#anyway. its still about the grief. btw.

[bericas]

I'VE BEEN PLAYING DEAD MY WHOLE LIFE.

[lotus-pear]

mourning black and the death of ideals

[cent-scratchnsniff]

i wish to be your shadow , forever behind you , even if i am not good enough

plus some extra. they are quite literally metal boxes. i wonder how large they are in actually. im assuming human size? i also never realized just how complicated hokma's was.. i think its all the gears

[sieglinde-freud]

missing the maribelle/tharja family unit today. i think maribelle would be elated to have a daughter. she meets noire for the first time and she goes “do you play chess? violin? ride? drink tea?” and noire goes “no but im really good at throwing up in a bucket” and maribelles like “oh!!!! okay!!!!” i think she finds noire’s talisman persona charming. chrom is like “um maribelle can you please go get your daughter… she’s terrorizing the camp” and she goes “shes harmless! why do you hate women?” and he never speaks on it again. i think tharja needs a kid that will beef with her and i think brady is 100% the guy to do it. i think she looks at him and goes “what is your problem” and he flips her off. she tries to curse him but he spins his staff ninja style deflecting them back at her. he serves tea to his moms but he spits in tharjas and she knows it. and then she drinks it because it pisses him off. brady could come to love her at some point but it will not be easy and it will not come without a lot of work and a lot of arguing and i think i need some more parent/child conflict in this game. awakening gets one f bomb and its hidden in the random tharja brady PC support where he just goes “FUCK YOU” Tharja and Brady attained support level B.

[emdotcom]

Tbh, can't believe I'm cutting ties with Fnaf before Batim.

[spacelesscowboy]

sorry for talking so much about death. do u still think i’m hot.

[angelofbullets]

btw cannot articulate it but this song came on and i thought about vash and i was like transported to another dimension for a moment there was something there

[the-s1lly-corner]

I’ve read through some of your old posts and I gotta say…I love me some angst. May I kindly, pretty please with a plastic cherry on top, ask for TADC gang with an S/O who abstracted a while back, but then they ‘respawn’ one day with a glitch affect about them, and their memory was totally wiped? Like it was their first day in the digital world? The glitch affect doesn’t hurt them or anyone like what happened to Ragetha and Pomni btw.

TADC cast x mended!reader

so funny story i was about to sit down and work on this about 4 hours ago but then my parents said they were going to watch the fnaf movie in the garage and i literally dropped everything and watched it so uh uh. the reason the grind stopped was because of fnaf movie and now im kinda tempted to pick up my fnaf fic again anyways! i did a similar post, here! jax and caines parts here will be short, really only focusing on the glitch aspect for them in this post, since the other half has already been written!

CAINE:

just got flashed with an image but you know that scene where the iron giant is trying to pick the boy up but hes like limp or something and the giant pulls back (ive never watched iron giant i just know this clip from a meme) i think it would be like that if he tried to poof your glitching away; but like. in an emotional way, if that makes sense. like its the same kind of carefulness and worry, i think... bonus if he does more damage than not

JAX:

honestly a little too scared to even touch you out of the deep seeded fear of getting all glitchy as well. like he knows it wont spread to him, but you know...

POMNI:

similar to jax i think she would instinctively avoid touching you even though she knows its fine... the whole hand thing making her overly cautious for future scenarios, you know? i think she would slip up and accidentally bring up something you and her did before you abstracted, or call you an endearing name before abruptly stopping herself and trailing off, sad stuff. grief makes her tear between wanting to find an exit faster and trying to make you remember/stay for you

RAGATHA:

poor girl :( i think she would genuinely try to make an effort to re/befriend you and try not to have her hopes too high for the two of you to get back together. if you hear about your past relationship and want to learn more about it, shell tell you what you want to know, but i doubt she would instantly start dating you again if you suggest the two of you trying to give the relationship a second shot... i think that would need some time

KINGER:

bro is gonna be going through it, first he loses his possible wife to abstraction and now he lost you.. got you back, but you dont remember anything. on top of that you look.. off.. sure it doesnt hurt you but it still looks like it would be uncomfortable, even if it isnt

stuck between longing to rekindle your old relationship and letting you go in order to allow himself to process this grief; the third option is potential abstraction for himself

ZOOBLE:

tries not to care. they want to forget everything like you did, they were finally starting to be normal after your abstraction. but now your back in a clean slate, mind wiped and memories gone. how does someone cope with that? as much as it hurts them they think it would be best for them to pretend you were a stranger again

GANGLE:

saying it again, poor girl. mix of pomni and ragatha here i think, like she keeps messing up and verbally reminiscing before realizing you cant relate to what shes saying anymore. will tell you anything you want to know about the past, but i think it would take a lot longer for her to consider getting with you again than ragatha. for both its kind of a "i dont want them to feel obligated to try because we were together once" type deal

[sun-of-4-gun]

seeing your six ear macaque design (btw so freaking cool) makes me so curious about him :0! do you have more info about him?

