#WoT fans are living the dream

[mashithamel]

In high school I had to read “Ragtime” by E.L. Doctorow (and then write a comparison paper with another American novel—that I got an ‘A’ for somehow managing to find something to compare and contrast between this contemporary-style historial fiction book and the gothic ghost story “Turn of the Screw” should tell you that back in high school I was really good at writing a lot of BS).

The book itself was pretty good—really interesting, a mix of real historical figures and some archetypes (literally called ‘Mother,’ ‘Little Boy,’ etc) about the turn of the century, and racism, unions, immigration, women’s sufferage, and peaceful versus violent protests.

It also has…some really questionable moments (I’m looking you, Younger Brother, with your “ticket tape parade” ejeaculation while watching anarchist Emma Goldman give disgraced socialite Evelyn Nesbitt a sensual massage—that’s an image I’m never getting out of my brain, and now you all can share it with me).

There is a “Ragtime” movie, with the only good thing being Mandy Patinkin playing Tata. The movie really leaned into the sensational, silly parts of the book (there is a scene where Evelyn is topless for no reason other than they wanted an ‘R’ rating, I’m guessing?). They left out so many of the more interesting plolines, like Mother becoming independent.

And then they made a musical, and this was perfection. They took all the good parts of the novel, cut out the stupid bits that really didn’t add anything, changed a few things to keep the story going, and told essentially told the same story with amazing music, only better. They kept the focus on the theme “change is hard and can be scary,” without looking for sensationalizing moments. I really think theaters all over the US should have been playing it in 2016 because it is just so timely, and really hits on so many contemporary topics.

So, what does this have to do with the reason for this Tumblr account, The Wheel of Time? Book fans, I think, are generally in agreement that while the books are awesome, they can be problematic at times (so much spanking, a lot of male-gazy romance plotlines, domestic violence and male rape treated largely with humor, among some of the big things).

The show has a chance to change some of this (and they have already, by addressing the excessive puritanical virginity of many of the main characters [I can’t buy that Min was a virigin!], not having Nynaeve hit everyone with a stick, no one has even mentioned the word ‘breast’ so far, and so on), and update some of the problematic bits to make the story better (I have high hopes for Perrin/Faile to be less dysfunctional). Queer representation is much more explicit, and actors of color are killing it in roles that were viewed by white readers as white.

There are things I miss—Lan training the boys in weapon fighting, the Perrin/Egwene rescue from the Whitecloaks, Mat going to Fal Dara, the name a few. Some of those missing things are important, and I’m hoping later seasons will do them justice. But I think the key thing is to realize it could have been just awful, like the “Ragtime” movie. Anyone ever see “When the Dark Comes Rising”? That was such a disappointing adaptation. Or the recent “A Wrinkle in Time”? Ugh. I love the Harry Potter movies, but there are so many changes from the books, in some places feeling like a really different story.

Instead, we have amazing costumes, detailed sets, great actors, and so many delightful Easter eggs for the book fans that are bringing this epic to life. The team seems to really love the source and to respect it at every opportunity. For every change I don’t love, there are so many other things I adore. I think the fans are the winners here. (Except when it comes to merchandizing—how is Amazon not all over this??)

TL;DR: Book great, show a little different but also great, and I’m dying for Season 2.

[theselfstudyenthusiast]

Sorry, my bad....

I want to publicly apologise to the Great Dragon. 🙇

After a cool-down period, I dove into Wakfu Wikia and re-read the first chapter of WAKFU: The Great Wave.

I've realised the dragon who invaded my boy's dream and gave Yumalia a case of coitus interruptus (a wet dream ?) was NOT Yugo's father.

*Beware of potential spoilers for Dofus the Movie, Wakfu, Wakfu the webtoon and Waven*

The silhouette shown during the dream sequence reminded me of two dragons from the World of Twelve.

Theory #1 : Grougalorasalar

The first one is Grougalorasalar, the Primordial Ebony dragon. Yes, the same dragon linked to Master Joris.

The picture from the webtoon is very similar to Rasalar, especially the wings and horns.

I can't show the webtoon, but here is the Ebony dragon. Looks like if Godzilla and a giant bat had a baby.

However, I don't know how Grougalorasalar could have entered Yugo's dream or how he would have known about the threat the Eliatrope king might represent. I mean, sure, Yugo is a walking disaster but his reputation is not (yet) that bad, right?

As far as I know, Grougalorasalar doesn't have a "dream-hijacking" ability. Plus, like in all good old fantasy settings, the Ebony Dragon and all Black dragons from the WoT is a malignant creature, symbolising Black Fire or Stasis... or so the Wakfu wikia says.

If that's the case, why would Grougalorasalar seemingly try to prevent Yugo from doing what he does best, "unwittingly endangering the world" ?

That's why I'm more inclined to believe this is the work of Draconiros.

Theory #2 : Draconiros

His dragon form is flawless.

Draconiros is the Master of Dreams and the Lord of Nightmares. He lives in the Kingdom of Dreams, within the Astral Plane. As such, he can manipulate dreams as he wishes. This could include hijacking someone else's dreams or even changing his appearance within said dreams.

In the wikia, it is said that Draconiros also seems to have a part in the events preceding the Eliocalypse, possibly trying to prevent it.

Since he has access to dreams, this dragon could know about the vision the Eliacube gave Oropo and how Yugo might be linked to the almost destruction of the World of Twelve (WoT). If so, it would make sense for Draconiros to contact Yugo and announce his upcoming courtesy visit. This dragon is a true gentleman! 🙏

Still, if Draconiros is really behind Yugo's nightmare, why would he pick the form of another dragon? It could also be that his true form has been redesigned for the webtoon, like they did with Nora in the tv show, idk.

Theory #3 : Idk for sure but it's not the Great Dragon

Either way, an interference from any Twelvian dragon makes more sense than the Great Invisible Dad trolling his son just to say "I hate you! Wait till I get home! 👿👿👿".

This is especially true, taking into account what is known about the Great Dragon. He is the incarnation of Stasis, the energy of destruction. Why would he bother preventing the end of one world among so many? Plus, he wasn't shown interacting with the Eliatropes back in the day, even when they were facing extinction, thanks to the Mechasms. he Great Dragon is the incarnation of Stasis, the energy of destruction.

Nah, Great Dragon "danced" with the Eliatrope Goddess, which helped her get the kids she wanted, and DIPPED! Does he even know the names of his kids? There's a reason they are called Eliatropes and not Stasisians or something. 😒

These are speculations based on my small understanding of the Wakfu universe. I don't play any MMORPG from the Wakfu franchise. I have not read all the available materials, apart from the manga-style Wakfu comics, which are a must-read for fans of the series and take place after Season 2.

For all I know, Yugo's nightmare could be sent by someone else or something else entirely.

For example, if the gods were not MIA, I would have thought Osamodas, the OG dragon master, or Sram, the biggest troll in Twelvian History, would have something to do with this nightmare.

Ngl, I was hoping this was a nightmare created by Yugo's trauma (ptsd) or his link with Toross. I really want to see this antagonist come back to haunt Yugo somehow. Maybe he can still make an appearance as a hallucination (PTSD?) or as himself from the Necroworld, channelling Rotalström (still in the Sadida kingdom), the stasis he stabbed Yugo with or the wakfu he ingested from the Eliatrope king. Anything to see Toross again! 🙏🙏🙏

I cannot wait for Episode 2 to drop and obliterate my theories!

**Please, go read Wakfu The Great Wave if you can **

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 33: Within The Weave

People who save perfectly good images as ".webp" should be kept in cages like this. People who post spoilers for the whole Wheel of Time series underneath the Keep reading line below should be allowed to do whatever they wish.

This chapter starts with the Wheel icon both for the metaphysical discussion he and Moiraine have about the Pattern and because Perrin's about to meet one of his closest companions and greatest supporters, and also Faile.

If dogs had been able to make footprints on stone, he would have said it was the print of a large hound.

Poor Perrn, still sheltered enough to go "Yep, there couldn't possibly be any kind of evil dog out there that leaves marks in the stone." How stupid of him.

Perrin only shook his head. There was no way to explain to Loial that he did not dare sleep soundly, that even his lightest sleep was full of troubled dreams. Like that odd one with Egwene and Hopper in it.

This helps clarify the timeline, something I meant to be paying more attention to but haven't been in awhile. Tragically, the best WoT timeline on the internet has become rather hard to dig up on search engines of late.

Bedraggled townspeople said a lantern dropped in a barn had started it, and then the fire seemed to run wild, and everything went wrong. Half the buckets that could be found had holes in them. Every last burning wall had fallen outward instead of in, setting houses to either side alight. Flaming timbers from the inn had somehow tumbled as far as the main well in the square, so no one could draw more water from it to fight the fires, and houses had fallen right on top of three other wells. Even the wind had seemed to shift, fanning the flames in every direction.

At this early point in the story, the Pattern is keeping Rand's ta'veren balance as a matter of course; one village gets blessings so the next is cursed. Yet later on it shifts, paying the bad karma off exclusively so it can pay off all the good in the final hours. Note that this outcome is easily as bad as some of those later events now that his mindstate is about as bad though, with the sleep deprivation absolutely catching up to him by this point.

Three more untouched villages had been followed in quick succession, all in one day, by Samaha, where every well in town had gone dry just the night before, and people were muttering about the Dark One; then Tallan, where all the old arguments the village had ever known had bubbled to the surface like overflowing cesspits a morning earlier, and it had taken three murders to shock everyone back to his senses; and finally Fyall, where the crops this spring looked to be the poorest anyone could remember, but the Mayor, digging a new privy behind his house, had found rotted leather sacks full of gold, so none would go hungry.

If my theory that at least part of Rand's ta'veren effects are tied up into his mood, we can assume that his own journey on foot through these villages was rather tumultuous. Probably the boy felt relief for evading captors sometimes, and exhaustion at others.

That is evil, Moiraine. I can’t believe Rand is evil. The Pattern may be shaping itself around him, but how can the Pattern be that evil? It makes no sense, and things have to make sense. If you make a tool with no sense to it, it’s wasted metal. The Pattern wouldn’t make waste.

Perrin has a rather childlike worldview here, one that his own experiences thus far should have disproven. The Pattern makes waste all the time, every bad project out of the smithy is as much a part of the Pattern as the successes. But I don't really blame him for this confusion, living in an era with the Dark One makes it easy to blame all evil on him and assume that without his presence things would always work out.

“I care,” he muttered softly. “Light, I do care.” Moiraine glanced back at him, and he fell silent. He was not sure what the Aes Sedai cared about, beyond Rand.

Likewise, Perrin's deflection of his own potential means he doesn't appreciate that the Pattern making him a ta'veren means it does care to some degree - otherwise it could have picked someone else - and his sheltered upbringing means he doesn't know that the Land and the Dragon are one and that Moiraine, for all her failings, cares about the fate of the whole world.

Remen looked like any of a dozen towns to Perrin—it was full of man-made aromas and man smell; with a strong smell of the river, of course—and he was wondering what Lan could have meant when the hair on the back of his neck stirred as he scented something—wrong. As soon as his nose took it in, it was gone like a horsehair dropped onto hot coals, but he remembered it.

Again, Perrin is scenting a Grey Man. Since he hasn't noticed it since Jarra, it probably has been following Rand exclusively. Lucky for Perrin!

A tall man dressed all in grays and browns sat in the cage, holding his knees under his chin. He had no room to do otherwise. Three small boys were pitching stones at him. The man looked straight ahead, not flinching when a stone made it between the bars. More than one trickle of blood stained his face. The townspeople walking by paid no more mind to what the boys were doing than the man did, though every last one of them looked at the cage, most of them with approval, and some with fear.

If my start to this chapter hasn't clued you in to how I feel about Gaul, my hopes that each and every one of these villagers ends up in a bubble of evil during Tarmon Gaidon and dies horribly should clarify things for you. Gaul is simply the best.

The sign over the door of the inn Lan led them to, nearer the river, read Wayland’s Forge, which Perrin took for a good omen, though there seemed to be nothing of the smithy about the place except the leather-aproned man with a hammer painted on the sign.

Probably used to be a smithy long ago. I wonder if Tuon would say this was a good omen or not.

He could make out a little of what they were saying, about the virtues of ice peppers over furs as cargo and what the troubles in Saldaea might have done to prices.

So are ice peppers plants that are well-adapted to winter conditions, or did those wacky AoL people decide that spice was actually evil and breed peppers that made menthol instead of capsaicin?

The innkeeper himself met them just inside, a plump, bald-headed man with shining brown eyes in a smooth pink face, bowing and dry-washing his hands.

Again, we can infer that he's a good guy solely because fat doesn't stick to evil people. Slides right off.

Moiraine’s voice calmly accepted the title Furlan gave her. It was far from the first time the Aes Sedai had gone under another name, or pretended to be something she was not.

