#and somehow tom bodett

[mikibwrites]

Fanfic Stats Meme :)

Thank you for the tags, @sanjuwrites and @welcometololaland!

rules: give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words.

Most hits: I try to keep it silent (but you can read my mind) (Tarlos)

It’s the sixth week after TK comes home–to their home–when he finally cracks.  He’s been doing much better lately. His breathing treatments are further apart and the doctors say it won’t be long before he can stop them entirely. He doesn’t get winded going for a walk to the little corner store with the amazing deli twice a week. He’s even able to do a passable weight lifting routine in the living room (nothing like his usual routine from when he was an active firefighter, but still it’s an accomplishment).  His doctor has even cleared him for light duty, his first shift of which is Monday. But tonight is Friday, and TK is humming with an energy that has been making its presence known more explicitly with each passing day.

Second most kudos: Something to Do (Tarlos)

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”  ― Tom Bodett Exactly what it says on the tin. Carlos is presented with many moments in which he could pop the question, but somehow the universe keeps thwarting him. But by golly, he's gonna get down on one knee if it kills him.

Third most comments: Same as most hits

Fourth most bookmarks: Of Will and Wildflowers (Tarlos)

1885. TK is son of Owen Strand, of Strand Intercontinental Railroad Company. They have traveled from their home in Manhattan to the southern US to cut deals with landowners there to build a lucrative rail line through central Texas. TK is 26, and his father thinks he’s getting rather old to be unmarried. He has warned TK that if he does not find a husband by the end of the year, he will arrange a marriage, as Owen cannot by law bequeath his fortune upon his death unless his son is married. TK is displeased with having to hurry his decision to wed. Truly at his heart, he is a romantic and wishes to marry for love. It’s just that love has been hard to come by with the flighty boys of his set back home in New York. He’s not holding out hope for any prospects in whatever back country they’re traveling to either.

Fifth most words: Dinner Might Be Late... (Captive Prince)

Captain Laurent of Delpha's 3rd Precinct is packing up to go home for his anniversary dinner with his husband when a deputy tells him he's been called to a bank robbery to do what he does best: hostage negotiation. Laurent wants to get home, so he goes into it with the same confidence he has every time. After all, he's done this a hundred times, what could be different about this one?

Least words: Tells (Tarlos)

Written for four word ask prompt: "I'm not even sorry"

This was fun! (sorry about that last summary hahah but at least I hope you can tell it's about poker) I know most other people have done it, but please take this as an open tag to play and please tag me back!!

[theradioghost]

while I’m having the thought: the word “martlet” is Old-French-derived and comes from the same root as the word “merle” / the name Merle, both of which mean “blackbird,” and I’m just saying I’ve never once seen any TAZB content that takes advantage of the fact that Merle is named after a bird

[reyeslonestar]

an incomplete list of lone star fics that I love 6/?

this is mainly an opportunity for me to collect my favourite fics into a system that makes more sense to me, and spread a little love to the fabulous writers who create these amazing stories

fics containing explicit smut are marked with an *

Something To Do (or 5 Times Carlos Tried to Propose to TK, and the 1 Time He Finally Succeeded) by Maybethereshope/ @maybe-theres-hope *

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” ― Tom Bodett

Exactly what it says on the tin. Carlos is presented with many moments in which he could pop the question, but somehow the universe keeps thwarting him. But by golly, he's gonna get down on one knee if it kills him.

I love a good 5 +1 fic and I love this one so much. every single one of the scenarios is so clever and the final +1 is so so sweet and just fits them so well. I love too that it predicts Carlos’ bad luck in the show in organising dinners for tk - all round it’s a fantastically written fic and very heartwarming.

photo albums and family dinners by buckscasey/ @sixringss

"So, when are we talking about it?”"About what?" Carlos asked absentmindedly. He knew exactly what TK was talking about, the subject had been hanging over them like a dark cloud for weeks now and he hated it."The elephant in your living room Carlos, about me meeting your parents."

or

TK finally meets Carlos' family.

I really like this spec fic from earlier in s2 - it takes a slightly unique look at TK’s first meeting with Carlos’ family, particularly his mother, and I really enjoyed it. not to mention the fun of Carlos’ sisters teasing him and completely welcoming TK with open arms!

i want your midnights by howtosingit/ @howtosingit​

“It’s late, you should be asleep.”

