#So the bird is supposed to be talking nonsense like I do all the time so that's supposed to represent that

[felix-the-third]

How is the new look?

[pomefioredove]

So idk if I'm requesting in the right place. But I would love a twst scenario with a yuu that just says all their intrusive thoughts. Like just out of NOWHERE, as they reach for a water bottle hanging out with the first years they go.

“I robbed a house back home”

Or when Azul tries cornering them with the twins for something they just blankly turn to Floyd going.

“duck off you look like you can't steer a shopping cart”

But feel free to do it with whoever you want and if you don't want to do mine that's perfectly fine and I hope you have a great day :)

certainly!!

summary: reader who speaks all their impulsive thoughts type of post: headcanons characters: heartslabyul, octavinelle, scarabia, diasomnia additional info: platonic or romantic, reader isn't specified to be yuu, reader is gender neutral author's note: for some reason I had the hardest time thinking up new nonsense, so many of these dialogue lines are from lewis carroll poems, which I have a wonderful nostalgia for. check those out as well!

Ace and Deuce are pretty much used to you saying whatever's at the top of your mind... with no filter

so used to it that it barely even registers with them anymore

whenever it's quiet, they can expect you to come out with some incomprehensible nonsense.

if you didn't, they'd probably ask what's wrong

"I robbed a house back home,"

"Yeah, okay,"

Riddle, on the other hand, gets frustrated alarmingly fast

despite running an entire dorm based on nonsensical rules, he has a low tolerance for outside nonsense

and... well, despite his name, he's not really a fan of riddles

Trey matches your energy immediately

no joke. he doesn't even bat an eye

"I eat plastic,"

"hm. sometimes I eat muffin wrappers,"

honestly, sometimes his tangents get even weirder than yours

Cater probably wasn't listening very closely when you first started going off, or maybe he's just become accustomed to riddles, though the next time you say something he just thinks it's cute

might use your "thoughtful anecdotes" as a caption for his next post

would it be surprising if I were to say Azul is used to randomness?

Floyd has a tendency to say the strangest things out of nowhere, after all, and the sea itself can be a surprising place

he does not, however, appreciate how you keep speaking in tongues when he's trying to have serious business conversations with you

(seriously, how hard can it be to swindle one person?!)

"Please, just talk normally,"

"But the mome raths outgrabe!"

he doesn't know what that means, but it sounds like an insult

...and then will refuse to converse with you again until you're in a "better mood" (in his own words)

Jade, on the other hand, finds you quite fascinating

he keeps a little notepad on him just to jot down the things you say. why? you can't imagine. he just finds it interesting, you suppose

"'Twas brilling..."

"Really? How interesting. Go on,"

Floyd isn't really paying much attention

your funny words amuse him at best and annoy him at worse

if you ever find yourself in a bad place with the octotrio, you can just say something like:

"You look like you can't steer a shopping cart,"

and Floyd will take actual offense to that, and just straight up leave

(much to Azul's dismay)

Kalim adds on right away

and keeps going

and keeps going... and keeps going...

"How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail..."

"Oh, I know! He pours waters on every shining scale,"

at one point Jamil has to pull you aside and beg you not to encourage him

"No promises!" is your answer

Kalim even buys a parrot to add onto the fun

it becomes a three-person (or two-person-and-a-bird?) act

...even if you're not really doing it on purpose

Jamil is who ends up taking care of the parrot while it squawks your old nonsense thoughts, though

he likes the parrot much better than either of you

Malleus will entertain you based on his own curiosity

none of his other human classmates speak in such odd and puzzling words, so he knows it's a "you" thing

might try to solve them if they sound like riddles

but he mostly just thinks they're cute

"O, oysters, come and walk with us,"

"How interesting... I do wonder where you come up with all this,"

Sebek will listen to you because Malleus does, and Silver has enough nonsense to deal with as it is. will definitely fall asleep while you're talking to him

Lilia responds in like terms

meow at him? he'll meow back

in fact, he'll meow at you every time he sees you until you say something else to capture his curiosity

might go ahead and start speaking to you in tongues before you even say anything

he just thinks you're neat!

[capitanoidyll]

Happy Wife, Happy Life

Pierro x F ! Reader

Warnings | sick reader, established relationship, y/n referred to as "wife", pierro being whipped for y/n, fluff, grammatical errors, etc.

Note | y/n is referred to with she/her pronouns !!

"Best to never mention his wife."

"He has a wife," Tartaglia piped up. His dead eyes trailing over to a harbinger that decided to finally give Childe a few warnings.

"Indeed, he does. You'll never meet her though."

"And why is that?"

"Because he keeps her all locked up. Like a pretty bird in a diamond cage. If he does ever bring her out, you are only ever permitted to look. No talking to her, no thinking about her, and definitely no touching her."

Tartaglia hummed in thought at the very obvious warnings being given to him.

He wasn't that foolish.

Though, he was curious.

There was a difference in this fine line. But .. he ultimately decided not to chase the obvious hook.

"Is that why he isn't here now?"

"Indeed, he took some time off for her. Probably because she tried to escape him or something."

"Well, if you have to keep your wife locked up, then I suppose it isn't a good relationship to begin with."

All the harbingers knew not to bring up such topics when Pierro was around though. They didn't want to die after all.

| meanwhile , in another part of snezhnaya |

"Look Pierro! Look what I made today!"

Pierro sat at his wife's bed side. His eyes gleaming with a sort of love that his fellow harbingers never saw.

He knew many rumors that circled around him and his wife. One in particular stating how he keeps her locked up all day.

A part of that was true, but she was free to roam around as she so wishes. In fact, the only reason why he kept her in bed for many days was because of how sickly she was.

It was a terrible illness. One that she was born with. But it didn't matter to him. He just wanted to be with her even though her health was decreasing by the day.

So .. one could say that the rumors of him locking up his wife angered him to no end. Which was why he made it perfectly clear to the other harbingers to never utter such nonsense when around him.

"Another scarf? You certainly become a master at knitting those."

"You think so," she asked a grin. Her eyes looking at the newly made red scarf.

"Do me a favor and give it Childe, alright? He was the last harbinger I have yet to make a scarf for."

Handing it over to Pierro, he looked at the soft fabric for a brief moment.

"Of ... course ...," truth be told he always found it awkward when he would give another harbinger a scarf without warning and without context. Not that he would ever tell them that.

"Do you wish for anything else, my dear?"

She fell back into her pillows. His eyes couldn't help but to look over her sickly form.

"A goodnight kiss," she asked ever so timidly.

A chuckle erupting from his lips when he heard her request.

"If that is what will make you happy."

[kiame-sama]

I wouldn’t use the term ‘Stupid’ for Malleus, rather he’s more unfamiliar with certain things since to Fae (Especially the very long living kind) time is much different to them compared to Non-Fae species (As Sebek did mention Briar Valley isn’t technologically up to date like how modern society is)

I believe Malleus mentioned before how Society tends to change ‘Rapidly’ during lessons (When it’s been a decade or a century)

It makes complete sense in the Monster AU for Malleus not to realize Reader was a human until Lilia explained it to him (Regardless it doesn’t make him any less cute)

I find Malleus cute when he’s unfamiliar with certain subjects as it adds a certain charm to him OR when he takes pride talking about things he does know, like Gargoyles (I always lovingly refer to him as a ‘Goober’ whenever he does anything cute, silly or dramatic)

I wrote this because I think your doing a fantastic job writing for Malleus (My favorite part is how you write him being protective of the ones he loves)

Thank you! My mans literally had no idea that sensitive technology was not supposed to get wet and would possibly stop working when wet (Lab-wear Malleus Vignette).

In my monster AU, Humans are basically the equivalent of Mastodons or Dodos. They went extinct several centuries before Malleus emerged from his egg. Sure, there is some information about Humans but not all of it is true (Hence why I had Riddle give three 'rules' where one was nonsense (humans can eat pigs regardless of genetic closeness), one made sense (don't boil or freeze your human if you want them to live), and one that was purely opinion based (humans have no true set mating rituals) to show that even if Humans once existed, they are basically legends and myth at the time of the story).

Malleus basically saw a bird's nest- with an unusual looking baby bird (so he assumed) inside the nest- and went "yeah, that's more than likely a baby bird right there" instead of going "That is a Pteranodon". He saw a creature laying beneath a Human-based Gargoyle that looks somewhat like the Gargoyle (since it was a Human gargoyle, after all), and he assumed the Human was a Gargoyle instead of making a leap of logic to an extinct and lesser known species he had never encountered before.

TWST literally has living stone Gargoyles in the universe (looking at you Nobel Bell College Gargoyles) so he would be more likely to assume these Gargoyles are living and just don't want to talk to him, instead of automatically believing what he just found was an extinct/mythical creature. If anything, he accepted Lilia's knowledge far too quickly given the fact Lilia just told him something that no longer existed was sleeping in his nest.

[zwolfgames]

Yandere!various!That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime x gn!cat!reader

Requested: JosephCruz118

(Warnings: Forced marrige, neko reader, reincarnation.)

(3rd person POV)

Welp, there it went. The end of your life.

Just like that.

A strange way to begin, but thats what happens in the tragidy that is your life.

You were graduating, finally, after years of being a student, you could walk out of this building and live.

Well... Your classmates would. But you just so happned to get the short end of the stick.

You were simply walking down a hall, when some... pshycothic man pushed you out of the open window.

Sending you pummeling down three stories.

The last things you heard were some disgusting cracks and screams... just screams.

Embracing the sudden coldness of the world, you felt life leaving you.

'Wish I'd have landed on my feet for once in my damm life... Maybe feel loved for once...' Your last toughts echo trough your head, a thumping pain in your cracked skull.

And then it all just fades. 

Thats it, the end of Y/N L/N.

Missed by many, but never got far in life.

--------

A fresh breath of air enters your lungs.

You shock awake, laying on a warm grassy field. The green blades carresing your skin as the wind moves them. 

The sun shines brilliantly above you, almost blinding you as you flutter your (e/c) eyes open.

'What in the fuck-knuckles is this bright nonsense?' You squeeze your eyes shut once more and groan in displeasure. This was not what you wanted to see in death.

You once again open your eyes, feeling a bit light sensetive at the moment. But you hold your hand to your forehead, blocking out the suns harsh rays.

After a moment of adjusting to the new lighting, you take your hand away and look around.

Big grass field... Surrounded by forest. Huh, what a strange afterlife.

You take another breath of fresh air, crisp... crisp air. No pollution noticable.

'Yea... Now hold up a minute.' You talk to yourself in your head, standing up and looking at your hands. No blood, no rocks or dirt.

Yea, somethings wrong here.

Especially that elongated feeling in your tailbone. Weird.... thats new-

Oh my god its a tail!?

You screech in confusion and grab the fuzzy thing. Slender but long, standing to make sure you keep balance. No no no! The afterlife turned you into a cat(girl/boy/YN)! A damm furry!

Some birds hiding in the grass fly away at your noise, some almost touching the top of your head.

If you had a tail then... oh no..

Your hands quickly reach for your head. And yep, two cat ears. Actually, biologically, on your head. You even felt them twitch in your hands.

After cringing for a good two minutes you calmed down and just accepted fate. It could have been worse, you could have been a worm.

So... what to do now? You couldn't just stay on this random grass field for the rest of your afterlife...

Or maybe thats what you've been sentenced to, grassfield duty.

Were they expecting you to chomp grass like a cow? Who knows... Where are the instructions? You would like to read them.

But no instructions came... reminds you of school projects...

You sigh and begin walking... towards... well, forwards. Where does this go? Into that forest? Yes.

But what else were you supposed to do. Wait around like a dumbass. No thanks.

So there you went, walking trough the thick grass towards the even thicker forest.

Birds greeted you with chirps as you entered the foliage. Forest greens filled your vision as you stepped trough a bush. Getting little unnoticable cuts on your exposed legs.

But.. It was peacefull. Birds, insects. The noises of nature really made this place feel real. was this even the afterlife?

A vision maybe?

Or... were you reborn?

How silly would that be-

"Watch out!" Some loud shrill voice alerts you of a quickly incoming troll or something on a.. on a wolf.

You jump aside and the wolf rider passes you.

He brings the wolf to a stop and hops off, walking back towards you. Ah, not a troll, this looks like a goblin, if you can trust those movies you've seen.

"Hey?" You wave awkardly. The shorter goblin smiles brightly with his two tusk like teeth.

"Hey! I haven't seen you before! Are you an adventurer?" The goblin asks exitdely. 

"Not.. really. i'm a bit lost. Where is this?" You ask, it feels as if your voice has barely seen use. As if its all new. As if this body is new.

Maybe it is.

"You don't know where you are? Well, you're in the Jura forest right now. I'm from Rimuru City, I can take you there, maybe you'll be able to orient from there?" The little goblin offers you with a friendly smile.

You nod, not that cautious as you should have been were this your old life. YOLO, am i right?

The goblin helps you onto his giant wolf and you hold on, like asked. The big canine speeds off trough the forest and you feel alive for once, wind in your face, cutting against your face like sharp yet harmless blades.

After a bit of running around on the wolf, you reach a nice looking medival village, lots of fantasy looking monsters running around, building things and working.

