#Part 17 of 19

[liminalpsych]

17. Let other people judge us with all their own assumptions

Laughter rang out through the glade of the king’s forest. All the birds fell silent for a moment in the wake of it. Then, seeming to realize that the sound did not spell danger, they thus resumed their singing.

A lady and a knight took their meal merrily upon a cloak spread over the forest floor. Nearby, their steeds grazed upon the greenery without a care. They were dressed for hawking, and indeed a hooded hawk roosted on a saddle atop a silver palfrey, yet there was no captured quarry to be seen.

Indeed, Gwenhwyfar and Lancelot had not been hunting at all, but rather sharing a meal in the peace and privacy of the glade, away from prying eyes or gossiping lips.

They shared other things, too: kisses, chaste and playful at first between bites of bread and cheese and sips of wine. In time, the two lovers also shared the taste of their mouths, and the taste of each other’s skin.

Yet something disturbed the peace of the kingswood. The birds fell silent once more, and this time they remained so, alert to a predator’s intent.

Lost as they were in one another, the lady and the knight noticed not the changes around them, too surrounded by their own soft sighs. Not until their horses paused in their grazing, ears pricked forward as they stared off into the woods, nostrils flared to scent the shifting breeze.

Not until Gwenhwyfar’s palfrey relaxed with recognition, and whuffled a soft greeting.

The lovers stilled, motionless as deer scenting a stalking wolf.

There was a rustling of leaves not far away, and then a tense silence that seemed to stretch on forever.

“Gwen,” Lancelot said, in a voice so soft and low that she did not so much hear it as feel it in the form of his lips moving against her ear rather than heard it, “wait until I stand and speak challenge, then take my horse and flee.”

Now Lancelot’s courser nickered, louder than the palfrey, his eyes alert with interest as he recognized someone in the wood.

Fear left Gwen shivering with cold despite the heat of the summer day. “We face this together–”

His hand tightened over hers. “I will send to Avalon if it is safe to return. You must go. For Arthur’s sake.”

She did not even know if she could stand; it seemed as though the ground spun beneath her, dizzy and sick with dread. Yet she knew her knight spoke truly. She gave a short, sharp nod, then turned to press her lips to his for one last desperate kiss.

Lancelot returned it for a heartbeat, his heart breaking within his chest, yet knew he could afford to tarry no longer. He turned away, taking up his sword as he rose to stand and face the silent forest.

“Come out, else you be craven and not merely ignoble spies!”

Gwenhwyfar did stand, somehow, and even run, her world tilting beneath her. She scrambled up into the saddle more than mounted, as Lancelot’s taller steed danced and snorted beneath an unfamiliar rider; she murmured soothing sounds despite the hammering of her heart, taking up the reins in hands that she willed not to shake.

“You dare call another ignoble, when you lie in treason with your king’s own wife?” It was a familiar voice, another of Arthur’s knights, although all the names of every knight save her own beloved seemed to flee her mind even as she fled the glade.

“Stand down, and I will surrender peacefully to you when my queen is well away,” said Lancelot. “Pursue her, and I will cut you all down where you stand.”

She bent low over the courser’s neck to urge him onward, not waiting to learn the outcome, not wanting to know if steel rang out behind her. The wind of her steed’s passage tore any sound of sorrow from her throat.

The roaring in her ears was the only sound she could hear as her entire world came crashing down behind her.

With all the years between us

I know your heart, you know I'd never lie

Let other people judge us with all their own assumptions

You know with me you never need to hide

[softichill]

Little freak on the brain again

[onebizarrekai]

I've been going back and forth trying to decide whether I want to make the old ibvs oneshots be available on ao3 but every time I look at them I go into a state of shock at how… absolutely teenager they are

also this

[bugmistake]

sometimes its so crazy to realize that there's actually a lot of things i like. that i thought i didn't like because i was a depressed teenager. i love being outside! i love swimming! i love talking to people! even strangers sometimes! i love getting dressed in fun outfits and doing makeup! i love reading and going to art museums! i just thought i was doomed forever to a life of complete and total apathy and void! and now look at me! still a little shaky but i'm doing it!!!!!

