#also when the magic is seen in nature. peak

[illwilledomen]

My current favourite magic system is the Codex Inversus magic system

[andy-wm]

The Tarot of VMINKOOK

Their dynamic as I see it, and the absolute validation that Jimin and JK are together.

I really enjoyed the 3rd episode of Are You Sure, partly because I love the VMin dynamic, and partly becuse I was relieved to see that JK and Tae got along.

I also enjoyed watching just the three of them together without the rest of the members because I could really focus on the way they interacted.

This post is entirely my own opinion, and based on my observations. Feel free to politely disagree.

What we had was:

The Siblings - JK & KTH

The Cousins - JM & KTH

The Lovers - JM &JK

The Siblings

JK and Tae have peak adolescent sibling energy Pre-adolescent maybe....

It's typical of the petty rivalry of siblings close in age where the younger is the dominant personality and the older is slightly mistified by the audacity of their little brother.

Tae's eye-roll here 🤣

They will argue over nothing, but they will also readily unite when they have a common goal or foe. In this episode, they ganged up on Jimin for the sake of amusing the viewers (I get that they had a mandate to be entertaining but seriously, poor Jimin 🤣.)

At least it gave JK and Tae a reason to cooperate, because we know JK wasn't thrilled about him joining them. And who can blame him... how often do the two of them get away together?

Tae and JK probably have that "I can talk shit about my brother but nobody else can" thing going on, and I am 100% sure either of them would jump to defend the other if someone outside Bangtan gave them reason to.

I'm sure JK sees Tae as a genuine brother, but that doesn't mean Tae doesn't irritate the hell out of him sometimes. We've seen Tae take liberties, and we've seen JK snipe at him.

What is clear to me, seeing the three of them together, is that competitive-natured JK has to curb his desire to compete with Tae for Jimin's attention - to steal Jimin from Tae - and we've seen him do it, so it's not unheard of. The bottom line is, JK doesn't love sharing Jimin. And that being true, having to totally relinquish Jimin must have been... challenging let's say.

Even giving him a Harley to ride wasn't enough compensation for JK's FOMO when VMin were having fun in the car without him. And that grimace he wore when he was enjoying his solo gokart ride was absolutely hilarious too.

The other thing that comes between them, based on what I've seen, is JK's impatience with Tae's quirkiness. JK does not seem to have the gentle fondness or the endless patience Jimin does with Tae, which brings me to...

The Cousins

Tae and Jimin are like those cousins. You know the ones I mean? The cousins who have that magical bond. They connect on some ultraviolet wavelength nobody else can see, and it's both delightful and annoying for everyone around them (especially for the ultra-competitive boyfriend of one of the cousins, who feels like he's the third wheel when the those two get together).

Jimin and Tae are 친구 - same age friends - and this automatically puts them together - they are peers. It creates an instant friendship bond. But their connection seems like more than that, because Jimin and Tae seem to be so at ease together that neither of them has to mask, and that means they trust one another. That type of deep connection between two people can only come from unconditional acceptance.

Tae doesnt know how to use a drive-thru, and Jimin patiently helps him.

I believe that even if they grow apart, their unique connection will always remain... Because you never forget your first, right?

I'm talking about the first person who really sees you.

Maybe they're the first person you come out to and who comforts you when you're afraid of what that might mean for you. Maybe they're the person who never teases you when you miss social cues, and who will quietly explain the joke you didn't get. Whatever your situation, that person is the one who you trust with your real self. You know you're safe with them.

Both Tae and Jimin have characteristics that set them apart. I'm not in the habit of diagnosing people but Tae does make me wonder, the way he lacks social awareness and sometimes goes off on bizzare tangents, and his very individual fashion sense... not to mention his hatred of shoes. Jimin's gender and sexual identity would have been equally challenging for him, trying as he was to fit in and be a strong man.

They would both have felt like outsiders and struggled with connection and belonging, and I think their genuine support of each other is what makes their friendship so special.

I think that's what the soulmates thing is all about.

And who could possibly compete with a soulmate? Only one person...

In this social game of cards, JK holds the trump.

The Lovers

There's only one reason JK would rank higher in Jimin's books than Tae, when Tae automatically has higher standing on both a personal level with Jimin, and a broader social level.

Jimin and Tae are 친구 - they have a bond unique to people born in their year. That bond means younger or older friends are always going to be more distant, because even with close friendships across age groups, honorifics will still apply. Only with chingus can the honorifics completely fall away.

In addition, Tae is older than JK, so automatically holds a higher social standing. Even though Tae and JK are friends, JK should still defer to him, especially where his chingu is concerned. But JK does not.

This can only mean one thing:

Jimin and JK are in a relationship.

JK's status as Jimin's partner outweighs any other relationships Jimin has. Therefore JK stands as an equal next to Jimin, and that shuffles everyone else down a notch.

That's why we see JK squeezing in next to Jimin (sometimes pushing the older members out) so he can get where he needs wants to be.

That's also why, in episode 3, JK could take the bed next to Jimin and leave Tae to sleep on the floor.

Aside from JK's position as Jimin's equal, we can clearly see that he takes care of Jimin in ways he wouldn't if they were not together. He may not defer to Jimin, but he is visibly devoted to him.

I have never had any doubt that Jimin and JK were lovers, and I never for a moment thought they broke up. It's no surprise to me that this is confirned when we see them on this trip.

But I'm still dying to see the next episode with Tae.

Bring on Thursday!!

[flowersdiceandlove]

I’m a subscriber of the Luo Binghe has curly/wavy hair and Bingge straitens it bc it’s not the cultural beauty standard and it makes him feel inadequate whereas Bingmei keeps it curly/wavy bc when he was a teen, Shen Qingqiu-Yuan expressed a like for it so he’s comfortable with it even if it’s not the societal standard. In this vein I want to see a Binggeyuan fic where Shen Yuan gets transmigrated as just Some Guy and catches the attention of Bingge (because of course he does. It’s Shen Yuan) and in one of their encounters where Shen Yuan is driving Bingge just a bit insane with his brand of both obliviousness and all-knowingness, Bingge’s hair gets wet due to something Shen Yuan did. Luo Bingge is pissed at getting soaked and glares at Shen Yuan while simultaneously pushing his hair out of his face and drying it with cultivation magic gearing up to bite into Shen Yuan about getting him wet when Shen Yuan gasps and stares at him in awe. Bingge was so caught up in his anger that when he was drying his hair, he forgot to also redo the spell that keeps his hair straight so it’s reverted to it’s natural curly/wavy state. Just as the self-consciousness that he hasn’t felt since he was a teen and being bullied for his hair Qing Jing Peak is setting in, Shen Yuan surprises Bingge once again by making an aborted movement forward and muttering a “beautiful” under his breath. Bingge, with his enhanced hearing, hears it and pauses in his hastily conjured hair straightening spell, stunned. Never in all his many, many years has anyone called his natural hair “beautiful.” (Not that he really lets people even see it like this. Only a very few have seen his hair in it’s natural state.) And Shen Yuan looks so sincere too.

A deep blush starts to rise on Bingge’s cheeks. It is (unfortunately in Bingge’s opinion) something Bingge is getting very acquainted with in Shen Yuan’s presence. It is something that has only happens when Shen Yuan says something absolutely absurd and what should only be said in a groveling type of flattery as if it is just a truth of the universe and completely true. He has not blushed this much since he was a virgin over 200 years ago!! And even then it wasn’t this bad!

Bingge then stutters (actually stutters because by this point, Shen Yuan has already gotten to him even if he’s still in denial) a reply feeling far more flustered than he thinks he has any right to be.

Then Shen Yuan has the gall to say “Ah! Sorry! I forgot. You’re self-conscious about your hair. Do you want me to turn around while you straighten it again?” with wide, caring, and achingly sincere eyes and his face completely open, only wanting Bingge to feel comfortable after suddenly having an insecurity (which he really shouldn’t know about but somehow does, and Bingge will later add it to the list he’s keeping of such instances when he can think properly again) exposed.

Bingge is so stunned by this that he’s unable to respond and so Shen Yuan continues, “…Actually…It’s really nice like this. I mean, of course, it is. It’s you after all. You’d look good with anything. But like this it looks even more lustrous than usual. Like your hair always is so nice, but like this it catches the light more which adds to its dimension… it’s like something out of a shampoo commercial… I wish I had hair this nice. Mine is so flat and dull looking. Just leave it to you to have the best hair ever. It’s so fluffy… like a sheep… Oh! And it’s so soft too! Like a cloud!” Yes he drifted forward and started petting Bingge’s hair without thinking, too caught up in his admiration of it. Bingge is still too stunned to react and is just watching as one of his biggest insecurities is being dismantled by this random guy he found one day who knows far too much and might actually be a god or something considering the extent of his knowledge, how flippant he is about it, and the weird things he says sometimes (what even is a “shampoo commercial?”).

Bingge eventually gets enough thought back in his pretty, flustered, gay head and flees. Very gracefully he would like to be known. Very befitting of Emperor of the Three Realms.

Very.

Very.

Shen Yuan is left to just stand there and wonder if he finally pissed Bingge off so bad that he’s going to get killed soon. Bingge’s face was very red and he seemed so mad that he couldn’t even speak properly in Shen Yuan’s opinion. After thinking it over for a minute he shrugs and thinks it’s fine. At this point, Shen Yuan is pretty sure that Bingge won’t kill him unless he does something truly outrageous and unforgivable. And while petting the (very soft and fluffy) hair of The Luo Bingge, Emperor of the Three Realms, without permission could be considered highly outrageous, it is not actually the most outrageous thing Shen Yuan has done to the man and lived to tell the tale. Not that he’s going to actually tell people about it. He’s not trying to push Bingge’s buttons and get himself killed.

Shen Yuan just shrugs the encounter off as he does so many others, but does file away the memory of how soft, fluffy, beautiful, and just incredible Bingge’s natural hair is.

Bingge is unable to sleep that night, his mind constantly replaying Shen Yuan’s awe and sincerity over one of his greatest insecurities. Not for the first time since meeting Shen Yuan does he feel cracked open and exposed, yet also somehow safe and warm and like he might cry his eyes out but in a good way.

[breelandwalker]

Hunter's Moon - October 17 2024

Grab your masks and candy buckets and trim the twigs on your best besom, witches! It’s time for the Hunter’s Moon!

Hunter’s Moon

The Hunter’s Moon is the name usually given to the full moon which appears in October, provided that the Harvest Moon has occurred in September. (Remember - the Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox and that can mean September OR October!) The Hunter’s Moon is next full moon to follow it, so it may occur in October OR November. The Harvest and Hunter’s moons are the only two moons in the calendar which are tied to a specific event in this way, while the others reflect signs of seasonal growth or animal behavior.

Like the Harvest Moon, the Hunter’s Moon rises big, bright, and early, and it may appear to be full for two or three nights in a row. The celestial peak of illumination is at 7:26am EST on October 17th, but the moon may also appear full or nearly-full on the 16th and 18th. This is also the second of this season's series of supermoons!

The name Hunter’s Moon is taken from the traditional timing for the fall hunting season, as the name implies. The fields cleared in previous months and the gradually cooling weather meant that animals fattened up from summer foraging would be roaming in open ground, making prime targets for anyone looking to put some meat in the pantry for winter. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this may also be the origin of the other common October moniker, the Blood Moon, which has been in use in the British Isles since at least the Middle Ages.

North American indigenous names for the October moon include Falling Leaves Moon (Anishinaabe), Freezing Moon (Ojibwe), Migrating Moon (Cree), and Big Wind Moon (Zuni). In several modern pagan traditions, the October moon is called the Sanguine or Blood Moon due to its’ with the association with the hunt and with alleged sacrifices made ahead of the coming winter. (Keep in mind that any claims about What The Druids Did should be taken with a grain of salt, as they did not keep written records of their ceremonies.)

As you may know, we're also welcoming an additional natural satellite at the moment - a tiny asteroid designated 2024 PT5. This visitor comes from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is made up of near-Earth objects that orbit the sun at a similar distance to our own cozy little planet. This temporary "mini moon" will be vacationing in and around Earth's orbit until sometime in November, at which point it will continue on its' way through our solar system. Unfortunately, it's too small and too far away to be seen with the naked eye or even with most telescopes, but you may be able to see the peak of the Orionids meteor shower between October 20th and 22nd, depending on where you live. (Check the DarkSky Placefinder to see what will be visible in your area!)

What Does It Mean For Witches?

October is a time to finish our harvests. We gather in the last of what we sowed earlier in the year and reflect on what our work has wrought and what our labor has produced. It is also a time of transition as the weather begins to shift more noticeably toward the chill of winter. Shore up whatever provisions you need for the immediate future and complete whatever preparations you’ve been making for the cold season, both magical and practical. A little weatherproofing goes a long way!

This is also the month when numerous Western cultures remember their honored dead and a time when some believe that contact with various unseen realms is more easily accomplished. If you’re seeking advice or reassurance from the greater beyond, or looking to do some planning or forecasting for the coming year, now might be the optimal time to do it.

What Witchy Things Can We Do?

Celebrate the end of the harvest season with your favorite recipes! Bust out that hearty stew or delicious pie you’ve been dying to make but kept putting off during the hot months. Use local produce to make something special and gather in the last fruits of your garden.

Get your divination game on! Many October party games include fortune-telling aspects for love or marriage or professional prospects. Choose your favorite method and see what it has to tell you about the coming year and where your current path may lead. Remember that the choices we make change the path and therefore the outcome, so try to regard the results as written in sand rather than stone.

Participate in the hunt yourself! Whether it’s an actual seasonal hunt for game (safely and responsibly done, of course) or a bit of foraging or a personal search for something you’ve been needing, this is the perfect time to connect with that drive to seek and gather. Make one more trip for wildcrafted plants before everything turns brown and brittle. Stalk the aisles of your favorite local shops for craft supplies, new decorations, or perhaps that fancy hat you’ve been dreaming of for the upcoming holiday.

Prepare for the cold months! Switch out your wardrobe, heap those blankets on the bed, change the decor to something autumnal, and make sure your home and vehicle are ready for winter. If you do any seasonal crafts or fibre arts, start pulling out your accoutrements.

Shed your metaphorical skin one more time. Examine what you carry in your heart and where your priorities lie. If there is anything left that weighs you down or no longer serves you or disrupts your life unnecessarily, prune it away and let it go. This process is not always comfortable and may leave you feeling raw, but sometimes hard decisions must be made. You are not meant to be in perpetual motion or constant production. Give yourself permission to rest.

Consider also the parts of yourself that you don’t always like. Is there value in the struggle to deny them and push them away? Is there anything that might serve you better if it was embraced rather than denied? So often we speak of letting things go and laying down burdens in order to progress. But there is also power in remembrance, in anger, in spite, in grief, in ambition. Remember that while you should forgive yourself for past mistakes and learn from them, you are not required to do the same for others. Remember also that setting boundaries is healthy and that if they are not respected, you are within your rights to remind others than actions have consequences. Protecting yourself is not always pretty and it is not always polite. And it doesn’t have to be.

Happy Hunter’s Moon, witches! 🌕🏹

Further Reading:

Additional Lunar Calendar posts

Secular Celebrations - Samhain

Hunter’s Moon: Full Supermoon in October, The Old Farmer's Almanac.

Hunters Moon 2024: The Spiritual Meaning of the October Full Moon, The Peculiar Brunette.

Orionid meteor shower 2024: All you need to know, EarthSky, Oct 18 2024.