*

Carlos prepares to return to work.

this fic you guys...its incredible. such a good coda to 2x08 and a wonderful snippet of their ability to *see* each other’s minds and worries. I love the intimacy in the second half of this too. honestly everything about it is extraordinary and I love it.

Don't You Keep So Close by tiniestmite/ @silvarafael

The 126 respond to a warehouse fire and Carlos is trapped inside... whump ensues.

(aka double tarlos whump bc i couldn’t help myself)

a very sweet fic, though rather injury-ridden. TK saving Carlos and then them both being more concerned about the other when injured - both excellent concepts beautifully carried out by the author.

One More Dance With You by DjDangerLove/ @djdangerlove

TK just wanted to dance with Carlos at the Austin Police Charity Gala, but a broken foot keeps him from attending. Carlos makes sure he gets his dance anyway.

accident prone TK + Carlos in a suit + flirting and dancing in the living room = the sweetest fic with beautiful writing as always from this author. i love this as a form of insight into their domesticity and established relationship and its such an intimate sort of moment.

Bailamos by TearsThisSideofHeaven

“Bachata isn’t so much about the steps,” Carlos offers, walking over until he’s standing in front of TK, knees bumping together, “It’s...romantic.”

another dancing fic! I love this fic its amazing. I love seeing how Carlos brings TK into his family’s traditions and teaching him things he learnt growing up and that are important to him and his family. I love the way the fic culminates into such an important moment for Carlos and his relationships, both with TK and his family.

[maybe-theres-hope]

Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand Characters: TK Strand, Carlos Reyes (9-1-1 Lone Star), Michelle Blake (9-1-1 Lone Star), Owen Strand, Firehouse 126 Crew (9-1-1 Lone Star), Original Female Character(s), Original Child Character(s) Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Marriage Proposal, Carlos Reyes vs The Universe, This man needs a break, TK has a peanut allergy, and I immediately apologize for my woefully small amount of research, TK is a hopeless romantic he deserves to be WOOED, Sexual Content, but it's like...for three seconds, I rated this as mature literally just for that just in case, the rest of it is mostly teen and up territory, I know I mentioned TK has a peanut allergy but there is use of an epipen in this, just so you're warned, If I haven't tagged something you think I should, PLEASE kindly let me know :), omg how did I forget:, Fluff, so much goddamn fluff Summary:

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” ― Tom Bodett

Exactly what it says on the tin. Carlos is presented with many moments in which he could pop the question, but somehow the universe keeps thwarting him. But by golly, he's gonna get down on one knee if it kills him.

Hi all! I finally wrote that Tarlos fic I promised like ages ago. I hope it brings you some joy :)

[youhearstatic]

Top 5 favourite characters: lup, barry, taako, magnus, and merle

Other characters you like: magic brian, klaarg, lucretia, angus, roswell, tom bodett, ah so many

Least favourite character: Lucas (sorry, like i *get* him but someone has to be least favorite)

Otps: lup and barry, taako and kravitz

Notps: magnus and anyone but julia (sorry), lup and anyone but barry (sorry but barry is why i first fell in love with lup before we even met her!)

Favourite friendship: taako and magnus - like the moments in suffering game where it was just !!!! like taako casting soul jar or magnus telling taako he’d take another turn on the wheel so taako didn’t have to give up his looks. not just the actions but that both of them just DID it like it was not even a question. also taako and angus or taako and barry. taako caring for people is great because of how taako is.

Favourite family: tres horny boys, the seven birds

Favourite episode: single episode? oof… episode 66 maybe? That scene where Taako confronts Lucretia like… ooooooh gosh, kills me every time.

Favourite season/book/movie: since im just doing balance i’ll pick miniarc in which case stolen century simply for most lup! if only going by mini arc story then probably… hmm… 11th hour? really hard to say between 11th hour and suffering game though because there’s some really solid developments in suffering game.