AHH thank you!! that makes me so glad to hear (≧⁠▽⁠≦)♡*⁠。I have a whole idea of how he was made but nothing too solid! if anyone has any other insights I'd love to read them!!

this is something I've decided recently that when Six initially popped out of the ground, he looked a lot more like Monkey King. a scruffy, young adult six-eared macaque with dull red fur. he is an exact clone save for minor details that will kickstart big changes

it was instant for him to go out explore & experience the world, learn about this & that. he found his way to Flower-Fruit Mountain and it's clear to him that regardless of people, monkeys, and even demons just don't like him. his freakishly gross amount of ears certainly don't help or an underbaked unsettlingness about his whole vibe being uncanny & off, but he don't give a damn (yet). he just wants to be received positively for a change, so when he quickly found kinship in the legend of the Monkey King, he thought to seek him out in the hopes of understanding, but that idea is immediately snuffed out in favour of straight-up just becoming the Monkey King himself instead! he wants all the blind adoring glory and none of the work, but he needs help. assistance if you will, 'cause there's no Monkey King without his Stick. that's the whole reason he is where he is

long story short, Six is able to clone Stick and forge his own staff; Suixin Tie Ganbing (or Rod/dy) who I haven't designed cause I'm struggling (⁠^▽^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ I don't imagine it's as characterised as Stick, if any. like a soulless copy y'know? Six knows Monkey's heart & mind so intimately, but lacks an awareness in that he is still more like the guy 500 years ago + caught up with knowledge to present time. of course, by becoming a specious macaque, he sacrifices his ability to predict the future & utilise that sixth sense, as Monkey isn't a six-eared macaque, but one of ✧ numinous wisdom ✧ and ultimately gets the upper hand to destroy this imposter, who apparently all along is a split aspect of his very own psyche & soul, a literal two-minds & double-heart situation. unlike Six, Monkey is a complete-ish person, and his counterpart has a lot of growing up to do. its a big difference between 500 years of self-reflection to 5 years of figuring out one's desires & purpose!

so Monkey aims to kill Six, a rotten part of himself that he tried to bury years ago, kept hidden from his master out of shame and deep inner conflict that it literally ate him up on the inside, and when it was too much to bear he cut open his chest to find an actual root of wickedness growing from his heart like a tumour, festering from the back of his mind and manifesting into a second organ that desperately needed to take control and get out. I imagine Sandy witnessed this and Horsie knows about it, but nobody said anything because Monkey seemingly "defeated" it when he buried this parasite into the dirt, thinking it would quietly die with nothing to leech off of anymore. this came back to haunt him, obviously, his own self or at least some corrupted mirror staring him in the flesh

but he doesn't kill him, seeing himself within literally and metaphorically, the second thoughts are clear and instead of destroying the six-eared macaque, he buries him alive instead. because if Buddha can stick him under a mountain for 500 years and that turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to him, why can't he do the same for this guy? he's a screwed up version of him, but like him nonetheless. he was 5 years old himself when he got mountained anyway!

except that well, it's still the six-eared macaque, his own species, and for whatever reason it was after that Tightening Fillet Spell by Guanyin that Six is cursed to be tethered to Monkey King in every physical & emotional way, especially by their own doing. all thoughts, joys, grief, love, rage, pain, pleasure and else of Monkey's will be second-hand to the specious macaque and he has no choice but to listen to & feel everything his creator feels & experiences. it sickens him, infuriates him, these sensations are tormenting regardless of his own desires for 1,000 years of complete depravity & deafness to everything of the outside world but the Monkey King and once he's freed from the earth by chance of a quake, he wants nothing to do with Sun Wukong. though that's impossible when he's literally connected at the heart & mind by some one-sided chain. so logically, he has to kill him.

his time underground allowed his sense of self to develop & ultimately change his appearance, so now he's also somewhat complete-ish as a living being. except he can't exactly move on with his creator in the way, as how can he trust his own emotions & sensations when all he's known are another's the past millennium? he'll get help & some assistance again, and he'll use the same jade dagger that was discarded after getting rid of him the first time to stab Monkey in the heart and sever their connection once and for all

[kindlespark]

this is gonna be SO long and rambly sorry anyway i saw a post abt how babel does queer characters and it got me thinking abt why the tropes it uses would usually turn me off other stories but didn’t here

MAJOR BABEL SPOILERS //

i feel like i’d be more mad abt how robinramy ended up in babel if it marketed itself as queer lit at all or if its fans were going “WOW AMAZING QUEER REP” abt it. but no one told me any of that, so finding out they were gay was just a fun little bonus surprise to me. i get why ppl are eh abt robinramy not getting together/technically still being subtext (which i dont think is really true btw like the book literally says “robin was falling in love” but idk i guess if you were stupid you might’ve assumed that it was falling in love with oxford given how romantic some of the other language is (WHICH IS ALSO THE POINT bc i think robin’s friendship with ramy blurring into romance is why he romanticised like all his friendships/experiences in oxford BUT IM GETTING OFF-TOPIC)). i just think robin’s repression abt being gay was intrinsically tied to his attitudes on imperialism (wrt refusing to acknowledge anything that complicated his life until it was too late) and i don’t consider it a cop out or queerbait. like i genuinely don’t think robinramy could ever have gotten together without drastic alterations being made in terms of plot and character. plus i think it’s clear that kuang didn’t want to write a story with any kind of focus on romance at all, because it’s not that kind of book. there’s no successful het romance either, so it grates a lot less. the only reason romance is included at all is to show the ways in which white entitlement manifests. so the tragic way robinramy played out just made sense to me.

and i speak as someone who accidentally spoiled myself on You Know What in the middle of reading and i was like ugghh boooo dreading it the whole time expecting to roll my eyes when it happened but then when it did i was like. wow im actually not that mad LMFAO 😭😭😭 actually thematically the book sets it up so well that i believed that this was unfortunately the only way it could’ve gone. babel is about the loss and tragedy and grief that colonised people experience. it’s about the lengths people will go to to uphold empire and the lengths ppl will go to to tear it down like idk 😭 i guess it is bury your gays but it didnt bother me this time because i thought it fit thematically ��️ i enjoy tragedy as a genre a lot and i would’ve made it gay anyway you know. thanks rf kuang for doing it for me so i didnt have to.