"Earth will get another moon this month  — but not for long!," Space.com, Sept 17 2024.

Everyday Moon Magic: Spells & Rituals for Abundant Living, Dorothy Morrison, Llewellyn Publications, 2004.

Image Credit - Darkfoxelixir on Shutterstock.

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[mamamangaka]

(No one has posted this and I need it so I shall cook for myself)

- Yandere!Alastor with a g/n reader who likes toys and art stuff -

Okay so here’s the thing I kinda see about Alastor:

Hes a fucking looney who will do anything and everything to keep you if he happens to fall in love.

But lemme tell you if you break past those walls and manage to ameliorate his aceness to the point that he’s yandere about you then baby you done.

You might as well have signed over your soul to him.

I like to think only one thing in particular would peak his interest at first.

Maybe your drawing outside a coffee shop -

Or reading tarot cards at the park?

Perhaps even reading under a tree, who knows?

But whatever it is, Alastor saw you and he froze.

He never once expected to fall so deeply in love (especially not at first sight) and I feel that when he did finally succumb after a bit of denial, it would be a quick realization and he’d make a decision to seek you out immediately.

He’d closely stalk you for some time but when he gets you, he’d keep you in his radio tower, where no one else goes and where his world really is.

He’d probably kidnap you mere weeks after realizing he’s enamored, it wouldn’t take long before he came up behind you out of nowhere.

He was someone you’d only seen once or twice in passing but found attractive each time, though you weren’t exactly thinking about a partnership.

He wouldn’t be asking you, he’d simply take you.

(You didn’t need to know he’d been admiring you anyway.)

You weren’t someone of great power or who was well known. You simply met a tragic fate and unfortunately ended up here by mistake due to being involved in “black magic”.

It was unfair, in your opinion, to be cast down simply due to your divination talents and history.

Never once did you misuse your gifts yet here you were.

When you come around, you’re in Alastor room in the hotel.

He explains the situation and gives you options.

You ask to go, not interested in whatever he’s offering and he explains that’s not an option so you need to pick another one.

After demanding to leave, trying to open the door, banging and calling for help and eventually pleading and sobbing with him, you realize you aren’t going anywhere.

You wheep and hoarsely beg as he carries you into the wooded area that seems to pocket into another place.

You realize later that it was a path to the radio tower.

There’s a wooden door that leads to his own personal “home” in that tower.

And inside, I’d expect it’s quite nice.

Greenery everywhere, plants and/or herbs hanging from the ceiling and a cozy woodstove. Lovely flowers and pretty trees surrounding the outside, blocking the view of the horrors that hell had naturally.

A earthy, modest but very comfortable and exquisite environment and cottage style house with at least one library on hand.

But he can take all this beauty away quite easily, so don’t forget or step out of line. The view is a luxury he gives based on your behavior; do not tread lightly.

Now, he’s very commanding and strict with his darling, often times dictating what they eat and wear, bossing them around and physically moving them to where he wants.

• ���My little doe, you were simply taking too much time to get to me, I was just helping you along.”

• “Oh darling, don’t you know I’m doing this for your own good? Don’t cry, come here: give me a kiss.”

• “No no, little doe. It’s best if you rest right now. Ah, yes, I can see you don’t want to sleep. How about I read to you or turn the radio on, hm?”

But he’s also super old timey and you would immediately be considered his spouse, and he would pamper and treat you with such respect (at least as much as he could)

If he found out you liked dolls or soft toys, well he’d be all over that and try to use it to his advantage.

I feel like it would be a rag doll copy of himself or a porcelain/ball jointed doll (dressed in 1920-1950 attire) as a Victorian styled Queen or what not.

• “You seem so lonely honey bun, so I picked you up something nice. Hopefully it will warm you a little when you think of me.”

• “I can see you fiddle with your hands a lot, mi amor. Here, have a doll to dress and play with for when your pretty hands need a break from the books.”

• “Oh my, it seems a nap is in order for your crankiness. Where is your toy? It’s better for you to have something to sleep with while I’m doing the broadcast.”

But he wouldn’t have bought it for you, oh no, because the only thing he buys you is the most pristine art supplies and most flattering jewelry and clothes —

— he’d have made this himself for you, from his own power.

And he’d use it to keep an eye on you no matter where you happened to be.

Needed a moment alone? Not without the doll he gave you.

Was hiding from punishment? Not without the doll.

If you left it somewhere in a vain attempt for distance, you’d find it on your person the second you reached in your bag or turned around.

And when Alastor found out you left it? He’d be livid.

But you wouldn’t know he was mad by his face, only his voice and the static crackle in the background.

• “Don’t you ever leave that doll again sweetheart. Do you understand me?”

• “This is how I protect you, darling. It’s best for everyone if you follow direction.”

• “Now honey, you don’t want to lose your privilege to wander around the hotel and mingle with the others, do you? Then you best keep that doll close, hm?”

If you possibly took a liking to the doll he gave you, well..

His heart might soar, he won’t lie

How cute and innocent you were, so completely unaware of the horrors he possesses — the doll possesses — if you step out of line

It’s something he really loves about you; you trust him (mostly bc you have to)

And if you took up sewing to make outfits for the doll?? He’d be so over the moon and even conjure up a little wardrobe for them if enough clothes are made.

And your drawings??? Oh don’t even get me started

too late I did it myself here I go

He would parade you around like you were the messiah of the demonic art world

It didn’t matter if you or anyone else thought you were good

You like doing it? Hes gonna over indulge you.

You drew something just for him???

Then it’s getting a golden frame and you’re getting the radio host fame.

He wouldn’t let anyone touch your sketchbook. He’d actually kill anyone who destroys any piece of your work.

He always coos over you, he’s literally obsessed with you.

Admires you while your drawing like you are the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

Always begs to see your drawings.

Does everything in his power to help you with inspiration or getting out of art block.

Hangs up his favorite pieces you’ve done around the hotel and talks you up to everyone.

• “My my, who would have guessed my little doe was so full of talent? Ah-ha, well me, of course!”

• “Oh yes, they’re nothing short of extraordinary and excel in everything they attempt. It’s absolutely magnificent.”

• “Quite the looker, aren’t they? It’s no wonder I fell so hard, they made this old withering heart beat once more.”

NOW LETS ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM:

What if you broke a rule? Either accidental or on purpose?

*rubs palms together deviously*

I mean it’s hell, so it’s not like you could actually die and he’d permanently lose you, but I could see him considering killing, traumatizing and horrifying you to make a point for when you came back. If you broke the rule on purpose or left the hotel without a damn good reason or asking him, I definitely think he’d ponder on it.

But I honestly don’t know if he’d be able to go that far if he’s to the point that he’s fallen for you.

I definitely think he’d be the kind to chain you away for a bit and ignore you for a while after really scaring you though, having only come in when you cry out for him or need to be attended.

He’d be condescending and emotionally manipulating for sure.

• “Well dear, we wouldn’t be in this predicament if you would have just listened and been good, hm?”

• “No no, you can’t come downstairs. I told you this time out is for two weeks. It’s been only two days darling.”

•“Now that’s not the way one of such class as ourselves behave. Shush your crying, my sweet.”

He wouldn’t tolerate a darling openly defying him, he’d put you over his knee and bruise your behind so quick and wouldn’t think twice.

And getting off punishments easy? Nah.

Good behavior or not, you’re gonna be going through the whole thing every single time. He won’t let you have even an ounce of wiggle room on that.

Your bottom stings after only thirty spanks? He isn’t stopping. He said 50 and he meant it, so buckle up buttercup, this is gonna be a long ride.

You don’t want to finish your plate? Well that’s a nice opinion, quite cute! .. but he doesn’t recall asking you what you wanted, so eat up ~

You aren’t tired? Well, allow him the pleasure of wearing you out and soothing you to slumber.

I think he’d allow the darling to cling to him though, that’s the kind of yandere I see him as. He’d maybe mock you a little at first and seem patronizing but all in all, he finds the need to touch him endearing and he does become fond of it.

I think he’d make you dependent on it, really. He’d always encourage you to cuddle up to him, always making sure you sit or stand directly next to him and that’s he’s always got his arm around you or you hanging onto his own.

He’d be tolerant of your crying. I think he’d find you cute while in distress, so that would be his favorite time to hold you tight. He’d caress your tearstreaks and kiss away the droplets.

•“Sweet sugar plum, you’ve been so emotional lately.”

• “Pretty crybaby, what can I do to make you feel better? Come now, there must be something your husband can whip up for you.”

“Oh, my poor, darling y/n..” he’d tsk, stroking the side of your face and nuzzling noses, “don’t cry, hush now, it’s alright, your faithful and devoted protector is here.”

[manias-wordcount]

View of Paradise (Satoru Gojo x Reader) PART SEVENTEEN

[𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙄𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝙊𝘾𝙊𝙇𝘼𝙏𝙀 𝙁𝘼𝘾𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔 𝘼𝙐]

𝗔/𝗡: 𝗵𝗶 𝗵𝗶. 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 ��𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗜'𝗺 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲. 𝗶 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵. 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗟𝗢𝗟 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆 :] 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 (𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆) 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗵𝗲𝗵

𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁: @ky0mybeloved

𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁: 𝗼𝗻𝗲 || 𝘁𝘄𝗼 || 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 || 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 || 𝗳𝗶𝘃𝗲 || 𝘀𝗶𝘅 || 𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 || 𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 || 𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲 || 𝘁𝗲𝗻 || 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 || 𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲 || 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 || 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 || 𝗳𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 || 𝘀𝗶𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 || 𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 || 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲…

𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚? ⇒ 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩

𝙟𝙤𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙧?

𝙗𝙪𝙮 𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙚?

It’s magical.

It’s the first couple of words that come to mind as the door swings open and you’re all invited to step inside. What you’re seeing is magical. But it’s also a little something else too.

At first glance, there is a certain specialness to it. You didn’t expect such a little door to open up to such a large room. It’s bigger than your old school’s gymnasium. Probably bigger than the old warehouse your mother once worked at when you were really, really young. Bigger than any room you have ever seen. It makes sense, given the sheer size of the Gojo Candy Factory. But this room is only a small subset of the entire factory. And yet you still have trouble conceptualizing it and its massive size. The walls seem so far away from each other. The ceiling looks so high. The room is massive. It just is. But that’s not all there is to it.

Naturally, you saw the greenery and thought that you had stepped into a garden. And you honestly wouldn’t have minded it. You had never been inside an indoor garden such as this one. And you can only imagine a man as rich as Mr. Gojo would be able to afford all those tools and fertilizers and temperature controls and…other plant-helping stuff that would make it possible for such a room like this to exist inside his factory without anyone ever knowing about it.

As your eyes scanned the room, you fell in love with what you saw. Although the walls and ceilings of the room were sparsely decorated with windows and skylights, there was much to enjoy about your current setting. The lighting was a bit dim and a bit eerie. Peaks of sunlight from the outside seemed to be the main source of light in the room. Though, despite the fact that you know such a pretty place would greatly benefit from all the natural sunlight it possibly gets, the lighting did serve to give the place a bit of mysticism that you couldn’t help but appreciate. 

In addition to that, the temperature inside this room wasn’t too hot like the walkway was, nor was it too chilly like what you felt while waiting outside the factory. The vibrant green of the grass below your feet told you that the room regularly received water. The same likely could be said for all the bright, rich, and vibrant colors of all the other plants you saw too.

Bright red mushrooms with white spots and multicolored flowers with long stems and perfect petals had sprouted up from the ground near your feet. Gourds big and small tucked themselves randomly around the rises and falls of the landscape- spanning over what must have been man-made caves and bridges and burrows as the ground took to the sky in funny little patterns and formations. Twisted trees of green and purple and yellow and red grew high in the sky. Their leaves and vines and limbs looked nothing like the trees you’ve ever seen before. And a bunch of the flowers looked unfamiliar too.

It was odd to see, but not completely surprising. In your few years of schooling, you did your best to explore the world of pictures from the storybooks and science textbooks you would have to pull out during class. And when those were over, you ate up what you could see from the various TV screens at the diner (and the very grainy TV you had at home). Though you were always painfully aware of the fact that you were left with little knowledge of all the flora that existed outside of your hometown growing’s condition. 

Still, it was odd. But you suppose things that one might find magical can be seen as odd to others. Because you had never heard of trees or flowers or other types of plants looking the way that these things do in front of you. You had never heard of a healthy-looking tree being colored chartreuse from its thick and twisty stump all the way down to its long, nimble, and flexible-looking limps. Limps that cascade down like rain droplets on a slow, foggy morning. You had never heard of trees that were pale purple in color with branches that stood stiff and tall and leaves that were golden in shade and round in shape. Nor have you heard of light green, cacti-like plants growing this tall and with perfectly plump fruit spanning across a rainbow of colors and flowers with petals that look like teacups and gumdrops and many more odd shapes. 

But as you stand around with the crowd, you find that no one else seems to notice or mind. No one else has bothered to pick their slackened jaw off from the ground or hold in their gasps. Certainly not the children. And surprisingly, not even the adults either. Even Ms. Mei Mei had an impressed look on her face- something you can imagine being extremely difficult for the average person to accomplish. Though, you did notice that her eyes seemed to be trained on the waterfall on the other side of the building. And you don’t blame her.

The waterfall sits proudly on the other side of the room, gushing from a large, open hole that sits high up in one of the walls. It flows big and strong, and it feeds into the river that wraps all around the room. You can hear it from here- the strength and power of it as the rich, brown water roars and roars with every second it pours itself from the hole in the wall and lands in the river below. Although the sound is faint, it’s very present. And it’s very grand. In fact, the whole thing is. Not just the waterfall, but the greenery and the landscape and-

Wait…? Brown….waterfall…?

“Oh! And I should mention~!”

Mr. Gojo’s interjection through your thoughts is well-timed. Well-timed enough, you realize, as you turn to look at him. Because almost everyone seemed to have the stark look of realization and confusion as they took in the state of the waterfall. But Mr. Gojo doesn’t seem concerned. In fact, he looks prideful from his spot in front of the group. He looks ecstatic, even, as he spreads his arms out nice and wide to gesture to the room with a smile you have grown very familiar with in the short time you’ve spent with him as your escort. Very, very familiar even. 

“Every single thing in this room is edible. And feel free to help yourself to anything you’d like. For you see…” Mr. Gojo announces as his mischievous eyes peak over the tips of his sunglasses. Every word that passes through his lips, he pronounces slowly in an attempt to ensure that everyone present can understand the gravity of his words as he speaks them just once. And even then… “...it’s all made of candy.”

…you would argue that it was definitely not enough. Not for you, at least.

“What?” The word leaves your mouth in a sound that hobbles just barely above an alarmed whisper. And while it’s easily drowned out by the gasps and giggles and shouts of surprise by the children as they realize that according to the man who owns this “garden,” everything they see before them is edible, you find that the ever-observant Mr. Gojo had his eyes on your reaction this entire time. And the more you looked confused, the more he looked proud. “H-how…?”

A second later, you see the kids shoot off in different directions, their chaperones following closely after. Momo and Yuki run the fastest, and it almost looks like a bit of a competition between Mr. Kusakabe and Mr. Todo for who’s the best at keeping up with their girl. Ui Ui also managed to be quite quick on his feet as he ran off to immediately go attack a tree- not needing to be told twice. Ms. Mei Mei does end up trailing him, though at a much leisurely paste compared to the two girl dads of the group. 