Well damm... This looks better managed then soceity.

The goblin that lead you here looks behind him to check up on you, to see if youre still on the wolf before enetering the crowd and bringing you somewhere.

He brings you all the way to what seems to be the towns centre. Gesturing for you to hop off here.

You hesitantly nod, awkardly smiling at the goblin as a form of thanks.

Welp, now you were in a random city, full of magical looking monsters and whatnot.

You hear the magical residents go about their day, smells of foods, contruction and just random things fill your weirdly sensetive nose.

Just as you were about to enter the building in front of you, as it looked like a town hall, you felt a squishy thing bump against your leg.

You look down, eyes widening at this small, light blue slime. Tapping your leg for attention.

"Uh... Can I help you?" You ask it in confusion, not reallu expecting it to react.

"Yes! You're new, aren't you? I'm Rimuru! Welcome to my city!" The blue slime speaks. It��speaks!

"I.. yes? My name's Y/N." You awkardly repsond to the talking slime- Rimuru. What wonders does this world have in store for you?

"Great! I'll show you around!" Rimuru speaks in an exited manner... but he doesn't have a mouth... Telepathy, maybe?

Whatever. That day, Rimuru showed you around his city full of fantasy folk. Introducing you to all kinds of people, some of his trusted compagnions and whatnot.

But thats... how you ended up like this...

----------------

"Y/N. You can't go. Whats wrong with the village? We can give you everything!" Benimaru protests as he catches the arm holding your bag. The tall kijin holds onto you desparatly.

After three months of living in this village, you got to know pretty much everyone. And let's just say, they really like 'the cute demi-cat'.

Wich is why, when you planned to finally go explore some more of this weird world. You got met with a lot of complaints.

They've already set up guards by the city exits, you've been monitored for the past two days and now Benimaru was here to personally stop you.

"Let go, I just want to explore." You sigh, done with this weird protection you're receiving.

"No can do orders from the boss... that I absoluty agree with. You aren't ready for the rest of this world." The kijin repeats those lame words. He's grinning like always, just happy to be able to hold you.

Your ears flatten on your head and he 'awws'. How agitating.

"Come on, just stay and let me pet you!" The red kijin coees and sets you back down in your house. A babyproofed house.

Wich was annoying as hell! You didn't even get a knife sharp enough to cut the crust off your bread!

Benimaru takes the liberty of ruffling your hair. He's what you'd call... a big brother. Only diffrence, is that this one doesn't let you do stupid things.

But he wasn't the worst.... You'd say Rimuru was the most peacefull.. But Shuna was determined to get you to marry her.... And Gabiru had the idea that you were his bestest friend ever.

Wich is a reason to why you weren't allowed to leave. The people in the city got too attached to you. Maybe they found you friendly? 

But whatever the reason, you wanted out. They didn't let you do anything dangerous! Wich sounds stupid but you wnated to go explore too!

As if sensing your toughts, Benimaru grabbed yoy into a bear hug, his form engulfs you, you're barely visible. He loves it like this.

"Let go." You demand, voice muffled by his sleeves.

"No." He smiles down at you, nuzzeling his head into your hair.

You huff in annoyance. All this attention was nice... for a week. But it's as if they never, ever got bored of you.

It seemed impossible in your head. No-one takes intrest in you for this long.

Yet these fantasy people did. And it was weird. Like they had it all planned out.

Wich they did, but you didn't know of the plan. Wich Rimuru vowed to keep that way. He knew of the dangers of the world, and you weren't ready.

Better off with him and his friends.

You get snapped out of your toughts by the door of your house opening, speak of the devil. Rimuru. In his human form, today.

"Y/N! I see you've changed your mind yes?" He smiles at you, the... well... you still didn't figure out his gender... but since he said he used to be a man.. in his past life.. you just rolled with that because They/them takes longer to write.

"No, I'm just.... being blocked, at the moment." You speak from between Benimaru's arms as he doens't plan to let go any time soon.

"Well thats a shame. Don't you like it here?" Rimuru asks with a pout. Golden eyes looking straight at you.

"I do, i just want to see more." You asnwer what you always do. But ofcourse he just shakes his head.

"You're not going to." Rimuru answers back, a dark tone to his voice for the first time since you met him.

You try to protest but Benimaru clasps a hand over your mouth to stop it.

You lick his hand but he doesnt relent. Rimuru chuckles at your annoyed expression.

"Don't try. Y/N, if you don't stay willingly... You'd make a lot of my friends sad." Rimuru speaks in a belitteling tone. walking up to you and petting your head dismissivly.

You let out muffled sounds of protests, squirming against Benimarus limbs as hes holding you down.

"Fine then, we'll lock your house down from now on. Is this what you wanted?" Rimuru snarkily tilted his head. You didn't recognise him like this. He's always been so friendly. But now, with those scary dulled eyes on the cutesy face... he's just offputting.

You made your protests known by a harsh glare. But he just smiled. You were really getting pissed off! You were an adult for god sake! No matter these cat features! This was dehumanizing!

Rimuru left, taking Benimaru with him. You heard the lock click into place. The windows had never been able to open... so..

But what they didn't know, was that you were a great lockpicker. Being bored in middle school was bound to pay off at some point!

So when it got dark out, and all these annoyances went to bed. You took that little metal hairclip and got to work. These fantasy people didn't know how to make complicated locks. So it wasn't that hard.

And bam, door open, Y/N free!

So you just sneak out of your house, taking some food with you, along with the non cutesy clothes they've provided you with.

Atleast being half cat gave you great stealth. No-one would hear you.

So you left Rimuru city. Into Jura forest and just... Wherever you wanted to go.

Ofcourse, you had been thankfull for their hospitality for a while, You mean, modern soceity would have let you rot on the streets. But still, locking someone in a house? Crazy.

The leaves crunched under your feet and you were getting paranoid that you'd leave a trail for them to find.

You sped up your pace, hoping to find somewhere else to hide. A cave maybe? A difrent city?

But no, you ended up meeting monsters. Lots of them. They chased you down, tired you out. You felt like real prey for once.

You hid in a tree and stared at these savage beasts as they kept patrolling under the tree. You couldn't get out. Trapped once again. But not as comfrotable.

But not for long. As morning broke out, the warm rays hitting your cold face after a night out in the tree, you heard sniffing.

And it wasn't from the monsters.

Before you knew it, they were all torn to shred by Ranga, Rimuru's wolf compagnion. Shit! He tracked you down!

Rimuru was on his back, in slime form. He devoured the tree you were in and turned human just to catch you in a ridiculously tight grip.

He seemed mad, stressed. Not a word was exchanged as he set you on Ranga and rode back to the city. Harsh grip around your waist.

"Y/N. You. Don't. Get. To. Leave." Rimuru whispered to you as you arrived back at the village.

You expected him to throw you back into your house but he too kyou to his living quarters instead. 

Tugging you along to one of the many rooms. Opening a wooden door, the overpowered slime set you on the soft bed and clicked some magic restraints to your wrists.

"This is your own fault. Ok?" Rimuru spoke darkly.

"You'll marry Shuna and Souei. You'll stay put and let us ake care of you. You hear me? This world is dangerous, and you weren't granted powers like I was." Rimuru explains with a serious face. He wanted you to marry two kijins!? Two?! Whatn to tie you to this place?

"I'm not getting married-" You started but he shut your mouth.

"You are. They keep whining about it and why not? You deserve some love, don't you think so?" He grins. You were genuinly scared of the slime at this point. This sounded way too creepy.

"You wouldn't want Gabiru to miss his best friend, would you? Or Benimaru to miss his adorable little sibling? Don't you get how dear yo uare to everyone?" Rimuru carresses you cheek softly. What kind of manipulation is this bitch pulling on you?

But you were afraid of talking back. This boy could pulvorize you ten times over.

So you reluctantly nod. Maybe... Maybe you could get used to living here? Its not like they hurt you...

Rimuru immeadiatly turned bubbly and cute again as you nod. Smiling brightly and patting your head before he leaves again.

The door clicks to a locked state and you slowly pann your gaze over to your cuffed wrists. They glow in the sunlight coming from the thick looking window.

'What the hell just happned?' You deadpann at the floor, needing a moment to register what just got decided for you.

You'd be stuck with these crazy sicko's forever!

A nightmare, really, being taken care off and loved. ew, who would like that-

Wait a minute.

Now hold up.

Well it may have been nice if you liked being stuck in a room. But nu uh. You were an adventurous cat!

The universe granted you a second life and you weren't going to waste it in the position of a docile house husband/wife!

But... You never got your adventure. Married off to two Kijin. 

Intertwined with all these people you had grown to know.

If only they had liked you... a normal amount.

Then you could have lived a seconds life.

This could barely be called that.

This was.... The life of a doll. It had to be. Put on display and loved by all, owned by all.

Thats what you'd always be.

A cute cat, to be cuddled and coddled.

Nothing else...

_____☆_____

I think I went braindead while writing this twice.

Sorry for the late-ness! School has been killing me, last year isn't a damm joke.

I hope this was readable!

Have a nice day/night!

_____☆_____

Words: 2712

[m1ckeyb3rry]

── THE GLASS PRINCESS // TWELVE

Series Synopsis: You wake up in a strange room with no memories, broken glass at your bedside, and a prince named Zuko as your only chance at figuring out who you really are.

Chapter Synopsis: The Tales of Ba Sing Se: The Tale of Princess Y/N

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Zuko x Reader

Chapter Word Count: 5.1k

Content Warnings: complicated relationships (strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to strangers to lovers to enemies to lovers), amnesia, alternate universe, lots of secrets and lying and mystery

A/N: going to say it right here right now…this chapter is 75% crack and goofy nonsense shenanigans LMAOAO. mostly because zuko and y/n’s relationship is so i see the light from tangled across the stars from star wars etc etc but the main man of this chapter & y/n are just the subway surfers theme song personified

“I’m very confused,” you said, sitting on Quynh’s front paw and gazing up at her beseechingly. “I need your help, Quynh.”

“I was questioning why you stayed here with me instead of running off to that tea shop you love so much,” she said, inclining her nose towards you. “What is the matter?”

“It’s about the tea shop,” you said. “Or, specifically, a certain employee.”

“That boy you met? Lee?” she said. Her muzzle wrinkled, though it was with concern, not anger. “Has he done something wrong to you?”

“No, not at all,” you said. “Well. Maybe a little bit, but he’s not quite aware that he’s done anything. And then there’s the whole problem with the Blue Spirit…”

“Your mysterious savior? What is his relation to the situation?” she said. “Dearest Y/N, you must explain at once before I am irreversibly angered.”

“Lee makes me feel bizarre!” you said, throwing your hands in the air. Quynh blinked at you.

“Makes you feel bizarre?” she said.

“Yes,” you said. “Incredibly so.”

There was really no other adjective for what it was. It was unprecedented, the kind of emotion you had never felt before, not for anyone – bar the Blue Spirit, but it was different even then. Of the same foundation, but taking a different form.

“You’ll have to explain a little more,” she said.

“It’s like my stomach is in knots,” you said. “And as if my heart has turned to a bird and is fluttering its wings about! What is this power that he has, that he can send my body into fits? But, for all that, I still want to be around him. It matters not what we are doing; as long as he is there, I am happy. Yet how can I be happy? He is driving me to failure! Why, for all I know, he really might bring about my death!”

For a moment, Quynh was silent, and then her body began to rumble. You were vindicated for a bit, thinking that she was growling with protective instinct, but your temporary satisfaction immediately vanished when you realized she was laughing.

“For a girl who spends so much time reading about so many different topics, you know so little of the world,” she said. “Though then again, this is the kind of thing that you have to experience to understand.”

“What are you talking about?” you said.

“He doesn’t have any special powers, and you aren’t going to die,” she said. “If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say you like him.”

Your mind blanked. The thought of you liking Lee was utterly preposterous. Lee, the snarky tea server? Lee, the passionate super-fan of The Mask of the Blue Spirit? Lee, who’d just as soon say something rude as he would something kind? If Quynh was to be believed, then that Lee was someone you liked, but that just wasn’t right.

“No way!” you said. “I can’t have feelings for Lee.”

“Why not?” Quynh said.

“He’s Lee!” you said helplessly. “It’s just — it’s just not how things are supposed to go.”

“Then how are things supposed to go?” she said. “Why is there a certain way that it must all happen? Things are rarely if ever set in stone, even in a kingdom made up of Earthbenders.”

“The Blue Spirit,” you said. “It’s supposed to be him. He’s the one who’s saved me, the one who knows the truth of my bending and my identity. He’s the one I’m meant to like.”

“You told him you’re a bender?” Quynh said. “That’s a new development. I thought you didn’t want to tell anyone.”

“It’s that there was no one I could trust to tell,” you said. “Until him. If a man has saved your life twice, then you can expect that he will do so a third time as well, right? So I did not feel afraid in revealing that part of me to him. I’d reveal anything to him if he asked.”

“Then there is a conundrum,” Quynh said.

“Exactly. That’s why I can’t like Lee,” you said. “It’s the Blue Spirit. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the person you foresaw me finding.”

“Hm,” Quynh said. “Do you think so?”

