#I always wanted her to live

[snowwhitesakura]

At new years eve, in the city of Gävle, a young girl stumbles over icy pavements. Her feet are bare, and blue from the cold, and the stabbing wind of winter pierces her thin layer of clothes. She can't go home. Not like this: with not a single match sold and not a single coin to show for the day she's spent walking the cold streets of Sweden. No, she has to keep going. She has to sell her matches. At least one.

But maybe, she thinks, maybe I can use just one to warm myself. Only one, and only for a moment.

She takes a seat, she doesn't know where, and raises the match to the wall of its box.

"Who are you?" A loud voice booms inside her head. "Keep that match away from me!"

She turns around in fear and sees a giant goat of straw loom above her. It looks at her, almost as afraid of her as she is of it. This calms her down, though she can clearly understand after a moments thought that the presence of fire would be unsettling for her new, flammable companion.

"I only mean to warm myself," she reassured. "Just one match, for me, and I stay right where I am."

The goat seem hesitant, but nods.

"As long as you do not come closer, I will allow it."

She strikes the match and with a rischt it burns and lends her its warmth. It is strong, and bright, and wonderful, and she holds her hand to the flame like she would against a stove. And a stove it is to her: she sees one form in front of her with its burnished brass feet and beautiful brass ornaments. She stretches her feet to it as well, but the fire of the match reaches her fingers. Through the brief relief from the cold it gives her, it bites her and she drops the match which extinguishes in the snow.

She turns back to the goat.

"May I light another?"

There is silence, and the little match girl is afraid the giant straw creature will deny her. After all, she was barely allowed to light the first. But she is wrong.

"You may," she is told.

And so, she does. The fire returns and its warmth kisses her nose as she eyes the people passing by. A child, no older than her, walks with her father while eating gyros, skipping as the steam from it forms the spirit of the pig inside that leap through the air and let her smell it. She has never smelled anything like it. It also shows her what is inside the father's bags; a plucked goose to be filled with the apples and dried plums beside it, cooing at her that if only she still had the stove she could have cooked it for herself. The scent of the goose mixes with the pig, and as she savours the scent. A moment later she realizes she has a question to the goat of straw observing her silently.

"Who are you?"

"I am Gävlebocken," Gävlebocken answers. "And I am sorry I shouted at you when you first sat down. There are many who think it is fun to light me on fire because of how I am made, and it scares me a lot. I can see now that you are not like that."

The fire reaches her fingers once more and she drops this match as well.

"Light another," Gävlebocken ushers, and a third match is lit. A giant christmas tree, filled with electric lights, grows next to the goat. Gävlebocken looks small in comparison, and is decorated with small bells that jingle at the smallest of movement.

"Is something wrong?" The bells let out a shimmering sound as the Gävlebocken speaks, and the light from the tree shine behind her new friend like a halo.

"You're beautiful," she says with a trembling voice. "And an angel."

"And you're cold," Gävlebocken replies. "Have you not a home to go to? Have you no shoes or coat?"

"No coat," she whispers. "I got to borrow shoes from my mother, but they were too big and I lost them. And I have a home, but I can't return with no money. Father will hurt me."

As she looks into the face of Gävlebocken she can see a single star fly across the sky with its burning tail.

"Someone is just dead," she mumbles from underneath the christmas tree. "My old grandmother told me that when a star falls, a soul accends to god."

Gävlebocken hums in a somber tone.

"Someone dies every night."

The third match burns out, and the tree, the lights and the bells disappear. She grabs another. She thinks of her grandmother, who used to love her before she passed, and how she misses her radiance, and her brightness and warmth which was just like fire. She aims to strike the box again to light one more match, just one more match, but Gävlebocken stops her.

"A match alone does not warm a child. Light me, and be warm this winter."

"Light you?" The little match girl hears the words, and yet cannot understand them. "But you are afraid of the fire. It will burn you, and you will die."

"It will burn me," the goat agrees, "but I will live. When winter comes again next year, I will be here once more. Light me. Let me keep you warm, let me keep you safe, and when winter is back in one year's time you can see yourself how immortal I am."

She is eager to listen, to be free of the cold, but she remembers the bite of fire.

"Will it hurt?"

There is a gentle smile in the face of her new friend.

"Not more than the cold to you."

That settles it. She grabs the rest of the matches and light them all at once and hold them to the goat of straw, who catches on fire instantly. There is a burst of warmth against her and at once she feels alive.

