#are metaphors and mirrors of eachother

[vuldarian]

dooms loneliness and self hatred is so fascinating to me because he acts like it is something secret even to himself. yet all his grandeur, his self worship, his gloating, the way he demands his peoples love, the way he demands others respects. it oozes insecurity. it comes off of him in droves. this is why his over top cartoonish villainy and ego ( while genuinely very funny and makes him a versatile character because he genuinely be a light hearted dramatic supervillain and also a deeply sad supervillain) is. so deeply pathetic and sad. it is like he is wearing a giant sign that says “I HATE MYSELF” but he thinks it’s awesome and cool.

his mask that he uses to cover his face ( which he is deeply ashamed of despite ) is apart of a magic suit of armor that protects him. that he also uses to pretend he might be a robot or a god or a concept he hates himself so much that he needs to pretend he is beyond human . like it’s so fuckign sad that. the thing that covers his perceived flaw, was the thing that actually created his “grotesque” scars, literally in an effort to cover up the thing he was ashamed of he only exasperated his own pain and made his “short comings” even more visible

[feelingthedisaster]

AFTG is Well Written: a Masterlist

Many people have said the book series All For The Game by Nora Sakavic is badly written. However, I believe it is not. To prove this, I made a compilation of posts that explain why the books are meticusly crafted and amazingly written.

*disclaimer: I'm not claiming the books are perfect or have no mistakes, it is impossible for any book to be that way, I'm just saying that it's not even half as bad some people claim it to be

Plot

Why The King's Men's plot structure is genius

In defense of AFTG crazy plot

Characters

MCs and trauma responses by @skydaemon

Mirrors of eachother by @sirandking

Riko and Neil parallels by @notlacrosse

Jean: Number, name and the narrative by @owlarchimedes

Metaphors/Symbolisms

Characters and their respective chess metaphor

Number symbolims in AFTG by @darkblueboxs with additions by @whydamnitwhy

Writing style

Conveying feelings by @lochenfreh

Here by @joejhang

The reason for the simplistic language by @afurtivecake

Neil/Nathaniel switch by @obsessing-over-fictionn

General

Here by deactivated account

The reason why people tend to think the book are bad by @thetamingofspike

Here by @the-foxhole-clutter

If I'm forgetting something or you know a post that could fit in this masterlist, share it pls!

[francixoxoxo]

Omg EVERY PART OF THIS HAD ME GEEKING the goodbyes to Kathleen w Dulcinea being so worried and Billy honking like a goose r u kidding??? Billy falling asleep and not catching the hint abt the baby, JOW NERVOUS HE IS THROUGHOUT, THE DIALOGUE AND JOKES BETWEEN THEM ARE SO ADORABLE AND DULCINEA CALLING HIM MARIDO/HUSBAND IM GONNA KILL MYSELF!!!!!!!!!

This is genuinely written SO WELL it reads like a real novel, the type of metaphors and writing that makes you go “ok I gotta get to writing rn”

thank god i'm yours - billinea

but i came to life when i first kissed you. the best me has his arms around you, you make me better than i was before. thank god i'm yours. the worst me is just a long-gone memory, you put a new heartbeat inside of me. thank god i'm yours. Finally, Billy asks Dulcinea a question he's been wanting to ask her for a very long time. (at last at last part four - I think?? - in my billinea series)

Billy has spent his youth courting danger, dancing with death so often that he follows the steps in his dreams, waking up sweat-soaked and shaking. Often, the dreams are simply memories, playing out the way they always do — the blacksmith falling limp on top of him, heavy as guilt; Jesse Evans, wrapped in moonlit shadows that sink into a snowy forest, nodding at him to go. 

Other times, though, what could have been comes back to haunt him. The makeshift noose, fashioned from a bed sheet and tied to the top bar of his cell, tightens inexorably before he can free himself. The bullet that nicks his leg and brings him to his knees on the dirt road winding through Lincoln pins him down, and he crawls for cover, hearing footsteps coming after him and knowing he’s not fast enough. 

When he wakes up, limbs jerking like a marionette cut from its strings, his heart lodged firmly in his throat, it always takes a few moments for the fear coursing through his blood to dissolve away. He’ll lay there, staring up at the ceiling, letting the steady sound of Dulcinea’s breathing and his daughter’s soft snuffles act like a balm on his frazzled mind. 

Still, he thinks he’s calmer in those moments, waking up from nightmares woven with threads from his past, than he is right now. It’s ridiculous, he knows. It’s downright foolish. This isn’t a matter of life or death, no one will arrest him, or shoot him, or even raise their voice to him. 

Oh, no, it’s just that he’s asking the love of his life to marry him. With a ring that once belonged to his dearly departed mother, for that matter. Not really so serious at all! No! Definitely not. It’s fine! Fine, fine, fine, fine— 

“Billy, for God’s sake, are you breathing?” 

Charlie is watching him from beneath the wide brim of his hat, and even in its shadow, Billy can catch the white gleam of his smile. Billy’s face goes warm, and he ducks his head, bringing up one hand to scratch roughly at the back of his head. The two of them are standing beneath the oak tree growing in the front yard, and despite the shade, Billy can feel sweat matting the curls at the nape of his neck. 

“Have you ever heard a word so often that it just doesn’t mean a damn thing anymore?” he asks. “I swear I’ve told myself it’s gonna be fine so many times, that word is just a little buzzin’ sound.” He waved his hand as if shooing away a bothersome bug. “Like a fly.” 

Or more like a mosquito, the way it keeps stinging him. Fine — she’s going to hate the ring — fine — you’ll stumble over your shoes, you’ll trip over your tongue, you’ll do both — fine — and end up elbowing her in the face — fine — 

She could say no —

It’s going to be fine!

“Billy,” Charlie says, taking him by the shoulders. “You’re thinking about this far too hard. Lemme ask you a question — do you love her?”

It’s so preposterously obvious what the answer is that Billy actually chokes on it, spluttering like Charlie has just thrown water in his face. “Well, I — of course I do!” 

“Okay.” Charlie gives him a little shake. “And do you trust me?”

Billy blinks at him. “Sure, Charlie, with my life.” 

Another little shake, and this time, Billy can’t help but smile ever so slightly. 

“Okay,” Charlie says again. “So trust me when I tell you that you don’t have anything to worry about. Dulcinea loves you. You love her. That’s all that matters. That, and your little girl.” 

Charlie squeezes his shoulders before letting go. “She’s gonna say yes,” he adds. “I don’t have any doubt about that.”

Behind them, the front door opens, and Manuela steps out onto the porch, Kathleen in her arms. Dulcinea is right on her heels, a litany of instructions bubbling on her lips. “And she likes to sleep with her blue blanket, not the yellow one — the yellow one is alright for naps, I think, but it is too scratchy for her to lay with all night — ”

“Dulcinea,” Manuela interrupts gently. “I beg of you, do not worry. She and young Billy will play together, we will feed them their dinner, and we will put them safely to bed. I promise.” 

“I—” Dulcinea flushes. “Oh, I know. Forgive me, please…it is just — she has never been away from home before.” 

Billy crosses the lawn, climbing up on the porch, and even before he has his feet planted on the boards, Dulcinea is reaching for him. He slides an arm around her waist, anchoring her against him. His thumb smooths over the fabric of her shirt tucked against her hip. For a moment, he feels a little thorn of guilt work its way under his skin — Manuela and Charlie taking Kathleen for the night is part of his plan, but if it’s making Dulcinea worry so much…

Then she relaxes against him, leaning her head against his shoulder. The thorn dissipates. “But I am sure she will have a wonderful time,” she says, reaching over to gently stroke Kathleen’s round pink cheek. 

Kathleen babbles, waving her hands as if to agree — and agree vociferously, if the string of squeals and giggles she lets out when Manuela tickles her side is anything to go by. Billy moves to give her a kiss goodbye, and Kathleen leans forward out of Manuela’s arms, reaching for Billy. He kisses her forehead with a resounding mwah!, making her giggle again.

“You gonna miss me?” he says.

She grabs his nose and squeezes. He honks like a goose. She shrieks with delight and does it again. Billy obliges with another Honk! She finds it just as hilarious a second time. And a third. 

“I’m gonna choose to take that as a yes,” he tells her, once Dulcinea has succeeded in prying her little fingers from his nose. “I’ll miss you, too.”

Charlie brings their horse from the barn, and he helps Manuela up, with Kathleen carefully cradled in her arms. Mounting up behind her, Charlie wraps his arms around them both as he takes up the reins, clucking softly to the horse. They go at a slow, easy pace, but it’s still not long before they have become so small as to fit in the palm of Billy’s hand. He and Dulcinea watch until they can’t see the three of them anymore.

