#beloved feared misunderstood

[kinetic-elaboration]

April 29: Bellarke, A Good Thunderstorm

Bellarke + Greek Gods + Thunderstorms

In the same universe as my fic Beloved, Feared, Misunderstood, and inspired by this post.

~1300 words

Warning for semi-explicit sex

*

Two oaken doors, ornately carved with visions of past victories and glories, bar the way to the bedroom of the Blake penthouse suite. They seem a relic of the past, now, as the rest of the apartment has come to be decorated in silver and steel: the impenetrable gate to a sphere so private that not even all of the gods have been invited in.

The rest of the penthouse is quiet in the evening. Through the windows, the last dusky sunlight of a long summer day filters in, casts shadows across the carpet, and turns the outlines of the furniture soft and gray. All of the lights are off. None of the surfaces gleam, no footsteps sound, no movement disrupts the stillness.

On the other side of the door, Clarke stands at the window and stares out across the city as it fades into shadow, too. The windows stretch floor to ceiling, and the heavy velvet curtains that sometimes cover them have been swept aside, leaving bare and on display the entirety of their domain. Bellamy almost never keeps the curtains closed. He loves the view, and never more than now: the contrast of the skyscrapers and orderly, gray city blocks and pinpoints of electric lights, beneath the vastness of the sky, to Clarke herself. She towers above them, delicate and strong and still, like a sentry or a guardian commanding all that she can see.

He knows she's aware of his eyes on her. He sees it in the set of her shoulders, the tilt of her head, and in her stillness and silence.

He's splayed across his bed, a perfect wreck of one-thousand-thread-count sheets and tangled blankets and pillows falling in excess onto the floor. On the bedside table, one of the empty wineglasses has tipped onto its side, dripping bits of blood-red wine onto the carpet. Like the door, the bed is wooden, stately, and large, and the headboard is carved with a vision of storm clouds and lightning. He replaced it briefly with a steel framed thing but it just wasn't the same. He needs something sturdy, reliable, and old.

From the silver tray on the mattress next to him, he picks up a bunch of grapes and holds them out to himself, pulling one grape at a time into his mouth with his tongue. The movement is idle. His eyes never leave Clarke's body.

Watching her standing naked in front of the window, with her hair down and flowing in blonde waves over her shoulders, and every curve of her and the pattern of shine and shadow on her skin from the half-dimmed lights and the candles scattered about the room—all on display, he feels something of the awe that mortals feel before the gods. She is the only one who has ever earned his worship. From the city streets below, she must appear as a frightfully beautiful image, only the glowing outline of her visible, like the statues that have been carved of her but more perfect than any mere marble could be. They can see the distant hint of her, the possibility of her. He could have all of her. He could roll across the bed right now and grab her for his own.

Across the late-evening sky, dark storm clouds are gathering, thick and heavy and gray. He sees the exact moment when Clarke first notices them, coming together at the horizon over the sea. She glances over her shoulder at him. A tiny, sly smile at the corner of her lips.

The skies darken. The last of sunset is blurred out and overcome. A jagged flash of lightning, bright and silent, rends through the clouds.

Clarke appears glorious, turning toward him, outlined by the brilliant light of it.

She bounds across the room, bare feet silent on the plush purple carpet, jumps onto the bed and sends the silver plate clattering dully to the floor. A few grapes roll across the sheets. He tries to sit up to grab onto her, to hold her, but she climbs on top of him first, and pins his wrists above his head, and he growls as if in warning but does not fight her off.

A loud boom of thunder sounds, shaking the sky, and then smaller sounds of it as if the heavens were unfolding. Then she leans down to kiss him, and as her back arches and her lips press against his, the storm clouds open all at once and a ferocious downpour unleashes itself upon the city.

The lights go out, but the candles stay on. The view outside the window is nothing but sheets of water slashing across pitch-blackness, sliding droplets against the glass.

He presses his hips up against hers, and she lets go of his hands and slides her palms down along his palms, his arms. Nails against the delicate skin over his pulse points. He reaches up to tangle his fingers in her hair, pushing it free of her face.

Oh, it's been so long since he's seen her stand at the fore of armies, battle-scarred, uncompromising, brave. He'd upset worlds to see her wield her weaponry again. Yet only a week ago, days ago, he let her take him to the crafts festival and they walked hand in hand and let the mortals see them, and he watched her demonstrate, with nimble fingers, the proper art of weaving—and she was beautiful then, too. Controlled, precise, confident in her skill.

He takes her fingers into his mouth and sucks on them, because he would consume her, gorge on her.

Lightning and thunder follow close upon each other now, and the drumming of the rain becomes a scattering of white noise, a blur of sound all around them. Flashes of white light glinting on her skin. The violent rumbling rending of the clouds. The revolt of the sky.

They grab onto each other roughly, treat each other roughly, the strength of the gods matched against the resiliency of the gods—they can throw each other around and it means nothing. The mattress bounces beneath her weight as he tosses her back against the pillows. She pulls him on top of her, wrenches his neck as she demands another biting, wet, open-mouthed kiss. Opens her legs wide to him so that he can settle between them, where he needs to be, where he fits, and the rain comes down harder, amid howls of wind, and droplets scattered and thrown against the wall of glass, as she pulls at his hair, and he pulls at her lip with his teeth.

He sinks into her and she gasps into his mouth, and above them a series of lightning flashes illuminate the whole sky, patterns of dazzling, vivid white glowing through and among the clouds.

Some distant part of him wonders if they can be seen, if only for a few seconds, revealed in that momentary blaze of light: two bodies tangled and fitted together, desperate and needing and aching for each other.

Each drunk on the power of the other.

Clarke's nails claw down his back. He's riding the rhythm of her. The storm will swell the ocean and the ocean will overwhelm the docks and climb up over the shore and threaten the city. The rain will soak the earth and turn it all to mud, will gurgle in the storm drains, will wash out the streets. The thunder is so loud he can feel it in his chest. It's coming from his chest. Clarke's legs are wrapped around him, his arms around her, his face hidden in the hollow between her shoulder and her neck.

He's surrounded by her, utterly, subsumed in her completely, and he's never known a form that feels as hard and knows such sensation as this, or a body that fits with his as perfectly as hers, or a voice he'd rather hear whispering his name with desperation in his ear.

He is overtaken. He’s in love.

Around and above, over all of Arcadia, the brilliant and terrifying storm rages on.

[satorisoup]

people will think im ordinary until they say one (1) thing about tmnt and all of a sudden im explaining the entire lore starting from the 1990’s movie & why donatello is the best turtle i fear… T^T

tag limit fights me… i must yap… please listen… SOB </3

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"Don't worry, lass, we've made sure he's had plenty of rest today!" Wilhelm smiled lightly as he walked by, at which Randall blushed a little in embarrassment-it was true, his parents had fussed over him quite a bit, making sure that he had plenty of water and pain medication to keep the aches at bay, that he didn't strain himself too much as he helped around the house, that he was comfortable whenever he sat down, and so on. He appreciated their efforts, of course, but that didn't stop his cheeks from warming a little all the same.

"I'm alright," he reassured her, before lowering his voice a little as he took her hand, asking, "Are you alright?" He was sure this was very nerve-wracking, tonight's little get-together...even with his parents meaning well, wanting to clear the air between them all, he was sure it was not an entirely comfortable experience...

...but again, he knew what his parents plan was; he may not know all the details, true, but he had faith that tonight would go smoothly, and that by the end of the evening, their relationship would be at least on the mend. He would be there for it, and for her, every step of the way, something he made sure she knew with the squeeze he gave her hand.

[rockingbytheseaside]

omg, I am quite literally in love with your work.

pls I cannot tell you how frickin ecstatic I am when I read your stuff 😭 like I’m Fr Rolling on the floor and stopping every five secs bc of the butterflies-

AND! I saw that your asks are open!! (If I misread/misunderstood then I’m so sorry and just ignore this) I was wondering if you could do Harbingers x reader when they find reader quietly weeping- like reader thought they were alone and didn’t wanna burden them :3 romantic if you would !!

no pressure ofc!!!! fr I love ur stuff sm like I’ve been reading ur stuff OVER AND OVER😭😭😭

(bshdhsgdhagjds Okay, let me just hold in my tears- that’s so kind of you anon! Sorry for making you wait, I hope this is something similar to what you wanted) 

✦ How they comfort you when you cry

Pierro, Capitano, Dottore, Scaramouche, Pantalone, Childe

Sometimes, your days might feel bitter, and sometimes the weight of your inner struggles can accumulate into a somber heap of self-doubt. Whether it was a minute inconvenience that resulted in your dampened mood, or stressful memories of the past – the reasons behind it fade into insignificance. Because next thing you know, you feel your shoulders slightly shaking, and your hand reaching to conceal your silent weeping. Thus, when talking becomes a burden and your breath runs short, your beloved is the first to listen to your sniffles.

✧ Pierro’s already icy gaze becomes unreadable. Is it fear? Is it astonishment? Or is it the readiness to unleash hell upon anything that compelled you to shed these silent tears? He sees you hugging yourself, trying to shield yourself away from him. His gloved hands cautiously reach for your form, like a blanket wrapping itself around your shoulders. 

“My divine one, why hide your tears away from me? Why conceal the sadness in your eyes when you silently weep? Please, grace me with your gaze and look at me.” 

His voice is careful despite its deepness, suppressing his boiling temper at the sight of your sadness. He reaches for you tenderly, and when you turn towards him, you allow yourself to cry further into his chest. He cradles you silently, never once wasting breath on simple shushes or admonishments to cease crying. No, The Jester will hold you, let his lips press softly to your forehead, and let you cry as much as you need. He'll personally worship and wipe every teardrop off your cheek. 

Yet despite his gentle arms, you sense him shaking. His gloved hands hold you securely, yet subconsciously gripping. Because pray to the archons above, he will not rest until the source of your sadness is annihilated. 

✧ Il Capitano never saw you cry before. He saw you as an equal in matters of battles, duels, and personal life. Through ups and downs, your best and worst. And yet the imposing, mighty Captain never witnessed his beloved’s face slowly scowl and emit those saddened sobs as you're doing now. 

“No… who bestowed such sadness onto you, my cherished? What sorrows are you fighting?” 

He asks, half in disbelief and worry. The Captain kneels down, the back of his armored hands gracefully meeting your face. He makes sure you’re not physically in pain, his touch asking permission for the simplest caress. You might feel embarrassed to explain why you're crying, but the Captain will coax you to talk only if you bestow him this honor. Otherwise, he never mocks or admonishes you for crying – “This is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of humanity in your strength.”

To soothe you, he'd drape an arm around your shoulder, bringing the side of his coat to shield you. If you desire, he'd immediately discard his coat entirely and wrap it over your shoulders. And if you desire neither this or that, he'd silently kneel, asking for permission to pick you up in his forearms, so you may rest on his shoulder while he carries you away. 

✧ You cannot conceal your sorrows from Il Dottore. He suspects you are feeling dejected before you even realize it. Should your shoulders quiver and tears well in your eyes, he'll be the first to perceive it. His already tense countenance will harden, and in short, murderous intent, he’ll ask:

“Who did this to you?”

His first suspension is that someone foolish enough dared to hurt you, and his next task is to seek out that moron. And stars above, if someone did ruin your day, the Doctor will have a new cadaver on his lab table. You'll have to physically restrain the Harbinger in front of you by putting your hands on his shoulder and explaining hurriedly that no one did anything harmful. 

Il Dottore won't quell his inner rage so easily though. As you shake your head, and rub your eyes, it will require much persuasion to convince him that it’s not as dire as he suspects. Nonetheless, Dottore will keep a tight hold on your form. If he won't murder someone in rage, then he'll prepare a soothing beverage and wrap you up in a comfortable seating so you may rest your weary head. He’ll have to personally drag you to sit by his lap so you won’t desolate yourself into a depressive fit again. 

“Wasting your breath and energy on crying is a futile endeavor. You'll only tire your body out… so rest in my arms before your mind starts weaving more puny sentiments.” 

✧ The ever-prideful and strict Scaramouche would find himself faltering into silence when the unfamiliar sound emanates from your being. The hiccupped sounds of choked cries are not foreign to him - he recognized them very well and was personally acquainted with the physical pain of crying. But seeing the closest being, the one he calls most cherished, to unexplainable weep was a new form of pain he had never experienced. 

“... Are you-? What's wrong, are you hurt? Did something-!”

An expression of shock and fear bestows the Balladeer, his hands are reluctant and afraid to cross your boundaries when you cry in front of him. His first instinct is to believe that he has erred, that he has hurt you or spoken insensitively. Anguished, his fist tightens, dreading your stern rejection. Yet, all it takes is a gentle shake of your head and a soft reassurance - no, he hasn't actually done anything wrong.

His brow will remain furrowed, and only under your permission, he would glue himself to you in a reassuring embrace. It's only after he's assured of your safety and well-being that the Harbinger begins to ease up and scoff. Maybe, just maybe, he will go and bring your favorite sweets afterward. Regardless, his hands kept cupping your face, thumbs gently wiping your tears.

“Ha, you’re that sensitive that you’d weep at the most minor inconvenience? Fine, I’ll stay here. But don’t get too comfortable. And you better stop apologizing for crying. You should never say sorry for something like that. It’s in your right to cry… Just come to me when something’s troubling you, alright?”

✧ You cannot recall a single instance when Pantalone's captivating smile ever wavered. The man has perfected his charismatic, million-mora smile that only you can discern if he’s being genuine or not. But to witness it dropping completely in a cold stare while you cried was chilling. You felt scared, as the Harbinger grew eerily silent with each slow step, he demanded:

“... Give me names and I will make sure they will disappear permanently.”

You jolted. This was bad, and it sure didn’t quell your sobbing as you hurriedly shook your head. Pantalone took a deep sigh, his brain forced to flip a switch and change to a more tender tone so he wouldn’t scare you further with his sinister rage. He will deal with the causes later. What mattered now was your shaken state. Hence, like the dotting lover he is, he softly inquired whether you wish to talk or have some privacy. 

If you willingly welcomed his physical touch, then prepare yourself for a day filled with him enfolding you tightly. He will draw you near, letting you cry your frustrations out until you get fatigued and rest against his lean chest. The Regrator always fulfills his pledges, gently rocking you back and forth. He will vow to spoil you on the next shopping spree and purchase everything you desire - luxuries, clothes, perfumes, or fancy meals, all of it is yours with a snap of his fingers (even if you reprimand his indulgence). His embraces are tenacious, endless kisses raining down on your face until you plead and whine to be released from his insistent hugs.

"My heart, how can I possibly release you when you should be adorned with kisses instead of tears? I am afraid I won’t be so easily reassured until I see your smile again."

✧ Tartaglia’s highlight of the day is mirroring your luminous smile; hence when he first heard your sorrowful sniffles, it felt like a sudden dark cloud washed past him, pouring cold water to wipe his smile off in an instant. Without hesitation, his hand found itself on your shoulder as he guided you to sit first.

“Hey, hey… What’s wrong, darling? I’m here, it’s alright.”