Favourite quote: oh how to ever pick just one? okay how about “You’re my oldest and dearest friends. You threw my dog in a goddamned fire.” also when lup says “One small criticism- um, I think you may have forgotten to make it taste good.” or for a short quote I’m a big fan of the nice and simple “I’m so proud of zem.” from magic brian.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: oh man, anytime the red robe dropped his character i was just HOOOOKED SO HARD

When it really disappointed you: when it ended :(

Saddest moment: ohhh man. i cried pretty much constantly the last eight or so episodes i think. also like for complete emotional 180? when Taako confronts Lucretia and he’s so angry and also kind of … numb? Like I’m RIGHT there with him, angry and kind of shellshocked after coming off stolen century (i marathoned the last twelve episodes or so) and then magnus (well travis i guess) says he raises the FRPSoD and he kind of chokes up as he says it? BOOM just typing that i get teary eyed! from zero to about to cry in 0.2 seconds. 

Most well done character death: okay… there weren’t REALLY that many but i guess we all know it has to be… magnus :( 

Favourite guest star: brad bradson i guess? he’s the only canon guest star for balance? right?

Favourite cast member: okay this is weird for this fandom so i guess i’ll say griffin because he does so many of the characters… the other three just get one each :-/

Character you wish was still alive: um… gosh, again, weird question for this fandom! okay i guess i’d say… lup and barry? because while it’s great they didn’t get technically reaped but it’s like… they never got to just have their life? i mean they never got to decide if they wanted to have a family or raise alpacas or what the fuck ever… i mean they’re probably plenty happy it just seems like they deserved to make that choice.  …. oh fuck okay i guess really i should have said johann… i wish johann had gotten to be happy :(

One thing you hope really happens: more lup and also some barry please in the live shows

Most shocking twist: lup? barry? davenport?

When did you start watching/reading: like… a month or so ago. haha. devoured it in a week and then did it all again a week later i think.

Trope you wish they would stop using: like the worst one was the kill your gays but they fixed that. the other is fridging i guess but … like… i dunno. i get where travis was coming from? i think there’s also maybe like…. a forgivable amount of death for a character’s backstory for these sorts of genre characters where you need them to like… be solo otherwise why are they off being adventurers? like the alternative is merle was a deadbeat dad who ran out on his family and that says things about a character too, you know? it’s complicated is what i’m saying. 

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: okay i think that the mcelroys have really really tried to fix things they’ve fucked up. like the sloane and hurley thing and the taco thing - they are willing to say ‘we should have handled this better’ even if they didn’t intend it badly. it makes me appreciate them all the more, you know?

Funniest moments: okay for balance like… for an extended bit? magic brian’s death. magic brian was just a treat all around imo. oh or the whole thing about breaking into the sharks base. barbara taking little jerry to the bathroom just tickled me.

Couple you would like to see: avi and johann maybe?

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: none. but i wouldn’t mind some cross over from other arc characters showing up somehow in live shows i guess? especially duck or errol or agustus or aubrey (i feel like i’m being mean to clint!) …or gandy or ned.

Most boring plotline: i don’t know! like every time i was kinda meh about something in theory it was actually really good. like in general racing movies aren’t my thing but petals to the metal was fantastic. westerns aren’t my cup of tea but the 11th hour was fucking terrific. maaayyyyyybe the plot arc of crystal kingdom wasn’t my fave i guess? there was a lot to be accomplished there, though, so i think it’s story maybe suffered a little to achieve so many other goals for the overall arc

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: stolen century. i mean… that feels like cheating but come on it was fucking amazing. if you don’t want to count a whole arc then i guess barry’s flashback of his decade while everyone was voidfished.

Most layered character: hmmm…. my impulse here is to say a toss up between taako and lucretia

Scariest moment: the judges! fuck, that cycle was scary even knowing it obviously turned out okay!

Grossest moment: oh god, so many merle moments were just right at that edge of skeevy ickness

Best looking male: taako (this is cheating)

Best looking female: lup (but how can i not pick them?)

Who you’re crushing on (if any): lup, look, i just fucking love lup, okay? LUUUUUUUP

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): hmm… like i don’t really know how to answer this one. sometimes i had a hard time picturing things. other times i pictured things really clearly. but i’m not sure those were particularly beautiful? if i go by things i pictured that if they were real shots i would say had beautiful cinematography? then… probably anything with the void fish because they are beautiful and… probably any of the scenes in the ruins of the capital city with the robots during stolen century.

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: liches/touching stuff. how does barry always have his glasses especially after phandolin? how many times did barry go to the BoB? 