“I don’t know,” you said. “Lee reminds me that I am more than just a princess. I can live a different kind of life when I am with him — a happier kind. But the fact is that I am a princess, and the Blue Spirit shows me what that genuinely means. The reality of the world beyond the palace walls…if it were not for him, I’d still be blind to it all.”

Quynh sighed. “It’s not like you know who the Blue Spirit is.”

“No matter who he is underneath the mask, he’ll always be the Blue Spirit. He’ll always be the person who saved me,” you said, and then you slapped your hand over your mouth. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh?” Quynh parroted. “Why are you saying that?”

“I just — I just accidentally quoted Jin!” you said. Quynh, who, being a bear spirit, was not exactly well-read, huffed at you.

“Am I meant to know who Jin is?” she said.

“She’s a character in The Mask of the Blue Spirit,” you said.

“Okay,” she said.

“That line is a part of the ending I detest! Have I become such a shallow person that I bear a resemblance to her of all characters? What will Lee think? It’s our greatest point of contention, that we do not agree on the ending, but if I’ve gone and adopted her worldview, then that means I do subconsciously like it!” you wailed.

Once more, Quynh began to laugh, nudging you and knocking you over, though she caught you in her other paw before you could hit the ground. Putting you back in your comfortable spot nestled against her fur, she continued to chuckle as she spoke.

“Quoting a single line does not mean you agree with everything a character has done,” she said. “And what does it matter to you what Lee thinks?”

“It just does,” you said. “It really matters to me.”

“Princess, I think that your dilemma is not a dilemma at all,” she said.

“Huh? Yes, it is!” you said.

“It’s not,” she said. “If you search within yourself, you will know the truth. Even in just this conversation, even without seeking it out, I have found it. And no one can know your heart better than you, so there is no reason that you cannot do the same.”

“I’ve been searching! But no answer has made itself apparent,” you said.

“Keep looking,” she said. “One day, it will. Until then, you needn’t decide anything. No one is forcing your hand.”

That was true. It wasn’t as if you were being threatened into a decision, into an acknowledgment. If your feelings really were the kind that Quynh was suggesting, then things would be spoiled, so you vowed to push them aside for now and focus on other, more pressing matters.

“That’s not the only subject that I have been mulling over recently. Quynh, do you think I would have made a better queen than Kuei is king?” you said. Her ears pricked, and her voice took on an alarmed cast when she responded.

“I know you don’t mean to be seditious, but the implication is there,” she said.

“Maybe it is seditious, but I still want your answer. The Earth Kingdom was built on your back; you’ve witnessed every monarch’s reign, every king’s rise and fall, every war and each bloody moment in the land’s history. No one would know better than you if I made the right decision all of those years ago,” you said.

“It’s not so simple,” she said. “Every king has inherited a different world than their predecessors. Some anre easier times than others, but all have their variances. Kuei is not a bad king, believe it or not. He is an uneducated one, an ignorant one, perhaps even an inept one, but he is not a bad one. He was one born to rule over a world at peace, one born to mature slowly and reign in old age, and he was given none of those considerations.”

“What about me?” you said.

“You are a princess who wants to love her people very much,” she said. “There’s always a place for that kind of royalty. However, there’s no saying what kind of ruler you would’ve been; the likelihood is that you would’ve been the same as your brother. Children are not meant to rule, dear girl. Remember it well; a boy should not be king any more than a crook should.”

You swallowed. “If only our father were still here. Things would be better.”

The father who you had never met, yet whose absence you mourned daily anew. If he were still alive, then would Ba Sing Se be as troubled as it had become under your brother’s command? You tried to imagine what kind of a man he would be. The 51st Earth King…you had read the stories and the songs until you had memorized them, but they were flimsy replacements for knowing him, for loving him.

You envied Kuei in that sense. He had met your parents. He had loved your parents and been loved by them in return. Neither of them had even known you long enough to love you. Were it not for Quynh and Kuei, you wouldn’t have been loved by anyone at all.

“They would be,” Quynh said. “But your father is gone, Y/N, and you cannot change the past. For better or for worse, your brother is the king.”

“Ba Sing Se is falling apart,” you said. “The great capital that you and Shan built is crumbling under Kuei’s control. The worst part is that he does not even know it, and he would not believe me if I told him! Isn’t it a sad twist? That I am the one with the knowledge but not the power, and he is the one who knows nothing yet has everything!”

“You are still a princess,” Quynh said. “Not a king nor a queen, but you are still the second-most powerful person in this kingdom. You are not as helpless as you are determined to believe yourself.”

“What can I do?” you said.

She angled her paw so that you slid off of it and onto your feet, and then she curled back up in her usual position. A door opened, one that must’ve led to Ba Sing Se, and she let out a gravelly exhale.

“If there is a problem, then you must understand it,” she said. “Only then can you begin to fix it. Do you understand what is happening in the city at present? In your own palace?”

“Not really,” you said. “Do you?”

“I do, but I also do not,” she said. “It’s an internal knowledge that I cannot explain to anyone else, but I am aware of it. Like an itch on my back which I cannot reach.”

“Spirit nonsense,” you said. “No matter. You’re right; even if Lee cannot tell me, there must be some way I can suss things out.”

“It’s a large city,” Quynh agreed. “There will be someone willing to help you. You only need to find them. As you found the Blue Spirit. As you found Lee.”

“Do you think I can?” you said.

“I think you can do a lot more than you are aware of,” she said. “You remind me of someone else. Someone I knew a very long time ago.”

“One of my ancestors?” you said.

“My own brother,” she said. “It has been ages upon ages since I saw him last. I thought that I could not quite recall his face anymore, but then I saw yours, and I knew that it had to be the same. I knew that he had come to be at my side again, however briefly.”

Her brother — Shan. The founder of the Earth Kingdom, who had against all odds taken a continent at war and turned it into a single nation that was united and powerful beyond even the wildest dreams of his contemporaries. What kind of equivalency was that? Who would think to compare you with the legendary first king?

You thought that Quynh’s passageway would lead you to the tea shop, as it usually did, but instead it spit you out in front of a building far too elegant to be in the Lower Ring. That meant you must’ve been in the Upper Ring, where the wealthier residents of Ba Sing Se stayed.

“Why am I here?” you muttered. Reading the sign hung above the door, you saw that the building was a girls’ poetry house. When you strained your ears, you heard the dulcet tones of recited haikus being whispered back and forth, though an unexpected addition made you pause. “That’s an awfully masculine sounding girl…”

All of a sudden, the door slammed open, and a man in a security uniform tossed out a boy clad in blue. Your eyes widened as he came flying at you, knocking you to the floor beneath him with the force of the guard’s throw.

“Aw, man,” the boy groaned. “I was just trying to show my appreciation for poetry �� woah! When did you get here?”

His eyes were a bright, clear blue, though it was not the dark shade of the Blue Spirit’s mask, but rather a luminous, glittering color that pierced straight through you. For a moment, you thought that he must’ve known your every secret and intimacy — such was the depth of his gaze. But it only lasted for a moment, after which you remembered that there was no way he could’ve come to know it all just by looking at you.

“I was just passing by, and then that boorish security threw you at me!” you said. The boy leapt to his feet and offered you his hand, pulling you up when you took it and giving you a wide grin in return.

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said, shaking the hand he had already captured in his own vigorously. “I’m Sokka!”

“Y/N,” you said. He narrowed his eyes at you, leaning closer and scrutinizing you, an ordeal for which you stayed entirely still. Only when he was finally satisfied did he straighten, though he was still frowning slightly.

“That name is mighty familiar,” he said. “Have we met or something? I feel like I know you.”

“I…used to be in the circus?” you said, silently apologizing to Lee and Mushi for stealing their personal backgrounds for your cover story. “A very well-regarded one. I was, um, famous. For my acrobatics. That’s probably where you recognize me from.”

You hoped Mushi wouldn’t be upset that you had just appropriated his identity. It was the only one you could think of without the time to prepare in advance, and even then only because it was on your mind due to how absurd you had found it when Lee had mentioned it.

“We haven’t visited any circuses on our trip,” Sokka said. “So that can’t be it.”

“I’m a household name!” you said. “The main attractions tend to be, you know. Everyone across the Earth Kingdom knows who I am.”

This was actually not a lie. It would be difficult to find a single family who had not at least heard of you, but it wasn’t because of your nonexistent acrobatic prowess. Either way, it must have been convincing enough, as Sokka just shrugged it off.

“If you say so,” he said. “Can you do a cartwheel?”

“Not in a dress, I can’t,” you said. “Don’t be foolish. How would I possibly maneuver my limbs in that way with all of this fabric obstructing me?”

“Aw, I was really hoping you could show me how it’s done! I’ve always wanted to learn how to cartwheel,” Sokka said as the two of you began to walk away from the poetry house. He swung his arms by his sides as he walked, with a lackadaisical looseness you had never observed so closely before. Even Lee, Mushi, and the Blue Spirit had neat, contained manners to their gaits, each movement done with purpose, but Sokka was haphazard and almost unwieldy in his grace.

“If I were wearing pants, I might be able to demonstrate, but as it is, you’ll have to find another teacher,” you said.

“Wait! I have the best idea ever!” Sokka said. “You’re going to love this.”

You weren’t sure what you were expecting when he said that, but whatever it had been, it was not this. It did not come as a surprise that you did not love it; in fact, you were more befuddled than anything.

Sokka’s clothes did not by any means fit you properly, and the same could be said for your dress on his frame. He did not seem to mind, though, giving you a double-thumbs-up when he emerged from behind the wall where he had changed.

“You look great!” he said.

“I don’t know that I can say the same about you, but in the interest of being polite, I should like to tell you that you appear radiant at the moment,” you said.

“Why’re you speaking like you’re about to give a speech or something? Seriously, you Upper Ring folk are so weird,” he said.

“Aren’t you also one of the Upper Ring folk?” you said. “Considering I’ve met you here, you must be.”

“Nah, I’m just a visitor,” he said.

“But a very important one. Not everyone is lodged in the Upper Ring,” you said. Sokka blushed and waved you off.

“I know a guy or two,” he said. “No biggie, just another day in the life. But enough talking! Let’s get to cartwheeling. This is a moment I’ve dreamed of for a long time!”

“I hope you’ve been dreaming of being disappointed for equally as long,” you said.

“What’d you say?” he said.

“Nothing,” you said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” he said. “Show me how it’s done!”

There was a problem: you had no idea how to do a cartwheel. If only it were Mushi in your place! According to Lee, he was supremely flexible, and he had his circus training. As well, his patient and kind demeanor meant that he would be uniquely suited to being Sokka’s cartwheeling mentor. At any rate, he’d be better than you at the job, though that wasn’t really a high bar.

“Here goes nothing,” you said, taking a deep breath and raising your arms over your head. Trying to emulate what you had heard about the movement, you took a step forward and tried to push off with your back leg.

Somehow, it happened that your slipper came flying off, smacking Sokka in the face as you lost your balance and landed in a heap on the cobblestones of the street. Sokka shrieked as he, too, was knocked over, though through the dim awareness you had of the situation, you could not quite discern how a mere shoe had been enough to warrant that much of a reaction.

“I think you’re bad luck,” he said, rubbing his head. “No wonder you left the circus. I can’t believe they kept you around for as long as they did!”

“I’m out of practice,” you said, accepting the shoe he passed you and putting it back on. “Could I have my clothes back, perhaps? Or have you taken a liking to them? Because I do not think you wear green as well as I do.”

“Hey!”

Once you and he were back in your regular clothes, you readied yourself to wish Sokka farewell. You weren’t really sure what he was doing or why he was in the Upper Ring, but you thought it was safe to say that he was not the person Quynh was talking about, the one who would be willing to help you in solving the problems of your kingdom.

“I still can’t shake the feeling that you remind me of someone,” Sokka said.

“Do you have any siblings?” you said.

“A younger sister,” he said.

“It’s probably her. I’m a younger sister, too,” you said. “If you’re not an avid circus-goer, then that’s the only other option I can come up with.”

“That’s another thing! I’ve never heard of circus performers speaking so fancily,” he said.

“You said it yourself that you haven’t visited any circuses on your trip, so how would you know?” you said. “It’s a shame that you have these stereotypes in your head. You should do some introspection about where they originate from.”

“What — no, I’m not — that’s not what I meant! There’s just something about you that I’m this close to figuring out!” he said, holding up his thumb and pointer finger, pressing them together for effect.

“You’re not getting paid for it, so why waste the effort?” you said.

“I’m just a curious — duck!” he said.

“Duck? Do you mean a turtleduck? That’s an interesting way to describe yourself — oh!” you said as he pulled you to the ground and out of the way of an incoming boulder.

“Whose bad side did you get on, huh?” Sokka said, motioning for you to run along with him. It was nothing like when you and the Blue Spirit had fled from the assassin’s previous attack; you didn’t have that implicit trust in Sokka to protect you, and for his part, Sokka was just as panicked as you were, so all told it was a much less graceful exit as you charged through the streets of the Upper Ring.

“A bunch of assassins!” you said. “They’ve been chasing me on and off for weeks now.”

“Assassins?” Sokka wheezed out as you increased your pace. “Just what kind of acrobat were you?”