It actually is pretty far from any of those times, Perrin, because Moiraine is a Cairhienien noblewoman. Another way his sheltered upbringing has absolutely not helped him, since virtually anyone else would recognize actual nobility when they saw it.

Hunters for the Horn of Valere, set out from Illian for adventure. And adventure they found, Lady, here in Remen, or just a mile or two upriver, fighting wild Aielmen, of all things. Can you imagine black-veiled Aiel savages in Altara, Lady?

Yeah it's pretty freaking incredible and really would probably be cause for mass panic if people understood what was up and/or there weren't like sixteen causes for mass panic already.

The plump man gave a start when his study reached Perrin’s face, as if, with a Lady and an Ogier present, he had just now noticed Perrin’s yellow eyes. “He would be your servant, Master Andra?” he asked cautiously.

Perrin is not remotely class concious at all and it's adorable.

Lord Orban and Lord Gann faced twenty wild Aielmen with only ten retainers. Ah, fierce was the fighting and hard, with many wounds given and received. Six good retainers died, and every man took hurts, Lord Orban and Lord Gann worst of all, but every Aiel they slew, save those who fled, and one they took prisoner.

Most battles tend to end with everyone dead except those who escaped or were taken prisoner, just saying. This is a good, subtle hint to the readers who might not yet appreciate Aiel prowess that the story is BS.

Men from this very village marched to the Battle of the Shining Walls, when the nations gathered to throw them back. I myself suffered from a twisted back at the time and so could not go, but I remember well, as we all do.

I said the innkeeper was a good guy but you'll note I never said he was a GREAT guy.

The bandaged man muttered something under his breath—under his breath to any ears but Perrin’s—about waiting on a farmwife “throwing her litter” and something else about being “sewn up like a sack of meal.”

I hate to keep dunking on Perrin when it's not his fault half the time but I can't help but feel that since most people don't usually actually mutter quietly enough to make inaudible noise that in fact everyone in the room heard this and Perrin just thinks he's special. Also, fuck Lord Orban. I don't like any of the bit characters in this chapter.

“You lost six, and took one prisoner.” From Lan’s voice, it was not clear if that was a good exchange or a poor one.

But this is why I have to keep dunking on this boy. Perrin. Six is a lot bigger than one and Lan has already all but said, "You didn't fight twenty Aiel and if it weren't for the one in the cage I wouldn't think you'd fought any at all." What part of this can possibly be confusing for you?

The bandaged man frowned as if unsure exactly what Lan meant, then rounded on the innkeeper again.

No Perrin, he frowns as if he's completely sure Lan means, "The Whitecloaks won't find the Aiel, because the Aiel are the best fighting force in the known world and the Whitecloaks, who are probably thirdbest behind the Borderlanders who fight Shadowspawn all the time, don't come close to measuring up, and also Hunters for the Horn aren't anywhere on Lan's top 100 fighting forces list and the known world isn't big enough to have 100 fighting forces!" but he just doesn't want to acknowledge being dunked on because he knows Lan will make him look even stupider if he says much else.

“Our rooms.” Moiraine did not raise her voice, but her words cut the innkeeper short like a sharp knife. “Andra did arrange rooms, did he not?”

Moiraine here knows EXACTLY when the local NPCs have run out of new topics and it's time to go.

At the top, Perrin paused to look back. He heard the murmurs of “Lady” and “Ogier” down there, could feel all those eyes, but it seemed to him that he felt one pair of eyes in particular, someone staring not at Moiraine and Loial, but at him.

Points to Perrin for immediately deploying his "Hot Singles in Your Area Want to Meet" powers instead of whining about them.

He could not quite decide whether she was beautiful or not.

For those in the audience who were confused or blindsided about Thom/Moiraine, this sentence right here is all the evidence you need that these two are destined to FUCK. Learn to ambiguity.

Anyway, next time: Perrin and Gaul become bestest buds.

[wot-tidbits]

10 Years Anniversary

PART 6

The good.

This part is for the good shit. No more bad shit. If you have gone through the shit of the previous parts, there are only good vibes here.

Number 1.

This bloody blog itself.

I did not have that intention but it happened. When I think what kind of blog I would love to scroll for hours in my early days as WoT fan, I could not dream that I had to do the task myself. I still remember the awe and the glee as little kid in toy store when I found out the 13th Depositary or the Theoryland Database. I can only envy my visitors who received new art, new meme, new fan content every single day for the span of years. I can only imagine it as I cannot experience it myself. Yeah, there is fun part as well but mostly I remember the work, the dedication and the motivation, the insanity of running this project. Some days I didn't want to do it but I had to because the stubborn donkey in me wouldn't let me live in peace.

I salute you anonymous WoT fans who had the time of your life around.

Number 2

Cards Against Randland

At my lowest point around 2015 I found activity that gave me the happiest memories and unexpected connection with other WoT fans. This online game helped me so much as I found people I could call friends. Well, some of them betrayed me later but still the pain cannot overwrite the joy of so many evenings having great fun. For some reason I was ridiculously good at this game. I was not being nicknamed Meta King for nothing. Some of these great memories I keep in this sideblog. The best time for me being WoT fan in the community.

Number 3

WoT-Notes

My dedication as stubborn donkey paid off in another format. It is still ridiculous (and borderline shameful) to say this blog is the only place in the fandom where a fan can read some of Robert Jordan's notes without going through expensive trip to Charleston. And also the ridiculous sight of a link for this blog to stay in one line with the greatest names and sites created by legendary fans in this awesome list of WoT content.

Number 4

Robert Jordan's casting

The most visited post and the most notable connection with the title of WoT-Tidbits is the page where I shared one reveal of Terez from her visit through Robert Jordan's notes about his own picks for actors to play WoT characters. The original post of Terez got lost as Google+ was deleted and by pure accident my shared post became the source and the only evidence on the Internet that such list exists. No one with access to the notes hasn't republished the list. I bet many "fans" would love if this list disappeared and certain one fan did not care to preserve it.

Number 5

The German Shepherd

For those who are frequently on Reddit this won't be a surprise. RJ's casting wasn't the only famous link from my blog. My attempt to gather the whole information of the infamous legend of the German Shepherd got copied very often around. I just got lucky to have that brief conversation with Kathy and she was kind enough to answer.

Number 6

The art, the memes, the content

If it wasn't for this blog I would not have this masterpiece of commission of Mat and Tuon in AMOL. It is still surreal to see an idea of mine living and breathing in this gorgeous comic. Meeppodraws delivered spectacularly and I couldn't express my gratitude.

The constant flow of memes was like healing medicine for me to go through all the controversies with smile. So I decided to keep the medicine in one place here.

I love when the fandom cooks content - I cannot choose what to highlight so it is just huge general thank you for the awesome work that you have gifted the fans.

Number 7

Art expert

And while we are on the topic of art. My devoted methodical stubborn work to search for any piece of WoT art caused a weird consequence in turning me into kinda expert on WoT artwork. I collected so many unnoticed and obscure WoT pieces that genuinely if someone asked for art of second or third tier characters, I could pull it out for almost any one as long as it exists. This blog contains the biggest collection of WoT art ever – at one point I had presented around 90%+ of the latest art pieces. Nothing could escape me. These days the percentages dropped but still this was enough to be one of the most competent people around for help. And help I did after Paul Dose - unknown guy for me who created a card game with WoT concept - who recognized that I might help him and sent me a list of characters to provide him with images for the cards. I couldn’t do everything but still I could help him with most of it. That hunting down the list in my archives was cool memory.

Another anecdote was when someone decided to call me out for not presenting a source for one WoT piece. And their evidence for source was… wait for it… Pinterest. Bloody Pinterest! I had a good laugh. As a matter of fact I have done that search by myself long before that incident and this piece is still one of the few with untraceable history. They tried the wrong guy thinking that I will chicken out not knowing the history of the piece or what is Pinterest.

Number 8

Living up to my URL

When I created my URL WoT-Tidbits 10 years ago it was inspired by the several lucky bast... fans who had the rare chance to get little tidbits here and there from the author at different events and meetings. I read all these reports from fans in the database with “little” jealousy as I could never dream to be in their place. But miracles happen when Brandon Sanderson visited Bulgaria in 2017. This is definitely the highlight of my last 10 years being WoT nerd. Not only I had the chance to see him, to listen to him, to ask him a question but also by the will of the Wheel I witnessed new unknown tidbit about my most beloved book series. And I had the blessing to report it on blog coincidentally named WoT-Tidbits. It was small and uninteresting detail but for me it meant everything. One tidbit was enough to validate the existence of my whole blog.

Number 9

Tad Kendel

I found the proof that Andorans can be dark skinned and I consider it as good shit pointing that Robert Jordan knew exactly what he was doing.

Number 10

Robert Jordan

It is not like I did not appreciate his work before. Just after reading so much slander on his masterpiece by people who call themselves fans, I truly understood his genius - on the surface of so many superficial demands for the books to be “fixed” - I acknowledged how important was his attention to "outdated" details, and how well every of his "wrong" decisions fit in the storytelling. He thought for everything, didn't he? He outsmarted people who complain in their blindness and who demand his masterpiece to bend on their artificial terms. So many so called fans try to speak on his behalf instead of listening to his voice and wisdom, to fix instead of supporting his vision. Many claim The Wheel of Time to be stuck in the regressive 20th century and that modern audience won't get it when in reality Robert Jordan is still so far ahead of the progressive 2024. We do not have to pull WoT behind us, we still has a lot of work to do if we want to catch it ahead of us.

Let the Light keep you safe.

LightOne

[asha-mage]

WoT Meta: The Problem of Androl

I think upon reflection my biggest issue with Androl isn't necessarily his resume to rival Barbie's, or the fact that his power set exists JUST so that Sanderson can Think With Portals, or even that he is the MOST cishet protagonist that Sanderson could have chosen to be the Black Tower Pov. Those are all problems, but their not what makes me feel like Androl dosen't belong in WoT.

The biggest problem with Androl, and the reason he doesn't fit with the other characters, is that he's boring.

One of Jordan's hallmarks as a writer, and one of things that makes WoT so compelling is that in very few words, Jordan is capable of painting a picture of person as a fully realized person, with their own history, foibles and agency. It's one of the reasons that the series is packed with mid-tier and minor characters that have huge fan interest. Even one off PoVs generally feel distinct, and more over feel like living breathing characters. It's more then just the 'everyone is hero of their own story' school of writing thought, it's more that everyone, no matter how insignificant they might seem, is important, maybe not to the heroes, or the villains or even destiny, but to themselves, and to the world.

Now obviously this is hard thing to do, and I don't begrudge Sanderson for not succeeding, or for succeeding in only limited ways. (Hinderstap, for as much as it is a DnD module used for filler is a good example of making characters encountered only briefly come alive and feel like their struggles matter). But their is something in particular about the way that Androl is written that feels antithetical to Jordan's character writing.

His vague sprawling backstory is meant to make him mysterious and interesting, but a in reality a hodgepodge of concepts that, any one on their own would be interesting, but when all tied together just...make a mess. Everything that surrounds him is wishy washy and indistinct. We're given glimpses into who Androl is but instead of painting a concise picture they instead show a vicious tangled mess of different ideas.

A man who convinced a Wisdom to take him as an apprentice despite being a man? A+ Asha'man concept, would pay to see him and Nynaeve bounce off each other. A man who always suspected The One Power ran in his family and came to the Black Tower seeking answers on if that is what drove his father to suicide? Yes, give me forty chapters of him. A man whose sense of justice is strong enough that he joined a hopeless rebellion for a land that wasn't his own? Fantastic. A man who spent his whole life starting and then abandoning different crafts due to a deep sense of dissatisfaction, and a yearning for purpose and meaning that was never fulfilled until he found The Black Tower? Amazing.

All of those men being one man? The interconnections never properly being explained or totaled out? That's....to much. And it reveals the hand of the author, reveals that Androl's character isn't so much about exploring ideas or themes, but about being whatever Sanderson needs him to be at that moment. His character comes to feel paint-by-numbers, and as a result, incredibly boring to read about. He is a variable in an equation first, a character second, and fully realized and fleshed out never.

The truly, truly infuriating thing about Androl though, is that he is largely unnecessary, as the ideal Black Tower PoV already existed in the form of Emarin. First appearing in Crossorads of Twilight, Emarin(/Algarin) a Lord of Tear who did not fear the Power, a man whose brother was gentled by the Aes Sedai, but who lived years afterwords thanks to Cadsuane's compassion. A man who upon learning of the Cleaning took up his brothers name, and left behind his family's noble title and power, in order to The Black Tower and live his brother's dream in his stead. That concept, introduced in SINGLE paragraph in CoT is far far more compelling then all the pages of Androl put together. And that's assuming that their is some reason Logain couldn't have just been the Black Tower PoV- which I am not necessarily convinced it the truth. (Yes, the Almost Turned the Shadow thing is kinda important to show the 13x13 trick and to give the Dreadlords narrative weight, as well as to the contextualize Logain's choice to walk away from the sa'angreal at the end, but I feel like that could have still been done with Logain as the main Black Tower PoV over Androl).