He observes your attempt to explain the root of your troubles, but as you try to elaborate, your tears only intensify against your own will. Kneeling in front of you, his gaze was resolute - he now had a mission. He will immediately soothe your mood with tender words of endearment, lighthearted banter, and the occasional joke here and there, anything to make you crack up with that sweet smile he so adores.

Tartaglia will remind you that first and foremost, he is your Ajax - the one who will bring laughter through his playful teasing and delightful humor during your times of melancholy. The one who will cook you the best Snezhnayan Bliny better than any pancake restaurant. And the one who will always be there so you can lean your head on his shoulder and just feel his heartbeat as he embraces you deeply. In any other circumstances, he is the 11th of the Fatui Harbinger who will work and bloody his fists for your safety. However, for now, you shouldn’t occupy your thoughts with such concerns.

“Hey, it’s alright… You don’t have to feel embarrassed for crying. We all have bad days from time to time. How about this, leave today’s dinner on me. I shall cook your favorite even better than you could imagine! Or else what sort of boyfriend would I be if I’m not spoiling my darling.” 

[xielianlover2]

I want to talk about unconditional forgiveness and how crucial it is for Xie Lian to have someone who offers it to him with no strings attached.

Throughout Xie Lian's life, he experiences numerous falls from grace, each one more devastating than the last. He goes from being a beloved crown prince and a renowned god to a figure of scorn and bad luck. The weight of his past and the suffering he has endured often make him question his own worthiness and ability to protect others.

Which is why, for Xie Lian, Hua Cheng's forgiveness is a lifeline. Knowing that there is someone who believes in him, no matter what, allows Xie Lian to forgive himself and move forward. In a world where divine beings are often portrayed as infallible, we see by the end, that pretty much every god has their own flaws and that even those with immense power are not immune to making grievous errors in judgment.

I think Hua Cheng’s forgiveness also symbolizes a deeper, transformative love. It’s a love that goes beyond mere acceptance; it’s a commitment, a promise, a vow to stand by Xie Lian no matter what, and that's what makes his love so rare and beautiful. It's such a stark contrast to the judgment Xie Lian has faced from his people and other gods. While his own friends basically turned their backs on him, Hua Cheng remained his most loyal and devoted believer. His cheerleader, for a lack of better words. Hua Cheng embodies the truest form of compassion– understanding and embracing someone wholly.

Hua Cheng's love and acceptance allow Xie Lian to feel seen and understood in a way that no one else has ever provided. This kind of forgiveness is not about overlooking mistakes or pretending they didn't happen; rather, it's about recognizing the entirety of a person's journey and choosing to embrace them regardless.

Hua Cheng's acceptance allows Xie Lian to be vulnerable about his deepest fears and struggles. It also gives him the ability to ask for something he needs for himself:

"All right... don't say any more. I get it... but... but don't be like this, all right? San Lang? I... I've borrowed so much spiritual power from you that I haven't repaid. And I'm not done telling you all the things that I wanted to say; there's still so much. It's been so long since anyone listened to me talk. Won't you stay? Don't.. don't do this. I won't be able to take it. Twice, it's happened twice already-I really don't want there to be a third time!"

In this moment, Xie Lian’s plea reveals how extremely isolating his life has been. He has been perpetually misunderstood, and I believe that even before his first ascension, he has always felt profoundly alone. Throughout his life, Xie Lian has been surrounded by people who either see him through the lens of his past or view him as a mere symbol; a divine god, so therefore flawless and someone beyond approach. It strips away his humanity and the complexities of his true self, unable to be seen as a person with real feelings and imperfections. Even his Feng Xin and Mu Qing put him up in a pedestal, and no matter what happened, no matter how understandable it was, everyone still left him in the end.

Then, to have someone say they understand his everything, from his wisdom to his foolishness, and then also wholeheartedly support him and unconditionally love him? That they never, ever left him, that they've always been there, constant and unchanging in their love, in their devotion? That must have felt life-changing to him. Something groundbreaking and pivotal.

He is essentially begging for the one person who understands him completely—and who accepts him unconditionally despite everything—not to leave him. When Xie Lian begs Hua Cheng to stay, it is not just a request for physical presence but a desperate need for emotional reassurance and acceptance. For Hua Cheng is Xie Lian's safe haven where he can express his deepest fears and unspoken desires, a place of solace and affirmation that he has long been missing from everyone else.

[a-queer-seminarian]

I made these charts to provide an easy reference guide for comparing the four Gospels! Feel free to share around wherever.

I think tumblr's crunching up these images so visit here for crisper versions (plus they're table format instead of png format).

Alt text version is under the readmore, necessarily formatted slightly differently but with all the same info.

TEXT ONLY / NON CHART VERSION:

Images show two charts, each credited to Avery Arden with a note that the material largely derives from the abridged version of Raymond E. Brown's An Introduction to the New Testament.

Chart 1: Comparing the Gospels, Part 1 – historical context

Mark

When: 

Late 60s/early 70s

Who:

Jewish

Multi-lingual — peppers Aramaic into the Greek

Where:

Rome or Syria (clearly unfamiliar with Palestinian geography)

To whom:

Mainly to Gentiles new to Christianity who were experiencing persecution

Priorities:

Encourage audience and show them how their suffering fit into Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God

Matthew:

When: 

Late 70s/80s

Who: 

Jewish 

Also multi-lingual, with Aramaic phrases;

Greek more polished than Mark’s

Where:

Probably in or near Antioch (in Syria); possibly Galilee

To Whom: 

Mainly to well-educated Jews who were debating internally about how Jewish tradition fit into following Jesus

Priorities: 

Promote Messiah Jesus who fulfills audience’s Jewish scriptures

inform church life and structure

Luke

When:

mid-to-late-80s

Who:

Gentile (possibly Jewish convert)

Educated Greek “historian” familiar with Septuagint; no use of Aramaic; expert use of Greek

Where:

Probably Greece; possibly Syria; also unfamiliar with Palestine

To whom:

Mainly to wealthy Gentiles influenced by Paul’s mission; living in an urban setting

Priorities:

Promote Isaiah-like Jesus; challenge audience to live out faith more actively (e.g., by redistributing wealth)

John

When: 

90s / as late as 110

Who:

Jewish 

Student(s) of “the Beloved Disciple” (the “Johannine school”)

Where:

Traditionally Ephesus; possibly Syria

To whom:

To a mixed crowd of Jews & Gentiles, at a time when tensions between Jews who did & didn’t follow Jesus had reached an all-time high

Priorities:

Promote Jesus’s divinity; strengthen unity in a group increasingly defining itself as separate from Jewish ones

Chart 2: Comparing the Gospels, Part 2 — Thematic Content

Mark

Emphasizes Jesus as:

Jesus as miracle-worker / healer; human being 

Unafraid to depict human limitations & emotions in Jesus

Other defining attributes / content:

Focuses on Jesus’s actions, e.g., his miracles; as well as on his suffering and death

Originally ended with the empty tomb & fear; no resurrection relief

The disciples often fail to understand Jesus; Jesus is frequently secretive about his identity

Matthew

Emphasizes Jesus as:

A Moses figure, Messiah, Son of God; teacher

Removes descriptions that make Jesus seem limited, naïve

Other defining attributes / content:

Beatitudes (ch. 5); judgment of the “sheep and goats” (ch. 25); 

Instructions for intracommunal relationships; forgiveness; “Great Commission” (ch. 28)

Polishes Mark’s depiction of the disciples to present them more favorably (esp. Peter as the “rock” of the church)

Luke

Emphasizes Jesus as:

Self-aware Son of God; prophet of the poor

Removes descriptions that make Jesus seem emotional, harsh, or weak

Other defining attributes / content:

Beatitudes (ch. 6) — with added “woes”; frequent warnings about risks of wealth

Also depicts disciples more favorably

Favorable depictions of tax collectors as sinners on the way to redemption; 

negative views of Pharisees as rejectors of Jesus, juxtaposed with stories of Gentiles who express faith

John

Emphasizes Jesus as:

Divine, the Word / “I Am” made flesh; lamb of God

Often misunderstood by disciples & crowds due to his use of figurative language

Other defining attributes / content:

Poetic format, full of symbolism; similarities to Gnostic texts that arose in the same era

Lots of “testimony” and “signs”

Despite Jesus & his disciples being Jewish, John depicts “the Jews” as being against Jesus; his Jesus says things like “It is written in your law…”

[floatyflowers]

Dark! Percy Jackson Reverse Harem x Reader|| Chapter Four

<<< Chapter Three

You tried to fight them with your hardest, but you barely land hits on any of them.

But the sword is hard for you to handle and your hits are sloppy.

In the end, you got injured.

No, Ares's children didn't harm you, you cut yourself up with the sword by accident.

However, Percy fought them all off and your team won capture the flag.

Annabeth shoved Percy in the water where your doubts were confirmed as Poseidon claimed him as his son.

After the game, Chiron called you over to give you a letter from your mother.

For some reason you were so scared to open it, feeling like your mother was declaring in the letter that she disowns you and doesn't want to see you ever again.

But, it is the opposite of that.

My Sweet Angel,

I apologize for appearing like a coward, but I needed to get you to the camp.

However...I couldn't bring myself to enter the place because it brought bad memories for me.

I hate it, but I know it's necessary for your safety.

And you must understand that I would never be ashamed of you, I'm quiet proud of you.

After all, I was in your position when I was young.

PS. Your stepfather sends you his love and will prepare you all of your favorite food when you return home.

From your beloved mother,

Calista

You let out a happy laugh, finally feeling at ease that you misunderstood the whole situation.

Your mother loves you, but wait...

...She is a demigod.

But what do that make you?

Also who is her godly parent.

You will ask Chiron about it later, he must know who he is.

Suddenly you hear knocking on the front of your cabin door, you go to open it only to see Annabeth.

You smile at her cheerful and shyly but invite her inside.

Once she is inside, you begin apologizing.

"I'm sorry about my performance, I swear I tried my best but-"

She cuts you off.

"No need to worry, you did amazing on your first try"

Your expression brightens up.

"Thank you"

"No problem, girls stick together, am I right?" Annabeth says with a smile.

"Yes...would you like to stay over and chit chat for a bit?"

"Sure!"

And that's how you made a first female best friend in camp.

°°°

"I chose you for the quest, you cannot say no to it"

"Well, the quest is going to fail, did you not see my fighting skill? It's horrible!"

Percy as usual barged into your cabin to inform you of the quest.

"Come on, Grover and Annabeth will be there too, there is nothing to fear"

Your eyes grow big upon hearing the name 'Grover'  as a smile appears on your face.

"Grover is here? Is he also a demigod?"

°°°

"You are a Satyr?"

You tilt your head, looking down at the tan skinned boy's legs.

"Yes...weird, I know"

"No, it's not weird at all, actually it is kind of cute" you say.

Grover smiles and blushes but Percy walks between you both, to break the nearness.

"We need to focus on the quest" Percy asserts with jealousy.

"Is that Thalia?" you ask Annabeth as she says goodbye to the tree.

"Yes"

"She’s really gonna miss that tree, huh?"

Percy says sarcastically, looking with envy as you interact with Annabeth, also patting the tree gently, saying something he can't hear.

He doesn't want you to interact with anyone.

If he can lock you up, he will do it.

"When Annabeth first arrived here with Thalia and Luke, they were being chased by monsters. Agents of Hades. Sisters. Furies."

"Mrs. Dodds?" Percy points out.

"Yes! One was our algebra teacher. Alecto. Thalia turned back to fight to buy her friends some time. Her satyr protector tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen. So, at the last moment... Zeus intervened to save her life and... changed her form."

"The most powerful being in the universe’s best idea to save his daughter’s life... was to turn her into a tree?"

Percy mocks after his friend finishes explaining as you and Annabeth walk back to them.

"She was the bravest demigod I ever knew. She fought valiantly, and she met a hero’s fate." Annabeth defends.

"She met a pinecone’s fate."

"Percy" you exclaim, piniching his arm.

"What? I'm telling the truth"

You sigh in anger, before turning to Annabeth with a gentle expression and say.

"If I ever meet Zeus, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind"

Grover nods his head slowly at you.

"Yeah, so he can strike you down with lighting bolt"

"Can't strike me down with something he lost"

You say playfully walking ahead of them.

"She is going to get us killed" Annabeth mutter

"And I don't mind dying for her" Percy respond firmly, following after you like a lovesick puppy.

°°°

Calista walks around the house, cleaning every corner and making sure everything is in order.

She developed an OCD, ever since she became pregnant with her only daughter, you.

The demigod woman feared that all her past relationships with the gods might come back and slap her in the face through you.

She would die if something happened to you, that's why she thought it was the best decision to send you to Camp Half-Blood.

While doing house work, the doorbell rings, she walk over to the front door and opens it.

But once she sees who is on the other side, she tries to close it, but the person stops her and shoves his way in.

"This is no good way to greet me, young lady"

"What are you doing here?" Calista demands in fear.

"Well, I came to take you back to the underworld"

Hades answers back with a smirk.

"I'm not going anywhere, my daughter-"

"Don't worry, I sent someone to get her, so we can all become a big happy family"

Chapter Five>>>

[sitronsangthoughts]

You write a series of books about a fantastical, magical community. The community is plagued by prejudice. Some people in it wish to exclude those who haven't been part of it since birth. As this ultra-conservative movement worms its way into the media and government, the hate campaign escalates to systematic attempts to eradicate the "undesirables". The heroes of the story have to fight against these old and cruel ideas to make the community safe for everyone, regardless of their childhood or background. In fact, your self-insert character (an audience favorite) is one of the people targeted by the discrimination and violence. The story deals heavily with the dangers of political propaganda, with how a biased media can skew the truth and vilify those who get too critical in the eyes of the masses, and how those who are different in some way are so often misunderstood, even feared. The books are an unprecedented success, near-universally beloved for their fundamental message: the circumstances of your birth do not determine who you are or where you belong. Forge your own path, stand up for the downtrodden and excluded, and choose love over hate.

Then you go on to become the face of the movement against basic rights for trans people.

[scarletcomalies]

when the storm subsides

WandaNat x Fem Reader

Word count: 4,367

Warnings: 18+ content, neglect, stimulation, edging, spanking, degradation, humiliation, praising, masturbation, oral (w. and r receiving), strap-on (r. receiving), face riding (w. receiving), squirting, fluffy ending. Mommy!Wanda and Daddy!Nat.

You had taken real pains to make your little affair with Wanda Maximoff something more. The day you gave up, you gained more than you thought you'd lose.

It was one of those nights when you felt alone in a crowded room. The noise of the people around you only intensified the feeling of isolation.

You looked around, searching for a familiar face, but even the only face you knew seemed like a stranger. You wished for her to talk to you, to share your thoughts, but the fear of another rejection or being misunderstood kept you from reaching out.

With Wanda Maximoff, you began to feel increasingly defeated in your attempts to catch her attention. Despite going out of your way to make conversation and engage with her, you found that her eyes and interest were always drawn to others who spoke to her. Over time, you began to question whether your efforts were worth it, or if you should simply move on and focus your attention elsewhere.