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: i’m gonna say a few: klaarg and then magic brian were both like… okay i’m in, this is great. but the point when it DEVOURED MY BRAIN and i was completely sunk into the fandom? when red robe barry said “lup, they don’t trust me” oh god, seriously. if you’d told me okay that’s it, you can’t listen to any more ever and you’ll never get the answers to what was going on there i’d have like… bartered suffering game style, given a pinky finger or memories or something. that’s why i can’t go for any ship that’s lup and not-barry. barry’s love for lup is why i first fell in love with lup, why i first fell in love with barry, and why i first fell in obsession/love with taz: balance. 

[ragsliveblogs]

TAZ Episode 11 Minutes 55-End

Tom Bodett: Uh, what- what makes this special is it’s time-locked. Meaning only a uh, Rockport Limited, uh, can open it, uh, with one hour of sustained physical contact. So it’s not like a, even if a robber somehow did manage to get onboard, or if somebody managed to pass our screening process, uh, and get onboard a train, uh, they- they are not going to be able to pop this thing open, they would need somebody who works here to do so, and they would need to stand there for, uh, an hour, which just simply would not happen! It is the safest way to get... your shit from Point A to Point B.

Alright, this is clever and I like this, but I’m seeing a few problems for our PCs already.   1) If they get found out, there is no back-up plan.  They have no way of getting into that safe one the jig is up.

2) You know whats really easy to make someone do?  Sustain contact with something.  Knock them out, tie them so they can’t move, even killing them and laying them on top might work.  If a thief managed to get a single crew-member into this room and could keep the doors sealed for an our, they could open the safe.

3) This only protects against people not from the Rockport Limited.  If Tom Bodett here wanted to steal it, he would have no problem doing so.  Which is a big problem when there is a magic item that can possibly influence people’s minds from a distance, as the Gauntlet could.

4) I’m not convinced it’s magic proof yet.  A passwall could get through that pretty easily, and I think dispel magic or some teleportation spells could maybe do the same.

Tom Bodett: Well, it’s already loaded, uh it’s loaded onto the actual, um... train, and once we put it into the cryptsafe it actually becomes the property of the Rockport Limited until the train has made its-- uh, reached its final destination so--

Well that is worrying.  I did not expect things to be that easy, but saying that they own whatever is in the safe while on the train makes me nervous.  Also makes me wonder if any real transport companies have any rule like that.  Its exactly horrifying enough to be possible in a capitalist hellscape.

Merle: No, we want you to step in front of the next train that is coming by, okay?

Okay, first off, no Merle, that is horrifying and i think you might be CG?  But also, I’m pretty sure charm person specifically mentions you cant make someone do something they wouldn’t normally be okay with doing.  So no suicide, no making Taako murder Magnus, no making a vegan eat meat.  You just appear to them as a friend, not dominate their mind.

[swallowtailed]

I’m so pleased that tom bodett is somehow part of taz? like I recognize that he’s a person but also i know him primarily from wait wait don’t tell me which is my entire heart and soul

[spelviin]

i fucking. love the idea of the hogsbottom three arriving right at the end there

like, the troops are rallied. lup has (somehow) managed to pick up this spear and is clearing her throat or whatever it is liches have, all ready to deliver her badass, rousing doomsday speech

and then all of a sudden you just hear from the back of the crowd:

“YO LISTEN UP, HERE’S THE STORY, ABOUT A LITTLE GUY WHO LIVES IN A BLUE WORLD-”

and three idiots and a few dozen tom bodetts just weave through the crowd and carey is torn between happiness at seeing her brother again for the first time, presumably, in ages, and excruciating “i have no idea who that guy is never met him in my life” embarrassment. 

[iztarshi]

Murder on the Rockport Limited -- Chapter 11

I keep wanting to call this arc Murder on the Davenport Express. Which it is definitely not. It's just what comes into my head, every time.

"Travis: [laughing] Wait, you can spare it?? Did Merle have a lot of extra blood we don’t know about??"

*cracks up*

Yay, Magnus! Jumping off a tree into a swamp to save Merle, thus keeping up his unbroken streak of jumping off things to save people!

Aw, hitting them with paralysing attacks in a swamp where they sink if they stop moving. Fiendish.

Can Magnus defend Taako while paralysed/held in place by webbing? I guess he is just That Determined. Or Griffin forgot.

Taako levitates out of the swamp. That's pretty good, and would have been even better before he sank.