WHICH IS ALL TO SAY that i guess if you’re going into babel for the queer rep without appreciating that the story is fundamentally a tragedy it would feel like it’s just reusing tired tropes….. but i think the choices kuang made were rly deliberate and not in a way that feels like trauma porn or shock value. the book is fundamentally about the struggles of poc so the layer of queerness that was introduced felt like a subtle extension of the experiences of characters of colour in the book, and i enjoyed and related to it as a queer chinese person who kind of realised they had to prioritise their fight for the liberation of poc over queerness mainly because the idea of western queer liberation cannot be dissociated from imperialism and many aspects of homophobia as we know it was an export of christian european empire into our colonised countries in the first place and FUCK THIS IS A WHOLE OTHER TANGENT ABOUT HOW I THINK RAMY AS A CHARACTER IS EMBLEMATIC OF THE TENSION AND STRUGGLE THAT QUEER POC DIASPORA HAVE BETWEEN OUR IDENTITIES GODDAMNIT OK FORGET IT POST CANCELLED i just rly think babel’s handling of queer characters is fine and makes sense and i like it personally and maybe i will make a coherent analysis about it one day but that day is not today byeeeeeee

[neousfics]

Somewhere In Time is Literally Edwin/Charles, and here's why:

Just rewatched the movie Somewhere In Time because I thought it might work for a Paynland fic and holy fucking shit you guys it's perfect in every way. Charles is so Richard Collier coded and Edwin is so Elise McKenna coded it's not even funny. And the time periods are perfect???? Collier is literally from the late 70s/80s and time travels back to 1912???

Also William Robinson as the Cat King? Be still my beating heart.

(Spoilers for a movie from the 80s ig)

If you're unfamiliar with the plot, Somewhere In Time is about a playwright, Richard Collier, who, after being given a pocket watch by an old lady on the day of her death, begins to suspect that not only is it possibly to travel back in time, but he has already done it. He learns that the old lady used to be a beautiful young actress named Elise McKenna. He eventually manages to travel back in time, they fall in love only for him to accidentally get yanked back to the future just as they've begun to plan their life together. He dies from grief a week later and the two reunite in the afterlife.

Here are some scenes/dialogue that I think are so Edwin/Charles coded it hurts:

Collier (AKA Charles) decides to literally abandon his life and timeline after literally one (1) interaction with this lady + a pretty picture of her he saw in the museum section of a hotel and Charles would absolutely (and kinda did) do the same

McKenna (AKA Edwin) spent the rest of her life never giving up on finding Collier even though they were only together for a couple days. In her youth she's described as "quick and bright, fun, strong, and willful" but after he disappears she is described as "kind and thoughtful but too much within herself, like she was empty somehow" and you CANNOT tell me that does not sound like our favorite Edwardian boy

When Collier prepares to go to the past he picks out a time-appropriate suit, but when he gets there everyone keeps telling him its hella out of fashion and he is so offended 10/10, very Charles

I can practically hear Paynland saying this dialogue:

"Your occupation?"

“I’m a playwright.”

“A playwright.” (mad bitchiness in this line delivery)

“No, no I’m not here because of that!”

“Hm. And you say you know everything about me?”

“Well, yes.”

“Which is patently absurd. You couldn’t possibly know everything about me. We’ve never met. You’re a complete stranger to me.

“But then why did you ask, 'Is it you?'” (she asked this when they met the first time)

“I don’t have to answer that.”

“I know you don’t. I wish you would, though.”

When Collier asks McKenna to call him by his first name she hits him with the "Why should I?" and this doe-eyed fool says "I don't know. I just hoped you would."

Collier is terrified of the idea that McKenna would be afraid of him which is just so Charles like damn

When Collier tries to shave his face with the old-fashioned razor he does an absolutely terrible job, gets a bunch of cuts, and leaves shaving cream on his face and McKenna takes one look at him and decides this idiot is the man she's going to love forever

Their first kiss is actually the sexiest shit ever in this show like damn why they pulling up so hard in some random movie 40 years ago. ANYway when Collier touches McKenna's face and slowly leans in to kiss her she says in this breathy, barely heard whisper "Oh my God. I don't know what's happening." Which is very Edwin to me

When McKenna's manager gets too pushy about her romantic decisions she says "I am involved with you as an actress, Mr. Robinson. Not a doormat. Do not attempt to wipe your boots on me." okay Edwin

When McKenna is performing in the play (which is a comedy) she goes off script and starts dramatically monologuing all her inner thoughts about loving Collier while looking at him in the audience which Mr. "I know were in hell but I need to tell you I'm in love with you" Payne would definitely do

This is the monologue btw:

“The man of my dreams is almost faded now. The one I have created in my mind. The sort of man each woman dreams of in the deepest most secret reaches of her heart. I can almost see him now before me. What would I say to him if he were really here? Forgive me. I’ve never known this feeling. I’ve lived without it all my life. Is it any wonder that I failed to recognize you? You brought it to me for the first time. Is there any way that I can tell you how my life has changed? Any way at all to let you know the sweetness you have given me? There is so much to say. I cannot find the words except for these: I love you.”

"Are you alright?" "Yes" "I thought I lost you." "Never. Never, never, never."

