#being there for each other

[whitedahlia13]

That's Where You'll Find Me

Chapter 9: Reason to Hope

Fandom: Teen Wolf / The Wizard of Oz AU

Characters: Stiles + Lydia, Prada

After an hour or so the light faded away, and they found themselves stumbling along in the darkness. - L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Stiles wakes. Only two hours have passed, but something feels different. Not wrong but not quite right either. Lydia is still sleeping, but she��s restless.

He swipes a few strands of hair away from her face. “It’s okay. You’re safe,” he whispers.

His voice and touch seem to put her at ease, so he figures the best thing to do is not to wake her, just keep her close and reassure her as often as she needs it.

He carefully slides one arm beneath her and rolls onto his back. With minimal encouragement, Lydia moves with him, nuzzling up to his shoulder and grabbing a fistful of his tee shirt. He shudders, half troubled by the tension in her body, half melting over the way she clings to him.

Two years ago, if anyone would’ve told him it would be like this between them, he’d have been stunned. Happy, but stunned. He never could have predicted they would affect each other on so many levels. Never could have presumed that Lydia would have trembled the way she did when she swore she didn’t want space from him. Never could have hoped he would have the courage to say it back.

Now, he can’t imagine it any other way, can’t imagine them being anything other than completely raw and honest with each other.

If she were awake, he would tell her that, as long as she wants, he’s never letting go.

He stretches out his other arm, intending to draw her closer when his elbow bumps something solid. The hard cover of a book.

It gives him an idea.

Read more: ao3

It's here @folglore13, @kylermalloy (anyone else? drop a comment if you'd like me to add you to the list)

[always-coffee]

The other day, a dear friend paid me a wonderful compliment. And it’s really how I strive to be in the world, as a person, so it made me a bit emotional. The thing is, I’m not a person who runs when things get hard. I don’t run. It’s not in my nature. Good, bad—in between, I’m there. I am really not someone who wavers or hesitates, especially if my heart is involved (spoiler alert: I am all heart, oops). I go into most situations with a firm understanding of what the difficulties might be. I'm a Libra. I know how to assess and be mindful. I may be blundering in, but I’m not blundering in unseeing.

Yesterday, I came across what was meant to be an inspirational meme about how love is great and all, but having someone love you when you’re difficult or a burden or a mess or inconvenient is really what counts. And yes, but I would also argue that if love isn’t all those things, it’s not love. And I hated the bit about the burden, because no one I have ever cared about has ever been a burden to me. Caring for my dying mother was sure unfun (a little over a decade ago), and I really don’t wish that entire experience on anyone. But was she a burden to me? No.

Making meals for a friend going through surgery was not a burden to me. Sitting with another friend when they were having a bad time—just chilling out on the couch together was not a burden. I could go on and on, but the point is this: being there for those you care about is never a burden. And if someone makes you feel as if it is—as if you’re wrong for being messy or having a hard time—than they do not deserve you.

For me, and I’ve said this before, being there for folks is part of what I love about life and relationships. God knows, I can be a messy human who feels too much and talks a lot (when I feel comfortable). But being close to someone is an honor. I love it. Truly. Makes my heart sing. Even on the bad days. Will I try to make you laugh? Sure. Will I sit with you and hug you if you need to cry? Yes. I will definitely try to feed you (Italian American), and probably learn how to make your favorite things. Because that’s love, to me. Here I made this for.

The thing about life is that is never rainbows and kittens and sunshine all of the time. Leaning on each other during the tough times is what gets us through it all. And I don’t understand anyone who thinks that care is conditional. Care and love are not. And if someone has told you that it is, they can go pound sand.

I am the softest person on earth in a lot of ways. But there is strength in that softness, trust me. And I will absolutely use that on behalf of those I care about, no hesitation. Because that's the whole damn point of why we're here.

[tarlosmalec]

Hi.

You’re TK.

I’m Carlos.

Marry me.

It’s not drama.

It’s love.

The kind that you can’t get away from.

The love that I feel is infinitely more powerful than the power of losing it.

I’m not going anywhere.

I’m right here.

And we’re soulmates.