The conversation among the people present revolved around materialistic things. They bragged about their properties, discussed how much their sales had risen in the past months and shared their plans to increase them even more. You noticed that most of them were middle-aged, almost like the woman sitting beside you.

It was surprising to realize that your beloved powerful witch, who possessed a higher state of consciousness, had these friends who were evidently blinded by ambition and were very poor in spirit.

One particular woman made you feel insecure. Throughout the whole evening, she seemed to be in between you and the woman you loved so much. It was as if she knew how to project her confidence and charm in just the right way to make you feel inferior, and she was succeeding. Wanda laughed louder than usual at her jokes, she touched the other woman's forearm or leg at every opportunity, and this other woman at the same time would give you a teasing look whenever you were ignored by Wanda. You felt like you were constantly competing with her, even though you knew deep down that it was a battle you could never win.

The last straw was when she spoke to Wanda's ear, and when her eyes fell on you, she gave you a teasing wink. This small gesture was enough to make your blood boil.

"Wanda, I wanna go," you protested in the Sokovian's ear, once the woman you knew as Natasha Romanoff finally turned away from her. "I'm bored, and this whole evening you've barely turned to look at me."

"They're my friends from High School, do you have any idea how long I haven't seen them? Please let me enjoy this moment."

You tried to put on a brave face and hide your disappointment, but it was hard. You had hoped that this evening would be a chance to meet Wanda’s friends, perhaps connect with her in a more meaningful way, but instead, you felt like an outsider.

"Why did you invite me here if it was to have me as a seat filler? You should have come alone," you snapped. "And alone you will go."

You took your bag and rose from your seat at the dinner table. Before leaving, you made sure to say thank you to the hostess for her hospitality, which was ironic given that the hostess was none other than the red-haired woman.

You decided to go to the bathroom upstairs, and take a moment to yourself before making your way home. Even the bathroom was as large as the main bedroom in an ordinary house. But of course it was Wanda's wealthy friends, they somehow felt the need to live in such an unnecessarily large mansion even if they were by their own.

It was all so difficult.

Wanda would treat you as her special girl, the best thing in her life, but only when you were pleasuring her at that time. It was during moments like these that you realized that her affirmations were not sincere, at least not outside of the carnal area.

Maybe this was a sign. Wanda did not see you in the way you desired: as someone willing to give not only your body, but your soul as well. You didn’t simply want her to hold you after she's finished using you for her own pleasure; you wanted her to count on you on her worst days. You wanted to be the first person she thought of when she wanted to share anything at all. You longed to be included in her plans, to be part of her daily activities, no matter how banal they were.

You had been trying so hard to impress her, for example, with new outfits, but it seemed like she just didn’t care unless she took them off you right after. You felt like you have done everything you possibly could, but it was still not enough. She gave you so many signs that maybe you were not the right person for her, at least not emotionally. She may have enjoyed being intimate with you, nothing beyond that. In the end, this was partially your fault, or at least you felt that way. You were too much of a non-conformist, and that could have been part of the problem, as you expected more from what Wanda was willing to offer.

You tried to hold back the tears were very close to spill from your eyes. You had hoped that things would be eventually be different with Wanda, that she would see you and love you for who you were, but it all pointed to the fact that you were just another accessory for her to show off.

You spent about ten minutes in there, trying to build up the courage to face Wanda and cut all ties with her before she could hurt you again.

But you knew it was in vain, when you heard a few knocks on the door. You knew it was Wanda, and you realized that you would melt into those green eyes as soon as you opened that door.

To your surprise, it was not Wanda who stood on the other side of the door. It was the woman who was the main reason of your mental breakdown.

You gulped slightly.

At least with Wanda, you knew what to expect. But with this woman, you had no idea.

"What's the matter, little girl, are you in the middle of a tantrum because your Mommy ignored you?" Her voice was soft and gentle, but it had a mocking tone.

"I know this makes you happy. Just with little touches she seemed to be whoring herself out to you, so be my guest," you were about to get out of there, resigned to the fact that it would be a long drive home where you would have to invoke every divine force in existence to protect you from an accident from driving in this state.

You were about to exit the bathroom, but she quickly raised her arm to create a barrier to stop you from passing.

"I wanted to get her attention, yes, but also yours,” she confessed. “She is very busy, and may not have the time to give you the care you deserve. That's where I come in."

Your eyes widened like plates, demonstrating how taken aback you were. Natasha was stunningly beautiful, so it was easy for you to be left in awe.

And it was as if your body made an action of its own, disconnecting itself from your brain, when you automatically tugged at the lapel of her jacket and your lips crashed with hers.

She responded eagerly, your mouth opening to allow her tongue to explore the depths of your cavity. It was a battle that neither you or her seemed to win, it was just an endless exchange of kisses, each one deeper and more intense than the last.

"Take me to your room," you spoke between gasps. She pulled away briefly to look into your eyes, and Natasha's sharp nails prickled your skin as she grabbed your cheeks a bit too hard.

"I'm not taking you to my room, I'm taking you to a room," she corrected, and released you roughly.

The room in question was still dim, illuminated only by a soft red glow that emanated from some led lights that were placed on the ceiling and the floor respectively. As your eyes adjusted to the light, the first thing you saw was a queen size bed in the center of the room, its sheets and blankets neatly made. In front of the bed, almost taking up the entire wall, was a large mirror. It reflected the red light in a way that made it seem as though the mirror itself was on fire. You understood immediately why Natasha would chose to put such a large and ostentatious mirror in her bedroom.

Natasha closed the door behind you, and suddenly, she grabbed you by the neck, her sharp nails digging into your skin again. Initially, the pain caused you to gasp, but then you realized that you loved the sensation of her touch.

Finally, she placed her hand in that area and pushed you backwards until you were pinned against the wall next to the bed.

Everything about Natasha was intoxicating, from the way she moved to the way she spoke. She always maintained a neutral tone, which differed from her harsh and straightforward actions. Though you didn’t complained, you knew at this point that actions spoke higher than words.

She pulled up the fabric of your dress, which reached a little above your knees. When it was sufficiently lifted, she slid it up your waist, your torso, and your arms, which you lifted by inertia. Finally, the garment was on the floor, leaving you only in your shoes and bra. And no, you weren't wearing any panties, which was the first thing the redhead noticed.

"What a nasty little bitch you are," she snapped, shaking her head. "I was going to be nice to you, but a whore like you deserves no mercy,” you could feel her staring at you, taking in every inch of your body.

She placed her hand on your chest to keep you in place, and she bent down to reach the drawer next to the bed. Subsequently, she pulled out a rope from there.

The redhead then ordered you to sit with your back resting on the bed headboard, only to take your wrists with a peculiar aggressiveness, and tied them in such a way that there was no way you could defend yourself.

It was very evident that she cared very little about your feelings. She had a deliberate intention to establish herself as your superior, and you were only a subordinate who followed her orders. The most frustrating part of this all was that you could feel the heat between your legs growing with each passing second, for you were completely at her mercy.

She then kissed you with an intense and almost animalistic hunger that left you breathless. You could feel the pressure of her lips against yours, and every once in a while, she would bite down on your lower lip with a strength that made you gasp in pleasure.

Her mouth slowly descended onto your neck, the warmth of her breath making you feel vulnerable. You felt like she had known you for years, like she had done this before, because she knew all of your weaknesses perfectly. It was as if she was reading your mind, knowing exactly what you wanted and needed, as if she had been given a detailed instruction on how to treat you, as if someone else had shared your deepest desires and secrets with her.

Her fingers made their way all over your body, until she reached that weak spot that was desperately throbbing for her.

"Ahhh… fuck y-yes!" You exclaimed, arching your back after feeling an exquisite electric current run from this area, all the way up to your stomach.

“Needy and foul-mouted,” she giggled. Her touch was gentle yet insistent, bringing you closer and closer to the edge of ecstasy.

Her movements became more deliberate, more focused, and you could notice the desire building within her as well. With each circular motion of her fingers, you felt yourself falling deeper and deeper under her spell, lost in a world of pure pleasure.

The redhead continued to caress and stimulate you, making it evident that the pleasure of your body was her top priority at the moment. Her fingers felt more and more lubricated with your fluids, making you a mess of moans that was almost humiliating. However, you didn’t care, everything was perfect, the intensity just right.

As you gazed into the mirror, you could see your own reflection staring back at you. You let out shameless moans as Natasha was above you with her head buried in your neck. Your arms were positioned above your head, your wrists bound to the headboard. All whilst Natasha's right hand was actively touching you, heightening the pleasure you were experiencing.

Your body began to tense up even more, and the heat rose to your cheeks, it was too much to bear that you could feel a lump forming in your throat. You knew you were on the verge of the climax. Despite the fact that she had not yet inserted her fingers, the older woman had managed to stimulate you in all the right places with just her touch alone.

"Mmm, someone's going to cum," the woman said, her eyes fixed on your body's reaction. "But I told you I wouldn't have mercy on you."

She withdrew her fingers.

“No! No! No!” You exclaimed desperately, your tone carried all the disbelief and frustration you were feeling. This woman was twisted and evil, how could she?

As she got out of bed, you hoped she would grab something to provide some relief, but your hopes were dashed as she exited the room, leaving you laying there angry and unsatisfied.

You then noticed the mirror across the room, which suddenly took on a different hue. Your heart sank as you realized you could see what -or rather who- was on the other side.

To your shock, it was a see-thru mirror! And on the other side was Wanda. She was lying on a similar bed, completely naked and not tied up like you. She appeared to have just achieved her first orgasm, unlike you who had not reached that point yet.

So Wanda had seen it all.

You didn’t know how to feel, whether furious or aroused, as you realized that you had been manipulated by both women.

As Wanda disappeared from view, you were left alone to contemplate the situation. But your thoughts were interrupted when the door opened to reveal Wanda dressed in a bridal robe, and Natasha was standing next to her, grabbing her by the waist.

They were both stunning in their own way, Natasha seemed tough and was indeed tough, on the other side, Wanda held a sweet façade that could be easily shattered into a sadistic being. This has happened on several occasions, and given the expression on her face, this could be one of those occasions.

"Look at your slutty little girl, letting me fuck her without your permission. What are you going to do, Miss Maximoff?" Natasha provoked her, and those words were of great terror to you.

As you stood there, she silently approached you with a determined look in her eyes. Her jaw was tight, and with each step, her face grew more intense.

You expected the worst to happen, since you were in a situation that was perfect for her to do whatever she wanted to do to you, without you being able to defend yourself.

However, she reached out and released the ties that bound you to the bed.

She proceeded to remove your bra and heels, and grabbed you until you were on all fours. It was a rough maneuver that left you feeling exposed and vulnerable to both women. As she knelt behind you, you could feel the fabric of her dressing gown brush against your skin.

She leaned forward, and grabbed your arms to place them behind you to tie you up again.

You heard the door close again, and you knew it was Natasha who did it. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm your nerves and think clearly.

Wanda's hand caressed the skin of your ass, her touch was firm as you have always known it.

“Look at how pathetic she is, surrendering herself at just a simple touch,” she addressed Natasha, and the latter hummed in agreement.

Wanda stopped stroking you and you felt her palm drop hard, spanking you aggressively.

It was clear that Wanda was angry, and you could sense that she was taking it out on you. Her intentions were obvious from the way she was acting.

“No, she deserves worse,” Natasha commented, and before you could even question what it was, you felt a whip with a thick belt. It surprised you, but instead of pain, it brought a tingling sensation throughout your body.

“Count!” Wanda grabbed a handful of your hair and tugged on it. You started to think that she believed that harsh treatment instead of simple words was the only way to get through to you.

As you looked up, you noticed that Natasha was watching the scene intently. .

You closed your eyes willingly this time, and braced yourself for the whip, “One!”

When you sensed another whip coming, you took the deepest breath your body could allow you at that instant. "Aahh, t-two," you squeaked this time.

You could also hear moaning in the distance, that's when you realized this was something of a spectacle for Natasha’s pleasure as well.

"Three," all this was sweet agony, and you were drawn into a darkest part of your psyche that surrendered to this most pleasurable sensation.

“Four…” your fists were clenching behind your back.

“Five…” you jumped, this was perhaps the strongest one.

“Six…” your legs weakened, and Wanda held your hips to keep you in place.

“Seven…” a couple of tears started welling up in your eyes.

“Eight…” your voice could barely be heard.

“Nine…”

“Ten…”

She stopped, and turned you over so that you could be facing her. In the midst of all the anger and lust her green irises projected, you could find a hint of appreciation in them.

With your legs spread a little wide around her waist, she removed her dressing gown, finally giving you access to a view of her beautiful body.

She untied your wrists.

Finally, you were free to touch her as you had so longed to do. She leaned over you, kissing you deeply and passionately, her lips lingering on yours before moving down to explore your jawline and neck. Her kisses were hot and intense, and you let small gasps of satisfaction as she trailed her lips and tongue over your skin.

But the pleasure didn't stop there. She descended on your breasts, licking and sucking your nipples with a fierce intensity that left you writhing with delight. As she mercilessly pinched one nipple, she ran her hot tongue over the other, alternating every once in a while.

And then you glanced at Natasha, watching from an armchair a few feet away, naked and touching herself as she watched the scene unfold. The sight of her only added to the intensity of the moment, as the wetness between your legs grew more intense.

Her lips pressed against your belly, leaving a trail of fiery kisses behind. As she moved lower, her mouth found the spot where you needed her the most, and her tongue sent electric waves of delectation throughout your body.

“Mmm… right- right there!” Your voice was unintentionally raspy, as you placed your legs on her shoulders and tangled your fingers in her hair, pushing her head slightly as you were grinding yourself shamelessly on her face. “Yes, Mommy!”

“Fuck…” Natasha’s voice made itself present, as her moans joined yours in a choir-like manner.

You watched her intently, noticing in awe as her long, drenched and shiny fingers were coming in and out of her cunt in an exquisite rhythm.

“Daddy’s about to cum,” Natasha groaned, as her movements increased.

The tension that had been building inside you was finally released, as you cried out Wanda’s name. You lost yourself in the sensations that only she could bring, and the wetness that had been building inside you was finally released in a rush of intense pleasure.

"Oh, my good girl," Wanda mused, and you subsequently noticed that Natasha had finished shortly after you.

She bent down again to clean up the mess she had made of you, but Natasha spoke up, "No, let me finish what I started," she got up from the chair, and walked over to you both.

She grabbed Wanda by her jawline and planted a deep kiss on her lips, so that Natasha could have a taste of you as well. She looked at you, "Malyshka, do you think your Mommy deserves a reward for pleasuring you?"

“Yes, Daddy,” you nodded, eager to accept with whatever was coming.

Wanda smiled widely, “So good for us. I told you, she’s a good girl,” she praised you.

She shifted, and carefully, knelt just above your face. She slowly dropped her full weight on you. You were able to taste her hot fluids in a matter of seconds, and you set to work on her.

You felt something new ramming your insides, and that made you tense in response. This was nothing like you had taken from Wanda before.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Natasha cooed sweetly. “Take what I give you, I promise it’s going to become your favorite thing.”