This is more than a stove, this is a bonfire in May. It is the end of winter, of cold and of hurt, and it brings with it the prickling sensation of sensation back to her fingers, to her nose, to her cheeks, to her feet, to her. In the light of her friend, growing brighter and brighter, she goes from blue, to red, to herself. She is herself, and she is warm. She can see it, how the heat and the smoke wraps around her like the embrace of her grandmother - oh, how she misses her - the only one who ever loved her.

The only one until today. Her gaze is met with the gaze of her dying friend, and it is as fond, as gentle, and as warm as her grandmothers ever was. Maybe even warmer.

"Are you afraid?" she asks.

There is silence, except for the crackling of fire and the distant wailing sound of a fire truck, as Gävlebocken thinks about her question.

"No. I'm not."

When the police arrive she is certain that they will beat her, just like her father would in their position. Instead they take her to a warm room, give her a red blanket with straw goats on and a mug of hot chocolate to drink. Eventually they also give her new parents; better parents they say, but it takes a long time for her to believe it.

It feels strange at first. She doesn't have to sell matches any more. Instead, she can do all of the things she's always wanted. And she does. She goes to school. She makes friends. She finds people who love her: her new parents, her teachers, and children her age. And yet, there is one friend, her first, that she has yet to see again.

At December 1st, in the city of Gävle, a young girl and her parents watch Gävlebocken get constructed. And in the face of straw, there is a smile.

"Hello again, little match girl."

"Welcome back."

I had a dream where the goat got frostbite and went home. She is cold and we need to warm her.

the little match girl x gävlebocken??

[chloesimaginationthings]

The FNAF Vanessas meet their younger selves..

[malinaa]

if i think about the hunger games in peeta's perspective i WILL start sobbing

[breeberrypies]

pink goes good with green ‧₊˚ ⋅*

goes well with green.

+another sketch bc i love them

[justaz]

battle of camlann but merlin wasn’t ancient as shit. he blasts the warriors around arthur away and arthur turns to see a glowering, golden-eyed merlin. he tightens his grip on his sword but isn’t able to raise it. the inconceivable notion that merlin has betrayed him runs through his mind but he cant quite grasp it. his father is screaming in his head to kill the wretched sorcerer but all arthur can see is his friend wearing a face that looks too much like morgana’s. merlin glances up at arthur and the expression of rage fizzles into one tinged with fear and concern - all too confusing for him to unpack in the midst of battle. merlin is slow to approach his side and even then he keeps his distance. before either of them can say anything, mordred appears, sword in hand, glaring at arthur.

merlin tries to draw the former knights attention away from arthur, tries to goad him into fighting merlin instead, but mordred is deadset on fighting arthur. he calls morgana over instead and says emrys’s fight is with her while his is with arthur. with the extra seconds of back and forth, arthur isn’t as shocked when he raises his sword against mordred’s. morgana and merlin blast each other great distances until they’re far away from modred vs arthur and land on the front line between the two armies. both armies back off and watch the light show as morgana and emrys battle until morgana’s army uses the distraction to close in on camelot’s army.

three battles occurring at once until morgana gets a lucky hit in and merlin goes flying. he lands next to a gwaine who is currently bleeding out. he smiles when he sees who’s next to him “merlin!” which sounds so much like his greeting every time they ran into each other before gwaine became a knight. he reaches out and heals gwaine’s wound and leon just looks up at him for a moment before going “you’re always full of surprises, aren’t you merlin?” merlin grins and goes “i got one more” he stands up on surprisingly steady legs and calls on kilgharrah. in for a penny, out for a pound. arthur is already fuming at him, might as well rip the bandaid off right?

kilgharrah attacks morgana’s army while merlin orders aithusa to stand down. camelot’s army is able to march through the charred army and bring down those who remain, mordred is loosing but persevering through rage and spite alone, morgana is screaming (like she always is nowadays). merlin and morgana battle once more until mordred and morgana’s armies have fallen. merlin makes a tactical retreat to arthur who is still staring at him wearily (and definitely irate). he requests permission to kill morgana which is baffling but she is his sister and he’s always cared for her even after her betrayal so he supposes it makes sense. once he gives it, their fight doesn’t last longer than a minute. emrys was always stronger than her, he was just buying time.

camelot emerges victorious though they don’t seem all that excited about it. the other warriors cheer and clap each other on the back, but arthur is just watching merlin. the knights watch them uneasily. merlin returns arthur’s gaze. “is that the fucking dragon i killed?” merlin looks up at kilgharrah who is needlessly burning the remains of morgana’s army. merlin turns back to him “yes.”