He wraps both arms around Dulcinea’s waist, nudging his nose along her hairline. “You want me to go after ’em?” he murmurs. “If I ride fast enough, I can probably catch up before they get too close to home.” 

He’s relieved when she chuckles. “No,” she says. “It will do little Billy good to have a playmate near to his own age, and I know they will take care of her.” Dulcinea turns in his embrace, winding her arms around his neck. “And, besides, it has been a very long time since the two of us had some time to ourselves. I have missed you.”

She smiles at him, and when she leans up for a kiss, Billy’s hands find her hips and draw her even closer. It has been a long time — nearly eight months — and despite spending nearly all day, every day in each other’s company, he knows what she means. He didn’t really picture how becoming a father could change everything; although he would not trade the life he has now for all the riches of the world, he has missed this. Being able to hold her, kiss her, just be with her, without having to pull away to attend to the baby.

“I missed you, too,” he says, kissing her again. He reaches up to brush a stray strand of hair away from her face. She offers him another smile, her eyes never leaving his, and he thinks he could stay suspended here all night, a raindrop poised precariously on the tip of a branch. All he needs is just to know that she loves him, and it’s written in her gaze clear as day. 

“Come on.” Dulcinea takes his hand and leads him back inside, lacing her fingers through his. “I was thinking, after breakfast, perhaps we could go out for a ride? It is a beautiful day.” 

“Sure,” Billy says, offering her a smile. He can only put his plans into action later tonight, and frankly, he’d never even considered what he would do with the whole day. A meal and a horseback ride can at least eat into the afternoon. He wonders where they should go, if they should ride far enough to necessitate packing food, or if that would mean they’d be away too long— 

“What are you thinking about?” She laughs as she pulls eggs from the icebox. “You look like you are trying to figure out a riddle.” 

Billy flushes. He’d also never considered the fact that his face is an open book, but maybe that’s only true when it comes to her. God, he hopes it is. It would be retroactively very embarrassing to imagine Jesse or Pat being able to read every thought on his face. 

“I was just woolgatherin’, I guess,” he says, smiling again. “I was thinkin’ about where we should go on our ride.” 

“Oh, were you?” Raising an eyebrow, Dulcinea looks at him as she cracks eggs into a skillet. “You are telling me the truth?”

He puts a hand over his heart, as if deeply wounded. “Do you think I would lie to you?”

She smiles. “No,” she concedes. “But I think you are keeping something from me, anyway. What are you up to?”

He considers what to tell her. He doesn’t want to mislead her and say nothing, but he also doesn’t want to give anything away. “Well…remember when I told Kathleen a little secret a few days ago?”

Another smile, this one more indulgent. She’s playing along, which he’s immensely grateful for. “I do, yes.”

“It’s to do with that. So I can’t tell you yet. But Kitty knows, and she approves.”

“Well, as long as she approves.” 

She cooks them eggs and fries up bread, and they eat on the porch, in a pair of rocking chairs Charlie made for them after the baby was born. Their food sits on a small table set between their chairs, along with two mugs of coffee. He inhales the rich, pleasant aroma, mixing with the scents of the meal she’s made for them, with the scents of nature around them — the grass, the rustling boughs of the trees, the lavender that grows in a patch under their bedroom window. 

Billy rocks the chair with his foot as he eats, content to vacillate between studying their little patch of land and looking at her. 

“You got a crumb here,” he says, unable to keep from grinning as he reaches over to brush it away with the pad of his thumb. 

She turns her head, and he thinks she’s going to kiss his palm—

“Ow!” It doesn’t really hurt that much — or at all —  but he jumps as her teeth nip at the pad of his thumb. “What was that for?”

Dulcinea gives him an entirely unrepentant smile. “For keeping your secret,” she says. “Even if our daughter thinks it is alright. She also thinks her feet are edible.” 

Billy laughs, and she starts laughing, too, a gale of giggles that spikes into a squeal when he reaches over and pulls her from her chair and into his lap. He leans down and nips at a spot on her neck where he knows she’s especially sensitive, making her squeal and dissolve into laughter all over again. “Bil-ly,” she manages, his name breaking up under a fresh round of giggles. “That — that tickles—!”

He does it again. “Oh, I know.” 

After he’s done it twice more, she turns in his lap, pressing her lips against his before he can commit the offense a fifth time. Billy smiles into the kiss, and though his eyes have drifted shut, he can feel her smiling, too. “You know you’re my best girl,” he murmurs, nudging his nose against hers, a smile still on his face. “There isn’t a man in the world luckier than me.” 

Dulcinea rests her forehead against his, nuzzling closer. “We are both lucky,” she says. “We are lucky to have each other, and we are lucky to have our little girl. We are lucky to have this life.”

“We are,” he agrees, closing his eyes for a moment. Sometimes that luck seems like a mirage, something delicate and ephemeral that will disappear out from underneath him if he takes one wrong step. Sometimes, like now.

But then she kisses him again, nestling against his chest as she rests her head against his shoulder, the top of her head brushing his cheek. They are quiet for a little while. He can feel the warmth of her in his arms, her even breathing fluting against his skin, and her fingers are tracing the path of the veins in the back of his hand where it rests in his lap. This is real, he knows. He can’t say if it’s what he deserves, after everything he’s done; but it’s what he has, and he’s never going to be any less amazed or grateful. 

She stirs in his arms, lifting her head to look at him. “What do you think about that ride now?” 

He insists on taking care of the dishes first, telling her to stay on the porch and soak in the sunshine. When he comes back out, his shirtsleeves still rolled up and a few suds clinging to his fingertips, she’s saddled both their horses and led them around. Billy shakes his head. “You couldn’t just sit and let me wait on you, could ya?”

“No,” she says, smiling comfortably. “Now come on.” 

She does, at least, allow him to grab their hats from the bedroom, to lift her up into the saddle. Although he has no idea where they’re going, Billy is perfectly happy to follow her; she sets the pace and the path, cantering toward the small copse of trees spread out at the bottom of the slope that rolls away behind the house. 

They ride close enough to hold hands, Billy keeping a firm free hand on the reins of his own horse and a close eye on hers. Her horse is as gentle and calm a creature as he can be without actually being a stump — a compromise, because he’d begged her not to ride at all while she was pregnant with Kathleen, and she refused to simply be stranded at home — but still, he watches to make sure she’s safe with just one hand on the reins. 

She takes them through the trees, following a path that meanders underneath a shifting roof of green and gold, dappled shadows dancing over their heads. A companionable silence falls between them again, and Billy starts to hum, a soft, aimless tune that echoes the Irish lullabies his mother used to sing for him. 

Just beyond the woods, there’s a small pond, as round and silvery as a hand mirror. A few trees straggling rom the copse lend their shade to the water, and they tie the horses to a low branch, close enough to the lake so they can drink. Billy leans against the trunk and pulls Dulcinea into his lap, nuzzling at her hair. 

“Remember when we sat under a tree like this, right after you told me you were pregnant with Kathleen?” he asks, and she nods, humming softly in affirmation. 

She turns to look up at him, smiling a little. “I was worried about what you would think,” she says. “But you told me the baby was ours, that we made it together.”

“And that I love you,” he reminds her. “And—”

“Her,” she interjects, just as she had done then. “And you made fun of me for being so sure.”

“Aw, well, I wouldn’t call it makin’ fun — ”

Dulcinea shrugs in a complacent sort of way, as if it’s all water under the bridge now. “In any case, next time, you will not doubt me, will you?” 

He kisses the top of her head, thrilling to the idea of next time. They’ve talked about it here and there since Kitty was born, but not so confidently as this, like it’s inevitable. “No, I promise.” 

Billy tips his head back against the trunk, looking at the latticework of branch, leaf, and sky. After a few moments, he closes his eyes; he feels Dulcinea shift in his lap just a little bit, and then a little leathery creak, a soft rustling noise. She must have brought a book in the pocket of her dress. Without opening his eyes, Billy draws his fingertips idly up and down her arm, humming softly to himself again. 

“What do you think about Antonio?”

“Hmm?”

“Antonio. For a boy. Someday, I mean.”

He smiles a little. He isn’t quite dozing, but he definitely isn’t fully awake. Her words filter to him slowly, pleasantly, like the sunshine coming down through the leaves. “Mmm,” he agrees. “Antonio, sure. That’d be nice.” 

She chuckles. “It would, yes.”

He does drift off for a while after that, or at least, he gets close to it. It’s just so peaceful out here, with Dulcinea nestled in his lap, the wind whispering through the leaves of the tree above them. Occasionally blades of grass tickle his hand where it rests on the grass beside him, the other continuing to idly stroke Dulcinea’s arm. He can feel the kiss of the sun on his cheek, and somewhere in the woods behind them, birds are singing to each other. 