The morning after they have sex she hits him with the "You will marry me, won't you?" And makes him choke on his food then immediately goes "You won't?!?!" without even waiting for him to respond

"I want to be everything to you." "You are."

This dialogue:

“The first thing I intend to do for you–”

“You’ve already done.”

“Well, the second thing.”

“What?”

“Buy you a new suit.”

“I don’t understand. Nobody seems to like my suit.”

“Oh can you blame them?”

“I think my suit is terrific. So what if it’s 10 years old?”

“At least 15.”

Collier just up and dying as soon as he gets back because he's so distressed at the thought of living without her he goes into a dissociative fit and doesn't eat for a weak is so Charles

If you made it this far, I commend you because I'm pretty sure I sound like an insane person and I don't even know if any of you have seen this movie but for the love of God I had to tell someone

Who knows, maybe I'll write a Somewhere In Time AU Paynland fic, or perhaps I'll just sit here and desperately hope that someone else will do it

[keewu]

What VOCALOID/utaite song fits the sds characters?

This is basically me combining my two biggest interests haha, but yeah I've really thought about this.

Meliodas: Aun no Beats. So from what I've read and what I think the meaning of the lyrics is. It's a person who mourns the death of their lover, and not being able to be together anymore (we all know why this checks out) the line that stuck out to me was "we were going to be together forever" anyway I really like this song and I think it fits him.

Elizabeth: Yume to Hazakura. This is a really beautiful song and its very melancholy. It talks about distant memories and unforgettable words, tbh I think it just fits her vibe. For Meliodas I had like a reason I don't think I have for this one. But it fits her and it's a beautiful song.

Diane: Lonely Universe. It was HARD finding a song fitting her man. But I think this is cute and it's her feelings toward King. It's in my opinion about a person who loses someone (King making Diane forget about him) and waits for them to come back, like they are always looking for something. It also feels like the person waiting is quite alone which Diane was after she left the giants, she didn't have anyone since the humans found her scary.

Ban: Vita. I gotta give my man a depressing song bro. So I can't really find the "meaning" of the song so I'll just make my own conclusions. It says "I'm living as best as I can" and "dying as best as I can" and I feel like that resonates with Bans character, you can't tell me that man doesn't want to die when he deliberately went to prison to get tortured. It also says "it's getting worse and worse" which I feel like Ban felt when he said that everyone he likes ends up leaving him.

King: Lemon. Ya'll I cannot not give King the yaoi angst okay. So the song is about grieving for a loved one, someone who's already passed (Helbram hehe) it has lines which are very beautiful like "Even the pain from that day, I still loved it all with you" and "more than I knew I was in love with you" (if you can't tell I really like King x Helbram) overall the melody of the song fits him too and overall I really frickin love this song.

Gowther: Hitomodoki. This is a mafumafu song (one of my fav artists btw) and Hitomodoki means kinda like Pseudo-human which in of itself fits my boy here. As soon as I listened to this song I thought how much it fit Gowther and I could go on a super long rant, but instead I'm just gonna drop some lyrics on you cause you'll see what I mean. "Is this hole I had mistakenly opened within my heart" and "In this human form, without becoming a human" and "oh, my heart — I once wished that you would have stopped" like you get what I'm putting down??

Merlin: Rollin' Girl. I had so many songs for her, like bitter Choco decoration, bad apple, lost ones weeping etc. But I decided to go with the old classic depression song. Again from what I read and how I interpret it, it's about a girl who's very lonely and needs help but never accepts it from other people. Even though she's in pain she want to keep "rolling" each day at a time (continue to live) she always wants to be perfect/succeed. Lyrics: "it doesn't matter how It turns out, that's just a downward hill towards more mistakes" anyway I feel like this song really fits her. Also this song may or may not have been my most played song last year and Merlin may or may not be my favorite character hehe...

Escanor: The reason I wanted to die (Boku wa shinou to omottetanowa. So as you can see this is a depressing song once again (all these mfs be traumatized) and its a really beautiful song that really shows how Escanor feels in my opinion. It sings about reasons to want to die and it's about grief and despair but also hope. The lyrics "The reason I wanted to die is because I hadn't met you yet" and "I fell in love with this world a little more where people like you were born" feels a bit like his feelings toward Merlin which is cute.

This is honestly mostly for myself but if you enjoy reading all this thats great!!

[marytunno]

-read below-

Since it’s a speculation about the future I had this… weird idea… I honestly lost hope about knowing what is going to happen in twow or ados but I asked someone that knows… ( I sang her a song, I didn’t have to kiss her btw)

HIGH HEART

Something old lingered in that place, Arya could feel it into her bones as she watched her breath turn into a small cloud fading into the night. She could hear something whispering through the trees, the leaves and the howling wind having a secret conversation, the night sky dark and menacing like a bruise, no moon, no stars, only a trembling fire casting long shadows through the camp.

Something old came from the night.

She noticed her as the figure emerged from the woods, small, long white hair almost touching the ground moving along the shadows, the flame burning slower, its light shy as the ghost approached. 

Swift as a deer Arya moved from her cot, the voices turning clear as she got closer hidden like a mouse, Lem and Tom, Thoros and Beric were there too, talking with the small woman. The ghost talked about her dreams, too old for kisses and wine they said she was, dead kings, dead lords, squids, a black dog, a wolf howling in the rain… Arya felt a chill run down her spine as she tried to decode those words, riddles ancient and yet new, painting the future the ghost saw in her dreams.

A twig cracked behind Arya, she turned around startled, someone had caught her spying.