She firmly took your waist, her thumbs slightly squeezing your pelvis while she gradually buried herself deep inside you.

In response, you buried your nails deep on Wanda’s thighs, earning a small mumble from her. However, that didn’t stop you from eating her out, on the contrary, you were taking it out on her, which made her moan louder.

Natasha then found her pace, and you could hear the nasty sounds your wet cunt was making, which didn’t go unnoticed by both women either.

“Fuck, your little girl is taking me so good, Maximoff,” she exclaimed with pride.

“Mmm… I can tell! She’s taking it out on me,” Wanda panted.

Soon enough, Natasha increased her speed, and you let out muffled moans as your breath quickened. Just as she promised, it became your favorite thing, since your fluids were pouring out, and the fabric of the blanket was beginning to soak under you.

“I’m… I’m… so close!” Wanda exclaimed, whilst you were prevented from moaning, as she choked you with her inner thighs.

“You’ll wait for her,” Natasha commanded.

“Please… I don’t think I…-”

“You’ll wait for her,” Natasha reiterated.

You shut your eyes tight, the only sound that could be heard was Wanda’s slutty moans, and Natasha's pelvis crashing against your ass, creating that familiar obscene sound. Her movements were expertly timed, and her touch tantalizingly rough.

You eventually felt the coil in your lower abdomen losing itself for the second time, as you had just experienced yet another orgasm, this time with a new woman. Natasha had been eager to please you and had certainly succeeded in doing so.

Wanda did as Natasha ordered her, and just as you were finishing, Wanda climaxed, drenching your face with her own pleasure. The feeling of her warm juices all over you was both thrilling and satisfying.

Both redheads lay on either side of you. The room was humid, and you all had sweat trickling down your foreheads while some of your tousled hair sticked in there.

Wanda's fingers started caressing your scalp, "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry for not showing you how much I care about you. I've been so caught up in my own past that I didn't realize how much I was neglecting you. But that's going to change. From now on, I'm going to give you the love and attention that you deserve."

Hearing those words felt as if a long and arduous battle had finally come to an end, and all of the doubts and uncertainties that had been plaguing your mind were suddenly swept away. You finally could discard all the versions of yourself you had shown her for her to notice you, because for the first time, she had finally assured you that she loved you for you. You didn’t have to try that hard, not anymore. This was the start of something new, something beautiful.

You looked into Wanda's eyes, "Thank you, my witchy,” your tone came out more emotional than you intended to. But it didn’t matter, it was a moment of pure vulnerability and honesty, and it felt liberating to finally hear her say those words.

Natasha, who was also there, smiled and stroked both of your cheeks tenderly. "My beautiful girls," she said, "I hope we can meet again soon and continue to share these precious moments together."

That day, Wanda and you said goodbye to the visitors who had no idea what had happened upstairs, already very drunk and immersed in their conversations. After returning home, Wanda confessed to you that she had been intimate with Natasha Romanoff in previous occasions, but you didn’t blame her, that same night, you also felt a certain attraction growing within you. Therefore, you and Wanda agreed this wouldn’t be the first and last time you would be having encounters with Natasha.

And so, as the weeks went by, the three of you went on several dates, and created all kinds of memories. You enjoyed spontaneity at its fullest, no expectations, and overall, you felt special and loved by both women, who made you feel noticed and appreciated.

It didn’t take long for your love for them to grow, and you cherished every moment you spent together.

Looking back on that night, it felt like the world was about to end. Little did you know that it was actually starting.

[yuri-is-online]

Well Maybe the Octopus was Being a Dick! (Or Tsunotarou tries to do Yu a solid but he misunderstood a joke)

A/N- I am so sorry this is my first post I swear I have real writing ON GOD- EDIT- Made a part 2 with the other guys (x)

Various x Reader

"Human courtship rituals are truly as bizarre as they are fascinating."  Tsunotarou muses as you fight with your sleep deprived brain to remember how you even got on to this topic.  Today hadn't been a good day, Grim had been in a bad mood, Trein had popped a quiz on you, and Deuce had somehow managed to land you both in detention because he screwed up a potion.  By the time you managed to drag yourself back to Ramshackle, you were so tired you were practically falling over, only to find Tsunotarou pouting outside your gate.  You didn’t really have it in you to tell him no, so you’d stumbled around the woods outside your dorm for a few moments talking about… courtship?  Apparently?  You could have sworn you were just talking about some anime Idia suggested you watch.  “I never would have expected watching fish to be such a fundamental step in one’s relationship."

“Yeah there’s a thing in my world about it too.”  you say thinking about a visual novel you’d played once (or was it thirty?) times.  “Some sort of bit about a date where you go to an aquarium and when your person points out fishes they like you jump into the tank to fight them for their affection.” You blink and Tsunotarou suddenly fills your vision, staring intensely into your eyes.”

“Child of man, are you serious about this?”  he asks, and you just blink in response.  You’re pretty sure you are missing something here.

“Uh, yeah?  It was pretty funny I guess.”  you say, extremely confused.  Tsunotarou simply nods with a look of utmost seriousness on his face.

“I see, how very interesting you are child of man.  Fear not, I will make sure you receive the courtship you deserve.”  The only response you can think to give is a blank stare, but Tsunotarou is already gone and apparently on a mission.

“Fully intends to do combat for your hand but gets too distracted”- Malleus

He really wants to do this the right way, if fighting the fish in the aquarium tank will show the extent of his devotion then beloved, you need only point at the offending article and it will be turned to cosmic dust.  But you’re just too ethereal in the aquarium lighting and he ends up completely forgetting his objective in coming here and follows you around like a love struck puppy the entire time.  Whoops, objective failed successfully.

"Claims to know it's a joke, fights anyway"-Jade, Leona

Look, he knows there's no way what Malleus is claiming is even remotely true.  Your world might not have any magic, but it sounds pretty “normal” by human standards.  Fighting fish for someone’s affection?  Un-fucking-likely.  Jade enjoys being a mild inconvenience to everyone around him and Malleus really has just given him the best excuse to be an absolute menace.  He’s responding to everyone’s complaints with a put upon sigh, lamenting what drastic lengths he has to go to for your affection.  Leona’s more the type to directly tease you about it; he shredded Azul’s contracts and left him a crying mess, that’s got to count as beating up a fish right?  He’s just waiting on your response, herbivore.  

“Shrimp heaven really is now!”- FLOYD        

Doesn’t even think twice about it.  He’s already obsessed with picking fights with strong people anyway, now you’re telling him he gets to beat people up and win shrimpy’s affection at the same time?  Floyd’s kicking up his feet and giggling a little too much for anyone’s comfort, almost like he’s misinterpreted fish to mean friends.  Please prefect, Ace is begging you, just give your eel some kisses so he knows you're already his or direct him towards some actual fish before they are fuCkING UNDER ATTACK-

“Claims to know it’s a joke, overthinks anyway”- Jack, Azul, Riddle    

Ok ok look, just hear him out on this one.  Some cultures do place a significance on ritual combat to win a prospective partner’s affection.  Sure he doesn’t THINK you come from a culture like that, but maybe you do and just haven’t mentioned it this whole time and that’s why his obvious not so obvious attempts at flirtation have gone over your head.  Because he wasn’t offering to fight fish for you.  No now that he tries to say that out loud it sounds even more ridiculous BUT WHAT IF- repeat ad nauseum until he timidly (Jack, Riddle), slyly (Azul) just asks you about it and can’t decide who he’s more embarrassed for: Malleus or himself.

“Brings you actual fish”- Trey, Rook, Ruggie      

He has enough of a head on his shoulders to realize Malleus is probably misinterpreting something that was meant to be funny, but hey, it’s given him an idea.  For Rook, the idea of hunting wild game to provide you with nourishment is an idea he’s toyed with more than once.  If Roi du Dragon deems him worthy of advice, the least he can do as an appreciator of beauty is take it.  Trey’s already a fan of puns and dad jokes, and he knows A LOT of ones about fish.  Probably invites you over to help him bake it with the excuse of prepping for an unbirthday party and shamelessly teases you the whole time.  Ruggie’s the only normal man here I’m sorry to say, he just gets the idea to take you fishing as a date.  He gets to spend time with you AND supplement his diet, it’s a win-win situation.

“COMPLETELY ignores the fish thing and rags on your sleep schedule”- Vil

He’s not mad, he’s just disappointed spudling.  Really you need to be taking better care of yourself, how else are you supposed to blossom into the beautiful flower he knows you are if you aren’t getting those full 8 hours honey?  Tells you to be thankful he isn’t being unreasonable while he’s waltzing through your dorm cursing every energy drink he can get his hands on.  He will brute force your circadian rhythm back into shape so help him GOD.

[kinetic-elaboration]

May 15: Jasper/Maya, Open All Night

Maya and Jasper, Greek Gods AU, in the same universe as my fic Beloved Feared Misunderstood, written in about 50 minutes

~1200 words

Inspired by this post.

cw: generically described violence; smoking

*

All her life, Maya has been known as a good girl. One who’s smart enough not to involve herself with the gods.

They are fickle beings, and not to be trusted.

This warning, resonant in her ear, the night she passes by Jasper's theater and finds one of his acolytes outside, blowing smoke. She recognizes the woman as a maenad, not from her face, but from the scarred and tattered look about her, not there in marks on her skin or rips in her clothes but in the manic, violent energy that radiates around her. There in the spark of her eyes and the angle of her lips. A woman who’s been taken apart and then put back together, and all the seams still show. She's edged out in pink light from the neon sign in the window.

OPEN ALL NIGHT.

"Hey."

Maya stops up short, all but even with her. In this part of town, the streetlights don't always work. She's in a swath of near-black shadow, the puddles in the sidewalk a sheen of fluorescent pink, the closed door of the theater pulsating pink and red and blue around its edges. The maenad is staring at her, staring, perhaps, all the way through her, that same curled smile and her eyes wide and glinting. She wears fingerless fishnet gloves, and the fingernails of the hand that holds her cigarette keep clacking together, the thumb against the third finger. Habitual and slow.

She points her chin up, slowly. "What are you doing out here?"

"Going home."

"Awful late for that."

She shrugs her shoulders up around her ears. What she's heard of the Maenads: they've given their whole lives to him, god of madness and festivity and wine. Long nights of ecstasy, delirious in their worship. She's seen less devoted followers back from a single night at his club or the theater, blossoming purple bruises across skin, dizzy with memories they can neither reach nor contain. They rushed the stage. They acted upon it. They threw themselves against the floor, raving, screaming.

This woman seems so calm. Quiet. She holds herself so still that she seems an apparition out of smoke.

"I work at the hospital," Maya answers. "Late shift."

Billow of smoke out of the corner of her mouth, scent of something deep and bitter. Maya's eyes water.

For days now, the sunsets have been bloody and purple, stacks of deep gray clouds tinged purple on their undersides, massacred royalty. Everyone says he's in a dark mood, hiding in the gutter-end of summer.

"Wanna meet a god?"

She drops her bag somewhere on the floor just past the threshold. Inside is dark and thick and blurred. The maenad drops her cigarette on the stone floor and crushes it out beneath her heel.

Deep drumbeats from the music make the walls jump. Limbs glitter-slick and glinting gold and silver, and pink-red theater lights from the rafters, swaying, taking wide sweeps across the room. The walls and the ceiling are painted black. The stone floor gives way to a black floor, scrawled over in neon paint. The maenad takes her past undulating bodies—she was expecting a mass. But there are—an uncountable number, more body parts than bodies, dispossessed—but she recognizes still that she’s in a room of a cherished few.

Jasper sits all the way in the back, on a small stage of his own, stacked with pillows. She's seen photos of him. But nothing prepares her for the look of him: that such an ancient god would take the form of such a slight young man. Glowing pale, his head weighted heavily with a crown of gnarled sticks and ivy leaves.

Something deep and red is smeared across his face and arms and chest.

The maenad bows to him deeply, all the way down to her knees. Something in her compels Maya to bow as well, but she pushes it back and deep inside.

So she thinks at first it is because she did not bow that he takes one look at her and snarls and orders her taken away. She does not want to remain. She would rather be dragged out and left on the rain-slick pavement. She feels a sickness, blindness rising up in her, a rhythm to her thoughts she cannot grasp, and through it, despite herself, she argues:

"Why?"

The young god narrows his eyes at her. "She's too good," he says, right to her face. Sounds as if he knew her, or as if he could read all of her in the blank expression of her face. "Too innocent. True worshipers only tonight."

"I'm not so good!" she yells out, before he can turn away.

He raises his eyebrows. The maenad is still kneeling at his feet, unfurled at the waist so that her hands and face are pressed against the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, Maya can see her moving, rippling, undulating.

"You don't know me. You don't know—I've done things."

The maenad is slamming her hands against the floor to the sound of the bass beat. The heavy slap of skin to concrete makes Maya's palms ache. She feels it in her knees, too; she feels the stifling constriction of her lungs. In the shadows—humming, chanting—she discerns the dim outlines of men and women with animal masks obscuring their faces.

Jasper is watching her, unblinking. Slowly, like an oppressive weight settling down upon her shoulders, she realizes that everything in the room moves around him, through him; everything moves to the rhythm of his breathing, everything aches with a building, barely restrained violence—the mood that's radiating from him. The beat of palms scratched up bleeding and bodies thrown against bodies is the beat of his heart.

"Do you know why they wear masks?" he questions.

"To erase identity."

"Do you know why they swear blood oaths?"

"Blood is life giving and necessary for life."

"Mmmm," he hums. Without warning, he slices open the palm of his hand and squeezes out drops of blood onto the floor, and the maenad with the fingerless gloves and air of ruin splashes her hands in it. "And because it's different than ours. Fascinates us."

He pours a glass of wine, slowly, sets it down next to the knife that still shines with deep red blood. The stains of wine and blood upon his skin shine slick and wet in the sweep of pink light.

He asks her, then, what she knows of the perverse, and the answer is more than she can say. Perversion. A distortion or corruption of what should be. A release, without which builds true madness. A sort of freedom. How long she's lived narrow and bound—or pretended to. The art depicting the god of ritual madness was always her favorite: scenes of such deranged loveliness that she could never decide if they depicted a type of heaven or a type of hell.

She steps closer to him without being asked, up onto the platform. She holds her hand out to him. She could kiss the delicate, translucent skin beneath his eyes.

Up close, she thinks, she's never seen anyone more wrecked and desperate and wild, nor anyone more beautiful.

[vsnyarbll]

matching sapphires

pairing: Aemond Targaryen x fem!reader

words: 2.898

summary: While Y/N was running away from her brother, Aemond pulled her into a room. And they made confessions to each other.

warnings: NSFW (not actual smut, just making out), targcest, angst/fluff, Aemond is insecure about his eye.

a/n: Sorry for any mistakes. English is not my native language. Aegon is a better person in this fic. Reader is daughter of Daemon and Rhaenyra (I know this topic has been written about a lot before, but it gives me peace of mind that the character is Daemyra's daughter.) I'm bad at writing summaries. MDNI

part2: (flashback) “Is that why you acted so weird when I wore a sapphire necklace to the celebration?”