“One that made a lot of enemies — look out!” you said, jumping into the air to avoid the stone gloves that reached for your ankles. Missing their target, they slammed into the wall and burst into smithereens.

“We’re almost at our guest house!” Sokka said. “The others should be able to help us if we haven’t lost these freaks by then. We just have to reach there before getting, y’know, crushed!”

“That’d be ideal!” you said, covering your head with your hands as you rounded a corner. Sokka kicked the door to a luxurious villa down, shoving you in and then slamming it shut behind him, pressing his back to it as the three occupants of the home gave you both alarmed looks.

“Assassins — rocks — cartwheel instructor!” Sokka said, heaving for breath and pointing at you. You waved at the trio, who must’ve been the friends that Sokka was visiting Ba Sing Se with.

One was a beautiful girl who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sokka — indubitably, this was his sister, though unlike Sokka, her eyes swirled with something lively and unsettled, as if they were twin seas set in her sweet face. Beside her was another girl, this one with fine features like a lady but a rough aura like a wrestler, and on her right was a boy with the blue arrows of an Airbending master running along his body.

“You’re going to have to repeat that,” Sokka’s sister said. “What’s going on? Who is this?”

“My cartwheeling instructor,” Sokka said.

“In a manner of speaking,” you said. “I didn’t really teach him much.”

“You know how to cartwheel? I love cartwheeling!” the Airbender said.

“Why didn’t Sokka ask you to teach him, then?” you said. The boy shrugged.

“Dunno,” he said.

“We were in the middle of a lesson—” Sokka began.

“As I recall, we were about to part ways,” you interrupted. Sokka shushed you impatiently.

“Like I was saying, we were in the middle of a lesson when, out of nowhere, pow! There was a boulder flying at our heads, and then boom! We almost died from it!” he said. You decided to just be quiet and let him tell the story; he had a flair for dramatics that you could not hope to match.

“What? Why?” his sister said.

“No idea! She said that she’s been being chased by those assassins for a while now!” Sokka said.

“Did you bring a criminal into our house?” his sister said, arching a brow at you. “Are you a criminal?”

“Not as far as I know,” you said. “I suppose I’m not really meant to be out here, but it’s not against any significant law for me to be. It’s just a family rule I’ve broken.”

“You said that they’re assassins?” the younger of the two girls said. “There’s no way. I didn’t sense anyone coming near us except for you two and some of the Dai Li agents.”

“They must be super sneaky!” Sokka said. “Right, Y/N?”

“Hm, it might be,” you said, lost in thought at this suggestion. Though you had no idea what she meant when she said she had sensed the Dai Li’s presence, you also had no reason to think that the girl was lying. There were two things that that could mean if what she said was correct, and neither of them were options you wanted to be true.

“Sokka,” his sister said. It was then that you realized that she, the Airbender, and the other girl were staring at you. “What did you just call your new friend?”

“You’re right! I can’t believe I forgot to do introductions! Y/N, this is Aang, Toph, and my sister Katara. Everyone, this is Y/N,” Sokka said, pointing at everyone as he said their names.

“Hello,” you said. “It’s lovely to meet you all.”

“Sokka!” Katara said. “You dumb, idiotic genius! We’ve been trying to talk to the king for ages, and you just happened to meet his sister while out and about!”

“That’s where I knew your name from!” Sokka said. “Princess Y/N, duh. Wait! You’re Princess Y/N!”

“Um,” you said, swearing internally at the fact that you had not thought to come up with a new name to go along with your alter ego as an acrobat. “No, I’m not.”

“She’s lying,” Toph said. “I have seismic sense, so you can forget about trying to make things up, princess. I’ll be able to tell in an instant.”

“You don’t know how good it is to meet you!” Aang said. “We’ve been trying to talk to your brother for a while now, but it’s not been going well.”

“Why would you want to talk to Kuei?” you said before you could stop yourself, rolling your eyes at the mere thought of anyone actually desiring to speak with him. “He’s not the most stimulating conversationalist.”

“You’re Princess Y/N!” Sokka said again. “You’re the princess of the Earth Kingdom, and I made you wear my clothes and do cartwheels!”

“When you put it like that, it does sound like a grave offense,” you said. “Shall I have you executed for it?”

“No!” he said, falling to his knees and bowing. “Oh esteemed, valued, generous, kind, benevolent princess, please spare my life! Please please please please please please—”

“I was only joking,” you informed him.

“We have to speak to the Earth King,” Aang said. “Do you think you could get us an audience? It’s urgent. If it helps, tell him the Avatar is the one making the request.”

“You’re the Avatar?” you said. Aang nodded at you, his expression grave and at odds with his youthful countenance. “For some reason, I thought you’d be older.”

“He’s technically 112 years old,” Sokka piped up from where he was now supine on the floor by your feet. “So there’s that.”

“I see,” you said. “You look good for your age, then. My apologies for making assumptions.”

“It’s complicated,” Aang said. “Do you think you can help us, though?”

“We’re kind of at our wits’ ends,” Katara added.

“Those Earth Palace dolts are the next level of stupid,” Toph said. “It’s all a bunch of bureaucracy and rules. Blech.”

“I can’t guarantee it,” you said. “I’m sorry. I’m not even allowed to be here right now. You see, I’m forbidden to leave my chambers. It’s only through the power of a spirit named Quynh that I may enter and exit without detection — though, I’m beginning to doubt how true that part is, but that’s an issue for me to work through on my own time. I’ll do my best to help you all while I’m at it, but for the most part, my hands are tied.”

“Okay,” Katara said when it became obvious that the others were too disappointed to come up with a response. “There’s nothing more we can ask of you. Just — it’s really urgent. You have to mean it when you say you’ll do your best.”

“I do mean it,” you said. “But in case, is there any other message you’d like me to pass along?”

“There is a war,” Aang said. “He has to ignore everything that he’s been told and realize that. There’s a war going on, and without his support, we’re going to lose it.”

A war. Of course. It made so much sense. The refugees. The injuries. The state of Ba Sing Se. It all pointed towards a distant yet rapidly encroaching conflict. That was the problem. That was what you needed to understand, or at least begin with understanding — there were other things that the Avatar and his friends had accidentally or purposefully revealed, smaller details that you would pick at and dissect until their natural conclusions, but this was the main point.

Not yet, though. These were things best done in the harsh, inescapable brightness of day, and tonight’s twilight was already waning. Soon, it would be time for the daily lighting of the Firelight Fountain’s lanterns, and there was something else you wanted to do before that.

Blending into crowds when you could, creeping past checkpoints and keeping your head lowered to avoid detection, you snuck into the Lower Ring, making your way towards a certain place, Quynh’s words coming to mind all of a sudden.

He would be starting his evening shift soon. You could picture him putting his apron on, rolling up his sleeves and complaining to his uncle about how much he hated his job and how they deserved to be somewhere else — the circus, perhaps? You weren’t sure, for he never really elaborated, but that was because the alternative location was not as important as the dissatisfaction he felt.

Despite your best efforts to quash it for fear of looking like a fool — what normal person was so excited by the prospect of apologizing to the dourest boy born to humanity? — a smile formed on your face as you began to walk faster, towards the tea shop where you knew Lee would be waiting.

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[lisbeth-kk]

May Prompts

It's the day of the Fall in the Sherlock fandom...needless to say that today's prompt is fall...

The Luckiest Girl in the world (chapter 4)

Summary: Rosie starts to interact with her uncle in earnest, much to Sherlock and John's delight. Mycroft is not that amused...

Four Years Old

Shortly after our seaside visit, things were set in motion by the British Government, aka Mycroft Holmes. Papers were signed, and a few months before my fourth birthday, I was Sherlock’s legal daughter. My Papa. God, how I love him. Just as much as I love Dad. And the adoption came with more benefits. I got an uncle and two grandparents as well.

My uncle Myc, as I call him, which he wrinkled his nose at in the beginning, is a complex man. Like his younger brother, but also different. The walls around him are thicker and not as easily penetrable as Papa’s. Gaining access to Mycroft Holmes’s heart, is no easy feat. Only a handful of people have managed it, and I’m the last one in line. Walls can indeed fall.

Dad told me how Papa constantly bickered, argued and fought with his brother, but Dad knew there was love there. Uncle Myc did anything in his power to keep Papa safe, and later Dad and me.

When I started to really interact with my uncle, Papa apparently had the time of his life, because at the age of barely four, I had no idea who Mycroft Holmes really was, or what he was capable of. I just saw a pompous man, always dressed in a three-piece suit, and carrying an umbrella. The latter spurred my brain, not to mention my tongue, into action.

“Why do you always have that parasol with you?” I asked and pointed at his umbrella.

Papa rumbled and Dad chuckled. It was Papa who had told me the name of the item. 

“It’s an umbrella, Rosamund,” he said stiffly and glared daggers at his brother, fully knowing who had “taught” me the name.

I didn’t care what the damn thing was called, but stared stubbornly at him and waved a hand, as Papa used to do when he didn’t want to be troubled with trifles.

“Why?” I asked sternly, lifting my chin in challenge.

“Oh, John. That surely is the spitting image of what you looked like when you turned his offer down in that garage all those years ago,” I heard Papa say.

I had no idea what he was talking about, and didn’t bother asking, so I continued staring my uncle straight in the eyes, daring him to deny me an answer. 

“You got your stubbornness from your dad,” Papa always says.

Uncle Myc cleared his throat and sat down on the sofa, before he explained some nonsense, I didn’t believe for a second. How the British weather is unpredictable, that he sometimes needed it for support if his leg should, for some reason, give way. At that point Papa and Dad snorted in unison and I rolled my eyes. That got me a tiny hint of a smile. It probably reminded him of his brother when he was my age.

“When you’re old enough, I will take you to the shop that makes these, and let you choose your very own,” he offered in a tone that was supposed to be friendly, but his lack of training in that area, made it sound more like a threat.

***

“Did you see his face, John,” Papa laughed when everyone had left my birthday party.

Dad giggled and was almost unable to answer, clinging to Papa’s arm like it was the only thing preventing him from falling.

“I did! Please tell me he still got surveillance cameras in the flat,” Dad said breathlessly and looked up at Papa with a pleading expression.

Papa bent down and kissed his forehead, and whispered something I couldn’t discern. It clearly contained something sentimental, because Dad cupped Papa’s face and murmured “love you”, before they started laughing again.

The reason for this silly behaviour had everything to do with Nana’s gift. It was an umbrella. Light green, with yellow flowers, green plants, and a white bird with a large beak on the rim. That in itself, wasn’t what got my fathers into a fit of giggles, but rather my outburst after I’d thanked Nana for it.

“Look, uncle Myc! I got one too. Just like yours. “

Also available on AO3

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[eulaliasims]

Round 2, Hill Farm 1 / 8

Calm the fuck down, Elmet.

Actually, you know what, I finally found the one thing he and Eisu have in common:

His wants panel just looks like that, like, all the time.

Anyway, while Eisu is sleeping in, the rest of the household is taking care of things. Elmet may have made fish for breakfast, but he did make breakfast. No one said you have to break your fast with porridge or bread.

Drustan: Glamaer thinks babies are made by kissing.

Elmet: Uhhh, yeah, that's definitely how it works. That's why you gotta carefully choose who you wanna kiss when you're a grown-up.

Xiang: Are you filling my child's head with nonsense again, Elmet?

Elmet: Hey, you can explain it to him. This is so not in my job description as uncle. I'm supposed to give him obnoxious toys and teach him how to drink, not do the birds and the bees thing.

Drustan: Bees?!

After a not-at-all awkward breakfast, Xiang, Drustan, and Elmet headed over to the pond to go fishing, something Elmet quickly loses interest in, since he does it every dang night. Okay, maybe a little less often now that he visits Helenet at night...

There's a lot more people here during the day when I change the visitor controller restrictions!

One free therapy session for Elmet was quite enough for Norweni, thank you. This is so not in her job description either.

Looking badass while practicing archery, tho? Definitely in her job description.

After nightfall and his subsequent wolfing out, Elmet returns to the woods, which thankfully are a lot emptier. At least he's easily entertained.

Arturo: I take it you are the werewolf the little mortal was talking about.

Elmet: Ah! Jeez, don't sneak up on people like that! Wait, how did I not hear you? Wait—ooooooh, that's what Helenet was talking about. Huh.

[spadesofgrass]

The Proposal but M's version ~ Trystan x Nora

Basically what I think would have happened from Nora's pov. This kind of started as a head canon thing but now it's a weird drabble lmao.

WC: 800 / gen.

Nora says no. It's almost too easy to get the words out of her mouth. She thinks it's because she's far too gone. The helpless cruelty.

Trystan almost anticipates it. Their wild goose chase after Bird is almost anticlimactic. The ring now sits on a coffee table in the lavish balcony. It feels out of place.

Nora asks if this is what they want. If they're sure. Trystan thinks yes. He doesn't know how to answer it besides telling her he feels good about it. They've known each other for a while, but it feels like years have passed by.

Trystan asks if this is what Nora wants.

She doesn't know. Her thoughts play around what happened a few hours ago. Mafalda giving her blessings, Ruby and Luke insisting they would make such a cute couple, that sure it hasn't been that long but isn't that what romance really is all about? A fairytale wedding to plan, stolen moments to share, vows, a lifetime together.