As an aside, a part of me, a very petty part that I don't necessarily think is rational, wonders if the reason that Sanderson didn't take up the opportunity offered by Emarin was that, Emarin is the rarest of all WoT creatures: a canonically gay male character. The knowledge that it was Sanderson that cannoized his being gay mitigates that voice, but the knowledge that Jordan's notes contained many characters unstated sexualities keeps it from disappearing whole cloth.

Anyways Androl is boring to read about, and Pevara deserved a lot better.

[chaeryybomb]

nct dream reaction to their idol!reader girlfriend being shipped with another idol

anon: nct dream reaction to their idol!reader girlfriend being shipped with some other idol :) love your works btw. and thank you for this in advance

pairing: nct dream x idol!reader

genre: headcanons, fluff, crack

warnings: mentions of insecurities

a/n: dhsjdj technically my requests are closed rn but I decided I would write this out so I hope you enjoy this!

mark lee

confused boi™

tbh he wouldn't even notice you were being shipped with another idol until another member points it out

you were a special guest mc for the show and fans saw the cute interactions you had with the boyz juyeon

and soon enough fans started shipping the both of you together

in reality, you and juyeon were just high school friends and you were glad to see him again

fans on the other hand,,

mark didn't realise you were being shipped with juyeon until doyoung pointed it one day

and mark was all like

( ・◇・)？"nani? y/n and juyeon???"

he would then search up ynjuyeon on twitter because cough yeah

and found a shit ton of edits of the both of y'all

and now he's sad :((

he's sad that because no one shipped y'all together

"isn't your relationship a secret???"

"yeah but still :((("

mark sweetie y'all have neve interacted on stage before fjdjdndnd

he knows you love him and would never cheat on him

but boy is he going to be a pouty baby when y'all hang out next time

literally all he's going to say is:

"why do they ship you and him together?? why not me :(("

"mark they've never seen us in the same room before"

huang renjun

unbothered king™

at least that's what he tells you fhdjdj

he found out through a vlive fhdhdjj

it was one of the usernames and the username was like ynxyanan_shipper

and renjun mf squinted his eyes like

did I read that clearly ಠ_ಠ

he's like yn and wHO

chenle was beside him when it happened and chenle was like what's wrong

and renjun points out the username

and chenle starts lauGHING BECAUSE HE FINDS IT SO FUNNY

renjun smacks him on the head to tell him to shut up DHHSHDD

obviously he would take a screenshot of the username and sends it to you

and he's like

short king <3: do you hv something to confess to me

you: ,,, my love for you??

short king <3: blocked

you: HAHSAHS IM KIDDING

tbh you find the situation honestly really funny

cause you and yanan aren't exactly friends? you're more of acquaintances than friends

and you made eye contact one (1) time with him by accident at an award show and suddenly you're being shipped with him

when you call him the next time to hang out, definitely expect him to be salty about it fjdjfjd

"hey are you free to come over today?"

"I don't know, why don't you ask your BOYFRIEND yanan"

"renjun istg i will break up with you-"

lee jeno

oh baby boy is gonna be so so confused

he's going to be even more confused because you're being shipped with itzy's chaeryeong fhfhfjf

see you and chaeryeong were featured in an episode of a reality tv show once

and the both of y'all immediately hit it off and your friendship was just adorable

so y'all kept interacting every time y'all see each other

and y'all are now nicknamed as the 4th gen gfs because y'all are so adorable???

like the chaeryn ship ur most popular ship ever

so jeno is so confused?? like why is his gf being shipped with her??

he's like a whole ass puppy okay

you, on the other hand, find the chaeryn ship really cute so you don't mind it and you jokingly call chaeryeong your gf once or twice on live before fjdjfn

whenever you tell him that you're hanging out with chaeryeong, he will pout at you and give you his best puppy eyes

like he will cling onto you and try to convince you to now to go

it works like 13% of the time and you would cancel plans with chaer but most of time it doesn't and you would end up being late jhdjsh

but it will slowly become into an inside joke between y'all

like yk that one meme

"this is yn my girlfriend and her girlfriend chaeryeong"

kjdhkjshfs yeah that

but in all seriousness, jeno is really unbothered about you being shipped with chaeryeong because it basically has the same energy as him being shipped with jaemin

whenever y'all are having play fights, you jokingly threaten to leave him for chaeryeong jdsfjds and he immediately stops and says that's unfair

pls shower him in hugs and kisses later

lee haechan

definitely makes a fuss about it

i mean he knows that you aren't going to leave him and all but is he going to be dramatic about it? yes, yes he is

he finds out by himself because he was probably on twitter stalking your hashtag

when he suddenly stumbles upon and edit of you and ateez's san

he's like O.O wot is tHis?

screenshots the edit and sends it to you

hyuckie: yNNNN

hyuckie: THE LOVE OF MY LIFE

hyuckie: BABY

hyuckie: SUGAR BUM

hyuckie: DAISY PIE

you: what in, the ever loving fuck, is daisy pie

hyuckie: *sends screenshot* ARE U CHEATING ON ME

you: hyuck that pic is clearly edited

hyuckie: I KNOW BUT ARE YOU????

you: i-

he makes so much jokes about it that you literally have to shut him up with a kiss

jokes on u reader he's doing this on purpose to get those free kisses

the jokes stop when you actually finally meet san during a game show and shippers are like omg they finally interacted

and the amount of ynxsan edits just,, grow

haechan acts even salty about it and whines about why fan don't ship y'all together when y'all have made eye contact during the golden disk awards bc he was being a lil shit hdsjhfjds

"hey what if i keep staring at you during the melon so we can get into a scandal?"

"hyuck this is supposed to be a secret relationship-"

"yeah but-"

jokes on u he actually does stare at you at the next award show and thankfully did not get into any scandals, but fans started to ship the both of you!

na jaemin

the true unbothered king

literally does not care that you are shipped with someone else

because he knows that he is yours and vice versa

and plus you love him a lot so

he finds out from chenle, who did it out of spite because one day chenle was bored and wanted to cause some chaos

boi basically ran up to jaemin to shove an edit of you and treasurer's junkyu together and went like

"look hyung! ur gf is being shipped with someone eLsE"

"oh that's weird"

"rigHT"

"I thought people shipped her with treasurer's hyunsuk"

chenle is like

HUH???

"aren't you like,, jeaolous??"

jaemin just shrugs and says "hmm, not really"

jaemin knows that you are good friends wth a lot of idols because you're a social butterfly

so he truly doesn't mind when you get shipped with other idols bc in the end , he's the one holding you in his arms

plus he knows the edits and shippers are mostly harmless

and he trusts you

so he just fucks around with chenle jkldsfj

chenle is still confused bc he wants to rile jaemin up for fun but failed hjdshf

zhong chenle

if you thought haechan was dramatic, then you better buckle up for chenle's

so you see

fans already shipped u and chenle

like

y'all already have a dating scandal

and both companies tried so hard to defuse it

see you are an mc for a music show and you were interviewing nct dream

chenle, being the lil shit he is, kept giving you the heart eyes the entire time

and 6 months later, y'all got caught by dispatch on a daTe

ofc both sides were panicking but chenle was enjoying bc he's like "yeah this is my s/o and what abt it"

but y'all still had a dating ban so sm was this close in kicking him hfdsjfh

fortunately, they were able to cover it up as someone else so there's that

so chenle is aware that fans shipped the both of you together

so when he sees you being shipped with stray kid's jeongin

he was like "HOW DARE THEY-"

calls you to complain about the ship for 3 hours

and that is how you found out as well-

literally you don't even know jeongin so you just let chenle complain about it

he goes on and on about why fans should continue to ship y'all together so when he reveals the relationship the fans will be surprised but also not really at the same time-

"should i get into another scandal with you?"

"chenle no-"

park jisung

oh baby boy is going to be very, very confused

i mean he knows that shipping is a thing between fans

he's just confused why ppl would ship you and p1harmony's keeho

like you have never interacted with him so why would fans ship the both of y'all??

the dreamies mostly tell him to not take it serious but the chenle and haechan would egg him on

"get into a dating scandal with them"

"guys no-"

he wouldn't tell you that it bothers him because he doesn't want you laughing at him, worrying over a small issue

so honestly, it lowkey eats him up on the inside

until one day, you basically force it out of him because he's been acting weird for the past week

he finally confesses about the what's bothering him

and you tell him that you wouldn't have laughed at him

you know shipping idols is a common thing in the industry and sometimes it's uncomfortable knowing it when you're already in a relationship

but you also tell him that it's basically harmless because fans can't really force the both of y'all together

jisung would be insecure about the relationship because it's kinda of his first? so he just doesn't want to mess it up

just reassure him a lot and tell him that you won't leave him

and as time goes by, he just gets used to the shipping

[booasaur]

Original WOT anon… I've sincerely loved some of the worst of epic fantasy but wot has held a special place (since I was too young to know why I cared, lol) for just the implication of that relationship. It is absolutely INSANE to see them turn the tiny lines in the books into *this* like I would dream about that, obviously, but to get so much investment from the show? I also creep this blog periodically - sorry - to check 'gay news' Seeing actual wot gifs here is giving me whiplash thank you!

Oh, hey! Thanks again for the original pointer! You must be over the MOON with this ep?? Like, from someone not invested in this world at all, this was gorgeous, but for people who actually, like, lived those years with them, to see it not only come alive like this but so, so well.

Like, y'all didn't just get somebody serviceable or adequate, you got Sophie Okonedo, who is amazing on her own.

And hah, I gif non gay stuff sometimes! I'd have giffed even platonic scenes as a Sophie fan but here we are, WoT, gay, AND Sophie. *insert Paul Rudd look at us gif*

[i-dont-want-your-hysteria]

Highlights from the “All I’ve Got Is a Photograph” live stream with Phil, Joe, and Ross

DISCLAIMER: towards the end in the last half hour, my computer was lagging a lot, so I probably missed up to a solid five minutes in total. That being said, some things on here may or may not be clarified.

Joe is VERY TAN HOLY SHIT it is very attractive

Phil getting Mike Wazowskied by the chat when he first came on

all the implications that Joe is not in Dublin right now

“My name is Ross Halfin and I’ve been photographing Def Leppard for about... oh, five minutes?”

people cutting out, leaving an awkward silence, and Joe giving a solid English “Wot?”

the way Joe pronounces the word “mosquitos”

in Holland 1984 Joe left his window open and when he got home there were mosquitos all over the fucking ceiling, so he had to vacuum them off and put the trash bag like 4 blocks away so they wouldn’t come back

Joe saying that Heinz baked beans are an “English delicacy”

^^Furthermore, saying he’s eaten cold baked beans sandwiches on butter bread before

literally all three of them PLUS THE GUY WHO WORKS FOR THE VAULT seeing a photo from Euphoria era and collectively agreeing it’s from the Slang tour and no one corrected them

^^meanwhile everyone in the chat is ripping their hair out saying “IT’S EUPHORIA OMFG”

As per the infamous story where their plane dropped 2000ft in 3 seconds: there was an ashtray floating right in front of Sav, and when the plane got back to normal, it smacked him in the face

^^Joe and Phil laughing a lot at this

Joe saying he loves the bathtub photos of himself: “the shot of me in the bath has always been one of my favorites because it’s just so goofy and it sums up my personality”

Ross’s small black fluffy dog on the couch in the background

Ross saying the bathtub photos had a purpose because Joe was “hunk of the month or something”

^^ Joe laughing at that

I have yet to find out if this is true but- Joe said Slash is Bowie’s godson...??