It was just Gendry, of course.

- What are you doing here?- he whispered, as if he cared about not giving Arya’s position away

- The same thing you are doing!- she snapped, her eyes still focused on the queer woman, she had red eyes like Jon’s direwolf.

He snorted and got closer - Making sure you are not running away and getting yourself killed?- 

What did he care about anyway… he had chosen the brotherhood, he was the one getting himself killed, she did not care for sure.

- I don't want to speak to you…- this time she turned around to face him, glaring at him with her silver gaze.

He scowled unsure about what to do, if Arya wanted to hate him for not being her playmate forever she could suit herself, fucking highborns.

Arya focused again on the small woman, dreams of clangor and bells, a maid slaying a giant in a castle made of snow, words that made no sense to her.

- You cannot hide from me child, come into the light…- 

Arya’s heart jumped in her chest, the voice of the ghost loud and adamant, a cold sensation at the base of Arya’s neck. The woman’s mouth opened in what once had been a smile but now resembled more a grimace, like the ones painted on mummers’ and actors’ masks.

Arya was no craven, she was brave like a wolf, she was not afraid and so she stepped from her hiding spot, Lord Beric looking at her with an indecipherable expression.

The woman studied her, her red eyes seeing inside Arya, burning through her skin. Arya breathed in the night air, she was not afraid, her eyes looking straight back at the ghost not allowing herself to look down. 

She called her a child, a wolf child, a blood child… her old hands, in anger, or fear, or folly, closed around Arya’s arm like old bones, her nails digging into Arya’s skin.

-I thought it was the lord who smelled of death…- cried the woman

-You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need

none of yours. Begone from here, dark heart. Begone!- Arya winched, the woman’s cold grip driving blood from her, something older than fear in those unnatural eyes.

- Let her go! - Gendry’s voice thundered as he took Arya from the woman.

Arya didn’t need his help, she glared at him and opened her mouth to just say so when the ghost laughed, an unnatural laugh, like a screeching of old stones, bloodchilling.

- Let the children be… there’s no harm to them…- stepped in Thoros, his face lit by his precious flames.

- Rain is coming …- the ghost stared at the sky, her milk-white hair moving with the wind, something whispering to her, something Arya could almost feel, something as old as the north talking to the small woman.

Arya took a step back bumping into Gendry, he seemed as confused as her looking at Lord Beric for an answer, an order, an explanation.

- Old faces, old curses… nothing good comes from them…- croaked the woman 

- I can tell you what I know, boy, what the weirwood whispers to an old shadow… I can smell the blood in you, dangerous blood to have… I’ll tell what I know… my price a kiss… -

Instinctively Arya turned to look at Gendry, his expression still, like a deer faced with a hunter's arrow. 

- What? No!- he said after a second

- Don’t you want to know what blood runs in your veins, the storms that made you, the days that were and the days that will come?- continued the old figure, grief and hunger in her whole being 

-No…- continued Gendry, his hand still holding Arya’s arm 

- I don’t care about your visions!- he finally said, the flame flickered again under the wind turning almost to embers, it smelled like rain.

Staring in the dark, those ancient red eyes, Arya wondered what those eyes could really see… in dreams… in the wind…through time and space… she wasn’t scared��� 

Arya had dreams too… wolf dreams… were those just her mind playing with her? 

Were the gods trying to tell her something?

- I’ll give you your song! Let them be… or Lem will keep his promise and you’ll meet with his steel… - said Tom, not a sign of his proverbial humor in his voice

The small woman kept her stance.

- Old… so old…. what a curse… It’s been so long since I have known the warmth of a kiss… I’m nothing but old bones and old flesh… You like denying an old woman of her last pleasures… pity… I have never kissed king’s blood…- 

Goosebumps on Arya’s skin, was it a curse that those who saw the future had to speak in riddles? Thoros opened his mouth as if to speak, his eyes never leaving the dying fire.

- Look in your flames pink priest… but not here… this place belongs to the old gods… not fond of your fire… you’ll see my words are right… I’m but what remains… fading like mist in the morrow…- 

Arya bit her lip, she was not scared of the crone, not like Gendry or Lem or Tom or even Thoros… she was a wolf… the old gods protected her too… and so she spoke…

- I’d kiss you to know the future, what do you see? Do i get to my family?- 

Tom coughed twice to hide his laugh, saying something about her being crazy.

- Are you gone stupid?- Gendry’s voice behind her, his hand still holding her in place close to him

She ignored him, he didn’t listen to her, not about the things that mattered, she was not going to listen to him.

- Please, my… - Arya had no idea how to address the small woman

- I need to know!- her mind thinking about Robb and mother in Riverrun, Jon at the wall, Winterfell and it’s walls so high and safe, the smell of home and food, she was so close, if it hadn’t been for the brotherhood she would have already reached them, she was sure.

- Ney! Stay away from me… I don’t need your sorrow… you smell of death… stay away!- thundered the crone 

Arya stomped her foot on the ground, like a child throwing a tantrum, she wanted to know, she needed to know what the future was holding for her. 

- I’ll stay until you talk! You’ll have to bear my smell of death until you tell me what I want!- spoke the daughter of Eddard Stark, she left Gendry behind her walking straight in front of the woman favored by the gods

The ghostly figure winced, her eyes closed, listening to the wind.

- Let her be Arya! She has already suffered a great pain! Go back with Gendry…- Lord Beric spoke 

- Ney, your Grace… too late… Child… you’ll have what you ask… and may we never meet again, dark heart!- 

Arya could feel the anger in the woman’s voice, the pain, but she wanted to know.