She thinks there's a hidden plot. She's never been too keen on putting a label on what they have. Maybe if she was told marriage was the right decision, she'll settle down. Maybe she won't even think about avenging her father's death. Maybe she won't have to. She has a new purpose now. A rusted old weapon forged into a beautiful ring sitting right in front of her.

Trystan might get over his own fears too. After all, a wedding gave them something to look forward to. She asks Trystan again if this is what he's choosing, now and forever. Trystan says it doesn't matter what they think, it's Nora's choice. He's almost disheartened. It isn't fair, she thinks. It isn't fair for anyone.

She asks them if they've ever considered the possibility of Nora dying. Trystan thinks it's a grim thought - if that's the case, then she should consider them dying too. Nonsensical. They're perfect, they're harmonious. Marriage will do them good.

Nora says it's rude to say no. Trystan says he can take it. As long as they're both safe and full and content.

But he can't. He'll have to wear the ring himself - something he'd meticulously chosen for her. It's wrong. It's unfair. It's cold and cruel. It's against everything.

Perhaps a compromise. Trystan must come to an understanding that there is a chance Nora might die or worse, get consumed. They don't understand the nuances, but he's fought for his family, spat at their feet, taken everything from them, losing himself - he gets it. He doesn't get it, but there seems to be something. Is it fear? Concern? Shock? It's unreadable.

Trystan tells her to keep the ring. It doesn't matter if she wants to wear it or not, it's hers and she can do whatever she wants with it. Nora tells him they'll go through with the wedding. Anything is better than nothing. Trystan counters, saying there's no point. Perhaps he was carried away with a wedding he'd fantasized about for a long time. To Juliana. A wedding they should have had. It's wrong to rush.

But keep the ring. Please. At least, as a gift.

What do we ever tell the others? At least let's have a wedding. A celebration.

You think too much of yourself. Maybe there's a chance you won't… I don't know. You're getting too ahead of yourself.

I don't know that. I don't know anything. I don't know if I'll even be good. We can still have a party. You like parties. You've gone through so much just to arrange this. Let's plan the wedding. Let's just be. And we won't have to talk about this again. It's the least I can do for the ring and all.

Will we be happy about it? Will you be?

We won't have to talk about this at all. I will ensure this doesn't happen to you. A happy marriage in the front so at least, people know what I am. The gate is wide open.

Okay.

I love you.

Okay.

Is it fine?

I don't know. I suppose so. Yes. It's fine.

We won't have to talk about this anymore. I promise. I just hope --

Hope for?

It's nothing.

So.

Anyways.

I guess that is all I have to say. It doesn't matter what I think if you aren't already on the same page as I am.

No no, I am completely fine with it. Harmonious and all. I suppose that settles it then. Will you marry me, then?

Okay.

It will be a beautiful wedding, I hope. Maybe sometime in the future we can plan one like that. Something we can deserve and not have to feel horrible about it.

I'm sorry. I hope so too. That's what I meant when--

It's okay. I love you. Do you still want the ring? You don't have to wear it all the time. Maybe just for a few pictures. Do you like it?

I do. I don't know how many times I'm going to keep saying it. It's the most perfect thing.

Is that so?

I think it is best kept in a glass case. Such a strong thing of beauty, you think?

Oddly enough, I do too.

__

Thank you @choicesmc for being my enabler in this lol couldn't have conjured up this without your encouragement!

To an extent I think this fic kind of bridges the gap between book 2 and 3 esp in the context of this fic of mine right here -> for the javelin I'd not meant to throw at you

[its-adeucen]

The once powerful eccentric guild Fairy Tail reduced to a laughing stock in the loss of their most powerful wizards, within their small numbers stands their last Dragon slayer–once one of four has now been reduced to the last. Hands dripping with ink, destruction left in their wake, uprooted trees and craters litter the ground. Scattered around sparsely, the bodies of bandits unconscious lay covered in ink.

“Ink Dragons Roar!” Inhaling deeply, your hands curl into a fist like shape–holding them up to your mouth, as if you were holding a flute–you inhale deeply before shooting out a bullet like wave of ink towards your opponent. The black coloured magic circle glowing brightly in front of you, and you watch as the bandit flies backwards.

Sighing, you throw yourselves backwards, splaying out on the cold grass beneath you. “Man, the reward for this won’t even make a dent in the guild rent…” Gazing up at the starry sky, you bit your lip before covering your eyes with your arm.

What am I supposed to do…The loss of your fellow guildmates hit you hard, there was no way your guild could keep afloat–that became obvious after the first few years–and after a while, people started to disappear. Guild members who used to ruffle your hair, give you tips on your technique, who would laugh and let you sit in while they played cards, who answered your nonsense questions. People you grew up around, started to leave. By the time you turned thirteen, your once renowned guild hall was reduced to a farmhouse and your family was barely keeping it together. Four years and still no sight of your lost members, you began to take on more and more—more jobs, more house work around the guild, more responsibility—three years later you stand as one of the guild top earners and it’s still not enough.

“Maybe if I pick up a few more odd jobs on my way back…” in the distance, you hear the sound of hooves hitting the ground and the rattling of carriage—the thought of a carriage, leaving you nauseous—groaning you resign yourself to getting up and cleaning the road before some angry merchant gets out and yells at you about road blockage. Just as you start to sit up, you are hit with a sudden feeling of vertigo, your vision starts to go black as you lose consciousness, back hitting the ground.

• You wake up in the coffin confused before resigning yourself to waiting, used to the ridiculous ‘adventures’ that come with being a Fairy Tail member, hoping that it would just be some Dark guild that you’d be able to pummel to the ground before going on your way–maybe grab a snack on your way back to the guild.

• Standing in a library at odds with a talking cat–not an eleceed at that–spitting fire at you, you know that your hope to just fight your way out of this and call it a day has been pulled right out of your hands and thrown into a blazing fire. Especially after some random crow man whips the cat up.

[ The nature of this one's soul is…how curious it appears as if there are two souls, one a childish offspring of the other. A roaring dragon and its child… fit for so many dorms, and yet, non at all–it would seem that this soul already belongs to another group there for, they are fit for No Dorm! ]

• Dorm? Soul? Did that mirror just call you childish?? Oh wait, the cats setting everything on fire. Watching as (nearly) everyone around you begins to run around like headless chickens, you step forward ready to cast a spell and take care of the cat before you find yourselves stumbling backwards–you haven’t eaten anything to replenish your magic yet.

• Soon enough the cats dealt with by a red head and a guy that smells strongly of seafood, everyone’s getting sent off, the bird man’s going to help you get back and what do you mean “What's Fiore!?!!??” You panic, pulling down the collar of the robe you’re wearing, showing your guild mark proudly displayed on the side of your neck only to be met with confusion.

Is this another world?? Is this another Edolas situation?? What am I gonna do?? Is there any way back??

• Later, when you’re lying on an old dusty bed with a flaming cat asleep by your head, in an old abandoned building that is infested with ghosts of all things, your heart skips a beat as you stare up at the crumbling ceiling. THE REWARD MONEY—

• The next morning, you’re presented with a dress shirt and some slacks—no blazer, on account of you being a janitor—and the bird man dodges any questions of pay or food before pushing you out of the house and onto the streets (more like walkways, really) of the school.

• Cleaning up was never your strong suit, considering the role models you had growing up, you’d even consider it the opposite of a strong suit. A Fairy Tail member cleaning up? as if.

• So when the flaming cat—Grim—torches the statue of some queen lady after being egged on by a random ginger, suddenly all feels right in the world.

• It feels even more right when you and your ragtag group of…whatever you all are, destroy an expensive chandler!

“What’s your name again? Juice or something??”

• Making it to the mines, you pick up Grim and begin to flail him around like a torch as you search for the Magic stone. Ace and Deuce bicker behind you and you feel a twinge of nostalgia hit you as you think back to Natsu and Grey.

• All this reminding is tossed aside in favour of running away from a giant monster in the mines, hurling attacks at you and the boys. There’s shouting and yelling before you stand your ground, instructing the boys and Grim to fight the monster.

• It’s only when you’re out of the mines and onto a field of grass, the monster's glass head shattered into a million pieces, the grass burnt, you notice the ink staining the ground. Bending down to dip a finger in it, you cautiously flick it with your tongue before your eyes widen.

What was that thing?

• You and Grim are enrolled into the school as one student—due to your ‘lack of magic’—and you are actually given a blazer, still no vest though, and a striped ribbon to use like an arm band. Grim looks at it and cackles, pointing towards his neck; “Look! We match, Henchmen!”

• Ace nudges at you with his elbow, jokingly calls you Prefect, before saying goodbye and heading off with Deuce. You smile as you wave the two off, finding the new friendship exciting.

• It’s less exciting when you throw your front door open at, way too early in the morning o’clock, to find Ace in his pyjamas, collar around his neck and a bag slung over his shoulder like a kid who’s just run away from home after a fight with his parents.

“Ace, why are you here at…whatever time it is.”

• School sucks, and Dormhead’s seem to suck even more seeing as thanks to Ace's rude interruption you weren’t able to sleep any longer. Sitting still was always, hard, not being able to move was like torture. Not being able to move while being forced to learn things was even worse.

• You barely managed to learn how to read from Erza, and that was traumatizing—you did not come out unscathed.

• Lunch is a godsend, finally some food—you barely managed to keep yourself from stealing and dismantling Deuces pen just for a quick little snack the class before. This too is horribly interrupted by another ginger as well as some green haired guy with glasses, giving you a run down on the school dorm.

• You tone it all out until you're shocked out of your thoughts by a shrill shout of,

“And You! Fix your shirt collar, and wear a tie that is horribly out of uniform—is, is that a tattoo!?”

• “Oh, I never noticed before…” Deuce mutters from your side, leaning in closer. “No way prefect, where’d you get someone willing to tattoo you so young?!” Ace also leans in, collar shining under the light.

• “I wanna know too, come on why don’t you tell upper class man Cay-Cay, I promise not to tell!” Ginger number two makes a motion to fake zip up his mouth as he stares at your neck. “I’m more curious as to what the tattoo means.” Glasses smiles at you, but he also leans in to look.

• Looking away as all the eyes stare at your neck, you place your hand over it to cover your guild mark as you laugh—trying to change the subject—before Redhead shouts something about tea and the subject it dropped completely.

• The week breezes by quickly, and before you know it, you’ve made some tarts, pissed off some guy with lion ears and a tail, got yelled at about said tarts, learned all about some magic history, alchemy and Redheads traumatic backstory.

• Finally, you stand and watch as Ace and Deuce try—and fail—to beat their Dormhead.

• And then you feel it.

Your heart jumps a beat, and the hairs on your neck stand up—the air changes, turns sharper as the feeling of bloodlust and anger fills the air. Your ears are ringing as you watch the Redhead warp and change, ink clinging onto his small form and a familiar bottle headed monster emerges up from behind him—people behind you gasp and run—you feel the Birdman grab your shoulder and shake you warning you to run as the monster behind the Dormhead lets out a roar before sending a wave of ink towards Ace.

“Prefect wait!—” There’s a shout behind you as you wrench yourself from the Headmaster's grip, throwing your body infront of Ace, taking the attack head on.

“No way…” Ace gapes from behind you, the attack disappearing, having been eaten by you. Licking your lips, you smile as you stare down Redhead, high on adrenaline—excitement rolls off you in waves—inhaling deeply, you go through the familiar motions of curling your hands into near fists.

“What are you doing!? Get out of there! You don’t have any magic—”

“Ink dragon…” The words leave your mouth easily, you plant your feet firmly on the ground as you lean back every so slightly before lurching forwards—a magic circle appearing in front of you. Magicless my ass.

Your lips curl into a smile as you shout out. “ROAR.”

I’m tired, and I picked this prompt from a wheel spinner—honestly, there were other options like KHR, KNY, Madoka, PJO and a few more on there so we’ll see if I ever go anywhere with those, maybe i’ll make another thing. (am open to suggestions for more ideas)

Originally, ‘Yuu’ was going to use Maker magic, like ‘Ice Make’ and the such but the idea of a cat companion was way funnier so dragon slayer it is! This isn’t proof read or anything so 🤷

ALSO i haven’t watched fairy tail since around the like, seventh grade and it’s been forever since I’ve seen the prologue of Twst

[doublycharming-tetraquark]

Claudia thoughts and meta - Part 1

So this is the first in a series of post I will make about Claudia. I have explained the context for it in my Prologue Post.

Okay, in this post, I will be talking about how I approach Claudia in Context 1, namely in terms of disability as a metaphor and how I don’t believe she was “always meant for the fire”. I will probably make a separate post about her entire story arc and body image issues.

Trigger Warnings for mentions of sexual assault, self-harm, lynching, and suicide ideation (The suicide ideation is mainly imposed on the character by others).