All through those years that lurk in his nightmares now, like wolves in the inky shadows of the desert, he’d always assumed he would go out fighting. Guns blazing, a scream trapped in his throat, a snarl of defiance frozen on his face even as his blood surged a final swan song through his veins with every frantic beat of his heart. He expected — if he was lucky — an unassuming grave, where Dulcinea and anyone left who loved him could come and visit with him. If he was unlucky, a traitor’s grave, tumbled into a dark maw of earth just waiting to receive him. 

Maybe, if anything, he thought he’d spend the rest of his life on the run, always looking over his shoulder, always hearing threats in the creak of a floorboard, seeing enemies in a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye. He had hated the idea of that life for himself, but more than anything, he’d felt the weight of shame turning his bones to dust — shrinking him down, day by day, moment by moment — as he thought of Dulcinea, of Manuela and Charlie, their little boy. They deserved so much better than that life, and they would’ve only been trapped in that hateful twilight because of him. 

But this? Laying in the sun with the woman he loves in his arms, his baby safe with friends so beloved they might as well be blood — with his only concerns being the ring waiting beneath the floorboards, and an answer that will (probably, hopefully) be the one he wants to hear? No, he never expected this, not for a second. He barely even let himself want it. It was like wandering in the wilderness without any food or water. The more you considered how desperately thirsty you were, how badly your stomach ached for lack of nourishment, the worse that pain would be. 

He stirs, turning his head blindly until his lips find the crown of Dulcinea’s head. “I love you,” he says, and he feels her snuggle closer. 

“I love you,” she says, then she taps his cheek gently with a forefinger. “Wake up, mi amor. We should head back now. It’s past lunchtime.” 

“M’awake,” he mumbles. His eyes flutter open, and he smile to see her leaning toward him, her face the only thing he can see. “Hi there.” 

She laughs and kisses him. “Hello.” 

Dulcinea stands up, and as soon as Billy is on his feet beside her, he scoops her up into his arms. She half-laughs, half-shouts, putting her arms around his neck to steady herself, and he just grins at her. “I’m not done holdin’ you yet,” he says, and puts her on his own horse. 

Tying the reins of her horse to the pommel of his saddle, Billy mounts up behind her, his arms encircling her waist. Dulcinea hums softly and leans back against him, and they ride home through a ripening afternoon, with Dulcinea’s horse following placidly along. 

“What about a picnic in the yard?” he suggests, as they ride up to the house. She opens her mouth to answer, and he says: “I’m makin’ lunch, you’re findin’ a nice spot to set up the blanket and then you’re gonna relax while I throw everything together.” 

She laughs. “Yes, sir.” 

He makes them both frizzled ham sandwiches and cooks up some beans, slathering biscuits with jam and butter while the beans bubble gently in the pot. When everything is finished, he plates it all, pouring two tall glasses of lemonade. Billy makes his way carefully out onto the porch, one plate balanced in the crook of each arm and a glass clutched in each hand. He smiles when he sees her on a blanket spread out on the grass, not far from their little garden. 

“Finally,” Dulcinea teases, reaching up to take the glasses from him, and then the plates, so he can sit down without spilling anything. “I thought I was going to have to come in and help you.”

“I woulda kicked you out,” he says mildly, making her giggle. 

After she finishes eating, Dulcinea stretches out with her head in Billy’s lap, reaching up every now and then to feed him bits of biscuit and jam. Billy leans back on his hands, a little content noise rumbling in his chest at the taste of sweet strawberry preserves on his tongue. He tries to consider everything he has to do tonight, and how he’s going to do it without her noticing. She presses another bit of strawberry jam-slathered biscuit to his lips, and he smiles. 

“Why don’t you go pick some more strawberries this afternoon?” he suggests, idly coming his fingers through her hair. “We’re almost out of this jam.” 

She smiles up at him, raising an eyebrow. “And what are you going to do while I’m gone?” 

Billy grins back at her. “I’ll keep myself occupied somehow,” he teases. “Maybe I’ll teach myself how to do a handstand.” 

She laughs. “As long as you are making yourself useful.” 

They clean up the picnic and Billy stubbornly takes over dish duty again, watching her as she finds the basket and a hat to shade her face. He kisses her goodbye and watches her leave from the backdoor; there are bushes growing in a clearing maybe halfway through the little wood, and he knows she won’t come back until the basket is full. He wonders if she’s walking rather than riding to give him a little more time — she’s already sussed him out to some extent, after all. He knows that from this morning. It makes him smile, although he hopes there will still be an element of magic. 

She deserves that and more. 

First things first — he gets under the table and jimmies up the loose floorboard, where they keep their money and valuables. He finds the ring wrapped in its handkerchief, and tucks the little bundle carefully into his pocket. He crawls back out carefully, like he’s shifting his way through a delicate mineshaft; it would not do to have a gash on his temple or a bruise on his forehead when he proposes. There aren’t many things less romantic than a head injury. 

He’s especially grateful that he’s suggested the strawberry picking expedition as he makes his way across the front yard, accompanied by a clanking sound like he’s wearing a suit of armor. He has to make several trips back into the house, and even working as quickly as he can, he’s only just finished when he hears Dulcinea call out to him. 

Billy races around the side of the house with perhaps less subtlety than is prudent, but considering he usually greets her coming home like he’s a puppy waiting by the door, it’s entirely possible she doesn’t notice. (He’d admit it to anyone who asked, too. He doesn’t mind telling the world that he’s that devoted to her. Who wouldn’t be? is his view.)  “Hi, baby,” he says, and she just smiles at him. “How’d it go?”

“Look,” she says, holding out the basket. As he suspected, it’s completely full. “I think I’ll make use some in jam tonight, maybe a pie.” She looks up at him, a smile still lingering at the corners of her lips, even as she tries to school her expression into one of innocence. “If you still have ways to keep yourself busy.” 

Again, he wonders just how much of a surprise this is actually gonna be. The closer he gets, though, he realizes it’s less about that, and more about making this as beautiful and romantic as he possibly can. And, of course, about her saying yes. 

“I have a couple things,” he admits.

She leans up to kiss him. “Hmm, well, you take care of that, and I’ll get started taking care of these,” she says, hefting the basket more firmly into her arms. 

By the time the beguiling scent of fresh-baked strawberry pie is wafting on the breeze, the sun has begun to set, and he’s ready. He puts the finishing touches on with trembling fingers. His heart is pounding so fast that he thinks he can feel it everywhere, loosening up his joints and driving the breath out of his lungs each time he attempts to draw one in. 

He changes clothes behind the cover of the broad tree trunk, and then steps toward the house, trying to swallow the frog in his throat. “Dul—?” His voice cracks, and he clears his throat again. “Dulcinea? Could you come out here?” 

It seems to take an eternity for her footsteps to make their way across the kitchen floor, but after a moment, he hears them; and then she’s on the porch, wearing a gratifying expression of surprise at the sight of him in his Sunday best. He offers her his hand to walk down the porch steps. “Don’t you look handsome,” she says, and as she places her hand in his, he thinks she might be trembling. 

He leads her around the corner of the house, eyes trained on her face; at the sight of what he’s set up for her, she gasps, her free hand going to her mouth. He can see the lights reflected in her eyes, the flickering glow caressing her face as if trying to bestow kiss after kiss after kiss. 

“Oh, Billy…” 

He’s strung up lanterns in the branches, lighting each one so the tree is crowned in a dancing halo of gold. Some are their own, but he’s had to borrow some from Charlie and Manuela, from Tom O’Folliard, from the rest of the Regulators — honestly, he ended up with more than he needed, but they all wanted to help. 

He dragged the small table from the front porch to the base of the tree, dotting the surface with candles. Their warm glow softens the petals of the flowers he’s set in the vase — marigolds, her favorite, along with some of the lavender from underneath their window. There’s a bottle of wine, too, along with two glasses. She takes a step forward, taking it all in, her hand at her mouth. 

“Billy,” she breathes, her voice tremulous. “Oh, it is beautiful…” 

Getting down on one knee, Billy takes a deep breath, taking the ring out of his pocket and holding it out. She turns around to find him like that, and she lets out a little watery gasp, her eyes sparkling -- overbright — as she takes him in. 

“My love,” she says softly. 

He takes courage from her smile, as he always does, and he takes a deep breath to further fortify his nerves. 

“All I wanted from the moment I saw you was to just…be with you,” he says. “For as long as I could, in whatever way you wanted me. I told myself even just hearin’ your voice for a moment would have been enough, like if an angel had stepped down from heaven and decided to talk to me. Then you said I could see you again, and I knew I was fooling myself.”

She giggles.

“A moment with you never woulda been enough,” he goes on, smiling back at her. “That first night, I knew I wanted a lifetime of moments. I wanted to know every little piece of you, wanted to memorize your heart like a map until I could find my way around blindfolded. I was yours the minute we met, and all I could do was hope that you might somehow…” Billy laughs shakily. He still can’t believe somehow became his life. “…you might somehow realize that you wanted to be mine.” 