At the same time, you see your little brother pushing ahead in his own direction. Unsurprisingly though, he stops long enough to invite Junpei to come follow him, with the kind smile you’ve always come to expect from your brother. The other boy’s face twists up in a small frown for a moment, but he does cave in easily and quietly as he goes to follow your brother down a small hill. Right behind the two of them is Ms. Nagi, as she gives the boys a fond smile and spares you a knowing, almost smug look as she leaves to go after them.

And suddenly, it’s you. Alone. With Mr. Gojo.

And so many questions.

“Everything?” You ask him as he begins to creep forward, his cane hanging idly by as he hooks it on his arm. A light little laugh pours from his lips at your expense, but you don’t pay it any mind. Instead, you’re too busy darting your eyes around and looking all over the room- seeing this so-called garden with new eyes and a new understanding. A type of understanding that suddenly makes you feel very, very, very overwhelmed. “The grass? The trees? The flowers? The ground?”

You start to press him, pointing at random plants and greenery all over the room. While the child inside of you is smiling and laughing and shouting with glee at being able to witness something so magical and so special, the rational part of you is struggling to wrap your head around what you’re seeing. Sure, all the purple and yellow trees are starting to make more sense now. But the grass beneath your feet? And the dirt beneath that? And all the flowers and the leaves? It’s all edible? It’s all candy? How could one man accomplish such a thing? Sure, he owned a large factory and clearly had the space for it. And sure he must have plenty of money being the top candy producer in all of the world. But no one has seen a worker come in or outside of these walls since…since forever last you heard. And yet the landscape is complex. The trees are tall. And the scenery looks almost unnaturally natural. As it was only cared for by human hands- not created by it.

It’s magical, alright. It’s also…also…you’re not sure how you feel about it. Every couple of seconds, you find yourself instinctively and cautiously pressing down on different parts of your feet. Hoping to see that if you put enough weight on it, you’ll be able to tell the difference. That things will start to make sense. But it doesn’t. The grass beneath your feet right now feels no different than a walk in the woods. It’s magical. But it’s overwhelming and it’s confusing. And above all? It proves once again that there’s always more to be Mr. Gojo than what meets the eye. Still, being promised to see so many wondrous things on this tour did little to prepare you for this. 

“Yes, yes, yes, and yes.” He confirms for you, regarding each and everything you point at in your momentary frenzy. His voice and his gaze are gentle as he speaks to you- and it inspires feelings not unlike what you experienced just out of the factory when he offered up his arm to escort you to the door. He’s being patient with you, and you can’t help but be grateful. But all his confirmations don’t exactly make you less overwhelmed at the moment. “Different recipes but, all of it candy.”

“And…the waterfall? That too?” You try your last question carefully, your eyes flickering between the brown-colored waterfall that’s starting to look and seems suspiciously like chocolate and its owner. This is far from the first time you’ve been able to hold his undivided attention- something only you seem to be doing lately, oddly enough. But the intensity of his gaze as he peers over his glasses and down at you starts to make you feel small- and not just because of his ridiculously long legs. 

For a moment, you spare a look at your brother, who is very kindly holding out a piece of bright red vine to Junpei and his mother at the moment, and tense up. You feel like you’re supposed to be at your brother’s side right now. You feel like you’re supposed to be playing the role that you’ve always seen parents always take on. Watching him grow up in the world and indulge in his curiosity. Even though you aren’t Yuuta’s mom, Mr. Gojo clearly thought that you were old enough to be here earlier. And you know being by Yuuta’s side would help with the feelings of being adequate enough to play chaperone since it seems like every other chaperone in the building actually feels like an adult with their life together compared to you. But here you are. Standing in front of Mr. Gojo with wide eyes and a stammer as you point and ask questions, too…too overwhelmed with what you see to even feel comfortable running off on your own. 

And here he is. Looking all too happy as he indulges your questions and attempts to be of some comfort to you.

“Yes, the waterfall too.” He affirms with another light laugh. Once again, he seems proud of himself. And you suppose you would be too if you successfully managed to stupefy your guest within a minute of taking them to the first stop of the tour. But there’s something undeniably charming about this of his laugh. Something that has your cheeks heating up with embarrassment as you advert your eyes to the life-size candy garden you’re in, trying to take in the view. Unfortunately for you, Mr. Gojo wasn’t exactly keen on letting you go from this conversation just yet. “You know…the secret to creating the finest chocolates in the world is to mix it by waterfall. It really makes all the difference, you see.”

The words only take a second to register in your mind. But the second it does, a shiver overtakes you. Currently, you find yourself thinking about every single piece of chocolate you’ve ever eaten and just how it pales in comparison to anything this man has made. You thought about your first chocolate bar. You thought about how every bite seemed just perfect. How you never thought something could taste this good. Never in a million years would have you thought that the secret to that wonderful taste would involve a chocolate waterfall in a room full of plants and shrubs and hills and trees all made out of candy. But then again, never in a million years would you have ever thought you would have found your way here too.

“All of this…” You gesture vaguely to the river a good couple of yards away from the two of you. “It’s…it’s all going to be made into chocolate? It’s all going to be sold?”

Mr. Gojo’s eyes intently follow the movement of your hands for a moment. Though he momentarily takes his attention off of you to narrow his eyes and frown in the direction of two other members of your party: Ms. Mei Mei and Ui Ui. You’ve noticed in the back of your mind that they have been wandering rather close to the river, and you could only imagine Mr. Gojo's fears of someone falling in and not being able to swim since the area wasn’t fenced in.

But they seem to be keeping a safe enough distance. In fact, you think you could even see Ms. Mei Mei advising Ui Ui where to step as the boy continues to explore the scenery. Though “explore the scenery” might not be the best way of putting it. Because it’s clear to see based on the pile of various pieces of half-eaten leaves and flower petals and vines and a tree branches tucked into Ui Ui’s arms that the boy has already acquainted himself well with his surroundings.

Eventually, Mr. Gojo decides that the two of them are behaving well enough not to need his surveillance.  Because soon enough, the man is back to turning his bright blue and intense eyes onto you, a big smile across his lips.

“Only the best.” Comes his promise to you after the prolonged moment of silence- his promise to a customer. Although it’s undeniable at this point. It’s undeniable that you’re more than just a customer based on all of this special attention and the lingering gazes he seems to have no problem bestowing onto you. And it all just makes it even more impossible to ignore what he’s doing right now. Reaching out slowly. Taking your hand in his. And bringing it up to his lips so he could kiss the back of it gently. Once. Twice. Three times. All while his eyes never once leave yours. “I live to please.”

Never.

You can hear your heartbeat in your ear, it’s racing so fast. And you can’t help your nervous swallow. He’s flirting with you. He’s been flirting with you. There’s no denying or lying to yourself any longer. But you don’t know how to handle it. It’s unfortunate that he’s very handsome.  It’s even more unfortunate that you like this attention. You like the way he seems to be going out of his way to make you feel special and attended to. 

But he’s shameless. And he’s forward. And likely a good bit older than you (though who isn’t immune to the charms of a good silver fox).  And most of all, you’re really only used to receiving attention from boys around your age at the diner. Boys who you serve too- never really anyone on the staff and permanent. Boys who don’t really mean anything serious. Boys who do nothing more than write their number on the customer's copy of the receipt or call you practically every single dessert on the menu as you pass by their table. You’re not used to this. You’re not used to butterflies.

“So…everything thing in here really is edible, huh?” You respond weakly, struggling to find your words. Mr. Gojo seemed all too pleased at your reaction and the obviousness of how his affection has thrown you for a loop. Part of you wonders if he gets a kick out of doing this to everyone. He has been the slightest bit overbearing and intense since the moment he first appeared. But then again, you suppose you should have tapered your expectations a little more to better prepare to meet the eccentric, recluse, filthy stinking rich candy maker behind your favorite chocolate bar.

“I promise you, everything.” Mr. Gojo once again confirms for you with a slight nod in your direction. If he was tired of answering all the questions you kept repeating to him, he didn’t show. In fact, the gleam in his eye only seemed to shine a little brighter as he bent a little close to your level and pulled his glasses down his nose. He’s close again. It seems he’s forever forgetting the concept of personal space when it comes to you. And as you peer back into his pretty blue eyes and read his intentions written all across his face, you find that you’re starting to forget that you once liked personal space. Because with him? Closer is starting to feel better and better. Not that you would admit it, though. “Even the people.”

Instantly, his little quip causes you to turn your head away in an attempt to stifle your laugh. 

“The people, huh?” You shoot back when you’re finally calm enough to speak between your laughter. Mr. Gojo is letting out a few chuckles of his own, seeming pleased that you’ve been around him for long enough to pick up on the fact that he wasn’t referring to something morbid like cannibalism. But, now that you think about it…the only thing that he could mean right now is…

“There are many ways to enjoy all the sweetness a person has to offer,” Mr. Gojo utters, almost the moment after the realization comes to you. His voice is so quiet and calm and heavy you swear it gives you goosebumps. And whether his words were implying something more innocent or scandalous, you don’t know. But what you do know is that those pretty blue eyes of him look darker than what you’re used to. And he’s been eyeing you very, very carefully in these past few moments. Like a predator drinking in the sight of his next prey. “I’m sure a pretty girl such as yourself would know all about that.”

Your breath catches in your throat. 

For a moment, you’re scared you’ve forgotten how to breathe. Because there it is- that shamelessness and forwardness that you find so troublesome. He doesn’t seem sorry for it. In fact, he only seems to be drinking in the way your bottom lip starts to tremble. You…you…you just don’t know. You’re not used to brazen. You’re not used to handsome, powerful men. You’re not used to this. And Mr. Gojo seems happy to take advantage of that little fact. You don’t like the fact that he’s reading you right now. But he’s right. About one thing, at least. You have a feeling that whatever he’s actually referring to, you do know about it. Just a little, at least. But you can’t let him know that. You can’t let him win. 

Especially since he’s being incredibly unfair right now.

“I’ve…kept you here for long enough.” You begin slowly, being careful not to give him an answer or a comment that he could further tease you will. Your face is feeling far too warm. And your heart is beating far too loud and fast for you. It’s wholly unfair how powerful this man is. Both in life and in simple conversation. It’s intimidating. “Could I go explore now…?”

So intimidating that you find yourself ultimately asking for permission to put this conversation on pause like he’s your boss. Or like you’re a kid, asking their teacher to go to the bathroom. Though luckily for you, he doesn’t seem to mind you trying to run. In fact, Mr. Gojo was kind enough to take a step back from you and let his smirk morph back into a cheery smile without so much as a word and- 

“Only if you take me with you.”

There it is. Oh well. You suppose that letting you off easy would be the boring thing to do. And you know far too well at this point that Mr. Gojo is anything but boring. But you suppose that’s alright. For now, at least. Because boring doesn’t give you anything to look forward to. Boring doesn’t give you butterflies.

And you’re starting to like butterflies.

[theabysss]

I love you

pairing: sagau!Zhongli x Reader

summary: Every weekend you and Zhongli have a tea party in a secluded corner of Liyue, in one of these meetings you confess your feelings to him.

content: just fluff

word count: 950

It's time for my exams, so I don't know when I'll write something else, but I'll try to find the time. And for some reason I decided to get sick, very timely yeah. In any case, enjoy reading. (≧◡≦)

Today, for tea drinking, you and Zhongli chose a gazebo on Qingyun Peak. The view from above was simply wonderful, and the cool breeze was pleasantly refreshing on this hot day. You gladly took a sip of Zhongli brewed tea and said to him quite calmly without a drop of excitement.

"I love you."

In the next second, Zhongli opens his eyes in disbelief and fixes his gaze on your face. It couldn't be true, could it? There was not a single chance for this. Surely erosion was to blame for this auditory hallucination. It simply replaced your words with those that in the depths of his heart he most wanted to hear from you.

Zhongli returns the mug of tea to the table with a slightly trembling hand, and it clinks on the saucer.

"Your Grace?" He confusedly calls you by title, trying to hide the trembling in his voice.

"What do you...?" Zhongli falls silent, not daring to speak.

You smile brightly and repeat, "I love you. I love you more than all the sunrises and sunsets that I have seen more than any of my creations."

Zhongli feels like he suddenly ran out of oxygen in his lungs. He looks at you with a helpless expression. His eyes are wide open and his lips are trembling as he tries to find at least some words to answer you.

"Even before the moment I descended into Teyvat in physical form. When I only re-learned this world through the eyes of a traveler, even then I liked you."

You don't give Zhongli time to put in even a word and just keep saying, "I've always enjoyed listening to your speeches through traveler. I liked your character, your voice, your mannerisms. Everything about you fascinated me, I always wanted to know you more, everything about your past, about the pain and joys that you experienced. A month has passed since my arrival in Teyvat and these days were wonderful. This world is beautiful and rich in a variety of treasures - people, nature, the creatures that inhabit it. But for me, the most important treasure of all Teyvat is you."

You lean across the table and gently place your hand on Zhongli's cheek.

 "Would you like to receive my love, my precious dragon?"

Cheekbones, cheeks Zhongli are covered with a gently golden hue. It seems to him that he is seeing the most magical and incredible dream of his life. But your hand on his cheek is all too real and he can smell the glaze lilies left on your hands from the flowers he brought to tea tonight. A hot scorching sun ignites inside him and heat disperses through every cell of his body.

Zhongli looks into your eyes and sees love - sweet, tender like silk flower. How could he refuse you, you were his everything and he also loved you. He loved you much more than a simple follower should have, no matter how faithful he was. Every time you looked at him, every word you said to him, made butterflies dance in his stomach.

Zhongli shows courage and puts his hand over yours on his cheek, regretting for a second that he was wearing gloves and couldn't feel the softness of your skin. He looks straight into your eyes and you see tiny golden sparks flashing in his pupils. His gaze burns with unconditional love, warmth, tenderness, hope.

"If you consider me worthy of such an honor as your love Your Grace, let me be impudent and accept this precious gift. I promise you will not regret an ounce of your feelings for me."

In response, you lean towards Zhongli and give him a gentle short kiss, just a touch of your lips. But even this short touch sends a wave of goosebumps all over his body. He wants to close his eyes and enjoy this feeling to capture this moment in his memory, the phantom feeling of your lips on his, but he does not take his eyes off you, does not want to stop watching your gentle smile and how your eyes sparkle.

Pleasure fills him and Zhongli involuntarily makes a short rumbling sound. You giggle at this and smile teasingly.

"So dragons can purr?"

Zhongli feels the heat from his face transfer to his neck and smiles embarrassedly.

"When dragons are happy, they can actually make sounds like purring cats."

"That's it, then later I'll have to definitely check how loud you can purr," You smile teasingly. "And by the way, call me by my name, please, you have every right to do so."

Zhongli hesitates, whether he was really worthy of this honor, but you said that you love him. He felt dizzy just thinking about it. Finally your name escapes his lips. It spreads sweetly over his tongue and sounds like a symphony in his ears.

"Yes, that's right, now always call me by my name. From now until the end of time, you and I are lovers." You smile happily.

"Is this a contract, Your Grace?" Noticing your judgmental look when he says your title, Zhongli quickly corrects himself and pronounces your name.

"What else would one expect from a god of contracts."

You think for a second and prop your chin like Zhongli usually does.

"Yes, this is a contract. A contract of mutual love, a promise to always support each other, share sorrows and joys. Do you agree to such conditions?"

"I accept the terms of this contract and promise to abide by every point for the rest of my life." Zhongli's voice is solemn and determined.

He gently takes your hand and kisses your knuckles, his eyes covered with long fluffy eyelashes are full of love, love so passionate that it would be enough for hundreds of thousands of mortals.

"I love you too."