CONTEXT

This post is in many ways a reply to this post by @kutputli . I will be using both this and the show as I interpreted it to make my arguments. As kutputli said,

I don't feel sad about Claudia's narrative arc. I feel incandescantly enraged. And this boils down to the fact that Claudia's narrative is one of disability, and the thing is - disability is not an inherant tragedy............And very often disability has been turned into tragedy, centred around the inevitibility of the disabled person's death. There is catharsis provided to the abled people mourning them with the reassurance that their removal from the narrative was meant to happen...........When Claudia says, at the trial, 'you should have told me I had a defect' - that's every adult neurodivergant person whose parents refused to tell them their diagnosis. I am still not clear about how written in stone this 'defect' was. Am I supposed to believe Lestat's narrative of her making, and that he knew for a fact that she would be, what, emotionally immature?

So I already said in my reply to this that these opinions are very similar to mine:

Your thoughts mirror mine in terms of her being disability rep and also that her death was not inevitable but preventable. I hate it when anyone says "oh her story is a tragedy she was always going to die" because it is patently false and ableist and you are just parroting what her oppressors are saying to justify their oppression of her.

I am going to try to prove this in my post. First, I am going to discredit what Lestat and Armand are saying about her (as they are the main source of “Claudia is a mistake!” nonsense) and explain how they are merely imposing their pre-existing biases and ableism onto her that do not have any basis in canon. Then I am going to talk about how her relationship with Madeline is also a criticism of this concept. Finally, I am going to try to sort out my thoughts on whether “Disability as tragedy” is something the show is trying to peddle. I might be straight up ranting at some points but I am new to meta, so bear with me!

LESTAT

The “You should’ve told me I had a defect” scene is heartbreaking and makes everything Lestat does in Season 1 all the more blood-curdling. Okay, so you knew she would have a difficult time, then why the fuck didn’t you give her the tools to be able to deal with it? You knew exactly what she was going through in Episode 4 and Episode 5, and your response was to..make it worse? You made her watch her first lover burn. To what? Teach her a lesson? And what was the fucking lesson exactly? That you are an abusive piece of shit that cannot be trusted?

Then when she starts engaging in self-destructive behavior because she feels horrible and has no idea why, instead of trying to help her, explain to her why she might be feeling this way, he just doubles down on his abuse. “Because you are built like a bird. Because you are a mistake.”-  Imagine how heartbreaking it must be hearing that from your Father, and he was partly responsible for the way she acts in Episode 5. To reiterate: he made her burn her first love! He is all like “Oh, you will not survive out there in the Vampire world”, “Oh you are a mistake blah, blah, blah” without ever giving her any information that might be helpful in order for her to be able to better navigate her circumstances.

When she inevitably gets tired of being treated like shit, she decides to leave.  We see her hiding out in universities, reading books on Vampirism to get the answers Lestat never gave her. That’s when she is sexually assaulted by Bruce. It is harrowing and heartbreaking to watch.

So she goes back to the only safe place she knows : home to Louis and Lestat. Instead of trying to help her through the horrible thing that happened to her, Lestat mocks her for it! He just see it as another way to control her. Points and essentially says, “See? I was right! You should’ve listened to me and never left”, as if this is somehow validation for him treating her like a broken thing and a mistake. LIKE FUCK YOU! YOU WEREN’T RIGHT! YOU NEVER TOLD HER SHIT! The only reason she left was because of you! Your way of helping was essentially abusing her and tearing her down. Now you are trying to use her trauma to justify your abuse of her.

ARMAND

Armand is, in many ways, worse. Because from the moment he meets her, he is already planning her funeral. He says to Louis, “Her mind, as strong as it is, will not survive the test of time....I have seen it all before” or something similar. Louis, who actually KNOWS and loves Claudia, says No, You’re wrong! She can survive! and also “Don’t give up on her. Tell her that she’s beautiful. Tell her that everyday.” And does Armand take that advise? Of course not! He just keeps peddling the “doomed by the narrative” bullshit. In fact, he goes out of his way to contribute to her suffering, by making her star in “My baby loves windows”. And when she clearly states why she doesn’t wanna do it? He decides the only solution is to further torture her by making her wear that demeaning dress all the time. Part of it is cult tactics, but part of it is also Armand trying to speed up her demise. If this had the effect Armand intended in deteriorating her mental health and making her commit suicide, he would have pointed to it, shook his head and been like “See? I always knew this would happen.” FUCK ALL THE WAY OFF, ARMAND.

Of course, that doesn’t happen, because none of these assholes actually understand Claudia, beyond what they impose on her. She is, above all, a survivor. She endures until she can find something better. Instead of letting it break her, she realizes that the coven is shit and finds companionship in Madeline.

MADELINE

Armand also tries to convince Madeline that Claudia is going to throw herself into the fire soon. Madeline shuts that down with “You don’t know that. Maybe I am what she needs to survive.” This is why I really love the Madeline/Claudia dynamic. Madeline, more than anyone, sees Claudia for who she is. She loves Claudia for who she is. She doesn’t see Claudia’s disability as something inherently tragic or as something that makes her “broken, or a mistake”. Here, she is essentially saying, “I will provide her with the help and support she needs to keep going.” And she does! I don’t know if you noticed, but the clothes that Madeline made for her (the pink dress and the yellow dress) are made to be form-fitting in  a way that make her look more like a woman. (I will find the post on how Claudia’s costuming was done in Season 1 to make her look younger and link it later). Then there is also this exchange :

”I think there’s something broken in me. Like I wanna go bang.”

"Then go bang. Then you’ll be alright. Then bang again...And after a while you get used to it.”

At every turn, Madeline is trying to give Claudia the tools to be able to navigate her life, something Lestat never did for her and should’ve. I think the Madeline character and her relationship to Claudia is the most clear instance of the show saying, “Claudia was not always “meant to die”. She could and was able to achieve happiness for herself.”

DISPROVING LESTAT AND ARMAND

“I am still not clear about how written in stone this 'defect' was. Am I supposed to believe Lestat's narrative of her making, and that he knew for a fact that she would be, what, emotionally immature?”

Okay, so this is also what makes me so mad. Neither Armand nor Lestat actually ever explain what is precisely defective about her. All they say is “It is a pity she would not survive” (*melodramatic music plays*). What the fuck are either of you talking about? She is surviving just fine? In fact, I would argue that by Episode 6, she is the only vampire who knows how to successfully navigate her life. As kutputli said:

”And the show itself proved that. Claudia was successfully navigating her life. She was capable of an autonomous existance, we saw that could take care of herself. And even if she had not been able to, Louis had made it very clear that he was happy to be a caregiver to her.........When he was not sufficient, we saw that she was capable of going out to find a new situation. When the cult that she joined offered a solution, she took it. It was a compromise that she found unacceptable and so then she found a way out. She found companionship and a way to ethically get it, without coercing anyone........And she made it out, the architect of her own happiness.......The show showed us Claudia as a metaphor for people with physical developmental disabilities and neurodivergance who keep trying to improve their material conditions and who are capable of the same mundane joy in being alive that any of us are who choose each day to stay alive."

But that doesn’t fit into either of their belief systems, so when they see that she isn’t following the script that they made up for her in their heads, they (along with the coven) conspire to have her lynched. Then they turn around and say “Oh, isn’t it so tragic how she was always meant to die” (*melodramatic music plays*). This is why I don’t particularly care that Armand wasn’t the one to save Louis. Because it doesn’t matter! That would not have redeemed him any more than it redeems Lestat. (no matter how hard the show and fandom tries). THEY GOT CLAUDIA LYNCHED!

Both Armand and Lestat use the “doomed from creation” myth to justify her death (lynching) to themselves.

People ask why Armand didn’t save Claudia. As Assad succinctly puts it “He doesn’t give a fuck about her.” Like I said, Armand is planning her funeral from the moment he meets her. So it was probably very easy for him to throw her to the wolves, justifying it by saying “oh she was always meant to die. What does it matter if it happens now or later?”  I don’t think he feels any guilt for it either, beyond how it affects Louis (and his relationship with Louis). This, in my opinion, is partly why he is so resentful that Louis hasn’t forgiven him for his part in Claudia’s death. Why should he feel bad for something that was always meant to happen?

I think, to an extent, Lestat also does this to justify letting her die while saving Louis. He also probably tells himself, “She was a mistake that Louis never should’ve forced me to make. She was always going to die anyway. So I should focus on saving only Louis!”,( in addition to his already existing resentment and hatred of her, and also believing her to be the main architect of his death, thus considering it a sort of sick-twisted justice for the “attempted murder of his being.”) In the trial, he only ever “goes off script” to defend Louis, and never Claudia.

Some final thoughts from kutputli:

”Even if Lestat and Armand's belief that she would inevitably kill herself was true, so what? Are we now going to sit around achieving catharsis every time someone murders a suicidal person? Even if she did kill herself 20 years down the line, or 2 years, or 2 months, was she not entitled to live the 60 days that she wanted to? Claudia was not stoned, she was lynched, and Lestat and Armand colluded in her premeditated murder. That is not a tragedy. That's a crime.”

I have nothing further to add to this.

CATHARSIS? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

"And very often disability has been turned into tragedy, centred around the inevitibility of the disabled person's death. There is catharsis provided to the abled people mourning them with the reassurance that their removal from the narrative was meant to happen..........And so I feel no catharsis, even at seeing Louis finally addressing his grief and growing beyond it. A profound injustice was perpetrated, and killing Santiago and the other coven members does not provide restitution. Accountability would start by Armand and Lestat both taking back their judgement about her unsuitability to live and survive and thrive.”

Okay, so when I consider her story only in this context, then I also believe there isn’t and shouldn’t be any catharsis for any of the characters involved. And there is no justice either. Even the show acknowledges that killing the Theatre Vampires does not the provide the restitution Claudia deserves. As Louis puts it: “What does it matter? Claudia was dead.” and after killing the Theatre: “My rage and madness left me. And nothing replaced it.” I want to be clear: When I talk about some catharsis for Louis for Claudia’s death, I absolutely do not mean it in this context! That has more to do with the second and third context in which I approach Claudia’s story and Claudia-Louis’ dynamic. (I will explain in the next few posts.)

SO, IS THE SHOW PEDDLING THIS SHIT?

Till Episode 8 and subsequent interviews, I fully believed that the show was doing this deliberately. That the point was to subvert “Disabled people are bound for tragedy.” As someone said (I will link the post of I find it), Vampire Society is very much about punching down. Claudia’s arc is tragic not because she was “made too young” or “she is a mistake”, but because she was living in a (vampiric) society that very much have “eugenics” notion of what an ideal vampire is. (Recall the law of Vampirism -  The gift should never be given to the elderly, children or disabled people.) To me, the tragedy of Claudia’s arc is that its not actually a tragedy, but due to the circumstances of her making and the cruelty of Vampirism, it becomes a tragedy because no one can let her live without their own worldview being shattered.

But....In  Episode 8, they had Louis say “I made you turn her just so 50 years later, she could...(die)”. A sentiment echoed by the fandom that I never liked. Now this could’ve been Louis expressing his grief, written in a somewhat clunky manner. (because from reading between the lines, its clear that this was the first draft that they weren’t completely happy with but couldn’t do anything about.) But some of the shit Rolin Jones has said makes me doubt it. Of course, Rolin Jones has no fucking filter and says the most bizarre shit. I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be clearer to me during the second rewatch. For now, I choose to believe that the show is criticizing it and Lestat’s and Armand’s comments are more a reflection of them than her. But if they are indeed using “Disability is inherently tragic” unironically, then this might not be the show I thought it was.

[asktheritobowyer]

Hi there Harth!

So Teba mentioned something about his life turning out in unexpected ways, such as becoming Rito Elder and marrying Saki.

But what interested me the most, was him mentioning something about having one or two crushes before he met with Saki and settled down with her. From the way he talked he was pretty flustered about the topic, and sent me to ask you or ask for the details.

So I ask you this, being Teba's best friend, and considering you two knew each other throughout your whole lives. Do you know anything about the two crushes that Teba had? And if so, who exactly were they?

Quite bold of you to ask me about Teba's love life. But if he sent you towards me to get an answer, then I suppose I'll happily oblige.

So I'm sure you already know Teba as the fearless warrior and current Rito Elder, always straightforward, focused and a no nonsense individual. Yet, despite that his life turned out in unexpected ways, from assuming leadership of the Rito Village to marrying the loving Saki. It wasn't something he foresaw happening.

We all grow up, and experience attraction towards another. It happens to as all. Teba himself was not immune to this, despite his dedication to his training. There was moments where he was flustered and tongue-tied towards others, before he met the love of his life.

First of all, let me dispel one longstanding misconception, Teba did not have a crush on Revali. Sure, he admired Revali’s prowess and skill, but admiration and romantic feelings are two very different birds, so to speak. Teba respected him, but never found himself *ahem* “allured.”

Now, as for his adolescent crushes, let’s break it down systematically. Present day Rito women in the village include Saki, Amali, Misa the owner of The Slippery Falcon shop, Cecili the owner of the Swallow's Roost inn, and...my former wife. Since Teba’s crushes predate his relationship with Saki, she’s automatically ruled out. It wasn’t my former wife either. Amali was already engaged to Kass during that time, so she's also off the list.

That leaves just two names, Misa and Cecili. While I won't spill every feather of Teba’s love life in detail, let’s just say these two may have, potentially, more than likely, caught his eye during his youth.