[bunnieswithknives]

I feel bad for neglecting Hazel so much, I do have many thoughts about her.. and also a mermaid au that im probably not going to do anything with

[bronzeagepizzeria]

DAVID TENNANT VIDEO DIARIES <3

[aeteut]

The love drunk in Remus’s eyes gazing at the prettiest star; he breathes Sirius.

By likeafunerall, and reposted with permission.

[citrusai]

taash said "they were doing it" and people ran with the interpretation of an npc that doesn't know solas or the history of the elvhenan even when bellara interjected and said, no, that's not right. that's not how it was for the elvhenan. they formed bonds before they had physical bodies. and people ran to doompost or create weird anti-solavellan shit even though mythal & solas refer to each other as old friends and when she releases him there is no tenderness or love in it. it is the act of unchaining a dog from his post, the stepping down of a general. but to each their own ig.

[tashiduncandonaldson]

my spotify wrapped is actually so accurate

[cruelplatonic]

my personal headcanon is the vees were unremarkable nobodies when they were alive. i just love it as a thematic throughline for them. they love to let the public of hell speculate on them being famed and acclaimed since before death, but the the truth is they were a d-list failed influencer that got by on cheap controversey and scamming, a broke junkie who burned every shaky bridge he ever had, and a worn-out broadcast production assistant with more rejected auditions and tossed out script pitches than he could count. nobody missed them when they were gone, nobody cared who they were until they were dead.

[charlotte-family-apologist]

Just in: Two Fuck Ass Swordsman Caught Making Out In Public Again

[fumifooms]

What if we were both magic prodigies and it otherized us in different ways and we devoted ourselves to protecting a family member who has general other goals & priorities. What if we both did self-sacrifical devotion in opposite ways.

What if we were dark mirrors of each other and where I've grown overcontrolling you've grown complacent. What if, bought as a servant into a pretty loving home, ownership and control is what love looks like to me, and to you neglected and lonely growing up, love is gratefully taking any scraps of it you’re lent.

By belonging to someone, even if she comes back injured or fails at finding Delgal, she feels like she belongs and is cherished, by owning someone he feels safe in them not leaving him.

She’s what’s tethering him do you see… And he’s the only thing giving her direction and purpose in her state. She needs a compass and he needs a support.

They’re both so out of it 😭 It’s the weirdly intense and unearned mutual trust and reliance on each other?? They’re each other’s weird little comfort codependent teddy bear. Or at least they were headed towards that before SHE DIED THEN HE DIED THEN THEY BOTH FORGOT ABOUT EACH OTHER AND NEVER MET EVER AGAIN. Though she’s also the guard attack hound keeping him safe… And vice versa he heals her and can rewrite her very being with just one wave of his hand. They’re both so so mentally and physically vulnerable both but they cling onto each other. They can’t perceive things accurately but despite it all someway somehow they stumble into something closer to resembling companionship just before they both die. Falin is just that kind and Thistle is just that lonely. Overworked.

We both haven’t lived for ourselves in a very long time, haven’t we.

They both have a similar devotion to the people they love but again the difference is that Thistle starts overtsepping while Falin is self-effacing. The other difference between them is that people care about Falin <3 People have given up on Thistle long ago, and he has given people reasons to, while people refuse to give up on Falin. Yaad has a mini arc about it dw about it it’s ok he’s not all alone in the end 😭😭 He reached out for Marcille’s hand but they already all wanted to help him, they just had to be given the chance to, Yaad just had to be given the chance to, it’s okay I’m okay

Hey what if we learned to get in touch with our own identity and the world around us and living in the present again through being in the worst codependent situationship ever.

Falin and Thistle sitting in a tree, sucking on flowers together because they’re h-u-n-g-r-y 💕💕💕

I bet he’s only ever thought of flowers as useless ornaments. Weak weeds. But she shows him they’re tasty and useful and good and pretty in their own right too and deserve existing without proving their worth and waaa <33 Thistles…... Did you know thistles taste sweet if you remove the thorns and eat them?

"Even as a chimera, her kind nature remains" you can’t suppress her in the way that matters. You can’t soothe him in the way that matters. It’s doomed. You’re doomed. It’s all doomed. Save me.

[pedropascallme]

Your honor their smiles make me go 🥺

[priceofreedom]

#Elmyra approving of Zack makes me so happy 😭 FF7 Rebirth 20 / ?

[be-an-echo]

Merry Christmas guyyyss🎄