The storm was approaching, heavy clouds upon them carried by the wind, a silent lighting, no thunder.

- You are destined to great sorrows child, your tears will never dry on your face, I hear war cries, beasts howling, blood on their fangs and on the ground they run upon… and yet home gets further away… always a step out of reach… you’ll see through many eyes and yet all you’ll see will be death… I can hear waves crashing against waves as a giant welcomes you… and where the lights never go out I see darkness… death… and at the end, if someone comes home, wolf child, it’s no longer you…-

Arya’s nails were digging into her palm, she was a liar, a stupid liar like everyone she had met since leaving home! 

- You’ll cry tears of blood upon stone, upon snow… I see golden eyes, silver ones too… and…- 

The crone stopped for a moment, as if sniffing the air around her

- You’ll not find your family in riverrun… a different fate awaits… the twins… a promise, a vow, a wedding… you’ll never find the ones you seek…I see only death on your path beware…-

- You are a liar!- cried Arya

- I can’t change what awaits you… my eyes are not mine alone… my ears have lived a thousand different lives… If you don’t like your fate the fault is yours and of the painful road that comes… and yet… you’ll be granted something I can only dream of…- 

Arya took a step back, her heart thundering in her chest, she did not care what the small woman said, she was going to get back to her family one way or another, no matter the price.

- …you’ll see spring…- the ghost spoke as if speaking a curse  

- Now Begone! Away from this old bones!- 

- Tom, I’ll have my song, the same one…- breathed the woman putting as much distance as possible from Arya, sitting on the ground close to the singer

- Let’s get back Arya…- Gendry’s voice almost startled her

He guided her away, their backs to the fire, a sad melody filling the air.

- And boy…- they froze in their place

- You’ll soon learn the price you’ll pay for the brothers you chose… death hanging from the same trees that you’ll hide behind… orders from a heart of stone…stone… and ice… stolen steel… you’ll find one half and mend what it’s broken… a ghost of a long lost king you’ll never love… a name you’ll never have…and I can hear voices… of whom you’ll meet and of whom you have met… and as snow falls south all roads will cross again…- 

Gendry kept walking, trying to ignore those cryptic words, nothing good came of knowing one's future… for what he knew no bloody gods were whispering to the woman… and if pain and death was all she could promise it was just because they lived in a world made of those things.

- You’ll learn to listen… you’ll have the chance…sweet irony… they’ll have blue eyes… but your children will be nothing but wolves…- 

The words of the woman got lost in the wind as Tom kept playing his song, the figure now only crying holding herself and rocking back and forth. 

Arya cursed and kicked a rock while Gendry kept dragging her back away from the fire. 

- She is a liar… she is just old and crazy and wants our wine…- spat Arya, the words she had just head haunting her mind and turning into tragedy

- Of course, Arya… Don’t believe a word she just said… no one can see the future… and who says he does is a fraud like my master said ‘bout Thoros… She did not make sense… we will take you to your mum and brother no matter what!- 

Gendry tried to reason with her, looking at the anger simmering in her eyes.

- Yes… to get some gold…- she replied, cold

- I’m not doing it for the gold!- he said back

Arya said nothing and sat down in her place, her arms crossed. A light turned the sky yellow and then it bruised to black again, and as the thunder struck came rain.

Someone cursed, someone kept sleeping, only a few noticed… as she had arrived the ghost of high heart was gone… faded back to her mist and woods… 

- She was right about the rain…- spat Arya feeling the cold droplets fall on her skin

Gendry snorted 

- Aye, the sky was dark since noon and I’m sure even Anguy could smell the rain coming… Easy to see the future when it’s happening already… listen to me Arya… she is wrong… she doesn’t even know what she was talking about… like you heard all that bullshit ‘bout my blood or something… - 

- Maybe your blood is important…- she said flatly, her skin hurting where the nails of the small woman had pierced her skin

- My blood is worth shit… if they had given her some more wine she would have started calling Lem king and Tom his sweet lady of the forest…- 

The rain was pouring, Gendry’s black hair wet and sticking to his forehead, too mad to be distracted by the storm.

Arya smiled, maybe he was right, maybe the woman’s words had been that… just words… 

She had cried and prayed for death, she had killed and spilled blood… and maybe her heart was dark, full of hate and she smelled of death… but her future was going to be different… 

- Feel better?- he asked her after a few seconds ignoring Lord Beric’s squire complaining about the rain waking him up

She nodded.

- Now let’s find someplace dry to sleep in…- he said, the matter over.

They did not speak anymore of the words heard, not Arya’s curse to suffer and lose herself and what she loved, not the wedding at the Twins, not the eyes she was supposed to see through… they did not speak of wolf children nor the ghost’s dream of spring… 

Arya thanked Gendry when he gave her a dry coat; they had found shelter together with Jack and Harwin between the trees. 

- Still hate me now?- smiled Gendry stretching close enough to her 

She bit her lip. 

- Are you coming to Winterfell with me?- 

He did not answer, but she heard all she needed to hear. 

The silence hurting as much as the unspoken answers to their questions.

A troubled sleep fell on the camp, rain soaking them to the point of fever, haunted dreams in a haunted place. 

All I know is future flickers, still unwritten, but if you listen to the weirwoods on a starless night, as the wind howls tales of things that will become, if you close your eyes and let the dreams come… between all the bloodshed… and the cursed thrones and heavy crowns… between ice and fire… you’ll see a winter that must be braced to once again witness spring… you’ll see some good and some bad… and if you wait long enough you’ll see two children someday meet again.