She wipes at her eyes, but she’s still smiling, so he takes that as a good thing. 

“I thought it couldn’t get any better than knowin’ that you love me,” he says. “And then I got to see you with our little girl. I got to build a life with you, day in and day out, all those little moments that I wanted from the beginning. It’s everything to me. They knew my name from one side of the country to the other, once, but I only wanted everyone to know that I’m yours.” 

He takes a deep breath. Oh, God. 

“It’s still all I want,” he says. “For everyone to know that I’m yours, that I’m so goddamn lucky to be your man, the father of your children.” He swallows, smiles, and holds the ring up again. “Will you marry me?” 

Dulcinea just holds her hand out, tears running in gold-tinted rivulets down her cheeks, and Billy laughs as she wiggles her finger, his voice breaking under the weight of his joy, which marks his face in golden gleams of his own. “Yes,” she blurts out, just as he’s sliding the ring onto her finger, making him laugh again. “Yes, yes, of course I will.” 

As soon as the ring is safe on her finger, Billy’s on his feet, pulling her into his arms. She gasps and clings to him, curling her fingers into his hair. They hold each other like that for a long time, long enough for more than one of the candles to blow out in the soft breeze. When Billy finally pulls away, he reaches up to catch her face between his hands, wiping the remaining tears away with the pads of his thumbs. 

“I love you,” he says, and she leans up to kiss him.

“I love you.” 

She kisses him again, taking one of his hands between hers. She lays it against her stomach. He feels his heart flip over in his chest, and a giddy smile spreads over his face before she even has the chance to speak. 

“Well,” she says, laughing a little. “It is funny that you mention being the father of my children, because…” 

He whoops like a little boy, snatching her up in his arms again and spinning her around, making her laugh. Billy buries his face against her hair, holding her as tightly as he dares. “Antonio, huh?” he says, and she giggles.

“I was not sure you would remember that. I thought you were asleep.” 

“I told you I was awake…” 

She giggles again. “Mmm, you did not seem awake, marido.” 

“I was.” 

Dulcinea lifts her face and kisses him again, smiling softly. “We have a lot of work to do,” she points out. “A wedding, before this baby comes.” 

He kisses the top of her head. “We do,” he agrees happily. 

There’s no work in the world he’s ever been happier to do. 

[momoirocake]

I headcanon that Zoro is a ticking time bomb of genetic mental illnesses (ties into the whole “Kuina falling down the stairs was a metaphor” theory) which is why he doesn’t really take good care of himself and why he tries so hard to achieve his goal so quickly and god, if Sanji really is turning into his brothers, that makes them mirror eachother so painfully.

Man who is losing his sense of humanity due to someone wanting to control his genes X man who is losing himself due to nobody being able to control his genes.

[astra-ravana]

The Basic Principles Of Spellcasting

Law of Similarity

These first two principles are from James Frazer's The Golden Bough and are fundamental to all of magick. Frazer describes this law as "like produces like" . This law says that manipulation of an image or likeness yields manipulation of the thing itself. Here's some examples of the Law of Similarity:

• Stabbing a human-shaped figure with nails or pins to cause pain to the person

• Drawing the practitioner holding their love interest by a leash in a "love leash" spell

• Writing a spell in a circle around someone's name to encircle or restrain them

• Putting a love spell that aims to make the target "burn with love" into a candle flame or oil lamp

• Walking upon a written spell to have the target "underfoot" and under your control

Similarity isn't restricted by literal similarity, it extends to metaphorical similarity as well. Idioms and puns were widely used in Egyptian myth and magick.

Law of Contagion

Frazer puts this one quite well: things which have once been in contact with eachother continue to act on eachother. One can extend this law to say that magickal energy can be transferred or shared between objects by contact and that transferal is strongest if they are in contact or extremely close. Examples include:

• Using the hair of a target in a spell or curse

• Writing a spell to a deity on the hide of a corresponding animal

• Burying a separation spell at the home of a couple to affect them

Hair is super useful (and sometimes required) for any spell targeted at someone. Some even keep or trade hair as collateral.

Note:If you need to perform substitutions in a spell, use the Law of Similarity and Law of Contagion for selecting the substitution, (ie: use red wine mixed with an animal's hair instead of blood from that animal).

Law of Durability

This law is basically covered by the Law of Similarity, but, because it's so important for picking components, it is being included separately. Magick done with more durable components will yield a longer lasting effect. For example, a spoken spell will be weaker than a spell written on parchment. The written spell will be weaker than a spell carved into wood or stone. This applies to enchanting as well; more durable items will stay enchanted longer.

Law of Layering

The Law of Layering must be applied carefully as it is about complementary layers, not throwing a bunch of stuff at a wall. The principle is the more layers that are used in magick, the stronger the magick will be. More layers build more power. Some ways to add layers are:

• Having a pre-spell ritual like bathing and meditating

• Cast spells in a designated space for casting with items designated for magick

• Make motions that mirror the words you're saying

• Add components to your spell via the Law of Similarity, the Law of Contagion, or objects along your correspondence.

• Perform the spell with a group as opposed to solo

• Reinforce a spell by doing it for multiple days, weeks, months, etc. (as in 'once per')

Law of Likeliness

One could compare magick to stacking a deck; you're manipulating chance to get circumstances to fall in your favor. This means two things. The first is magick cannot make the impossible happen. Magick is unlikely to cause things to levitate, or conjure fire from nowhere, or anything that isn't possible in our plane of existence. The second is, if an outcome is less likely, stronger magick is required to achieve it. Some decks are just easier to stack.

Law of Agency

No magick, short of possession, can fully rob a human of their free will. For example, if you cast a love spell on a target who's sexuality doesn't align with yours, it will have little to no effect. If a person is resistant to a certain energy in their day-to-day life, they will similarly be resistant to that same energy when sent via magick.

[slowlysoluminary]

after that wack-tastic piece of media i figured we could all!! use a break!!!!!!! so!!!!!!

(more) doodles below the cut. and some commentary! Hurray!

^^ Post game is interesting. Most of the timeloop is about figuring the deal with the memories, some of it is about sif comng to terms with the king, and the very very end of it is about everyone regaining their memories.

so i say it again post game is REALLY interesting!!! because everyone, collectively, is trying to balance their old memories and their new memories. everyone except siffrin. who is not 1:1 old siffrin but is the closest to it, considering how much loop's been through.

loop??? becomes corporeal at some point in the end.

it's very bittersweet! i think! the whole of the party does an "i want to remember!!!" sequence, fighting with their own minds to fill the gaping holes they'd always ignored.

-- loop, after realizing the extent to which they're familiar with the party, had tried desperately to get the party to remember them throughout the loops. in hopes that something would change. they never remembered.

at the same time, siffrin is talking to the king - they're fighting with eachother physically and verbally, desperately trying to get the other understand. resetfrin is not the siffrin the king hated so earnestly, not the siffrin he tried to snuff out.

over the course of many conversations with the king, siffrin caught on. the king is the major lore dump here and is who causes most of the narrative development because i say so !!!!!!!!!!!!

actually. about post game. do you know why their designs are like that

resetfrin hated the lack of autonomy he had over their own body so they decided to. cut their hair. it's a bit curlier now that there's not a lot weighing it down

they decided not to keep the star stuff the king gave them. yada yada character development or whatever.

they gave their cloak to loop!! who is. siffrin again. physically at least. both siffrins are siffrin but with clear differences! like hair length and hair texture! and ohhhhhhhh no what do you mean the universe gave them the wrong body?? what?????? how cruel!!! how blasphemous!!!!!!!

loop hated the idea of keeping her hair darkless (mirror pronouns for loop btw!!! remember that!!!). it reminded them of what it was like to be ghostloop. which they hated!!! but they couldn't have their hair be lightless because that was resetfrin's new thing, so... they just. kept dying the bottom parts of it lightless. it's a compromise

how does the party distinguish the two siffrins, name-wise? uhhhhhh. ask me that question later. idk.

if.... if i have pre-game planned out. and post-game planned out.

then the inly thing I don't have planned out is the ACTUAL time loop bit

it's quite daunting because? that's like the entire point of the original game? it feels like i hve to live up to so much and like fhe loops have to have such a packed, coherent story

though, to be fair, most of what I'm writing will just be. the time loop bit. so i guess I'm figuring it out as i go

anyway, actually talking about the two sketches above, ghostloop is for SIFFRIN'S EYES ONLY!!! she can hit things but things can't hit her and all that.

after figuring out, through past loops, that the King can't see them, they realized siffrin was their only connection to the physical world. The Last Piece Left of them, physically and metaphorically. the whole time they longed for something else to acknowledge their existence. acknowledge theyre real

they also realize they can do Fuckery

the king has a Sixth Sense for loop's Fuckery,,, flipping him The Bird resulted in a rather quick death for Siffrin. whoops!!!!!

this au is. more closely revolved around gloop than i thought. don't worry!! i have a lot of gloop content planned! but. but you need to understand the pain of resetfrin and the king. the misery snd desperation fhe king felt about his country. siffrin pleading with the king, countlessly, hoping to see some SEMBLANCE of the man he once knew. you need to know the missing pieces the party finds, a hollow feeling settling itself around their hearts. you need to know so bad.

so you'll get gloop content! i am a big fan of the little guy myself, really. but !!! this au is not ONLY about them, believe it or not! hehe. haha. giggles. ok ill stop

[luxthestrange]

RoR Incorrect quotes#141 SCROTUM FACE

Zeus: You're the ones who are killing eachother… by leading eachother down the wrong path, Because you're weak. And stupid,It's time for the Gods… to rise once again to glory with a new era…God father of the cosmos!?!

