurate, because he’s really just punishing himself).

So, events would play out the same with a wounded Byleth, only this time he would maybe have his classmates be slower to forgive him based on how much one can interpret them loving Byleth over Rodrigue. Which, let’s be honest, most of them know Byleth better, so it will probably take them a little longer.

Still, Byleth made a sacrifice for him, and believed in him, so they would forgive him eventually.

Dimitri forgiving himself is another story. He never DOES forgive himself for Rodrigue’s sacrifice, and he won’t forgive himself for Byleth’s sacrifice.

On the other hand, we can also speculate that without Byleth there to stop Dimitri’s suicide run to Enbarr and act as the light that pulls him out of the darkness, he DOES end up going through with the plan and joins her in death in his fit of grief fueled madness.