Oh, I see, he can't move once levitating. So it's not that convenient, unless the alternative is dying in a swamp. He's just sort of stuck in place. After the battle I guess they either wait ten minutes or tow him along like a balloon.

And Magnus can attack, he just can't move, so that explains how he could have protected Taako. Just leaned over without moving his legs.

*pfft* Yep, like a balloon. I knew it.

I guess you can get baths at a brothel, but most people don't go there for that.

Okay. So that. That was a surreal interlude. Big Lipped Alligator Moment. Just real enough to leave them clean.

No he's… he's there to take their tickets? I assumed the red robe and vanishing were just thrown in, but, no, he's apparently important? Or something? *shrugs*

Taako what the hell? Come on, you've scammed people before.

"Taako: [crosstalk] I-- I panicked."

Why is he so cute, though? As an aside, the zone of truth thing, back in Here There Be Gerblins, was also weirdly cute. I think it was that it made him not only suddenly confess to stealing everything but repeatedly apologise? While unable to lie? I'm not sure WHY he steals everything if he's sorry about it, but somehow it makes me like him.

I. Like. Reeeeally doubt Tom Bodett believes them at all. He's clearly got something of his own going on. Like being sent from the BoB to check they don't end in disaster.

Taako, no, don't call yourself Justin, that's… that will really confuse everyone. For reasons you are not aware of IC.

Oh, the Bodetts are not the same person. I think. Aah, I'm confused by these Bodetts. Partly because I have no idea about Motel 6 -- or maybe that wouldn't help.

Wait, they charmed a person to get on without tickets, but they actually had tickets all along? I did think Lucretia had given them those.

Merle! Don't tell the poor movie knock-off guy to stand in front of a train! I, um, I'm not sure Charm Person is quite that strong anyway, but good grief.

I'm. I'm laughing so much at Merle giving in and saying not a moving train and Tom Bodett is so confused. People who are confused because they've been charmed by these guys is going to be a Thing isn't it. It's already a Thing.

[cowboyviolence]

Taz theory: The 1000 Tom Bodett clones and Garfield's body reconstruction chamber are somehow related

[mouldedweapon]

Recollections of a Forgotten Past (Epilogue)

Epilogue

{ They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world:

someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.}

― Tom Bodett

She was in her mother’s arms.

It was so soft, so gentle; it held her close like it was afraid to lose her again.

Why did you let me go, Mama?

She grasped those arms tightly, snuggling against her mother’s body.

A mother’s warmth, that was what she yearned for. Her lips curled up into a satisfied smile – everything else was forgotten. She smiled happily, blissfully. She hadn’t worked those muscles in such a long time, she was afraid they wouldn’t work for her anymore. For a long while, she was content in just hugging her mother and listening to her calm breathing. Everything was serene. And for the first time in a long time, she was happy.

Mama, let’s be together forever. She mumbled, burying her face into the nape of her mother’s neck.

It was then her body froze, her iron-made instincts screamed at her to get away. She jerked away, suddenly noticing that her mother’s skin had turned ice-cold.

Mama…? She asked uncertainly, staring into her mother��s eyes. In a second, those laughing brown eyes turned into deep pools of black holes, and her mother began to transform into something twisted.

She screamed, kicking as she backed away further and further from the monster which was transforming in front of her. Her mother’s limbs broke apart one by one, until no more than a stub was left; and her hair started falling down like leaves during autumn. Her skin changed into angry pink, and her face morphed and morphed until it looked like something strikingly familiar –

Mother…

“No… Get away, get away from me!!” She wanted to get on her feet and run, but somehow they turned into dead weight. She could only drag herself away from the figure who was calling her, her eyes already wet with tears.

Mother…. Why are you running away…?

“No… please…” Knowing there was no way out, she covered her face with her hands, her hands full of blood. And suddenly everything turned red, everything was painful, and everything was a nightmare.

She was the mother now. She was the one who turned her child away. She was the one who ran away from her son.

She had yearned for a mother’s warmth, yet she had never given it to her own son. She was hurt at her mother for letting them take her away, but that was the very thing she let happen to him. She had once blamed her mother for not protecting her, but she could not even protect her own son.   It was not fair , she cried, she never had a chance, she never had a chance, she wanted to, but she just never had a chance .

The figure continued haunting her, taunting her, driving her to the corner where there was nowhere else to back away and screamed, and wept and accused her of everything she had ever accused her mother of.