The Gods against humanity cheer and applaud...but among them a voice is cutting thru laughing and wheezing...they all see you standing next to Brunhilde

Y/n: I'm sorry- Your naming yourself...GFOC?

Zeus: That's right

Y/n: Arent you like the youngest sibling...agewise from "The Big Three"?

Zeus: It's metaphorical!

Y/n:..For what?

Zeus: For it is a name what strikes fear… into the hearts of anyone what hears it!

Y/n:PFF-Okay… whatever you say~

Zeus: You shut up,You're next... Humans, I have waited a long time to do-*Sighs and Groans hearing you STILL snickering*… What?

Y/n: I'm sorry. I am so sorry! I just keep imagining you waking up in the morning, sir*Mockingly calling him so*… looking in the mirror and then in all seriousness saying to yourself… *Starts to imitate his voice and manner of standing*"You know what would be a really kick-ass name? "GFOC!"-

Gods alike start to snort but holding their laughter in fear of Zeus...and allowing themselves to laugh at a mortal insulting one of theirs-

Y/n:-THATS how I hear you in my head! What was your second choice!?Scrotum FACE!?!?

Humans and some Gods alike LET THE HARDEST LAUGHTER they ever held...Hera on the otherhand-

Hera*Is holding her sides on the floor*HA-AHAHAH!?~

Zeus: New plan- We're killing you first

Y/n: Well, dying is certainly better than having to live an entire immortal life… as a moronic shitbag who thinks GFOC is a cool nickname

EVEN Kronos must dying of laughter-

[morelikecommunitydick]

Redstreet is kind of the perfect metaphor for jeff and britta because on the surface they're polar opposites, e.g, Britta is passionate and openly opinionated while jeff presents himself as uncaring. He is calculating where she is impulsive. He is vain and materialistic and Britta rejects these values.

But underneath it all, they're the 'same bar' so to speak. Jeff cares deeply for the people around him despite his apathetic facade. He's ruled by emotion just as much as Britta is, perhaps more.

On the flip side, Britta is more selfish than she wants to be. She's so afraid that she's a bad person that she ignores her own needs. She values compassion over intelligence and wears her own suffering as a badge of honour (an example would be intermediate documentary filmmaking where Britta proudly proclaims that she's not a bad person, she's just really stupid with her money). But she has the same instincts for self preservation that Jeff does.

And both of them care soooo much about each other and what people think of them but they would rather die than be vulnerable.

A common sentiment about Redstreet is that they bring out the worst in eachother. This is really true, but it's because they break down eachothers fronts. It's because they're mirrors of eachother and this is what allows them be vulnerable, show those parts of themselves to one another.

[wyfy-meltdown]

It is literally foreshadowed in her name Kyoko is bound to suicide with Sayaka as sakura's are heavily associated with kamikazes. Besides aforementioned timeline; In Portable, during the scheduled downfall of Sayaka, and eventual death at Homura's hands, Kyoko has a breakdown switching between laughing, crying, until eventually screaming in pain as she turns to Ophelia, saying she was stupid to think she could save Sayaka. Ophelia's labyrinth literally has little fish floating around, it's so clearly underwater, it's so clearly tied to Sayaka, there are staves with musical notes coming out of the ground of the labyrinth. And as if that isn't enough, the music playing is relatively similar to Symposium Magarum, at the very least a part of it, altered, slower, on a different instrument - it's there however if you listen close. Kyoko is so tied to Sayaka in her mind that even if in series they weren't on the best of terms, it affects her in death. Her feelings are obvious once stirred through enough, it's Sayaka that refuses any aid, or a chance at another way. There IS, another way, that through Kyoko, however Sayaka's ideation of a magical girl is heavily tied to Mami's image (not Mami herself, but how she presented, lacking the vulnerability she shared with Madoka) who is in complete contrast to Kyoko. The full "you die a hero or live long enough become a villain". No matter how much she runs away from it however, I feel that in Rebellion Sayaka embraces both sides (and creating the doppel system by proxy). On another note, and parallel, Sayaka chose to "give her life away", becoming a magical girl meant suicide to her in the end and, the argument with Madoka in the rain may had still lingered in the back of her mind, so Kyoko choosing suicide to keep her company mirrored that and maybe, just maybe, she felt understood through it. It was the ultimate sacrifice Sayaka made for love and association could be made to believe that Kyoko's suicide is also her confession. The magnet metaphor is due the blue/red but also you need to hold them in a certain way for them stick (as the same ends will push one another away, the same they did under the same condition) and when they do, they're insepparable.

Thank you for the opportunity to ramble ^^

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!

I've never been able to play/watch play throughs of the portable games, so I lack a lot of context when it comes to events and information presented in it.

Kyoko has a strange mild obsession with Sayaka and saving Sayaka, which almost reminds me of Homura and Madoka's relationship.

I feel the warped (not in the toxic sense, just unconventional sense) ideas that Kyoko has about expressing her love to Sayaka reflects her past and the wish she made for her father. To Kyoko, love means absolute devotion and sacrifice. In Japan, there's a myth that two lovers who commit suicide together are reborn as twins and/or reborn as the same person. Kyoko truly does see kamikazeing herself into Oktavia as a way for her to fully express the feeling of "I love you and I swear I won't leave you alone or abandon you for someone else".

While I believe Kyoko originally intended to warn Sayaka about wishing for others (sorta how Mami did), and pitied her because the circumstances of Sayaka's wish were so similar to her own, she fell fast and hard.

They're both so similar and yet oppositionally different. They're both so, so, deeply and desperately lonely and Kyoko sees this and sees a way for the two of them to overcome their loneliness together. But Sayaka has such a strong idea of "a good magical girl" and "a good person" she won't allow herself to connect with anyone else, especially not Kyoko, who she views as "evil" (I believe Mami played a part in this view).

They could've had a happy ending and saved eachother if only Sayaka wasn't so stubborn and Kyoko could take a gentler approach. The very direct "full-force love" style they both have, with the added "inability to properly confess without use of secretive acts of devotion" is why we got the ending we did.

I know you're asking anonymously, but I'm pretty sure I know who you are based off the expansion from a previous reblog/post lol. Thank you so much for ranting like this!!! I'm so happy you expanded on the previous ideas!!!

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

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1. itmf fics where wwx time travels to cloud recesses era but thinks he's dead? in the vein of Contrapuntal by WithBroomBefore. could be crack, treated seriously, or wump angst

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2. Hi, do you have any Wangxian fanfiction recommendations with WWX/LWJ being concerned about LWJ/WWX being too skinny or losing weight & then taking care of the other/eachother?

💖 the absence of hunger by parsnipit (M, 27k, wangxian, angst w/ happy ending, eating disorder, PTSD, food as a metaphor for love)

a kind of emptiness by ScarlettStorm (E, 11k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Eating Disorders, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Eating Disorder Recovery, tricking your brain into better habits, bad choices, followed by good choices, low angst, Happy Ending, Tender smut, Frottage, Praise Kink, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note)

#2 of the recent ITMF reminded me... does anyone else remember the modern AU where LWJ doms WWX into taking better care of himself using a smart watch? thanks!