(Look at his eyelashes <3)

Y/N was running away from her brother Jacaerys. She loved to provoke her brother in every possible way. Y/N 's motive that day was Jace’s great love for Baela. At first, he didn't care what she said. But after a while, it became unbearable and even her mother realized what was happening. Jace got angry and started making harmless threats. Y/N was proud that she had managed to make her brother angry.

As Y/N passed by one of the gaps in the wide hallway, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her inside. Where she was pulled in was supposed to be the broom closet, but the door to the room had been removed. It was a narrow space, but it had a window of considerable size. There was enough light, although it was not very bright inside.

She was about to scream when the person who pulled her in put his hand over her mouth. She was not facing the unknown person. Y/N began to struggle in fear in the arms of the person behind her. "Shh! Be quiet," he whispered.

He pulled his hand away from her mouth as Jace passed them and disappeared into the distance. Y/N rushed forward. She turned around angrily.

“What do you think you're doing?!”

“Y/N, it’s me.”

“Aemond? What are you doing here?”

“I saw you running away from your brother. I wanted to help you.”

"Thank you, I guess. But I was trying to ask what you were doing in this-" Y/N paused and looked around. "Room? I think.”

“I'd rather not say. The answer I'm going to give you is not good.”

The whole family was inside having breakfast. They were sitting together, laughing and having fun. Aemond had ignored Y/N for the last few weeks, so she didn't care about his presence at breakfast. Now she realized that Aemond had taken a few bites at the beginning of the meal and left the table.

“So you were jerking off?”

Aemond's mouth opened in surprise.

“Y/N! I wasn't! Why did you think that?”

“I don't know. Let's envision someone who has gotten up early from breakfast and is alone in an unknown corner of the castle. Maybe there are even spectators outside the window.”

He grinned at her answer. “I think you spend more time with Aegon than you should.”

“He's the only person I get along with," she said with a sad smile.

“And we have to commend you for that.”

Y/N lowered her gaze to her feet. “He's just a misunderstood person.”

"He's just a misunderstood drunk.” Aemond corrected her.

“Aemond, I swear to you, it's great to spend time with Aegon. You all don't know how to have a conversation with him.”

Aemond nodded his head in response. He was aware that Aegon was a difficult person.

They looked into each other's eyes for a short while. Y/N couldn't take the tension anymore and brought the subject back to her original question.

“You still haven't told me what you're doing here.”

“I didn't want to spend time with our beloved family and wanted to be alone.”

Y/N measured what Aemond said in her head and kept talking. "This doesn't seem like a good place to spend time."

"It wasn't my intention to come here in at first. Then I heard your and your brother's voice. I thought you came looking for me."

“Jace,” she said as she leaned against the wall behind her.

"What are you saying?"

"You keep saying 'your brother.' You know his name is Jace."

"Whatever it is."

There was a long silence between them. Y/N was still trying to catch her breath.

Aemond was staring at her parted lips. Her lips were redder than any cherry he had ever seen. He tried to imagine what they might feel like if they looked so soft just by the sight of them. Then his eyes fell on the earrings in her ears. They were not very long, with big red stones on the ends. The earrings were shining mesmerizingly in the sunlight coming through the window. They were swaying back and forth very slightly.

Even though Aemond couldn't see the girl's hand from that angle, he knew that the ring she always wore was on her index finger. Ironically, the ring had a sapphire stone on top, and the sides of the stone were two pearls smaller than the stone.

Then he began to examine the necklace around her neck. It was a gift from his actual father, Daemon, and it matched her mother's necklace. Y/N's necklace had three identical pendants side by side, while her mother's necklace had a single one. The pendants and the chains of the necklaces were equal. In this way, Daemon ensured that his lover, his daughter, and himself had small pieces of their ancestry.

Even if King Viserys thought Daemon's behavior was wrong, Daemon was Daemon. He always did what he set his mind to do.

Whatever happened, the necklaces remained and were worn at crowded events for all to see.

He fought hard not to lower his gaze below her necklace. He didn't want to be disrespectful to Y/N. But with the body he had dreamed of for years right in front of him, it was hard to stop himself.

He lowered his gaze and watched her breasts as if hypnotized. Her breasts were moving as she breathed in and out.

Y/N got excited under the weight of Aemond’s gaze. His gaze was so heavy, so full of meaning.

Y/N began to study the face of the tall man in front of her. He had his usual eye patch over his left eye. Y/N always thought the eye patch made him look even more handsome than he was, even if it felt selfish. She had always hesitated to tell him about it. It was a sensitive subject, and she didn't want to offend him.

Y/N tried to close the distance between them. Aemond took a step backward. She walked towards him again, and Aemond kept walking backward until his back hit the wall. Finally, he put his hands on either side of her face.

"Y/N," he said.

Y/N stood up on her tiptoes to get closer to Aemond’s face. "Yes, Aemond?"

Aemond couldn't tell if what they were experiencing was real or not. If it was real, he didn't want it to end. His greatest dream, his greatest wish, was right in front of him, inches from his face.

Just as Aemond was about to put his lips to Y/N's lips, she pulled back.

Aemond looked at her confusedly but said nothing.

"Why have you been ignoring me for weeks?" she asked.

"What have I done to you?" She tried to stop her eyes from filling with tears.

For a long time, she had kept her feelings inside and had to keep reminding herself that she was not the problem. After keeping his feelings bottled up inside, everything started to explode.

"A month ago, you came to my room and told me stories about Vhagar and our ancestors, and the next day you didn't even say good morning to me."

He kept looking at Y/N's face. Aemond's silence made her even angrier.

"I got used to your presence, and then you left. You didn't even ask how I was."

She took a deep breath and stepped back. "Every time we lock eyes, you look at me with disgust. I can't understand what you're thinking. Do you hate me? Or do you hate the idea of being seen with me?"

Everything she said broke Aemond's heart. How could she have such thoughts when all he wanted was to be with her, to find peace in her warmth? How could she think he hated seen with Y/N? If he could, he would go everywhere with her.

Y/N was still waiting for an answer from Aemond. A tear fell from her left eye and rolled down her cheek due to the weight of her emotions. Seeing this, Aemond grabbed her arms tightly. He pulled her close to him again. "Y/N, listen to me very carefully, please. I don't hate you. How could I hate you?"

"Then why aren't we like we used to be? At least tell me what's changed."

While Aemond tried to get his words together, Y/N started talking again. "Aemond, look, I understand if you don't feel the same with me, but don't walk away without giving me a reason."

“I tried to keep myself away from you because I didn't want us to have anything inappropriate. You will marry one day to strengthen your claim to the throne. I cannot allow such a situation to stand in your way.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I heard my mother talking to Princess Rhaenyra. You are the firstborn child of the heir. Marriage is more than a duty for you.”

When she didn't react, he continued talking. “I apologize for leaving you unanswered and alone for so long. I thought it would be easier for you to choose a husband if I stayed away from you.”

He kept talking without giving her a chance to speak. “My mother was starting to suspect something was going on between us.”

“But there's nothing between us.”

This time it was Aemond's turn to get angry. “What was it for then, refusing every dance at dozens of balls? Why did you come to my chambers at nights when you couldn't sleep, when you could drink herbal tea? Why did you get so obsessed that you cried when I didn't talk to you for a while?"

Y/N's ears were ringing. His rudeness meant nothing to her. There was only one truth she'd wanted to know for so long. Aemond had blurted it out without realizing it, maybe on purpose. "Do you want something to happen between us?"

"I thought we already had something."

Y/N wanted something to happen between them, too. But it was hard to read the one-eyed prince's feelings. It was impossible to predict his next move.

She didn't want to hold herself back anymore. Now that she was sure of Aemond's feelings, nothing stood in her way.

Y/N brought her lips close to Aemond's again. She whispered against his lips. "I don't want to marry anyone else but you.”

She ran her tongue over his lips. Aemond finally brought their lips together. They both began to kiss each other hungrily. They did not pull away even though their breath was almost gone. Aemond could see the colors behind his closed eye. He felt as if a thousand dragons were breathing fire inside him.

The woman he loved was in his arms. She had said she wanted to marry him. Aemond even began to imagine how their children might look. Yes, children, he thought, should have more than one. Their children would have silver hair and purple eyes, of course. He wanted them to take their faces from their mother, to be brave and good dragon riders like their mother. They should wield swords like their father. But what if one of their children's dragon eggs didn't hatch? It was too early to think about that. Too early.

Aemond kissed her hard for the last time and pulled away from her. "What would your family think about us getting married?”

“Why should I care? One day I will be chosen as heir to the throne.” Y/N reached out to kiss Aemond again, but he stopped her.

“Your mother might choose your brother just because he's a man.”

“Are you saying that the future queen will not choose her firstborn child but will choose her second-born child just because he is a man? Then wouldn't she contradict herself?”

“You're right. But in the end, it's a game of thrones. You never know what anyone's next move is. If you marry a powerful lord, no one will dare question your right to the throne.”

“Someone like who?”

“Someone like Cregan Stark”

“What foolish girl would marry a lord when she could marry a prince?”

“Every girl in the kingdom prefers the future lord of the north to a second son.”

“Then I'm the only smart girl in the realm.”

She dropped a kiss on his lips.

“No one can question my right to the throne, with you by my side and Daemon behind us.”

They kept kissing. Aemond put his hands on her arms. His thumbs drew circles.

Then he put his right hand on her breast and squeezed it. She moaned quietly. He felt her nipple harden under his palm. And Aemond was even more aroused as if that were possible.

When their breath wouldn't let them go on any longer, they broke their kiss and leaned their foreheads against each other. She began to run her hand over his face. She pulled her head back a little to look at his face.

Aemond's arms were holding Y/N tightly. She wasn't sure if she would have fallen if he hadn't been holding her. Her legs were weak because of the man in front of her.

Y/N ran her slender fingers around the scar on Aemond's face. She was careful to be gentle.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Sometimes."

Y/N put her right palm on his cheek. Slowly she slid her thumb under the string of the eyepatch. She started to lift the eyepatch as she stroked that area. Aemond immediately realized what she was trying to do and reached out, and grabbed her wrist.

"Y/N, don't."

"I want to see it." he shook his head in response.

"Don't hide from me." Aemond raised his lowered gaze back to her eyes.

"What if you don't like me the way I am?"

"Nonsense. You think I'll stop loving you when I see what's under your eyepatch?" she smiled softly.

"I love you too, Y/N." She froze when she realized what she had just said. Then her smile grew wider.

"Ok, do it." There was pain on his face. Pain, fear. He was afraid of her reaction. The intensity of his emotion was so evident that Y/N considered giving up her decision.

She slowly removed the eye patch. Aemond tried to read every emotion on her face carefully. Contrary to what he expected, she didn't look scared or disgusted. Y/N seemed fascinated.

Y/N grew up in a castle. She had seen many works of art and perfect gardens. Yet she had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. She felt a sense of sadness as well as fascination.

She put her right hand on his cheek again. Her ring matched the sapphire that Aemond had placed where his eye should have been. "We are matching, Aemond,” she said with tears in her eyes.

Aemond chuckled. “Yes, we are.”

“You are so beautiful. I can't find words to describe you.”

Aemond wanted to believe. He forced himself to believe in her.

After all these years of hiding, he had shown himself as he was to the person he cared about most in life and feared would leave. It was easy to be without his eyepatch in the presence of his mother or siblings. No one but them had ever seen the terrible scar and the mesmerizing sapphire in his eye before.

He looked into her eyes. He could see the seriousness in the girl's eyes, even though the voice inside him said she was lying to make him feel better.

Then he gave up resisting. All his walls came down right then and there.

He was happy. He was in a frame of mind to believe anything. He could believe in the folk legends his nanny had told him years ago, even in the religion his mother believed. If Y/N wanted him to do it, Aemond would do it.

“Aemond, I'm sorry. You were too young to go through all this.” her voice trembled slightly.

He took her hands in his. “Nothing matters anymore. You are with me now.”

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

They decided to go back for breakfast together. Holding hands, they started walking down the corridor of the castle. Neither of them could stop smiling.

Y/N thought they finally had their happy ending. At the same time, Aemond had decided he would never let go of Y/N's hand again for the rest of his life.

She turned her face to Aemond. “Is that why you acted so weird when I wore a sapphire necklace to the celebration?”

They both laughed. “You can imagine how much Aegon made fun of me.”

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

When they walked through the door, everyone stared at them in disbelief.

Jace had gone back to the table when he couldn't find Y/N. When he saw them at the entrance door, he immediately regretted his choice.

When they got to the head of the table, Aemond gestured to one of the servants, and the servant placed a chair next to Aemond's usual chair. They sat side by side.

“So you put a sapphire in your eye socket?” Y/N whispered towards Aemond.

"We'll talk about it another time," he said. Still had a smile on his face.

Someone on the right side of the table stood up, scraping his chair on the marble floor. Aegon raised her wine glass in the air. "It looks like we have a wedding!"

Daemon and Jacaerys grunted at the same time.

[gingermintpepper]

As usual I read your tags always and so you said Apollo did not ask for resurrection of Asclepius and Hyacinthus so i just wanted to share this. About Asclepius death I read it on theoi.com, that earlier authors don't make him resurrect as a god but that's a later development mentioned only by Roman authors like Cicero, Hyginus and Ovid. But still Apollo has a role in Ovid's version

Ovid, Fasti 6. 735 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : Clymenus [Haides] and Clotho resent the threads of life respun and death's royal rights diminished. Jove [Zeus] feared the precedent and aimed his thunderbolt at the man who employed excessive art. Phoebus [Apollon], you whined. He is a god; smile at your father, who, for your sake, undoes his prohibitions [i.e. when he obtains immortality for Asklepios].

So here it is actually because of Apollo the decision was taken to resurrect him as god. And with Hyacinthus, I don't think I've read about Artemis playing the primary role. I know in Sparta there was a picture of Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite carrying Hyacinthus and his sister to heaven.

This is not on theoi.com but I saw on Tumblr it's from Dionysiaca by Nonnus

Second, my lord Oiagros wove a winding lay, as the father of Orpheus who has the Muse his boon companion. Only a couple of verses he sang, a ditty of Phoibos, clearspoken in few words after some Amyclaian style: Apollo brought to life again his longhaired Hyacinthos: Staphylos will be made to live for aye by Dionysos.

So since he is singing inspired by amyclean stories it probably means in that place it was believed Apollo was the one to bring back his lover to life.

Apollo as god of order was very important so i think it shows how special these people (and admetus too) were to him that he decided to go against the order for them 🥺

ANON!! Shakes you like a bottle of ramune!! BELOVED ANON!!!!! I'm littering your face with kisses, I'm anointing you with olive oil and honey - you absolutely made my night with this because, not only did I get the pure serotonin shot of having someone interact with my tags (yippee, wahoo!!) I also got to have that wonderful feeling of "oh wow, have I misunderstood something that was integral to my understanding of this myth/figure this whole time or is this a case of interpretational differences?" which is imo vital for my aims and interests as someone who enjoys mythological content and literature.