And she sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed.

*****

When she woke up, the first thing she realised was that she was lying on something soft.

It took her awhile to register that she was lying on a bed. She had almost forgotten how it felt like, and it was so comfortable she could forget about the pain for a moment.

It was dark, save for the moonlight shimmering in from the windows of the room she was in. She couldn’t move, so she tried to make sense of her surroundings using what she could see in her line of vision.

“You’re awake,” said the dark-haired teenager who was sitting on a chair near her bed. The shadows cast by the trees outside played across his face, obscuring his facial features from her vision.

Seven opened her mouth and tried to talk, but her throat was so dry she ended up coughing instead.

“Here.” Water was placed against her lips, and she managed several small sips. The young man then removed the glass and put it on the table again.

“Where–” She started, but the man in black shook his head and told her not to speak.

“You are safe now.” He said simply, giving her what she supposed, was a smile. It seemed like he was feeling rather uncomfortable, or more appropriately, awkward. It seemed like he didn’t know what to say or what to explain for his actions.

She couldn’t understand it either. She was more confused than happy at her survival. Why was it her who survived? Why did she survive, after she had decided to give up? Why was he there? Why did he save her?

All those questions remain unanswered, he did not give her any answers, and she did not ask.

After a few days of resting, she soon found out from the nurses that the young man’s name was ‘Emiya Kiritsugu’. Despite having no relationship to her and having no reason to save her, he visited her every day at the hospital, paid for her medical fees, asked the doctors and nurses about her condition.

She could not fathom why he would go to such lengths to help her. Being mistreated and tossed around for so long, it was the act of kindness that struck fear into her heart, her mind struggling to find a reason for justify his actions. She found none. Every day she waited for him to provide some sort of explanation, even as he only visited for a few minutes each day. She did not know where he was from, as he spoke her language with a foreign accent. There was no problems with communication, since he hardly spoke to her anyway. Yet, it was this man of few words that made her nervous - as if she was about to pay a huge price for the kindness she had received.

And she was anxious to find out what it was.

The day before she was discharged, he sat down beside her bed.

“I need an assistant.” He said simply.

Those four words seem to make everything fall in place. Seven nodded for him to continue. She was right, there was a price to pay. After all those days of guessing and waiting, she was finally going to hear it. Even though the doctors and nurses have been nothing but gentle and kind to her, there was always an underlying suspicion that they were going to do something awful to her after the initial caring treatment. She had never been treated like this before, and the confused soldier was simply at a loss of what to think.

“I am an assassin.” The man named Kiritsugu said. “If you are willing to kill for a living, I can train you.”

What surprised Seven the most was not that he was an assassin or that he was offering to train her.

It was the fact that he was giving her a choice.

She blinked, unsure of how to react. He was allowing her to say no? Wouldn’t that mean that everything he had done for her would be in vain? She had been ready to become a slave, to be sold, or even to suffer a worser fate, but all her was asking her was to do what she had been doing her whole life - to kill for a living. And she was free to refuse.

“Why me?” She asked, the questions finally pouring out of her mouth. “Why did you save me?”

“It was too late to save anyone else.” He shrugged. “You were the only one who was still breathing.”

Seven stared. His answer seemed to make sense, yet it left her with more questions. Why was he there? Why did he wander into a bombing zone? Who was he?

She kept her mouth shut. It was against the rules to ask questions, she remembered. Only she wasn’t in the barracks anymore. She was with a man named Emiya Kiritsugu and was about to become his assistant.

She wondered if he would whip her the same way they had if she asked him those questions.

“I will follow you.” She replied.   She had a purpose now , she thought. She had nowhere else, no one else to go to.

Emiya Kiritsugu nodded solemnly. “What is your name?”

“511207.”

He frowned. “I meant your real name.”

Confusion swept across her face again. “That is my n ― ”

It was then she remembered.

Emiya Kiritsugu is his name.

Her name was a number.

I meant your real name.