Lessons in Kink by preciousbunnynoiz (E, 23k, wangxian, modern, Dom/sub, Sub WWX, Bondage, Biting, College/University au, Comedy, Humor, Hair-pulling, public display of dominance, Kink Negotiation, Rough Kissing, Dom LWJ, Safe Sane and Consensual, BDSM, Blindfolds, Food Kink, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Safewords, Aftercare, Cock Warming, sub space, Gags, Self-Destructive Tendencies, Pampering, Lingerie, Vibrators, Overstimulation, fleching, Rough Sex, Possessive Behavior, Falling In Love, Mirror Sex, Crying During Sex, Rimming, Blow Jobs, Masturbation, Exhibitionism, Failed Sex, Emotional Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feels, Feelings, Porn with Feelings, Riding, Face-Fucking, Kinbaku, Shibari)

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3. Hello! For the next itmf, I would love to get recs for first where wwx falls in love first (preferably not modern aus). Thanks to all the contributors and mods for your work 😘

And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 139k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Time Travel, Fix-It, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Healing, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Depression, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, BAMF LWJ, BAMF JYL, Getting Together) I'm not sure if this is what they're looking for, but -- is a time travel fic with a post cannon wwx going to CR arc and is already in love with LWJ

if you can’t beat them, recruit them by moeblobmegane (T, 228k, Time Travel Fix-It, Conspiracy, Spies & Secret Agents, Team as Family, Found Family) the same thing, but to the start of th SSC instead of CR arc

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4. For the next “I’m in the mood” serial killer Lan Wangji.

singularity by azuresummer (E, 7k, WangXian, Modern AU, Dom/sub Undertones, Dominant LWJ, Submissive WWX, Serial Killers, Dark LWJ, Possessive LWJ, Protective LWJ, Serial Killer LWJ, Doctor LWJ, Stalking, Manipulation, Obsession, Mentions of Murder)

Who Else Knows? by thewanderingcat (M, 2k, wangxian, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage, Modern, Police au, Police Procedural, Forced Prostitution, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Underage Prostitution, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Child Abuse, Child Abandonment, Murder Mystery, Murder, POV Outsider, Abuse of Authority, but not at WWX's expense, Angst with a Happy Ending, Age Difference, Dark LWJ, Protective LWJ, POV LWJ, Serial Killers) is a modern AU with outsider POV on a SK!LWJ

Oh! My Empress! by dandelion_san (T, 3k, wangxian, F/F, Royalty au, Humor, Female LWJ, Female WWX, Dark LWJ) is a royalty AU where all of f!LWJ's fiances all mysteriously die before reaching the wedding bed.

🧡 scienter Series by synonemous (E, 67k, WangXian, Modern AU, Serial killer WangXian, Eventual happy ending, WangXian's Canon Kinks, Smut, A/B/O, Mpreg, Smut, Wangxian's Canon Kinks, Modern Yi City arc, Angst with a happy ending, Family Feels)

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5. Hi for the next IMTF can I pls request for smtg modern au that deals with social issues? It doesn't have the be the main focus of the fic but I don't want it to be something that's mentioned in a throwaway line and never touched on again. So maybe something similar to A Temporary Fix by bosgood which touches on immigration or you know you'll get in trouble by SecretStorm that deals with the treatment of Uyghur ppl in China? @some-random-person-hi

Hot sun, cool fire by bylambd (E, 34k, WangXian, Modern AU, Porch AU, Neighbors, mentions of LWJ/others, Mentions of WWX/Others, Minor XiYao, Past NieLan, Light Angst, Accidental Voyeurism, Summer Vibes, hyperspecific setting, immigration & diaspora, family and community feels, Getting Together, poor sound insulation as a plot device) I found it! It was this one! I liked the way it touched on immigration in America without being the main focus of the fic

social issues, I wonder if the roots in my heart (also grow in yours) by halfdemonvash (M, 16k, WangXian, Modern AU, Plants, Botanist WWX, Botanist LWJ, the burial mounds are a greenhouse, Fluff, Mild Smut, WWX POV, Getting Together, A-Yuan being adorable as always, Falling In Love, Sexual Content) would fit? wwx starts an illegal garden to grow food to give to others in need (the Wens, I think?)

~*~

6. for itmf - it would be amazing to read something like this post!!! (wwx has to respond to inquiry post burial mounds since he came so close to death)

~*~

7. Hi! I think what you're doing is great. I have an ITMF request. I recently read a MDZS fic that was in the format of a reddit post (an AITA one specifically) and really enjoyed it, I was wondering if you knew of more in that style (Reddit format to clarify), it doesn't have to be from a specific characters point of view, just the style. @i-like-snakes-and-spiders

r/relationships by vespertineflora (T, 8k, WangXian, Modern AU, Social Media, Viral Reddit Post, Pining, Crushes, Friends to Lovers, Awkward Flirting, Romantic Gestures, Romantic Comedy, Love Confessions, Kissing, Happy Ending)

Honk, Honk by sassybluee (M, 1k, WangXian, Modern AU, reddit, Forum Posts, Relationship Advice, Implied Sexual Content, Humor, Fluff, Age Difference)

~*~

8. Hey, I was wondering if you could rec some BAMF/ Protective Wei Wuxian (in character and not totally consumed in revenge) like silk threads and precious metal by Sevidri (I have read all recs under the tag) thank you and sorry for bothering…

~*~

9. Hi! I am in the mood for fics where Lan Wangji has friends among the Lan clan? So often he is portrayed as this very isolated character, but I would love to see him interacting with other disciples his age. Thank you so much!

Vagabond by xantissa (E, 65k, WangXian, Slow Burn, Mystery, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Frottage, Case Fic, murders, Supernatural, Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending, extreme fluff, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, badass!LXC, top!LWJ, Bottom!LWJ)

A Mother’s Love by FirefliesNLightningBugs (M, 170k, WangXian, XuanLi, Canon Divergence, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Mostly combo of the Untamed and MoDaoZuShi timelines, Unreliable Narrator, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Miscommunication, Family Feels, Found Family, PTSD, Post-Sunshot Campaign, Political Intrigue, Mystery, POV Multiple, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Strong Female Characters, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note, Good Brother In Law JZX, Genderbent WWX, Intersex WWX, not a/b/o, POV Original Character, Expanded Universe, Unplanned Pregnancy, Golden Core Reveal, WWX Has No Golden Core, Cultivation Sect Politics, Bisexual WWX, YLLZ WWX, Yunmeng Shuangjie, Pining WangXian, Parent-Child Relationship, Getting Together, Protective Yúnmèng Jiāng Sect, MXY Lives) not quite what ur asking for, but in -- lz's BFF is a girl named Lin Huang who lives in the woods near the sect, and Lan Jingyi's parents Chen Aizhong and Lan Heng are like his and lxc's doting gossiping older cousins. Also in rise of the divine oracle by blaksalt u meet lz's childhood BFF as adults (BFF grew up in caiyi) and he was like a bountyhunter or something. Both canon era

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10. Hi! ITMF spicy fics like Lead Me On Through, On The Way, and Fentao-laoshi’s Guide to Cut-Sleeve Pleasures please! thank you so much for your hard work!

❤️ Teach Me The Ways by likeafox (E, 58k, wangxian, Canon Divergence, The Porn Is the Plot, lots of banging in here folks, [slaps side of fic] this baby can hold so much weird sex stuff in it, but also many many feelings)

Man on My Mind by brooklinegirl (E, 50k, WangXian, Modern AU, Sex Cam Worker WWX, Identity Porn)

~*~

11. fic where lsz is lwj and wwx's son pls thankyou!!

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12. Hi I've never done this before but I was hoping someone might have recs for my very specific craving? I really want more lwj centric long fic preferably with some angst or an intense secret like A Narrow Bridge by FrameofMind, Turn Left by kianspo or Lan Yuan’s War by BurningTea. In Narrow Bridge I like how despite Lwj's secrecy wangxian still develops a deep emotional connection with smut plus a focus on Wen remnants is always great! Sorry if this is vague and thanks for all the work y'all do♥️ @fellerbat

~*~

13. hello!! (＾▽＾) for ITMF I would like something where WWX sets a boundary with JC, like he is tired of doing all the emotional labour between the two if them or something like that (＾▽＾) thank you and have a great day!