Reblogs, comments, are always greatly appreciated! ヽ(o^ ^o)ﾉ

[starrieisdelusional]

episode dedicated to banished!merlin and seperated!morgana in s4 from my fix it au

warning: this is LONG

a bit background: there’s a year and a half timeskip between s3 finale and this ep.

merlin had been training, and getting closer to his roots (studying magic, becoming one with nature, etc etc, no he didn’t go back to ealdor) all the while protecting camelot from the shadows (yes arthur had been getting into a few troubles now and then and merlin had always been there, but never really appearing in front of his face, arthur knows but never really comments about it, settles for ignoring him)

meanwhile after a few months after the s3 finale (morgana and morgouse attacked camelot) morgana finally had a huge fight with her sister and they go on their own ways. So now morgana is alone, doesn’t really know what to do since she killed uther, but doesn’t want to obliterated camelot either

So during season 3 aithusa was born and shes been helping merlin and morgana there and then, there’s also mordred. Oh and merlin’s magic is public information at this point

*

actual ep:

episode starts off with morgana, tending to her cottage. She lives in the middle of the woods, in the middle of no where. She’s trully alone now, after the fight with morgause. She regretted it a little. Maybe her sister is right, maybe bringing camelot to total destruction and crowning her queen is the best course of action.

But morgana didn’t want that. She just wants uther’s reign to end. It’s not her place now to rule camelot, there’s really no benefit in killing everyone either. Although there really is no change, arthur is still banning magic…

Morgana puts down her firewood with a bit too much force. Truth is morgause is right. Magic is still banned in the land, even in Arthur’s reign. And morgana is scared. She isn’t ready to kill her brother, she isn’t ready to kill the girl who’s there for her each night, every time she’s confused of her nightmares, or the citizens that gave her flowers. Morgana remembers uther’s look of despair and confusion, she feels her hand trembles

Morgause: (in a flashback) You’re nothing but a coward Morgana! A coward!

No matter, she’s not part of it anymore, it’s better to leave it alone. Let morgause finish their revenge.

When morgana leaves to wash her cauldron, it feels weird. It felt like she’s being watched. She scanned the woods with her magic, she didn’t feel anything. That’s really strange, morgana must be…

.

.

.

The first thing morgana sees is the stone floor. Her head is splitting, her vision is unfocused. Morgana sits up slowly, trying to regain balance.

The room is dark, she can barely see anything. When she tries to move her hair, she realizes that she’s chained to the wall

Great. She’s kidnapped.

She scowls, trying to free herself from the chains. She tries to draw her magic, but she feels nothing. Whoever kidnapped her knows what they’re dealing with…

She hears a groan from her left and she saw a man. Wearing god knows what. Laying on the floor, chained like she is. She calls for him, trying to wake him up. The more she looks at him, the more she felt like she knew this man.

???: where am i… Morgana: (realize who this is) Merlin??? Merlin: …morgana…?

The man looked at her, no longer the merlin she last seen. He looks like a stray being, as if he’s the spirit of the forest. He is covered in cloth, a cloak on his head. His skin peaks out from where the cloth didn’t touch him, even in the dark, morgana can see the light bouncing off his slender thighs and the faint outline of his….nipple

Morgana: you look like a prostitute… Merlin: that's rich from someone who dress like a beggar Morgana: I’ll have you know this is one of the finest dresses i have- Merlin: Your hair could really do some work Morgana: you don't get to say that when you don't need to maintain your hair every day!!

They bicker back and forth about their fashion choices. Morgana also hates his serving clothes, especially that tattered neckerchief on his neck…And he barely changes everything. It’s a boring to look at every single day. At least Gwen changes her clothes once in a while.

It was so heated they didn’t notice the door opening until they heard footsteps entering the room. They eye their predator carefully, backing themselves to the wall. But the guards only un-cuffs them from the wall, forcing them to stand.

They were bringing into a room, full of people with chains on their hands. Morgana stands close to Merlin, maybe Morgana can kill him when he wasn’t looking, morgana HATES him after all…

The ringleader came into view, told them to fight to the death. Anyone who succeed can go to the second round or something morgana wasn’t really listening. She’s too busy to think of ways of killing Merlin.

They put a bunch of weapon in the middle of the room, probably to aid them or something. Morgana grabs a sword just in case. Merlin didn’t grab anything. What an idiot.

Ringleader: The battle starts….now

It was a blur after that. Morgana remembers slaying people, people who aren’t merlin. Morgana tries to cast a spell towards him every now and then, she saw Merlin doing the same. But it was never strong enough to kill, probably too distracted by the threat in front of them.

It suddenly stops. Only Morgana and a few other people stands unscathed, including Merlin, always Merlin. It makes a lot of sense now why he has a habit of not dying. Morgana remembers when she discovers that he has magic. What a hypocrite.

They were thrown to their prison cells not long after. After a speech that morgana really didn’t bother to listen

(in their cell)

Merlin: You have any idea what they want? (body swelling with blood and bruises) Morgana: we’re stuck in a slavery ring

Morgana seen one back when she was still with morgause. She tracks them down when one crosses her path, a potential army for her. She remembers that one of those rings would pit off prisoners like this, probably to find new slaves

Morgana: I couldn’t wait to see your demise when one of those brutes mortally wound you…” (giggling, imagining Merlin suffering a slow and painful death) Merlin: (shakes his head) look morgana…i’m sorry alright? I didn’t mean to betray you like that, and i… Morgana: i don’t want to hear your excuses you liar! You’re the same as that old fool! (screaming)

morgana wish she can slit his throat right now. Morgana wants to stab her dagger, revenge for every time Gaius told her she doesn’t have magic, for every time merlin stay quiet

Merlin: well i’m sorry for being a liar when i’m constantly threatened to be executed! At least you don’t get to suffer any consequences!! Morgana: you don’t get to say that!! You meddle into things when you don’t need to!!

they scream to each-other faces. Spit and all. It’s a bit disgusting, but Merlin is more disgusting. And every time she hears his excuses it brings something ugly within her. When Morgana was about to throw another insult at his face the door opens harshly

Guard: Quiet before I snap your necks (throwing a piece of bread and then leaving) Morgana: …at least i’m not an idiot in love like you Merlin: what do you mean? Morgana: (snorts) you spent every single day protecting arthur from harm, you took poisons and blows for arthur, you poisoned me because i’m hurting arthur, you hunt a child like a pig because of some wishy-washy prophecy, a child merlin, a child! Merlin: … Morgana: how’s arthur? was he sad that i killed his daddy??

it didn’t go unnoticed that Merlin was silent at the mention of his brother. Which was weird, usually when she brought him up he never shut up about him.

Merlin: (gets the bread, tossing it to Morgana with his bound hand) eat up, tomorrow is going to be a rough day Morgana: I don’t want food from you (tosses it back to him with gnawing stomach) it’s probably poisoned anyways Merlin: (sighs) if i ate it and i didn’t die, would you eat it? Morgana: ….no

merlin shrugs, biting a bit of his bread. When he shows no indication of poisoning, he tosses it back to her

Merlin: See? No poison Morgana: (rolled her eyes, grumpily tossing the bread back to him) i don’t trust you until you finished it

they toss the bread back and forth, biting into it until there’s no more food left to toss. After another stupid remark, Morgana greets him goodnight, and sleep on her side of the cell

It became a routine after that, they were toss at the arena, got toss back in the cell, tossed back at the arena….

Morgana hates it when she spends time with him. She’s sick of Merlin’s wicked humor. When he managed to rung a laugh out of her. For the first time since Morgause she feels like she’s not alone anymore

Merlin: …and then I told him that it was a sidhe, but he didn’t believe me! Morgana: Well he’s stupid, the stupidest man i’ve ever known…

Morgana didn’t enjoy talking to him, she hates it, she’s sick of the joy crawling on her skin

Morgana: What about Gwen? Merlin: Gwen? Oh she’s fine, she’s sad when you’re gone that time, we couldn’t really comfort her, it’s the same with arthur…it’s the same with everyone really…we miss you Merlin: …and what about you? What of you and arthur? Merlin: … Morgana: Oh come on merlin! There must be something that you did right? It’s been what? A year since that kiss? I saw it you know. Surely you already did something?? Are you still Arthur’s manservant? i don’t know how you handle that magic though…are you still keeping secrets from him? Why are you here anyways? Is arthur here with you? Merlin: Arthur banished me Morgana: Sorry? Merlin: I’m banished from camelot...

Morgana didn’t know what to feel. She should be happy, merlin is banished from camelot! That’s what she wanted right? For Merlin to suffer?

Merlin: it’s fine though, I learned a lot, did you know the druids grows the best of fruits? Must be their connection with nature or something. Their grapes are divine-

Morgana couldn’t stop the ire rising from herself when she kicks him. Merlin immediately bends to touch his leg

Merlin: WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! Morgana: YOU��RE AN IDIOT MERLIN SON OF HUNNITH! Wow i know you’re an idiot but i can’t believe you’re THAT BIG of an idiot Merlin: What???? Morgana what are you even- Morgana: Should i chop Arthur’s manhood for what he did to you? Gosh, you’re probably still protecting camelot even in banishment aren’t you??? I know that’s you when morgouse sends the hydra on the castle….are you an IDIOT??? Why are you still chasing this guy?? I can’t even…i get that he’s hot, but really merlin? Why did you get banished anyway? was it the magic?? Or is he hates homosexual relationship? It’s the magic isn’t it…that bastard….

Morgana swears when she gets out, she will kill him, even with her own two hands-

Merlin: stop it morgana, i don’t want you to kill arthur! Morgana: Of course you’re going to say that! you lovesick fool! Merlin: Really? Do you want me to kill gwen because she stabbed you that one time?!

Morgana shuts up, merlin must be referring to that time when gwen is forced to stab her when she reigns the castle with morgause, she doesn’t like thinking about it

Morgana: (huffed) he shouldn’t banish you, not when you’re always by his side, and what do you get?

it’s stuff like this that made her truly hate camelot. Morgana could understand her banishment, but to banish merlin? Why didn’t anyone do anything? It truly made morgana sick to her stomach

Merlin: you know, banishment isn’t that bad…and i made choices…I deserved it

Before morgana can reply a guard enters their room, uncuffing them and dragging them outside their cell. They arrived at a different room, like that of an arena. But smaller this time. But only morgana and merlin stand in the middle of the room. The ringleader stands on a balcony

What happened on the last arena again? Right, only merlin and morgana were left standing, which means…

Ringleader: Merlin and Lady Morgana, once the pride and joy of Camelot, only to be banished by King Arthur himself. What a pity Merlin: If you think that I’m willing to help you to destroy camelot, count me out. My loyalties will always lie on king arthur Ringleader: Oh no no, I don’t want any of that. I don’t know how you ended up together as prison-mates but i did not expect the witch and emrys to be in my doorstep, inside the same cell nonetheless! Morgana: And? You want us to be your slaves? do you really think we’re willing to submit to you? Ringleader: don’t worry, i can think of ways to tame you

Morgana stomach jolted at the implication

Ringleader: Despite your…peerless reputation, you’re both are a headache for me to handle…so i just want one (sat on his make-shift throne) go ahead then, fight to the death! don’t you hate each-other?

Morgana looks at Merlin, and he looks at her. It’s true, Morgana had been wanting to kill Merlin for a long time but…

She doesn’t want to kill another one of her kind. And she doesn’t want to kill her friend

Ringleader: Come on! I’m waiting…

The shackles on their hand cracks, and Morgana felt her magic restored. They stare at each-other, circling. Is Merlin going to kill her now? Morgana saw how Merlin body is poised, ready to strike.

She strike first.

They danced around each-other, exchanging blows. The blow was sometimes deadly, other-times unnecessary spells. But they never land a fatal blow, even if morgana is panting, and merlin is out of breath

Morgana: …what’s wrong Merlin?…scared? Merlin: You wish (strike a spell that tore the fabric of her skirt) Morgana: (gasped) My dress! Merlin: …oops…

Morgana screams, sending a curse towards merlin. Morgana can’t believe it, it actually hits him, and for a moment merlin was confused, because nothing happened

Merlin: well that was anti-climactic (in a girl's voice, realization) morgana change me back right now! Morgana: No

she puts another curse on him, but he dodges it this time. It didn’t take long for merlin to tackle her, she fights back, trying to push him off and they fight like children.

Merlin: Get off me! (shrieking unladylike, his long nose (yes how ironic morgana is a genius) touching the ground) Morgana: You get off! (fights back, hair green. Fingers feels like rubber)

They rolled on each-other back, trying to murder the other until they gave up and just sprawled on the floor, too exhausted to do anything. If Morgana have to fire a spell one more time it feels like she’s going go throw up

Morgana: You’re pathetic Merlin Merlin: You’re even more pathetic Morgana: At least I’m stronger than you, you look like a twig Merlin: Well I’ll let you know that- Ringleader: ENOUGH

(they both look at him)

Ringleader: Just die already! I don’t care who dies! Just kill someone! If you don’t want to do it, then I’m going to kill the both of you! Morgana + Merlin: ….HAHAHAHAHHA Merlin: Did you hear that??? He says he’s going to kill us Morgana: ‘Just die already’ (still laughing even as she felt her hair is being pulled. She felt hands shoving her down, Merlin next to her) Ringleader: Do you have any final words? Morgana: (looks at Merlin) You’re not as worse as I thought Merlin: I’m glad to meet you too Morgana

When the axe about to fall down on their neck, the rooftop shake, and suddenly a dragon is screaming at them. Their assaulters ran, terrified of the beast.

Morgana: Aithusa!!

Merlin laughs beside her, chanting in a foreign language. Aithusa squeal and Morgana paused

Morgana: You’re also a dragonlord Merlin: Yeah not many people know that

Aithusa breathes fire, fending off their attacker

Morgana: merlin if you dare as to so much touches her- Merlin: Morgana, i birthed her Morgana: …??

Morgana had no time to argue when the ringleader is starting to ran to them. She quickly climbed onto her, when Morgana reaches out her hand for Merlin to grab but Merlin fell. Limbs grabbed by the ringleader

Morgana: MERLIN!

Aithusa is shrieking, trying to shield herself and Morgana from the fire. Merlin chants and Morgana felt Aithusa leaving

Morgana: Merlin? MERLIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Merlin: Goodbye Morgana Morgana: STOP!!

Morgana tries to reach him, but Aithusa keeps flying, away from the dungeon, away from Merlin

Episode ends

*

End notes: i rlly didn’t expect it to be this long. Anyways sorry if it didn’t made sense and the pacing is off, i’m really rambling here 😭 but this is how i think morgana merlin interaction should go

season 4:

main post:

To find my other ramblings about this AU, filter with the hashtag #must we really rely on fate?

[cafecourage]

Can I have King! Time trying to find Reader who's hiding from him during a gala?

Any interpretation of this is fine! 🥰🥰

Yes ma’am!! And I’m making this targeted. Love you <3

Author smirks at him, “why not? I’ll be at Prince Sky’s birthday party. Find me and maybe I’ll consider your courtship.” It’s a dare Time couldn’t find himself refusing, with all his life he has never met anyone like the benevolent Author.

The day she came into his life the wheels of his fate started to turn once again. Slowly the day to day grind of his immortal life brightens as he had her to look forward to. Time was quick originally to have the Author as an ally, as he was getting too caught up in government work to help his citizens. He trusts her with his kingdom wholeheartedly.