Hope you liked it <3<3 Thank you to everyone who read and a huge thank you to everyone who made beautiful works for this appreciation week, my gendrya shipper heart was very very happy.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Allura

Lots of people (myself included tbh) ship klance (Keith and Lance). In s8 the creators made Allura/Lance canon (but then they killed her off and left the ending ambiguous it was weird). Anyway the fandom treats her like she's the most terrible bitchy woman ever but all she wants to do is end the war and avenge her destroyed home planet. Yeah she wasn't always the nicest or always the best, but you could argue some other characters in the show aren't either and they aren't treated near as bad as allura. people really just hate her bc Lance liked her. I don't think allura/lance are good together, but I still liked her as a character and thought she was interesting and had a lot of growth during the show. she DEF is not evil like some people portray her as in fic or talk about her in captions on posts. I've seen people say that they HATE her and that she's the worst and I'm like ??? let her live (well sort of ig she is dead now). lots of fic writers use her as the villain which is so interesting to me bc the show literally has villains like use them. anyway allura so perfectly fits the bracket description she deserves better.

I hate to acknowledge my time in this fandom but I hate the way the fandom treated her more. Allura was treated like shit no matter what side of the Great Ship War you were on because she was always a threat to the biggest ships (klance and sheith). At best she got put into Background Lesbian or Consolation Prize Shallura (Space Mom-zoned) (She was not a motherly figure btw. She was just Black). At worst she was violently demonized for being ~racist~ (kinda not cool with the alien race that blew up her planet for a few episodes), complete with misogynistic language hurled at her (she got called a bitch sooo much). Allura was a good and cool character and the show did her dirty but the fandom was somehow worse.

i apologise for speaking the dark magicks, but amidst the voltron fandoms many, many transgressions, there were a particular subset of people who just hated this girl. the infamous klance wars of the 2010s kept this perfectly fine childrens cartoon character in the sights of shippers everywhere, and she (and her voice actress im sure) were subjected to years of petty squabble blown up to global perportions. ive seen hate, ive seen rants, ive seen fanfics that made her homophobic. girls been through the ringer, and even though voltron was never the show its fandom wanted it to be, i believe allura deserved better

Kayano Kaede

shes genuinely a really tragic character who had potential for a really compelling, effective arc concerning grief, identity, healing, and finding trust again all while going through the inherent ordeal of being 15 years old….if she werent a female character in a shonen anime 😭😭 instead she gets sidelined during the show up until her big plot twist reveal after which shes immediately sidelined again. whatever i still love her and know her to be a character of all time who has suffered more than jesus. in my experience shes perhaps the female character who like. ive seen most *obsessively* hated due to her “getting in the way” of the ship b/w the male protagonist + deuteragonist (bc of her proximity to the both of them) u woild think shes the devil incarnate and not just. 15 and traumatised 

She had a crush on Nagisa and they kissed and a lot of fans ship him with Karma so theyre mad that Kaede is there. She is super silly and nice but the fandom hates her for standing in the way of karmagisa.

she's a sweet person that was an actor and loves her sister. she is the main love interest of the main character but doesn't interact with him more than most of the other characters for a majority of the story. Often I have seen them removed from the story only to become some homophobic jerk that's desperate for the main characters love instead of letting her keep the good friendship that her and the main character had before the romance.

[kiawren]

Heyy it's been a while I went off tumblr to focus on studying (although I barely am) but I was still plagued with kiawren thoughts..

Ugh I should have slept instead of writing this but I've been listening to pierce the veil and this AU is on my mind. I have like one post here tagged #suneater!kiawren for it but here's what it is basically: kiawe and wren as ace and yamato from one piece respectively. Wren has the Tiangou devil fruit and kiawe obviously has the flame flame fruit. Which for non one piece ppl means they have those powers. And if you've got a zoan fruit you're a furry basically (For mythical zoans like the Tiangou (a tiangou fruit is not in canon btw, but yamato has a similar mythical dog fruit) honestly have whatever the fuck powers you could just go ham with the lore to give them some op in universe power (idk this is from I've watched so far) so Wren can turn into a dog and also eat the sun or whatever I don't car I'm just writing that for kiawren don't care about the meta

Anyway so wren falls in love with kiawe in this AU. And in one piece I think yamato and ace only actually spent one night together? I think they loved each other though, maybe not necessarily romantic. And maybe it was more yamato. And I relate to that one sided desire to be near someone. Anywayyy Yamato is chained to an island and trapped, I didnt specify that wren is similarly chained but he also has certain ambitions he can't reach yet. And kiawe reminds him of those ambitions. And how it may be possible to reach them. And he wants to go with him. Obviously also reflecting irl me LOL ok. One piece spoilers here...

Ace dies so maybe kiawe does too iddk? I don't want him to die but just remove him from wren's life it's vague what happened to him but anyway that dog is gonna be so sad he's gone. And his hope and ambitions are crushed. And keep the vivre card scene (your vivre card burning means you're dying) I can be trusted to be normal about this scene and its composition and colours dont worryy also cuz burning. Is a motif here.