[astarlightmonbebe]

i'm only at the beginning of li tongguang's descent into obsession (eps 17-18), but already it's both hurting and hitting. hurting, because we know li tongguang's capabilities, and his level headedness, and the potential he has, that he seems to throw out due to this obsession. hitting, because when you think about it, the obsession storyline and characterization does make perfect sense. obsession like that is a double edged blade, which can turn from love to hate, childish belief and joy to embittered rage in a second.

on one hand, it's painful to watch ltg's childlike desperation when faced with ruyi again. we want to grit our teeth and think of him as idiotic, unable to take a hint. but the reality is that it's a completely normal response to be expected from him. i mean, it's a dream come true, to see the person you 'love' the most in the world to be whole in front of you. it's probably what he could only dream about, especially being the one to apparently find her bones and bury them.

on a deeper level, ltg's initial reaction is very much a manifestation of his inner child, almost peter pan-like in the 'child that never became an adult/grew up' way. by that i mean to say the desperate urge to please, the constant worrying, and the oscillation between hot and cold moods are all so indicative of someone who grew up in an insecure/unstable environment, usually with volatile or simply unavailable authority figures. from what we can gather, he had no father, his mother wasn't in his life ("she doesn't want him around, nor can she bear for him to be away, so that's why he's like that" per empress zhaojie's words to ruyi). the one authority figure that entered his life to offer some semblance of guidance was ruyi, and even though it's clear that she held care for him, she was also a twenty year old assassin used to training subordinates, not children. her mentorship style is clearly so different when you hold ltg and yang ying side by side, and we know from ruyi's own mouth that she doesn't consider herself to have taught ltg well, and wants to remedy that through/with yang ying (i'll probably make a whole different post comparing this and the affects of this after watching some more episodes lol - there are bullet points in the drafts). so even though ruyi was his authority figure, she was still an emotionally unavailable one who couldn't meet ltg on the level he probably needed at that time in his life, and which no one probably ever did. hence his up and down reaction and actions.

it intrigues me, too, because i think, in a very subtle way, ltg is very much a character foil to ruyi in that he reflects some of her worst attributes, or more accurately represents the sort of person she was, or at least acted like (yuan lu's comment about how ltg has ruyi's gaze was meaningful outside of the jealousy arc - to me at least). i saw someone make a really interesting comment on how ltg's devotion to ruyi parallels ruyi's own devotion to empress zhaojie, which i'll also probably comment on more later.

obviously, ltg's obsession stems from an issue much larger than ruyi herself - she just happens to be the unfortunate target of it. and, clearly, i know his descent into it will be ugly, if understandable. i understand ruyi wanting to leave that part of her life behind, but also - to think that maybe many of the issues faced in future eps could have been avoidable if she'd been upfront with li tongguang about her identity early on.

[anotherpapercut]

yesterday a couple of the teens at work mentioned that they assumed I was like 18-20 years old and did not want to believe that I was older than the other staff member so I showed them my ID and said "see, 1999" and one of them yelled "IT HAS A 19 IN IT???"

then not 2 hours later a child I do not know asked if I was "a teen or a staff" and when I said staff he said "well you look like a teen"

[ducktollers]

got a sortof interview for a research assistant job tomorrow and sooooooooo scareds :D

[active-mind-15]

Just spent several minutes agonizing over the timeline of Accidental Siblings and tweaked parts of my fic yet again to match the canonical timeline better

[boy-armageddon]

Personally I think the little phenomenon w/ Johnny Whitney writing a just genuinely sort of devastating song once per every record or so (or twice! take, well, Take Me to the Sea 4 example. actually three times maybe. talking about specifically georgia + my organ sounds like… here and also bonetrees and a broken heart a little. also also As Brass And Satin just feels utterly melancholic in its near entirety) is that he just wakes up face down covered in blood in the studio, his own or someone else’s he can’t tell, shaking and grasping some shoddily scrawled out lyrics on a rlly very old piece of paper. The rest of the band might be like “johnny what the fuck happened” and he just springs 2 his feet like “oh haha nothing :> im fine don’t worry. nothing happened!!!!!!! anyways i have this cool new idea 4 a song wanna hear” and any time anyone tries 2 ask about it he immediately dodges the question and moves on2 a diff topic. He can explain what it’s about, but any time someone asks about the inspiration he gets nervous and is like “ohhh ummm. I 4got! Any other song though lol” and doesn’t wait 4 an answer. that’s just a theory though a Seattle theory

[mangosmoothiepussyv3]

:')

[aria0fgold]

You gotta believe me, I'm-- I'm Normal-- (favourite moment in ms1.5 being a scene in which Cain was in a dire near-death situation with a severe wound on his stomach due to being attacked by Cerberus cuz of KizuOwen is honestly the opposite of being normal).

[sarahhxwkins]

Headcanon time!

Sarahs parents disapproved of her relationship with Leland. She was only still a teenager, young and naive chasing after romance. Sarah of course didn't listen to her parents and stayed with Leland, however when she got pregnant with Jim and told her parents it was more her father who scolded her. Sarah got into a huge arguement with him which resulted in her leaving home.

Sarah was seventeen when she had Jim, so her parents only met Jim once when he was born. Her mother was more resonable than her father, but Sarah became distant from her parents not long after that.