[agneswarda]

maybe this has been said already but i dislike how people often discard everything complicated teens ever do. 'Haha teens. Just the worst. Can't wait til they grow up"

but one. growing up is so fucking hard. i mean. you're slowly losing something, that being your childhood. and such a loss, often coming in the form of leaving familiar places, people, activities behind (a school, friends, hobbies...) has to be mourned (sth our society is so chronically bad at). also. you need to find out who you are as that new person you are slowly becoming. even in the best circumstances inventing yourself anew is not a small feat.

and two. an overly 'complicated' teen. someone who doesn't want to talk to their parents anymore. or who becomes really (passive) aggressive all the time. or who stays all day in their room, doesn't seem to care about anything or anyone anymore. these teens - people who are at a very fragile stage in their lives - are often kinda a litmus test that something around them is really fucked up. could be family, school, the area where they live, our society as a whole... nobody gets like that out of nowhere. so it would be nice to frame it more like 'that teen did/said some messed up things. their circumstances might really suck rn' (and then maybe even. like. trying to be kind to them regardless)

(not to mention that the behaviours i described could also be signs of mental illness. hate how easily we dismiss them in teens)

[stagehunt]

more thoughts on aven and topaz and why i don't really interpret them as having the close relationship that i see a lot of in the fandom + his general feelings about her. talking about the checking out quest a little in the beginning.

screenshots from my own transcript but they're still word for word. aven is more than aware that the tb is never going to accept a job offer from the ipc and treats this entire exchange as the joke that is, and an excuse to get under topaz' skin a little. just for fun. interesting then, how topaz immediately starts to get very personal during this little debate — while simultaneously displaying how well she actually knows aven, which is honestly not at all. i wouldn't blame this on a lack of understanding on her part, but on the way aven keeps everyone at arms distance, a distinct lack of trust in her from aven, and radically different outlooks on their work and life.

both of the dialogue excerpts kind of highlight that but i want to focus on the second one here because it immediately reminded me of a personal headcanon when i was playing the quest through.

so. i'd already made the assumption that aven didn't have many staff working under him — both because of his treatment within the ipc / the varying reactions to who he is and his history with the previous aventurine which is pretty much public knowledge, his preference for working solo, and his habits of putting himself in harms way and taking very unreasonable risks. he'd assume that topaz sees these " work habits " she mentions as the main reason that people don't work to him but he also knows that she isn't foolish enough to think that's the only reason anyway. which is why he then immediately reminds her that diamond doesn't particularly care WHAT he does so long as he secures the bag at the end of the day.

it's for things like this, and her general hostility towards him ( which does seem to vary, but her voice line about him is very harsh as opposed to what she tells us about him when she knows he's around / how she acts to his face ) and with the sheer amount of manipulation she's under, the things she genuinely believes about the ipc and her job there, he does personally think that it's impossible for her not to have absorbed at least some of the ipc's common opinions on him, the avgin + avgin extinction event / ipc's involvement on sigonia, and the egyhazo - aventurine case, and allowed them to colour her impression of him before really getting to know him.

however as i mentioned in those disc screenshots, aven is obviously aware of the predatory nature of the ipc. he's been working there for almost a decade now, he was a teenager when he first wound up there, and he understands what happened on topaz' planet very well. he understands that she's naive. he understands that she has been essentially groomed, as well as the fact that she's very dedicated to her work. but he also understands that she's a kind hearted person, and that she does try to do what she thinks is the right thing in most situations. it would be ridiculous for me to say that he doesn't sympathise with topaz, even if he does find her a little obnoxious and annoying to be around.

so while he doesn't necessarily feel enough responsibility towards her to put up with her apparent dislike for him, he does subtly keep an eye out for her. when she first became a stoneheart he figured that she should be able to understand his situation better than anyone and that it would make sense for them both to have each others backs as much as possible. but from what he's observed and how they interact with each other, he just cannot convince himself that it would be safe to trust her. he knows he'd have to be careful with his words around her, and that at least currently, she wouldn't ever choose him over the job. still, he has a feeling that if she were ever to open her eyes to what she is complicit in, she'd despise the truth and herself as much as he does, if not more for being so easily strung along by the likes of jade.

so are they friends? no. but if topaz ever genuinely needed help he would be there. he would understand.

[sga-owns-my-soul]

hey can we like. can we go back to celebrating things when they actually happen instead of 4 months in advance. i've been seeing halloween shit for a month and a half. halloween hasn't even HAPPENED yet and now im seeing christmas stuff. they got the back to school stuff out the second week of july

im just. im so sick of getting holidays and events shoved down my throat for months and then there's not even any time to enjoy it bc the next fuckin thing is being shoved down your throat. can we just go back to actually celebrating holidays when they happen. pls

[3liza]

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/theyre-not-human-how-19th-century-inuit-coped-with-a-real-life-invasion-of-the-walking-dead

Indigenous groups across the Americas had all encountered Europeans differently. But where other coastal groups such as the Haida or the Mi’kmaq had met white men who were well-fed and well-dressed, the Inuit frequently encountered their future colonizers as small parties on the edge of death.