~*~

14. Hello! For the next ITMF, I would love any fics dealing with the Guanyin Temple scene, any canon and any rating. Whether it’s more wangxian focused, or more generally about the scene/characters present, either would be great. Thank you ❤️❤️❤️ @dottie-wan-kenobi

~*~

15. This blog is like one of my comfort places. Thank you for still continuing this.

ITMF nerd Wei WuXian. Like he's in Stunted, Starving Juvenility. @tinyfoxpeach

💖 Lessons relearned by Iamnotawriter (T, 44k, WangXian, LQR & WWX, Not Madam Yu Friendly, Time Travel Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inventor WWX, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, No Golden Core Transfer, YZY Bashing)

Alter by DarkStunning (E, 149k, WIP, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, except a few bad guys, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Panic Attacks, Sex Pollen, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Swearing)

🧡 CSI: Gusu Edition Series by Stratisphyre (M, 39k, WangXian, WWX & LQR, Modern with Magic AU, College AU, Golden Core Reveal, Single parent WWX, Good Uncle LQR, Hospitalization, Allusions to violence and murder)

Free Wifi for Heroes by JJSparrow (E, 50k, WangXian, XuanLi, Modern AU, Pro Heroes (MHA), Switching, Engineer!WWX, Hero!LWJ, CEO!WWX, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Inventor!WWX, Top/Bottom Switch WangXian, Explicit Sexual Content, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fluff and Smut, First Kiss, First Time)

Wind Rose in the Clouds by PaidSubscription (M, 202k, wangxian, post-canon, slow burn, hurt/comfort, getting together, first time, smut, fluff & angst, case fic, social commentary, ptsd, sick fic, communication, inventor WWX)

🧡 One Can Keep A Secret (If He Does Not Know It's There) by H_Belle (T, 5k, WangXian, Modern Cultivators, Inventor WWX, Secret Identity, Identity Reveal, YLLZ WWX, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Pining LWJ, POV WWX, Background Wangxian Getting Together, Jiangs are only mentioned in the passing, inspired by a tumblr post)

Whistler by carriecmoney (T, 108k, WangXian, ZhuiZhen, Modern AU, Office, Texting, artifact fiction, Canada, Embedded Images, Epistolary, Animated GIFs, Mutual Pining, Multimedia, Inventor WWX, Lawyer LWJ, Implied Sexual Content, COVID Happens)

🧡 To have and to hold by Moominmammashandbag (M, 78k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Major character injury, CQL verse, Happy Ending)

~*~

16. for the next ITMF, can you guys suggest some fics with:

a) wwx secretly protecting lwj (bonus: if lwj doesnt know about it)

b) underrated modern w/o magic/university completed fics.

c) innocent wwx + dark lwj

thank you so much!

16A)

Concord by Deastar (T, 41k, WangXian, Arranged Marriage, Gūsū Lán Sect Rules, Depression, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending)

16B)

A Soft Storm by AvoOwO (Not rated, 47k, wangxian, modern au, hurt WWX, LWJ pov, protective LWJ, not SS friendly, car accidents, hurt/comfort, heavy angst w happy ending, sexual harrasment, stalking, crying, blood & injury & gore, major character injury, college, slut shaming, insults)

Just Ask Me To Stay by mrcformoso (M, 21k, wangxian, modern, no powers, past JXN/WWX, Dancer WWWX, Musician LWJ, Roommates, Best Friends, Friends to Lovers, Break Up, Post-Break Up, Recovery, Family, Realizing Your Best Friend is the Love of Your Life, WWX Has Self-Esteem Issues, And LWJ is not having it, Sex as Self Worth Reaffirmation, Fluff, Light Angst, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, LWJ Has a Big Dick, WWX Has a Breeding Kink, Size Queen WWX, Belly Bulge, Porn With Plot, WWX Has Friends, LWJ Has Friends, Hurt/Comfort, Romantic Comedy, Cute, Feel-good)

16C)

A Matter of Time by mrcformoso (E, 41k, wangxian, LXC/NMJ, Time Travel Fix-It, POV LWJ, POV JC, Dark LWJ, LWJ goes crazy, Manipulation, Grooming, Except Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are physically the same age, but Lan Zhan kept his 30 year old mind, wangxian Get a Happy Ending, Consensual Underage Sex, Except problematic please read warning in first chapter, Blood and Violence, Insane LWJ, Manic LWJ, Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Conditioning, Come Eating, Come Swallowing, Anal Fingering, Lan WWX, Minor Character Death, Golden Core Reveal, Good Friend NHS, WWX not Adopted by the Jiāngs, Abusive Jiāng Family, not Jiāng Family friendly, POV NHS, Dark NHS, Anal Sex, Marathon Sex, Dual Cultivation, QHJ Lives, LWJ Has a Big Dick, Self-Lubrication, Plot Twists, PWP, Sunshot Campaign, not Lánlíng Jīn Sect friendly, Scheming NHS, Manipulative NHS, BAMF LWJ, BAMF WWX, BAMF NHS, Burial Mounds Lore, Sentient Burial Mounds, Married wangxian, Implied Mpreg, Adopted LSZ, Breathplay, Dark WWX, Yandere LWJ) LWJ snaps, kills a bunch of people, goes back in time, & grooms WWX to be his perfect partner

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17. ITMF canonverse fics where JC is forced to fix his anger issues (or at least someone calls him out on them). Not necessarily outright JC-bashing (though I'm open to that). But his anger is always brushed aside as 'how he shows love', & JL picking up those same traits is treated as cute instead of lowkey horrifying, & I want to see fics where he gets told that he can't just treat people as punching bags @thispatternismine

A Mother’s Love by FirefliesNLightningBugs (M, 170k, WangXian, XuanLi, Canon Divergence, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Mostly combo of the Untamed and MoDaoZuShi timelines, Unreliable Narrator, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Miscommunication, Family Feels, Found Family, PTSD, Post-Sunshot Campaign, Political Intrigue, Mystery, POV Multiple, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Strong Female Characters, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note, Good Brother In Law JZX, Genderbent WWX, Intersex WWX, not a/b/o, POV Original Character, Expanded Universe, Unplanned Pregnancy, Golden Core Reveal, WWX Has No Golden Core, Cultivation Sect Politics, Bisexual WWX, YLLZ WWX, Yunmeng Shuangjie, Pining WangXian, Parent-Child Relationship, Getting Together, Protective Yúnmèng Jiāng Sect, MXY Lives) link in #9 not quite what ur asking for, but in -- there is a bit of a theme of wwx and jc both trying to work through those type issues w/ each other? Like both trying to be more open and confiding with each other? Like actively attempting to

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If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[caecilian-king]

aaaaaaaaa thinking about how cathy and heathcliff both had the kind of freedom the other one wanted. Thinking about how when cathy was sick she hallucinated their childhood home but when heathcliff was sick he hallucinated (…or was it a ghost oOoOo) cathy as an adult. for cathy their childhood was the embodiment of what she wanted most in life, she wanted to run around and do whatever she wants and get her clothes dirty and have fun without having societal expectations put on her. For her, childhood was a good memory. Child heathcliff is the version she wants to remember most because thats when she felt free and not restricted by the expectations of becoming a lady and getting married. For heathcliff childhood was a terrible memory. He was constantly powerless and abused. He never hallucinates cathy as a child, doesn’t really reminisce on their childhood together. The freedom heathcliff wanted was being seen as an equal and being given the same opportunities as his rich and white peers. Which as a child he was denied at every turn. Only when he runs away he is able to make his own money and return a ‘gentleman’. Even though he is still not viewed as an equal he has at least some sort of power now. He has money, he was able to decide to go off and make money independently. The only way cathy saw herself ever making money was by trapping herself in a marriage. When heathcliff runs away he is not just literally leaving cathy behind, he does so metaphorically as well. Child cathy was free to do whatever she wanted, and heathcliff was trapped by his circumstances. When heathcliff becomes and adult and runs away to make his own money, he gains the freedom and power that only adult men in that society could have. And when cathy becomes an adult she loses the freedom and power. For the reasons ive already listed. I mean obviously cathy was always in a much better position than heathcliff. Her ‘trapped’ was ‘oh noo i married a rich man instead of my true love’ + societys sexism pressuring her into not just independently making money for herself as an option. Heathcliff’s trapped was being forced to be a child servant and constantly being beaten. and racism. But like. Im thinking in terms of broad patterns here. This book is so full of like, cycles and mirror images and parallels and loops. I feel like this could count as one of those. Cathy and heathcliff switching places. They’re so obsessed with eachother because the other one is everything they couldn’t have. Look its 2 am guys so this isn’t really a coherent post i just can’t stop making literary analyses of this book in my head when im trying to sleep.

[dumborangecat]

Keep seeing people talk about how Betty and everyone else should have loved Ice King as he was and I wanna talk about that.

Its important to mention first that there are 2 main ideas for what the crown represents within our world, addiction or dementia.

If you're going with the addiction metaphor (which I am), then to say that Betty should have accepted Simon as he was just takes away from their characters and their arc.

In elements Betty tries to do just that, get over the fact that Simon's gone now and love him as Ice King but she can't, because fundamentally Ice King just isn't simon. He's crazy and irrational and impulsive and while he shows fatherly traits (to Gunter and sometimes marcy) he isn't nearly as caring as Simon was, especially towards Betty.

Betty says it herself "being with you is like looking at my old life through a fun house mirror. It's driving me mad." Ice King being with Betty and being around Betty is actively detrimental to her mental health, and if she hadn't left when she did It would have hurt ice king too.

Because the crown represents addiction, of course its going to hurt both Simon and his friends/family, because that's what happens with addicts in the real world. For adventure time to push a narrative where everyone accepts ice king as the crazy, unhealthy and not good for anyone (besides maybe gunter) person he is would be very wrong and out of character. It'd be like saying you should accept any loved ones who do drugs as the person they are while on drugs despite the fact that person is hurting both themselves and you. It's not a good message to say the least.