Which is what led him to this problem to begin with. As a dragon by nature Time was greedy, he wanted to claim Author as a part of his horde and court her offically. Techically he has already put a claim on her, but it was more like a way for the castle's staff to know she had his permission to be in the castle.

But now…. now it's different. Time wants to properly court the human, and while he wasn’t regected outright, he wasn’t given a yes. “Fine.” He finally says after a bit, it wouldn’t be fun now to instantly track you down. After all, he has the whole timeline in his hands to watch. “But as to not make this boring for either of us. I won't use my magic, and limit my dragon sense.”

The Author's face went from confident to confusion, but in the end she went with it. What’s the point of a hunt if it's over in 5 seconds after all?

Honestly he wasn’t going to join the ball for all that long originally. His normal routine would have been to say hello to those he knows and leave to more quieter areas. Then when the party dies down reappears like he has been there the whole time and leaves officially.

This party was also going to be the most chaotic one he has seen so far. With not only Author coming in her civilian form. Time was pretty sure he noticed a familiar witch pass by him.

That wasn’t his problem tonight. He silently just wishes Sky luck as the prince was dragged off. Time turns to scan the crowd now that most if not all guests have arrived. Time couldn’t help but wonder if Author was watching him, waiting to see if he would figure it out.

For once Time didn’t know how to start with this, his sense of smell is limited since the room is full of people and dragons. So it was by vibes and vibes alone. Which he assumed it was the point of all of this game. Moving to the buffet table as he wanted a drink hopeful he can get rid of the small migraine he was suffering from.

He was looking through the crowd only half looking for the Author. The night was still young and he still had time to look for her, he watched as Twilight socializes more with people his age. While even though his Nephew was being tormented by his friends in a slightly polite way but Time was proud of. His gaze shifts to the other people on the sidelines.

Someone catches his attention.

A royal blue he was familiar with flutters and weaves through the crowd almost making a bee line to the balcony. Time’s curiosity peaks as most of the time if someone did that something happened. He put down his wine and head out to follow the lady. Mainly just incase something did happen he could let Sky know. The prince is a no nonsense person so he wouldn’t want anyone to be harassed at his own party.

The cool air was a relief to his small headache, it was nice to have peace and quiet. Time reminded himself he wasn’t here for peace though. He looks around for a second before noticing a small figure in the corner resting on a bench. He wanders over causally as he tries to assess the situation. The Lady doesn’t look hurt, or sad, or angry. She just looked tired. Her dress while Time couldn’t confirm due to poor lighting also looked fine so he could check harassment off for now.

“Mind some company?” He asks gaining the attention of the other guest.

She looks up at him wide eyed before straighten up. “Of course your highness.” She said softly as she moves to the side for him to sit.

“Please don’t worry about formalities.” Time saids as he sits downs “is everything ok?” He asks as that was the reason why he was here.

“No!” She looked panicked a bit “I mean… I’m just tired. I haven’t been to one of these in a while.”

Time hums and looks at the windows into the ballroom. “Understandable. I don’t particularly like these types of events either.” He shrugs “but I am here for my boy and friends. Unfortunately I can’t leave.”

This earns a small laugh from her that made his heart flutter a bit. “I guess even the King needs to let his hair down.” She said looking up at him with a small sparkle in her eyes.

Time’s brain had to reboot itself as he knew this person. He didn’t realize his scent is on her because he was so overloaded from being inside. “May I ask why are you here?” He said not giving away much but his suspicions were growing.

“I was going to meet someone here.” She whispered as if she was worried about something. “But I couldn’t find him.”

“Ah…” That made him feel a bit guilty “I am sorry… for making you wait then.”

“Huh?” They locked eyes, she was in shock while Time couldn’t figure out why. He had already claimed her as apart of his treasure. Courting or not Author was special to Time. He loved her and she helped his kingdom. That realization must of dawned on her. “YOU CHEATED!” She accused him, which made Time burst out into laughter.

[theromanticscrooge]

Drawing Parallels Between Glinda and Elphaba With Elodie and Enid

As of writing this, I haven't checked out the Wicked book series or the theatrical movie yet. This is making reference to just the stage musical.

The core of Wicked is the meaningful but tragic friendship between Glinda and Elphaba. Glinda is an overachiever; the prettiest, the most popular, and the girl who usually gets everything she wants. She feels lost when she's not just handed the position for Wizard's apprentice. The same headmaster dresses her down in public: her abilities are weak and she'd never live up to the qualities needed for the role. While Glinda benefits from pretty privilege and natural charisma, she's seen as just her looks and nothing more. She works to maintain her image and social standing, but she doesn't know if someone legitimately likes her for her or only likes her at surface level. The headmaster's harsh comments slice to the core of Glinda's character: She wants to be acknowledged and understood on a deeper level. She wants to know that she's capable and hardworking; that she can live up to more than just her shallow image. That she's worthy of all the love and adoration she receives.

In stark contrast, Elphaba has been looked down on and belittled by everyone in her life because of her green skin. She's underestimated, feels invisible, inferior; she has to work harder than others for any ounce of recognition and still feels undeserving despite earning something or having a genuine connection with someone else, romantic or otherwise. As a whole, Wicked explores the consequences behind the fever pitch of a fascistic regime in Oz. Elphaba herself can be read as an allegory for queer people, ex-Mormons, people of color experiencing racism, or anyone that feels "othered" by an existing system with a very specific vision for the what the ideal person is and model behavior.

Rising tensions lead to anthropomorphic or 'speaking' animals like Dr. Dilimund being stripped of their rights and autonomy in full view of a grossly apathetic public. Dilimund and his colleagues are forcibly removed from teaching positions, careers, and having any presence in society because they are literally seen as less than human, let alone sapient beings. The metaphors aren't subtle. Its blatant, it's powerful, and it works. In a nutshell, Dilimund is a scapegoat and the hanging guillotine of the question 'Who's next?' His fate acts as a counterbalance to Elphaba's budding friendship with Glinda. For a moment, Elphaba still believes there's a place for her in the existing system because of her newfound talent/affinity for magic that grants her prestige and social power she's never held before.

These feelings are further validated when Glinda, the peak of social desirability, also shows genuine interest in befriending her. Her belief in society at large is completely demolished after she discovers the truth about The Wizard. Ultimately, The Wizard is viewed as a benevolent, generous, and larger than life figure that makes dreams come true. He's the guiding light for a more 'utopian' society and because of how powerful he is as an icon, his role and influence in politics is easily separated from draconian policies and political unrest. Elphaba is convinced that all she has to do is ask and he'll fix the problems facing citizens like Dilimund.

Instead, the Wizard really is just smoke and mirrors. He only wants her as a means to sustain his role as a powerful leader and maintain the current status quo. Where Elphaba leaves society completely and becomes a covert, one-woman resistance movement, Glinda stays and becomes the polished PR figure and go-between for the Wizard's machinations. She's grossly conflicted and manages to hide that she knows something about Elphaba after Elphaba escapes. It also takes her longer to pinpoint what about society is broken. She hasn't been burned in the same openly bigoted way Elphaba has. Glinda has benefited heavily from the existing social system. As someone that not just believed in but benefited from it, she takes longer to disentangle herself from her broken worldview and an increasingly corrupted system. Despite obvious proof to the contrary, she believes that the system can be fixed from within. If she makes compromises, she can keep the status quo as well as create a comfortable space for Elphaba if only she'd return; she can have her cake and eat it too.

Fiyero serves as an interesting complement to Glinda's and Elphaba's respective character stories. When he starts dating Glinda, he's a reflection of how shallow and ignorant Glinda starts out. The two are content 'dancing through life' with little thought or consideration for the existing history of Oz or self-improvement. Fiyero's cavalier attituderesults in him getting kicked out of schools. He can skate by on looks and reputation alone; he's more likely to get second chances just because of who he is. Besides the headmaster's opinion of her, Glinda has mostly skated by on her looks and reputation. Fiyero is more a boost to her status and general morale because of how pretty they look together.

When Fiyero plays off of Elphaba, it both shows the surprisingly sweet, considerate side of his character as well as emphasizes how earnest, compassionate, and selfless Elphaba is. Fiyero's breakup with Glinda is messy and brusque, but his developing romance with Elphaba reflects Elphaba finally coming into her own and showing stronger confidence and conviction. She takes something for herself after years of ignoring her wants, needs, and self in the endless quest to avoid making others uncomfortable. Fiyero himself grows beyond his surface level image. He falls in love with Elphaba as he works on better understanding her situation and a desire to help push against a corrupt system.

In a nutshell, Glinda is a figure of someone struggling to understand her privilege, how that same privilege made her more of an idea than an individual person, and the further problems with the system that gave her said privilege. Elphaba is a tragic figure that desperately wanted to fit into a system, kept getting rejected, and was so betrayed by said system that she started defying it both out of self-preservation and sheer necessity.

Glinda and Elphaba became friends despite coming from very different worlds. Elphaba was the first person to see through Glinda's glamour and show honest support towards and encouragement for her goals as an individual rather than just as an image. She finds the strength to kick out the Wizard as well as start rebuilding Oz because of Elphaba's influence. Despite their circumstances, Glinda was the first person that loved Elphaba unconditionally. Because of Glinda, Elphaba finds the strength to love herself and become who she wants to be despite pressure from society at large to be something else. The tragedy is that despite Glinda rooting out the more corrupt leaders in the Emerald City, the propaganda against Elphaba was effective enough that Oz will never be safe again. While Wicked takes place in a fantastical setting, the story has very real depictions of the consequences and aftermath of a culture that's deeply steeped in a mix of colonialism and fascism.

There's some echo of Glinda and Elphaba between Enid and Elodie from O.K. K.O. Both aspire to enroll at POINT Prep to become strong heroes. Though where Glinda comes from a privileged background and easily gets everything she wants, both Enid and Elodie come from Lakewood. It's illustrated more through visual cues and dialogue but Lakewood is equated to low-income communities and small towns. There's limited opportunities here. There's some fear of getting stuck and stagnating. POINT Prep is a window to hopefully bigger and better opportunities elsewhere. Enid is on a similar wavelength to her colleague Sparko: POINT Prep is a means to an end. She doesn't have a specific vision or hope for her future. What she does know is she doesn't want her background to define who she is and what she's capable of. This is similar to Elphaba not giving immediate consideration to the potential of becoming the Wizard's apprentice. She enthusiastically embraces the opportunity in the hopes that she'll finally be accepted by others and have some chance at normalcy.

In stark contrast, Elodie has a very specific goal and vision for her future. She grew up watching the heroic feats of Chip Damage and aspires to become a beacon of hope and role model like he was for her. Dr. Grayman sets the stage for what the hero landscape looked like after Laserblast's death and the public losing faith in POINT. As far as regular civilians knew, POINT was a chaotic and disorganized mess. They couldn't be trusted with the health and safety of POINT members, let alone the public en masse. Chip Damage was an attempt at a rebrand. He became a living icon; the image of what the ideal hero looked like. He inspired hope. He encouraged the upcoming generation to follow in his footsteps and become heroes themselves.

Chip's example led to Elodie looking at POINT Prep as the penultimate segue from amateur to the next greatest hero the world had ever seen. POINT Prep was a means for Enid. POINT Prep was a destination for Elodie. Becoming the Wizard's apprentice was the next logical step for Glinda in her journey as a beloved, appreciated, and glamorous social figure. Becoming her unique take on Chip Damage was Elodie's entire life goal.

Elodie and Enid's friendship starts with Elodie showing genuine appreciation for and interest in Enid's abilities. She's good at pretending she's more skilled and worldly than otherwise, but it's a mask. They have an earnest and sweet relationship; they gel in an organic way. This also illustrates the caring and considerate part of Elodie's personality. The pomp and dazzle of her image is a tool for reassuring people. Its not just presentation; its a staple in earning someone's trust more easily. Enid is probably the only person that's seen the 'real' and vulnerable side of Elodie before the later events of the POINT Prep arc and Dark Plaza.

Glinda and Elphaba start becoming close because Elphaba leverages her position as the most promising candidate for Wizard's apprentice to enroll Glinda in the training she wanted. There's a competition for a full-ride scholarship at POINT Prep. Enid and Elodie enter with the assumption there's a mutual understanding of and support for 'may the more skilled hero win.' Enid fully intends to keep their friendship regardless of the end result. She deeply values anyone that sees and loves her genuine self. While her parents are generally loving and supportive, they have criticized her desire to be a ninja so harshly that she hides her preferred outfit and weapons at home. She had an ambiguous amount of time where she was a witch full-time at school and home; holding onto dreams and stories until she switched to public school. The ability to explore her true self even just part time was enough that Enid felt hopeful enough to take a chance on both Elodie and Rad. Unfortunately, both Rad and Elodie hurt and betrayed her trust in a way that she closes back up for years after.

Enid wants to be recognized and accepted as her full self by her parents and friends alike. This is roughly comparable to Elphaba's struggle as the black sheep in the family and unwarranted reputation as a social pariah. All she wants is to be seen and recognized as a full human being despite her green skin. She generally poses as a wall flower and makes herself small to avoid any more commotion than she gets by just existing. Elphaba starts opening up and becoming her true self when someone finally recognizes and accepts her as a person despite her outer appearance.

In Enid's case, she starts learning to trust and be vulnerable around others again when Rad, her parents, and Elodie show real attempts to apologize and make amends. She also learns how much she started relying on snark and sarcasm as an extra defense mechanism. She anticipates others taking pot shots at her interests or who lies under her cool facade. If she strikes first, then they don't have the opportunity to hurt her. When she and Rad are on better speaking terms, he feels like he can call her out on this and ask her to course-correct.

Granted, Enid closed up as a result of getting hurt by two different people taking drastic measures to uphold and furnish very specific masks for themselves. Rad leans into toxic masculinity and tries to neg her on their first date. He's convinced that he looks cooler and far more desirable if he's an obnoxious jerk with big muscles. The hyper-masculine image keeps his friends. He's too insecure to openly acknowledge his more 'feminine' interests, let alone that he's a very emotional and sensitive person. Where Enid faced pressure at home to match her family's cultural background and traditions, Rad feels embarrassed by his parents and falls prey to general social pressure around gender roles in a patriarchal system. Rad starts connecting with and more easily talking to Enid when he opens up. He finally meets Enid's vulnerability years later and that's what makes their friendship work.

Elodie was placed in a situation where she felt like she had a very black and white choice between Enid and her ambition. Capitalism exists in this fantasy world. The POINT Prep competition stems from a system that heavily relies on creating scarcity and fostering tense competition between persons. There's only one spot at POINT Prep. Elodie is thoroughly convinced that she has to fight for that spot and, as a result, push others out of her way. Her personal role model Chip Damage is also depicted as the height of individualism and how powerful one person should be. POINT started as a team effort that relied on mutual trust and collaboration.

When POINT pivoted towards showcasing Chip Damage as their posterboy, shameless advertising and merchandising included, POINT became back-up or supporting players to one star player. The new model relies on Chip and Chip alone. He is POINT. This paints Elodie's world view: She has to be ready to shoulder the lion's share of challenges and obstacles that come with professional heroics. She can't be vulnerable or lower her guard. Rather than seeing her friendship with Enid as a strength, it becomes an obstacle. If Enid makes her feel vulnerable, it means Elodie has a direct, exploitable weakness. This mindset is the cornerstone of why Elodie sees Enid as a rival and treats her with passive aggressive hostility.