“I’m sure it terrified people,” said Eber, 91, speaking to the National Post by phone from her Toronto home.

And it’s why, as many as six generations after the events of the Franklin Expedition, Eber was meeting Inuit still raised on stories of the two giant ships that came to the Arctic and discharged columns of death onto the ice.

Inuit nomads had come across streams of men that “didn’t seem to be right.” Maddened by scurvy, botulism or desperation, they were raving in a language the Inuit couldn’t understand. In one case, hunters came across two Franklin Expedition survivors who had been sleeping for days in the hollowed-out corpses of seals.

“They were unrecognizable they were so dirty,” Lena Kingmiatook, a resident of Taloyoak, told Eber.

Mark Tootiak, a stepson of Nicholas Qayutinuaq, related a story to Eber of a group of Inuit who had an early encounter with a small and “hairy” group of Franklin Expedition men evacuating south.

“Later … these Inuit heard that people had seen more white people, a lot more white people, dying,” he said. “They were seen carrying human meat.”

Even Eber’s translator, the late Tommy Anguttitauruq, recounted a goose hunting trip in which he had stumbled upon a Franklin Expedition skeleton still carrying a clay pipe.

By 1850, coves and beaches around King William Island were littered with the disturbing remnants of their advance: Scraps of clothing and camps still littered with their dead occupants. Decades later, researchers would confirm the Inuit accounts of cannibalism when they found bleached human bones with their flesh hacked clean.

“I’ve never in all my life seen any kind of spirit — I’ve heard the sounds they make, but I’ve never seen them with my own eyes,” said the old man who had gone out to investigate the Franklin survivors who had straggled into his camp that day on King William Island.

The figures’ skin was cold but it was not “cold as a fish,” concluded the man. Therefore, he reasoned, they were probably alive.

“They were beings but not Inuit,” he said, according to the account by shaman Nicholas Qayutinuaq.

The figures were too weak to be dangerous, so Inuit women tried to comfort the strangers by inviting them into their igloo.

But close contact only increased their alienness: The men were timid, untalkative and — despite their obvious starvation — they refused to eat.

The men spit out pieces of cooked seal offered to them. They rejected offers of soup. They grabbed jealous hold of their belongings when the Inuit offered to trade.

When the Inuit men returned to the camp from their hunt, they constructed an igloo for the strangers, built them a fire and even outfitted the shelter with three whole seals.

Then, after the white men had gone to sleep, the Inuit quickly packed up their belongings and fled by moonlight.

Whether the pale-skinned visitors were qallunaat or “Indians” — the group determined that staying too long around these “strange people” with iron knives could get them all killed.

“That night they got all their belongings together and took off towards the southwest,” Qayutinuaq told Dorothy Eber.

But the true horror of the encounter wouldn’t be revealed until several months later.

The Inuit had left in such a hurry that they had abandoned several belongings. When a small party went back to the camp to retrieve them, they found an igloo filled with corpses.

The seals were untouched. Instead, the men had eaten each other.

[swan2swan]

Whoever conceived and animated this moment, I hope they're doing well and thriving. This is S-rank romance stuff here.

[melonsharks]

au where everything is the same except mabel and dipper have been going to gravity falls every year before the show takes place since like kindergarten.

its a pretty simple premise that derives mostly from my desire to explore interpersonal relationships and the ways a place and people can change from a young child’s point of view. it doesn’t change canon that much either, admittedly, i just wanted to draw childhood friends stuff LOL. ill call it uhhhhhhhh every summer au.

[symphonyofsilence]

Let the poor man rest.

[toqiuh]

Reunion...?

[mynnthia]

was talking with a friend about how some of dunmeshi fаndom misunderstands kabru's initial feelings towards laios.

to sum up kabru's situation via a self-contained modernized metaphor:

kabru is like a guy who lost his entire family in a highly traumatic car accident. years later he joins a discord server and takes note of laios, another server member who seems interesting, so they start chatting. then laios reveals his special interest and favorite movie of all time is David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), and invites kabru to go watch a demolition derby with him

[qiinamii]

we'll do fine.

[eydilily]

would you bite the hand that feeds you?

[spacespacespace]

Someone’s talks abt superboy and robin and I’m js like

Do you mean loser nerd robin and cool cloned superboy?

Or the stabby stab stab robin and ray of sunlight superboy?

[mfshipbracket]