OKAY HERE'S THE WRITING I GOTTS SHUT UO

—————

When you first saw him, his form ablaze among those tiger-vermilion fires, did you not think it surreal, like seeing the sun, right in front of you. How alluring it was, how intimate. Merely recalling it feels like trying to remember a dream. Like trying to reach a sun, that taunts you with every sunset. You cannot reach what you want. All the colour in the world, and what are you? But he turned to you then. The flames grew gentler. He smiled. And it struck you. Less like a lightning bolt, more like sunlight after stepping out of shade. It made you lightheaded. In front of you was someone who could embody fire. But not in unbridled rage, or blind passion. He had all the strength of a sun's heat, but also a heart. He was not pure heat. He was warmth. And it drugged you. And you would spend the rest of your days chasing it, to bask in it. Not in it's whole. Just a sliver. You were just a like a dog. Dizzy, desperate. 

You are still a dog. It didn't take a fruit to make you a self-fulfilling prophecy. You were already a creature, but a smaller body housed grief perfectly next to pride. You would have done anything to see that sun again. That sweet, sweet fruit and its enlightenment. You could climb and climb. You could finally reach those skies, their blood red and bruise purple a naked mirror of your dying ambition. So you could only do one thing. Climb higher. Feel the heat. Is it just like an embrace? ...I've missed you so much. Higher still. It starts to burns. It only feeds a high. You start to cry. Higher, You're close. It's blinding. You see white. That's not death. It's life. You're right in front of it. Here you are. This is it. Widen your jaws. Wider. More. The flames kiss your mouth. It burns and bleeds. It almost feels like a communion. It will feel holy. Now place your mouth around it. This will be it.

It does not feel that big now that you have it. Where are you? Anguish boils like bile from your gut in your mouth. You close your jaws. You hope it brings catharsis. You hope he finds you. He doesn't. And there's no relief. It just stings. It just burns. That ugly grief you had culminates. You have him. So where is he. You have the sun in your mouth, and it burns. YOU HAVE THE SUN IN YOUR MOUTH AND. IT BURNS. WAS THIS THE RAPTURE YOU WANTED? IT BURNS. YOU HAVE THE SUN IN YOUR MOUTH AND YOU TASTE DEATH. THE TISSUE BLEEDS AND DRIPS RED, BLACK. IT ALL BURNS. WHERE IS HE, WHERE IS HE. EVERY SCAR BLISTERS LIKE LAVA AND YOUR LIPS DRIP LIKE BLOODY RAIN. YOUR MOUTH MELTS AND TEARS APART. 

THIS WAS NOT THE SUN YOU LOVED, YOU BLIND, DYING DOG.

[clarabowmp3]

here's what I love about loml: the melody and lyrics fit together so well that nothing sounds clunky, but she's still not compromising on artistic value. in fact, i'd say the shorter lyrics enhance the quality as its just sucker punch after sucker punch. the cadence of most of the song (as per the line fragments) sounds like someone taking short breaths, as if debilitatingly encumbered by emotion. or, if we take it further in the context of the funeral motif, like someone taking their last breaths.

there is this 'duality' (opposites) to the song in sooo many ways: first in the lyrics (never before/never since, one kiss/getting married, alive/cemetery, low-down boy/stand-up guy, all time/momentary, "I'll never leave"/"never mind") then in the first chorus she paints a picture of a wedding but its almost unnervingly unclear because of all the funeral diction (cemetery, killing time, (holy) ghost). as the song shifts from 'love' to 'loss,' the wedding image gets juxtaposed by one of a funeral, and YET there are parts where the two blur together (suit and tie, at some point that glow starts to feel like a hole) -> which I feel so perfectly represents the tension in that relationship where there is such a fine line separating the two harsh extremes.

even as the duality starts to dissolve past the first chorus (more emphasis on the 'loss' --> con man, get-love-quick scheme (scam), hole), the tender melody and pleasingly smooth vocals remain which creates this unsettling effect since that quiet peace has been flipped on its head to be turned into this quiet devastation. taking it one step further, the fact that this song is phrased to be written completely in hindsight (past tense throughout) it makes the quiet unassuming joy the speaker gets from their fictional wedding feel even more tragic.

by the time we get to the second chorus there is minimal ambiguity in her tone, it is 100% fully one of mourning and bordering on anger (as seen in the bridge). even in her contemptuous 'Mr. Steal Your Girl,' she follows it up with how hurt she feels over him calling her the love of his life as if she can't even be properly/fully angry at this person. in fact, that line is at the end of the chorus, almost symbolising how she can feel as angry as she wants at him, but despite all that there's this underlying grief and despair over his inability to follow through with his love-of-his-life promises. as the message gets clearer, the message/feeling of the song hits harder as there is less confusion or ambiguity.

in the bridge, there's this fantastical image of 'dancing phantoms' which reignites that confusion in the song with the added instability from the sinister image of the phantoms, plus the cadence of the song increases, she's talking faster now and there's less 'empty room,' indicating more pointed/stronger emotion. with the song's tone of this bone-deep grief, the 'terrace' might be a very very subtle nod to suicidal ideation, emphasis on the might. throughout the song she rattles btw love and loss, so this sudden suggestion that it was 'counterfeit' casts doubt on the validity of her emotions in the first place.

here we also start to move past from the duality as indicated by the three tiers of legendary -> momentary -> unnecessary, as if she is washing her hands of the whole affair ('should've let it STAY BURIED'). this lyric also indicates her moving past the duality as letting something stay buried implies that it has already been buried, ie its 'funeral' has passed, and the funeral motif was used as part of the duality representation from earlier.

anyways all this to say for most of the reasons above ^^ this song also gives me STRONG corpse bride vibes of which i made an edit here if anyone's interested :)