Joe further regretting his early 90s outfits

Joe being embarrassed by this photo:

^^ (while trying not to look embarrassed) “there’s not a lot you could say about it”

^^^ furthermore explaining he was only doing that because Rik Mayall from The Young Ones was in the pit at the foot of the stage doing that at him during a rehearsal, so Joe did it back to him “sadly, Ross just so happened to be there and captured it”

Ross being the mom friend, trying to get them to behave and pay attention in order to take photos

Rick being the worst one to pay attention during photoshoots

Sav taking the longest to get dressed before a photoshoot

Phil talking about how his pants ripped onstage on the Hysteria tour and “stuff” was “hanging out”

me being once again reminded that that iconic photo of all of them in their Union Jack booty shorts and tank tops was taken less than hour away from me ;-; (not important but anyway)

Joe saying he would wear the Union Jack shorts again next year

Ross getting overly excited whenever he remembered when/where/why something was taken

Joe’s memory still being super accurate and oddly specific

Joe has one of Phil’s old guitar straps and it’s rusted from sweat, plus it’s in a drawer in his studio in Dublin

Joe retelling the story of how they met Brian May:

“hi boys, I’m Brian from Queen :D” Joe, right into the camera: NO SHITE, M8

Bri in ‘83: *plays the opening riff to photograph* Joe, internally, watching him from afar: *level up* :o

Joe- “I will forever go down in pub quiz history as the first person to sing with Queen after Fred died”

Joe eating “a bunch of greasy vegetarian food” then traveling with Robert Plant on his private plane, then “going through the most horrendous turbulence, then about ten minutes before we landed, I just BARFED all over the place”

^^Robert laughing because Joe puked everywhere and all over himself

^^Robert giving Joe one of his shirts to wear instead of the barfy one

^^It’s a black long sleeved illuminati shirt

^^Joe still has it

Joe said he recently had a knee replacement and will “probably have to get the other one done soon”

^^He blames his constant air splits for his knees being fucked up now

Joe reenacting neutral photoshoot poses and staring right into your soul through his camera

Ross confirming the “pissing into the sink” story from ‘79

Joe saying they can’t afford Ross anymore and that he needs to lower his prices and Ross cackling at this

Phil recalling a photoshoot where a seagull shat on his head and he had to go wash it off

^^Joe absolutely fucking LOSING IT it at this. I’ve never seen him laugh so hard I swear he was almost CRYING with laughter it was so adorable

Joe acknowledging how tan he looks because “I’ve been spending a lot of time in the sun these past few months- as you can tell”

^^Joe brushing his hair back so you could see his tan face

Joe saying they (the band) were “fortunate enough to avoid the virus”

Joe stole the “don’t forget us and we won’t forget you” line from (big surprise) Ian Hunter

we ALMOST got through this hour and a half live stream WITHOUT Joe advertising Mott the Hoople we were SO CLOSE GUYS

Joe blowing a kiss at the end of it

Phil thanking the fans UwU

Joe waving goodbye as the Vault closed and sounding sad when he said “cheers, see ya”

ENORMOUS thank you to @ballistic-lipstick-dream-machine​ for paying for a ticket and letting me watch it in real time even tho she couldn’t ilysm ;-;

[house-of-crows]

WoT

I’ve been a fan since the mid-point, I remember when Knife of Dreams came out and anxiously waiting for The Gathering Storm and the rest of the books by Jordan and Sanderson when Jordan passed too early to finish the series. 

I still have three of the books; including New Spring; and I have been re-reading them in preparation for the new series drop. So~ This is going to be my Live Blog of the first episode. 

Crow Said WoT is the tag to block if you don’t wanna see this. 

[vintage-squid]

The Fruits of Love

Summary: "When we first met, you thought I was a pompous airhead and I thought you were nothing short of insufferable. If anyone had told me then I would one day spend my mornings waking up in your arms and kissing your illegally handsome face, I’d have told them to take a long walk off a short pier." Logan can't believe the wedding is finally happening, but even his nerves can't stop him from marrying the prince of his dreams.

Pairings: Logan/Roman, brotherly Virgil/Logan, background Virgil/Deceit/Patton

Rating: G Warnings: a whole heckin lotta fluff  On AO3

I realized I never posted this to tumblr lol, so here yall go 

-----

Logan exhaled deep and slow as he took one final look at himself in the full-length mirror. He smoothed his hands over the skirt of his dress, trying to focus on the sensation of smooth silk and textured ruffle rather than the clammy chill that had settled into his palms. The layers over his hips accented his low curves, holding him in an embrace as comforting as his fiance did each night. There was not a crinkle to be found in the fabric, nor a hair out of place from his wavy curls, and yet he felt as disheveled as the dressing room around him, which had been cleared of his half of their wedding party only moments before as they scrambled to get the finishing touches of their outfits in order before the ceremony.

Now, the groom-to-be was alone with his thoughts and a raising heart rate. He could do this, there was no reason for the flush of nervousness that sent a cool tingly sensation to the tips of his manicured fingers and toes (styled like miniature galaxies, of course, his brother was an exceptional artist, even with nail polish). There were less people out there than in any of his lectures, and all of the audience would be close friends and family, and yet...and yet…

He startled when someone softly knocked on the door, looking over his shoulder to see his brother, and best man, peeking in.

“You almost ready?” Virgil asked, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. With what was likely a pitiful expression, Logan turned and reached for his older brother. Virgil didn’t hesitate to step closer, gathering him close. He cupped Logan’s face, smoothing his thumbs over his brother’s cheeks and drawing him close to touch their foreheads together. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay, LB. The love of your life is waiting for you out there, annoying as ever, but looking damn good too. Just don’t tell him I said that, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Logan huffed a small laugh, both at Virgil’s never-ending rivalry with his fiance, and the childhood nickname he would never shake - not that he wanted to. LB. Logan Baras. Little Brother. Logan Berries. Lotsa Binch. Really, it was getting ridiculous at this point, but it was an in-joke that had been evolving since they were in grade school. It was also part of the reason why Logan had asked to keep his last name, or hyphenate the two, after the wedding; he couldn’t bear to part with such an ingrained part of himself. Thankfully, Baras-Sanders rolled off the tongue quite nicely, in his opinion.

He raised his hands, mirroring his elder brother’s position to cradle Virgil’s face in turn. “I swear that will remain between you and I, else I will never hear the end of his gloating over your compliment either.” The pair chuckled before Logan trailed off with a sigh. “I .. I am…” A second shaky exhale. “I’m anxious, VB.” Virgil Baras. Very (Big) Brother. Vigilant Bro-tector. Vain Bastard. An eye for an eye, as they say. “I know our friends and family support our relationship, but many of them are unaware that I will be wearing a dress and make-up! Not to mention how unorthodox our choice of venue is - I can’t believe I let him talk me into hosting our wedding at his theater, and -”

“Hey!” Virgil’s low voice cut him off with a small shake of his head. “Hey... it’s my job to be the worry-wart here, remember? Deep breaths, okay? And stop chewing on your lip! Do you know how long it took me to get that ombre just right?”

Logan rolled his eyes, but obliged; he really didn’t want to sit through another session of his brother’s perfectionist fussing.

“Now, you look fucking amazing. Like damn gurl, slay it.” Virgil’s deadpanned drawl in a mockery of their mutual friend, Remy, had Logan snorting a giggle. “But seriously, LB, I can promise you that everyone out there is going to be stunned at how gorgeous this dress is, and how radiant you are… and no one more than that idiot you fell in love with. You’re gonna walk out there, and Za is gonna be with you to walk you down the aisle, and mom will be crying, and I’m gonna waiting on stage too, but you’re only gonna have eyes for the man you are marrying today.”

With a shaky smile and watery eyes, Logan lunged forward to wrap is older brother in a tight hug, burying his face into the crook of the other’s shoulder. “The proper pronunciation is ‘going to’, and I love you so goddamn much, VB.” Pulling back, he cycled a deep breath, and squeezed Virgil’s upper arms gently. “Thank you. Now, I believe we have a wedding to attend.”

Walking out of the dressing room arm-in-arm, the brothers snuck around the side doors so they could enter the theatre from the foyer with the rest of the wedding party. The assorted group of groomsmen, groomsladies, and friends of honour turned as they approached, the other best man breaking away to sweep Logan into a hug.

“Oh Lolo! You look stunning!” Patton pulled back, stars in his eyes as he looked over the whorls of colour covering the ballgown-style dress. “Wow…. This dress is absolutely perfect on you! And it matches your pretty make-up! Oh!! This is so wonderful!!” He fanned his face, trying to hold back the tears that were already threatening to fall. “I can’t believe you two are finally getting married!”

A blush graced Logan’s cheeks with a soft smile. “I cannot either; it feels like a dream come true.”

“Speaking of the wedding - we really need to get that started here, people!” A voice cut in, drawing the group’s attention to the ring-and-flower bearer of the ceremony. Denali approached the trio, slipping their hands into both Virgil and Patton’s. Their outfit was a delightful mix of both their genders: the tighter bodice giving way to a flared coattail-skirt with striped pants matched well with their colourful make-up - done on only one half of their face. The ensemble was completed with a wide-brimmed hat topped with an extravagantly flowing feather. “I love that you’re all being cutesy over here, I really do, but I don’t want to have to listen to Roman whine later that we left him standing at the altar. So-” They raised their voice, addressing the wedding party as a whole. “I need everyone to buddy up and line up! We have some gay nerds who need to get married!”

With a wave to cue the sound operator, the music began. A chuckle rippled through the crowd as they recognized the entrance music as a slowed version of the Lord of the Rings’ iconic theme. Virgil and Patton grinned at one another and planted a kiss on both of Denali’s cheeks simultaneously before linking arms and striding into the theater. Two by two, the rest of the wedding party followed, walking down the center aisle through the audience, and parting at the stage to walk up the stairs on each side. Their lines met once more to either side of Roman and the officiant, an array of suits and dresses in colours accenting the grooms’. Denali completed the proceeding on his own, tossing flower petals with a flourish so grand one would almost believe this was their wedding.

Then, the room faded into silence, and, as the opening notes of the original 1963 Doctor Who opening theme (stylized for a wedding procession, of course) played out, Logan rounded the corner. Arm linked with his Za, and a bouquet accented with peacock feathers held in his other hand, the groom looked ethereal in the spotlight. The blues and greys of his dress and make-up sparkled as he made his way past the most important people in his and Roman’s life, and if he had been able to look away from Roman’s eyes for a moment, he would have seen only love and awe radiating back from them.

Logan hugged his Za tightly as they stopped in front of the stage, smiling with tears in his eyes as his beloved parent tipped his head down to kiss his forehead. When Roman stepped down the stairs at center stage, his burgundy suit and silver filigree circlet lending him the regal air of royalty he had always hoped to achieve, his soon-to-be Za-in-law pulled him into a hug too. Ze guided the grooms’ hands together, squeezing them gently with a smile, and stepped back to sit with zir wife to watch as they officially welcomed another son into their lives.

Ever the gentleman, Roman helped his beloved up the steps, ensuring the skirt of his dress didn’t get caught under the practical blue flats Logan had chosen to wear. Thankfully, there was no train to wrangle, as it was an excess of fabric that Logan had no desire to waste or trip over. As they took their places, Virgil stepped forward to take the bouquet, letting the grooms hold both hands with matching smiles.

Clearing his throat, the officiant - and theater owner, and close friend of Roman’s - Thomas, began the ceremony.

“Mawage.” A smirk was tugging at his lips as both grooms’ jaws dropped. “Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today. Mawage, that bwessed awangement, that dweam wifin a dweam…” Slowly, Logan began to grin, Roman already biting his lip to muffle his giggles. “And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva..” Of course Thomas had chosen to quote the movie they had watched together on their first date. “So tweasure your wuv.”

The entire wedding party was giggling now, as well as a fair number in the audience. Thomas, looking far too pleased with himself, continued in his normal, exuberant tone. “I truly believe the pair standing before us today not only each embody the beautiful magic that blossoms in the heart when one has found true love, but they choose each and every day to work together to care for those precious gardens. They shared carefully tended clippings made from their vulnerabilities and strengths, their fears and their trust, and lovingly incorporated these parts of their partner into their hearts. At times, yes, there were weeds which needed to be pulled. Some just needed to be identified to deal with, while others required both of them pulling with all their might to remove. Those deep roots could have left holes in their gardens, but instead, our handsome grooms chose to fill in the spaces so new seedlings could begin to grow. The literal fruits of their labour have culminated here today, as they promise themselves to one another for the rest of their lives.”

Smiling widely, Thomas retrieved a ring box from the pocket of his suit and held it out. “Roman, I can tell you are absolutely bursting with the need to profess your love right now. We’ll let you say your vows first then.” A laugh rippled through the crowd, Logan snickering too as his betrothed shrugged with a sheepish smile but did not deny the claim.

With his fingers cupped under Logan’s, cradling and supporting them, Roman held up their joined hands and kissed his knuckles. “Hey nerd,” he began, drawing another laugh from their friends and family, and a smiling eye-roll from his beloved. “I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be the one standing up here with you today. When we first met, you thought I was a pompous airhead and I thought you were nothing short of insufferable. If anyone had told me then I would one day spend my mornings waking up in your arms and kissing your illegally handsome face, I’d have told them to take a long walk off a short pier. But, by Julie Andrews, here we are, and I couldn’t imagine my life without you by my side. You are my greatest joy, my strongest support, and my deepest love. I swear, with every fibre of my being, I will spend everyday striving to be the same for you. I swear to care for you through the good and the bad, to celebrate your victories like they were my own, and to provide for you safety from the noise of the world when all you need is someone on your side. I love you, Logan, this I swear to you.”

Delicately plucking a ring from its satin cushion in the box, Roman cradled Logan’s hand and slipped the band over his left finger. The silver band was inset with three small red stones set on a diagonal, mimicking Orion’s belt - the only constellation Roman could confidently identify for years, frequently and loudly, much to their joined amusement. Woven through the gemstones was a simple silver filigree, and all of which perfectly complemented the engagement ring already at home on Logan’s finger.