A wave of panic rushed through her veins as she struggled to answer his question. She had a real name , she reasoned. She had just forgotten it because they were all commanded to forget their real names. But that wasn’t all, there were more things that she had forgotten. Her past. What was she doing before she arrived at the barracks? Where was she living? Who was she living with? Her family? Did she have a mother ―

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp sting that seemed to slice through her head. She whimpered, clutching her head in agony as pain engulfed her soul, blocking her from retrieving her memories. Like a blade, it sawed through her skull over and over again, the pain getting worse when she tried again to access her locked memories. Her fingers tugged at her hair as she curled herself into a ball, shaking and groaning as she forgot about Kiritsugu and the hospital that she was in, and everything in her world was pain, only pain.  

She couldn’t hear Kiritsugu yelling at her, telling her to calm down. She couldn’t feel his steady arms on her wrists, trying to pry them away from scratching harshly at her scalp. She couldn’t see the doctors and nurses rushing in, lifting up her sleeve to insert a needle into her right arm...

As her mind slowly became numb, and her body lost all energy, she felt someone gently laying her down on her bed. Looking up with a rather hazy vision, she could somewhat make out the face of a stranger with dark hair, the man who saved her life, now her mentor.

“We’ll just have to think up a new name, then.” He said in a low voice.

Watching the way he tucked her in, the way he spoke to the doctors urgently about something that sounded like ‘post traumatic stress disorder’, and the way he looked at her not of pity, but of purpose…

She silently pledged her life to follow him wherever he went.

And then all was black.

*****

She was given a passport shortly after.

Her name was Hisau Maiya.

[theradioghost]

it’s been a while since I was on this particular bullshit so let me just give you all a friendly reminder that Griffin McElroy never specified what Kravitz’s species was and there is therefore NO REASON that Kravitz shouldn’t be a gnome. thank you

[wordsquotescolors]

Quotes About Hope

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”  ― Bil Keane

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ― Shel Silverstein

“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.” ― John Lennon

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly.” ― Langston Hughes

“I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars.” ― Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.” ― Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts On Common Things

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.” ― Emily Dickinson

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. " Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.” ― Alexandre Dumas

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” ― Tom Bodett “If you're reading this... Congratulations, you're alive. If that's not something to smile about, then I don't know what is.” ― Chad Sugg, Monsters Under Your Head

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” ― Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” ― William Faulkner

“Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.” ― Margaret Mitchell

“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” ― Alexander Pope

“If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him.” ― Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” ― Kalu Ndukwe Kalu

“Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering 'it will be happier'...” ― Alfred Tennyson

“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.” ― Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

“It's amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday.” ― John Guare, Landscape of the Body

“Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of.” ― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

“Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.” ― José N. Harris, MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love

“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you're going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.” ― C. JoyBell C.

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“In a time of destruction, create something.” ― Maxine Hong Kingston

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” ― Pablo Neruda

[theradioghost]

but for real I spent weeks between Story and Song episodes thinking I was gonna get a triumphant and joyful victory smackdown against a villain who had come to represent, to me, despair and depression and all the times in my life I wanted to just Give Up. I was depressed and grieving and I’d just listened to the first 67 episodes in a week and a half and I was so ready for Merle to fight John, the idea of that fight meant so much to me

and then instead Griffin Andrew fucking McElroy decided to make that villain fight back and see hope for the future even when he himself had no chance to survive, and I am never going to stop thinking about that. how instead of just a story about how your joy is more powerful than any darkness around you, they told a story about how persistent joy and kindness and willingness to reach out to someone else can change someone, can help them; about how the anger and despair and apathy inside you can overtake and consume you, and the whole world with you, and even then it’s never too late to turn around and see it for the lie it is and fight against it, and fight for hope and joy and friendship and peace and the right to be yourself again instead of the emptiness you’ve been for so long. and that means so, so much more

[theradioghost]

...someone just tagged one of my old pushing daisies posts where I described ned as an “anxious necromancer” with “I thought this was about barry bluejeans at first” and. well that sure is a concept for an AU isn’t it

[theradioghost]

equalseleventhirds replied to your post: my friends it looks like it’s 2017 again because...

hey do you remember at the end of lunar interlude reunion tour (part 1) when the camera pans up to the hunger and, somewhere inside it, a smile flashes across someone’s face? what if maybe that was john, the sole independent entity in the hunger, the only one conscious enough to smile, glad to see his friend one last time?

hi there no I did not remember this at all and now I’m going even more wild about this

(I mean, it’s gotta be john, I don’t think there can be any question of who griffin could have intended that to be, but OH MAN I HAD FORGOTTEN THAT)