He also may have, potentially, had a crush or two towards the mothers of certain Rito's...*snicker*

Life certain has a funny way of playing out doesn't it? Those fleeting childhood crushes led to him forging a strong path of love with Saki, with me as his wingman, which eventually lead to them having their son Tulin.

Feel free to ask Teba how he feels about me sharing this, but he’d probably be too flustered to talk about it.

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.82 Birds of a feather

Mama came out of the party room, smiling warmly at us. She had probably been running around the restaurant all evening, being extra and making sure everything was in order for us. As always, she was dressed to the nines and looking amazing.

"You're not supposed to arrive early at your own celebration," she said.

"And let you take care of all of this by yourself? Nonsense," Sophia said.

I nodded in agreement.

"What she said."

Mama shook her head lovingly at us.

"You two are too cute. Your guests should start arriving soon. Get a drink. Enjoy yourselves. Don't do anything else!"

She scurried off to make sure the fountains had drink and all the heat lamps were working. I wasn't sure why I didn't consider it might snow when I suggested a patio party in the dead of winter. Guess I've officially lived in Oasis Springs too long.

I drew my attention back to my gorgeous fiancée, who was beaming at me. I got to spend the rest of my life with her. How did I get so lucky?

"Let's dance," she said.

I knew there was music playing somewhere, but I could barely hear it.

"Here? Right now?"

"Yeah! Why not?"

I shrugged and cradled the small of her back. If my lady wanted to dance, we dance. We swayed back and forth, and she grinned at me the entire time. I knew she was eager to get married, but I think that was the first time I could clearly see her brimming with excitement. The curtain of snow behind us was the perfect backdrop for the short-lived romantic moment.

"You guys started without us," Dub said.

We broke away from each other, semi-embarrassed.

"I was just about to do my special move," I said.

Sophia's head jerked back in disbelief.

"You have special moves now? This I have to see! Can you guys come back later?"

We all shared a laugh.

"So you're Sophia," Dub said. "It's great to meet the woman this guy won't shut up about."

"Oh, you mean like you can't shut up about Maia?"

"Yeah...you're right."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Luca," Maia said. "He talks about you a lot too."

Maia was absolutely stunning. Her eyes... They drew you in, and it was clear why Dub was so twisted up when we met. But it wasn't just her beauty. She was poised and had a comforting vibe. I could tell she was a quiet force to reckon with, and I was so glad they were finally together. Maybe one day soon Sophia and I would be dancing at their wedding.

"The pleasure is all mine," I said.

My friend Justin slipped into the middle of the group. I hadn't seen him since we ran into each at the romance festival, but we communicated a few times a week on Social Bunny. We didn't connect on a deep level, but I enjoyed chatting with him and didn't hesitate to extend an invitation.

"Excuse me," he said. "Sorry to interrupt. I probably can't stay the whole time, so I just wanted to come congratulate you before it gets too crazy."

"Thanks, Justin. I appreciate that. And thanks for coming!"

"No doubt. No doubt. I'll get out your way and let you finish."

He could have stayed and got to know Dub, Maia, and Sophia, but he left just as quickly as he arrived. I guess it would have been a bit weird to stick around, especially when he interrupted us. Sophia seized the opportunity to chat with Maia.

"I love your dress," she said.

"Oh, thank you. I love yours too."

Dub and I watched as our ladies felt each other out. I didn't doubt he was as happy as I was that they seemed to like each other.

"You wanna grab a drink with me?" Sophia asked. "We can leave our boys to bask in their bromance, or whatever."

Maia laughed.

"Sure, let's go."

But before they could leave, Chi Chi sashayed her way into the conversation, looking as fine as ever. Why was literally EVERY woman in my life insanely attractive?? All of them! Was it normal to have so many good-looking friends?

"You must be Sophia," she said. "Wowee! I see why this guy dropped everything and ran to Oasis Springs. You are breathtaking!"

Sophia's cheeks reddened, and she flashed a nervous smile.

"Uhh...thanks."

"I'm Chi Chi, by the way. I'm very happy to finally meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Sophia said.

When Chi Chi finally took her eyes off Sophia and noticed Dub and Maia, her entire demeanor changed.

"And who is this?" she asked, looking at Maia. "Are you two together? Because if you're not, I think I just might try girls next!"

Dub's eyebrow went up, but Maia maintained her smile, though it seemed forced. Luckily, Maira hopped in and saved us from the awkwardness.

"Congratulations, my friiiiieeeeennnnnd!"

"Thanks, Maira. Come join us. Let's all sit over there."

I brought the party over to the sofas so we could chill and chat more comfortably.

Dub and Maia by @mysimsloveaffair

[versegm]

There are few things in this world that can genuinely surprise Morgan. It comes with living for so long, she supposes; when you’ve seen so many things, it’s hard not to feel a deja vue about everything. Even her own death, while unfortunate, had not been surprising. Morgan had always known that passing away peacefully was not an option for her.

Still, it seems that she has not grown fully immune to bafflement. “Come again?”

Sir Kyrielight swallows hard. She’s beet-red, wringing her hands nervously. Still, she does not break eye contact. “I said I love you.”

The sentence does not make any more sense the second time around. Morgan rotates it in her brain, tears it apart. I. This one is easy; it refers to Mash, the speaker. Love. An action and an emotion all at once- the thing Mash is presumably doing, or feeling. You. Morgan is the only one in the room. It can only refer to her.

I love you. Three words that do not fit together. One of them has to be wrong, surely. Misheard or misunderstood. If Mash loves someone, it certainly cannot be Morgan- cannot be this wretched witch willing to burn the world down for her goals. If Morgan is loved, it certainly cannot be by Mash- this knight of virtue and courage who stands by the human order. And if Mash and Morgan have anything between the two of them, it certainly cannot be love. Hate, perhaps. Comfort, if one is generous. But love? Love. Love. L, o, v, e. Barely even a word. Just four letters stacked together. A simple sound with no meaning. 

“As a… friend?” While still odd, this would make more sense than what Morgan initially interpreted. Yes, this must be what Sir Kyrielight had meant; that she held fondness for Morgan, and wanted to make it known.

Except, no. The knight shakes her head. “No. Romantically.”

And now Morgan is back to square one. “... Sir Kyrielight, are you certain you are not mistaken? Emotions can be hard to tell apart. You could not be blamed for mixing them up.”

She meant for her words to be comforting, but Sir Kyrielight’s gaze turns into a glare. While Morgan is not unaccustomed to the knight’s anger, she doesn’t recall ever seeing it directed towards her.

“ Queen of Winter, ” Morgan always takes care to use proper titles when addressing others. It’s only polite. Yet, somehow, having Mash refer to her by her title feels… uncomfortable. “You can reject me. You can ignore me. You can pretend I never said anything. But I will not allow you to deny my feelings.”

She walks up to Morgan. Sir Kyrielight is a full head shorter than her; but right now, back straight, fury in her eyes, that does not make her any less imposing. “I love you. Deal with it however you want, but that, that’s a fact.”

*****

“You told her what?! ”

Slowly, Morgan sets down her teacup. “It seemed like a logical conclusion at the time.”

“You and your logic.” Habetrot rolls her eyes, crossing her arms. “Morgan, listen to me. Love is an emotion. By definition, it is not rational. If Mash loves you, it’s not for something as simple as the sum of your parts. It’s because you’re you.”

Nonsense. Emotions may not be rational, but they’re still somewhat grounded in reality. What could there possibly be in Morgan that could inspire love? “I know not what to do with her love.”

“You don’t have to do anything with it.”Habetrot sighs. “It’s easy. If you love her back, tell her so, and the two of you can become merry brides together. If you don’t, tell her so, and she will nurse her broken heart on her own. You only really got two options here.”

Fair enough. “How do I know if I love her, then?”

Slowly, very slowly, Habetrot blinks.

“... Love,” she articulates carefully, as if talking to a child, “is an emotion. It’s something close to joy. When a bride gets close to her chosen groom, she gets so happy there are stars in her eyes. It’s a fire inside the soul, fluttering like birds inside one’s belly.”

… That seems a bit dramatic. Can emotions truly be so intense? Morgan has her doubts.

“So. Do you love her?”

Morgan thinks. She thinks hard. “... She makes me very happy.” She doesn’t know if this is love- but if nothing else, that part, she’s sure of.

Habetrot pinches the bridge of her nose. “Okay, this isn’t working. Let’s try something else.”

*****

“- and she sent me to you.”

Sir Barghest pauses, midway through stirring her stew. “To… explain love to you?”

Morgan nods. “Indeed. You are the most knowledgeable on that subject.”

“Your faith in me flatters me, your majesty.” The knight turns back to her stew. “Love is… a want. A hunger, of sorts. When you love someone, you want to be with them. The want can be more specific- wanting to kiss them, or make love to them- but generally speaking you just… want them.”

She reaches out to grab some spices. She does not look at Morgan. “It can be a terrible thing. Sometimes you want someone so badly you want to devour them. Sometimes love reduces you to something lower than an animal.”

She sprinkles some ginger in the broth. “But sometimes… love is what prompts you to become a better person. You want to be worthy of the person you love. You want to be good enough for them. And that part is wonderful, I believe.”

Hm. An interesting perspective. “Is it worth it? To love someone when you know you can very well be their doom?”

“Yes.” Sir Barghest does not hesitate even a second. “It is worth it. It has to be worth it. What would be, otherwise?”

If Sir Gawain of Many Lovers is saying it- then there must be some wisdom in that statement, even if Morgan doubts it.

Sir Barghest pauses once more, for a couple seconds. Then she turns to look at Morgan. “Your majesty,” she asks carefully, “what do you want?”

What does she want? She wants to spend more time with Sir Kyrielight, that much is undeniable. If she thinks more about it- she would be amenable to physical affection, even. Sir Kyrielight had hugged her a couple times, it had left her skin tingly all over for hours. Morgan can’t imagine what a kiss would do to her.

But… for all the things Morgan can and will do, she does not believe she is capable of change. She’d tried, she really did- tried to be a savior, tried to be the kind one, tried to be the helpful one. She couldn’t. Her role is that of a witch, and nothing, no one- not herself, not Totrot, not (Ma-) (Fairy knight Ga-) (her frien-) Uther could change that. Morgan’s desires weigh little in the matter. Sir Kyrielight can not make Morgan better than she is. Remains the question of whether Morgan is capable of becoming worse.

*****

“So, Mash is in love with you, and you’re in love with her, but you’re worried about dragging her down?”

Morgan quirks up an eyebrow. “I did not say that. I am unsure as to whether I love her or not.”

Her spouse makes a strange face. Whatever emotion this is meant to convey, she cannot figure it out. “... Anyways. I don’t really see why you worry so much. Mash wouldn’t have confessed to you if she didn’t think she could handle you.”

“Sir Kyrielight is a virtuous person. She would offer a second chance to anyone claiming to want one. It is possible she has not yet realized that I am not a person who can be saved.”

Fujimaru frowns. “You think her naive.”

“I did not say that.”

“Kind of the vibe you’re giving off here though.”

“ I did not say that. ” Ah, now is a feeling Morgan recognizes- she’s irritated. “I, more than anyone else,know the things Sir Kyrielight has endured. I am well aware that she’s witnessed humane horrors the likes of which can never be put into words. I am merely worried that she might not realize these awful things can apply to me as well.”

Her spouse doesn’t reply immediately. For a few seconds, they only stare, before folding their hands under their chin. “What is love to you?”

Morgan has no idea. Her love for Britain overpowered everything else. She does not know what it means to love a person- if that’s something she has ever experienced in the first place. “I am told it’s a feeling, or a desire.”

Fujimaru makes a noncommittal noise. “That is true. However, I would like to offer you another point of view: love is an action.”

That is a widely different definition indeed. “Elaborate.”

“ Love is a verb, first and foremost. It’s the act of looking at someone. I don’t mean with your eyes. I mean truly looking at someone. Seeing them for everything they are- the good and the bad, the flaws and the virtues, the beautiful bits and the ugly ones. It’s the act of acknowledging someone’s whole self, including the parts that are inconvenient to you, and refusing to flinch.”

“You believe love to be the act of unconditional acceptance?”

“Essentially.” Huh. How very in character of them. “When Mash says she loves you, I don’t think she believes you to be pristine clean. I think she believes you worthy of staining her hands.”

“This seems mildly worrying.”

“And who are you to dictate her choices? You’re not her queen.” That statement hurts more than Morgan thought it would, though she would be incapable to spell out why it does. “She made her choice. She chose you. You can’t deny her that. All you can do is make your own choice: do you want to take her hand?”

“There is little risk in doing so.” If Morgan is everything that is evil in this world, then Sir Kyrielight is easily all that is good in this world. If such a thing as a savior can truly exist, then this is what Sir Kyrielight is.

“You think so? She makes mistakes too, you know. She’s quite soft-hearted. She hates fighting. That makes some decisions very difficult for her. Can you accept that? And if you do: can you accept that you will see her getting hurt over this, and you will not be able to help her?”

“Obviously.” The words tumble out of Morgan’s mouth by themselves. “None of these are flaws. Why wouldn’t I be willing to smear her blood on my hands?”