The reason why Leland and Sarah fell apart is because they were young. Leland was not ready for a family. Jim had been unexpected. She was seventeen, Leland was nineteen. He couldn't handle the responsability of raising a child but Sarah she was determined to show she would be the best mother ever.

[boygirlctommy]

"first their flag burns, and then they burn" GO OFF?????

[gaycousinlarry]

.

[elvesandlanterns]

Ghost Helpline part 17 - Aftermath

Violet spends the next week stuck inside. It wasn’t bad. Dad washed, clothed and feed her teleportation sickness away. She sleeps in his bed and he sends her to sleep with fairytales. Violet doesn’t know what she’s supposed to learn from these stories, it’s nice tho.

Violet doesn’t remember being a baby, maybe she never was one? This softness with her new dad leaves her wanting. Violet would like to beige that if she ever was a baby that she had been held like this - as if she was something precious.

Funny enough her bed rest has her brothers divided. Violet lies about and blames it all on a summoning gone wrong. Brad doesn’t correct her.

It leaves half of her brothers to tiptoe around her as if she’s going to go feral at any moment. The other half yell, they’re angry. Konstelacio isn’t sure which she hates more.

Brad shuts himself away from everyone except Chad and Ziyad.

Billy hugs her and tells her everything about his mission. Almost everything he dances around something. Something important, he calls Batman a dick twice. It makes her feel better about lying.

Klarion gives her an amulet and drags Charles over to tell her about their night out.

Dandy … Dandy doesn’t take it well.

“SOMEONE should have been with her!”

“Brad SHOULD have called me!”

“We should be HOME! Not here with all these these … !”

“You know how I feel about humans.”

Every days another fight.

Konstelacio sneaks out the window.

—- —- —-

It’s been a week since the commotion on the Watch Tower. Six days since they started developing an injectable cure for Vampires Fog. Five days since his talk with Tim. Four days since his kids have begun to mercilessly tease him over more frequent phone use. Three days since he read Nightwings report on the pink vampire. Two days since Constantine had contacted him with an update. They had some more info. One day since he called Clark asking him to schedule a JL meeting.

Six hours thirty two minutes and 54 seconds since Vlad last texted him.

Bruce debated sending him another cat meme to hurry up the process.

He knew he shouldn’t be worried, apparently his only daughter had gotten the flu. And much like Tim, when they got sick they got really sick.

Bruce sent him- her- them! Bruce sent them flowers. Hopefully she would get better soon. It was painfully obvious that Vlad loved his children and her getting sick had him stressing out.

Bruce debated inviting the Masters family over for dinner.

The kids would bully him relentlessly.

Alfred would love it.

—- —— ——

The entire week has been strange to Damian. For some reason his father has been texting the head of their new neighbors relentlessly, much to his sibling’s amusement. Damian doesn’t understand why father and him suddenly “need” friends. The whole act was a waste of time, Jon was enough friendship he needed anyway.

Damian stalked into the backyards tree line. Today was good day to paint damian thought as he set up his easel. Just a sunny quiet day with no distractions.

Wwhhhooossshhhh!

That, that was probably just some animal on the property. It wasn’t uncommon to see bunnies or cats skittering around the areas of estate that still resembled a forest.

Wwwwhhhhoooshhhh!

Damian followed the sound deeper into the tree line.

Wwwhhhossh!

That didn’t sound like an animal anymore. If anything it sounded like it was coming from above…?

Damian turned his head towards the sky.

It was just a girl. How disappointing, Damian had hoped to find a big cat.

She was sitting on a tree branch, swinging her legs like she had no trouble in the world. Tch- she probably doesn’t. No doubt she’s one of his new neighbors.

Wait … hadn’t she been sick recently? What was she doing out here? What was she thinking climbing that high?!

“Oi! Imbecile what are you thinking? Get down from there! “

Her head whipped around to face him.

He knew that face, he’d drawn it several times for the league files. It was missing the scar and golden eyes. But he knew that face.

He knew that face… Konstelacio ?

[soulsxng]

💑 "What is the future you'd like for your son?"

@lured-into-wonderland | Ask the parents | No longer accepting!

When asked, the man simply raised a brow, as if confused. "I don't know what you're talking about", he replied with a frown. "I've never had a child at all, let alone a son."

The woman, on the other hand, is quick to look away. Her face a mix of sour distaste, and guilt. She recalls a young boy, clumsily swimming off to look at a school of fish that had caught his eye. Recalls how, when he was sufficiently distracted, she had turned and swam away from him. "...I have no children, either. I've never been the type of person that would be able to look after someone else-- let alone a baby."

With any luck though, she thought, he would have died quickly out there in the depths. Or even less likely, someone more capable-- more patient-- than she had found the little blue haired boy and taken him in themselves.