I'll preface my response with this: Hyacinthus is by far the hardest of these to get accounts for because his revival itself, as you very astutely point out, is generally accounted for in painting/ritual format which muddies the waters on who interceded for what. I wasn't actually familiar with that passage from the Argonautica - and certainly didn't remember it so thank you very much for bringing it to my attention!

That said, what I've come to understand, both about Hyacinthus and about Asclepius is that in the accounts of their deaths, Apollo's position is startlingly clear.

For Hyacinthus, it is established time and again that Apollo would have sacrificed everything for him - his status, his power, his very own immortality and divinity. Ovid writes that Apollo would have installed him as a god if only he had the time:

(Ovid. Metamorphoses. Book X. trans. Johnston)

Many other writers too speak of how Apollo abandoned his lyre and his seat at Delphi to spend his days with Hyacinthus, but they also all agree that when it came to his death - he was powerless. Ovid gives that graphic account of Apollo's desperation as he tries all his healing arts to save him to no avail:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book X. Apollo me boy, methinks him dead. trans Johnston)

Bion, in one of his fragments, writes that Apollo was "dumb" upon seeing Hyacinthus' agony:

(Bion, The Bucolic Poets. Fragment XI. trans Edmonds)

Even Nonnus in the Dionysiaca speaks constantly of Apollo's helplessness in the face of Hyacinthus' fate where he writes that the god still shivers if a westward wind blows upon an iris:

and when Zephyros breathed through the flowery garden, Apollo turned a quick eye upon his young darling, his yearning never satisfied; if he saw the plant beaten by the breezes, he remembered the quoit, and trembled for fear the wind, so jealous once about the boy, might hate him even in a leaf...

(Nonnus, Dionysiaca, Book 3. trans Rouse)

And the point here is just that - Apollo, at least as far as I've read, cannot avert someone's death. He simply can't. Once they're already dead - once Fate has cut their string - all Apollo's power is gone and he can do nothing no matter how much he wants to. And this is, as far as I know, supported with the accounts of Asclepius as well!

Since you specifically brought up Ovid's account, I'll also stick only to Ovid's account but in Metamorphoses when we get Ovid's version of Coronis' demise, he writes that Apollo intensely and immediately regrets slaughtering Coronis. He regrets it so intensely that he, like he does with Hyacinthus, does his best to resuscitate her:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo's regret)

And like Hyacinthus, when it becomes clear that what has happened cannot be undone, Apollo wails:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo wept.)

Unlike his mother, Asclepius in her womb had not yet died and so, with the last of Apollo's strength, he does manage, at least, to save him.

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo puts the 'tearing out' in Asclepius.)

But it goes further than even that because Ocyrhoe, Chiron's daughter, a prophetess who unduly gained the ability to directly proclaim the secrets of the Fates, upon seeing the baby Asclepius, immediately prophesies his glory, his inevitable death and then his fated ascension:

(Ovid. Metamorphoses, Book Two. Ocyrhoe's prophecy. trans Johnston)

Before she too succumbs to her hubris and is transformed by the Fates into a horse so she can no longer speak secrets that aren't hers to share.

These things ultimately are important because it establishes two very important things: 1) Apollo can't do anything in the face of the ultimate Fate of mortals, which is, of course, death and 2) even when Apollo is Actively Devastated, regretful, yearning, mournful, guilty or some unholy combination of all of the above, when someone is dead, he accepts that they are gone. Even if he is devastated by it, even if he'll cry all the rest of his days about it - if they're dead? Apollo lets them go. In Fasti, when Zeus brings Asclepius back, he does not say Apollo asked him to - Zeus, or well, in this case Jove, brings Asclepius back because he wants Apollo to stop being mad at him.

(Ovid, Fasti VI. Apollo please come home your father misses you. trans. A.S Kline)

Even Boyle's translation which you used above in your findings hints that Zeus made Asclepius a god because he wanted Apollo to stop grieving. (i.e 'smile at your father', 'for your sake [he] undoes his prohibitions')

And like, Apollo was deeply upset by Asclepius' death - apart from killing the Cyclops in anger, in book 4 of the Argonautica, Apollonius writes that the Celts believe the stream of Eridanus to be the tears Apollo shed over the death of Asclepius when he left for Hyperborea after being chastised by Zeus for killing his Cyclops:

But the Celts have attached this story to them, that these are the tears of Leto's son, Apollo, that are borne along by the eddies, the countless tears that he shed aforetime when he came to the sacred race of the Hyperboreans and left shining heaven at the chiding of his father, being in wrath concerning his son whom divine Coronis bare in bright Lacereia at the mouth of Amyrus.

It all paints a very clear picture to me. Apollo did not ask for either of them to be brought back. Though bringing them back certainly pleased and delighted him, they are actions of other gods who are moved by Apollo's grief and mourning and seek to mollify him. Him not asking doesn't mean he didn't want them back which I think is a very important distinction by the by, but it simply means that Apollo knows the natural order of things and, even if it hurts, he isn't going to press his luck about it.

Which, of course, brings us to Admetus. And I'm really not going to overcomplicate this, Admetus is different because, very vitally, Admetus is not dead. Apollo can't do a thing once Fate has been carried out and Death has claimed a mortal but you know what he absolutely can do? Bargain like hell with the Fates before that point of inevitability. And that's what he does, ultimately for Admetus and Alcestis. He sought to prolong Admetus' life, not revive him from death or absolve him from death altogether and even after getting the Fates drunk, he's still only able to organise a sacrifice - a life for a life - something completely contingent on whether some other mortal would be willing to die in Admetus' place and not at all controllable by Apollo's own power.

All of these things, I think come back to that point you made - that Apollo's place as a god of order is very important and therefore these people are very special to him if it means he's willing to go against that order but, I also wish to challenge that opinion if you'd let me. Apollo's place as a god of order is very important and therefore, I would argue, that it is even more important that it is shown that he does not break the divine order, especially for the people that mean the most to him. The original context of my comments which started this conversation were on this lovely, lovely post by @hyacinthusmemorial which contemplated upon Asclepius from the perspective of an Emergency Medical personnel and included, in their tags, the very poignant lines "there's something about Apollo letting go when Asclepius couldn't that eats my heart away" and "you do what you can, you do your best, but you don't ever reach too far" and I think that's perfectly embodied with the Apollo-Asclepius dichotomy. Apollo grieves. He wails, he cries, he does his best each and every time to save that which is precious to him but he does not curse their nature, he does not resent that they are human and ultimately, he accepts that that which is mortal must inevitably die. There is nothing that so saliently proves that those who uphold rules are also their most staunch followers - if Apollo wants to delight in his place as Fate's mouthpiece, he cannot undo Fate. And, if even the god of healing and order himself cannot undo death, what right does Asclepius, mortal as he is, talented as he is, have to disrespect it?

The beauty of these stories isn't that Apollo loved them enough to bring them back. The beauty is that Apollo loved them enough to let them go.

[ddoxhan]

say that it's love

on a day when stars pour down, so precious and rare I'll listen to every word you say, especially when it's love

word count : 4.8k words

genre : fluff and a sprinkle of appreciation for the people around you; you've been planning to confess but end up failing and you finally realize plans don't work; florist!hanni x fem!reader (a year older than hanni); girlfriends for the win !

t/w : none :) mentions of murder but jokingly?? (i fr dk how to t/w stuff)

a/n : hello everyone ! i present to you the final chap for 'baby's breath and lemon candies' series :D i hope this was a good wrap up for the short series :) enjoy !

taglist : @keiji-jin

you've been telling yourself that you were going to confess to hanni. and that has been the seventh time you've told yourself that after making up your mind. thinking and imagining about it was the easy step of the plan, but as you try to move onto the next stage of actually carrying out the confession, you just can't find the right timing to do it. (or more like you were just second guessing everything and maybe, you misunderstood her actions and she doesn't actually like you)

your attempts to confess ended up futile. the first time was very ambitious, as you were overflowing with passion to make it the best (and last) confession hanni would ever receive in her entire life. but that passion was met with the 'closed' sign on blooming potion's front door. a small note in the owner's cute handwriting, indicated she had closed early for personal reasons. (you forgot that hanni told you she was going to close early that day for a high school reunion dinner)

and that fact made you feel a little disheartened as it meant that she was going to be meeting her acquaintances who might possibly take the initiative to hit on hanni. to be fair, she's so beautiful that if they were to find out she was still single, your chance would be out the window that very second. (in the near future, you will come to know that all this worry was all for nothing because this certain someone had already fallen down the rabbit hole of love so deep, and she's happier than ever to be there)

since your plans were technically ruined (by yourself), you trudged your way back to blue rain in hopes that your beloved bosses were still in the middle of cleaning up the cafe. lucky for you, they were and you offered to close together. chaewon and minju noticed that you were looking unusually down hence they invited to go for a drink at downtown. technically, you had nothing to do so why not take up the offer? (safe to say, those two had to carry you back to your place and throw you onto your bed cause you drank till you were wasted)

the following attempt had a small margin of success but you were being a coward during the walk back home with her. fidgeting with the bicycle handles, kicking the small pebbles by the road, looking up into the sky, you name it. you tried so hard to shake off the nervousness and fear of getting rejected if you were to confess at that very moment. and by the time you thought you were ready, hanni had already walked up to her doorstep, waving goodbye with that smile you love. (which had you waving back at her awkwardly, as if you weren't so close to shout across that you liked her. which you didn't because that wasn't the best way to confess, obviously)

many more attempts had similar outcomes — failure. you weren't sure why it would end up being bad timings, or your cowardice getting the better of you. or sometimes, the thought of the confession flew past your head because you were too busy admiring hanni as you adore the way she puckers her lips every now and then when she talks about something, and the way her eyes sparkle when it comes to a topic she is interested in. (you were a simp for her, and you loved every second of it)

"you know, just standing by that counter every day at 8 won't get you a girlfriend."

chaewon's voice broke your trance as you tried to figure what went wrong with the last time you tried to confess.

"and you say that because you confessed to minju-unnie on the third date."

"no, I'm saying that because your ass needs to get moving before someone else stumbles upon your crush and makes a move on her."

you slouched on the counter with your arms, running your hands through your hair in frustration.

"it's not that I don't try, unnie. I've been attempting to for the past seven times."

the older girl gave you a skeptical look before standing from her seat by the window, placing her book down next to her cup of iced tea. (it wasn't peak hour so the shop didn't have any customers for the time being, therefore chaewon took the opportunity to laze around as she sent minju out to deliver the online orders)

"I don't know how you've attempted the past seven times, but have you ever considered not planning ahead?"

you looked up from your slouched position to find her leaning against the counter, eyeing you from above before she made her way into the working station.

"I've known you for three years now, and I just know that you would plan things ahead, a little too much ahead."

all you could do was stay silent and chuckle awkwardly because whatever chaewon had said was undeniably true.

"you love things to be perfect, just like how you would want the confession to be the most special, wonderful and extravagant experience for hanni."

"but you missed out on the part where it needs to be heartfelt."

with that, something rang within you. the bell of realization. you realize you weren't able to bring yourself to confess or carry out that plan in your head as it made things artificial. telling hanni you liked her had to come from your heart, not your brain. (during these kind of times, you thank chaewon for not roasting your dumb ass)

"and with it being heartfelt, it can also be simple."

while the older had hit you with words of wisdom, she had already finished brewing up a fresh cup of ice americano for you. it was one of the easiest to make on the menu and also a staple drink for customers in this season of summer.

just like this cup of ice americano, your confession could be simple and straightforward. no public stunts, no sparkles and party poppers, no surprises that would ruin the mood. just you, yourself, would bring out the best confession that only both you and hanni would ever know.

chaewon could only chuckle at your face of astonishment and enlightenment from her words. if she were to be truthful, although she had confessed on her third date with minju, she had also struggled to confess a lot of times before saying sike by kissing her. she had long noticed her on campus before they had officially met through the arranged date. (therefore she was speaking from experience)

she handed you the cup of coffee before leaving to finish that book she left on the table. as you drank your dose of caffeine for the day, you were motivated to just let that confession come naturally, just like how your feelings for hanni fell upon you.

the day went by rather quickly compared to the previous days where you were racking your head over the confession. before you bid farewell to chaewon and minju after closing up, you felt the urge to throw those two into a bear hug, and you did.

"what's with the sudden affection? are you going to kill us and take over the shop?"

minju thought you were going through late puberty these days, so she just went with the flow of whatever you did. including squealing like a lovesick high school girl swooning over a hot guy, which wasn't too far from where instead, you were just squealing over how cute hanni looks when she's asleep. (you went over to blooming potion as usual to walk the florist home but was met with a breathtaking sight of her asleep on the counter. therefore you couldn't help but take approximately 100 photos of her before she woke up naturally)

"maybe, who knows?"

and your playful reply earned a smack on your back from chaewon. but you just laughed it off, knowing that she rolled her eyes at your antics.

"okay, I'm not going to kill you but I am going to thank you for always being here for me, like older sisters."

"you guys just know what to say and when to say it, and I just felt like I wanted to thank you for it."

chaewon and minju exchanged glances and soon tears filled their eyes as it was their turns to bring you into a bear hug.

"you're growing up so fast."

"our baby is so mature these days, I feel so sad."

"why the hell are you talking like you raised me or something?"

they actually do treat you like their baby, especially when minju is giving you butt pats and squishing your cheeks right now.

"technically we sort of did throughout university until we graduated, and we're still raising you through your uni days."

"alright moms, I think the affection session has ended, so I will get going."

as you squirm out of their tight grips, they each gave you a ruffle on your hair before they walked hand in hand towards the opposite direction. (those two act more like your parents than your actual ones)

when you turned around, the familiar sight of blooming potion filled your heart with warmth and love. the thought of being this in love with someone would have never crossed your mind even if just a year ago. it's about time you knew, maybe, you don't like her.

maybe, you love her.

"need help with that?"

the soft ring of the bell on the door accompanied with your voice was something hanni could never get tired off. instead, it was more than she can ever ask for to have you by her side every day as you two walked home. all the days throughout spring into summer this year was special to her. (when she turned over to her left, you came into sight, smiling at her, and that's when her day is complete)

"unnie, I'm pretty sure you're shorter than I am."

she whipped her head towards the sound of your voice while she was arranging some stocks on the top shelves. your offended face had her burst out in laughter but thankfully, she was careful enough up there to not drop anything.

"you're lucky I'm in a good mood today, so I'm letting you off the hook."

it's been months since you've met hanni and came over every evening to walk her home. you oh so naturally walked over to the counter to close the cashier, followed with cleaning up the flower remnants on the countertops.

"what put you in a good mood?"

hanni came down from the ladder before walking over to you by the countertops.

"I don't know, I just feel happy and all that. just not in a bad mood, I guess."

you actually didn't know why. perhaps, you woke up on the right side of the bed, the cafe didn't have any nasty customers with complicated orders, and chaewon wasn't roasting your ass for once. maybe all of these combined made you a better day than the rest, which were undeniably good days too. (you had a hunch that something good was going to happen but couldn't pinpoint on what it was exactly)

"then that calls for a celebration!"

seeing the girl being happy on your behalf, although it was something so trivial. it warmed your heart a little, reminded that you have someone who cherishes you more than yourself.