Her spouse smiles. “And you say you’re unsure if you love her back.”

… Ah.

“Apologies.” Morgan gets up suddenly, straightening her dress. “It seems like I need to have a conversation with Sir Kyrielight, and it cannot wait.”

The last thing she hears as she crosses the doorstep is “sweep her off her feet!”

*****

Morgan finds Sir Kyrielight inside her room. Rather predictably, in fact- and it’s a wonder that it took Morgan so long to realize that most people do not have her schedule memorized.

“Sir Kyrielight.” She says, standing in the doorway. “Mash. We need to talk.”

She startles when Morgan uses her first name. How cute. Still, Morgan cannot let herself be distracted now. She walks through the room to sit next to Mash. “I have done a lot of thinking.”

“Ah.” Sir Ky- Mash casts her gaze down. “Come to reject me, then?”

Morgan allows herself a huff of irritation. “Do not put words inside my mouth. When I am done, you may take back your confession, you may chase me out of your room, but I will not allow you to misinterpret my words.”

She extends a hand to set it on top of Mash’s. The knight jolts, but does not take her hand away. Hopefully, this is a good sign.

“I am somewhat… disconnected, from my emotions.” She brings Mash’s hand to her chest. “My heart is that of a witch. It curses panhuman history. It is cold as the winters of my long-gone Britain.”

Her free hand reaches out to cup Mash’s face. “But it’s yours, shall you accept it.”

There is a single second of silence following her statement, Mash staring at her with wide eyes- and then the knight suddenly collides with her chest, wrapping both arms around her. “Of course I’ll take it. I’ll take everything you are willing to give me.”

Warmth spreads under Morgan’s skin. Softly, she returns the embrace. “It is most unwise of you… but most welcome, nonetheless.”

“I don’t care. I’ve been wise for too long. This is me being selfish. I want you, all of you. I don’t care if it’s rotten in here. I want you down to the marrow.”

With that phrasing, it almost sounds like cannibalism. Is this what Sir Barghest meant? When she said love could turn one into an animal? (Did her lovers feel as flattered as Morgan is? To know that there is someone out there who would rather cram her inside their ribcage than letting her go?)

“There is much I am willing to give.” With no Britain left to protect, no duty to uphold- Morgan now belongs to the stranger that is herself. She can afford to give things away. “But for now… perhaps your hand in mine?”

Mash tilts her head up, staring straight at Morgan. She’s crying, Morgan realizes. She’s smiling too, though. “Yes… yes, that would be nice.”

[wirewitchviolet]

People really need to shout "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT!?" at bigots more often.

So I just kinda absently clicked a link to a super post of those comics with the stick figure and the "pills that make you turn green," which was neat since I only knew about the original. And I'm scrolling down through them all while also doing something else on my second monitor, sort of on autopilot, and ending up not only down in the comments but deep enough into them where the weird bigots start showing up and I see this quote from a weird bigot (skip the bold quotey bits if you don't want this garbage in your life):

BIGOT: "I feel like this is a major over simplification of what it's supposed to be an analog to. By all means, if you're happy transitioning, i won't stop you. But it's a procedure that is irreversable, and i believe it should only be taught to kids at the same age that they're being taught about the birds and the bees at the parents' disgression Any earlier and its edging on, if not, is teaching the birds and the bees to Minors"

RANDOM NORMAL PERSON: "teaching children about trans people isn't enforcing anything on them except hopefully empathy and knowledge, and acceptance if they are indeed trans"

BIGOT AGAIN: "while you're not wrong, you shouldn't teach them about it till they start experiencing puberty. Which is around middle school, which happens to be when they teach sex ed at the Parents Discression

My qualms come with teaching it to kids younger than that. If you want to teach your kids about it from a younger age, do it at home. But you shouldn't do it for the parents before then and even after you do it at the parents' discretion."

Another person whose brain works comes along and is baffled at this person talking about having sex when the subject is... children being aware that trans people exist. But you know, passively.

BIGOT REALLY GOING MASK OFF NOW: "it is a sex thing. You are going through the act of irreversably changing things about your body that are inherently sex related. Therefore, they should be taught alongside other sex related topics in the appropriate manner and time"

Now, the real thing to do here is as soon as this person starts foaming at the mouth and screaming gibberish, you ideally have them removed from the conversation/venue for being a weird violent hatemonger shouting nonsense, but since you can't do that in every possibly context, sometimes you have to engage the person. Here's how that should look if someone pops off like this face to face:

BIGOT: "I feel like this is a major over simplification of what it's supposed to be an analog to. By all means, if you're happy transitioning, i won't stop you. But it's a procedure that is irreversable-"

YOU: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Because see here we have the first instance of this weird bigot shouting baffling nonsense scare words that make no damn sense. What "procedure" is this crackpot here even talking about? You stop them dead, and refuse to let them move on until they explain what they mean. Having seen enough of these in the wild, I will tell you right now that this is almost certainly operating on the deranged bigot logic of "if someone says they are trans they are a crazy man pretending to be a woman and if they say they are transitioning that means they convinced a doctor to cut their genitalia off with a giant pair of scissors and there's no way to ever sew that back on!"

This of course has absolutely no basis in reality whatsoever. This is like... "if you listen to rock and roll music you'll be possessed by the devil and do drugs and get pregnant!" levels of crazy nonsense you can't just say out loud in public without revealing you're some kind of crackpot who doesn't live in reality. You just hold them to this and get them to admit that they are spewing absolute nonsense that makes zero sense in context and hey, nobody else in earshot is going to take this creep seriously and they might even be cowed out of moving on to their next propaganda point.

In this particular case you can also point out that in this specific context (and most other times this comes up, honestly) people are quite specifically talking about a comic metaphorically talking about how silly it is that when people start HRT we have to sign a big huge scary looking consent form that goes "hey, you do realize that if you take this combination of medications that makes your body produce less of these chemicals and more of these other chemicals your body is going to gradually change to be like everyone else's with that ratio right?" And that uh... totally is reversible. If you don't have enough estrogens and have too many androgens, you take one of these things to block production of the latter and these other things to supplement the former. Other way around? Just supplement the androgens, they conveniently suppress estrogen production at the right dosage. If for some reason you decide you don't like that new ratio (or you're freaking out over how people react), just... stop doing that. If it turns out your body fell out of the habit of producing the right ratio somehow, supplement accordingly. It's not really a big deal?

OUR BIGOT IN A HYPOTHETICAL WORLD WHERE BEING SHOUTED DOWN DIDN'T MAKE THEM STOP: "i believe it should only be taught to kids at the same age that they're being taught about the birds and the bees-"

YOU: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Again, just cut this weirdo off. Don't let them keep rushing feverishly through the propaganda bullet points. Demand to know what, exactly, they're worried about being "taught to kids." Like... are we in fact just talking about the concept that trans people exist out there in the world? Because that's a completely absurd and indefensible position to hold. You don't even need to argue back against that one. Being trans is roughly as common as people having red hair. Fairly rare sure, but common enough that if you want to treat that as some sort of forbidden knowledge you're gonna have to keep that kid on like some sort of cult compound with no media access and like... why would you even want to do this?

Maybe they're willing to play the cards on the table that what they really have a problem with is letting trans kids know that being trans is a thing, and that they have options on the table that will allow them to actually lead a good happy life. Again, a pretty damn weird thing to object to, that kind of outs someone as a crank. You could maybe drill deeper on that. Does this person have a kid they suspect is trans? Are they in denial about that and abusing their child to try and "fix them?"

For taht matter, are we still in a world where this person is really conspicuously emphasizing this weird desire to live in a world where sex education isn't taught to children until after they hit puberty? And then only at their parents' discretion, like they kept repeated over and over when given free reign? Because that is a whole other can of worms that someone should really be opening up and interrogating the hell out of.

Like hey... the whole point of sex education is to make sure kids have some basic idea of what sex is prior to any situation where they might be taken advantage of sexually, contract an STI, and/or have some sort of pregnancy scare. You kinda want to get on that as early as you can reasonably expect the kid in question to comprehend what you're even warning them about, and it's kind of a huge red flag when you see people going "only if their parents are OK with it though!" Because like... why the hell wouldn't you be OK with it? The only reasons I can think of are A- you are sexually abusing your child and don't want someone to explain how these things you are doing to them are Bad Actually and they should tell someone, or B- you are confident enough that you have such complete control over where your child is and what your child is doing at every moment of every day that there is no way in hell said child will ever be involved in anything sexual without your direct approval. That one is also abusive, to be clear, and also stupid because we've already established your child is in public school, so, NOT, in fact, under your watchful eye at all times.

And of course, there is again no reason to let a bigot ramble unchecked long enough to get to this point, beyond this being tumblr and moderation being hard to come by of course, but it should go without saying there is absolutely no connection at all between being trans and having sex. It's just a weird association bigots have because A- they are constantly trying to paint trans people as sexual deviants, and B- there is a... really alarming overlap between people who hate trans people and... people who I... don't want to discuss when I'm trying to keep this fairly light... but uh... see option A in the previous paragraph.

Anyway this is all getting way off topic but hey, I'm all for small children being aware that trans people exist and people making it known to young children that being trans is a thing they maybe are, in the interest of... you know, NOT forcing little girls whose parents really badly want them to be little boys to fake it, fail, and get beaten to a pulp by their peers for being weird, and vice versa, and little enbies from also dealing with some variation of this, etc. Let'em all be themselves, and let their weird parents get over it.

But yeah, bigots. Cut them off when they start talking. Interrogate every point as they bring them up. Don't let anything fly. Force them to either admit the horrible agenda they're trying to push today, or the fact that their beliefs are too awful to state in polite society and flee. And be rude and angry about it.

[satureja13]

Saiwa finally modified the Circuit Board from Arturo. It's compatible with the Astromech now and ready for testing. That was about time. Arturo promised them this board would help them through this. Sai can't wait to finally get all their problems fixed! Ji Ho is moving the chairs aside to make some space. And Sai calls Jack. Saiwa: "Jack! Come over and bring your little friend!" ... Saiwa: "Not Logan! The tin can!" Jack: "Don't call him like this :'( " Saiwa sighs: "Ok, bring Tiny Can then..." (The glances from Adriano and Little Goat ^^')

Jack: "Now you're glad we took him with us all the way from Selvadorada, right?" Saiwa: "Maybe ;) "

It works! But - that wasn't what Saiwa expected...

Saiwa: "Are you kidding me? A Therapy AI? How is this supposed to solve our problems? No one is mental here!" Jack and Ji Ho: "..."

And that was when Saiwa had a complete breakdown. All the months under extreme pressure take their toll now.

Vlad sensed over the Bond that something was wrong and came over. Sai was still screaming.

Vlad: "Ji Ho and I call the horses. We'll bring him away for a while." Jack: "We can't bring Sai to the temple. He will kill Arturo ö.Ö' " Vlad: "There is another place... get ready and pack for a few days."

They brought Saiwa to the bathroom to get ready and pack his stuff. And then he saw the birds 🐦 on the wallpaper... And he freaked out again.

Jack: "Sai, get up. We're leaving. You'll be fine, hm? We're there for you." Saiwa sobs: "We finally have a home now and can be together without the council on our heels. But the struggles just don't stop. It just goes on and on and on..."

Sai: "I can't do this anymore." Jack: "You don't have to. We are going to take a break. Come." Jack tries to remain strong for Saiwa. But he's right. For one step forward they take 7 steps back. It never gets better.

Ji Ho and Vlad had saddled the horses in the meantime and then they left.

Letting Saiwa go without being able to help him was the hardest thing Jeb ever had to do. But the others are right. There's nothing he can do for him now. Being near him would only make it worse for Saiwa. And Kiyoshi felt guilty. Had they only left him in the tree. It's all his fault. They'd be better off without him but they are forced to stay here together.

Outtakes

'Talk to me straight, is it like this between friends? Saying let’s date, are my qualifications or charm not enough? When I stop this tsundere lifestyle and come at you, you You throw a breaking ball as if you mean something You plead the right to remain silent I beat the drum and jang-gu (=The most widely used drum used in the traditional music of Korea) by myself I think I know but then I don’t, you’re a nonsense quiz Reveal your sincerity

Mental breaker Mental breaker For a moment my fluttering gets flooded by huge confusion' (Original lyrics are in Korean)

Mental Breaker - Block B (Link above leads to a weird unofficial MV of this (also weird) song) TMI: Block B is the group the real Ji Ho (Zico) is in. It's still easily my favourite kpop group and this is one of my favourite songs of them. (It's been my wake up song for years! hahaha)

This is the beginning of the new chapter 'Therapy Game'! I went through some of the experiences they'll make myself (and still do), so this will be an insightful and healing chapter for me. And a therapy too, as so often :3 Try to remember: You are not alone. Don't give up and keep on looking for things and people that/who can (and will!) help you <3 Saiwa and Jack do not see it now but even if you think you only make tiny steps forward and huge steps back, you do make progress. Try to look farther back. Like a year. Then you'll see it.

TMI: 'Therapy Game' is also the name of a BL manga series I enjoy 💞

From the Beginning  ~  Underwater Love ~  Latest 🛺 'Home happy Home' from the beginning ▶️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 17-22 ~ 23-28