It also takes away from there overall relationship and arc, Betty can't settle for a warped, different and crazy version of Simon, she loves her Simon, and if the roles were reversed it would be th exact same. That's what makes their relationship so special and tragic, they love eachother so much and are completely unwilling to let the other go even when it's the best thing for both of them. For Betty to accept and love Simon as ice king would ruin that.

(I know other characters like finn and Jake accept and befriend Simon as ice king, but that's all they've known him as. Even if they know that's not who Simon truly is, knowing Is entirely different to actually being there and seeing who Simon used to be)

I mentioned the 2 crown metaphors earlier so I'll circle back to that. When talking from a 'the crown represents dementia' viewpoint things do change a bit, which ice kings madness no longer being something horrible he brought upon himself (like addiction) but instead more of a tragic accident. However this doesn't change the fact that ice king is still unhealthy for Betty (and himself) and that her loving him would undermine both their characters and their relationship.

Though it is sweet to think about Betty loving him for who he is now, to say it should have happened and the show would be better with it is just incorrect. Also it would kinda ruin the impact if ice king turning back into Simon at the shows end.

That's all goodbye

[toastandjamie]

Sometimes I think about the way Tuon and Mat’s relationship is set up before Tuon is introduced. We are introduced to the Seanchen, and they are active antagonists and then Rand drives them from Falme back into the sea. Then one book later we get the Aelfinn prophecy “to die and live again. To marry the daughter of the nine moons. To give up half of light of the world to save the world.” And it’s sandwiched in between these two very frightening prophecies of danger. Mat treats the marriage aspect as just as much of a threat as literal death and that’s utterly fascinating to me; but we as an audience are also alarmed by this prophecy, not for the same reasons as Mat but because the title “daughter of the nine moons” isn’t exactly the most friendly sounding name. We spend the rest of the book wondering who she is right alongside Mat and as we get closer to meeting her we are given more distinctly threatening foreshadowing. First we learn about the Court of The Nine Moons which confirms that Tuon is Seanchen and right on its heels Egwene receives a prophetic dream vision of Mat being wrestled to the ground and collared by a Seanchen woman. The Seanchen remain as a threatening antagonistic force at this time with the only allied characters from Seanchen we’re introduced to are desenters like Aegenin. Then there’s the way Mat talks about his future marriage, discussing with equal parts curiosity and fear and saying things like “the daughter of the nine bloody moons will walk in to take me.”. And finally the Seanchen invasion of Ebou Dar, where Mat is knocked unconscious by falling building and the reveal of the daughter of the nine moons arrival. We don’t yet know what life under Seanchen occupation is like for those not actively fighting it since we’ve only seen the violent occupation of Amadicia and Tanchico.

Even if we as an audience aren’t conscious of it RJ sets up this expectation that Tuon will “steal” or “take” Mat by force. That Mat is going to be captured by her and forced into this marriage by fate. Only to have our expectations subverted when Tuon is- well, not quite the towering and evil figure that we expect her to be. That Mat is being kept in Ebou Dar not by the Seanchen who have done nothing to restrict the coming and going of civilians but by Tylin who has only grown More abusive and possessive since A Crown of Swords. Then Tuon asks Tylin if she can buy Mat and for moment you might think that things are back on track but then Mat kidnaps her and we’re once again thrown for a loop. Over the course of their courtship we see the push and pull of their dynamic, as they play their own mini version of daes da mar to see who holds the power in their relationship and it remains constantly influx. This subversion of what we expect Tuon to be mirrors Mat’s own surprise over who Tuon is. Mat has always been endlessly human to the audience, we’ve seen him struggle and grow as a person, we’ve seen him fuck up and we’ve seen him succeed. He was always human to the audience and to the people who perceive him in universe. Tuon conversely, is set up as almost an omen of doom, an ever present and impossible to escape fate that the audience and the character fear. We see her as the world sees her, she’s inhuman, a concept, something to be looked upon with curiosity and fear. Then as Mat learns about her, so does the audience, we peel away the layers of mythologizing that Seanchen and the foretellings have placed upon her to see that she is just as human as Mat. Just as curious and scared of a fate she can’t escape, of a man she knows shes destined to marry but knows nothing about. The prophecy she receives about Mat is just as threatening as the one Mat receives and she reacts similarly with anger hiding her fear. Both believe the other will steal them away and in the end they both DO steal eachother, for Tuon in the literal sense and for Mat the metaphorical.

God I’m so feral about them

[cleo-serotonin]

I can’t believe I never noticed this parallel before!!

So Emma is obviously mirroring young Ms. Chatham here. They share the same power, and are thematic counterparts. However, she stops before running into her, whereas the past self goes straight through/into Louise. This is symbolic of how Cleo, Emma and Rikki’s story is different from the og trio. This episode is the exact point where their stories diverge from eachother. The fight Louise, Gracie & Julia have is exactly the same as the modern trio, their words echo each other; “you’re underestimating him, the obnoxious stuff is an act most of the time” “friends don’t give each other ultimatums”. In the end, Karl betrays Julia, and the three end up drifting apart. Zane is clearly given the perfect opportunity to betray Rikki. He could prove to everyone he’s not crazy, earn his fathers approval/respect, become famous etc. yet he chooses not to.

Young Ms. Chatham walking into her current self is symbolic of the weight she still carries from that day. She will never get closure from her friends who have now passed, or from knowing why they were chosen to become mermaids. It’s an open wound with an ache she has made peace with over time. Emma will never have to experience that. In this scene, Ms. Chatham may be a metaphor for the older version of Emma. Since Emma stops short, it’s a visual representation of the differences between their stories, and the path Emma will not take.

Another small but notable difference- young Louise is walking away from her friends. Emma is walking with them. She even looks back towards them for support after Ms. Chatham asks about the locket. This contrast speaks volumes on their relationships.

Additionally, this is why I know the girls would not have split up, as m*ko m*rmaids attempts to make canon. But according to the ORIGINAL h2o lore, they would stay friends.

[raviolirash]

I have no idea what you mean by Pre-vampire Astarion is like season one Bobby Briggs, so I asked my husband who loves Twin Peaks what that meant.

Anyways now we're rewatching Twin Peaks.

Haha yes

spoilers for a 34 year old show + the return

Bobby's a complete dick but has good in him, but needs guidance so that good wouldn't be lost. You are given very little reasons to like him with the shenanigans he pulls. But then the It Is Happening Again scene happens, and you can see his heart completely shatter because he senses that something horrible has happened. You actually start to see what Garland sees in him and begin rooting for him to get his shit together.

In The Return he has grown a lot, but still falls apart when he sees that iconic photo of Laura. Then is faced with the world once again literally rotting around him because metaphors and if I would go into that it would turn into a 3 hour Hbomb essay I need to shut up

I don't think Astarion had a Garland tho, so it went sideways. A lot of Bobby's behavior was because the world was complete shit (BOB Is also lurking around) and Laura's death hardly helped. Now I imagine Astarion moving to Baldur's Gate at a young age, seeing what a crock of shit filled with injustice the city is, and giving up. Also Bhaal is there.

And in this essay I will talk about how BOB and Bhaal mirror eachother and how Baldur's Gate is more David Lynch than Deadly Premonition is---

[lovzrina0-0]

Circle of 12

Chapter 0: Chronos, Logos

Time. The system that moves the universe foward. Eons, millenia, billions.. The concept of time is a silly thing, don't you think? The manipulation of time is easily a great power, but it comes with responsibility. Rewinding, fast-fowarding and weaving a timeline back together is hefty work, but this one is different. The original timeline has a mirror version, both timelines are different from eachother, yet intertwined; meaning I'll have to separate them, find their loopholes and strange events, fix them, and weave them back together. Would be hard but let's be real here, life is always hard. Looking into the details of this dimension, it seems that the residents bear power similar, or higher than my level. A group of 12 demi-gods, with powers that could cause a cataclysm at any given time. The lone thought of an all-knowing magical being, able to defeat you in the snap of her fingers. For me, I see it as a hoax. The more power once bears, the more flaws are made. "Perfection" isn't possible. Even the most powerful and divine beings make mistakes, and if they don't it's because they're the mistake itself.

I opened the portal to said dimension. I was speaking of after thinking over what could be a foolish decision of mine. With my timeweaver scissors in hand, I entered the portal. Being greeted by complete darkness, I took steps in various directions. Even in the darkest shadows, a ray of light always manages to shine though, symbolizing hope. The "hope" in my case were small stars, burning holes through the darkness. As I walked foward, more and more of these stars appeared, before I realized I was located into what seemed to be a white void, decorated with a white play-area and many bushes of daisies. Daisies are a metaphor for innocence.

It's best to hope they don't wilt away.