If at all possible, Thomas was smiling wider, eyes damp. “Logan? It’s your turn.”

With a sniffle, Logan looked from the wedding band up into the eyes of his love, determined to make it through the ceremony without ruining his make-up. Tenderly, he shifted Roman’s hands so both cradled Logan’s left, around his rings, around their promise. Right hand freed, Logan reached up to cradle Roman’s cheek and smooth his thumb over those sharp cheekbones, accented today with a glittering highlight.

“Roman,” he began, voice a little strained with emotion. “Gods above, Ro, only you and that ridiculously handsome smile of yours could make me forget every carefully planned out word I wanted to say.” The couple shared a chuckle, Roman’s hands tightening briefly around his. “You are every bit the royalty you claim to be. Even now, I cannot recall which one of us began to pursue the other, but I will surely never forget how patient you have been with me through every step of our relationship. Not once have you ever asked more from me than I was willing to share, and nor did you get angry or leave when I requested we slow down because I was scared of how quickly I found myself falling for you. I used to relish in my solitude, in the silence of my own company, but somehow you managed to worm your stubborn way over my walls. You have become a vital part of my life, and I find it unnervingly quiet when you are not around. I cannot even enjoy star-gazing alone anymore! Roman, I need you to know, I would never have it any other way. I swear to care for you through the good and the bad, to celebrate your victories like they were my own, and to provide for you safety from the noise of the world when all you need is someone on your side. I love you, Roman, you truly are the prince of my dreams.”

There was not a dry eye in the theater as Logan retrieved the matching ring to his own from the box and slid it delicately onto Roman’s finger. The equally silver band sat alongside Roman’s engagement ring like it were expressly created to be there. The filigree crept around another trio of gemstones in the same position as Logan’s, though these were coloured a deep blue.

Clutching a hand to his heart, Thomas wiped the tears from his eye. “Roman James Sanders, do you take Logan to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

Unable to look away from his love, Roman nodded with a wide smile. “I do.”

“Logan Wilson Baras, do you take Roman to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

Logan nodded and squeezed their rejoined hands. “I do.”

“Then by the powers vested in me by the province of British Columbia, I now pronounce you husband and husband! You may kiss the groom!”

Logan had only a moment’s notice at Roman’s shit-eating grin, before he was swung around into a dip, his husband’s - husband!! - knee supporting his back and arms around his shoulder and neck. “You are positively ridiculous,” he muttered, before tugging Roman by the tie to share their first kiss as a wedded couple. Cheers and applause erupted around them, including a wolf-whistle that could have just as easily been from any member of their wedding party.

Straightening, the couple leaned together, Roman’s arm around Logan’s back, hand resting comfortingly on his opposite hip. They grinned, their friends and family standing as Thomas’ voice rang out once more. “Guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, for the first time ever, I present to you Mr. and Mr. Baras-Sanders!”

As a second cheer arose, Virgil stepped over to hand Logan his bouquet again, pulling his brother into a tight hug. “Congrats LB,” he whispered, before standing back and applauding the newly weds.

‘Love you’, Logan mouthed in return, smiling at his brother before turning back to Roman to join their hands and take their first steps into the next adventure of their lives together.

[tothedarkdarkseas]

Since we all love a skeevy Stu, what are the most outrageous or down right embarrassing things Stu's gotten up to with the birds? What lengths will the lad go to in order to impress girls?

(I just want to take a quick second to say thank you all for indulging me. The intersection between shipping Stu and Murdoc, and headcanoning Stu as mostly-straight and a total sleaze can be a lonely place.)

I didn’t realize how long this was, so cut added for length!

I think Stu, for the most part, likes things to be easy. You don’t develop an addiction to painkillers, only get a job “to save up for a new keyboard,” and cause little enough trouble to be described in your rockstar biography as “mild-mannered” because you really like having to sweat for something. It is so, so fortunate for him that he is very tall and very good-looking, so pulling girls was never especially difficult when he was young. I’d imagine 6th form Stu was getting on just fine without straining himself more than a bit of cringe-worthy teenage boy flexing, a bit of bragging. It’s more embarrassing to look in from the outside at Stu putting the moves on, it’s just… you feel sorry that these girls find this desirable right now. You feel better knowing they soon won’t.

That’s sort of the turning point for Stu, I think, once he’s out of school. Things that impressed girls when they were both 16 don’t impress when they’re both 19 or 20. (I realize I’m slightly scooting the years around here, technically Stu’s 19 in August 1997 but I like to imagine him being at least 20 when Murdoc rams the shop and having some more time to be Like He Is before he gets involved with the band.) He fails to realize that when girls come home from uni and let Stu take them for Maccy Ds and a small party at his mate Sean’s place where they can drink and shag, that’s them tossing Stu a bone. That’s practically a pity shag, coming back to Crawley and letting that cute but funny-looking Pot bloke feel them up while they drink bottom-shelf booze neither of them paid for in a flat Stu doesn’t rent. Stu gets laid, but it’s not as easy at that point. Not every girl around town or coming back in town is so interested in taking pity, and many who’d dated him (casually or “seriously”) in school are going on to better things, or settling down with partners, or just not interested in giving Stu Pot another go. All that said, I do reckon Stu added a few touches to his barside How You Doing Darling resume. Stu would never have taken up acoustic guitar if he didn’t know it would impress and be easier to transport than a keyboard, and wouldn’t have kept playing it if he didn’t get to finger Stacey Martins at a beach party that time. (She was like, well fit and minted, she was a dream. Maybe if he’d done a better job she would’ve dated him.) Stu doesn’t really continue with football so much after school which is a shame, but he still wears the kit to the park sometimes and pretends he’s just played a game, ladies, he likes to stay active, now wot you girls up to (in reality, he’s splashed hot water on his face from a public restroom, pushed his wet hair back Just So.) Stu’s bought an assortment of pendants, wrist cuffs and an anklet at the shopping center because various pretty girls were working the counter. He scopes out the talent at karaoke (both on stage and off) to make sure he’ll be the ringer and his performance will be seen by at least 2 women.

And then there’s Paula. Now, Stu goes above and beyond trying to impress Paula. He gives her guitar strings and picks for free. He plays keys in the shops when she’s there and shows off way too obviously. He brings his own guitar in the shop once to play something for her, which ranks in the Top 5 Most Painful Moments of either of their lives. He sells pills on the side to afford to take her out after he realizes how much drinks with her put him in the red. I think Stu gets his first tattoo because of Paula, to look cooler to her. She tells him he’d better not waste her time inviting him up and he pulls his cock out on the empty street, already half hard at the thought of her commenting on it.

Once the band’s off and rolling Stu mostly returns to not having to try that hard, but I still think it’s really funny to imagine he does sometimes– maybe because of a sense of competition with Murdoc, maybe out of the confidence that comes with it. Maybe he likes the performance of it. Maybe he just likes talking about himself. (This may sound like a non sequitur, but hang with me.) I know there’s a lot of crossover between Gorillaz fans and MSI fans due to Jamie’s artwork, but I have this wee young teen memory of an interview with the band, and Stu (and Murdoc) always remind me of an answer from Jimmy: “Would you say that you’re an artist?” “Will it get me laid? Then yes, I am an artiste.” Stu certainly has passions, but I’d say they become a lot more pronounced around women because he reckons that’s dead impressive, right, real tall charming guy who’s in a band and knows about movies and football and weather patterns. He’s got layers, y’know. When Clint Eastwood and later Feel Good hits and Stu starts dating real celebrities it’s definitely nice, but I think it props his ego up even more to go back to the funfair and chat up girls on the dodgems. At the end of the day, I think Stu likes being a big fish in a small pond… but he doesn’t mind having the extra “by the way, I’m the singer in Gorillaz” card in his pocket to flex with.

[wot-tidbits]

WOT Merchandise is out of business! Buy it when you still can!

Fellow WoT Fans, We write today to tell you something many of you may have already guessed. After eight wonderful years creating and selling official Wheel of Time merchandise (over 16,000 orders filled, and 40,000 products sold around the world!), our journey now comes to an end. Our hearts are heavy as we share this news, but also full from the love and loyalty you have shown us over the past years. Ta’veren Tees is run by only four of us, Elaine, Jeffrey, Kiley, and Sophie, and we are all Wheel of Time fans first, business owners second. We have striven always to create products that will represent the series in the best way, to make a shirt or coin or poster that will remind you of your favorite series and bring a smile to your face. We take our jobs as stewards of this brand, of Robert Jordan’s world, seriously, because it is a world we love deeply. If something you purchased from Ta’veren Tees has brought you closer to Robert Jordan, Rand, Mat, Moiraine, and fellow readers of the series, then we feel we have done our jobs.

Of course we know there are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel, but this is an ending. As of April 28th 2019, we will no longer be allowed to create new products, though all of our remaining inventory will be available on our site for a time. That means you’ll want to buy anything you’ve been eyeing, as our stock will not be replaced and soon all official Wheel of Time merchandise will be rare, limited items. Will there be sales later? Yes. But the items and sizes you want may be gone, so we suggest grabbing anything you really want sooner rather than later. You can find it at TaverenTees.com.

We cannot begin to express how much Ta’veren Tees has brought to our lives. It has been one of the greatest honors to be involved with The Wheel of Time in this way, to work with Harriet, Maria, and Alan to keep Robert Jordan’s memory alive. To interact so often with fellow fans who love WoT and like to pause just to geek out with us. When we go to JordanCon, we see an ocean of fans wearing Ta’veren Tee shirts and know there are many, many more of you out there, and that is a comforting, gratifying thought. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

May the Light shine on all of you,

Ta’veren Tees

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Dear Friends,

We have been part of the Wheel of Time family since 2005 and some of us here at Badali have been fans since the beginning in 1990. All of us here have a special and important place in our hearts for the Wheel of Time Universe and the people and fans associated with it, which is why it is with heavy hearts we tell you that the Wheel has turned and our license with Wheel of Time is coming to an end. As of April 28th 2019, we will no longer be allowed to make any new jewelry, but we will be selling the remaining inventory until October 2019. If there is something you have had your eye on, now is the time as we will have limited stock of everything.

We have been and will continue to work to see if there is a future for us with Wheel of Time, but "the Wheel weaves what the Wheel wills."

We have loved every second of our time with this incredible universe. Working directly with Robert Jordan and his wife, Harriet McDougal, to bring his vision to life with our jewelry has been a dream and one we are sad to wake from. As the saying goes, "There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time," and with the ending of our license, we look on to the next beginning for us. We will forever be grateful to Robert and Harriet, and to you, our fans and friends. We will cherish the many years of geeking out, theorizing, cosplay appreciation, and growing that you have given us. This fandom has given us so much. We can not begin to tell you all how much it thrilled us to see our jewelry as part of your costumes, daily wardrobe, and even apart of your wedding celebrations. It has been nothing short of a wonderful honor. We look forward to growing in other fandoms with you.

"Yet no one knows the Great Pattern the Wheel weaves, or even the Pattern of an Age. We can only watch, and study, and hope.” - Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World.

May you always find water and shade,

Badali Jewelry,

Paul Badali, Janelle Badali, Alaina Badali, Loria Badali, Ryan Cazier, Hillarie Jill, and Justin Oates.

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Harriet McDougal has spoken yesterday at JordanCon that she tried her best to fight for the contracts so they werent given up so easily.

[m0onbean]

strangers to lovers!AU with moonbin

genre: floOf!! strangers to lovers!AU

warnings: orchestra jokes

note: this literally happened to my sister except she didn’t get with him LMAO (and she’s in band but i’m in orchestra so i’m gonna make this AU about orchestra okay suck it candace)

in your school, orchestra is very competitive like... instead of sports being the “big” thing in typical high schools... at your town it was playing string instruments

so of course, everybody who was skilled at playing their string instrument was already deemed cool

you’re.. already at step 1... there’s just ONE problem

you’re last chair of the cellos

(note: in orchestras, the players are sorted in their seating chart by their skill. first chair is the chair closest to the conductor, so they’re the best out of their section. if you’re last chair... well.. you’re the least skilled LMAO)

bUT HEY!!!! you weren’t to blame !!!!

you first started to learn how to play the cello only a month ago

despite your private cello tutor’s efforts to spice you up it just didn’t work much. cellos are hard to play Ok

and even though it is a little embarrassing you can’t find yourself to care bc in the end you’re only doing this for your VPA credit LMFAO + your good friend MJ is also last chair in his viola section so the two of you were the Dynamic Duo. “the strings kings” as he calls it

“MJ never call us that again” “dang Y/N don’t get your bow so tightened” “MJ i swear to god-“

alrighty so your school is having a competition so your entire orchestra has to take a field trip to a fancy concert hall to perform

and so everyone in your orchestra is all panicking and tuning their strings cuz the bus is arriving soon

and when you’re done packing your cello, you look around to try and find MJ and that’s when you find a familiar(?) back and you’re like “MJ!!!!”

so you run up and smack his plush butt since that’s how you always greet him

...but you realize

this man is way too tall....

and when he turns around in utter confusion you’re like

shit........... S H I T

BECAUSE YOU JUST SPANKED THE BUTT OF A STRANGER

AND WHEN HE TURNS AROUND YOU REalize that he’s frEAKING FIRST CHAIR OF THE VIOLINS: MOONBIN

anD in your mind everything is scrambled into a mess bc first of all, it’s tHE FIRST CHAIR OF THE VIOLINS. AKA the king of the orchestra!!! literally he sits on a throne!!! he invented the word “orchestra”!!