"for my good mood?"

"yup! we can head to town for this really good ramen place, and right opposite it is a bakery I've really wanted to try."

whenever hanni talked about food, especially bread, her face would literally light up. the next thing you know, you'll have her ramble on about what bread she's into right now and what new stores she's discovered. (you found it really adorable, very endearing as all you do whenever she does that is stare and nod because whatever she likes, you will also)

"sounds like you're eager to go more than I do."

you couldn't help but let a chuckle escape your lips as her cheeks are painted with a light shade of pink. her attempt to hide by turning around with her back facing you let you know you were bullseye. (not sure if it's because you two spend so much time together, her ears turn red when she's shy or embarrassed, just like you do)

"alright, let's close up real quick and head over. hope you don't mind my driving."

renting a car definitely wasn't within the budget. it simply amazes you every time when you find yourself doing the unimaginable for the love of your life.

"two bowls of regular pork bone soup ramen, with an agedashi tofu side. thank you."

the place was rather quiet, despite being in the always bustling town. you wonder how hanni had found such a place, and before you could even look over to ask her, it's as if she read your mind.

"actually, an old friend of mine owns this place. she's currently out right now so maybe later, I could introduce you to her."

"I haven't even asked you, yet you just know what goes on in my head."

"perks of spending time together every day? you know how much we talk throughout the walks and those calls."

"well that, I can't deny."

curiosity about this friend of hers occupied your mind, which had you shoot your question.

"who's this old friend by the way? high school acquaintaince?"

"mhm, we reconnected after losing contact with each other at the reunion dinner the other day."

a nod was your only answer, because what else could you have done? imagine being so young and already running a whole shop on your own, you could never. not when you're only a struggling university student. (to be honest, you were slightly jealous of this old friend of hers before coming to know that she was already dating someone)

before you could create the worst scenarios of hanni and her friend in your head, the food arrived quicker than you expected. maybe god was also trying to save you from unnecessary heartache and worry about those two because really, there was absolutely nothing to fret about.

you tried your best to tell yourself that, but you just couldn't shake off that feeling of uncertainty which began eating you up. rather than eating up the bowl of ramen in front of you. even the younger girl felt it in the air around you, constantly eyeing you as you looked troubled, contradicting the very reason why you were here.

"hanni?"

"jen!"

an unfamiliar voice uttering her name had your head shoot up so fast, you almost choked on that piece of meat that you were swallowing. your eyes followed hanni's movements before it stopped upon a figure a lot taller than her. that was when your head short-circuited before it proceeded to run on that energy drink you had earlier.

"why didn't you tell me you were gonna drop by?"

"it isn't a surprise anymore if I just tell you."

their banter seemed so natural that it made you feel a little out of place. but you kept a façade that you believed wasn't too easy to see through, that you were making this stranger who is an acquaintance of hanni, your competition. (as you relived these memories in a very near future, you wished to smash your head into a wall, hoping to get a wake-up call because you were an idiot for even thinking)

but that didn't last long as your date tiptoed to whisper into jen's ears with the latter bending down a little to match their height. you had no right to be fuming but you did, internally and discreetly. (however, that was when you didn't know that hanni had been asking for advice from jen about her extremely obvious crush on an extremely obvious someone. what she whispered was, 'that's the girl I like by the way, so don't do anything stupid')

the two walked back over to your table before jen flashed you an unsettling and mysterious smile that had some meaning behind it, offering her hand along.

"nice to finally meet you, I've heard so much about you from hanni."

"jennifer, or yunjin. if you prefer korean."

her glance over to the said girl earned her a smack before you stood up to accept the handshake politely.

"nice to meet you, yunjin. although she hasn't told me anything about you, I did hear that you own this place."

"yes I do, along with my girlfriend. I hope you like the food so far, they're century-old recipes passed down from my girlfriend's family so I can guarantee it'd be the best ramen you can have in town."

although yunjin was explaining about the restaurant, you blanked out after hearing the word 'girlfriend'. it would have been great if you could just dig up a hole instantly and bury yourself in it cause oh boy, why did you put yourself through so much agony only to find out this rival of yours wasn't even competing with you in the first place. it was as if you were putting up a fight with an inflatable balloon, if that made sense.

"are you okay?"

the concern laced in hanni's voice dragged you out of your daze.

"yeah, I'm fine. sorry about that, just had a little something going in my head. not the best first impression, I know."

"don't worry, we all have those times. I'll take my leave first, I hope you enjoy the rest of your dinner."

as yunjin excused herself to tend to the restaurant, the two of you resumed with your meals. hanni's eyes never left you the entire time which made you a little awkward before malfunctioning altogether. her undivided attention on you made you wary of everything you did, including the way you chewed on your food or how big each bite was. it was making your heart pound a little harder than usual, but the thought of that didn't cross her mind as she was genuinely worried that you might have been uncomfortable with something.

alas, she was put to ease when you started to regain that playful demeanor of yours towards the end of the meal. you also let your guard down a little when hanni gave yunjin and her girlfriend, kazuha, a hug before leaving the restaurant. the two owners were bigger lovebirds than you expected, ultimately letting out that breath you were holding unknowingly. (honey, loosen up because no one's gonna take your girlfriend away from you)

initially, you were to drive back after dinner and drop your date off before heading back to your place. but seeing how there probably won't be another chance like this (a car you meant) with her, here goes nothing.

"would you mind if we headed south to the beach?"

you suggestion was either a hit or miss, and you could tell hanni loved the idea from the way her eyes shimmered a little at the thought of the calming ambience and scent of the sea. (it's been a while since she visited and she had always loved the sea more than mountains. it oddly felt like home, and so did you)

"of course! after all, I'm not the one driving."

she tried to play off her excitement nonchalantly, earning a chuckle from you.

"alright, let's head off then."

"oh, and we can even have those pastries by the beach."

perhaps because it was a weekday, there weren't many people by the beach. and you weren't complaining as that meant peace and quiet from potential screaming children. (you don't despise kids, but sometimes they can really get on your nerves)

you used to come to the beach back in your hometown as a kid with your parents and sister. your mom would enjoy the sun under the parasol while your dad went to fetch some drinks from the nearby store. you and your sister would build sandcastles and occasionally fight over who made a better one. (your dad would usually be the mediator, critiquing both sandcastles as if they were one of his projects)

the visits slowly died down as you grew older and you were convinced that your sister studying overseas contributed to it. but you do agree that the beach visits need not be so often, especially when your parents were getting old. (it was much better when your mom started reconnecting with her school friends and your dad going for golf with his retiree partners, enjoying the personal time they finally have after you moved out too)

"there's a really nice gazebo over there."

hanni pointed over to the lone gazebo sitting in the middle of the sand. it was a really odd place to see one but you did not question further as she pulled you along. (it would have been nice if she gave you more time to grab the box of pastries cause you almost shook up everything in it)

"hanni, slow down! the pastries are gonna get ruined!"

sometimes, you wonder if she loved bread more than she loved you. that does not sound right. hey, as a friend. (but not for long)

"my pastries!"

she came into an instant halt, making you almost squashing your face against her shoulder. the halt was necessary, with you by the gazebo already. it was a lot more cozy than you had expected, still a little chilly from the night breezes but it was just nice.

you knew she was very impatient ever since you had mentioned the beach. from the way her fingers kept fiddling with the hem of her shirt and how she struggled to conceal a wide grin from being plastered across her face.

hanni couldn't even wait for you to take a seat next to her as she opens the box, revealing the pastries that you and her had chosen before having dinner. even after a bowl of ramen, she still had more space for dessert. (you know what they say, people have a second stomach for desserts and hanni was not an exception)

the food you had earlier was finally easing down from potential indigestion. so you decided to watch the way her cheeks are puffed up from being full with pastries, the way her hair fluttered along the wind, and that cream below her mouth. (you found it adorable which had you leave it there for a while before doing something about it)

"you got some cream there."

pointing at your own to show her, hanni's eyes bore into yours as she attempts to wipe it off. she misses by a margin before trying again, and fails to locate it.

the smile on your face never left while she struggled, rummaging your pocket for the packet of tissue you usually carry along with you. pulling a single piece out, you folded it properly before facing her.

suddenly, you felt yourself break down. not emotionally, rather physically. you know when you see something so entrancing and mesmerizing, you just stop doing whatever you did and changed your course of action according to the visual info? yeah, that was your exact response.

the moonlight cascading on hanni's face, how her eyes glisten, as if she was looking at a person she cherishes a lot. perhaps she does cherish you a lot. and the proximity between your faces was a lot to take in (at this very moment, there was only one thing in your mind, and it sounds absolutely amazing)

your hand holding that tissue dropped down as you dived in to kiss the cream off of hanni's skin. it was a quick peck, your upper lip lightly grazing her lower lip as you pulled back to see her frozen. (big doe eyes, stiff body, mouth agape. if someone happened to walk past at that timing, they would've thought she saw a ghost)

you didn't know where that immense courage came from, and you were pretty sure even hanni was taken aback by your bold move. usually, she would be the one giving you cheek kisses for walking her back.

the grin that was already sporting on her face was replaced with a wider one if possible, and a different one at that. something about it told you that she was more than okay with what you had did back there. and maybe, it caused something to click in your head, figuratively and perhaps literally as if a switch had flipped on.

.

.

.

'confess.'

this very thought caused the adrenaline to course through your system, driving you into an overdrive of emotions. feeling that this was the timing to do it, you take a deep breath as you opened your mouth.

"I like you."

did you already say it before you actually thought you were ready? but that didn't sound like your voice. by the time you had snapped back from your questions, you felt a pair of hands cupping your cheeks before pulling you in closer.

everything went by like a flash and before you could comprehend things properly, hanni's lips on yours was the only thing that mattered at that moment. you could feel chills run down your back before leaving a tingling feeling across your whole body, contradicting the warmth that filled your insides. you weren't making any sense with your descriptions but whatever. (it might have been because of the wind but you knew better that it was hardly cold on summer nights)

'so this is how kisses feel like,' as you thought to yourself. the quick peck wasn't quite similar with this. you could feel hanni's feelings in that kiss, as if she was trying to tell you that she had been in love with you ever since she met you. (technically she did, but it was that she took approximately a week after to admit)

the kiss didn't last very long, considering how you practically broke down as your hands not knowing where to go. if anything, you were sure you looked like an absolute idiot in love with the person right in front of you, which was perfectly accurate.

"so.. do you like me too?"

maybe something about kissing hanni had a certain effect on you as you proceed to nod to her affirmative question, totally forgetting how to make up words to answer her. in a simple conclusion, your brain crashed and automatically had 404 error windows popping up, like how it usually does when she gets too close to you.

"gosh why are you so cute."

the compliments didn't help either with your crimson cheeks as they soon spread through your entire face. the sight of you being embarrassed than ever created the urge for her to wrap you in her arms as she coos at you, which she gladly succumbed to.

although you hadn't said much since, the reciprocated hug consisted of a thousand words of reassurance that you felt the same for her, if not more. as you remained still, listening carefully to your heartbeat and breaths slowly matching hers, your heart swelled when you realized that you found someone to love and that someone loves you very dearly too.

"you know, actually."

hanni's voice pierced through your attention on the everlasting moment. she pulled away slightly from the embrace, yet still holding onto you, before gazing into your eyes and saying the words that you didn't know you wanted to hear from the person you have met accidentally in spring, which was your most hated season.

"I love you,"

"and I will for as long as you and I are here."

every moment spent with hanni felt like a dream, even now. countless times, you had felt that you weren't someone who deserves such an angel in your mundane days, but she reassures you that you are someone who's deserving of all the nice things that exists in the world. (which she hates about because you were more than deserving of love and warmth, and she had been ready to be the one who gave those to you for a long time)

your hearty laugh wasn't something she or anyone in particular got to hear often. it was as if you were content with whatever that life was, for the first time. for the first time that you received the love that you had always wanted. and also because hanni stole your confession right out of your hands.

"you know, that was kinda my line, but I'll let it slide because I am in a good mood today."

"but also because it's you. you're my only exception, pham hanni."

"if I can, I'll say it over and over again until you get tired of me."

.

"I love you,"

"like baby's breath and lemon candies."

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[aphroditelovesu]

what would everyone's reaction (targaryen, hightower and velaryon) be if the reader were autistic like helaena?

❝🐉— lady l: i don't know anyone who has autism, so I'm not sure what I wrote, since I researched some characteristics of autistics on the internet. But I don't wish to offend anyone, the use of words ''special, different and condition'' are just ways of saying autism without using the word itself, without any pejorative form. If something is wrong feel free to let me know.

tw: mention of autism and possible murder. As the story takes place in a medieval environment, the word ''autism'' did not exist, so I will refer to it as a condition, aiming that autism is NOT a disease.

❝word count: +1,6k

❝Yandere!House's Targaryen, Velaryon and Hightower Reaction: If the Reader is autistic:

Viserys I Targaryen

Viserys would be even clingier with the reader than he already is. He is not very close (or not close at all) to his daughter Helaena, everyone knows how attached he is to Rhaenyra, but little is said about how obsessed and clingy the King is with you, even more than his firstborn daughter. Your condition made you fragile in his eyes, more than he ever considered you. Viserys is very protective of you and there's nothing he wouldn't do for you, his beloved child, and even if you're as special as Helaena, it wouldn't make him love you any less, quite the contrary, it would strengthen your bond, for he would never let you out of his sight for fear you would get hurt. And gods forbid anyone say anything bad about you, for Viserys will have their tongue.

Rhaenyra Targaryen

Rhaenyra is the only one who sees benefit in your condition. Knowing how possessive she is of you, knowing that you are uncomfortable in crowded or noisy places, preferring the quiet of your room, would make everything even more convenient for her possessiveness. Don't get her wrong, she knows that the thoughts that come to her mind the moment she lays eyes on you are not normal, even more so because you are different from others, but she knows that if you are treated differently or special can just annoy you. So, she's normal with you, clinging to her beloved sister/brother and being possessive of you in just the right measure, but still, everyone notices how soft she is with you and will rarely touch you if she notices you're uncomfortable.

Daemon Targaryen

Daemon is, surprisingly, the most compassionate of them all. He knows that you are different, that you are misunderstood by others and he identifies with that, of course, excluding the fact that you have a condition that he does not have. He's one of the only ones who treats you the same way he does everyone else, sure, he's more affectionate and kinder to you anyway, but he'll never act any different around you. You are special, not just because of your condition, but because you are, well, you. For Daemon, he doesn't care about any of that but your happiness and safety. He will still remain protective and possessive of you, but in a way, he will be more tolerant and patient than he ever was. Like Viserys, The Rogue Prince will get rid of anyone who says a word about your condition.