Elodie's struggle is further echoed by Foxtail. In Wicked, the Wizard starts as a well-meaning guide and starts reshaping Oz to his preferred vision and standards as he becomes more powerful and influential. He's a direct comparison to historical events like British colonizers coming to the United States and forcing the existing populace to conform to their culture, standards, and way of life. That said, O.K. K.O. explores a very different fascistic figure with Foxtail. After Laserblast dies and POINT starts scrambling, Foxtail installs herself as an immediate leader with designs on building an effective, uniform fighting team. Her recruits need to fit her specific idea of what a powerful, effective hero looks like.

Chip Damage is the template. Recruits have to be self-sufficient in a capitalist pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps respect. They're expendable and replaceable in the vision of meeting a greater good. The Wizard shapes society with a mix of propaganda, soft power, and bringing in a violent authoritarian hand against anyone that challenges his societal designs. Foxtail steps in and directly confronts whatever she considers a direct threat or obstacle. Chip Damage is propaganda, but he's propaganda directed at an ideal for people to meet vs a specific figure people rely on. Chip entices new recruits to conform and enforce. The Wizard enforces complacency and dependency.

When Enid becomes disillusioned with POINT Prep, she has a support network back in Lakewood to return to. There's emphasis on how much stronger Enid is because of Rad, K.O., and in this systemMr. Gar. She can openly express her thoughts and concerns with K.O. and Rad. She's on even footing and standing with her mentor and teammates at the Bodega. Mr. Gar benefits from his students as much as they benefit from his experience and feedback. The key difference between Mr. Gar's more independent training and POINT Prep is his tailored, individualized approach with K.O., Rad, and Enid. Everyone receives equal attention and encouraged to learn at a rate or pace that fits them. POINT Prep has specific standards for students to meet. This is blatantly abused by Foxtail threatening failing grades when students don't meet her expectations or follow her orders. There's also Chip's exclusive classes for 'advanced' students. Only those few that meet Foxtail's vision for the ideal hero receive a special power-up that gives them a brief burst of extra power. This is triggered by the need to win or competition period.

Elodie is the highest achiever and the most popular student at POINT Prep. She's part of this exclusive group of students. While she does help Enid disarm and stop Chip Damage, it's equal parts in hopes to salvage their friendship and to rescue the integrity of POINT Prep as an institution. Similarly to Glinda staying next to the Wizard even after discovering the truth of the man behind the curtain, Elodie believes in the standing history and infrastructure behind POINT. She won her spot, but she's worked hard to further cultivate and maintain her position. She honestly believes that she can fix existing issues by sticking around and working within the existing system. Unplugging Chip Damage and pumping the brakes on secret society meetings was only the tip of the iceberg. Foxtail is still in charge. And while Chip acted as emcee at events or taught a few classes, Foxtail is the connective tissue between students like Elodie and their significant overall progress within POINT. Everyone, including Chip, were cogs carefully installed and set in motion according to Foxtail's machinations; only allowed to stay or get discarded by her final word. Elodie continues to follow Foxtail's orders, albeit begrudgingly, because in that moment, Foxtail is POINT.

POINT managed to capture the imagination of someone like Elodie. Chip Damage helped redeem public trust. He was key in painting a very idealistic vision of the POINT pipeline: get recruited, go to POINT Prep, become a successful hero. POINT is only as successful as someone believes they are. Foxtail lost faith in the previous way POINT operated. Though, she still believes that POINT can be a strong and powerful institution that just needs redirection. She seizes control and forces recruits to conform, comply, and enforce her will because she doesn't trust in anyone's abilities or intuition as an individual. Conversely, Elodie believes and trusts in POINT as an institution to the degree she overlooks her reservations and concerns. She sank so much of herself and her convictions into this system that it's difficult to question the possibility it isn't working. POINT holds her imagination hostage; her future, the potential of other heroes, and what the world looks like rely on POINT as a lens to look at and evaluate these things through.

Originally, Elodie follows through with Foxtail's extreme measures because she's more convinced by Foxtail and POINT than Enid and the Plaza at large. While she did join Enid to stop Chip, she also chose to remain at and stand by POINT after the fact. When Elphaba originally asks Glinda to run away with her, Glinda refuses because she sees, and even describes, Elphaba's behavior as 'delusions of grandeur.' Glinda understands how much more self-realized Elphaba becomes outside of Oz's restrictive system; but she doesn't understand the full picture of exactly how incompatible she is with what creates Oz's status quo, especially with the more 'radical' ideas she has. The disconnect is that either one would be sacrificing a large part of their personal values and sense of self to follow the other's lead. Glinda would have to completely reinvent herself; Elphaba would be compromising on things that are absolutely non-negotiable now.

Thankfully for Enid and Elodie, they aren't tragically incompatible. When Elodie sees the resistance force in "Dark Plaza," its a real, tangible example of what she was looking for and hoping to build at POINT. Enid and other Plaza residents show a group of very different individuals coming together and collaborating as an effective, multi-pronged team. There isn't one specific person in charge or strict uniforms. Its teamwork that echoes what POINT looked like before Chip Damage. Seeing a real-world effect that challenges Foxtail's POINT is enough to give Elodie that extra nudge to defy Foxtail. She was scared of a world without POINT; its a significant part of her moral compass and world perspective. Authoritarian POINT on par with villains and confidence in what support she could find with the Plaza is enough to push against Foxtail regardless.

Honestly, "Dark Plaza" is more of an introduction to what kinds of themes and social issues Wicked tackles. Foxtail is portrayed as a redeemable, sympathetic figure. POINT's corruption is effectively defused because Foxtail surrenders, presumably starts unpacking the grief and trauma that kick started her authoritarian campaign, and passed the reigns to Elodie as a kinder, more understanding, and effective leader. The hanging question after Elodie takes charge is how to address the existential hole that Chip Damage leaves behind.

Chip himself reveals that he was just smoke and mirrors; he chooses to tell the world that they can and will persist without such heavy reliance on a Superman. Overall, O.K. K.O. places emphasis on the importance of a strong support system, that its ok to ask for help, found family, and messages about the power of community. Killing Chip Damage is one of the bigger gut-punch scenes for this message. He's never a fully actualized character; he remains an image and an idea. Elodie and K.O. encourage the disgruntled crowd to love themselves. In effect, a strong community consists of people that love their neighbors as well as themselves. Your strengths are just as important to the bigger picture as someone else's shoulder to lean on.

Elodie plans to restructure and rework POINT, but Enid does not see a place for herself there. She's still figuring out what she wants to do next and the Plaza is a better fitting interim space for her values, approach to training, and otherwise. Head of POINT Prep is the best end result for Elodie period. So much of her character rests on her wanting to be a role model and encourage other upcoming heroes. Her current role is more direct and hands-on than just echoing Chip Damage could be. She had some hand in rehabilitating Foxtail, she already defies existing prejudices about Lakewood heroes as a former Lakewood resident herself, and has more say/input on how POINT Prep programs work. Given how much friendlier she is with Enid, Elodie could direct hero hopefuls towards the Bodega if POINT Prep isn't a good fit for their respective abilities and interests.

Glinda and Elphaba end on a very bittersweet note that they had a strong impact in each other's lives and love each other unconditionally but can never see the other again in large part due to forces outside of their control. Enid and Elodie repaired their friendship, but they have a very new, different dynamic. They aren't as close as before; they can't be quite as intimate as they once were but they have figured out how to agree to disagree on certain topics, respect each other's opinions, and actually value the other's insights or intuition on given topics. In a nutshell, it's interesting to look at these sets of characters, how they live in/navigate the societal systems they live in, and how that affects their respective relationships.

[salixsociety]

The Problem of the 'Witch's Sabbat'

Why we should stop calling our non-jewish holidays 'Sabbats': a (hopefully) definitive guide.

It is the year of our Gods 2024, and to this day I still enter communities and see the word 'sabbat' as one of the first. It is common practice to refer to any holiday, but especially those as featured in the Wheel of the Year, as sabbat(h)s, and frankly, I am sick of it. So I hope that I can use this post to convince some people on why it is time to remove that word from our vocabulary.

Where Does the Word 'Sabbat' Come From?

The very root of this word is the Hebrew ש־ב־ת (sh-b-t). It is the root word for many words pertaining to rest and not working (or more broadly: 'cessation'). This word evolved into שַׁבָּת (shabát), which translates to Saturday or weekly rest-day, normally. This word, also often spelled Shabbos from Ashkenazi Hebrew, travelled through various antique languages (Ancient Greek -> Latin -> Old French) directly to Middle English, where it became 'Sabat', and later Sabbath. While this word, in its travel through Europe, has influenced some words, you'll notice that it has also stayed one unique word, with a unique meaning: the Jewish Rest Day. The Sabbath, Shabbos, Sabbat, Shabat, et cetera, will always and has for most of its history been the word uniquely reserved for Saturday in Judaism. To those not very well read on Judaism, it may be helpful to know that Judaism is what is considered a closed practice. It is only permissible to practice Jewish religious tradition, and to a large extent, Jewish culture, if you are a Jewish convert. By extension, that should clue you in on the nature of the word and holiday of Shabbat.

Further reading on this topic: Etymology, Jewish Sabbath.

When Did it Become Relevant to Witches?

The first time the words 'sabbat(h)' and 'witch' were uttered in the same breath would likely be around the late Medieval period. The reason why this is, is something not nearly enough people are familiar with: the incredibly deep link between antisemitism and witch-hunting. Before the early Church turned its hateful eye to the concept of 'witches,' it was firmly on Jews. Jews, alongside other heretics and oppressed minorities like the Rroma, were considered utterly worthy of damnation. They were seen as antagonistic to the Church, going against everything the Church stood for, and furthermore as misanthropic, greedy, unreliable enemies. They were the scapegoats for many disasters and indeed frequently accused of practicing magic or poisoncrafting to invoke these disasters on the 'Good Christian Folk'. Furthermore, and this may sound familiar to you, jews were accused of 'consorting with the devil' and murdering children in order to consume their blood to mock the Eucharist, often referred to as blood libel. It was often claimed that this (nonexistent!) practice was done on the Shabbat, alongside other practices twisting and mocking those done in Church on Sunday. The persecution of Jews in Medieval Europe was horrific and seemingly endless, having origins in antiquity and reaching a peak during the Crusades, and another when the Plague ran rampant. Jews were banished, forced to convert to Christianity or brutally murdered, not infrequently by burning or strangulation.

What all of this is meant to illustrate is that the witch stereotype, or the wish to persecute witches in the early modern period, didn't come out of nowhere. There is a reason that caricatures and cartoons of witches feature a short and stocky body, a big and 'ugly' nose, green skin, red or dark hair, buckled shoes, and a conical hat (which before it became associated with witches, was often called a judenhut or jew hat). The roots of the witch stereotype in antisemitic caricatures and stereotypes are well-recorded and easy to see. And, indeed, the crimes most witches were accused of and burned for, directly mirrored the crimes jews were accused of before them. Consuming 'pure' Christian blood, mocking the Eucharist, fornicating with the devil, and all of this at the 'witch's sabbat', a made up gathering that witches would supposedly fly to on their broomsticks.

The idea that witches existed and the wish to eradicate them didn't purely come from antisemitism, of course. Misogyny, xenophobia, religious idealism from the Church, and other factors played incredibly large roles. But let us remain forever aware that the people burned were not in fact people flying on brooms, having sex with the devil and drinking the blood of Christian children. They were jews, they were Romani, they were people of color, they were women accused of stealing milk, they were victims.

So, the word 'sabbat(h)' wasn't just appropriated because somebody else wanted it or didn't understand it, like in many other cases of (mis)appropriation. It was appropriated explicitly to harm and eradicate several already fragile and oppressed, and in the case of Judaism, culturally exclusionary, communities.

The Role of Western Esotericism and Wicca

One could have expected the concept of the witches' sabbath to die out alongside the trials, but there is a secondary evil in this story, and it is Wicca.

In the late 19th century, English anthropologist and folklorist Margaret Alice Murray, one of the few women in her field, was halted in her research about Egypt, and was forced to find a new field of interest. She developed a hypothesis, based in mostly fantasy, that certain 'witch-cults' had survived the "Burning Times" in Europe. They were, according to her, secret societies upholding prehistoric fertility cults. Though most of her work was based in fantasy and speculation, her theory had one passionate follower: Gerald Gardner. But we will get back to him in a moment, because there is someone else pivotal to Gerald Gardner's beliefs: Aleister Crowley. Crowley is perhaps one of the most famous sexual predators, racists, antisemites, and cultural appropriators in the history of western magic. But, he was 'intelligent', well-travelled, privileged, and obsessed with occultism. He joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn when Gardner was already there. Both during his time in the Hermetic Order and after, he studied many religious traditions across the continents and wildly appropriated from all of them, most notably for this story, from Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism). I will not go in depth about him, but he, and his fixation on Kabbalah, were extremely important to Gardner's views. Gardner, amateur anthropologist (with two fake PhDs!) and former devout Christian, used the works of Margaret Murray and Aleister Crowley to justify his claim that an old witch named Dorothy Clutterbuck had initiated him into one of these prehistoric fertility cults, one that survived the witch hunts. This is where Wicca started, and that makes the formation of Wicca entirely impossible to separate from antisemitism - and that is reflected by their language and rituals. From appropriation directly from Kabbalah, a closed practice, to calling their (mis)appropriated holidays 'sabbats', the origins of Wicca and their views on the trials are abundantly clear.

The Harm

I think we are now at the point in this blog where I should no longer have to explain that taking the word 'Sabbath' (or any other spelling of it) outside of its cultural and religious context, and applying it to practitioners of magic, is outrageously antisemitic. It is the propagation and preservation of notions and habits that got thousands of people, jews and not, brutally murdered, displaced, and forcefully converted, and it continues to conflate jews and witches - something that we've had to agree is antisemitic quite a few times, after quite a few genocides.

Another major evil in calling pagan/witchy holidays 'sabbats' is that it misconstrues what the witch trials actually were - it was the persecution of heretics. Witches are heretics, heretics are non-christian, jews are non-christian, therefore jews are heretics, therefore jews must be witches! In both the Old and the New World it was always the different, the other, the unfamiliar that were murdered. Again: people of color, Romani, jews, muslims, scary and ugly women, thieves, disliked women, the disabled, the mentally ill. It was not, and it will never be, privileged white women. In fact, it was generally them assisting in the eradication! I mean this with quite some distaste: if you are one of those people that says 'we are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn', I know what you are. You are either uneducated or hateful, and I hope you fix that sooner rather than later.

Something else rather distasteful to me is how casually people are willing to dismiss the arguments against the use of 'sabbat' by the pagan/witch community. Antisemitism is not considered as serious, as severe, as relevant, as important, as worth considering. Not as much as other issues. I have had days-long arguments with people providing source on source on source and been met with: "I just don't see the harm." And I hear what you are truly saying. What you are truly saying is: "it's only antisemitism." When it is the appropriation of white sage, when it is the appropriation of Papa Legba, when it is the appropriation of something you don't want all that much, you are willing to stand up. But when it is antisemitism, when it is a word you've used for years, when it seems small and like it would be more convenient to just keep it, you are willing to stand by. And that is performative activism, and that is perpetuating the casual willingness to appropriate from Judaism. And it will be the reason that you and the people in your circle will also feel confident casually appropriating from other cultures.

Intersectionality

Despite the fact that the antisemitic nature of this usage should be enough, there is so much more harm to be done. After all, as was mentioned, it wasn't just jews that died. It was everybody who was not a white, wealthy, able-bodied, heteronormative, Christian man. It was women, so many women. It was schizophrenics. It was slaves, freed and not. It was natives. It was everybody who was different. When you stand by when people call their holidays 'sabbats', you are not just saying yes to antisemitism. You are saying yes to racism. You are saying yes to homophobia. You are saying yes to indigenous hate. You are saying yes to misogyny. You are saying yes to ableism. You are saying yes to ageism. You are saying yes to xenophobia. You are saying yes to hate.