AND IT WASNT EVEN LIKE A LOWKEY SLAP... it wAs like a FULL, haRD whack

so you’re out here apologizing several times and bowing your head frantically

but when you look up Moonbin is actually all cool about it

he’s just like “oh!!!! i wAs just... surprised” and you’re like “omfg i’m so sorry just end my life here right now i’m ready to be taken by the gods”

but he’s just like pffftttt i don’t blame you this ass is thicc asf

and you’re like ... wot

then he’s laughing and his eyes are crinkled up and he looks like a puppy & you’re like wow this man is so beautiful

but you remember you’re talking to the FIRST CHAIR VIOLIN and you get all

blushy from receiving this individual attention from him

so you excuse yourself and run away to whoever knows where so you can crumble and die from embarrassment

when the bus arrives and you find MJ to be your seat partner he asks why you look so drained

and you’re like... please i don’t want to talk about it

at the competition you’re still embarrassed bc honestly you technically sexually harassed him and that just goes unexcused but he was so chill about it like how?? and why??

and you don’t realize it but you’re zoning out while shamefully plucking the strings of your cello when suddenly a head pops up in front of you and you’re like bITCHWTF but when you see it’s moonbin you’re like- oh.. Ooh??

and he’s like “are you ready for the concert!!” and you’re like “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh notreally”

and he’s all smiley and happy that it’s nearly impossible not to at least smile back

yet you still can’t believe you’re talking to him !!!! especially because you’re pretty sure everybody is staring at the two of you talking rn and is like Why is the last chair cello and first chair violin talking ????

you two end up complaining about how the concert hall doesn’t provide you guys free food and laugh about your conductor’s bald spot

the performance goes well and you feel all giddy when moonbin tells you that you did well when you get back to the school

you end up messaging him for the first time on Instagram and apologize once again for slapping his buttkckskskaoa

he ends up dismissing it and assures you that it was nice

and you were like ....???wHAT

but he quickly corrects himself in the next message bubble and is liKE “wAIT I DIDNT MEAN IT LIKE THAT-“

that’s when you start to question his kinks

at school he starts to normally hang around you and even offers to play your cello and for you play to his violin

the star musician is actually better than you at the cello even though he’s only played it a few times before

you don’t even know how to hold the violin bow RIP

whenever you’re not in orchestra class together, he somehow manages to find you while you’re studying in the library or walking around the hallways

at first you’re a little taken aback at how persistent he is to maintain your odd friendship but you actually don’t mind at all

he suggests to tutor you so you can sight read pieces better and you of course take up that offer...

for the first quarter of the “lesson” it was actually learning while the other time was spent lounging on his couch while talking about both of your hardships and goals in life

despite being pressured as the star musician of the school, he loves and can perfectly handle it

his parents and teachers are always praising him and that motivates him to enter a musical college and major in Music Education and maybe start his own teaching business

his dreams are always so realistic and hopeful at the same time that you just admire how hard working he is and how he manages to not crack like an egg under all of this stress honestly

MJ starts getting a little jealous and pouts when you started to hang around moonbin more often but at the same time is secretly rooting for the two of you to hook up wHAT

moonbin ends up spending a LOT of time with you... in fact he spends so much time with you that you can’t recall what it was like not being around him

somewhere throughout the friendship there’s a turning point where you realize he’s not just your friend.. or you don’t want him to be JUST that

it comes at no surprise when you shyly ask him to be your boyfriend while you two are cuddling in your living room while listening to classical music in the background with him reading a book and you playing with his fingers

his response? a little scoff like “isn’t it obvious we are practically already dating”

you’re a bit hesitant to fully submerge yourself into this relationship bc you always need to remind yourself of both of your circumstances... he’s first chair violin and he’s like wayyyyy above you and it worries you bc you care about his reputation

and when you voice these concerns to him he just pets you and softly says “(y/n)... it’s literally just string instruments . nobody cares”

... he’s totally right though. nobody cares at all lmaooolo,, except maybe all of his fans that were hoping to date him... but moonbin is totally oblivious that he has a fan club LMFAO

your relationship is so pure and innocent yet it still makes your head spin and heart feel so tingly

moonbin is romantic af and wouldn’t hesitate to pluck a flower off the ground and tuck it behind your ear casually

he would like to always compliment your voice and say it’s the best music he’s ever heard and will ever hear

likes to compose his own songs and title them very lowkey things that all refer to you such as... Untied Shoelaces or Beautiful Eyes

other times he’ll just flat out title the song “(Y/N)”

likes to kiss you... a lot.

kisses you everywhere and whenever. in the music room, when he’s about the leave your house after a night of studying and cuddling, while you’re just playing the cello and he thinks you look cute, when there’s a red stop light so he can pause driving and peck your lips

you two are so open that it’s so easy telling him anything. for ex you’re constantly worried about your future and feel like you’re lacking. he makes sure to tell you that you’re doing fine and that you’ll succeed at whatever you do

and you comfort him and remind him to take a break since he’s always striving for the best so he tends to overwork and be really hard on himself

Moonbin always teases you for being so entranced by his butt the first time you met and thanks to your butt fetish, the two of you are together now

and you can’t really deny it because... well.. he’s not wrong lmaooo

dates would include him in your room at 10pm complaining about how even though classical music goes underappreciated these days that doesn’t mean that modern pop music isn’t good while laying his head in your lap as you run your fingers through his hair and nod your head whenever he makes a good point

occasionally he’ll cook for you and you’ll try to compensate by cooking for him too but it never ends up good (AKA you two end up burning all of the food) so you guys resort to ordering pizza

moonbin is so grateful that you understand him and remind him that he is a human that needs a break, too

and you’re grateful that he’s so understanding and genuinely cares about you

he even confesses that one of the main reasons why he took interest in you was because you were last chair cello but you didn’t slack off at all

even though you think he’s the most hard working person you know, he thinks the same about you

eventually MJ meets Jinjin, a trombone player, and immediately goes on a double date with you & binnie

you almost shed tears at how in love MJ is with Jinjin and the four of you are literally the best squad to have happened

in conclusion, you and moonbin love eachother so much and are perfect bye

[peaches-of-1]

Training: Lip in Hip

This is a short fun piece I’ve been thinking about doing for a while. I started writing this when I had been watching lots of dance covers of people doing “Hip and Lip” by Hyuna.

Training Masterlist

You thought about it and asked if they’d be up for a K-pop in Public sort of thing even though you knew it’d be dangerous because fans. Jin echoed your thoughts.

You looked at your computer screen and changed tabs to YouTube which was playing in the background. There were several that came to mind that you sort of knew the moves to already, but you’d be nervous to ask for a few of them. Biting your lip, you replied that you would tell them when they got home.

Then they reminded you that they’d be in a different city overnight because of their packed schedule. Right. You sighed and then they floodded you with messages not to be sad and that they’d be home soon. You smiled.

“I love you guys. I’ll just send you video links then.” You smiled fondly at your phone screen. “Fuck, I gotta go grocery shopping.”

For the first time in what seemed a while, you really loved your life. It was perfect for you. Your wildest dreams had come true and more. Thinking about it, Taehyung was probably busy getting ready for the vacation. The one in the states. According to the planner, it would take 120 days including proper rest and wiggle room if anything went awry.

[Jimin’s 🔴REC]

White noise. Nothing to see yet. Ok, human noise but still no faces.

“-HUT UP!! I’M LIVE!!!”

Noise settles and the cutest mochi shows up on screen.

“So,” Jimin says with a mouthful of teriyaki noodles. “Our friend, (Y/N), wants to do a K-pop in Public challenge. She’s probably not watching, so I can talk about this--”

“Don’t talk about it!” The scolding voice of Jin comes from offscreen. “You know how she likes to lurk. Also, they’ll probably message her telling her about it.”

Jimin sighs, “You’re right. Ok, so I’ll talk about these noodles instead. They’re so good! I wasn’t sure if I was going to like them because the restaurant said they were using a new sauce, but it’s good. I might order some more.”

The camera turns onto Jin with crumbs all over his face, “Wot?”

“How’s the food?” Laughter.

Their phones went off and it was the group chat. You had sent links to the three songs you wanted to do in the order of most to least. They laughed and covered their mouths, nearly choking.

“Do you see this?” Hobi asked. “She wants to do these dances? Oh my god. Can we even--”

He suddenly remembers they are live and starts laughing. Hobi stands and gets close to the camera, “That’s a surprise for you, so I can’t talk about it here. Mwah” And he went into a different room to call (Y/N).

Jimin smiles and pushes back his hair, “You’re gonna like this once we have it figured out. How about we answer some questions?”

He smiles and waits for a good one to come up.

[Later...]

Jimin is in bed . Sideways. It’s no longer live but his video diary of sorts.

“I know I’m not supposed to say this, but I’m so glad (Y/N) is in our lives. She’s such a lovely human being. Always there for us and a great heart.” He sighs. “I love her. Like, not just regular love, but I would marry her if I could. She probably doesn’t want someone like me, not forever. There are things you don’t know about me that she does.”

Like, the fact that he was a Little. The fact that he was a bottom was only speculation in the fandom, and they didn’t know the true extent.

He looks behind him and then back at the camera, “When she went away, I couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t know why, but now I do. I love her and she left. I love her so much. I only want what’s best for her. When she came back, it was like a miracle. Sorry if I made any of you jealous by holding her in public and stuff. I just thought that if I let go, then she’d leave again.”

He sneezed.

“Excuse me.”

Hoseok came out of the bathroom in his teal silk pajamas, “Your turn Jiminie. Are you recording again?”

“Yeah, I’m almost done, though.”

“Ok.”

Jimin looks back at the lens. “I’m gonna go get clean. I’ll see you all later!”

You were so happy when the boys came back home. Jin kissed your cheek and said he loved the photos of you with Yeontan. Namjoon made sure you did all the chores on the list he had left. Yoongi pet your head before he plopped on the couch. Taehyung picked up his Tannie and went to the fridge. Hoseok hugged you and said he missed you. Kookie kissed your lips and asked Tae if there was any sparkling water. Jimin was last, and he held your hand and led you to the couch.

They wanted to say something. You knew this because they were out and didn’t go directly to their rooms. Tae said he’d see us later because he only had time for a 30 minute nap before heading back out, and he was gonna take it.

“Well?”

Jungkook spoke up first, “So, we learned the dances we wanted to do. We all want to do the first one. Jin, Hoseok, and I wanna do the second one. The rest wanna do the other.”

You tilted your head, “That’s great news! Just, why do you sound like you’re leaving something out?”

No one answered. Taehyung came out, “They all wanna be the one you ride during ‘Hip & Lip’, and want you to decide since they’re huge babies.” And then he left again to his room.

“Bitch.” Hobi said under his breath and then talked to you, “It’s obviously me, right? I mean, c’mon.”

They started to bicker among themselves. Jin and Namjoon just looked at each other and shook their heads. You pressed your pointer fingers together, “Actually, I wanted it to be Jin if you’re into it?”

He popped up and grabbed both of your hands, “Are you sure? Oh my gosh!”

Yoongi broke his stoicness, “I’m happy for you, I really am, but why him?”

You stood up and rubbed his back and shoulders, “He’s a broad boy, and me likey the support.”

Hoseok spoke up, “But wouldn’t someone with a thinner body work, though? He’s gotta get in and out pretty quickly just so that no one get in anybody’s way.”

Jin pouted, “Hobi, are you trying to mess this up for me by saying you’re the better person because I’m--”

“Sorry, hyung, for interrupting and saying that, but I’m just being honest. I’m not just saying me, I’m just saying for logic’s sake, someone that doesn’t have to make her spread her legs so much to let one of us...get...between them. I’m talking about dance, ok!”

“You sure are, Hobi.” Yoongi laughed and flashed a smile.

Namjoon spoke up, “He’s right, y’know. Everything should go as smoothly as possible. Also, are we gonna get other girls to join us or--”

“NO.” All the other guys said in unison, with so much power that it made Joonie take a step back.

“Well, no it is then, ddaeng!”

Jin went over to comfort him, and then all eyes turned back to you, waiting for you to choose one of them. Jeez. You really didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or think it was a favoritism thing. Looking around you decided yes or no for the remaining options.