Jacaerys Velaryon

Jacaerys would never, under any circumstances, be indifferent or distant from you. Everyone knows how obsessive and protective Jace is of you, this is something that has stuck with him over the years and will never fade no matter how much time passes. You are of utmost importance to the prince and he doesn't care if you are different from the rest of his family, you are still you and he will continue to love you the same way he always did, you know, the Targaryen and yandere way. Jace will remain the same as ever, loving and devoted to his obsession with you. But in this particular case, he will be even more defensive and clingy towards you, he will show his cruel side to anyone who crosses him, who crosses you. No one will harm you while he's alive.

Lucerys Velaryon

Lucerys doesn't quite understand what you have, why you are so calm and often act strangely when someone touches you or at loud noises, but whenever he sees the panic in your eyes, he will rush to your side and get you out of that situation, murmuring words of comfort to you. Luke can act reckless when it comes to his obsession with you and he probably will, but this boy will cling to you in every way. He is possessive and doesn't want your attention to be anywhere else but on him. You are special to him and he will not let your attention and love be stolen from him.

Baela and Rhaena Targaryen

The twins are glued to you from the moment they set eyes on you, often getting into unnecessary fights for your attention, but in the end, what really matters is that you are there for them and they will be there for you. No matter what happens. Baela is more graceful than her sister, she is the first to notice her behavior seen from the fact how she almost always wants to grab you for dance lessons, fitting your arms together. As soon as she realized how disturbed you were by her touch, she released you and went to tell her sister about it. Rhaena will be more subtle than her sister, but they are possessive and won't take much pleasure in being taken away from you.

Corlys Velaryon

Corlys will worry about you, questioning what's wrong with you, but don't be offended, not in a bad or accusatory way, but worried. He will respect your space and keep you out of noisy places, when he sees that you hate either of these things (or both) and will make a point of accompanying you if you want. He is very protective of his beloved child and will do everything in his power to ensure your comfort. You may be different from the rest of the family, but that doesn't matter to him or any of the Velaryons, you are loved and always will be.

Rhaenys Targaryen

Rhaenys was probably the first to notice her condition, due to her spending a lot of time with her. At first, she would be worried about you, but when she sees that this poses no risk to you, she will breathe a sigh of relief. The way you act or talk will never bother her, in fact, she might even find it endearing about you. One of her charms, she will tell you. She makes you special, making it clear how unique you are. She is loving and motherly, taking care of you with all the care in the world.

Laena Velaryon

Laena is the closest to you out of the Velaryon's, she's the only one who can really get close to you. Really get closer to you. She is no different in the way she acts around you, she considers you to be her little sister/brother which automatically means she should have your back. Any mean comments made about you will lead her to protect you and make sure the wrongdoer is taken care of immediately. You can always count on Laena.

Laenor Velaryon

If you think Laena is protective, that's because you don't know Laenor. He loves you, simple as that, the way you are. He doesn't care about your way of being, in fact, he even likes it, it makes you even more unique. He will always look after and protect you, he is your big brother after all it is his duty. He won't mind killing anyone who dares to disrespect you. To make sure you're okay, it's quite possible he'll follow you around, just in case.

Otto Hightower

Otto is very close to Helaena, at least more than the other grandchildren he has, but he is even closer to you. He feels closer to you and more connected than he does with the rest of the Hightowers, even his own daughter. You're perfect in his eyes, there's nothing wrong with you, and anyone who says otherwise will bitterly regret it. He will always support you and act natural around you, allowing himself to be vulnerable.

Alicent Hightower

Alicent is already more familiar with your unusual behavior than the others, having Helaena as her daughter. She is especially attached to you, she is always finding excuses to be in your company. She acts delicate and caring around you, being as loving as possible and trying to support you. Alicent loves you very much and nothing you do, or the way you are, will stop her from loving and caring for you the way she should.

Aegon II Targaryen

Aegon is a big hypocrite, basically. While he says his sister is weird, he's totally different with you, complimenting you and saying how perfect and special you are. He doesn't care about many things but he cares about you and he will try nothing more than to please you, he wants it, he needs it. Just like the rest, he will kill anyone who says anything about you. You are perfect in his eyes and end of the history.

Helaena Targaryen

Helaena is the only one who doesn't have any kind of hidden interest in you from her family, she is what she is and knowing that you are like her makes her feel even closer to you. She is too kind for her own good and she will be for you, she doesn't usually show it, but she will do it to protect you if she sees that something bothers you or makes you upset. She will love talking to you about her bugs and will always take care of you.

Aemond Targaryen

Unlike his brother, Aemond was never bothered by Helaena's behavior and was always affectionate with her and he will be the same for you, only in a more protective and possessive way than he once was. Aemond will be more possessive of you, he fears someone will try to hurt you or take you away from him and he won't have that. He loves taking care of you, guarding you and he will always bring you something to make you happy, be it bugs like Helaena or flowers, whatever it is, he will do anything to see you happy. You are special to him and he will do anything to show you that.

[lynxgriffin]

Theories on Kris’s soul and Ralsei’s identity

Hey everyone! This is not my usual thing, but after thinking on it a whole bunch, I decided I wanted to fully write out my theory/backstory explanations based on the last two short Deltarune comics. I usually express theorizing through fanworks rather than just talking through it, but since it's still stuck in my brain even now I figured it'd be fun to also just describe it all. I hope you all find it interesting! Who knows what future chapters will bring us, and anything can (and likely will!) happen, but as of right now I'm pretty convinced this is how things are with Kris and Ralsei. It's long and there's lots of screenshots included, so check below the read more for everything. And huge thanks to DemoPhone for getting all these screenshots for me!

So, Kris is adopted by the Dreemurrs at a young age. As the only human in a town populated by monsters, they already stick out significantly. Considering Toriel checked out a book from the library on how to care for humans multiple times, the Dreemurrs were likely going through a big learning curve with Kris, too. 

Kris is not just different physiologically from everyone, but they’re quiet and weird, often mischievous, and just don’t fit in. As a kid, they wear a headband with red devil horns to try and fit in with their adoptive family, and especially to emulate their older brother Asriel, who seems to be everything that Kris isn’t.

He’s popular, kind, well-loved by the town, and is always willing to make friends and do the right thing. Despite how different they are, the two kids clearly care for each other, and Asriel in many ways is Kris’s anchor to this town and this life.

Growing up, the Dreemurrs are friends with the Holidays, and the four kids spend lots of time together. Dess appears to be the more bold and outgoing of the two Holiday girls, but is tempered by Asriel’s responsible nature. Everything between them is going well until one day, when out exploring in the woods south of town, they come across the hidden bunker, and something goes wrong. It’s not clear yet exactly what it is…but it resulted in Dess going missing. Of the four kids, Dess seems to be bold, Asriel responsible, Kris mischievous, and Noelle fearful…so it seems likely that Dess and Kris investigated something in the bunker that the other two stayed away from. Kris witnessed or may have even been involved in what happened to Dess. Dess currently appears to be lost in a dark place, perhaps a place between Dark Worlds, perhaps “stuck in the code” of the game itself. Whatever it is, Dess has gone missing and may even be presumed dead by her family, and Kris witnessed it and may feel directly responsible. This is why they’re still nervous around the bunker, and perhaps even why they’re apprehensive about the appearance of the dark world in the school supply closet.

Dess’s mother, the Mayor, is not going to blame the little kids for what happened…however, she IS going to place responsibility on Asgore, who was chief of police at the time and clearly should have been watching the kids more carefully. Asgore loses his job, and as things slowly deteriorate between the Holiday and Dreemurr families, he also loses his marriage.

The kids stop hanging out together so often, and when they do, it’s more strained. Kris will be playing with Noelle when they stop, getting hit with the memory of what happened, and wander off to the piano to try and play out their feelings.

Kris builds up years of these feelings…underlying guilt for messing up the friendships and even marriages of the monsters that adopted them. Their interests are weird, their habits are offputting, and they can often only express a desire for attention through pranks.

Despite the fact that the monsters in the town act friendly towards them, they still feel outcast and misunderstood. Their popular and beloved brother Asriel is their one solid anchor to everything, and Kris often wonders ��wouldn’t things be easier and better if I was just like him?”

But eventually, Asriel gets old enough and leaves for college. Kris is left alone in the town with all their feelings, but no anchor. In some ways, it gets worse, as the other townsfolk continue to talk about how great Asriel is with him absent. And Kris agrees with them…but that doesn’t help at all how they feel.

To top it off, a new girl arrives in the town, who immediately presents herself as a troublemaker. She seems to have some deep problems of her own, perhaps stemming from her own rough upbringing, and takes out her aggression on Kris, the only human in the town. Despite the bullying, Kris takes it all in stride, even amusement. Susie isn’t saying anything about them that Kris doesn’t already believe about themself. If anything, Kris admires how unapologetic Susie is about her behavior, and sees a kindred spirit in her. They’re both outcasts, after all, with gross and offputting interests. And it is pretty funny how clearly Noelle is infatuated with Susie, too. 

And yet, Susie doesn’t seem interested in actually being friends now, and while Susie is admirable, she’s not helping Kris’s long-standing guilt, loneliness and depression. They start resenting how things have gone. They start looking for unconventional solutions. Perhaps they try the church, but the church doesn’t seem to have answers, so they look elsewhere. Maybe things would just be better if someone else was running their life. Maybe someone bigger than them can fix these seemingly insurmountable problems. They start looking up how to do magic online. How to summon demons, stuff like that. 

When that doesn’t work out, they turn to the local goth girl for help. After all, they’ve done occult spells with Catti before…protection spells for Noelle; something to ease Kris’s worries so that Noelle doesn’t suffer from the same misfortune Dess did.

One night, Kris asks Catti to perform a spell to summon a spirit. And surprisingly…something seems to happen. Kris is suddenly confronted with a strange figure who seems to be the devil. The figure says that it can bring Kris what they want: a spirit that can possess them and potentially even solve all their problems. But the figure requires something in exchange: their soul. Kris is at first reluctant, but the devil figure promises that the arrangement is only temporary: they’ll get their soul back when the spirit is no longer possessing them. So Kris agrees, and gives up their soul in exchange for another one. 

The deal supposedly goes over, but Kris finds that it doesn’t seem like anything has changed once the spell ends. They’ve gotten a new soul, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. If anything, everything becomes harder. They start operating on autopilot…saying very little, only doing what’s required of them, and sleeping for huge amounts of time. 

The joke around town now is that they seem like a walking corpse. Sure, they’re not dead, but it often kind of looks like it.

Maybe this spirit was just a total dud? Maybe that devil cheated them out of their own soul after all and they didn’t get anything in return. They try more than a few times to remove the new soul on their own, in the hopes that maybe taking it out by force will get them their own soul back. They find that they can remove the red soul with great effort! However, without it, they’re even slower and it’s even more difficult to move or act in any way. Removing it at least grants them a small degree of agency, and it seems to prove that their own soul is definitely around somewhere, because they’re still alive. But they can’t go for too long without putting the new red soul back in, because moving without it is such a strain.

Meanwhile, Kris’s request for something to possess them has worked, just not in an obvious way. The player experiences the passage of time very differently than the game characters they’re playing as, after all. To the player, they’ve suddenly gotten an invitation from an unknown character that they suspect they recognize from another game they’ve played. They don’t know what the invitation is for, but they’re more than ready to find out, even if it means downloading an unknown and potentially shady “survey program.”

Conveniently enough, this invitation and download become available on Halloween. A bit of an odd day to choose if you want a lot of people to download and play your game right away, since it’s a major holiday and most people already have plans. However…Halloween is a great time to summon a demon.

And to Kris, they wake up one morning exactly a week before their brother is scheduled to return home for a visit, and suddenly find that something else is moving their body for them. That new soul wasn’t a dud after all.

No time to even get really used to suddenly being physically possessed, as Kris and that school bully they admire just go to pick up some missing school supplies and get swept up into a strange place that Kris feels might be distinctly familiar. Once there, they meet someone else who, strangely, already knows who they are: Ralsei.

While Kris has been shambling around town with their player soul not in use, their own soul still needs to be kept in good condition. You can’t just leave a human soul out on its own for a long period of time. It at least needs some kind of container…a vessel. And the devil figure works out a perfect vessel for it…an object close to Kris, that they have a lot of sentimental value around. Something that symbolizes their desire to fit in with their family, and be just like their brother. Kris might have given it to the figure willingly, or it might have been taken without their knowledge, but the result is the same. 

But hey…why not make things even more interesting? A dark fountain can bring objects to life in their own dark world. What happens if you were to take an object currently carrying a human soul, and bring it to life with a dark fountain? What would it look like if Kris’s soul, filtered through an object that symbolizes their desire to be just like their beloved brother, was given its own form and identity?

You get Ralsei. A “lonely prince” who looks an awful lot like Asriel, but seems to more closely match Kris’s age and stature. He seems to be more like a remixed version of Asriel than identical to him. He already knows who Kris and Susie are, and he knows where things are located in the light world…because Kris knows all that. 

He’s able to travel between different dark worlds without being affected by them the way other Darkners are, because he carries a Lightner’s soul. 

While it’s unclear if he is talking directly to the player, just to Kris, or to both, he is at least aware of an entity distinct from Kris, since he names the castle town after the player. It would certainly make sense for him to be aware of the player’s presence and influence because he was a part of that whole exchange between souls in the first place. There’s even implications that Ralsei is, perhaps, communicating with Kris in ways that don’t involve speaking aloud to them. When asking Kris to pick up the items from the classroom, he uses parentheses, which typically seem to indicate a character’s thoughts rather than dialogue.

Since the player is able to read other characters’ thoughts, Kris can even respond to them if no one is speaking.

If parentheses for Ralsei indicate thinking rather than speaking, he is perhaps aware of how to communicate with Kris and/or the player in ways that other characters won’t hear…or perhaps is only even capable of it at all because he has Kris’s soul.

He is always deferring to Kris, even when Kris makes questionable choices. While he’s eager for friends, he seems desperate for Kris’s approval in particular, and takes great pains to not upset them…or allow other things to upset them. He seems to be confident in who Kris is, but struggles more with his own identity.

For Kris, seeing their own wish to be like their brother come to life, and then to have the spirit possessing them keep directing them to hug him…well, it’s kind of awkward. 

Just to speculate on the future, if it is true that Ralsei has Kris’s soul, this has the potential for some serious drama, and even setting Ralsei up as an antagonist without him being generically “evil.” Ralsei hasn’t had contact with anyone before meeting Susie and Kris. However, as they go on adventures together, he’s meeting lots of new people and gaining new perspectives. He’s steadily growing more independent from Kris, and establishing his own identity apart from them. What happens if Ralsei comes to the conclusion that Kris was right to trade him away all along…that not only does Kris not need him, but that he’s just fine without Kris? That he, perhaps, prefers being Ralsei to being Kris’s discarded soul?

Considering the player can’t keep playing the game forever, and Kris really can’t be left the rest of their life with a nonfunctional soul that leaves them on eternal autopilot, they’ll have to get their own soul back eventually. And after several chapters of the player themselves getting really attached to sweet and friendly Ralsei, that opens up the potential for some truly heartwrenching conflict.��