After all, even when it starts with one group being persecuted, the persecution will go on after the extinction of the first group. And when the persecution finally reaches your group, and you have let every other group before you gone extinct, there will be nobody but you to fight for you.

Further Reading

OTHER BLOGS: The Witch Hunts & Antisemitism: An Often Overlooked History Why I Don't Call Them Sabbats, Why You Should Stop, and Other Thoughts on Problematic Aspects of Western Witchcraft The Antisemitic History of Witches Jews and the Witchcraze Can You Be a Jew and a Witch? Why Do Witches Wear Pointy Hats?

BOOKS and PAPERS: The Saturnine History of Jews and Witches - Yvonne Owens Heal the Witch Wound - Celeste Larsen “Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 127, iss. 3 (2012) - Nico Voigtländer and Hans-Joachim Voth "The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated with Introduction, Bibliography, and Notes by Montague Summers Do What Thou Wilt - Lawrence Sutin Witchcraze - Dr. Anne L. Barstow Imagining the Witch: A Comparison between Fifteenth-Century Witches within Medieval Christian Thought and the Persecution of Jews and Heretics in the Middle Ages Male witches in early modern Europe - Lara Apps, Andrew Gow

[wuhuha]

The Seasonal Blessings

An lore entry in my WOA art series aka Wu's Oc Academy. Were I take all my OCs and try fitting/reimagine them all existing in the same made up fantasy setting.

Magic is a gift from the spirits to humans after the six elemental sisters efforts to preserve nature during grim times for the world. Hence the season of ones birth being of great importance as it dictates which elemental presence is strongest and is there to bestow the gift of magic to the individual.

The spirits are regarded as the voices of nature so usually they are categorized into the season of the year; Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. It is said that these seasonal blessings govern not only their magical path, but also influence their personalities and paths in life.

The 4 houses of WOA is divided into these four seasons. Also worthy of mention is the appearance of a one wand is influenced by one's seasonal blessing.

(English is not my first language so please feel free to point out weirdly worded sentences and phases. I tried writing this ver.2 to make it a bit more engaging to read, than just a list off.)

Seasonal blessing of Spring:

Spring is a time of rebirth, new beginnings, and flourishing life. Those born with the Spring blessing are often full of energy, hope, and vitality. They carry the potential for growth, both in themselves and in the world around them.

Those carrying the blessing of spring will more likely have control over plants, earth, and life/healing magic. This might manifest as the ability to manipulate vines, roots, and seeds, and even summon animals to aid them. Many spring witches/wizards can communicate with plants and animals.

Spring blessed tend to have an uplifting, hopeful personality. Many fostering growth and renewal in those around them. However, they may sometimes struggle with impatience, as their magic urges constant change and improvement.

Many are innovative, driven by a desire to improve the world and bring new life to stagnant situations.

Seasonal blessing of Summer:

Summer represents warmth, passion, strength, and vitality. Those born under the Summer blessing are often confident, full of energy, and prone to bold actions. They embody the peak of growth and the power of the sun.

Many witches and wizards born in summer have an intrinsic connection to fire and heat. They can summon flames, control temperature, and harness the power of the sun. Their fire magic can range from small controlled flames to massive infernos. Summer blessed's magic often involves powerful illusions, allowing them to cloak themselves or others in light or heat, creating blinding or hypnotic effects.

Summer blessed are often leaders, brimming with confidence and ambition. They tend to take risks and act decisively.

While they are fiercely loyal and dedicated, their emotions can burn hot and quick, making them prone to outbursts or impatience when things don't go their way. They are also strong-willed, with a natural inclination to lead others, (despite their wishes).

Seasonal blessing of Autumn:

Autumn represents the cycle of transformation, harvest, and reflection. Those born with an Autumn blessing are deeply connected to the passage of time, the wisdom of the past, and the beauty of decay and transformation.

Autumn blessed will often have power over change, decay, and transmutation. Many possess the ability to transform substances and altering the appearance of objects. Many has also historically been skilled at manipulating shadows, creating darkened illusions. Autumn blessed often connect with spirits and ancestors. They have an easier time with communing to spirits of the departed for guidance or wisdom, allowing them to communicate with ghosts or gain insights from the past.

Autumn blessed are often thoughtful, introspective, and often seen as the wise advisers of any group. They are excellent planners and strategic thinkers, able to see the larger picture and understand the importance of every cycle.

Often they can be melancholic, carrying a deep sense of nostalgia or reflection on the passage of time. They are drawn to things that are aging or changing, and they often ponder the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.

Seasonal blessing of Winter:

Winter represents endurance, cold, isolation, and quiet. Those born under the Winter blessing are often introverted, resilient, and deep thinkers. They embody the power of stillness, survival, and the harsh beauty of the cold.

Winter blessed are the masters of ice, snow, and wind. They can summon blizzards, create barriers of ice, freeze water, or even summon the chill of winter to sap the strength of enemies. With a strong connection to winter spirits it allows many to move unseen, using silence and stealth as their greatest boon. Many winter blessed can summon spells that preserve life, slowing aging, or ensuring survival in harsh conditions. Very rarely some are also skilled in time magic, allowing them to freeze or slow time around them in small, controlled bursts.

Winter blessed witches tend to be reserved and self-sufficient. They value solitude and often prefer working alone. They are reflective, often turning inward for answers.

Often they are incredibly resilient, able to endure hardship and isolation with patience and perseverance. However, they may sometimes appear cold or distant, not easily moved.

At the end of the day wach witch or wizard’s magic is influenced by not just the season they were born in, but also their personal journey through life. Their seasonal blessing simply gives them the ability to harness a certain natural force, paving their path in magical ways. But as history shows; not everyone walks the paths that's laid before them.

Note: Like don't take these too seriously, like one can still be an epic fire wielding and still be born in winter. (Gotta just study and practice harder.)

[hopeswriting]

Since it's the holiday season, I want to know your thoughts on what the 10th gen would gift each other for Christmas. Also, I hope you had a good Christmas <3

Hi, thank you for the ask!

I don't celebrate christmas, but thank you for thinking of me, i appreciate the sentiment. <3 I hope you had wonderful holidays yourself too!!

Okay so, these questions are always fun to think about, but i've always been just so terrible at them zjeldksks. 😭 Figuring out the little things like these has always eluded me unless i just need to figure them out for a story lol. So i don't know about gifts (sorry, i know that's what your ask is about 😔), but i can totally see them agreeing to do a secret santa.

After celebrating christmas with their respective families, i can see them showing up at tsuna's house the next day to celebrate among themselves too. Or maybe it wasn't planned at all and they all end up showing up anyway because it's just natural by now for them to go "hmmm i have some free time right now. i should totally go see tsuna! If i don't see him every day, i'll forget the world is a beautiful place and that life is worth living, and i can't have that." (They all love tsuna very much, you see.)

Reborn says it'd be fun for all of them to wear christmas sweaters, and tsuna ends up with the ugliest and most embarrassing one. Naturally, it means gokudera also wears one. He couldn't tell you a single damn thing about its design (duh. all that matters is that the tenth and him are matching!), but he still almost manages to convince everyone else they're the peak of fashion in his effort to cheer tsuna up about them. Yams and ryohei wear one too good-naturedly, but that's it, just the four of them. Tsuna is irrationally annoyed reborn doesn't wear one too even if it was his idea and he totally saw it coming.

Haru shows up disguised as santa claus for no goddamn reason. 😭 (I love her so much.) With the round belly and beard and everything too. She loses the belly and the beard at some point, but refuses to break character at any point.

To keep alive the christmas magic for the kids, she says when tsuna asks her about it. And she even brought gifts for them too because of their secret santa! She spends their time together trying to discreetly put them under the christmas tree before it's time for them to open the presents so she can go "Oh, look!!! You've been such good kids this year, santa claus came again!!!" to lambo, i-pin and fuuta. She's everything but discreet in all her attempts, but everyone pretends to not notice it (except gokudera zjdkskdk).

The girls are also dressed in christmas colors and also wear reindeer's ears to compliment haru's disguise, and tsuna's too busy finding kyoko cute and pretty to question haru any further.

The girls are the ones to invite chrome, but mukuro shows up at some point too anyway. Coincidentally, hibari shows up around the same time too. But before they can use tsuna's house as their battlefield, reborn says they ought to go against each other through a snowball fight instead. After all it's christmas and winter and it snowed too and everything.

This time around too, they lose the plot of that snowball fight real quick lmao. Worse than before actually, because this time hibari and mukuro are also playing. It becomes nothing short of a life and death battle during which tsuna IS very much fighting for his life trying to not be hit by the most terrifying snowballs he's ever seen. WHEN snow is involved at all. It isn't nearly enough for what was supposed to be a snowball fight.

Reborn's also disguised as santa claus. He's disguised as the santa claus, in fact, he says. The original one who taught the santa claus everyone knows of how to do his job. Haru takes it in stride and adds that to her santa claus' backstory and acts accordingly from then on.

Reborn says he's there to make sure they were all really deserving of their presents. When they all look at tsuna's christmas tree, all the presents everyone got for christmas are suddenly sitting under it.

"reborn!" Tsuna shouts. "You can't just break into their houses and steal their presents!"

"I'm santa claus," reborn says. "Have you perhaps never heard of me before?"

"wow, santa!" Yams says. "You replicated our presents so well, they look just like the real things! You must have worked really hard on them."

"oooohhh," everyone else but tsuna says, taking it in stride.

Anyway that's how the Vongola's Christmas Family starts. They have to prove they've really been good kids this year to earn their presents back through various events. For one of them they have to build the most impressive snowman, so back to playing with the snow they go.

It goes well and normally for all of about 5 seconds. After that all bets are off, and it becomes more about stopping their opponents from building a decent snowman, and also about stealing snow from each other because there aren't enough around for everyone if they want to build the biggest snowman possible. Which at some point also became everyone's goal just because.

Another event is about decorating a christmas tree in the most aesthetically pleasing way. Surprisingly enough, both haru and kyoko have too much weird girl tastes about it to be at an advantage. Also surprisingly, chrome turns out to be very good at it, so along with Bianchi, they balance it out. I-pin can't fucking see the decorations they're even working with lmao, but she tries her best to help.

On the boys' side, both hibari and gokudera have very peculiar though very different tastes they're hell-bent on. It means they nitpick everything and argue about everything but aren't otherwise any kind of helpful. Lambo also isn't any kind of helpful because he's distracted by all the shiny, pretty decorations. Yams has no sense of aesthetic whatsoever and ryohei doesn't even have an opinion on it, so it falls on mukuro and tsuna to carry their team on their backs, with the help of fuuta's rankings.

Bianchi insists there just has to be a mistletoe event too. After all it's the season of love and everything. Tsuna's the one who ends up standing underneath it even if she was hoping it'd be reborn lol, and the first one to reach him is the one who gets to kiss him.

A very, very fierce and vicious and ugly battle ensues zjdkskks. But before anybody can start dying for real, reborn makes himself the winner. When tsuna goes to gingerly kiss him on the cheek per the rules of the game, even if it should be reborn who initiates the kiss, reborn kicks him in the face.

Wait, is that maybe too mean zhdkjskss?? 😭😂 Okay, let's back up a little. When tsuna goes to gingerly kiss him on the cheek, reborn makes leon kiss him on the mouth instead.

"what does this even have to do with proving we've been good kids?" Tsuna manages to ask at some point.

"are you questioning santa claus right now?" Reborn says. "Would a truly good kid do that?"

By the time they make it back inside for the second time, half of them are halfway through catching a cold. They warm themselves up under the kotatsu and with warm blankets while eating food and drinking warm drinks.

And that's the end of that because tsuna knows when and how to choose his battles lol.

Anyway once reborn has had enough fun at their expense, he declares everyone the winner with some excuse or another and calls it a day.

Things get chaotic again when it's time to open the presents, but they don't get out of hand. Before they do get out of hand again, and mukuro and hibari can leave before anyone else, they manage to all gather together long enough for a group picture.

They all had a really good time together. <3

And then they do it all over again for new year haha!!

[izunias-meme-hole]

My Definitive Top 10 Favorite Characters 

Number 1. Doctor Doom (Marvel) - I've always respected this man, but I've never been super crazy about him. His animated and game adaptations are good but not perfect, and the movies so far have failed to get his character across in a great way, so that might've been a part of why I wasn't a Doom Superfan. Though after getting back into the absurdity and impactfulslness of superhero comics, it soon hit me... Doctor Doom is a villain made for comics. He's overdramatic, grandiose, terrifying, bombastic, egotistical, pragmatic, powerful, absurd, nuanced, insecure, lonely, the whole package placed within a suit of armor and a green cloak. He's an arrogant, tyrannical, cold hearted technological and magical genius who embodies every inch of supervillainy you could imagine, while remaining a genuinely sophisticated, and honorable figure even with his history of pettiness. Overall Doom is just one big magnificent bastard.

Number 2. Sauron (Lord of The Rings) - The Original Dark Lord. A fallen being of great power, obsessed with order. The enemy army is his army, Mordor is his kingdom, the Nazgul are his servants, the One Ring is his power source fueled by a fragment of his own soul that tempts and corrupts all who bear it, his eye shines its malevolent gaze upon the world with the intent of ravaging and conquering all that it can see, and the entire story is caused by his machinations. Whenever I look back at Sauron as a villain and character, I end up remembering why he is as infamous as he is. A great villain sometimes can just be a genuinely terrifying presence, especially in cinema and literature.

Number 3. Ganon (Legend of Zelda) - Honestly after so many years, Ganon still holds up as a villain. He's had several different outings, multiple designs, multiple bosses, and many different traits though at his core he's remained the same greedy monster that he was introduced as. He remains a King of Thieves, a darwinistic asshole who was forged by his harsh environment, an ambitious man desiring to be a force of nature, a warmonger, an inevitable storm, greed and wrath incarnate, a force of destiny, and a truly demonic King of Evil that worships power above all else. It's this versatility mixed with the consistency of his core traits and ever-looming presence that make Ganon the greatest villain in video game history.

Number 4. Battler Ushiromiya (When They Cry) - Honest to god, Battler is a prime example of how to make a phenomenal flawed protagonist through someone that you can easily describe as a walking wad of grease who's bark is more dangerous than his bite at the start of his journey. It takes quite a bit for him to navigate his new environment due to the amount of mayhem he's been exposed too, hell he regresses big time at one point in the story and it bites him in the ass. Though when he finally just gets it, he finally makes some solid and true development that peaks by the final act of the finale. Great protagonist.

Number 5. DIO Brando (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) - I feel like I'm always going have a soft spot for this piece of shit, because his development and influence is something else. In Phantom Blood, he’s still one of the greatest evils the series has ever seen, but we also saw a human element to him in a very negative way. He was bitter, envious, and straight up angry at the world for making him the bottom of the barrel, but after becoming a vampire he’s becomes sick, scary, and slightly pitiable due to his lack of humanity. In Stardust Crusaders, the re-emerged DIO is out to get the Joestars, not for revenge for Jonathan humiliating him, but because he knows they’ll be a threat in the long run. He's still a vain and power-hungry sociopath, but he's less erratic and more paranoid, controlled, and slightly nihilistic from a mortal standpoint. DIO was not really sane, but he did a damn good job of holding himself together, until the final battle. This isn't even mentioning the Stone Ocean flashbacks where we get to see more of this controlled DIO interacting with the man who would carry on his work, showing that around that point in his life that he became aware of his limitations and is willing to leave unfinished business to someone he genuinely trusts. Overall, DIO is a complete monster who is willing to do whatever he can to be at the top because of his nature and because he understands what being at the bottom is like.