“Well, Jimin was usually getting ridden by me, and I don’t want you getting turned on in public. Hobi and Yoongi, you two might try something, so no way.” You looked between Namjoon and Jungkook. “Rock, paper, scissors. Best 2 out of three.”

They quickly turned to each other and did the game. Namjoon won twice, and so he was the one getting ridden when they did the dance. Everyone watched the dance practice video on TV tracking and picking their parts. Some of the moves they had done variations of, so they knew it’d be pretty easy to learn.

Their schedules were pretty light, so for the next two weeks, the seven of you focused on learning the dance. It was Taehyung that came up with showing up at random spots where busking was popular and do it there. Daytime so that it’d be easier to escape afterwards. You pouted since you wanted to do at least one at night.

You guys would do it twice a day at random spots, busking or not. That’s what was decided in the end in order to protect the boys...and you. The way the manager said it made it seem like you weren’t as important, which you knew you weren’t in the grand scheme of things. Not in the same way.

They all gathered around you and said that they loved you, giving that manager a glare. You giggled, actually believing that they did. If not, you wouldn’t have been here now. And so you guys filmed yourselves performing it for an impromptu Bangtan Bomb that went up at midnight.

At the end, a black screen comes up with a list of times. It was when you were going to perform to get some hype. #BangtanList was trending within an hour, and you went to bed cuddling a frustrated Jimin. He had made a pretty big mess up during an interview today and had been beating himself up for it. All the other guys noticed, but he didn’t really say anything except screaming your name as soon as he got home.

He just wanted to be held, and your arms were always opened.

Times Square Mall, 10am. You guys had to do the first one pretty early and before lunch so that you could eat straight after making your getaway. The boys were in face masks. The mall would play the song over the speakers. You got ready and performed with the boys, smiles in your eyes. Sexy face on.

Bodyguards made sure everyone was far enough back for you guys to move as the crowd started recording and smiling. Some even cried upon seeing most of Bangtan in person. When it was over, a hole was made in the crowd and you all ran to the van that was waiting for you all outside. #LiptanSonyeonHip started going around along with #BangtanList now.

Fantaken recordings and pictures started to circulate. There was a day that Taehyung could join you guys, and he was so glad. Namjoon let him be the one between your legs for those performances. It went well. Not too many mobs were caused even when you did show up to busking events.

Sometimes you’d bump into one of the guys on accident, or they’d run into you and you would just smile and laugh it off. There was even one day when you traded spots with Namjoon. Well, actually, Namjoon was too shy to do that part, and so Jimin did it instead.

The last time was midnight. It was as if everyone in Korea had decided to be out and about in Seoul this time of night. It’s basically what had happened. Everyone wanted to see the boys perform with you and weren’t sure where you’d pop up. This time, it was a fan inclusive performance. Four girls had been chosen beforehand to be a part of this final showing, but they had to promise not to tell anyone where the boys were gonna be.

They didn’t, thank goodness. They’d have enough traffic and stuff with people trying to catch the 3 minute performance after their friends called and contacted them and with the quickness of social media updates.

So, when the performance happened, it was insanely fun. The girls didn’t fangirl too much and were able to do the dance without being too extra. They were also really good at what they did. Maybe they could join the boys and you on tour one day in the near future.

It was just insanely fun, and you guys were allowed to chill a bit after the performance. Which meant, you went home after getting enough takeout for a wedding reception and then have an amazing moonlit meal on the balcony and hang out in the jacuzzi. While you all ate, you looked at the photos and videos the fans had taken, retweeting and liking the ones that were your favorites.

You had all worn some type of light up piece of clothing. The boys had light up necklaces and glasses, with Taehyung and Hoseok also having light up shoes that they performed in. You had gotten to wear a light up fur jacket that you absolutely loved to pieces. Then you guys decided to go live as you all chilled for a moment.

“So, how’d you guys like our performances? It was cool, right?” Jungkook kicked his feet out.

Hoseok grinned and spoke with a full mouth, “It was (Y/N)’s idea. She wanted to do something big and fun with us since we’ve all been so busy lately.”

“But we’re going on a break soon before our next comeback.” Namjoon said. “An official announcment will be coming out soon. I can’t wait to see all of international fans.” He winked into the camera.

Jin added, “You guys are so bad at keeping secrets, I swear to God!”

Everyone laughed. Taehyung came into the room and told the guys to be quiet because you and Jimin had fallen asleep. The guys decided to come see how cute it was because it was two of the cutest members of their life fast asleep and cuddling on a couch. Both were in large sweaters and it was unclear if they were wearing shorts underneath. Jimin’s head rested on your chest while one of your hands were on his shoulder blades. It had fallen from smoothing his hair until he went to sleep.

“Awww. Cuteeee” Hoseok whispered.

The six boys returned to the other room to finish their live, answering questions until every other word became a yawn.

[grimelords]

My august playlist is finished and I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for writing 3000 words about it. It’s mostly for my own amusement so please feel free to scroll right past this. There’s a lot in here, from Grateful Dead covers to Sunn 0))) and everything in between so please enjoy.

The New Stone Age - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: This is the perfect album opener because almost every other song on this album is Orchestral Maneouvers In The Dark’s normal fare of great downbeat synthpop but this song is like a nightmare come to life and it really sets the rest of the album in a different light. The otherreason I love this song is that ‘oh my god what have I done this time’ is a constant thought so it’s nice to sing along to. Buffalo Stance (12" Version) - Neneh Cherry: This song is an absolute masterpiece, the production is amazing, the synth riff is magic and this extended version is even better than the original because it has a lot more 80s scratching and also a bit in the middle where she says 'WOT IS 'E LIKE??’ Wakin On A Pretty Day - Kurt Vile: This is a great example of why Kurt Vile is good because this song goes for 9 minutes and you don’t even notice. It just keeps cruising on and on and you don’t mind a bit Turn Out The Stars - The Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra & Jim McNeely: This is another ABC Jazz find, its a very beautiful piece of music but what I like most is the ending where it stretches out a long long note into a big mysterious chord for no discernable reason. Downtown - Destroyer: I have yet to look up a picture of what Destroyer looks like but I from his music I imagine him to be a sort of mineral deficient vampire type of man who has just been wandering around New York for a hundred years. I had a big moment with this album this month, it’s really just perfect start to finish. Wow I just looked up a picture of him and I’m not far off. Song For America - Destroyer: I caught myself singing the part of this song where it goes 'winter spring summer and fall, animals crawl, towards death’s embrace’ while I was walking around town a couple of weeks ago which was good. Hoping For - Bad//Dreems: Bad//Dreems are maybe the best Australian band around right now. This is the first song I ever heard from them a couple of years ago and I listened to it probably 20 times in a row while I rode my bike around the school I used to live next too one afternoon until a cleaning guy yelled at me. Mirrors - Justin Timberlake: My girlfriend called me a '20/20 Experience apologist’ once and I’ve never gotten over it. It’s a good album! And Mirrors is the best song on it! It does the classic Timberlake/Timbaland thing of finishing up a perfectly servicable pop song after 4ish minutes and then starting up on some bullshit for another 4 and I love it the whole time. Speaking In Tongues - Eagles Of Death Metal: The guitar sound in this sounds like someone in honking the horn of their car in the studio. Eagles Of Death Metal are a wildly patchy band but their first album is a classic front to back and this song especially is a standout. Pain - The War On Drugs: I cannot get over how straight up beautiful this album is. I’ve listened to it more than anything else this month and I think every time I have a new favourite song. It turns out I love this one a lot though because as I was putting together this post I realised it was on here twice. Simulation - Tkay Maidza: This album was kind of unfocused and I really hope Tkay figures it out for her next album because when she’s on she absolutely kills it and this song is a great example of that. Countdown - Beyonce: I’m not a huge Beyonce fan (don’t @ me) but Countdown is easily her best song (don’t @ me). It’s just so dense and agile and busy in every aspect it’s absolutely hypercolour. New Dorp, New York (feat. Ezra Koenig) - SBTRKT: This is still such a flooring song, it doesn’t sound like anything else and it’s so left-field while still being incredibly cool the while time. Also about a year after this song came out I found out that New Dorp is a real place in New York further confirming my theory that America is a cartoon. Three Mantras Of Bon - Phurpa: Sorry, sorry, I’m trying to remove it. I accidentally had a big moment with a few different drone things this month and I fell asleep listening to Phurpa for about a week which I don’t recommend because it is literally just Russian men groaning at you fifteen minutes at a time and it feels like death has come to take your bones away. This song is good because they stop groaning halfway in and start making interminable vuvuzela noises instead. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire: When @grumsal came to visit us this month he was quite drunk one night and explaining to me that Neon Bible is Arcade Fire’s most underrated album and Sprawl II is their best song, opinions that I’m quickly warming to. Boys - Britney Spears: This song made me burst out laughing while I was alone because the bass in it sounds so funny. It’s like a straight up standard MIDI bass sound in this professional pop song and it sounds so, so dumb. This song alse features in the Beyonce film, Austin Powers: Goldmember so that’s how you know it’s good. Notwo - Autechre: I wish Autechre has more straight up ambient songs like this because they’re very very good at it. This and Outh9X which comes after it make a good pair because Quaristice is almost exhausting by the time you get to the end of it so it’s nice to have 15 minutes of wind-down that you can still get into like this. Hundred Syllable Mantra - Phurpa: Sorry, sorry, they are back and they have more groaning to do. I got deeply into this song this month and even now listening back to it I just want to lay on the floor and fucking die because of it. That’s how you know it’s a good song: it wants to kill you and you want to let it. Melody 5 - Tera Melos: Tera Melos’ Untitled album is a masterpiece. It’s just pure creative energy, before they figured out you can sing on a song without itjust being yelling in the background. This song especially ecapsulates the spirit of the whole thing because it twists and turns forever without ever feeling forced or boring, it just goes on and on and on with new idea after new idea but still feels like a complete work as well. The sample at the end where she says “lucas[?] you are as beautiful as [?] and [?] [???]” makes me very emotional even though I have no idea what’s going on. Good song. Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah - House And Land: I found out about this duo because I’m a huge fan of the guitarist Sarah Louise but I didn’t even know she was a singer as well. This is great appalachian folk music without the watered down bullshit and WITH the sensibilities of modern composition. The calustophobically close vocal harmonies in this are just shocking. The Day Is Past And Gone - House And Land: I saw someone on their bandcamp page saying they’d never fully appreciated the function of the drone in this sort of folk music before they heard this album and they’re absolutely right. Everything pivots around the guitar drone in this song for the first half, then when the guitar takes over the violin steps in and everything weaves around it. Intro/Keep It Healthy - Warpaint: This is a great song but the intro especially made me think a lot about recording and the identity of albums and as inconsequential as it sounds I think the drummer fucking up and apologising at the very start benefits this album hugely because it immediately puts a very human face on music that could easily be quite aloof and distant to the point of alienation without it. Vaseline Machine Gun (Live) - Leo Kottke: I love Leo Kottke so much and this is maybe the first song I ever heard of his and it absolutely blew my mind but this live version is very funny. This is solo acoustic guitar music, american primitivism from the bluegrass tradition, it’s not cool guy music by any stretch but Leo Kottke has somehow packed out an auditorium full of folks who are absolutely hanging on his every note and when the central slide melody of this song starts you can hear one guy in the crowd just absolutely losing his mind over it in a couple of long, distant “woooooooo"s and I like to imagine that that man is me. Cavity - Hundred Waters: This song is so beautiful and so considered in every aspect. The frailty of her voice makes it feel like it could break at any second and the whole thing could collapse, the oscillating two note refrain that ties it together is so strong when it comes back and the percussion is so detailed in a way you wouldn’t expect from any other band but Hundred waters. Metastaseis - Iannis Xenakis: Thankyou to @thoughtportrait for introducing me to the nightmare music of true oddball Iannis Xanakis, I was reading about him for a few hours while I listened through his music and Metasaseis is a good example of a piece of music that has a lot of context around it, and the concept of the composition being individually scored for every single player in the orchestra is interesting and innovative and everything like that but it’s not essential knowledge to understand this: you just listen to it and get overwhelmed. For Organ And Brass - Ellen Arkbro: I am obsessed with this piece of music. It is absolutely transcedental but the first time I listened to it I heard a train horn honk in the distance outside our flat and thought it was part of the music, so it’s also that kind of music. It is twenty minutes of long, loud, organ and brass notes and I cannot get enough of it. Bogan Pride - Bad//Dreems: "big muscles pumping in my sweatshirt/ big muscles pumping in my dreams”. Almost every Bad//Dreems song is about The Boys and either being one of the boys or how much you fucking hate the boys or how much you fucking hate that you are one of the boys and it’s so good. Alice - Sunn 0))): The last part of my Drone Month was listening to this song a lot. This is my favourite from Monoliths And Dimensions because without any vocals or the choir of the others it feels very stripped back, the guitar moves in big waves and the brass follows. Also, I used this song to diagnose exactly which part of my car door was rattling when I played particularly bassy music this month, so it’s functional too. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - Budddy Rich: I can’t believe I only found out this was a Beatles song this month when I was searching for this Buddy Rich version on Spotify. How embarrassing. I’ve listened to this album for years and this song is so melodically rich I wish it went for three times longer. Obedear - Purity Ring: I watched Search Party this month and aside from being an absolutely amazing show that somehow balances incredible characters, violence and mystery while still being hilarious it reminded me how good of a song Obedear is. I wish it had a proper opening credits sequence because this song never goes for long enough in the show. Out Of Line - Gesaffelstein: This song starts menacing and just gets more menacing the whole time. “a bitter sunken love in a bleach blonde submarine” is such a great line, and the voices barking on the offbeat near the end is so propulsive it makes me wish this song was longer. Every Time The Sun Comes Up - Sharon Van Etten: This song gets stuck in my head whenever I wake up and have a news alert about whatever the newest calamity is, but it also makes me smile because having a line like 'I washed your dishes but I shitted in your bathroom’ in such a downbeat and serious song is so funny. “I shitted.” Atomic Number - case/lang/veirs: This song feels like a folk song from another dimension where everyone worships the atom and the overlapping vocals in the verse are so nice. This whole album is just full of beautiful layered songs like this I really recommend it. Black Gold Blues - Laura Veirs: the case/lang/veirs album reminded me how much I like Laura Veirs and how much of a moment this sort of Kaki King/Tegan And Sara genre was for a while. The karate noises in the background of this song really make it. Golden Brown - The Stranglers: Will a song about heroin in alternating 6/8 and 7/8 featuring a harpsichord ever again be such a bop? Unlikely. Aquarian - Grizzly Bear: I’m still working out how I feel about the new Grizzly Bear album. It’s so dense and it always takes me a while to work through their albums but I like it so far and this song has really stood out to me so far. The drums especially make it, in the second half the dragged snare becomes the centrepiece that the rest centres around. Leak -Truth, yesnotesnotes- - Boris: If you’re still reading reply to this post and tell me whether you think of Heavy Rocks meaning Heavy as a concept Rocks like it’s good, or Heavy Rocks like big boulders. Because I’ve always thought of it as the former and I don’t know why. Speak In Rounds - Grizzly Bear: Here’s an easier Grizzly Bear song. I had it stuck in my head intermittently all month and would just sing it to myself constantly, to the point where I looked up the lyrics and it’s literally about drawing a picture upside down to distract yourself from tinnitus. The Obvious Child - Paul Simon: It’s crazy that Paul Simon put out the Rhythm Of The Saints right after Graceland because it’s like the expanded weirdo version of an already out-there album. Like a sequel from a different universe. Acetate - Metz: I was listening to Death From Above 1979 and then I realised I should stop fucking around and just listen to Metz instead. I love the loping rhythm of the bass that drives everything in this song and how absolutely noisy every single part of it is, it’s pure frustrated energy. Talkin’ World War III Blues - Bob Dylan: I’ve been reading a book about the Cuban Missile Crisis called One Minute To Midnight by Michael Dobbs and it reminded me how much of a bullshitter Bob Dylan is cause he said he wrote A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall about the Cuban Missle Crisis but there’s recorded evidence of him playing it like a year beforehand. Anyway this is a far better song and the best kind of Dylan song where he just rambles on about a bunch of bullshit that happened in a dream for 6 minutes. If I Had A Heart - Fever Ray: I’ve always sort of preferred Fever Ray over any of The Knife’s albums and as far as album openers go there really isn’t a better tone setter than this song and the huge throbbing synth that just sits there manacingly throughout while the organ builds walls over it. Dust Bowl Children - Alison Krauss & Union Station: A few weeks ago we saw a double feature of Hail, Cesar and O Brother Where Art Thou at The Astor and I learned that Hail, Cesar is  masterpiece that I didn’t fully appreciate when I first saw it and I remembered how much I love Dan Tyminski’s voice. Incredibly good song from a huge voice about my personal passion: soil erosion and how we are all going to die because we haven’t learned from the sins of agriculture past. Give The Mule What He Wants - Queens Of The Stone Age: I’ve listened to the new Queens Of The Stone age maybe 5 times through and it’s just not doing it for me, which is pretty disapointing. There is a bright side, however, and it’s that their first album has been re-added to spotify after disappearing for about a year. This is a song I regularly get obsessed with and have to listen to over and over and over but I can’t pin down what it is that I love about it. A huge part of it is definitely the propulsive groove of the verses and the way the drums and bass just roll forwards so heavily. Thinking Of A Place - The War On Drugs: I’m so glad this song made it onto the album because when it was initially released I thought it was just going to be a Record Store Day exclusive single but it works so perfectly as a centrepiece to this album. It’s expansive and beautiful and it makes me so emotional! Two Trucks - Lemon Demon: Two pickup trucks making love. American made, built Ford tough. Atomic Bomb - William Onyeabor: This was another song that kept getting stuck in my head reading the Cuban Missile Crisis book, and also because of the news over the last month but probably mostly just because it’s a great song. There’s something about the vocal phrasing and the drum groove that makes this song feel really structurally strong for the jam that it is and I really can’t get enough of it. The Scene Between - The Go! Team: The Go! Team are the most underrated band in the world and I’m dedicating my life to getting them the respect they deserve. For some reason their newest album has been removed from Spotify except for this single which I’m thankful for because it’s a great song. The Werewolf - Paul Simon: Paul Simon is fucking 75 years old and he put out one of the best songs of his career last year! Who’s gonna stop him! Tilt Shift - Mosca: “I never lost a fight [to camera: I have lost a few fights] but I will fucking shoot you bruv” Tilt Shift (Julio Bashmore Remix) - Mosca: Tilt Shift is an incredible song and somehow I only found out that Julio Bashmore had done a remix of it last month. It’s a great remix because it sort of sounds like he’s just done a mashup of Tilt Shift and the Wii Shop Channel Theme, which is fine by me. Spit You Out - Metz: The riff in this feels like Queens Of The Stone Age’s first album if they were incredibly upset. I love how long this song is, they really wring every last drop out of it. The Deadly Rhythm - Refused: It’s been years and the drums in this song still kick my ass. It’s crazy that an album whose first lyrics are 'I’ve got a bone to pick with capitalism, and a few to break!’ can be so legitimately cool. Over Everything - Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett: I am so excited for this album. The two most relaxed songwriters alive finally collaborating to be incredible relaxed together. I wasn’t a hundred percent on this song when I first heard it because Kurt sounds like he almost can’t keep up with the song, but after listening to it a lot I’ve decided that makes it even better. Also a good 60% of this song is just them jamming out and I really hope the album follows the same formula. The City - The Drones: There’s a great part in this song where the tape runs out during the recording and there’s a long break while they change it which as far as accidents go is an incredibly musically effective one. Drive - Ainslie Wills: This song should have been a huge hit, I’ve been obsessed with it for two years now and it’s still incredible every time. Somebody sponsor Ainslie Wills and force her to make a new album already. Me And My Uncle - The Lone Bellow: It’s truly crazy how much time I spent listening to a 5.5 hour Grateful Dead tribute album last year but it’s just that good. Please set aside half a day to listen to Day Of The Dead in full and have a massive Grateful Dead phase for six months after like I did.

listen here

[queentoreador]

You knew this was coming. The Garden of Proserpine.

[I'm posting the whole poem: it's so beautiful and perfect in its completeness it feels blasphemous to cut it.]Here, where the world is quiet; Here, where all trouble seems Dead winds' and spent waves' riot In doubtful dreams of dreams; I watch the green field growing For reaping folk and sowing, For harvest-time and mowing, A sleepy world of streams. [The poem starts off with lines that I honestly think should be more recognised. It took me so long to discover Swinburne and once I had, I couldn't help but feel that he deserves more recognition than he gets. At least outside of academic study. (For example "the world is quiet here" is a code in ASOUE and I never knew it was a reference.) The poem begins like a lullaby, it's somehow soothing, definitely soporific. The repetition of "Here, where" has a whispering quality and again feels like a lullaby. The alliteration of the 'w' again adds to a breathy, whispered tone. Swinburne's death is a peaceful ceasing of violence and noise: the poem feels hushed throughout, bordering on silent.]I am tired of tears and laughter, And men that laugh and weep; Of what may come hereafter For men that sow to reap: I am weary of days and hours, Blown buds of barren flowers, Desires and dreams and powers And everything but sleep. [The speaker rejects the world of the living but especially it's excess. Excess of noise, colour and emotion. The futility of life is presented as something exhausting and even the things that individuals classically strive for (desires, dreams, powers) are rejected as ultimately fruitless.]Here life has death for neighbour, And far from eye or ear Wan waves and wet winds labour, Weak ships and spirits steer; They drive adrift, and whither They wot not who make thither; But no such winds blow hither, And no such things grow here. [The idea of life and death being adjacent but separate, the idea of "the veil" etc. is presented. Instead of stagnation, he again choses to present to the end of life as calm, quiet and still.]No growth of moor or coppice, No heather-flower or vine, But bloomless buds of poppies, Green grapes of Proserpine, Pale beds of blowing rushes Where no leaf blooms or blushes Save this whereout she crushes For dead men deadly wine. [Poppies of course being connected literally with the production of opiates and symbolically with sleep (see the field in The Wizard of Oz). Green grapes perhaps implying sourness, bitterness - none of the sweetness or richness of the world of the living. Rushes, again with the whispering sound. You can practically hear the wind "blowing" through the line. "For dead men, deadly wine" ah. I just love that line... This whole stanza is just so beautifully crafted, I can see the scene so clearly in my mind's eye.]Pale, without name or number, In fruitless fields of corn, They bow themselves and slumber All night till light is born; And like a soul belated, In hell and heaven unmated, By cloud and mist abated Comes out of darkness morn. [The juxtaposition of fruitless fields of corn feels again cold. The symbol of the harvest failing to fulfill its basic function. And also the rejection of Demeter and the Spring, the souls wait for her arrival to bring the light which for them will never come.]Though one were strong as seven, He too with death shall dwell, Nor wake with wings in heaven, Nor weep for pains in hell; Though one were fair as roses, His beauty clouds and closes; And well though love reposes, In the end it is not well. [Swinburne is not a fan of Christian dogma, heaven and hell are both rejected in favour of his version of the afterlife. Which while he implies is preferable to the exhaustion of life, does not pretend that it will be beautiful. No one escapes the cold reality of death.]Pale, beyond porch and portal, Crowned with calm leaves, she stands Who gathers all things mortal With cold immortal hands; Her languid lips are sweeter Than love's who fears to greet her To men that mix and meet her From many times and lands. [Prosperpine/Persephone is presented as a matriarchal figure here which is slightly unusual as that role usually falls to her mother Demeter. She is cold, and unfailing in her duties yet still gentle. Death being sweeter than love, a balm for the pains of life. A universal kiss.]She waits for each and other, She waits for all men born; Forgets the earth her mother, The life of fruits and corn; And spring and seed and swallow Take wing for her and follow Where summer song rings hollow And flowers are put to scorn. [She has not only rejected the world of the living, but forgotten it entirely - so detached is she in her own domain from the spirits of life. Spring and seed and swallow, symbols of fertility and birth - even her antithesis is drawn to her realm eventually.]There go the loves that wither, The old loves with wearier wings; And all dead years draw thither, And all disastrous things; Dead dreams of days forsaken, Blind buds that snows have shaken, Wild leaves that winds have taken, Red strays of ruined springs. [Love is presented as fleeting even in age, weary wings implying a laying to rest. An acceptance of falling. Here the tone briefly becomes more clamourous: the world of the living intrudes his thoughts of peace. But these intrusions are assimilated back into the silence and peace of death.]We are not sure of sorrow, And joy was never sure; To-day will die to-morrow; Time stoops to no man's lure; And love, grown faint and fretful, With lips but half regretful Sighs, and with eyes forgetful Weeps that no loves endure. [The fickleness and frailty of human subjectivity is presented here as a justification for his views. Human life, human experience is fallible - death is not. Even love dies. Love itself is brought to tears at its own demise. Though weeps again is a quiet verb, less melodramatic than "sobs" for example, it's far more restrained.]From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. [He creates a collective voice here, invoking humanity as "we". Death here is freedom and peace and not something to be feared but embraced. Like rivers to the sea: each individual life joins together and is lost in a collective death.]Then star nor sun shall waken, Nor any change of light: Nor sound of waters shaken, Nor any sound or sight: Nor wintry leaves nor vernal, Nor days nor things diurnal; Only the sleep eternal In an eternal night. [Only here does the poem really feel dark (as in the literal quality, not metaphorically) as the lights are shut off, the candles are snuffed, and the poem comes to rest. All the senses are abandoned, all the seasons fade away into the blackness of oblivion and the poem itself dies in a peaceful, perfect phrase.]