Number 6. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy) - Sephiroth is one of the most frightening bosses in gaming and a genuine horror villain. He is a tragic monster born from science, and a loyal “son” to his alien mother, Jenova, but he’s still scary as hell thanks to his god complex, unlimited strength, ethereal vibes, years of experience, his ability to live off of pure spite just so he can make the lives of his enemies (and Cloud) complete hell. His appearance in of itself is creepy due to how beautiful, yet unsettling it is thanks to his silver hair, green snake-like eyes, and perfect physique which is complimented by a black coat. However the most dangerous things about him are that he’s completely delusional, his strength is unmatched, and just how far he’s willing to go to distort other peoples sense reality, specifically Cloud’s sense of reality. Sephiroth a tragic character and a truly phenomenal villain.

Number 7. The Joker (Batman) - The Joker is a crook from god knows where that got a clownish makeover from an acid bath and ended up becoming the arch-nemesis of Batman himself. While the other rouges have their particular danger levels, they all have some type of cause they're fighting for or they're purely out to benefit themselves. Joker just causes chaos, death, and suffering, for the sake of his twisted sense of humor. He is willing to kill and ruin lives in the most creative way possible, so long as he finds it funny. Yet despite how twisted he is, this evil ass clown actually can be funny. Not only that, but he's the most effective contrast to Batman, even more than the other rouges. Batman is a frightening figure with a semi-demonic visage who suffered one bad day in his youth, yet he is a hero dedicated to the cause of justice and protecting the innocent citizens of Gotham City. Joker is a colorful figure with a big 'ol grin on his face and a jovial demeanor, yet he is perfectly okay with causing as much unwarranted harm to others for the sake of artistic chaos. Ultimately, the Clown Prince of Crime is a villain that's managed to last for decades, despite the ever marching clock, for these exact reasons.

Number 8. Xemnas (Kingdom Hearts) - This doesn’t require much explanation, but allow me to explain. Xemnas is an amazing villain. Xemnas is the nobody of Apprentice Xehanort, his husk, an entity that can feels nothing and wasn’t meant to exist, yet he’s quite the specimen. He’s a very sinister figure due to his nature, the fact that he’s a special nobody like Roxas, his inability to feel emotion, and his belief that negative emotions are what give the heart power, but at the same time you somehow manage to feel pity for him because of these things. While what he does is his own choice, you can clearly see that while he’s a different entity from his human self, he still chooses to go in that hollow shadow because it’s in his own nature, and it ended up being his downfall. That and his boss was truly a test of your skills. TL;DR: Xemnas is amazing.

Number 9. Bowser (Super Mario Bros) -  Bowser is a genuinely great villain and fun as hell. Sure, there are a crapton of underrated villains in the Mario series, but no matter what you cannot really hate this guy. He’s a giant fire breathing turtle-dragon who’s a evil king, but he’s also a meathead, arrogant as hell, has very cool boss fights, is a surprisingly good father to his kids, and he’s an amazing protagonist and ally. He's also a VERY huge asshole in Mario Party. Though at the end of the day, Bowser is just an entertaining villain and a great character.

Number 10. Messmer The Impaler (Elden Ring) - Messmer was certainly a welcome surprise. He was the firstborn son of Queen Marika, ultimately the one who personally oversaw the genocide of the hornsent in the Land of Shadow, and event so horrific and cruel that its impact could still be felt within the present day. He was afflicted with a curse at his birth, in which a dark and malevolent snake threatened to eat him from the inside, which resulted in Marika plucking out his eye and replacing it with a seal of grace. Sounds like quite the monster, right? Well here's the thing. Messmer's a surprisingly good boss, like he literally preserved his enemies culture inside a storeroom just because one of his knights requested it, and has at least some level of compassion. Sure some of his men defected after finding out about the true nature of his existence, but there were some that even stuck around because they know who he is as a person. So why did this great guy commit literal one of the most horrific events in history? Well you see, Marika basically told him to eliminate the hornsent, and it wasn't just a standard order... it was a secret banishment for him, and Marika's vengeance on the hornsent. That's right, Messmer was exiled so he could be a scapegoat for his mother in the Land of Shadow. While this doesn't absolve him of his crimes, it ultimately makes him extremely pitiable.

[roll-for-dexterity]

(Sometimes I hate using the mobile app because it messes up how I post things and then I gotta recycle the darn thing... > <' )

With my recent respiratory turmoil now having mostly passed, I feel like it was good to revisit an old piece because I've been craving some world building lately. And remembered how much I did not like how this turned out at the time, and then scrapped it and its post…

But after reworking the lore from a garbled mess to something I actually like, and can digest myself... and I decided to tweak it a bit and repost it under a second chance to hopefully fuel more world building posts like it.

Lore drop below the cut explaining some of what is here on the refrence page, and a taste of my D&D level of world building. (You know I need to make D&D Player stats for these guys at some point…)

Forge-Born: 'The de-facto nobility and keepers of authority of their side of Weapon World. Forge-Born vary in size and build, but are always large compared to a human; with 9 feet being the smallest, and just over 20 feet being the tallest. While being at the top would seem like a luxury, any Forge-Born would tell you it is not; as each familial house that is not royalty runs a certain 'bureau' that caters to the maintenance and order of their expansive empire. This, on top of the creation and upkeeping of the Weapon Bots they create; even the position of royalty is a tough position to envy. Each Forge-Born family is said to bear its own unique set of physical traits; from tusks to horns, or multiple eyes. This is especially good at discerning ones heritage among others. As per individual- the magics and true form of a Forge-Born can either stagnate in their similarity to that of their blood relatives, or vary wildly.’

Chera: 'A knight-like, but hardy species of robot. The Chera stand around 6 to 8 feet in height. While their builds may vary, they all don their own unique armor and hand held weapon; most often axes or maces, with a sheild in the other. Due to being naturally more hardy in build than Teners or Shino, Chera can be found serving in the military alongside Weapon Bots; with some weapons keeping them as close partners to stay grounded, or cover any weaknesses in combat. The horns of a Chera vary per person, with some individuals occasionally developing the same horns as one of their parents.’

Shino: 'Skulkers of dark alleyways, and taversers of silence, the Shino are natural experts of espionage. On average they stand around 5 to 6 feet tall, with a slim and flexible build keeping them in shape to slip away from any trouble they get into. While the Shino do make great assassins and spies- but actually have better career variety than that. Many tend to live peaceful lives among Tener's as farmers, or even work high blue collar jobs. One constant however, is the fact that everyone agrees to have never seen a Shino's face behind their face masks before. While it is a familiar,  yet intriguing mystery- no one has ever dared to take a peak…’

Tener: 'A small Toad-like species that stands around 4 to 5 feet tall. True to the pun of their namesake, Tener's are the 'connectors' that make the kingdom function. Like their Toad counter parts they can take up almost any job, and live in most places making them as important as any societal leader. Mostly however, they can be found working jobs that keep the kingdom afloat such as farmers or shop and inn keepers. Even Weapon Bots say that even the smallest Tener can be a huge powerhouse. Also it is of note that when under exstreme emotion such as shock or surprise, their unique hats tend to spin.’

[nottoofondofgaypeople]

You should make a long post about Laurance

You are so lucky I got that Vylad ask before this... Ohhh boy

Full stop, this post is probably going to be one of the longest things I post on this Nether forsaken website. Laurance has been a comfort character since I first watched this series years ago in spite of all the bull shit Jesson put him through. I have many many many thoughts on him, and none of them will be organized.

I'm fairly confident that this post will get into some very unhinged territories, I cannot be normal about this man

I feel like this should go without saying, but all of the headcanons I have dumped onto Laurance on my main blog apply to this rewrite. Including this one which you have definitely all seen, and all Shadow Knight headcanons are also canon here.

But let's talk about this rewrite specifically. Because when Laurance comes back from the Nether, and he confesses his love, the mother fucker does it! He actually gets Irena to say she at least feels something towards him! It isn't much, but she doesn't get all awkward when he says that he loves her, and she's supremely gentle with him while helping him with his recovery. This really quickly turns into romance and the two are effectively dating shortly after.

Yeah Laurance's eyes aren't magically fucking cured to perfection, that's stupid an abelist.

Actually, because I want peak recovery arc material out of this rewrite Laurance is going to get to spend a lot of time learning how to fight with this new form. His body has been pretty significantly altered from the process of undeath and also the torture. I'm so for real when I say Laurance has so many scars, just so many of them, 18 million scars all over his everything. He already had some from being a stupid fucking child, but these ones are a lot uhm... bigger.

Laurance has to adjust to the new symptoms of his body. A lot of them are slow, appearing over time. The first major thing Laurance notices is that when he stops thinking of breathing for long enough, he just stops breathing. Shadow Knights don't need to breathe, so their body doesn't naturally do it. But Laurance never fully died, so he kind of does need to breathe?? And this is just where it starts.

I think the doll symptoms start kicking in a lot slower than I initially thought of. There's still the first time that it happens, but then it doesn't happen as often. Maybe once or twice, but the next time Laurance really deals with that is during the Season 1 finale (but it isn't Garroth that knocks him out (but that's a whole post unto itself)). Going into Season 2 though, it gets worse and worse. As the Shadow King has more influence over the Overworld, the calling gets stronger and stronger.

More often than not the calling manifests as a whisper in the back of Laurance's mind, something that sends a tingle down his spine and not in a good way. His blood runs hot, and he can feel his body pulled to Irena. Like his blood is tied to her life force and constantly trying to bring her to it. And any time he's around her, that voice gets louder, starts multiplying as he fights it, all of them demanding him to kill, to do it, to free himself of the burden, to gain eternal life.

Laurance doesn't want eternal life though!! He never has!! He wants to fall in love and start a family and grow old with his partners!!

Okay so going into Laurance's childhood a bit, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Laurance is the mcd equivalent of a theater kid and yet somehow fumbled in choosing his class and ended up as a fighter instead of a bard, the goof. He picked up the Lyre when he was a teenager, mostly because his father bought one and expressed an interest in teaching Laurance how to play, and he was all over that.

He stops playing it when he goes to the guard academy cause they just don't have instruments there (which is a crime), but he does still spend a lot of time remembering songs and finger placements, mans is doing whatever he can to make sure he doesn't fall out of practice. When Laurance comes back to Meteli as an official guard he celebrates by having a party in the town and finally getting to play his beloved lyre again.

He doesn't play it as much when he's a guard, but he always tries to stay in practice. And he won't let any blindness get in the way either, his muscle memory is so on point he barely needs his eyes unless he's reading sheet music, which is usually right in front of him.

I could seriously go into a whole character analysis of comparing Laurance to Orpheus, specifically from Hadestown, like I really want to, but I'll restrain myself to just the general myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Laurance really thought he could walk into hell and defy the gods. He really thought he could just do that. And even when he was faced with punishment, when Orpheus was forced to stay in the Underworld in her place, he endured it all for her. And actually this is so funky the roles are kind of reversed. Because Irena is the one who can't turn around to look at Laurance when they're running out of hell. If she does, she will die. That is guaranteed. Eurydice has always acted in the assurance of her survival. Unlike Orpheus in the same position, she can manage to not turn her head.

Hhhhhhg Laarmau as Orpheus and Eurydice is literally everything to me you don't understand.

And yes Laurance being Orpheus coded is why I gave him a Lyre, I won't even deny that. Like, c'mon, Laurance very earnestly trying to earn Irena's affection and saying "I also play the lyre" and Irena snarking back "A liar and a player too? I've met too many men like you." I'm--

Stay focused!! This is not the Hadestown post!!

What if Laurance was like obscenely physically affectionate? Like he's so so so physical, he loves having a point of contact with someone at all times. It doesn't have to be anything big either. He just likes wrapping his arm around Garroth's shoulder, or having Irena play with his hair. It was something important before the Shadow Knight transformation, and he only needed it more as time went on. The feeling of his lovers heartbeat reminds him he's alive.

And other people touching him reminds Laurance he still has this body. In spite of all the Shadow Kings control, he has control of his own body in this moment and he is using that control to show love and care and that matters to him more than anything. He likes holding hands, putting his hands on people, having other people do the same, even the smallest amount of affection is enough for him to selfishly crave more.

Laury likes singing a lot. His voice got a little deeper after the Shadow Knight thing because his vocal chords got just a little shredded in the Nether, but he still loves singing and singing with his friends and lovers. Laurance singing some sappy love song to Garroth who is just completely smitten, or singing some silly little campfire song to boost Cadenza's mood when she's having a bad day.

THE TABLE BIT!! I simply adore the table bit!! All of it! And it's even better in my rewrite cause even if the dialogue and the scene plays out almost exactly the same, they're in love while doing this silly bit!! Such fucking dorks I want to throw them against concrete.

Thinking about Laurance and Ungrith. Laurance finding this wyvern in the forest while exploring one day and befriending it almost instantly because Laurance is just a very kind person. Even if Ungrith isn't allowed to be with his brethren, it's okay because this weird fuckin kid is really entertaining and a genuinely great friend. I know it isn't possible but a scene where Laurance, Garroth, and their wyvern childhood friends get to hang out and talk would probably fix all my problems.

Raven doesn't literally anyone but Garroth touch him, but when Irena tells him about Ungrith, he's willing to let Laurance pet his scales or whatever you do to show affection to a flying lizard. It's not the same, but it's better than nothing.

Laurance's favorite place to kiss other people is on the cheeks, but his favorite spot to be kissed is the forehead. I think that he doesn't admit this to people, rather lets them figure it out. Both Garroth and Irena figure out Laurance likes kissing their cheeks a lot, like he does it constantly, especially because Garroth has freckles and Laurance is determined to kiss every single one of them.

Garroth is the one who learns about Laurance's affinity for forehead kisses cause he's only like two inches taller than Laurance, but that difference matters a lot to both of them. And Garroth can tell very easily from the way Laurance always loves looking up at him with those big doe eyes. Once he tells Irena this, she starts asking Laurance to bend over or kneel in front of her so she can kiss his forehead very tenderly.

Because I made Garrancemau polycule real in my rewrite, Laurance's calling latched onto Irena, but man oh man, it tempts him with Garroth sometimes. He fights so hard to protect Irena partially because if she dies by someone else's hands, he knows it'll latch onto Garroth. And sometimes the calling urges him towards it anyway, considering it'll work. A calling is best answered by the death of a lord, but the death of another guard isn't always a bad thing.

Every time Laurance runs from his lovers to fight the calling he feels so cold without them. Like if he bothers to try sleeping while on his own it just feels so cold. So empty. It doesn't feel right to try to sleep without Irena in his arms and Garroth snuggled up behind him and a blanket over the three of them.

I think Laurance cries a lot. He doesn't really have hang ups about showing his emotional side until he's a shadow knight, and even after, he only tries to hide his anger. He never hides his anguish, his sadness, his absolute misery as a result of the nightmare he was forced to live through. Laurance's crying is so loud, so wretched, almost agonizing for him. It forces his entire body to shake and tremble, sobs being wrung out of him almost forcefully.

I want. him. to be okay. and happy. and I know he won't be. Aughfhhg.